ABSTRACT
Vietnamese foreign language policy is “a barometer of social change in Vietnam” and has an important role to play in the economic and political developments of the country (Wright, 2002, p. 243). This chapter provides an overview of important milestones throughout the history of Vietnamese higher education and foreign language policy. The chapter analyses the influence of China in Vietnam with the firm establishment of Confucianism in Vietnamese society, followed by French colonialism. Then the chapter relates the Soviet Union and Eastern Block’s influence in North Vietnam’s language policy and education during the partition period and the growth of this influence across Vietnam after the reunion in 1975. It then focuses on the pivotal introduction of the Doi Moi policy in 1986, whose profound influence is seen in the emergence of the English language education and significant changes and expansion of Vietnamese Higher Education. The chapter concludes by looking at the recent globalisation of Vietnamese higher education with English as the major foreign language.
