Page 4 - BB_Textbook

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BENDING BAMBOO
Preface
Bending Bamboo offers something that no other English language text provides in Vietnam. Its communicative approach encourages English teachers to be “bilingual with purpose.” It equips them to lead high school students toward comprehensive socio-economic and environmental knowledge of their surrounding Mekong Delta as well as the world beyond. Bending Bamboo simultaneously meets language objectives and encourages good citizenship. The vision to be bilingual with purpose to grow the future
of Vietnam emerged from hundreds of hours of collaboration among Can Tho teachers and workshop facilitators. Now is the time to see it come true.
Vietnamese teachers know the importance of English fluency across disciplines. They are equipping Vietnam’s emerging workforce. They pass on to their students the challenge of acquiring English not for test scores alone but for insight into science, literature, business, trade, and more.
Teachers and students, together, build their English ability by examining, replicating, and enhancing good models of development in the Delta. In this way, they “grow the future.” Rising generations of youth with strong communication and critical thinking skills will help ensure Vietnam’s peace and prosperity.
Bending Bamboo began as a process and became a product. The process began with workshops and co- teaching at An Giang University in 2000. Vietnam had signed onto international copyright laws, and needed to design its own English language textbooks, as well as increase the professional capacity of teachers in basic skills—reading & listening (receptive skills), writing & speaking (productive skills), and inter-cultural understanding & inter-disciplinary professionalism (integrative skills). An Giang teachers decided upon content derived from the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This process continued in 2016 at Nam Can Tho University with intensive workshops and a fresh textual design that draw content, science, and culture from Vietnam while heeding the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
At the conclusion of each workshop, teachers are welcome to continue building their skills through weekly online forums. These sessions bridge the months between biannual workshops. Qualified teachers have chosen a further step. They are pursuing an applied graduate degree focused on linguistic-development education. This cadre, in turn, helps facilitate workshops for other teachers and designs Bending Bamboo materials.
This innovative process is becoming a timely product. English teachers of the Delta work alongside faculty from Future Generations University to create secondary-level texts that teach English through local and regional concerns of sustainability and resilience. Augmenting the Tieng Anh series of English books, Bending Bamboo features topics, profiles, articles, discourse, and instruction that are of, by, and for the people of
the Delta and Vietnam. Bending Bamboo examines very recent science from Vietnamese experts, draws on their knowledge of sustainability and resiliency planning, and builds this information into English Language lessons.
A website will accompany this prototype text. Schools participating in Bending Bamboo may access it. Curated by Vietnamese teachers from rural and urban schools, this website will share “best practice” lesson plans, provide native English-speaking recordings, and archive research and literature for use by teachers.
Bending Bamboo helps teachers equip students to become “bilingual with purpose to grow the future of Vietnam.”
Vo Tong Xuan July 2019