LANGUAGE PEDAGOGY OF VIETNAMESE AS A SECOND LANGUAGE: CHANGES AND CHALLENGES (SƯ PHẠM HỌC VIỆT NGỮ VỚI TƯ C�CH LÀ NGÔN NGỮ HAI: NHỮNG �ỔI THAY VÀ THỬ TH�CH)

Teaching Vietnamese as a second/foreign language has received more and more attention due to the increasing needs of the imigrant communities of Vietnamese decent in many countries, apart from the development of economic and diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the rest of the world. In its turn, the teaching of Vietnamese from the perspective of the learners� language acquistion, with regard to the students� characteristics, individual as well as social needs and identities, has not been seriously and adequately investigated and recognized even though over the last three decades there has been a great number of research and achievements made in the areas of second language acquisition. This paper will therefore look at three following issues: (1) language pedagogy for teaching Vietnamese in the interrelation between theory and practice; (2) aspects of change calling for multi-directional coordinations between theoretical researchers, field researchers and teachers in class room; and at the same time, pointing out (3) the challenges facing the teaching of Vietnamese to the later-generation Vietnamese overseas.