Tạp chí Khoa học Trường Đại học Mở Hà Nội

THE POTENTIALS OF UTILIZING KARAOKE ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

Pham Thi Duong, Nguyen Thi Nam — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0700

Karaoke, a form of entertainment that employs a karaoke machine to present audio, visual, and textual information simultaneously, holds potential for language teaching due to its effective combination of language comprehension and verbal expression. This study investigates the impact of karaoke activities on English pronunciation by engaging 27 English major students in five karaoke-based pronunciation learning sessions. Both pretests and posttests, along with survey questionnaires and interviews, were employed to assess changes in participants’ pronunciation competency before and after the treatment. The findings demonstrate positive improvement in participants’ pronunciation as a result of karaoke activities.

ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF USING GOOGLE TRANSLATE IN WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AT DONG NAI TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

Nguyen Hong Ngoc, Huynh Nhu Yen Nhi — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0700

The education system has witnessed continuous developments in recent decades, driven by the Internet and computers. These advancements have greatly benefited learners, particularly in the realm of English language acquisition. Google Translate has emerged as an essential tool for English learners in today’s education. Google Translate (GT) is revolutionizing the way students do their English writing practice. More precisely, they are exploiting the enhanced precision provided by GT to economize on time and effort when finishing written tasks. Nevertheless, students’ ever-increasing reliance on these technologies might yield unfavorable consequences on their writing proficiency. This study examined the use of GT by students at Dong Nai Technology University (DNTU) and students ‘perspectives regarding the employment of GT in their writing tasks. The objective was to determine the influence of GT on students’ writing abilities and understand students’ perceptions toward the GT employment. This study utilized a mixed methodology, with participants are sophomores and juniors from the Faculty of Foreign Languages. Data was collected by sending out online questionnaire to 120 students and interviewing 40 students. The findings suggested that students extensively used GT, despite expressing worries about the accuracy of

COLLOCATIONAL ERRORS IN THE SECOND-DEGREE ENGLISH MAJORS’ VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS AT HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY AND SOLUTIONS

Nguyen The Hoa — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0700

The study was conducted with an aim to know more about the causes and the patterns of the collocational errors that the second- degree English majors at Hanoi Open University often make when they do their Vietnamese- English translation. Different pedagogical solutions are suggested to both translation lecturers and students. The writer makes use of both quantitative and qualitative methods to do the research. The data for the study are the lecturer’s and students’ viewpoints, attitudes, in-class translational activities and practice in the results taken from a questionnaire, translation worksheets, mini-translation tests and (in-class, email) interviews with six translation lecturers and thirty-four seconddegree English students. Causes and common collocational error patterns in VietnameseEnglish translations have been found out side by side with the plausible solutions. The study will be useful for both lecturers and students to improve the quality of Vietnamese- English translations. In particular, the second- degree English majors will have improvements in making their Vietnamese- English translations more natural and better with collocations.

ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF AUDIO-VISUAL SCRIPT EXPOSURE IN LISTENING COMPREHENSION LESSONS

Pham Thi Kim Tuoi, Huynh Nhu Yen Nhi — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0700

Pre-listening activities have been proven to be efficient for enhancing learners’ English listening abilities. Nevertheless, there has been insufficient attention given to the impact of showing students audio scripts during while-listening stage on their performance and attitudes. To be specific, that students can see audio scripts is regarded as a highly effective instructional tool for enhancing their English listening comprehension skills because it allows them to clearly perceive and comprehend the listening content, as well as boosts their eagerness to acquire English language skills. The objectives of this study are first to gain some insight into the difficulties faced by 80 English-majored students at Dong Nai Technology University when it comes to listening comprehension. Accordingly, it examines their perspectives on the exposure of audio scripts at the stage of while listening. Questionnaires and interviews were employed as tools for gathering essential data. According to the questionnaires, students had significant listening challenges throughout stages of a lesson including lack of vocabulary, pronunciation skills, background knowledge, memorization, concentration, ability to process the information in a short time. Furthermore, the interviews revealed that the display of audio scripts not only improves but also motivates students in their learning journey. In short, the students found the application of audiovisual scripts as a facilitator in an English listening comprehension lesson.

SOME SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH PRESENTATION SKILL FOR THE 3RD- YEAR- STUDENTS OF FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES- HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION

Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet, Le Thi Thanh Nga — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0700

Presentation is one of the most important skills for language learners and other professions in general. To make a successful and effective presentation, students need to practice many language skills and master public speaking skills. This research was conducted by asking survey questions and interviews to find out students’ attitudes toward presentation skills, the difficulties students encounter and suggest methods to help students present more effectively and confidently in order to have good results in studying and effectiveness in future work. Because the implementation time is limited and the FFL, UTEHY has different training facilities, we only conducted research on the 3rd year English major students in My Hao campus. From the above difficulties and challenges that students are facing, we offer suggestions to help students make better presentations such as improving vocabulary, developing an attractive and coherent topic, mastering speaking speed and voice, using body languages naturally and exploiting visual aid from power point, mind map, posters, painting etc.

AN INVESTIGATION ON DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT DONG NAI TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY IN WRITING ACADEMIC ESSAYS

Nguyen Thi Dieu Huyen, Pham Thi Lam — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0700

University students in Vietnam are facing a growing demand to use English in their academic and future career endeavors. Among four skills, English writing is a significant challenge for students, particularly those pursuing a major in academic English language, as they are expected to demonstrate the proficiency in a diverse range of writing styles. Consequently, writing difficulties among students have consistently emerged as a primary concern in writing courses. Nevertheless, Dong Nai Technology University has not yet done any research study to examine this particular element. The objective of this study was to examine the challenges encountered by students when attempting to meet the criteria of an academic English essay. Subsequently, some solutions were applied to enhance the quality of students’ essays. The author of this study employs a questionnaire and an interview to investigate the English-majored students’ essay writing practice and challenges at Dong Nai Technology University. The survey was sent to a total of 140 students, and the findings revealed that students had not only a low frequency of writing practice but also encountered many barriers to meet writing criteria including task achievement, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, coherence and cohesion . In addition, the interview’ results provided a more comprehensive picture of students’ challenges in writing academic essays. The study also indicates the importance of teachers’ feedback and students’ reading and writing practice in enhancing students’ writing proficiency.

A STUDY ON TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS’ READING COMPETENCE

Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, Pham Thi Lam, Cam Lien — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0700

Previous studies have investigated the significance of reading proficiency in acquiring the English language and brought attention to the reading difficulties learners have in their learning process. This study examines the use of speed-reading strategies as a method to enhance learners’ reading ability. Seventy senior English-major students from the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Dong Nai Technology University were participating in the study during their final semester. The study employed a mixed methodology, which included collecting quantitative data from a pretest-posttest paradigm without a control group, questionnaires before and after the use of speed reading strategies, and qualitative data through observations. The students’ reading competence was assessed using a standardized IELTS reading test at the start of the study, followed by a pre questionnaire and 10 hours of speed reading training with observations. After the training, the students took a posttest to determine the discrepancy between the pre-test and post-test, and post questionnaire was sent to the participants to understand their opinion about the use of strategies in doing tests. Speed reading techniques were found to enhance students’ performance on reading tests and cultivate a positive attitude towards reading comprehension. The students gained valuable reading skills and strategies that contribute to academic success.

CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN VINAMILK COMMERCIALS IN VIETNAM

Hoang Thi Oanh — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0700

The aim of the study is to discover conceptual metaphors in thirteen Vinamilk television commercials in 2023. The method of identification of metaphor of MIP (2007) is applied to generate potential conceptual metaphors. Two types of target domains relating to the products and target customers are cued while fourteen source domains are interpreted through thirteen tables of mapping of conceptual metaphors in these TV commercials. The generation of these conceptual metaphors reflect the typical features of conceptual metaphors in advertising discourses and four vital marketing strategies and price policy of Vinamilk at present.

THE IMPORTANCE OF NON-VERBAL ELEMENTS IN ENGLISH COMMUNICATION

Nguyen Dinh Sinh — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0700

Non-verbal elements play a crucial role in daily life communication. Communication may be comprehended by both the sound element and signal element. In speaking a language in general and English in specific, we cannot deny the importance of non-verbal elements. This article examines the comprehension of the 3rd-year English majored undergraduates at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education of such elements. The result of the study proves that the role and a number of common non-verbal elements, under the view of cognitive aspect, has significant influence on the conveyance of messages from different communication situations in English of the English majored undergraduates in their 3rd year at university. The results of the study can be taken as a useful reference for English language learners, speakers and educators as well.

A STUDY ON SOME STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE VOCABULARY FOR FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION

Hoang Thi Hoa, Le Thi Thanh Nga, Nguyen Thi Bich Hanh — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0700

Mastering vocabulary is one of the most critical factors that help learners improve their language proficiency. However, this also puts pressure on learners, especially language learners. This research was carried out to investigate common vocabulary strategies students use for learning the words for the first time and methods for reinforcing the learned ones. In addition, the author tried to identify drawbacks that students deal with in vocabulary acquisition. Subsequently, recommendations are provided to address the challenges encountered in vocabulary acquisition. The researcher conducted this study by analyzing related documents, delivering survey questionnaires to 46 first-year English students from class 113221, and interviewing three Faculty of Foreign Languages teachers at UTEHY. The findings reveal a diverse range of strategies students employ for vocabulary learning, highlighting both frequently utilized and underutilized approaches. Consequently, the researcher hoped that the results of this study would provide valuable insights for both learners and teachers, enabling them to adapt and optimize their learning strategies or teaching methods for enhanced progress in vocabulary acquisition.