‘Virtual’ tutors in Vietnam TUOI TRE   Thu Ngan, an online tutor, is offering a lesson via Skype at her home. Photo: Tuoi Tre With the recent boom in communication, internet connectivity and IT, new tutoring services are increasingly offered, adding to the list of novel urban services that includes food shopping and cooking for clients and giving private home lessons. Tutoring by phone As mobile phones are readily accessible, more students in all grades and their parents are making use of tutoring over the phone. According to Nguyen Minh, director of Duc Viet Tutoring Center, each day his center receives dozens of calls requesting this type of tutoring on school subjects. Most of Minh’s clients are parents who want help for their children with their schoolwork, or to inquire about information on popular subjects, including English. Most calls come in at the beginning of the year and after the traditional Tet holiday, he added. More parents are choosing this option now as the tutoring and counseling is free of charge and readily accessible. Nguyen Thi Minh, who had hired several tutors to teach her 3rd -grade son at home with little success, tried calling the 1088 operator’s educational counseling program with doubts on her mind. “I was quite surprised as the tutors there gave such meticulous counseling, and comprehensible instructions. Their lessons are prepared just like those delivered in class,” Minh commented. However, this isn’t always the case. Le Thi Ut allowed her child, a 7th –grader, to use phone tutoring a few times. “I can’t help my child with his schoolwork. But allowing him to keep using the service inadvertently makes him dependent on others and he lacks the ability to study on his own. Also, I can hardly pay his phone bills,” Ut shared. Online correspondence correctors The correction of English essays or personal statements for applications for overseas studies or in preparation for the writing section of international English exams such as the TOEFL, IELTS or SAT is now also readily offered by email. Fees vary from VND1.2-1.5 million (US$58-72) for intensive two-month courses. A normal course costs VND400,000 ($19). Students are required to write 10-20 essays during each course, and tutors correct and comment on each one. This is all done via email. “Among the four English skills, writing is the most difficult to self-teach, as we can’t evaluate how well we write,” said Nguyen Le Huy, who is preparing to apply for overseas studies. “Besides, I don’t feel confident unless someone good at English reads through and revises my essay, which is the key part of the application,” he added. With fees considerably lower than those of conventional academic English courses, which cost at least VND4.5 million ($217) a month, these online writing courses appeal to a considerable number of students, particularly at year-end and in summer, when many apply to study abroad. “Usually by the end of December every year, we receive so many enrolments that we have to decline several to ensure quality corrections,” said Ha Thu, a provider of the service. However, in many cases, this service turns into a sophisticated disguise of offering complete essays so that students can copy them into their exam papers for much higher fees. “This mostly depends on students’ awareness and tutors’ ethics, as there is no way can we control stuff on the Internet,” said Le Nam Nhat, who is using this service in preparation for his upcoming TOEFL test. Let’s Skype together Students have also increasingly taken advantage of Skype, which integrates both visual and audio features, in their studies. “Foreign curricula require self-study skills, but most Vietnamese students aren’t used to this method, so they need online tutors in the initial phases,” said Minh, whose Duc Viet center has offered Skype math tutoring programs for Vietnamese studying in the US for over two years. “I find expressing what I mean to them most challenging in tutoring online,” he noted. These courses cost an average of VND6 million ($289) a month, with most students coming from affluent families. In Vietnam, many groups have also chosen to learn via Skype to save traveling time and cut gasoline costs. “This medium also facilitates group learning and material exchanges,” said Ngo Thi Hong Van, from Da Nang Foreign Languages University. Skype students usually aim to improve their English listening and speaking skills. The challenges involved in this form of learning are the student’s self-discipline and learning attitudes, as well as the quality of the Internet connection.