FACTORS AFFECTING NON-MAJORED ENGLISH STUDENTS’ LOW PARTICIPATION IN EFL SPEAKING CLASSROOM: A CASE IN VIETNAM

EFL learners’ low level of participation is reported as a problem commonly found in English speaking classrooms. This study aims to investigate students’ perceptions of factors hindering their participation in English speaking classrooms. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted as data collection instruments of the study. 153 first-year non-majored English students from two Advanced programs and seven High-quality programs in a major university in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam responded to the questionnaire and then 6 of them participated in the semi-structured interview sessions. The results strongly endorsed that students’ lack of vocabulary, fear of being judged by peers and lecturers and feeling overwhelmed by interactive activities in Speaking classes were significant factors causing students’ low level of participation. Recommendations are suggested to educators or lecturers in formulating future teaching strategies that promote students’ participation in the context of higher learning. Article visualizations

EFL HIGH-SCHOOL TEACHERS’ RESPONSES TO ELT PEDAGOGICAL REFORMS IN THE MEKONG DELTA, VIETNAM

In the era of globalization and internationalization, educational change, specifically English language teaching (ELT) pedagogical reforms, has been paid more attention to by language researchers. In Vietnam, ELT pedagogical reforms or educational change has been considered as an essential area. How the teachers respond to the reforms is very important; therefore, this study was conducted to investigate this issue. Questionnaire and interviewing were used to collect data from 102 English foreign language (EFL) teachers working in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The study was aimed to investigate teachers’ responses to 15 types of ELT pedagogical reforms, introduced by the Ministry of Education. The data, analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0, showed that the teachers accepted the ELT pedagogical reforms in their teaching. Specifically, adapting teaching materials from different sources was supported most. However, some types were resisted, especially designing tests based on the Vietnamese Standardized Test of English Proficiency (VSTEP) framework.  Article visualizations

A Decade of Researching on Professional Development in a Graduate Program: A Systematic Review

This paper aims to provide a logical and comprehensive systematic review of MA students’ theses related to professional development (PD) in an educational institution in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. This systematic review used a qualitative method to analyze 28 unpublished PD theses (2010 – 2020) in a graduate program of a public tertiary institution in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. There were four main research concerns, including (1) research aims, (2) research methodology, (3) findings, and (4) limitations of the theses. After the review, a list of strengths and weaknesses of these studies is found, evaluated, and presented in this article. The review shows that these studies did contribute diverse knowledge and practices of PD in the educational system of Vietnam, particularly in the Mekong Delta. On the other hand, the data collection instruments and research designs needed improvement to a certain extent. Specifically, observations were not used much in the theses. Besides, the candidate researchers overused a descriptive research design for their theses. Thanks to the analysis, some implications and new ideas for further research in PD are discussed at the end of this paper.

EFL SECONDARY AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF ADVANTAGES AND DIFFICULTIES OF WRITTEN FEEDBACK BY QUESTIONING IN WRITING

This paper reports a descriptive study to enquire into English as a Foreign Language (EFL) secondary and high school (K-12) students’ perceptions about the advantages and difficulties of written feedback by questioning in writing. This paper draws on the data collected as part of a larger project including questionnaires and focus-group interviews. The findings reveal that students held positive perceptions about the impact of written feedback by questioning in writing, particularly on motivation, writing skills, and attitudes and preferences.  Article visualizations

SUGGESTIONS FOR PROMOTING STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES: STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS

EFL high school students’ low level of participation is reported as a problem commonly found in English speaking classes. This study aims to investigate high school students’ perceptions of suggestions for promoting students’ participation in English speaking classes. Questionnaires and interviews were employed as data collection instruments of the study. 206 EFL high school students from three grades in a high school in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam responded to the questionnaire and then 6 of them participated in the semi-structured interview sessions. The results strongly endorsed that “promote students’ self-confidence”, “make learning tasks stimulating and the way teachers present tasks”, “establish a supportive and caring relationship”, and “create a pleasant classroom climate” were significant strategies promoting students’ participation. The results of the study are expected to contribute to the comprehension of teachers’ strategies to enhance students’ participation in English speaking classes. Article visualizations

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE USE OF FACEBOOK-BASED E-PORTFOLIOS IN EFL WRITING: A CASE IN THE MEKONG DELTA, VIETNAM

Electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) have grown in popularity in ESL/EFL writing instruction for their contributions to students’ writing. However, selecting an electronic tool in e-portfolios is of concern to many researchers and teachers. The combination of Facebook and e-portfolios is a rather new implementation in educational research, especially in high school contexts. Therefore, the current research aimed at exploring (1) high school students’ perceptions of the use of Facebook-based e-portfolios in terms of their contributions in writing, and (2) problems in using Facebook-based e-portfolios in writing. Fifty grade 11 students at a high school in Soc Trang province, Vietnam participated in the research. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected by using close-ended questionnaire and the interview. Prior to data collection, the students spent six weeks writing on Facebook close-typed groups. The results showed that the students highly appreciated the contributions of Facebook-based e-portfolios in terms of enhancing interaction, giving and receiving feedback, motivation and confidence in writing, writing skills, vocabulary, and grammar knowledge. No significant problems were found in using Facebook-based e-portfolios. The research is expected to shed light on implementing Facebook-based e-portfolios in improving the quality of teaching EFL/ESL writing in high school contexts.  Article visualizations

MEDICAL STUDENTS’ EVALUATION OF AN ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES COURSEBOOK: A CASE IN VIETNAM

The current study investigates students’ evaluation of the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) coursebook taught at a medical college in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. After using it for a year, the users, including medical students and their teachers, have given some unofficial feedback on the book. This study provided insightful official information about how its student users perceive the coursebook they were adopting. Data on the evaluations of the ESP coursebook were gained from questionnaires administered to 166 students majoring in nursing and pharmacy in charge of ESP programs. Semi-structured interviews were employed with four students to get more specific apprehension. The results of this study indicated that students were satisfied with the ESP coursebook in terms of the covering of four skills, the presence of vocabulary and grammar, relevant content, understandable social and cultural context, suitability for mix-level students. In addition, participants perceived that communicative skills were not sufficiently presented, examples in grammar were not more interesting, the illustrations were not diverse and enough, and the cover was simple but not appealing. Suggestions regarding the pedagogical implications for the adoption and evaluation of the coursebook were discussed

English Language Teaching Educational Change: A Retrospective Analysis of Teacher Professional Development

The importance of English has demanded the introduction of English language teaching (ELT) educational reforms (ERs) in the Vietnamese context. However, the results of these reforms did not satisfy Vietnamese educators; as a result, many studies have explored the related issues, but almost none of them emphasized English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions of the necessities of the reforms. Accordingly, this current study was conducted to fill in the aforementioned gap. Driven by that emphasis, this qualitative study used semi-structured interviews as a data-collecting instrument. Regarding the studied sampling, six EFL high school teachers from Southwest Vietnam were recruited as the interviewees. According to the findings of the present study, teachers in Vietnam strongly perceived the need for ELT ERs. Besides, the reforms were fundamental to help catch up with the era of globalization. At the conclusion of the paper, some discussions focusing primarily on teacher training issues and educational implications, as well as suggestions for future research, were presented

Estimation semi-paramétrique et application à\ud l'évaluation de la biomasse d'anchois

Notre étude est motivée par un problème d'évaluation de la biomasse, c'est à dire de la densité des œufs d'anchois à l'instant de ponte dans le golfe de Biscay-Gascogne. Les données sont les densités, c'est à dire les poids d' œufs d'anchois par unité de surface dans le golfe, collectées lors de la campagne d'échantillonnage de 1994. Le problème consiste à estimer la densité des œufs d'anchois au moment de leur ponte et le taux de mortalité. Jusqu'à présent, ce problème a été résolu en ajustant les données précédentes à un modèle classique de mortalité exponentielle. Notre analyse montre que ce modèle n'est pas adapté aux données à cause de la grande variation spatial de la densité d'œufs au moment de ponte. Or pour les données considérées, les densités \ud A(tj,kj) des œufs au moment de ponte diffèrent de façon aléatoire selon les zones géographiques de kj ponte. Nous proposons de modéliser les A(tj,kj) comme un échantillon issu d'une variable aléatoire d'espérance a0 et ayant une densité de probabilité fA, ce qui conduit au modèle de mortalité étendue (EEM) suivant :\ud Y (tj,kj) = A (tj,kj) e-z0tj +ε(tj,kj)\ud Le problème que nous avons à étudier alors est d'estimer les paramètres du modèle et la densité fA. Nous résolvons ce problème en deux étapes; nous commençons par estimer les paramètres par des techniques de régression, puis nous estimons la densité fA en combinant l'estimation non-paramétrique de densité, avec l'estimation du paramètre z0 et avec éventuellement une déconvolution de densités. Les résultats des études en simulations que nous réalisons corroborent les résultats théorique de la consistance.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The motivation of this study is to evaluate the anchovy biomass, that is estimate the egg densities at the spawning time and the mortality rate. The data are the anchovy egg densities that are the egg weights by area unit, collected in the Gascogne bay. The problem we are faced is to estimate from these data the egg densities at the spawning time. Until now, this is done by using the classical exponential mortality model. However, such model is inadequate for the data under consideration because of the great spatial variability of the egg densities at the spawning time. They are samples of generated by a r.v whose mathematical expectation is a0 and the probability density function is fA. Therefore, we propose an extended exponential mortality model \ud Y (tj,kj) = A (tj,kj) e-z0tj +ε(tj,kj)\ud where A(tj,kj) and ε(tj,kj) are i.i.d, with the random variables A and ε being assumed to be independent.\ud Then the problem consists in estimating the mortality rate and the probability density of the random variable . We solve this semiparametric estimation problem in two steps. First, we estimate the mortality rate by fitting an exponential mortality model to averaged data. Second, we estimate the density fA by combining nonparametric estimation method with deconvolution technique and estimate the parameter z0. Theoretical results of consistence of these estimates are corroborated by simulation studies.\ud \u