Articles

In the era of globalization, one of the ultimate goals in English language education is to equip learners with intercultural sensitivity (InS) to effectively communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds; however, EFL learners in rural contexts are supposed to encounter difficulties in achieving InS. Therefore, this mixed-methods study aims at exploring EFL students’ InS in a rural high school where students have few opportunities to interact with foreigners in person. The study involved 185 EFL high school students in Lam Dong province, Vietnam, in answering the questionnaire, and 18 students in responding to the focus group interview questions. The results indicated that participants possessed a high level of InS. Among the five constructs of InS (e.g. interaction engagement, respect for cultural differences, interaction enjoyment, interaction attentiveness, & intercultural confidence), the participants were most aware of respect for cultural differences, had interaction enjoyment and attentiveness, and showed their intercultural confidence. Nevertheless, they were likely to have difficulties in interaction engagement. It can be implied that the EFL high school students could, to some extent, gain their InS except socially intercultural interactions.

Homework effectiveness has long been a controversial issue for many educators, schools, and parents. Many researchers have tried to prove that homework is not just a nuisance we all have to face throughout the years but really can build character and good for students, like teachers and parents typically say. This bibliometrics review studied 429 documents related to homework in education from the Clarivate Web of Science from 1977 to 2020. This study aims to record the volume, growth pattern of homework literature and identify critical authors, publications, and topics of this knowledge base. The review found that the homework literature has grown remarkably over the past 43 years, with the most cited authors are from the US, Germany, and Portugal. Using co-citation, co-occurrence and bibliographic coupling analysis from the VOSviewer program, this research also indicated significant results and suggestions for future research. The findings showed that homework literature increased gradually in volume, with the most publications originated in the USA, and critical authors were Cooper, Xu, and Trautwein. Additionally, five common research topics were illustrated, namely the effect of homework and its measurement, homework environment, homework tasks and feedback, family involvement in homework, and time and effort

While India is undergoing a swift expansion in secondary education, there has also been a drift of demand towards preschool education as a large number of parents are opting for it for their little ones. In India, the provision of preschool education is being made by the government, non-government organizations as well as the private sector through diverse models. Due to a variety of reasons such as working mothers, nuclear families, there is increasing enrolment in stand-alone playschools as well as kindergarten sections to facilitate education due to early stimulation, promote development activities and support to parents and families (Rao, 2005; World Bank, 2006; Paltasingh, 2010; Kaushal, 2016). However, in terms of the numbers, the prime coverage of 3- to 6-year-old children is being provided through Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) set up by the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme. The ICDS is offered under the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), India. This research paper is based upon a study, objectives of which were to uncover the infrastructure, curriculum, support materials, existing practices in early childhood education (ECE) available in the diverse type of ECE centres situated in Delhi, India. It was found that the nutritional component being there in AWC makes them attractive as there are free meals and snacks. On the other hand, in the preschools, the educational infrastructure is better as the teaching and learning materials are replenished and added on, and also the teachers are better qualified. The absence of these components often inhibits the attainment of the desired objectives. So, the aspects in terms of human and physical infrastructure also need to be given due weightage along with nutrition. It is recommended that preschools and AWCs should be linked to the primary schools, physically and programmatically.

This paper presents the results of a study exploring the English as a foreign language (EFL) high school students’ perceptions of the factors that affect their intercultural communicative competence (ICC) development. This mixed-methods study was conducted in the context of a high school in Lam Dong Province, and it involved 140 EFL high school students in answering the questionnaires and 12 of them in semi-structured interviews. The quantitative data were processed using the software SPSS, while the qualitative data were analyzed by the content analysis approach. The findings unraveled that participants believed that learner-related factors played an important role in shaping their ICC. Learners’ psychology (e.g., confidence, calmness, risking-taking) and motivation (e.g., importance, necessity and usefulness of culture) were two major factors in contributing to their ICC development. Nevertheless, it was found out that participants were unsure of the effects of teacherrelated factors (e.g., teaching methods/approaches, enthusiasm, assistance) and learning material-related factors (e.g., cultural issues, textbook contents, effectiveness) on their ICC enhancement. Such preliminary findings may imply that learners play an important role in shaping their ICC, while the teachers and learning materials are not clearly significant in developing students’ ICC.