The article explores the influence of the mother tongue (Vietnamese) on practicing to develop first-year students’ English writing skills at Thu Dau Mot University. Analytical data was collected from 100 first-year students majoring in English Language at the Faculty of Foreign Languages - Thu Dau Mot University. Research results show that students are still greatly influenced by Vietnamese (first language) in the process of practicing English writing skills. Among the students surveyed, up to 58.4% said they were still influenced by the way of thinking in Vietnamese, and then switched to English to follow the writing style of Vietnamese. … The remaining % said they had practiced writing in English through many writing activities at English centers and had practiced writing through thinking in English. The rest of the article proposes some solutions to help students overcome the above barriers to develop effective writing skills.

In the accelerating pace of globalization and internationalization of trade, professionals from a wide range of organizations believed that English as an international language, which is a way of thinking, researching and practicing, was used in almost all areas of life, study, and work. That’s why the study's foremost objectives were to comprehend reading learning strategies used by English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot University. A quantitative method was used to conduct the research with a questionnaire divided into four parts. The subjects of this study are 100 English majors from the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Thu Dau Mot University. According to the results, the majority of students agree with the difficulties faced when learning English reading. Likewise, students also subscribe that they also use some reading learning strategies such as extensive reading strategy, the phonics strategy, the whole language strategy, reading comprehension strategy and vocabulary building strategy. Moreover, some solutions, such as the function of the word in the sentence, the main gist, guessing the unfamiliar word and reading aloud are recommended to them to read more effectively and improve their reading ability. Ultimately, some recommendations are made in the hope of helping both teachers and students. Keywords: challenges, English reading, reading learning strategies, Thu Dau Mot University

An effective teacher plays a crucial role in the process of learning English as a foreign language (EFL) when students’ opportunities to English exposure outside the classroom are limited. The aim of this study was to examine professional characteristics that an effective EFL teacher should have as perceived by Taiwanese university students. A four-section questionnaire was used as a data collection instrument, and the study sample included responses from 68 senior students majoring in EFL. The results show that the three most significant characteristics of an effective teacher of English in the eyes of Taiwanese university students are not related specifically to the teacher’s knowledge of the subject or English proficiency level. Those characteristics can be attributed to any teacher, and they include providing clear grading guidelines, giving clear explanations, and preparing each lesson well. The findings may contribute valid information on college students’ expectations of EFL teachers in the Asian educational context and help make the language learning process more effective.