A Comparison of Vietnamese and American Writing-Pedagogy Essay

A Comparison of Vietnamese and Ameri kitty Writing-PedagogyAs an foreign educatee and educator from Vietnam, I see a lot of differences in the educational systems of the United States and my aver country. In order to illuminate the differences amidst teaching penning in Vietnam and teaching piece of music in America, I would similar to give a brief macrocosm to teaching paternity in Vietnam and what I require learned from a authorship sectionalization here at Eastern Illinois University. In my discussion of pedagogy in Vietnam, I would like to highlight deuce things how Vietnamese people get a line Vietnamese, and how Vietnamese lease English. Though I need to read more than approximately Ameri base writing pedagogy, I see some raw material similarities surrounded by the two countries. As in the United States, mathematics and delivery arts argon important subjects in Vietnam. In Vietnam, however, writing isnt a subject per se, and schoolchilds develop their writi ng skills through the study of literature. In primary school, the teacher begins by asking the learner to spell out unproblematic and short paragraphs nigh(predicate) what happens in his/her daily life. Popular writing field of studys embroil the person you love best, pets, and so on. When grading, the teacher pays upkeep to spelling, clarity, and the contractsing bookmans role words. In secondary school, a student begins to write longer and more difficult essays, including plot summaries, movie reviews, character- and other kinds of literary analysis.Students continue to study writing up to graduation, when they be required to demonstrate their mastery of writing skills in an exam. Students who want to go on to university must pass an surplus exam. The different is, however, university students do not take courses devoted to writing. They devote their prison term to their majors. Form is an important element of essay-writing in both countries. As in English, an essay in Vietnam includes three parts the introduction, the dust and the conclusion. There is a major difference, however In America, the college essay derives from unadulterated rhetoric. Ultimately, Aristotle and the syllogism provide the prat of a linear and logical structure. Miltons Of Education and his political publications would be examples here. In Vietnam, the break upical model derives from the Chinese/Confucian usage. That tradition emphasizes the elaboration of or commentary upon a social classical text or phrase. The Western essay is very linear and thesis-driven, and comp atomic number 18d to it the Vietnameseessay croup seem circular. To Vietnamese, it is organic. Models for this form can be found in Zhuang Tzus, Meng Tzus Doctrine of the Mean or Literati prose. Even though these two classical models run through been changed and developed considerably in modern writing, their original ideas have great influence on writing customs between the two countries.Wester n essay strictly follows the thesis statement and topic sentence. any(prenominal) sentences are coherent and support to topics sentences. Vietnamese essay, however, is circular. Students dont go directly to their topic but approach to indirectly. The reader knows what the student is doing and tries to have it away the essay. The approach isnt as analytical. In Vietnam, academic essays can be of different types description (van ta), commentary (binh luan), make-and-explanation (chung minh va giai thich), analysis (phan tich), and critique (binh giang). In the introduction to an essay describing a landscape, a student gives general information about the place, time and setting, and the reason he/she is writing. An analysis or a proof essay is a little different. Most importantly, here a student has to give information about the author, setting and social background of the story. In the body, he/she takes up the selected text and discusses its general characteristics, outstanding f eatures, details and logic. Connections between commentary and text should be clear. The conclusion, in general, offers a brief succinct of the main idea and a personal or felt resolution to the subject.The approximately important differences between English and Vietnamese writing are lingual and cultural. English grammar is demanding and prescriptive with regard to such matters as tense, agreement, alone(p) and plural forms, etc. In Vietnamese, however, word-building is very complex, and students devote their attention to morphology rather than syntax. Vietnamese (again like Chinese) has classifiers, a linguistic item uncharted to English. Lexical items are variously classified in countless ways, including animate (con), inanimate (cai), book-like (quyen), picture (buc), photographic (tam), food or medicine (thuc). The classifiers can be baffling to non-native speakers of Vietnamese. Student-writers have to know how to use classifiers in total order, however, so they have to master word building skills that English students dont. Finally, there are pronouns. He, to give only one example, can variously be any of the following in Vietnamese no, anh, anh ay, anh ta, ga, y, ong ay, and ong ta. Knowingthese dedicated differences and using them correctly in each context is very important in writing.These linguistic features perhaps help to account for the Vietnamese love of word- play and soignee variation in many contexts where they would be unusual in English. The beauteous is important. This notion of elegance even carries over into the technology of Vietnamese writing. Computers harbort reached most VN classrooms, and the technology of penmanship still matters. Because enthusiasm in writing comes from the beauty of nature and internal sensation, sitting with teacher and friends in a writing class is believed to be better than with technology devices. Third, I would like to introduce what a correct essay is. A good essay is the combination of good g rammar, diction and knowledge. When grading, the instructor usually pays attention to the content accord with the topic, clear form and organization, proportionality between introduction, body and conclusion, cohesive transition, logical phrases and sentences, correct spelling, clarity, neat presentation The instructor a great deal would underline obscure sentences or redundancies, cross out sentences that may be incohesive, contradictory and write his/her comments at the beginning of these sentences. Now we come to another(prenominal) question how is a writing class organized? Because a writing class is in fact a literature class, the teacher lectures most of the time. Sometimes, he/she stops to ask students some questions related to his/her lecture or ask them to give their own opinion about some things.The class is not divided into groups for students to discuss or write collaboratively. Students listen to their teacher and write on their own. After students submit their tests, the teacher grades and comments. Normally, the teacher chooses interest and good essays to read aloud and points out how they are interesting, what is good about them. Then teacher mentions those essays that are not very good, points out the rough-cut errors and teaches students how to avoid these errors in later tests. Since writing an essay in Vietnamese usually means writing about literature, the reader may delight in how a student writes essays on other subjects, such as chronicle or geography. Invention is not stressed as much in Vietnam as here. Students listen to the teachers lecture and takes note carefully. Sometimes, professors scarcely dictate their notes to students. Before exams, teachers often give students a list of questions to secure at home. Students find the answers in the teachers textbooks ornotes, and then try to get them down by heart. The teacher chooses one or two topics for student to write at the exams. There are no take home exams. Students do thei r research the same way as here.The teacher gives student topics to write about, and the student then chooses a topic and writes a proposal. The teacher will offer suggestions or advice. After that, the student collects material from books, newspapers and the Internet and starts to write. Thesis topics are often very broad. Therefore, the student needs to convince his/her readers using reasonable and logical arguments. The way Vietnamese learn how to write in their own language is of course different from the way they learn to write in English, which is a foreign language. In the following paragraph, Im going to point out what the differences are. In conjecture, a student is supposed to learn every step as a native speaker does. The purpose is to learn how to write good essays. However, a writing class in Vietnam is usually more like an ESL class than an American writing class. Freshman and sophomore students learn to write sentences and short paragraphs. The topics are often very simple, for example write about the first day at school, an unforgettable memory. The teacher focuses on grammar, and the way of using words. Juniors and seniors learn to write essays, but what they learn is basically the theory they dont practice writing essays very often. A student is only required to write essays in final tests or alumna exams. The essay is usually about 1-2 pages in length. A 4-page essay is the longest.The topics are about what happens in daily life. In these essays, a student writes his/her own opinion, what he/she sees and thinks. Because their English is limited, students rarely do research in the language or make many quotations. Students arent usually acquainted with MLA/APA styles, and teachers focus mostly on grammar errors. In order for students to practice writing, the teacher gives writing assignments for them to write at home. Then the teacher will ask a student to write the assigned essay on the chalkboard. The whole class discusses the ideas and g rammar in this essay and participates in the writing process. We have seen that writing customs vary from one country to another, especially between the cultures of East and West. Differences in writing pedagogy reflect cultural and linguistic differences. Being witting of those differences would be of importance to anyone teaching in a diverse classroom. Appreciating thosedifferences can lead to a richer sense of the possibilities of language for all peoples.