The Dynamic Relationship between Housing Market Sentiment and Home Prices

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENCE (REAL ESTATE AND URBAN ECONOMICS

ENGLISH TEACHERS’ SATISFACTION WITH THE QUALITY OF GENERAL ENGLISH PROFICIENCY TRAINING PROGRAM: THE CASE OF THE MEKONG DELTA, VIETNAM

Many policy changes in teaching and learning English in Vietnam have been implemented. To make those changes successful, the quality of English teachers is paid remarkable attention to by stakeholders. In particular, the quality of their teaching is said to be the determining factor in the success or failure of the changes. Since then, many professional development programs for English teachers have been implemented in Vietnam. This research explores Vietnamese teachers’ satisfaction with the effectiveness of a large-scale general English proficiency training program provided by MOET’s National Foreign Languages Project for school teachers in the Mekong Delta. Employing questionnaires with 174 school teachers in the Mekong Delta, the study sheds light on the main factors that these teachers perceive as crucial factors that influence the quality of the training program and their satisfaction. Findings from the survey reveal that the teachers were highly satisfied with the training program, and the critical factors impacting the training effectiveness included training materials, training duration, teaching and learning facilities, qualified trainers, and support from management. These findings provide a solid foundation for proposing an efficient model training program to effectively support English language teachers in the Mekong Delta to accomplish the required English proficiency level.  Article visualizations

TEACHERS’ CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK ON ENGLISH STUDENTS’ WRITING

This investigates the participants’ attitudes towards corrective feedback as well as the types of corrective feedback on learners’ performance by questionnaires for both students and teachers. Fifty–eight 2nd-year students and 5 teachers of English at a university in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam participated in the study. The results indicated that students had a positive attitude towards teachers’ corrective feedback. Besides, with the analyzed data, correction with comments and teacher correction was considered as the most useful strategy when giving feedback in the learners’ performance. The outcomes of the study suggest a widespread employment of corrective feedback in teaching writing at universities and colleges in the region.   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

Investigation of Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity Reduction in Reinforced Concrete Members Exposed to High Temperature

Nowadays, the fire resistance of reinforced concrete members is generally defined by material characteristics at elevated temperatures and temperature functions. However, the influence of steel reinforcement in concrete members exposed to high temperatures on the ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) measurements has still been limited. In this paper, the quality of concrete and steel reinforcement/concrete interface was assessed under high temperatures using UPV measurements. The specimens were classified into four categories: the control tested cubes without rebar; tested cubes with plain and ribbed steel rebars. Tested cubes with dimensions of 100x100x100 mm were cast and cured for 28 days at room temperature (20oC). After drying all specimens at 105oC for 48 hours, these cubes were subjected to four different temperature levels ranging from 150oC to 400oC for 4 hours before being cooled to room temperature. According to the measured values of UPV, the higher the temperature attained in specimens, the greater the following changes occurred in concrete: (i) the degradation within the concrete; (ii) the debonding of steel reinforcements in concrete

Measuring citizen's satisfaction when using E-Government online public services: Lessons from Vietnam

This study aims to evaluate the factors affecting the satisfaction of citizen when using online public services through data collected from direct surveys of people. Research results show that Quality of online public services, Citizen's awareness, Privacy and security, Trust and accessibility affect citizen's satisfaction when using online public services. Based on these results, the study also gives some discussion and governance implications for researchers as well as policy-makers in improving citizen's satisfaction as well as attracting more users for online public services in Vietnam context

VIETNAMESE STUDENT RESEARCHERS’ EXPECTATIONS OF THEIR SUPERVISOR AND SUPERVISION PROCESS

In Vietnam, scientific research is no longer just the work of scientists, graduate students, scholars, or lecturers; tertiary students are also encouraged to conduct scientific research. Therefore, the scientific research work of students receives more attention from educators. The research on carrying out scientific research of students is also therefore increasing. However, researchers do not seem to have paid enough attention to the role of supervisors during the supervision process. The evidence is that there are few studies on supervisors in Vietnam. Therefore, this study was conducted to learn about the role of supervisors from the student's perspective and expectations. Specifically, this study was conducted quantitatively with the use of a questionnaire consisting of 49 questions with a 5-point Likert scale. A total of 100 English-major students at a university in Southwest Vietnam participated in this study by answering the questionnaire. The results from the questionnaire show that students had high expectations from their supervisors. Specifically, students expect their supervisor to be someone who respects their opinions, has good scientific research knowledge, can give constructive comments, and is always willing to help them when needed. Based on research findings, supervisors are encouraged to participate in professional development training related to scientific research to improve their research knowledge and skills. Along with that, supervisors need to be aware of their role during the process of guiding students to do scientific research.  Article visualizations

Tertiary students’ preferences on extracurricular activities for English learning: Voices from the field of Advanced Program in Biotechnology

In Vietnam, where English plays a vital role in the country’s development, extracurricular activities for English learning are considered an effective reform for enhancing citizens’ English proficiency. Previous studies have showed the positive impact of extracurricular activities on language learners’ outcomes. Yet, almost none of them has investigated students’ voices about what, how, when, and where they want these activities to be organized. This current study was employed to fill that gap in the field of biotechnology (advanced program). A 77-item questionnaire was sent to 148 students who learned biotechnology in an advanced program at a tertiary institution in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. The results indicated the students preferred mental activities (M=4.00) to others. Moreover, they would like to travel to experience cultures from English-speaking countries (M=4.11). Further extracurricular activities were encouraged to be organized on their university campus (M=3.63). The students also preferred short-term activities at weekends to those that were organized over a long period. The study proposed a model for further extracurricular activities at the end of this writing

Preparation and characterization of magnesium hydroxyapatite coatings on 316L stainless steel

Magnesium hydroxyapatite coatings (MgHAp) were deposited on the surface of 316L stainless steel (316L SS) substrates by electrodeposition technique. Different concentrations of Mg2+ ion were incorporated into the apatite structure by adding Mg(NO3)2 into electrolyte solution containing 3×10-2 M Ca(NO3)2, 1.8×10-2 M NH4H2PO4 and   6×10-2 M NaNO3. With Mg2+ concentration 1×10-3 M, the obtained coatings have 0.2 wt% Mg2+. The influences of scanning potential ranges, scanning times to deposit MgHAp coatings were researched. The analytical results FTIR, SEM, X-ray, EDX, thickness and adhension strength showed that MgHAp coatings were single phase of HAp, fibrous shapes, thickness 8.1 µm and adhesion strength 7.20 MPa at the scanning potential ranges of 0÷-1.7 V/SCE and scanning times of 5 scans. Keywords. 316L SS, Electrodeposition, MgHAp