How Do Schools Teach Books In Vietnamese Language Today?

Lately I've been paying a lot of attention to how Vietnamese schools teach literature and language, and honestly it's a mix of tradition and fresh experiments that keeps surprising me. The current curriculum framed by 'Chương trình giáo dục phổ thông 2018' pushes for competency-based learning, so teachers are trying to balance classic textual analysis with practical language skills. In class you'll still see close readings of canonical pieces like 'Truyện Kiều' or 'Lão Hạc', but alongside that there are activities designed to improve speaking, listening, and writing — not just memorizing quotes for an exam. Textbook series such as 'Kết nối tri thức với cuộc sống' and 'Cánh Diều' show this shift: lessons often include communicative tasks, project suggestions, and cross-curricular links that invite students to relate literature to their lives.

In everyday classrooms the methods are pretty varied depending on the school and the teacher. I’ve popped into lessons where teachers start with a short video about the author before launching into a group discussion, and other places where students act out a scene from 'Dế Mèn Phiêu Lưu Ký' or perform a modern retelling of 'Sơn Tinh Thủy Tinh' in front of the class. Reading aloud, pair work, role-play, and small-group analysis are becoming more common, especially in urban schools. During the COVID years a lot of teachers got creative with Google Classroom, quizzes, Kahoot rounds on literary terms, and YouTube clips to make texts feel alive. Outside class, many students join reading clubs, poetry slams, or book-report contests; those extracurricular spaces often do more to foster a love of reading than an exam-focused lesson ever could.

Assessment still shapes a lot of practice: national exams and school tests put pressure on analytical essays and precise language use, so some teachers naturally gear lessons to exam formats — explaining themes, teaching essay templates, and drilling vocabulary. But there’s a push for more diverse assessment too, like oral presentations, portfolios, and creative writing pieces that reward imagination and personal response. Inequity is a real issue: class size, resources, and teacher training vary widely between cities and rural areas, so while some schools experiment with project-based learning and multimedia, others stick to lecture-and-memorize because it’s the safest route for test scores.

Personally, I love when lessons connect the old and the new — for example, when a class compares the social criticism in 'Tắt đèn' to a contemporary short story, or when students translate a poem into a modern meme to unpack tone and irony. If I had one wish, it’d be to see more sustained time for free reading, more school libraries that feel inviting rather than dusty, and more teacher exchanges so good practices spread faster. Schools are trying to teach not just texts but literary thinking and empathy, and when that clicks it’s genuinely thrilling to watch a quiet student light up after sharing their own interpretation.