ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS’ LISTENING DIFFICULTIES AND USE OF STRATEGIES AT MIEN DONG UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, VIETNAM

Through the years, difficulties in English listening and listening strategies have been conducted by many researchers. Most of studies have pointed out the common difficulties and strategies which students often have. Focusing on the same subject with a new perspective, this research aimed at understanding English majors’ difficulties in listening and use of listening strategies. A total of ninety eight freshmen English-majored students at Mien Dong University took part in answering the questionnaire and five students answered the semi-structure interview questions. The data gained from the questionnaire were analyzed by SPSS version 20.0 in terms of descriptive statistic. The findings revealed that English-majored students had many difficulties in listening such as the difficulties related to the listener, the content of the dialogue, the speaker, the physical setting and the linguistic factors. In terms of listening strategies, the finding showed that the cognitive listening strategies were used more frequently than metacognitive and socio-affective strategies. Based on the findings, some implications were made to contribute to the administrations, teachers and students at Mien Dong University of Technology.  Article visualizations

Seasonal variation of phytoplankton in Tuyen Lam reservoir in Da Lat, Vietnam

Seasonal variation and phytoplankton dynamics in Tuyen Lam reservoir in Da Lat city, Viet Nam were studied in the rainy and dry seasons (during January through December, 2014). Samples were taken monthly from 3 stations of Tuyen Lam reservoir. The aim of this study was to analyze the structure of the phytoplankton community on seasonal scales and to identify the environmental factors, such as temperature, conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen, light intensity, transparency, ammonium, nitrate and phosphate controlling the phytoplankton density and composition of phytoplankton communities. The results showed that phytoplankton comprised 43 taxa, mainly Chlorophyta (58%), Bacillariophyta (14%), Cyanobacteria (14%), Dinophyta (7%), Chrysophyta (5%) and Euglenophyta (2%). There was significant difference in phytoplankton abundance but not species richness between two seasons. Multiple regression analysis between chlorophyll a contents, phytoplankton density with environmental independent variables indicated that ammonium, nitrate concentrations and water temperature were significantly impact to the abundance of phytoplankton, while almost no independent variables were found to correlate to chlorophyll a. CCA analysis phytoplankton and abiotic parameters revealed several species groups with their favorable environmental conditions

COPPER-MODIFIED MCM-22 AS CATALYSTS FOR HYDROCARBON SELECTIVE CATALYTIC REDUCTION OF NOX

Joint Research on Environmental Science and Technology for the Eart

Fe-MCM-22 zeolites: synthesis and study about the states of iron

The Fe-MCM-22 zeolite was successfully synthesized with hexametylenimine template. Several physicochemical techniques (XRD, SEM, BET, AAS, IR and ESR) have been used to characterize this zeolite. Iron exists under three states: isolated ions in tetrahedral lattice positions, in octahedral coordination as isolated ions at cationic positions and as aggregated oxide species or hydroxide phases.Keywords: Fe-MCM-22 zeolite, synthesis, characterization, framework iron

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF COLLOCATIONS IN ACADEMIC ESSAYS OF ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS OF THE HIGH-QUALITY PROGRAM AT CAN THO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

One of the main goals of language learners is to master all four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing when it comes to their acquisition of the target language. However, during the process of learning English, learners inevitably face a variety of challenges related to their writing including grammatical errors, word choice, organization, idea development, and most importantly their difficulties in using collocations (Duong & Nguyen, 2021). Therefore, this study has been conducted to investigate the students’ use of English collocations in their academic essays associated with their difficulties so that appropriate pedagogical approaches and practices would be taken into consideration in order to help students improve their English collocational competences in academic writing. This descriptive study was carried out with 103 English-majored students of the High-quality program of the School of Foreign Languages at Can Tho University, Vietnam. A 5-point Likert scale survey with 18 questionnaire items was employed to examine the frequency of students' exposure to as well as their usage of English collocations, and their difficulties in using English collocations. The results of this study have shown that the most commonly used collocations in the students’ academic essays were ‘verb + noun’, and ‘adjective + noun’ lexical collocations. Additionally, the research outcomes have revealed that the types of English collocations that the students were more likely to make the most mistakes belonged to ‘verb + adverb’, and ‘adjective + noun’ lexical collocations.  Article visualizations

The use of linguistic units and their implicatures in the listening section of TOEFL iBT test

Implicature is a means of conveying what speakers mean linguistically, and it is most commonly used in spoken language. Identifying the possible interpretations and discovering the implied meanings of the information, nevertheless, are really challenging for non-native English speakers, especially for ESL/EFL test-takers who are under testing pressure. This descriptive study, therefore, aimed to quantitatively and qualitatively explore the language units and their implicatures used in the listening section of TOEFL iBT (Test of English as a Foreign Language versioned Internet-based test). A corpus consisting of 87 lectures, 97 long conversations, and 31 short conversations/adjacency pairs that were sourced from TOEFL iBT materials was developed. The framework employed to analyze data was based on the initial lists of triggers proposed by Gazdar (1979), Grice (1978), Levinson (1993), and Yule (1996). The findings reveal that linking words are the most common linguistic units while set phrases are the least common ones that are used to trigger implicatures in the listening section of TOEFL iBT materials. Additionally, diverse implicatures of linguistic units used in the listening section of TOEFL iBT are uncovered

Investigating the diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi from Gymnema sylvestre and Curcuma longa in Vietnam

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are soil eukaryotes that belong to phylum Glomeromycota and have symbiosis with the vast majority of higher plants’ roots. AM fungi are believed to be coevolved with terrestrial plants, the abundance and diversity of AM fungal communities as a result are host plant dependent. A survey of AM fungi from the rhizospheres of medicinal plants in Northern Vietnam including gurma Gymnema sylvestre and turmeric Curcuma longa was carried out. From the extracted total DNAs of the medicinal plants’ rhizosphere soil samples, 35 mycorrhizal fungal species were identified by analyzing small subunit rRNA gene sequences. Result revealed that genus Glomus is the most abundant in the AM communities of G. sylvestre and C. longa, followed by Gigaspora and Acaulospora. Besides, AM species belonging to genera Scutellospora, Diversispora and Rhizophagus were observed in almost all rhizosphere soil samples. The spore counting by wet sieving and decanting method uncovered a variation in AM spore density of gurma and turmeric rhizosphere. In general, AM species were found more abundantly and more diverse in collected rhizome soil samples of C. longa (27 species belonging to 10 genera) than of G. sylvestre (17 species found belonging to 7 genera). The observed difference in AM communities of G. sylvestre and C. longa supports evidence for the dependence of AM fungal species on host plants, and indicates that AM fungi may have relation to the host plants’ secondary metabolite production

Hematological parameters of red tilapia (Oreochromis sp.) fed lemongrass essential oil (Cymbopogon citratus) after challenge with Streptococcus agalactiae

The study involved feeding lemongrass essential oil (LEO) supplements to red tilapia (Oreochromis sp.) at concentrations including Control - 0 mg, T1 – 200 mg, T2 – 300 mg, and T3 – 400 mg per kg of feed. The research investigated changes in hematological (HCT, Hb, RBC, WBC & thrombocytes) and erythrocyte’s morphological (major/minor axis; perimeter, and area of erythrocyte) parameters before infection, 5- and 10-days post-infection (DPI). According to analytical findings, a diet containing LEO enhanced the synthesis of both erythrocytes and leukocytes in the peripheral blood of red tilapia after 20 days of being used. Therefore, the indicators of this group of fish showed better performance than those that did not use LEO supplement five days after bacterial infection. Fish fed 200 mg/kg of LEO after being challenged with S. agalactiae for ten days showed an improved effect on red blood cell production. White blood cells decreased at all concentrations because of citral’s immunomodulatory properties

LEARNING IDIOMS FOR ENGLISH MAJORS: VIETNAMESE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF DIFFICULTIES AND LEARNING STRATEGIES

Learning idioms play an influential role in language generally and in English notably. Comprehending idioms assists language learners in integrating culture, enhancing skills, and ameliorating English levels. Numerous studies have analyzed the function of idioms in second language acquisition (Cieślicka, 2015). This study investigates the difficulties and strategies used in learning idioms by English-majored students at a regional public university (PU) in the south of Vietnam. This paper furnishes data showing learners’ perceptions of facing complications and learning methods. The samples consisted of 150 undergraduate EFL students from English-medium instruction programs. The data was analyzed by utilizing descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings reveal that students struggle to understand idiomatic terms without specific, understandable contexts. Furthermore, the results indicate that the most frequently employed strategies are guessing the meaning of idioms, learning idioms through keywords, and learning from a range of sources, particularly via media. The findings also mentioned that low-proficiency and high-proficiency students encounter identical challenges, with no significant differences. The study's results revealed that the majority of students have difficulty acquiring, recognizing, and interpreting idioms. The findings indicated that guessing the implication of idioms is the most used strategy.  Article visualizations

Effects of perceived corporate social responsibility practices on customers’ satisfaction and perceived value – A study in the food industry in Vietnam

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of perceived Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices on customers’ satisfaction and perceived value. According to the result of the literature review, the studied CSR practices include environmental protection, customer protection, community, HR policies, price, product quality, relationship selling, empathy, and fulfill expectations. To address the research objective, the present study proposed two following research questions: (1) What are factors of CSR practices impacting customers’ satisfaction?; and (2) How do these factors influence customer satisfaction and perceived value? The study approached 236 customers of the food industry to conduct a survey empirically and tested the proposed hypotheses using structural equation modeling. The research findings show that (1), in Vietnamese customers perceptions, Perceived price, Perceived quality and Empathy are three components of CSR practices; (2) these components have positive impacts on Customer satisfaction; and (3) Customer satisfaction has a positive relationship with customers’ perceived value. These findings help to enrich the CSR literature in developing countries like Vietnam, and to confirm the findings of previous studies. Moreover, from the research findings, the present study suggested some managerial implications for firms in the food industry relating to price, product quality and empathy