ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS' PRACTICES OF DEVELOPING DISCOURSE COMPETENCE THROUGH SPEAKING SKILLS FOR GRADE 10 STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY

Being one of the compulsory foreign languages in Vietnam and recently regarded as one of the requirements for higher education enlistment, English has received growing attention from Vietnam high school students (Nguyen, 2021). In Circular 32 (2018), the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training [MOET] officially recognised communicative competence as the primary outcome of the English National Program of which Discourse Competence (DC) is a crucial component (MOET, 2018). Although the program aims to achieve the outcome with more emphasis on listening and speaking skills, Vietnamese high school students remain to struggle to form extended spoken discourse (Le, 2011). With the view to gaining insights into the actual state of cultivating DC through speaking skills in students, the study investigates four Grade 10 teachers with varied backgrounds and teaching styles in a private school awarded twice by the MOET for educational reforms and their attempts to integrate CLT in the English language teaching curriculum. After conducting the interviews and classroom observation, the findings imply that teachers devised a combination of approaches that had implicit impacts on different aspects of DC-based on students' English proficiency while preserving their teaching philosophies. Such innovativeness could suggest a rudimentary framework for teaching and teacher training programs regarding fostering DC in speaking for EFL students.

“METAFUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE” IN SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS: A FRAMEWORK FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF MEANING OF TEXT IN SOCIAL CONTEXT

This article is concerned with how “metafunctions of language” is theorized by M.A.K. Halliday in his Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory, and how the metafunctional framework can be used to analyse and interpret the meaning of text in social context. The paper consists of five sections. Section one introduces the topic of the article. Section two briefly examines the notion of “functions of language” in formal and non-systemic functional (non-SF) models of language. Section three explores in some detail the notion of “metafunctions of language” in the SFL model. The study shows that unlike formal and non-SF models of language, SFL conceptualizes metafunctions of language not just as “uses of language” but as a fundamental property of language itself. To illustrate the applicability of the metafunctional framework to the interpretation of meaning of text in social context, Section four conducts an analysis of two stanzas in the famous Vietnamese poem “Hai sắc hoa ti-gôn” (Two Colours of Antigone) in terms of experiential, interpersonal, textual, and logical meanings. Section five provides a résumé of the issues studied in the article, pointing out the advantages of Halliday’s metafunctional framework. The study aims to contribute to our understanding of language as a system of metafunctions, opening up vast potential for the application of the SFL model to language teaching, learning, and research.

Challenges in Translation of English Phraseological Units With Onomastic Constituents Into Vietnamese Equivalents

Translation of phraseological units with proper names (PUPs) is topical for the contemporary translation studies nowadays. It is noted that PUPs reflect the culture and national mentality of a definite nation. Quite a few studies have prospectively examined English PUPs and their translation into other languages, but it is hard to find such an in-depth study in the case the target language is Vietnamese. By employing the qualitative approach, this paper sets out the findings of the study where 241 English PUPs in our compiled database were classified into four groups according to their translations into Vietnamese. The group of non-idiomatic and descriptive translation equivalents accounts for a majority of more than 57% of all the PUPs, proving that PUPs in both languages are highly culture-specific. Although the other three groups share a minority of approximately 43% of all the PUPs, they hold interesting implications and multiple levels of similar or different metaphors. Based on the findings, the paper discusses the challenges translators encounter during the translation process of English PUPs into their Vietnamese equivalents. It is evident that among various translation obstacles, the proper name factor is clearly one of the most challenging issues. The paper then proposes some translation solutions to cope with these special expressions. In addition to recommending to flexibly apply translation strategies, the author's conclusion emphasizes that only when translators manage to decode and grasp how PUPs work cross-linguistically in both languages and cultures can they achieve an appropriate translation of English PUPs.

SYMBOLIC IMAGE WITH NEGATIVE NUANCE OF ZODIAC ANIMALS BEING DOMESTIC ANIMALS IN KOREAN AND VIETNAMESE PROVERBS

Symbolic images with negative nuance of domestic animals in proverbs is the result of symbolizing aesthetic materials with negative nuance. Vietnamese people and Korean people have many similarities in symbolizing negative features of zodiac animals being domestic animals into symbolic images with negative nuance. This is proved by 26 symbolic images with both partial and impartial homogeneity in terms of number and species of zodiac animals. The differences in the way of thinking and perceiving the world of Vietnamese and Korean people are also reflected in proverbial units of zodiac animals being domestic animals. The corpus of Korean language has 15 blanks, and the corpus of Vietnamese language has 3 blanks of zodiac animals, which are the materials to establish symbolic images with negative nuance in proverbs.

A NEEDS ANALYSIS OF VIETNAMESE USERS OF JAPANESE, KOREAN, AND CHINESE LANGUAGES

Playing a vital role in the process of developing a test, needs analysis is often paid attention to in the first phases of planning language tests, especially large-scale ones. In the context of the project entitled “Developing Standardized Tests of Proficiency for Vietnamese Users of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese”, a needs analysis of Vietnamese users of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese was implemented. Specifically, the reported study’s goal was to investigate the activities in which Vietnamese adults frequently use their skills of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese and examine whether there were differences across activities and languages. Surveys were established with questions of frequency on particular activities either suggested by the researchers or proposed by the respondents themselves. Collected responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics and ANOVA. The results disclosed the extent to which language users utilized their language skills in different activities and the significant differences in the use frequency across different activities within each language and across languages for particular activities. The findings have served as a strong foundation and useful reference for the task design in the test development phase of the project.

NATIONALISM IN VIETNAM AND KOREAN LITERATURE IN THE LATE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURIES: CASES OF PHAN BOI CHAU AND SHIN CHAE-HO

East Asian literature in the early twentieth century witnessed the emergence of many great authors who gathered all personality of a patriot - writer - historian - revolutionary activist. They emphasized literature does not serve artistic purposes, but social purposes, which touch the heart. Literature at this time conveyed the stream of national consciousness, nationalism, independence and freedom to all of the people and promoted their patriotism and the spirit of fighting for the nation and the people. This paper focuses on analyzing the nationalist ideology in the works of Phan Boi Chau and Shin Chae-ho in the history of literature of Vietnam and Korea in the early twentieth century. Thereby, the research provides an overview of the common characteristics of the nationalist literature in East Asia. In the research content, this paper recognizes the nationalist ideology of Korean and Vietnamese intellectuals in the transformation of the historical, political and social situation in the early twentieth century. On that basis, this paper identifies the characteristics of nationalism in Shin Chae-ho’s and Phan Boi Chau's works.

METAPHOR IN MODERN CHINESE SLANGS

Metaphor is a rhetorical method used commonly in language in general and in slang in particular. With its iconic and implicit feature, metaphor makes language polished, refined and contains many layers of sophistication, beauty and sensuality. The paper examines The latest Chinese slang language by Li Shu My and Yan Li Gang and analyzes the basis and role of metaphor in modern Chinese slang.

A PROPOSED FRAME OF REFERENCE FOR RESEARCH OF SAME-DIFFERENCE IN CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND PRAGMATIC FAILURE IN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION: REFERENCE OF EXPRESSION (CULTURE)

The author of this article proposes a frame of reference for research on same-difference and pragmatic failure in cross-cultural and intercultural communication. This frame is developed with three dimensions of reference: ‘Expression’ (Culture), ‘Impact’ (Communication) and ‘Level’ (Layers of reference). Review of different approaches to the dimension of ‘Expression’ by different scholars, such as Hofstede, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, Hall and Lewis is presented with comments before the author’s own is to be given in the next article.

USING NARRATIVE INQUIRY TO EXAMINE TEACHERS' IDENTITY VIA FACEBOOK NARRATIVES

Identity is the result of one's personality, upbringing, learning and working experience. This article presents the results of a research on the personal identity of a lecturer teaching English at a university in Vietnam. The article analyzes the teacher's shared narratives on Facebook about his life and teaching experiences. In-depth interviews were conducted over a one-year period following narrative inquiry procedure. The paper shows the complexity of the participant's four intertwined identities as well as the potential of Facebook as an online platform to share and reflect on personal experiences, thereby allowing readers to engage in a dual process of identification and negotiation of meanings ​​in identity formation. Social networks have the potential to mitigate the isolation of teachers in their pursuit of professional development activities and to promote the formation and development of professional communities.

LEXICAL SETS OF CULINARY VOCABULARY IN CHINESE AND VIETNAMESE

It is worthwhile examining lexical sets in lexicology studies. A lexical set is a group of words which are semantically associated and describe distinctive features of an object or an event. Lexical set is hierarchical in that a broad lexical set can be divided into narrower sets, and a group of small lexical sets that are semantically related can form a bigger set. Lexical sets can reflect logical thinking and cognitive ability of each people. It is, therefore, significant not only in the linguistic field but also in the cultural sphere. Basing on the theories of lexical sets, the article attempts to clarify the features of lexical sets of culinary vocabulary in Chinese and Vietnamese and to contribute a reference to teaching and researching Chinese in Vietnam.