Organizing Bilingual Biology Lessons to Develop English Skills in High School Students
Authors: Hieu Tran Trung 
Published: May 2018

English is one of the most vital and necessary tools for people’s successes in many aspects of life. Therefore, building good ways to develop English skills in students is an urgent demand. Organizing English-Vietnamese bilingual lesson is interpreted as educational method in which a foreign language enrichment measure packaged into content teaching, so it is one of the effective ways to improve this skill for students. By investigating 457 students and 27 high school biology teachers in An Giang province, the study pointed out two issues of the reality of using English in biology teaching in high schools: (1) Teachers have rarely used English in teaching activities, (2) Students’ English ability has been really weak. The study has built up the processes of organizing an English-Vietnamese bilingual lesson. The paper demonstrated that high school students’ English ability and qualification has been improved by using these proposed processes.
Keywords
Bilingual biology lessons, bilingual teaching, English ability, biology teaching
References
Dinh Quang Bao & Nguyen Duc Thanh (1998). Theories of biology teaching. Vietnam Education Publishing House (in Vietnamese).Bonces, J. R., 2012. Content and language integrated learning (CLIL): Considerations in the Colombian context. Gist Education and Learning Research Journal, 6, 177-189.Dalton-Puffer, C., 2011. Content-and-language integrated learning: From practice to principles? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, Cambridge University Press, 31, 182–204.Dong Hai Nguyen, 2013. Bilingual education in Vietnam: Successes and challenges. Cambrigde Educational Leadership Seminar, Ho Chi Minh city. Retrieved from ttp://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/images/137032-dr-dong-hai-nguyen-presentation-slides-.pdfPhan Duc Duy, 1999. Trainning biology teaching skills for students based on studying pedagogy cases. Doctor thesis, Hanoi National University of Education, Hanoi, Vietnam, 34-57 (in Vietnamese).Hadisantosa, N., Huong, T. T. T., Johnstone, R., Keyuravong, S., & Lee, W., 2010. Learning through English: Policies, challenges and prospects (Insight from East Asia). Malaysia: British Council.Nguyen Van Hien, 2009. Developing the skills of applying information technology in organizing biology lessons in students. Doctor thesis, Hanoi National University of Education, Hanoi, Vietnam, 62-65 (in Vietnamese).Tran Trung Hieu, 2017. Organizing English-Vietnamese bilingual lessons in biology teaching in high school. Teacher of Vietnam Scientific Magazine, 123, 37-39 (in Vietnamese).Dao Thi Hoang Hoa, 2014. Teaching Chemistry through the medium of English using content and language integrated learning approach. Journal of Science, Ho Chi Minh city University of Education, 54 (in Vietnamese).Tran Ba Hoanh, 1993. Techniques of biology teaching. Vietnam Education Publishing House (in Vietnamese).Nguyen Tan Hung, 2010. Dual language instruction – The best way for the improvement of professional knowledge and foreign language competence. Journal of Science and Technology, Da Nang University, 2(37), 192-197 (in Vietnamese).Nha, T. T. V., & Burn, A., 2014. English as a medium of instruction: Challenges for Vietnamese tertiary lecturers. The journal of Asia TEFL, 11(3), 1-31.Thuong Nguyen, 2017. Vietnam national foreign language 2020 project after 9 years: A difficult stage. The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2017, National Chengchi University, Taiwan.