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This course is to explore the nature of language and its relationship to societies. Investigations into some of the ways in which language is actually used in context in different cultures are explored. Issues such as dialect, variety, pidgin, code-switching, and identity are investigated. The emphasis is on understanding and describing how people actually make use of the language and how this impacts on communication and miscommunication. Some of the theoretical and practical issues in the investigation of authentic language use are tackled. The practical implications for teachers and language curriculum developers are also examined.

Understanding the process of second language learning is the most crucial foundation for all practices relevant to language teaching, curriculum design, and learning support services. This introductory course on second language acquisition (SLA) aims to explore how languages are learned in both formal and informal contexts, and how first language learning is different from second or third language learning. Key issues that underlie English language acquisition, with special emphasis on those that are pertinent to English language teachers are examined. Affective factors contributing to the development, maintenance, and attrition of languages are analyzed and discussed to inform educational practices of how to best facilitate the language learning process. They include age, individual differences, aptitude, cognition, affect, motivation, and social dimensions of learning.

This course is designed for second-year university students in order to provide them with fundamental knowledge about Cultures in general and Vietnamese culture in particular, especially the original values through which our international fellows can distinguish between Vietnamese culture and those from East-Southern Asian regions and all over the world. 

After this course, students can understand the basic characteristics along with the cores of traditional and modern Vietnamese cultures. Also, they can self-navigate in the recent multi-form and multi-direction information world as well as the time when globalization and internationalization are taking place progressively in various fields, including cultures. Subsequently, students would be able to selectively obtain the essences of humanity on the basis of integration, not fusion.

This course is designed for second-year English-majored university students and aims at equipping them with fundamental knowledge about the nature of human languages; the relationship between language and culture; basic understandings related to grammar, phonetics, lexicon, semantics and pragmatics. As a result, students can actively implement this knowledge to have further insights into learning and research about their mother tongue as well as their major or minor language.

In addition, this course also focuses on helping students shape and consolidate several active learning skills such as researching, public speaking and teamwork.