VIETNAMESE HIGH-SCHOOL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF TPACK IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Technology-driven changes have led to the needs for knowledge and skills to integrate information and communication technology into instructional activities. This competence, described as the TPACK (technology, pedagogy and content knowledge), attracts relatively extensive scholarship in education. Further research, however, remains essential to develop further insights into teachers’ TPACK for foreign language education. Against such a backdrop, this study was conducted to examine Vietnamese teachers’ perceptions of TPACK in an EFL context. A 34-item survey adapted from Bostancıoğlu and Handley (2018) was used to collect data from 120 English teachers of 33 high schools in two Mekong Delta’s provinces of Vietnam. Quantitative analysis showed that the teachers had a high level of basic computer and office technologies, and pedagogical content knowledge, but they rated their ability to integrate technologies with pedagogical content knowledge just above the average level. No significant differences in their TPACK were observed in terms of their teaching experience, technology training, and gender, except for technology use frequency. The findings confirm that trainers and educators should pay closer attention to supporting teachers both pre-service and in-service to develop TPACK as an integrated ability, instead of knowledge of technology per se. Besides, teachers’ TPACK levels interact with the use frequency, so it is crucial for teachers to use technology frequently to increase their TPACK self-efficacy. Article visualizations

Dynamic conceptions of input, output and interaction: Vietnamese EFL lecturers learning second language acquisition theory

Although research into language teacher learning and cognition and teaching innovations oriented to communicative tasks has been abundant, little has addressed EFL teachers’ learning and conceiving of SLA principles underlying task-based language teaching. The study reported in the present thesis aims to fill this gap, specifically investigating teachers’ learning and conceiving of the notions of rich comprehensible language input, and authentic output and interaction, referred to as ‘SLA facilitating conditions’. The study explores three issues: teachers’ conceptions of the SLA facilitating conditions based on their practices in the tertiary English classroom; teachers’ perceptions of implementing the conditions, including factors affecting the implementation; and teachers’ perceived learning or change as a result of the process. Data for the study were obtained from six Vietnamese EFL lecturers who voluntarily participated in two short professional development workshops focusing on language input, and output and interaction. The data collection process was cumulative, beginning with pre-workshop interviews, followed by collection of lesson plans, lesson-based interviews, reflective writing, observation of lesson recordings, and a questionnaire. Analysis and interpretation followed a process of triangulation, and drew on the author’s knowledge of the context and the teachers’ backgrounds. The results showed that the six teachers held contextualised conceptions of language input, and output and interaction. Although they believed that these conditions are important for language learning, their conceptions based on their implementation of the conditions reflected a synthetic product-oriented view of language learning and teaching. The teachers demonstrated an accommodation of the notion of comprehensible input into their existing pedagogical understanding, and revealed a conception of language output oriented to accuracy and fluency of specific target language items. Tasks and activities for interaction were mainly to provide students with contexts to use the target language items meaningfully rather than to communicate meaning. Most teachers delayed communicative tasks until their students were acquainted with the language content of the day. Such conceptions and practices had a connection with both conceptual/experiential and contextual factors, namely their prior training and experience, time limitations, syllabus, and students’ characteristics. The study also showed that although the teachers’ perceptions of the feasibility of promoting rich language input and authentic output and interaction were neutral, they thought promoting these conditions was relevant to students’ learning, congruent with their pre-existing beliefs about teaching English, and this granted them a sense of agency. The teachers also reported they became more aware of input, and output and interaction in teaching, confident, and purposeful in actions, and some reported a widened view of English language teaching. The study confirms that teacher learning and cognition is conceptually and contextually conditioned (Borg, 2006). In terms of this, it provides a model of how EFL teachers’ learning SLA is constrained by prior pedagogical beliefs and contextual conditions. In conjunction with previous research, the study provided evidence to suggest that communicative and task-based language teaching would appear to run counter to existing beliefs about teaching and practical conditions in Asian EFL situations. This lends support to a more flexible organic approach to employing tasks, perhaps considering the extent to which and in what ways communicative tasks are pedagogically useful to the EFL classroom. An implication is that for any new approaches like task-based language teaching to be incorporated into teachers’ existing repertoire, teachers’ conceptions of language input and interaction, and the conceptual and practical constraints influencing their thinking and practice should be considered and addressed. In a broader sense, approaches to teacher education and development should take a constructivist perspective on teacher learning, taking into account the local context of teaching and teachers’ existing cognition

MOODLE QUIZ TO SUPPORT VOCABULARY RETENTION IN EFL TEACHING AND LEARNING

This paper reports on a quasi-experimental study on the effect of vocabulary practice using the Moodle Quiz module on students’ vocabulary learning. Two intact classes including 73 tenth graders were randomly assigned as the experimental group and the control group. Both groups received formal face-to-face English instruction based on an English textbook for tenth Graders. The difference is that the control group did the usual paper-based vocabulary quizzes, whereas the experimental group worked on the same quizzes which were manipulated by Moodle Quiz. Vocabulary achievement tests were administered to measure the vocabulary retention of the participants before the intervention, at the end, and after a delayed period. The results showed that the experimental group had better vocabulary retention than the control group. Cohen’s effect size test further indicated that the effect on vocabulary retention was of a large degree. Further exploration showed that the participants were engaged and motivated to practice vocabulary on Moodle. Findings of the study and confirm the effectiveness of blended learning in EFL instruction, and lend support to the use of technology to compensate limited classroom instruction, and create enhanced practice opportunities for EFL learners.  Article visualizations

EMI in Vietnam: What High School Teachers Think and Do

The current case study was driven by a recent policy on using English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in the mainstream school system in Vietnam. It aimed to explore what science teachers believed and reported doing about EMI in teaching science subjects in the high school context. Nine EMI teachers of different science subjects at a specialized high school in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam participated in a semi-structured interview. Thematic analysis revealed the perceived positive impacts on teachers’ and students’ English proficiency, and negative influences on science content coverage. In practice, the teachers reported a focus on simple contents, explaining specialized terminologies and key concepts as the input. They mainly employed a lecture style and teacher initiation-student response interaction, switching between English and Vietnamese during their lessons. These results imply that EMI across the curriculum has the potential to improve English proficiency of students, but the EMI policy needs to consider its transparency in goals and communication to stakeholders especially teachers and school managers.  &nbsp

TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING IN VIETNAM: RESEARCH TRENDS, FINDINGS, AND IMPLICATIONS

It is widely assumed that task-based language teaching (TBLT) has been effectively applied in EFL contexts. In Vietnam, abundant research has been implemented to examine its effects on English proficiency as well as to identify perceptions and attitudes of both teachers and learners towards using this approach in classroom contexts. This paper aims to synthesize trends in research on task-based language teaching in the context by reviewing results extracted from a corpus of 60 studies. Key aspects like effects, challenges, teacher/learner perceptions and attitudes were selected for analysis and synthesis. The results revealed that the research tended to focus more on production skills than receptive skills, and that the implementation of TBLT was reported to cause challenges for teachers, while learners tended to hold positive attitudes toward the approach. Based on the research findings, some lessons were drawn for pedagogy and future research. For successful TBLT implementation, it is suggested that teachers are informed of the effects, engaged in reflections and that exams should be shifted towards communicative competence assessment. Future research could increase sample size and treatment duration, and especially address the challenges teachers, as the main agent, encounter in implementation.  Article visualizations

Online learning negotiation: Native-speaker versus nonnative speaker teachers and Vietnamese EFL learners

Online English language teaching can now be facilitated by communication technology, which allows easy access to interaction with native speakers. Nevertheless, this industry subscribes to an assumption that native speaker English teachers (NESTs) are the gold standard of language whereas the non-native speaker English teachers (NNESTs) are inferior educators (Walkinshaw & Duong, 2014). Rare research has provided evidence of the negotiation produced by NESTs versus NNESTs with EFL learners online and its impact on the learners’ output. Thus, the current study narrows this empirical gap. Drawing upon a database of 30 five-minute interaction sessions between 30 teachers (15 NESTs and 15 NNESTs) and 30 basic level Vietnamese EFL adult learners, the study revealed similar negotiation of meaning functions as reported in previous research. However, the NESTs used more elaboration while the NNESTs used more confirmation checks, clarification requests, and reply clarification. Qualitative analysis further indicated that the NNESTs provided more productive support, encouraging the learners’ output, than the NESTs did. This implies that although online voice interaction creates an environment for EFL learners to practice, language educators and teachers, regardless of status, should heed how to handle it so that online learners can benefit from both comprehensible input and opportunities for pushed output

BER analysis of amplify-and-forward relaying FSO systems using APD receiver over strong atmospheric turbulence channels

In this paper, we theoretically analyze the performance of amplify-and-forward (AF) serial relaying free-space optical (FSO) systems using avalanche photodiodes (APD) and subcarrier quadrature amplitude modulation (SC-QAM) over strong atmospheric turbulence channels modelled by gamma-gamma distribution. Closed-form expression for average bit error rate (BER) of system is theoretically derived talking into account APD shot noise, thermal noise as well as the impact of atmospheric loss and turbulence. The numerical results show that using AF relay stations can extend the transmission distance and help to improve performance of FSO system significantly when compared with the direct transmission. Moreover, the selection of APD gain value is indispensable to the system performance. The proposed system could be achieved the best performance by selecting an optimal APD gain value. In addition, the optimal value of APD gain also significantly depends on various conditions, such as link distance, the number of relay stations and APD receiver noise

USE OF GIS MODELLING IN ASSESSMENT OF FORESTRY LAND'S POTENTIAL IN THUA THIEN HUE PROVINCE OF CENTRAL VIETNAM

Die Bewertung der Eignung von Landoberflächen ist eine Voraussetzung für die nachhaltige Forstwirtschaft. Dieser Prozess umfasst die gleichzeitige Betrachtung von geomorphologischen, ökologischen und sozio-ökonomischen Aspekten um Karten der potenziellen Landnutzung für die Planung in der Forstwirtschaft zu erstellen. Die genannten Faktoren wurden auf räumlich-expliziter Ebene zusammen mit Fernerkundungsdaten in einem Geographischen Informationssystem (GIS) verarbeitet um potenzielle und besser geeignete Flächen für bestimmte Baumarten im Waldbau auszuweisen. Die Datenbasis der Fernerkundungsdaten besteht aus drei Aufnahmen des Sensors Landsat ETM+ vom 31 Januar 2003, 24 April 2003 und vom 7 April 2004. Die Kartierung der Landbedeckung wurde aus diesem Datensatz mit Hilfe eines kombinierten Ansatzes der digitalen Klassifikation durchgeführt. Zunächst wurde eine unüberwachte Cluster-Bildung (ISODATA Klassifikation) durchgeführt. Das Resultat der Cluster-Bildung diente Felddaten und Sekundärdaten als Eingangsdatensatz für die überwachte Klassifikation (Maximum Likelihood). Insgesamt wurden sechs Landbedeckungsklassen ausgewiesen (dichter Wald, degradierter Wald, Forstflächen, Grassland, Buschland, Ödland). Die Genauigkeit der Kartierung beträgt 84,6 % (overall accuracy) bzw. 82 % (Kappa Index). Die einzelnen Waldklassen weisen Genauigkeiten von jeweils über 73 % (producers accuracy) bzw. über 75 % (users accuracy) auf. Die Landbewertung für forstliche Nutzung allgemein und den Anbau bestimmter Baumarten im Speziellen wurde auf Basis der FAO Richtlinien für die Landevaluierung in der Forstwirtschaft (FAO, 1984) durchgeführt. Der Bewertungsprozess wurde angepasst auf spezifische Baumarten und Standortansprüche für Vietnam. Alle erstellten Datenebenen wurden im GIS mit einer linearen Gewichtung kombiniert. Das Resultat waren räumlich explizite Informationsebenen der Umweltfaktoren Klima, Boden, Topographie und Vegetation und deren Einfluß auf die Eignung von Land für die Forstwirtschaft. Das Gesamtergebnis der Untersuchung ist dargestellt in Form einer umfangreichen Karte und weist ein Gebiet von 365,891 ha Größe für die potentielle Bewirtschaftung aus. Darüber hinaus wurde das gesamte Untersuchungsgebiet in Flächen hoher, mittlerer geringer und sehr geringer Eignung unterteilt. Außerdem wurde eine Landbewertung für bestimmte, im kommerziellen Waldbau in Vietnam vorherrschende Baumarten durchgeführt

AN INVESTIGATION OF VIETNAMESE EFL TEENAGE LEARNERS’ KNOWLEDGE OF COMMON ENGLISH IDIOMS: IMPLICATIONS FOR IDIOM INSTRUCTION

This article explores the EFL teenage learners’ knowledge of common English idioms in a Vietnamese context. Seventy-six teenage students between 14 to 17 years old, including 33 males and 43 females participated in an idiom test. The test consisted of 50 idioms selected from common English proficiency test books and the lists of common idioms by Grant (2007) and Liu (2003). Descriptive statistics showed that the students had very limited idiomatic knowledge. This finding uncovers the needs for idiom instruction. Based on the literature, the current paper proposes an instructional direction for improving their knowledge of idioms.  Article visualizations

An effective method for clustering-based web service recommendation

Normally web services are classified by the quality of services; however, the term quality is not absolute and defined relatively. The quality of web services is measured or derived using various parameters like reliability, scalability, flexibility, and availability. The limitation of the methods employing these parameters is that sometimes they are producing similar web services in recommendation lists. To address this research problem, the novel improved clustering-based web service recommendation method is proposed in this paper. This approach is mainly dealing with producing diversity in the results of web service recommendations. In this method, functional interest, quality of service (QoS) preference, and diversity features are combined to produce a unique recommendation list of web services to end-users. To produce the unique recommendation results, we propose a varied web service classification order that is clustering-based on web services’ functional relevance such as non-useful pertinence, recorded client intrigue importance, and potential client intrigue significance. Additionally, to further improve the performance of this approach, we designed web service graph construction, an algorithm of various widths clustering. This approach serves to enhance the exceptional quality, that is, the accuracy of web service recommendation outcomes. The performance of this method was implemented and evaluated against existing systems for precision, and f-score performance metrics, using the research datasets