An experimental application of the problem-posing approach for English language teaching in Vietnam

From a critical perspective, in the educational context, it is obvious that there is unequal power relationship between teacher and students. According to Freire (1972), traditional education is an act of depositing, of transferring, of transmitting values and knowledge, and leads the students to the mechanical memorisation of the subject matter taught. It is possible to say that this type of education makes students more passive. Teaching English in general and speaking in particular in Vietnam is not an exceptional case, where the students try to get more knowledge from the teacher and less develop their critical consciousness which is necessary to help them to “enter reality, increase their capacity to make choices, the threat to privilege would increase as well ”(Freire, 1973, p.20). This book chapter discusses the application of Freire ’s philosophy about problem-posing education in teaching speaking for adult learners of English at tertiary level in Vietnam and reports teacher and students’ reflections on several sample speaking activities employing the basic steps in applying problem-posing approach to teach speaking to adult learners of English at tertiary level in a specific context in Vietnnam