Renovation in Curriculum Design and Textbook Development: An Effective Solution to Improving the Quality of English Teaching in Vietnamese Schools in the Context of Integration and Globalization

Abstract: There are many solutions to improving the quality of teaching and learning foreign languages in general and teaching and learning English in Vietnamese schools in particular. One of the most important solutions is probably the renovation in curriculum design and textbook development. This is the focus of this paper. The paper is organized around five main sections. Following Section 1 - Introduction, Section 2 provides an overview of the National Foreign Languages 2020 Project, focusing on the points related to the design of school English curriculum and the development of school English textbooks. Section 3 is concerned with the design of three pilot English curricula for Vietnamese schools and highlights their innovative points. Section 4 discusses in some detail the design and development of the ten-year English textbook series for Vietnamese schools under the National Foreign Languages 2020 Project and highlights its innovative points. Section 5 presents the achievements related to the development of the ten-year English textbook series. Finally, Section 6 summarizes the main points discussed in the paper and makes some recommendations for further improving the quality and the effect of use of the ten-year English textbook series before putting it into use on a large scale.Keywords: The 2020 Project, the three pilot English curricula, the ten-year English textbook series, the six-level foreign language proficiency framework for Vietnam.