Our purpose is to create capable and motivated life-long learners, so the paper is for teachers at any level who want to learn how PBLP projects can improve their language proficiency. It is also hoped to encourage teachers of English to implement the use of self-study and cooperative learning strategies in PBLPs to solve problems in their classroom language teaching. | Nguyễn Thị Quế và Đtg Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ 121(07): 61 - 64 PROPOSED SEVEN-STEP ACTION PLANS IN IMPLEMENTING PROBLEMBASED LEARNING PROJECTS FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS IN NFLP 2020 TRAINING PROGRAMS AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Nguyen Thi Que*, Phung Thi Hai Van College of Sciences - TNU SUMMARY What kinds of research does Vietnam need to build in order to foster its English teachers’ proficiency competence and teaching capacity? This article introduces a new approach in teacher action research, a key component of the NFL2020 Project vision. At Thai Nguyen University, this approach is named Problem-based learning (PBL) projects which have been experimented with initial success for the past two years. In this paper, we will briefly look at what PBL is, how a PBL project is carried out and why it is important in English language learning and teaching. After that, we will walk through the major steps to successfully implement a PBL project with proposed seven-step action plans. Our purpose is to create capable and motivated life-long learners, so the paper is for teachers at any level who want to learn how PBLP projects can improve their language proficiency. It is also hoped to encourage teachers of English to implement the use of self-study and cooperative learning strategies in PBLPs to solve problems in their classroom language teaching. Key words: Teacher action research, problem-based learning projects, seven-step action plans, improving language proficiency, National Foreign Language Project 2020, Thai Nguyen University INTRODUCTION* For years in Vietnam, the quality of English teaching and learning at all levels of education has become a question for debate and teachers’ weaknesses in English proficiency and teaching methodologies were blamed for students’ failure to communicate or use English in their study and work after 9 years at school and college [2]. The above challenge served as a driving force to put forward Decision 1400 issued by Vietnam .
