THE FREQUENCY AND FUNCTIONS OF TEACHERS’ USE OF MOTHER TONGUE IN EFL CLASSROOMS

Whether mother tongue should be used in EFL classroom or not is a controversial issue and has not yet reached a consensus among teachers and researchers. While some argue that the use of mother tongue inhibits language learning, others claim that it saves time and energy for both language teachers and students and enhances mutual understanding between them. Although a number of studies explore the use of mother tongue in EFL classrooms, few have been conducted to investigate how often teachers in non-English major classes code-switch, that is, change from English to mother tongue and why they do that. In such a context, the current study examined the use of code-switching by teachers in EFL classroom in a medical college in Vietnam by means of classroom observations and voice recording analysis. The findings revealed that in teaching English to nursing students in this medical college, the teachers did code-switch to a great extent for the main purpose of enhancing their students’ English comprehension and competence. Suggestions are proposed to raise EFL teachers’ awareness on how and when to code-switch so that their teaching can be optimized.  Article visualizations

PERCEPTIONS OF SCIENCE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TOWARD BLENDED TEACHING

Under the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic, it is a must for education institutes all over the world to incorporate online teaching into their teaching program. In Vietnam, high school teachers and students are now familiar with blended teaching in which students will learn from at least 30% of their lessons online and 70% face-to-face. This research aims at investigating Vietnamese high school students’ perceptions toward the benefits and challenges of blended teaching. Two research questions will be answered (1) “What are high school students’ perceptions toward the benefits of blended teaching?” and (2) “What are high school students’ perceptions toward the challenges of blended teaching?”. There were 200 sciences students (72 participants majoring in Physics, 60 in Chemistry, and 68 in Biology) from 3 high schools for the gifted in Vietnam who participated in the study. The results of the research show that the majority of participants agreed on the benefits and challenges of blended teaching in the context of high school for the gifted in Vietnam. The current study suggests that teachers should have an effective lecture design to help their students acquire science knowledge better in blended classes.  Article visualizations

THE IMPACT OF USING INFOGRAPHICS TO TEACH GRAMMAR ON EFL STUDENTS’ LEARNING MOTIVATION

Infographics have increasingly been used in English language teaching. However, few studies have been conducted to explore the use of infographics in improving students’ motivation in learning grammar. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of Infographics-based learning on students’ motivation on an English language grammar course. The study employed an experimental research design and the participation of sixty grade-11 students studying in a high school in Mekong Delta, Vietnam. There are two groups including one experimental group (n = 30) that used the Infographics-based learning; and the other a controlled group (n = 30) which was instructed using non- Infographics-based learning technique. A questionnaire was designed to measure students’ motivation after the treatment. Article visualizations

THE IMPACTS OF IMPLEMENTING THE FLIPPED MODEL ON EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

The flipped classroom is gaining more attention than ever before due to the pandemic of the COVID-19, by which online learning becomes a must in many countries and territories all over the world. The flipped model is a combination of online and face-to-face learning in which students watch instructional videos and do certain comprehension tasks at home prior to in-class lessons. To our knowledge, few studies have been conducted to explore the impact of flipped classrooms for teaching English reading skills in the high school context. The current experimental study has been conducted in a high school in the Mekong Delta with 52 students at Grade 11 in a high school in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Students were assigned to watch videos of instructions for 6 reading lessons in the English Grade 11 Textbook for 10 weeks. Learners’ reading comprehension performance and attitudes are compared between the control group and the experimental group. The findings reveal some interesting implications for Vietnamese teachers teaching English at high school. Article visualizations

THE IMPACT OF QUESTIONING AND SEMANTIC MAP IN PRE-READING STAGE ON STUDENTS' READING COMPREHENSION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Pre-reading activities play an important role in language reading classrooms since they help to activate students’ background knowledge of the topics being taught, which results in improving students’ reading comprehension. Most studies in the literature focus on exploring the effects of individual pre-reading activities such as brainstorming, pre-teaching vocabulary, questioning on students’ performance in doing comprehension tasks. Few studies have been conducted to explore whether one technique is better than the others in activating students’ schemata in reading lessons. The current study investigates the impact of Questioning and Semantic map in Pre-reading stage on EFL gifted high school students’ reading comprehension. The participants were 52 gifted students from two science classes for twelfth graders (they were non gifted English students). They shared the same culture, native language, educational background and age. The data were collected through two reading proficiency tests (pre-test and post-test) and individual interviews. The findings revealed that both Questioning and Semantic map had positive impacts on gifted students’ reading comprehension. Especially, the students who received Semantic treatment had significantly better improvement in their reading skill. The findings shed lights on what can be done to improve EFL students’ reading performance.  Article visualizations

ENGLISH TEACHERS’ QUESTIONS IN A VIETNAMESE HIGH SCHOOL READING CLASSROOM

Recently, developing students’ thinking, especially critical thinking (CT), has become a hot issue. Critical thinking has been claimed to have an important impact on learners’ reading comprehension because it can help them analyze, evaluate, construct their thinking, solving problems and reasoning (Ennis, 1989). However, the extent that teachers’ classroom activities contribute to developing students’ critical thinking has rarely been researched. The current case study was conducted with six EFL high school teachers and 10 reading lessons in Vietnam to explore the teachers’ use of questions and to analyze if these questions could facilitate the students’ critical thinking. Classroom observations and the cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy were adapted as the research instruments. The study results reveal common types of questions are often used by high school teachers in their reading lessons. Suggestions are made on types of questions that teachers should function more in their class in order to enhance students’ critical thinking

ONLINE LEARNING AND ITS POTENTIAL IN DEVELOPING EFL LEARNER AUTONOMY: ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS

Learner autonomy is now regarded as a desirable goal in tertiary education as it is found to comply with learner-centered approaches and enable students to pursue life-long learning (Sinclair, 2000a; Ciekanski, 2007). In the time of COVID-19 pandemic, the essential to conduct in-depth investigations into leaner autotomy and online learning has become more urgent, especially in the context of a university in Vietnam. This quantitative research responded to such a pressing call by exploring two aspects: (1) the students’ perception of online learning, and (3) the potentiality of online learning for developing learner autonomy. Quantitative data were collected through questionnaires administered to 199 English-majored students in the context of a university in Mekong Delta. The results revealed that the students possessed positive perceptions toward online learning. Furthermore, the potentiality of online learning was explored including the ability of (1) planning learning experience, (2) evaluating learning performance, (3) determining learning goals, (4) self-controlling learning process, (5) taking responsibility for learning decision. Last but not least, this study expected that the proposed pedagogical implications will contribute to the innovation of promoting learner autonomy in online learning in the context of a university in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam.  Article visualizations

EFL TEACHERS’ STRATEGIES AND CHALLENGES IN PROMOTING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ AUTONOMY IN VOCABULARY LEARNING

Learner autonomy is now regarded as a desirable objective in language teaching. The objective of the study was to identify ELT teachers’ strategies in promoting EFL high school students’ autonomy in vocabulary learning. Besides, this research attempts to find out the challenges that ELT high school teachers employ in promoting EFL students’ autonomy in vocabulary learning. A questionnaire and an interview were used in this study to find out the strategies adopted by the teachers in the current research as well as the challenges they face. The findings of this study revealed that English language teachers frequently promoted autonomous learners in their classrooms. They usually implemented different teaching strategies, which can be categorized into three groups involving students in a student-centered atmosphere; playing various roles in the classroom; and equipping students with the strategies to learn vocabulary. Additionally, the results demonstrated that teachers faced challenges such as learners' lack of independent learning abilities, rules and regulations implemented in schools, and teachers' lack of fundamental ways to promote autonomous learning. Finally, it is hoped that the proposed pedagogical implications will contribute to the innovation of promoting learner autonomy in vocabulary learning in the context of high school in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam.  Article visualizations

Students’ learning autonomy, involvement and motivation towards their English proficiency

Different factors are involved in the process of learners’ learning English as a second or foreign language. Among them, learning autonomy, involvement and motivation and attitude toward English language learning have been claimed to positively correlate with learners’ English proficiency. In the current study, 229 English-majored final-year students at a university in Vietnam were invited to participate in a survey to explore their English proficiency level and factors that may have impacted that level. Findings revealed that students’ learning autonomy and their active participation in classroom activities are the most influential on their English proficiency level after four years of learning. As a result, the study suggests that measures should be taken to improve students’ learning autonomy and classroom involvement

VIETNAMESE HIGH SCHOOL EFL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD ONLINE TEACHING UNDER THE IMPACT OF COVID-19

The coronavirus disease case, commonly known as Covid-19, has spread internationally since March 2020. Approximately 100 countries, including Vietnam, closed their schools due to a public health emergency, according to UNESCO. Due to the circumstance, teachers were forced to convert from in-person instruction to online instruction. In the context of Covid-19, this study investigated how EFL high school instructors felt about online English language education. A descriptive design and a mixed-methods approach were utilized in this investigation. Six EFL high school teachers in the Mekong Delta were interviewed for this study to get their perspectives. The findings demonstrated that the participants' opinions on the usefulness and simplicity of online instruction during the Covid-19 epidemic were overwhelmingly positive. Despite the challenges they encountered when conducting their online classes, the teachers were able to show the proper attitude toward using technology to teach. The pedagogical implications of online teaching and learning are also meant to encourage the development of innovative teaching strategies in the setting of high schools in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta.  Article visualizations