EFL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND THEIR REPORTED PRACTICES OF ENACTING THE COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE SECTION IN THE NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK

The development of globalization and integration requires a modern workforce with 21st-century skills, especially intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Thanks to the National Foreign Language 2020 project, the new English textbooks were introduced to Vietnamese students with the hope prepare them for ICC. Research on how EFL teachers explored the new teaching materials has been made, but previous findings show limitations on EFL teachers’ practices in the communication and culture section. Hence, this descriptive research was conducted to investigate EFL teachers’ perceptions and their reported practices of enacting this section. A mixed-method approach was employed to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Seventy-two EFL teachers in the Mekong Delta responded to the questionnaire and seven of them joined the semi-structured interviews. Results revealed various EFL teachers’ perceptions and high levels of agreement on their practices of four dimensions of ICC. The study also suggested further research should look into students’ perspectives.  Article visualizations

EFFECTS OF EFL STUDENTS’ USE OF METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES IN EXTENSIVE READING TASKS ON THEIR READING PERFORMANCE AND ATTITUDES

Reading plays important role in teaching and learning a second language as in reading, information is acquired and processed before learners can reach the final goal of English learning – communication. Extensive reading is a helpful way to develop students’ reading habits. A quasi-experimental study with one group pretest-posttest design was conducted in the Vietnamese educational context to investigate the effects of students’ use of metacognitive strategies on intermediate learners’ reading performance and attitudes. The results indicated positive changes in learners’ performance and attitudes, especially in higher-order thinking ability. Thirty-two participants from the convenient sampling method attended a 10-week reading course with metacognitive strategies embedded in extensive reading tasks. The scores from tests showed an improvement in reading comprehension ability and higher-order thinking application. The data from the questionnaire and semi-structured interview contributes to the positive attitudes toward students towards reading activities. This study has discovered the significant effects on the awareness of learners and afterwards cognition thinking. Learners have achieved a higher level of cognitive reading, critical reading and positive attitudes towards reading activity.  Article visualizations

THE INFLUENCES OF THE FLIPGRID APP ON VIETNAMESE EFL HIGH SCHOOL LEARNERS’ SPEAKING ANXIETY

Research on the use of Flipgrid in the language classrooms has focused on its effects of online video-mediated communication tools, learners’ attitudes, and perceptions; nonetheless, not much research has recently been conducted about the influences of the Flipgrid app on EFL learners’ speaking anxiety. Therefore, this research aimed at investigating whether Flipgrid helps the EFL high school learners reduce their anxiety in learning English speaking and determine the learners’ attitudes towards its usages. The research followed a combination of a quasi-experimental method and a mixed-method with the participation of 60 EFL tenth-grade learners in a high school in the Mekong Delta. Three research instruments namely the modified Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), the questionnaire, and the interviews were employed in this study. The findings showed that there was a decrease in EFL high school learners’ level of anxiety in learning English speaking after experiencing Flipgrid. Moreover, the majority of the learners also showed their positive attitudes towards the use of Flipgrid in learning English speaking and expected that Flipgrid should be employed frequently to make learning English speaking become more motivating.  Article visualizations

The Effects of Nanoparticles on the Specific Heat Capacity of Molten Salts

The desire to increase the efficiency of existing renewable energy sources has been thoroughly researched over the past years. This meta study aimed to investigate existing methods used by previous researchers to increase the Specific Heat Capacity of Molten Salt used for Concentrated Solar Power Plants. Investigations into nanoparticles were explored because of the effect of particle size and concentration can potentially increase the specific heat capacity of the molten salt. Numerous nanoparticles have shown to improve the thermal properties such as Silica (SiO2), Alumina (Al2O3), Titania (TiO2). Our summation was that the addition of nanoparticles into Molten Salts shows an increase in desired thermal properties of the Molten Salts. An efficiency increase of up to 28% was noted in the SHC (Cp) of the Molten Salts when Nanoparticles of 60nm were introduced

Determination of the content of major chemical components and bioactive compounds and antioxidant ability of Hong Quan (Flacourtia jangomas (Lour.) Raeusch) fruit cultivated in An Giang, Vietnam

Hong Quan (Flacourtia jangomas (Lour.) Raeusch) is a new fruit that has appeared recently and it is cultivated with other orchards or under forest canopy of Tri Ton and Tinh Bien district at An Giang province. Since this fruit has not been popularized in Vietnam, there is a shortage in research about chemical compositions of Hong Quan. Therefore, quantitative analysis of main chemical components, bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of this kind of fruit need to be carried out to enhance its applications in food. Results showed that Hong Quan fruits contain 76.50% ± 2.56 of moisture, carbohydrate is 24.86% ± 1.54, protein is 9.19% ± 0.49, lipid is 0.68% ± 0.21, total sugar is 10,91% ± 0.88, ash is 1.05% ± 0.08, fiber is 8.39% ± 0.95 and vitamin C is 81.62 ± 3.99 mg/100g. The content of bioactive compounds such as carotenoids, phenolics, tannins, alkaloids, saponins and flavonoids were 9.87 ± 0.40 mg/100g, 456.32 ± 23.81 mgGAE/100g, 944.08 ± 26.31 mgTAE/100g, 586.68 ± 44.56 mgCE/100g, 20.87 ± 2.00 mgSE/100g and 65.95 ± 2.92 mgQE/100g fresh weight respectively. Moreover, antioxidant capacity of extract ethanol from fruit was high level as the free radical scavenging ability (DPPH) at 88.65% ± 1.23, the ability to reduce iron (FRAP) at 15.24 ± 0.26 mM FeSO4/100g and the antioxidant ability index (AAI) at 8.13 ± 0.82. Hong Quan fruit promisingly could be a good source of commercial processing products or cosmetic due to high level of nutrients and functional compounds

THE SIGNALS OF BEING OPPRESSED AND THE OPPRESSORS IN THE TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF EDUCATION. A CASE STUDY OF VIETNAM FROM CRITICAL THEORIES

In light of Freire Today, this paper aims to present the results from a case study in Vietnam about the teachers’ perception of education with the recognized signals of being oppressed and the oppressors in their teaching. This study was conducted to clarify the problems preventing education to be developed in this context with the participants from 3 provinces in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. The qualitative data was collected through using a mixture of 7 interviews and 10 opened-question surveys due to the geographical difficulties. The data collection was framed by using the Padilla’s (1994) techniques of unfolding matrix for data analysis. The findings show that the authoritarian education remains unchanged or slowly transformed with the signals of the teachers as both the oppressors to their learners and the oppressed in their working system. The findings would be meaningful during the ways to figure out the real challenges of current Vietnamese educational system in which critical theories could be considered as one of the possible solutions

ENGLISH FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS ON UTILIZING SONGS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS TO YOUNG LEARNERS A CASE STUDY IN TRA VINH PROVINCE, VIETNAM

Within English teaching and learning facilities in most schools and English language centers in Vietnam, using songs is considered to be one of the most effective techniques for improving young learners’ communicative competencies in English. Although many studies have discussed the technique, few studies have mentioned teachers’ perceptions regarding the employment of songs in teaching listening to young learners in the context of Vietnam. To investigate teachers’ perceptions of using songs in teaching listening to young learners, this study was conducted with a mixed-method approach using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with 55 teachers from an English language center in Tra Vinh Province. The results indicated positive perceptions from teachers about utilizing songs in teaching listening to young learners. The teachers tended to enjoy integreating songs in their teaching listening activities. From the findings, the paper concludes by suggesting more research within the state school context specifically targeting teaching listening skills for other grades using songs