The present study aimed to design and validate a questionnaire to investigate students' perceptions of learner autonomy in the context of Vietnamese tertiary education. The questionnaire was adapted from various well-established scales in the literature, and then the back-translation method was used to produce a version in Vietnamese. After the questionnaire development process, 1,565 non-English majors at seven different tertiary institutions in Vietnam voluntarily participated in the study and completed the questionnaire. Evidence of reliability and validity was provided for the instrument using SPSS Version 24, SmartPLS 3, and SPSS AMOS. Reliability was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability (CR), rho_A value, and average inter-item correlations. Validity was substantiated using Messick's framework of validity (1995). This entailed five different aspects: content, substantive, structural, external, and consequential. The results indicated that reliability reached adequate values and the aspects of validity were mostly confirmed. The questionnaire, therefore, was suited to exploring how students perceive learner autonomy, but it requires more validation for future use in the other contexts.

The purpose of this study was to investigate Vietnamese non-English majors' motivation to learn English as a foreign language (EFL) based on the activity theory perspective. The participants included 1,565 students with at least one semester of university-level English, of whom 13 participated in the semi-structured interviews. The data was collected using the five-point Likert scale motivation and desire surveys with 16 items and individual face-to-face interviews. The results from the quantitative and qualitative strands indicated that the participants were highly motivated to learn English. The sources of such motivation included obtaining a good job in the future, achieving success in academic studies, maintaining effective communications with foreigners, having personal enjoyment, and being influenced by other people. In addition, they were not only more internally (rather than externally) motivated, but they also demonstrated strong motivational intensity to learn English and enhance their language competence. Moreover, there was a strong positive relationship between internal motivation and motivational intensity, whereas there was a weak positive correlation between external motivation and motivational intensity. Activity theory was used as a lens to elaborate on the discussion of learners’ motivation in this study. The findings of the current study can be used by stakeholders, such as EFL educators, decision-makers and curriculum developers, to understand more about their students in terms of psychological issues and to design appropriate programs that can increase their learning motivation.

The present paper reports on some stages of an ongoing research project which investigates how Vietnamese non-English-major university students perceive learner autonomy (LA) and which factors, from their perspective, influence the promotion of LA. Data was collected using questionnaires administered to more than 1,500 university undergraduates from different higher education institutions in Hanoi, Vietnam, and 13 students participated in semi-structured interviews. The initial stage of the project, detailed here, was to validate the questionnaire on the basis of reliability and Messick’s (1995) framework of validity. The results revealed that reliability and most aspects of validity investigated in this research were adequately fulfilled, except for the relative goodness indices, which needed improvement. Currently, both quantitative data and qualitative data are being analyzed to reach conclusions. The research results are expected to help the research team to provide suggestions on how to foster LA in English tertiary education. Accordingly, those results will be of interest to language educators in Vietnam in particular, scholars who are researching LA, and those who are interested in the promotion of LA.

The present study aimed to investigate the beliefs and practices of task-based language teaching (TBLT) among lecturers in English as a foreign language (EFL) at technical universities in Vietnam. A total of 136 lecturers completed the questionnaire and seven of whom participated in semi-structured interviews. Findings indicated that the lecturers had positive views toward the TBLT approach and showed a willingness to use it in their classrooms, although they also shared notable challenges related to the technique. The results also showed significant differences in understanding of TBLT among lecturers with different years of experience; however, years of experience and qualifications did not affect the lecturers’ views on or implementation of TBLT. The study offers several implications for better understanding and more effectively implementing TBLT approaches in the classroom.

The study investigated the perceptions among non-English major students of autonomous language learning (ALL) of their responsibilities, ability to act autonomously, motivation to learn English, and autonomous activities within and outside of class. The data were collected using questionnaires and follow-up interviews. Nearly 300 students at a university in Hanoi, Vietnam, participated, 11 of whom were later interviewed. The analysis suggested that students preferred shared responsibilities. They were relatively confident in their abilities to act autonomously and were moderately to highly motivated to learn English. Nevertheless, ALL activities were conducted only on an irregular basis. Our results indicated that gender did not affect the implementation of ALL. The more motivated the students, the more frequently they practiced ALL activities. A relatively strong positive correlation was observed between self-perceived ALL abilities and activities. Some pedagogical implications were also extracted.