Các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến việc học tiếng Anh trực tuyến trong dịch bệnh COVID- 19 của sinh viên năm thứ nhất Trường Đại học Hải phòng.

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FACTORS INFLUENCE ON ONLINE LEARNING ENGLISH
DURING COVID 19 FOR THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT
HAI PHONG UNIVERSITY
Nguyễn Phương Lan
*

ABSTRACT
The CO VID 19 pandemic has dramatically changed all walks of life and education is not an
exception. The Vietnamese education system has had to conduct online teaching for all levels.
Online learning English has its positive and negative aspects. In the survey offirst-year students
of Hai Phong university, who are learning general English, the advantages and disadvantages of
learning English online have been analyzed to find out the factors that influence to online teaching
and learning English.
Keywords: Online learning English, advantages, disadvantages, factors, Hai phong University
Received:28/02/2022; Accepted:l/3/2022; Published: 04 /03/2022

1, Introduction
As we know, in western countries, especially
in the countries with developed education,
online education has been viewed as a choice
that has the potential of serving a particular
group of students that are notably older. Hai
Phong has been slow to take up online teaching,
but COVID-19 is an opportunity to review and
strengthen online training capacity.
In university enrollment period 2021, Hai
Phong University has achieved a new “record”

with nearly 4,500 new students, 2.5 times
more than the previous year and far exceeding
as the plan. It is very important and also has
many challenges for teachers and students of
Hai Phong University. Like other universities
in Viet Nam, Hai Phong University has “dual
goal”, both implementing measures to prevent
and control the COVID-19 epidemic and
implementing appropriate and effective training
activities according to the plan of the Ministry
of Education and Training.
Most of the teaching and learning time of
the first term of the school year for students is
online, basically the University still ensures the
* Ths. Trường Đại học Hải Phòng

progress and quality.
Material and methods
2. Research contents
2.1. Online learning English in Viet Nam
and Hai Phong University
Online learning is becoming increasingly
popular with more and more students having
access to web-based courses at universities in
the world. Online English learning has been
encouraged in Viet Nam but has not got much
enthusiasm from students until the outbreak
of COVID-19. HP University has conducted
admission and implemented online teaching for
students in the 1 st semester of the school year.

In the second semester, after being vaccinated
against COVID-19, there will be a plan to teach
directly.
There have been several researches on the
effective ways of online learning generally,
especially online learning English. During
COVID-19 in Viet Nam in 2020, it is clarified
the difficulties that learners have encountered
when learning online. A group of researchers
from some universities and colleges in Viet
Nam constructed a dataset named “Dataset
of Vietnamese student’s learning habit during
COVID-19”, in which a survey was conducted

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between February 7 and February 28, 2020,
the first three weeks of nationwide school
closures due to COVID-19. Initially, online
questionnaires were delivered to parents and
teachers who were active in various educational
forums on Facebook. It provides useful
information for enhancing educational leaders’
and policymakers’ awareness of the effects
of sudden changes in educational context and
forms. Besides, another group of researchers had
“dataset of Vietnamese teachers’ perspectives

and perceived support during the COVID-19
pandemic”. The data was collected from 6th
to 11th April 2020, the ninth week of national
school suspension in Vietnam, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly, teachers regard
the operation of teaching activities during
the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondly, teachers
have received support from their schools,
the government, teachers’ union and parents’
associations. And teachers’ evaluation of school
readiness toward digital transformation. Both
datasets have helped to make a clearer picture
on the influence if COVID 19 on Vietnamese
education systems and especially in universities
and colleges.
2.2. Research problems
The aim ofthis article is to give the advantages
and disadvantages of emergency online English
learning. Then to identify the factors influence
of the first year students of Hai Phong university
on learning English during the COVID-19
pandemic.
What are the advantages of online learning
English?
What are the disadvantages of online learning
English?
What are the factors influencing the first
year students on online learning English at Hai
Phong university?
Methodology

The participants of the study were first year
students who had the online Geneal English
learning in the first term of this school year.
They focus on English language practice, both in

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traditional face-to-face lessons and online study.
At the beginning of their first academic year,
every student was provided with an account to
access the online lessons.
This study was implemented using
information from 2 groups. One is 50 essays of
the first year students at a general English class
(Philology Pedagogy of literature, 22nd course).
Before writing, the students were explained the
aim and the usage of the information that they
would write. And another group are students
and lecturers of English voluntarily took part
in the survey, interviews and in the focus
group discussions respectively. They were also
requested to write monthly reports to course
about online learning situation of language
skills lessons.
During the spread of COVID 19, the students
involved in the study experienced 4 months
full time online learning as an alternative for
direct learning. This learning process were
implemented with Google Meet application.
Luckily, most the first year students have already

had online lessons when they were at 12th form
at school at the beginning of the COVID 19 out
break in Viet Nam. And all teachers of English
in Hai Phong University had no technical
difficulties in dealing with the application.
After receiving the essays form the first year
students and result of the survey, discussions,
they were analyzed with the theory of Strauss
and Corbin, 2008 (Strauss and Corbin data
analysis, 2008). Then codes for positive and
negative side of online teaching English and
the advantages and disadvantages of learning
English online for the first year students of Hai
Phong University.
2.4.Results
First of all, students find that online learning
is the most effective alternative to face-to-face
learning during the outbreak of the epidemic.
In discussing the advantage of learning online,
the positive sides were coded as convenience,
saving, learning quality. In term of convenience,
students can study anywhere, anytime. They

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can save time and costs. Learning quality was
reflected through lesson content, review of the
lesson, more understanding of the lessons, more

personal skills. Online instruction had led to
significantly better result on examinations, in
solving complicated problems and perceived
learning outcomes.
In positive sides of online learning English,
the students admitted that learning English
online help them save costs of travelling and
time of travelling, they can learn any time and
anywhere with a computer or a smart phone and
internet connection.
In surveys and in the essays, more than
half of them agreed that with the help of high
technology, lecturers provided more vivid
lessons with videos, sound, music and images...
that makes the lessons better and easier to
understand. 12 out of 50 students thought that
online learning English was more effective
because they could practice more in listening skill
and 10 students could achieve more knowledge
from extensive related to reading documents
on the internet. Only 5 students said in online
learning the interaction between lecturers and
students increased. It is positive that increasing
personal skills is one of advantages of online
learning English. The skills are the ability to self­
synthesize the knowledge, being more active in
taking part in the lessons and interaction, being
more focus and being more self-disciplined.
Besides the great advantages mentioned
above, online learning also has some limitations

compared to face-to-face learning at school.
Such as: the students are required to have a
computer with the intemtet connection. It is
not possible for every student to have their own
computer or laptop, especially the poor ones.
And sometimes the pictures and sound may not
be stable due to the network connection or the
quality of the electronic equipment. There exists
some risk of fire and explosion due to improper
use of electronic devices, while learning while
plugging in the charger. It is more important that
the students must be really serious in practicing
language skills such as: listening, speaking.

reading and writing. Otherwise, learning in
general and learning English in particular will
not be effective.
According to the result in the survey of 12
leturers who teach general English for the first
year students, it has been shown that there is no
opportunity for students to interact directly with
friends and teachers. This can affect the student’s
experience. Online learning environment does
not promote creativity and initiative of students.
Moreover, learning assessment is limited. In
traditional classrooms, teachers can provide
assessment, direct feedback to students. This
has a positive impact because the exchange and
interaction process is easier and richer, and at the
same time improves the learning motivation for

students. Online learning makes many students
feel uncomfortable because they have to interact
with teachers and friends through screens.
Currently, online assessment and examination
is still a dilemma that cannot be completely
resolved. Many educational institutions spend a
great deal of time researching and finding the
right direction.
Some other lectures said that online teaching
and learning English create a feeling of isolation.
Currently applied online learning programs tend
to make students keep quiet, distance and lack of
interaction with teachers and friends. As a result,
many students, even teachers, began to show
signs of social isolation. Experts say this stems
from a lack of person-to-person communication.
Social isolation and lack of communication can
cause many mental health problems such as
high stress, anxiety disorders, negative thinking.
One of the biggest disadvantages of online
learning is that it is difficult to prevent and
detect fraud. Compared to the face-to-face test,
students taking the online exam can cheat in
many different ways and look up documents right
on computers and phones. Even if the school
does not have a suitable identity verification
system, students can ask a third party to take
the test for them, leading to the evaluation of
results that cannot be transparent and fair. After
the datas have been analyzed from students

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esays and survey results of the students and the
lectures, we have found that the factors affecting
students’ online English learning of the first-year
student at Hai Phong University. On that basis,
the article would like to mention some activities
that can make learning English online during the
COVID pandemic more effective.
First, Hai Phong People Committee and Hai
phong University should have better preparation
and scenario for online learning English because
COVID 19 is unpredictable. Online learning in
general and online English learning in particular
should be invested much more and we are
always ready for every emergency.
Second, it is necessary to have English clubs
where students, teachers and native speakers
can interact and help each other to improve
their English. With the useful activities at the
club, students will become more confident and
proactive in communication.Third, lecturers
should be improved the information technology
so that they can use it to better the lessons. They
need to use specialized software or integrate
the online teaching function into the website

to improve the experience for both teachers
and students.Last, students should be equipped
essential skills which is useful for online
learning English such as time management
skills, language skills
3. Conclusion
This article concluded that the COVID 19
outbreak has challenged the whole education
system in general and universities in particular.
The students and lecturers in Hai Phong
University have adapted to unexpected situations
without much preparation. By identifying the
advatages and disadvantages of online teaching
and learning English, the factors influencing in
the activites have been studied so that the first
year students who have just started familiar with
the form of learning at universty proactively
overcome the difficulties and take the advantages
of online learning to make their online English
learning better.

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