COMIC CHARACTERS IN YU HUA’S NOVELS AND THE CONVERSATION WITH CHINESE TRADITIONAL CULTURE

The comic character in Yu Hua's novel is a unique artistic tool for the author to converse with the main clauses in the Chinese traditional culture. Through analysing the different types - sarcastic characters, comic characters and black humor characters - the article aims to decode the writer's reflective spirit towards people. From this study, the article contributes to affirm Yu Hua's new contributions in thought and art fields.

NTER-SYMBOL IN HO ANH THAI'S NOVELS

Intersymbol is one of the terms related to literary semiotics. At present, the theory of semiotics/cultural semiotics has become popular and is used as a knowledge framework for reference, decoding artistic text. Ho Anh Thai is considered a great writer with dozens of novels. Each of Ho Anh Thai's works has impact and repetition of aesthetic symbols. Ho Anh Thai's novels are rich in generalization, thanks to the system of intersymbols. The voice inside the texts are expressed in the interactions and collisions between legends, archetypes, and symbols. The association of aesthetic symbol series is in the narrative strategy of the writer.

THE HUMANE ASPIRATIONS IN ISAAC BABEL’S RED CAVALRY

Isaac Babel is an exceptional Russian-Jewish writer of Russian literature. The writer himself and his best work Red Cavalry have truly become a remarkable phenomenon in Russian and world literature. Through Red Cavalry, Babel not only helps readers understand more about the life, the fighting process as well as the virtues and the ideal of the Red Army Cossack soldiers, but also allows them to see the human values, human nature, simple wishes and noble aspirations of people, especially the Jewish intellectuals in violent war situations. His readers, therefore, pay even more respect for this talented and brave writer, and at the same time, earn a more comprehensive view of a highly turbulent period of the Russian-Soviet literature. With an uncommon psychological view used in approaching the works written about war, this article hopes to highlight the issues mentioned above.

THE WORLD OF CHARECTERS IN VIETNAMESE MEDIEVAL CHUANQI GENRE

Characters in Vietnamese medieval Chuanqi genre are rich and diverse, with a full range of components, class, caste, gender, habits, and dignity. Based on the reality-fantasy relationship, the world of chuanqi characters can be divided into two main groups: fantasy characters and earthly characters (people in the real life). They represent two realms: of unreality and of reality. Fantasy character is a surreal character with mystical capacity and strange traits. From the rational perspective, this type of character absolutely does not exist in real life. By contrast, earthly character are people who exist in daily life with ideals, ambitions, happiness and suffering. The presence of two types of characters clearly demonstrates the realistic portrait in the status of the unreal and real invasions, which deeply consists of their own imprints in the Chuanqi genre. From the world of characters in Vietnamese medieval Chuanqi genre, the evolution of this genre is also revealed.

SELF-ESTEEM AND DEPRESSION AMONG VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Research and theories on gender differences in self-esteem and depression as well as the relationship between self-esteem and depression play an important role in the field of psychology. In the current study, we explore these two issues with Vietnamese university students. The levels of self-esteem and depression were assessed with a sample of 859 university students drawn from three universities in central Vietnam. The results showed that Vietnamese university students have moderate self-esteem and most do not suffer from depression. As expected, the male students reported significantly higher self-esteem than theirfemale fellows; however, the female students reported higher levels of depression than the male ones. The results also revealed that self-esteem was negatively correlated with depression. The research contributes to the understanding of the gender differences between the two mental health factors and the relationship between them among Vietnamese university students. These findings are important to the development of intervention strategies that help improve self-esteem and prevent depression in university students.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL EMOTIONAL COMPETENCE AND THE RISK OF MENTAL DISORDER AMONG STUDENTS

This research aims to identify the relationship between social-emotional competence and the risk of mental disorders among Students. The study was conducted with 400 students in Ho Chi Minh city, using the Social Emotional-Competence Questionnaire (SECQ) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS 21) as the main data collection tools. The results revealed a medium negative correlation between the social-emotional competence and the risk of mental disorder among the participating students.

THE PARADOX OF SERVITUDE: A SOCIO-POLITICAL READING OF EMEKA NWABUEZE’S A PARLIAMENT OF VULTURES

This paper seeks to illustrate that African politicians are not motivated by the call to serve, but are rather interested in amassing wealth, power and positions for themselves. Patterns of bad governance which have sunk into the marrow of political vultures causing countries to wallow in socio-political and economic degradation are equally identified. The paper further contends that the socio-political perspective can be transformed if the masses choose to rise against “political vultures” who desecrate the servant-leadership policy. Consequently, this paper advocates a servant-leadership approach as a major prerequisite for leadership scramble for the socio-political and economic buoyancy of the society. Adopting contextual analysis as its analytical standpoint, the paper, through the lens of servant-leadership theory, elaborates the fact that A Parliament of Vultures exhibits common realities in Nigeria’s political landscape as well as the projection of drama as a channel of raising awareness and conscientizing the people, hence, the place of theatre of conscientization in Nigerian dramaturgy.

LESSON STUDY IN HIGH SCHOOLS IN EA H'LEO DISTRICT, DAK LAK PROVINCE WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION: THE RELATIONSHIP WITH TEACHERS' PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Lesson study is a model of teacher training which has been widely applied in high schools in recent years. This study aimed to investigate the practice of lesson study and its role to teachers’ professional development in meeting the requirements of educational innovation. A survey was conducted with a group of 217 high school managers and teachers in Ea H'Leo district, Dak Lak province. The research methods in use were questionnaires and interviews. The findings revealed that lesson study, in general, was implemented effectively in high schools in Ea H'Leo district, Dak Lak. The requirements in each step were basically well-met. However, there still existed some elements of traditional professional activities in the current practice of lesson study. The research results also showed the positive impact of lesson study on high school teachers’ professional development. The findings lead to the fact that high schools need to promote the implementation of lesson study and ensure the conditions required for conductinglesson study.

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF TEST BIAS AND THEIR WORKING AND TRAINING BACKGROUND

This paper aims to explore the relationship between how language teachers perceive test bias and where they are working, how long they have been working, and where they were professionally trained. The data were collected from 19 in-service English teachers from Eastern and Western settings. They completed a questionnaire in which they were asked to respond to test bias stimuli and answer questions related to their teaching background and training. The stimuli contained either of two forms of bias, unfair penalization and offensiveness. Qualitative and quantitative analysis showed teachers were not fully informed of possible forms of test bias and possible ways potential biases unfairly penalize or offend students. They were better able to recognize biases of unfair penalization than offensiveness. Statistical analyses revealed teachers with over 10 years of experience were better able to recognize potential test bias than those with less experience (at 90% confidence level). The findings contribute to the current limited literature on bias in classroom language testing and assessment, leading to implications for bias review in teacher-developed assessments and teacher training.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION IN BOXES AND PHOTOS IN INTERVIEW ARTICLES IN DA NANG NEWSPAPER

An interview article is considered a dialogue between a journalist and an interviewee about an event, a current issue or a figure of public interest. Interview articles consist of key information (topic, interviewee, questions, answers, title, and lead-in) and additional information (data boxes and photos). The additional information is used to support, illustrate, and highlight the key information. In many cases, the additional information has to be "eye-catching" and hold readers’ attention, urging them to explore the article. This paper is aimed to study the current status of using additional information, provided in boxes and photos, in interview articles in printed Da Nang Newspaper during 2017, 2018, and 2019, and then to make recommendations on the use of boxes and photos to improve article quality for readers’ increasing need of information.