THE ATTITUDES TO SELF STUDY OF VGU FOUNDATION YEAR STUDENTS Phạm Đình Long (ID 15866) The Vietnamese German University Instructor name Nguyễn Phạm Duy Anh Course name Academic Writing 3 Table of Conte[.]
THE ATTITUDES TO SELF-STUDY OF VGU FOUNDATION YEAR STUDENTS Phạm Đình Long (ID: 15866) The Vietnamese-German University Instructor name: Nguyễn Phạm Duy Anh Course name: Academic Writing Table of Contents Abstract Introduction Method Findings Discussion Conclusion References Appendix Abstract Self-study has long been known to be an important studying method in education, especially at the university Nowadays, with the rapidly increasing number of new knowledge and technologies in a globalized world, self-study is considered one of the most essential skills that students need to have However, there might be very few investigations conducted at the Vietnamese German University (VGU) related to the self-study of students, especially the Foundation Year (FY) student or freshmen in other words who have started studying at the university Therefore, the purpose of this study to comprehend freshmen’s attitudes to their self-study generally A survey created by Google form was sent to all VGU freshmen The result collected revealed that most students have awareness about self-study and some common issues with their self-study Thereby, the university can help them solve those problems and enhance the self-study spirit of all students Introduction According to the definition of Trinh and Rijlaarsdam (2003), self-study ability is shown by the subject who correctly determines their motivation for learning and has a positive attitude in activities to be able to work on their own, adjust their learning activities and assess learning outcomes so that they can work independently and work collaboratively with others Many research results have demonstrated a big difference between the knowledge that teachers want students to gain and the knowledge that students need to learn in the university While teachers focus on teaching a certain piece of knowledge, students are interested in other issues Such differences may affect learning outcomes (Nunan, 2000) Therefore, the study is most effective when students are provided with opportunities to shape and develop self-study ability Surprisingly, there was limited academic research conducting on this topic at the VGU, especially for freshmen or first-year students in other words Consequently, this research was created to collect and analyze the opinions of Foundation Year students about their self-study The aim of it to examine the awareness and to indicate some issues of students about self-study And for this purpose, a question has arisen: What are the attitudes of VGU Foundation Year students to self-study? Method The purpose The importance of self-study has been demonstrated widely in many fields The goal of this research is to figure out what VGU freshmen and think about their self-study as well as the problems they face while studying With the figures from students collected and analyzed, VGU will hopefully have appropriate solutions for the issues of freshmen’s self-study and develop the self-study skills for students Population and sampling technique of survey There were 31 Foundation Year students from all majors at VGU have participated in the survey The reason for electing FY students as the object of study is that they are the newcomers who have just entered higher education in months and they may not have awareness about self-study as much as higher levers Furthermore, FY student also has the more available time to participate in the survey and improve their self-study skills so this survey is very suitable for them Procedure The questionnaire of this survey was created by Google form which is easier to approach and collect data from participants through the internet than a traditional interview in-person method The survey forms were sent to all FY students via school mail All questions were written by English basically and comprehensively to help participants understand and respond easily After weeks, 31 responses were calculated that met the expectation of the population Therefore, the survey could be concluded Materials Because this is a familiar topic, almost survey questions were self-created originally Some websites such as Survey Monkey were referred There are 11 questions in total and half of them are Yes/No question with questions that were effortless to answer Among Yes/No question, questions have another option so that the data will be more precise and objective In addition, questions used for gathering personal information, multiple choices were also added to give the participant the right to express their own ideas Findings Student profiles Major Gender 6% 23% 16% 45% 55% 16% 19% 19% Male Female ME EEIT CS BA FA ARCH In general, the numbers of participants by gender had relative figures The proportions of male participants accounted for over a half with 55% and the rest were female participants with 45% The next chart illustrated that participants in this survey are from all major in VGU with nearly equal amounts ME students made up the largest percentage with 23% CS and BA students had a second large proportion with 19% EEIT and FA student EEIT and FA responded rates are also identical with 16% ARCH students had the smallest figure, at 7% Freshmen’s self-study information Self-study time daily 16 14 12 10 15 1 hour or fewer hours hours hours hours or more Self-study time daily It can be seen from the above chart that almost all students spend at least hours a day for self-study and hours also had the largest number of responses students spend hours and students spend hours to study in this survey The number of participants who study less than an hour or above hours per day was very small at and students respectively Chart Title 16 12 Never Rarely Sometimes Usually This survey also gave some common self-study activities to analyze how often VGU freshmen those activities In the most familiar activity to the student – a study in the library or quiet place, there was an outstanding figure that student usually does it, at 17 students The number of participants choosing Sometimes, Rarely and Never decreased gradually in turn However, in the second activity, the figure of the student who usually, sometimes, and rarely read materials before classes are nearly the same There was only one response selecting Never in this activity The third activity had unequal proportions, most people answering Usually and Rarely while Sometimes has a less number Reading reference books without requirement can be seen as an unpopular activity of VGU freshmen There was the least number of students usually read reference books, most students just read them some time and rarely In addition, making appointments with lecturers for the study is also uncommon with FY students when almost students never or rarely this activity The last activity had the largest numbers of participants who responded Usually and Rarely respectively, followed by Sometimes and Never The opinion of freshmen about their self-study Importance of self-study 30 25 20 15 10 Not at all important Slightly important Important Fairly important Very important Although some self-study activities are uncommon with VGU freshmen in the previous charts, in this next chart, it showed that almost students by 24 of 31 considered self-study are very important at the university There were only unimportant figures that students underestimated the importance of self-study Following the self-study plans in reality Losing focus self-study frequetly 19% 45% 55% 81% Yes No Yes No The first chart above illustrated the relevance between the number of students who really follow their self-study plans and students who don’t follow, at 55% and 45% respectively In fact, FY students are easy to lose concentration on self-study, which can be seen in the second chart The number of students said Yes occupied 81% while only less a fifth said No with 19% Effect of social media and entertaiment on self-study Affect of job on selfstudy 13% 34% 16% 66% Yes 71% No Yes No Not having job The reasons for the problem of students in self-study were represented in two next pie charts Two third of the participants thought that they are affected much by social media and entertainment such as games, movies, etc The job was also another factor that could be considered However, a large percentage of FY students at VGU don’t have any jobs with 71% The next 16% of students are not affected by their jobs on self-study There were only 13% of participants are involved in their jobs The opinion of freshmen about self-study at the VGU Efficient support of lecturers on self-study VGU's facilities sastify selfstudy 23% 29% Yes No 58% 13% No need support 77% Yes No The educational environment is an important aspect of self-study at the university The chart showed that more than half of students with 18% are helped effectively by lectures Surprisingly, nearly one-third of students are confident with their own self-study without any supports and 13% of the number of responses was inefficient support The facilities of VGU are a plus which can be seen on the next chart when over three forth of students satisfy, the rest of the students said that the facility at VGU needs to be improved Discussion The purpose of this survey is to find out the attitudes of Foundation Year students to self-study The data collected is used to analyze and have a general view of freshmen’s self-study Generally, the FY students understand the importance of self-study at the university and know how to self-study However, some of the activities given in the survey had insignificant results For instance, the frequency of reading materials before classes and reference books of freshmen is not usual while these activities help them be more active in classes because lectures cannot explain all knowledge and focus on the detail of contents in class Therefore, students should have an overview of knowledge before joining the classes Two other activities also need to be encouraged are taking notes and review after classes and making a self-study plan since there were still noticeable numbers of students rarely They can help students manage their time effectively and not be overloaded with the knowledge they have to learn at the university Making an appointment with the lecturer for the study is hoped to be more popular with students in the following years because it is a unique activity at the university when students can have the most effective support of lecturers for their study and give their idea to lecturers Moreover, this survey pointed out some common issues of FY students are poor managing study plan and lack of concentration on self-study The source of them may be shown include subjective causes such as laziness, lack of spirit or stress, and objective causes such as noise or time limitation The job can be a potential factor affecting student’s self-study in the future because they are encouraged to have a job to get more practical experiences It can distract their attention on self-study which is the top priory of students In terms of the effects of VGU’s lecturer and facilities on self-study, they will be surely improved a lot when VGU has a new campus at the end of this year Ultimately, this survey still had limitations due to the small population The number of participants was 31 that just met the requirement and it might not cover all perspectives of Foundation Year students about self-study Nevertheless, this survey is a useful reference for the university to know student’s self-study Conclusion To sum up, self-study is an important skill at the university that students should be skilled and have thorough awareness However, there was a few research conducted about this topic at VGU on students Therefore, this study aims to understand the status of FY student’s self-study and show their disadvantages and problems that may need help from the university Further researches need to be conducted in a wider range of VGU in order to have better precision and practicality References Nunan, D (2000, October) Autonomy in language learning Plenary presentation given at the ASOCOPI 2000 conference, Cartengena, Columbia Trinh, Q L., & Rijlaarsdam, G (2003) An EFL curriculum for learner autonomy: Design and effects Independent Language Learning Conference, University of Melbourne, Australia Appendix