TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS ABOUT POWERPOINT USE AS AN ICT TOOL FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY IN VIETNAM

This paper reports a mixed-methods study designed to explore teachers’ perceptions about using PowerPoint (PPT) as an ICT (Information and Communications Technology) tool in vocabulary teaching in Kien Giang province, Vietnam. The data were collected from the questionnaire and interviews. Participants were sixty EFL teachers from five colleges in Kien Giang province. The findings reveal that participating teachers perceived PowerPoint use in vocabulary instruction as a useful instructional tool; however, there was no significant differences in their perceptions. These participants reported obstacles such as time investment, insufficient knowledge in information technology (IT), and lack of IT facilities. Pedagogical implications are made to encourage the potential use of PPT in vocabulary instruction.  Article visualizations

CONCEPT MAPPING INFLUENCING STUDENTS’ ABILITY TO SUMMARIZE READING PASSAGES

Concept mapping has been advocated as a facilitative tool for enhancing meaningful learning of reading comprehension of students in several ways. In particular, this strategy positively influences how students comprehend texts and summarize important ideas or information given in a particular text passage. However, research into the effects of concept mapping on students’ ability to summarize passages has not been explored in the context of teaching and learning English as a foreign language inVietnam. This paper therefore examines the effects of concept mapping on students’ ability to summarize reading passages within a community college context in the Mekong Delta. Using an experimental study, pretest, posttest, and questionnaire were undertaken with twenty six sophomores over the second semester of a reading course. The findings show that concept mapping had positive effects on students’ ability to summarize reading passages and that students perceived the use of this reading strategy as being a facilitative tool for meaningful learning. The paper concludes by discussing the pedagogical implications and insights into the relationship between concept mapping and summarizing skills in reading comprehension in wider contexts.  Article visualizations

TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS ABOUT TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION

Task-based language teaching has been advocated as a potentially effective approach in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in Asian contexts, including Vietnam. However, little is known about perceptions of tasks used by teachers in actual classroom practices at tertiary education. This article therefore examines teachers’ perceptions about task-based language teaching and its implementation in EFL classes. Questionnaire and interviews were conducted to investigate the perceptions of sixty-eight university teachers in the Mekong Delta. The findings reveal positive perceptions and understanding of teachers towards task-based language teaching (TBLT). Implications for practical applications of TBLT are also presented.  Article visualizations

TEXT-BASED VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION AS A LEARNING TOOL FOR EFL FRESHMEN’S READING COMPREHENSION

This paper reports a study which examines how text-based vocabulary instruction influences English as a foreign language (EFL) freshmen’s reading comprehension and explore their perceptions on this type of instruction in reading comprehension. It was a quasi- experimental study with control and experimental groups including eighty freshmen at a university. The quantitative data from reading tests for pre-test and post-test were used to examine students’ reading comprehension over nine weeks. The qualitative analysis used semi-structured interviews to examine students’ perceptions towards text-based vocabulary instruction in reading comprehension. The findings reveal that text-based vocabulary instruction influenced positively students’ reading achievement after the experiment and that they had positive perceptions towards this type of instruction in their reading lessons.   Article visualizations

Design an Intelligent System to automatically Tutor the Method for Solving Problems

Nowadays, intelligent systems have been applied in many real-word domains. The Intelligent chatbot is an intelligent system, it can interact with the human to tutor how to work some activities. In this work, we design an architecture to build an intelligent chatbot, which can tutor to solve problems, and construct scripts for automatically tutoring. The knowledge base of the intelligent tutoring chatbot is designed by using the requirements of an Intelligent Problem Solver. It is the combination between the knowledge model of relations and operators, and the structures of hint questions and sample problems, which are practical cases. Based on the knowledge base and tutoring scripts, a tutoring engine is designed. The tutoring chatbot plays as an instructor for solving real-world problems. It simulates the working of the instructor to tutor the user for solving problems. By utilizing the knowledge base and reasoning, the architecture of the intelligent chatbot are emerging to apply in the real-world. It is used to build an intelligent chatbot to support the learning of high-school mathematics and a consultant system in public administration. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method in comparison with the existing systems

Fish distribution in the Ba Che and Tien Yen rivers

The ichthyo-fauna in the Ba Che and Tien Yen rivers, northern Vietnam is highly diverse, with a total of 245 species determined. However, data on the distribution of fish species are not sufficiently provided for the whole area. This study was conducted from 2008 to 2011 at 27 stations from the Ba Che and Tien Yen river basins to determine the distribution of fish species according to different sections of the rivers, water bodies, seasons, and salinity levels. The results show that fish species are distributed mainly in the river (with 210 species), concentrated in the downstream area (with 213 species). Fishes are mainly collected in the dry season when the salinity level of river is high, due to seawater intrusion which also brings in 160 species of marine fish. This shows that fish distribution in the research areas is mainly dominated by the presence of marine species. While for freshwater fish, it is clearly affected by the mountainous features. Apart from the common characteristics sharing between the two river basins, but the number of both freshwater and marine fish species in the Tien Yen river are larger than those of Ba Che river, which is related to fresh water surface, river morphology, the width and location of the estuary to the sea. The downstream area is home to the fish species recorded in the Red Data Book of Vietnam and the complementary species for Vietnam, while the middle and upstream of the rivers may offer a high potential of biodiversity, with many possibly new species for science. These are important data for the conservation and sustainable development of fish resources in the Ba Che and Tien Yen river basins.

One-pot preparation of alumina-modified polysulfone-graphene oxide nanocomposite membrane for separation of emulsion-oil from wastewater

In recent years, polysulfone-based nanocomposite membranes have been widely used for contaminated water treatment because they comprise properties such as high thermal stability and chemical resistance. In this study, a polysulfone (PSf) nanocomposite membrane was fabricated using the wet-phase inversion method with the fusion of graphene oxide (GO) and alumina (Al2O3) nanoparticles. We also showed that GO-Al2O3 nanoparticles were synthesised successfully by using a one-pot hydrothermal method. The nanocomposite membranes were characterised by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and water contact angle. The loading of GO and Al2O3 was investigated to improve the hydrophilic and oil rejection of the matrix membrane. It was shown that by using 1.5 wt.% GO-Al2O3 loaded in polysulfone, ~74% volume of oil was separated from the oil/water emulsion at 0.87 bar and 30 min. This figure was higher than that of the process using the unmodified membrane (PSf/GO) at the same conditions, in which only ~60% volume of oil was separated. The pH, oil/water emulsion concentration, separation time, and irreversible fouling coefficient (FRw) were also investigated. The obtained results suggested that the GO-Al2O3 nanoparticles loaded in the polysulfone membrane might have potential use in oily wastewater treatment applications

ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA NƯỚC BIỂN DÂNG ĐẾN THỦY TRIỀU KHU VỰC BIỂN MIỀN TRUNG CỦA VIỆT NAM

The tide is one of the most important phenomena in the ocean. In the world as well as in Vietnam, the tide was studied very early and great achievements have been recorded. However, under the impact of climate change and sea level rise, the local - to - regional - scale changes will cause significant changes in the coastal system. This paper gives some results of research on the tidal changes in the central region of Vietnam by using the hydrodynamic model and data analysing model. The simulation results of the tide in the central coast of Vietnam show that the tide can change both in the amplitude and phase distribution of the tidal constituents as M2, S2, K1 and O1. Specifically, the results of the average values of M2 are 0.1 m and 10.20; for S2 are 0.12 m and 12.50; for K1 are 0.2 m and 17.20; for O1 are 0.21 m and 20.20. Some results of this study showed that the most important contribution to the change of the tide in the region is the change of topography and the submerged areas.Thủy triều là một trong những hiện tượng quan trọng nhất trong đại dương. Trên thế giới cũng như ở Việt Nam, thủy triều được nghiên cứu từ rất sớm và đã đạt được nhiều thành tựu to lớn. Tuy nhiên, dưới tác động của biến đổi khí hậu và nước biển dâng, các quá trình có quy mô khu vực mang tính chất địa phương sẽ gây ra những thay đổi quan trọng trong các hệ thống ven biển. Bài báo này đưa ra một số kết quả nghiên cứu sự biến đổi của thủy triều trong khu vực biển miền Trung của Việt Nam. Nghiên cứu sử dụng phương pháp mô hình và phân tích điều hòa. Các kết quả mô phỏng về thủy triều trong khu vực biển miền Trung của Việt Nam cho thấy rằng thủy triều có sự biến đổi cả về biên độ và pha của các phân triều chính như M2, S2, K1 và O1. Cụ thể, kết quả giá trị trung bình đối với M2 là 0,1 m và 10,20; đối với S2 là 0,12 m và 12,50; đối với K1 là 0,2 m và 17,20; đối với O1 là 0,21 m và 20,20. Một số kết quả nghiên cứu này đã cho thấy rằng những đóng góp quan trọng nhất vào sự thay đổi của thủy triều trong khu vực là sự thay đổi địa hình và diện tích của thủy vực