The Nexus of English Education and Graduate Employability: The Need to Re-Position and Modify the Approach to English Education

This chapter provides an introduction into the book. It briefly summarizes issues related to graduate employability and points out that English language competency is an essential employability capital itself, and English language education can help develop other types of employability capital. Based on evidence from the literature, it points out that there is a mismatch between the current delivery approach (content and structure of the curriculum, learning materials, teaching–learning methods, and assessment purpose) and students’ learning approach to English language education in Vietnam, and other Asian countries. This requires a change in the approaches to English language education to better accommodate the demands of the society and economy for students’ English competency and better position English language education to match its importance in this globalized world. The chapter then narrows down to the current context of teaching and learning English in Vietnam, arguing that Vietnam can provide an appropriate case to investigate how English language education can help develop graduate employability for students. The chapter ends with a brief summary of the content of each chapter presented in the book.