Articles

Students’ Perceptions of Note-taking as a Listening Comprehension Strategy: A Mixed-methods Study of Vietnamese EFL Majors

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Note-taking is widely regarded as a critical strategy for supporting second-language listening comprehension, yet little is known about how Vietnamese English-major students themselves perceive its value and difficulty. This article investigated the perceptions of 150 third-year English majors at the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (IUH) regarding the benefits and challenges of note-taking during English listening tasks. A mixed-methods design that combined a structured questionnaire with semi-structured interviews with 5 students was used thoroughly. Descriptive statistics showed that note-taking is a near-universal habit (83% of students reported taking notes “always” or “often”), predominantly practised with pen and paper (62%) rather than digital devices. Students overwhelmingly perceived note-taking as beneficial for comprehension, memory retention, information organisation, inferencing, test performance and sustained attention with agreement rates ranging from 84% to 93% across the measured benefits. At the same time, a substantial minority reported difficulties related to fast speech rate, unfamiliar vocabulary, divided attention and messy handwriting, particularly regarding missing subsequent information (29% agreement) and message overload at high speech rates (31% agreement). Interview data illuminated the cognitive and strategic mechanisms behind these patterns including code-switching, selective attention to discourse markers and compensatory strategies such as momentarily abandoning notes to preserve comprehension. The findings are interpreted through established learning theories, and practical implications for explicit note-taking instruction in EFL listening classrooms are discussed.

The Study of Self-Esteem in Chronically Ill Individuals in Correlation to Health Care in Bangkok Teenagers Aged Between 15 and 19

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Chronic diseases have persisted in a person’s body throughout their life. Most chronic diseases lead to disabilities in people, which may influence their self-esteem, behavioral outcomes, and/or quality of life. Self-esteem, on the other hand, is an attribute of an adaptable personality that has been correlated to physical well-being. Correspondingly, low self-esteem has frequently been associated with self-stigma, in which one incorporates negative perceptions of chronic disease and sees the illness as a poor reflection of the self. Thus, we conducted survey research on Thai students aged between 15 and 19 using an online questionnaire to determine whether having chronic diseases and accessibility to healthcare services influence an individual’s level of self-esteem. The survey conducted in this research has shown that chronic diseases don’t have an impact on a person’s self-esteem. Instead, lifestyle choices and health care management appear to be the factors determining the quality and quantity of self-esteem in an individual. Therefore, it is crucial that individuals are aware of making healthy life choices that will positively impact their self-esteem rather than poor decisions that will have adverse implications. Thus, examining the correlation between chronically ill individuals and their level of self-esteem in Thai teenagers can assist in raising social awareness about making healthy lifestyle choices to prevent the potential negative effects.