Moving towards communication-oriented language teaching at the primary English level: A Vietnamese perspective

Vietnam has been attempting to build its English learners’ communicative abilities to improve the country’s competitiveness in the global market. As a result, English language Teaching (ELT) reforms have been introduced in the educational system. Part of the reforms involves the implementation of mandatory primary English education following the Communicative Language Teaching approach (CLT) despite a difficult history of CLT implementation in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. Primary English teachers have been a critical challenge for the success of a communicative curriculum in Vietnam. Teachers’ CLT understanding and pedagogies from a socio-cultural perspective have been underresearched, especially those in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta region. In addressing this gap, this qualitative research, grounded in the Constructivist approach, aimed to explore how primary English teachers in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta understood and implemented CLT in their classrooms from a socio-cultural perspective. The research project targeted all public school primary English teachers in Phase 1 in one school district in the region through the use of an online questionnaire. Twenty-eight teachers participated in this phase, from whom eight were then purposively selected to voluntarily participate further in Phase 2. The purposive sampling was aimed to select a good representation of primary English teachers in the district regarding their genders, qualifications, training, and teaching experiences. Data collection for Phase 2 involved pre-observation interviews with individual teachers, in-class observations, and post-observations interviews with the use of stimulated video recall sessions. The major findings showed that there were misconceptions and/or contradictions in teachers’ activity systems. Teachers did not understand CLT theory and practice, or their understanding was incomplete. Although they claimed they taught in the direction of CLT, their actual pedagogies featured traditional approaches with a focus on teaching language forms and vocabulary and with excessive use of techniques from the Audiolingual Method, the PPP model, and the Grammar-Translation Method. The findings also revealed that teachers’ practices were driven by contextual factors such as Vietnamese educational traditions, needs from their ecological school communities, and their lack of sufficient and proper training of CLT pedagogies. Finally, teachers perceived both challenges and opportunities in moving towards communicationoriented language teaching. Proper and sufficient assistance needed to be provided to empower primary English teachers to fulfill the government’s goals in building students’ communicative abilities. Some of the assistance consisted of, but not limited to, ELT policy significant changes or adjustments, teachers’ professional development, improving teaching and learning conditions, and especially teachers’ agentic power to act towards desired goals. The research implies that a top-down ELT policy without involving and informing by all stakeholders will not work successfully and effectively. Another implication is that those who have direct influence on teachers, e.g., local educational officials and school leaders, will be able to shape their practices. Finally, the research implies that a pure version of Westernbased CLT cannot work well in the socio-cultural context of Vietnam without significant changes in the culturally embedded educational traditions

THE IMPACT OF PROTESTANTISM ON THE ECONOMY OF THE COHO CHIL PEOPLE IN LAM DONG PROVINCE

This study examines the relationship between Protestantism and the Coho Chil economy using qualitative methods to analyze data from fieldwork in the Coho Chil Protestant communities of Lam Dong Province. The research shows that Protestantism has a positive impact on the economy of the Coho Chil community. This impact is manifested in casting out superstitious and magical practices and in applying economic rationalization. The Protestant doctrine and sermons by clergy have influenced the thinking of the people and their economic performance. Protestantism creates a social network and social capital that not only influences their economic life, but also provides timely material support for Christians in need. This paper serves as an additional resource for research related to the relationship between religion and the economy – an intriguing topic that is not found in much previous research in Vietnam.This study examines the relationship between Protestantism and the Coho Chil economy using qualitative methods to analyze data from fieldwork in the Coho Chil Protestant communities of Lam Dong Province. The research shows that Protestantism has a positive impact on the economy of the Coho Chil community. This impact is manifested in casting out superstitious and magical practices and in applying economic rationalization. The Protestant doctrine and sermons by clergy have influenced the thinking of the people and their economic performance. Protestantism creates a social network and social capital that not only influences their economic life, but also provides timely material support for Christians in need. This paper serves as an additional resource for research related to the relationship between religion and the economy – an intriguing topic that is not found in much previous research in Vietnam

Board and corporate social responsibility disclosure of multinational corporations

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the effects of board model and board independence on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure of multinational corporations (MNCs). Design/methodology/approach: The authors developed an empirical model in which CSR disclosure is the dependent variable and board model (two-tier vs one-tier), board independence (a proportion of independent directors on a board) and the interaction variable of board model and board independence together with several variables conventionally used as control variables are independent variables. The authors collated the panel dataset of 244 Fortune World’s Most Admired (FWMA) corporations from 2005 to 2011 of which 117 MNCs use the one-tier board model, and 127 MNCs use the two-tier board model from 20 countries. They used the random-effect regression method to estimate the empirical models with the data they collated and also ran regressions on the alternative models for robustness check. Findings: The authors found a significantly positive effect of a board model on CSR disclosure by MNCs. Two-tier MNCs tend to reveal more CSR information than one-tier MNCs. The results also confirm the significant moderating impact of board model on the effect of board independence on CSR disclosure. The effect of board independence on CSR disclosure in the two-tier board MNCs tends to be higher than that in the one-tier board MNCs. The results do not support the effect of board independence on CSR disclosure in general for all types of firms (one-tier and two-tier board). The impact of board independence on CSR disclosure is only significant in two-tier board MNCs and insignificant in one-tier board MNCs. Practical implications: The authors advise the MNCs who wish to improve CSR reporting and transparency to consider the usage of two-tier board model and use a higher number of outside directors on board. They note that once a firm uses one-tier model, number of IDs on a board does not matter to the level of CSR disclosure. They advise regulators to enforce an application of two-tier board model to improve CSR reporting and transparency in MNCs. The authors also recommend regulators to continue mandating publicly traded companies to include more external members on their boards, especially for the two-tier board MNCs. Originality/value: This paper is the first that investigates the role of board model on CSR disclosure of MNCs

The performance of healthcare mutual funds

Dissertação de mestrado in FinanceThe objective of this dissertation is to evaluate the performance of actively managed US equity healthcare mutual funds and the persistence of these funds. Fund performance was evaluated based on the Jensen (1968) and Carhart (1997) unconditional measures and also on the full conditional model of Christopherson, Ferson and Glassman (1998). Performance persistence was assessed by means of the cross-sectional regressions and contingency tables over periods of 6 months, 12 months and 24 months. The sample comprises 35 US open-end equity sector healthcare mutual funds during the period from January 2002 to September 2014. Three predetermined public information variables about the state of the economy were taken into account to explain the fund returns. The results suggest that in general actively managed US equity healthcare mutual funds present neutral performance in relation to the Healthcare Index, and show better performance in relation to a general market index. We also find some evidence of persistence for short periods of 6 months, which tends to disappear for periods of 12 and 24 months. These results are consistent with most of the previous empirical evidence.Esta dissertação pretende investigar o desempenho de fundos de investimento dos EUA que investem no sector da saúde bem como a persistência destes fundos. O desempenho dos fundos é avaliado com base nas medidas não condicionais de Jensen (1968) e Carhart (1997) e também com base no modelo totalmente condicional de Christopherson, Ferson e Glassman (1998). A persistência do desempenho é avaliada por meio de regressões cross-section e através de tabelas de contingência para períodos de 6 meses, 12 meses e 24 meses. A amostra é constituída por 35 fundos de investimento dos EUA do sector da saúde para o período de janeiro de 2002 a setembro de 2014. Três variáveis de informação pública sobre o estado da economia são tidas em conta para explicar as rendibilidades do fundo. Os resultados mostram que, em geral, os fundos de investimento do sector da saúde apresentam um desempenho neutro relativamente ao índice do sector, mas obtêm um desempenho melhor quando avaliados relativamente ao mercado em geral. Os resultados mostram alguma evidência de persistência para curtos períodos de 6 meses, mas que tende a desaparecer para períodos mais longos de 12 e 24 meses. Estes resultados são consistentes com a maior parte da evidência empírica anterior

OPTIMIZING THE PROCESS OF TRANSFORMING COFFEE HUSKS INTO BIOCHAR BY MEANS OF HYDROTHERMAL CARBONIZATION

The conditions of the hydrothermal carbonization process to produce biochar from coffee husk will be optimized for maximum yield. Besides, response surface methodology (RSM) and central composite face-centered (CCF) method will be used in designing experiments. Also, the optimal value of factors such as temperature, time and biomass: water ratio which can provide a maximum yield of biochar will be worked out using Modde 5.0. As a result, the optimal conditions for maximum yield of biochar was obtained as temperature of 180 oC, 3.5 h and biomass: water ratio of 15 %. It can also be concluded that temperature has greater impact on the transformation of biochar than time and biomass: water ratio

Étude acoustique des segments dans les séquences consonantiques du vietnamien

National audienceIn this paper, we study the acoustic realization of Vietnamese final stops (/p/ /t/ /k/) and nasals (/m/ /n/), often unreleased, in the consonant sequences, starting from the corpus of 140 monosyllabic and dissyllabic items. This is the first stage of discovering the responsible factors explaining for the difficulty of producing the French consonant clusters faced by Vietnamese leaner

Research of the market of housing for rent in Hanoi City

Housing for rent is the trend of choice for many subjects living in Hanoi city. This article analyzes the concept and characteristics of the market of housing for rent. The current situation of the market of housing for rent is analyzed according to three contents: (i) supply of housing for rent, (ii) demand of housing for rent and (iii) price and quality of housing for rent. The basis for analyzing the current situation is aggregated data on the real estate market in Hanoi city. On that basis, the authors propose some solutions to increase the efficiency of the market of housing for rent in Hanoi

Economic and institutional Constraints to Development of Marine Fish Cage Culture in Viet Nam

Vietnam with three-quarters of the country is mountainous and hilly, around 1.4 million ha of inland and coastal waters suitable for aquaculture purposes. In Vietnam, marine fish cage culture has been developed since the 1970s and significant expansion took place in the early 1990s. There are approximately 500 ha of coastal pond culture of marine fish in Vietnam producing more than 1,000 t of products, mainly groupers with a farm gate value of more than VND100 billion (more than US $7 million) in 2003. This paper reviews the current status of marine fish cage culture and identifies the constraints as economic, institution and policy to develop the marine fish cage culture in Viet Nam

En kvalitativ studie av kontaktpersoners oppfølging av syriske kvoteflyktninger etter bosetting

Master's thesis MIKA. VID Specialized University, School of Mission and Theology, Mai 2020.Denne studien belyser hvordan kontaktpersoner i Flyktningeenheten arbeider med oppfølging av syriske kvoteflyktninger etter bosetting. Kontaktpersonens mandat favner et bredt spekter av arbeidsområder innenfor integreringsarbeidet i kommunen. Deres arbeidshverdag er påvirket av det skjer globalt, nasjonalt, regionalt og kommunalt, som stadig er i endring. Det ble foretatt seks semistrukturerte intervjuer i denne kvalitative studien. Under analysetolkning ble det brukt personsentrerte tilnærminger og tolket ut fra et hermeneutisk forskningsperspektiv. Sentrale teorier som er brukt i besvarelsen inkluderer teori om bakkebyråkrater av Lipsky, kulturperspektiver, som etnosentrisme og kulturrelativisme, «Empowerment» og Gadamers hermeneutiske forståelse og fortolkningsteori. Studien viser at kontaktpersoner opptrer i ulike roller og utøver oppfølging varierende etter bosettings- og integreringsrutiner, og særlig ut fra vurdering av flyktningens behov. Videre belyser studien kontaktpersoners oppfølgingsstrategi som veksler mellom en rutinemessig- og behovsstyrt ppfølgingsstrategi. Oppfølgingen handler om kontaktpersonens vurderinger av hvordan den enkelte flyktning er, hvilke behov de har, og hva kontaktpersonen har kapasitet til å hjelpe med, der det i stor grad utøves skjønn. Det finnes noen implementerte rutiner knyttet til oppfølging etter bosetting, men det mangler gode rutiner og retningslinjer for å kvalitetssikre arbeidet som studien vil se nærmere på. Målet med kontaktpersoners oppfølging av nyankomne flyktninger er å bidra til at de blir en medborger og blir selvhjulpne