The 300,000-strong Vietnamese community makes up more than 1.2 percent of the Australian population, and Vietnamese is the fourth most spoken language in the country.

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Dr. Tran Hong Van from Charles Sturt University of Australia

The Australian government has supported the community in maintaining their mother tongue through Vietnamese language schools.

However, Van said, it is not enough because children need to practice.

Citing results of Vietspeech, a research study by Charles Sturt University with funding from the Australian Research Council, she said parents play an important role in language teaching.

In addition, experts from the university have introduced Vietspeech Multilingual Children, a manual providing necessary information to serve Vietnamese language learning and teaching at home, Van said.

To raise public awareness of the issue, she has joined a Vietnamese language program of the SBS Vietnamese channel since October 2021.

Van pointed out limited sources of Vietnamese textbooks abroad, and proposed the Vietnamese government provide free textbooks for overseas Vietnamese and sketch out programs that focus on home teaching.

Source: VNA