Unpacking Vietnamese L2 Students' Motivation for and Engagement in Intercultural Language Learning.

Intercultural language learning (ICLL) has become an important concept that drives English learners' attention to the understanding and application of cultural elements in their English learning process; however, the learning motivation for and engagement in the proliferation of culture in English language teaching vary from one context to another. This study aimed to unpack L2 students' motivation for and engagement in ICLL, and the correlation between the two research variables. A group of 198 L2 students, who were learning at a high school in Vietnam, were recruited based on a convenience sampling technique. A closed-ended questionnaire was employed for data collection. The sociolinguistic perspective was adopted for data analysis using the SPSS software. The findings unraveled that Vietnamese L2 students had a high level of motivation for ICLL, and they tended to get engaged in ICLL actively; however, their level of emotional engagement in ICLL seemed higher than their behavioral and cognitive engagement in ICLL. Additionally, a positive correlation between Vietnamese L2 students' motivation for and engagement in ICLL was significantly found. This study recommends pedagogical implications in an attempt to enhance the quality of intercultural language teaching and learning in the research context and other similar ones.

Phenolic Compounds from the Lichen Lobaria orientalis.

The chemical investigation of the EtOAc extract of Lobaria orientalis collected in the southwestern part of Central Vietnam led to the isolation of new ß-orcinol depsidones, lobarientalones A and B (1 and 2), and diphenyl ethers, lobariethers A-E (3-7). These types of structures are often reported in different lichen species, but the absolute configuration of the stereogenic acetal center has not been defined. This is the first assessment of the (1S) absolute configuration of the stereogenic acetal center using electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectroscopic data and by comparison with the ECD data of analogous compounds. Based on the co-occurrence of the depsidones, 1,10-di-O-methylstictic acid (8) and (1-2), and diphenyl ethers (3-7), a plausible biosynthesis route toward 1-8 is proposed.