The Acquisition of English Speaking Skills of Small Traders in Hanoi’s Old Quarter
The recent increase in the number of foreign visitors to Vietnam highlights the necessity
for the improvement of English speaking skills of small traders in Hanoi’s Old Quarter - a popular
tourist destination in Vietnam, where English is pivotal in both trading and promoting Vietnamese
culture. In that context, this research explores how these traders could acquire their English
speaking skills in their own living contexts. Adopting both qualitative and quantitative methods,
particularly observation, interviews with small traders (n=23) and survey questionnaires combined
with interviews with foreigners (n=100), the research has reached two major conclusions. First,
unlike popular assumptions that small traders learn English through contact with foreigners, the
sources of their English acquisition were much more diverse. Secondly, small traders were
expected to speak English well not only to carry out transactions but also to aid foreigners in a
wide range of functions, ranging from navigating through the streets to better understanding
Vietnamese culture. However, the English speaking skills of these traders were often found
insufficient in terms of grammatical, discourse, and sociolinguistic competences. From the
collected data, the article suggests a number of different ways to enhance the small trader’s
acquisition of English speaking skills.
