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Vietnamese students are being bored by their literature lessons due to uncreative teaching methods.

Nguyen Thanh Huyen, a 11th form pupil at a high school in Hanoi, said, “During literature lessons, I often feel sleepy. I’m just too tired to take in literature as our timetables are crazy. Literature teachers just focus on lecturing while the students just take notes to prepare for tests. We just learn literature to pass the exams.”

With 30-year experience in literature teaching, Dr. Trinh Thu Tuyet from Chu Van An High School in Hanoi said, “Over recent years, students have become increasingly fed up with traditional teaching. Many seem half-asleep as they see it as unrelated boring knowledge.

According to some literature teachers, the literature textbooks in use are out of date. For instance classical works, are too old fashioned or based on historical events that students aren’t familiar with. Fewer pupils have taken literature for their university entrance exams,” said Dr. Tuyet.

The Ministry of Education and Training recently held a national conference to improve literature teaching at high schools.

Associate Prof. Do Ngoc Thong from Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences suggested that, “reforms to literature teaching should focus on textual analysis by the pupils, not rote learning.”

Dr. Tuyet said it was necessary to tap the literary perception among students. “Teachers should help students to understand the use of language, plot, genre and details so that they can appreciate the artistry in the details,” she said.

Mrs. Tuyet also noted that teachers should also instruct students to understand the point the writers were trying to make, and the cultural and historical background to the works.

Under the Ministry of Education and Training’s plan, after 2015, literature will continue to be considered as a major subject.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Vinh Hien said literature was a core subject, but there were many weaknesses in its teaching methods.