Some suggestions about classroom activities when teaching Vietnamese history for Vietnamese Major students: A case in Oriental Language Program, Faculty of Humanities, Srinakharinwirot University

Abstract

This article aims at presenting some suggestions on classroom activities withdrawn from the adaptation of different language teaching methods when teaching the content subjects to Thai students who learn Vietnamese as a foreign language. Due to the requirements of the Vietnamese curriculum in the Faculty of Humanities, Srinakharinwirot University, students have to learn both the Vietnamese for communicative targets and content subjects involving in Vietnamese study during the 2^nd year to 4^th year. Besides, Thai students' foreign language learning habits influenced strongly by the Grammar-Translation method from their school time. Therefore, a Vietnamese language instructor here cannot only teach directly the content subjects in Vietnamese but also have to transfer the communicative skills to his/her students. The research method used here was the study of learning behavior and result comparison of Thai students in the years 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 when they learned Vietnamese history. Through the study, we found out the changes in their learning behaviors and results which varied along with our choices in the teaching methods. The research results showed that the instructor needed to combine 4 language teaching methods:  Direct Method, Grammar-Translation, Communicative Language Teaching, and Content-Based Instruction to teach effectively these kinds of subjects to Thai students here.