Foreign Languages in the World’s General School Education: Current Situations and Problems

Abstract

This paper examines the current situation and the teaching of foreign languages at general school education level in some selected regions, countries and territories in the world: Western Europe, the USA, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The paper brought to light a number of significant features of which five seem to be prominent: teaching foreign languages in the world presents a highly diverse picture; all regions, countries and territories exercise a multi-foreign language policy, but English is the most learned foreign language and takes up a dominant position; there is a tendency to introduce foreign languages (particularly English) at an earlier stage of education; while it cannot be denied that English has become the most learned foreign language, other languages such as Chinese, Russian, Japanese, French, Spanish, German, etc. are also introduced into the general school education in a number of countries; and there are still big gaps and mismatches between policy and practice, between theory and practice, and between practice and practice. These features of foreign language teaching and learning and the problems experienced in these regions, countries and territories in the world can be useful points of reference for Vietnam in the process of renovating foreign language learning and teaching in general school education.