THE IMPACT OF QUESTIONING AND SEMANTIC MAP IN PRE-READING STAGE ON STUDENTS' READING COMPREHENSION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Pre-reading activities play an important role in language reading classrooms since they help to activate students’ background knowledge of the topics being taught, which results in improving students’ reading comprehension. Most studies in the literature focus on exploring the effects of individual pre-reading activities such as brainstorming, pre-teaching vocabulary, questioning on students’ performance in doing comprehension tasks. Few studies have been conducted to explore whether one technique is better than the others in activating students’ schemata in reading lessons. The current study investigates the impact of Questioning and Semantic map in Pre-reading stage on EFL gifted high school students’ reading comprehension. The participants were 52 gifted students from two science classes for twelfth graders (they were non gifted English students). They shared the same culture, native language, educational background and age. The data were collected through two reading proficiency tests (pre-test and post-test) and individual interviews. The findings revealed that both Questioning and Semantic map had positive impacts on gifted students’ reading comprehension. Especially, the students who received Semantic treatment had significantly better improvement in their reading skill. The findings shed lights on what can be done to improve EFL students’ reading performance.  Article visualizations

Digital Transformation of the Banking Industry in Developing Countries

Purpose:  The study's objective is to test the impact of digital transactions on banking performance. Based on the previous research and the actual situations, it has been recognized that the critical role of digital banking is in developing the banking industry, especially in developing countries.   Theoretical framework:  In the next section, the study presents background information to promote the research. The digital transformation has changed how customers use financial services. This has pushed banks to adapt more quickly to the wave of digital transformation if they don't want to lose their valuable customer base.   Design/methodology/approach:  the methodology applied uses POOL, FEM, REM, and FGLS models to examine the impact of banking transactions made by digital technology on the bank's deposit and lending revenue. This article studies banking operations on digital platforms from 2012 to 2019 in developing countries.   Findings: The article's findings showed that digital banks' flexible products and services bring many benefits with a high level of interaction, such as supporting the relationship between customers and banks and improving operating revenue.   Research, Practical & Social implications: Practical implications enhanced the development potential of digital banking is relatively large, stemming from the market demand development orientation of the banking industry.   Originality/value: The paper's originality and value help banks invest in digital technology as the way forward to better serve their customers

CHOOSE REMEMBERSHIP REMEDIES TO IMPROVE THE HAPPINESS OF FEMALE OFFICERS AND OFFICERS UNIVERSITY OF FITNESS AND SPORTS DA NANG, VIETNAM

Happiness has long been a veritable area of scientific research in most industrialized countries. Using the method of synthesis of documents and interview method, the study investigates the current state of happiness of 30 female officers and employees of Danang University of Physical Education and Sports using the author's happiness scale. Michael Argyle and Peter Hills (2002) have shown: 30.0% less are happy; 43.33% are happy on average; 26.67% are moderately happy; the most important factor in happiness is health. Subject-selected measures that can increase happiness are finding moments with loved ones in the family; practising more positive thinking; accepting the reality of the situation; join arts and sports clubs

Evaluating household coal slag emissions in Binh Chanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam and recommended solutions

In Viet Nam, apart from coal-fired power plants, coal slag also emitted from households via coal burning activities. However, the quantity of slag emitted from households has been rarely determined, and most of it is not been well-treated. In addition, it is well-known that the untreated or mistreated coal slag can lead to severe impacts on both the environment and human health. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the emission of this slag, and thereafter to provide recommendations for improved management. In this study, the emission of household coal slag in Binh Chanh District of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam was investigated by undertaking a fact-finding survey coupled with GPS. Coal burning experiments were also performed for various fuels including large-sized honeycomb charcoal (3 kg/piece); small-sized honeycomb charcoal (1.7 kg/piece); charcoal (1 kg) and dried firewood with rice husk (1 kg) to estimate the quantity of household coal slag emissions slag, as well as to primarily examine the impact to the environment and human health. Results showed that the emissions of household coal slag in the study area was considerable, up to 146 tonnes per year,  almost 60% of which, was directly discharged into the environment. The burning coal for household purposes was found to dramatically change the quality of air with high concentration of pollutants including formaldehyde (HCHC), total volatile organic compound (TVOC), as well as particulate matters (PM2.5 and PM10) in exceedance of national standards which led to health effects. Finally, solutions for managing the slag were proposed

Development of freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) seed production and culture technology in the Mekong Delta Region of Vietnam: A review of the JIRCAS Project at Cantho University.

The Mekong Delta of Vietnam is a region rich in aquatic resources having high potential for aquaculture development. Inland aquaculture in the Mekong Delta has greatly increased since the last decade. Fish culture carried out in combination with other agricultural activities such as animal husbandry and rice cultivation, and intensive aquaculture in ponds and cages have been the dominant forms of fish production. However, the giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, has recently become a species of economic significance and the target of aquaculture activity in the Mekong Delta. M. rosenbergii is cultured throughout the region in the rice fields, ponds, orchard gardens and in pens along river banks. The major constraints in this industry are seed supply and culture techniques, becoming the major obstacles for the further development of the culture of this species. In a collaborative research project implemented between the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) and Cantho University (CTU) since 1994, studies have been carried out on various aspects relating to the establishment of M. rosenbergii seed production and culture technology. The project is now in the middle of its second phase and has generated a great deal of scientific and practical information. This paper presents an overview of the achievements of this project

An Empirical Study of Affective Commitment: the Case of Machinery Enterprises in Hochiminh City

The study aims to investigate the impact of participation in decision-making (PDM) and perceived organizational support (POS) on affective commitment in machinery enterprises. The study applies structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the research hypotheses. The authors surveyed 220 employees who work in machinery enterprises to collect data for the research. The study results indicate that both PDM and POS positively impact affective commitment. The findings provide empirical evidence to support the theoretical models that PDM and POS have a positive effect on affective commitment. The findings have implications for management theory: PDM and POS are the key antecedents of affective commitment. The findings also have implications for practical management in the machinery enterprises that managers should practice both PDM and POS to increase affective commitment

Insiders, Outsiders and Performance of Vietnamese Firms

The consensus in the finance literature is that a large proportion of inside ownership (defined as greater than 5% share ownership by non-institutional holders, managerial holdings, founding family holdings, cross-shareholdings by affiliated firms and ownership by creditors) tends to be associated with more unsatisfactory performance (as measured by ROE or ROA) when compared to firms with lower inside ownership, all else equal. However, this need not be the case if insiders act as monitors of the firm and have the same interest in returns as outsiders.  Ownership structure and firm level financial performance have not been widely studied in Vietnam.  Using data from 729 listed firms in Vietnam for 2018, we test the hypothesis that greater insider ownership has a negative impact on firm performance. We found that Vietnam's insiders play a monitoring role, exercising their relative power to ensure the firm's profitable functioning. These findings are inconsistent with research on Japanese groupings, as well as other findings. The Vietnamese stock market does not appear to be negatively affected by insider influence; indeed, insiders appear to act as positive monitors.

The potter wasp genus Allorhynchium from Vietnam, with descriptions of three new species and a new country record (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Eumeninae)

Species of the potter wasp genus Allorhynchium van der Vecht (Eumeninae: Odynerini) occurring in Vietnam are presented. Seven species have been recorded from Vietnam. Of them, three species are described as new to science: Allorhynchium latum Nguyen, Tran & MT Nguyen, sp. nov., A. moerum Nguyen & AD Nguyen, sp. nov., and A. setosum Nguyen & Engel, sp. nov., and one species, A. argentatum (Fabricius, 1804), is recorded from Vietnam for the first time. An updated key to the Oriental species of the genus is presented

On the Performance of a Simple Approximation Algorithm for the Longest Path Problem

The longest path problem is known to be NP-hard. Moreover, they cannot be approximated within a constant ratio, unless ${\rm P=NP}$. The best known polynomial time approximation algorithms for this problem essentially find a path of length that is the logarithm of the optimum.In this paper we investigate the performance of an approximation algorithm for this problem in almost every case. We show that a simple algorithm, based on depth-first search, finds on almost every undirected graph $G=(V,E)$ a path of length more than $|V|-3\sqrt{|V| \log |V|}$ and so has performance ratio less than $1+4\sqrt{\log |V|/|V|}$.