PHD Thesis - Nguyen Quang Nhat

A Case Study of the Flipped Classroom
Approach for Translation Studies in
Vietnam
by
NGUYEN QUANG NHAT
Thesis presented to School of Education
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
The University of Nottingham Malaysia
In fulfillment of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
(Teacher Training and Education Science (Broad Programmes))
2020
NGUYEN QUANG NHAT – ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis expresses my deepest gratitude and indebtedness to my
supervisors, Dr. Lee Kean Wah and Dr. Csaba Zoltan Szabo. They both
gave me considerable guidance and encouragement at every stage during
the preparation and writing of the thesis. Their expertise, counsel and
comprehensive feedback helped steer my path and enabled me to overcome
the many challenges along the way.
My gratitude is also dedicated to the other professors at the University
of Nottingham Malaysia Campus for supporting me on the proofreading,
formatting and other stylistic nuances. Acknowledgements are also
extended to my family and the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Banking
University Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for their unwavering support,
collegiality and mentorship throughout my doctoral journey.
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NGUYEN QUANG NHAT – ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT
Traditional methods of lecture-based teaching are still pervasive in
many Vietnamese translation courses at Higher Education (Pham, 2016).
This study presents an alternative, practical and a more efficacious way to
improve the quality of translation training in Vietnam. It examines a novel
flipped classroom approach aimed at providing dynamic and novel
instructional learning of two Translation modules in a Vietnamese public
university. The alternative approach inverts the traditional teacher-learner
roles, and makes it culturally-appropriate and contextually-relevant to the
local context. This approach was adapted from the three-stage framework
of Zhai et al. (2017), taking careful consideration of all the relevant factors
within the implementation process based on Activity theory. Using a case-
study research design proposed by Yin (2014), this study aims to:
(1) provide a deep insight into how the flipped classroom approach
can be applied in an actual scenario to demonstrate how relevant factors
were exploited in the translation training process;
(2) exemplify the educational benefits of this flipped classroom
approach towards learners’ improvement in translation competence over the
course via various assessment task types;
(3) investigate how this flipped classroom approach could re-orientate
learners’ translation habits to use professional strategies appropriately;
(4) examine learners’ perceptions towards the educational benefits
of this new approach on their translation improvement;
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NGUYEN QUANG NHAT – ABSTRACT
(5) explore learners’ perceptions towards different elements within
the flipped classroom approach on learners’ skill mastery; and
(6) find out the challenges that are encountered by Vietnamese
learners during the implementation of the flipped classroom approach.
A total of 79 junior students that was conveniently selected at a public
university in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam participated in the study from
February to July of the 2018-2019 academic year. The research used
content analysis of one specific learning scenario, assessment analysis to
describe how learners’ skills competence was fostered over the course, and
semi-structured interviews to examine the benefits and challenges of the
flipped classroom approach, paying special consideration to various
elements of Activity theory (instruments, rules, community and division of
labour). The collected findings revealed that this approach based on a
research-informed framework could not only bridge the gaps in the relevant
literature of flipped learning, but also could help learners improve various
aspects in translation studies. Moreover, learners were able to develop
better translation habits while completing their assignments, as well as
enhance their perceptions towards the translation training process. Finally,
challenges faced by learners during the implementation were mitigated by a
careful consideration of the contradictions within the flipped classroom
approach identified through the analytical lens of Activity theory.
Keywords: flipped classroom approach, benefits, translation studies,
students’ perceptions, competences, Activity Theory.
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NGUYEN QUANG NHAT – DECLARATION
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this thesis represents my own work and it has
not been previously submitted to The University of Nottingham Malaysia or
any other institutions in application for admission to a degree, diploma or
other qualifications.
Nguyen Quang Nhat
August, 2020
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NGUYEN QUANG NHAT – LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
Several results of this thesis have been first published in the following
publications:
Nguyen Q. N, Lee, K. W., & Nguyen N. P. D. (2018). Analysing
undergraduates’ needs for an improvement in translation training
curriculum in Vietnam. International Journal of English Language and
Translation Studies, 6(3), 46-56.
Nguyen Q. N, Lee, K. W., Naidu, R. S. & Nguyen N. P. D. (2019). An
investigation into using flipped classroom model in an academic
writing class in Vietnam. International Journal of Computer-Assisted
Language Learning and Teaching, 9(1), 32-57.
Nguyen Q. N, Lee, K. W., & Nguyen N. P. D. (2019). Incorporating the flipped
classroom model in an ESP class: A quantitative study. The Asian
ESP Journal, 15(3), 125-169.
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NGUYEN QUANG NHAT – TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................... 1
1.1. Introduction ........................................................................................ 1
1.2. Background of the study .................................................................... 3
1.3. Research problems ............................................................................ 9
1.3.1. The Vietnamese translation training ............................................ 9
1.3.2. Learners’ needs analysis ........................................................... 12
1.4. Research objectives ......................................................................... 13
1.5. Research questions ......................................................................... 14
1.6. Rationale of the study ...................................................................... 15
1.7. Significance of the study .................................................................. 18
1.8. Conceptual framework ..................................................................... 20
1.9. Scope of the study ........................................................................... 23
1.10. Definitions of key terms .................................................................... 24
1.10.1. Key terms in translation training .............................................. 24
1.10.2. Key terms in flipped learning and educational research .......... 25
1.11. Structure of the thesis ...................................................................... 28
1.12. Conclusion ....................................................................................... 30
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................. 32
2.1. Introduction ...................................................................................... 32
2.2. Translation training: global and local analysis .................................. 33
2.2.1. Definitions .................................................................................. 33
2.2.2. Translation training .................................................................... 35

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2.2.3. Translation competence ............................................................ 38
2.2.4. Translation habits and translation strategies ............................. 42
2.2.5. Translation quality assessment.................................................. 48
2.2.6. Significant patterns in translation training .................................. 52
2.2.7. Translation training in Vietnam .................................................. 69
2.3. Flipped learning ............................................................................... 76
2.3.1. Definitions .................................................................................. 76
2.3.2. Flipped classroom vs. traditional classroom .............................. 78
2.3.3. Historical background of flipped learning ................................... 83
2.3.4. Principles of flipped learning ...................................................... 86
2.3.5. Variances of the flipped classroom ............................................ 91
2.3.6. Stages and elements of the flipped classroom .......................... 94
2.3.7. Benefits of flipped learning ........................................................ 98
2.3.8. Challenges of flipped learning ................................................. 100
2.3.9. Theoretical framework for flipped learning ............................... 103
2.3.10. Research on the benefits of flipped learning on learning outcomes
.............................................................................................. 113
2.3.11. Activity theory ........................................................................ 127
2.4. Conclusion ..................................................................................... 135
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .......................................................... 137
3.1. Introduction .................................................................................... 137
3.2. Philosophical perspectives ............................................................. 137
3.2.1. Paradigm ................................................................................. 138
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3.2.2. Ontology .................................................................................. 141
3.2.3. Epistemology ........................................................................... 141
3.2.4. Axiology ................................................................................... 143
3.3. Research design ............................................................................ 144
3.3.1. Rationale for the research design ............................................ 144
3.3.2. Characteristics of the research design ..................................... 146
3.4. Research context ........................................................................... 148
3.4.1. Sampling .................................................................................. 148
3.4.2. Course structure of the flipped translation class ...................... 151
3.4.3. Course protocol to standardise the flipped procedure ............. 153
3.4.4. Learning objectives .................................................................. 154
3.4.5. Course assessments ............................................................... 157
3.4.6. Assessment methods and rubrics ............................................ 160
3.5. Procedure of the study ................................................................... 167
3.5.1. Online platform ........................................................................ 167
3.5.2. Video making principles ........................................................... 171
3.5.3. Introductory stage .................................................................... 174
3.5.4. Structure of the flipped classroom ........................................... 175
3.5.5. Informed consents ................................................................... 182
3.6. Pilot study ...................................................................................... 182
3.7. Variables ........................................................................................ 184
3.8. Data instruments and analysis ....................................................... 185
3.9. Flow chart of research activities ..................................................... 196
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3.10. Trustworthiness and authenticity .................................................... 197
3.11. Ethical issues and considerations .................................................. 199
3.12. Methodological limitations .............................................................. 200
3.13. Conclusion ..................................................................................... 202
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND FINDINGS........................................... 204
4.1. Introduction .................................................................................... 204
4.2. A snapshot of the flipped classroom approach .............................. 204
4.2.1. Learning contents and learning outcomes ............................... 205
4.2.2. Assessment activities .............................................................. 208
4.2.3. Learning activities .................................................................... 219
4.3. Student’s improved competence through assessments ................. 234
4.3.1. Learners’ performance in this specific scenario (N=39) ........... 235
4.3.2. Error analysis through assessment tasks ................................ 237
4.4. Interview results ............................................................................. 247
4.4.1. Learners’ perceptions towards the flipped classroom approach ....
.............................................................................................. 247
4.4.2. Learners’ perceptions towards each element of the flipped
classroom approach ................................................................ 256
4.4.3. Challenges faced by learners .................................................. 272
4.4.4. Influence on translation habits ................................................. 283
4.5. Conclusion ..................................................................................... 298
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS .......................... 302
5.1. Introduction .................................................................................... 302
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5.2. The flipped classroom approach is suited in the Vietnamese context
with a well-aligned procedure ................................................................. 302
5.3. The flipped classroom approach enhanced learners’ competence to
achieve the expected learning outcomes ............................................... 307
5.4. The flipped classroom approach fostered learners’ translation habits to
use professional strategies more often ................................................... 310
5.5. The flipped classroom approach facilitated learners’ positive attitudes
....................................................................................................... 315
5.6. The flipped classroom approach mitigated challenges faced by
learners .................................................................................................. 321
5.7. Conclusion ..................................................................................... 326
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION .............................................................. 329
6.1. Introduction .................................................................................... 329
6.2. Research overview......................................................................... 329
6.3. Theoretical contributions of the study............................................. 336
6.4. Practical implications of the study .................................................. 342
6.4.1. Implications for video making................................................... 342
6.4.2. Implications based on Activity theory ....................................... 345
6.5. Limitations of the study .................................................................. 349
6.6. Recommendations for further study ............................................... 350
6.7. Conclusion ..................................................................................... 351
REFERENCES ...................................................................................... 353
GANTT CHART OF RESEARCH ACTIVITIES .................................... 400
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NGUYEN QUANG NHAT – LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ST: Source text
TT: Target text
SL: Source language
TL: Target language
FC: Flipped classroom
BUH: Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City
ZPD: Zone of Proximal Development
SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
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NGUYEN QUANG NHAT – LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1-1: Conceptual framework ........................................................... 21
Figure 2-1: Theoretical framework ............................................................ 33
Figure 2-2: Five-step approach to navigate learners’ translation habits ... 47
Figure 2-3: Student-centred framework for translation training ................. 64
Figure 2-4: Four pillars of F-L-I-P ............................................................. 87
Figure 2-5: Stages and elements of the flipped classroom approach ....... 97
Figure 2-6: Flipped classroom and the revised Bloom’s taxonomy......... 111
Figure 2-7: Engeström‘s model of Activity system (2001) ....................... 128
Figure 2-8: Activity theory framework for the flipped classroom approach
............................................................................................................... 133
Figure 3-1: Aligned elements of the research design ............................. 148
Figure 3-2: Procedure and structure of the flipped class ........................ 181
Figure 3-3: Flowchart of research activities ............................................ 196
Figure 4-1: Benefits of the flipped classroom approach from learners’
responses ............................................................................................... 251
Figure 4-2: Improved translation skills via the lens of interviewees ........ 253
Figure 4-3: 100 most used words from interviewees’ responses ............ 255
Figure 4-4: Benefits of out-of-class activities .......................................... 263
Figure 4-5: Benefits of the exploratory activities ..................................... 267
Figure 4-6: Benefits of the Joint negotiation ........................................... 268
Figure 4-7: Benefits of the Peer assessment .......................................... 271
Figure 4-8: Challenges faced by learners ............................................... 272
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Figure 5-1: Translation strategies employed by students ....................... 311
Figure 5-2: Challenges faced by learners during the course .................. 323
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2-1: Models of translation competence ........................................... 39
Table 2-2: Translation rubric ..................................................................... 51
Table 2-3: Elements of the translation contents ....................................... 53
Table 2-4: The B.A. programme (Year 3 + Year 4) at BUH ...................... 73
Table 2-5: Traditional classroom vs. flipped classroom ............................ 78
Table 2-6: Principles of flipped learning .................................................... 88
Table 3-1: Distribution of participants ..................................................... 150
Table 3-2: Syllabus for V-E translation flipped course ............................ 151
Table 3-3: Competences and learning outcomes of the module ............ 155
Table 3-4: Course assessment activities ................................................ 158
Table 3-5: Translation rubric for 4-point assessment tasks .................... 162
Table 3-6: Translation rubric for peer-assessment ................................. 162
Table 3-7: Translation rubric for self-assessment ................................... 163
Table 3-8: The final test-structure and its constructs .............................. 164
Table 3-9: In-class activities in the flipped translation class ................... 178
Table 3-10: Matrix for interviewer selection ............................................ 190
Table 4-1: Learning contents in Module 3 .............................................. 205
Table 4-2: Sub-competences and learning outcomes of the session ..... 207
Table 4-3: Assessment activities and descriptions ................................. 208
Table 4-4: Descriptive analysis of participants’ scores ........................... 235
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Table 4-5: Frequency of score range...................................................... 235
Table 4-6: Frequencies of lexical errors in the first assessment ............. 236
Table 4-7: Error analysis of lexical items ................................................ 238
Table 4-8: Error analysis of syntactic items (N=39) ................................ 239
Table 4-9: Examples of error analysis at the lexical and syntactic level . 240
Table 4-10: Descriptive analysis of translating errors (N=39) ................. 243
Table 4-11: Benefits of the flipped classroom approach ......................... 250
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NGUYEN QUANG NHAT – CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Introduction
As English becomes the lingua franca in many professional fields,
competent translators are vital for non-English speaking countries that seek
to integrate into the global community for social, educational and economic
advancement and progress (Robert, Remael & Ureel, 2017). Hence, there
is a high demand not only for proficient translators but, more importantly,
effective educational methods in translation studies (Sanchez, 2017) to
produce competent translators. Vietnam is such a country where translation
training is undertaken as an integral course requirement in many Faculties
of Foreign Languages. Translation lecturers aspire to adopt active, student-
centred methods to enhance the performance of learners (Nguyen et al.,
2016). A majority of lecturers strive to adopt innovative methods to foster
learner autonomy, while still ensuring content coverage within the time span
of the curriculum (Nguyen et al., 2016). Now that educational technologies
are increasingly being made available online, teachers in various disciplines
have provided students with access to various course contents (typically via
video lectures) outside the classroom, and practical activities inside the
classroom; namely, “classroom flip” (Enfield, 2013). This approach has
attracted attention from the academia as research results show that a more
dynamic learning environment is being created via this instruction
(Soltanpour & Valizadeh, 2018). However, the implementation of this
approach in translation training is scarce, especially in the Vietnamese
1
setting. Therefore, this thesis reports on a study adopting a flipped
classroom approach in untrodden ground within the Vietnamese context, as
follows:
 how this flipped approach is actually implemented to align its learning
activities with the expected learning outcomes and assessment tasks.
 how this approach enhances learners’ translation competences through
various assessments;
 how participants interact with various initiatives to change their
translation habits;
 how Vietnamese students respond to the flipped classroom approach;
 what aspects of this approach motivate them to make improvements;
and
 what challenges are faced during the implementation of the flipped
classroom approach in translation studies.
In short, a novel flipped classroom approach with the detailed
instructional design has been developed and implemented in a Vietnamese
public university with the expectation of achieving a more personalised,
varied and creative learning outcomes in translation education in Vietnam.
This chapter provides a critical introduction into the scope and
undertaking of the thesis. The first section opens with an introductory
background of the study, upon which the foundation of this thesis is based,
with specific emphasis on the gaps of flipped learning in terms of relevant
literature, and how this study could address them. Then, it describes the
2
problems and challenges - both actual and perceived – in the Vietnamese
translation training context, including drawing invaluable feedback from an
in-depth needs analysis of the local novice translators. The next sections
highlight the research objectives, research questions, the rationale of the
study, and the significance of the thesis. This is followed with a presentation
of the conceptual framework aimed at placing their relevance to the
translation teaching process. Finally, the chapter concludes with the overall
scope of the study, definitions of key terms as well as the structure of the
whole thesis.
1.2. Background of the study

A review of the relevant literature reveals some gaps in flipped
pedagogy that require further research with better designs and careful
implementation of this approach. First, studies on flipped learning have
primarily focused on examining ’students’ satisfaction and their course
performance, while limited attention has been devoted to understanding the
change in learning habits. Most research has focused in its impact on
examination scores (Novais, Silva, & Muniz Jr., 2017; Turan & Akdag-
Cimen, 2019), which might be a surface learning-based gain and may not
be sufficient for a comprehensive understanding of the effectiveness of this
method. Other research explored learners’ attitudes and revealed that this
method was well-received by students in most cases (Awidi & Paynter, 2019;
Låg & Sæle, 2019). However, it is also useful to understand how this method
is actually adopted and how it enables learners to develop good learning
habits. Moreover, the beneficial values of flipped learning towards helping
3
learners achieve expected learning outcomes should also be explored. In
short, the glaring scarcity of literature measuring the beneficial impacts of
flipped learning on various aspects of academic learning, has prompted
many researchers to suggest conducting more studies in order to investigate
how this approach facilitates positive learning habits and learning outcomes
that are specifically characterised across disciplines and subjects
(Soltanpour & Valizadeh, 2018; Zou & Xie, 2019).
Second, flipped learning does not always guarantee improved
learning outcomes and enhanced perceptions. Indeed, mixed results still
could be found in various research papers, although the consensus based
on the number of publications seem to indicate that there are more positive
than negative findings. For example, Whillier and Lystad (2015) reported that
a flipped classroom could yield no positive differences in grades or
satisfaction level when compared to traditional lessons. In addition, Pienta
(2016) noted that many students were not motivated enough to put in the
required effort to learn the required materials before coming to the flipped
class. Finally, Leatherman and Cleveland (2019) reported that flipped
learning did not bring higher academic results and better attitudes compared
to the non-flipped setting where both classes exploited certain elements of
active learning theory and socio-constructivist approach. In particular, a
study by Gundlach et al. (2015) revealed that students in his traditional
classroom significantly outperformed those in the flipped class. In short,
these studies with mixed results prove that additional research is needed to
4
define the actual beneficial values of the flipped classroom approach in
different subjects and disciplines.
Third, there is a lack of empirical studies based on a rigid
methodological framework that investigate the challenges faced by learners.
From a theoretical perspective, scholars typically propose challenges faced
by learners and instructors such as limited access to technology (Chung &
Khe, 2017), unfamiliarity with the changing roles of teachers and students
(Mustafa, Rahmah, Hanafi, & Wahidah, 2019), and extra efforts required
from both sides (Lin et al., 2017). As for empirical studies, researchers
typically mention the challenges as being attributable to unexpected
negative results of their findings, such as heavy workload and unsystematic
in-class procedures (Mustafa et al., 2019; Song & Kapur, 2017). However,
no formal studies have been conducted systematically to address these
challenges faced by learners during the implementation of flipped learning.
Therefore, a study with a well-defined framework is needed to examine what
challenges are actually faced by Vietnamese learners, and how these
challenges could be mitigated to mediate students’ performance. This needs
to be established first before any recommendations can be made as a
contribution towards the literature of flipped classroom approaches.
Fourth, this approach has not been measured in any coherent way in
translation discipline. In fact, there are currently eight empirical studies on
this subject matter. This is still insufficient to enable us to decide whether
and how flipping can enhance student learning in translation education. In
particular, three studies (Deng, 2018; Lou, Du, Li, Gong, & Li, 2017; Shu,
5
2015) while revealing an increase in students’ engagement and test results,
have underestimated the importance of learning activities as they failed to
indentify how in-class procedure should be sequenced to enhance learners’
translation strategies. Meanwhile, the studies conducted by Tsai and Tsai
(2014), Zhang (2016) and Ling (2017) showed that the students were active
in preparing the lessons and had more time to practice with classmates, but
they did not reveal any scientific evidence of perceived better learning
outcomes in translation studies. Finally, the research of Mei (2017) and Lin
(2019) did not describe how the actual in-class procedure was organised,
and how instructors exploited collaborative activities to enhance the
learners’ frequent use of professional translation strategies. As a result, no
robust findings on flipped learning can be drawn due to the insufficiency of
empirical validation across translation training. Therefore, it is necessary to
conduct a more in-depth research on whether implementing this approach
for translation training would yield desired educational benefits.
Fifth, some studies claim that the social sciences subjects may be
less suitable for flipping than the natural sciences disciplines (Johnson,
Bender, & Oldham, 2015). For example, in a large-scale study on 200
English-majored students in Greece, most participants thought their flipped
classrooms were less engaging than the traditional format (Moran, 2014).
Another study across diverse disciplines at the University of Southern
California revealed that students in the humanities courses perceived the
learning as being inauthentic and less motivating when in-class activities
were mainly used for discussions about abstract topics featured in the video
6
recordings (Kim et al., 2014). In addition, Cheung and Yang concluded that
flipped classrooms are not suitable for English Language Learning, “a
subject that emphasises language use in meaning communication but not
just mastery of subject contents” (2017, p. 13). They elaborated that the use
of video lectures is of little significance to the social sciences disciplines, as
these disciplines generally favour inductive methods to assimilate
information, construct knowledge, and enhance creativity. Therefore, it
raises the question whether flipped classrooms are appropriate for
translation training since this also is a social sciences subject and a
profession-orientated practice.
Finally, most studies fall short of defining an instructional framework
for the structured design of classroom activities. Davies et al. (2013) and Lo
(2020) stated that the success of this approach lies in how instructors
organise activities inside and outside the classroom to support the learning
process. However, the design of flipped classrooms has been limited to a
mere implementation of video-recorded lessons for out-of-class activities,
with the use of formal class time for homework, discussions and
presentations (Kim, 2017; Turan & Akdag-Cimen, 2019). In contrast, the
reality is that several questions remain, and demand cogent answers. These
questions include the following:
 what instructional strategies can be used to help students achieve the
required learning outcomes;
 how instructors exploit critical-thinking skills activities so that learners can
put the knowledge into practice and promote adaptive reasoning;
7
 how learners are mobilised to engage them in the learning process; and
 what techniques can facilitate collaborative interactions outside the
classrooms.
For example, O’Flaherty and Phillips (2015, p. 94) stated that “many
educators may not fully understand how to effectively translate the flipped
class into practice”. They added that there is a “misunderstanding of the key
elements necessary for successful flipping and the link between pre-class
and face-to-face sessions”. Another research conducted by Awidi and
Paynter (2019), which investigated flipped learning in a third-year biology
course in the University of Western Australia, also indicated that flipped
learning was rather focused on input, while aspects that should focus on
output and process were not taken into serious consideration. They
maintained that certain elements of a flipped class should be explored
further, such as:
 how to re-purpose the class time to align the course activities with the
outcomes and assessment tasks;
 how to help students master the video contents, test their skills in applying
the knowledge, and interact with one another in hands-on activities.
As a result, it is unsurprising that there have been numerous calls for
further empirical research into how this approach could actually be
implemented to maximise its positive impacts (Lo, 2020; Mustafa et al.,
2019; Turan & Akdag-Cimen, 2019).
8
In conclusion, there have been calls for more in-depth investigations
into the beneficial values of flipped learning in social sciences (Leatherman
& Cleveland, 2019), especially in translation training. More research is also
needed to examine the students’ gradual improvements through the
implementation of flipped approaches (Turan & Akdag-Cimen, 2019) and to
evaluate the beneficial impacts of flipped classrooms on positive learning
habits (O’Flaherty & Phillips, 2015). Finally, a systematic study adopting a
robust framework to implement flipped learning should be conducted,
especially in language learning and the social sciences disciplines (Barbour
& Schuessler, 2019). Therefore, this study flipped two classrooms at a
Vietnamese university in order to examine its pedagogical potentials in
translation training; thus, contributing to the growing line of research
literature in the field.
1.3. Research problems
This subsection discusses the current problematic issues in
translation education and rationalising the need for effective solutions in this
discipline. This part focuses on two aspects: (1) the current challenging
status of Vietnamese translation training, and (2) a learners’ needs analysis
to identify and address the root issues/causes with the view to improving
translation education in a Vietnamese public university.
1.3.1. The Vietnamese translation training
Translation training is a complex activity in which graduates are
expected to have high ability to participate in a wide range of domestic and
9
international translation activities (Soang, 2016). Specifically, learners
should acquire a mastery of theoretical knowledge, linguistic components,
cultural awareness and professional strategies. However, the differences in
instructors’ experience, limited training hours, a lack of contextualised
educational materials, and teachers’ additional responsibilities to the
institutions pose huge challenges in this discipline (Nguyen et al., 2016).
Besides, translation knowledge and skills continue to increase, while the
hours available for academic education do not (Sanchez, 2017). Therefore,
innovative approaches—which account for specific learners’ needs, limited
time allocation of the curriculum, and the exponential growth in translating
discipline—are needed to exploit the better use of teachers’ and learners’
time.
Second, many Vietnamese translation lecturers are still struggling
with educational approaches to enhance learners’ autonomy (Pham, 2016).
While courses in other disciplines implement active-learning activities, such
as design-thinking or inquiry-based models, translation teachers still stick to
traditional methods; i.e., lecture-based formats, silent in-class practice and
product-orientated exercises, which not only de-motivate students but also
hinder their performance significantly (Nguyen et al., 2016). For example,
Le, Nguyen, and Nguyen (2012) found that 67% of graduates from eight
English faculties in Ho Chi Minh City stated that their translation programmes
did not provide sufficient practice of skills. They maintained that most
teachers favoured the monotonous traditional training and offered few real-
life activities, whereas the students still adopted word-to-word translation
10
techniques in their spontaneous manner. While 28% of the participants
responded that these courses were useful for their employability, others did
not feel engaged and well-prepared to enter the market after graduation.
Hence, this group proposed that there is a pressing need to change the
current situation of translation training in Vietnam.
Finally, although there have been a few scholars implementing
computer-assisted learning to improve the quality of translation training, this
area is still in its infancy (Wang, 2017). Some scholars have studied the
teaching of translation from computer-aided instructions (Barr, 2012), online
platforms like WeChat (Wang, 2017) and PEnPAL (Vale de Gato et al.,
2016). While these studies demonstrated the beneficial effects of translation
education that can be attributed to modern technology, they do, however,
have some limitations, such as the limited adaptability of online resources
providing the specific curriculum contents. The above researchers also
contended that their studies neglected to address physical in-class
interactions to boost collaborative learning, as well as the dissemination of
cultural products to develop professional competence. Therefore, a better
application of technology into the translation classroom, together with a more
detailed description of in-class procedure are needed to integrate features
of the Internet with the advantages of physical classroom activities.
To sum up, translation training in Vietnam is still embryonic, with the
product-orientated and traditional format as its prevailing methods. Thus, it
is necessary to find practical solutions to these problems in the Vietnamese
11
setting that could help learners master professional translation strategies, as
well as enhance their performance and attitudes within the limited class time.
1.3.2. Learners’ needs analysis

An internal study was conducted at BUH to investigate learners’
needs (Nguyen, Lee, & Nguyen, 2018), and the responses of 96 senior
students laid two foundations for this thesis. First, effective use of physical
class time was exploited to ensure a deeper level of translation practice. This
meant that translation modules involved fewer lectures, fewer in-class silent
practices, more authentic materials (taken from real-life contexts), and more
real-life experiences. Data also revealed that translation assignments should
be done in class; thus, giving students more opportunities to practice the
target language and develop their translation strategies, with the close
guidance of the teachers. Second, more interactions were created, both
inside and outside the classroom, to foster a deeper sense of community
and engagement. As learners preferred to spend more time on collaborative
experiences and useful translation activities not only within the constraint of
the physical classroom but also at home, consideration should be taken to
promote learners’ interactions inside and outside the classroom to help
students achieve academic success. The flipped approach, therefore,
presented practical solutions for expanding learning opportunities by
maximising the physical class time with more real-life practice, reducing the
in-class lectures, and promoting interactions, both in class and out of the
classroom (Awidi & Paynter, 2019). As a result, this paved the way for the
12
thesis to examine if the flipped classroom approach with a detailed
instructional framework could solve these two issues.
1.4. Research objectives

This study is aimed at:
1. describing how a novel flipped classroom approach is implemented
in a classroom setting to ensure that all teaching activities are systematically
and coherently aligned with the expected learning outcomes and
assessment tasks (operationalized as research question 1).
2. investigating the benefits of the flipped classroom approach
towards learners’ improvement in translation competence as measured
qualitatively through their formative and summative assessments
(operationalized as research question 2).
3. exploring pedagogical practices to enhance learners’ professional
translation habits with the aid of the flipped classroom approach
(operationalized as research question 3).
4. discovering learners’ perceptions towards the beneficial impacts of
this new approach on their translation practices (operationalized as research
question 4)
5. identifying the benefits of different elements within the flipped
classroom approach on learners’ skill mastery so that suggestions could be
made to promote the effective elements, to modify the ineffective one, as
well as to make the teaching-learning process interesting, engaging and
meaningful (operationalized as research question 5).
13
6. ameliorating the challenges faced in implementing the FC
approach in the hope to contributing to theoretical research in flipped
learning, with particular emphasis on the challenges faced by Vietnamese
learners during the implementation of this approach (operationalized as
research question 6).
1.5. Research questions

As this study was conducted to improve the quality of educational
instruction and the students’ translation ability, it aimed to answer six
research questions, which are set out as follows:
1. How was the flipped classroom approach actually implemented
inside and outside the classroom to ensure the constructive alignment with
learning activities and learning outcomes, assessments and educational
theories in one particular flipped scenario?
2. How did this flipped classroom approach impact students’
improvement in translation competence, as measured by error analysis
through their performance in formative and summative assessments?
3. How did the flipped classroom approach impact the students’
translation habits, as measured through their usage of professional
translation strategies, to solve their assignments?
4. What were the perceptions of Vietnamese students towards the
benefits of the flipped classroom approach in the translation class?
5. How were the elements of the flipped classroom approach helpful
in improving the students’ translation skills?
14
6. What were the challenges faced by Vietnamese students during
the implementation of the flipped classroom approach?
1.6. Rationale of the study

The motivation for embarking on this study was ignited by the
following reasons. First, the thesis aimed to examine whether flipped
learning can be used to improve current translation teaching practice in the
Vietnamese setting. Specifically, the researcher aimed to design a study
adopting a suggested flipped classroom approach to leverage learners’
interest and enhance their translation competences. The study also
considered features of contextual relevance and cultural appropriateness in
translation training. Contextual relevance meant a respectful appreciation of
the Vietnamese learners’ unique characteristics and learning needs, such
as their autonomy level and intermediate level of English proficiency, and
the desire to score good marks in their exams. Cultural appropriateness
called for a sensitive consideration of Vietnamese cultural and political
backgrounds, such as the government’s censorship of network contents and
the requirement of teacher’s involvement in online community. As a result,
students might be better positioned to apply new knowledge in their
assignments and develop good translation practices and habits. These
issues are addressed in research questions 1, 2 and 3.
Second, this study aimed to test the suitability of flipped learning in
the performance-based Vietnamese context. Some researchers have
argued that contemporary approaches may not capture Vietnamese
learners’ engagement since most of them still preferred the traditional
15
learning style. This style is characterised by learning through lectures and
teacher-led activities during in-class lessons (Hung, 2014). Specifically,
many Vietnamese students are typically passive during in-class sessions,
mostly sitting quietly, listening attentively to the lectures, waiting for the
teacher’s feedback and barely interacting with each other (Nguyen et al.,
2016; Pham, 2016). By contrast, flipped learning reflects a shift in the roles
of the teacher (as facilitator) and students (as active knowledge
constructors). Although most reports indicated students appreciated the
changes brought by this approach, many years of ingrained habits still need
to be overcome in Vietnam. This, therefore, raises several intriguing
questions, such as how students in a Vietnamese translation class would
perceive the flipped classroom. Can this approach orientate their translation
habits? Is it compatible in an Asian country like Vietnam? What challenges
would they face during the actual implementation? Therefore, the desire to
investigate the suitability of this approach in the Vietnamese translation
context has inspired the researcher to bridge the literature gap (see research
questions 4, 5 and 6).
Finally, this study aimed to provide a flipped framework that is both
“culturally appropriate” and “contextually relevant” in the Vietnamese tertiary
setting. This means that, for example, there should be certain control over
out-of-class activities to ensure that learners have finished their preparatory
practice, and the final grades should satisfy the institutional management
and stakeholders. Some researchers warned that without a significant
amount of discipline, flipping might not succeed since not all students are
16
self-motivated enough to watch the online lectures and prepare the lessons
beforehand (Abeysekera & Dawson, 2015; Shih & Huang, 2019). Moreover,
little is known about how technology could be adopted as a mediational tool
for students’ self-study and revision. Therefore, this study could bring out
something more dynamic than merely providing video lectures to the
teaching process. Specifically, a mix of web-based activities, contextualised
inputs, and teacher facilitation were defined in this study. The study has
carefully documented the students’ perceptions of each element of the
proposed flipped approach to justify how these elements can enhance or
hinder learners’ translation performance (research question 5). It then
delves into detail to shed light on what and why certain aspects of the flipped
approach were helpful whereas other aspects failed to bring about any
significant improvements due to the possible challenges that learners might
face (research questions 5 and 6). Finally, these data findings were
discussed from the perspectives of both cultural appropriateness and
contextual relevance within the scope of the present study.
In conclusion, the implementation of the suggested flipped classroom
approach aimed to bring more interactions and higher positive learning
outcomes into the translation training at a Vietnamese university. Moreover,
it aimed to create a student-centred environment in which students are
encouraged to undertake more proactive roles. It also aimed to implement a
novel flipped procedure, paying careful consideration of all the relevant
factors based on a well-grounded theory to maximise the beneficial impacts
of online and face-to-face instructional learning. Finally, it demonstrated that
17
requiring students to follow some culturally appropriate and contextually
relevant requirements could promote better translation habits, as well as
improve learners’ translation competences during lectures. Those were the
reasons that motivated and compelled the researcher to implement this
flipped classroom approach in a real-life translation class.
1.7. Significance of the study

This study extends the field of research and offers five significant
contributions to both theoretical and practical implications for flipped learning
literature and translation education. First, the study could find solutions to
the problems stated in translation training (see 1.2.) to improve the teaching
quality in this discipline. It could also help students to better understand
translation theories and apply these theories to real-life practice with the aid
of technology. In reality, it is challenging for students to internalise translation
theories and link those theories with real-life practice within the limited formal
class time (Do, 2019). Therefore, the flipped classroom could employ online
contents to help learners explore translation concepts and revise the
lectures anytime. As a result, students could comprehend the contents with
greater ease; thus, improving the delivery mode in translation studies.
Second, this thesis provides actual experiential, data-backed
contributions for the implementation of the flipped approach by examining
the issue systematically based on Activity theory. It is hoped that this
contribution would fill the literature gap on the efficacy of flipped learning
(see 1.2.) for the promotion of individual perceptions and interest in
translator training. The study also could shed light on what aspects of the
18
flipped classroom approach were helpful in bringing significant changes in
learners’ attitudes and translation competences, how students viewed those
elements in a physical translation class and why there were such kinds of
research results. When learners’ responses revealed the weaknesses within
the flipped procedure, some recommendations were also given for better
implementations in further studies. Thus, this thesis might contribute to
theoretical research in flipped learning and make certain additional findings
as to how these approaches can be employed to enhance current translation
teaching practices through a systematic framework of Activity theory.
Third, this study could inform educators on how to apply flipped
learning in translation education by investigating the issue at a deeper level.
In the content analysis of one flipped scenario, it clarified in detail what
activities were actually exploited and how this approach enhanced learners’
translation habits over the course duration. It also demonstrated the use of
technology tools in the flipped classroom, and evaluated these tools in terms
of their compatibility. Thus, this study could provide important pedagogical
directions for educators who want to implement flipped learning to facilitate
higher academic performance. On the other hand, insights from this thesis
might provide effective instructional strategies to help learners achieve
professional translation habits. Hence, educators currently implementing
flipped learning and those considering using it could understand this
approach better from the students’ perspectives. They can then modify their
educational strategies to make the teaching process interesting and
meaningful.
19
Finally, the study aimed to determine the benefits of video lectures
for flipped translation classrooms, exploring exciting translation theories with
practical examples from both English and Vietnamese languages. As no
academic translation lectures existed online, these resources provided basic
concepts and functioned as supplementary materials for students with little
background in translation. The video lectures would then be compiled,
modified, and evaluated by a Board of professionals for pedagogical,
research, and commercial purposes in the future. Moreover,
recommendations and tips on the effective use of video lectures (e.g., video
making, video selection, and video editing) in flipped classrooms were also
shared, and would prove helpful for educators who are not savvy with the
technology in this emerging space (see 7.6.).
1.8. Conceptual framework

The conceptual framework of this study was built upon two parts:
flipped learning for out-of-class activities; and in-class instructions
employing process-orientated training and socio-constructivism to develop
good habits and competences. Figure 1-1 illustrates these parts as follows.
20
Enhanced learners’
perceptions toward
FC approach
Figure 1-1: Conceptual framework

In terms of out-of-class activities, flipped learning was employed to
bring educational efficacy outside the classroom. Students first gained
exposure to new knowledge via video lecturers. Then they answered
comprehension exercises (lower-order thinking level) and completed a
guided portfolio to ensure pre-class preparations. They could use the Group
forum to exchange ideas for their tasks and express their opinions on this
teaching approach. Therefore, certain low-level cognitive activities were
allocated to homework assignments with the aid of technology, while
collaborative activities were implemented inside the classroom for deeper
learning. In other words, technology was a mediational and integrative tool
for out-of-class instructions, and interactions between learners, teacher, and
the online environment were carefully considered via the online platform.
21
In terms of in-class instructions, process-orientated training and
socio-constructivism were used to foster professional translation habits and
translation competence because they are the two main foci of the translation
education in Vietnam (Nguyen, 2016; Pham, 2016). Process-orientated
training requires instructors to help learners sharpen their competencies
through frequent practice of knowledge and skills. This means more
attention was paid to authentic material, collaborative environment,
professional translation strategies, and quality assessment. Besides, the
approach is deep-rooted in social constructivism as it is composed of active
and constructive learning tasks so that learners could learn through
collaborative practice and social interactions (Kim et al., 2014). When
learners had acquired basic knowledge at home, they then went to class to
join in various in-class collaborative activities. All these elements aimed to
help learners work collaboratively to reinforce knowledge-sharing, diversify
thinking perspectives, develop good habits to use translation strategies both
consciously and unconsciously, and improve translation competences
based on the expected learning outcomes.
In short, the amalgamation of flipped learning as a mediational tool,
together with a systematic process-orientated training, underpinned by a
socio-constructivist principles laid the foundation for the conduct of this
study. With such a combination, the researcher focused on exploring the
benefits of this flipped approach in translation studies, looking at whether it
could bring about good learning outcomes including constructively-designed
lessons, learners’ improvement in translation competence, enhanced
22
professional habits to solve translation tasks, and enhanced perceptions
towards this flipped classroom approach. In addition, by looking at the
challenges faced by learners, this study aimed to mine for insights that could
lead to a more effective implementation of this approach in Vietnam.
1.9. Scope of the study

The scope of this thesis was to investigate Vietnamese
undergraduate students’ perceptions and the benefits of the flipped learning
approach in Translation studies. Since flipped learning is regarded as an
evolving approach (Lo, 2020), it is meaningful to examine the approach in a
deeper manner. Specifically, the study looked at one flipped scenario to see
how the activities were organised to align constructively with the learning
outcomes and assessment tasks, and how various elements of this flipped
approach were actually exploited. Then, it analysed learners’ improvement
in translation competence through various formal assessments, critically
evaluating learners’ papers based on error analysis to identify the actual
benefits of the flipped approach in the Vietnamese translation context. Then,
the study examined how this approach altered learner’s habits by applying
appropriate strategies into their assignments, clarifying in what ways it
enhanced students’ attitudes, what elements were helpful to make students
put more effort into their work, and what challenges were faced by
Vietnamese learners during the implementation of this approach.
23
1.10. Definitions of key terms

1.10.1. Key terms in translation training
Translation is a linguistic activity at high level to render meaning from
one source language into a target language (Newmark, 1988). Adapted from
the functional approach of Nord (2012) and the educational foci of Vietnam
(Nguyen et al., 2016), the key factor of translation requires that the core
information in the source sentence that is being translated is adequately
communicated in the form of the target or translated language.
Translation training is a profession-orientated discipline that caters to
the preparation and equipping of trainees for the market.
Translation competence refers to the skills and knowledge necessary
for a translator to produce good-quality texts and to work well in this
discipline (Li, 2013). Translation competence is divided into subsets, and is
reflected in the expected learning outcomes of each lesson as well as of the
whole syllabus. Currently, the competence model of PACTE (2013) is being
adopted in Vietnam (Do, 2018) and in the local university of the study.
Translation habits, within the scope of this study, include all the
regular, settled, or behavioral strategies that learners adopt when
confronting a translation assignment both consciously and unconsciously.
Good translation habits imply a high awareness of the appropriate use of
professional strategies in particular situations, the high frequency of using
these strategies to do the tasks, and the few errors that leaners make in their
translated papers (Zhu, 2017).
24
Process-orientated translation is related to the cognitive process,
focusing on the awareness of how a translator produces a translated version
as a result of decision-making and strategy-execution at the three
fundamental loci of comprehension, transfer and production (Volkova,
2014). As such, a process-orientated training curriculum is shaped around
strategies and habitual behaviours that are exhibited by professional
translators in three stages: pre-translating (comprehension), while-
translating (transference) and post-translating (product assessment).
“Culturally appropriate” is an adjective to describe the consideration
and respect of the local cultural-specific characteristics (Kong, 2012). In
translation training, this might include the acknowledgement of the
contemporary sense of culture and national background so as not to cause
cultural misunderstanding or conflicts.
“Contextually relevant” is an adjective to describe an understanding
and respecting of contextual elements, such as unique characteristics,
learning histories, contemporary issues, students’ diversity, learners’ needs,
market needs, the community, and the individual members involved in the
teaching and learning process (Kong, 2012).
1.10.2. Key terms in flipped learning and educational research

Flipped learning is a pedagogical approach in which technologies are
exploited to deliver course contents outside of the classroom, while formal
class time explores topics via meaningful opportunities for collaborative
practices and real-life exercises. First, students could gain exposure to new
knowledge outside of class through technology-assisted assignments. Then,
25
they join different in-class activities to foster deeper comprehension with the
guidance of instructors and the support from peers (Bergmann & Sams,
2012a).
The flipped classroom approach refers to a specific guiding design for
the implementation of flipped learning into a particular educational context.
This study used an adapted framework suggested by Zhai et al. (2017) with
various group works and individual activities that are conducted in both out-
of-class and in-class sessions.
A constructively-design flipped lesson refers to the way how a flipped
scenario is organised to align the learning activities with their corresponding
learning outcomes and assessment task types based on Biggs’ theory of
constructive alignment (2014). Thus, this scenario includes specific
elements of flipped learning (in-class and out-of-class activates) and
student-centred theories (e.g., socio-constructivism, active learning) with
various learning strategies (e.g., problem-solving, interpersonal skills,
individual and team work). All of these elements aim to boost learners’
competences and translation habits via the higher exposure to real-life
assignments to achieve the expected learning outcomes.
Traditional classrooms (conventional classrooms/non-flipped
classrooms) refer to a familiar format where teachers provide homework
correction and lectures over translation theories, using relevant examples to
illustrate those concepts. Then, teachers hand out source texts, and learners
have to translate them into the target language at home or during impromptu
sessions inside the classroom. This is followed by the teachers offering
26
suggested answers. Finally, the students practice what they have been
taught with higher-order cognitive skills at home.
Learning outcomes could be understood as the statements or a set
of necessary knowledge, skills, competences, and attitudes that an
individual learner can acquire or is able to demonstrate after a course or an
intervention process (Cedefop, 2016).
Perceptions are the emotional feelings of the students towards the
implementation of a specific pedagogical method (Bergmann & Sams,
2012b). In this study, they are measured by the students’ attitudes towards
the benefits of the suggested flipped classroom approach.
Educational benefits refer to the desired pedagogical results which
an intervention could produce to achieve expected learning outcomes
(Caliskan & Bicen, 2016). In this context, it is measured via the student’s
depth of knowledge and skills (competences) gained through the course
duration, learners’ enhanced perceptions toward the new approach and the
new learning process. In addition, the benefits are also measured by the
changes in learners’ translation habits from product-orientated amateur
strategies (word-for-word translation and literal translation) to the more
process-orientated professional strategies.
Student-centred methodology encompasses educational approaches
and techniques that place the focus of instructions on students to develop
learners’ autonomy and independence. Educators provide learners with
clear instructions on how to acquire the skills of learning a specific subject.
This, thus, gives them some control over the learning process and
27
encourages collaboration as well as knowledge-sharing in an engaging and
meaningful way.
1.11. Structure of the thesis

The aim of the study is to show how a flipped classroom approach
could help translation practitioners and curriculum designers to understand
the benefits of this method in a vocational discipline. Chapter 1 started with
an overview of the research matter. Specifically, it discussed the current
background of the study in flipped learning literature. Then, it addresses
current problematic issues that exist in Vietnamese translation training and
in particular learners’ needs analysis, followed by the objectives of this
thesis. Following that, six research questions were raised to discover
whether the education process could benefit from adopting this approach in
translator training. Afterwards, the chapter showed the research rationale
and what potential significance this study could contribute to both academic
and educational communities. Next, a presentation of the conceptual
framework summarised the flipped classroom approach within its
implementation process, followed by an outline of the scope of the study.
Definitions of key terms and an organisational structure were provided in the
final part of this chapter.
Chapter 2 explores the literature review on both translation training
and flipped classroom pedagogy. First, it provides a holistic view on
translation and translation training, what aspects are required to be covered
in a translation curriculum, the significant research and trends in teaching
this specialist subject, the current situation of translation training as well as
28
the development and recent reforms of undergraduate translation
programmes in Vietnam. Then, the chapter elaborates on flipped learning
indicated by literature, including the definitions, historical background, and
benefits of this approach. In addition, chapter 2 presents a theoretical
framework for flipped learning, together with empirical studies on the
educational benefits of flipped learning on various aspects of learning
outcomes. Finally, the challenges of implementing this approach from both
the theoretical and practical levels are investigated, followed by a suggestion
on the use of Activity theory to explore the difficulties faced by Vietnamese
learners.
Chapter 3 provides a methodological consideration of philosophical
perspectives, research context, research procedure, and the results of a pilot
study. Then, this chapter outlines brief descriptions variable establishment,
data instruments, data collection, and analysis process. Finally, issues
relating to trustworthiness, authenticity, ethical considerations, and
methodological limitations of the whole thesis are addressed.
Chapter 4 compiles the major findings derived from the study. First, it
analyses one scenario of the flipped classroom approach, illustrating how
the activities were organised and built upon the pedagogical framework, as
well as showing the interconnection between translation activities,
assessment tasks, and learning outcomes. Then, error analysis is
conducted to describe what translation errors learners made in various
assessment task types, how they used professional translation strategies
appropriately to solve these tasks, and how learners’ competences were
29
sharpened over the course. These data thus could shed light on how the
flipped classroom approach supports learners to master the necessary
competences as well as how their translation habits were fostered. Finally,
coded data from semi-structured interviews are provided to clarify how
learners perceived the benefits of this approach, how each element of the
flipped approach contributed to improving the students’ translation skills,
what challenges were actually faced and how these challenges were
mitigated via the lens of Activity theory.
Chapter 5 addresses how major findings from the study connect with
previous literature in chapter 2, and how these findings inform insights and
recommendations for practice and further study in translation training and
theories of flipped learning. Each research question is addressed separately
and connected with current findings from the literature.
The final chapter summarises the thesis contents, discussing its
implications derived from the investigation. Then it draws interpretations
from the theoretical and practical perspectives that were applied for this
thesis. It also indicates areas of further research, the implications, and
limitations of this study.
1.12. Conclusion
In short, translator students need a learning environment with more
formal class time for skills practice and collaborative learning experience to
enhance their translation competence, both inside and outside the
classroom. However, the current delivery in Vietnam does not meet these
30
needs. This is because it could not promote active learning and it also fails
to foster learners’ interest and engagement. Furthermore, the limited class
time poses challenges for instructors to cover the required contents as well
provide adequate practice for skills mastery. Therefore, this thesis
implements a suggested flipped classroom approach as a novel solution to
tackle these issues. It was undertaken to evaluate the benefits of the flipped
approach in an academic translation module at the tertiary level. This
allowed us to explore whether it could bring educational benefits during the
implementation, where students applied and practiced the theoretical
concepts learnt in the video lectures through meaningful in-class activities
under the facilitation of teachers and with the support of peers.
This chapter first clarifies the contextual background of the study from
the standpoints of flipped learning. It is followed by a presentation of the
problem statements in both the translation discipline and the learners’
needs. After setting up the stage, the research objectives were clearly set
out, and then six research questions were posed. The chapter further
highlights the rationale of the research, its significance and conceptual
framework of the flipped classroom approach in translation education. The
chapter also discusses the scope of the thesis, key term definitions, then
concludes with the structure of the whole thesis. The following chapter will
review the literature within the contextual background that is relevant to the
delivery of contemporary translation programmes and the flipped classroom
approach.
31
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Introduction
This chapter contains two sections. The first section provides an
overview of translation training, the significant patterns of this discipline in
higher education, and the current status of translation training in the
Vietnamese context, as well as some descriptions about translation
education at a public university in HCMC. Then, the chapter examines
existing literature related to flipped learning, including definitions, historical
aspects, variances and characteristics, components of an actual flipped
classroom, and the benefits and challenges of this approach. The second
sub-section discusses theoretical backgrounds for this pedagogical
approach from the perspectives of socio-constructivism and active learning
theory. This is then followed by a review of the empirical research studies
that probe into the beneficial impacts of this approach. The studies will
address the definitions of educational benefits of this approach as it relates
to learning outcomes, students’ perceptions, the positive impacts of flipped
learning in translation pedagogy, and the gap areas that call for further
research on flipped learning. Finally, the discussion goes into a detailed
description of Activity theory and how this theory is used to investigate the
challenges faced by Vietnamese learners. Figure 2-1 below illustrates the
relationship between the two main cores of the theoretical framework that is
used to conduct this study, including the subject matter and the prominent
teaching method of this particular career-orientated subject.
32
Translation
theories and Flipped
strategies learning
(What to teach) (How to teach)
1. Process-oriented 1. Socio-constructivism
training 2. Active learning
2. Translation strategies 3. Activity theory
Figure 2-1: Theoretical framework
2.2. Translation training: global and local analysis
Recently, educators have put an increasing emphasis on the search
for better delivery in translation classrooms (Acioly-Régnier et al., 2015;
Sanchez, 2017). Therefore, an analysis of translation training from the global
and local perspectives is necessary before any intervention can be made for
educational innovations.
2.2.1. Definitions
Different definitions about translation could be found when the
relevant literature is reviewed. For example, Nida and Taber defined
translation as “reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural
equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and,
second in terms of style” (1969, p. 12). This definition suggests the notion of
“equivalence” and ultimate translation, implying that there exists an absolute
correct translation. However, the term “closest natural equivalent” is
subjective and ambiguous as a translated version should be analysed on
different cultural contexts and historical significance. Moreover, this
33
definition also puts undue emphasis on the original text and the source
meaning, while neglecting the dynamicity and creativity of translators.
Later, House (1982) stated that “translation is the replacement of a
text in the source language by a semantically and pragmatically equivalent
text in the target language” (p. 29). With this definition, she added a
pragmatic element into the translating process when looking at textual
equivalence. It means every text should be placed within a particular
situation so that translators could identify the appropriate strategies to make
the translated version match its source text in terms of function. Therefore,
she related linguistic features to the context of both source text and target
text, proposing that learners should be taught the contextual elements as
well as the functional significance of the translation activities.
Likewise, Newmark considered translation as “a craft consisting of
the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language
by the same message and/or statement in another language” (1988, p. 7),
while Houbert regarded translation as “the process whereby a message
expressed in a specific source language is linguistically transformed in order
to be understood by readers of the target language” (1998, p. 38). As such,
these two authors implied that translation means more than substitution of
words in one language with those from another language. The difference
between these two definitions is that Newmark considered translation as an
art to preserve the elegancy of expressions through the use of creative skills
and formalistic experiments, while Houbert looked at it from a scientific
viewpoint requiring systematic techniques to bring two cultures together.
34
Based on the various definitions above, translation could be
summarised as a complex activity in which translators should master
necessary competence and strategies to preserve specific features of
original texts and reflect them in the products by semantic and pragmatic
equivalence. In this sense, it is a much more challenging task than merely
replacing a source text with another target text because languages differ in
forms with distinct codes and rules regulating the construction of
grammatical features and these forms possess different meanings that can
shape the options and attitudes of recipients (Bell, 1991). Therefore, no
translation could provide an ideal rendition that is totally parallel to the
source text in all its semantic, stylistic, and cultural aspects. Besides, the
translating process must be flexible in terms of appropriate equivalents if it
is to bridge the gaps between the source language and the target language
(Sanchez, 2017). As a result, a competent translation should master
necessary competences and strategies if they would like to work well in this
discipline or to provide high-quality translated versions.
2.2.2. Translation training
Translation training (a.k.a. translator training or translation education)
is a sub-branch of translation studies with the purpose of educating high-
quality translators to meet the market needs (Petrescu, 2015). In 2012, it
was estimated that the number of translation programmes at the university
level worldwide was over 600 (Kim, 2012). Kim added that translation
training in those programmes works as a means to cope with the economic
globalisation, attract foreign investments, and ensure knowledge transfer
35
between languages and cultures. As a result, this institutionalisation of
translator training has achieved great progress around the world and
boosted the search for effective methods in this discipline (Sanchez, 2017).
Currently, there is a shared agreement that translation training should be in
the 21st century:
• process-orientated: putting more emphasis on translation
process rather than the products so that learners can acquire professional
expertise and necessary translation competencies (Hatim, 2012; Lee-
Jahnke, 2005).
• research-informed and competence-based: ensuring
pedagogy is well-grounded with translation theories to enhance learners’
competencies such as the ability to work responsibly to complete the
assigned tasks or to function collaboratively within a team (Göpferich &
Jääskeläinen, 2009; Hatim, 2012).
• profession-orientated: exposing students to authentic
materials and simulated conditions to foster their engagement and sense of
career relevance (Hubscher-Davidson & Borodo, 2012; Sanchez, 2017).
• task-based: designing translation activities to improve
learner’s life-long learning skills through the effective use of knowledge and
skills in professional and vocational tasks. They include both real-life tasks
or simulated projects within the training programme (González-Davies,
2004; Hanna, 2016)
• learner-centred: putting students as the main components
within the training process with all activities aimed at boosting their
36
autonomy and making them accountable for their own learning (Hanna,
2016; Sanchez, 2017)
• social-constructivist: fostering collaborative environments so
that students could interact with peers and teachers both inside and outside
the classroom and gradually penetrating into the working community (Kelly,
2005; Pym, 2013).
These aforementioned ideas have laid some foundations for the
translation training in the 21st century. Translation training in the
contemporary era could be defined as a particular educational area that is
profession-oriented with more responsive programmes and effective
pedagogy to enhance graduates’ employability. This training should have
the following characteristics. First, knowledge and skill practice should be
integrated into the strategic planning of this discipline to ensure both
theoretical mastery as well as procedural competency. Second, the training
process should also include subject-matter knowledge, crucial skills related
to technology use, independent learning, and teambuilding skills. Moreover,
real-life practice and meaningful interactive exercises should be exploited to
foster learners’ use of professional strategies with an emphasis on the
increased awareness of how to understand specifications and general
requirements in performing a translation task. Finally, students need to be
trained in time management, in relation to translation quality assessment, so
that they can understand and familiarise themselves with the real
professional working conditions such as the pressure of workload and time
37
constraints. In short, translators’ professional activities and competences
should be reflected in this specific theoretical and practical training.
However, significant gaps between translation pedagogy and actual
translation practice still exist. For example, Martín de León (2016) stated that
research into translation training focused mainly on the accuracy of the
products and the correction of errors, while there was a lack of empirical
studies on how process-orientated training could actually help learners
acquire professional translation strategies and competencies. Moreover,
though researchers have explored various topics on translation
methodology (see 2.2.6.), a framework, with detailed procedures
implementing effective learning theories to improve translator training
programmes, has not been thoroughly addressed (González-Davies &
Enríquez-Raído, 2016).
2.2.3. Translation competence

Translation competence refers to the skills and knowledge necessary
for a qualified translator to meet market demand or to produce a good-quality
text that complies with all the relevant norms of a community (Li, 2013).
Translation scholars typically divide translation competence into many
subsets. Thus far, there is no agreement on which ones are fundamental for
a professional translator. Table 2-1 illustrates major competence models
that have been used in translation institutions.
38
Table 2-1: Models of translation competence

Author Year Sub-competences
 Sub-competence of text reception
 Sub-competence of text analysis
 Research sub-competence
1 Christianne Nord 1988  Transfer Sub-competence
 Sub-competence of text production
 Sub-competence of quality assessment
 Linguistic and cultural sub-competence
 Grammar sub-competence
 Rhetoric sub-competence
 Terminology sub-competence
2 Anthony Pym 1992  Sub-competence of world knowledge
 Sub-competence of common sense
 Sub-competence of commercial
strategies
 Linguistic sub-competence
 Extra-linguistic sub-competence
3 Amapro Hurtado 1996  Analysis and Synthesis sub-
competence
 Translational sub-competence
 Professional sub-competence
 Communicative sub-competence
 Textual sub-competence
 Cultural and Intercultural sub-
4 Dorothy Kelly 2005 competence
 Instrumental sub-competence
 Psycho-physiological sub-competence
 Interpersonal sub-competence
 Strategic sub-competence
39
 Target Language sub-competence

 Textual sub-competence
5 Stuart Campell 2008  Disposition sub-competence
 Monitoring sub-competence
 Bilingual sub-competence
 Extra-linguistic sub-competence
2013,  Translation knowledge sub-
6 PACTE 2017 competence
 Instrumental sub-competence
 Transfer or Strategic sub-competence
 Psycho-physiological sub-competence
In general terms, these models highlight the importance of translation
competence as the goal to pursue during the process of translation training.
It is obvious that there are some overlaps among the models, and each
model has its own strengths and shortcomings. For example, Nord, Pym,
and Hurtado paid attention to the pedagogical and functional aspects of
competences, which are suitable to be taught in specific translation
programmes. However, they failed to identify sub-competences that are
necessary to be worked within the 4.0 industry. Likewise, Campell put too
much emphasis on major aspects of verbal communication but neglected to
consider the importance of cultural or sociocultural aspects of the activity.
Finally, models of Kelly and the PACTE group have a lot of elements in
common, providing a comprehensive and detailed description of translation
sub-competences. More importantly, the model of the PACTE group was
developed based on an empirical study with six different sub-competences
(2017):
40
 Bilingual sub-competence: refers to linguistic capability that is
necessary to communicate in two languages, including pragmatic, socio-
linguistic, textual and lexical-grammatical knowledge in each language.
 Extra-linguistic sub-competence: implies knowledge about the
world in general and different specific disciplines such as encyclopaedic,
domain and thematic knowledge.
 Translation knowledge sub-competence: includes knowledge
about translation theories (e.g., translation units, techniques and strategies)
and professional aspects (e.g., techniques to handle customers).
 Instrumental sub-competence: refers to practical knowledge of
documentary and ICT sources (e.g., dictionaries, computer-assisted tools,
search engines, and network communities).
 Strategic sub-competence: could be understood as the ability to
organise a translation project, evaluate the products, compensate for
mistakes, and solve translation problems in a professional manner.
 Psycho-physiological sub-competence: includes knowledge
about cognitive components (e.g., memory, attention span, and
perseverance), behavioural components (e.g., ethics, critical mind,
punctuality) as well as psychomotor mechanisms (e.g., self-evaluation, self-
motivation, logical mindset, analytical skills).
The merit of this model is that all sub-competences are
interconnected with their own differentiated functions; of which strategic
sub-competence is the most important one. However, it seems that the
41
PACTE group tried creating an ideal image of professional translator with
too many components. This attempt might be overwhelming for any
translation training programme as some sub-competences require long
exposure to the real world of professional translators (e.g., psycho-
physiological sub-competence). In other words, it is impractical to equip a
graduate with all those professional competences in a short training time
frame, especially in Vietnam with its typical 1.5-2 years.
In short, scholars have not reached a consensus on an optimal model
for translation sub-competences. Besides, these sub-competences could be
adjusted in the future to adapt to the ever-changing conditions of society.
Therefore, many educators and scholars have suggested that formal
translation training can only help learners embrace the necessary sub-
competences within the limited class time, such as bilingual, extra-linguistic
and instrumental components (Galán-Mañas, 2018; Yazici, 2016).
Meanwhile, strategic and psycho-physiological sub-competences can be
fostered if learners choose to follow this discipline as their future career. As
a result, most current translation programmes or module syllabi aim to
develop the first four sub-competences of the PACTE group’s model
(Robert, Remael & Ureel, 2017).
2.2.4. Translation habits and translation strategies
A habit in a professional work environment refers to the established
behaviors and regular tendency of people to employ the required behavioral,
ethical, and practical strategies to meet the performance standards of that
discipline (Zhu, 2017). Thus, translation habits could be defined as a set of
42
all the regular, settled, or behavioral strategies that learners adopt to solve
specific translation problems both consciously and unconsciously (Zhu,
2017). In this sense, translation habits might overlap with the concept of
translation strategies proposed by Lörscher (1991). What differentiates the
two terms is that translation habits are behaviours conducted by
inexperienced students, while the latter is used for competent translators
who can adopt appropriate techniques unconsciously during the translation
process (Plońska, 2014). Moreover, as Do (2019) maintained, a solid
foundation of good translation habits means that the translators are able to
adopt professional strategies on a consistent basis in appropriate situations,
which could set a precedence of efficiency, productivity, and reliability in their
assignments. This means individuals who can adopt and demonstrate
exemplary good translation habits are highly valued and have a better
employability. In short, good translation habits imply a high awareness of the
appropriate use of professional strategies in particular situations, the high
frequency of using these strategies to do the tasks, and the few errors that
leaners make in their translated papers (Zhu, 2017). Therefore, helping
learners to develop good translation habits should be given more
consideration within the training process.
Professional strategies require translators to focus on semantic,
pragmatic, and inter-textual aspects of the source texts to extract as much
contextualised information as possible. Hence, professional translators
should usually adopt a meaning-orientated approach and continually
monitor the emerging issues. This avoids distortions of the source message
43
and errors in the target language. One example was the study by Plońska
(2017), who investigated the correlation between the strategy usage and the
errors made by professional and amateur Polish translators. Results (r>0.6,
p<.01) showed that experienced translators could use professional
strategies better than amateur ones to provide translations that were both
linguistically correct and faithful to the original versions.
According to Lörscher (2005), professional strategies can be grouped
into three categories, i.e., comprehension strategies, transfer strategies, and
production strategies. Comprehension strategies imply the strategies of
understanding the source texts, identifying the translation problems (lexical
and syntactic problems), and segmenting the source texts into smaller units.
Transfer strategies refer to analysing the differences between the source
texts and the target texts, and then finding the appropriate solutions to these
problems. Finally, the production strategies relate to the assessment of the
translated versions as well as any necessary refinements.
In terms of identifying translation problems and segmenting the
source texts, Károly (2012) stated that instructors should orientate learners’
habits to produce acceptable texts that communicate the intended message
of the source texts, while respecting the target language norms. By looking
at the source texts from the phrase, sentence and paragraph levels,
teachers can teach the learners to make appropriate decisions (e.g.,
adaptation, omission or paraphrasing) to create a text that matches the
target language norms, both linguistically and functionally. After completing
the translation exercises, learners should also know how to assess their
44
products in terms of phrase, sentence and paragraph levels. As a result,
learners can become more conscious of professional strategies in their
practice and performance.
Likewise, Martín de León (2016) suggested a five-step approach in
developing learners’ habits for better performance. This includes source text
analysis, identification of translation problems, elimination of difficulties,
assessment of equivalence, and back translation. This approach, together
with the ideas of Karamanian (2002), is insightful to this thesis because it
provides a teaching model to navigate positive translation habits. This
approach can be summarised as follows:
a) Learners read the whole text to get the main idea and reduce the
source text from its structurally simplest and most semantically evident units
to higher levels for analysis (word-and-phrase, sentence, text and genre
levels, and text types).
b) Learners identify translation problems (i.e., ambiguities, semantic
differences, discourse contexts and cultural issues), solve these difficulties
and transfer the meaning to the target language.
c) Learners generate semantically and stylistically equivalent
expressions in the target language with appropriate reformulation
techniques as the top priority in order to preserve the meaning of the source
message.
d) Learners assess the products for accuracy, readability, stylistic
equivalence, and intended meaning.
e) Learners conduct peer reviews to check any errors or ambiguities.
45
This model has four advantages. First, it takes into account all the
issues of forms, meaning, context, and text types so that learners can make
sense of the cohesive relations among the various elements of a discourse.
By learning how to divide the texts into pieces, the students can reconstruct
its content and relate that content to specific structures. Second, it employs
systematic strategies by dividing language into smaller units for translating
purposes. Thus, the translating procedures are given step by step, and
solutions to problematic areas are given systematically. In this way, students
can recall these strategies and apply them in similar cases more easily.
Third, it incorporates insights from other linguistic areas such as discourse
analysis and contrastive linguistics. Finally, the enhancement of translation
competence could be achieved through a gradual process. The translation
teaching could emphasise the route to acquiring appropriate translation
habits that will enable the development of a professional working style. As a
result, learners will be able to develop professional habits to complete their
assignments.
To sum up, translation habits include behavioural strategies that a
translator adopts when confronting a translation assignment. These
strategies could be grouped into two categories: amateur and professional
strategies. Amateur strategies refer to the tendency to convert the source
language texts to their nearest target language equivalent without paying
much attention to the contextual meaning and cultural impacts As a result,
the translated versions are unnatural and might produce much ambiguity to
the target readers. Meanwhile, professional translation strategies require
46
translators to take into consideration aesthetic values of both the source and
target languages. Therefore, their translated products are acceptable and
comprehensible to the target readers (Galán-mañas & Olalla-soler, 2016).
As result, translation training should help learners master the professional
strategies and use these strategies on a regular basis both consciously and
unconsciously. In other words, good translation habits should be fostered
during the training process. Figure 2-2 below demonstrates the translation
strategies that are currently taught in formal translation training.
1. Read the whole text to get the main idea and

segment the text into translatable units.
2. Identify translation problems
 Lexical problems: hyponymy, connotative,
Comprehension ambiguity, terminology, cultural elements.
strategies  Syntactical problems: lack of subject,
redundancy, word order, article, preposition,
collocation, verb tenses, structures, word
formation, and voices.
3a.Translation skills at the word and phrase levels:

direct translation, borrowing, naturalization, diction,
paraphrase, and cultural equivalence.
Transfer 3b.Translation skills at the syntactic level: key
strategies
message analysis, reformulation techniques.
3c.Translation skills at the paragraph level:
coherence, cohesion, addition, omission,
adaptation, clarification.
4. Evaluate the product in terms of accuracy,

comprehensibility, stylistic equivalence, and
Production intended meaning.
strategies 5. Conduct peer reviews to check any errors,
ambiguities or confusions that may arise.
Figure 2-2: Five-step approach to navigate learners’ translation habits
47
2.2.5. Translation quality assessment

In recent decades, researchers have endeavoured to find a robust
framework for analysing translation errors. A framework is necessary for
external audits to evaluate the official accreditation of a translation training
programme. It also plays a significant role in assessing whether a translated
version meets the quality standards set by the institution or the translator
community. Finally, it lays fundamental backgrounds for navigating
educators to improve their students’ translation proficiency. Therefore, a
review of translation quality assessment is necessary, and a translation
framework is provided to explain how learners’ ability was assessed in this
study.
There are currently two main approaches to translation scoring,
including holistic and analytic methods (Aubakirova, 2016). Proponents of
the holistic method contend that the whole is greater than each separate
part, and graders should combine all the prominent features of a translation
to arrive at an overall judgement of its quality (Williams, 2013). Therefore,
they normally refer to a holistic rubric so that the grading can be systematic
and objective. A holistic rubric defines performance criteria and levels but
does not indicate specific components of the performance. An example of
these grading rubrics is developed by the American Translators Association
(ATA, 2013), which contains the four following levels:
 Strong: Translated text conveys meaning fully and accurately as
specified by translation instructions.
48
 Acceptable: Translated text conveys meaning well enough to be useful
to intended readers; occasional mistranslations, omissions or additions
may slightly obscure meaning.
 Deficient: Translated text does not convey meaning well enough to be
useful to the intended readers; mistranslations, omissions or additions
may obscure meaning.
 Minimal: Translated text would be nearly useless to intended readers;
frequent and/or serious mistranslations, omissions or additions obscure
or change meaning.
By contrast, the analytic rubric adopts an error classification scheme
to assess the quality of a translated version. An error, defined by its severity,
can be a major or a minor mistake, so a weight in the form of a numerical
value is assigned to each error. Currently the most detailed analytic rubric is
developed by American Translators Association with 27 error types (ATA,
2013).
The primary advantages of holistic scoring are the simultaneous
consideration of all components of the response and time efficiency. On the
other hand, the strength of analytic scoring lies in assessing the translator’s
specific strengths and weaknesses and identifying the particular
components of the translation competence. The types of scoring used is
dependent on the nature of the subject training, the purpose of the course
module, and the focus of the course contents (Flanagan & Christensen,
2014). However, translation assessment grounded in error analysis is more
favourable than holistic scoring in formal training as it is quantifiable and
49
easy to provide feedback (Flanagan & Christensen, 2014). This part,
therefore, attempts to review some of the most noticeable translation errors,
and proposes a list of translation errors. This list can be regarded as the
foundation for the test marking conducted in this study.
Newmark (1995) categorised translation errors into referential errors
and linguistic errors. “Referential errors are about facts, the real world,
propositions, not words” (1995, p. 189). On the other hand, linguistic errors
involve mistakes caused by linguistic incompetence such as misuse of
articles, prepositions, tense, voice, word choice or collocations. The second
categorisation is logical and appropriate and is suitable for evaluating the
quality of translations in general, especially the translations of
undergraduates as they are at the early stage of training. Thus, the lack of
competence is completely understandable.
While agreeing somewhat with Newmark’s discussion, Nord (2009)
further suggested that translation errors could be classified into four main
types. First, pragmatic errors are caused due to the lack of recipient
orientation. It means that translators have no specific targeted readers in
their minds; therefore, they have no orientation when translating. Second,
cultural translation errors occur with regard to negligence in cultural-specific
conventions or equivalence. Third, linguistic translation errors involve
mistakes in linguistic features. This type is entitled text-specific translation
errors relating to incompetence in various text types and text genres.
On the other hand, Schiaffino and Zearo (2005) classify translation
errors into three main categories. First, errors of meaning occur if the
50
meaning of translation becomes distorted from the meaning of source texts.
This includes the wrong word usage, incorrect meaning or misinterpretation
of the source texts. Second, errors of forms involve errors of grammar,
spelling, and other errors without changing the meaning of the original
versions. The third categorisation includes errors of compliance, which
implies a failure to convey the appropriate stylistic genres, preferred
terminology, and the wrong use of reference words (of time, place and
events), and other requirements. These errors can cause unnaturalness,
lack of comprehensibility and inconsistency.
Based on the above reviewed studies, it could be summarised that
the list of errors can be divided into three categories including lexical errors,
syntactic level and translating errors. These three types of errors are
unavoidable to novice translators due to their lack of practical experience,
low level of English proficiency, and insufficient background knowledge
about translation theories. Table 2-2 illustrates the analytical rubric used to
grade the test papers of the participants in this study.
Table 2-2: Translation rubric
Categories Sub-categories
Incorrect meaning Cultural elements
Lexical errors Terminology Multi-word units
(4 pts.) Untranslated terms
Typos Preposition
Miscellaneous Structures
51
Syntactic Redundancy Word formation
errors Word order Voices
(3 pts.) Article Punctuation
Tenses
Translating Style and naturalness
errors Coherence and cohesion
(3 pts.) Reformulation techniques
(Adapted from ATA (2013) and Schiaffino and Zearo (2005))
2.2.6. Significant patterns in translation training

Early translator training did not receive the attention that it deserved
due to the use of unsystematic and ineffective methodology such as by trial-
and-error and arbitrary methods (Gabr, 2001). Since the 1990s, this view
has changed and translation academics have endeavoured to establish
innovations in skill sets, learning outcomes, curricular contents, and
pedagogical considerations for improving translation training (Kelly, 2005;
González-Davies & Enríquez-Raído, 2016). These innovations have centred
around two fundamental issues; namely, “what to teach” and “how to teach”
this discipline.
2.2.6.1. What to teach
Early translator training focused on curriculum content rather than
other considerations such as pedagogical approaches (Kelly, 2005). There
is no absolute answer as to what elements (course contents, instructional
material, skill sets and competencies) should be taught within a translation
52
curriculum. These elements should be chosen according to specific social
and pedagogical contexts, with a preoccupation that they need to be
updated constantly so as to meet the demands of both industry and
academia. Table 2-3 summarises the relevant literature as the foundation
for curriculum contents.
Table 2-3: Elements of the translation contents

What to Main ideas and
teach Authors contributions Limitations
- Two elements: language

and translation teaching - no defined ratio
Azizinezhad - require a congruent between the two
(2006) eclectic method applicable elements
to both elements - still ambiguous
- Three elements: theories, - too broad for a

skills competence, and specific module
Albir
techniques - needs to be
(2007)
Course - suitable for the whole operationalised
contents curriculum
- Four elements:
+ various text types, text
registers and text genres - challenging to teach
Zralka + language teaching within limited physical
(2007) + theories and concepts class time
+ techniques
- real-life practice - too dependent on
Nord - proposed criteria to select genres
(2009) text genres - less attention to
- self-learning materials techniques
53
Instructional - centred on techniques to

materials deal with translation - time-consuming to
Gile problems prepare
(2009) - proposed new concepts
and theories
+ six competences:
PACTE bilingual, extra-linguistic,
group instrumental, strategic, - could not be
Skills and (2017) translation knowledge, and mastered within short
competencies psycho-physiological time
- some competencies
could not be
+ five competencies:
assessed via paper-
Sanchez analytical, technological,
based exams
(2017) interpersonal, research and
time management
competencies
Regarding the course contents, Azizinezhad (2006) highlighted that
teachers should incorporate both language teaching and translation
teaching (theoretical and practical aspects) into the syllabus. He maintained
that both language learning and translation learning are of equal importance
and teachers should not only nurture language competence but also help
their students improve the skills and techniques for translating. However, the
ratio between these two aspects is not defined. He also did not state clearly
what elements of language teaching and translation training should be
taught. Thus, no framework could be inferred from his ambiguous
recommendations.
One year later, Albir (2007) stated that three basic components in
translation training included concepts and theories, necessary strategies to
54
perform the tasks, and the acquisition of sub-competencies. His ideas was
then expanded by Zralka’s suggestions for improving the content design
(2007). First, various text types, text registers, and text genres should be
taught so that learners could employ appropriate translation methods with
these elements. Second, a linguistic analysis between the source language
and target language should be made to help learners learn how to analyse
differences in semantic and structural features as this can help them
translate words, sentences, and paragraphs effectively. Third, translation
theories should be taught so that students could have a comprehensive
understanding about the discipline and its underlying principles behind each
decision. Finally, guidance for professional strategies should be provided to
enhance learners’ ability to use appropriate vocabulary in different contexts,
retain registers of the source text, adopt proper reformulation techniques,
and assess the quality of translated products. His suggestions have been
adopted by many course designers (Ali Almanna & Hashim Lazim, 2014;
Sanchez, 2017) although it is challenging to cover all these issues within the
limited physical class time of a particular module.
In terms of instructional material, Nord (2009) emphasised that
educators should use real-life material to bring professionalism into the
classroom. She further suggested that learning material should provide tips
on how to segment the texts, classify and handle translation problems, and
conduct translation quality assessment. Then, Gile (2009) added that
instructional material should include practical sessions to deal with lexical,
syntactic, textual and intertextual problems. He also proposed incorporating
55
such translation concepts as communication purposes, faithfulness,
intelligibility, and knowledge acquisition.
Third, translation competences are also constructed within the
curriculum. In this aspect, the model of PACTE group (2017), consisting of
six interrelated sub-competences as mentioned in sub-section 2.2.3., is
quite seminal. However, these sub-competences could not be mastered
within a short time and some of them could not be assessed via paper-based
exams (Albir, 2015).
Finally, contemporary literature discusses the implications of
introducing machine translation and technological tools in the classroom
(Gaspari, Almaghout & Doherty, 2015) or web training (Jiménez-Crespo,
2017) with detailed considerations for content design and skills
development. The implementation of these tools is investigated in sub-
section 2.3.2.c.
In short, the aforementioned papers show that a translation course
should be set within real-life/simulated contexts together with theoretical
principles, and more practice is needed for enhanced performance.
Classroom activities should aim to develop necessary skills and strategies
to deal with lexical, syntactic, textual and intertextual issues. However, what
specific elements should be taught and how the sub-competences are
nurtured in the translation curriculum are still left unanswered. Hence, the
teaching contents are designed differently by educators and course
designers based on the social context, learning objectives and learning
outcomes of each training curriculum.
56
2.2.6.2. How to teach
2.2.6.2.1. The traditional teacher-centred method
The traditional teacher-centred method is still prevailing in this
discipline, by which instructors hand out source texts to students, and
learners have to translate them at home or impromptu in the class. Then,
teachers review them and offer the “correct” versions (Al-Hadithy, 2015;
Öner Bulut, 2019). Activities are product-orientated with much focus on
accuracy and very few classroom interactions. Teachers provide inadequate
subject-specific knowledge related to the topics. Also, certain sub-
competencies such as strategic and psycho-physiological components are
normally overlooked (Öner Bulut, 2019; Yazici, 2016). Therefore, this
exercise-ridden classroom might not equip the learners with adequate
professional and interpersonal skills, knowledge and competence to meet
the increasing demand of the labour market. Moreover, it is excessively
focused on language accuracy with the impression that the teacher’s answer
key is the best one and should be strictly followed (Al-Hadithy, 2015;
Stewart, Orbán & Kornelius, 2010). They have few opportunities to look at a
problem from different perspectives, to learn from their peers and to develop
higher cognitive skills such as critical thinking and evaluating. As a result,
learners’ creativity is stifled and their autonomy is discouraged by this
product-orientated method.
2.2.6.2.2. Student-centred methodologies in translation training
While the traditional method is still dominant in many classes,
translation academics have endeavoured to establish learner-centred and
57
innovative methodologies to help novice translators improve their
competencies for vocational or professional purposes. Two prominent ones
are the socio-constructivist model and the process-orientated teaching for
empowering learners’ performance (Sanchez, 2017; Wu, Corr & Rau, 2019).
In terms of social constructivism, Kiraly (2000) said that students as
the centre of training should learn from collaborative practice so that this
could facilitate knowledge construction as well as develop cognitive ability.
Kiraly contended that teachers should create collaborative learning
environments that allow trainees to interact and negotiate with each other
during simulation exercises, task-based activities, fieldwork, and project
assignments. Further case-study findings of Rico (2017) and Li (2017)
demonstrated that such exposure to real-life tasks and authentic material
within the group-work activities could foster learners’ usage of professional
strategies and enhance their responsibility. Learners can also feel more
empowered when they interact with the teachers, question them, or suggest
alternative solutions so that the training becomes a two-way process.
Therefore, a number of academics have subsequently based their theories
or teaching practices on social constructivism to explain how to implement
this approach in a physical translation class (Li, 2017; Wang, 2017).
Gabr (2007), for instance, introduced a model using social
constructivist approach to a translation curriculum targeted to the needs of
the market and students. His model included two phases; i.e., the design
stage to identify the market’s and learners’ needs; and development stage
to define the course objectives, prepare instructional material, select
58
teaching methods and develop lesson plans for actual classrooms. In his
development stage, a wide variety of instruction modes were adopted, such
as lectures, discussions, experiential-sharing, role-playing, and computer-
based assignments that not only covered theoretical and practical aspects
of translation, but also created conditions for dynamic collaborations. For
example, discussions enhanced the two-way interactions between teacher
and students, while computer-based assignments presented issues in a
more vivid environment to arouse learners’ interest and review of the
lessons. He also maintained that other factors played important roles in
developing learner’s competence, such as teaching methods and learners’
preferences. A sound approach to translation training should address
theoretical aspects as well as practical components of translating; thus,
traditional and innovative modes are of importance. In addition, both group
work and individual work should be implemented within the classrooms to
cover various learning preferences. Therefore, educators should take these
elements into careful consideration, and implement them into the teaching
process to help the students improve translation skills.
In 2010, Stewart, Orban and Kornelius (2010) experimented the
application of collaboration in a translation classroom. German students
worked in groups to do translation tasks in a simulated professional
environment (e.g., authentic problem-solving scenarios, simulated
collaborative working contexts, network-sharing, and reference tools). Their
serial investigations of six case studies (N=17) revealed that this approach
received positive responses from students (>=70%) in terms of motivation,
59
productivity and work quality. Two years later, Zainudin and Awal (2012)
studied the teaching of translation through collaborative learning when their
students were required to do translation work in two settings – group work
and individual work. The questionnaire findings indicated that about 80% of
respondents preferred working independently because it helped them
assess their own ability as well as get used to the time pressure. However,
students enjoyed sharing ideas and discussing their translated work with
classmates about their errors and mistakes. As such, the findings of Stewart,
Orban and Kornelius (2010) and Zainudin and Awal (2012) complemented
each other, suggesting that a combination of group work and individual work
is necessary in translation class for personal improvement. This combination
was supported by other studies of Barros (2011), Li (2014) and Roskosa
(2016) showing that more than 40% of participants found the beneficial
impacts of individual translation within the physical class time.
As regards language learning theories, process-orientated training is
highly valued by many scholars. Lörscher (1991), for example, highlighted
that this process-orientated training could develop learners’ awareness to
use appropriate strategies within a theoretical basis, and meet social needs
for intercultural translation. He further added that translation training should
enhance students’ bilingual ability, group cooperation and ethical attitudes
as these virtues are highly appreciated by the market. However, the question
of how the process of translation training should be operated is left
unanswered.
60
Zeng and Lu-Chen (2002) proposed a four-stage framework for
translator training. First, the students were required to analyse and evaluate
a text from the top-down approach, moving from larger to smaller units.
Then, the students were given assignments to familiarise themselves with
the necessary steps that should be followed in order to obtain a high quality
translation. Third, students applied what they learnt in the previous stages
to web translation. Finally, students got involved in a project comprising
annotated translations. This detailed framework provides a model in which
the translation process is divided up into a series of well-defined and distinct
tasks for students to perform to help them improve their competence. It also
paves the way for similar methodologies to be used in the future. Two years
later, González-Davies (2004) added that every activity within this
framework should be based on intended learning outcomes so that learning
progress can be monitored closely. According to her, translation
competence could be enhanced through a wide range of learning activities
and assessment tasks so that they can contribute effectively to
operationalising the social-constructive approach.
Another important aspect of process-orientated training is the
evaluating of skills for translation quality assessment. Al-Mijrab (2005)
outlined five practical criteria for identifying and evaluating translation
problems. Hence, this error analysis is of great value in translation training
as it provides some guideline for peer review, enables learners to monitor
their own progress, and helps instructors evaluate students’ performance.
These criteria include:
61
a) Frequency: how often an error occurs within a translation.
b) Generality: how major or minor the error is.
c) Intelligibility: to what extent the communicative goal of the target
text is achieved.
d) Interpretation: how faithful the target text is to the source text, and
whether it includes all important information.
e) Naturalness: how naturally the target text is read by the readers.
Al-Mijrab stated that the entire translation should be checked against
all criteria so that this identification of students’ translation errors and
subsequent correction can lead to an improvement in learners’ translation
competence. He also added that learners should be taught these criteria so
that they can assess the quality of a translated work during the process of
revision and evaluation (e.g., peer assessment). If they can identify and
classify the errors, they might be able to correct these mistakes and provide
a better translation.
In addition, Brookhart (2013) was of the opinion that there is no best
translation assessment, and to judge whether a product is good or bad
depends entirely on the purpose of the assignment (i.e., academic purposes,
or commercial purposes). Therefore, translation teachers need to set
appropriate learning objectives and criteria to appropriately assess the
quality of translated works produced by students as well as help the students
assess their work. He further asserted that an analytic scoring might be
appropriate for novice translators as it could provide them with pre-defined
learning objectives and assessment criteria for self-study and self-revision.
62
In short, translation educators should design and foster collaborative
learning environments in which learners could interact with their peers to be
accountable for their own learning. Both theoretical and practical aspects
should be allocated within the syllabus, and collaborative group work as well
as individual work are necessary. All of these are advocated by the concepts
of the socio-constructivist approach and process-orientated teaching, which
perceive translation training as “a personal, holistic, intrinsically motivating
construction process” to enhance students’ autonomy and habits to solve
translation problems (Kiraly, 2000, p. 22). Embedded in such methods,
techniques used for teaching translation are also diversified in favour of
classroom activities such as teamwork, individual work, and collaboration
rather than those used in one-way teacher-student interaction classroom.
However, both theoretical and empirical studies in translation teaching are
still scarce to prove which educational methods, approaches and techniques
are appropriate for translation teaching (Lowe, 2016; Sakwe, 2017). Thus,
there is a need for more research that offers results based on the
implementation of all the aforementioned studies in translation training.
Figure 2-3 below describes how the theory of socio-constructivism
and process-orientated training relate to the translation education and the
conduct of this study.
63
Socio-constructivism - Gabr (2001): theories (traditional and

- Collaborative learning
- Authentic materials innovative modes) + practice (computer-
- Real-life or simulated tasks based assignments)
- Stewart, Orban and Kornelius (2010):
group work for projects and task-based
assignments
- Zainudin and Awal (2012): individual
testing for personal improvement
Translation
training
- Lörscher (1991): bilingual ability + group

cooperation + intercultural translation
- Zeng and Lu-Chen (2002): four-stage
Process-oriented training framework + task-based
- Focus on strategies and
- Al-Mijrab (2005): translation quality
habitual behaviours
- Highlight three stages: pre- assessment with 5 criteria
translating (comprehension), - Brookhart (2013): pre-defined learning
while-translating (transferring), objectives and assessment criteria
and post-translating
(assessment)
Figure 2-3: Student-centred framework for translation training

2.2.6.2.3. Technology in translation training
Since the early 21st century, studies have been conducted on
technology and web-based learning in translation teaching with positive
results. For example, Yumuk (2002) investigated the effectiveness of
technology in a Turkish translation course. 90 third-year undergraduates
were required to use the Internet to select, analyse, apply and evaluate
relevant information to enhance the accuracy of their translation. Through
questionnaires, interviews and diary analysis, data showed that 94% of the
participants were motivated enough to assess their progress, and 58%
became accustomed to conducting deeper terminology searches via online
64
sources for self-study and revision. This indicated that the Internet had a
significant impact on students as it supported further practice at home, and
students could review materials and do exercises without instructor
assistance. As a result, learners’ autonomy was promoted and they viewed
translation learning to be more meaningful. However, the Internet was just a
supporting device to do at home rather than an integrated part inside the
classroom.
Another example was a study by Varela Salinas (2007), who
elaborated on a web-based technology to enhance the translation teaching
process. She used Moodle to employ different activities to train students. For
example, questionnaires and quizzes were used to revise faulty translation
by comparing the answers with a source text; then, the system evaluated
learners and gave feedback on their performance. That system also served
as a virtual forum, where students discussed their assignments in chat
rooms and the instructor could monitor closely. Her observation results
showed that if learners were provided with clear guidance on how to use
these tools, they could collaborate with one another in a non-threatening
environment. Still, Salinas admitted that more quantitative results are
needed to prove if learners’ translation skills are improved, and this web-
based approach should be a complementary part to the face-to-face mode.
Taking a socio-constructivist perspective as the main teaching
approach, Galán-Mañas and Albir (2010) recommended two proposals
adopting blended language learning in teaching Translation courses. Details
were given about learning theories (i.e., competence-based training and
65
task-based approach) and the well-planned process for the implementation
of technology was presented. By using questionnaires, reflective diaries,
and comparisons between self-grading marks of the students and the marks
given by the teachers, the data demonstrated a significance in students’
satisfaction with these new approaches. The study also confirmed that
learners placed a high value on the blended learning as it permitted flexibility
to organise the workload, encouraged groupwork and promoted autonomy.
It can be said that these authors proposed two frameworks employing
technology in translation teaching with empirical validation. However, more
data are needed to investigate whether these proposals are truly effective in
improving learners’ performance such as comparing the results of students
in the treatment class with those not exposed to blended learning.
Azizinezhad and Masoud (2011) adopted blogs in teaching a
translation class and reported that their experiences in using this technology
were positive. Participants in the treatment class were satisfied with this
friendly environment, and blogs helped them acquire updated knowledge as
well as provide motivation for translation activities. They concluded that web-
based technology was effective in enhancing openness, collaboration, and
community-building for both teachers and learners. Still, blogs were merely
supporting tools for additional exercises and could only be used outside the
classrooms.
Recently, Rico (2017) presented an experiment in using ePortfolio as
an instructional tool so that learners could exchange ideas, experiences and
assignments, hence creating a socio-constructivist learning environment.
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Through students’ diaries and formative assessments, Rico stated that this
tool was effective in helping learners acquire a sense of empowerment and
an active role in their learning process. She also asserted that ePortfolio
promoted learners’ autonomy and collaborative interactions via experience
sharing with others inside and outside the classroom. One merit of this study
is that she structured the sessions around well-planned stages to foster
deeper learning, conceptual understanding and personal involvement
among students. This can be seen as an initial step towards shaping
educational methodologies with technology in translation education; thus,
allowing learners to construct knowledge and sharpen their skills from a
collaborative experience with processes and actual products.
In short, research showed that students generally expressed positive
attitudes towards the implementation of technology and e-learning devices.
However, these experiences mainly suggested utilising technological tools
to transmit knowledge from one person to another without a pedagogical
proposal for teaching translation. This means that no exemplary procedure
is provided to explain how technology should be incorporated into the
training process in which real learning is seen as the result of interactions,
reflections and experiences. Hence, a paradigm shift towards a student-
centred methodology is needed to address how teachers adopt technology
to present lectures, have students do assignments based on the information
they impart, and encourage learners’ collaborative work inside and outside
classroom.
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In addition, the studies above shared the idea that the implementation
of technology in translation raised a number of problems. As Alcina Caudet
(2008) identified, these challenges include a lack of familiarity with software
applications, scarcity of electronic material in translation discipline, limited
network accessibility, and differences in learners’ autonomy level, personal
preferences towards technology and the tension from the whole programme
structure. It also entails a considerable investment of resources, such as
time, money and effort, and it can produce additional stress in students who
have difficulties with technology or overwhelming workload; and thus, can
wane their motivation. Therefore, the awareness of its limitations has
resulted in a shift to combine face-to-face and online learning approaches,
or collaborative working alongside individual study scenarios (Roturier,
2015).
To further address the above issues, more research is needed to
build a working framework for effective implementation of technology in
translation teaching. In addition, the absence of contributions addressing the
challenges faced by translation students utilising technology in the
Vietnamese setting highlights that this area has yet to be underpinned by
systematic research. This is a glaring gap that this study attempts to address
as it aims to provide translation teachers with practical advice on how to
implement technology in educational environments that seek to promote
learners’ autonomy, higher-order thinking skills, as well as translators’
professional strategies.
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2.2.7. Translation training in Vietnam

2.2.7.1. The status of translation training in Vietnam
Due to the open-door policy to integrate into the international
economy, the socio-economic, scientific as well as cultural exchanges
between Vietnam and foreign countries have led to a great demand for
professional, competent translators. Translation, thus, has become an
integral component in most English-major programmes since 2002 (Pham &
Tran, 2013). More importantly, attitudes towards translation training have
undergone fundamental transformation both in the professional world and
academia when Vietnam officially joined WTO in 2007. Since then, university
lecturers are aware of the prospect of their students working as professional
translators (Do, 2016). Hence, in order to meet the market needs as well as
equip graduates with the relevant skills, many language faculties have
developed special courses incorporating translation as a main major in its
own right. However, the reality is that most people who engage in the
translation field normally hold a degree in modern languages and do it as a
part-time job (Do, 2016). There also is a lack of intensive post-graduate
translation courses to provide advanced training for translators (Do, 2019;
Nguyen, 2016).
Against this backdrop, it should be noted that translator training and
research in Vietnam has not received adequate attention. Challenges
remain with the lack of professional instructional material, an inconsistency
in fundamental content design among institutions, no well-defined classroom
procedures, and subjectivity in quality assessment without detailed rubrics
69
(Nguyen et al., 2016). One reason for these problems has to do with the
prevailing teaching method, which is product-orientated. This makes it
comparatively easy to manage teaching activities, yet not productive for the
development of translation abilities (Nguyen et al., 2016). Another reason is
that teachers tend to adopt traditional approaches in translation training. In
fact, it is normal to find a traditional translation classroom in which the
teacher is a “knowledge transmitter” (Pham, 2016), who tries to correct every
translation mistake made by their passive students. Though there have been
efforts made by some teachers in translation didactics, more studies need
to be done to develop efficient teaching strategies, especially those involving
Internet resources under the conditions of EFL majors (Nguyen, 2016). The
final point is that most educators lack formal training in translation studies
and hands-on experience in professional career (Do, 2016). Because most
educators have not been working as professional translators, it is difficult for
them to provide students with vocational experience and knowledge that are
necessary for career development in this discipline (Pham, 2016; Do, 2019).
Since 2015, certain attempts have been made to adopt more
professionally-grounded approaches to equip learners with practical
translation skills and competencies. For example, various conferences and
seminars have been organised throughout the country since then to discuss
innovative trends and methods in translation training (Pham, 2016). In
addition, many studies and training programmes at the national level have
been sponsored, aimed at improving the translation curriculum, providing a
consistent content design and standardising course books. Theoretically,
70
these programmes have clear objectives and aim to cover most of the main
points that are necessary for translator training. However, the reality shows
that there are problems during the actual implementation since these
programmes lack tools for the selection of students, material and course
evaluation instruments (Nguyen, 2016; Do, 2019). In addition, most of them
are currently on the stage of development and implementation without any
reported findings anticipated by 2020. Finally, no systematic mechanism is
used to evaluate if those programmes actually take into account the labour
market and learners’ needs (Nguyen, 2016). Therefore, a reform of the
curriculum is needed since Vietnamese tertiary education is still theory-
orientated and scholastically-driven (Do, 2020).
In short, translation training in Vietnam is still in its infancy with the
product-orientated and traditional formats as the prevailing methods, while
educators and the government are struggling to improve the quality of this
field by researched-informed methodologies, consistent contents and
standardised course books. Thus, the problems confronting translation
teaching in Vietnam are enormous. In order to improve the situation, it is
necessary to find solutions to the problems of teaching methods. This in turn
guides the approach to syllabus design, directing the updating of teaching
material and, more importantly, offering teachers of translation consistent
pedagogical principles in teaching translation.
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2.2.7.2. Translation training at BUH
2.2.7.2.1. Faculty of Foreign Languages
Banking University Ho Chi Minh City has been involved in translation
education since 2009. The broader context in which the researcher
presented this study is the challenges for public institutions, which are facing
diminishing government support, competition from professional translation
courses in other English-majored Faculties, a lack of online material
available in Vietnam, and continued critique by the translation industry about
the school’s inability to prepare students for the real world (The ‘BlackBox’
Survey of the Proficiency Output Standards of BUH’s English-majored
Graduates from the Perspectives of Employees, 2015). More specifically,
this study is conducted in a Vietnamese public university that is coming to
terms with a massive 50% financial cut to the university sector in 2018 from
the State Bank of Vietnam. The rationale given was that the financial burden
of higher education should be borne by the institutions and the students.
The Faculty of Foreign Languages at Banking University was founded
in 2005 as a result of a restructuring process of Vietnamese universities. The
aim of the Faculty is to provide a professional environment where learners
can study English as a Foreign Language (B.A.) majoring in English and
Banking. Translation is a compulsory subject with four modules (Translation
Theories, English-Vietnamese Translation, Vietnamese-English Translation,
and Advanced Translation/Interpretation Practice). The translation courses
are mainly designed to provide a structured syllabus of Translation Practice
72
for English-majored students, covering an extensive range of topics and text
genres with Business-Banking-Legal resources winning heavy priority.
Before taking these translation courses, the students must have
undergone academic English training as well as some compulsory Business
courses during the first two years. These courses are very important in
shaping their ideas in business relations as well as providing certain
knowledge about legal issues and contracts that they will encounter in their
translation courses and assignments. Table 2-4 below provides the syllabus
at this Faculty.
Table 2-4: The B.A. programme (Year 3 + Year 4) at BUH
FIRST SEMESTER OF YEAR 3
Number of
Courses
credits
1 Financial and Monetary Theories 3
2 Principles of Marketing 2
3 Principles of Accounting 3
4 Fundamentals of Management 2
5 Translation Theories 2
6 Phonetics – Phonology 2
7 English – Vietnamese Translation 3
8 Second Language (3) 3

SECOND SEMESTER OF YEAR 3
1 Vietnamese – English Translation 3
2 British Culture 2
3 American Culture 2
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4 Morphology – Syntax 2
5 Second Language (4) 3
6 Optional business-related subject (1) 3
FIRST SEMESTER OF YEAR 4
1 Business Interpretation 3
2 Semantics 2
3 An Introduction to English Literature 3
4 Corporate Finance 3
5 Optional business-related subject (2) 3
SECOND SEMESTER OF YEAR 4
1 Internship 3
Bachelor Thesis or 3 substitution subjects:

+ Contrasted Analysis
2 9
+ English for Business Communications
+ Advanced Translation/Interpretation Practice
2.2.7.2.2. Translation training at BUH
The translation face-to-face session is exercised for the duration of
four hours a week (4 hours=5 academic periods). There is a lack of qualified
translation teachers and proper textbooks, an absence of systematic
teaching methods, and insufficient time devoted to these syllabi. There also
is no official rubric for the grading system. Admittedly, traditional
methodology is still being adopted in this institution with much focus on in-
class silent tasks, precise word usage and accurate grammar. The typical
routine is that the teacher corrects a prior homework, followed by lectures
on translation skills and demonstration through examples, then the time-
74
consuming practice by students, and finally, the teacher’s feedback is
provided. In this teaching procedure, the instructor plays a dominant role as
a sole disseminator, and students take notes passively without adequate
time for internalisation and discussion, which is ineffective for translation
practice. For example, Trinh (2012) conducted a survey at four public
universities in Ho Chi Minh City to explore students’ attitudes toward
translation training. The results showed that the graduates were not
confident in their translation capability, and they were not satisfied with the
monotonous teaching styles. In addition, participants revealed that the
evaluation method is one-fold as the teacher’s comments account for most
exercises with few mutual evaluations among students. Additionally, some
teachers hand out reference versions so that students can correct by
themselves. In fact, it is inappropriate to evaluate translation without
discussion and exchanges as this has a negative impact on the learner’s
autonomy and self-confidence.
In recent years, the Faculty has been implementing certain
innovations to improve the translation training process. On the one hand, the
product-orientated teaching method in which students’ products are judged
as “right” or “wrong”, “good” or “bad” is gradually substituted by the process-
orientated approach to enhance learner’s competence. Learners are geared
towards professional strategies to deal with translation problems and real-
life practice. On the other hand, teachers are encouraged to exploit different
factors to promote constructive, critical attitudes among learners and
creativity in the classroom such as group work, peer review, projects and
75
field trips. Translation tasks also are complemented by the teaching of
theoretical principles in the belief that learners need to know the underlying
mechanisms to improve their translation skills and the management of
mental process. Finally, blended-language learning is implemented to
improve the teaching and learning processes. For example, video dubbing
can help learners take a more active role to interact with each other to reach
achievements while computer-aided translation tools such as Google
Translate or Transit NXT could help learners study at home or assess their
work; thus, mitigating teachers’ workload. Still, translation training at BUH is
in its infancy. Therefore, more effective teaching methods are needed and
appreciated to incorporate both the necessary theoretical and practical
aspects into the syllabus, to help learners develop effective strategies to
solve translation tasks, and to orientate learners’ habits towards more
professional working style during the process of translating.
The next section examines literature related to flipped learning.
2.3. Flipped learning

2.3.1. Definitions
The ‘‘flipped learning’’ (a.k.a. ‘‘flipped classroom’’, ‘‘inverted
classroom’’ or ‘‘flipped teaching’’) is a pedagogical approach that has
received much recent attention in educational literature. A comprehensive
definition of this approach can be found at the Flipped Learning Network as:
a pedagogical approach in which direct instruction

moves from the group learning space to the individual learning
space, and the resulting group space is transformed into a
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dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator

guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively
in the subject matter (2014, p. 1).
This definition means that in a “true” flipped class, students could
have prior access to the knowledge outside the classroom at their own time,
pace and convenience. They have to prepare the lessons and follow the
teacher’s instructions at home to obtain basic knowledge about the subject
matter. Then, physical class time is devoted to clarifications, collaborative
practice and problem-solving activities at a higher-order thinking level.
In the same vein, Staker and Horn (2012) clarified that flipped
learning includes both online and face-to-face learning sessions to help
learners acquire control over “time, place, path and/or pace” of learning (p.
3). More specifically, Bergmann and Sams (Bergmann & Sams, 2012a)
proposed that flipped learning can be summarised as an approach “which is
traditionally done in class is now done at home, and that which is traditionally
done as homework is now completed in class” (p.13). In other words,
instructional contents are delivered outside the classroom with the aid of
technology so that learners could prepare ahead at their own pace to
achieve their goals with a higher level of learning.
In short, the definitions above imply that flipped learning is an
educational approach to shift instructions to a learner-centred environment
in which class time is devoted to exploring topics in greater depth and
creating opportunities for collaborative practice, while technologies are
adopted for content delivery outside the classroom.
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The underpinning of this approach lies in the justification for more
focus on deeper critical activities. The two factors that form this approach
are interactive collaboration inside the classrooms and technology-assisted
out-of-class activities (Honeycutt & Garrett, 2014). In this paradigm, students
are expected to prepare for subsequent lessons by first gaining access to
new knowledge (usually via online videos), collaborate in online discussions,
do some preparatory tasks or carry out research at home with the aid of
technology. Afterwards, in the face-to-face sessions, teachers guide
students in completing their assigned tasks, check their understanding,
clarify their comprehension problems, and facilitate opportunities for real-life
or simulated practice. Class time is often used for problem-solving activities
based on the pre-class work with the guidance of instructors and support
from peers while less time is spent on the traditional lecture sessions.
2.3.2. Flipped classroom vs. traditional classroom

Table 2-5 provides a comparison between these two formats.
Table 2-5: Traditional classroom vs. flipped classroom

Traditional classroom Flipped classroom
Teachers deliver lessons Teachers deliver lessons

Teaching in class. outside the class.
and Knowledge
learning delivery Students follow Students view video
process instructions and listen to lectures and prepare the
lectures. lessons.
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Students do illustrative Students do preparatory

tasks in class to check tasks outside the class to
Knowledge understanding and apply check understanding, and
application knowledge by doing apply knowledge through
further practice outside collaborative work to
the class. solve problems in class.
Teachers impart Teachers prepare online

Teachers’
knowledge as the ‘sage lessons and work with
roles
on the stage’. different roles in class.
Students are crammed Students prepare the

with lots of knowledge in lessons and join in-class
class, take notes and do activities for deeper
Roles
required tasks. understanding.
Students’ Lessons are controlled Lessons are controlled by
roles by instructors. learners. They can review
which parts they like,
which are misunderstood
and which need further
reinforcement.
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In-class lectures and Teacher-made or tailor-

instructions. made online lessons.
Lower level (i.e., A good use of online

remembering or resources and many
understanding) and interactions in class as
higher-level cognitive well as outside the class.
Teaching resources
tasks (i.e., applying or
and activities Low-level cognitive tasks
analysing) are conducted are carried out prior to the
inside the classroom. class hours, and higher-
High-level cognitive level tasks are done
tasks (i.e. evaluating and inside the classroom
creating) are carried out. through peer learning
at home. facilitated by instructors.
Teachers have more time

It is difficult for teachers
for classroom practice,
to cover all the required
encourage in-class and
contents, check learners’
Teaching out-of-class interactions,
understanding, organise
and and record students’
Teachers activities within the
learning progress and difficulties.
limited class time, and
styles Thus, they can adjust
respond to various
their teaching plans
learning styles and
promptly.
preferences.
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Online learning platforms

and ready-made lessons
can establish interactions
and information
exchange between
After the lectures, there learners, teachers and
are few opportunities for even experts in a certain
students to digest those learning community.
knowledge inside the
Students Students have more time
classroom, discuss their
to internalise and deepen
problems and work out
their knowledge with the
the following in-class
support of instructors and
tasks effectively.
classmates.
Students who miss a

class are not left behind
thanks to the online
resources available.
(Adapted from Estes et al. (2014) and Xiaoyang Shu (2016))
Broadly speaking, the two main differences between traditional
classroom and flipped classroom are the teaching-and-learning process and
the changing roles of teachers and students.
In terms of the teaching-and-learning process, Zhang emphasised
that the flipped approach aims to “re-modulate the time for in and out of
classroom teaching and learning” and the learning process in the flipped
class is “a stage of interaction, problems solving, and application of the
knowledge of theories” (2016, p. 142). This means that students know the
learning tasks and the expected learning outcomes in advance, so they
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watch online videos to complete the task and construct new knowledge.
During the in-class sessions, learners cooperate with each other to deal with
problem-solving activities or real-time practice. Consequently, the students
may utilise in-class time to gain a deeper understanding of the study subject.
As regards the roles, teachers and students occupy more active roles
with the flipped instructions both inside and outside the classroom. Teachers
from the traditional role in which they are the main disseminator of
knowledge can take on multiple roles such as media developers (create
video lectures based on the lesson contents), theme experts (provide online
assistance and clarify knowledge gaps or confusions), instructional
designers (design learning activities), and facilitators (control the classroom
procedure or inspire learners to take more roles outside the classroom)
(Jenkins et al., 2017; Lo, 2020). Meanwhile, students from being passive
receivers (who mainly follow the teacher’s instructions) become more active
with the roles of researchers (investigate the topics relating to the video
lectures to deal with preparatory tasks), inquirers (raise their problems in
class and outside the class), knowledge constructors (collaborate with each
other, with members in other classes and even in the network community to
internalise new knowledge), and active contributors (engage in classroom
activities or even provide insightful recommendations for the flipped format)
(Gómez-Tejedor et al., 2020; Liu, 2017). It is noteworthy that the teachers
and students in traditional/non-flipped classes might also take multiple roles
if innovative approaches are employed; however, the limited class time
poses challenges for the teacher’s content delivery or learners’
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internalisation of the topics; and thus, low achievers might find it difficult to
take on active roles during classroom practice. In addition, interactions
outside the traditional classrooms might be limited, while there are more
interactions (among group members, students and educators, and even
outsiders), personalised instructions, and knowledge sharing (Gómez-
Tejedor et al., 2020). In short, the switch of teacher and students’ roles in
the flipped class enables both sides to have more opportunities to monitor
the study process, control the time needed to grasp the knowledge, and
adjust their styles to ensure good academic performance.
2.3.3. Historical background of flipped learning

The origin of this approach can be traced back to 1993 when Alison
King published the book entitled ”From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the
Side” (1993). In the book, she recommended that more class time should be
used for meaningful construction rather than lecturing sessions and
information transmission. In addition, the book “Peer Instruction: A User’s
Manual” by Harvard professor Eric Mazur (1997) suggested moving
knowledge transfer out of the classroom and bringing information
internalisation or knowledge application into the classroom so that learners
could have more opportunities to take part in in-class practice. Though these
two books did not mention directly the word "flipping", they laid some
foundations for developing the concepts as well as the theoretical framework
of flipping the class.
Up until 2000, Lage, Platt and Treglia (2000) in their research on
improving the teaching quality of undergraduate economics courses,
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contended that digital software could enable teachers to invert the classroom
procedure by replacing in-class lectures with streaming videos and
presentation slides for out-of-class activities; thus, leveraging physical class
time for critical discussions and case study analysis. In this study, the phrase
“inverted”, another name for “flipped”, was used and this approach was well-
supported by their economics students when the mean scores ranged from
3.3 to 4.2 in their questionnaire surveys.
In the same year, Baker (2000) presented a paper with the same idea
at an education conference, implementing this approach in his class at
Cedarville College to meet the learners’ needs and to maximise learning
time. He initially posted the lectures online so that learners could have time
to prepare the lessons. However, he realised that his students were able to
retrieve prior knowledge, involve in the activities dynamically and suggest
ideas to make class time more meaningful while still preserving the syllabus
contents. The students also said that they received more individualised
support from the teacher, became more proactive during the course, and
reflected more critically about the study material. At this conference, he used
the term “classroom flip”, and it could be said that this was the first official
introduction of the flipped learning into the academic world. However, this
study was merely a task transfer in space and time without much focus on
increasing the learners’ autonomy and performance (Strayer, 2007).
In 2007, two American chemistry teachers, Bergmann and Sams
brought flipped teaching into the secondary education level when they
posted pre-recorded lectures online for accommodating learners who
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missed their classes instead of re-teaching those lessons (Bergmann &
Sams, 2012a). The original intent was for the absentees, but they quickly
realised that other students also watched the lectures because their real-
time explanations and demonstrated videos helped learners keep up with
the missing parts, review the lessons, and consolidate their understanding.
When they went on to upload the videos on the Internet, they received
emails from teachers and students in other areas expressing their
appreciation for the videos and their pedagogical purposes. As a result, this
trend spread out and the flipped classroom quickly became popularised in
many American schools since then.
Another milestone for the popularity of this approach is the study
conducted by Green and his partner (2012), in which the final test results of
learners in the flipped class were compared with those in the traditional
class. In their flipped class, audio files, electronic readings and digital videos
were used to help students revise and internalise the lessons at home while
both instructional material and assignments were kept identical in both
classes to maintain the validity of their study. After 20 weeks, data showed
that students in the flipped class outperformed those in the conventional
class when no student in the flipped class got lower than a C+. Hence,
flipped learning aroused so much public attention that they appeared in
many journalistic articles. Even the New York Times and Global Times
hailed it an innovative reform of classroom procedures (Rosenberg, 2013).
After the flipped learning gained widespread social attention, this
approach has been adopted in many institutions worldwide. In 2016, Şahin
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and Kurban published “The Flipped Approach to Higher Education:
Designing Universities for Today’s Knowledge Economies and Societies”,
which outlines how they adopted this transformative approach in the
education sector, and describes the design process to establish a flipped
institution. They also provided an example of MEF University, a private
university in Istanbul (Turkey) as the first institution worldwide requiring their
lecturers to implement flipped learning in all their subjects (Sahin & Kurban,
2016). This university has become a centre to support other institutions that
desire to incorporate flipped learning into their curriculum designs.
In short, thanks to the rapid development of communication
technology and the efforts of the authors above, flipped learning has become
popular in education. Since then, various studies of flipped learning in
different areas and disciplines have been conducted in the hope that
incorporating this approach with specific learning outcomes could help
learners enhance their interest and engagement during the educational
process; thus, improving their performance significantly.
2.3.4. Principles of flipped learning
As there are different interpretations and implementations of flipped
learning in the educational setting, it is essential to understand its main
principle; namely to have a proper understanding of how this approach
should be adopted in a particular context for effective outcomes. For
example, Sankoff and Forcese (2014) stated that mistakes still occurred
when some teachers unconsciously reverted to the traditional environment
by delivering lectures during class time. In addition, if the link between the
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video contents and classroom procedure is not coherent, it is difficult to
facilitate the learners’ involvement in classroom activities; thus, the
beneficial impacts of this approach might not be maximised (Hamdan et al.,
2013; Hoffman, 2014). Therefore, a good understanding of its principles is
necessary for those instructors who desire to implement this approach into
their classes.
In 2014, the Flipped Learning Network created “the Four pillars of F-
L-I-P” to provide some guiding principles to educators who desired to
incorporate this approach into their teaching practice (2014).
Figure 2-4: Four pillars of F-L-I-P
This framework was then refined by Chen et al. (2014) with three
more letters making it “FLIPPED” to better align with the needs of higher
education as shown in Table 2-6 below.
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Table 2-6: Principles of flipped learning

Letters Description of the underlying principles
Students should have freedom and flexibility in choosing when,
where, and how they learn. They can enjoy multiple learning
F: Flexible styles such as group work, individual work, independent

environments
research or self-study. Teachers also should be flexible with
their roles to help learners improve their performance based on
the course objectives and unit contents.

The learner-centred atmosphere should be created to help
students construct knowledge and facilitate their involvement.
This can be done with a wide variety of interactive problem-

L: Learning
solving activities and real-life practice devoted to internalising
culture
and applying knowledge in great depths. Meanwhile, learners
can reflect upon materials or recommend some adjustments to
accommodate their needs as well as their capability.
Instructors should set clear objectives and ensure that all
topics, instructional materials, and activities are aligned with
these purposes to help learners develop desired conceptual
understanding and procedural fluency. Then, active learning

I: Intentional
strategies are exploited to deepen learner’s understanding of
content
the subject and enhance their autonomy. Furthermore, these
activities need to be well-aligned with the course objectives
such as good performance in formative and summative
assessments (of performance-based educational systems) as
well as the mastery of necessary sub-competences.
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Educators need to take various roles to ensure effective lesson
delivery. They have to consider various elements such as
learners’ socio-economic backgrounds, language proficiency,
and cognitive skills to obtain required knowledge. This is
necessary since some students might have difficulty with
technology accessibility, preferences, physical characteristics
or dialectical variations, which prevent them from watching the

P:Professional
videos effectively. Then, teachers should have good skills in
educators
using technology for video recording, speaking in front of the
camcorder (if they record themselves) or assessing the
material (if they use ready-made videos). Moreover, teachers
should constantly monitor students to provide timely feedback.
Typically, they also have to reflect upon their teaching styles
via video lectures, and accept both constructive feedback and
online criticisms.
P: Progressive Not only in-class interactions but out-of-class and online
learning activities should also be exploited to connect students with
networking teachers, with each other, and even with the community
activities
through social group forums and interactive platforms.
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Information about learning experiences should be
E: Engaging administered to keep track of the information of learners’ self-
and effective study and self-assessment. These data can be collected
learning through learners’ discussions, portfolios, self-evaluation forms,

experiences test results, and be used as the tools for teachers to refine their
method as well as produce an active learning environment.
D: Diversified Well-designed teaching platforms should be created with
and seamless diversified functions to satisfy differentiation and

learning individualisation that are needed to support self-regulated
platforms
learning.
The revised flipped principles are comprehensive and relevant to the
thesis for four reasons. First, these principles provide a more detailed picture
of flipped learning than the principles of the Flipped Learning Network
(2014), paying more attention to the beneficial impacts of technological use
in different stages of the flipped procedure. Second, the revised version
stresses the importance of increased interactions between teachers and
learners within the in-class and out-of-class sessions (progressive learning
networking activities). Third, they require instructors to reflect on their
methodology frequently, and keep track of students’ self-learning and self-
assessment to ensure “Engaging and effective learning experiences”. Last,
it emphasises that technology platforms should be diversified to meet the
requirements of differentiated and individualised learning in a flexible
manner; thus, promoting social learning processes in the online context. In
fact, varied technological use, community sharing, classroom interactions,
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consideration for students’ self-learning and self-assessment, and the online
platform have not been clearly addressed in literature. All these requisites
should be taken into account for an effective use of flipped learning (Lo,
2020; Mustafa et al., 2019; Njie-Carr et al., 2017).
2.3.5. Variances of the flipped classroom

There has been a broad range of interpretations in terms of how to
implement this approach in the real classroom. For example, Bergmann and
Sams acknowledged in their book “Flip Your Classroom” (2012b) that:
There is no single way to flip your classroom…flipping the

classroom is more about a mindset: redirecting attention away
from the teacher and putting attention on the learner and the
learning. (p.11).
As a result, various interpretations in different teaching contexts have
resulted in three main variances of the flipped classroom approach, including
“traditional” flip, “partial” flip, and “mastery-based” flip (Bakr, Massey &
Massa, 2016; He, Holton & Farkas, 2018; Mustafa et al., 2019; Ogawa &
Shimizu, 2015).
2.3.5.1. The “Traditional” flipped classroom
Learners in a traditional setting are normally required to watch an
assigned video of a particular topic that will be taught on the following face-
to-face session, and this preparation will be checked in the next lesson.
Then, they go to class to join in different activities; first, with the revision or
Question-and-Answer session to check their understanding and to clarify
their confusions from the videos. Next, problem-solving activities are offered
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so that they could apply the knowledge in the video for deepening their
understanding. These activities are done in groups while teachers work as
facilitators to coach their learning process, give constructive feedback and
provide individualised support. Some mini-lectures can also be given, if
necessary. This class structure then continues with the daily lessons
delivered through video format outside of school hours, and incorporating
learner-centred methodologies (Ogawa & Shimizu, 2015).
2.3.5.2. The “Partial” flipped classroom
This format is a flexible version in which only a portion of the course
is spent on the flipped format. Learners are encouraged to watch videos
outside of class hours, but video lessons could be utilised in multiple ways
rather than merely delivering new knowledge. It might be an introduction of
new topics, a reinforcement of prior difficult concepts, a review of materials
that have been practiced inside the classroom, or suggested ideas for the
following in-class discussions. Physical class time could involve the
traditional lectured-based instructions or be dedicated to problem-solving
activities and individualised support based on learners’ needs. In some
cases, no special requirements are offered and no penalty is given to
students who do not watch the videos because of some difficulties such as
limited access to video streaming devices, heavy workload, and the
teacher’s unfamiliarity with technology. Therefore, He, Holton and Farkas
(2018) characterised this type of class structure as a “partial flip” because it
is only a partial implementation of Bergmann and Sam’s practice.
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2.3.5.3. The “Mastery-based” flipped classroom
This format is an improved version of the traditional model to adapt
to market needs and social requirements by putting a series of learning
objectives into the design of video lectures (Bergmann & Sams, 2012b). In
this classroom, it is not compulsory for learners to watch videos every
session. Instead, they are given the unit outline, course requirements and
objectives, assignments, and other educational resources such as videos,
worksheets, or grading sheets. They are expected to complete their tasks
within the course schedule at their own pace and at their personal discretion
with the guidance from teachers and support from peers. This classroom
approach, however, is suitable for learners with a high level of autonomy and
for courses with short or medium time length (Bergmann & Sams, 2012b).
In reality, no formal study has been carried out to investigate the benefits of
this variance in a real classroom.
In summary, there are three main variances of flipped learning
implementation. Within each type, teachers can use different strategies to
tailor their instructions and teaching styles to suit learners’ needs. Hence,
after reviewing the relevant literature, the classroom procedure in this thesis
moved forwards to the traditional flipped class. Learners were required to
watch videos prior to the face-to-face lessons and their preparations were
checked via preparatory tasks, portfolios, as well as online interactions. In
addition, teachers’ self-made videos were used because no official videos
could be found online for Vietnamese-English translation.
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2.3.6. Stages and elements of the flipped classroom

An explanation of pedagogical framework is examined in this sub-
section to give a better insight on how each stage and each element of
flipped activities were implemented. As mentioned earlier, teachers have
developed different understandings of the term; and thus, numerous flipped
classroom approaches exist. However, it is generally accepted that flipped
learning combines two main components including collaborative activities
inside the classroom, and computer-based instructions outside the
classroom (Penman, 2016; Thai, De Wever & Valcke, 2017). Then, Zhai et
al. (2017) explained that these components could be further grouped into
three steps; i.e., pre-class preparations, in-class problem-solving activities,
and post-class consolidation. Within each step, different elements are
established based on active learning strategies and learner-centred
methodologies to improve the teaching and learning process.
As regards pre-class activities, Estes et al. (2014) asserted that an
online platform should be created to ensure the consistency and
interconnections of all activities. Then, a preview of materials is necessary,
which may vary from the watching of short video lectures to other forms of
computer-based instructions, such as online reading or web search. Finally,
preparatory tasks should be given to check understanding as well as to
develop lower-order cognitive skills. Then, Zhai et al. (2017) insisted that
students should be required to prepare lesson notes or portfolios as part of
the pre-class activities. All these will be checked later to ensure preparations
and make the lesson preview meaningful. Zhai et.al. (2017) also confirmed
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that there might be some confusions or misunderstandings on the part of the
learners at this stage; therefore, a Group Forum or a Q&A platform should
be utilised so that learners can exchange ideas, share their reflections, ask
for support, and request assistance from teachers. As a result, more out-of-
class interactions will be established, and the pre-viewed lessons could be
better understood.
For flipping to be effective, learners need explicit instructions and
detailed guidance on how to watch the videos and how to take notes for
better understanding of the contents (Estes et al., 2014). Hence, a guiding
instruction or example of flipping on the first day of the course is quite
essential. Estes et al. (2014) also stated that pre-class work within a short
15-minute video should cover primary learning points presented in a
comprehensible way without excessively complicated details. Moreover,
students should receive guidance of what aspects of the theoretical
knowledge they ought to investigate beforehand, and what exercises they
should do to check their understanding. If pre-class contents and in-class
applications are disconnected or if students can manage the in-class
activities without preparing at home, then few achievements may be gained
from this approach in terms of learners’ autonomy, personalised learning, as
well as self-regulated learning (Estes et al., 2014).
In terms of in-class activities, Zhai et.al. (2014) believed that this step
is the most important instructional component and should be given
considerable attention. At the outset, teachers ought to do revision exercises
to check learners’ preparations as well as to clear their confusions. It
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consists of a variety of techniques for clarifying pre-class concepts, such as
quizzes, closed questions, and pair and group-work activities. Then,
problem-solving activities, case discussions, simulations, presentations, and
other active-learning strategies will be exploited to deepen and broaden
students’ understanding as well as to improve learning efficiency (Kong,
2015; Zhai et al., 2017). Individual work, pair work and group work should
be well incorporated to adapt to different learners’ needs and preferences.
Moreover, peer discussion or peer review is necessary before giving out the
teacher’s suggested answers so that learners can learn more from the
instructor’s and peers’ diverse answers ; thus, their perceived values would
be fostered.
Zhai et.al. (2017) added that the focus of in-class learning sessions
should be on maintaining active student engagement with real-life practice
to assist students in learning how to think as a real employee in the future
career. For instance, teachers can inquire about video contents, test their
understanding by applying the knowledge into simulated practice, and
collaborate in hands-on activities. As a result, educators could
reconceptualise their teaching approach to function more as facilitators, and
encouraging students in individual performance and collaborative efforts.
Finally, post-class activities involve learning assessments and
practice of higher-level thinking (analysing, synthesising or evaluating) and
other forms of authentic exercises such as projects to determine the
competencies achieved from the previous lessons. Figure 2-5 below
illustrates the stages and elements of the flipped classroom approach.
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Figure 2-5: Stages and elements of the flipped classroom approach
Stages and elements of the
flipped classroom approach
STAGES ELEMENTS
1. Online platform
Pre-class
2. Preview of learning materials
computer-based
3. Preparatory tasks
preparation
4. Lessons notes / Portfolios
activities
5. Group Forum/ Q-A platform
1. Revision practice
In-class
2. Active learning methods + authentic
interactive and
practice
problem-solving
3. Individual work + pair work + group work
activities
4. Peer review
Post-class
1. Further practice of higher-level thinking
consolidation
2. Learning assessments
activities
(Adapted from Estes et al. (2014) and Zhai et al. (2017))
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2.3.7. Benefits of flipped learning

Research evidence shows that this approach can alter the way
knowledge is transferred with the following benefits.
2.3.7.1. Flipped learning maximises class time and learning effects
The implementation of flipped learning could tackle limited time issue
and develop learners’ academic skills in a number of ways. First, this
approach allows effective use of class time if pre-class work is logically
sequenced and the videos are engaging enough (Lo, 2020). This means
learners’ lower-level thinking skills can be practiced in their own time and
place while higher-order cognitive skills can be sharpened in class with
teachers’ support (Lin, Hwang & Hsu, 2019). Thus, this approach with a
good design could free up teachers’ lecturing sessions, and class time is
dedicated to challenging collaborative activities. Second, flipped learning
provides more opportunities to achieve expected learning outcomes. For
example, a preview of video lectures allows more time for learners of an
English class to prepare new words, to brainstorm their ideas and key
knowledge, and to enhance their listening skills (Bicen & Beheshti, 2019).
Consequently, they can feel well-prepared to join in classroom activities for
further clarification of unclear contents as well as deeper practice.
2.3.7.2. Flipped learning narrows teacher-student relations
Contrary to the teacher’s sole authority and learners’ passivity in a
conventional classroom, the flipped classroom shifts the focus on students’
autonomy and the instructor’s facilitating role (Mustafa et al., 2019). In this
approach, a collaborative image is attached to flipped learning when
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students generally work in groups to do in-class assignments. Similarly, they
can cooperate with each other outside class time to accomplish the assigned
tasks, to reflect on the work they have done, to ask for teacher’s assistance,
and to provide some feedback or recommendations about the new method.
Therefore, the power distance between teachers and students could be
narrowed down, and their interactions could be enhanced both inside and
outside the classroom (Steen-Utheim & Foldnes, 2018).
2.3.7.3. Flipped learning fosters stronger feedback cycle
While existing literature on flip teaching shows a positive effect on the
delivery of curriculum content and the student work environment, it also
describes the effects of flip teaching on assessment and feedback practices.
For instance, McLean (2016) conducted a study with 54 students in a
medical sciences module. Results from end-of-course surveys and
formative assessments showed that with more class time available, teachers
were able to increase and vary testing formats to enhance learners’
performance compared with another lecture-based module. Similarly, Avic
(2016), using focus group interviews in a case study approach at Dalarna
University in Sweden, argued that flipped learning created more spaces to
answer student questions and support stronger feedback cycle, which had
a positive impact on student learning. Finally, Turan and Akdag-Cimen
(2019) in their systematic review of flipped learning in ELT, also highlighted
that the use of video could allow teachers to embed questions online to
determine when and where students struggle; thus, creating more
opportunities for formative assessment. These formative results thus
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provided prompt feedback for instructors to support students as well as to
adjust their teaching styles.
2.3.8. Challenges of flipped learning
In general, no empirical studies have been conducted to address
challenges faced by learners during the implementation of flipped learning
with scientific instruments. Rather, researchers just mentioned them as
representing unexpected “products” or negative results of their findings. In
fact, a review of the literature identified four additional challenges faced by
learners as follows.
The first challenge is the contradiction caused by habitual learning
styles. For instance, Tanner and Scott (2015) implemented flipped
pedagogy in a systems IT module and found that nine participants could not
familiarise themselves with the new approach. Those students stated that
they watched the videos and did the pre-class work in order to be granted
permission to the final exams without paying attention to the correctness of
their answers and the contents of the videos. They were also lazy to take
notes of the lessons, so they could easily forget them in the face-to-face
sessions. They explained that such behaviours were caused by the fact that
no marks were allocated to the pre-class work, and they were not hard-
working enough to work on their own. Furthermore, they found it hard to
follow the class discussions and collaborative activities because they
preferred teachers’ lectures, individual exercises, and teacher-student
interactions. This means that differences in habitual learning styles pose
challenges to the implementation of flipped learning, in cases when certain
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students like spoon-feeding, personalised attention from the teachers, and
incentives to do the pre-class work. Without a careful consideration of this
issue, some students might feel lost when they are required to be
independent and autonomous, and the flipped classroom could not
maximise its benefits as desired.
The second challenge is the conflict between technology and
personal preference. This might stem from several reasons, such as
learners’ personality, their expectations of the course and technological
impacts, and the influence of students’ culture on the respective roles of
teachers and learners (Roehling et al., 2017). One example is cited by
Nielson (2012), who stated that his students from underprivileged
backgrounds might have limited access to technology at home. Some
students could not afford to have a laptop or desktop at home. Hence, they
had to borrow it from friends or get to a cybercafé to use it, thus this was
costly and inconvenient (Gough, Dejong, Grundmeyer & Baron, 2017). In
addition, Gibson (2016) and McNally et al. (2017) stated that extroverts may
resist the use of independent online instruction more than introverts due to
their preferences for live interactions over online communications. They
maintained that classrooms were filled with a multitude of learners who have
diverse personalities and learning preferences. Without taking this diversity
into serious consideration and simply shifting the focus from in-class lectures
to out-of-class online lectures for the sake of following an educational trend,
resistance would be inevitable and the benefits of this teaching approach
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might not be obtained as desired. This idea is supported by several authors
such as Nawi et al. (2015), Song and Kapur (2017), and Lo (2020).
Third, the amount of workload also poses certain challenges to
learners because they have to keep up with the class requirements as well
as maintain the balance between the flipped course and other courses. Zhao
and Ho, for example, reported mixed results of the flipped classroom in an
undergraduate Chinese history course (2014). Besides finding no significant
differences between the performance of the students in the flipped class and
those in the traditional class, they discovered that students soon got
uninterested because they had to do more work at home than in previous
courses. The students also shared that they found no obvious benefits in
watching the videos and there were some technical issues. The same results
were also found in the study of Gaughan (2014) and Soliman (2016), as
many respondents expressed their difficulties in watching pre-class videos.
These students explained that they had to cover other subjects and they just
watched the videos on the last night before the in-class session, which was
ineffective for the impartation and internalisation of knowledge. Hence, when
implementing this approach, instructors should consider carefully whether
this is an aid to the learning process or else it would put more burdens on
students.
Finally, unstructured in-class procedure might also upset the learners
and this will contribute to a hindering of their progress. Participants in the
study of Sirota (2017) commented that the class atmosphere sometimes was
quite messy or repetitive, while there was little involvement from the teacher
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by way of providing feedback and assistance. Another example can be found
in the study of Helgevold and Moen (2015), who investigated the
participation of Norwegian students in a flipped Teacher Education course.
While data showed improved confidence and greater participation during in-
class activities, there were some negative attitudes towards the lengthy
group discussions and unstructured classroom procedure. This also
corroborates the idea that there is a need to build a framework for in-class
activities if instructors would like to obtain fruitful benefits from the flipped
classroom implementation.
In short, the aforementioned challenges in the implementation of a
flipped classroom were not investigated based on a rigid methodological
framework to probe into the challenges faced by learners. Hence, a study
using a research-informed framework (e.g., Activity Theory) to explore the
benefits and difficulties of flipped learning from a comprehensive perspective
might address this gap.
2.3.9. Theoretical framework for flipped learning

The educational framework for flipped classrooms are highlighted in
this section. These foundations typically stem from a large body of student-
centred learning theories, and the most prominent of these could be socio-
constructivism (Barbour & Schuessler, 2019; Xiao, Larkins & Meng, 2018)
and active learning (Bouwmeester et al., 2019; Leatherman & Cleveland,
2019). In addition, Bloom’s taxonomy and Zone of Proximal Development
(ZPD) also lay the foundation for this approach in a significant way (Munir,
Baroutian, Young & Carter, 2018; Zainuddin & Halili, 2016).
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2.3.9.1. Flipped learning and socio-constructivism
Flipped learning is deep-rooted in social constructivist theory, and is
based on the belief that learning is an active, contextualised process of
constructing knowledge through practice and social interactions (Barbour &
Schuessler, 2019). Socio-constructivists such as Vygotsky (1978) and Kiraly
(2000) maintained that real-life practice and collaborative interactions are
essential for cognitive development and knowledge construction. This
means that learners need a wide range of opportunities to actively engage
in authentic learning with peers and to collaboratively explore real-life
situations (Xiao et al., 2018). In this manner, the flipped classrooms can
cater for the socio-constructivism in the following ways.
First, flipped learning could create a real or close to the subject-
related learning situation in accordance with contents and objectives of the
course (Bergmann & Sams, 2012a). Thus, instructional materials can stick
to contemporary issues, learning activities and materials could be
contextualised to be relevant to students’ lives and specific needs. For
example, in a study by Novais et al. (2017), real materials and authentic
examples were exploited as the main contents of the syllabus requirements.
During the teaching programme, a reasonable number of case studies were
investigated to provide real or simulative learning situations in which learners
occupied a central role in knowledge construction and skills development.
Quantitative results indicated that more than 75% of respondents stated that
problem-based learning activities and real-life/simulated contexts could
facilitate their understanding and acquisition of knowledge.
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Second, instructions in the flipped class are designed to help learners
interact within and outside the classroom for conceptual understanding and
procedural fluency (Carhill-Poza, 2019). Social constructivists contend that
collaborative interactions provide the basis for learners’ thinking and
internalisation in an educational environment. The individual’s construction
can only be achieved at a higher level after being verified by others’
construction of the meaning. For example, the flipped classroom can make
use of appropriate scenarios to achieve learning goals when face-to-face
interactions that focus on the social construction of knowledge is combined
with self-paced online platform for individualised learning. In the study of
Rawas, Bano and Alaidarous (2019), for example, 51 experimental students
were required to search for information after watching videos and
exchanging ideas with peers. They then supported each other by reflecting
on the video contents, exchanging ideas to complete required tasks, and
sharing their understadning as well as their self-study skills. As a result, the
mean test scores between experimental and control were significant
(p<.001), implying that this flipped classroom created a social-constructivist
environment in which learners developed a deeper understanding of
professional knowledge and practical skills through collaborative practice
and extensive sharing of information.
Third, instructors in the flipped class can vary their roles to scaffold
and facilitate students’ attitudes and achievement in a collaborative
environment (Zou & Xie, 2019). ‘Scaffolding’ means creating situations
where teachers simplify their knowledge and offer the tools to help learners
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work together for the acquisition of that subject knowledge (Gibson, 2016).
In the flipped classroom, video lectures and the online platform can aid
instructors in providing scaffolding (Butzler, 2016; Zou & Xie, 2019). For
example, when creating the videos, teachers can condense knowledge at
the appropriate level of complexity and difficulty so that the video content
could be concise and engaging enough to facilitate learners’ self-study.
Then, preparatory tasks can encourage learners to work individually and
collaboratively on the group forum or Q&A platform to solve the problems.
Meanwhile, teachers work as an online tutor to evaluate a student’s progress
on a given task, and provide certain assistance to navigate the learners to
deal with those problems. In terms of in-class activities, teachers shift their
roles from that of knowledge providers to facilitators, using collaborative
problem-solving activities as the tools to sharpen students’ higher-order
cognitive skills and deepen their knowledge. This also involves the
assessment process when peer reviews allow instructors to tailor their
feedback to the students as an initiative to encourage their self-assessment
skills. As a result, teachers’ roles in the flipped class are devoted to
prompting the students with questions, making the learning experience
reflect real-world experiences, and enabling learners to transfer what they
have learned to their future jobs.
Finally, teachers of the flipped class can design learning tasks at the
appropriate level of complexity and difficulty to meet students’ needs, course
objectives, and social demands. With those learning tasks designed to
stimulate and foster actual problem solving (i.e., class discussions, projects,
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group activities, role-plays, case studies, and simulations), students could
build their learning autonomy through multi-media, internet resources, online
interactions, and in-class collaborative exercises for the construction of
conceptual understanding and procedural fluency (Gariou-Papalexiou et al.,
2017). For instance, the task designs could pay attention to various
language inputs such as real-life, relevant and practical materials. The online
platform also provides carefully designed tasks to help students engage in
various learning activities outside the classroom, develop their language
sense, and enrich their learning experiences (Kabilan, Ahmad & Abidin,
2010; Rawas et al., 2019).
In summary, the aforementioned studies (e.g., Barbour & Schuessler,
2019; Thai et al., 2017) confirm that flipped learning is deep-rooted in the
socio-constructivist theory by activating the group-learning environment to
help learners construct personal meaning and mutual understanding.
Teachers can implement different activities from individual work to group
work, maximising collaborative interactions to ensure the acquisition of
knowledge construction as well as hands-on experience. Moreover, this
approach requires teachers to adopt various scaffolding tools to organise
activities based on the expected learning outcomes so that learners have
more opportunities to engage in the learning process inside and outside the
classroom.
2.3.9.2. Flipped learning and active learning
Another principle supporting the flipped classroom is active learning
theory, which states that real learning occurs when students could apply new
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knowledge into real life rather than merely copying or learning them by heart
(Hung, 2014). In a general sense, active learning is a theory of designing
instructional activities to help students get involve in the meaningful learning
process so that they can experience themselves, think about what they are
doing and internalise them to solve required problems (Prince, 2004).
Learners have more opportunities for exploration, debates, and hands-on
activities so that they can link the new information to their existing knowledge
and experience. From this perspective, flipped learning is influenced by the
active learning theory in two manners.
First, teachers of the flipped class normally create opportunities in
which learners can be engaged in meaningful activities through interactions
and worthwhile tasks (Soltanpour & Valizadeh, 2018). By moving the
contents outside of class and conducting flipped lectures, students are
provided with interactive and meaningful activities to examine their
understanding about the subject matter at their own time and pace. Then,
the face-to-face sessions include mutual learning, mutual communication,
and mutual support between teachers and learners on the one hand; and
there also are mutual interactions among learners on the other hand. As a
result, students can take on more roles with the help of teachers to exert
their engagement and autonomy to discover, analyse, and solve problems;
thus, acquiring necessary knowledge and experience at the end of the
course.
Second, flipped learning underpinned by active learning theory is
required to foster learners’ autonomy and critical thinking skills (Novais et
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al., 2017). It means instructors in the flipped class acknowledge that prior
learning is necessary; thus, enabling opportunity for students to explore the
materials and investigate the topics in depth, encouraging out-of-class
internalisation, reflection and self-study, all of which promote a certain level
of comprehension before class time. In class, teachers and students explore
the topics deeper through practice, discovery, analysis, discussion, and
feedback-sharing. Thus, learners while participating in a wide array of in-
class problem-solving practice are encouraged to think rationally to detect
problems, analyse them critically, and evaluate questions with immediate
feedback from peers and the instructor. They could benefit from taking
charge of their own learning style and at the same time they have instructors
as facilitators to stimulate their thinking, guide their problem-solving skills,
and provide encouragement through frequent practice (Hwang, Yin & Chu,
2019).
In summary, flipped learning from the perspective of active learning
theory is able to achieve the balance between knowledge delivery and
learners’ extensive practice, focusing on sharpening students’ skills during
class time while affording individual learning outside the boundary of
physical classes. However, empirical studies should be provided to
exemplify how such the balance of knowledge delivery and extensive
practice can be ensured, how various parts of active learning theory is
integrated within the training process, how learners are mobilised to prepare
prior to the lessons, and more importantly, how these active learning aspects
could be fostered outside the physical classroom.
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2.3.9.3. Flipped learning and Bloom’s taxonomy
Bloom’s taxonomy also plays an important role in the implementation
of flipped learning. This taxonomy classifies human cognitive thinking
according to six levels of complexity, providing the basis for instructors to
encourage their students to ‘‘climb to a higher level of thought’’ (Honeycutt
& Garrett, 2014, p. 13). Following the revised model by Anderson et al.
(2001), the three lowest levels are remembering, understanding and
application, while the three highest are analysis, creation and evaluation.
When analysing the flipped learning in terms of Bloom’s taxonomy, this
approach laid the foundation for classroom activities to develop learners’
cognitive performance from lower to higher levels (Karaca, 2017; Zainuddin
& Halili, 2016). For example, when learners watch pre-recorded lectures and
do preparatory tasks at home such as tracking down unknown words,
exploring new concepts as well as reading the content of the next lesson,
their lower level thinking skills can be practiced in their own time and place.
Then, they come to class for challenging collaborative activities, and higher-
order cognition is fostered in class with the teacher’s guidance and peers’
support. Figure 2-6 below shows how the flipped classroom is designed in
conjunction with Bloom’s taxonomy.
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In-class activities
Pre-class activities
Figure 2-6: Flipped classroom and the revised Bloom’s taxonomy

(Wang, 2017)
However, a review a relevant literature also shows that certain
aspects of Bloom’s taxonomy has not been described adequately. For
example, theoretical reasoning states that lower level thinking skills can be
practised in the pre-class stage. However, the logical structure of these
activities is not fully addresses, such as how to facilitate learners to
remember and understand the video contents. Meanwhile, the issues of how
the in-class activities are organised or the assessment tasks should be built
upon to so that learners can put the knowledge into practice and promote
higher-order thinking skills are still left unanswered. Finally, a demonstration
of how various expected learning outcomes, assessment task types, and
learning activities are allocated based on Bloom’s taxonomy could also be
useful to ensure the successful implementation of flipped learning. As a
result, these aspects should be investigated in an empirical study.
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2.3.9.4. Flipped learning and Zone of proximal development
Flipped learning also fits well with Vygotsky’s concept of ‘‘Zone of
proximal development” (ZPD). This concept refers to the distance between
a student’s ability to perform a task under the teacher’s guidance and the
student’s ability to solve the problem independently (1978). This means
learners can reach certain theoretical understanding or skills fluency on their
own; however, they will reach their full potential with the presence of
instructors, who observe them in interactions with each other, provide
constructive feedback and assist them, if needed. In the flipped class, the
instructors’ role may not be highlighted during the initial steps (e.g.,
knowledge acquisition through online videos) but are essential for the
application and consolidation of that knowledge. Instructional videos are
useful to introduce new topics, but learners may not be able to understand
the deeper meaning of these contents without the guidance and assistance
of their educators. Therefore, teachers have to design preparatory tasks at
lower-order thinking skills to help learners obtain and retain new knowledge
on their own. Then, within the in-class sessions educators provide
appropriate strategies and suitable activities at the proper level of difficulty
to ensure understanding as well as develop high-order thinking skills.
Learners also progress from collaborative tasks that they can actively
perform with peers to seek out solutions. With proper amount of assistance,
teachers can help learners in understanding the lessons, clearing up
confusions and providing support if learners struggle. Their support will
reduce gradually until students can complete similar tasks on their own
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without much assistance. As a result, learners can step by step become
proactive in the learning process, while teachers coach students in order to
help them with meaningful constructions. In short, flipped learning enables
instructors to help students perform above their level of development; thus,
facilitating their learning in a meaningful way (Correa, 2015).
However, in the flipped classrom, such the role of instructors based
on ZPD has not been explored systematically via the way classroom
procedure is organised, the social interactions that teachers enact inside and
outside the classroom, as well as the division of labour among class
members. For example, more studies should be conducted to see how the
teachers select or record videos to ensure knowledge acquisition. The
consolidation as well as comprehension checking of the online materials
should also be examined to clarify how instructors support learners to
achieve the intended outcomes prior to class. Besides, data about the
guidance of instructors reflected via the way they organised in-class
activities are needed to shed light on how learners become proactive to
reach the higher level of development, as well as to explore what challenges
could be faced by the students from such the new role of instructors.
2.3.10. Research on the benefits of flipped learning on learning

outcomes
The following sub-section shows how the flipped classroom approach
has facilitated learning outcomes in certain ways.
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2.3.10.1. Definition of learning outcomes
Several definitions about learning outcomes have been given. For
example, some authors define this term as the acquisition of skills,
knowledge, and enhanced perceptions that learners could demonstrate after
a course, a programme, or after the implementation of certain teaching
methods (e.g., Fattah, 2017; Cedefop, 2016). Likewise, other researchers
claim that learning outcomes refer to the observable and measurable degree
that learners have achieved as much as they are expected (Blicker, 2009,
p. 973) or the positive impacts arising from the transfer of learning and
teaching practice “when participants acquire new understandings as a result
of the initiative” (Noesgaard & Ørngreen, 2015, p. 281).
After reviewing the relevant literature about learning outcomes and
putting them into the context of translation training, the researcher is of the
opinion that this term is understood as the changes imparted on a student
concerning knowledge, skills and attitudes as observed during and at the
end of the intervention (Caliskan & Bicen, 2016; Moraros et al., 2015). In
addition, within the scope of this thesis and the nature of this skilled-based
subject, the conceptual definition of learning outcomes is narrowed down to
three variables; namely, students’ improvements in competence through
various assessments (knowledge and skills), changes in translation habits
measured by the usage of professional strategies (skills), and perceptions
towards the learning process (attitudes). However, generic skills (e.g., IT
skills, communication skills, or time-management skills) are not within the
scope of this study.
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The literature review in the following sub-sections is chosen based on
relevant theoretical and practical aspects of research questions, with an aim
to give an overview of empirical studies being published in relation to the
benefits of flipped learning.
2.3.10.2. Beneficial impacts of flipped learning
2.3.10.2.1. On learners’ grades
First, the benefits of flipped learning on learning outcomes can be
measured through pre-/post-test analsyis to see how well the students
understand the contents as well as master the required competences. For
example, Davies et al. (2013) explored how flipped learning promoted
students’ achievements in an Information Systems spreadsheet course. By
adopting a quasi-experimental design, their findings showed that this
approach improves students’ post-test scores compared to their pre-test
ones by a mean difference of 5.0 points. The authors concluded that this
approach was effective to help learners improve their learning
achievements. Another example was a study by Della-Ratta (2015), who
implemented flipped learning in an undergraduate nursing course to
facilitate students’ performance in the US. With a p-value of 0.023, the post-
test data were significantly higher than the pre-test results. Thus, Della-Ratta
regarded flipped learning as a promising pedagogical strategy to facilitate
academic performance.
Second, test comparisons between the flipped classroom and
traditional classroom have also been conducted to prove the benefits of this
approach. For example, Bhagat, Chang and Chang (2016) investigated the
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beneficial impacts of flipped learning on 79 high-school students in a
mathematics course. Their results indicated that a significant difference
between the experimental and control groups was found when students in
the flipped classroom performed better, especially the low achievers in the
two groups (p<.05, η2=.092). At the same time, Webb and Doman (2016)
investigated the effectiveness of flipped learning in Macau (China) and the
US. They conducted a two-year quasi-experimental study with 39 students
in the experimental group and 25 students in the control group. Through the
grammar test results, they found that actual achievements were significant
in the study groups (p<.01), and maintained that this viable methodology
should be encouraged around the world. Though the sampling is too small
to make broad generalisations, this study was conducted over a long period
of time (two years) and in two different educational contexts. One more case
is the study by Sezer and Elcin (2019), who investigated the effectiveness
of flipped learning with 363 medical sophomores from Hacettepe University.
By the measuring students’ performance in healthcare topics, they revealed
that students in the flipped class gained significantly higher mean scores by
an average of nearly 30 points compared to students in traditional class;
thus, indicating this approach is effective.
Last, a comparison of formative assessments is also used to affirm
the effectiveness of flipped learning. For instance, Kim et al. (2014)
conducted an experiment with 115 participants in three flipped classrooms
of different subjects (engineering, social studies and humanities) at the
University of Southern California. The participants’ responses from survey,
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semi-structured interviews, and document analsyis revealed that the
students thought highly of this teaching approach as they could utilise their
higher-order thinking skills and apply what they learned to formative tests to
get satisfactory marks (85% of positive responses). Participants also added
that they understood better how to overcome their learning weaknesses
(Mean=2.9 out of 4). This group of reseachers concluded that their results
were quite positive, with increased gains from the learners’ formative
assessment feedback. Additionally, Krumsvik and Jones (2016) investigated
the performance of 23 high-school Norwegian students by classroom
observations, online test scores, and field notes as data collection. They
reported that there were improvements in the students’ performance
(compared to another non-flipped class) within in-class exercises, quizzes,
formative assessments, and final exam results (p<.01). This study is in line
with the report by Wang (2019), who conducted a study of nine flipped
classes with 431 undergraduates in Taiwan. He concluded that a good
combination of in-class problem-solving activities and out-of-class sessions
had a beneficial impact on the outcomes of learners’ formative assessments
and self-assessment (β=−0.15, p<.001).
However, negative results can also be found in some reports in terms
of the educationall benefits of this teaching approach. One example is the
quantitative, quasi-experimental study conducted by Sirota (2017) to
examine if the flipped pedagogy could enhance students’ performance in
nursing pharmacology compared with traditional lecture instruction. Her
findings revealed no significant differences in the final exam grades of both
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classes, and asserted that flipped classrooms might not be effective. Two
years later, Leatherman and Cleveland (2019) compared the learning
outcomes of 131 sophomore students in a Genetics course taught with
flipped and traditional instructions, noting that no statistical difference was
found as measured quantitatively through exams. They commented that
flipped learning is not always effective in enhancing learning outcomes as
compared to non-flipped approaches if all classrooms adopt a constructivist,
active-learning strategy. This conclusion is strengthened by the study of
McCord and Jeldes (2019), who provided inconsistent results when adopting
multi-method research in a numerical analysis flipped course to 2,096
engineering students in the US. The independent sample t-test revealed a
lower performance in some exams of the flipped group than the control
group (d=0.32). In fact, the aforementioned studies with unsatisfactory
results failed to establish an effective working procedure for the
implementation of flipped learning. Pre-class work was mainly video
watching without careful consideration of individualised learning, online
collaboration, and teacher’s guidance for self-regulated learning activities.
In-class activities (which should be diversified) were repetitive, with
discussions, mini-presentations, and problem-solving, but no specific
information related to actual tasks of various activities was provided. The
absence of such information prevented the researchers from maximising the
benefits of flipped learning and obtaining their desired outcomes (Barbour &
Schuessler, 2019; Ha, O’Reilly, Ng & Zhang, 2019; Lo, 2020). Therefore, a
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systematic framework is necessary if greater benefits could be obtained from
implementation of the flipped classroom approaches.
In short, while many studies demonstrate that flipped learning could
improve academic performance, other relevant research indicates the
contrary. Hence, more evidence should be provided to solve these
inconsistencies, as well as to shed light on whether the suggested
recommendations in those mixed-result studies are feasible or not.
Moreover, there is also a lack of empirical studies to investigate in details
how learners’ compentence is actually reflected in their test papers via error
analysis.
2.3.10.2.2. On learners’ learning habits
Some studies have displayed how flipped learning navigates positive
learning habits in different ways. First, it changed the way students prepare
for in-class session significantly. Musib (2014) in his introductory-level
multidisciplinary course contended that more than 90% of his students
changed their learning habits in that they spent more time watching the video
lectures, taking notes more carefully, underlining the unclear contents, doing
some prior searching to solve the problems, and setting the group learning
to work with assignments more frequently. Participants admitted that they
normally just read the textbooks or even prepared nothing in the previous
classes. Second, this approach encourages the application aspects of
knowledge and skills outside the classroom. Like those in the study by Musib
(2014), participants of McLean et al. (2016) stated that they tended to link
the theories with practical issues not only in the cooperative in-class
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environments but also in other courses and in their daily lives. This is a good
signal when learners could develop the habit of using knowledge outside the
classroom. Last, the flipped classroom has a certain influence on learner’s
reflection ability and critical thinking. For example, students in Sun, Wu and
Lee’s flipped classrooms (2016) adopted self-regulated learning strategies
to reflect and examine critically on the teaching materials, teaching methods
and post-class learning consolidation. Some students started to comment
and give suggestions to their instructors in a constructive way, which is not
a common practice in the Asian culture. Another example is the study of
Mehring (2016), who explored the Japanese students’ perceptions and
perceived changes in learning habits. The findings consolidated the
argument that flipped learning helps Japanese students overcome their
passiveness to interact with each other, raise more voices in classroom
discussions, express their ideas with instructors more freely, and even
evaluate the teacher’s videos as well as teaching styles. However, studies
about the beneficial impacts of flipped learning in changing learner’s habits
are still scarce. Besides, no specific studies on this topic have been
conducted in different disciplines, especially in translation training, while
each discipline has their own particular learning habits. For example,
translation habits refer to the frequency use of professional strategies to
complete translated assignments both consciously and unconsciously, and
this issue has not been addressed in any empirical paper. Therefore, more
research should be done to fill this gap.
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2.3.10.2.3. On learners’ perceptions
Bergmann and Sams (2012b) stated that learning satisfaction,
motivation, interest and participation are critical factors in the measurement
of learners’ perceptions towards the benefits of this approach, all of which
can be found in the following papers.
First, studies show that learners are generally satisfied with their
progress and would like to continue with this approach in other courses (e.g.,
Bouwmeester et al., 2019; He, Holton & Farkas, 2018; Norazmi et al., 2017).
Two examples can be found in the study conducted by Yilmaz (2017) and
Bouwmeester et al. (2019), who reported that learners were satisfied with
their in-class sessions, their participations were improved, and they had
more opportunities for active-learning practice. They also asserted that the
attendance level in the flipped class was higher than in previous modules.
Some students also expressed their wish to extend this approach to other
courses and recommend it to other friends.
Second, studies demonstrate that flipped learning fosters students'
motivation significantly. For example, Tracey Muir and Vince Geiger (2016)
reported a case study of a grade 10 mathematics class, and interviews
showed that learners were highly motivated to engage with the online
resources as well as in-class collaborative assignments. Likewise, Bicen and
Beheshti (2019) reported that both learners and teachers were very
enthusiastic with this new approach based on the motivated attitudes
expressed by participants. Therefore, these authors concluded that the
flipped environment could satisfy learners’ needs for self-regulation,
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autonomy and subject relevance; thus, it can attract a great level of both
intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (meanintrinsic=4.12 and meanextrinsic=4.11).
Third, flipped learning could ensure a high proportion of engagement
with active learning methodology. For example, Soltanpour and Valizadeh
(2018) reported that their 55 Iranian EFL students actively participated in
routine activities such as submitting homework of argumentative essays on
time, listening to the topics eagerly, working on assignments collaboratively,
and joining in the activities heartily. Similarly, the study of Steen-Utheim and
Foldnes (2018) with 12 students in a Norwegian mathematics course
showed that the combination of online lectures and classroom activities
leveraged high involvement in the educational processes. Finally, Liu et al.
(2019) in a study with 50 French sophomores in an EFL grammar course
found that this approach engaged students before class, during class and
even after class when more consolidation practice was still discussed by
learners. In short, many research findings show that flipped learning could
substantially stimulate the learners’ engagement in various subjects.
As far as the students’ interest is concerned, various studies have
been done to shed light on whether this approach can enhance this affective
dimension. For example, Pan (2015) conducted a study with 127
undergraduates in multimedia module, and he found that flipped learning
could enhance as well as maintain learners’ interest, autonomy and
cooperation for a long time (total mean average=3.98, p<.05). Later, Chiang
and Chen (2017) examined a three-year modified flipped version in a
postgraduate sciences course and their 7-point Likert scale questionnaire
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revealed that this approach could highly boost learners’ initiative and
improve their interest significantly (total Mean average>5.8, p<.001). Last,
Wu et al. (2019) used flipped classroom and online instructions for 48
sophomore English-majors in an EFL writing course in Taiwan and found
that students’ interest was much greater than those from the traditional
counterpart (p<.001).
In summary, much research has been done to explore the beneficial
impacts of flipped learning on learners’ attitudes; therefore, this aspect is not
the focus of the current paper. Rather, the thesis is aimed more at
investigating learners’ perceptions towards each element of the suggested
approach, exploring which one is useful and how that element improves
learners’ translation competence in relation to the learning outcomes, which
one is less useful, and what recommendations could be made for improving
these less effective elements.
2.3.10.3. In translation studies
While much existing literature on flipped learning has been conducted
in different disciplines, studies on the benefits of this approach in translator
training are quite rare. One reason is that many translation trainers initially
believed that translation classes did not lend themselves to flipping based
on the reasoning that flipped approaches are generally suitable to develop
the lower regions of Bloom’s taxonomy (Bergmann & Sams, 2012a).
Meanwhile, translation is a kind of art that requires higher-order thinking
skills which cannot be produced satisfactorily in a short time within the
classroom context, and online lectures are not useful to explain the subtle
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differences between languages for good translated versions (Afarinasadi,
2013; Sachinis, 2012). As a result, the studies in flipped translation
classroom is limited. There are currently eight empirical studies on this
subject, all of which lack a coherent design of the flipped procedure.
Therefore, these studies are not sufficient to enable one to decide whether
flipping can enhance student capabilities in translation education.
In terms of the influences of flipped learning on learners’ perceptions
and attitudes, most studies revealed positive results. The work of Tsai and
Tsai (2014), for example, investigated how flipped learning impacted
learners among 15 Taiwanese students. After eight weeks, the
questionnaire and interview data showed an improvement in participants'
perceptions and confidence level (Mean=4.45, p<.05). However, these
instruments did not provide a strong foundation to confirm whether or how
this approach is beneficial for learning translation skills. Another study by
Zhang (2016) showed that more than 75% of learners were active with the
new approach as it helped them to prepare before class. Ling (2017) also
applied flipped learning in a Chinese translation class for 20 non-English
majors, and used questionnaire survey to explore learners’ perceptions
towards this approach. More than 87% of responses expressed that this
approach improved their diverse aspects of translation ability. However,
these studies could not show that whether an improvement in learners’
perceptions could bring about better use of translation strategies and
translation habits, which could be seen as major aspects in translation
training.
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Empirical evidence also indicated the benefical impacts of flipped
learning on learners’ translation capabilties. Shu (2015) examined the
impact of flipping on his sophomore translation course at a Chinese
university. His post-test results showed that “the students’ scores on
translation competence in the experimental class were higher than those in
the control class” (t=-2.68, p=0.005), and went on to state that “the students’
competence had improved” thanks to the flipped instruction (p. 60). Another
study of the flipped learning in translation teaching is that of Lou et al. (2017),
who reviewed an experiment of flipped translation class among 124 first-
year non-English majors in China. Their independent sample t-test showed
a significant difference between the control class and the experimental class
(t=−2.262, p=.027). The mean scores of experimental students (M=10.468)
also were higher than those of the traditional class (M=9.936), confirming
the effectiveness of this approach. Finally, Deng (2018) examined how a
project-based flipped classroom could improve the performance of 32 third-
year English majors in a Business Translation course in China. His statistical
data from post-tests and questionnaire suggest that the project-based
flipped approach can enhance the students’ performance as compared to
the traditional class (mean=84.4; t=-3.456; p=.011). His results also
indicated that this approach could foster the learner’s motivation to learn out
of class, stimulate their engagement, and raise their self-evaluation on
translation competence (total mean average=4.4.0; S.D.=0.29). However,
while revealing an increase in students’ translation academic test results,
these three studies of Shu (2015), Lou et al. (2017), and Deng (2018) failed
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to provide what classroom procedures were followed to ensure the active
learning aspects as well as the development of higher-order cognition.
In terms of the educational impacts of flipped learning on learners’
usage of translation strategies, Lin (2019) investigated the perceptions of 13
English majors in Taiwan. Her semi-structured interviews revealed that most
participants were able to use professional strategies such as choosing
appropriate vocabulary and formulating sentence patterns for different text
types and text genres. Participants also expressed an increase in their
motivation, autonomy and in-class participation. However, more information
is still needed to see how this approach can enhance learners’ translation
habits, and how learners actually adopt professional strategies in their
assignments.
The only empirical study with a detailed classroom procedure was
conducted by Mei (2017) in his simulated crowdsourcing translation flipped
classroom with 15 students. The class procedure was divided into three
main steps: (1) pre-class work (video watching, material reading and
comprehension exercises); (2) in-class activities (revision, exercise
correction, students’ presentations, and discussions); and (3) after-class
feedback (to share learning experiences online). Through observations,
questionnaires, and test analysis, he analysed the benefits of this
pedagogical reform and proved that this approach improved the teaching
and learning efficiency when the mean test score of the flipped class (93%)
was higher than that of the non-flipped class (86%). He also asserted that
this teaching approach could improve students’ engagement as the
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completion rate for exercises was 99% and participation rate in the flipped
class was 96%; results that are considerably better than those of the
traditional session (91% and 91%, respectively). However, to what extent
this approach influences learners’ translation ability is still left unanswered.
Also, the number of students is too small for generalisation.
In conclusion, while the rise of flipped classroom might change the
traditional teaching mode, the need for further research into this approach in
translation teaching is needed. In addition, there is a lack of empirical study
evaluating the benefits of flipped translation lessons with a systematic
instructional procedure to develop learners’ habits. Moreover, few attempts
have been made to evaluate the quality of the collaborative experiences
inside and outside the flipped classroom. Finally, academic studies did not
describe what specific features of flipped learning could yield benefits or
pose challenges to learners. Hence, more studies are needed with further
evidence to fill these gaps if an optimised implementation of flipped learning
is expected in translation training. Besides, no published academic paper
concerning the use of flipped learning in Vietnamese translation training
could be found at the time of writing of this thesis. This also is another reason
for the conduct of this study.
2.3.11. Activity theory
This sub-section discusses what Activity Theory is, why it is useful to
investigate the benefits and challenges of an intervention in a specific
setting, and how this theory is incorporated into the thesis.
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2.3.11.1. Model of Activity theory
Activity Theory could be understood as a model for analysing how
goal-orientated actions are mediated by a wide range of relevant factors
such as psychological, technical tools, and even social structures
(Engeström, 2001; Fontich Vicens, 2013). The unit analysis of this theory
can be summarised as shown in Figure 2-7 below.
Diviison of labour
Figure 2-7: Engeström‘s model of Activity system (2001)

Engeström (2001) clarified the meaning of the elements in the model
as follows:
 Tools/Instruments: include cognitive tools (e.g., mental concepts,
contents, or symbols that subjects use to achieve an outcome) and
physical tools (such as technology that is used to change something
during the activity).
 Subject: refers to all people who participate in an activity.
 Object: means the purpose or objective of that activity.
 Outcome: includes all tangible or intangible products of an activity. It can
also be inferred as to what happens to the object after the activity.
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 Community: is the setting and social group that the subjects belong to.
 Rules: include all guidelines and principles that govern activities in a
specific setting.
 Division of labour: implies different expectations and work duties of a
person or a group to complete certain tasks.
This triangular representation of Engeström’s model depicts the
relationship between subjects (people) and object (purpose) mediated by
tools, community, rules and division of labour. This model, therefore,
enables researchers to analyse an activity from a more comprehensive
viewpoint, and examine how affordances and tensions among different
elements of an activity system can influence a subject’s ability to achieve the
expected outcomes (Engeström, 2001). The relationship between the
implementation of a new intervention and the results is not a linear one but
a complicated combination of various internal and external factors. When a
teacher implements a pedagogical approach, the data obtained cannot be
seen solely from the results of that educational input per se. Rather, different
elements should be examined for a more comprehensive understanding of
the process in a specific context as well as modifications that could be made
to bring about better results.
2.3.11.2. Rationale for the use of Activity theory
Three reasons underpinned the use of Activity theory to investigate
how different affordances and challenges of an intervention mediate
learners’ performance. First, this theory allows researchers to look at the
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complex dynamics of an activity from different perspectives if they want to
employ any intervention (Engeström, 2001). Activity theorists stated that any
intervention is purposeful and is normally conducted by the usage of tools
with the influence of both subjective, emotional internal factors and logical,
routine external factors (Engeström, 2001; Vygotsky, 1978). In the flipped
classroom, for instance, instruments refer to course contents, teaching
methods (cognitive tools) and flipped classroom approach (technical tool).
These two tools play a mediating role in all educational activities as well as
learners’ mental processes, expanding the possibility of transforming objects
(enhancing learners’ competence) to achieve the expected learning
outcomes. However, these tools also are restricted by other elements such
as subjects (e.g., familiarity with technology, the readiness with this
approach), rules (e.g., task designs, course syllabus and the workload), and
community (e.g., teacher and peer assistance). An ignorance of these
factors might not get a full picture of the educational benefits of the flipped
approaches. Therefore, researchers using Activity theory can take into
consideration the dynamic interrelations between different aspects that
stimulate or inhibit the beneficial impacts of the flipped classrooms.
Second, this theory is a well-developed analytical tool to investigate
the design and implementation of any technology-assisted approach in
practice (Abdullah, 2014; Brine & Franken, 2006). In reality, the beneficial
impacts of this approach could be hindered by various factors and
challenges that might inevitably occur during the implementation of flipped
learning since this approach might conflict with the students’ existing
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learning styles, when they have grown accustomed to the conventional
teaching methods (Rueckriem, 2010). Typically, some students might
struggle with the new approach to keep up with the schoolwork and course
requirements, which somewhat requires them to facilitate changes in their
learning activities. As the main objective of an intervention research is
normally to help learners study better, educators could exploit its benefits
and minimise its drawbacks. However, there will be unexpected results while
learners confront new learning experiences and manage to reconcile the
contradictions due to the impacts of different factors. As a result, this can
bring about both positive and negative learning outcomes. Therefore,
Activity theory can help researchers better comprehend these learning
experiences in a technology-assisted flipped classroom by providing insights
into various aspects of interactions.
Finally, Activity theory is a useful tool to diagnose effective/useful
factors and challenges (ineffective factors) faced by the subjects during the
intervention because it considers both affordances and challenges as
sources of learning and development (Antoniadou, 2014). Lack of sufficient
ability to work on tasks, frustration or non-performance may occur when
learners confront problems such as inadequate mediational tools,
complicated classroom procedures, conflicting course objectives,
unsupportive community, or unequal division of labour among group
members. Therefore, it can identify effective factors and challenges faced
by learners during the implementation of flipped learning in this study. Then,
insightful remedies could be offered to solve these obstacles as well as
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contribute to the literature on how to stimulate improvements in this teaching
approach for better learning outcomes.
In summary, Activity theory - which encompasses all relevant factors
that involve subjects in their endeavour to achieve the desired outcomes -
can help provide a comprehensive picture of the various beneficial factors
and challenges as a result of the implementation of flipped learning in a
specific contextual learning setting. It also can facilitate our understanding
of how learners are affected by these elements, and how they take any
necessary actions to boost effective factors or mimimise those challenges
for improvements in educational practice. Therefore, this heuristic model is
appropriate for a flipped classroom investigation.
2.3.11.3. The adapted version of Activity theory
The adapted version of Engeström’s Model of the Activity system was
used in this study as can be seen in Figure 2-8 below:
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Instruments
Methods Course contents Technology
 Process-  Homework  In-class  Online platform
oriented  Video practice  Group forum
 Constructive watching  Mini-project  Videos
alignment  Preparatory  Quizzes  Ample technology use
 Socio- tasks  Various (e.g. Kahoot, Flickers,
constructivism  Portfolio assessments Duolinguo, Parlet,
 Active learning  Discussions Quizizz, Wallame, …)
 Translation in Group
methodology forum
Objects
Subjects Translation skills +
 Students Professional translation
 Instructor/ habits.
Outcomes
Teacher
 Good final exam results
 Positive attitudes
 Improved translation
habits
 Few challenges faced
by learners
Rules Community Division of Labor

Students are required Instructor and Online interactions for out-of-
to: students class assignments
 Follow the design  Student and peers  Peer support to do
procedure preparatory tasks
 Cooperate with peers  Teacher’s coaching and
 Follow the instructions guidance to do the tasks as
and requirements of well as answer queries
the teacher  Teacher’s preparations of the
 20% of the course videos and the tasks
grade is from the Physical interactions for in-
portfolio, 20% from the class assignments
formative assessment,  Group work, pair work and
and 60% from the final individual work based on the
exam. class procedure
 Teacher’s assistance,
facilitations and
assessments
Figure 2-8: Activity theory framework for the flipped classroom
approach
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First, the subjects in the flipped classroom are the teachers and
students, with the teacher working as the person who implements the
instruments in an intervention; and the students working as the active
receivers during the intervention process. Objects mean the learners’ skills
including conceptual understanding (knowledge construction) and
procedural fluency (mastery of techniques to translate properly with different
text types and text genres). Specific outcomes refer to the learners’
assessment performance and translation habits. The two instruments
adopted in the flipped class are the course contents, educational methods,
and teaching techniques (cognitive tools) and the flipped classroom
approach (technical tools with online video lectures, online platform, and in-
class activities framework). As for the rules, the specific learning and
teaching strategies, task designs, as well as assessments are embedded
into the activity system of classroom learning procedure. Within these
embedded systems, the rules of the course syllabus and the curriculum
requirements are developed and maintained. Mutual support among peers’
and teacher’s assistance constitutes the community. Finally, online and
physical interactions imply the division of labour. This means that during the
online interactions, learners are supposed to work individually to watch video
lectures and do preparatory tasks. They also can interact online via the
group forum if they have problems, while teachers interfere minimally during
this phase so as to promote self-study skills. Meanwhile, more physical
interactions will be conducted inside the classroom when teachers work as
facilitators and learners join in different collaborative problem-solving tasks.
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The final part of this thesis aims to identify actual
contradiction/difficulties faced by learners during the implementation of the
flipped classroom approach via the lens of Activity theory, examining how
the instruments, rules, community and division of labour challenged the
learners to achieve their outcomes. The data being studied consist of the
following components:
 Challenges caused by the technical instruments in terms of accessibility,
ease of use, preferences, video quality, the amount of condensed
information within each video, and the interface.
 Challenges caused by the rules in terms of the clarity and consistency
of classroom procedure, workload, assessment criteria, and teacher’s
explanations.
 Challenges caused by the community in terms of peer support, teacher’s
assistance, and classroom atmosphere.
 Challenges caused by the division of labour in terms of personal
autonomy, switching of roles of teachers and students, and the
contributions of different members within a collaborative work.
2.4. Conclusion
The first section of this chapter highlighted information regarding
translation training, including definitions of translation, translation training,
translation habits and translation strategies. Then, a presentation of
significant patterns in translation education in terms of teaching contents and
teaching methods was investigated. Finally, it discussed the status of
translation teaching in the Vietnamese context and the local university. The
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second section gave an overview about the flipped learning, including its
definitions, comparison to the traditional class, historical background, the
principles to implement it in the educational context, variances of the flipped
formats, stages and elements of a flipped class, the benefits, and challenges
of this approach. It also described the theoretical concepts behind the flipped
learning, including how socio-constructivism and active learning are related
to this approach. Bloom’s taxonomy and Vygotsky’s ZPD also form the basis
of flipped learning. Afterwards, a review of literature on the educational
benefits of this teaching approach on learning outcomes was investigated
on three variables; i.e., learners’ performance, changes in learning habits,
and perceptions. Finally, this chapter suggested using the Activity theory to
investigate the challenges of flipped classroom systematically based on a
well-designed framework. The next chapter will examine the philosophical
perspectives upon which this study is built, the data collection process, data
analysis procedure and other issues relating to the conduct of this doctoral
dissertation.
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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1. Introduction
Methodological considerations to conduct this research is outlined in
this chapter. It begins with an explicit description of the philosophical
stances, including research paradigm, ontological, epistemological, and
axiological positions upon which the research is built. Then, the chapter
provides the methodological description of the thesis, justifying a case-study
research design for the whole study. Later, it highlights the research context
and research procedure of the flipped classroom. After the discussion of a
pilot study, the explanation of data collection tools and data analysis
methods will be defined, including a qualitative section for content analysis
of one particular learning scenario, error analysis of students’ performance
in various formative and summative assessments to illustrate how the new
approach enhanced learners’ competence and changed their translation
habits, and in-depth interviews to explore the beneficial impacts of this
approach as well as students’ perceptions towards their learning
performance. Following that, issues relating to trustworthiness and
authenticity of the whole thesis are addressed. The final section includes
ethical considerations, methodological limitations as well as a summary of
the whole chapter.
3.2. Philosophical perspectives

A proper understanding of the philosophical stances could guide the
overall conduct of a study as well as help researchers match the findings
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with the objectives of their endeavours (Bryman, 2016). Therefore, this
section provides a detailed discussion of philosophical stances for the study,
including paradigm, ontology, epistemology, and axiological perspectives.
3.2.1. Paradigm
“Paradigm” is a set of beliefs and values which guide the researchers
to choose appropriate methods and help them approach the suitable
interpretation (Saunders et al., 2016). After a review of relevant literature, an
interpretivist paradigm was selected to conduct this study. Interpretivist
paradigm adopts qualitative methods based on the belief that there is no
single reality or truth, and data needs to be interpreted personally and
individually through social constructions to get those multiple realities
(Saunders et al., 2016). Hence, the interpretivist paradigm is appropriate for
this study on the following grounds.
First, by adopting a case study research design to focus on
experiential meanings and to reflect different aspects of a social-constructed
issue, interpretivism could provide a specific, unique, and deviant
understanding of the research problem at a deeper level (Hatch, 2002). For
instance, the researcher pays careful attention to specific contextual
backgrounds in relation with particular learning outcomes, local school’s
policy, cultural appropriateness, and contextual relevance to shed light on
participants’ diverse reactions, perceptions, and skill mastery. As a result,
the data collected from interpretivist perspective could enrich the
understanding of the matter from individual and experiential levels, and the
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knowledge could be generated based on value-bound relationship among
relevant elements.
Second, this paradigm can help researchers gain a deeper
understanding of the issue inductively to capture the diverse nuances of
participants’ experiences (Hall, 2013). Specifically, in this study the case-
study design provides an in-depth picture so that the researcher could
identify the actual benefits of this flipped classroom approach, how students
experienced the new teaching instruction, what they thought were the
causes of such an experience, what tensions they faced during the
implementation process, and how their translation competences were
fostered over the course. Various qualitative instruments are used in the
whole study, and the researcher has to work back and forth between
approaches to identify values, interpret results, and choose explanations
that produced desired outcomes. Although the results might be influenced
by the researcher’s method of interpretation, his particular concerns and
contextual backgrounds, this paradigm allows the researcher to understand
the subjective world of human experience by making an effort to get inside
the individuals’ diverse perspectives, and to understand them from within an
activity system (Hall, 2013).
Third, interpretivist paradigm is effective in social sciences and
education discipline since these fields need multiple perspectives for
pedagogical purposes (Morgan, 2014). In this study, the researcher wanted
to look at the flipped classroom approach from the angle of human reactions
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and perceptions; therefore, the interpretivist paradigm could gather enough
context-specific information. For example, the study would provide rich
description of not only the actual flipped procedure but also the learners’
experiences as well as other themes emerging from the data negotiated
within the socially-constructed flipped setting, and the relationship among
class members. In other words, interpretivism enabled the researcher to use
experiential data to confirm, complement, and explain findings.
In conclusion, these aforementioned reasons provided the rationale
for the choice of interpretivist paradigm to compare different kinds of
qualitative data, and to see whether they supplement one another, as well
as to validate the results for a better educational environment. In this
respect, the biggest challenge of this paradigm is its bias in designing, such
as organising the flipped scenarios, developing meaningful interview
questions, examining the translated versions for error analysis, conducting
pilot study, analysing triangulated data, and identifying elements related to
the research questions. In addition, the researcher has to move back and
forth between the quantitative data to make sense of their connections.
Finally, certain steps to minimise subjectivity are necessary to increase the
trustworthiness and authenticity of the research findings. Therefore, a
careful design would be investigated in the following sections to deal with
the aforementioned factors so that the researcher could provide both
breadth and depth of the issue.
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3.2.2. Ontology
The ontological stance of this research is that of relativism (defined
as the sharing of subjective perceptions of various individual members
through interactions and contributions). There are two reasons for adopting
this ontological stance. First, relativism is suitable to the interpretivist
paradigm in social sciences because human perceptions, actions, and
tensions should be understood and evaluated relatively to their backgrounds
of social context, presuppositions, interests, and values (Subedi, 2016).
Thus, the relativism could explain how context-dependent realities can be
obtained from different individual participants. Second, as relativism is useful
to investigate multiple viewpoints for shared divergences and experiences
(Subedi, 2016), it could be used in this study. In a clearer sense, because
the researcher believed that each learner constructed meaning through their
interactions with each other in the flipped classroom differently and
purposefully; therefore, they construed multiple realities subjectively in
different ways (Robson, 2011). As a result, this ontological stance could help
the researchers find out various experiential contents (perceptions,
challenges, enhance competence, and changes in translation habits) shared
by participants.
3.2.3. Epistemology
Epistemology refers to the philosophy that examines the nature of
knowledge and the processes through which researchers approach that
source of knowledge to meet their interest (Saunders et al., 2016). In this
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study, the interpretative epistemology is used because knowledge is
interpreted and negotiated through a process of experience as well as social
construction among class members, and the findings this researcher
attempted to conclude are not fixed but constantly subjected to critical
evaluation, refinement, and revision (Brandon, 2011). It means that the
nature of knowledge construction required the researcher to continuously
examine the qualitative findings to ensure trustworthiness, authenticity, and
fairness. This also reflected the researcher’s interpretative epistemology on
the basis that knowledge existed through learners’ interactions with their
peers, teacher’s guidance, and educational tools, which were inevitably
subjective in nature; therefore, the students might express unexpected
views and develop unexpected outcomes during their exposure to the new
teaching approach. In addition, interpretative epistemology restrains the
generalisability of the findings based on the nature of a case study design
(Brandon, 2011), which means the findings of this study might have some
limitations in terms of generalisation. Therefore, different methods were
adopted with a modest optimism about the possibility of successful truth-
seeking. For example, the researcher identified a clear topic, design well-
aligned classroom procedure, constructed appropriate research questions,
and adopted rational methodology to measure specific benefits of the flipped
classroom approach through structured interview questions and assessment
tasks. As such, this study could shed light on how the specific context and
learning experiences constructed participants’ subjective perceptions, their
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enhanced translation competence, as well as their changes in translation
habits to use professional strategies on a more regular basis.
3.2.4. Axiology
Axiology implies all the values and beliefs that researchers hold and
the role they play in a research process (Collis & Hussey, 2009). In this
study, due to the concern with the perceptions and competence of
participants, the beneficial impacts as well as the challenges they might face,
the researcher could render the research process-biased, value-bound, and
value-laden. Within the whole process, the researcher was the main person
in charge of the flipped teaching, collection, analysis, transcription and
interpretation of all data. Therefore, the possibility of bias still existed. In
order to minimise such bias and make the research process less value-
laden, certain steps to minimise the bias were also investigated. For
instance, the researcher did not serve as an instructor in any previous
courses, and an announcement was made by the Faculty to ensure that no
participant had any relationship with the researcher. In addition, since the
research was designed to improve the translation teaching process, this
objective was made clear to all students so that the researcher could
maintain an open relationship with the participants to elicit their honest
feedback for authentic results. Learners were also aware of the fact that their
grades would not be affected in any way by their responses or non-
participation in the study. Finally, all interviews were conducted after the
students had received their final exam results to avoid the situation that
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students might give good remarks in order to please the researcher. After
the transcriptions were completed, a copy was be sent to each interviewee
to confirm the content. All these activities aimed to increase the objectivity
and authenticity of this study.
3.3. Research design

After reviewing various designs, a case-study research design was
chosen and the study was structured in this manner to (1) uncover how the
flipped classroom approach was actually implemented in one specific
learning scenario; to (2) explore deeply the beneficial impacts of this
instruction on student translation competence/skill mastery through various
types of assessments and their enhanced translation habits, to (3)
investigate learners’ perceptions towards the benefits of this approach, and
to (4) determine the challenges faced by learners.
3.3.1. Rationale for the research design

Several reasons existed for the rationale behind using the case study
design in this thesis. First, this design could investigate the issue via the lens
of multiple perspectives, realities, and social-constructed interactions
(Creswell & Creswell, 2018). Thus, it could provide a detailed picture of what
actually happened inside and outside the flipped class, showing how actively
the participants got involved in the online platform to promote individualised
learning, and how in-class activities enabled learners to achieve the
expected learning outcomes and course objectives. As a result, more
insightful data could be gathered to clarify how teaching contents, task
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completion, and assessment activities are aligned to the course objectives
and learning outcomes to help students master the necessary competences.
Second, this design could provide ample experiential evidence such
as how learning theories supported the lessons, how the learning outcomes
were met, and in what way the flipped approach was beneficial. For
example, to what extent the videos enabled learners to remember and
understand, and how the face-to-face sessions helped learners develop
higher-order cognitive skills, could be explored. Moreover, when students
worked in groups on certain translation tasks, the connection between these
activities and learning theories could also be investigated to see how their
competence is fostered through their interactions and learning from more
capable peers. Besides, a case study design could shed more light on how
the flipped classroom re-orientated learners towards professional translation
habits. In a clearer sense, how students used appropriate strategies to deal
with their assignments, how they turned these strategies into their habits,
and how these habits were reflected in their assessments, could be
investigated in great details. As a result, the design would provide a robust
description about the potential benefits of this approach in a meaningful way.
Last, this design proved suitable for social sciences research as it
gave the researcher certain control over the participants, and allowed the
students to raise their voices based on the research questions (Yin, 2014).
If desired, the researcher could also explore any changes in learners’
perceptions and reactions. In short, based upon the above reasons, it was
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concluded that a case study best suited this thesis as the main research
design.
3.3.2. Characteristics of the research design

The framework for this research design was attributed to the theory
of constructive alignment introduced by John Biggs to meet the ever-
changing market needs and the requirements of theory-informed syllabus
design in higher education (2014). “Constructive” means learners actively
construct their knowledge through various collaborative activities, and
“alignment” implies how instructors process the lessons to ensure activities
and assessments are appropriate to the intended learning outcomes (Biggs,
2014). Learners could have opportunities to reflect on their own experiences
and practical knowledge, while collaborations enable them to solve real-life
and simulated problems. Students also are enabled to foster knowledge
construction, learning behaviours and required skills, as well as to self-
assess their outcomes. Therefore, this research design based on
constructive alignment could be seen as putting more emphasis on student-
centred methodology, autonomous learning, well-supported assessments,
and outcome-based instructions. All elements of learning outcomes, task
assignments, assessment activities and evaluation criteria are coordinated
to maximise student learning.
This case-study research design had some specific characteristics.
At the outset, this design adopted a systematic procedure to implement
when data collection and analysis process were segmented based on the
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theory of constructive alignment. The learning outcomes for the whole
module (as described in table 3-2) were built upon the course objectives,
school policy, specific subject syllabus, descriptors of the institution, and
Bloom’s taxonomy (required by the Vietnamese educational system). For
example, participants could have more time for collaborative practice to
achieve the required competences based on the initial three levels of
Bloom’s taxonomy. Students’ performance was also assessed via formative
assessments, aligning with other levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Therefore, it
could provide a basis for the implementation of all learning activities as well
as assessment criteria, and the design was straightforward to describe and
the results were easy to report.
Second, the design entailed various assessment activities and criteria
in grading the performance of students. For instance, it employed a norm-
referenced standardised assessment to rank students’ translation capability.
It also encompassed criterion-referenced assessments, including self-
evaluation and peer-evaluation to empower students’ critical thinking skills.
Moreover, ipsative assessment was also employed via the use of portfolios
and group forum to analyse participants’ progression in their earlier levels of
attainment. All of these activities could enable students’ autonomy as well
as clarify the extent in which the flipped classroom approach influenced
learners’ performance and translation habits.
Last, the learning activities and teaching contents of this design
includes elements of flipped learning (in-class and out-of-class activities)
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and student-centred theories (e.g., socio-constructivism, active learning)
with various learning strategies such as problem-solving, individual and
team work, and personal and interpersonal skills.
Adapted from Biggs’ model (2014), the following Figure 3-1 illustrates
the design of this study as follows.
Constructive alignment
Learning describes the relationship
Assessments Activities
outcomes between three elements:
1. Norm- 1. Flipped
1. Bloom’s referenced classroom 1. Learning outcomes are
taxonomy standardised approach formulated
2. Course tests 2. Socio- 2. Assessment criteria are
objectives 2. Criterion- constructivism developed with regard to the
3. School referenced 3. Active learning outcomes.
policy assessments learning
3. Ipsative 3. Activities are organised to
4. Subject 4. ZPD
assessment achieve the learning outcomes
syllabus
5. Bloom’s by meeting the assessment
5. Descriptors 4. Rubric taxonomy criteria. This encourages
of the criteria for
students to learn what will be
institution quality
assessed.
assessment
Figure 3-1: Aligned elements of the research design

3.4. Research context
3.4.1. Sampling
This study adopted the convenience sampling technique with 79
third-year English-majors at the Faculty of Foreign Languages (BUH) from
February to July, 2019. This Faculty was chosen for several reasons. First,
the researcher was working there as a full-time lecturer; hence, research
activities were easily coordinated. Second, conducting a study in this
institution allowed the researcher to reduce some limitations such as
expenses, human resources and ethics approval. Finally, this is a public
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university in which technological infrastructure and innovative activities are
well-supported. Therefore, new methods to enhance the translation training
process in this institution are highly encouraged.
79 junior students in a four-year undergraduate programme
participated in the study and their ages ranged between 20 and 21. The
Vietnamese-English translation course was selected because the students
had experienced the English-Vietnamese Translation course in the previous
semester. Therefore, they had certain knowledge about the traditional
method to reflect on as well as to compare with the flipped format. They were
assigned to two research classes by online registration as a common policy
of the credit system training in this institution. In other words, information of
the translation class with the name of instructors was provided publicly on
the school website, and the students chose the class based on their
timetables and preferences. As a result, this establishment added
authenticity and unbiased sampling to the research grouping. In addition, as
the students had no prior learning experiences with the lecturer in any
previous modules, it could be said that the popularity of the teacher did not
play an important role in the online registration.
The rationale behind implementing the flipped classroom approach in
two different classes could be attributed to (1) the local school policy, (2)
reduction of researcher bias of the study. It should be noted that the local
school policy does not allow the class convener to be directly involved in the
marking process. Thus, the test papers of Class B (the class using the
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interview method) would be marked externally to ensure that learners’
responses could not affect their course performance. Meanwhile, the test
papers of Class A (the class adopting assessment analysis) were marked
by three examiners. One examiner was the researcher so that he could get
access to the papers for error analysis, and the other two third-party
examiners’ comments had more weight to ensure that no contamination of
the test results could be manipulated.
In reality, there were actually 40 students in Class A, but one male
student was late for his final exam. In addition, there were 41 students in
Class B initially, but one student could not finish the module because his
mother passed away in week 6. As a result, only the data of 79 students
were collected. Table 3-1 provides information about the participants in the
study as follows.
Table 3-1: Distribution of participants

Gender Number of participants
Male 4
Class A Female 35
Total 39
Male 3
Class B Female 37
Total 40
All on-campus participants could gain free access to the Internet and
each student had their own personal laptop as a requirement of learning
facility. The participants were fluent in their native language (Vietnamese),
at intermediate level in English (at least 5.5 in IELTS or equivalent), and
proficient in their reading and writing skills of both languages (measured
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through their university entrance exams). Students who did not join the final
exam and who refused to participate were excluded from this study. If any
student did not want to follow the flipped procedure, that student could sit in
another class taught by a non-flipped instruction with the consent of both
instructors. However, no case was found regarding these situations.
3.4.2. Course structure of the flipped translation class

The course lasted nine weeks and the class met once a week for five
academic periods (1 period=45 minutes), focusing on translation
fundamentals and real-life practice. Table 3-2 below provides the detailed
syllabus for the flipped course and their corresponding video contents.
Table 3-2: Syllabus for V-E translation flipped course
Topic/Video Learning contents
MODULE 1: Overview of V-  An overview of V-E translation

OVERVIEW E Translation  Translation principles
(Week 1)
 Translation units
Single terms  Simple terms

and practice for  Translation problems at the word level
single terms  Handling lexical problems
MODULE 2:
TRANSLATION  Elements of cultural-specific terms
SKILLS AT THE Translating  Problematic issues of translating
WORD LEVEL cultural-specific cultural-specific terms
(Weeks 2+3) terms  Strategies to translate cultural-specific
terms
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Topic/Video Learning contents
MODULE 3:  Translating short phrases

TRANSLATION Translating  Translating long phrases
SKILLS AT THE phrases  Collocations in translation
PHRASE LEVEL
(Week 4)
 Problematic issues at the syntactic level

Translating  Steps to translate sentences
MODULE 4: sentences  Key message analysis
TRANSLATION
SKILLS AT THE Reformulation techniques of some
SYNTACTIC specific structures:
LEVEL Reformulation  Passive voice
(Weeks 5+6) techniques  Non-subject sentences
 Compound-complex sentences
 Sentences with numbers and figures
 Steps to translate a paragraph

MODULE 5:  Text types and text genres
TRANSLATION Translating  Coherence and cohesion
SKILLS AT THE
paragraphs  Addition, omission, adaptation, and
PARAGRAPH
clarification
LEVEL (Week 7)
 Typical features of journalistic genres

MODULE 6: Translating  Characteristics of journalistic articles
TRANSLATING journalistic  Translating headlines
JOURNALISTIC
articles  Techniques to translate journalistic
ARTICLES
articles
(Weeks 8 + 9)
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3.4.3. Course protocol to standardise the flipped procedure

The researcher has been working in this Faculty for more than four
years. He possesses a Master’s Degree in TESOL, and had real-life
experience as a professional translator for more than five years. He also had
no prior exposure to the participants in any previous courses at the
university. In order to increase the trustworthiness and reduce the bias of
the study, several measures were undertaken to set up the course protocol
and to standardise the research procedure. Specifically, the instructor was
strictly required to:
- follow the procedure as displayed in 3.4.
- use the online platform for material distribution, feedback for exercises, and
facilitation of classroom discussions to do assignments or to clear any
confusion. No other purposes were allowed.
- ensure that all tasks provided in the course book and required by the school
curriculum are completed. Further exercises could be given with careful
consideration of heavy workload.
- request consents from the participants and relevant authorities for the
conduct of the study.
- put less research pressure on the students to avoid Hawthorne effects,
diffusion, and other limitations of an intervention study. For example, little or
no reminder that the students were participating in the study was given
during the course to reduce their awareness of this issue, thus learners could
concentrate on their learning objectives and enjoy their learning process.
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- strive to automate the procedure as much as possible by using software
packages, technology-assisted instructions, or even computer slide shows
to minimise expectancy effects.
- design interview questions aiming to explore the beneficial impacts of
flipped learning towards their understanding, translation competence,
translation habits, as well as their actual challenges along the way. No data
about a comparison with the traditional format is collected.
- play no role in the process of preparing the test contents or invigilating. The
test papers should also be marked by third-party examiners.
- ensure that learners’ grades were not affected in any way by their non-
participation in the study or by their responses whatsoever.
- collect the interview data after learners had received their final marks and
the interviews were conducted with the presence of a third-party person in
the Faculty’s Ethics Committee to ensure the proper data collection process
as well as to reduce the bias of the study.
3.4.4. Learning objectives

At the end of the module, learners can:
(1) Identify the main characteristics of certain business text genres.
(2) Categorise common problems of different translation units.
(3) Implement appropriate strategies to solve translation problems found in
the Vietnamese-English pairs.
(4) Manage relevant resources and technological tools when translating
business genres.
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(5) Demonstrate professional work ethics, confidence, and responsibility
when working in groups as well as alone.
Table 3-3: Competences and learning outcomes of the module

C1. Bilingual sub-competence: Applying appropriate strategies to do
assignments
LO1. Understanding the communicative purposes and the source meaning of
Vietnamese texts.
LO2. Categorising and correcting common translation errors in business-
related genres.
LO3. Producing satisfactory translated text in English without word-for-word
or clumsy literal translation by adopting appropriate strategies.
C2. Extra-linguistic sub-competence: Activating encyclopaedic, cultural
and thematic knowledge to do assignments
LO1. Activating suitable extra-linguistic knowledge to translate business-
related texts.
LO2. Implementing appropriate strategies to solve encyclopaedic, cultural and
thematic problems.
LO3. Acquiring cultural knowledge with appropriate documentary resources to
translate business-related texts.
C3. Instrumental sub-competence: Managing documentary resources
and technological tools to do assignments
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LO1. Identifying the effectiveness of relevant documentary resources and
technological tools to translate business-related texts.
LO2. Using appropriate documentary resources and technological tools to
solve translation problems.
LO3. Evaluating the quality of common documentary resources and
technological tools.
C4. Translation knowledge sub-competence: Solving translation
problems with appropriate business-related knowledge
LO1. Identifying fundamental problems in terms of translation knowledge and
business knowledge.
LO2. Providing a suitable equivalence for each particular translation case.
The contents associated with these sub-competences included:
– Business-related genres: short sentences, short paragraphs,
administrative documents, advertisements, catalogues, web pages,
and journalistic articles.
– Linguistic, textual and pragmatic characteristics of business-related
genres: use of noun-phrases, terminology, loan words, cultural-specific
terms, formats, etc.
– Common translation problems:
+ Lexical problems: polysemy, connotative, ambiguity, terminology, cultural
elements.
+ Syntactic problems: lack of subject, redundancy, word order, article,
preposition, collocation, tenses, structure, word formation, and voices.
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+ Problems at upper level: coherence, cohesion, extra-linguistic and cultural
references, stylistic equivalence and readability.
– Solutions to translation problems:
+ Documentary resources and technological tools: dictionaries, parallel
texts, CAT tools, etc.
+ Terminology glossaries commonly found in business discipline.
3.4.5. Course assessments

The module consisted of four assessments (three formative + one
summative) and portfolio submission. Student-averaged scores were
grouped into four categories:
• Unsatisfactory: The student needs to acquire better knowledge and
develop more capabilities when their scores are under 5.0
• Average: The student has a moderate mastery of basic knowledge and
competence when their scores range from 5.0 to under 6.5.
• Good: The student shows an adequate domain of knowledge and skills
when their scores range from 6.5 to under 8.0.
• Distinction: The student is capable of displaying a high level of knowledge
and skills competency when their scores range from 8.0 to under 9.0.
• High Distinction: The student is capable of displaying a proficient level of
knowledge and skills competency when their scores range from 9.0 and
above.
Table 3-4 describes the translation tasks, their weighting to learner’s
total results, the assessed sub-competences, and learning outcomes.
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Table 3-4: Course assessment activities

Assessment
Assessment types and
tasks and Assessment requirements and allocated marks learning
weighting outcomes
1. Translation test - Identify and classify six problems at the lexical level in a short text (3 pts.) Formative
at the lexical level - Solve eight problems with appropriate translation strategies in context (4 pts.) C1.LO1; C1.LO2;
(5%) (Week 3) - Use electronic tools to solve six cultural-specific problems (3 pts.) C1.LO3; C2.LO1;
C2.LO3
2. Translation test - Correct six translation errors at the lexical level in an article/leaflet (3 pts.) Formative
at the syntactic - Provide English translation for four Vietnamese sentences (4pts.) C1.LO1; C1.LO2;
level (10%) - Proofread and correct the translated versions of their peers with appropriate C1.LO3; C2.LO1;
C2.LO3; C4.LO1
(Week 6) translation strategies and electronic tools (3 pts.)
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3. Translation test - Identify six translation problems at the syntactic level and suggest translated Formative
at the paragraph solutions (3 pts.) C3.L01; C3.L02;
level (15%) - Translate a short paragraph (120-150 words) with appropriate strategies (4 pts.) C3.LO3; C4.LO1;
(Week 8) - Produce a report about this translation process (3 pts.) C4.LO2
- Notes of video lectures (2.5 pts.)
4. Portfolio - Preparatory tasks (2.5 pts.) Formative (20%)
(20%) - Refined versions of the tasks (2.5 pts.) All
- Comments on the teaching method and self-assessment of their progress (2.5
pts.)
5. Final exam - Translate four sentences with appropriate strategies at the lexical and syntactic
(50%) levels (4pts.) Summative
(close exam) - Translate a short journalistic text with 200 words approximately (6pts.) All
Teacher compiles the students’ portfolio, three versions of formative tasks, and final
exam data.
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3.4.6. Assessment methods and rubrics

Formative assessments
A combination of analytical and holistic assessments was used in this
study.
Assessment 1: This test was comprised of three sections. First,
learners were required to formulate the main ideas of a text and classify six
translation problems at the lexical level. These problems had been taught
during the course, so it required the lowest level of Bloom’s taxonomy to do
the task (Remembering). Second, learners had to use appropriate
translation strategies associated with the meaning in the source language,
and the communicative level of the target language to translate eight lexical
terms. This part requires higher-order levels such as distinguishing the
connotative and contextual meanings of the word (Understanding) and
transferring the words with respect to the target grammatical structure and
functions (Applying). Finally, learners had to use electronic tools to solve
cultural-specific problems. This task required learners to use advanced level
of Bloom’s taxonomy such as interpreting the underlying problems of the
cultural-specific terms (Applying), analysing the suitable strategies with the
use of electronic tools (Analysing), and predicting the potential risks in
translating these terms (Evaluating).
Assessment 2: First, learners had to correct six translation errors at
the lexical level in a business leaflet. This was a consolidation of the previous
lessons and required lower-order cognitive skills such as remembering and
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understanding. Then, they were required to provide English translation for
four business-related sentences. Finally, they proofread and corrected the
translated versions of their peers with appropriate strategies. They were also
asked to comment on the products in terms of strengths, weaknesses,
lexical choices, grammatical features, as well as corrections for any
translation errors. Therefore, learners had to adopt higher-order thinking
skills to deal with these two tasks.
Assessment 3 (Translation test at the paragraph level): This
assessment included three tasks. First, learners had to identify six problems
at the syntactic level and provide translated solutions. Afterwards, they had
to work in small groups to translate a short paragraph (about 150 words)
with appropriate strategies. Finally, they submitted the paper and produced
a report on this translation process. The report was made at home and
submitted online.
Three rubrics were used in the formative assessments. The first one
(see Table 3-5) was the adapted version of translation criteria in Table 2-2
and was used for the 4-point tasks. The task was assessed by calculating
the number of errors of each type (vocabulary, grammar and translating
errors), then multiplied by a coefficient (0.1) for each error.
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Table 3-5: Translation rubric for 4-point assessment tasks
Categories Sub-categories Allocated
marks
Incorrect meaning 0.5
Non-standard terminology 0.5
Lexical errors Untranslated words/phrases 0.5
(2 pts.) Word use and collocation 0.5
Syntactic Typos 0.3
errors Grammar 0.4
(1 pt.) Punctuation 0.3
Translating Style and naturalness 0.3
errors Consistency and reference 0.3
(1 pt.) Coherence and cohesion 0.4
Total 4.0
The second rubric was used in task 3 of assessment 3 so that
learners could proofread and comment on the end-products of their peers.
This rubric combined both analytical and holistic elements in its nature as
can be seen in Table 3-6 below.
Table 3-6: Translation rubric for peer-assessment
Categories Allocated
marks
Strengths 0.5
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Weaknesses 0.5
Lexical choices 0.5
Grammar 0.5
Suggested translated corrections 1.0
Total 3.0
The final rubric (Table 3-7) was used to evaluate learners’ self-
assessment of their competence and translation process. This rubric
followed the three-part structure, including translation process, translation
quality, and translation correction. This rubric employs a holistic
characteristic in assessment and evaluation.
Table 3-7: Translation rubric for self-assessment
Categories Allocated
marks
Translation process
- How did you follow systematic steps to understand the
text?
- How did you identify and solve translation problems at the
lexical and syntactic level in the text? 1.0
- How did you translate specific elements of text genre, text
type, text register, and other issues at the paragraph level?
- How did you revise the translated versions?
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Translation quality: How do you evaluate your translated
version in terms of typography, grammar, lexical usage,
idioms, cohesion, coherence, consideration of text function, 1.0
accuracy (fidelity to the source text), comprehensibility,
target readership expectations and requirements
Translation correction: How do you provide alternative
suggestions for your translation versions? 1.0
Total 3.0
Summative assessment rubrics
The final exam was a paper-based test, and the passing grade was
5.0. Participants took the test for 60 minutes in testing classrooms with two
proctors to minimise dishonesty. Table 3-8 below provides information about
the test structure and what constructs it measured.
Table 3-8: The final test-structure and its constructs

Allocated
Constructs
marks
- General topic/Non-business topic

- Elements to measure:
+ Lexical elements: One-one single terms and 0.5
one lexical problem (terminology and cultural
elements)
Sentence 1 + Syntactic elements: Complex structure with 0.5

one syntactic problem (lack of subject,
redundancy, article, collocation, verb tenses,
word formation, or voices)
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- General topic
+ Lexical elements: Collocation and one lexical 0.5
problem (hyponymy, connotative or ambiguity)
Sentence 2 + Syntactic elements: Complex structure with
redundancy, article, collocation, verb tenses, 0.5
- Business-related topic
+ Lexical elements: Common business-related 0.5
terminology and one lexical problem
Sentence 3 (collocation or cultural elements)
+ Syntactic elements: Complex structure with
redundancy, article, collocation, verb tenses, 0.5
- Business-related topic
+ Lexical elements: Terminology of business 0.5
Sentence 4
documents or contracts
+ Syntactic elements: Specific structures of 0.5
business documents or contracts
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Journalistic - Business-related topic

article - Elements to measure:
+ Lexical elements: Business terminology, 2.0
cultural elements, word usage and collocations
+ Syntactic elements: Typos, punctuation,
simple and complex structures 2.0
+ Textual elements: Coherence, cohesion,
addition, omission, adaptation, clarification 2.0
Comments on the assessment activities
Assessments in this design took into account the following
considerations. First, there was a combination of different types such as self-
assessment, peer assessment, hetero-assessment to assess a wide range
of knowledge, competences and attitudes. Therefore, learners could learn
from various viewpoints of their fellow students; thus, fostering knowledge
construction. Second, they assessed not only the end products but also the
process involved to gather more information about the students’
competence (e.g., identifying problems, employing strategies). Third, they
entailed three kinds of assessments (criterion-referenced, norm-referenced,
and ipsative assessments). As a result, they could not only achieve the
standardised institutional norms but also provide multiplicity of testing
formats to suit learners’ varied needs and preferences. Fourth, the grading
scale system was transparent to all learners at the beginning of the course.
Thus, the aforementioned rubrics could provide the students with
transparency about what elements were assessed. Consequently, they not
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only allowed the instructor to evaluate the tasks better but also enhanced
feedback to students. Finally, they put emphasis on the ongoing use of
formative assessments aligned with learning outcomes to serve as a guide
for students’ self-learning, and for teachers’ self-reflection of their teaching
practice. They were also helpful for teachers to know how students
perceived the intervention, and what elements of the teaching strategies
might be less successful.
3.5. Procedure of the study

This subsection describes the design of flipped class and the
rationale for these teaching interventions adopted by the researcher.
3.5.1. Online platform

A learning forum was created on Classcraft so that they could
download lessons and do assignments. Classcraft was chosen as this
platform is technology-friendly, promotes adoption with gamified settings
and cartoon characters, as well as offers configurable educational
templates; thus, alleviating the fear from teachers who may not be familiar
with modern technology. Moreover, since exercises are designed in the form
of interactive quests with a system of point awards, leveling-up, and skills
learning, Classcraft could create a connection between all activities,
encourage learners to complete assignments, and develop proper
classroom behaviours. This forum served four functions: Task
Announcements, Translation Samples, Portfolio, and Group Forum. The
“Task Announcements” includes the latest news, teacher’s requirements,
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task activities, and videos for lesson preparation. This function allows
teachers to turn existing lessons into gamified quests to promote learners’
intrinsic motivation and engagement.
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The “Translation Samples” comprises of students’ products as well
as teachers’ comments for reflection and self-study. The “Portfolio” is a
collection of notes and the assignments a student has submitted during a
course, along with reviews and other documents related to each assignment.
The picture below shows how these functions were exploited:
The “Group forum” is a platform for information dissemination and
opinion sharing among participants. Since the platform links with Facebook,
this could ensure prompt access to any queries and discussion threads, and
the researcher could easily supervise learners’ activities or contributions
(Kabilan, 2016). The teacher also can announce a set of coherent rules for
classroom behaviours, report on learners’ activities, and comment on their
achievements over the duration of the course via the Group forum. The
following pictures provide ilustrations of this function.
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More importantly, the function “Outcome” as can be seen in the
picture above is an effective tool to ensure learners’ preparation prior to the
in-class sessions. When learners had submitted their assignments within the
due time and the teacher was satified with learners’ performance (in this
flipped class they had to get at least 7 marks for each task), the green
checkmark would be highlighed and learners could automatically move
forward in the subsequent quests. By contrast, the red “X” mark would be
used when a student failed to complete the lesson’s objectives. They would
be stuck at that point and had to wait for the teacher’s instruction, such as
uploading an improved version of their work. This outcome also affected the
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performance of their study group, preventing the team from levelling up or
finding a treasure. As a result, learners not only had to prepare the lessons
carefully to satisfy the required objectives but also support each other
outside the classroom, thus faciliating social construction as well as out-of-
class interactions.
3.5.2. Video making principles

Four elements were considered during the process of video making
for an effective use of this educational tool, including content delivery,
learner-centric approach to maximise student engagement, contextual
relevance to promote active learning, and cultural appropriateness to ensure
individualised learning.
The primary considerations when constructing educational videos
was content delivery. Although the contents should be aligned with the
course syllabus, the videos were generally divided into small, digestible
parts with a length of 10 minutes approximately. This, therefore, could
improve learners’ retention and understanding. In addition, both visual and
auditory instruments were exploited while signalling elements (e.g., coloured
discourse markers, text boxes or smart arts) were maximised to highlight
important information. As a result, these elements could direct learners’
attention; thus, targeting particular elements of the videos into their working
memory.
Another issue was the learner-centric approach to maximise student
engagement. For example, various presentation methods such as short
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lectures, conversational style, or on-the-street interviews were employed so
that learners could develop a sense of connection with the narrators.
Besides, a range of settings were used such as the classroom, the school
campus, a small room, and the outside community, depending on the
purpose of instruction and the intended learning goals. Furthermore,
questions were embedded inside the videos via HapYak and Zaption tools
to strengthen students’ working memory and enhance their ability to recall
knowledge. Consequently, this could increase learners’ performance on
subsequent assessments, and make the videos interactive.
Third, online videos were contextually relevant by linking theoretical
constructs to real-world contexts. On the one hand, the videos were
packaged to contextualise the relevance for particular class setting. For
example, the instructor addressed the name of the class, called out the
names of some students or referred to some past events that had happened
during the course. These behaviours, therefore, could bridge the gaps
between teacher and student relations as well as create an impression that
these videos were tailor-made for themselves. On the other hand, the videos
provided updated examples so that learners could construct meaning based
on their own experiences. The online contents also addressed the
procedures, techniques and strategies on how and when to apply those
translation skills in suitable contexts. Finally, some videos employed
authentic assessments in which learners were required to show their
command of what they had learned from the videos by applying that
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knowledge to real-world tasks (e.g., translating some typical features of a
local newspapers). As a result, learners could discover meaningful
relationships between theories and real-world applications.
Finally, cultural appropriateness was carefully considered to meet the
requirements of the Vietnamese legal system in terms of social norms, the
school’s regulations and political alignment. First, the contents were
attentive to the language, cognitive, physical, social and emotional
development of the students. For example, discrimination of race, age,
gender, ethnic culture, and prejudice was avoided when the videos
displayed the differences among people of different demographic identities.
Instead, these videos aimed to create a better understanding about people
from different backgrounds. Second, the video contents followed the school
rules by using authorised sources with proper acknowledgements. The
researcher had to examine the contents critically for inaccurate/outdated
information and the absence of relevant citations. Finally, all video contents
had to abide by the Vietnamese law of censorship by avoiding forbidden
topics. No misleading interpretations, intentional or inadvertent controversial
expressions in the source texts were allowed in the videos. Moreover, the
teacher also had to correct stereotypes and challenge students’ offensive
assumptions when comments were exchanged in the group forum. All of
these elements were carefully considered during the video making process
to ensure that the videos were legally and culturally accepted in this
communist country.
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3.5.3. Introductory stage

The first day was devoted to introducing the course contents, learning
outcomes, course requirements, the purpose of this study as well as the first
lesson. Initially, the researcher introduced himself and provided a general
structure of the course. Afterwards, an explanation of the online platform
was provided together with demonstrated activities to help participants
become familiar with this new approach. Then, the students received a
week-long set of structured activities and worked in small learning groups of
four students for some out-of-class activities. The groups were created
based on learners’ preferences and were re-assigned in week five to avoid
uncooperative attitudes among team members. They were also required to
choose a leader for each group, and work on a clear division of labour to
maintain fair contributions as well as to meet the deadline of their
assignments. Therefore, this step could help learners develop their psycho-
physiological and strategic sub-competences such as team work, task
allocation, and time management. Then, the researcher provided
instructions as to how the flipped class was operated. This procedure can
be summarised as follows:
● Students worked collaboratively in class and out of class for their
assignments and practice.
● Students prepared lessons by watching videos, doing preparatory
tasks, completing portfolios, and helping each other in the group forum
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● Students set specific objectives for each lesson according to the
course learning outcomes and the progression they would like to achieve.
Consent forms were distributed to the participants to gather their
approvals to participate in the study (Appendix B). A leaflet composed of the
procedure of this flipped approach was then given to each participant to
demonstrate the steps and allow them to make sense of the purpose of the
course structure. Finally, they explored the content of Module 1.
3.5.4. Structure of the flipped classroom

The intervention officially started in week 2 by including the group in
a wide variety of activities to make them hold ownership of the course
contents. This structure was adapted from the model of Zhai et al. (2017)
with three parts; namely, pre-class, in-class and post-class activities.
3.5.4.1 Pre-class activities
The students were notified in the “Task Announcements” about the
videos that were required to be watched before the next session. Each video
lasted about 10 minutes to focus the students’ attention, and trigger their
active learning and thinking styles. Guided notes were also available so that
the students could focus on key elements in the videos.
During the video watching process, students were required to take
notes, write down new contents, and identify difficult concepts. After
watching the video, they had to do some preparatory tasks to ensure that
they had completed the video lectures prior to the class. They might
exchange difficult problems in the preparatory assignments with fellow
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classmates or teachers through the group forum, thus enabling them to gain
a better understanding of the key contents in the videos. In order to ensure
lesson preparations, portfolios and preparatory tasks were marked as a
formative assessment and took up 20% of the total grade.
3.5.4.2 In-class activities
The in-class activities consisted of five steps: revision, exploratory
activities, joint negotiation, individual construction, and peer assessment.
First, consolidation games, quizzes, mini-tests, or homework
corrections were used to revise previous lessons as well as video-related
contents. This activity could allow instructors to check learners’
understanding as well as to identify what content needed deeper
explanation. Then, the problems were discussed until learners fully
understood the issues.
Second, exploratory activities required students to analyse critically
how the authentic texts were organised in terms of grammatical structures,
lexical items, particular text types, text registers, and coherence and
cohesion so that they could reformulate new translation versions. These
activities might include error identification, error correction, gap filling, or
sentence elaboration. The purpose of these activities was to place the
participants in practical contexts, through which they could investigate
translation tasks in pairs or groups, re-build on their knowledge, and cultivate
independent learning ability. Meanwhile, the researcher’s role was to initiate
and prompt discussions for deep and active learning.
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During the joint negotiation, learners collaborated to make new
translation products from the exploratory activities. Hence, students could
learn from teachers and peers to develop texts together until they have
acquired the knowledge and skills to perform this step independently.
Afterwards, they constructed their own texts individually with regard to clear
purposes, audience and organisation. Regarding the objectives of these two
steps, the researcher aimed to give priority to individual learners to
articulate, explore and investigate solutions. Sometimes the researcher
might get involved in classroom activities to explore learners’ approaches to
translation tasks. In some cases, the researcher could provide support by
explaining or eliciting how best to adopt translation strategies to solve certain
tasks.
Finally, students conducted peer assessment activities before
submitting their outcomes to the teachers. This could be through group
marking, debating, mini-games, or reports; thus, their motivation and
translation assessment capabilities could be enhanced.
To sum up, these in-class activities aimed to provide learners with a
more engaging as well as active learning environment, which helps them to
improve their translation ability. They also equipped learners with a more
sophisticated understanding so that students could be in a stronger position
to make informed choices in their future translation practice and exam
papers. Table 3-9 provides information on the in-class tasks.
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Table 3-9: In-class activities in the flipped translation class

MODULE STEPS ACTIVITIES
1. Revision - Relaying
2:
2. Exploratory activities - Table filling + Matching
Translation
3. Joint negotiation - Equivalent finding
skills at the
4. Individual construction - Translating banking forms
word level
5. Peer review - Betting
3: 1. Revision - Kahoot and/or Categorising game
Translation 2. Exploratory activities - Classifying translation problems
skills at the 3. Joint negotiation - Translating leaflet/Brochure
word level 4. Individual construction - Translation exercise (test 1)
(cont.) 5. Peer review - Peer correction
1. Revision - Errors quizzes and/or Family feud
4: 2. Exploratory activities - Phrase matching + Hidden
Translation 3. Joint negotiation images
skills at the 4. Individual construction - Translating collocations
phrase level 5. Peer review - Translation exercise
- Mini-debate
5: 1. Revision - Quizizz and/or Stop the bus
Translation 2. Exploratory activities - Error finding + Message analysis
skills at the 3. Joint negotiation - Paraphrasing
syntactic 4. Individual construction - Translation exercise (test 2)
level 5. Peer review - Error counting and report
6: 1. Revision - Reorder and/or Identification
Translation 2. Exploratory activities - Text type analysis
skills at the 3. Joint negotiation - Text register modification
paragraph 4. Individual construction - Translation competition
level 5. Peer review - Editing game
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1. Revision - Gap filling + Multiple choice

7: 2. Exploratory activities - Headline translation
Journalistic 3. Joint negotiation - Reformulation of different genres
articles 4. Individual construction - Translation exercise (test 3)
5. Peer review - Peer marking and presentation
These activities can be modified and adapted if they are adopted in
different contexts and disciplines. However, these activities were chosen as
a guiding flipped procedure because they fitted quite well with the theoretical
framework of the thesis. In terms of the translation theories, the activities in
each lesson aimed to develop learners’ competence from the shorter to
longer chunks of translation units (from individual lexical words to longer
sentences and contextual practice) so that learners could step by step
become proficient in their translation assignments. Learners were also
expected to adjust their translation habits to a professional manner because
more formal class time was dedicated to practice, and the teacher had more
chances to support them with proper strategies. As regards learning
theories, learners could experience different learning styles (individual, pair
and group work) within a collaborative environment to construct their
knowledge and sharpen their skills. The difficulty of activities was also
developed from a low level to a higher level in each module, providing some
challenging tasks during the individual construction to foster critical thinking
and personal mastery. As a result, these in-class activities could improve
learners’ performance as well as bring interest into the classroom.
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3.5.4.3 Post-class activities
Students were given other tasks to apply with similar techniques at
home and submit their refined translated versions to the teacher, who
corrected and provided feedback in the following week. Comments were
made individually, though some of the issues commonly recurrent in
exercises were focused in weekly group discussions. These assignments
were stored in the “Translation Portfolio” for future revision. Learning
outcomes were measured in terms of students’ 1) capacities to refine their
translation assignments based on peer reviews and teacher’s assistance
(portfolios), 2) proactive dispositions for pre-class preparations and in-class
participation, and 3) changes in their translation habits and competence.
These measurements were important not only to instructors but also to
students who might need feedback on their translation achievements.
Figure 3-2 summarises the procedure of the flipped class as follows.
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Figure 3-2: Procedure and structure of the flipped class
1. Online videos 1. Video watching
2. Preparatory tasks 2. Note-taking

Pre-class
3. Forum guidance 3. Preparatory tasks
4. Forum discussion
Teacher’s Students’
In-class
roles roles
Revision
1. Course teaching 1. Active learning
2. Facilitator 2. Cooperative
3. Mini - lectures and Exploratory leaning
tutorials 3. Problem solving

activities
4. Feedback 4. Discussion
5. Assessment 5. Presentation
Joint negotiation
6. Modification of 6. Critical thinking
teaching styles/ 7. Feedback
activities after Individual 8. Knowledge
each module construction construction
9. Exams + tests
Peer review
1. Correction + 1. Refining papers
feedback + submission
Post-class
2. Critical rethinking 2. Portfolios
3. Revision
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3.5.5. Informed consents

Before the intervention, an approval form was granted by the
Research Committee at BUH to proceed with the study. On the first day of
the course, participants received a consent form to join the study that was
conducted with anonymous information. Data from participants who did not
want to participate in the study were excluded. All these forms are provided
in the Appendix section.
3.6. Pilot study

A pilot study was conducted from February to May, 2018 to identify
any possible flaws and, thereafter, to refine the design. After the course, the
course design was revised and the interviews were conducted to identify any
problems before the actual investigation.
At the outset, the interview questions were tested to check the validity
and authenticity of these constructs. Two Research Committee members
and two senior students in this university were asked to review the
appropriateness, logical organisation, as well as the clarity of the questions.
After analysing the items, all reviewers agreed that the guiding questions
were clear and comprehensible for Vietnamese students, but there should
be some minor modifications. For instance, the questions “What part of the
new method do you like in particular? Why?” and “What is your favourite
step of the flipped approach?” seemed to be tautologous as they shared the
same meaning; thus, one of the questions should be omitted. Based on their
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feedback and comments, the interview questions were revised and finalised
for data collection.
Afterwards, the pilot study was conducted in a physical Vietnamese-
English translation course with 42 participants. The results revealed some
implications for the refinement of the actual study. First, when the researcher
delivered a video, certain activities to foster learners’ involvement such as
storytelling or experience sharing could engage learners’ attention as well
as enhance their comprehension more than from pure lectures. Second, the
conceptual framework was effective to organise various steps of the
teaching procedure to enhance learners’ acquisition. Third, video lectures
should be prepared better, with more examples from the teacher’s personal
experiences and actual problems that he had encountered. Besides,
transcripts should be provided so that low achievers could understand the
lessons thoroughly. Finally, a bonus system should be used to award extra
marks to those participants who contribute a lot in the group forum to
enhance the benefits of this element.
As a result of this pilot study, the study continued to employ the
conceptual and pedagogical frameworks (although modified as more
literature was read), and focused more on the delivery of video lectures as
well as the group forum. For example, video delivery would vary based on
the instructor’s preferences for a specific lesson and their contents. It might
be an “on-the-street” style where the researcher asked random people in
public places, or it might also be an interview with a translator to share their
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experiences. However, the common style was still the lecture-based format,
with the instructor lecturing, storytelling, and experience sharing.
In order to improve the usefulness of group forum, translation
exercises and assignments should be well-prepared to enable the learners
to cooperate more to solve the problems. For instance, students could be
given tasks that require them to provide two different translated versions, or
that contain cultural-specific items with no equivalent in the target language.
In addition, bonus points would be given to those who were supportive
during the course. Finally, interviewees would be asked more about their
experiences and perceptions towards the flipped classroom approach. The
questions, therefore, were designed with statements exploring their benefits
together with the degree to which the learners find the learning activities
rewarding. For example, such question as “In what way did you benefit from
the video lectures” would be raised to elicit feedback about learners’
experiences and perceptions.
3.7. Variables
3.7.1. Independent variable
The independent variable in the study was the teaching style of the
flipped instruction. Specifically, how this independent variable was
organised and managed was addressed by the content analysis of one
flipped scenario.
3.7.2. Dependent Variables

The benefits of flipped learning on learning outcomes in this study
was narrowed down to four explicit variables (see 2.3.9.1.). These are
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students’ translation competence and skills mastery of the subject matter
(skills), changes in translation habits (skills), attitudes towards the learning
process (attitudes), and challenges during the intervention (attitudes). These
four variables can be grouped into two constructs below.
3.7.2.1 Students’ translation competence
The first construct of dependent variable was learners’ enhanced
competence measured by their changes in translation habits and by their
self-reflection on various aspects of skill mastery. Error analysis of learners’
test papers and interviews were used to measure such the competence.
Thus, these measures constituted the two dependent variables in the study.
3.7.2.2 Students’ perceptions
The second construct referred to two dependent variables, including
students’ perceptions towards the benefits of the new approach, and
challenges faced by learners during the intervention. This construct was
measured via semi-structured interviews.
3.8. Data instruments and analysis

Figure 3-3 displays the relationship between research questions and
the instruments of the study.
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Research Questions Research instruments

+ Analysis tools
RQ1. How was the flipped classroom approach

Content analysis
actually implemented inside and outside the
of one scenario
classroom to ensure the constructive alignment
Content analysis +
with learning activities and learning outcomes,
assessments and educational theories in one Constructive alignment
particular flipped scenario?
RQ2. How did this flipped classroom approach

impact students’ improvement in translation Assessment analysis
competence, as measured by error analysis Error analysis
through their performance in formative and
summative assessments?
RQ3. How did the flipped classroom approach

impact the students’ translation habits, as
measured through their usage of professional
translation strategies, to solve their
assignments?
RQ4. What were the perceptions of
Vietnamese students towards the benefits of Interview
the flipped classroom approach in the NVivo
translation class? Thematic analysis
RQ5. How were the elements of the flipped
classroom approach helpful in improving the
students’ translation skills?
RQ6. What were the challenges faced by
Vietnamese students during the
implementation of the flipped classroom
approach?
Figure 3-3: Relationship between research questions and instruments
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3.8.1. Content analysis

Content analysis (Erlingsson & Brysiewicz, 2017) was adopted to
capture one specific scenario (Module 3). Two reasons were attributed to
the selection of this module. On the one hand, learners had overcome initial
frustrations against the new teaching approach, and got used to the
classroom procedure as well as the teacher’s expectations. On the other
hand, formative assessments were conducted in this module; therefore, it
was interesting to investigate the connection between the activities and the
learning outcomes, as well as the assessment results.
The rationale behind using content analysis was that no empirical
evidence has been provided to display the actual classroom procedure.
When no pre-defined themes have been given, this technique allows us to
look for redundant and similar codes to form major concepts, identify
relationships, and get at the central aspect of social interactions (Berg &
Lune, 2017). Moreover, when content analysis allows researchers to
alternate between specific relationships of interactions and language use, it
was suitable to describe what were actually happening, focusing the
frequencies use of technology, collaborative work, and active learning
exercises to sharpen learners’ skills in this flipped setting. Finally, content
analysis follows a systematic strategy that can be easily reproduced by other
researchers, generating results with higher authenticity (Creswell and
Creswell, 2018). Specifically, in this study, both out-of-class and in-class
activities were analysed qualitatively, evaluated and mapped against the
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learning outcomes, theoretical framework, and institutional descriptors with
the use of constructive alignment. Thus, this could shed light on how in-class
activities related to the pre-class materials and facilitated the learning
process.
3.8.2. Error analysis

Error analysis of learners’ test papers was carried out in Class A to
examine how well these activities contributed to enhancing learners’
performance and translation habits, and the paper-based tests were used to
examine students’ translation competence. Since the test contents and item
analysis had been evaluated by the Faculty committee, the content validity
of these test instruments was satisfied (Sujana, 1998). This instrument was
administered in two steps:
Step 1: The results from multidimensional assessments were
analysed qualitatively to explore learners’ competence over the duration of
the course. The tests were collected, and then analysed to find out and
classify translation errors (see Table 2-2). Data were examined with
quantifiable analysis to see how many percentages these errors appeared,
whether the frequency of these errors decreased over the assessment tasks,
how learners mastered required translated sub-competences, and how their
performance improved (or worsened); thus allowing us to know how their
habits changed over the assessment tasks. Furthermore, to ensure
uniformity as well as the correct and consistent evaluation of these formative
tests, suggested answers to each test were provided by the local
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practitioners. During the practice and assessments, electronic dictionaries
and online corpora were allowed to enhance learners’ instrumental
competence. After the data were collected, they were analysed by
quantifiable statistics of error analysis to further support the benefits of the
flipped classroom approach.
The procedure was implemented as follows:
1. Collecting students’ answer sheets and identifying the errors.
2. Analysing and categorising these errors into three categories, including
errors at the lexical level, errors at the syntactic level, and errors at the
paragraph level. Then, a percentage technique was used as follows:
The raw number of errors of each sub-category
Error percentage (%) = The total number of errors of one category X 100%
3. Using quantifiable measure to compare data from different tests.
4. Tabulating and graphing the findings.
Step 2: Results from summative test were analysed based on various
aspects as set out in the rubrics and learning outcomes. Specifically, the
errors were computed and compiled in tables, followed by qualitative
analysis in discussing these problems with some individual cases.
Justifications for these errors were clarified based on translation theories.
3.8.3. Semi-structured interview

3.8.3.1 Purposive sampling
Purposive sampling was used with a group of twelve interviewees in
Class B. These participants were chosen according to three criteria: a)
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students agreed to join the interview (volunteering); b) students were chosen
from three different aspects: gender (Male/Female), final grades (High
Distinction, Distinction, Pass), and geographical background
(Rural/Municipal); and, c) students had satisfied the course requirements
(fully completed all tests with a maximum of one absence during the course
intervention). The rationale behind the selection criteria was that the study
could seek a better understanding of the issue from different perspectives
when these participants came from different backgrounds. As a result, it
could provide higher accuracy, and be as representative as possible for the
whole class. Moreover, since these interviewees had good attendance
records and watched all the video lectures, they might be well aware of the
philosophy behind each pedagogical innovation as well as the effects on
their translation ability.
Based on the actual conditions and status of the classrooms, twelve
interviewees were chosen by using the following matrix in Table 3-10.
Table 3-10: Matrix for interviewer selection

Gender Grade Geographical
background
M F H.D. D. Pass Fail Rural Muni.
M x x x x x
Gender F x x x x x
Grade H.D. x x
D. x x
Pass x x
Fail
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3.8.3.2 Interview collection process
Semi-structured interviews were chosen because this method could
provide spaces for participants to articulate their opinions freely (Wellington,
2015). The dates and times were announced via both telephone and email,
and took place in the school campus. Each interview followed three steps:
1) Introduction to establish a good relationship between the researcher and
the interviewee, as well as to promote them to answer the questions as
honestly as they can; 2) Question-Answer session to validate the issues
under investigation; and, 3) Conclusion to provide the interviewees with an
opportunity to add any further comments. Before the interviews, the
participants were reminded of their rights to withdraw from the interview at
any time. The researcher also asked their permission for audio-recordings.
Then, the participants signed a consent form before the actual
interview. A laptop, recorder, and translation worksheets that were used
during the course were prepared throughout the process. Notes were also
taken by the researcher and supplemented with the records to glean details
from the discussion. Each interviewee’s privacy and confidentiality was
protected by making their comments anonymous. In addition, each transcript
was labelled by using a pseudonym and the recorded date of that interview
(e.g., Student A/28/05/2019).
During the introduction, the researcher outlined the research aims of
the study. In spite of the friendly relationship that the researcher tried to build
with students, the power relation issue could still be identified, especially
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when interviewees were asked to give critical feedback on the module, its
contents, teaching method and their overall attitudes. One way of
neutralising this issue was to talk about the researcher’s experience in
translation teaching and personal life. This could minimise the effect of the
power relation, providing the students with some confidence and a safer
environment to share their opinions about it.
In terms of the Question-Answer session, the interviews focused on
three main points, including 1) learner’s comments on each element of the
flipped classroom approach; 2) challenges faced by learners during the
course; and, 3) learners’ approaches towards a translation task (see
Appendix D for an interview guide). Although the interviews were scheduled
for 60 minutes, some of them might have taken more or less time, based on
the flow and detail of the participant’s responses. This means the process
might continue until data saturation was reached or no new information was
uncovered. Once all interviews and transcriptions had been completed,
NVivo qualitative software was used for thematic coding.
3.8.3.3 Interview analysis
Thematic analysis for the interview transcripts were adopted on three
following grounds. First, this method is suitable when a researcher has
developed some pre-defined themes, codes, and patterns of meaning based
on prior studies, the conceptual framework, research objectives, and
research questions of the study, thus alleviating the analysis process from a
huge data set (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Second, thematic analysis is useful
192
for examining the perspectives of different research participants, highlighting
similarities and differences, and generating unanticipated insights based on
not only the theoretical ground of research matter but also the personal focus
on the topic (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Therefore, this type of analysis could
provide a detailed and nuanced account of qualitative data on individual’s
perceptions, meaning construction, interpretation, and reactions. Finally,
thematic analysis exploit both inductive and deductive approaches as it
forces the researcher to take a well-structured approach to handling data
and to produce an organised report (Nowell, Norris, White, & Moules, 2017).
As a result, it provides a vast amount of flexibility in analysing, interpreting,
and displaying the findings.
After the interviews had been transcribed, the hard copies obtained
from the transcriptions were thematically coded into meaningful patterns by
the NVivo software. First, the researcher continuously read the transcripts
to get immersed in the data, and to understand deeply each participant’s
perspective. Afterwards, the researcher identified and coded the data into
key themes. Based on the research questions of the study, the categories
clustered under four following main themes:
1. Learners’ perceptions towards the effectiveness of the suggested flipped
classroom approach
2. Learners’ perceptions towards each element of the flipped classroom
approach
3. Challenges faced by the learners
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4. Influence of this instructional approach on learners’ translation habits.
Second, in each theme, the researcher structured the data by axial
and selective coding to form categories. Coding is a data reduction
technique that uses a word or short phrase to put relevant information into
simple codes or labels for further analysis and interpretation (Miles et al.,
2014). In this step, data were fragmented so that different opinions could be
identified and analysed descriptively. Then, these opinions were grouped
based upon their similarities and differences via axial coding. Afterwards,
selective coding requires the researcher to further combine the groups into
major categories by pattern matching (Miles et al., 2014). Finally, the coding
process put these categories under the main themes. Hence, this step could
help reduce the data, and establish the concepts and categories for the
interpretation process in the Discussion section.
Third, the researcher revisited the data to check, recode the
information, and look for further evidence to support the coding process. This
step was essential because the relationship among codes and categories
should be repeatedly confirmed so that the findings could be valid. In some
cases, there might be overlapping or interconnections between categories,
and, an adjustment might be necessary for strengthening the data analysis
process. Hence, this step could provide better insight for more succinct
categories as well as aid in the development of new concepts. After that,
tallies were used to investigate the ratio that the same categories emerged
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throughout interviews. If a response was unique, it was coded as “Special
case”, and, if relevant, was also included in the analysis.
Next, the data were cross-checked by a second coder (the main
supervisor) to ensure consistency and to check for reliability during the
coding of the interview data. Finally, a summary sheet was created to
assemble data from each participant, and the data were correlated into
meaningful interpretation of common patterns and themes.
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3.9. Flow chart of research activities
Start Research interest Conceptual Research questions

Problem statement
and topic identified framework and hypotheses
Pilot study Pre-intervention Develop + adapt

Literature review
(Sampling + ethics consent) Instruments
Content analysis
of one scenarios
Content analysis+
Constructive
alignment
End +
Assessment Data collection +
Submission
analysis Analysis + Thesis writing
A case-study research
design Error analysis
Class A
Interviews
Thematic analysis
NVivo
Class B
Figure 3-3: Flowchart of research activities 196

3.10. Trustworthiness and authenticity

Certain measures were taken to ensure the trustworthiness and
authenticity in this study. In terms of trustworthiness, this element infers
whether the findings truly represent what the research is supposed to
investigate in an actual context or not, and the results are manipulated or
created by research design errors, misunderstandings, or influence of
unknown factors (Berg & Lune, 2017). At the outset, because most of the
data came from the students’ perceptions of their experiences with the new
approach and were reliant on learners’ ability to articulate those
experiences, the researcher had to investigate learners’ responses from
different backgrounds, perspectives (both positive and negative), and
reactions to gain a representative picture through aggregated qualities, and
to maximise the range of specific information. He also had to review and re-
check the data several times (the course procedure and the interview
transcripts) with the help of another academic expert. Second, the interview
questions were revised continuously from the comments of different people
(the supervisors, the students, and third-party people) to ensure the logical
structure as well as the correct meaning of each question. Third, prolong
engagement was adopted until data saturation was reached or no new
information was uncovered. Thus, this could counter distortions from
researcher’s impact on the context or limit his bias. Fourth, participants were
asked to review the summarised data at the end of the interviews to make
the study more trustworthy. This also included the process of returning the
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opinions and responses to interviewees after transcription via emails to
authenticate the data. They were also encouraged to confirm the
transcriptions to determine whether the results truly reflected their opinions.
Once collected, all the results are attached in the Appendix of the thesis
once collected.
Regarding authenticity, this term refers to the degree of genuineness,
fairness, and credibility of a qualitative research design (Berg & Lune, 2017).
In this study, the research procedure, research protocol, and classroom
design were strictly adhered and implemented in two translation class.
Information about these issues were approved by the local university and
announced publicly on the Notice Board of the faculty. Second, the
assessment tasks were created by the third-party lecturers (the Division of
Linguistics, Translation studies, Literatures and Culture of the faculty)
without the involvement of the researcher. These assessment tasks were
also used by other non-flipped translation classes to ensure the uniformity
of the curriculum. Third, all the interviews were conducted in English
because a translation might create misunderstandings and dishonest
responses. Fourth, the same interview questions with the use of simple
language were asked to all students to ensure that all participants
understood the questions in the same manner. Fifth, confidentiality and
anonymity were continuously reminded so that the participants would not be
subject to any threat or fear that their identity would be revealed.
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Furthermore, to check authenticity during the coding process of interviewing
data, some codes, patterns and categories were cross-checked by an expert
in research background to ensure consistency. Finally, the involvement of a
third-party person was exploited to ensure the proper data collection process
as well as to increase the authenticity of the study. For example, all
interviews were conducted with the presence of one member in the Faculty’s
Ethics Committee. Besides, the test results were marked by a third-party
rater and sent electronically to the researcher with the signature of the Dean
to avoid dishonesty, which confirmed that learners’ responses did not
influence their assessment results. Similarly, discussions about research
methods, data collection and interviewees’ transcripts were also carried out
between the researcher and the supervisors, as well as the Dean to
overcome potential bias.
3.11. Ethical issues and considerations

Since this study dealt with educational discipline and human subjects,
ethical issues were accorded the utmost consideration throughout the
investigation. First, the Research Committee at BUH was asked to grant
permission for conducting the study; and also, written consent was secured
from all participants in the study. Second, all matters relating to privacy and
confidentiality were strictly complied to safeguard the personal security of
the participants. The participants’ names and responses were coded with
pseudonyms. Third, the data were collected from volunteer students who
had signed a consent form, and they could withdraw from the study at any
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time. As regards the interview process, it was clearly explained and
reiterated to the students that they were free at all times to indicate their
inability to answer any questions that they might find difficult to answer.
Fourth, no attempt was made to gather data about the private lives of the
participants. The researcher also assured them that their assessment results
were not affected by their non-participation in the study. Furthermore, the
interview transcripts and assessment results would be archived for at least
seven years (as required by the ethics policy of the University of Nottingham)
to ensure the integrity of the data collection process as well as avoid data
manipulation. In addition, due attention was paid to respect the personal
preferences of participants to ensure that their sovereign rights and self-
esteem are not violated. For instance, interviewees could choose the
interview date, time and place according to their convenience and
availability. Another example is that learners were allowed to study in the
traditional environment with the approvals of both instructors. More
importantly, the students were interviewed after their final exam so that there
was no danger or fear that their grades would be affected by their responses.
Finally, interviewees had the opportunity to review the transcripts, and to
clarify or delete any statements before the researcher proceeded to conduct
the data analysis.
3.12. Methodological limitations

There were five methodological limitations in this study. The first was
the time constraint as the intervention process could not be extended

200
beyond nine weeks due to the school curriculum policy. The time limit might
affect the findings on learners’ translation competence and translation
habits. Therefore, it might be useful to allow an extension of the study over
a longer period so that more rigorous findings can be obtained. Second, due
to the limited personal budgets and conveniences, the participants involved
in the pilot and main study were recruited from the Faculty of Foreign
Languages (BUH) based on the convenience sampling technique. This can
potentially reduce the generalisability of the findings. Besides, if the study
could be financially supported by donor agencies, the sampling would be
conducted in other institutions to expand the geographical scope of the study
and also increase the generalisability. Third, available time and resources
might constrain the number of interviewees, thus placing a limit on the
study’s scope and extent. It would have been preferred if more students had
been interviewed. Fourth, opinions about the flipped environment applied to
the learners might be influenced by the degree of their preferences to the
subject, their career orientation, their overall performance in class, and their
relationship with the instructor during the intervention. Besides, the teaching
style during the study period might influence the participants’ responses. In
others words, the participants’ perceptions towards the flipped instruction
might be different had the participants been taught by different teachers.
Last, recruiting teachers for the interventions was a challenge because the
flipped classroom approach is quite new in Vietnam. The elements of this
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approach, and how it is to be implemented in reality are hardly known in this
context. As a result, the researcher was also the instructor in the flipped
class because it was unfeasible to find another translator instructor who
would agree to implement this method in their class. This might pose a
serious limitation of the research study; therefore, certain steps had been
vigorously taken to minimise its shortcomings. For example, all participants
were constantly reminded of the objectives of the study (i.e., to improve
translation teaching in Vietnam and enhance students translation
competence), and they were encouraged to provide honest responses
without prejudice or fear of any negative impacts on their grades. All
transcripts were sent to interviewers to ensure consistency of content as well
as approvals being secured. These actions aimed to reduce the limitations
of this study as much as possible.
3.13. Conclusion
This chapter has presented the philosophical perspectives, research
design, research procedures, variables, instrumentation, data collection,
and data analysis of the study. It also elaborated on the study’s
trustworthiness, authenticity, ethical issues and methodological limitations.
A total of 79 junior students in two Vietnam-English translation classes
participated in this study. The research instruments included: (1) content
analysis of one specific flipped scenario; (2) the error analysis of learners’
test papers to determine how this approach could foster learners’
competence in various assessment task types; and semi-structured

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interviews to gain a deeper understanding of the themes emerging from the
research questions, as well as measure how the new approach re-orientated
the learner’s translation habits. The findings will be analysed as well as
presented in the next chapter.
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CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND FINDINGS

4.1. Introduction
This chapter displays the findings according to the research methods
and instruments presented in Chapter 3. It begins with a detailed analysis of
one scenario of the flipped classroom, illustrating how the activities were
organised and built upon the pedagogical framework, as well as showing the
interconnection between translation activities, assessment tasks, and
learning outcomes. Then, error analysis of formative and summative
assessments was depicted to describe how learners’ competence was
sharpened and how their habits were fostered through the intervention.
Afterwards, the end-of-term test results were analysed qualitatively to shed
light on how the flipped classroom approach supported learners to master
the required translation aspects. Finally, the chapter displays interview data
to clarify how individual learners perceived this flipped instruction, how they
adopted professional strategies to approach the translation tasks, how
students viewed each element, what element was useful (or ineffective) in
improving learners’ competence, how they evaluated their changes in
translation habits, and what difficulties hindered them during the translation
course based on the Activity theory.
4.2. A snapshot of the flipped classroom approach

This sub-section captures one snapshot of the flipped classroom
approach and provides a detailed analysis of this specific scenario.
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4.2.1. Learning contents and learning outcomes

Table 4-1 illustrates the contents taught in this session.
Table 4-1: Learning contents in Module 3

TRANSLATION PRACTICE AT THE LEXICAL LEVEL
1. Translation problems at the lexical level
2. Techniques to deal with translation problems at the lexical level
3. Practice in business-related texts (leaflets, brochures and short articles)
The learning contents belonged to the pre-existing course syllabus
and was developed with considerable focus on real-life practice for
conceptual understanding and procedural fluency. The contents were
intentionally built upon a logical order by setting out with an analysis of
translation problems at the lexical level. Then, suggested strategies to deal
with these lexical problems were given. These two parts could be seen as
theoretical, and were included in the online lessons. Besides pure translation
knowledge, certain elements of discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and
contrastive analysis were used to compare the differences between
Vietnamese and the English language. The lecturer also added his personal
experience and Vietnamese business knowledge into the video to ensure
contextual relevance and cultural appropriateness.
In terms of learning objectives, it was intended that at the end of the
lesson learners could:
(1) identify and classify common problems in translating V-E lexical terms.
(2) implement appropriate strategies to solve these problems and
translate lexical terms from Vietnamese to English in the business context.
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(3) make use of relevant documentary resources and electronic tools to
analyse, summarise, and translate business-related lexical terms.
(4) demonstrate professional work ethics, confidence, and responsibility
when working in groups as well as alone.
These objectives provided a basis for activity design because lower-
order skills (objectives 1 and 2) were fostered outside the classroom, and
higher-order skills (objectives 2, 3 and 4)were reinforced in the face-to-face
session. As a result, the teacher was geared towards helping learners
develop their lower ability at home such as identifying lexical problems,
classifying errors, distinguishing underlying meanings of the source
language, and explaining the mismatch between the source texts and the
target texts. Meanwhile, collaborative activities inside the classroom could
foster higher skills, such as implementing appropriate strategies to solve
translation problems, comparing the effectiveness of different strategies,
and evaluating the translated products. Finally, the lesson focused on
developing the necessary qualities of a real translator, such as professional
work ethics, confidence, and responsibility. This objective means that the
teacher should take more care to discern learners’ varied learning needs,
working styles and motivations. Both group work and individual work were
used to maximise learners’ involvement. This also implies that real-life
practice should be exploited, and constant reminders should be given to
encourage the learners to explore and go beyond their own perspectives or
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teacher’s comments. In other words, they should focus their attentions to the
intended readers and the larger working community.
Table 4-2 describes specific translation competence and learning
outcomes that were given special consideration in this session.
Table 4-2: Sub-competences and learning outcomes of the session

C1. Bilingual sub-competence
LO1. Understanding the communicative intention of source terms in

Vietnamese.
LO2. Identifying, classifying and correcting common translation
errors/problems in business-related texts.
C2. Extra-linguistic sub-competence
LO1. Activating extra-linguistic knowledge to translate lexical terms in the
business context.
LO2. Solving encyclopaedic translation problems in business-related texts,
and using appropriate strategies.
C3. Instrumental sub-competence
LO1. Identifying relevant documentary resources and electronic tools to
translate lexical items.
LO2. Managing relevant documentary resources and electronic tools to
solve translation problems at the lexical level in business-related texts, and
using appropriate strategies.
C4. Translation knowledge sub-competence
LO1. Identifying specific problems in terms of business-related
genres and business knowledge to apply different translation
strategies appropriately at the lexical level.
LO2. Finding a suitable translation method, strategy and equivalence for
each particular lexical term.
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4.2.2. Assessment activities

Table 4-3 shows all assessment activities in this scenario.
Table 4-3: Assessment activities and descriptions

Assessment Requirements and descriptions Assessment
tasks types
Learners answered five multiple-choice questions while watching the video. They
had to answer them correctly in order to proceed with the video; otherwise, they had to
1. Embedded answer the questions again. These questions were related to the previous part of the
questions in the video, aimed to activate learners’ engagement with the materials, as well as to stimulate Informal,
video learners’ thinking at the lower-order level. Formative
This assessment
aimed to facilitate the
effect of question-
embedded interactive
online environment on
students’ understanding. It
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required learners to: 1) play an active role while watching the videos; 2) interact with the
materials; and, 3) internalise these knowledge to answer the embedded questions.
Therefore, this supports the previous finding of phase 1, as well as the theory of active
learning and Blooms’ taxonomy. It was also useful to require the learners to watch the
video and take notes carefully instead of skipping the contents. The confirmation
feedback for each question could facilitate learning by requiring learners to make another
choice or re-assure them of the correct answers. Finally, it can help the instructor to
assess the effectiveness of the video, know whether learners could achieve the pre-
determined objectives, and, if necessary, make modifications in subsequent online
lessons.
Learners worked in pairs and answered 20 multiple-choice questions with the use Informal,
of Kahoot interactive app as shown in the following image. Formative
2. Pre-lesson
quiz
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After the completion of the pre-lesson quiz, the scores of all students were shown
briefly on the screen as follows.
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This kind of assessment had two main purposes. First, it checked learners’
understanding of the video contents and their existing knowledge about the topic. The
questions included both term-responses and application questions to foster lower-order
and higher-order thinking levels. Therefore, the instructor could diagnose learners’
misunderstandings or confusions byproviding detailed clarifications and giving
appropriate individualised support. Second, it could be seen as a warm-up activity to
stimulate learners’ preparedness and attitudes before they joined in the following
collaborative activities. As a result, this exercise provided scaffolds for students (both
low- and high-achievers) to adapt to the new learning session with a heightened
personalised and collaborative experience.
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These tasks were embedded in the video, and learners had to do them at home; Formal,
3. Preparatory then submit in class for marking. They involved two tasks as can be seen in the images Formative
tasks below. Task 1 required lower-order thinking level (identification) while Task 2 activated
higher-order skills (analysis and application). Five students with the highest marks
received a bonus for their portfolio marking. Learners could watch the video again,
search for information on the Internet, and also seek for peer support or instructor hints
in the Group forum.
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This was the first formative assessment of the course, and the result accounted for
4. Translation 5% of learner’s total grade. Learners had to do the test individually in 30 minutes. All the
test at the test items were taken from real-life materials to arouse learners’ interest, bring relevance Formal,
lexical level to their experience, as well as compel students to combine translation knowledge with Formative
(Individual critical thinking and reasoning skills. There are three tasks in the test:
construction) a. Task 1: Identify and classify six problems at the lexical level (3 pts.)
Learners were required to identify and classify six lexical translation problems.
These problems were taken from real-life situations such as commercial billboards,
business leaflets and newspapers. This task required learners to use the first two levels
of Bloom’s taxonomy to fulfill the requirements.
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b. Task 2: Solve eight problems with appropriate strategies in context (4 pts.)
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This task required learners to understand the underlying issues behind the
italicised words so that they could use appropriate translation strategies for each
situation. These problems might be hyponymy, synonyms with different connotative
meanings, ambiguity, business one-to-one terminology, eponyms, or acronyms.
Therefore, students had to activate higher order thinking skills to analyse the inherent
meanings of the italicised words, and the intentions of the writer, and distinguish various
nuances of the source language. Then, they had to select appropriate strategies
regarding the relevant contexts and linguistic structures.
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c. Task 3: Use electronic tools to solve six cultural-specific problems (3 pts.)
This was the most difficult part of the test. Learners were allowed to use reference
resources (dictionary) and electronic tools (mobile phones or translation software) to
analyse and provide suggested corrections to six culture-specific problems in a
restaurant billboard. This task could test all four required competences of the session.
First, they had to understand the communicative intention of the Vietnamese words, and
work through the suitable process to encode the new words in English (Bilingual sub-
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competence). Second, they had to activate extra-linguistic knowledge about Vietnamese
working styles of breeding and farming, culinary arts to solve these encyclopaedic and
cultural problems (extra-linguistic sub-competence). Third, they were allowed to use
materials to do the task so that their instrumental sub-competence could be enhanced.
Finally, they had to use appropriate translation methodology, strategy and equivalence
for each particular case (translation knowledge sub-competence). Unlike task 2, which
focused on separate sentences, this task required learners to perform in a complete text;
therefore, learners’ deeper understanding and skills proficiency could be assessed and
measured.
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After the test, learners were asked to
swap their papers and conduct a peer
assessment in fifteen minutes. They were
allowed to edit the papers, make
adjustments and provide alternatives to any
words/phrases they did not agree on. It was
a useful way for the students to understand
5. Peer assessment criteria better. It could also Informal,
assessment encourage the students to learn more Formative
deeply, build up their understanding, as well as develop their critical thinking ability.
Finally, learners submitted their test papers to the teacher. The teacher spent his
time at home marking the papers, correcting the mistakes, evaluating learners’
proficiency, and providing feedback to the class through the online platform. The
following picture depicts the teacher’s comments, a sampling of learners’ papers, and
the total number of students who had read the post.
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4.2.3. Learning activities

4.2.2.1. Pre-class activities
Learners had to complete the following three tasks:
a. Video watching
The video of this session lasted about 10 minutes. It was uploaded to
the online platform, and it included interactive elements to arouse learners’
interest. These elements provided visual representations, graphics and
screencasts with images of the teacher talking, and diagrams together with
audio narration. There also was an emphasis on varied vocal inflection and
active body movements. These elements were used to help students learn
better as they incorporated multiple inputs with different mental modes to
enable learners to understand and build connections.
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Another important aspect of the video was that it paid special
consideration to the contextual relevance. This required the instructor to
identify what learners might be potentially interested in. As the Internet has
evolved into a highly visual, social and dynamic environment, these
elements were incorporated into the video carefully. The teacher tried to
build visual tools into the online material to create additional inventory gained
from the topic and the content of the video. He also provided updated
Vietnamese examples in the business context to clarify the theories. Finally,
the video included context-based tasks such as incorporating current affairs
into the translation practice to help learners make connections between what
was being taught and what was happening in the real world.
Besides, cultural appropriateness also received adequate attention
during the video making process. Since this was a Vietnamese-English
translation class, more emphasis was placed on Vietnamese specific
cultural context and business issues. The use of culturally significant
elements (such as “zombie enterprise” or “communism”) adds a visceral
impact on learners’ viewing of the video. Humour was sometimes used to
make the video much more interesting, entertaining and memorable to the
students. Topic issues also were carefully chosen to ensure censorship and
political appropriateness. For example, information relating to the difficulty
of the national economy or the conflict between Vietnam and another
communist country was avoided and not provided. Furthermore, all source
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messages had to be taken from prestigious national newspapers or
magazines, with the proper citations.
Finally, the video included context-based tasks such as incorporating
current affairs into the translation practice to help learners make connections
between what was being taught and what was happening in the real world.
It then could expose students to a wide range of cultural, social and political
perspectives, they could develop a more responsible outlook and become
better prepared to operate in a diverse, globalised and multi-cultural
economy. The video image below provides an example of this approach.
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This image required learners to solve a wide range of translation
problems (hyponymy, synonyms with different connotative meanings, and
cultural-specific items). However, the words were put into context, with
proper illustrations that were related to the current affairs of the Vietnamese
context. As a result, learners could gain valuable insights into real life
applications through the translation strategies they were being taught.
b. Preparatory tasks and portfolio writing
Learners had to take notes while watching the videos, and do
preparatory tasks in their portfolios as shown the following image.
This activity was predicated on the understanding that there was
always a gap between video watching and learners’ actual understanding.
Therefore, according to ZPD, teachers should provide scaffolds by creating
suitable activities to spark pre-class engagements and ensure students’
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readiness for the in-class activities. For example, in this part of the pre-class
activities, learners had to find six examples of translation problems at the
lexical level as can be seen in the image below. Then, they submitted these
examples to the online platform as a quiz for other teams to do.
This exercise aimed to promote individualised learning as it tailored
task contents and instructional design according to the abilities and interests
of each learner. Learners were free to do their own research, choose what
topics they liked, and decide what kind of examples they would like to
submit. As a result, this task helped learners fill in the gap in their knowledge
before formulating solutions. This encapsulates the essence of active
learning and individualised learning, by which students acquire deeper
knowledge, driven by the need to apply new knowledge based on their
preferences and convenient conditions. It also created a rich environment
where learners could feel personalised, and the teacher’s understanding of
students’ comprehension via video lectures could be fostered.
c. Group forum discussion
The Group forum functions as a place for learners to exchange their
ideas, pose their questions or confusions, and submit their assignments. In
this lesson, the progressive learning networking activities were exploited.

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The following image depicts a question raised by one learner, and her
friend’s response:
One learner also posed a question to the instructor as her examples
were too challenging for the other classmates to figure out or solve:
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In this lesson, the Group forum provided some spaces for interactions
among group members, peer assistance, as well as teacher’s guiding
support. Since the preparatory task was individualised, the learners’
responses and submissions were varied. This led to various conceptual
confusions, linguistic misunderstandings, and some mismatches between
learners’ comprehension level and real-life situations. Therefore, the role of
the Group forum became significant, since this element provided learners
with opportunities to articulate their ideas, uncover misunderstandings, and
negotiate with others (even with the instructor) to reach consensus. They
had to support each other online, evaluate different approaches to solve the
problems and justify their choices. Consequently, the out-of-class activities
not only improved lower-order thinking level but also facilitated learners’
deeper understanding in the thought-provoking exercises, as well as
improved higher thinking skills. It was provided evidence to show that
Bloom’s taxonomy and ZPD became relevant in this flipped approach,
because learners could sharpen their skills even outside the classroom. In
summary, the diversified functions of this forum could satisfy differentiation
and personalisation, which are needed to provide significant support for self-
regulated learning activities and out-of-class interactions.
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d. Summary
In short, the scope of the topic and the expected learning outcomes
had been defined internally before the design of the pre-class activities.
Therefore, having such a well-defined scope helped the students absorb
educational contents more readily. Each activity was essentially connected
to the next activity. Moreover, another core aspect of this flipped classroom
approach was placed on how the students would internalise the contents
and apply the materials since mere video watching and note-taking were
arguably not different from the traditional form of teaching. Therefore, careful
consideration was given to make sure that the learning objectives had been
met. This took the form of embedded questions, online quizzes and
discussions with clear intentions, instructor’s prompt feedback, and a
suitable assessment method to know whether learners could achieve the
expected learning outcomes.
4.2.2.2. In-class activities
The in-class activities followed the sequential structure in Table 3-6
with considerable focus on socio-constructivist and active learning strategies
to help students enhance their competence and sharpen their skills. It
included five small subsets of the flipped classroom approach.
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Learning
STEPS Activities descriptions
outcomes
This step involved two small tasks:
 Pre-lesson quiz with the use of Kahoot app
(see Table 6-3) C1-LO1,
1. Revision  Homework correction: Learners first C1-LO3,
(45 minutes) exchanged their papers with peers for peer C2-LO1,
assessment; then, each group delivered their C4-LO1.
solutions; and the teacher finally concluded
with suggested answers.
Learners analysed critically the way in which
lexical items posed challenges for translation
assignment using authentic materials. They
worked in groups or in pairs to identify and C1-LO1,

2.
classify the translation problems in the practical C1-LO3,
Exploratory
contexts, re-build on their knowledge, and C2-LO1,
activities
reformulate translation versions. These C3-LO1,
(45 minutes)
materials were taken from both general topics C4-LO1.
and business-related topics, and required
learners to activate higher-order thinking skills
such as analysing and synthesising to solve the
problems. These materials also were
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somewhat similar in format as in the formative
assessment. This step took about 45 minutes.
Learners were required to work in groups or C1-LO1,
in pairs to make new translation products from C1-LO3,
3. Joint different and separate sentences, and a short C1-LO4,
negotiation piece paragraph. First, they had to identify one- C2-LO1,
(60 minutes) to-one single terms (which they had studied in C2-LO3,
the previous module) and provide suitable C3-LO1,
translations. Second, they had to categorise C3-LO3,
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translation problems inherent in each sentence C4-LO1.
and in the paragraph. Then, they followed the C4-LO2.
suggested process to refine the meanings and
translate these lexical items in a business-
related context. Finally, they swapped the
papers with their friends to facilitate information
exchange and comments. Electronic tools were
allowed to enhance their instrument sub-
competence.
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This task was the translation test at the
lexical level (see Table 6-2), and became part of
the formative assessment. Learners had to do
the test individually within the time limit. This C1-LO1,
task served three purposes. First, it measured C1-LO3,
how well each individual student could absorb C1-LO4,
4. Individual the lesson and master their skills proficiency. C2-LO1,
construction After that, the instructor could know how to C2-LO3,
(30 minutes) adjust his instructional pedagogy and provide C3-LO1,
personalised support to the students. Second, it C3-LO3,
took into account different learning styles and C4-LO1,
learning needs, enabling both introvert and C4-LO2.
extrovert students to have opportunities to work
independently. Therefore, they could gain from
exercising creativity thinking, time-management
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skills and self-control during the course. Finally,
it could meet the requirements of the local
educational policy, which states that community
sharing and personal growth should be fostered
so that learners could work independently and
responsibly to achieve international integration.
This step was incorporated into the peer
assessment activity in which learners
exchanged their individual papers to mark
according to the assessment rubrics. The C1-LO1,
students also posted their papers on Padlet for C1-LO3,
more comments from their peers as shown in C1-LO4,
the image below. C2-LO1,

5. Peer
C2-LO3,
assessment
C3-LO1,
(45 minutes)
C3-LO3,
C4-LO1,
C4-LO2.
When this step was used as a learning
element of the flipped approach, it could
enhance the learner’s self-confidence and self-
awareness of strategies for personal
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improvement. The students could gain better
insights into the intended learning outcomes
and the assessment criteria. As a result, this
activity personalised the learning experience
and motivated the continued learning process.
4.2.2.3. Post-class activities
Regarding the post-class activities, learners were required to reflect
on their strengths and weaknesses during the session, and to write down in
the portfolio some methods they would do to improve their skills in
subsequent assignments. They also were reminded that their first formative
test papers would be uploaded online with the teacher’s comments and
marking results. These papers were stored in the “Translation portfolio”
section of the online platform, and could be used to review for the final exam.
4.2.2.4. Comments on this specific session
Activities in this scenario were interconnected and aligned with the
learning outcomes, lesson objectives as well as theoretical framework.
Various kinds of assessments were adopted, including self-assessment (i.e.,
portfolio and assignment refinement), peer assessment (peer review),
hetero-assessment, criterion-referenced assessment, norm-referenced
assessment (a bonus for the top five students in the preparatory tasks), and
ipsative assessment (post-class activity). The assessment items were
mainly constructed based on real-life contexts, and contained questions that
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probed similar aspects of course contents as well as the final exam. The
adoption of the suggested flipped classroom approach also was effective by
incorporating suitable classroom activities based on active learning and
socio-constructivism. This in turn could help the teacher uncover more about
the decision processes regarding the participants’ translation habits and
competence. In addition, these activities facilitated the overall class
engagement and assessed individual problem identification, providing
feedback to the instructor on the achievement level of students so that
appropriate scaffolding could be given promptly.
Moreover, the inclusion of text choices and various activity modes
provided evidence for contextual relevance and cultural appropriateness. On
the one hand, learners could have freedom in some activities such as
preparatory tasks (e.g., searching for examples of translation problems and
providing suggested answers, sending quizzes to the online platform). This
was a necessary step towards autonomy since learners could make
decisions in domains which had traditionally belonged to the teacher. As a
result, it enhanced students’ willingness to engage in self-directed work by
considering their learning preferences and ability. On the other hand, the
lesson was restricted to the scope of the lesson (translation of business-
related items in the Vietnamese context). This means video contents,
classroom activities, and text selection should be appropriate in a
performance-based educational system of a communist country. The local
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policy required that more time and mark allocations be dedicated to the first
three levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, and more focus be given to business text
genres, the lessons promote learners’ patriotism, and the teaching process
promote better learning performance (contextual relevance and cultural
appropriateness). Therefore, this scenario had to take these issues into
serious consideration. One example was the requirement of good grades in
the final exam, which could be used as a gauge to measure the teacher’s
quality. Therefore, the portfolio served as a basis for learners’ review and
consolidation. Another method was the frequent revision of prior lessons at
the beginning of each lesson so that previous knowledge could be constantly
recalled and reinforced. Finally, individual construction—which has a similar
format to the summative assessment—was used to develop learners’ mental
well-being and test-taking skills. All of these elements of contextual
relevance and cultural appropriateness aimed at the gradual and planned
development of students’ competence as they required them to use their
professional translation strategies appropriately to achieve academic
outcomes.
4.3. Student’s improved competence through

assessments
The following sub-sections display data taken form the formative and
summative assessments of Class A to clarify how the flipped classroom
approach impacted learners’ performance and translation habits.
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4.3.1. Learners’ performance in this specific scenario (N=39)

This part set up a hypothesis on the premise that the constructively
aligned flipped classroom approach affected the results of learners’ skill
mastery and translation competence. Based on the first formative
assessment, the data were collected and analysed in comparison with the
scores they obtained as shown in Table 4-4 below.
Table 4-4: Descriptive analysis of participants’ scores

N Min Max Mean S.D.
Flipped class
39 6.0 9.0 7.66 0.85
The above results show that learners’ scores ranged from 6.0
(Average) to 9.0 (High Distinction). The mean score was really high at 7.66.
However, the standard deviation of 0.85 revealed that the difference among
the participants’ scores was high, too. This means that there was a
perceived spread-out in the learners’ performance. Therefore, the instructor
should try to minimise this gap by providing more personalised support (e.g.,
identifying their weaknesses and giving personal coaching to improve their
competence levels).
Table 4-5 below shows the frequency of score range.
Table 4-5: Frequency of score range

N Unsatisfactory Average Good Distinction High
Distinction
Flipped class
39 0 4 16 17 2
Percentage 100% 0 10% 41% 44% 5%
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The scores clustered around two categories of Good and Distinction
levels. This proved the homogeneity of the participants’ translation
competence, and also implied that not only individualised support but also
comprehensive support at the macro level (e.g., more consideration paid to
classroom procedure and whole class participation) should be given to
enhance the learners’ performance in the following assessment activities.
Table 4-6 provides detail of the frequencies of lexical errors that
students made in the first assessment.
Table 4-6: Frequencies of lexical errors in the first assessment
Types Number of Number of Number of
items students errors
Terminology 4 14 56
Borrowing 1 0 0
LEXICAL ERRORS
Incorrect meaning 4 33 132
Acronym 2 23 46
Multi-word units 2 26 52
Cultural elements 7 9 63
The data revealed that that learners had difficulty in solving lexical
problems of synonyms (with different connotative meanings), acronyms, and
multi-word units. This could be attributed to the learners’ lack of bilingual
sub-competence (to differentiate the underlying meanings of words), extra-
linguistic sub-competence (to activate thematic and bicultural knowledge),
and even translation knowledge sub-competence (to use appropriate
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translation strategies). Meanwhile, business terminology and cultural
elements did not pose much trouble since learners were able to use the
dictionary and electronic tools to do the test. The mismatch implied that more
practice should be spent on improving learners’ required sub-competences,
even with the use of electronic corpus to enhance instrumental sub-
competence. The focus of following video contents, online discussions, and
in-class collaborative activities would be given to provide practice and
enhance the three sub-competences in greater depth.
4.3.2. Error analysis through assessment tasks

This sub-section displays the error analysis of learners’ translation
papers through four assessment tasks. Various techniques were used to
shed light on how learners mastered the required translated competence,
and how their habits changed over the duration of the course.
Lexical errors were the first aspects to be investigated. After these
errors had been identified and classified from the test papers, the frequency
of these errors were calculated by computation. These errors were
categorised into five types; namely, incorrect meaning (due to the
incapability to comprehend the connotative meaning of source words), non-
standard terminology, untranslated terms (incorrect translation of acronyms
and eponyms), cultural elements, and multi-word units.
An analysis of the errors in each sub-category and in each
assessment task was presented in the following Table 4-7.
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Table 4-7: Error analysis of lexical items
Sub-categories Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Final test
Incorrect meaning 132 (38%) 56 (43%) 43 (41%) 42 (47%)
Terminology 56 (16%) 21 (16%) 21 (20%) 17 (19%)

Lexical errors
Untranslated terms 46 (13%) 11 (8%) 0 3 (3%)
Cultural elements 63 (18%) 14 (11%) 14 (14%) 11 (12%)
Multi-word units 52 (15%) 28 (22%) 26 (25%) 17 (19%)
Total errors 349 (100%) 130 (100%) 104 (100%) 90 (100%)
Results showed that the total lexical errors, as well as the errors in
each sub-category decreased consistently over the tests. Errors of
translating words with incorrect meaning had the largest frequency, followed
by the errors of multi-word units and terminology. The reason for such a high
frequency of lexical errors in these three sub-categories could be attributed
to the complexity of the Vietnamese language, low proficiency of learners’
domain knowledge of recent business issues, and a lack of contemporary
Vietnamese dictionary. This also was caused by learners’ unfamiliarity with
online corpus, which required instructors to spend more time on this issue.
However, the number of such errors in the final test was, notably, only one-
third the number of the first formative assessment.
Table 4-8 displays the syntactic errors that learners made.
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Table 4-8: Error analysis of syntactic items (N=39)
Typos 0% 1 (0.5%) 4 (4%)
Miscellaneous 8 (5%) 5 (4%) 2 (2%)
Redundancy 11 (7%) 10 (8%) 7 (7%)
Word order 17 (10%) 7 (5.5%) 7 (7%)
Article 47 (28%) 42 (33%) 28 (29%)

Syntactic errors
Tenses 22 (13%) 14 (11%) 11 (12%)
Preposition 37 (22%) 33 (25%) 26 (27%)
Structures 2 (1%) 5 (4%) 4 (4%)
Word formation 15 (9%) 6 (5%) 4 (4%)
Voices 7 (5%) 5 (4%) 4 (4%)
Punctuation 0 0 0
Total errors 166 (100%) 128 (100) 97 (100%)
The results revealed that learners still encountered some difficulties
in English syntactic issues. The total errors reduced over the tests from 166
errors in test 2 to 97 errors in the final test, and no mistake was found in
punctuation. Errors of typos, grammatical structures, word formation, active
and passive voice, as well as miscellaneous received the lowest frequency.
However, errors of using articles and preposition had the largest frequency,
with more than 25% in each assessment. This requires more attention and
further practice to raise learners’ competence in these two sub-categories.

239
An example is shown below taken from the second assessment of
Student 11:
In this example, the learners made fifteen translation errors at the
lexical and syntactic levels as can be seen in Table 4-9 below.
Table 4-9: Examples of error analysis at the lexical and syntactic level
Error types Learner’s errors Suggested translation
One acronym error: Company Limited (Co.,

 Công ty TNHH Limited Company Ltd.)
Three errors of non-

standard terminology:
 hậu mãi  after sale  aftersales
 doanh số  sale revenue  sales
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 rào cản thương mại  trash trade  trade barrier
One error of cultural

element:
 Bộ Tài chính Ministry of Finance Ministry of Finance
(MoF)
One untranslated term:
 một tháng  per month
Two incorrect renditions:

 thúc đẩy  increase  boost
 xóa bỏ  alleviate  remove
Three errors of verb tense:

 nhất trí  + agrees  agree
 (vừa mới) siết chặt  + tighten  has tightened
 (vừa mới) áp đặt  + imposed  has imposed
Two errors of grammatical

structures:
 cũng như (comparison)  so …as  as … as
 sự sụp đổ của nhiều  many factories  the shutdown of
công ty must be closed many factories
Two miscellaneous errors:

 chính bản thân  + itself  themselves
 nợ xấu (plural)  + performing loan  performing loans
Fifteen errors were found in five short translated sentences made by
one student, which provided useful implications for both the teacher and the
learner. First, these errors indicated learners’ weaknesses in bilingual and
extra-linguistic sub-competences. Second, they implied that the particular
student did not undergo the necessary translation process to decode and
encode the lexical items. She still focused too much on her intuition and was
influenced heavily by Vietnamese semantics and structures. This means
that the teaching approach was ineffective at that stage in helping the
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student achieve professional translation habits. Therefore, more time and
effort was allocated to help the student improve her skills and remove her
habit of negative transfers. This was done through the use of more
personalised interactions between the teacher and the student, frequent
reminders to follow the necessary translation process/techniques, more real-
life materials, and further encouragement to use the online corpus. The
beneficial impact of these contextual modifications could be found in the
following excerpt taken from the final test result of this student:
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In the final test, this student made only six lexical mistakes; namely,
incorrect meaning (“offer a 3% discount” instead of “decrease by 3%”,
“former” instead of “old”, “set up a company” instead of “started up”),
terminology (“issue” instead of “public”, “Form No” instead of “Modern”), and
untranslated word (“QD”). She also made two grammatical errors including
the preposition in sentence 2 (with a budget of) and verb form in sentence 3
(“Dated” instead of “Date”). Such an improvement implied that the flipped
classroom approach and methodological adjustments during the course had
positive influences on the learner’s competence and translation habits.
Table 4-10 demonstrates an analysis of the learner’s errors in using
translation knowledge to handle the tasks from the paragraph level.
Table 4-10: Descriptive analysis of translating errors (N=39)
Style and naturalness 24 (31%) 17 (27%)

Translating errors
Coherence and cohesion 17 (22%) 15 (23%)
Reformulation techniques 37 (47%) 32 (50%)
Total errors 78 (100%) 64 (100%)
Data showed that translating errors were the least severe in the three
types of error categories, with only 78 and 64 errors in the last two
assessments. Two reasons could be attributed to this issue. On the one
hand, learners during their first two academic school years, had received
ample practice in academic writing skills for coherence and cohesion, and
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they had considerable exposure to business genres, text types and text
registers. Therefore, these two translation problems might not have posed
many challenges to them. On the other hand, there were few items to test
learners’ competence in these sub-categories. As a result, not as many
translating errors were made by the learners as lexical and syntactic errors.
There also were perceived difficulties faced by some participants in
the use of reformulation techniques (i.e., addition, omission, clarification and
adaptation), with high frequencies at 47% in test 3, and 50% in the final test.
Since a mastery of reformulation techniques is an essential pre-requisite for
professional translators, more time and effort should be devoted to enhance
learners’ competence of translation skills and reformulation techniques.
The example below was taken from the final exam of the same
student (Student 11). Besides seven errors made at the lexical and syntactic
levels, only one translating error at the paragraph level was found in the
paper. That was the influence of the Vietnamese writing style in listing a
series of objects (the use of “…” after “such as” in line 9). The translated
version followed the format of journalistic articles, and was carefully written
with coherence and cohesion. More importantly, all requirements of
reformulation techniques were met, such as the clarification of “Bac Ninh” in
line 3 (a province in the North Vietnam), and the addition of Samsung
Electronics Group in line 3. Making so few errors, given the length of the
translated task, was a laudable achievement from Student 11. During the
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span of the course, she was able to bridge the gaps in her domain
knowledge, sharpen her bilingual capability, as well as re-orientate her
translation habits. This also confirmed that the systematic design of the
flipped classroom approach, with its careful consideration of individualised
learning could yield fruitful benefits to both the teaching and learning
process.
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In summary, error analysis of learners’ translation papers in different
formative and summative assessments provided great insights on the
benefits of the flipped classroom approach in enhancing learners’
competence and translation habits. First, a consistent decrease of errors
over the tests confirmed the positive impact of this approach on learners’
competence. Thanks to more collaborative in-class practice and the
constructively aligned classroom procedure, all activities were interrelated to
improve the learners’ performance based on the learning outcomes,
assessment criteria, and pedagogical framework. As a result, their
competence in translation skills at the lexical syntactic and paragraph levels
were enhanced, with fewer errors seen in the test papers. Second, this error
analysis was an effective tool to help educators diagnose students’ strengths
and weaknesses so that adjustments could be made throughout the course.
The teacher would plan and inject more initiatives and solutions to enable
learners’ to handle their struggles and minimise repetitive errors. Therefore,
the flipped approach was flexible and fluid, and underwent on-going
adaptations to address various leaning needs or specific expectations. This,
in turn, made the teaching process more contextually relevant and culturally
appropriate to both teachers and learners.
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4.4. Interview results

This part is divided into four sub-sections based on the main themes
of the interviews and the research questions:
1. Learners’ perceptions towards the suggested flipped classroom approach
2. Learners’ perceptions towards each element of the flipped approach
3. Challenges faced by the learners
4. Beneficial impacts of this instructional approach on learners’ translation
habits.
The reason why data for research question 3 were put in the final
theme was because the learners had to answer some questions relating to
a translated assignment. Therefore, they had to be relaxed and well-
prepared to recall all the strategies they had learnt during the course. They
also need more time to look at their tasks, internalise, and make their
informed decisions. As a result, this part was conducted at the end of the
interview.
4.4.1. Learners’ perceptions towards the flipped classroom

approach
Generally speaking, all interviewees expressed positive attitudes
towards this approach due to its many beneficial impacts.
At the outset, the responses to question 1 (Do you have any
experience of flipped classroom before this class?) revealed that although
some participants had certain experiences with online learning and
technology-assisted classrooms, no student had any prior exposure to a
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flipped environment, and they also had no preconceived ideas of this
approach before the intervention process.
Responses for question 2 (What do you think about the effectiveness
of this flipped classroom?) showed that students thought highly of this
approach, thanks to its engaging classroom atmosphere and the amount of
knowledge/skills they acquired. Examples from student comments provide
illustrations of some of the benefits as follows:
“It is active and interesting. We could practice many
skills, not just translation skills.”- Student A
“I think that it makes some changes, beneficial for my
...uh… translation skills ... I can review the lessons that I have
forgotten along the way I learnt the subject.” - Student B
“I developed many skills. My translation skills of course.
My listening skills also improved a lot. More importantly, I
developed my knowledge about the world, the life and social
issues.” - Student C
“We learn a lot and work a lot in the classroom. … It is
really funny, interesting and … informative” - Student H
For question 3 (How has the flipped classroom approach changed the
way you learn?), there were some encouraging changes in their learning
styles. All interviewees stated that they became more active, well-prepared
and satisfied with the learning process as indicated in the following extracts:
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“I had to watch the videos, take notes, submit the notes
and get marks for my notes, so I have to prepare better. I have
to find some examples and this makes me think. Because I can’t
find the answers on the Internet, I have to discuss and share
with my team members frequently.” - Student C
“… I had many opportunities to practice, speak and write.
It’s not boring. I am not passive. It should be the way we learn
at the university.” – Student F
“It’s totally different. I have to be well-prepared before the
class. I know what will be taught and I have to prepare for it. In
the classroom, we have a lot of activities in groups. So I become
more focused. I actually learned.” – Student G
Most interviewees said that they had to prepare, acquire the recorded
knowledge before in-class sessions, and join in different activities to sharpen
their translation skills. Thus, it could be said that that learners’ participation
was fostered in this flipped class, and they actually experienced a dynamic
academic learning atmosphere.
In short, when investigating learners’ responses in details, the
benefits of this suggested flipped classroom approach from question 2 and
3 could be summarised in the table 4-11 and Figure 4-1 below:
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Table 4-11: Benefits of the flipped classroom approach

Benefits Examples
1. Enhanced “It is active and interesting.” - Student A

interest in the
subject matter “It’s not boring. I am not passive.” - Student F
“It is really funny, interesting and … informative.” -
Student H
2. Deeper “We could practice many skills, not just translation

understanding
and application skills.”- Student A
of translation
“More time for practice means that I could understand
skills
the lessons, do exercises and do the tests better” -
Student D
“I become more focused. I actually learned.” –
Student G
3. Greater “This is the first time when I want the teacher to give
participation and
contributions more exercises. I tried to join in all activities to get the
points, to level up, and see what prize I could win. ” -
Student F
“This is the first class at the university that I joined in
all lessons.” - Student K
4. More “I have to prepare better … I think I am more

preparations and
commitment committed and active during the course.” - Student C
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“This is also the first class I prepared the lessons well
at home.” - Student K
5. Improve English “My listening skills also improved a lot.” - Student C

language
capabilities “I had many opportunities to practice, speak and
write.” – Student F
6. Enhance “This class boosted my motivation for self-study and

motivation,
confidence, and interactions.” – Student G
cooperation
“I am looking forward to the new videos, new lessons,
and new activities every week… I also know the
methods to work with my team members better to
finish the tasks. I feel more confident.” – Student H
“My motivation to study and prepare for the new
lessons improved a lot… I feel better when working
with my friends to do the exercises. ” – Student I
1. Enhanced interest in the subject matter (8 responses)
2. Deeper understanding and application (7 responses)
3. Greater participation and contributions (7 responses)
Benefits 4. More preparations and commitment (11 responses)
5. Improve English language capabilities (5 responses)
6. Enhance motivation, confidence, and cooperation (8

responses)
Figure 4-1: Benefits of the flipped classroom approach from learners’ responses
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Responses to question 4 (How do you evaluate your translation skills
at the end of the course?) revealed some intriguing information about the
beneficial impacts of this approach on learners’ translation competence.
“I know how to use appropriate words in different
contexts, I know how to analyse the source texts to identify the
meaning behind the words. I know how to translate with different
structures. I know how to arrange the ideas logically and
coherently in a paragraph.” – Student A
“Before the course, I just wrote on my own, I felt my
natural way. But after this course, I followed the instructions, the
techniques carefully rather than do it naturally.” – Student D
“I could explain why I wrote the sentences in that way, I
know how to assess a translated paper, how to correct the
mistakes to make the translation better.” – Student G
“I know many new skills during the course. You know,
reformulation techniques, diction, and the skill to use e-
dictionary. Besides, I know how to use the rubrics to assess my
papers and “my friends’ papers.” – Student F
“I like the translation skills we studied during the course
because it is necessary for this job and for my examination. And
I think my soft skills improved too, such as time management
skills, self-study skills, and evaluation skills.” – Student K
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Findings from the interviews revealed that the participants could
recognised that their translation skills had developed in many ways. In fact,
this was a positive signal because learners not only improved their skills but
they could also become aware of this improvement and realised that what
aspects had been fostered. This means leaners had become active subjects
during the training process, and some principles of flipped learning such as
“Learning culture” and “Engaging and effective learning experiences” were
respected in this flipped approach.
In short, Figure 4-2 illustrates the specific aspects of translation skills
that were enhanced based on learners’ responses.
1 Translation skills at the word and phrase level (12 responses)
2 Translation skills at the syntactic level (12 responses)

3 Translation skills at paragraph level (11 responses)
4 Reformulation techniques (12 responses)
5 Assessment and evaluation skills (10 responses)

6 Soft skills (e.g. time management skills, self-study skills) (8 responses)
Figure 4-2: Improved translation skills via the lens of interviewees

Answers to question 5 (What do you like most about flipped
classroom?) are highlighted in the summarised viewpoints towards this
approach.
“We had more time to communicate and practice and the
atmosphere was very exciting. … I mean, we used our brains
and think more in this class.” – Student A
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“Everything has the meaning. The videos helped me to
prepare the lessons, the tasks helped me to practice, and the
activities were interesting to make my brain think.” – Student G
“In this class, I learnt many useful things. The teacher
prepared very well. I mean I could see the role of the teacher
and how this role helped me to improve my skills.” – Student K
Thus, it could be inferred that the interviewees liked the energetic
collaborative atmosphere of the classroom as it could foster their enthusiasm
to study. Moreover, they also were aware that the logical connection of
learning activities (or the constructively-aligned flipped lessons) played an
important role in enhancing their translation capability. The interviewees
acknowledged that the course structure had a logical organisation of
materials and activities to help them understand the subjects better.
Therefore, they thought highly of the teacher’s role in designing the lessons,
stating that such endeavours contributed significantly to their learning styles,
understanding and performance.
Finally, Figure 4-3 below revealed the top 100 most repeated words
of the interviewees’ transcripts.
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Figure 4-3: 100 most used words from interviewees’ responses

It could be said that most of the frequently-used words employed by
the learners were positive ones. The most significant aspect was the
repeated use of “communicative” by participants to describe their feelings.
From a closer investigation, their expressions of “communicative” were
aligned with their positive motivations. In other words, what they called
“communicative” implied what motivated them the most to work harder, to
get involved, and to indulge themselves in the collaborative learning
environment as much as possible. Besides “communicative”, “connected”
and “expected” were also highly appreciated expressions. In addition, less
frequently used but equally enthusiastically expressed related terms such as
“helpful”, “interesting”, “carefully”, “different”, and “original” were also
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observed. Therefore, the overall impression can be discerned from the
positive perceptions towards the new educational approach, even for those
who found the course rather overwhelming.
To sum up, data showed that this approach provided a positive
learning experience for the students in this study. Learners’ responses
clarified that they could enjoy ample beneficial values brought about by the
flipped classroom approach and their translation competence developed in
different ways. Moreover, learners also expressed their preferences and
satisfaction with such an improvement in skill mastery, with their
understanding and remembering, and with their participation and
engagement level. Overall, results from this part of the interviews revealed
that learners held positive attitudes towards the benefits of the flipped
instruction in relation to the learning outcomes and personal performance.
More details are discussed in the next sub-section, which will further
provide better insights into the beneficial impacts of this suggested
approach.
4.4.2. Learners’ perceptions towards each element of the flipped

classroom approach
A detailed investigation into interviewees’ perceptions towards each
element was conducted in this part to clarify how the suggested flipped
approach was attributed to learners’ enhanced performance and better
attitudes.
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- Out-of-class activities
First, all participants expressed positive attitudes towards the
usefulness of video lectures. In addition to common comments such as
convenience level, interviewees said that these lessons were more relevant
and helpful than other online recordings:
“The videos are easy to understand. When the teachers
used difficult words, he wrote them on the board or speak
Vietnamese so I could learn many new words, this is suitable for
translation class with many complicated cultural words.” –
Student A
“The videos were interesting and easy to understand. It
took me less time than reading the books. You know, translation
sometimes is very difficult to understand.” – Student C
“The teacher shared his experience in the videos, so I
can understand the information better.” – Student F
“The teachers provided updated information. For
example, he gave us the mistakes that former students normally
made. I also made those mistakes so I think they are easy to
remember.” – Student G
“What I like is the examples that the teacher use to help
us translate better… It’s near to me, I mean… not too
academic.” – Student I
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These findings verified the fact that most students were in favour of
the video lectures prepared by the teacher and they attached great value to
this element. Their comments proved that once personal experience and
updated relevant information were added into the videos, this could deepen
the learners’ understanding and boost their interest significantly.
Specifically, the videos enabled them to have more time to internalise
translation theories (10 responses), feel well-prepared and relevant between
the theories and real-life practice (7 responses), and thus they could sharpen
their translation skills better in the subsequent activities (5 responses).
In terms of further suggestions, three interviewees said that more
examples from the teacher’s personal experiences or from problems that he
encountered should be provided. Besides, four participants would like
transcripts or subtitles so that low achievers could have a thorough
understanding of the videos.
Regarding preparatory tasks and portfolio, participants had the
following comments:
I can test how well I understand the videos, so the
knowledge becomes clearer. They are really useful” - Student A
“I have the motivation to write all information down, and
they are useful when I come to class or review for the exam.” –
Student C
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“If I don’t do it, I will have to do something else to practice
translation. But I am not sure what I am doing could actually help
me to translate better. Instead, they can navigate me to do
things. So, they are useful and necessary.” – Student H
In short, all students mentioned that these elements could serve their
practical purposes, such as enhance their understanding of the videos (10
responses), self-assess their comprehension and application ability (7
responses), review for the assessment tasks (6 responses), and improve
active learning styles (3 responses). Since learners could get exposure to
new knowledge and develop lower-order thinking skills prior to in-class
sessions, they came to class with greater readiness and joined in
collaborative activities to foster a deeper understanding. Thus, these
elements were beneficial for the implementation of flipped learning.
However, the Group forum received both positive and negative
feedback from interviewees. One common positive comment they shared
was that they had more time to think, especially if they were shy or got stuck
with expressing their ideas.
“Online discussions among classmates helped to enrich
the knowledge.” – Student B
“I like the Group forum. I learnt many things from the
discussions between my friends and the responses of the
teacher. Personally, I normally feel that there is a lack of support
259
from my teachers when we leave the classroom. … But in this
class, I can ask for the help of my friends and the teacher
outside the class. It is a great thing to have an opportunity to
practice English outside the class.” – Student C
“I can learn from the answers of my friends and the
teacher. I also feel more confident to chat on the forum because
I have time to think and check the mistakes before sending the
messages.” – Student I
“I normally do not feel confident to discuss in class. It
seems that what I am going to say has been mentioned by other
students or I cannot think quickly enough, so I will not contribute
much to the groups. However, the forum allows me to think,
prepare and answer. So I feel more confident.” – Student K
The responses proved that the Group forum could be a good
facilitator for discussions as it enables learners more time to reflect, prepare
and raise their voices. The participants also acknowledged that they could
read their peers’ postings, compare their work with peers, and have more
opportunities to practice English outside the classroom. The limited direct
interactions with partners, therefore, could be redeemed as the forum
allowed them to discuss online. They could share the jobs together on the
Group forum, gain some invaluable experience form other teams’
performance, and consult the instructor for advice. As a result, the learners
260
could have more time to reflect upon the topics and subject matters, as well
as to support each other as part of the community sharing.
However, negative comments were also found in the following
excerpts:
“… But some students are very active while some
students are inactive in the forum.” – Student A
“We log into the website at different time so when we
have a question, it takes a long time to get a reply.” – Student G
“Because we meet at the school every day, we can
discuss the issues right away. So it is quicker than chatting in
the Group forum. After the school time, I just want to relax and
listen to music rather than discuss about the lessons on the
Internet.” – Student H
“What I dislike about the forum is that some students
chatted a lot, and some students added irrelevant questions to
the topics. So sometimes you have to read a lot of messages to
find out the correct answers to the main topics.” - Student L
It can be inferred that this element sometimes did not provoke
learners’ interest as much as might be expected. Though many students
regarded it as a useful way to practice English outside the classroom and
enrich their linguistic competency, five interviewees commented about the
inefficiency of this out-of-class element. One reason might be the personal
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preferences that learners liked to discuss about daily lives on social websites
after a hard working day at school. Another reason may be attributed to its
asynchronous characteristic, in which both students and the teacher logged
in to the Forum at different time slots according to their respective schedules.
Hence, it posed a challenge for them to reply to the messages promptly,
especially in a real-time platform that requires instantaneous responses.
Though the teacher had tried to incorporate the chatting function of
Facebook to ensure quick access to online discussions, some learners still
found it unfavourable. Finally, long chat messages with irrelevant questions
to the main topics might pose as an annoyance or frustration to other
students. Therefore, one suggestion might be to require teachers to
constantly remind the students to stick to the main discussion topics at all
times, and to avoid digression. Additionally, teachers could reinforce this
practice in their summary of the main points before closing each topic so that
learners may gain more from this discipline and derive greater satisfaction
from the virtual experience.
Figure 4-4 summarises the benefits of the out-of-class activities as
follows.
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• Learners had more time to internalise theories.

(7 responses)
Video • Learners felt well-prepared and relevant between the
lectures theoretical and practical aspects. (11 responses)
• Learners could practice translation skills better in the
subsequent activities. (8 responses)
• Learners could enhance their understanding of the
Portfolio videos. (12 resposnes)
and • Learners could self-assess their comprehension and
preparatory application ability. (7 responses)
tasks • Learners could revise for the practice and exams.
(10 responses)
• Learners had a purpose to practice English outside the

classroom. (7 responses)
Group • Learners could support each other to do the tasks.
forum (8 responses)
• Learners became more responsible for their learning
process. (5 resposnes)
Figure 4-4: Benefits of out-of-class activities

- In-class activities
This sub-section displayed learners’ opinions towards in-class
activities. Overall, interviewees expressed positive attitudes towards in-class
elements of this flipped classroom approach.
At the outset, revision activities received good comments from the
interviewees, confirming the value of this step as it motivated the learners
for new lessons in different ways. Some of the learners’ responses could be
found as follows:
“Revision activities were useful because I could know
how much I understood from the videos. They helped me
remember lessons better. Besides, they kept us focused at the
beginning of the class.” – Student B
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“When the teacher reviewed the lessons, I knew what
points are important and what should be learnt carefully. So, I
reviewed these points at home for further practice and for the
tests.” – Student F
“… We could ask the teacher to explain what we don’t
understand, so I could connect different parts together.
Therefore, the lessons became clear and I understood them
better. Moreover, revision activities were really engaging.” –
Student L
These data revealed that revision activities could help learners check
their understanding of the video contents (8 responses), allow them to recall
and consolidate prior knowledge (10 responses), as well as give them
opportunities to warm up for the new lesson in an engaging manner (5
responses). This also forged a bridge between the prior knowledge and the
problem-solving activities that learners participated in subsequent activities.
In fact, no negative comments or suggestions given about the revision
activities confirmed the essential role of this element during the training
process.
Responses for the second in-class element (the exploratory activities)
also revealed intriguing information regarding the benefits of this step and
what aspects of translation strategies could be fostered. Some of the
comments are:
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“It helped me link the videos to exercises, so it was easier
to remember. For example, I could understand how to divide a
text into appropriate translation units and analyse the problems
inside it. I could also learnt many things such as vocabulary,
cultural knowledge, and business knowledge. So I could
gradually develop my skills to use the translation strategies
better.” – Student A
“It allowed me to apply the video knowledge into practice.
For example, I could practice the knowledge in contexts, know
how to segment the texts, learn new words in business, use
appropriate structures and text registers, and I could understand
the lessons better.” – Student D
“They linked the theories with the business topics, the
cultural issues, the theories and strategies. We knew more
about the business issues relating to the topics we were
studying, we could identify the translation problems in real
contexts, and we were prepared to solve these problems with
the translation strategies. ” – Student F
Responses showed that the exploratory activities enabled
participants to work collaboratively to analyse authentic materials in their
context. More importantly, nine interviewees stated that they could go
beyond specific structures and lexical items of the chosen text types/text
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genre, thanks to the interactive dimension of this approach. Their responses
revealed that working with real-life materials before reformulating a new
translation version allowed them to gain better insights into both bilingual
sub-competence and extra-linguistic sub-competence of the issues. In
addition, certain aspects of translation strategies could be fostered as
learners’ responses revealed that they could know how to
• divide the source texts into appropriate translation units for initial analysis
(10 responses);
• learn new words relating to the required topics (7 responses);
• learn specific structures used in each text genre (4 responses);
• obtain ideas necessary to translate the required topics (8 responses);
• identify the translation problems within the source texts (12 responses);
and
• become aware of the appropriate translation strategies to deal with those
problems (11 responses).
Figure 4-5 below could illustrate the ample benefits of this step as
follows.
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14 12
11
12 10
10 8
8 7
6 4
4
2
0
become identify the obtain ideas learn specific learn new know how to
aware of the translation necessary to structures words divide the
appropriate problems translate the used in each relating to the source texts
translation within the required text genre required into
strategies source texts topics topics appropriate
translation
units
Figure 4-5: Benefits of the exploratory activities

The Joint negotiation step was also regarded as a useful activity as
positive comments could be found as follows:
“I knew how to use the theories in the videos in real-life
situations, so I could understand the videos better.” – Student A
“It was very useful, because there were many interesting
ideas I could learn from my friends.” – Student B
“My team was very good. They knew a lot and they always
shared interesting ideas. I could not only learn new words but
also learn from their ideas.” – Student G
In fact, eight interviewees stated that this element enabled them to
better understand the video lectures and know how to apply the knowledge
in those lectures into real practice. Moreover, seven students revealed that
this step allowed them to develop ideas collaboratively so that they could
adopt the translation strategies effectively. Interview responses also implied

267
that these experiences were fruitful in enhancing learners’ translation
knowledge sub-competence (5 responses) as well as their confidence
thanks to the support from peers (3 responses).
However, two negative cases were found from the comments on this
element.
“Because my group has some smart students, it is
sometimes difficult to reach a conclusion.” – Student I
“There are two inactive students in my team. They did not
prepare before the class and they relied much on other
members.” – Student K
When some students were too dominating or not active enough in group
work activities, tensions arose and could hinder the group’s performance.
More analysis of this issue will be discussed in sub-section 4.4.3.
Figure 4-6 summarises that benefits of this element as follows.
1. Improve learners’
understanding and 3. Enhance learners’
application of the video translation knowledge sub-
contents into practice (8 competence (5 responses)
responses) Benefits of
the Joint
negotiation
2. Help learners adopt 4. Boosted learners’
translation strategies confidence due to the
effectively via collaborative support from peers (3
practice (7 responses) responses)
Figure 4-6: Benefits of the Joint negotiation
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Data showed that the in-class individual practice also received high
rating in terms of their beneficial impacts. Some examples are:
“I like practice translation in class. The teacher is there to
help, give advice and check my mistakes.” – Student C
“It helps me to get used to the time pressure as in the final
exam. Moreover, it can help me to test my understanding and
skills.” – Student D
“Because I translated in class, I did not forget the ideas,
and I was used to translating within the time limit. If I did it at
home, it might take longer.” – Student G
“I’d love to do individual translation in class because I
could actually know how good I am and what aspects I am not
good enough. This is a good way to show my real skills and
ability.” – Student H
This element is reported to sharpen individual translation skills for the
final test (11 responses) as well as develop certain psycho-physiological
sub-competence, such as time management and memory capability (5
responses). Moreover, response from student H reveals that a flexible
learning environment is necessary because learners need both collaborative
practice as well as individual work to challenge themselves, to proceed to
higher cognition level, as well as to measure their understanding of the
subject and their autonomy. Thus, this flipped classroom approach could
269
meet this requirement to cater for multiple learning styles and helped
learners achieve the course objectives as well as the unit contents.
Lastly, responses to the final in-class element (peer assessment)
could be illustrated as some of the examples below:
“This activity helped me understand the topics, the
grammar and vocabulary better. I could learn from my mistakes
and my friend’s mistakes.” – Student B
“I realise that there are many ways to express an idea and
translate it. Especially my friends have different answers, and
their ways are better than mine.” – Student D
“Using the rubrics and marking my friend’s papers made
me think differently. I could make sense many things that I did
not notice when I translated on my own.” – Student F
It could be said that this element was valued because it allowed
extensive sharing and information exchanges among learners and teachers.
Consequently, learners could gain many benefits from each other’s
comments and solutions, such as increasing their confidence level and
critical thinking (7 responses), enabling them to learn from strengths and
weaknesses of peers (9 responses), or allowing them to understand the
lessons better from the assessment perspectives (4 responses). Figure 4-7
illustrates the benefits of this step on learners’ translation competence as
follows:
270
increase learners' confidence level and

7
critical thinking
help students learn from strengths and

9
weaknesses of peers
enable learners to understand the
lessons better from the assessment 4
perspectives
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Figure 4-7: Benefits of the Peer assessment
However, two negative cases were also found with regard to the
benefits of the peer assessment process:
“The guy who usually marked my papers was a very
difficult guy or something like that. He paid attention to every
small detail and my papers were always full of red comments. In
fact, I could learn a lot from him, but sometimes it was very
annoying.” – Student G
“When a friend didn’t want to make me lose my face, she
would not do it seriously and I couldn’t learn much from this
exercise.” – Student H
When there was a conflict in leaners’ characteristics (some students
might be too meticulous in correction), or when learners did not provide
critical evaluation so that their friends might not be hurt, the benefits of this
step might not be maximised. Thus, these issues should be avoided by
frequent changes of partners/ assessors, strict adherence to the criteria in
271
the rubrics, and a frequent reminder about the rationale for the adoption of
this element in classroom activities.
In short, results from this part of the interview revealed that learners
held positive attitudes towards each element of the flipped classroom
approach in terms of their usefulness and beneficial impacts on learning
outcomes.
4.4.3. Challenges faced by learners

Figure 4-8 depicted the challenges that interviewees faced during the
intervention via quantifiable calculation of learners’ responses.
Personal dislike of technology 1
The low-quality of the school server and the

3
Internet system
Initial worry about overwhelming workload
4
and the course procedure
Ineffective cooperation from peers 4
Unequal workload and unproductive group

4
work
0 2 4 6
Figure 4-8: Challenges faced by learners

Initial investigation from learners’ responses shows that one student
expressed their personal dislike of technology, three students complained
about the quality of local Internet connection and accessibility, four students
experienced initial frustrations about overwhelming workload that they might
endure and the initial unfamiliarity with the new course procedure from the
first few modules. In addition, four students were dissatisfied with the
ineffective cooperation from their peers; thus these students complained

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about the unequal workload and unproductive group work they had to
tolerate. As a result, these challenges were further examined in the following
sub-sections based on the framework of Activity theory.
4.4.3.1. Challenges caused by the Tools/Instruments
The first group of research questions in this part included: “What
challenges did you have when studying with the online platform and
technology? Did you have any difficulty with them?” At the outset, it is
interesting to note that all interviewees successfully connected to the
Internet and experienced its ease of use. They were willing to log into their
accounts, explore the platform, and enjoy the videos with different
technological devices such as laptops, IPads, mobile phones, or Tablets.
“I’ve never had any trouble with the online learning and
the technology.” – Student B
“When I wanted to use it, there was always a device
available that could serve my purpose.” – Student D
“I think students in this modern time all know how to
use technology, so there are no problems with them.” –
Student I
These positive responses portrayed technology as an effective
motivator for translation training. However, difficulty still arose as can be
found in the following comment:
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“…I did not like to study with technology because I think
we are depending too much on technology. However, it is
something I should get used to in this world. Moreover, the
way technology was used in this class made me think that if
we could use it properly, we can exploit its advantages.” –
Student B
One student expressed her dislike towards technological use;
however, she realised that this is an inevitable trend in the modern area and
in translation career. Moreover, her comments also revealed that proper
technological use by the teacher could mitigate this frustration. This means
a balance between technology and non-tech teaching styles could ensure
that more students appreciate the use of technology in the classroom for
what it is worth.
Three more students also expressed their difficulties with the
technological instruments as follows:
“Because I use the school Wi-Fi system, so in week 5
there was a breakdown with the school server, and I could not
log into the Internet. And our school is far from the Internet
shops.” – Student C
“The school Internet isn’t good. Sometimes it is slow, or
the school repaired it, so I could not log into it.” – Student G
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“I live in the dormitory and the Internet is not good. I
had to use 3G and it cost a lot of money.” – Student L
These responses revealed
In short, since Internet accessibility of three interviewees was
grounded in the school system, they found it hard to exploit the usefulness
of the local system due to the low-quality of the school server. It means that
they could only log into their accounts to do the required jobs if the
connection was good. Therefore, the close boundary between the
technological use and Internet accessibility is a vulnerable challenge in
practice.
4.4.3.2. Challenges caused by the Rules
The second group of questions in this part included: “What did you
think about the classroom procedures/the requirements and workloads/the
tests and assessments? What did you feel on the first day with my
requirements? Did you have any difficulty with such requirements?”
When the teacher introduced the online activities, the learners
expressed that they were initially worried about the new procedure. They
expressed their feelings as shown in the following comments:
“At first, I was really worried because I thought that I
had to do a lot of things in this course. … I was excited to
study with the new method, but I worried that I could not get
good marks because the teaching method is new. …
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However, it turned out that I did not have to spend so much
time as my friends in other class.” – Student C
“At first I didn’t like it because it seemed that I had to
do a lot of things, while my friends in the other class did not.”
– Student I
“I had to do part-time job and study for the IELTS exam.
So I told myself “Oh my God, this course is so complicated. It
will take me more time to study”. I thought that 5 marks in the
final exam would be enough. But then I realised that it’s not
that difficult. The videos were not long and the tasks were
interesting. In fact, we did not spend so much time on
homework as my friends in the other class. The portfolio is
better than translating a 10 or 20-page text.” – Student I
“At first, I think it is complex and tiring. Watching the
videos, doing the exercises, joining the forum, a lot of things
to do. However, after 2 weeks I realize that the work is not as
much as I imagine.” – Student J
The above responses showed that learners initially experienced
contradictory feelings towards the flipped classroom approach because the
online platform was not part of the formal curriculum, and, therefore, not
required in other classes. Although they acknowledged their opportunity to
learn with an innovative instruction, they stressed the challenges in
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completing out-of-class activities, which had hitherto been unfamiliar to
them. They also stated that initially, they were anxious about the extra effort
required for homework and lesson preparations. They worried that having to
visit the online platform to keep up with the course contents, study the digital
materials, and use the forum to discuss any issues. These work might pose
an extra burden for them and could compromise their final grade. However,
these feelings soon faded away once they realised that the videos were not
so lengthy, and they spent less time for preparatory tasks, with the support
of Group forum, compared to the students in the traditional class.
4.4.3.3. Challenges caused by the Community
The third set of questions relating to the challenges learners faced
during the intervention asked: “Did you have any difficulty with the support
and assistance from your teacher and your friends? How did your learning
styles and preferences influence you during the course?”
First, there was no reported issue about the level of the teacher’s
assistance, as all participants commented that they received useful
feedback and positive support, both inside and outside the classroom from
their instructor. Two students even commented that such assistance was
beyond their expectations since they had never experienced this kind of
relationship at the university. In terms of peer support, most learners
demonstrated positive feelings towards the members of their group.
However, four interviewees stated that group work had not met their
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expectations. These students shared their difficulties while working with
different group members as follows:
“I work in a group with some students who are not
hardworking enough, so most of the time they relied on me. I
seem to be the only person who tried all my best to do the
tasks for the group. I could not learn much from them. It is not
a good feeling at all. I prefer to work on my own.” – Student H
“Two members of my group are really good, but they
are stubborn and do not usually agree with each other. So
sometimes we have to spend a lot of time to answer only one
question.” – Student I
“Some people study better than me, so they usually do
not like to listen to my opinions. I feel hurt a lot.” – Student J
The responses revealed that problems with group work arose from
the unharmonious peer support in some cases. Some participants could not
establish a successful working relationship with each other, such as
commonly agreed strategies to handle emerging conflicts or maintain mutual
respect in discussions. Two interviewees attested that a few team members
persistently held on to their own opinions, and this hindered the collaborative
knowledge construction and sharing as well as the enhancement of
translation skills. In short, four interviewees highlighted that they could not
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establish satisfactory cooperation to foster their mutual learning when their
friends were so reluctant to compromise.
4.4.3.4. Challenges caused by the Division of labour
The final set of interview questions related to other challenges such
as: “Did you have any difficulty with the interactions inside and outside the
classroom? Did the roles of your teacher and your friend show their
responsibility and help you to learn better?” In this context, division of labor
is defined as the collaborative roles of the teacher and students within the
scope of this study, which also posed certain difficulties to the learning
process. During the course, students were required to work in small groups
(four members) to work inside and outside the classroom. Generally, the
researcher wanted the students to improve their skills via group work
sharing, knowledge co-construction and the learning community. Those
students who gave favourable reviews of the flipped classroom approach
seemed to have managed the division of labour in an equitable way so that
all group members could feel satisfied.
“The teacher is very friendly and supportive. When we
got stuck with the ideas, he provided some hints and
suggestions for us to discover on our own. … My team is very
helpful too. We communicated frequently and we finished the
tasks on time.” – Student B
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“I think the teacher worked really well both inside and
outside the classroom. I have no complaint with him. About
the team, we had experience with teamwork before, so we
have a leader, we divide the tasks equally, we share the ideas
and we finish them on time. It’s good and we have no
problem.” – Student D
“It is a good experience. The teacher cares about us.
Everyone share their work openly and fairly, and there have
been very little problems.” – Student F
It could be said that these positive experiences were attributed to the
shared workload, less pressure, and more interactions and frequent
engagements. All of these elements were present in groups that were
functioning effectively. Moreover, learners also perceived the guidance and
facilitation of the teacher, both inside and outside the classroom. However,
other three interviewees revealed that they occasionally could not establish
common ground with their peers, and acknowledged that this difficulty was
caused by their preference of learning styles. These learners admitted that
some of them formed groups based on convenience (they chose anyone
who sat next to them), and within-group collaborations were not always
smooth because the group members might not understand each other
enough. Therefore, they found it hard to interact, cooperate and share the
work as can be seen in the following comments:
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“One guy in my group is so arrogant. He criticised a
lot. He also gave bad comments if we said something wrong
or posted something wrong on the forum. So my group did not
like him and we did not want to work with him.” – Student G
“I wanted to get good mark and tried a lot during the
course. But my partners did not care much about the results
as long as they could pass the course. We did not
communicate well with each other and I felt stressful.
Therefore, I regret that I chose the wrong group and I had to
work alone all the time.” – Student J
“… there is a lazy member who did not finish the tasks
properly, and we have to cover his task. But the problem is
Vietnamese people are not used to telling the teacher about
such things because it means we betray our friend. Therefore,
I still feel annoyed and unfair if he still had the same mark like
us.” – Student K
The responses showed that three participants with negative feedback
faced challenges with division of labour, and this caused unequal workload,
unproductive group performance and additional stress. Some interviewees
stressed that their group members relied on others too much, and they were
often not working as a group. As a result, certain students ended up doing
most of the work while others made seemingly minimal or no contributions.
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Moreover, when group members had different (as opposed to commonly
shared) goals towards academic achievements, it made the situation worse.
Those students who wanted to excel would put in a lot of effort to obtain high
grades, while some few others invested less effort, so long as they could
pass the course. As a result, challenges became more severe, and they
could not find solutions to divide the task as well as liaise with one another.
Thus, they felt it was better to work on their own to meet the deadline. In
short, if the division of labour among group members was not equitable, the
desired outcomes would be affected. These findings suggested that any
instructors who would like to adopt collaborative work should create clear
task allocations for the group work activities, and reinforce distinct roles for
group, as well as individual work.
In short, it could be said that the challenges of this flipped classroom
approach have been mitigated so that learners could actually face as few
contradictions as possible during the teaching and learning process. As it
was believed that challenges were inevitable during the implementation of
any new teaching approach, careful consideration was given to relevant
elements of the activity system via the lens of Activity theory (instruments,
rules, community, and division of labour). As a result, there were five
challenges that funneled out of the interview responses, including:
+ personal dislike of technology use (1 response)
+ the low-quality of the school server (3 responses)
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+ initial frustration about the workload and the course procedure (4
responses)
+ ineffective cooperation in group work activities (4 responses)
+ unequal workload and unproductive group work (4 responses)
4.4.4. Influence on translation habits

The final part of the interview section aimed to investigate how the
flipped classroom approach improved learners’ translation habits to use
professional translation strategies appropriately, the interview questions
were divided into three main parts:
1. Evaluate learners’ mastery of translation strategies: The
interviewees were asked about the theories and strategies to deal with
different aspects of translation problems; then, they provided examples to
demonstrate their understanding. These questions were asked in an
unremitting manner so that learners could have little time to think and plan,
and sometimes the questions were repeated or paraphrased to see the
logical connection between answers. Therefore, this technique aimed to
elicit learners’ immediate responses to see how they master the professional
strategies consciously and unconsciously.
2. Evaluate how learners adopted these strategies to translate a short
paragraph (four sentences) appropriately within short time (three minutes):
The participants provided their translated versions and explained why they
made such decisions. This is a higher step in thinking skill order (application
and clarifying) in which learners had to rationalise their decision-making
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process based on the knowledge they had studied during the course with
their habitual behaviours in translation activities.
3. Evaluate how learners evaluated a translated version within short
time: The students read one translated paragraph of another student in three
minutes and provided comments on it, stating whether the quality of that
version was good or not and in what way it could be refined. This was a
really high level of critical thinking as it required learners to pay attention to
various issues at the same time such as typography, grammar, lexical
usage, idioms, coherence, accuracy, and comprehensibility.
In short, these questions aimed to evaluate how learners could adopt
professional strategies both consciously and unconsciously under the time
pressure. If there is a logical consistence between learners’ responses in
theories and the way they translated or assessed the translated versions, it
could be said that learners had mastered the necessary strategies and their
habits to use these strategies on the frequent basis had been fostered during
the course.
4.4.4.1 Learners’ mastery of translation strategies
When learners were asked about the theories of translation
strategies, they answered the questions quite thoroughly. In terms of
questions related to strategies at the word and phrase levels, their
responses implied that a direct or word-to-word translation could not bring
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about appropriate renditions. This could be gleaned from the following
comments:
“I think about the words carefully to understand the
correct meanings of the words. What words should be used
correctly to suit the context. Then I check the dictionary to see
the connotative meaning, the collocation, grammar use of that
word, and choose the correct word for the sentence.” –
Student C
“I think the most important issue is accuracy and
completeness … So first, I gonna grasp the key message ….
to see how it reflects what the writer wants to transfer to the
readers. Next, I find the words that are difficult to translate.
Then I check them in the dictionary, their real meanings and
the grammar to use with them.” – Student F
“We learnt that we have to preserve the original and
intended meaning of the source text and this is the most
important. So, when we translate a word or a phrase, we have
to put it into context to choose the correct equivalence. We
also need to consider the writer’ purposes, the readers, and
the culture.” – Student K
The responses showed that these students acknowledged that a
word-for-word translation was inappropriate for professional work in a
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translation career. They realised that both denotative and connotative
meanings should be taken into equal consideration, and they had to read
the words in context to examine the writer’s intentions, readers’
backgrounds, and even the relevant culture to choose the correct
equivalence for the source words. As Pham (2016) maintained,
inexperienced translators normally remembered the denotative meaning
rather than the connotations of a word; therefore, they tended to choose the
best equivalent of what they had known regardless of whether it was suitable
in the context. However, all interviewees realised that such a direct rendition
from the dictionary was not a proper method and would misrepresent the
writers’ writing styles as well as their intentions. As a result, the students
tended to develop the habits of checking the meaning of any words that
seemed new to them or to confirm the meaning they had already known.
Thus, this habitual activity enabled them to find appropriate equivalence
among the synonyms in terms of connotative meaning, grammatical usage,
implications, and relevant contexts (10 responses).
When asked about the strategies to translate the cultural-specific
items or Vietnamese words in which no direct equivalents could be found in
English, learners could also provide a prompt response.
“I gonna use direct translation, paraphrasing or natural
translation… in some cases, we can use the omission… I
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mean some words are too difficult to translate, however we
must remain the key message.” – Student D
“I can paraphrase or use the words with explanation
with these terms.” – Student I
“We can use different techniques for the cultural-
specific items such as naturalisation, borrowing with
explanation, or paraphrasing.” – Student H
These responses revealed that the participants were aware of the
appropriate strategies to translate cultural-specific items. One example was
taken from the responses of Student L. When he was asked to provide an
illustration for translating cultural-specific items, he said:
“If we translate Vietnamese currency, we have to put
the expected amount of money in dollars for readers to
understand. Therefore, I’ll translate this sentence “Giá vàng
hiện nay khoảng 36 triệu đồng/ lượng” as “The gold price is
36 million VND (about USD1600) per tael”. – Student L
This responses demonstrated that learners, when faced with cultural-
specific items, would not only find appropriate equivalents to translate, but
also would take into consideration the readers’ background and contextual
relevance when using the appropriate translation strategies. More
importantly, he kept both the original term (36 million VND) and the
equivalent (about USD1600) so that readers could trace back the source
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text for further references. Such a decision was positive because this way of
translating is commonly used by professional translators but is normally
neglected by translation students.
As regards translating syntactic structures, responses showed that
learners consciously paid attention to the complicated process of analysing
the source sentences, choosing appropriate structures in the target
language, and reformulating these syntactic structures with the appropriate
techniques. The following excerpts indicate how learners adopted this
process to translate the sentences into English:
“First, I divide the sentences into smaller parts.
Second, I identify words that are difficult to translate. Third, I
will identify the key message the writer really wants to transfer.
Fourth, I will use the sentences and structures to make it
logical and natural. Finally, I will re-read and check them to
make sure all go right.” – Student B
“I have to know why I cannot understand the sentence.
If it is because of the words, then I have to check it again in
the context or on the Internet to understand what the real
meaning is. If it is the structure, then I have to refine and
modify the sentence. But if I try everything, but I still cannot
understand, then … I have to translate in my own
understanding.” – Student L
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When dealing with complicated syntactic units at the sentence level,
they tended to seek for other materials relating to that area to make sense
of the source sentence and produce a better translation. It can also be
inferred that when the participants found it hard to understand a sentence,
they re-read the whole text to get a general understanding of that sentence
before translation. If that did not work, they searched for other materials
related to that topical area to help them make sense of that sentence.
The following two examples give a better insight into how learners
translated the required Vietnamese sentences:
“Well, because this sentence has no subject, so I think
I have to add the subject or use the passive voice. I will
translate this sentence “Cần thông qua nghiên cứu để tìm biện
pháp giải quyết vấn đề nhà ở cho người thu nhập thấp” into
“It is necessary to do research to find solutions for houses of
low-paid people”. – Student C
For the sentence “Mọi người kiến nghị nhà nước nên
điều chỉnh luật bảo hiểm xã hội mới”, because the key
message is the word “kiến nghị” (recommendation or
suggestion), and because passive voice and noun phrase are
common in English. So, I would like to translate it as “A
recommendation for adjustments of the social insurance law
is made to the government”. – Student H
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Student C realised that there was a lack of subject in the first
Vietnamese statement, and could quickly render it into English with
appropriate syntactic structures. Meanwhile, the second Vietnamese
sentence could be translated word-for-word as “Everyone recommended
that the government should adjust the new social insurance law”. However,
this version sounds unnatural and informal. Student H could identify not only
this issue, but also was able to explain the reasons why she made her
decision. These examples demonstrate that the flipped approach was
effective to leverage learners’ critical thinking and procedural competency.
In terms of translating a paragraph, participants also displayed
positive awareness of the translation habits. Some of them said:
“I first read the whole paragraph for 2-3 times to catch
the main ideas. Then, I identified the problems in each
sentence. Afterwards, I selected appropriate techniques to
solve those problems. Finally, I checked the grammar, the
vocabulary, the coherence, and the comprehensive level.” –
Student A
“First, I read through the paragraph from the beginning
to the end to understand the meaning, then I identify the
styles. What kind of text type and genre is it? Then, I divide
the paragraphs into meaningful groups of words and phrases.
Third, I try to use the correct techniques with the words,
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phrases and sentences. I may edit the message, change it so
that it become clearer and … easy to translate. Finally, I check
the whole paragraph. You know, the words, grammar,
coherence, spelling, etc.” – Student B
“First, I read the source text two times to understand it.
Then, I divide the sentences into meaningful parts because it
is easier to translate. Third, I find out the translation problems
inside these parts, such as cultural words, confusing words,
meaningless words, etc. Then, I use the techniques we
studied in the course to translate. My most concern is trying
to keep the original meaning of the text. Then, I check again
the grammar, the coherence, the spelling, etc. I also try to
understand the translated text as if I did not read the source
text to find the mistakes.” – Student F
It could be said that when learners were required to translate a short
piece of paragraph, they could define clearly the steps they followed to solve
the issue instead of a mechanical sentence-by-sentence translation. They
first read the whole paragraph for a few times to catch the main ideas; then,
they identified the translation problems inherent within each sentence, and
comprehend the message before they produced it into the target language.
Afterwards, they selected appropriate techniques to solve those problems.
This is especially the case whenever they encountered difficulty in
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understanding the meaning of a specific sentence, they attempted to re-read
the whole paragraph to obtain broad knowledge for translation activities,
which was one of the foci during the course.
4.4.4.2 Learners’ approach to translate a text
When the students were required to look at a short piece of
Vietnamese paragraph and have three minutes to think how they would
translate the text, responses showed intriguing results. Two examples could
be found in the responses of Student C and F:
“First, I read the whole paragraph to understand the
main meaning and the connections between ideas. This is not
a difficult one and the meaning is quite clear. This paragraph
has 5 sentences, with 2 simple sentences and 3 complex
sentences. So I divided it into 8 small pieces of groups to
translate. Between each group I tried to use a conjunction to
link the ideas better. I also changed the structures of some
groups to make it easier to translate. You know, the
reformulation techniques. … Then, within each group, I looked
for the translation problems and tried to find the ways to solve
these problems. Finally, if I had time, I would check again the
whole paragraph to see if it is correct or not.” – Student C
“There are some parts in this paragraph I don’t
understand. But because this is taken from a newspaper so
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the meaning can be guessed, I can use the suitable
reformulation technique. The paragraph has 5 sentences, so
I look at each sentence separately. In each sentence, I look
for difficult words or phrases. For example, in sentence 2 there
is the word “gồng mình”. I look at the word in the context of
the whole sentence, I think this word means “we face
something that is very difficult or we are in a terrible situation
for a long time”, so I would like to translate it as “suffer”… I
add one conjunction between sentence 3 and sentence 4 to
make it coherent. … In sentence 5 (Dự kiến tháng tới Quốc
Hội sẽ phê chuẩn luật lao động mới), because the readers
might not know in what country is “Quoc hoi”, so I would
translate it as “The Vietnam’s National Assembly is expected
to approve the new Labor law next month”… When I finished
translating the paragraph, I re-read it to check again the
grammar, the word choice, the spelling, as well as the main
meaning of the whole paragraph.” – Student F
Results show that the participants became aware of how to adopt
professional strategies to deal with translation problems in their tasks, and
they took more care of their translation versions. Most of the students knew
that a direct rendition from the dictionary was not a proper method, and they
maintained that they would normally follow the steps as being taught during
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the course, beginning with skimming the whole text to understand the main
idea, then they segmented the paragraph into meaningful units and
translated each unit based on the general meaning of the whole text.
Afterwards, they identified the problems within each unit and provided the
rationale for any adjustments. This means they knew that they should
analyse the text, identify translation problems inherent in the text, and
comprehend the message before they produced it into the target language.
When dealing with complicated issues at the sentence level or lexical level,
they re-read the whole text to get a general understanding of that sentence
to have proper reformulations (e.g. Student F), which was one of the foci
during the course. After completing their assignments, the students also
reviewed the translated versions to check vocabulary and grammar, as well
as to ensure that these versions preserved the original meaning. In other
words, they knew they should re-read the whole translated versions to see
if the meaning of each sentence corresponded to the general meaning of the
whole target language texts.
Though the solutions might vary, their translation options proved that
the learners did not only focus on the linguistic elements, but they also took
into consideration the actual contexts, the readers’ backgrounds, and other
intertextual elements. This was an important strategy to ensure that the
translated products could convey the original meaning in terms of cultural
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and pragmatic issues. Here is an excerpt taken from the interview of Student
D:
“Well, in the sentence “Đại diện Vietravel cho hay,
trong dịp lễ 2/9 năm nay, công ty dự tính sẽ phục vụ khoảng
2200 khách …”, I will provide more information so that readers
could understand what is Viettravel is. Moreover, I will explain
the “2 September” holiday because people might not
understand why it is a holiday. Therefore, my answer is: A
representative from the Vietnamese travel agency Vietravel
said “on the National Independence day (2 September), the
company expect to serve 2,200 tourists ….”
Another example was taken from an exercise that required learners
to translate a short Vietnamese journalistic article into English. Generally, a
piece of news is edited following the date when the event occurs, and so,
the writer of the news would typically use the word “hôm nay” (“hôm nay”,
which means today); however, translators normally read the news much
later. Therefore, they have to change the context to avoid any
misunderstanding with the time that the event occurred. An illustration could
be seen in the following translation of Student G:
“Well, in this sentence (Hãng hàng không dân dụng
Jestar Airlines hôm nay cho biết sẽ sớm cung cấp cho hành
khách trên máy bay truy cập hệ thống Internet không dây vào
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năm 2014), there are two problems. First, foreigners might not
know where Jestar Airlines is, so I will provide the name of our
country next to it. Second, I will change the word “hôm nay”
into the date when the manager said it. Therefore, my
sentence is “Jestar Airlines (Vietnam) said on 1 August it
would provide passengers with wireless Internet connections
in 2014”.
In short, responses from this part of the interview showed a
connection between learners’ mastery of theories and how they actually
adopted those strategies in real assignments within the short time of three
minutes. Their detailed analysis and explanations for their decisions proved
that learners had got so much exposure to frequent practice of using
professional practice and they could turn these strategies into their habitual
behaviors. In other words, their translation habits were fostered during the
course.
4.4.4.3 Learners’ evaluation of a translated version
Finally, the students were asked to look at a source text (a
Vietnamese text and its translated version) in three minutes and evaluate
the translated version. Here are some comments of the interviewees:
“Well, this is not a good one. I think first, the grammar
should be correct. There are some grammar mistakes in this
translated paragraph. For example, the preposition (“rise by
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8%” instead of “rise with 8%) and the quantifiers (“a large
amount of capital” instead of “a large number of capital”).
Second, some vocabulary is not good. I don’t mean they are
wrong, but I think we should use another way. For example,
the structure “If the customers are not happy with the product
at all” can be changed into “If the customers are not fully
satisfied with the product”. It sounds more formal in business
context. Moreover, we need to put some conjunctions to
connect the ideas.” – Student D
“This is quite a good translation. First, I check whether
it used the correct words, the grammar and the style. They are
good. Then, I try to see if I can use as many noun phrases as
possible. I think I cannot change much. I also check the
coherence. Some words are repeated so I will replace them
with other synonyms. Then I think as if I am a foreigner who
reads this text, can I understand them clearly, especially with
cultural-specific items, such as the name of some Vietnamese
places or Government words.” – Student L
These responses showed that in terms of quality assessment of a
translated version, the interviewees reviewed that version to check
vocabulary and grammar, as well as to ensure that the version preserved
the original meaning. In other words, they knew they should re-read the
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whole passage to see if the meaning of each sentence corresponded to the
general meaning of the whole target language text. Beyond the equivalent
linguistic levels, most interviewees revised the translated versions by
transferring and expressing the meaning of the original texts into the
structures and written styles of the target language to meet the cultural
issues and to make sure that the target language readers could better
understand these products. This was an important strategy to ensure that
the translated products could convey the original meaning in terms of cultural
and pragmatic issues.
In short, this sub-section has demonstrated that the interviewees had
become more aware of the necessary steps to do their translated
assignments. Instead of using their literal translation habits, learners have
mostly adopted professional strategies, both consciously and
unconsciously.
4.5. Conclusion
In summary, this chapter displayed the findings of the study taken
from the three research instruments to clarify the benefits of this flipped
classroom approach based on constructive alignment and Activity theory.
At the outset, the specific snapshot provides an example to envision
what really happened inside and outside the classroom. First, a short video
was made available online to students before each face-to-face session.
Then, course objectives, assessment tasks, video delivery, and classroom
procedure were all transparent and interconnected in accordance with the

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ideology of active and socio-constructivist learning, ZPD and Bloom’s
taxonomy. In this snapshot, students had more opportunities to work actively
in different learning modes (individual or team work), both inside and outside
the classroom, to improve their translation skills and achieve better learning
outcomes. There were ample opportunities for peer interactions during the
course, and each student could receive individualised support and feedback
from the lecturer on a personal and group basis. As a result, the approach
fostered students’ active engagement in the learning process significantly.
When classroom activities went smoothly, individual performance
had fewer problems, and learners could achieve better learning outcomes.
An analysis of learners’ test papers in different formative and summative
assessments illustrates learners’ improvement in their skill competence and
translation habits under flipping instructions during a case study of the V-E
translation course. The success could be attributed to several factors;
perhaps the most significantly were the careful consideration of different
formative tasks, as well as regular feedback given to students on their
learning progress. The teacher also frequently adjusted his teaching
approach based on the test results, to cater for various learners’ needs and
contextual requirements. Finally, the translated versions that students
submitted were done with more care, thanks to peer review, which might
have been the result of the students’ heightened sense of responsibility, and
prospect-reader awareness that a professional translator should have.
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Afterwards, the interviews demonstrated that learners had an
increased interest and confidence in translation practice. The participants
highly appreciated both in-class and out-of-class activities and stated these
factors improved their translation capabilities significantly. In addition, four
prominent challenges were faced by the Vietnamese learners during the
intervention, including: (1) the unstable Internet connection of the school
server and the local management system; (2) the initial conflict between
enthusiasm and stressful concern with the heavy workload due to the new
teaching classroom procedures and requirements; (3) the unharmonious
peer support within some groups, which stemmed from conflicts in the
characteristics and thinking process; and (4) the uncompromised division of
labour imposed by differences in learning styles and objectives. One minor
case was also found when an interviewee expressed her dislike towards
technological use. All these challenges hindered the students from
maximising their translation capabilities and positive attitudes; therefore,
some recommendations will be made for a better implementation of the
flipped classroom approach.
Finally, results showed that the flipped approach allowed learners to
master the translation strategies necessary to deal with their assignments;
that participants have become aware that a word-for-word translation is not
recommended in this profession; and, that they have more or less adopted
professional strategies to solve translation problems. If they could have more
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time to turn these strategies into habits, their translation capability would be
greatly enhanced, and they could be well-prepared to enter the labour
market as competent translators.
In short, the results demonstrate that flipping learning with theory-
grounded framework of Activity theory does help students develop their
higher-order cognitive and problem-solving skills, as well as enhance
students’ competence and translation habits. This, in turn, has raised
students’ academic performance and improved their learning atmosphere
and experience. It also allows us to appreciate that different students’
perceptions of, and ways in, carrying out activities were very diverse; that
their perceptions could be volatile and subject to change; that some students
readily adopted and shared the teacher’s purposes and enthusiasm for
activities, while others continued to contest such endeavours.
The next chapter will display discussions and implications drawn from
the findings of the study.
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CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSIONS AND

IMPLICATIONS
5.1. Introduction
This chapter reports the discussions and implications relating to the
research questions of the study. The contents are presented in five sections.
It begins with the confirmation of the suitability of this flipped classroom
approach in the Vietnamese context when the classroom procedure is well
designed with careful consideration of the constructive alignment between
translation activities, assessment tasks, and learning outcomes. Then, it
discusses the benefits of this flipped instruction in enhancing learners’
translation competence and skill mastery. Then, it explains how this teaching
approach changes learners’ translation habits as measured by their
appropriate usage of translation strategies to do their assignments both
consciously and unconsciously. Afterwards, it summarises the students’
perceptions towards each element of the suggested approach, and then
clarifies learners’ evaluations. Finally, it analyses the challenges faced by
learners during the intervention and how these challenges were mitigated
based on the modified model of Activity theory.
5.2. The flipped classroom approach is suited in the

Vietnamese context with a well-aligned procedure
In this study, the teacher made use of a variety of mediating tools to
introduce the course contents and facilitate the translation practice, paying
careful consideration to the required outcomes, assessment tasks and
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learning activities. Therefore, it could be concluded that the well-aligned
flipped class is suitable in the Vietnamese educational setting.
With regards to the learning outcomes, the teacher had clarified the
objectives and procedure of the intervention right from the beginning of the
course. These included its requirements, assessment system, and the
benefits it could bring. Frequent reminders were given in face-to-face
sessions so that learners could grasp the essence of the new teaching
approach, and understood how this instruction could help them obtain the
expected outcomes. Learners were also provided with the necessary
guidelines on how to view videos and other materials effectively to maximise
their learning responses. Such training was necessary because Vietnamese
learners had not been familiar with autonomous training and goal setting to
achieve their outcomes at home, especially when they were required to take
greater responsibility for their learning. Throughout the course, the teacher
frequently made clear how the whole curriculum was divided, how the
learners’ translation performance would be evaluated, what professional
habits should be fostered, and how these habits were reflected in the tests
to measure the learner’ translation compete. Therefore, it was made clear to
the students from the beginning, what the desired outcomes were expected
of them to achieve. These included, for example, the sort of translation
products they had to submit, and how the translation capability would be
measured. The instructor also analysed carefully the extent to which the
flipped classroom approach could use appropriate instruments so that they
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could assist the participants to complete their tasks. This feature was really
important because learners can only develop their competence when they
know how to exploit the instruments to achieve the desired outcomes.
Moreover, in each collaborative activity, the teacher defined what objectives
should be expected, how the groups should be working, when and how
information sharing and exchanges would occur, and what educational
resources or other forms of learning support were relevant. The teacher tried
to engage learners in real-world issues, make clear the intended translation
behaviours, and progressively move their learning from less-complex to
more-complex tasks. As a result, clear learning objectives and outcomes for
each session and for the whole class enabled the students to develop a
deeper understanding of their contributions within the group, thus their
performance as well as their translation habits improved significantly.
Then, the assessment activities were organised based on the
learning outcomes and course curriculum. There were various kinds of
formal and informal assessments, with two main elements, including what
was addressed prior to class and what were assessed during in-class
sessions. The teacher then considered how course materials were tested
prior to class, the formats to be used, and how to assess effective student
learning. For example, pre-class questions (embedded quizzes, preparatory
tasks, Group forum trivia questions) were used to test lower levels of
cognitive work, and in-class assessments were used to measure higher
levels. Collaborations and interactions (both inside and outside the
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classroom) were also taken into serious account when individual reflections
(portfolio) and group work contributions became a part of the learning
assessments. In order to make sure that all students had watched the
required videos and worked through the materials provided, marking
became part of the formative assessment. Throughout the course, the
teacher made certain evaluative criteria visible, such as how much the
preparatory tasks and portfolio contributed to the final grade, how the
formative assessments influenced learners’ mid-term test results, and what
bonus would be given to active participators in the Group forum. When the
teacher allocated such bonus for online contributions, these activities soon
became engaging enough to capture the learners’ interests. Finally,
assessment questions were also used to mediate student engagement,
rather than to merely assess students’ knowledge. This mediating role
required the teacher to evaluate the students’ responses, give them access
to appropriate translation strategies, and provide them with the rules with
which to foster better learning habits, as well as elicit feedback for revision
and consolidation. In short, the assessment activities in this flipped class
were well exploited to provide feedback for both the instructor and the
learners.
In terms of learning activities, while both group work activities and
individual exercises were exploited, collaborative learning among peers to
help each other reflect on and move through the tasks was chosen as an
important support instrument. Collaboration outside the classroom to involve
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active members in the sharing and learning processes was taken into
account. The use of preparatory tasks and embedded quizzes coupled with
individualised feedback could enhance students’ engagement with the
knowledge in translation topics. In addition, different classroom materials
were exploited in different contexts. For instance, the PowerPoint
presentations, written materials, and portfolio used in classroom sessions
were made available. Finally, the use of the Facebook platform as an
additional tool provided a common environment for submitting, sharing,
discussing, and comparing one’s own progress with the course peers. By
manipulating these tools to uncover the subject matters, the teacher was
concerned with developing the students’ understanding of translation
theories, eliciting on how to apply those knowledge into simulated/real-life
practice and enhance learners’ competence. In order to avoid difficulties that
learners might face and meet their expectations, a gradual transition to the
new teaching approach with detailed guidelines and explanations was
provided, together with the sharing responsibilities in an entertaining
manner.
In short, it could be said that the suggested flipped classroom
approach worked well with Vietnamese students, particularly due to their
socio-constructivist, active learning nature together with elements of
Bloom’s taxonomy and ZPD. Moreover, the students also valued learning
together under the well-designed alignment of learning outcomes,
appropriate assessment types and learning activities. More specifically, they
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were capable of shifting to the new teaching mode to achieve expected
educational goals when they were given the special considerations of
Activity theory, contextual relevance, and cultural appropriateness. Although
challenges still emerged because the habits required of students to adapt to
the new teaching approach took time to develop. Consequently, this led to
better learning outcomes.
5.3. The flipped classroom approach enhanced

learners’ competence to achieve the expected
learning outcomes
Results from the assessment analysis and interviews showed a
consistent improvement in learners’ performance and competence over the
course duration through various assessment task types that were aligned
with the course learning outcomes and teaching contents. Specifically, there
was a gradual decline in error making and higher frequency use of
professional strategies among participants. This result has not been
explored in any empirical study about flipped learning, and so it is a novel
contribution of the thesis. Hence, this finding attests to the beneficial impacts
of this contextually-relevant and culturally-appropriate flipped classroom
approach in translation studies, providing practical contribution to literature
in translation training such as the study of Ling (2017), Mei (2017) and Shu
(2016).
This success could be attributed to the clearly structured instructional
design based on the learner-centred theoretical framework and Activity
theory. In this classroom, both face-to-face collaborative practice and virtual

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individualised learning were exploited to foster learners’ conceptual
understanding and procedural fluency in translation studies. Specifically,
they were encouraged to take more initiative in their active roles such as
watching videos prior to in-class sessions, doing preparatory tasks in their
assigned groups, and taking advantage of the Group forum for real-life
assignments. These out-of-class elements, therefore, laid the foundation for
higher-order cognitive development of in-class activities, with the goal of
optimising learning. The instructor undertook various educational roles as
he provided relevant examples and applicable situations, clarified
confusions, modelled translation strategies, fostered interactions, provided
constructive feedback, and ensured constant adaptation of the flipped
approach to suit the learning context. Students, on the other hand, became
main knowledge constructors as they proactively interacted with the teacher
and fellow students. They were also able to raise their voices regarding the
rules and the course procedure to convey powerful meaning. In this manner,
they improved their translation competence by consciously following the
instructed strategies with the assistance from the teacher and support from
peers. As a result, with technology as a mediational tool, the flipped
classroom approach was able to bring about a significant improvement in
learners’ translation performance and career-orientated competence (Lo,
2020; Zainuddin & Perera, 2019).
It is worth noting that lesson preparations such as reading the
contents or doing preparatory tasks before an actual lesson is not a new
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idea in education. Therefore, the key point in flipped learning is how to
structure the face-to-face and online portions coherently so that they support
each another to help learners achieve expected learning outcomes. From
the socio-constructivist perspectives, various scaffolding patterns were
exploited during the intervention, including conceptual, metacognitive,
procedural, strategic and interpersonal scaffoldings (Calvo, 2015). First,
conceptual scaffolding was useful in building the important translation
concepts and theories in a more realistic and eye-catching manner. Second,
metacognitive scaffolding could stimulate the students to self-conceptualise
for the proper problem solutions via homework and preparatory exercises.
Third, procedural scaffolding enabled learners to get used to the online
learning resources and technological tools to deal with real-life or simulated
practice. In addition, strategic scaffolding provided a coherent connection
between different video lectures and classroom activities so that learners
could internalise the translation strategies better to deal with their
assignments effectively. Finally, interpersonal scaffolding stimulated the
students to perform each tasks through collaborative practice. There was an
obvious interaction between students and teachers, as well as among
students in various educational aspects. In short, responsibilities related to
learning objectives and assessments were shared, and translation
competence was enhanced through social interactions. These elements
also provided instructors with opportunities to give effective support as
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scaffold practices. Thus, the structure of this flipped classroom approach
met the doctrines of the socio-constructivist theories.
In terms of Active learning, this approach consisted of various
elements such as real-life assignments, updated learning contents,
constructive feedback from peers, information exchanges, diversified
assessments, and students and teachers’ switching roles. Besides, the
active learning strategies, such as problem-solving, collaborative group
work, self-evaluation, and peer assessments were also exploited to boost
learners’ autonomy. Therefore, this flipped classroom could bring about
greater teacher-student rapport and increased student-student interactions.
In-class time was used not only for expanding difficult concepts but also for
making them participate in critical thinking and translation activities. In this
sense, it could be said that conceptual understanding and procedural fluency
were realised at the end of the period via intensive and engaging activities
at higher-order cognitive skills level. In short, elements of active learning
were emphasised in this course design.
5.4. The flipped classroom approach fostered

learners’ translation habits to use professional
strategies more often
It could be concluded that the learners gained certain proficiency in
professional translating strategies. Specifically, they knew well the
necessary steps to do assignments, they became aware of the appropriate
strategies to solve translation problems, they could clarify the rationale
310
behind each decision, and they had higher frequency to use these
professional strategies in their translations activities both consciously and
unconsciously. As a result, their tendency to use the amateur word-for-word
translation was minimised and the number of errors were reduced over the
course in various assessments. This, therefore, implied that their translation
habits improved in a positive manner during the course.
Figure 5-1 summarises the professional translation strategies
generally employed by the students after the intervention.
• Read the whole • Read related

text to get the materials to deal
general with translation
meaning mproblems
Preserving
Equivalence
the original
in translation
meaning
Target
Target
language
language
structures
reader-
and written
based
styles
• Re-read the • Revise for
translated version structural and
to check the written styles of
general meaning the TL
Figure 5-1: Translation strategies employed by students

In short, before conducting translation activities, most participants
spent time reading whole source texts to get the general meaning of the
original message; then they segmented the text into meaningful chunks of
units and translated these units within the scope of the general meaning of
the text. In other words, they tried to find equivalence for the words, phrases,
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clauses, or sentences by using the appropriate techniques they had learnt.
With much exposure to in-class practice, the students were aware that a
direct rendition was inappropriate for a good translation. They developed the
habits of using the dictionaries (both online and paper versions) to check for
any words that seemed new to them. Then they searched for the best
equivalence among the synonyms in terms of connotative meaning,
politeness, implications, and cultural contexts. Some interviewees stated
that in many cases they still looked at the synonyms in a dictionary to confirm
the meaning they had already known as well as to find the proper
collocations. As a result, this habit could facilitate their proficiency in word
usage as well as achieve better translations.
In case they got stuck with some lexical items or structural sentences,
they re-read the whole text to catch the meaning or to link that sentence to
the whole original text to understand it. If this did not work, they searched for
other materials relating to the topic of translation so that they could better
understand and make sense of the source version. It was obvious that the
participants used the strategies that had been taught during the course on
source-text comprehension and target-text production. Some frequently
used strategies at the lexical level included synonyms, paraphrasing,
clarification, cultural equivalence or word omission, while the strategies most
frequently used at the syntactic level were immediate correction before
translation, grammatical check, and congruity assessment to see if the
translation made sense. Therefore, it could be concluded that the subjects
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were accustomed to dwelling on the words, phrases, and the whole
sentences through the repetition of collaborative practice, re-reading them,
and giving tentative meanings in the SL and TL, as well as reflecting the
translation problems in the full context, using the appropriate professional
translation strategies. This result provides evidence that the subjects were
entangled in text processing that is both bottom up and top down. Although
they still preferred to extract smaller units of the ST segments in order to
render the translated versions, they were aware of the need to check the TL
sentences with regard to their stylistic form and text type adequacy.
In terms of validating the translated version, after completing the
translation, the students re-read the whole translated version to see if the
meanings of each sentence corresponded to that of the whole text. They
also needed to test if the translated version was equivalent to the original
text. In some cases, they made certain modifications and changed some
parts to make improvements. Finally, the students went one step further to
revise all the translated sentences into the target language written styles and
structures to make sure that the translated versions were easily read and
understood by the target language readers. Since these students were not
native English-speakers, this step was supported by the instructors, the
group work collaborations, and the peer reviews.
In short, the study found that after receiving the new instructional
approach, the students developed better habits in their translation activities.
They could understand, internalise, and apply the professional strategies
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both consciously and unconsciously in their assignments. Such higher
frequency use of professional strategies was reflected in their test papers,
as fewer mistakes were made over the course, better choice of translation
decisions were made, and explanations could be given for each case. This
somehow confirmed that learners had step by step mastered the necessary
strategies required by the subject, and could habitually use them in real-life
assignments.
It is noteworthy that word-for-word translation was not favoured by
the students in the study. These changes in students’ translation habits
could be attributed to the well-designed teaching procedure. Since theories
and low-level skills practice had been done outside the classroom, more
high-level and real-life translation activities could be exploited inside the
physical class. These activities were conducted on the belief that the more
the students do translation, the better and more skillful they become in this
field. During the training, students were constantly encouraged to
understand the contents of the source language; then translate them into
English so that the native speakers when reading it could obtain a feeling of
reading a text that was written by native writers. The students were often
advised to search for other materials that were related to the field of
translated topics in order to obtain a better understanding of the subjects in
their context. The purpose of this activity was to promote extensive reading,
which to broadened knowledge to support translation. Also, collaborative
translation activities were reported as a powerful means to help students
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learn from one another, and improve knowledge and translation skills in
order to enhance the quality of the translated versions.
5.5. The flipped classroom approach facilitated

learners’ positive attitudes
Data showed that most students expressed positive attitudes and
improved confidence in their translation competence, implying that this
approach was well-received and preferred among participants. They were
aware of the benefits of in-class and out-of-class activities and asserted that
these elements significantly fostered their interest as well as self-confidence
in this subject. Five reasons could be attributed to this encouraging result.
First, all activities were designed coherently, systematically, and
purposefully based on the flipped procedure, and aimed at meeting learners’
needs as well as aligning with the learning outcomes. For example, revision
and exploratory activities required learners to prepare in advance for low-
order skills development and collaborative learning in context. Teaching
contents in these two steps were related to the videos and preparatory
assignments; hence, the students had to watch the videos and complete the
preparatory tasks in order not to fall behind. As a result, they could make
sense of the connection between the sections, and understand the teacher’s
endeavours, as well as find the classroom procedure meaningful. Another
example was the process of eliciting learners’ ideas and linguistic
competence to improve their translation skills. Initially, learners had to
acquire fundamental translation knowledge, and they required linguistic
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elements outside the classroom (e.g., terminology and syntactic structures
related to the thematic topics and text types). Then, these preparations were
checked to see whether they understood them correctly. Afterwards, they
applied the acquired knowledge into doing exercises in the textbook in order
to have a deeper understanding of how to use them in their contexts. Later,
they worked together for a translated assignment based on what they had
learnt. Next, they produced translated versions on their own from what they
had obtained from previous steps under the teacher’s guidance. Finally, they
used the knowledge gained from the videos, exploratory activities and group
work sharing to evaluate their peers’ papers critically. All these activities
were interconnected so that learners at the end of the course could adopt
the translation strategies appropriately and develop better learning habits.
As a result, this approach increased students' involvement and developed
their translation competence both inside and outside of the classroom.
Second, the use of technology in this flipped approach was
purposeful because the instructor had combined a balance of professional
and self-made tools based on educational strategies to bring about
perceived changes in learning habits. For example, videos made by well-
trained foreign lecturers were necessary for students to embrace the
necessary skills and overall rules of the translation theories. In contrast, the
teacher-made lectures were tailored to yield fruitful benefits to the learners’
personalised understanding by linking abstract theories to real-life
examples, thus arousing their interests. If students could see real values in
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the differences between teacher-made videos and other professional videos
available online, they would be drawn to watch these videos for their local
relevance and attractions, and the benefits of these videos could be
maximised. Additionally, the use of gamified online platforms also boosted
learners’ excitement as well as maintained their interest over the duration of
the course. As the out-of-class activities were organised in the form of
gamified versions, in which the students who finished the tasks earlier could
get more points and gain some random bonus from the platform, this could
ensure fair contributions among class members as well as avoid dishonesty
caused by the less motivated students.
Third, out-of-class activities provided practical opportunities for
students to assimilate the rules that govern their translation responses in
terms of contents, organisation, lexical and syntactic issues before the face-
to-face sessions. While many scholars have maintained that the biggest
challenge of flipped learning lies in the learners’ autonomy for pre-class
preparations (Gitau & Ayot, 2016; Roehling et al., 2017; Zhao & Ho, 2014),
these activities were ensured because they were frequently checked, and
accounted for 20% of the total grades. Furthermore, the Group forum
enabled learners to raise their questions for further explanations and the
instructor could monitor the students’ contributions during their information
exchange. In fact, this approach had certain control over out-of-class
activities to motivate learners to complete their required assignments. This
approach is, therefore, suitable to performance-based educational systems
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where good learning outcomes measured through formal assessments are
highly appreciated. Consequently, learners entered the class with better-
prepared attitudes and higher confidence levels.
In addition, the face-to-face sessions created a learner-centred and
social-constructivist environment, with a wide range of resources necessary
for students to engage critically in the tasks. As the lessons had been
delivered before the class time, learners had more time to practice and apply
with contextualised exercises. Furthermore, organising in-class activities in
a structured manner could enable students to develop their skills proficiency
attentively and purposefully, even enhancing their understanding about
social issues. Finally, the teacher’s facilitative role was presented in different
aspects, from the video making process to providing assistance in Group
forum, acting as the mediator in in-class activities and being the feedback
provider for refined products. This can meet the demands of those students
who value the knowledgeable and credible authority of instructors, and those
who prefer to learn by doing and discovering. Therefore, their competence
and higher-order cognitive skills were promoted, thanks to the learner-
centred approach, social-constructivist instructions, and transparent
teaching practices.
Finally, the use of Activity theory contributed to the success of this
study in a number of ways. On the one hand, since there was an awareness
that the new teaching approach might be influenced by various factors,
certain considerations were taken with regards to the instruments, rules,

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community, and division of labour. Besides video lectures, ample
technological tools were used to capture learners’ engagement such as
Kahoot, Duolinguo, Flipgrid, Quizizz, and Wallame. In addition, the clear
class rules, frequent support for interactions inside and outside the
classroom, and constant reminder of shared workload also were ensured.
On the other hand, the online platform, Classcraft, was used to maximise
the benefits of the flipped approach from the perspective of Activity theory.
This platform allowed learners to sharpen their skills via a wide range of
tailor-made gamified exercises; thus, it could maintain their positive attitudes
over the duration of the course. This platform also had a system to track
learners’ homework completion, social contributions, as well as learning
improvements; therefore, the teacher could encourage positive behaviours
promptly while students were building their knowledge and developing
collaboration skills. As a result, the flipped translation classroom was
designed with careful consideration of different relevant factors (instruments,
rules, community, and division of labour) from the Activity theory viewpoint,
and its benefits were maximised in this contextual Vietnamese setting.
In conclusion, the study offers practical solutions for the improvement
of translation training with the aid of technology and learner-centred
methodology. The findings highlighted the beneficial impacts of the
suggested flipped classroom approach to help learners obtain a deeper
understanding and improve translation competence. They first got exposure
to new translation knowledge via online videos; then, developed lower-order
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cognitive skills through preparatory tasks, and experienced out-of-class
interactions for information exchanges in the Group forum. Later, they
participated in various in-class activities to analyse linguistic elements in
context, enhance higher-order cognitive skills through individual
performance, and assess their peers’ translated versions critically. Hence,
this approach fostered learners’ professional habits and enhanced their
performance in various assessment activities.
This thesis also proves that flipping means more than shifting lectures
outside the classroom via online videos; and further, that the use of this
technological tool alone could not guarantee an improvement in educational
outcomes. Instead, the key element for its success is how to adopt different
learner-centred methods and strategies that incorporate a logical structure
into the teaching process so that in the end, learners can remember the
knowledge learned, apply that knowledge into real-life practice and promote
adaptive reasoning. Therefore, teachers who would like to use flipped
learning should think purposefully about their instructional designs, learning
objectives, institutional conditions, as well as educational frameworks that
are appropriate for each subject matter. This enables them to harness
technology to its fullest, as well as make the best use of physical class time.
Learners’ responses in the interviews also provided some
recommendations for a better implementation of flipped learning. First, the
videos should not only transmit professional knowledge but also include the
teacher’s personal experiences that are relevant to the learners’ needs and
320
circumstances. Second, subtitles should always be provided to cater to low
achievers if using online content that have been created by native English
speakers. Moreover, quizzes and exercises should be embedded within the
videos to motivate learners to complete their tasks. Finally, grouping
formation should be frequently re-organised to allow learners can to work
with different characteristics and learning styles. In short, if instructors could
adopt culturally appropriate and contextually relevant elements in their
lessons, then flipped learning could work effectively to promote and achieve
better academic performance.
5.6. The flipped classroom approach mitigated

challenges faced by learners
Activity theorists argue that challenges are inevitable in situations
where individuals engage in unfamiliar situations and learning contexts
(Engeström, 2010). Therefore, the use of Activity theory helped us
understand the various impacts of this flipped approach in a thorough
manner. The tools in this study included virtual tools (video lectures, Group
forum and learning platform), conceptual tools (translation theories and
strategies), material tools (journalistic articles, real-life assignments,
PowerPoint slides) and linguistic tools (in Vietnamese and English
languages). In terms of the rules, the guidelines on procedure acted as a
mediator, allowing students to participate in the online environments and in-
class sessions. The community included the synchronous learning activities,
teacher’s assistance, classroom environment, and communication spaces
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available for mutual interactions. Finally, the division of labour referred to the
roles of each of the members (learners and instructor) that were necessary
to provide practical support and give feedback to each other to help learners
complete their tasks. Therefore, data showed how the participants saw their
roles changed during the learning process, thanks to the technology-driven
initiatives, as well as how the shift enhanced or hindered their performance.
Although this flipped classroom approach has been adapted from the
design of Zhai et al. (2017), with some modifications made to suit the
Vietnamese contemporary context, five challenges still emerged within and
between activity systems in this research. However, it could be said that the
five challenges were not a significant figure. Typically, these challenges
arise when one introduces new instructional approaches into the classroom,
and also where new mediating artifacts, rules, and division of labour are
used within the community of teachers and students. Figure 5-2 below
summarises the significant challenges that funneled out of the interview
sources.
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- Quality of the local server

- Personal dislike of technology
Division of Labour
Initial mixed feelings about Unequal workload and

Ineffective support or
the heavy workload and unproductive group
cooperation from peers
course procedure work
Figure 5-2: Challenges faced by learners during the course

In terms of the challenges caused by the instruments, the introduction
of the learning platform created constraints because it was provided within
the school-based Internet connection. The instability of this source posed
much difficulty to those students who lived in the school dormitory. Second,
there was a possibility that some students expressed their negative
preferences about technological use during the training process. For those
students with limited experience of technology, the choice of e-learning tools
could pose a challenge or cause the feeling of dislike. As a result, learners
would become resistant to change, and their active participation could be
affected in the early stages of the intervention. Therefore, careful
consideration was needed to determine how the mediating artefacts were to
be used in order to provide a satisfactory mechanism that encouraged
learners to take ownership of the subject.

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Second, the tension emerging from the rules in this flipped approach
was the initial mixed feelings in anticipation of an increase in their workload
and the change in classroom procedure. Some students felt stressful about
watching the course videos and completing the tasks before a physical
class, which were not enacted in other classes and they had never
experienced before. However, this should not be perceived as a huge
challenge since anxiety to a certain extent is beneficial for learning. In other
words, when the flipped classroom approach is not applied, preparing the
lessons might also trigger anxiety in any non-flipped environment. Moreover,
differences in classroom procedure are inevitable when learners could enjoy
various teaching and learning styles, and this could also be seen as a
preparation for them to enter the employment market with huge changes in
working procedure and complex regulations.
Third, learners expressed certain tensions relating to cooperation
among their community. Some participants expressed their preference for
the traditional approach, and stated that they felt unready to do the group
work, both inside and outside the classroom. This result was in line with the
findings of Dang (2010), who stated that some Vietnamese learners were
still familiar with their passive role in the learning process, so it was not easy
for them to adapt to a new learning system within a short period of time.
Moreover, data revealed that there was a lack of cooperative attitudes and
interdependency within some groups during the translation practice.
Differences in linguistic proficiency as well as learning styles created a
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hindrance to deep collaborative learning as some learners liked to work on
their own. As a result, certain group-work activities, which were installed to
encourage discussions and welcome multiple perspectives, were not
successful as expected. Therefore, a harmonious combination of effective
support from the educator while providing autonomous collaborative
learning in the flipped learning is still an ongoing, uphill battle.
Finally, tensions were created when the division of labour conflicted
with the individual’s learning goals and expectations. Learners with negative
experiences with group work expressed an overdependence on their team
members, which resulted in unequal workload distribution, unproductive
group performance and additional stress. Some participants were also
plagued by irregular attendance, ill-equipped preparation and an indifferent
attitude that resisted the need to work collaboratively with the other team
members. Three learners even desired to work independently, expressing a
preference of an individualised division of labour driven by their own
priorities. In fact, the challenge confronting the division of labour in this study
was to comprehend a mode of working that seemed to be simultaneously
difficult yet beneficial for the students involved. This inability to engage
collectively could also be caused by differing levels of commitment to the
modules, external pressures, and a lack of learners’ experience in the
equitable division of labour for the optimal functioning as a group.
In conclusion, Activity theory is a potentially powerful tool to
conceptualise the flipped classroom approach as an activity system. It also
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helped us to better understand the likely impact of this instruction in a
thorough manner. On the one hand, a number of participants thought highly
of the new learning approach and took a more proactive role in their learning
process. On the other hand, this was seen to be less likely the case for those
who were reluctant to venture into innovation and autonomy for their
learning. However, it could be said that these challenges did not pose
serious problems in the teaching and learning processes. Rather, the new
working procedure and learning rules/requirements could be interpreted as
being more troublesome in the initial period of the study. In addition,
although this flipped classroom approach had been frequently modified and
adapted during the intervention to support various learning types, it seemed
that only the devoted students got the most benefits out of it.
5.7. Conclusion
This chapter has analysed the findings with reference to the research
questions of the study. There are five main sections in this chapter:
 the suitability of this flipped classroom approach in the Vietnamese
context with a well-aligned classroom procedure;
 the benefits of the flipped classroom towards learners’ improved
competence based on the expected learning outcomes;
 learners’ changes in translation habits as measured through their
frequent use of translation strategies to deal with assignments;
 learners’ perceptions towards the new teaching approach; and
 the challenges they faced from the perspective of Activity theory.
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This study adopted the flipped principles proposed by Zhai et al.
(2017) to provides a more detailed picture of flipped learning. Specifically,
the approach first stresses on the importance of the increased interactions
between teachers and learners within the face-to-face and out-of-class
sessions (progressive learning networking activities). Second, it requires
instructors to reflect on their methodology frequently, and track the benefits
of their students' self-learning sessions to ensure engaging and effective
learning experiences. Last, it stresses that technology platforms (both the
school online platform and Facebook Group Discussion platform) should be
diversified and exploited to promote social learning processes in the online
context.
In this study, the teacher has adopted the following behaviours to
achieve better learning outcomes, including:
 the appropriate use of humour (in the videos, Group forum, and in-
class sessions);
 praising students on their performance;
 engaging students outside of the classroom;
 encouraging students to talk and interact together;
 facilitating learners’ viewpoints and contributions; and
 following up on topics raised by students even if they were not directly
related to the class materials.
These strategies could provide an engaging and effective learning
experience for an effective flipped classroom.
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The study found that most participants appreciated the opportunity to
practice, both inside and outside the classroom, and were aware that other
group members shared their goals of achieving good grades. They were
positive towards information exchanges, and they found that translation
assignments became less challenging when they worked in groups. The
course procedure also helped the students to understand the lessons better,
and allowed them to correct their friends’ mistakes more efficiently. This, in
turn, enhanced learners’ competitive attitudes and generated greater
motivation to achieve good grades in their final exam. The study also
showed that learners understood and applied the correct strategies at
different translation units and text genres more frequently. Data from Class
A clearly indicated that the participants were able to adopt appropriate
translation strategies in their work both consciously and unconsciously. This
is also borne out from the results of the interviews, which showed that the
respondents understood what was being taught in class quite well.
To some extent, although most participants acknowledged the
benefits of group work, a few students did not think that this aspect promoted
cooperation among the members. The students had negative responses to
group work when they did not share the same learning objectives, and also
when some of their friends did not contribute effectively. However, the
students who were aware of the positive aspects of group work still
outnumbered the few who did not. The next chapter sums up this treatise
with a conclusion, the limitations and recommendations of this research.
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CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION
6.1. Introduction
In the previous chapter, the suggested flipped classroom approach
was evaluated by considering the empirical findings of the research study.
Therefore, the discussion in this section provides a synopsis of the whole
research. It begins with a summary of the main parts of the thesis. Then,
theoretical contributions are presented by explaining the key findings and
highlighting the importance of the different factors, which facilitated the
success of the flipped classroom approach for the teaching and learning
process. Following that, practical implications for a more effective
implementation of flipped learning are provided. Limitations of this thesis are
discussed in the fourth part of this chapter. Finally, further research
implications based on these limitations are offered.
6.2. Research overview

Chapter 1 described an introductory overview. The study began with
a concern for three research issues. A review of background of the study
showed that there is a lack of a robust framework to implement the flipped
classroom in language learning and social sciences. Second, an
investigation from the problem statements revealed that translator training,
especially in Vietnam, is still struggling with the use of traditional teacher-
centered methods. In addition, the needs analysis from the local public
university showed that more physical class time for practice and interactions
is needed to foster professional translation habits as well as the need for
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learners to participate a lot more in their own education. Thus, the study was
conducted to make the learning environment more interactive, and the
translation practice more efficaciously. In short, this study was developed
against the backdrop of the changing needs of translation training in a
Vietnamese context and the lack of a well-defined instructional design for
flipped learning.
Then, the research objectives, research questions, and the rationale
were analysed. The purpose of this study was:
(1) to provide a detailed instructional design that is contextually relevant
and culturally appropriate in Vietnam;
(2) to investigate the benefits of this flipped classroom approach in
relation to learners’ translation competence and learning outcomes;
(3) to explore pedagogical practices to enhance learners’ translation
habits with the aid of flipped learning;
(4) to discover learners’ perceptions towards the benefits of this new
approach on their translation improvement; and
(5) to determine what actual challenges were faced by Vietnamese
learners and how those tensions were mitigated thanks to the
implementation of Activity theory
Based on these objectives, this study incorporated technology-
assisted developments (both inside and outside the classroom) with long-
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standing ideas of learner-centred instructions (e.g., socio-constructivism and
active learning), bringing significant changes to an instructor’s teaching
practice. Then, six research questions were posed to shed light on whether
the suggested flipped approach could improve the quality of teacher’s
instructions and students’ translation competence.
In terms of the significance of the study, it is worth noting that the
ongoing development and availability of educational technologies has
provided additional alternatives for instructors in order to improve their
teaching practices. For example, those teachers with an interest in learner-
centred methodology can make use of lecture-capture systems to post the
lectures online; thus, allowing for deeper collaborative activities during class
time. This flipped classroom approach, therefore, could provide greater
opportunities for peer interactions, individualised learning, and student
involvement during the training process.
Chapter 2 presented a critical analysis of the relevant literature on
translation training and flipped learning, as well as displayed gaps in the
existing studies. The first part of this chapter defined concepts related to
translation practice, including translation definitions, translation training in
the 21st century, translation competence, professional translation habits,
translation strategies, translation quality assessment, and significant trends
in this discipline. Moreover, a close description of translation training in
Vietnam and the particular context of BUH were also examined. Then, a
review on flipped learning was conducted, including its definitions, historical

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background, principles, variances, main components of the flipped
approach, theoretical framework, and the significant research results. It was
revealed that the existing studies focused mainly on natural sciences, and
there was a lack of empirical investigation that evaluated the experience of
flipping translation lessons, with a detailed work procedure in a systematic
way. Moreover, few attempts had been made to evaluate the quality of the
group-learning experience inside and outside the flipped classroom.
However, there has been no studies that have been conducted to investigate
flipped learning from the perspective of Activity theory. Therefore, an
identification of the challenges posed by the implementation of flipped
classroom can facilitate our understanding of how learners are affected by
these challenges, and then addressing any necessary actions required, in
order to deal with those challenges and bring about improvements in the
educational practice.
Chapter 3 explained the methodological approach behind this thesis.
The philosophical perspectives and research design were discussed in the
first sub-section. This thesis followed an interpretivist paradigm, relativist
ontology, interpretative epistemology, and value-laden axiology. To address
the research questions, a case study research design was adopted with 79
participants allocated into two flipped classes. This design could bridge
some literature gaps as to what really happened inside and outside the
classroom, how the flipped procedure helped students achieve the required
learning outcomes, and how the activities could be well aligned with the
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expected learning outcomes and the local assessment to promote
conceptual understanding and procedural fluency. As a result, these
benefits of this case study design were collected via three research
instruments.
First, content analysis was adopted to illustrate how one specific
flipped scenario took place. Learning activities were evaluated and mapped
against learning outcomes, assessment requirements, theoretical
framework and institutional descriptors, using constructive alignment to shed
light on how these activities were interrelated, and had facilitated the
learning process. Then, a test comparison was analysed based on error
analysis to clarify in more detail how well these activities contributed to
enhancing learners’ competence and professional habits. Last, twelve
college students took part in semi-structured interviews. These participants
were selected based on their voluntary agreement to join in the study,
demographic information, and their final grades. Individual interviews were
scheduled, recorded, and transcribed for each participant. Several iterations
of transcript analysis took place, beginning with a careful review of the
recording for corrections and ending with the final coding of the transcripts.
Data was analysed by error analysis for test comparison, and thematic
analysis with the help of NVivo for interviews. They were also triangulated
to provide a deeper understanding about the beneficial impacts of this
flipped approach in translation studies.
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Regarding the procedure of the intervention, learners had to watch
videos developed specifically for the course contents in order to prepare for
the classroom activities. According to the responses collated, the
respondents’ judgements and the videos lectures aided and abetted the
learning process in that they amplified interest, enriched internalisation, and
enhanced the understanding of the theories. This was then fostered by the
learners’ completion of preparatory tasks and portfolio, together with online
guidance by the instructor and supporting feedback from peers in the Group
forum. During the in-class sessions, the revision and exploratory activities
enabled learners to apply past experiences to new problems, and stimulated
the development of mental models to bridge past experiences with new
problems. The exploratory activities also provided multiple representations
through media technology to help the learners focus on relevant aspects of
the demonstration. The joint negotiation allowed learners to work in groups
or pairs to demonstrate their understanding via specific translation
assignments. During this step, learners could enjoy a variety of practice
experiences with the gradual withdrawal of support from the instructor. Then
the individual practice was an opportunity for the learners to synthesise their
understanding and knowledge, create new insights, and put into practice
what they had internalised in the previous education steps. Finally, the peer
review could be seen as an assessment to review learners’ critical thinking
skills. In order to reach the outcome of the activity system, the course
objectives were chosen to be a series of tasks leading to the simulated
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translation practice. The tasks were carried out in a realistic manner, and
thus, required collaboration among the team members. To sum up, most
learners realised that the learning process was enriched and intensified
when it was expanded beyond the classroom, and all activities were
interrelated, constructive, intentional, and synergetic.
The research findings of this thesis were analysed in chapters 4
according to the research instruments used. Then, the key themes from
these findings were discussed in chapter 5 to validate the beneficial impacts
of the flipped classroom approach in translation training. By linking these
findings with relevant literature, this thesis showed how flipped learning
influenced learners’ competence and translation habits. The results also
indicated the relationships between the new teaching approach and
learners’ improved attitudes. In addition, the study found that when an
implementation of this approach was conducted systematically from the
perspective of Activity theory and constructive alignment, and also when
certain learner-centred theories (e.g., socio-constructivism, active learning,
individualised learning) were taken into consideration with contextual
relevance and cultural appropriateness, there were fruitful benefits to be
gained. Learners not only encountered and confronted fewer challenges
during the implementation, but they also could develop their own learning
styles, initiate independent learning as well as facilitate cooperation, both
inside and outside the classroom.
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The next two sub-sections highlighted the theoretical contributions
and practical implications of this thesis.
6.3. Theoretical contributions of the study

The thesis provides useful insights to the growing numbers of the
scholars and educators who desire to understand the benefits of the flipped
classroom approach in translation training, especially its implementation in
a specific context like Vietnam. First, the major theoretical contribution of this
thesis is the implementation of a novel flipped learning approach as
proposed in Figure 1-1. This approach was validated based on the
theoretical framework derived from literature (Figure 2-1) and adapted from
the studies of Estes et al. (2014) and Zhai et al. (2017) (Figure 3-1). More
importantly, this approach took it a step further and refined its learning
contents so that it could be constantly adjusted in line with the Activity theory
and constructive alignment; thus, minimising the challenges learners might
face during the intervention (Figure 2-8). Such elements of content delivery,
learner-centric experience, contextual relevance, and cultural
appropriateness were respected, both in the video making process, and the
activity design. This promoted active learning and ensured individualised
learning. As explored in chapter 2, there was a lack of an instructional
framework to integrate critical-thinking activities into the teaching process.
Further, few attempts have been made to describe what techniques could
be used to facilitate a collaborative environment inside the classroom.
Therefore, this coherent and integrative approach is by far the most
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important aspect to attract the growing interest among academics to explore
more detailed implementation of flipped learning for improving the teaching
and learning process (Chang & Hwang, 2018; Kim, 2017; O’Flaherty &
Phillips, 2015).
Extant studies have fallen short in terms of providing instructional
designs that showed how beneficial impacts of the flipped classroom could
be obtained in a systematic way. The dearth of academic literature on the
subject and the increasing popularity of this approach encouraged this thesis
to examine a conceptual framework as a viable and practical solution. By
validating this approach, the thesis showed that flipped learning could
enable educators to systematically innovate the classroom activities and
bring better learning outcomes. The benefits of this suggested flipped
classroom approach, as investigated in the present study, are threefold:
 improved performance as measured through fewer errors made in
various formative and summative assessments;
 enhanced translation habits as measured through the learners’
mastery of professional translation strategies both consciously and
unconsciously; and
 learners’ positive attitudes toward the new teaching approach as well
as their translation improvement.
In other words, the thesis has provided useful insights into the
students’ perceptions towards the flipped classroom approach and its
efficacy. The results not only revealed a consistent improvement in the
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students’ performance but also indicated a positive impact on students’
translation habits, interests, and confidence. These findings are consistent
with other studies in methodology (Awidi & Paynter, 2019; Bouwmeester et
al., 2019; Ekmekci, 2017).
This study also has demonstrated that the success of flipped
classroom depends on the effective integration of elements of technology
alongside the well-structured in-class activities. The results imply that
instructions should take place both inside and outside the classroom through
a variety of mediums. A mere implementation of online videos without taking
into account the structured format of in-class activities, might not bring fruitful
benefits to the teaching and learning processes. Instead, in-class activities
should be built upon a rigid well-informed pedagogical framework that is
suitable and appropriate for each subject (Njie-Carr et al., 2017). When
activities are well-planned and implemented based on rigid theoretical and
conceptual frameworks, both learning environments of the flipped learning
could provide rich opportunities for students with differing learning styles.
Second, investigating the flipped classroom approach in translation
training also improved understanding about the essence of its process. One
limitation of studies on flipped learning is the insufficient empirical validation
across translation contexts. In other words, this approach has yet to be
measured in any coherent way in the translation field. In fact, each learning
process of the flipped classroom requires different educational strategies
(Ha et al., 2019; Hwang et al., 2019; Song & Kapur, 2017). Hence, this thesis
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provides evidential support for the beneficial influence of each elements of
the flipped classroom on translation training. It proves that expected learning
outcomes could be achieved by accomplishing required tasks both inside
and outside the classroom. This increases the existing body of knowledge
on the flipped classroom approach by highlighting the connections between
the learning activities across translation assignments, and the importance of
research-informed teaching procedure. In other words, a well-structured
design of the flipped classroom is completely suited to a social-sciences
subject like translation.
Third, the thesis proves that the flipped classroom approach works
effectively in a performance-based educational setting like Vietnam. Very
few studies considered the influence of the flipped classroom on learning in
Vietnam (Thai et al., 2017). Most of these studies investigated the flipped
learning in the natural-sciences subjects or at the high-school level. The
other drawback is that there have been no studies that examine the influence
of the flipped classroom on learners’ habits or skills mastery. Such
investigation is extremely important because learning actually occurs as
learners sharpen their necessary skills and change their learning habits in a
positive manner (Chen et al., 2014). Therefore, this thesis explicitly provides
new and valuable theoretical and empirical support for the flipped learning
theory by showing how this approach could bring benefits to the teaching
and learning processes in Vietnam. It not only could leverage learners’
interests and engagement during the intervention but also could enhance
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their skills mastery significantly. Using this approach, Vietnamese instructors
could be confident to implement the flipped classroom into their own
contexts. Moreover, curriculum designers and stakeholders could also adopt
this approach to meet the expanding needs of institutional digitalisation in
the new era of Industry 4.0, and enhance their competitive advantages.
Fourth, the thesis contributes to the flipped classroom theory by
adopting a case-study design to investigate the educational values of flipped
learning at a deeper level. Thus far, no published study has used a similar
design to investigate the benefits of flipped learning and the challenges
faced by learners in a systematic way, with the aid of well-developed
analytical tools. Instead, current studies typically dismiss the challenges as
negative results in the findings section. In addition, no published study has
used similar procedures in describing what actually happen inside and
outside of the classroom and how they were structured coherently based on
the alignment with the learning outcomes, assessment and institutional
descriptors. This thesis, therefore, explored new perspectives on the
subject. By looking at the complex dynamics of this setting and from different
angles of the Activity theory, the researcher now has a clearer understanding
of all the relationships of various elements within an activity system. The
success of this teaching approach not only depends on a change in
instruments (technology-assisted environment and video lectures) but also
relies on how well other elements (e.g., rules, community, and division of
labour) are taken into account. Educators who desire to maximise the
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beneficial impacts of the flipped learning should (1) set clear rules from the
beginning, (2) frequently remind learners of the course objectives and
procedure, (3) foster interactions between teachers and students inside and
outside the classroom, and (4) maintain an equitable division of labour.
Finally, the implementation of the flipped classroom approach poses
a challenge to learners who were unaccustomed to autonomous and
collaborative learning. These challenges includes the instability of the
technology-assisted instruments (including the school-based Internet
system), personal dislike of technology, unfamiliarity with the required out-
of-class workloads or the new classroom procedure, differences in
proficiency and learning styles, and the inequitable division of labour.
Thanks to the Activity Theory, it could be understood the forces behind these
challenges, and ways to provide learners with more individualised support
and take their distinctive learning styles into consideration could be actually
provided to minimise these challenges. Moreover, further examination for a
pedagogically sound implementation of the flipped classroom approach
could also be suggested.
In conclusion, the research addressed the problematic issues in
translation training and flipped learning (see 1.2. and 1.3.). It could minimise
the limited time allocation by moving lectures outside the classroom,
encouraging out-of-class interactions and self-learning, providing more in-
class time for real-life practice and higher-order cognitive development. This,
in other words, could make the better use of teachers’ and learners’ time and
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meet diverse learners’ needs. In addition, the study also contributed to
flipped learning literature by providing educators with a better understanding
of the importance of functional, usable, communicative, and aesthetically
appropriate use of instructional technologies such as the suggested flipped
classroom approach.
6.4. Practical implications of the study

6.4.1. Implications for video making
This thesis contributes to current practice by providing several
suggestions for a better application of video making in this suggested flipped
classroom approach. First, the video lectures should not only contain
professional knowledge but also add the teacher’s personal experiences
wherever relevant to the learners’ needs and conditions. This suggestion is
supported by the studies of Obradovich (2015) and Zhang (2016). Next, if
online lectures created by native English speakers are used in an EFL/ESL
setting, consideration should be taken of the learners’ level, particularly for
low achievers, where subtitles might be provided to ensure their
understanding. Moreover, quizzes and preparatory exercises also should be
embedded within the videos to motivate the learners. Finally, classroom
activities should be frequently re-grouped so that learners can experience
different learning styles and characteristics. In short, if instructors adopt
contextually relevant and culturally appropriate elements in their lessons,
then a flipped classroom and technology-assisted learning could work
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effectively and yield better academic performance within the educational
setting (Chang & Hwang, 2018).
Implications for the video making could also be made for educators
who do not have technological expertise but would like to implement the
flipped learning into their classroom. At the outset, simple technology could
be used to record videos such as Screencast-O-Matic, Camtasia, and Jing.
These tools could be downloaded from the Internet with free-versions and
are quite user-friendly. Second, the length of the videos should be between
10-15 minutes so as to arouse the learners’ interest and maintain their
engagement (Obradovich et al., 2015). If the topics are long and
complicated, instructors could break them up into smaller segments, and
keep the video short for each segment. Once instructors have identified the
core objectives that are necessary for the students to achieve, a virtual
collage of images, diagrams, or charts should be exploited to add impact to
the presentations. Third, captioning is needed to make the videos accessible
for low achievers and students with hearing impairment. For example, the
scripting tool in Screencast-o-Matic could be used to create captions and
subtitles effectively. Besides, although recorded PowerPoint presentations
are most frequently used for this purpose, educators can also experiment
with nonlinear presentation tools like Prezi, storytelling software like
Powtoon, mind mapping tools, or on-the-street interview to add variety to the
learning experience. Educators also can design scenarios with specific,
clear, and highly contextual assignments so that learners could enjoy
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simulated or real-life practice. They can also incorporate existing media such
as YouTube, TedTalk, or Khan Academy videos and embed these media
elements directly within the flipped classroom videos. In addition, Microsoft
has recently announced a similar initiative called Office Mix, which
transforms PowerPoint presentations version 2013 into interactive videos,
complete with quizzes and labs. If teachers can gain insight into what their
students know before class starts, they can strategically assign them to
specific learning hubs during live instructions, reinforcing the focus on
differentiation and investigation (Chang & Hwang, 2018). Since these tools
require a higher level of technological proficiency, there should be a
community sharing to reduce the workload of the video makers. Moreover,
educators can also make use of recorded students’ assignments to facilitate
collaboration, discussion, and active learning. For example, videos of former
students who interviewed an academic, surveyed members of their
community, or captured a video from an outdoor experience could be shared
as experiential learning for discussions. This could alleviate the teacher’s
burden in lesson preparations and enhance learners’ engagement as well
as interest.
Besides, educators should take differentiated and individualised
learning into serious consideration as these elements are one of the core
principles of the flipped classroom (see 2.3.4.). For low achievers and
struggling students, multiple explanations for the same materials from
different sources should be offered. Captioning or subtitling also should be
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provided, where necessary. Contrary to common practice, good students
also require an expansion into the lessons; therefore, supplementary links
and resources can be provided so that they could explore deeper into the
subject matter. No matter what level the students are at, the teachers must
bear in mind to summarise the key points of the lecture towards the end of
each video to provide an opportunity for students to reflect on the lessons.
They can even create a short introduction (or a hook) to attract students’
attention to future content. Finally, in case issues on accessibility to
technology arises (e.g., the school online platform is out of service),
alternative methods for distributing videos should be taken into account,
such as using the social network platforms or the class forum. Besides,
teachers can use interactive video environments (e.g., eduCanon) which
allows them to create real-time questions that students are required to
answer. These environments feature a question-by-question breakdown of
student performance and exportable score reports. As a result, all of these
recommendations could be used as a guideline to maximise the benefits of
flipped learning, enhancing learner autonomy as well as engagement both
outside and inside the classroom.
6.4.2. Implications based on Activity theory

Another significance of this study lies in the insights gained from the
Activity theory orientation as an operationalised and interpretative
framework. They have demonstrated that various relevant factors should be
considered regarding the implementation of flipped learning to ensure that
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educators and students obtain the intended outcomes. The researcher has
drawn four implications drawn from the Activity theory orientation. First,
flipped learning is not merely the use of out-of-class video lectures and in-
class collaborative practices. The use of various cognitive tools and physical
tools should be exploited to maximise the effectiveness of learning as well
as to adapt them to particular educational conditions. For example, teachers
should pay attention to the following elements:
 how educational methodologies are incorporated during the course
semester to meet diverse learners’ needs and expectations;
 how the course contents are strategically organised to ensure that
learners could complete their pre-class preparations and cooperate to
enhance their out-of-class internalisation as well as interactions; and
 how the ample use of technology tools are exploited to maintain
learners’ engagement and involvement.
Second, clear guidance for learners through the use explicit
directions of rules and prompts should be given right from the start. This
would ensure that learners have a clear understanding about what they are
required to do, what the desired outcomes are, and how they could achieve
those intended outcomes. This means that learners should not only
familiarise themselves with the instructional procedure of out-of-class and
in-class activities but also understand the logical structure of these activities.
Moreover, certain measures should be taken to help and support learners
with their prior preparation tasks such as portfolio assessment, embedded
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questions inside the videos, and extra marks for active contributors in the
Group forum. If, for example, instructors use certain interactive online
platforms such as Classcraft, these rules can be effectively enforced as the
platform requires learners to finish video watching and preparatory tasks
before advancing to the higher-order cognitive activities. As a result, the full
potential and benefits of flipped learning could be maximised.
Third, the community also should be given due attention to foster
learners’ interactions and knowledge sharing. On the one hand, while in-
class collaborative practice is highly appreciated in flipped learning, the out-
of-class community is normally restricted to student-video and teacher-
student communications. Although the student-student relationship outside
the classroom is normally overlooked in flipped approaches, this should be
one key factor for empowering learners’ autonomy and competences (Ha et
al., 2019; Hwang et al., 2019). Compared to the limited physical class time,
learners can have more time for language and skill practice and for particular
affordances through the group work dissemination. Therefore, instructors in
flipped classrooms should create more opportunities for group work via the
preparation of assignments and small projects. Some social platforms such
as Classcraft, Leaderboards, and Knolskape’s AktivLearn can allow such
socially engaging learning environments and, thus, generate higher
interactivity. Besides, the Group forum could also be geared towards
information sharing, deeper discussions, collaborative quizzes and
teamwork competitions. Consequently, while learners work towards meeting
347
their common goals with team members, they can practice their language,
skills, and knowledge beyond the physical classroom. These interactive
activities help them retain knowledge better and feel more engaged with the
readily available materials at their disposal.
Finally, a fair division of labour should be created to establish a
successful working relationship between the teachers and the students. On
the one hand, the facilitating and coaching role of the teacher is very
important and should not be neglected. Some instructors might use tailor-
made videos for their online lectures; however, it could be useful if the
teachers incorporate contextualised elements into their self-made videos.
This not only leverages learners’ interest but also helps them find relevance
with the online materials. Moreover, teachers should provide thought-
provoking activities for discussion threads in the Group forum as well as
prompt responses to learners’ queries. Teachers could also strengthen their
in-class roles by creating interrelated activities through the various forms of
practice, assessment, and revision tasks. On the other hand, an equitable
division of labour among students is critical to maintaining effective group
work assignments. Instructors should provide a set of group guidelines to
help learners get the necessary consensus among them for task completion.
This can be done by appointing a leader for each group and/or a scribe to
record the group’s activities. For big assignments or projects, the groups
need to discuss about their contributions, facilitate the division of the tasks
for each member, and create a checklist to ensure that deadlines are met,
348
as well as maintain a harmonious work-sharing procedure. Some online
platforms (e.g., Classcraft and Leaderboards) could track the contributions
of each team member and provide instant feedback on how well each
member is doing. Moreover, instructors also should equip learners with
some strategies for dealing with potential problems and conflicts in team
work. Finally, a change in group size and group members might be an
effective way to enable learners to experience different learning styles and
avoid any uncooperative attitudes they might encounter during the course
6.5. Limitations of the study

This thesis provides insightful vision about the way the flipped
classroom approach can be implemented in translation training. However,
there are six limitations encountered throughout this research. First, since
this is a case study with 79 participants and 12 interviews, this sample size
was too small to detect if there was a level of significance and replication.
Second, because of budgetary and time constraints, the research was
limited to a single unit of the entire Translation curriculum from a public
university in Ho Chi Minh City. That means the study did not represent the
whole population of undergraduate translation students in Vietnam, thus
limiting its generalisability to other translation programmes and levels of
degrees in other settings. Therefore, the data collected from this study may
also not be applicable to different translation courses that are taught via the
flipped classroom approach. Third, the teaching style of the researcher
during the intervention might have influenced the participants’ responses. In
349
other words, there is a possibility that the participants’ perceptions towards
the flipped classroom approach might have been different had the
participants been taught by different instructors. Fourth, the translation tests
in this institution are not high-stake ones, so some students may not have
performed to their best abilities. In addition, due to differences in cultural
backgrounds, students from different countries may have different
interpretations of some concepts in the interviews. Thus, the findings and
recommendations from this study, which was tailored specifically for
Vietnam, may not be applicable for other countries. Finally, qualitative
results were limited to twelve students who received instructional guidance
in the flipped classrooms, and interview answers were limited to the honesty
and willingness of each participant to share their own thoughts.
6.6. Recommendations for further study

In light of what the study has revealed, several implications arise for
future research into the subject. At the outset, since this is a case study
design, the external validity of the thesis is relatively low due to its small
sample size and short time frame. Readers may need to interpret the results
carefully as this study is context-specific and involves a limited sample.
Thus, an understanding of the flipped classroom approach could be more
beneficial for longitudinal research with a larger scale of participants, long-
term experiments, and with other types of research design. Feedback also
can be obtained from the same or different scholar units such as public and
private universities. Moreover, the impact of flipped learning on translation
350
training might be different in other modules across this discipline. Therefore,
this thesis suggests future research to revise the beneficial impacts of flipped
learning in various translation courses with different teaching practices (e.g.,
Translation theories, English-Vietnamese Translation). Besides, more
methods such as observations, focused group interviews, and document
analysis could be conducted to explore the actual in-class procedures,
learners’ real thinking, as well as their improvements through in-class
assignments and formative assessments. As a result, the students may
adopt a more versatile approach to translation and they can have greater
control over their own learning process.
6.7. Conclusion
This research was conducted to illustrate how a flipped procedure
was actually implemented and how all flipped activities were aligned with
aspects such as learning objectives and assessment tasks. It also evaluate
the benefits of the flipped classroom approach on learning outcomes in a
Vietnamese-English translation course as well as to measure learners’
perceptions towards the impacts of this new approach on their translation
improvement. Challenges faced by the learners were investigated from the
perspective of Activity theory to examine how different elements such as
instruments, rules, community, and division of labour influenced the success
of the implementation.
The results supported the conceptual framework (see 1.7) and the
suggested flipped procedure (see 3.7.4.). By evaluating its conceptual
351
framework based on six research questions, this thesis achieved its
objectives including identifying pedagogical practices to enhance learners’
competence as well as translation habits, and contributing to theoretical
research on how this approach can be employed with a detailed instructional
design. A summary of this thesis was provided in this chapter to clarify how
these objectives were achieved. Theoretical and practical contributions were
also given in this chapter. Besides, the explanation of these contributions
highlighted the insightful outcomes of this thesis in addressing the research
gaps. Finally, this chapter concluded by highlighting and explaining the
limitations of the study, and proposing that further research be conducted on
the subject to enlarge its general applicability.
352
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NGUYEN QUANG NHAT – APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
PARTICIPANT INFORMATION
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
School of Education
Project Title: “A Case Study of the Flipped Classroom Approach for
Translation Studies in Vietnam”
Researcher: NGUYEN QUANG NHAT Contact Number: +84 9 1756 6265
[university email] [email protected],[email protected]
Supervisors: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lee Kean Wah
[university email] [email protected]
Dr. Csaba Zoltan Szabo
[university email] [email protected]
Ethics Approval Reference Number: …. [to be inserted following ethical review]
This is an invitation to take part in a research study about “A Case Study

of the Flipped Classroom Approach for Translation Studies in Vietnam”. This
information is designed to tell you what it will involve.
Your participation is voluntary, and you may change your mind about being
involved, or decline to answer a particular question or stop the recording at any time
for interview without giving a reason. For anonymous questionnaires, once you
have finished the questionnaire and submitted your answers, it is not possible to
withdraw the data. Your test will be marked by a third-party teacher and the results
will be anonymous. You are free to withdraw at any point before or during the study.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
This study aims to examine how learners’ translation competence can be
improved through the implementation of flipped approach. It is hoped that effective
class time will be exploited, more classroom interactions will be adopted and your
academic performance in the final exam will be enhanced.
WHO IS BEING ASKED TO TAKE PART, AND WHY?
For the purpose of this study, participants will consist of undergraduates
enrolled in a Vietnamese-English Translation class at the Faculty of Foreign
Languages, Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This university is
chosen because it is the place where the main researcher is working as a full-time
lecturer. This institution is also restructuring the translation curriculum to meet the
requirements of the Vietnamese Ministry of Education based on the CDIO
approach. The Vietnamese-English Translation class is chosen due to the
convenience purpose. It is also decided that the participants for the interviews will
be selected from the participants who have completed the questionnaire. All
participants attempting the questionnaire will be asked if he or she is willing to be
considered for the interview session. In addition, the test results of the class will be
compared with a contemporary class anonymously to check the benefits of the new
teaching approach.
387
WHAT WILL YOU BE ASKED TO DO?

If you volunteer to participate in this study, you will be required to do the
following:
1. Log in the online platform, watch the video lectures at home, join the Group
Forum and do the required exercises to prepare for the following lessons.
2. Take notes and prepare the portfolios because it will be marked and accounts
for 20% of the course grades.
3. Work in groups and in pairs to participate in in-class activities. The researcher
will check your attendance record.
4. Assist the researcher in the process of selecting students to be interviewed. If
you wish to participate, you can write your contact number in the space provided in
the consent form
BENEFITS
The research aims to help you learn better and improve your translation
skills in an interactive English Language environment so that you can get a
satisfactory final test result as well as obtain the necessary skills for real-life working
conditions in the future. However, no incentives are will be offered to participants.
POTENTIAL RISKS AND DISCOMFORTS

No risk will be involved in the study. However, if you do not feel comfortable
participating in the study, you may discontinue your participation at any time.
CONFIDENTIALITY: What will happen to the information you provide?

Please be assured that all your responses are anonymous, will remain
anonymous and it will not be possible to identify who you are. No individuals or
individual institutions will be named in the writing up of the research project, and
any resulting reports.
Regarding the interviews, all personal details/references will be avoided or
removed when the recordings are transcribed to ensure anonymity. All recordings
after the interview will be transcribed by the researcher and uploaded into a
password password-protected database. However, the researcher may use
relevant quotes in the final report or a publication. The researcher will make sure
that your anonymity is protected at all times. But if you do not wish for your quotes
to be used, please inform the researcher.
In terms of the test analysis, your results will not in any way be affected by
your participation or non-participation in the study. It will be coded anonymously
and also will be stored securely on password- protected computers. In addition, the
test results of the students in both classes will not be revealed to any outsiders.
In short, any information obtained in connection with this study will remain
confidential. In case there is a need for third party disclosure; this will be done only
with your permission. In the process of writing this research, your name will not be
mentioned in any way. The researcher, however, will use the information gathered
from this study for the completion of his dissertation, for other publications or for
further academic purposes. The data will not be viewed by anyone outside the study
unless we have you sign a separate permission form that allows such action.
388
WHAT WILL HAPPEN WITH THE DATA?

The data collected will be combined with other undergraduates’ data from
the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
for analysis and synthesis. The data will be used to compile a thesis for investigating
the effectiveness of the flipped classroom approach in a Vietnamese translation
class, and what can be done to refine this approach for better learning and teaching
outcomes.
PARTICIPATION AND WITHDRAWAL

Your participation is voluntary; hence, you have the choice to either be in or
not to be in this study. If you do not want wish to take part in the study, you can still
study in this class with the flipped approach, or you can study in other translation
classes with the approval of both lecturers.
If you volunteer to be in this study, you will have to follow the procedures
described above. You can withdraw your participation at any time without incurring
any consequences of any kind. You may also may refuse to answer any questions
you do not want wish to answer in the interview. There is no penalty if you withdraw
from the study, and your grades will not be influenced in any way and you will not
you lose any benefits to which you are otherwise entitled to.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION

If you have any queries or complaints about this study, please contact the
student’s supervisor in the first instance. If the supervisor does not resolve the
query to your satisfaction, please write to the Administrator of FASS Research
Ethics Committee ([email protected], 03-8924 8742)
who will pass your query to the Chair of the Committee.
……………………………………………………
CONSENT FROM THE STUDENT
I have read the above description of the study and understand the conditions of my
participation. My questions have been addressed to my satisfaction, and I agree to
participate in this study.
……………………………. …………………………….
Full name of student Date
…………………………….
Signature of student
389
APPENDIX B
CONSENT FORM TO PARTICIPATE IN THE STUDY

Date:
Dear Student,
My name is Nguyen Quang Nhat. I am a graduate student at the
School of Education, The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, and
am currently enrolled as a PhD candidate. I am studying a research paper
bearing the title: “A Case Study of the Flipped Classroom Approach for
Translation Studies in Vietnam”, under the supervision of Dr. Lee Kean
Wah and Dr. Csaba Zoltan Szabo. You are invited to participate in the
research being conducted at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Banking
University of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to examine how learners’ translation
competence can be improved through the implementation of the flipped
classroom approach. It is hoped that effective class time will be exploited,
more classroom interactions will be exploited achieved and your academic
performance in the final exam will be enhanced.
PROCEDURES
If you volunteer to participate in this study, you will be required to do the
following:
1. Log in the online platform, watch the video lectures at home, join the
Group Forum and do the required exercises to prepare for the following
lessons.
2. Take notes and prepare the portfolios because it will be marked and
accounts for 20% of the course grades.
3. Work in groups and in pairs to participate in in-class activities. The
researcher will check your attendance record.
4. Conduct the tests along the course to see whether your translation
ability improves or not, and how your errors are mitigated.
5. Assist the researcher in the process of selecting students to be
interviewed
POTENTIAL RISKS AND DISCOMFORTS
No risk will be involved in the study. However, if you do not feel
comfortable participating in the study, you may discontinue your participation
at any time.
BENEFITS
The research aims to help you learn better and improve your
translation skills in an interactive English Language environment so that you
can get a satisfactory final test result as well as obtain the necessary skills
for real-life work in the future. However, no incentives will be offered to
participants.
390
PAYMENT FOR PARTICIPATION

You will not receive any payment or other compensation for
participating in this study. There also is no cost to you for participation.
CONFIDENTIALITY
Any information obtained in connection with this study will remain
confidential. In case there is a need for third party disclosure, this will be
done only with your permission. In the process of writing this research, your
name will not be mentioned in any way. The researcher, however, will use
the information gathered from this study for the completion of his
dissertation, for other publications or for further academic purposes. The
recordings will not be viewed by anyone outside of the study unless we have
your signed permission in a separate form that allows such action.
PARTICIPATION AND WITHDRAWAL
Your participation is voluntary; hence, you have the choice to either
be in or not to be in this study. If you do not wish to take part in the study,
you can still study in this class with the flipped method, or you can study in
other traditional translation classes with the approval of both lecturers.
If you volunteer to be in this study, you will have to follow the
procedures described above. You can withdraw your participation at any
time without incurring any consequences of any kind. You also may refuse
to answer any questions you do not wish to answer in the interview. There
is no penalty if you withdraw from the study, and your grades will not be
influenced in any way nor will you lose any benefits which you are otherwise
entitled to.
……………………………………………………
CONSENT FROM THE STUDENT
I have read the above description of the study and understand the
conditions of my participation. My questions have been answered to my
satisfaction, and I agree to participate in this study.
……………………………. …………………………….
Full name of student Date
…………………………….
Signature of student
391
CONSENT FORM TO PARTICIPATE IN THE INTERVIEW
Research study: “A Case Study of the Flipped Classroom Approach for

Translation Studies in Vietnam”
Name of Interviewer: Nguyen Quang Nhat Phone: +84 9 1756 6265
Name of Interviewee: ………………………. Phone: …………………
Email: …………………
I, ................................................., give my consent to participate in
the interview. In so doing, I acknowledge that:
1. I have received a statement explaining the interview involved in this
project. I agree to the general purpose, methods and demands of the study.
2. I have been informed that I am free to withdraw from the interview at any
time, and can refuse to answer any question that I feel uncomfortable
answering.
3. I consent to participate in the study and the interview, which have been
explained to me.
4. The confidentiality of the information I provide will be safeguarded.
Should any information of a confidential nature need to be disclosed for
moral, clinical or legal reasons, I will be given an opportunity to negotiate the
terms of this disclosure.
5. I authorise the investigator to interview me and make a record of the
interview. The security of the data is assured during and after the completion
of the study. Any information which will identify me will not be used. The
transcript of my interview will be sent to me for my confirmation of its content.
However, the data collected during the study may be published.
Name: ……………………………………………. Date: ……………
Signature: …………………………………………….
392
APPENDIX C
INTERVIEW QUESTION GUIDE
Part 1: Opening (5 minutes)
The opening is the time for the researcher to welcome the participant,
introduce the purpose of the interview, and explain how it will flow. (Script as
shown below).
“Welcome to the interview session. Thanks for taking your time to talk
about your experience and thinking about the teaching method in the
Vietnamese-English translation class this semester. My name is Nguyen
Quang Nhat. I am currently a PhD student at the School of Education, The
University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. I am carrying out a research
project titled: “A Case Study of the Flipped Classroom Approach for
Translation Studies in Vietnam”.
I want to know what you like, what you don't like, and what can be
done to improve the less useful elements of this teaching approach. I also
want to know how this approach changes your translation habits and what
challenges you faced during the implementation of this approach. You are
invited because you have agreed to be invited to the interview session.
Please feel free to share your point of view. Please remember that I am
interested in all your comments, whether they are positive or negative.
With your permission, I will record the interview. If, at any time during
the interview, you feel uncomfortable, I can stop it. You are free to refuse to
answer any question you do not wish to answer, and you can leave the
interview at any time. I will erase the recording if you require. I will send you
the transcript via your email to confirm the information. The data will be kept
in a locked cabinet, and will be analysed for the purposes of my thesis. The
results may appear in conferences or publications. However, your
information is confidential and your anonymity will be protected at all times.
- Well, let’s begin. Thank you very much for your cooperation in the project.
(The interviewees sign the consent form)
393
Part 2: Warm-up (5-10 minutes)

The researcher shares some of his experiences with the translation
modules as a student at the undergraduate level. The researcher also can
share the reasons why he used the flipped classroom approach in the
classroom, and the challenges he faced when applying it. This helps to
minimise the effect of power relation and provides the students with some
confidence and a safer environment to express and share their personal
observations and opinions about the approach.
Part 3: Interview questions (30-45 minutes)
1. Have you studied in any flipped classroom before this subject? If yes,
could you tell me about it?
2. What do you think about the benefits of the flipped classroom in this
translation module? Are there any examples you can give to support your
claims?
3. How has the flipped classroom changed the way you learn?
4. As regards the video lectures, in what way did the videos help you study
translation? What do you like most about the videos? Did you have any
difficulty with the videos? What could be done to make them better?
5. What benefits of the portfolio helped you improve your translation skills?
Did you have any problems when preparing the portfolio? How should
portfolio preparation be done?
6. What do you think about the Group forum? Is there anything that you
don’t like about the Group forum? What suggestions can you give your
teacher about the Group forum?
7. How has the flipped classroom changed the way you prepare the
lessons? Do you like it? Why or why not?
8. What do you think about the revision activities at the beginning of each
lesson? What are the benefits of these activities? Is there anything in these
activities that you don’t like?
394
9. In what way did the activities in groups and in pairs help you study
translation? Can you give me an example? Is there anything that you don’t
like from these activities?
10. Do you like translating in class or doing it at home? Why or why not?
What do you think about the individual translation in class? What could be
done to improve it?
11. What do you think about the effect of peer reviews? Are they useful? Why
or why not? Did you have any problems with this step? What should the
teacher do to make it better?
12. Could you tell me what learning skills you have developed during the
course under the flipped instruction?
13. How would you evaluate your translation skills at the end of the course?
Do you think your improvement in translation skills exceeded or fell short of
your expectations? Do you think you successfully met your learning
objectives? If yes, in what way? If no, why not?
14. Are you more confident in your translation skills after this course? If yes,
in what way?
15. Do you think you put in more effort in this class than before? Why yes or
why not? Did you feel stressful studying in this class? Why yes or why not?
16. What challenges did you have when studying with this approach? Did
you have any difficulty with the technology/The classroom procedures/The
video lecture contents/The tasks and workloads/The teacher’s styles/The
tests and assessments/The support and assistance from teachers and
peers/The interactions with your teacher and friends? The class
atmosphere/ learning styles and preferences).
17. Some people do not like to work with technology. Do you have this kind
of feeling? Did you encounter any problems using the technology to study
translation?
18. What do you like the most about the flipped classroom?
19. What do you like the least about the flipped classroom?
395
20. If the flipped classroom approach is conducted again, do you have any
suggestions to make them better? What are they?
Then the researcher would ask the students how they did a
translation task. They will be given three minutes to read their past
translation product to recall how they had approached that piece of writing,
and after that, the interviewer will ask the following questions.
21. In your opinion, what is the most important factor to make a good
translation?
22. When you received this translation task, what did you think first? Why?
23. What are the strategies to translate lexical items?
24. What did you do to translate difficult words and cultural-specific items?
25. If there were two synonyms for a word, how did you choose the correct
one?
26. What strategies did you use to translate sentences?
27. There are many ways or structures to translate sentences. What criteria
did you use to translate a sentence?
28. What did you do to translate difficult sentences that you did not
understand?
29. What steps did you follow to translate a paragraph?
30. What did you do after completing your translation?
31. (I will give the student a short piece of paragraph of four sentences).
Please read this paragraph in three minutes and translate it. Please tell me
what you think, how you translate it, and explain why you do that way.
32. (I will give the student a translated version done by another student).
Please read this translated version in three minutes and evaluate it. Is it a
good piece of translation? Why or why not?
Part 4: Closing (10 minutes)

o If you were given a minute to talk about today’s discussion, what would
you say?
396
o In your opinion, what was the most important thing that came out of today’s
discussion?
Part 5: Summarising (10 minutes)

o The researcher will then review the purpose of the study and present a
brief summary.
o This will be followed by one final question: “Have I missed anything?”
The researcher then wraps up the interview session. This includes
thanking the participants, and giving them an opportunity and avenue to give
for any further input. Finally, the interviewer will, remind the interviewees
again telling them how the collected data will be used, and explaining when
the research process will be completed.
397
APPENDIX D
APPPLICATION FOR CONDUCTING THE RESEACRH
398
RESEARCH APPROVAL OF FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
399
GANTT CHART OF RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

2017
MENU
TASK RESEARCH Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Start date Due date %
TYPES ACTIVITIES
Introduction July, 2017 Sep, 2017

Literature
Oct, 2017 Dec, 2017
review
2018
Year 1: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Proposal
Design Methodology Jan, 2018 Mar, 2018
Revision and
Apr, 2018 May, 2018
modification
First-year
confirmation Jun, 2018 Jul, 2018
review
Instrument
Aug, 2018 Sep, 2018
design
Pilot study Sep, 2018 Dec, 2018
2019
Year 2:
First phase Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
of the study,
intervention, Sampling +
Jan, 2019 Feb, 2019
data Ethics consent
400
collection First phase of

and analysis the research
process study and Feb, 2019 Apr, 2019
intervention -
Data collection
Data processing
Mar, 2019 May, 2019
and analysis
Second-year
confirmation Jun, 2019 Jul, 2019
review
Instrument
Aug, 2019 Oct, 2019
modification
Preparation
for the second Nov, 2019 Dec, 2019
phase
2020
Year 3:
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Second
phase of the Second phase of
study and the
Write-up Jan, 2020 Apr, 2020
research study
and intervention
Thesis writing
May, 2020 Jun, 2020
and correction
Writing
manuscript for Jun, 2020 Jul, 2020
submission
401

PHD Thesis - Nguyen Quang Nhat

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A Case Study of the Flipped Classroom

Approach for Translation Studies in

NGUYEN QUANG NHAT

Thesis presented to School of Education

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

The University of Nottingham Malaysia

In fulfillment of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

(Teacher Training and Education Science (Broad Programmes))

gave me considerable guidance and encouragement at every stage during

comprehensive feedback helped steer my path and enabled me to overcome

the many challenges along the way.

My gratitude is also dedicated to the other professors at the University

of Nottingham Malaysia Campus for supporting me on the proofreading,

formatting and other stylistic nuances. Acknowledgements are also

extended to my family and the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Banking

University Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for their unwavering support,

collegiality and mentorship throughout my doctoral journey.

many Vietnamese translation courses at Higher Education (Pham, 2016).

This study presents an alternative, practical and a more efficacious way to

improve the quality of translation training in Vietnam. It examines a novel

flipped classroom approach aimed at providing dynamic and novel

instructional learning of two Translation modules in a Vietnamese public

university. The alternative approach inverts the traditional teacher-learner

roles, and makes it culturally-appropriate and contextually-relevant to the

within the implementation process based on Activity theory. Using a case-

can be applied in an actual scenario to demonstrate how relevant factors

were exploited in the translation training process;

(2) exemplify the educational benefits of this flipped classroom

approach towards learners’ improvement in translation competence over the

course via various assessment task types;

(3) investigate how this flipped classroom approach could re-orientate

learners’ translation habits to use professional strategies appropriately;

(4) examine learners’ perceptions towards the educational benefits

of this new approach on their translation improvement;

(5) explore learners’ perceptions towards different elements within

the flipped classroom approach on learners’ skill mastery; and

(6) find out the challenges that are encountered by Vietnamese

learners during the implementation of the flipped classroom approach.

A total of 79 junior students that was conveniently selected at a public

university in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam participated in the study from

February to July of the 2018-2019 academic year. The research used

content analysis of one specific learning scenario, assessment analysis to

semi-structured interviews to examine the benefits and challenges of the

flipped classroom approach, paying special consideration to various

elements of Activity theory (instruments, rules, community and division of

labour). The collected findings revealed that this approach based on a

aspects in translation studies. Moreover, learners were able to develop

better translation habits while completing their assignments, as well as

enhance their perceptions towards the translation training process. Finally,

challenges faced by learners during the implementation were mitigated by a

careful consideration of the contradictions within the flipped classroom

approach identified through the analytical lens of Activity theory.

Keywords: flipped classroom approach, benefits, translation studies,

students’ perceptions, competences, Activity Theory.

not been previously submitted to The University of Nottingham Malaysia or

any other institutions in application for admission to a degree, diploma or

Nguyen Quang Nhat

Nguyen Q. N, Lee, K. W., & Nguyen N. P. D. (2018). Analysing

undergraduates’ needs for an improvement in translation training