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This study investigates the instructional strategies Vietnamese EFL lecturers prefer to employ to teach productive skills of general English in online and face-to-face teaching environments. Thirty-eight lecturers from ۶ Vietnamese universities participated and responded to a questionnaire with ۲۹ close-ended questions detailing instructional strategies. Four of the participants were invited to join the semi-interview about the reasons for their preference for instructional strategies. The collected data were analyzed with descriptive statistics for Quantitative data and content analysis for qualitative data. The findings indicate that the most favored strategy in both teaching environments is describing pictures while opinion sharing and group discussion are much more favorable in the face-to-face than in the online teaching environment. Additionally, certain strategies are preferred in the face-to-face setting over instruction in the online setting and vice versa. Some primary reasons for lecturers’ preference for instructional strategies were identified and participants gave some recommendations of choosing appropriate strategies for teaching productive skills via interviews. These findings highlight EFL lecturers' preferences in selecting instructional strategies to teach English productive skills in the two teaching contexts and underscore implications for choosing proper instructional strategies.

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Research on L۲ learners’ engagement has highlighted the impact of emotional engagement on task performance to uphold their language development, but there remains a need for further empirical evidence, especially from the text-driven perspective on task-based language teaching. The present mixed-methods study aims to explore Vietnamese EFL learners’ emotional engagement during two task-based lessons driven by two text genres. One speaking task and a writing task that engaged the learners in solving problems driven by the texts were implemented in two three staged lessons. Quantitative data was collected by using a post-task questionnaire analyzed with SPSS v,۲۹ to gauge ۳۳ English undergraduates’ emotional engagement, and an interview was conducted with eight students on a voluntary basis to delve into factors that influence their emotional engagement. Observations during the lessons were further used to triangulate evidence. Descriptive statistics revealed that the participants were highly emotionally engaged in both task-based lessons, expressing high enjoyment and low anxiety. Further thematic analysis of engagement during the lessons indicated that pre-task visual prompting, text processing, the proper cognitive challenges of tasks and texts, and peer monitoring were the main influential factors. These findings imply that task design and implementation based on engaging texts potentially heighten learners’ emotional engagement in task-based performance, thereby facilitating their language acquisition.

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Abstract
This study aimed to examine the frequency of reading strategy use among EFL high school students and the relationship between their strategy use and reading comprehension achievement. The research sample consisted of ۳۲۸ EFL students from four high schools in Central Vietnam. Data collection was carried out using three primary instruments: a questionnaire, follow-up interviews, and two reading comprehension tests. The findings revealed that most participants expressed a generally positive attitude toward the use of reading strategies. However, their actual use of these strategies was found to be limited during the reading process. Moreover, the study identified a significant correlation between the frequency of reading strategy use and students’ reading performance: students who employed reading strategies more frequently achieved higher reading scores. Based on these findings, several pedagogical implications were proposed for both EFL students and teachers, aimed at enhancing the teaching and learning of reading skills in EFL contexts.
 

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                 «عدم» یکی از موضوعات پیچیده فلسفی و عرفانی است که معنای آن می‌تواند به یکی از مسائل مهم هستی‌شناسی یعنی آغاز و انجام جهان پاسخ دهد. بازتاب معانی عدم در عرفان اسلامی و آیین بودایی قابل تأمل است. مولانا در مقام یکی از عرفای بزرگ اسلامی، با بهره‌گیری از گستره دانش خویش در زمینه متون حِکمی و عرفانی و خلاقیت‌های شاعرانه‌، واژه عدم را در معانی بسیاری به کار برده است. در متون بودایی پراجنیاپارمیتا و مادیامیکاکاریکا که از متون مهم تعلیمی آیین بودا به شمار می‌روند، عدم و معنای آن، یکی از موضوعات اصلی و محوری است.
    در این پژوهش به شیوه توصیفی ـ تحلیلی، تلاش شده است ضمن معرفی دو متن مهم بودایی، دیدگاه مولانا درباره عدم در مثنوی با معانی آن در این دو متن بررسی و تطبیق شود. نتیجه نشان می‌دهد عدم خواندن ماهیت پدیده‌های جهان هستی بدون هیچ تفاوتی در مثنوی و متون بودایی آمده است؛ اما تلقی عدم از آغاز و انجام پدیده‌ها، حق یا حقیقت مطلق و غایت فنای سالک معانی دیگری است که با اختلاف و تفاوت در متون مورد نظر آمده است. ریشه این تفاوت‌ها را می‌توان در نوع معرفت و هستی‌شناسی اسلام و آیین بودایی یافت. در عرفان اسلامی حق‌تعالی، پدیدآورنده هستی و غایت فنای سالک است؛ در حالی که در متون بودایی جهان از عدم آمده و به عدم می‌رود و غایت سالک، رهایی از رنج و رسیدن به نیروانا است.

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Contemporary literature in English language teaching shows some impacts of oral narrations on learners’ speaking competence and phonological processing. However, little research has explored the relationship between this methodological practice and young learners’ L۲ reading comprehension. This paper investigates the effect which story retelling has on young English learners’comprehension of reading. The researchers employed quantitative and qualitative approaches. Forty children were chosen from two different classes of a comparable level of proficiency and assigned into two groups for a two-month treatment. The results show that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group on the reading comprehension posttest. The questionnaire and observation data also indicated that the children responded positively to story retelling and that story retelling brought about excitement in the reading class, motivated young learners to read as well as shaped young learners’ behaviours and attitudes. This study suggests using story retelling more often in L۲ language programs for young learners.

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Thai students’ writing in English is a chronic problem documented in the literature of English Language Teaching (ELT) in Thailand. However, little research has been conducted on how Thai teachers and students perceive the importance of English-writing and what difficulties and expectations/suggestions they have in teaching and learning this skill at upper-secondary schools (U-SS). This study, therefore, plans to fill this gap by employing two sets of surveys and semi-structured interviews with ۱۱۴ teachers and ۱۷۰ students from ۳۰ different U-SS in the Northeastern part of Thailand and two provincial supervisors of Foreign-Language-Education Divisions (Pro-Sup). Besides their various stated personal and contextual problems in terms of time constraint, insufficient resources and poorly-motivated and mixed-ability students, national test structures and the presence of untrained English teachers, the participants acknowledged the importance of English-writing and expected to have this skill taught at all school levels. These findings suggest that to improve the teaching and learning practices of this skill at U-SS in Thailand and other countries with similar contexts, relevant support and necessary reforms from teachers, school leaders and national-test and policymakers are needed.

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Teacher written feedback (TWF) has received growing attention from researchers and teachers. Although TWF arguably targets multiple dimensions of students’ writing, research to date has largely focused on the relationship between written corrective feedback and language development. More research is needed to understand TWF more holistically and as a two-way social process (Storch, ۲۰۱۸). As such, it is important to understand students’ perspectives on TWF in different instructional contexts. The present study explores Vietnamese EFL students’ perceptions of TWF practices and their preferences for TWF. Data was collected from ۹۷ English-major students in a Vietnamese tertiary setting by means of a questionnaire and follow-up interviews. The findings show that while TWF tended to weigh more on the linguistic end of the form-meaning continuum, students preferred TWF to target both form and global issues of content/idea development and writing style. However, students were divided in their preferences for comprehensive/selective feedback and for direct/indirect feedback. Although students were aware of the necessity of revising their writing upon reception of feedback, they reported different post-feedback actions. Above all, students’ preferences and expectations were underpinned by their own beliefs about the values of TWF that encompass both cognitive/non-cognitive and affective dimensions. The study offers important pedagogical implications for planning written feedback in writing instruction.

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Lexical richness in written language production has been examined in different contexts and in relation to different genres but research into the effects of within-genre topics on lexical richness is still limited and takes little account of learners’ perspectives. The present study therefore sought to understand the effects of topics on lexical richness (lexical density, lexical diversity and lexical sophistication) in written essays by Vietnamese EFL learners. Data were collected from sixty-four English-major university students who each wrote four essays on four different topics across two genres (persuasive and descriptive) in their normal classes as progress tests. Ten students were also interviewed after they had completed all the essays to understand their perceptions of the writing topics. Lextutor’s VocabProfile was used to obtain measures of lexical density, lexical diversity and lexical sophistication. The results showed mixed effects of writing topics on these three lexical measures. Learner perspectives provided insights into how cognitive and affective individual factors contributed to the complexity of topic influence. Pedagogical implications are discussed in regard to how to enhance productive lexical use in writing through task selection and instructional planning.

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Second language (L۲) education researchers have recently been concerned about students' willingness to communicate (WTC) since communication competence is considered an ultimate goal of L۲ education. This study examines Vietnamese teachers' perceptions of L۲ WTC and their strategies to encourage students to communicate inside the classroom. Data were collected from interviews with ۳۰ Vietnamese EFL university teachers. Results showed that all the teachers believed students' L۲ 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 L۲ 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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The present research explores the trajectory of changing emotions throughout the lifelong experience of English language learning and language use among English-as-an-Additional-Language (EAL) students at a Vietnamese university. It employs a qualitatively-driven mixed methods research design with two phases of data collection using initial and exploratory self-designed questionnaires, followed by semi-structured interviews and reflective journals. The quantitative data, collected from English majored students aimed to capture the range of emotions the participants experienced in speaking English. The qualitative data, collected from the students recruited from the questionnaire phase, revealed the complexity and dynamism of their emotions in the process of language learning and use. The findings show that the participants experienced shifting emotions across the different contexts of language learning, including school, out-of-school, and tertiary contexts. The emotions were seen to be dynamic, socially and contextually constructed, emerging from their social circumstances and interaction with others. They were interwoven with self-concept, language learning success, perceived standing in different communities, and relationships with others. The results also provide theoretical and practical implications for emotion research and pedagogies of EAL teaching and learning.
 

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Research on Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) has received much attention in language education in Vietnam. However, research on investigating perceptions of secondary school teachers towards TBLT implementation in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam is still scarce. The current study investigates secondary school English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ understandings of task concept and TBLT principles. It also explores teachers’ attitudes and concerns in implementing TBLT. Ninety-eight secondary school EFL teachers participated in the study. Framed by TBLT principles adapted from Nguyen, Jaspaert and Van den Branden (۲۰۱۸), a survey was used to collect quantitative data. The results indicated that the teachers generally had a high level of understanding of task concept and TBLT principles. In addition, they showed positive views on implementing TBLT in their practices. The results also addressed teachers’ concerns in implementing TBLT into their teaching practices including time constraints, the mismatch between the reform goals proposed by the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) and current teaching policies at the secondary school level as well as the large class size. Accordingly, insightful implications for a better TBLT implementation in Vietnam and similar contexts elsewhere have been taken into consideration.
 

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This qualitative study examined the beliefs of Vietnamese primary teachers regarding writing instruction. The participants included ۱۲ in-service teachers from five primary schools in a large city in Vietnam. The data consisted of in-depth semi-structured interviews. Qualitative analysis of the data showed several interesting insights into the teachers' beliefs about writing instruction for young learners and the challenges they faced in their classroom teaching. All the participating teachers believed that writing was very important for primary school learners, and teaching writing was one of the key tasks for primary school teachers. The teachers considered that students' lack of life experiences and creativeness was the most considerable challenge in teaching writing, but they faced several practical constraints in helping students overcome the difficulties. Notably, the teachers were supportive of methods to enhance the creativeness and emotions in students' writing, but they reported using model texts in teaching frequently. The socio-cultural contexts of teaching and learning were taken into account in the interpretation of the findings. This study is the first step to inform professional development programs and pedagogy to enhance the effectiveness of teaching writing skills to young learners at primary schools in Vietnam, and beyond.
 

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The breakout and intensification of the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic caused dramatic changes to education across the world. Both teachers and students were not prepared for the sudden change regarding the mode of teaching and learning: onsite to offsite and offline to online. The current study seeks to identify frequent problems that first-year English major students have during their online learning process and explore their suggestions for the improvement of the situation. Data were collected from an online survey of ۸۹ first-year English-majored students. The students’ obstacles were identified by the ۳۰-item questionnaire, and their suggestions for positive changes were explored thanks to open-ended questions. The results show that learning environment is the students’ biggest problem due to the distraction of attention during home study. The extent of problems in six areas: (۱) self-regulation, (۲) technological literacy, (۳) student isolation, (۴) technological sufficiency, (۵) learning resources, and (۶) learning environments are significantly different. Among the suggestions, the students expected improvements in (۱) teachers’ pedagogy, (۲) students’ health, and (۳) assessment scheme. Acknowledging the problems and putting forward suggestions for emergency remote teaching could contribute to the development of sustainable online teaching as a complementary mode of instruction in the new normal.   
 

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The combination of face-to-face and online teaching, also called Blended learning (BL) has practically become one of the prevalent models of teaching and learning all over the world. Particularly, it has been applied as a new trend of using technology to concurrently combine in-class and out-of-class learning to optimize the educational impacts on students. However, BL is still quite a new learning model and has not been applied widely in teaching English in Vietnam. The current study was conducted to explore students’ perceptions of BL, the difficulties students think they have, and the percentage of face-to-face and online learning they prefer when learning in the BL environment. Sixty civil engineering students participating in the survey filled out a questionnaire after the forms of BL and the Learning Management System (LMS) Moodle had been introduced to them. The findings indicated that more than half of the participants were stimulated by BL and willing to take on the challenges.  Nevertheless, some concerns about the lack of IT skills to fulfill the requirements of the BL course cannot be ignored.
 

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While cognitive and social-affective strategies have straightforward impacts on learners’ academic performance attached to specific tasks in a communicative and student-centered language classroom, metacognitive strategies, with their vigorous power, are arguably worth more attention. This group of strategies plays a vital role in making students become more self-directed and autonomous learners. This paper reported on a study investigating Vietnamese university students’ perception of using metacognitive strategies in their listening activities. Specifically, ۱۴۰ English majors at the foreign language department of a university in Vietnam were involved in the study. Based on quantitative data from a questionnaire slightly adapted from Vandergrift et al. (۲۰۰۶), it was found that students in the study generally had a relatively high awareness of metacognitive strategies, with varying levels across the five subcategories of specific strategies. In addition, a comparison between the two groups (first-year and third-year students) showed minor differences regarding their listening strategy awareness. The findings suggested that metacognitive strategies should be encouraged, and listening strategies should be instructed early in English education programs.  

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بیوچار به عنوان یک جاذب نمک می تواند یونهای نمک ، مثلا سدیم، را با فرایند فیزیکوشیمیایی جذب سطحی از محیط خارج یا جدا کرده و باعث بهسازی آبهای لب­شورشود، ولی مطلب کمی در باره سازوکار و موثر بودن آن در دسترس است. هدف این پژوهش بررسی اثرات بیوچار بود بر(۱) ظرفیت جذب سطحی سدیم و سازوکار آن و بر (۲) هدایت الکتریکی (EC) و جابجا شدن پتاسیم (K). برای تهیه بیوچار از پوسته برنج، شش درجه حرارت برای آتشکافت (pyrolysis) شامل (۳۵۰،۲۵۰، ۴۵۰، ۵۵۰، ۶۵۰، و ۷۵۰ درجه سانتی گراد) به کار رفت. سپس، از بیوچارهای به دست آمده به عنوان جاذب سدیم برای جذب این یون از یک آب شور که حاوی غلظت های مختلف NaCl بود استفاده شد. بعد از آن ، مدل ایزوترم لانگمیر (LMM) و مدل ایزوترم Dubinin-Radushkevick (DRM) به کار رفت تا وابستگی سدیم جذب­سطحی شده به غلظت سدیم در حالت تعادل به صورت کمّی تعیین شود. تعیین کمّی به روش LMM آشکار ساخت که با افزایش درجه حرارت، ظرفیت بیشینه بیوچارها برای جذب سطحی سدیم از مقدار ۸/۲۵ تا ۸/۶۷ میلی گرم در گرم زیاد شد. همچنین، مقدار EC کاهش یافت و مقدار K جابجا شده از روی بیوچار با افزایش درجه حرارت آتشکافت زیاد شد. تعیین کمّی به روش DRM آشکار ساخت که سازوکارجذب­­­سطحی سدیم عمدتا یک فرایند فیزیکی است. نیز، رابطه ی معنادار بین مقدار سدیم جذب­سطحی شده و مقدارK جابجا شده از بیوچار چنین اشاره داشت که سازوکار تبادل یونی میتواند هردو حاضرباشد. خلاصه اینکه یافته های این پژوهش حاکی از آن است که می توان با استفاده از بیوچار و از طریق جذب­سطحی فیزیکی، شوری آب لب­شور را کاهش داد ،EC را کم کرد، و نسبت K:N را افزایش داد.