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Community service learning (CSL) has been regarded as a pedagogical tool which provides students with opportunities to participate in a service activity to meet social needs and simultaneously gain benefits for themselves. There has been a tendency in the world to include CSL in higher education training programs. This study aims to investigate Vietnamese EFL teachers’ and students’ perceptions of CSL and their practices of a CSL-integrated course at a university of foreign languages in central Vietnam. The study involved 61 teachers and 201 students and employed quantitative and qualitative approaches. The findings revealed that both teachers and students showed strong support for CSL, and that the teachers, especially more experienced teachers, had more positive beliefs than the students about the five categories surveyed: perceptions of CSL, role of the school, benefits for teachers, benefits for students, and feasibility of CSL integration. Also, the participants believed that CSL was to be a tool to help students develop professionally, personally, and academically.

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Second language (L2) education researchers have recently been concerned about students' willingness to communicate (WTC) since communication competence is considered an ultimate goal of L2 education. This study examines Vietnamese teachers' perceptions of L2 WTC and their strategies to encourage students to communicate inside the classroom. Data were collected from interviews with 30 Vietnamese EFL university teachers. Results showed that all the teachers believed students' L2 WTC inside the classroom influenced the development of second language acquisition (SLA) and perceived their role in encouraging WTC. Also, the teachers revealed that they used a wide range of strategies to encourage students to communicate. The findings suggest that L2 teachers use a wide range of strategies to promote students’ WTC inside the classroom. It might be necessary for Vietnamese EFL teachers to update strategies to encourage WTC inside the classroom.
 

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Emotions are well-documented to influence behaviors, learning process, and learning outcomes. Boredom, a negative emotion, can affect students significantly in academic settings. This case study explores the causes of students’ boredom in foreign language classrooms and their coping strategies. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with twenty English-majored juniors learning Chinese as an additional required language at a university in Vietnam. Results showed that boredom in English language and Chinese language classrooms could be classified into four broad categories: lesson-related, teacher-related, student-related, and others (e.g., learning environment). As the students reported, task diversity, teachers’ sense of humor, and students’ motivation were supposed to reduce boredom in language classrooms. To overcome this negative emotion, the students used various facilitative and debilitative strategies. They positively attempted to mitigate boredom by initiating jokes with their teachers and classmates, suggesting interesting topics to discuss, and raising hands to change the classroom atmosphere. However, other students tended to have gossips with their classmates, text their friends, and go outside for a while. The results suggest implications for improving foreign language teaching and learning in Vietnam and other similar contexts.
 

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It is argued that in our current digital era, MALL (mobile-assisted language learning) is an indispensable mode either for independent self-learning or for integrating with the school curriculum. The present study explores the possibility of using gamification as a home assignment in English as a foreign language course for students of non-English majors at a university in Vietnam. Data was collected and analyzed using 69 questionnaire responses and 41 essays written by students in a class of General English. The questionnaire and essay topic prompt required students to provide an evaluation of their personal experience learning English with Duolingo outside the classroom, as part of the compulsory home assignments during a 15-week semester. The questionnaire items were in Vietnamese and the essays were either in Vietnamese or English for students’ convenience. The results showed detailed benefits and problems of learning English with Duolingo as perceived by the students. The key benefits include the fact that Duolingo is a valuable resource: rich and free; the limitation is mainly learners’ lack of experience with the application. It is suggested that with teachers’ guidance, Duolingo could be used as an effective and motivating tool for independent learning.
 

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Lentil consumption has been constantly growing due to its nutritional composition and functional properties. Lentil seeds are rich in several bioactive compounds with an effect on decreasing the symptoms of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and aging. In this study, the effects of acetone extract (GLA extract), soluble fiber (GLSF), and protein (PGL) extracted from green lentils (concentration of 50 mg/ml) on anti-diabetic properties were investigated by measuring the inhibitory activity of alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase. There was no significant between the inhibitory activity of alpha-amylase activity by GLA extract and PGL (p < 0.05). Also GLA extract had the greatest effect on inhibition of glucosidase activity (67.08%). Fluorescence quenching had studied the changes in the tertiary structure of alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase using different concentrations (0, 0.25, 0.50, 1.00, 2.00, 4.00 mg/mL) of GLA extract, GLSF, and PGL. The results showed that all three compounds extracted from green lentils play as a natural source to inhibit the activity of alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase enzymes and be used in the production of functional foods.