AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT: A REAL LIFE APPROACH TO WRITING SKILL DEVELOPMENT

 Since assessment is an indispensable part of education, curriculum makers, educators and teachers have engaged in an ongoing discussion of how to address student performance. A variety of assessments including both short-term and long-term ones can be applied during or at the end of the learning process. Among such types, authentic assessment is a prominent approach. This paper is going to advocate authentic assessments as it fosters students' growth and teachers' pedagogical strategies. In addition, it helps to reach the goals of educational practices through the authenticity of equity and innovation when students actively seek their own ways to appreciate what they have learnt. Particularly, in a writing skills class, learners can take this opportunity to improve step by step their own proficiency in the use of written words. The paper, hence, discusses how authentic assessment can be applied to develop college students' writing through classroom observation and a set of semi-structured interviews. The result of the study revealed that using authentic assessment is an effective strategy for enhancing students’ interest in writing process and writing task fulfillment. Students would find it easier to become skillful writers at their English levels. The study, therefore, recommends more uses of authentic assessment in teaching writing skills as well as in teaching and learning the English language in general

Reconceptualizing the Public Spaces of New Urban Areas in Hanoi: The End or the New of Public-Making?

Public spaces are designed and managed in many different ways. In Hanoi, after the Doi moi policy in 1986, the transfer of the public spaces creation at the neighborhood-level to the private sector has prospered nature of public and added a large amount of public space for the city, directly impacting on citizen's daily life, creating a new trend, new concept of public spaces. This article looks forward to understanding the public spaces-making and operating in KDTMs (Khu Do Thi Moi - new urban areas) in Hanoi to answer the question of whether ‘socialization’/privatization of these public spaces will put an end to the urban public or the new means of public-making trend. Based on the comparison and literature review of studies in the world on public spaces privatization with domestic studies to see the differences in the Vietnamese context leading to differences in definitions and roles and the concept of public spaces in KDTMs of Hanoi. Through adducing and analyzing practical cases, the article also mentions the trends, the issues, the ways and the technologies of public-making and public-spaces-making in KDTMs of Hanoi. Win/loss and the relationship of the three most important influential actors in this process (municipality, KDTM owners, inhabitants/citizens) is also considered to reconceptualize the public spaces of KDTMs in Hanoi

Evolution of Commercial Facilities in New Urban Areas of Hanoi: Potential of Sustainable Neighborhood-level Third Place Making

Shopping contributes largely to how people feel part of and enjoy KDTMs (Khu Do Thi Moi - new urban areas) - the carefully planned new sites, well provided with infrastructure, and very attractive of Hanoi in the market economy. Among the three facilities that are rated as most important by KDTM’s residents - education, health care, and shopping, the third is considered a pure civil space. This space clearly reflects the changes of politico-economic context and decision-making actors. Participation of the private sector in the newly formed market economy after a long period under State-run subvention and the consumerism entailed various ways to develop neighborhood-level commercial facilities. This paper aims to analyze and discuss on: firstly, the neighborhood-level commercial facilities have ‘promptly’ updated the changes in Vietnam's political-economic; secondly, the classify of KDTMs has resulted in a corresponding differentiation of commercial facilities according to the will of the project owners and the target consumer-resident; finally, facing the global ‘death’ of shopping malls, the KDTMs malls are trying to find themselves a new ‘vitality’: they are being ‘publicized’ to (re)create the third places in KDTM, that encourage social interaction in the limited spaces - intersperse public and private practices

Ownership Concentration and Accounting Conservatism: The Moderating Role of Board Independence

The purpose of this study is to examine the moderating effect of board independence on the relationship between ownership concentration and accounting conservatism. Using fixed-effect regressions for a sample of 165 Vietnamese listed companies from 2007 to 2017, the results revealed that the proportion of outstanding shares owned by the largest shareholder is negatively associated with accounting conservatism and board independence plays a moderating role in this relationship. Our results are robust after applying alternative measures of the largest ownership and correcting for potential endogeneity using fixed-effects regression with instrumental variables. Overall, our evidence shows that firms with concentrated ownership should keep a high non-executive ratio to maintain accounting conservatism. In other words, increasing the number of non-executive directors on boards in firms with a substantial proportion of shares held by the largest shareholder is likely to strengthen the information environment, giving financial reporting more credibility.JEL Classification: G30; G32. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2023-07-01-07 Full Text: PD

Automated Extraction of Tree Adjoining Grammars from a Treebank for Vietnamese

International audienceIn this paper, we present a system that automatically extracts lexicalized tree adjoining grammars (LTAG) fromtreebanks.We first discuss in detail extraction algorithms and compare themto previous works. We then report the first LTAG extraction result for Vietnamese, using a recently released Vietnamese treebank. The implementation of an open source and language independent system for automatic extraction of LTAG grammars is also discussed

Factors affecting consumer’s bargaining behavior: The case of fashionable clothing

Shopping is one of the current trends of the Vietnamese. According to Nielsen’s research results about consumer confidence in the fourth quarter of 2017, more than half of Vietnamese people (51%) use their spare money to buy new clothes at modern business models such as supermarkets, shopping centers, or at very traditional models like street vendors and wet markets where haggling (also known as bargaining) is considered as a common habit for Vietnamese. This is due to business characteristics from a very long time ago in Viet Nam. The bargaining behavior is not so hard to recognize in shopping. Even now, a large part of foreign tourists is familiar with the bargaining culture. This study aimed to discover bargaining behavior, the factors affecting such a behavior in buying fashionable clothing of the consumers in Ho Chi Minh City, and to consider whether the differences in bargaining behavior exist among different groups of gender, age, and income. The research was conducted using mixed methods concluding qualitative research (in-depth interview and focus group) and quantitative one (survey). The results showed that Attitude towards bargaining, Perceived behavioral control, Interest in bargaining affect Consumer’s bargaining behavior when buying fashionable clothes. Results were validated in Ho Chi Minh City context, and some conclusions were also presented

Merosesquiterpenes from marine sponge Smenospongia cerebriformis

Using various chromatography methods, three merosesquiterpenes belonging to sesquiterpene quinone type, neodactyloquinone (1), dactyloquinone D (2), and dactyloquinone C (3) together with two indole derivatives indole-3-aldehyde (4) and indole-3-cacboxylic methyl ester (5) were isolated from the methanol extract of the Vietnamese marine sponge Smenospongia cerebriformis. Their structures were determined by 1D-, 2D-NMR spectra, HR-ESI-MS and in comparison with those reported in the literature. Keywords. Smenospongia cerebriformis, merosesquiterpene, sesquiterpene quinone, indole derivative

Biflavones and megastigmane glycosides from the leaves of Antidesma bunius.

Two biflavones, podocarpusflavone A (1) and amentoflavone (2) and two megastigmane glycosides, byzantionoside B (3) and (6S,9R)-roseoside (4) were isolated from the methanol extract of the leaves of Antidesma bunius. Their structures were determined by spectroscopic methods and in comparison with the published data. Keywords. Antidesma bunius, Euphorbiaceae, biflavone, megastigmane

Smoke-free environment policy in Vietnam: What did people see and how did they react when they visited various public places?

Introduction: Since Vietnam has signed WHO framework on tobacco control (FCTC) in 2003 and has issued tobacco control law in 2013, there has been little research concerning about what impacts smoke-free regulations have had on public compliance. The objective of this study was to assess public exposure to secondhand smoke and reaction toward smoke-free policy regulations in Vietnam and the associated factor. Methods: Using the design of GATS (Global Adult Tobacco Survey), a nationally representative sample of 8,996 adults were approached for data collection. Logistic regression was used to examine the associated factor.Results: The study revealed that the prevalence of respondents exposed to secondhand smoke was much higher in bars/café/tea shops (90.07%) and restaurants (81.81%) than in any other public places, universities (36.70%), government buildings (31.12%), public transport (20.04%), healthcare facilities (17.85%) and schools (15.84%). 13.23% of respondents saw smokers violate smoke-free regulations. Among those who saw them violate smoke-free regulations, just one-third cautioned them to stop smoking. Strikingly, a higher rate of cautioning smokers to stop smoking was observed among the older, married, and better educated respondents. Respondents who were married, better educated and in lower economic status were more likely to remind smokers to stop smoking.Conclusions: The study has called for strengthening two of the six MPOWER (Monitor, Protect, Offer, Warn, Enforce and Raise) components of the tobacco free initiative introduced by WHO, Monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies and Protecting people from tobacco smoke

Rifampicin resistant 'Mycobacterium tuberculosis' in Vietnam, 2020–2022

Objective: We conducted a descriptive analysis of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Vietnam’s two largest cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city. Methods: All patients with rifampicin resistant tuberculosis were recruited from Hanoi and surrounding provinces between 2020 and 2022. Additional patients were recruited from Ho Chi Minh city over the same time period. Demographic data were recorded from all patients, and samples collected, cultured, whole genome sequenced and analysed for drug resistance mutations. Genomic susceptibility predictions were made on the basis of the World Health Organization’s catalogue of mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis associated with drug resistance, version 2. Comparisons were made against phenotypic drug susceptibility test results where these were available. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess risk factors for previous episodes of tuberculosis. Results: 233/265 sequenced isolates were of sufficient quality for analysis, 146 (63 %) from Ho Chi Minh City and 87 (37 %) from Hanoi. 198 (85 %) were lineage 2, 20 (9 %) were lineage 4, and 15 (6 %) were lineage 1. 17/211 (8 %) for whom HIV status was known were infected, and 109/214 (51 %) patients had had a previous episode of tuberculosis. The main risk factor for a previous episode was HIV infection (odds ratio 5.1 (95 % confidence interval 1.3–20.0); p = 0.021). Sensitivity for predicting first-line drug resistance from whole genome sequencing data was over 90 %, with the exception of pyrazinamide (85 %). For moxifloxacin and amikacin it was 50 % or less. Among rifampicin-resistant isolates, prevalence of resistance to each non-first-line drug was < 20 %. Conclusions: Drug resistance among most MDR-TB strains in Vietnam’s two largest cities is confined largely to first-line drugs. Living with HIV is the main risk factor among patients with MDR-TB for having had a previous episode of tuberculosis