SELF-EVALUATION OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE AMONG VIETNAMESE ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDENTS IN A COMPETENCY-BASED CURRICULUM

Abstract

With recent reforms in English language education emphasizing a competency-based approach, fostering communicative competence has become a key goal. Despite this shift, there is scarce research on how students themselves evaluate their communicative abilities within the framework of the Competency-Based English Teaching Curriculum. This study aims to investigate how Vietnamese English as a foreign language students at high schools assess their communicative competence and the challenges they face under the Competency-Based English Teaching Curriculum. Using a mixed-methods design, data were collected through questionnaires (n = 205) and semi-structured interviews (n = 9) with twelfth-grade students from 25 public high schools across 9 provinces in the Mekong Delta region, Vietnam. The findings reveal that students rate their overall communicative competence as moderate, with particular strengths in sociocultural and strategic components. Additionally, four key categories of challenges emerged, including teacher-related, student-related, family-related, and school-related factors. These insights offer practical implications for enhancing the implementation of Competency-Based English Teaching Curriculum and contribute to broader discussions on improving English language education in Vietnam and other similar contexts.