Advantages of studying in the group in Hanoi University

Introduction

Each student often has at least one study strategy that he or she felt most important whether that is studying in a quiet place, taking good notes, being a good listener, making a schedule and sticking to it, reading every class assignment or preparing for the test. It is said that good study habit is a key to success. If a student has efficient method, he or she can have good result. However, if they have no or unsuitable strategy, they can fail the examinations in college. In the last century, people could realize the positive effects of team work on society (O’Connel & Cuthbertson, 2009). In addition, Longman and Atkinton (1988) claimed that “the human being needs the support of others, as well as to support others. We are physically separate entities but we can’t develop in isolation” (p. 18). Recently, Vietnamese universities as well as other ones in foreign countries have been widely using the teamwork skills. To investigate thoroughly this mater, in this study, university students’ studying in group was explored. The problems occurring during the teamwork process are inevitable (Longman & Atkinton, 1988). However, this mini research only concentrates on the advantages of team after students use teamwork skill to finish their tasks.

Materials and methods

In order to gather data for the study, a questionnaire was designed because of its advantages. For example, we can investigate on a large scale in a short time and do not need any special equipment to get necessary information. There are twelve questions including both close and open ended items. The questionnaire was created to find out the ways students learn together, their attitude and the goals they achieve from studying in group.

Before the survey was administered, the questionnaire was tested by students of class 1a08 of Hanoi University. The survey was carried out in March, 2010. It was conducted in four classes in three different language departments of Hanoi University. Sixty students were all selected on a voluntary basis and delivered sixty questionnaires. The respondents answered the questionnaires in their break time. Before they answered the questions, all the queries about points of difficulty were responded and participants then progressed to finish the questionnaire. All the handouts were collected after 30 minutes.

Results and discussion

1. An overview about students’ learning in the group

It is obvious that the number of students studying in group in class made up the highest rate (58). It means that teamwork is considered a teaching method in college. Teachers used teamwork skill to teach in class. It is one of the main reasons why students study in group. This reason is the same as one of six reasons which Johnson (2003) cited by O’Connel and Cuthbertson (2009) listed “understanding group dynamics is central to education” (p. 3). Moreover, second question was made to ask respondents whether they have any difficulty in studying or not. All students revealed that they have trouble studying and they need help from their friends so they have to learn together. It is entirely reasonable as Santrock and Halonen’s opinion, they noted that revising with friends would stimulate you to do reading task and enable you to find out problematic points.

An investigation into students’ frequency of doing teamwork activity was conducted and the result of it showed that the majority of respondents spent much time learning in the group. Nearly half of students (48%) spent more than three times a week studying in group. A similar percentage 45 % practiced from 2 to 3 times a week. It means that a large number of students were aware of the importance of time for learning together. It can be claimed that when members spend much time learning together, they can organize the group more efficiently. According to Santrock and Halonen (1999) have already stated that “effective groups usually work in stages” (p. 38). He also explained that “efficient group accomplish their work in three stages: planning how they work together, solving the problem or exchanging points of view, and reviewing the quality of their work” (p. 39).

2. Students’ attitudes during teamwork process

From the chart above, one fourths (15) of respondents felt that it is normal to learn together in a group and the rest (45) assumed that studying in a group is an interesting method. None of them felt boring when study in group. It can be concluded that many students are attracted by this studying method. Because in fact, this is an interesting process and it makes learning more active (Longman & Atkinton, 1988).

The investigation into students’ application of teamwork skills in the group showed that the majority of students use necessary techniques when they learn with other people. Of 60 students who were questioned, 28 people sometimes pay attention to their coworkers’ opinions. 20 of them often notice and 10 students always listen to other people’s suggestions. It seemed that students have total responsibility for their group. Longman and Atkinton (1988) claimed that group discussion will be more active if members expound and pay attention carefully to other people.

When being asked about using teamwork skills, 24 respondents said that they often discuss and persuade other members. Particularly, 12 students always ask questions, discuss the objectives of the team and protect their ideas. It is clear that asking, discussing and persuading are the important teamwork skills in teamwork process. Because as far as Longman & Atkinton (1988), “ The purpose of such group is discussion of information. Therefore, learning becomes an active, rather than passive process.” (p. 184).

It is important to share with the team to create an environment of teamwork and it is also crucial to help one’s coworkers, which is the general theme of the team (Keyton, 2002) as cited in the book of O’Connel and Cuthbertson (2009). 22 of 60 students often help their coworkers during the studying process. Likewise, students sometimes give their teammates a hand. The numbers of people who always help other people is high (14 students). It is clear that each individual in the group understood the purpose of team. It goes in line with the findings of O’Connel and Cuthbertson (2009). He said that “Individuals often combine their talents and resources to complete a task, reach a goal or do something they would not be able to do their own” (p 5).

It can be seen from the table, 24 students often participate in group actively, whereas only 8 respondents always join in group activity and up to 16 students rarely do that. It seems that the majority of students are not enthusiastic and they are not aware of the importance of participating actively. The reasons may come from many fields. It may be because of their habit. Maybe they think that it is not necessary to take all the sections on time. It seems that students have misconception of this because according to Longman and Atkinton (1988), arriving on time for all the sections is one of the main responsibilities of group members.

In general, Vietnamese students knew how to apply teamwork skills into group work process as well as the ways to study in group effectively. It is clear that practicing these skills frequently is very important because Levi (2001) reported that it is very essential that members of the team should have social skills and routine to have the best goal when building a group.

3. The advantages of team work

As illustrated in chart 5, among five benefits listed: experiences, learning style, communication, knowledge, confidence, none of 60 students answered that they gain nothing from doing group work. And by choosing more than one answer, the respondents showed their achievement in different angles. Indeed, 50 of 60 students said that they are much more confident after each time they and their friends work together. Students not only feel more confident but also they have more experience, learning style, communication from their coworkers. 35 students gained more experience, 28 students studied the learning style of their teammates, and 40 students admitted that they can develop their communication skill since they learned in the group. It is clear that studying in the group helps the members improve many necessary skills. This conclusion is similar to the findings of Longman and Atkinton (1988) “working in groups adds a vital element to your education. It improves your ability to communicate, develop your project skills, and makes you better at dealing with conflict.” (p. 37). They also said that “effective groups tend to bring out the best in their members.” (p. 39)

As illustrated in the chart, approximately 50 students agreed that it is useful when studying in the group. This number is as four times as the number of students who thought it is a simple method. Particularly, none of them said it is useless. The data indicated that studying in the group seems really useful. It can be proved by benefits students gained from studying in group. The more advantages they gained, the higher they evaluated the group work.

The last question is about students’ opinion about importance of teamwork for their future job. 50 students thought that teamwork skills will play an important role in their job in future. The rest (10) were not sure about that. In fact, teamwork has become a compulsory part of working culture and many businesses now look at teamwork skills when evaluating an employee. It was proved by York, Davis and Wise (2000). They claimed that “today’s competitive business environments where innovation and (spread to market) are crucial, teaming plays a vital business role in bringing key contributors together to focus on join work objectives, common problems and developing innovative solution.” (p. 3). Moreover, Johnson (2003) as cited by O’Connel and Cuthbertson (2009) gave the reason why people should study in group is that: “understand group dynamics is central to creating effective businesses and industries” (p. 3).

Conclusion

In conclusion, this small-scale research has found out some points concerning students’ teamwork in terms of the ways they learn together, their attitudes towards learning in the group as well as the goals they have achieved from studying in the group. Generally, students have realized the usefulness of team work in their learning course. The majority of students applied this learning method to study thoroughly. They used some teamwork skills that will enable team members of the group to work together and achieve the team’s purposes. They appreciated it because it has brought many advantages such as the experience, knowledge, communication, learning style, confidence which they can gain from their friends. If teamwork technique is applied in universities, it is very good for the students themselves in their job in the future. Because teamwork skills are being increasingly used worldwide as the foundation of work today, it will be very useful if students can approach this working style before they graduate from the universities. It is strongly suggested that students should consider team work a strategy to learn and achieve desirable purpose.

Fourth-Year English Majors’ Career Orientation

I, Introduction 

“Employment is the huge part of adult life” (Asher, 2004, p.3). If a person makes a wrong career decision, he will suffer both financially and emotionally. In the 1990s, English degree was highly appreciated and versatile for numerous jobs. However, in modern society, employers tend to recruit graduates with specialized majors such as computer science or economics. Thus, English major students are often confused and get stuck in choosing career (DeGalan & Lambert, 2000). Hence, it is crucial that the research be carried out to give all English majors and the would-be ones an overall look at English major seniors’ career choice and their preparation for the future life-work so that they can take their own career plans to achieve success.

II, Materials and Methods

To collect the data, a questionnaire was developed. The subjects of the study were English major seniors of Hanoi University so a monolingual questionnaire was reasonably required. It comprises nine questions. The first two questions probe the general judgment on senior’s career orientation while the next two questions attempt to find out their popular career choice and the last five ones discover the way students prepare for their future jobs in terms of academic knowledge as well as social skills.

A survey was conducted at 3 English classes: 1A06, 6A06 and 7A06 of Hanoi University in April, 2010. Questionnaire papers were distributed to 48 females and 2 males on voluntary basis. The participations answered the questionnaires in their break time. Before they answered, the queries were responded and participants then progressed to finishing the questionnaire. All the handouts were completed and collected after 30 minutes. It took us several days to analyze the data. Finally, the data were recorded in the form of bar charts, pie charts and tables.

III, Results and Discussion

1. Some general judgment on fourth year English majors’ career orientation

The pie chart showed positive attitude of fourth-year English majors towards career orientation. The majority of asked students (90%) took career paths in advance whereas just a minority of them (10%) did not give any thought to the career planning. Apparently, almost all respondents had their own career planning. It will be the great advantage for them to launch successful career, which was strongly confirmed by Lawson (2002) and Asher (2004). All their research demonstrated that career orientation could boost new employees’ confidence and competence to fit in with their future jobs. As the result, they will gain more success and happy lifetime. For the all above benefits, it is definitely recommended that career orientation be built as soon as possible among undergraduates.

2. Career choice

2.1. The most popular career choice

Concerning English majors’ career choice, chart 2 highlighted the differences in the popularity of work fields. As can be seen from this chart, business contributing the highest percentage of students’ selection (55%) was highly preferable to any other fields. This finding was relevant to the deduction of DeGalan and Lambert (2000) that “business has enjoyed enormous growth and peaked in popularity” (p.9). Following this area was teaching (14%). Two other fields, Tourism, Publishing and Broadcasting made up lower choice with the same percentage (11%). Finally, translating was chosen by only 9% of respondents staying at bottom of the list.

With these results, it is clear that the number of Hanoi English majors who decided to become translators or interpreters as the trained majors was extremely limited. This conclusion proved the findings of Manabe (2009) that to become a translator, learner needed to possess not only excellent English skills but also deep and wide background knowledge of history, culture as well as other aspects of life. Correspondingly, translating is still a particularly challenging field with students. However, English majors are provided with valuable skills such as critical thinking, solid writing, and fluent speaking… which are very useful to different job fields, consequently, they can apply for various kinds of jobs. Lemire also (2006) emphasized that “where there are people who need help using words to communicate, there are jobs for English major” (p.5). Hence, “No one need worry about the future of English majors in colleges or universities” (DeGalan and Lambert, 2000, p. 11).

2.2. Key factors affecting job choice

Chart 3 indicated key factors contributing to job choice of English major seniors. A significant portion of respondents (72%) considered salary the salient factor when looking for work. It was more than three times as much as the percentage of students choosing their jobs based on their interest (20%). Nearly half of respondents, namely 48%, embarked on career fields because of the working-condition while just 25% of them gave heed to their own ability.

It is clear that most of students often paid more attention to external factors than internal factors when they applied for jobs. This trend did not appear to be congruent with findings of many experts. According to DeGalan and Lambert (2000), career planning should be done by choosing a job that not only is suitable with students’ ability but also challenges to develop their new skills as well as flair. They also emphasized, “If you make a decision that you can not tolerate and feel you must leave that job, you will then have both unemployment and self esteem issues to contend with.”(p.97). Therefore, aside from external working factors, internal working factors such as interest and ability should be put on thoughtful deliberation. “If you find jobs you love, you will never work a day in your life” (Asher, 2004, p.4).

3. Preparation

“Planning is the key to success” (Coplin, 2003). As the results, preparation is regarded as a decisive step to launch a successful career.

3.1. Academic preparation

As illustrated in table 4, English majors were more concerned with oral English than written English. Among 50 respondents, majority of them (23) confirmed that they spent a lot of time practicing speaking and listening and no one ignored those skills. Writing, meanwhile, was not fully appreciated by students. Most of them (43) sometimes (not frequently) or rarely or even never spent time practicing it, and just a few students (7) reported that they had the usual habit of exercising writing skills. However, DeGalan and Lambert (2000) emphasized that writing skill was very important to any employer. Through writing frequently, students can learn about critical thinking, paraphrase technique, analyzing and interpreting data as well as the way to express ideas clearly and precisely which can help them not only improve other skills but also satisfy the demand of employers. For all those advantages, besides studying verbal communication skills, English majors should appreciate the importance of writing skill, as the result, practice it more regularly and diligently.

As chart 4 showed, additional education or training were particularly appreciated by most of English major seniors. A substantial percentage of respondents (92%) considered obtaining other degrees or certificates besides English degrees necessary to get their future jobs. Just a modest number of English majors (4%) were confident to launch their career without any other education. Only a small number (4%) had neutral opinions about this. The trend of holding other degrees or certificates besides English could be explained that “English as a major is not job training” (p.115) as DeGalan and Lambert (2000) stated. According to their findings, English majors were provided with “liberal education” (p.115) - general knowledge rather than specified skills, “the content of academic major, in or of itself, is only transferable to those occupations…. such as editing, publishing and translating” (p.115). Hence, to meet the demand of the employment, English major students should be armed with additional education or training to get ready for job search.

Concerning the additional education or training of English major fellows, chart 5 highlights the popular fields students study besides English. Statistics presented economics as the dominant one with the highest students’ choice (84%). This tendency was directly traced to the 4th year English majors’ career selection, which was discussed in the previous part. As most of students decided to work in business, studying in economics fields was the deliberate choice. For this fact, it is strongly suggested that some specialized English, especially business English, should be introduced into the English department curriculum to accommodate the special demand of undergraduates.

3.2 Soft skill preparation

Table 2 shows that fourth-year English majors are supremely not confident in their social skills although they highly appreciate the role of these ones. Among 50 asked people, no one disclaimed the importance of soft skills but only 16 people reinforced to stay at the good degree. More than half of students (26) confirmed that they are at fair level. Worse still, eight respondents admitted to being extremely lack of those skills. It is undeniable that an inordinate number of students made inadequate preparation for social skills. This conclusion agrees with the view of many experts, “Students were considered high functioning, as indicated by intellectual capabilities, language skills and academic performance, but were lacking of social skills” (Kamps, Leonard, Vernon, 1992, p.282). However, aside from academic knowledge, some soft skills such as communication skills, problem-solving skills… are also regarded as the crucial factors required for the work placement (Coplin, 2002). So it is crucial that students pay more attention to improve these skills.

Chart 6 indicates some popular ways helping students sharpen their social skills. As can be seen from the chart, both part-time jobs and voluntary activities were in huge favor of more than half of respondents, which ranged from 53% to 57 %. Taking part in these activities, students can acquire a lot of communication skills as well as problem-solving skills, which are extremely valuable for their future jobs (Coplin, 2003). However, just a modest number of asked seniors (23%) became a member of clubs such as sports, English or social clubs… Obviously, students did not take full advantages of those kinds of activity. This underestimation of club’s significance completely contrasted with the review suggested by Coplin (2003). According to his findings, “certain pleasure activities are treated as skills for credit in college” (p.112). These experiences will develop students’ self-confidence, teamwork and interpersonal skills that help them cope with the world of work. For all those benefits, students are highly recommended to formulate all these viable strategies in order to develop social skills as much as possible.

IV, Conclusion

In brief, this small-scale research explored some significant points related to career orientation of 4th year English majors in teams of their career choice as well as their preparation for future job. The results demonstrated most of students had circumspect career orientation with variety of job choice and Business was concluded as the most popular. However, the key factors affecting job choice should be taken into more serious consideration. Concerning preparation, students should not only be prepared academically but also pick up more useful practical experience and soft skills. This research along with the above suggestions is expected to help students shape an illustrious career. “An effective orientation program takes time and effort but is well worth the investment” (Lawson, K, 2003).

The Secondary School Students’ Assessments Of Sexuality Education In Curriculum

1. Introduction

Sex education is currently a heated issue that attracts a great deal of attention nationwide and worldwide. Despite researchers and educators’ persuasion that sex education can bring about several benefits, many people, including parents and teachers, are unconvinced of this program being a positive school subject. There are pros and cons in their arguments which need careful consideration before implementation can be realized.

According to Rosen, Murray and Moreland (2004) “Sexuality education is the lifelong process of acquiring information and forming attitudes, beliefs, and values about identity, relationships, and intimacy” (p.4). In other words, sex education should be part of an advanced education program in order to assist children with adequate knowledge of a physical life. In fact, human reproduction and modern civilization would be impossible without the young generation being academically armed with this knowledge.

Despite this fact, school children in Viet Nam seem to be left with the impression that sex knowledge should be grasped by the children themselves. In other words, few schools officially teach this knowledge to school children, fearing that it is too sensitive and it may arouse their curiosity to the extent that they might experiment themselves on this.

In order to find out what secondary school children think about this problem, a mini research was done, hoping that it may throw some light to such areas as the importance of sex education, the age of acquiring this knowledge, the content of the sex education, and finally the method of instructing it to school children.

2. Methodology

In order to collect the data for the study, a questionnaire (Appendix) was developed. The subjects of this study were the secondary school students; therefore, a bilingual questionnaire (English/ Vietnamese) was designed. It was divided into 5 main parts with 9 questions. Some kinds of questions such as multi-choice, scale, close-ended were involved. The first part of the questionnaire aimed to find out the students’ assessments of importance of sexuality education. The second one explored the subjects’ opinions on the ages suitable for acquiring the knowledge of sexuality and the next one discovered students’ opinions on the contents and then the students’ suggestions for teaching sexuality knowledge to secondary students. The last one found out students’ opinion on the counter effect of sexuality education at school.

50 students at Le Loi Secondary School were selected randomly from different classes. They are all at the age of 13.

Before doing the official survey, we had a pilot survey in our own class to see whether or not our questionnaire was acceptable. From the comments of our colleagues, some questions in the questionnaire were adapted to fit the purpose of our primary research.

The official survey was carried out during a break time. Handouts were delivered to 50 participants on a voluntary basis. All the participants had time to read bilingual questions before progressing to completing all queries in the questionnaire. It took 40 minutes to give out and collect the handouts. All questionnaires were classified as appropriate.

3. Findings and discussion

3.1. Importance of sexuality education

As is shown in chart 1, a significant number of students (46%) agreed that sexuality education was important and 38% of them strongly supported that it was very important. In other words, 74% of the respondents support the introduction of sex program at secondary school. Another 10% held the view that it is quite important. Meanwhile only 6% of respondents considered it as an unimportant subject, which may be understood that they do not want to learn this subject at their age or else.

One noticeable thing is that majority of students highly appreciated sexuality education at schools. In fact, many teachers and health educators believe that sexuality education helps to reduce the risk-taking sexual behaviors which might lead to negative impacts like unplanned pregnancy, infection with sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, sexuality education can provide “opportunities for young people to explore their attitudes and values and to practice the decision-making and other life skills they need to be able to make informed choices about their sexual life” (International Technical Guidance On Sexuality Education: An evidence-informed approach for schools, teacher and health educators, 2009, p.2). In brief, sexuality education encourages young people to live safely and enjoy their sexual life.

Certainly, sexuality education programs in schools should help minimize the risks that the youth might face in the course of their sexual experiences. Then, another question that needs clarifying is the appropriate age range for sexuality education. The next part of survey will focus on this matter.

3.2. The age suitable for acquiring sex knowledge

As can be seen from chart 2, most of the students (62%) would like to be provided with sexuality knowledge when they are at the age of the secondary school. It was followed by high and primary education (18%, 14%). Only 6% of them were in agreement that it was the best to begin introducing at high educational level.

Obviously, it is highly recommended by a large number of respondents that sexuality education be started at secondary school. It can be explained by the fact that most students start their puberty at the age of 12 or 13. Pubescence is a time of great physical and mental changes, especially sexual development. Young people are really curious about the development of their bodies; therefore, providing information about heath, sexuality for young people at this time is very crucial. Furthermore, Kelly (1998) claimed that the majority of youth experienced sexual copulation during the adolescence. Thus, sexuality education should be included in the education curriculum of the secondary school to help the students avoid harmful effects of unsafe sex and have good preparation for a mature life.

Along with introducing sexuality education at appropriate age, finding out the suitable contents to provide for students when studying this subject is also very important. The following section is aimed to discuss this issue.

3.3. Contents of sex education programs should provide for children

As shown in the table, we can see the great difference among students’ opinions about the contents what students should be taught in sexuality education. The most obvious is that the majority of the students (72%) would like to study all of the contents recommended above in sexuality education. This is in congruent with the finding about information of learning including “growth and development, reproduction, contraception, interpersonal relationships, sexual behavior” (International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education: An evidence-informed approach for schools, teachers and health educators, 2009, p.5).

3.4. Students’ suggestion for teaching sexuality knowledge

As illustrated in chart 3, more than a half of the students (64%) wanted to have sexuality education taught as a separate subject. Nearly 30% of the respondents shared the idea that sexuality education ought to be integrated with another subject. Only 8 % of them were still unsure about how this subject should be instructed.

The results showed that the majority of the students are in favor of studying sexuality education as a separate subject. This finding is not in line with a recommendation from Sexuality Education in Europe (p.12):“Typically, sexuality education is taught in Biology lessons and in perhaps one other area of curriculum”. There are some reasons for the result of this minor research. First, if sexuality education is the part of other subject like biology, physical education and so on, it will be ignored by the teachers because “Experts are concerned that not only are many teachers under prepared, they are also being forced to teach material with which they do not feel personally comfortable” (Kelly, 1998, p.225). Second, if sexuality education is a separate subject, a lot of topics related to sexual life will be covered. It will help students get much useful information and avoid bad sexual activities which can bring about severe consequences in future.

As can be expected, students highly appreciated teaching sexuality education as a separate subject. Besides, concerns have been raised over the type of sexuality education class. The next part will concentrate on talking over this issue.

It can be seen from chart 4, 62% of participants liked learning sexuality education in the single-sex class. Meanwhile 30% of them supported co-ed class and only 8% of respondents still did not know for certain about which type of class organization was suitable for sexuality education program at school.

As expected, most of the students supposed that sexuality instruction should be conducted in the single-sex class. This is perhaps due to the Vietnamese culture and customs which tend to disapprove of discussing this topic in public and with the presence of the opposite sex. This finding was in accordance with conclusion “separating students into same-sex group, for part or all of a programs, has also been demonstrated to be effective” (as cited in International Technical Guidance On Sexuality Education: An evidence-informed approach for schools, teachers and health educators, 2009, p.11). Many people, especially the young, are too shy to talk about sexuality because it is really a sensitive topic. A respondent reported that during a class on sexuality education, she had some queries about female sexual organs; however, she did not dare to ask because there were some boys in her class. She was afraid of being laughed at. Hence, single-sex is an effective type of class for students so that they can feel comfortable and safe when studying sexuality education.

Besides contents, type of class, methodology, instructor of this subject is an important topic in sexuality education curriculum. This issue will be taken into account in the following part of the research.

As table 6 shows, majority students (22 respondents) would like to be taught sexuality education by specialists (physician or nurses). It was followed by 15 students who agreed with teacher of school. Only 2 respondents thought that students can study sexuality education on their own.

After all, the role of educator is very important in teaching sexuality education. Most of the students wanted specialists (physicians or nurses) because some reasons such as “They can be specially trained to cover this sensitive topic and to implement participatory activities; they can be provided with regularly updated information; and they can be linked to community-based reproductive health services” (International guidelines on sexuality education: an evidence informed approach to effective sex, relationships and HIV/STI education, 2009, p.19). This will be the key factor to help students study this subject much better.

There is broad agreement among students that sexuality education is very useful. Nonetheless, some still fear that learning this subject will hasten early onset of sexual experiments among young people. This issue will be analyzed in the following part.

3.5. Students’ opinion on the counter effect of sexuality education at school

As can be seen from the pie-chart, more than a half (54%) of the students claimed that sexuality education at early age did not encourage young people to have sex. Only 16% of them gave opposite opinion. And lots of students, accounted for 30%, still did not know the answer.

This result pointed out that the majority of the students highly appreciated the effectiveness of sexuality education in delaying young people from curiosity and sex experimentation. This finding goes on line with the conclusion which is “sexuality education can lead to later and more responsible sexual behavior or may have no discernible impact on sexual behavior” (International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education: An evidence-informed approach for schools, teachers and health educators, 2009, p.8). Apparently, when students are taught about sex, they are aware of sexual demeanor, they know when and how to have safe sex, particularly they can take the cognizance of the existing health problems which are the consequences of wrong sexual activities.

4. Conclusion

In conclusion, this paper has taken into consideration several issues of sexuality education, which shows some new information on the matter of teaching sexuality to school children. As a result of this some suggestions have been provided. However, a number of contents of sexuality education have not been covered yet because of this project’s small scale and time limitation. Thus, we hope that further research should be done on this topic. In addition, because of its benefits, sex education should be broadly implemented over schools.

The Importance of an Interpersonal Teacher-Student Relationship on Students’ learning among Second-year Students

Introduction

Nowadays, with the development of teaching management and teaching methods, people are paying more attention to TSR. “It is the keystone for other factors” Marzano and Pickering (2003, p.41) said. It is believable that cultivating a harmonious and affective environment between teachers and students will have positive effect on the study for many students. At school, there are exchanges not only in knowledge but also in affection between them. Certainly, psychological barriers have still existed for a long period of time. Thus, the teacher will be the guardian helping students get rid of those things, build stress-free atmosphere and explore their potential. Moreover, school may not be so friendly with students. That is why there is a need for strong TSR. It is a significant factor that cannot be omitted in the process of learning and teaching, which requires cooperation and active attendance from both teachers and students. In our small-scale project, we wish to find out the importance of having this relationship as well as ways to build up it effectively.

Materials and Methods

A questionnaire (Appendix) was chosen because of its advantages. It included ten items. The first part was to identify the actual state of TSR among second-year students. It mainly focuses on the level of TSR that students have now and the difficulties they have in process of forming a good TSR. The second one was to find out how a good TSR has influences on student’s learning motivation in terms of some basic aspects. In addition, the question is whether the final result can be affected by this relationship, was discovered by asking respondents their average score of the last term and level of their relationship with teachers. Collecting respondents’ ideas to establish an effective TSR is of the last part. Characteristics of a teacher which students often expect were also known through this questionnaire.

Second-year students of Hanoi University and Hanoi Architectural University were subjects of our research. 55 students with both genders at the age of 20 were chosen randomly from different classes. TSR affects all students who study many different subjects and those students have already made different views of TSR between school and University at this time. So we wanted to survey as many students as possible to get objective and reliable information.

Before doing the survey officially, we had a pilot survey in our class to see which problems our questionnaire may have. A bilingual English-Vietnamese questionnaire was processed because the English version was too demanding. The questions “How are the benefits of this relationship” and “Which aspects do TSR benefit you” seem to be similar to the question “how TSR influences on students’ study based on some statements”. We decided to delete it. Another question on how to build up a good TSR was changed from open-ended question into multiple-choice one because it took longer time to complete them. In addition, it was quite hard for us to summarize students’ suggestions. We also left a blank for them to fill in if they had any other different ideas.

We started administering the research in April, 2010. It took three weeks to give out, collect the handouts and analyze the data. 55 questionnaires delivered but only 50 ones were classified as appropriate.

Findings and Discussion

I. The actual state of TSR among students.

It is obvious that the teacher is a close person to students at school. He or she provides them with not only knowledge of their fields but also social understanding. The result showed that a large number of students (54%) regarded teacher as one of their moral guardians in life. Most of them highly appreciated the role of teacher. And as a result, 92% agreed that TSR is not only in teaching and learning. This figure proved the existence of other purposes which may also base on this relationship.

However, when being asked about the frequency of communicating with teachers, over half of students (52%) admitted that they are infrequent with doing so. The number of ones who rarely communicates with teacher is still high (18%). Generally, this relationship stands at a normal level (60% indicated), and can be the result of this phenomenon.

By questionnaire, we found out that there were many reasons which were described in chart 1, leading to students’ infrequent communicating. Half of them chose the option that communicating frequency depends on the relationship. A lot of them do not like to chat with their teachers out of fear, anxiety or timidity. They are afraid of bothering teachers (80%) or feel unconfident (52%). Others (70%) thought that the time is limited and so on. We can see that there was a lack of exchanges between teachers and students. “A perfect TSR is based on trust and care” while students are especially prone to problems and troubles concerning love, family, friends and academic studies during their adolescence (Kabir, 2007, p.2). It is crucial that they gain the care and recognition of their teachers through frequent communication with teachers, to talk about the problems when they have completely trust in teachers (Davis, 1999) and will not conceal some of the facts. In addition, teachers should have a high sensitivity to student’s emotion and be proactive to talk to them.

II. Impacts of a harmonious TSR on students’ learning.

The percentage in chart 2 shows that TSR had influence on student’s learning. About 60% of learners thought that TSR had great influence on their learning interest and performance. It depends on teacher’s expectations and if teachers act as though they expect students to be motivated (Davis, 1999). Only 2 to 6% of them chose “no influence”. Moreover, the students who do not like their teacher are more likely to feel sleepy during class (Kabir, 2007). While those who have good relationship with teacher, are more willing to cooperate with their teachers, find interest and performance important.

Study duration seems to be hard work, requiring not only efforts and courage of learners to face difficulties but also motivation and pleasant mood. By analyzing the questionnaire, we found that students’ learning interest and their love for the teacher are highly correlated. And their willingness to devote efforts to lessons and accept teacher’s comments also depends deeply on their relationship. Efforts, motivation and pleasant mood help students reach high spirit, concentrate better on what they are learning for a longer period of time (Davis, 1999). As a result, learners can master knowledge more efficiently (46% agreed) and easily talk about their difficulties (58%). However, the influence on self-study depends on each learner with 50% somewhat approved. Thus, in some aspects, TSR functioned to adjust students’ interests and efforts in learning.

Whether can efficient study be the result of having a harmoniously interpersonal TSR? By questionnaire, we collected 84% of students who had average score over 7.0. What can they reveal about their relationship with teachers? Nearly half of these students had very good TSR (47% self-evaluated), the normal level accounted for only 26%. Surprisingly, most of them thought that they had better results thanks to their good link with teachers; TSR was conductive to their grades which in turn can further motivate them. According to http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu, “close relationships with teachers lead to higher levels of students engagement and achievement” (Pianta, 1999). Furthermore, getting satisfactory grades in exam was also a useful way that students gave impressions on teachers as cited in Harris’s report (1991). Teaching and learning is a duplex activity, which needs cooperation from both sides. Therefore, students should try their best to build a good TSR for their own benefits.

III. Suggestions to build up good and harmonious TSR.

Chart 5, which is illustrated above, reveals that there was also a need to know which popular characteristics of teachers that students often expect in forming a harmonious TSR. Respecting students was the quality of teachers that had the highest proportion up to 82% in comparison with the appearance. Although people assumed that it gave the impression on students, it was not very important to them, standing at the modest level. As Kabir (2007) suggested that teachers should treat students as their own children and mutual love with respect forming a TSR. The sense of self-esteem was quite strong in these students. They longed for respect from others. If the teachers respect them, they will show respect for teachers as well.

A teacher with a wide scope of knowledge is the second most popular qualification among students (74%). It seemed that teachers were expected to be professional, adapting to students’ needs in learning. The next qualification was the one who is kind-hearted and sympathetic, who should know students’ needs and treat students as his or her friends or families. The qualification of fairness ranked as high as that of having a good temper (68%). Marzano and Pickering (2003) also concluded that “students have a strong sense of fairness”, “they will resist efforts to monitor their behavior” if teachers have inappropriate behavior (p.33). Nearly the same percentage of learners favored teachers who had a sense of humor. Teachers can make class as interesting as possible by some activities to engage students. Of course, this part of responsibility also falls on students.

It is believed that knowing the main characteristics of a TSR is the vital element as a direction in making a strong connection with teachers to students. The highest percentage of participants (nearly 80%) agreed that TSR must have pleasant working atmosphere, following with mutual respect (66%). Other characteristics seemed to be less important than these ones. Cahn (1987) indicated that “In TSR, the quality of the relationship rather than the content of the course may be the most important factor determining the effectiveness of teachers” (p.182). Moreover, students need inspiration, challenging and stimulation from their instructors to become more enthusiastic, following Davis’s report (1999).

Since teaching is a two-way process, setting up a good TSR also requires students’ efforts. The data in table 1 indicates that there were various ways students used to improve their relationship with teachers and how they paid attention to each of them. The largest number of respondents (42%) thought that enhancing communication with teachers was good way and could shorten the distance between them and teachers. 34% held the view that cooperating actively could improve TSR, devoting to the effectiveness of the lessons. Sometimes, holding activities makes class more interesting and devotes to the effectiveness of class (28% agreed). Only 6% chose making suggestions for teachers’ teaching improvement. It seemed that enhancing communication and actively cooperating were useful ways which students often think and use. As far as the community concerns, teachers are burdened with heavy workload and pressure. Being understood and appreciated by students, teachers gain the assurance to perform their duties. Cahn (1982) confirmed that “perceived understanding plays important role in the development of TSR as measured by student evaluation of teachers” (p.179). Not only should we have confidence in and respect our teachers, but also ask sensibly, study spontaneously and learn persistently. No doubt the result will be fruitful.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our small-scale research found out the actual state and some significant points of having an effectively interpersonal TSR. Generally, students may not have full-evaluation on its importance. Their frequent communication with teachers was still limited basing on many listed reasons we collected, making the building of TSR difficult. In spite of playing a very important role, the fact that it is not easy to build a harmonious TSR on account of estrangement between teachers and students, which comes from traditional concepts, teachers’ teaching practice and students’ affection. “Effective teaching and learning cannot take place in a poorly managed classroom” (Marzano & Pickering, 2003, p.1). It is emphasized on the necessity of having cooperation from both sides. Instead of treating students as lifeless bottles thirsting for knowledge, teachers should treat them as good friends, to whom the share invaluable experience, enrich logical thinking and ethics. Students also must respect them and cooperate with them for creating a pleasant learning environment. Those above are the useful ways letting TSR exist for ages.

Some Academic Listening Problems Facing Second-Year English Major Students

Introduction 

Listening plays a vital role in daily life. People listen for different purposes like communication, information, academic purposes, entertainment …In addition, without listening skill, no communication can be achieved. However, according to some previous researches, such as Rixon’ one (1993), those who learn English as a foreign language, especially in a non-native setting, find it difficult to acquire good listening skill. The listening problems involved hearing the sounds, understanding intonation and stress, coping with redundancy and noise, predicting, comprehending colloquial vocabulary, fatigue, understanding different accents, using visual and aural environmental clues (Ur, !990). To investigate thoroughly this matter, in this project, listening skill of second-year English major students researched to point out the attitude of students towards learning listening, which difficulties they often face when listening English and the reasons for these problems. This research would concentrate only on problems in term of redundancy, vocabulary and accents when students study listening English.

Materials and Methods

In order to gather the data for our study, a monolingual questionnaire (Appendix) was developed because of its advantages. For example, questionnaires are considered as reliable ways for collecting information since they are anonymous and this encourages greater honesty. Furthermore, they are also cheap and easy to answer. Our questionnaire was created including 9 closed items. Two first questions investigate whether listening skill is a hindrance for second-year English major students. The next three questions ask students what problems they often face when studying listening English. And the four last ones probe what the reasons for their difficulties are.

Second-year English Department students at Hanoi University were the subjects of our research. 50 students from different classes were all selected on voluntary basic. Most of them are female and the age range is 20-21. These participants were chosen because all of them may experience such problems.

We started administering the project in Hanoi University in March, 2010. All the participants were summoned to one class room. 50 questionnaires were sent to 50 subjects. Before they answered the questions, all the queries were responded and participants then progressed to completing the questionnaire. All the handouts were collected after 30 minutes.

Results and discussion

I. Evaluation of second-year English major students’ listening skill

As illustrated in this column chart, studying listening is a really big obstacle for second-year English major students. The number of students who answered listening skill was hard was 60% and very difficult was 10%. This figure was approximately six times as much as the percentage of students (12%) who thought listening English just was a trivial matter. Obviously, the large number of sophomores who are lack of confidence in their own abilities of listening proves their modest level at listening.

II. Problems of academic listening facing second-year English major students

The investigation into the difficulties which second-year English major students often encounter when studying listening shows that most of them have problems with redundancy, colloquial vocabulary and different accents.

As shown in table 1, it is clear that most of the sophomores agree that redundancy was a hindrance for them when listening. Redundancy includes such thing as repetition, paraphrases, self-correction, and the use of words such as “I mean”, “well”...A learner listener is often unable to profit from such redundancy by becoming aware that not every new sentence or phrase contains new information and that there is extra time available for comprehending. Instead, they will feel interfered and distracted. This was proved by the data recorded. Among 50 students questioned, 43 ones said they always or sometimes faced problem with coping with redundancy. Whereas just 5 respondents answered redundancy rarely made them confused and 2 participants did not consider it a problem when studying listening. It appears to be in congruent with Ur’s finding (1990). She wrote in her book that a lot of foreign-language learners had problem with redundancy when listening English because they thought it was compulsory to comprehend everything, even absolutely unessential words and then they were thrown off balance if meeting any unknown words.

Furthermore, colloquial vocabulary is a language barrier to second-year English majors too. It is claimed by 86% of the students (43) to be one of the most common drawbacks in listening. 38 ones answered they sometimes encountered the problem with colloquial vocabulary and 5 participants always had trouble with that. Only 7 respondents hardly or never met the problem with colloquial vocabulary. In explanation, a lot of vocabulary used in colloquial speech may already be known by foreign listeners but this does not mean that they are familiar with them, especially those who have been confined to classroom learning environment. This conclusion agrees with Ur’s study (1990). She noted that when colloquial vocabulary occurred in fast stream of listening, even if listening learners had learned that word yet but not been familiar with it, it was still difficult to be recognized.

Moreover, the variety of accents also makes it difficult for sophomores to listen since they do not have much exposure to different accents. For instance, if learners listen to French people speaking English, they will feel hard to understand him or her because these speakers often speak English in a native French intonation. The result from table 1 demonstrated that 94% of the students (47) experienced this kind of problem whereas only 6% of participants (3) reported that different accents were not their trouble. From this data, it can be seen that second-year English major students seemed to be not capable of understanding various accents. This finding is in accordance with what Ur (1990) has found out. According to Ur, “many foreign-language learners who are used to be the accent of their own teacher are surprised and dismayed when they find they have difficulty understanding someone else” (p.20).

III. Some reasons explaining the problems of second-year English major students

As shown before from column chart 1, listening is actually an obstacle to students. In fact, to get good listening skill, it takes much time and efforts. However, many students seem to spend little time practicing at home. The data shows that second-year English major students’ level of listening depends on the frequency of studying listening. Of 3 respondents who were good at listening, all of them answered that they always studied listening. On the contrary, of 47 students admitted to be at fair or poor level, 9 ones rarely studied listening and even among 32 people who said that they sometimes learned, 9 was still weak at this subject. This number indicates that the infrequency of studying can be one of the reasons that cause sophomores difficulties in listening.

From table 3, it is obvious that most of the students who have problems with pronunciation encounter difficulties when studying listening. Of 47 students admitted to be fair or poor at listening skill, 38 replied that they were fair or weak at pronunciation too. Unlike, 2 out of 3 respondents who reported to be good at listening also claimed that they were good at articulation. So weakness at pronunciation might be another reason that made second-year English major confused when listening. Ur (1990) also proclaimed in her book that “It is certainly that if he learns to pronounce the sounds accurately himself, it will be much easier for him to hear them correctly when said by someone else” (p.12).

Furthermore, stress is very important for comprehension. Also, intonation patterns are significant not just for interpreting such straightforward elements as questions, statements, emphasis but more subtle messages like praises or insults … However, paying attention to stress and intonation when listening was still not the habit of second-year English major students. Among 50 participants, 2 ones replied that they were good at listening skill and always paid attention to stress and intonation when they studied listening. Meanwhile, 22 respondents who rarely or never concentrated on stress and intonation got fair or poor results in listening. It signified that not focusing on stress and intonation brought students bad results in studying listening. This conclusion is similar to Ur’s finding (1990). She found that the English system of stress, intonation and rhythm can stop listeners from comprehending spoken English.

Another significant issue is the lack of background knowledge. General background knowledge (knowledge of culture, knowledge of the topic under discussion and general world knowledge of current affairs, art, politics, literature …) helps language learners make guesses about what they hear or read. Nevertheless, many students still do not concentrate on this area. As the pie chart shows, just 15% of the sophomores proclaimed they were confident with their good background knowledge. Of 85% left, 45% of the second-year English majors were at fair degree and 40% admitted to be poor at background knowledge. It appeared that weakness at students’ listening skill can be caused by the limited background knowledge. This opinion was strongly confirmed by Anderson and Lynch (1993). They demonstrated that background knowledge is vital and “Gaps in our knowledge of the culture, of the association and references available to native users, can present obstacles to comprehension” (p.35).

Conclusion

To sum up, the small-scale investigation shows some considerable points related to listening skill of second-year English major students. In general, most of them seem to have problems with listening. The most common difficulties collected by learners are redundancy, colloquial vocabulary and different accents. One of the reasons for their problems is the time they spend studying themselves is too little to improve listening skill. Moreover, difficulties are also caused by the weakness in pronunciation, stress and intonation. Another factor is students’ limited background knowledge. It is highly recommended that to acquire an acceptable listening skill, students themselves should listen to the variety of materials and find out effective listening learning style. Simultaneously, learners had better improve theirs speaking skill and background knowledge by practicing and reading more. These are suggestions to solve the problems as well as to upgrade English listening skill for second-year English major students in Hanoi University. Hopefully, the findings we get from this project will help learners with better listening.

Problems Facing First-Year English Majors In Speaking

Introduction

In the acquisition of a second language, speaking is a vital skill to master. In spite of that, according to Baker and Westrup (2003), in many countries, because it is not assessed in tests, teachers usually disregard this skill and focus on other features such as grammar or vocabulary. This is especially true in the case of English education in Vietnamese high schools. However, in numerous colleges, students’ speaking skill is appreciated and becomes a criterion in evaluating linguistic performances. At the English Department of Hanoi University, during the first two years, speaking is a subject on the curriculum. Therefore, many first-year English majors struggle with their study. In order to examine this matter, we conducted this research. In this small-scale project, we wish to identify problems facing students before and during the speaking process as well as in their practice strategies.

Materials and methods

The purpose of this study is to determine problems in using and practicing speaking skill that students may confront during their first year at the English Department. To collect data for the study, a questionnaire (Appendix) was constructed due to various advantages. For instance, it provides a simple but very effective way to investigate on a large scale. Besides, it does not require any special apparatus or method. The questionnaire comprises eight questions divided into two parts. The first part, including questions one to six, identifies students’ perceptions of their own linguistic ability and problems first-year English majors might encounter before and while speaking English. The second part with two remaining questions investigates the suitability of respondents’ practice routines to improve speaking skill.

The subjects of the study are 50 first-year students of the English Department. They were selected randomly from different classes and varied in the level of English as well as speaking skill. Furthermore, in order to receive high response rates and great accuracy, we chose all the participants on a voluntary basis. The majority of the subjects is female and at the average age of 19.

Several versions of the survey had been conducted and compared in terms of resulting authenticity. After a pilot survey had been done with the help of 10 first-year students, we realized that open-ended questions do not gain as many revealing and reliable answers as multiple choice questions because they require much more time, while most respondents are not very patient. Consequently, in the designing process, we decided to use multiple choice questions as they could obtain instant and honest responses from participants. However, in case we do not provide adequate possible answers, some of the questions have open-ended options for students to express their own ideas.

The survey was administered at Hanoi University in March, 2010. After being edited properly, 55 questionnaires were distributed to the subjects. They were allowed to read the questions and raise queries first. Then the participants proceeded to complete the questionnaires. All the handouts were collected after 30 minutes, and 50 questionnaires were classified as appropriate. Within one week, we interpreted the findings for final results.

Results and discussion

1. First year English majors’ self-evaluation of English and Speaking skill

Figure 1 demonstrates how first year English students of Hanoi University assess their own ability to use English in general as well as in communication. A large proportion of respondents, comprising approximately 40 students, claimed that their English and speaking skill are poor or average. 12 first year English majors considered themselves competent linguistically. However, only 8 students rated their capability to speak English above average. This figure gives assurance on the assessment that “It [speaking skill]...is usually viewed as the most complex and difficult skill to master” (Tarone, 2005, p. 485). In a recent study, Bygate (2009) agreed with the aforementioned statement by claiming that learners with reading and writing proficiency do not always have fine speaking skills.

2. Findings concerning problems before and while speaking

2.1. Problems before speaking English

The pie chart compares how different methods of preparation are used by first year English majors in speaking. This stage is underestimated and neglected by 26 percent of students. In addition, 7 students stated that they only picture what to say in mind. As Turk (2001) insisted, this is not a wise strategy because without any written preparation, students may assume that they have more ideas than they truly do, forget crucial points or sometimes even freeze on the spot. Turk (2001) suggested that students should write down what to say in order to “focus and clarify your thoughts, and identify the points you want to make” (p. 90). However, they must understand that only key points should be written down, not the whole speech. According to Turk (2001), “ In many ways the most obvious thing to do, and often the first method chosen by inexperienced and nervous speakers, is to write the talk out in full, and read it out from the script” (p. 85). Unfortunately, it is exactly the method that the greatest percentage of first year English students adopts. As can be seen from the chart, the number of students writing down the full script before speaking constitutes 50 percent of all respondents, 5 times as many as those who only jot down some important notes. As a result, their performances in speaking are not satisfactory.

The examination of languages used by students in thinking while speaking English reveals poor choices among first year English majors. A significant number of students, amounting to 67 percent, reported that they think in Vietnamese when they communicate in English. In a research, Wenden (2005) concluded that designing a speech in the native language and then translating it is disadvantageous to second language learners. Alternatively, they should think in their target language (Wenden, 2005). This is the tactic employed by only one third of respondents.

2.2. Problems while speaking English

As shown in figure 3, students meet a lot of difficulties in speaking English, and the most serious problem is the lack of confidence. Indeed, shyness is very likely to occur when students speak English (Baker & Westrup, 2003). Consequently, student involvement in studying, a crucial factor contributing to success (Ellis, 2003), can be discouraged. Offner (1997) shared the same opinion as he stated that being active is essential when studying speaking. Problems relating to the contents of a speech like ideas and grammar are the second and third most common as about 20 respondents selected them. 5 students added vocabulary difficulties to this set of problems. These phenomena were also reported by Baker and Westrup (2003), “They [learners] may have little idea about what to say, they may not know the words to use, or they may not be sure how to use the grammar” (p. 16). In addition, pronunciation is another major obstacle to 33 percent of students. This fact confirms the following opinion, “The acquisition of good pronunciation…is commonly held to be the most difficult of all tasks in second language learning” (Carrasquillo, 1994, p.136). In brief, these findings should be highlighted and carefully considered by both students and teachers of the English Department.

Figure 4 shows how students handle two other common obstacles regarding speaking English- running out of ideas and lexical problems, i.e., not knowing or forgetting words (Poulisse, 1990). Of the 50 students that participated in this survey, 26 students claimed that they would hesitate and try to think until they find the words or ideas. Only the minority of participants implements one of the following strategies stated by Poulisse (1990): “avoidance/ reduction strategies” (p. 59)- skip and move on to the next point, “interactional strategies” (p. 59)- let the interlocutors help, and “compensatory strategies” (p. 59)- find another way to express themselves. These strategies are very helpful if speakers wish to avoid communication breakdown (Poulisse, 1990).

3. Findings concerning rationality of current Speaking practice routines

Figure 5 indicates how often first-year English majors practice to improve their Speaking skill. Despite their incompetence in Speaking, the students tend to spend very little time on it. 60% of respondents either never or rarely practice Speaking. This is very disturbing because without practicing, language learners cannot develop their ability to speak (Offner, 1997). Additionally, only 5 students responded that their practicing Speaking English was frequently done. Chapelle (2003) suggested that spending time practicing English outside the classroom was essential to improve communication skill. Besides, Offner (1997) recommended “it is important that the time spent be done on a daily, or a near-daily basis as short sessions daily are much more effective than cramming all at once.” To sum up, unless first-year English students change their practice routines, little progress will be made in their speaking skill acquisition.

Figure 6 illustrates the popularity of different practicing tactics used by the students to improve their Speaking skill. Surprisingly, although 42 students indicated that their level of speaking skill is below good (as revealed in Table 1), more than a quarter of 50 respondents do almost nothing to improve their Speaking skill. Therefore, they do not see much progress in learning Speaking. On the other hand, it can be clearly seen that indirect practice strategies such as accessing sources to enrich background knowledge, e.g., television, newspapers, the Internet or building a bigger stock of vocabulary varied substantially in prevalence. However, in general, they are more preferred than those involving actual speaking. In fact, practicing with friends, the most common direct method, was chosen by only 9 participants, whereas the number of students selecting listening to English was twice as many, making it the most widely used strategy. This particular method can positively influence learners’ speaking skill. Ellis (2003) declared that listening skill can foster speaking competence. Nevertheless, students should not apply only one or two particular methods. Since each strategy has certain benefits and advantages, it is advisable to be flexible in choosing and combining different tactics (Ellis, 2003).

Conclusion

In conclusion, this research demonstrates numerous problems in applying and practicing speaking skill that many first-year English majors at Hanoi University encounter. It implies that inadequate knowledge of English features, e.g., structure, lexicon, pronunciation is a common problem facing many first year English students. Their lack of strategic approaches to preparing, using and improving speaking skill can also result in low communication ability. Thus, students should enrich their understanding of the target language as well as identify and employ suitable learning methods to improve their academic performances. Furthermore, it is hoped that learning strategies will be included in the curriculum of the English Department so that teachers can help their students design effective plans for acquiring advanced speaking skill.

Student’s Plagiarism In Writing

I/ Introduction 

During the last fifteen years, there has been a steady change in emphasis from examination-based assessment to the continuous assessment of coursework. One of the prime reasons for this shift of emphasis has been the need to assess both subject-specific and generic skills in order to ensure fulfillment of learning outcomes, and the recognition that examinations often assess only a limited range of skills. Thus, an undergraduate program in many universities involves a variety of assessments such as essays, laboratory reports, posters, problem-based learning, projects and dissertations in addition to more formal examinations. The opportunity to plagiarize from books and journals in written coursework has always existed but the extensive development and use of the Internet as a source of learning materials has enabled students to download and plagiarize information much more easily (Park, 2003). Many universities and university departments take investment in electronic detection of plagiarism and in the design of assessments that offer less chance for plagiarism. However, it is possible that there is a disparity between the views of the students, the tutors and the University on what constitutes plagiarism, and that there is a consequent need, and indeed a requirement to inform students of the precise range of activities covered by the term. The student population in the Vietnam is becoming increasingly diverse. This diversity embraces academic background, age, social class, ethnicity and nationality, mode of study. As a result of this, academics must become aware of the range of pre-university student experience and how this may impact on the students’ awareness of plagiarism. The aims of this study were to determine what students believe constitutes plagiarism, and to produce guidelines for students on what plagiarism actually means and how to reduce plagiarism.

II/ Materials and methods 

In order to gather data for our research, a questionnaire was chosen and most of them are multiple-choice questions because its format is similar to almost students. Moreover, we can survey on a large scale in a short time and do not need to use any special equipment and machine to get the information. The questionnaire was created including nine questions. The first three questions probe the popularity of plagiarism in students. The forth question was to find the reason why students tend to plagiarize. The third three questions were to identify the effects of plagiarism in students. The last two questions were to give suggestions to reduce the rate of student plagiarizing.

Second-year English Department students at Hanoi University were the subjects of our research. 50 students were chosen randomly from different classes. Most of them are female at the age of 20 on average.

Before doing the survey officially, we had a pilot survey in our class for one week to see whether our questionnaires have problems or not. The result was that there was not any problem in our questionnaire. Therefore, we decided to do our survey officially.

The survey was administered at Hanoi University in March, 2010. 50 questionnaires were delivered to 50 students. They were given one hour to complete the questionnaires individually during a classroom session. Before they answered the questions, all the queries were responded and participants then progressed to finish the questionnaires. All the handouts were collected after 35 minutes.

III/ Results and discussion 

1. The frequency of student’s plagiarism in writing

The investigation into the frequency of plagiarism in writing as displayed in this chart showed that most of the students who are asked get involved in the dishonesty activity in different frequency. More than 60% of students admitted that they usually plagiarize in written coursework. It made up the highest percentage of students. Following was 14 students (28%) who sometimes plagiarize. It is surprising that only 1 respondent (2%) does not have the habit of plagiarism, 3 students rarely did this. The result showed that student plagiarism is becoming more common and more widespread in academic field. It is clear that plagiarism now becomes popular study skill of many students. As Wendy Sutherland-Smith (2008) reported in his study, all teachers in his study realized that “plagiarism is a phenomenon and they witness it in classroom practices” (p. 122).

2. Causes of students’ plagiarism 

It is undeniable that there are many reasons which lead to the high percentage of students who plagiarize. These reasons may come from students themselves or from their friends, teachers... Therefore, we asked students to find out the most popular reason.

As shown in this chart, laziness was the reason given by the largest number of students. It made up more than 40%. It means that laziness is the most popular reason for the plagiarism of most students. It is double than the rate of students who agreed that they plagiarize because they had poor time management. These students reported that sometimes deadlines come around more quickly than expected; sometimes assignments feel overwhelming, sometimes they have a lot of homework; sometimes they are busy with family lives and social works. Therefore, they chose plagiarism because they did not have enough time to do all. This result shares the same idea with. Wendy Sutherland-Smith (2008). She also found that “many young students, even very bright students, have admitted to plagiarism because they simply run out of time to complete set work” (p. 183). Nearly 30% of students supposed that one of the factors that made them plagiarize is their lack of awareness of plagiarism. Most of them did plagiarize by mistake or by chance. They showed that they did not know what plagiarism exactly mean, so they did not know they were plagiarizing when they did it. Today students learn quickly that finding and manipulating data on internet is a valuable skill. Therefore, the abuse of internet to find out information and studying may lead high rate of plagiarism in students. According to Wendy Sutherland-Smith (2008) “the Internet is often touted as the source and reason for perceived increased in plagiarism” (p. 101). However, as shown in this pie chart, there are only 5 students (10%) who declared that internet is reason which made them plagiarize.

3. Effects of plagiarism in students 

The effects of plagiarism in colleges extend beyond the class and negative affects the learning process of college students. This research was carried out to investigate the negative effects which plagiarism may bring about.

21 participants thought that if they plagiarism for a long time they may lack of confidence in writing. Students who plagiarize are hurting themselves in the long run because after along while of plagiarism they will doubt their writing skill and do not have opportunity to learn how to write. 18 participants showed that one of the effects that plagiarism may cause is the lack of critical and creative thinking. When students present other works as their own, they will fail to develop and use critical thinking skill which is necessary for their learning and success in life. Moreover, their creative level also drops. After plagiarizing for a long time the students’ ability to think creatively and successfully will reduce a lot.

8 in 50 students supposed that plagiarism will cause damaged relationships. Plagiarism poisons the relationship between students and teachers by undermining the mutual trust that is an important element of the learning process. For instance, when students take work from the internet and present it as their own, it will force the teachers to search for wrongdoing. The students will become suspect in such environment and learning becomes impossible. The suspicion and mistrust between the teachers and students will replace the trust. Plagiarism also damages the relationship between students who plagiarize and those ones who learn honesty.

Some participants declared that students who commit plagiarism face the loss of their degrees or their jobs in future. Lathrop and Foss (2000) also supposed that plagiarism “could damage their ability to achieve career goals” (p. 85). Some others showed that plagiarism also negative affects academic environments because it encourages cheating.

In short, engaging in plagiarism has deleterious effects on students not only on their learning but also on their relationships and on their future careers.

4. The solutions to reduce plagiarism in students

In our investigation, we only focus on some suggestions for teachers because the instructors can motivate the students to come up with their innovative ideas and they can also keep an eye on the students while doing their research papers, projects and other assignments. As illustrated in this table, 21 participants had strong agreement that the teachers were now being encouraged to take positive action to prevent plagiarism by requiring process steps for the paper. There are various steps of research paper such as topic, research materials, first draft, and final draft and so on. This requirement will discourage students from turning in papers that they borrowed or purchased from many websites on Internet. Educating students about plagiarism is the second major contributory factor to decrease plagiarism. 9 students recommended that the teachers should make assignment clear and coherent. Only 5 respondent agreed that the teachers had better create clear penalties which would be incurred if students were caught plagiarizing. These consequences go in line with Born (2003). She gave some suggestions to reduce and discourage plagiarism. She reported that “a paper needs to be treated as a process requires continuous supervising and progress monitoring. Instructor’s involvement minimizes a chance of quick fix (e.g., buying or coping paper) since students need to demonstrate progress on an on-going basis” (pp. 223-224). She also gave another solution that the instructors should raise students’ awareness by educating and communicating with students about plagiarism. Teachers might educate students what was acceptable and unacceptable, and discussed consequences that plagiarism might bring about.

IV/ Conclusion

In conclusion, this small-scale investigation shows that plagiarism by students is common and getting more so (particularly with increased access to digital sources including the Internet) that there are multiple reasons why students plagiarize and that some solutions to reduce plagiarism. Whether or not the problem has reached epidemic proportions, as some observers insist, it is clearly a major problem, and one that appears to be on the increase. The practice of plagiarism is a major challenge to institutional aspirations of academic integrity and a major threat to institutional quality assurance and enhancement, and it needs to be taken into account when developing and implementing institutional learning, teaching and assessment strategies. There is growing need for Vietnam institutions to develop cohesive frameworks for dealing with student plagiarism that are based on prevention supported by robust detection and penalty systems that are transparent and applied consistently .

Book Reading Habits Of First-Year English Majors In Hanoi University

Abstract 

Books possess a wealth of knowledge, so people always want to read more. Nevertheless, in recent years, criticizers start worrying that the decline of reading becomes more and more popular in students. Therefore, this research investigates this area in terms of book reading habits of first year English majors in Hanoi University. A monolingual questionnaire in English was used to collect data. It was designed to look into the amount of time English majors spent reading books, their level of reading and their attitude towards reading. Besides, some reasons for the decline of reading in students were explored as well. It has been revealed that most of English freshmen did not read much and they also did not express a strong preference for reading. Five basic reasons for this problem are the students’ negative attitude towards reading, the lack of concentration, their busy life style, the uneasy feeling about reading and the influence of new reading culture – reading online. It is suggested that positive attitude towards reading should be always in students’ mind and society also has responsibility for promoting book reading in young generation. In addition, libraries, book clubs or book talk sessions should be opened more for students. To teachers, they should try to make students read more effectively.

Introduction 

Books play an educational role in our society. Thus, reading book is really essential to succeed in college. According to McWhorrter (2005), “reading and studying are keys to college success and later to success on the job” (p.4). He also said that reading could “open up the world of new ideas, show you different ways of looking at things and provide a welcome escape from day-to-day problems” (p.5). To English majors who learn foreign language, reading is more necessary because it is said that books can deeply help students improve their knowledge and learn the intentions of the authors which are good for interpreters. However, education commentators have lately begun worrying about a drop of reading in students. Students are considered as “illiteracy or post-literate” (Dock, 1996, p.1). To investigate thoroughly this matter, in this mini research, book reading habits of first year English majors were explored. Its main purpose is to point out the actual state of book reading in students and to reveal some clues why students have little passion on reading.

Materials and methods 

To collect data for the study, a questionnaire was developed. The subjects of this study were the First year English majors in Hanoi University, so a monolingual questionnaire in English was reasonably required. It included 13 items which were all multiple-choice questions. The questions were designed to find out the amount of time English freshmen spent reading books, their personal assessment of their level of reading, their attitude towards reading and some reasons for the decline of reading in students. Before the survey was administered officially, the questionnaire was trialed by a group of 10 second-year English majors in class 1A-08 on a random basis.

The survey was conducted at 3 classes - 5A09, 9A09 & 10A09 - in Hanoi University in March, 2010. Forty-five English major students were selected on a voluntary basis and delivered 45 questionnaires. The participants answered the questionnaires in their break time. Before they answered the questions, all the queries were responded and participants then progressed to finish the questionnaires. All the handouts were collected for later processing after 30 minutes.

Results and discussion 

I. Some facts about book reading habits of English major students in Hanoi university

1. Students spend little time reading 

Chart 1 shows the different activities which students enjoyed doing in their spare time by showing the number of students involved in each activity. Only 9 in 45 students read books when they had free time while the number of students who were keen on listening to music was three times larger (28). Other popular activities were watching TV, which consisted of 15 students, and playing game which was the hobby of 17 students. Besides, a considerable number of students (13) took part in extra-curricular activities such as sports or volunteering, etc. It indicates that students are less likely to read for pleasure. This figure shows steadily declining youth interest in reading when it is compared to data in National Endowment of Arts (NEA) report (2007). The survey reported that the percentage of young adults who read for daily enjoyment was 52%, however, in this study, the number of English freshmen whose enjoyment reading decreased dramatically to 20%. It is clear from the chart that students spent less and less time reading books. These figures give assurance on the assessment of Griswold, McDonnell, Wright, (2005) and National Endowment of Arts [NEA] report (2007) that reading was declinin.

Chart 2 reveals the frequency of book reading in students. Students were asked about the amount of time they spent on reading except the time in lectures. The result was startling. Over half of respondents admitted that they just read about one to three hours a day. Moreover, more than 20% of participants confessed that they read less than one hour per day. Obviously, this amount of time is not enough for them to have comprehensive and deep knowledge. This data is in line with the figures in NEA (2007) survey. The survey reported that a significant number of college freshmen read for fun less than one hour per week or less at all.

2. Negative attitude towards reading among students 

Chart 3: Reading purposes It can be seen from the chart that the main aim of reading books was for knowledge and for entertainment. 25 in 45 participants claimed that they read to get knowledge from the books. It was approximately equal to the number of participants who read for relaxation and entertainment (24). There is a slightly difference between these figures and the data of Van (2008). He reported that students were more likely to read book for entertainment and killing time.

The attitude towards reading is strongly associated with reading level which is shown in table 1. Of ten respondents who rated themselves as good readers, there were 9 students having passion on reading. Nevertheless, a huge number of students evaluated themselves at fair level in reading. It amounted to 62% of the total participants. But most of these readers (21 on 28 respondents in this group) confessed that they did not take much interest in reading. Additionally, there were up to 7 English freshmen who said that they hardly felt like reading. In fact, this is an alarming number, yet it justifies the negative attitude towards reading of students and confirms other findings (Clark, Torsi, & Strong, 2005; Richardson, & Morgan, 1997). They said that leisure reading and self-evaluated reading proficiency had strong relationship and students who perceived themselves as good readers had positive attitude towards reading while none of the students who regarded themselves as poor readers enjoyed reading.

As can be seen from the table, students hardly read textbooks regularly within the course. Although most of asked students bought textbooks at the beginning of the courses, over half of them just read textbooks some days before exams. It appears that students avoided reading textbooks. It is in congruent with a recent survey in Vietnam about self-study habits of student (2008). This investigation revealed that a large number of students were learning without self-study habit.

II. Some reasons explaining for this negative trend

As is illustrated by chart 2, almost students did not like reading so much. Overall, 60% of them indicated that they enjoyed reading “a little bit” or “normal”, which was contrary to figures in the research of Clark, Torsi and Strong in 2005. 60 % students in their studies held positive attitude towards reading. Fortunately, only 4.4% asked students did not enjoy reading at all. Obviously, students were not in favor of reading because they did not have a positive attitude towards reading. Consistent with previous study (Richardson, & Morgan, 1997), reading proficiency varied in many factors, but the core subject lied in attitude of each student towards reading.

The data in table 3 shows that the lack of concentration was the most popular problem for the decline of reading in students. Most of them (30) admitted that they could not concentrate when reading. This finding goes in line with what McWhorter (2000) has found out. According to his book, “many other college students who say that concentration is the main reason why they can not read or study effectively” (p.6).

As far as the lack of concentration is concerned, students spend little time reading book because of their busy life style. Most of them claimed that reading books required much time while they had many things to do. Roberts and Foehr reported that teenagers had a lot of activities to do in their time such as taking part in outdoor activities or doing part-time jobs as cited in Griswold et al (2005), therefore the amount of time they read book was limited.

The uneasy feeling about reading is also a considerable factor which influences reading book. It is clear from the table that 17 respondents considered reading as a difficult task. This finding is similar to Richardson and Morgan (1997) conclusion. They affirmed that “poor readers tend to avoid reading because it is not easy, pleasurable and satisfying” (p.20).

In modern society, computer and internet have huge impact on people’s life and affect reading habit. A large number of respondents confirmed that they preferred reading on internet to reading printed book. It is consistent with report of Marker & Opinion Research International (2004). In this study, 55% participant would rather use internet than read printed book. Students in this survey added that internet was more convenient and they could download a numerous of materials easily.

Furthermore, there are some other reasons for the decline of reading. The problem is not so much that we read images better than we read words on a page (Dock, 1996). Moreover, some studies demonstrated that literacy reading was decreased significantly by gender, age, ethnicity, race, education and family income (National Endowment for the Art, 2002; Griswold, McDonnell & Wright, 2005).

Conclusion 

In brief, this small-scale investigation shows some points related to book reading habits of the English freshmen in Hanoi University. Generally, leisure reading isn’t popular interest among students. Book reading is really at risk. There is variety of reasons but the main one lies in each individual. Poor readers do not enjoy reading and have no particular schedule for learning so it is hard for them to achieve high academic performance. Therefore, promoting reading culture among students is an important task. It is expected that book publishers, educators will develop appropriate polices and plans to foster the love of reading in young generation. It is suggested that weak academic performance students should change their own habits into better ones. Book lovers as well as administrators should draw people’s attention to book through book talk sessions or reading book contests. It is hoped that more and more students will read book not only to pass the exam but also to gain enjoyment and wealth knowledge from books for themselves.