Expected new points in organizing foreign language proficiency and Vietnamese proficiency tests

Photo caption — Foreign language proficiency test is organized on computer. Photo: Quy Trung/VNA

The draft Circular is built on the basis of fully integrating current regulations on foreign language proficiency tests and Vietnamese language proficiency tests. This integration contributes to facilitating units in the process of organizing the test, while at the same time, reducing the number of legal documents that need to be issued.

The content of the draft Circular emphasizes the comprehensive responsibility of units in organizing the exam, at the same time, requiring units to develop and implement solutions to ensure safety, objectivity, fairness, seriousness, and clearly assign responsibilities to each participating department. The work of securing exam papers is strictly regulated in all stages before, during and after the exam.

Inheriting the contents, processes and regulations that have been stabilized and effective in practice, the draft Circular also enhances the application of information technology in the entire exam organization process to reduce costs, improve efficiency and overcome existing limitations and shortcomings.

The draft Circular supplements regulations and procedures for building and managing the question bank to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management in organizing competency assessment exams; at the same time, strengthen digital transformation and apply information technology in supporting candidates and people; provide images of candidates during the exam, helping units more conveniently verify certificates and ensure the authenticity of exam results.

Regarding personnel, the draft Circular stipulates: The test organizing unit must have specialized personnel to create test questions and grade at least 30 people for English; at least 20 people for other foreign languages and Vietnamese.

Professional staff for foreign language proficiency assessment tests must have at least a master's degree in one of the following fields: foreign language, literature and culture, or educational science; be trained and educated in test creation and scoring of speaking and writing tests; and may only perform test creation and scoring tasks for test formats equal to or lower than the foreign language level (level) they have achieved.

Professional staff for the Vietnamese proficiency test must have at least a master's degree in Vietnamese language, literature and culture or literature.

Regarding the test question bank, some notable points in the draft are: The test question bank is built according to the process and ensures that there are enough test questions to create at least 70 test questions for foreign language proficiency assessment organizations and at least 30 test questions for Vietnamese proficiency assessment organizations. The test questions must follow the correct format structure of the foreign language proficiency assessment test according to the 6-level foreign language proficiency framework for Vietnam and the Vietnamese proficiency framework for foreigners issued by the Ministry of Education and Training .

The exam questions for each exam are randomly drawn from the question bank; in the same exam, each candidate in the exam room has a separate exam code; candidates sitting next to each other in horizontal rows do not overlap in content and exam questions. To ensure that the exam questions are drawn randomly and objectively, random drawing from the question bank to create exam questions is only carried out when there are enough questions to create at least 20 exams. Used exam questions can only be reused after at least 12 months.

Before December 31st of each year, the foreign language proficiency test organization must add test questions to the test question bank and ensure the number of test questions for use in the following year. Test organizations can use the same test question bank and test questions to organize the test.

Notably, the draft Circular allows units to cooperate to expand the scale of exam organization, including organizing exams abroad, in line with the current trend of international integration; encourage and support Vietnamese educational institutions to establish branches, open representative offices or implement educational programs abroad; promote cooperation, expand Vietnamese language teaching, spread Vietnamese cultural values and traditions, especially in the Vietnamese community abroad. This regulation also creates conditions for Vietnamese educational institutions to organize Vietnamese language proficiency assessment exams abroad, meeting the needs of global learning and integration.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/giao-duc/du-kien-nhung-diem-moi-trong-to-chuc-thi-danh-gia-nang-luc-ngoai-ngu-va-nang-luc-tieng-viet-20251008201118397.htm