Gifted High School Students’ Needs for English Learning in Vietnam Contexts

The learning needs of English students have been researched over the past decades in different countries, especially among non-speaking English ones. The core goal of these studies was to examine if learner needs/wants and learning outcomes of the English course/curriculum provided are sufficiently matched, i.e., whether or not students feel satisfied (because their needs/wants are met). Expanding this line of research, the current study attempts to find out the needs for English learning among gifted high school students in the current Vietnam context by seeking the answer to the main question: How do these students report their needs for English learning? The findings are supposed to provide useful insights into this English learning – teaching setting. One hundred and eighty English-majored students from five gifted high schools in five provinces of Vietnam participated in a questionnaire-interview survey. The obtained results show that most participants opted for English because they needed it for future employment and cross-cultural/national communications for long-term purposes. As a result, they wanted to practice more English speaking and listening skills rather than other components of English knowledge (pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary) and skills (reading, writing). Yet, their English practices in the classroom did not place much emphasis on speaking-listening skills, i.e., their needs were not very satisfactorily met. Some of the findings echo those of previous research, and some are first reported in the current study.