Setting the Scene

This volume, long overdue, is the very first book that pays close attention to the varied roles the Vietnamese language plays in different educational, sociocultural, political, ideological, geopolitical, and linguistic contexts and settings in global Vietnam. It recognizes and engages with major transformations and the ever-changing and expanding roles of the Vietnamese language and its associated educational matters in and outside the current Vietnam. Likewise, the volume introduces readers to many ways in which Vietnam, the Vietnamese language, and their multiple accompanying and arising meanings are established, evolve and mutate as a result of historical events and encounters, change, development, mobilities of people and ideas, globalization, and the processes of nation-building, among other factors and forces. It is important to note that this volume is mainly focused on the spread, change, education, and issues concerning the modern Vietnamese language written in the Quốc Ngữ script (the Latin script). This volume is neither about the history of the Vietnamese language nor Vietnamese linguistics. However, these aspects are referenced and discussed to varied extent in many chapters throughout the volume.

In Vietnam’s history, among very important historical events and encounters leading to the massive transformation of the Vietnamese language as seen in its current form are two milestones that must be named. The first event dates back to the sixteenth century when Portuguese missionaries started to spread Christianity in parts of what is now Vietnam, followed by their invention of a Latin script to record the Vietnamese spoken language in the seventeenth century (Pham, 2019, 2023). The second event was marked by France’s invasion of Vietnam, starting in 1858, followed by its colonization of Vietnam for nearly 100 years which largely defined the fate of Vietnam and the Vietnamese language in the later part of the nineteenth century and almost the entirety of the twentieth century. During this period, important reforms took place, notably the controversial introduction of the French language and French schools to the then Vietnam that the French divided into three territories with three distinctive political and administrative arrangements, the French colonial regime’s determination to end the Sinitic education system active in the then Vietnam (Altbach & Kelly, 1978; McConnell, 1988; Nguyễn, 2020), the gradual introduction of the Quốc Ngữ script into the then Vietnam’s educational system, starting in 1906 alongside Chinese-medium instruction and French-medium instruction, and the Nguyen dynasty’s decision to hold its very last imperial examination in 1918 while also proactively promoting the use of Quốc Ngữ and the French language (for more information, see Kelley, forthcoming).

The twentieth century was mostly associated with colonialism, imperialism, warfare, partition, various resistance movements against foreign invasion and occupation, the declining role of the Nguyen royal court—Vietnam’s last royal empire, the formation of the Communist Party in 1930, the official end of Vietnam’s last monarchy in 1945, President Ho Chi Minh’s proclamation of the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945, the First Indochina War against the French occupation (1946–1954), the Second Indochina War (also known as the Vietnam War or the Anti-American War 1955–1975), and the unification of Vietnam in 1976 (Asselin, 2018; Đinh, 2012; Goscha, 2016; Lê, 2012; Marr, 2013).

After the reunification of Vietnam in 1976, the country continued to be at the receiving end of, as well as a player in, a series of notable internal and external political events. These include the Cold War period that last until the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989, the tension and hostility between Vietnam and China because of the border war between the two countries from 1979 to the mid-1980s, the command economy implemented throughout unified Vietnam until about the early 1990s, the almost 20-year economic sanction from America, and the game-changing Doi Moi Reform policy (economic reform) introduced in December 1986 by the Vietnamese Communist Party that enabled far-reaching changes and transformations of the society in the decades that followed. The past 35 years or so, starting in the late 1980s, have witnessed the normalization of relations between Vietnam and China in 1991, Vietnam’s diplomatic normalization with America in 1995, Vietnam joining ASEAN in 1995 and joining the World Trade Organization in early 2007, Vietnam’s aspirations for international integration and globalization, and the booming of the market economy under the direction of the Communist Party, all of which have enabled Vietnam to join the global economy and the world stage on all fronts (Baum, 2020; Do & Nguyễn, 2013; Gillen et al., 2021; London, 2022; Ljunggren & Perkins, 2023; Pham, 2018; Revilla Diez, 2016). These factors and forces have also resulted in remarkable transformations in Vietnam’s education system, which have simultaneously inspired and formed the foundation for Vietnam’s large-scale reforms and expansions of its educational sector at all levels nationwide (Duggan, 2001; Le, 2009; Le et al., 2022; London, 2011; Nguyen et al., 2020; Phan & Doan, 2020; Tran & Marginson, 2018). Accompanying these reforms and expansions has been the changing and ever-growing role of the Vietnamese language and its associated educational matters in Vietnam—a focus of this collected volume.

At the same time, the diverse vectors of human mobilities in and out of Vietnam since the colonial time induced by the many major historical events and encounters, and by internal and external forces and factors such as the nation-building project and the processes of globalization and internationalization as briefly indicated thus far (Amer, 1994; Dorais, 1998; Hoang, 2020; Nguyen, 2015a, b; Phan, 2022; Thompson, 1952) have resulted in the widespread yet nuanced use of and attitudes towards the Vietnamese language beyond the physical border of Vietnam (Do, 2015; Hue Binh, 2023; McLeod et al., 2019; Nikolaevich, 2021; Nguyen, 2022; Tran, 2008; Tran, 2022; Yeh et al, 2015). This very phenomenon is also central to the scholarly examination highlighted in this edited book. Such phenomenon, as it showcases and embodies an angle of global Vietnam, makes the linguistic, cultural, educational, political, and ideological landscape of Vietnamese language ever more complex and omnipresent.

As shall be shown throughout the volume, Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam, a country of around 100 million people by the end of 2023.Footnote 1 It is also a second language or an additional language for ethnic minority communities in Vietnam, which account for about 15% of the overall population.Footnote 2 According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, by the end of 2023, there were about 6 million Vietnamese people living and working outside Vietnam, spread over 130 countries and territories,Footnote 3 making Vietnamese a heritage language in many of these places. Vietnamese is the dominant language and the medium of instruction in Vietnam’s national education system as well as in community schools and is adopted by other educational providers countrywide. It is also a second language option for Vietnamese students enrolled in schools overseas and in international schools in Vietnam. Vietnamese is also one of the two media of instruction in bilingual schools and in a variety of international schools in Vietnam. Further, as a heritage language of many Vietnamese diasporic communities around the world, Vietnamese is taught in numerous community language schools globally. Likewise, Vietnamese is also included in the mainstream curriculum for public schools and is promoted in various university programs in countries where many Vietnamese live, study, and work, such as the United States, France, Australia, Russia, South Korea, and Taiwan. Specifically, commencing in 2018, Vietnamese (together with seven other Southeast Asian languages) has been taught in elementary schools in Taiwan as part of the core curriculum starting at grade 3, as officially announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan).Footnote 4 At the same time, Vietnamese is a key language for research and academic purposes for many foreign scholars and researchers specializing in Vietnamese Studies. In the context of the internationalization of Vietnam’s higher education, Vietnamese is also the medium of instruction in Vietnamese-medium programs that enroll international students. Indeed, the teaching of Vietnamese to prepare international students for Vietnamese-medium programs is rising in universities in Vietnam (Mai & Chau, 2022; Phan et al., 2022). The multiple roles, functions, and positionings of Vietnamese language in and outside Vietnam as briefed here are, for the first time, brought together in this collection, making it a one-stop venue where one can be informed of and engage (with) multi-faceted scholarly interrogations that are long overdue.

The Conceptual Edge and Significance

The conceptualization of this edited volume has stemmed from a variety of scholarly aspirations and emerging scholarship. First and foremost, this volume is the very first collection that identifies, examines, and engages with Vietnamese language and its underlying educational matters in varied contexts and settings in and outside Vietnam. In this regard, the volume embeds a sense of global Vietnam, a sense that has been developed in the well-established annual academic conference series Engaging With Vietnam (EWV) and in recent EWV-informed scholarship that editor Phan Le Ha has led over the years (Gillen et al., 2021; Kelley & Sasges, forthcoming 2023; Phan & Doan, 2020; Phan et al., 2020; http://engagingwithvietnam.org/). Global Vietnam signifies and brings to the fore multiple meanings attached to Vietnam and the Vietnamese language. For instance, Vietnam can signify a country, a memory, a place, a homeland, and an emotional attachment. Via multimodal representations and discursive means, Vietnam and the Vietnamese language are projected, discussed, appropriated, and embraced by different actors and entities across time and space. These representations and means are often governed and shaped by specific contexts and purposes within and between communities in global Vietnam. As shall be seen throughout the volume, many roles played by and assigned to the Vietnamese language as well as many meanings associated with Vietnam inside, outside, and beyond its physical borders are illustrated, called upon, and engaged with.

By documenting and investigating multiple facets and processes of Vietnamese language education in global contexts, and by engaging with global Vietnam through the lenses of language and education, this volume breaks new ground and advances existing scholarship, which remains extremely limited and scattered (see for example, Do, 2015; Maloof et al., 2006; McLeod et al., 2019; Nguyen, 2020; Nguyen & Ha, 2021; Nguyen & Huynh, 2021; Nguyen et al., 2001; Phan, 2019; Phan et al., 2014; Tran, 2008, 2021; Yeh et al., 2015). Specifically, the contributing chapters, in diverse manners and to varied extent, examine how Vietnamese is perceived, practiced, taught, learnt, institutionalized, kept, revised, politicized, personalized, and given meanings by multiple communities and actors across time, space, and contexts. The chapters take into consideration associated and broader sociocultural, linguistic, educational, ideological, and political debates in local, transnational, global, and inter-contextual settings and domains. As such, the volume also offers new analyses, insights, and on-the-ground theorizations based on which further scholarly inquiries could be enabled. In the same vein, it creates original scholarship, particularly in relation to the conceptualization of global Vietnam and global contexts as policies, practices, and performances of the Vietnamese language and educational matters unfold. For more elaborations and discussion of the many scholarly debates, aspirations, and contributions presented in the volume as a whole and in each individual chapter, see the last two chapters—Chaps. 14 and 15—of this volume.

Another very important conceptual underpinning informing this volume lies in its attempt to respond to scholarly calls to challenge hegemonic views and frameworks of globalization, particularly in terms of knowledge production and in the domain of language and education studies (see for example, Barnawi, 2018; Canagarajah, 1999; Nonaka, 2018; Pennycook, 1994, 1998; Phan, 2008; Phillipson, 1992, Tsui, 2020; Tupas, 2014; Windle et al., 2020). It puts Vietnam and its Vietnamese language and educational matters at the center of inquiry from a global and evolving perspective. It considers how Vietnam and Vietnamese are constructed globally and enacted in global spaces of classrooms, textbooks, student mobility, and intercultural contacts. It is one of the world’s most spoken languages and is ranked among the world’s top 20 in terms of the number of speakers. Yet, at the same time, as a ‘peripheral’ or ‘southern’ global language in the Global North–Global South spectrum, the dynamics of multilingual and multicultural encounters involving Vietnamese generate distinctive dilemmas and tensions, as well as point to alternative ways of thinking about global phenomena from a fresh angle. Rather than being outside of the global, Vietnamese, like many other ‘non-central’ global languages, is present in diasporas, commercial and transnational structures of higher education, schooling, and in the more conventional settings of primary and secondary school, in which visions of culture and language also evoke notions of heritage and tradition as well as bring to the fore deep-seated ideological conflicts across time, space, communities, and generations.

Conceptualizing a volume on the Vietnamese language and its associated educational matters must not overlook the works of those practitioners and researchers who are dedicated to this very language on a daily basis. Neither can it be acceptable to only include authors who have mainly used English in all their research, writing, and teaching. Hence, this volume features many authors who, up to this stage, have hardly published in English. Most of these authors have been conducting a good amount of research in the medium of Vietnamese. Likewise, they are also experienced published authors in Vietnamese, whose perspectives, expertise, and knowledge could be introduced, via this volume, to a more international audience. In this aspect, this volume is refreshing and original.

As the very first volume documenting and examining Vietnamese language and educational matters in varied contexts and settings in and outside Vietnam, this volume, while refreshing, is still at the early stage of making substantial scholarly contributions. Nonetheless, one has to start from somewhere, and hence this volume. Chapter 14 of this volume presents and discusses in more detail a number of contributions made by the volume and the individual chapters to knowledge and knowledge production regarding language and education, Vietnamese studies, and educational matters in global Vietnam.