VNUHCM Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities

The correlation between the information literacy training program and the satisfaction of students at the University of Information Technology, Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City

Nhat Truong Phan — 2025-07-21

This study aims to examine the effectiveness of information literacy training activities by determining the correlation between the students’ satisfaction and the components of the information literacy training program. The Library of the University of Information Technology, Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City, was chosen as the case study. The quantitative research data were collected from the responses of 104 students who had participated in information literacy classes organized by the Library from 2021 to 2024, using an online questionnaire via Microsoft Forms. The relationship between the components of the information literacy training program and students’ satisfaction was calculated by the Pearson correlation coefficient, frequency values, percentages, mean values, and standard deviations of the data collected from students through the measurements calculated and supported by SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software. The study results show the strong positive correlations between the satisfaction of participating students and most of the information literacy training program factors, except for the factor “Planning to organize one training session each year,” which was the only factor with no significant correlation. The research results help the Library of the University of Information Technology identify the factors that need improvement and adjustments to align with the needs and realities of information literacy training in the coming years.

The religious position - an approach from Ulrich Beck’s risk social theory

Thu Tran Anh Le — 2025-07-17

Ulrich Beck's theory of risk society in his two works Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity and A God of One's Own as a reflection on the process of modernization in four dimensions: technological progress, globalization, secularization, and individualization. The article focuses on the issue of secularization and individualization as a starting point in the vision referring to the position of religion in postmodern society.

In the intertextual approach, the content of the article is developed mainly by the phenomenological and hermeneutic methods imbued with the existential philosophy. In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the article is divided into three chapters: Chapter I. From the concept of modernity, the relationship between modernity and secularization and the relationship between modernity and individualization are explored; Chapter II. Analysis of the consequences of modernity has created a society that is always insecure, and personal safety that is threatened when individualism is institutionalized, leading to consequences that people have to bear; Chapter III. On a personal God as a form of personal spirituality that responds to both religious fundamentalism and modern insecurity. However, Ulrich Beck still asserts that the religious position, even in its individualized form, is still a potential mediator of peace in a risky society.

With arguments and evidence from theory and practice, the authors have sent a warning message for this assertion. “In the face of the challenges of a risky postmodern society, religious status may not be able to perform its “healing” function for the world but may contribute to the pain of the world”. The authors' counter-arguments are presented at the end of chapter III and are also the purpose of the article.

The changes in the reception of literature of South Vietnam in the period 1954-1975 after 1975

Nhon Vo Van — 2025-07-01

Before 1975, many past literary phenomena were evaluated quite harshly and unfairly due to various reasons, including the urgent need for a revolutionary literature, the difficult condition of war time, the fierce ideological opposition at that time, the simple application of class perspectives, the complicated literary practice, and the lack of information. As for the Southern urban literature, due to its complex nature, the evaluation and reception of this literature are somewhat difficult, different, and inconsistent, but in general, has also had remarkable changes since 1975 until now. Scientists have recognized that the Southern urban literature is a complex literary subject but an undeniable part of Vietnamese literary history. From the purely political assessments to determine the opposing literary and artistic trends in Southern urban areas, researchers with a scientific perspective have gradually shifted to the comprehensive evaluation from many perspectives, both political and artistic, thereby having more multi-dimensional and satisfactory assessments. The article observes this change in the research and criticism community in Vietnam, from in-depth research to popularization in the community such as in textbooks, teaching materials, and reprinting of works.

The advantages and disadvantages of the flipped classroom model in foreign language teaching at the undergraduate level: a systematic review

Phuc Lieu — 2025-07-17

In the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the rapid growth of online learning, the flipped classroom model has transformed teaching and learning by inverting the traditional pedagogical process. Learner autonomy is emphasized through pre-class engagement with videos and materials, while the instructor's role shifts from knowledge provider to facilitator. Class time is then dedicated to practical activities, interaction, and problem-solving under the teacher's guidance. To ensure comprehensiveness and transparency, this systematic review employs the PRISMA framework with its 4-phase flow diagram: identification, screening, exclusion, and eligibility. A total of 19 articles published between 2014 and 2024 were identified through relevant keywords from Scopus, Google Scholar, and ERIC databases. The findings highlight the advantages of this model, including flexibility in time and space, self-directed learning, enhanced creativity, optimized in-class activities, development of language skills, critical thinking, and digital literacy. Concurrently, the disadvantages of this model are also identified such as workload pressures, dependence on technology and internet access, time management and self-learning skills, the quality of learning resources, learning environment limitations, and other individual learner factors.

The modal characteristics in the communication of Quang Nam people

Huong Thi Lan Truong — 2025-07-24

The modality in the Quang Nam dialect clearly reflects the distinctive cultural characteristics and linguistic distinction of the land: ‘hasn’t rained but already soaked’. The use of modal means by Quang Nam people in everyday communication is not merely a matter of word choice, but also a way for them to express attitudes, viewpoints, emotions, and social relationships. In order to understand more deeply about the modality of Quang people, we conducted fieldwork to collect everyday speech of Quang Nam people, while combining the linguistic research methods, including the descriptive linguistic method and the semantic-syntactic analysis method, to study the modal means across two categories: objective modality and subjective modality. The research results show that the modal means in the Quang Nam dialect can be words, phrases, or idiomatic expressions frequently used by local people in daily communication. These linguistic units not only contribute to creating a lively and rich linguistic picture but also play the role of marking the illocutionary force of utterances, helping to express the attitudes, emotions, hesitation, or even opposition of Quang Nam people when communicating. This research holds significance not only academically but also practically, especially in fields such as intercultural communication, the preservation of local languages, and the development of Vietnamese language teaching materials for foreigners.