THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEARNING STRATEGY USE IN ENGLISH AND MOTIVATION OF STUDENTS AT A COLLEAGUE IN CAN THO CITY, VIETNAM

Among the many factors that increase students’ achievement in the mastery of foreign languages, including English, are motivation and use of language learning strategies. Previous studies by a range of researchers have identified these two elements as the most important in obtaining success in language learning. This study carried out on 152 university students, roughly equal in gender, studying at a university in Can Tho, Vietnam, sought to discover the relationships between these two factors within the Vietnamese language learning context. In particular, the study sought to 1) discover which of two types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic, is most prevalent among the students studied; 2) their use of language learning strategies; 3) reveals the relationship between students' motivation and use of language learning strategies; and 4) describe the differences in their use of language learning strategies based on whether their motivation was high, medium or low. Research instruments included Schmidt et al.'s Questionnaire on Motivation in Learning English, and Oxford's Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (both modified for the Vietnamese language learning context and translated into Vietnamese), plus an interview with 18 of the students to gain greater insight into the answers they gave on the questionnaires. Results were obtained using standard deviations and t-tests. They showed that Vietnamese university students are mainly extrinsically motivated; that all strategies were used at least at a medium level, amidst other fluctuations; and that those metacognitive strategies are most prevalent among medium and high motivated students but affective strategies are most common among low motivation students. Recommendations flowing from these results are that teachers should prioritize the formal teaching of learning strategies and should attempt to increase intrinsic motivation by putting greater emphasis on making language learning fun and relevant to the students' interests and passions. Article visualizations

COMMON CHALLENGES IN VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF ENGLISH-MAJORED JUNIORS AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

It is undoubted that translation plays an indispensable role in exchanging information, news, culture, literature and sciences among people globally. In other words, translation facilitates communication and understanding between people who come from various cultures and speak different languages. Owing to the significance of translation, it is employed as a fundamental subject to English majored students. Nevertheless, it is not an easy subject for students to master. Thus, this study aimed at investigating the obstacles that students often encountered when translating texts from Vietnamese to English. This was a quantitative and qualitative research. The questionnaire and test paper were used as two major instruments to gain the most reliable findings. To achieve the goal, 74 English majored juniors from both English 10A and 10B at Tay Do University were selected as the sample for this research. The results showed that English majored juniors faced many challenges in Vietnamese-English translation, consisting of vocabulary, grammatical structures and cultural aspects. Article visualizations

EFL STUDENT’S PROBLEMS WITH PARAGRAPH WRITING AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

This paper studied problems in EFL students’ paragraph writing. The research participants were first-year students of English in Tay Do University (TDU). To achieve the desired aims of the current study, the researcher combined both qualitative and quantitative methods, using questionnaires, interviews, and observations as the main instruments. The researcher used the package of social sciences (SPSS) for analysis. Research results showed that the freshmen at TDU often encountered problems in writing paragraphs. These accounted for grammatical structures, vocabulary, and coherence. Basing on the research results, students could recognize their difficulties when writing and find some new ways to overcome them. It is suggested that teachers should find and update some new teaching methods so as to develop students’ paragraph writing skills. Article visualizations

An Autoethnography of an EFL Teacher Stages of Development in Choices of the Best ELT Methodology

This paper attempted to share lived experiences in the teaching career of an EFL teacher in her choices of the best pedagogical methods to be applied in her class. The paper was done under the lens of autoethnography, which was believed to be the most appropriate measure to deal with writing genres such as experiences and narratives in one’s life. The result presented three important stages that an average EFL teacher might undergo. It is hoped that the paper could provide more insights into the teaching life and experiences of the typical EFL teacher and thus be beneficial to novice colleagues in perfecting their profession. Keywords: autoethnography, ETL methodology, EFL teachers, professional development DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-21-01 Publication date:July 31st 202