VietTESOL International Convention Proceedings
VietTESOL International Convention Proceedings is a comprehensive collection of scholarly papers presented at VietTESOL International Convention Series. This publication serves as a vital resource for the academic and professional community, showcasing innovative research, cutting-edge developments, and thoughtful discussions across a wide range of topics in English language education and English language teacher education. Manuscripts submitted to the Proceedings undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review and editorial process, ensuring that each paper meets the high standards of academic integrity, originality, and relevance before it is published.
Performance of Google Translate in Translating Commercial Contracts: Linguistics Errors Analysis
The study investigates the effectiveness of Google Translate (GT) in translating five commercial contracts from English to Vietnamese, focusing on the identification and analysis of linguistic errors. The research employs a systematic approach to assess translation quality, utilizing quantitative methods to classify errors into categories icluding Sense (SENS), Terminology (TERM), Clarity (CL), and Reference Documents (RD). The findings reveal that TERM errors are the most prevalent, accounting for 30.91% of total errors, followed by CL errors at 19.39%. The study highlights GT's challenges in accurately interpreting technical terms and maintaining clarity, which are crucial for legal documents. It emphasizes the necessity of post-editing by human translators to enhance translation accuracy and reliability. The implications of this research are significant for translation students and professionals, as it provides insights into the limitations of machine translation and encourages the integration of human expertise in the translation process.
Strand 1: Technology in Language Teaching and Learning
Google Translate, commercial contracts, translation quality assessment, linguistic errors
Copyright (c) 2024 VietTESOL International Convention Proceedings https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
A Case Study on Teaching Reading Online with the Support of Canvas and Zoom
COVID 19 has disastrous effects on the whole world; however, it has made a great contribution to teaching methodology. Almost all teachers have to change their normal teaching methods into online teaching because their students cannot come to class. Likewise, the author was assigned to teach a Reading class without providing students with their course books and other materials in advance, so she was really worried about whether she could carry out all activities like in a traditional class or not, interacting with her students, assigning and marking their homework. She came up with a new idea and she decided to carry out case study to see it effectiveness. In the case study, a Learning Management System named Canvas, CALL, Zoom and other applications such as Quizlet were applied to ensure the quality of her class and stimulate her students’ interests in each online lesson. The findings, after 5 months, showed that with the support of these pieces of technology, not only could she run her class very smoothly, but she could also see her students’ excitement in every lesson and their progress. As a consequence, the author is writing this article to address problems arising in and discuss the benefits of such technology in teaching and Reading online and share with other educators the way she combined these tools and ran her class in order to gain these significant achievements.
Strand 2: Teaching Methods and Applied Linguistics
Copyright (c) 2021 VietTESOL International Convention Proceedings https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Discourse Analysis: A Methodological Tool for an EFL Course: The Case of IELTS Test Preparation
This paper aims to illustrate what discourse analysis is and how it can contribute to our learning and teaching practical English usage. Firstly, we provide an overview of discourse, discourse analysis, and discourse structure. Secondly, we address the practicalities of how to apply discourse analysis to English language teaching, providing readers with a workable example using one particular approach to teaching a practical English course, say, an IELTS preparation class. In this case, discourse analysis is actually a methodological tool, which easily lends itself to the investigations of textual and linguistic properties and language skills development in an IELTS preparation course.
Online Learning and Teaching British-American Literature for Third-Year Students of F.O.E at H.N.U.E. during Covid-19 Time – Actual Situation and Solution
Online learning and teaching platforms have offered effective alternatives to traditional classrooms, especially during the outbreak of corona virus recently. At Hanoi National University of Education, a variety of online tools and sites have been employed providing lecturers and students with virtual space to upload lectures, video clips, assignments, tests as well as perform numerous interactive activities with a view to engaging students in the online courses. We conducted a research into the actual situation of online learning and teaching in British – American Literature course from students’ perspectives. The findings indicated that H.N.U.E students were relatively well equipped with required facilities and skills for online learning. Students’ attitude towards the study in virtual classrooms was positive and they highly appreciated the benefits and effectiveness of online learning and teaching tools for the literature course. Also, we have proposed several solutions to deal with the challenges which both students and lecturers faced during this process.
The Impacts of the Flipped Classroom Model on Teaching IELTS Writing Skills
This paper is based on a small-scale qualitative research project in a private educational context in Vietnam which aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the flipped classroom model as an innovative approach to preparing students for the IELTS Writing test. Previously, the lion’s share of the teaching time was used to deliver the content of the lesson, and only a small amount of time was dedicated to practice and discussion. The learners had low level of engagement, and their performance progressed negligibly. This innovation was intended to combat the problems of time constraints and students’ disengagement in teaching IELTS writing by flipping part of the class home for the students to self-study. This approach freed up more class-time for practice and interaction, and thus allow the teacher to tackle knowledge at a much deeper level and increase the students’ engagement significantly.
Teaching Grammar to Young Learners: A Functional Approach Example
Grammar has played a central position in language teaching and it has been changing significantly for the past few decades. At the era of post-method, teachers can select various classroom procedures and language content to meet the communication needs of the learners. One frequent question that teachers ask is how to teach grammar to young learners. Some argue that young learners should be exposed to a natural language environment and acquire language through activities. Others propose that explicit teaching of grammar is necessary for learners in non-native language environment. The controversies put language teachers in a challenging situation of continuously identifying what and how to teach. This paper focuses on some design principles for grammar teaching to young learners and classroom examples to support teachers’ decisions in applying functional grammar effectively to young learners in Vietnamese contexts. It first critically examines theoretical controversies in grammar teaching, young learners, and the learning contexts. Then it presents examples of classroom activities as illustrations.
An Ecological Approach to Second Language Acquisition: Family as an English Language Learning Community
In the world of applied linguistics, there is a growing interest among researchers in studying second language acquisition (SLA) as an ecological phenomenon, meaning the focus of SLA studies has shifted from the language classroom to other social contexts beyond the classroom. This ecological approach provides researchers with a whole new perspective in understanding language learning beyond the classroom that offers an insight into the way how a community can promote language learning among its members and become a learning system. Adopting Palfreyman’s ecological approach to language learning, this paper is aimed at exploring a family functioning as an English language learning community in an EFL context. To reach the aforementioned objective, online interviews were employed in the study with four participants, who are members of a Vietnamese family. The findings provided an analytical description of the chosen family as a demonstration showing how Palfreyman’s theories work in practice, focusing on the autonomous role of each family member in contributing and receiving learning resources. Despite some miscommunications due to the age difference, the interviewed family is overall an excellent example of a family functioning as a learning community, which can serve as a role model for other families in the same EFL context to promote better English language learning. The study offers interesting implications in the area of SLA: EFL learners should be aware of their language learning opportunities and take advantage of available resources for the sake of a mutually supportive environment for English learning in the family.
An Investigation into Cohesion Errors in VSTEP Writing Tests of the Second Year EFL Students
VSTEP, the first-ever Vietnamese standardized test of English proficiency, was nationally released in March 2015 and considered a graduation requirement at some universities in Vietnam. The tests evaluate students’ four language skills namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Especially, task 2 writing tests are marked based on cohesion criteria which contribute to the overall meaning of the text. However, a few research studies have been conducted to investigate cohesion mistakes in VSTEP writing papers, which have a far-reaching effect on candidates’ writing scores. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze and examine cohesion mistakes related to transition signals and references in academic writing. Eighty VSTEP essay writing tests of the second year EFL students at the University of foreign language studies – the University of Danang were collected randomly. Data collection then was analyzed to see what types of cohesion mistakes students made and the frequency of errors. The study makes use of both qualitative and quantitative information employing a descriptive method. A framework by Halliday and Hassan (1976) was adopted to analyze the data. In terms of transition signals-related mistakes, the findings reveal that those common ones are repetition, overuse, or lack of transition signals, even misuse of linking devices inadequate meaning and formal register. Also, unclear referencing and misuse of reference are found. Based on the findings, some implications and suggestions on cohesion teaching and cohesion self-check strategies when doing the VSTEP writing test were put forward.
An Investigation into The Teachers’ Feedback to Students’ Answers in Lectures from TOEFL iBT
For those Vietnamese lecturers whose feedbacks are restricted to a limited number of expressions, using appropriate feedbacks can be challenging. This may also reduce students’ cooperative efforts in developing the interactive lectures. This paper aimed to examine the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features of teachers’ feedback in lectures in English and the students’ expectation of these feedbacks. The descriptive study was based on a theoretical framework of Functional grammar, theory of speech act, epistemic modality and politeness. The data collection was conducted with 400 instances of teachers’ feedback quoted from transcripts of lecture extracts of TOEFL iBT and a questionnaire for 120 students at Tay Nguyen University, Vietnam. The former was to discover features of teachers’ feedback in terms of syntax, epistemic modality and politeness principles. The latter was designed for the analysis of students’ perception of teachers’ feedback. The study reveals, in view of clause as exchange, clause as message, and speech act theory, that most of the teachers’ feedback occurred in forms of truncated declarative sentence as a Theme or Rheme with discourse functions as confirming the validity of the students’ answers, encouraging, complimenting the students, correcting and modifying their answers. The study also found that most students expected teachers’ instructive and encouraging feedback with the correction rather than just a compliment. Based on the research findings, some implications for teachers’ feedback in teaching and learning in English are suggested.
An Investigation into Grammatical Metaphor in IELTS Writing Tests
Grammatical metaphor is a significant concept in linguistics introduced by Halliday (1985). It has been pervasive in many studies, both theoretical for discovering subterms ideational, interpersonal and textual grammatical metaphors and practical for analyzing, understanding and especially for writing academic discourses. This study aims at exploring metafunctions of grammatical metaphor expressions and their application frequency in IELTS writing tests. Based on the Functional Grammar advanced by Halliday (1985) as a framework, the study analyzes grammatical metaphor expressions used in a source of samples collected from about 230 IELTS writing tests including sample tests. These grammatical metaphor expressions are categorized into three metafunctions of ideational, interpersonal and textual to examine their application frequency in the writing tests. The results show a significant difference in the usage frequency of the three metafunctions of grammatical metaphors in the writing test papers. Interpersonal is mainly used in IELTS test writing while the application of ideational and textual grammatical metaphor is low. The findings suggest some possible ways of exploiting grammatical metaphors to improving writing skill for IELTS tests.
Use of Microsoft Teams in Teaching and Learning English Online to Improve English Level: A Case Study at The Academy of Journalism and Communication
In language teaching and learning, teachers and learners have a lot to choose thanks to the development of technology such as the Internet, computers, electronic dictionaries, and CALL, etc. The last two decades have witnessed a revolution due to the onset of technology, and it leads to some changes in the way people live and work in society. Besides, technology also plays an important part in spurring innovation in English teaching. Due to the COVID - 19 pandemic, students in Vietnam could not go to school to study. Studying online was one of the best solutions, so the researchers taught their students during the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 via Microsoft Teams. Using Microsoft Teams to teach English online has its unique advantages. The authors carried out a case study to analyze the necessity of using Microsoft Teams to language teaching and also bring out the problems faced by using it. This study also aims to make English teachers aware of the strategies to use it in an effective way. The participants in this study were 28 first year non - English major students in class B2 in the Academy of Journalism and Communication who engaged in an English online course for 3 months of the COVID – 19 pandemic. Two sets of questionnaire and test combined with semi – structured interviews were conducted to determine the improvements of the students’ English level and their positive attitude after the online course.
English Demonstratives in Argumentative Essays by Vietnamese EFL Students and Native English Speakers
In teaching English as a foreign language to non-native learners, English demonstratives (this, these, that, those) are introduced as a syntactic concept. However, they also have an important role in enhancing text coherence by making reference in writing compositions. Important as it is, the proper use of demonstratives remains a problem to several EFL students due to the absence of detailed instructions on how demonstratives function in written discourse. This research looks at the differences in the use of English demonstratives in argumentative essays written by Vietnamese EFL learners and native English speakers. Adopting a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis, the research finds that learners with low level of writing proficiency use proximal this (these) statistically less than native English writers, which can be considered one of the contributing factors to weaker arguments in low score essays. This finding leads to the suggestion for English teachers in Vietnam that the role of demonstratives in making text reference needs to be considered important, and official instructions on demonstratives with their pragmatic use should also be introduced to EFL learners.
A Synthesis Paper: The Role of Teacher Talk in SLA
In the era of the world’s integration, language teaching teachers take a large role in education in general and language learning in particular. One of the most vital issues for teachers is how to convey L2 acquisition through teacher talk as comprehensible input. In order to dig down this part in language teaching, three researchers namely Krashen (1982), Long (1983) and Schmidt (1990) have their own perspective on how educators can approach language learners effectively. However, it indicates that the teacher-learner interaction provides chances for studying through mutual communication and comprehensible input. Moreover, teacher talk states that awareness and attention have a close relationship with one another, hence the learning process needs to help students involve more in the process without being passive. To make it clear, we would like to analyze each researchers’ work and compare as well as evaluate its hypothesis to one another with the purpose of suggesting this understanding as a tool for teacher to enhance their language teaching-learning method.
Assisting Elementary Students Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder to Learn English via Remedial Techniques
This experimental study aims to investigate the effectiveness of remedial techniques on learning English for elementary students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. All students were in grade 4 and were living in Phan Thiet City, Binh Thuan Province. The researcher has received consent and great encouragement from these students’ teachers and parents before and during the research. The students were divided into the control group, which was taught with normal teaching methods, and the experimental group, which was further supported with remedial techniques in many activities such as one-to-one teaching, pair reading, and drill of worksheets. All students were pre-tested before the experimental teaching and then, after eleven weeks, did the post-test. The results show that remedial techniques have positive effects on helping students grow out of difficulties in learning English. The study recommends special support from educators and parents for these disadvantaged students during their English course at school.
Learners’ Attitudes Towards Teaching Metacognitive Strategies in Reading Through Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach
Various studies on training metacognitive strategies to enhance reading comprehension have been conducted around the world since 1990s. However, learners’ attitudes towards applying a specific model of metacognitive strategy instruction in reading, which contributes clearly to the success of teaching metacognitive strategies, have not been paid enough attention, especially in Vietnam. This study is an attempt to fulfill this gap. This work aims to investigate the learners’ attitudes towards training metacognitive strategies through the model of Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA) in reading. To reach this aim, a mixed methods design study was carried out on 52 English non-majored participants at the University of People’s Security. The research tools employed involve an attitudinal questionnaire and group interviews. The findings of this study reveal that the employment of CALLA model in teaching metacognitive strategies received from neutral to positive attitudes from most students, though the instruction itself exposed some shortcomings that need to be dealt with. In addition, some statistical differences were found in the cognitions of high and low language proficiency groups.
Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA)
Project-Based Learning for Primary Students: From Theory to Practice
Project-based learning is to help students acquire knowledge via their hand-on experiences in handling a real problem and challenge or engaging in a meaningful project. As a learner-centered method, project-based learning has been applied widely in various subjects to improve education quality. However, in teaching learners of English at lower levels like primary students, teachers might find it challenging to take advantages of this innovative method due to the young age of the learners as well as the difficulty and the complexity of the tasks required. This paper, consequently, provides some theories in project based learning and how to apply them in teaching English for primary students. Detailed plans and pictures of two English projects for grade 3 and grade 5 learners are also incorporated to exemplify the whole process of project-based learning to suggest a practical guideline for primary teachers of English in adopting this method in their classrooms.
Do Applied Linguists and Mechanical Engineers Report Results and Make Deductions from Their Research Differently?
In this study, we investigated how authors in applied linguistics and mechanical engineering report results in their papers and make deductions from their research and whether these practices are different in the two disciplines by drawing on a corpus of thirty-six journal articles. We identified segments that perform the functions of reporting results and making deductions in the papers using Swales’s (1990, 2004) conceptual framework of rhetorical move. We then explored a range of salient linguistic features associated with the moves using the data-driven approach (Rayson, 2008). More specifically, we made keyness comparisons at the part-of-speech (POS) level to identify grammatical categories that are characteristic of the moves in each discipline. We further examined the concordance of the significant POS domains qualitatively to explore underlying meanings and functions behind the linguistic mechanism. These functional and grammatical-rhetorical analyses showed that the way that applied linguists and mechanical engineers report results and make deductions from their research follows the universal characteristics of the academic world, but at the same time, reflects the knowledge-making conventions inherent in each disciplinary community. Pedagogically, the findings can provide a useful resource for producing activities for writing instruction to raise learners' awareness of typical rhetorical norms in their field of research, and guide them in formulating structures appropriate for communicative functions.
The Practice of Blended Learning in Vietnam: A Case of Private English Language Institute
In recent years, the term “Blended Learning” is no longer a novelty in education in Vietnam. In universities and institutions nationwide, the combination of face-to-face and online-based learning and teaching has been implemented in various subjects, which sparks the interest of researchers, educators, and teachers. While some studies have examined the benefits as well as challenges of blended learning in higher education, little research has been done to investigate the perceptions of students and teachers towards blended learning and flipped classrooms at high school level in private English language institutes. Given the difference in learners’ autonomy and cognitive ability between high school students and university students, the current paper explored the former group of students and their teachers’ overall perceptions of blended learning at a private English language institute in which the groups of students are given more guidance and teachers’ support than university students. To be specific, each lab session which is followed by a face-to-face lesson with interactive activities is supported by a lab coach. Through questionnaires and interviews, insights into students' and teachers’ perceived benefits and challenges of blended learning at the high school level have been revealed. While some acknowledged the benefits of blended learning, some students and teachers required more innovative activities to compensate for the limitations of blended learning.
Steps to Create a Scoring Rubric for Assessing Business Correspondence Writing
Scoring rubrics have been used widely in English Language Teaching and Learning. They are invaluable tools that teachers use to communicate expectations, provide focused feedback, grade learners’ writing products, and also design the lesson plans. Students also find scoring rubrics helpful because they give a clear picture of what qualities students’ work should have. However, creating a great rubric is more than just slapping some expectations on a paper, assigning some percentage points, and calling it a day. A good rubric needs to be designed with care and meticulousness to ensure the reliability and validity of the assessment. In addition, the procedure of creating a scoring rubric consists of a number of steps which should be tailored to the purpose and subject of the rubric. Developing rubrics for the assessment in ESP writing is therefore in some ways different from developing rubrics for the assessment in general English writing, which is because ESP writing is characterized by distinctive features, e.g. different genres’ features. This paper wil report the whole procedure of creating a scoring rubric that has been being used to assess business correspondence such as letters, emails, or reports, which are written by students of Business English. The paper is for teachers, students or anyone who are interested in developing or evaluating rubrics for ESP writing classes.
Backchannel Across Cultures: A Review and Implications
Backchannel plays a crucial part that decides the success of a conversation in terms of rapport establishment between interactants and effective information transmission. Despite its universality, backchannel behavior varies to such a remarkable extent that numerous studies have been conducted to investigate it on divergent bases and in various aspects, such as (1) the relation between backchannel and behavioral development; (2) the differences in backchannel behavior between genders; (3) the differences in backchannel behavior among regional varieties of English-speaking community; and (4) the differences in backchannel behavior across cultures. This review prominently deals with the last two respects of research on backchannels to reflect better understanding in backchannels across cultures, thereby hopefully reducing biased perceptions based on listener responses while promoting bilinguals and multilinguals’ backchannel routines. Moreover, language pedagogical implications and recommendations for future research in the field are also demonstrated through the review.
Using English Songs as Extracurricular Activities to Improve Efl 6th Graders' Listening Skill
The aim of this study, entitled " Using English songs as extracurricular activities to improve EFL 6th graders’ listening skill " (A Quasi Experiment of Six Graders of Tan Tuc Junior High School in Binh Chanh, Ho Chi Minh City), is to find out the use of English songs as extracurricular activities to improve student listening skills and also to explore the responses of students to the use of English songs as a medium to improve student listening skills. A quantitative method was used in this study. Pre-test, post-test, and questionnaire were used to obtain data. The pre-test and post-test data were computed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows while the questionnaire data were analyzed based on the frequency of student responses and then calculated and interpreted as a percentage. The instrument was tested and analyzed using the mean score formula. The result shows a significant difference between the pre-treatment score and the post-treatment score. It can be concluded that the use of English songs as extracurricular activities enhanced the listening skills of the sixth graders. The results of the questionnaires demonstrate that students appreciate the learning process of listening to English songs. It is specifically stated by their enthusiasm for the successful completion of the listening test and their answers to the questionnaires. Therefore, the students responded positively to the use of English songs as extracurricular activities in teaching listening skills.
Students’ Perceptions of Social Presence in a Blended Learning Environment
The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic was a driving force behind the implementation of online learning in numerous universities in Vietnam, and now when face-to-face learning is resumed, blended learning has been employed. Although there has been plenty of research into blended learning benefits, little is known about how to construct a successful blended learning model. A widely accepted framework of Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000), “community of inquiry”, suggests three interwoven components of effective blended learning, one of which is social presence. Noticing research into this area in Vietnam is insufficient, this work is aimed at exploring how students perceive social presence in a blended learning environment, and which among the 11 factors that might affect social presence were the most effective. Triangulation of data was used by questionnaires from 132 students attending a B1 English course and voluntary interviews with 15 students. Data analysis revealed that students highly appreciated the roles social presence played in their learning whilst they thought social presence remained unchanged in both blended and face-to-face modes. Among the 11 factors, students valued the closeness of teachers, their prompt feedback, and group work most. Meanwhile, some did not appraise the importance of group projects, forums, and peer feedback. Yet the interviews gave some insights into what they expected and suggested to enhance social presence through online and in-class activities. Finally, the research discusses some implications in designing and delivering blended courses that promote multidimensional interactions and hence, contribute to the effectiveness of blended learning.
Learning Grammar in The Context of Writing: A Case Study on Students’ Beliefs
Despite the importance of enabling students to apply grammar rules in context, the focus of teaching and learning English grammar still relies on isolated sentence structures and word formation. However, the significance of grammar goes beyond forms; it should also include meanings and uses (Ellis, 2006; Larsen-Freeman, 2014). Therefore, it is crucial to make a shift from a traditional grammar teaching methodology to an integrated grammar-writing one, in which grammar is taught in context. This study investigates how previous learning experiences at high schools affected students’ ability to write grammatically by examining students’ reflections on a grammar writing integration course at the university level. Participants were six, first-year English major students who took an advanced grammar course. Qualitative data consisted of email interviews, students’ writing, and a face-to-face group interview. The analyses revealed that students’ English background heavily influenced their current performance, but did not constrain students’ development. Although the grammar-writing integration approach had some limitations, the participants acknowledged that their understandings of English grammar rules and usage had been greatly enhanced through practicing writing. The findings from this study suggest that English teachers and learners should consider the exposure to writing for improving and developing students’ grammar competence.
Designing Listening Tasks Based on TED Talks for English Majored Students
Under the light of Communicative Language Teaching approach, the use of authentic materials to design effective tasks has been warmly encouraged. Among a variety of resources designed to create authentic materials, TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Talks a set of free videos on a wide variety of topics- is considered as a learning source that gives students a profound knowledge with authentic English. Lesson plans featuring TED talks can be used to bridge the gap between classroom knowledge and real-world practices. This research investigates how to design effective TED talks listening tasks for English majored students and its possible effects on students’ listening skill. The research was carried out with the participation of 176 English majored students in their third academic year and 5 teachers at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI). Data for this study included an online survey for students, and 15-minute semi-structured interviews for teachers. Theresults show that listening tasks designed from TED talks received possitive feedback from the participant informants. Through observation, we see that after 15 weeks of practice, the students have made significant improvement in their listening skill. The teachers’s recommended types of designed listening tasks are listing and/or brainstorming; ordering and sorting and comparing. These types of tasks are also of sutability to students’ preference. It is hoped that the research would provide EFL teachers with new ideas about some benefits of TED talks to their students during the process of mastering the second language.
Teaching Translation in A Tertiary English Major Program-Insights from Professional Translator Training
Translation has made a comeback with its positive impact on students’ language performance. Nevertheless, the results of the use of translation are still limited compared to other types of language exercises, which should be related to structural and behaviorist approaches to translation. Translation courses are usually part of the Tertiary English Major Curriculum, which aims to improve students’ knowledge and skills in English and translation skills. Against the backdrop of limited translation teaching in Vietnam, this report introduces a functional approach to translation in translation teaching and introduces insights from professional translator training to develop students’ language and translation competences. The report discusses practical implications in the teaching of language and translation including the adoption of a communicative view of language and translation, text analysis, text selection, translation briefs, process based and project-based approaches as well as translation evaluation. The adopted approaches will inform translation teaching in the Vietnamese language teaching and other similar contexts.
Reimagining English as An Additional Language: Confronting Inequalities during A Pandemic
Even during a global pandemic, a model intensive English program can be achieved through a perceptual shift to English as an Additional Language (EAL) and by empowering both students and teachers through inclusive educational practices that expressly honor their native languages and cultures. However, persistent application of key practices is essential to program success. Native-speakerism, a discriminatory ideology often seen in employment policies, neglects the cultural and linguistic diversity of talented and qualified professional English language teachers around the world. On the other hand, technology and globalization have given rise to educational resources unavailable or too expensive for students in low-income countries, thus open educational resources (OER) have expanded access to quality teaching and learning materials. Additionally, a flipped classroom allows for easy introduction of home languages and cultures and a seamless integration of inclusiveness for students and teachers. These progressive qualities, and the shifts in perspective with which they evolve, necessitate leadership and frequent professional development opportunities. Consequently, Westcliff University (WU) has contended with these issues by creating an online intensive English program called Reimagining English as an Additional Language (REAL).
Reimagining English as an Additional Language
Making Video Clips in an EFL Speaking Course: A Case Study
Video is a familiar tool for Generation Z students, and it is increasingly becoming a trendy, dominant means of communication. Creating video clips in a language class seems to be one of the interesting techniques that can give students more opportunities to practice their target language. This study, therefore, focused on investigating students’ perceptions of video-making and the usefulness of creating video clips in an EFL speaking course by employing qualitative and quantitative research methods. Data were collected from a questionnaire to 89 students with closed-ended and open-ended items, semi-structured interviews, and teacher journals. Quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, whereas qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis. The results of this research showed that making video clips brought many benefits to students particularly in their speaking skills, language competence and knowledge, self-awareness, social communication skills and teamwork, and internet and technical skills. The findings also suggested that video clips could be a great medium to enhance students’ speaking performances and may be applied for a wider scope with similar contexts.
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Metaphors of Mood in English and Vietnamese from Systemic Functional Grammar
Systemic functional grammar is particularly concerned with the role of mood in performing interpersonal meta-functions. Mood is an indispensable and universal category for most languages, expressing the speaker’s attitude and communication behavior towards the utterance content and the listener. Metaphors of mood are represented by one or more grammatically specific variations in terms of mood. This mode at the level of compatible expressions can be transformed into metaphorical expressions, making the language’s ability to choose extremely rich and adaptable to speech situations. The article will (1) generalize the content of the metaphor of mood, analyze and make statistics of the metaphor of mood in three subgroups: declarative, interrogative, imperative and the transformation of mood from congruence expression to metaphorical expression; (2) relate to Vietnamese - a language that is different in terms of typology from English, but it has similarities in the way it reflects the speaker’s behavior, and intentions; (3) make use of auxiliary verbs (English) with particles denoting mood (Vietnamese) when expressing mood in metaphorical expression. The article basically uses “Mountains beyond Mountains: A Memoir of Vietnam, Cancer and Meaningful Work” by DianaDudzik (2019) in English and its Vietnamese version as the source of the data to give the evidence for the above issues. The article also suggests some ways of applying the grammatical metaphor of mood to increase the effectiveness of communication.
The Application of Scaffolding Strategies in Dealing with Challenges in IELTS Online Writing Classes
Under the adverse impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, an increasing number of schools and universities, institutions and centers have fully shifted from onsite learning to online learning. This transition has resulted in unplanned challenges, which draw attention and concerns of many teachers and scholars about teaching and learning effectiveness. In online classes, teachers should effectively scaffold students in order to facilitate the co-constructed learning process. Although there has been a large number of research on scaffolding students’ learning in face-to-face ELT classes, little has been talked about effective teachers’ scaffolding strategies in online classes, especially online IELTS writing; therefore, this is still worth receiving further considerations. The two main aims of this paper are (1) analyze the most noticeable difficulties that students encountered in the online IELTS writing classes, including low level of digital literacy, poor linguistic backgrounds, anxiety when receiving teachers’ feedback, and unsuitable test types; (2) suggest some tools and practical recommendations so that the teachers could conduct scaffolding strategies effectively to support students overcome those difficulties in online IELTS writing classes.
Teaching and Learning English Speaking Online with Google Classroom: A Descriptive Study
Since 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many disturbances in education, which enables the superiority of online learning worldwide and also in Vietnam. Among the learning-facilitating applications and platforms, Google Classroom has been chosen to serve the e-learning process in a university in central Vietnam, yet it is witnessing a controversy over its effectiveness and user satisfaction. This descriptive study aims to investigate the perceptions of lecturers and second-year students majoring in English Teacher Education in terms of its ease of use and usefulness, and the satisfaction of users towards Google Classroom. Also, the research is expected to explore the way they use Google Classroom in teaching and learning English-speaking skill, and the difficulties facing these users while using this application. To achieve these aims, two online surveys using the 5-point Likert scale were distributed to two groups of participants: 7 lecturers teaching speaking online and 74 random sophomores majoring in English Teacher Education. The data collected were analyzed with the assistance of IBM SPSS Statistic 22. The results suggest that most of the lecturers and students have a positive perception of Google Classroom, and they mainly use it as a platform for sharing materials, giving and collecting assignments and delivering feedback. As for the difficulties, not being able to create various practice-speaking activities and making real-time interactions on this application are the most common problems that teachers and learners encounter.