Luận văn thạc sĩ Lý luận và phương pháp dạy học môn tiếng Anh: The employment of language learning strategies through synchronous online learning among non-english majors at Ho Chi Minh city university of technology

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG DAI HỌC SƯ PHAM THÀNH PHO HO CHÍ MINHĐỗ Như Quỳnh THE EMPLOYMENT OF LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES THROUGH SYNCHRONOUS ONLINE LEARNING AMONG NON-ENGLISH MAJOR

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG DAI HỌC SƯ PHAM THÀNH PHO HO CHÍ MINH

Đỗ Như Quỳnh

THE EMPLOYMENT OF LANGUAGE

LEARNING STRATEGIES THROUGH

SYNCHRONOUS ONLINE LEARNING AMONG

NON-ENGLISH MAJORS AT HO CHI MINH

CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

LUAN VAN THAC Si KHOA HOC GIAO DUC

Thanh pho Hồ Chí Minh — 2024

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRUONG ĐẠI HỌC SU PHAM THÀNH PHO HO CHÍ MINH

Đỗ Như Quynh

THE EMPLOYMENT OF LANGUAGE

LEARNING STRATEGIES THROUGH

SYNCHRONOUS ONLINE LEARNING AMONG

NON-ENGLISH MAJORS AT HO CHI MINH

CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Chuyên ngành : Lý luận và phương pháp giảng dạy tiếng Anh

Mã số : PPTA831366

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ KHOA HỌC GIÁO DỤC

NGƯỜI HUONG DAN KHOA HỌC:

PGS-TS DUONG MY THAM

Thanh phố Hồ Chí Minh - 2024

TABLE OF CONTENTSStatement of Original Authorship

1.1 Background of the study

1.2 Statement of the problem

1.3 Aims and objectives

1.4 Research questions

1.5 Scope of the study

1.6 Significance of the study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Synchronous online learning

2.1.1 Definition of synchronous online learning

2.1.2 Advantages and disadvantages of synchronous online learning

2.2 Language learning strategies (LLS) in a synchronous online learning

2.2.3 Employment of LLS to address difficulties in synchronous online

learning 21

2.4 Previous studies 23

2.4 Conceptual framework of the study 26

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 27

3.1 Research questions 27

3.2 Research design aT3.3 Research site 28

3.4 Sample and sampling process 293.5 Research instruments 30

3.5.1 Questionnaire 30

3.5.2 Semi-structured interview 323.6 Data collection and analysis procedure 33

3.6.1 Questionnaire 33

3.6.2 Semi-structured interview 343.7 Reliability and Validity 34

3.7.1 Questionnaire 343.7.2 Semi-structured interview 363.8 Ethical issues 36CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 38

4.1 Results 38

4.1.1 The challenges that students encounter in SOL 38

4.1.1.1 An overview of results 39

4.1.1.2 External challenges 404.1.1.3 Internal challenges 45

4.1.2 The extent to which non-English majors at Ho Chi Minh City

University of Technology employ LLS through SOL 54

4.1.2.1 An overview of results 55

4.1.2.2 Detailed results 57

4.1.2.2.1 The extent to which non-English majors employmetacognitive strategies 574.1.2.2.2 The extent to which non-English majors employ cognitive

strategies 62

4.1.2.2.3 The extent to which non-English majors employ affectivestrategies 694.1.2.2.4 The extent to which non-English majors employ

sociocultural-interactive strategies 744.2 Discussion 80

4.2.2 The extent to which non-English majors at Ho Chi Minh CityUniversity of Technology employ LLS through SOL 82

4.3 Summary 86CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 88

5.1 Summary of the findings 885.2 Implications 89

5.3 Limitations 91

5.4 Recommendations for future studies 925.5 Summary 92References 93 APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE (ENGLISH VERSION) PLI

APPENDIX B: QUESTIONNAIRE (VIETNAMESE VERSION) PL8

APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW QUESTION (ENGLISH VERSION) PL15APPENDIX D: INTERVIEW QUESTION (VIETNAMESE VERSION)

PL16

Statement of Original Authorship

I certify that this thesis, “The Language Learning Strategies through Synchronous Online Learning among Non-English Majors at Ho Chi Minh City

Unitversity of Technology”, is my own work.

I declare that the thesis is my own work and all the parts in the thesis are done seriously myself This thesis has not been written or published before.

Signature:

Date:

First ofall, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor and advisor,

Assoc Prof Dr Duong My Tham During the thesis writing process, she continuously provided me with academic guidance and constructive feedback Without her support and encouragement, this paper would not have been accomplished.

Secondly, I would like to express my appreciation to the principal and the participants at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology where I did my research.The students eagerly and happily filled in a long form of questionnaire and they werepatient and willing to participate in the semi-structured interview It was a great

encouragement for me to complete my research.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my family and co-workers,

who have encouraged me to complete this thesis thoroughly.

Synchronous online learning

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

Cronbach's Alpha for the data of external and internal challenges 33

The overall statistics for each type of challenge 36Descriptive statistics for external challenges ::cccsceeseeeeeeeeeneeeeeeeees 38Descriptive statistics for internal challenges - -c~s<-<c~x<+ 43The overall statistics for the usage extent of four types of LLS in SOL 50

Descriptive statistics for metacognitive s†rafegles «¿ 55

Descriptive statistics for Cogmitive StFAf€Ø1CS Si, 62Descriptive statistics for affective strat€gi€S -.«.seceeeeieeeeree 63Descriptive statistics for sociocultural-interactive strategies 68

List of Figures

Figure 2.1 Conceptual framework of the §tudy -.+ Series 24Fipure 3.1 Data collection and analysis procedure isissiscisssssssisssssisscisisssssseassssessies 30

Although there is no longer an urge to apply synchronous online learning

in public schools like in COVID-19 period, there is an increase in blendedlearning and distance learning, leading to the need to enhance the quality ofsynchronous online sessions Hence, this study aims to investigate thechallenges that non-English majors at Ho Chi Minh City University ofTechnology encounter and the frequency level of language learning strategiesthat they apply to minimize those difficulties during synchronous onlinemeetings 305 participants at the research site were given a questionnaire with

56 items The questionnaire is divided into two main sections aligned with tworesearch questions, which are language learning strategies and challenges.Language learning strategies section is composed of four sub-categories

namely metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, affective strategies and

sociocultural-interactive strategies while challenges that students deal with in

SOL sessions are classified as external and internal ones The data were

analyzed by using descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation andmode in SPSS 22 After the results of the questionnaire were examined andanalyzed, 12 in 305 participants were invited to participate in a semi-constructed interview to yield a more in-depth explanation for the results of thequestionnaire It was found that students encountered internal challenges at ahigher level than external challenges, making them employ affective andsociocultural-interactive strategies more frequently than the other two types oftactics This leads to some implications offered to assist learners, teachers andadministrators in enhancing the efficiency of synchronous online learning

Keywords: language learning strategies, synchronous online learning, English majors in university

non-CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

In 2021, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) faced a toughdecision when the beginning of a new school year was struck by the severeCOVID-19 situation, It is impossible to have either the students return to school

or stay at home and waste time on recreational activities Finally, on September10“, the government officially announced that the new school year would takeplace but in another form that most of the teachers and students were likely

unfamiliar with The pandemic outbreak has posed particular problems to

education as all of a sudden, teachers and students abruptly shift to anotherdelivery mode, Online classes have totally replaced face-to-face sessions, andthe perception of teachers’ and learners’ roles changed dramatically The newcontext of learning emphasizes the learner's role as "an active informationprocessor, interpreter, and synthesizer, who uses a variety of different strategies

to store and retrieve information." (Weinstein and Underwood, 1985).Morrison (2003) also states that e-learning offers opportunities to personalizethe learning process, shifting the focal point from linguistic knowledge tolearners and the learning process In other words, learners in the context of e-

learning are the ones who pull the initiating string in the learning process, as

they must supervise their learning themselves

However, Vietnamese learners are not used to taking the lead in their

learning; they wait to be supervised and encouraged by teachers, and this makes

the advent of synchronous learning in the Vietnamese context harder than ever(Vu, 2016) Le (2021) has revealed the chaos of teaching and learning online

at the early stage when learners are not active and self-regulated in their studies.Nguyen (2021) disclosed learners’ chaotic situations behind the camera inVirtual meetings in which they eat their meals, fall asleep, or even join in the

class while doing other amusing activities Dung, Phuong, and Nhi (2021)pointed out that even with high achievers in face-to-face sessions, there arecertain problems in virtual meetings that they encounter, such as the lack ofproper tactics to deal with synchronous lessons, technical problems or affectiveand motivational factors Virtual meetings are believed to be deficient in humantouch, and the interaction happening online is rather superficial, whichdemands that students develop specific strategies to overcome the challenges(Park and Bonk, 2007) Typically, students would turn to their teacher for help,

yet teachers in Vietnam are not well-trained and acquainted with this new

delivery mode, resulting in a shortage of help available to students All of the

aforementioned situations have called attention to the fact that the effort andself-control of learners mainly call forth the efficiency and quality ofsynchronous learning

There is mounting evidence that learning strategies have a positiveimpact on the learning process; as Weden (1985) points out, the idea oflearningstrategies employment results in learning autonomy, which in the end facilitates

the learning process in the long term and is also crucial in the context of

synchronous learning As mentioned before, the formidable challenge of onlineclassrooms is the awareness of learners, and it is becoming apparent in today'ssituation that teaching learners how to learn is crucial, leading to the fact thatstudents need to be capable of applying appropriate learning strategies to the

new learning context MacIntyre and Noels (1996) assert that students take

advantage of understanding the strategies and fully perceive that those

strategies are effective and easy to employ If they do not actively engagethemselves in the learning process, learners might lose track of their own

learning and get confused Useful as learning strategies appear to be, there are

various studies examining learning strategies (Tran and Tran, 2018; Ngoc and

Samad, 2020; Tran et al., 2021; Tuan, 2021), yet the new situation has posed a

question as to whether these strategies are still applicable and what othercontemporary ones are to adapt to a relatively unfamiliar delivery mode in

Vietnam Therefore, the paper aims to investigate the extent ofusing language

learning strategies and provide insight into common difficulties that

non-English majors endure during live e-meetings

1,2 Statement of the problem

Chaney (2010) reports that the development of technology has led to the

growing part of online education in the world In America, the percentage ofdistrict schools offering online courses surpassed fifty percent over the course

of time from 2009 to 2010 (Institute of Educational Sciences, 2014) Onlinelearning is increasingly favorable since it offers a flexible learning scheduleand also allows learners to learn in the distance without moving to classes(Chaney, 2010) Among the types of online learning, one of the most basictypes is synchronous learning However, in the first time of application in thecontext of Vietnam, synchronous learning aroused a big question mark over itsefficiency Not only teachers but also parents were on shaky ground when theMOET decided to take learning online, distrusting learning online despite the

fact that there were no other options left at that time Contrary to the doubt of

Vietnamese teachers, there has been a plethora of papers proving that

synchronous learning is feasible and effective Russel (2001) reviewed 355

comparative studies in total and came up with the conclusion that there are nosignificant differences in learners’ outcomes between traditional classroomsand live e-learning courses Unlike asynchronous learning, synchronouslearning offers communication that shares some similar characteristics with

interactions in traditional classrooms (Wang and Chen, 2007) Real-time

communication promotes learners’ meaningful engagement in group work

discussions as they can receive immediate feedback without waiting for days

(Park and Bonk, 2007) Orvis et al (2002) demonstrated this point by

examining discourse in an online class, coming to the conclusion that there is

little disparity in interaction patterns with the corresponding face-to-face

course They prove that interactions used for problem-solving in both live learning and traditional classrooms have a pattern of 55% for on-taskcommunication, 30% for social exchange, and 15% for technical-related

e-problems In the same vein, Lobel et al (2002) found that synchronous learning

has certain advantages over traditional classrooms as it is more dynamic in data

flow and trust formation, which encourages collaborative and active

participation Another feature that live classrooms also present as offlineclasses is immediacy Immediacy here is the non-verbal and verbal behaviors

that lecturers use to motivate, encourage, or reduce the distance between them

and the students (Gorham, 1988) In terms of verbal immediacy, synchronouslearning proves to have the same influence as face-to-face learning, whereteachers can draw on their friendly communication style to enhance learners’involvement However, limited as the non-verbal immediacy in live e-learning

is, students still can observe teachers’ and classmates’ reactions toward a

subject of discussion, resulting in the fact that they would suffer less from a

psychological distance

Although online synchronous learning has certain benefits, itsapplication at Ho Chi Minh University of Technology did not exploit its fullpotential and has a good deal ofproblems In terms of interactivity, learners do

not actively communicate with the lecturer and peers Some students are notwell-equipped to take lessons synchronously as they do not have private space

to prevent noisy backgrounds, which may eventually restrain them from

exchanging in the discussion due to the concern of disturbing other classmates.This would also lead to an unbalanced contribution to the discussion between

learners and learners This unequal contribution is also rooted in the fact thatsome of them are reserved and shy, so they would completely turn off their

microphones and their cameras during the meetings, which proves the problem

of not exploiting the full potential of live e-learning as this mode offers achatbox allowing shy students to state their opinion without actually voicingout This problem is the tip of the iceberg, as it is likely to affect the quality ofpeer learning and the social climate in the class Another problem that has been

observed in the real-time classes is the technical literacy of both students and

teachers They spend more time dealing with technical problems, as mentionedbefore in the study of Orvin et al (2002), in which fifteen percent of interaction

in live meetings is dedicated to solving technical problems Both students andteachers should develop specific tactics to deal with these issues since learnerswould lose their concentration and lose track of what they are doing at that time

when the problem arises The last problem is the issue of self-regulation and

motivation to do tasks or join in the discussion during synchronous sessions Inshort, after five months of application, non-English majors still encounterdifficulties in various areas They need to be aware of synchronous learningstrategies and apply them to their live meetings However, there have been no

studies addressing such issues in the research setting Since then, the author

will conduct research on strategies that non-English majors employ and thedifficulties that they may encounter during their synchronous online learning

This research is expected to make a substantial contribution to the institutionand provide a solid platform for future research

1.3 Aims and objectivesThis paper aims to investigate non-English majors’ employment of

synchronous online learning strategies In particular, there are two researchobjectives as follows:

- To find out the difficulties that the students encounter during thesynchronous online learning process

- To investigate the extent to which non-English majors at Ho Chi MinhCity University of Technology employ language learning strategies through

synchronous online learning

1.4 Research questions

The previous parts have highlighted the aim and objectives of the

research, which are closely related to two research questions that the thesis

focuses on answering:

1 Do the students face any difficulties during the synchronous onlinelearning process? If so, what are they?

2 To what extent do non-English majors at Ho Chi Minh City University

of Technology employ language learning strategies through synchronousonline learning?

1.5 Scope of the study

Because ofthe time limit and the nature of the research site, this researchconcentrates on exploiting data from only non-English majors in Ho Chi Minh

University of Technology (HCMUT), aged between 18 and 25 These students

come from various departments of the university, mainly from computerscience majors Since then, their experience with English has primarily been

involved with the old national curriculum without any extra classes They have

not received any synchronous lessons until the quarantine period The studyfocuses on studying strategies employed and difficulties in only one of the mostbasic modes of online learning which is synchronous learning Strategies for

asynchronous learning are not in the scope of this study

1.6 Significance of the study

This study would make a significant contribution owing to the followingreasons First and foremost, although SOL is not applied separately, and now

integrated with face-to-face sessions in blended learning, it still comes across

an abundance of difficulties and inefficiency, which is pressing to be solved.Therefore, the study is conducted in the hope of enriching the data for futureresearch in HCMUT with associated concerns The paper would look intolearners’ synchronous learning strategies and difficulties in applying them so

that teachers could understand more about how students learn in live meetings

to facilitate them and maintain the quality of the course.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This part of the paper is dedicated to reviewing previous works andstudies to build a theoretical framework for the paper First, the definition ofsynchronous online learning is provided, including its potential and challenges.The second main part addresses the definition and typology of languagelearning strategies This part also highlights the employment of languagelearning strategies in real-time conference settings Finally, the last partmentions the previous study of synchronous learning strategies in Vietnam and

points out the research gap

2.1 Synchronous online learning

2.1.1 Definition of synchronous online learning

In this type of learning, students experience a live and real-time class thatresembles the face-to-face tradition to some extent Khan (2006) introduced acomprehensible definition of synchronous learning as the real-time interaction

of participants with an instructor through a web-based meeting This definitionhas a problem since it only considers the interaction between learners andteachers, neglecting peer communication Later on, Clark et al (2007)generalized the definition of synchronous learning by identifying its three main

influences which are the classroom, the media, and the conference After that,

other definitions depend and elaborate on these three main components.Salmon (2013) defined synchronous online learning (SOL) as a learning mode

requiring real-time interaction, such as a lecture with a question-and-answersession In the same vein, Bower (2015) stated that synchronous learning is

lecture and learners’ participation in face-to-face classes offered by the media technologies such as web-based conferencing, virtual worlds, or videoconferencing However, although other modes of SOL such as live educationaltelevision can be considered as SOL, the paper only use the term SOL to refer

rich-to the use of web-based video conferencing such as Google Meet, Zoom, orMicrosoft Team Meetings Some terms that are synonymous with SOL areadopted and used alternatively throughout the paper are live e-meetings, livevirtual classroom, or live e-learning (Morrison, 2003; Driscoll & Carliner,2005) In short, the definition of SOL is rather unanimous in which scholarsagree that SOL is real-time online face-to-face classes that assist the remoteparticipants to afford to learn.

2.1.2 Advantages and disadvantages of synchronous online learningFrom the very beginning of its existence, SOL has offered learners andlectures many benefits in which convenience is the most cited reason forremotely attending synchronous sessions online Pope (2010) confirmed thatSOL offers a greater educational access in which learners who are working fulltime, busy running household errands, or ill but they can still afford to attendclasses Tracing back in time, McCue and Scales (2007) pointed out thatstudents are satisfied that they can opt for live online classes with the extrabenefit of having lecturers recorded for later review instead of live in-personclasses Moreover, owing to its characteristics, Salmon (2013) notified thatSOL can be collaborative in nature when including online interactive activities

Vu and Fadde (2013) reported that the ability to unobtrusively contribute by

taking advantage of the chat box is greatly valued by reserved students, makingthem reach out to the instructor and peers more frequently In the same vein,Asoodar et al (2014) proposed that virtual classrooms promote the sense of

belonging as they are ways of collaborative learning, which motivates learners

to engage in online activities in SOL because of the presence of their teacherand classmates (Yamagata-Lynch, 2014) These studies have pointed out thatlive e-learning is gradually getting closer and closer to assembling the

experience of face-to-face traditional classrooms with real-time interaction

between teacher and students, instant feedback, and human feel rather than

interaction with only artifacts in asynchronous e-learning Several empiricalstudies reach a consensus that this high level of interactivity results in timelyclarification and information (Pan and Sulivan, 2005), deeper and moremeaningful learning opportunities leading to the mastery of information(Schullo et al., 2007), proving to be efficient for learning

Although virtual classroom meetings might have certain advantages,there still would be undeniable shortcomings From an external perspective,Norberg (2012) pinpointed the absence of relevant professional development

and training opportunities in this field, which later Szeto (2014) confirmed thehard fact that little recognition was made to lecturers’ efforts to innovate

learning, making them feel unsupported in this area In the context of Vietnam,

teachers are not trained properly to deliver lessons in SOL mode, posing moreproblems to the implementation Moreover, Perveen (2016) claimed that

synchronous events require a stable bandwidth internet connection or a learner's

technical skills to overcome frustration when problems arise These external

challenges indirectly cause trouble for learners as teachers are deficient intechnical skills, leading to the fact that less time was spent on lectures and the

interactive pattern would largely be mechanical On the other hand, when

examining closer at the effect of synchronous learning, Bernard et al (2004)stated that a live meeting is "a poorer quality replication of classroominstruction” since they found out that students have lower achievement and

attitude outcomes in synchronous learning compared to asynchronous ones

Park and Bonk (2007) identified the paucity of reflection time in synchronouslearning, leading to poorer quality of peer critiques in class, In the same vein,

Hrastinski (2008) also stated that interaction in live meetings is shallower

compared to asynchronous learning since the focus is ollen on quantity ratherthan quality as students try to speak something to fill in the silence orspontaneously say something in fear of someone might take the line in advance,

Furthermore, Murphy et al (2011) pointed out that synchronous modes are

more teacher-oriented, which they found in their survey in a Canadian province

in 2008, They argued that around 60% of a course instruction would be

delivered synchronously, and media such as video or audio featured insynchronous learning was for lectures of direct instruction from teachers In the

same manner but with a different context - virtual learning in rural areas,Barbours (2007) also revealed that most of the synchronous sections were used

to deliver course content In other words, live e-learning might offer

interactivity, yet the teachers approaches might not afford it This mightexplain why Bernard et al (2004) acknowledged the necessity of "deep"

interaction in virtual classroom meetings, which is opposed to "surface" one

They envisioned a situation in which there was only superficial interaction in

meetings, such as responding to learners' queries about course content, which

would then resemble asynchronous mode in which knowledge would beincluded in a video lecture, and questions from students would be submittedand answered through emails Since then, there is a likelihood that teachersmight not have appropriate approaches to exploit the deep interaction that

virtual meetings offer

From the internal perspective, there are certain obstacles learners endureduring SOL The first and foremost challenge results from the sudden transition

to SOL due to the pandemic outbreak Learners have to adapt quickly without

any preparation and hands-on experience in advance, while SOL is best appliedwhen it is planned and involves a gradual transition (Besser et al., 2020) Yang

et al (2017) also acknowledged that the adaptation ability varies from student

to student, as some of them thrive and flourish in this learning context while

others struggle and suffer Another barrier hindering learners in SOL is learnermotivation (Muilenburg and Berge, 2005; Henderikx et al.,2019; Besser et al.,2020; Le et al., 2020) This demotivation might come from various sources.Besser et al (2020) identified that the first source of discouragement comesfrom the feeling ofisolation, as learners do not develop a sense of belonging tothe learning community in SOL Learners are proven to learn better when they

they do not have the skills to communicate with lecturer and peers online,

which discourages them from learning As Sieve and Troja (2014) claimed thatconnection to others plays an indispensable role in the success of SOL, students'

online communicative skills might be another hindrance for them to prosper inthis learning environment Another factor impeding learning in SOL is the lowlevel of autonomy and self-regulation Deci and Ryan (2002) highlighted themagnitude of autonomy and self-regulation as the core factors contributing tolearning through synchronous video conferencing In the context of Vietnam,

there are several research revealed that most Vietnamese language learners

have a low level of autonomous awareness and involvement in practice, or they

do not spend much time for self-study outside the classroom (Littlewood, 2001;Dang, 2010; Humphreys and Wyatt, 2013; Thai, 2015) Since then, the weakability to self-study and self-regulate Vietnamese learners has been a

tremendous obstacle in SOL

In short, compared to asynchronous learning, SOL might sustain a higherlevel of interactivity and human connection, motivating learners and resulting

in a lower dropout rate SOL also resembles traditional face-to-face sessions to

some extent; however, there is a tendency for synchronous sessions to be

teacher-oriented due to the lack of attention to online teaching approaches.These challenges of SOL might assist the author in anticipating some commondifficulties in implementing learning strategies that learners encounter duringthe classes

2.2 Language learning strategies (LLS) in a synchronous onlinelearning environment

2.2.1 Definition of language learning strategies

Until the middle of the 1970s, classroom-based language teaching

methodology was still a primary focus of applied linguistic research, leading to

the fact that the potential field related to the learning environment, including

learning strategies, was in a state of dereliction From the late 1970s, the

attention shifted from teaching methodology and learning outcomes to the focal

point of the learning process, which is the learners There was a growinginquiry on how learners process, store, and retrieve the target languagematerial, leading to the fact that one of the related areas, which is learningstrategies that learners apply to enhance the target language competence, came

to interest at this time There were various definitions of the term Oxford

(1990b) also described LLS as a set of behaviors, techniques, or steps that

learners consciously exploit to enhance in "internalize, storing, retrieving andusing the L2." In the same vein, O'Malley and Chamot (1990) realized LLS as

a tool for active and self-directed involvement Anderson (2005) definedlearning strategies as ones that students actively and consciously select to apply

in learning to enhance their performance in a particular skill or language use.All of them highlight that LLS is not a single action but a combination of them

that the students must consciously engage in to recreate the study nurturing

environment for successfully accomplishing their learning goals Thesedefinitions are established based on the relationship between learners’

intentions and actions, which takes into account the learning environment

characteristic, and are based on the view that learners are responsible for theirlearning who are aware of their own problems, needs, preferences, and goals

Although Oxford (1990), O’Malley and Chamot (1990) and Anderson(2005) reached a consensus in the definition of language learning strategies, thedesignation and classification caused heated debate in the area Naiman et al.(1978) classified LLS into categories which are generally related to active taskapproach, realization of language as a system and as a means ofcommunication, affective demands management and monitoring L2

performance Rubin (1981) sorted LLS into two types: ones would directly

affect learning while the others contribute indirectly to the process In thissystem, strategies directly influencing language learning are enumerated as

classification, memorization, monitoring, inductive inference, deductive reasoning and practice while indirect strategies include production tricks and

practice opportunities creation In the same vein, Oxford (1990) also introducedtwo types of LLS which are direct and indirect strategies However, as shepointed out the overlap in Rubin’s work, she stated that there are three sub-

types in this categories which are memory, cognitive and compensation

strategies while for indirect ones, she took two more dimensions into account

which are affective and social strategies Later, in 2011, recognizing the

overlapping typology, Oxford then classified these courses of action intocognitive, affective, and sociocultural-interactive strategies, aligned to otherworks of Brown and Palinscar (1982) or O’ Malley et al (1985) There are also

other studies separating strategies in terms of their usage to acquire receptive

or productive skills (Faerch and Kasper, 1984), yet this paper would adopt

Oxford's framework since the main aim is to discover language learning strategies used through the synchronous online learning rather than focusing on

a specific type of skills

2.2.2 Classification of language learning strategies types

2.2.2.1 Metacognitive strategies

O'Malley and Chammot (1990) defines metacognitive strategies as

tactics that students employ to monitor, direct and regulate the learning process

In the same vein, Oxford (1990) adds on as these strategies assist learners in

generally overseeing their use of cognitive strategies, which simply meansthinking about the thinking process of learning a language Winne and Azevedo(2022) specifies that metacognitive strategies allow students to browse theirknowledge inventory to monitor what they have known then coordinate these

knowledge to plan steps and regulate oneself in a task These stategies aid

students in paying attention to other’s work and evaluate their work to make

adjustment accordingly (Oxford, 1990) In a nutshell, these emperical studies

points out that metacognitive strategies are tactics encouraging students to take

active role in their learning as they have to monitor, plan, and evaluate their

cognitive process towards the learning goal In the scope of this study, these

strategies are bound to the process of accomplishing a specific task rather thanthe whole learning process in general These strategies manifest the followinglisted features (Oxford, 1990):

- Monitoring: students are aware of their already-known knowledge andmake mental linkage with the task’s requirements They also pay attention and

observe other people’s examples.

-Planning: students find out the goals, objectives and purposes of the

task to plan for their actions They also determine the language resource and

time for a specific task

-Evaluating: student reflect on their outcomes and the process after the

task completion

However, Oxford (2016) points out that there is no clear cut between thestrategies classifications as in the process of monitoring, planning orevaluating, learners also employ cognitive elements and since then, the divisionline between these two categories is blur She states that there is an overlapbetween metacognitive and cognitive strategies as a tactic could be involvedboth elements from cognitive and metacognitive strategies This fact is

mentioned in awareness of the fluidity of the strategies’ nature and any strictlyrigid categories should not be applied to understand language learning

strategies However, this paper does not focus on classifying the LLS Since

then, the label “metacognitive strategies” is used to communicate the idea of

strategies related to governing the thinking process of learner in dealing with atask when they monitor, plan and evaluate their learning

2.2.2.2 Cognitive strategies

O'Malley and Chammot (1990) first stated that this type of strategydirectly works with the input and its manipulation to enrich learners’knowledge Afterward, cognitive strategies definition is elaborated as strategies

to optimize the processing of information taken from learning materials,involving the analysis, synthesis, or transformation of learning materials, whicheventually results in the construct and application of L2 linguistic knowledge

(Ellis, 1997) Richards (2008) also viewed cognitive strategies as tactics that

deal with the input processing and storing, but he adds that these tactics also

concern with the later retrieval of language from the working memory He

contributed that cognitive strategies are analyzed based on the three main

processes which include comprehension, accumulation, and retrieval processes

In comprehension processes, learners use strategies to process the input,

enhancing the acquiring of both linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge The

second process is storing and memorizing in which learners use strategies to

assist them in storing knowledge in short and long-term memory, which

concerns the retention of linguistic knowledge The last process addresses theapplying and retrieving process, requiring learners to use strategies to getaccess to the stored knowledge and planning for the output

On the other hand, synthesizing from both O'Malley et al (1985) andOxford (2011), cognitive strategies have their broadest sense in which they notonly benefit the processing of input, knowledge accumulation, or output

production, but they also include strategies to monitor and evaluate the

completeness of one's accuracy or fluency compared to his learning outcomes.Brown (2014) listed out eight main groups of cognitive strategies, includingsome possible tactics as listed below:

- Planning: students pay attention to a specific aspect of language,

review, planning to rehearse the required linguistic knowledge for a specific

task

- Organizing: students attend to a specific situational context to prompt

language retention, fit the accumulated knowledge to the existing schemas

- Monitoring: students imitate the language model, using strategies torehearse and self-check Students also revise and correct output in terms ofpronunciation, vocabulary or grammatical precision

- Evaluating: students use an internal assessment of completeness andaccuracy to compare the results of their language learning

- Using senses: students take advantage of other senses such as vision,

hearing or physical response to memorize the information

- Activating knowledge: students compare and contrast the targetlanguage with the first language to remember the grammatical structure andlexical items, make use of equivalent words in their mother tongue to remember

new words

- Contextualization: students relate linguistic knowledge with other

non-linguistic elements to store in their memory, or placing new words in

appropriate phrases or sentences to remember better

- Going beyond the data: students guess meanings of new items, or

predict the derived word forms in the given context

In conclusion, at the beginning, the definition of cognitive strategies isbasically established on the three dimensions of information process which areencoding, storage and retrieval while in the work of Oxford (2011) and Brown(2014), the term cognitive strategies is expanded as the manifestation of both

strategy and meta-strategy This paper would adopt the definition and classification of Oxford (2011) and Brown (2014).

2.2.2.3 Affective strategies

QO” Malley and Chammot (1990) view affective strategies as tactics

assisting learners to regulate emotions, motivations, and attitudes Theyexamine this type of strategies in the combination of socio-interactive strategies

as these tactics also deal with interaction among peers or between learners andlecturers However, as mentioned in the previous part, the paper adopts theframework of Oxford (2011) so this strategy type would be regarded separatelyfrom sociocultural-interactive strategies Apart from other reasons statedabove, another reason for adopting this specific framework would be attributed

to the nature of interaction in synchronous online learning and the

characteristics of Asian classrooms Lacina (2001) reveals that Asian

classrooms tend to be more teacher-centered in comparison with Americanclassrooms, and the oriental students are not willing to initiate direct

communication with lecturers, resulting in higher anxiety and lower motivation

when they are not informed about the task's purposes properly Chou (2004)

discloses that these strategies should be paid more attention to enhance

learners’ engagement in classroom activities and also output production Sincethen, this paper would examine affective strategies in a more elaborated manner

and separately from sociocultural-interactive strategies, which further explainsthe adoption of Oxford (2011) and Brown (2014) works

Oxford (2011) construes affective strategies as strategies to control one'sown emotion, attitudes and beliefs for the sake of effective language learning

They also act to maintain the learner's emotional stability throughout learning

Oxford (2011) distinguishes the three groups of affective strategies which areuseful to reduce anxiety, to increase self-esteem, and to understand one’s ownfeelings in the learning process Brown (2014) adds on to the list a group called

motivation generation According to Brown, learners can set personal goals,

and write down specific aims to monitor their accomplishments so that they can

be encouraged in the language classes He also suggests that by making

personal goals, and noticing specific accomplishments, students can divert their

attention from the upcoming tests, and focus more on what they can do, which

results in higher motivation Learning about the culture while learning languagecan also be a tactic to generate motivation Synthesized from both Oxford(2011) and Brown (2014), affective strategies include four groups and theirpossible tactics listed below:

- Reducing anxiety and lower boredom: use relaxation such as deepbreath, music, or laugh to lower the anxiety level, make use of visual aids,interesting dialogues or activities to lower boredom

- Activating supportive emotions: congratulate and reward oneself witheach goal reached, notice the small unit of improvement, make positivestatements, make list of capabilities, use positive self-talks

- Understand oneselfs emotion: listen to oneself, write a language

learning journal, use an emotional controlled list

- Generate motivation: make to-do list, write down goals and monitortheir accomplishments, divert the attention from tests to one’s capability, learnabout culture of a language

2.2.2.4 Sociocultural-interactive strategies

Affective strategies concern one’s own feelings and motivation while

sociocultural-interactive strategies (SCI) involve sub-strategies and tactics

dealing with interaction and social collaboration within a cultural context.

Leaver (2008) highlights the importance of sociocultural elements in language

learning as without sociocultural competence, learners cannot effectivelyachieve the intercultural communication purposes and comprehension Oxford(2011) supports that learners exploit their surroundings for the sake of languageaccumulation They interact with experts, collaborate with other people, ask forhelp from lecturers to become more competent, and overcome knowledge gaps

to continue social communications She demonstrates three sets of SCI whichare “interacting to learn and communicate, learning despite knowledge gaps incommunication, dealing with sociocultural context and identities” Brown

(2014) includes one more set which is “guessing intelligently” in which learners

draw on lexical items, grammatical structures to predict, discourse markers tocomprehend, and non-verbal signals to guess the message Although this setappears to be an overlap or a sub-category in the second set in Oxford’sframework, they are actually different in nature In Oxford’s work, examples

of this set are the use of synonyms and antonyms as circumlocution for the lack

of vocabulary, or question-inflecting tactics to elicit more information from thespeakers in order to fully comprehend the message On the other hand, Brownfocuses on the internal process as learners make use of other elements comingfrom the communication with other members of the community such as non-

~

verbal signals, or intonation Since then, the paper would present the typology

of Oxford (2011) adding on one more category from Brown (2014) The list ofsets and some example tactics is included below:

- Interacting to learn and communicate: Actively initiate the conversation

with other members of the learning community to practice language, write

down questions to ask and take time to work with a knowledgeable mentor,form study groups and read posts on discussion forums

- Learning despite the knowledge gaps in communication: use synonym,antonyms, make up new words, or use gestures and facial expression tocompensate for the lack of vocabulary and keep staying in the conversation to

learn, switch back to mother tongue when necessary, repeat the sentence with

rising intonation to ask for information elicitation

- Dealing with social contexts and identities: ask or read about cultures,and customs of target language, imitate someone’s posture and expectedreaction in certain scenarios, consider the target language’s culture implications

- Guessing intelligently: make use of discourse markers to comprehend

meaning, observe non-verbal signals to guess the message

2.2.3 Employment of LLS to address difficulties in synchronous

online learning

The previous part of the paper displays the theoretical framework of LLSadopted from Oxford (2011) and Brown (2014) Nevertheless, whether

Oxford's framework is sufficiently applicable in an online environment or there

would be adaptation due to differences in learning situation since Oxford

framework is studied in traditional face-to-face classes, In the very dawn of this

area, Dudley-Evan and St John (1998) recognize that learning strategies that

appear to be fruitful in one paradigm might not be that equally efficient in one

another Since then, numerous studies have examined the online learning

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strategies, yet few of them provide a systematic overview of LLS in terms ofseparating delivery platforms (synchronous or asynchronous), rather thanfocusing on one sub-strategies in Oxford's framework (Moallem, 2015)

In terms ofaffective and social cultural-interactive strategies, Hauck andHampel (2008) attempt to discover the differences by examining the use ofthese strategies in SOL They found that these strategies are not simplytransferred from traditional settings to SOL, but rather tailored to fit the new

setting The new strategies developed by learners in SOL are termed

"social-environmental strategies," in which students make use of features in meetingssuch as chat boxes, photo uploads, or emotional icons to compensate for the

lack of spontaneity In the same vein, Martin et al (2012) also recognize these

new interactions and classify them under the category of interface interactions,

which later require learners to have strategies to deal with

On the other hand, Zariski and Styles (2000) emphasize that due to thenature of this new mode, students develop a high level of self-regulation and

also strategies to organize and reflect on their study Other researchers also

recognize the notion of independence in SOL, leading to the thriving ofresearch on metacognitive strategies used in SOL For example, Liu and Feng(2011) discover that students with higher achievement in SOL tend to use moreplanning and evaluating strategies In other words, in terms of metacognitivestrategies, there are not any significant differences in SOL setting compared totraditional sessions, rather than an intensifier version ofcognitive strategies for

SOL However, Abdul and Maharida (2022) stated that students also use

specific strategies in SOL sessions to cope with problems of self-regulation InSOL sessions, students are prone to being distracted by their surroundings morethan in face-to-face classes, which, in turn, affects their use ofstrategies to copewith these situations, such as using other online media to compensate for themissing parts of the lesson

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In conclusion, there is a specific correlation between students’ challenges

in their SOL and the use of LLS to cope with these difficulties Although theoccurrence rate of the challenges is intertwined with the learner’s use of LLS,this study does not aim to investigate the correlation between these twovariables but to address them as two separate ones in the light of providingscientific data for future research on their correlation

2.4 Previous studies

In Vietnam, there are some studies on challenges that teachers and

students encounter in SOL The first and foremost challenge comes from the

students Vu (2016) states that Vietnamese learners are acquainted with

teacher-centered approaches resulting in the fact that they mostly rely on theteacher and not actively engage in their learning Since then, when learningonline without strict supervision from the teacher, learners with low self-regulation would encounter more challenges Le (2021) observes that there is a

tendency of teachers to teach in SOL sections as if they were teaching in to-face classrooms Teachers transfer their lesson plans for traditional

face-classrooms into digital forms such as PowerPoint files with media withoutchanging the approach to teaching SOL lessons in Vietnam at this time sharethe same characteristic with others in the early 2000s that this paper mentioned

earlier: teacher-oriented (Le, 2021; Nguyen, 2021) In other words, teachers are

not well-equipped and well-trained to fully exploit the potential of this newdelivery mode The reason behind this might be the fresh start of SOL inVietnam Although it has been recommended for years, SOL was not widelyapplied until the COVID-19 outbreak at the beginning of 2020 (Nguyen andPham, 2020)

On the other hand, while SOL is a promising land for future studies, LLShas been an exploiting area for Vietnamese researchers Overall, Vietnamese

categories of strategies According to Nguyen (2017), Nguyen et al., (2012),

and Duong and Nguyen (2021), metacognitive strategies are the most

frequently used among tertiary students as they are able to identify their

objectives, which results in a higher level of learning awareness Nevertheless,

Ngo (2015) and Duong et al., (2019) pointed out that affective strategies are themost commonly used This difference in the findings among the study isattributed to the fact that the focus of their study is varied For Nguyen (2012)and Duong (2021), both of their participants are tertiary students including

eleventh and twelfth graders who are going to take the university entrance test,which leads to the higher use of metacognitive strategies as they have certain

objectives to achieve Ngo (2015), on the other hand, only focused on the grade students; therefore his findings are not aligned with other ones

tenth-The difference in findings among the studies highlighted the fact that theuse of LLS is affected by various factors such as learning styles, ages, genders,

and also the learning environment (Brown, 2014) Since then, the new delivery

mode SOL is the factor that might influence the learners’ use of LLS However,

since SOL is in the infancy phase in Vietnam, researchers are focusing on

exploring students and teachers’ perceptions of SOL and its challenges (Bui etal., 2021; Hoang and Le, 2021; Ly et al., 2021: and Dau, 2022); or seeking for

a framework of effective online teaching (Tan, 2020, Phan, 2021) Little doresearchers pay attention to the field of exploring LLS in online learning, let

alone SOL A few papers concerning LLS in online learning are enclosed

below Vu (2016) examines learners’ learning strategies in online courses He

proves that students prefer employing cognitive strategies when they make use

of the rich multimedia that the Internet offers them to learn more effectivelyand the strategies they use the least are affective ones since they already feelcomfortable communicating online without having face-to-face

communication, either with their camera turned off or through writtenmessages On the contrary, when closely examining vocabulary learningstrategies utilized by students when learning online, Duong et al., (2021)recognize that sociocultural-interactive strategies are the most frequently used.

In this paper, learners approve that they memorize new lexical items better

when using them in dialogue with peers or even just learning new words with

their classmates rather than individually repeating and keeping them in anotebook However, neither papers highlight the specified learning strategiesfor asynchronous and synchronous learning separately and systematically As

mentioned before, the interaction in SOL is not simply a duplicate of face one, and learners have tailored strategies to deal with this distinguished

face-to-new mode (Martin et al., 2012) Unfortunately, these studies about LLS for

SOL in Vietnam did not identify the strategies learners used explicitly in this

delivery mode The acknowledged correlation between LLS and successfuloutcomes is another persuasive rationale for a pressing need for further andmore systematic research in this field to provide insights into how differentlearners learn in this new environment so that teachers can support them withappropriate strategies-based instructions, or provide them with particularizedLLS to overcome obstacles in SOL

2.4 Conceptual framework of the studyThe objectives of the present paper are to explore the extent to whichnon-English majors employ LLS in SOL, discover specific challenges that

learners experience in live meetings, and some tactics that they use to overcome

those issues Based on the previous studies that the author has reviewed so far,

some challenges that learners might encounter in SOL can be sorted into twogroups: internal and external External problems are the lecturer’s level oftechnoliteracy and choice of methodology, bandwidth internet connection, andinteractions among peers or with the lecturer Internal issues can be listed aslearner's technical skills, less reflection time, cognitive overload, and low self-

regulation In order to cope with these issues, learners develop and apply

language learning strategies which consist of four main groups: metacognitiveStrategies, cognitive strategies, affective strategies, and socioculturalinteractive strategies (Oxford, 2011 and Brown, 2014) Therefore, grounded onother works of experts in the field, the theoretical framework of this paper is

Synchronous online learning

27CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter will describe the methodology that the researcher used tofind out the answer to the research questions posed The research design,research site, and sampling process will be discussed before the presentation ofthe instruments employed in the study

3.1 Research questionsThe research questions are generated as follows:

1 Do the students face any difficulties during the synchronous online

learning process? If so, what are they?

2 To what extent do non-English majors at Ho Chi Minh City University

of Technology employ language learning strategies in synchronous onlinelearning?

3.2 Research design

This is a sequential mix of quantitative and qualitative researchconducted through questionnaires and interviews Data from bothquestionnaires and interviews weigh equally in this paper The author collectedthe quantitative data from the questionnaire first to gain descriptive data andthen based on the data, the researcher conducted the interview with the aim to

explain for the results from the questionnaire The reasons for choosing the

sequential mixed-methods approach will be further explained below

In terms of quantitative research, Creswell (2011) points out that thistype of research would describe an overall trend in responses of the populationand the diversity of those views among participants Watson (2015) states thatquantitative methods yield a systematic view of the phenomenon Since then,the qualitative method will be the best fit to approach the first question aboutthe extent of LLS utility in SOL Moreover, the variables in both questions,which is frequency and level of difficulty, are measurable so it is sensible to

address research questions with quantitative methods This approach willprovide an overall view of the use of LLS in SOL and the challenges thatlearners endure during SOL classes

However, as stated in the research gaps, the topics ofdifficulties and LLS

in SOL are rather brand-new in Vietnam and in Ho Chi Minh City University

of Technology (HCMUT), so quantitative methods would not be sufficient tosolve the second research question Morse (1991) specifies the necessity of this

method when the subject has not been addressed with a particular population

before In the same vein, Cresswell (2011) agrees that when the phenomenon

needs to be understood and the researchers can not identify the important

variables to investigate, the work should merit qualitative methods.Considering these characteristics of the qualitative approach mentioned earlier,the author realized that it would be the appropriate method to address the issue

in research questions This approach could provide a detailed view ofchallenges in the implementation of LLS in SOL and the specific strategies to

solve these challenges.

In conclusion, the research paper will employ a sequential mix-method

approach with the aim of making the results reliable and valid as the authorperceives that either quantitative or qualitative alone would be sufficient toaddress the research questions

3.3 Research site

The research will be conducted at Ho Chi Minh University of

Technology (HCMUT) at 107 H1 House, National University Urban Area, Thu

Duc City This site is selected due to its convenience and its large population.HCMUT has a total of 16,922 students from 11 departments in the university.However, the population of the study would not reach the number of 16,922

since the university has two official buildings and this research is conducted

only in one place The author gained data from 305 participants The research

site is the location for freshers and sophomores of all departments, all studentsfrom departments such as Computer Science, Architect, Material Technology,and Environment and Resources In the case of HCMUT, English is acompulsory subject for non-English majors throughout four years of learning

It is also a prerequisite subject that students have to finish before enrolling inother major courses

According to the official curriculum of HCMUT, non-English majors arerequired to take four English classes distributed one by one cach year Each

class includes four skills: reading, listening, writing, and speaking However,

for students in the first and second year, teachers focus on teaching reading andlistening skills more than the other two skills It is also noteworthy that learnersare considered to pass a course, they have to reach a certain point in the TOEICreading and listening test For example, the first-year students have to gain 350

or more than that to be considered to pass the first English course and for thesophomores, the required score is 450

3.4 Sample and sampling processThe sampling method chosen in this paper was the convenience sampling

method According to Dornyei (2007), convenience sampling refers to thesampling process that chooses samples according to certain practical purposessuch as geographical closeness, easy accessibility, time availability, andparticipant’s willingness The author of the research is an English lecturer atHCMUT; therefore, it is beneficial for her to access samples from this

population Moreover, the questionnaire lasts for about ten minutes so the

participants are likely to engage in it

The number of participants is approximately 300 students which

consisted of mostly freshmen and sophomores All of them are non-Englishmajors in HCMUT and their range of age would be from eighteen to twenty.The participants spend about six hours per week studying English online

3.5 Research instrumentsThis study used the sequential mixed-methods approach, as described in

Section 3.2 As a result, both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered

using a closed-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews

3.5.1 QuestionnaireThe main instrument of this paper is the questionnaire According toCreswell (2011), the questionnaire is a kind of survey design in whichparticipants select answers to close-ended questions and return the form to the

researchers He also points out that a questionnaire is a suitable and practicaltool to yield data that describe the trend rather than a rigorous explanation for

cause and effect This would provide information for the first research question

concerning the trend in LLS implementation in the SOL environment.Moreover, Ackroyd and Hughes (1981) stated that a questionnaire is one of thebest tools for quantitative research since it can collect a colossal amount of datafrom many people in spite of the limit oftime or geographic distances

The questionnaire is divided into two parts corresponding with tworesearch questions, which concern with the challenges that students encounter

in SOL and the extent to which learners employ LLS to overcome thosedifficulities

As for the first question about learners’ challenges in SOL sessions, thequestionnaire used in this study was adapted from former studies by Dang et

al (2020) and Walters et al (2021) The first part of the research questionnaire

is adapted mainly from studies of Dang et al (2020) since there are somemutual features between the study of Dang et al (2020) and this study Dangand his colleagues also investigate the challenges that non-English majorsencounter during SOL sessions in a Vietnam setting However, since Dang and

his colleagues only focus on emotional, interactive, financial, and

environmental-related challenges, this study needs to eliminate some obstacles