This chapter examines the limitations of Vietnam's National Foreign Language Project 2020, particularly the ongoing struggle of many students to communicate effectively in English despite years of instruction. The chapter argues that the heavy reliance on rote memorization of vocabulary, a widespread practice in Vietnamese EFL education, leads to superficial learning and favors certain students over others. It explores key challenges in Vietnam's EFL landscape, such as teachers' pedagogical content knowledge, the quality of instructional materials, and the lack of effective student learning strategies. The chapter advocates replacing rote memorization with more equitable and effective approaches along with embedding the four-part processing model for word recognition and the four strands principle. It concludes with practical pedagogical strategies to illustrate how these methods can be applied in the Vietnamese context.