The Hanoi Department of Education and Training said it had helped to improve pronunciation and spelling of Vietnamese in primary schools in the capital with its new teaching programme.

A teacher at Hanoi\'s Tu Liem Primary School instructs her students.

Nguyen Tri Dung, deputy head of the Primary Education Department, said the authority had been running a pronunciation training programme since 2009 for both teachers and students in primary schools in thirteen suburban districts with some success.

He said teachers and children for example often had trouble distinguishing between the sounds of "l" and "n".

"This is a long-term programme because the habit of mispronouncing words began long ago and cannot be easily eliminated in a day or two," Dung said.

Nguyen Thi Bich Hang, a teacher at Trung Mau Primary School in Gia Lam District, said primary students misspelled words because they were picking up bad habits from family members and friends.

Hang said students\' diction was usually correct when reading out loud formally in class but that they reverted to mispronouncing words out of school.

"Mispronunciation leads to misspelling, and misspelling will negatively affect the students\' academic performance and cause problems in communication," Hang said.

To tackle the problem, the Department of Education and Training has drafted guidance documents with suggested pronunciation training courses.

Hang said students were asked to read stories, fill in the missing letters in a poem – particularly involving "l" and "n" – and tell stories and take part in role-play.

The documents, however, are for reference only. Primary schools are encouraged to draft their own courses.

"In many schools that I visit, teachers make funny poems so that the students will have fun while they practise reading," Dung said.

To reduce confusion between letters and promote accurate pronunciation, teachers have been asked to correct students\' spelling and diction in non-language classes.

Pronunciation training also forms part of extra-curricular activities. Meanwhile, teachers are encouraged to meet regularly to boost their language skills.

Dung added that the programme was designed to promote standard Vietnamese not just at school but in society as a whole because students would interact with other members of the community.

Vu Thi Du, the principal of Quang Trung School in Phu Xuyen District, said the programme was implemented two years ago and had achieved positive results.

Pronunciation and spelling training is now given in all classes.

"I think the programme is practical and useful," Du said.

According to a survey conducted in 13 suburban districts by the Department of Education and Training, the number of primary school teachers with poor diction had decreased markedly to current 9 percent as opposed to 12 percent at the end of the 2010-11 school year.

Meanwhile, the proportion of students mispronouncing words has been reduced from 22 percent to 18 percent during the same period.

The ministry surveyed about 11,000 teachers and 204,000 students in 13 suburban districts for the study.