ABOUT US
The Faculty of Foreign Languages of Nguyen Tat Thanh University was established with the Decision no. 25/QĐ-NTT-TC, dated November 26th, 2011 by the President of Nguyen Tat Thanh University, with the mission of nurturing and training valuable human assets in the fields of foreign languages, as well as being a research institution that studies the languages and cultures of foreign countries whilst promoting Vietnamese language and culture to the world.
* Official Name: The Faculty of Foreign Languages - Nguyen Tat Thanh University
* Address: 331 1A National Highway, An Phu Dong Ward, District 12, Ho Chi Minh City
* Website: http//ffl.ntt.edu.vn
OUR PROGRAMS
The Faculty is currently offering these following academic programs:
- Bachelor programs (4-year programs):
+ English Language
Division of English Teaching Methodology
Division of Business English
Division of English Translation & Interpretations
+ Chinese Language
+ Oriental Studies
Division of Japanese Language & Culture
Division of Korean Language & Culture
+ Vietnamese Language & Culture
- Associate program (3-year program):
+ Business English Translation & Interpretations
OUR PHILOSOPHY
Aligned with NTTU’s vision as becoming an international university for Vietnamese students and its educational philosophy highlighting student-centeredness and constructivism, the Faculty’s educational philosophy is that ‘Learning takes place in the social arena” which is considered as a guideline to develop adaptively program outcomes as well as expected learning outcomes according to the NTTU's philosophy of "Authentic knowledge – Effective competence – Reliable identity – Achievable profession”.
This philosophy asserts that learning is the constructivism of knowledge through interaction with the social contexts. Knowledge is inductively acquired through the experience of the learners. The learners actively participate in their learning process by discovery, with the instructor as the mediator of the process. The constructivist model promotes a learning environment that has richness both depth and breadth. Specifically, constructivists believe in independent exploration by students that will lead to a deeper understanding of the content.
Because constructivism is a learner-centred approach, the learner is the subject of class activities. The instructor, then, acts as the facilitator who guides how to discover learner’s knowledge.
The program applied the TBLT model (Task-based language teaching) proposed by David Nunan, which closely related to CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) methodology [Nunan D. (2009). Task-based language teaching: a comprehensively revised edition of designing tasks for the Communicative classroom. Cambridge University Press.].
Adhering to this model, the three elements of teaching methods linked closely together, indicating the progress of learners: (i) Constructive model refers to the subject of study - the learner; (ii) The social model refers to the interactions with other stakeholders - other learners and lecturer/ instructor; (iii) Interactive model refers to the environment which is considered as situations in which learners are involved in. This approach is relatively close to CLT teaching methodology, in which teaching is the organizing of learning activities beneficial for communications where learners interact with each other to create and deal with socio-cognitive conflicts; learning is the collaborations among leaners to construct their own knowledge by comparing and contrasting one’s own expressions with the others’; and teaching methodology uses projects, discussions and researches to trigger cognitive process as well as construct knowledge. The teaching and learning procedures are oriented following specific principles, those are to introduce complex learning situations that learners may experience in their daily life, take advantages of interactions and collaborations among learners to elicit the meanings of learning and construct knowledge based on their experience and prior knowledge, guide students to apply the newly-acquired knowledge into solving realistic social issues. As a result, learners proactively take responsibility for their study, and teachers play a role as the facilitator or mentor coordinating learning activities.
The university and faculty educational philosophy are communicated to all stakeholders via university’s websites and banners displayed on university and faculty’s bulletin board. Education models are declared in the program specification and presented in university websites and student handbook. On an annual basis, the university organizes conferences to enhance teaching and learning quality, improve educational programs, guarantee quality assurance; training courses for teachers to enhance teaching capacity, consult and share experiences applying educational philosophy. Annually, Faculty of Foreign Languages holds conferences to revise education program and discuss the application of TBLT into teaching strategies. On orientation days, students are introduced to the faculty’s educational philosophy, TBLT teaching model and program expected outcomes. To get learners ready for the program, students are guided with effective study skills and are taught with the subject “An introduction to English Studies” in their first semester. Besides, at the beginning of every course, teachers are required to explain educational philosophy, teaching theories and how lessons are conducted following TBLT model in the course to the students.
Taking an interest in spreading the importance of mutual understanding of the educational philosophy among stakeholders, the Department has recently condensed it and published on the Faculty website.