You are here
Articles
number: /2021
CIT number: 0
Number of views: 1,948
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.
number: /2021
CIT number: 0
Number of views: 3,350
The paper aims to investigate the impact of the Big Five personality traits on the academic performance of college students within the context of the Faculty of Business English at Foreign Trade University. A quantitative approach was applied in this study. Primary data was collected through an online questionnaire. Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) was used as the academic performance measure, whereas the Big Five personality traits were measured using the extra short version of the Big Five Inventory-2. Regression results showed that 41.2 percent of the variance in CGPA is explained by personality traits. Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience were found to have significant and positive impacts on CGPA, while Neuroticism was found to have a significant negative impact. It is concluded that Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience enhance academic performance, and Neuroticism impairs it. Suggestions were made on creating an appropriate fit between teaching and assessment methods and individual differences in personality among college students. Limitations of the personality trait instrument and the academic performance measure were considered.
number: /2021
CIT number: 0
Number of views: 3,907
This research mainly aims at investigating non-English majored students’ awareness of autonomous English learning. To obtain the data for this research, one hundred non-English majors, from The Saigon International University, were surveyed. The objectives were to explore the students’ perceptions of their responsibility in learning English as well as the main factors affecting students’ autonomy. In addition to the survey, five students were also interviewed to discover the roles of autonomous English learning in students’ view. The findings indicate that the majority of students perceive themselves as autonomous learners who are willing to take responsibility for their English learning inside and outside the classroom. Besides, according to the results, there are various factors influencing autonomous English learning which includes laziness, a lack of learning strategies, and a lack of motivation. Moreover, the results show that autonomy does play an integral part in English learning. This study concludes by suggesting various methods to promote non-English majors’ autonomy in their English language learning process.
number: /2021
CIT number: 0
Number of views: 1,877
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic reached most countries globally, economies have suffered more or less a change in all activities. Vietnamese firms have been struggling with economic consequences associated with social distancing measures and lockdown. Firms in Vietnam have had to apply strategies of reshaping business, cutting costs and laying off staff. In this context, graduating students should have concerns. This study investigates their perceptions of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employability and their perceptions of training gaps. The study explores what graduating students prepare to find a job after graduation and their future career intentions. In addition, the research is aimed at students’ proposals for universities’ support to help them cope flexibly with the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used quantitative research methods, including an online questionnaire designed on Google Forms to collect data over a 3-week time frame in May 2020. More than 500 suitable responses were collected for descriptive statistical analysis with the support of SPSS software. The results of the study reveal that the final year students are well aware of the disadvantages when they graduate in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of them are willing to accept the difficulties and adjust themselves to survive and have a job. This study proposes solutions to assist graduating students by providing justifications, adaptation and skill improvement sets for better employability. In addition, this study also highlights information for higher education institutions with students’ perceptions of career orientation and new skill training to respond to Vietnam’s market demands.
number: /2021
CIT number: 0
Number of views: 1,387
Although accompanied by the socialist-oriented market economy, private higher education plays a critical role in the development of the higher education sector of Vietnam. In this context, teaching staff development has been becoming more important than ever to make these non-public universities more competitive to the public universities. The main objectives of this research are to develop an understanding of an overview of the teaching staff development of the private universities in Vietnam. The study uses qualitative analysis in order to gain insights into different development aspects of these teaching staff. The findings should make an essential contribution to human resource development in the non-public universities regarding quality, quantity and assessment of the quality of the teaching staff in these universities. This research supports the idea that the teaching staff development of the private universities should be equally regarded as their colleagues in the public one.
number: /2021
CIT number: 0
Number of views: 2,875
Since late April 2021, Vietnam has experienced the 4th outbreak of COVID-19. It was also the time to end the second semester of the school year at colleges and universities in Vietnam. To curb the pandemic, the Vietnam government has implemented many strict measures in public places, such as social distancing, quarantine processes, and embracing hygiene and sanitation throughout the country. As a result, almost all schools were closed, and both teachers and students had to work from home. This qualitative study sought to examine the lecturer’s experiences of online assessment at a regional university. Information was gathered by conducting multiple interviews via the Zalo application with 20 lecturers at the University of Foreign Language Studies. An analysis of the results of this study found the most preferred assessment methods to be written assignments, multiple-choice tests, quizzes, presentations, and oral examinations. In addition, Zoom and Microsoft Teams are believed to be the most popular testing environments. Through this study, many challenges of online assessment have been unveiled, such as cheating, teacher’s workload, and testing process problems.
number: /2021
CIT number: 0
Number of views: 1,493
Grounded on Engstrom’s interacting activity theory, this qualitative study examines higher education (HE) students’ views about the roles of their groups regarding tasks assigned to them during classroom activities and how their views influence the ways they interact with their peers in the groups. The key findings are twofold. In symbolic group work (GW) interactions, students perceive group leaders as a symbol of group authority who distribute unequal responsibilities among group members. Students, then, positioned themselves as “disciplined members” and passively participate in the group. In authentic GW interactions, students see that the group leaders put forth the authentic conversation and shared responsibilities among group members. Students then positioned themselves reflexively between “collaborative learners” and “active agents,” in order to participate in the group actively. Findings suggest that students view GW dynamics differently when their interactions and participation are either imposed or supported by the group dynamics themselves and whether university teachers take social aspects of GW into account of their facilitation. The study provides insight into the complex interactional group dynamics that influence cooperative learning goals in the university settings and offers opportunities for university teachers to think about adopting social pedagogic approaches in facilitating classroom GW as a constitutive part of pedagogical reform at higher education institutions.
number: /2021
CIT number: 0
Number of views: 3,096
Shaking off the remnants from a long-lasting period of colonization and conflicts, the 35-year span from 1986 with multiple comprehensive reforms has transformed Vietnam from a country of war to an “emerging dragon” across all social and economic sectors, including education. Vietnam made an impressive success story of the efficiency of investment in education given its top position in the PISA average score ranking and international academic competitions. This article accounts for the major post-1986 changes of Vietnam’s education system, the country’s “success formula” as well as lapses. Recommendations for educational policymakers and educators regarding the role of the education sector in the coming ever-disruptive social and economic context will be discussed as concluding remarks.
number: /2021
CIT number: 0
Number of views: 1,451
This study aims to discover middle school students’ creative capacity in reading literary texts. Starting with discussing the definition of creative capacity prior to assessing the creative capacity of 128 middle school students in reading literary texts, the research finds that Vietnamese students perform well in a low level of creativity as in recognizing new ideas. However, they are limited in the high level of the capacity in reading comprehension such as giving their own opinion on literary text content, comparing works, applying the values of literary texts into real life as well as the ability to create new products. The results provide significant insights into the current situation of enhancing creative capacity for students in reading comprehension grounding the basis for proposing some appropriate solutions and recommendations to help develop students’ creativity in reading comprehension of literary texts.
number: /2021
CIT number: 0
Number of views: 1,576
Teaching Biology at the upper secondary school level is considered to be the most important basis for developing students’ interest in science and then into careers in the field of Biology. This study’s purpose was to suggest some learning activities of Biology grade 10 to promote students’ career orientation competencies. This study investigated the contents of the Biology grade 10 programme of the General Education Curriculum 2018, and the types of learning activities that can be organised to promote students’ career orientation competencies. The results of the study included: 1) Defining learning activities represented by various forms such as research activities, project activities, explore activities, experimental activities, career discovery, experience activities,... depending on the characteristics of contents and the requirements that need to be achieved in the Biology grade 10 programme; and 2) Proposing the illustration for designing learning activities which can be organised in 5E inquiry learning model to enhance students’ career orientation in teaching Biology