Page 5 - BB_Textbook
P. 5

Forward
Bending Bamboo is the work of a team. There have been contributors near and far. From 1990 to today, the Bending Bamboo process, product, and pedagogy have emerged with input from students, high school teachers, and professors.
This project began as teacher-training at Can Tho University, then An Giang University, and presently Nam Can Tho University. On these campuses, Dr. Vo Tong Xuan nurtured a vision that Vietnamese students and teachers could more readily acquire a second language than merely study it as a necessary subject.
Bilingualism requires a communicative approach with fresh and relevant material that derives from the context and concerns of local people. The Mekong Delta faces climate change, migration to cities, industrialization, stress on the Mekong River, globalization,
and sustainability challenges. So a key part of quality education is being “bilingual with purpose.” That purpose is to build knowledge and skills in Vietnamese and English to equip a rural and urban workforce of competent and gifted citizens.
Under Dr. Xuan’s leadership, a group of teachers have facilitated workshops and online forums that build on the assets of Vietnamese science, culture, and society. Some
of these colleagues began working together thirty years ago when the Mennonite Central Committee collaborated with DOET and Can Tho University to introduce the communicative approach to English Language classrooms.
In 2016, Dr. Xuan invited these senior educators to mentor a younger cadre of high school and language center teachers. Together, they have surveyed articles, research data, and classic literature from the Delta, Vietnam, and ASEAN. Over the last three years, they first cultivated teacher competence and confidence, and then created this prototype text for grades 10 to 12. Now they seek permission from authorities to test the effectiveness of Bending Bamboo materials and global classroom technology.
The co-authors and facilitators of Bending Bamboo are listed on the back cover of
this prototype. In addition, this project expresses its deep gratitude to Nam Can Tho University for hosting workshops and providing space to collaborate; to IEEE Smart Village, IEEE Foundation and ON Semiconductor for seed funding; to Future Generations University for scholarship and administrative support; and especially, to Can Tho DOET for approving workshops that invited teachers to grow and demonstrate their professional skills and gifts.
Bending Bamboo is about teachers and students. It is a story of their pursuit of quality education. And it celebrates their innovative path leading to a sustainable and promising future.
Elizabeth Holdeman Dan Wessner
July 2019
BENDING BAMBOO 5





















































































   3   4   5   6   7