ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the historical, cultural and sociolinguistic context of Vietnam. The status of English and ELT issues in Vietnam are also discussed. In particular, the chapter provides a critical review of the research literature on communicative language teaching (CLT) in the context of EFL in Vietnam and identifies theoretical and research gaps. It is found that there is a mismatch between the tenets of CLT and the traditional culture of Vietnamese classrooms.
