Over 70 military school representatives from Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Jordan, Laos, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Tonga attended the three-day event.
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Participants of the event |
Vietnam has hosted the conference three times since 2005. The RELS conference strives to improve the quality of English language teaching for military cadets and officers. This year’s event focuses on building online teaching programs as well as working out efficient methods for online testing amid the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deans and vice deans of English Departments from ten military universities and academies of the Vietnam People’s Army, permitted by the General Department of Politics (GDP), joined the teleconference. They are Army Academy, Naval Academy, Air Defense - Air Force Academy, Military Technical Academy, Military Medical University, Military Science Academy, Military Officer Training Schools No.1 and No. 2, Signal Officer Training School, and Air Force Officer Training School.
In the framework of the seminar, delegates discussed Australia - Vietnam Defense Cooperation Program and shared experience in organizing online English classes at Unit 871 of the GDP, the Information Technology and Foreign Language Center of the Signal Officer Training School, as well as in implementing English training projects for peacekeeping forces at the Military Medical University and for Vietnam Coast Guard personnel at the Military Science Academy.
English instructors in the conference have pointed out advantages and disadvantages while shifting from face to face to online teaching. They have also contributed some initiatives as well as measures to raise quality of online teaching in military schools during COVID-19 outbreak.
On this occasion, Colonel Paul Foura, Australian Defense Attaché to Vietnam thanked the Vietnam’s Ministry of National Defense for creating favorable conditions for delegates to take part in this conference, affirming the importance of foreign languages in external affairs as well as foreign language teaching at military universities and academies. He also hailed the instructors’ flexibility in applying digital transformation to teaching foreign languages.
Regional conference like RELS will be an important channel for instructors and experts from various countries to share and learn more experience from each other.
Translated by Minh Anh