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Reading comprehension of informational texts has been largely debated and introduced at all levels of education across western countries. However, it has not received enough attention in developing countries including Vietnam. This paper aims to investigate the procedure of reading and comprehension of informational texts in high schools in Vietnam. The study surveyed 588 teachers and 2744 high school students across all regions of Vietnam. The survey questionnaires asked teachers and students' opinions on the teaching and learning of informational texts. Through statistical analysis with Excel sheets, the results show that the part of informational texts in the curriculum was small when compared with literary texts. This shows that there is very little requirement of teaching and learning informational text in high schools which results in students' limited ability in reading informational text. The findings also suggest that understanding and reading informational texts have been contended as essential to the educational performance of students. The research also revealed that both teachers and students need to be more prepared in the classrooms to teach and learn informational texts. It is recommended that Vietnamese general education curricula should include a greater amount of informational texts in textbooks and instruction on informational texts should be given more attention to improve students' understanding. Contribution/Originality: This study revealed that informational text reading comprehension was a fairly new concept at high school level in Vietnam. In fact, the proportion of informational texts in the curriculum was small when compared with literary texts. High school students were not instructed techniques and strategies to read informational texts. In this context, this study will provide useful new insights. 1. INTRODUCTION In the modern society, a great deal of information is conveyed through informational texts, such as a congressional report, a presentation of a new technology, a handbook for running a home appliance, or a health problem booklet (Li, Beecher, & Cho, 2018). In general, an informational text-engages the reader with aspects of the real world by conveying and communicating factual information‖ (Ness, 2011). The ability to generate details and produce fully comprehend informational texts is an exceptionally important ability for adults and students of school age to have knowledge in a world around them (Reutzel, Jones, Clark, & Kumar, 2016). Recently, the role of informational text in the school environment has attracted much attention. Owing to their frequent use for common purposes, it is important to improve the level of competence of students to understand these informational texts (Li

Article History KeywordsFactors Academic performance First-year university students Vietnam Higher education Students' motivation Lecturers' pedagogical knowledge Skills.Having research-informed and evidence-based information into factors that impact students' academic performance is crucial for institutions to be able to identify gaps in the provision of training and support for students. This study is motivated by the need to determine and analyse such factors at a university that has been experiencing high academic failure and dropout rates. The study employed quantitative research methods with the leading research instrument being a survey administered to 397 first-year students from 13 disciplines and 7 faculties. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and multiple linear regression were used to identify the underlying relationships between variables. According to the research findings, there are five key factors that contribute to academic performance and success of first-year university students, namely, students' motivation, lecturers' pedagogical knowledge and skills, lecturers' professional knowledge and credential, learning resources and conditions and course structure. . These factors have been ranked from the one with the most substantial effect to the one that confers least impact. The findings can have important implications for proposing measures to improve academic performance for the university as well as other institutions in the higher education sector.

The most important determinant of interpersonal relationships was the mode of transmission of the viral hepatitis rather than the type of viral infection: past intravenous drug users had lower level relationships.

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