Exciting 2025 Linguistics Faculty Student Scientific Research Conference

Responding to the Student Scientific Research Week 2025 launched by the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU-HCM, on the morning of May 19, 2025, the Faculty of Linguistics successfully organized a Student Scientific Research Conference with the participation of 8 topics from student research groups of the 2021 and 2022 courses. The evaluation council includes: Dr. Nguyen Hoang Trung, Head of the Faculty of Linguistics (Chairman of the council), Dr. Pham Hong Hai, Deputy Head of the Faculty of Linguistics (Member), MSc. Tran Thi Thuy An, lecturer of the Faculty of Linguistics (Member), MSc. Le Thi Truc Ha, university education affairs (Secretary).

Image: Student Scientific Research Project Evaluation Council.

In his opening speech at the Conference, Dr. Nguyen Hoang Trung emphasized: “Scientific research is not only an academic activity but also an environment for students to practice critical thinking, teamwork ability and scientific presentation skills”. This year’s Conference shows a strong shift from pure linguistic theory to highly applicable topics, associated with contemporary and interdisciplinary linguistic phenomena.

In a serious but equally open academic atmosphere, student groups presented their research work and received many insightful questions from the council and attendees. Issues of interest ranged from gender identity, attitudes towards the middle name “Van/Thi”, to linguistic phenomena in rap, advertising and journalism.

The conference featured three outstanding topics that were evaluated by the Council as excellent:

- “The expression and recognition of gender identity through pronouns in Vietnamese (compared to English)” by a group of two students, Dang Viet Trung and Pham Vu Anh Thu (class of 2022) – an interdisciplinary study of sociolinguistics, deeply exploring the changes in gender in English and gender-specific pronouns in Vietnamese.

Photo: Student group Dang Viet Trung and Pham Vu Anh Thu presenting at the Conference.

- “A survey of semantic-syntactic characteristics and deviations of the headlines of the newspapers Tuoi Tre, Thanh Nien, Nguoi Lao Dong, and Sai Gon Giai Phong” by a group of 4 students Le Minh Bao Ngoc, Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong, Tran Thi Thanh Tuyen, and Luong Nguyen Nha Van (class of 2022). The work is notable for its systematic nature in the theory of text linguistics and the ability to combine linguistic analysis with press communication.

Photo: Student group Le Minh Bao Ngoc, Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong, Tran Thi Thanh Tuyen, Luong Nguyen Nha Van presenting at the Conference.

- “Advertising discourse of some vegan cosmetic brands from a multimodal approach” by a group of 3 students Duong Gia Thao Nguyen, Nguyen Ngoc Tram Anh, Trinh Khanh Chi (class of 2022) - the topic impressed by the ability to apply the theory of conceptual metaphor and systemic functional grammar to analyze the interaction between language - image - emotion in modern advertising.

Photo: Student group Duong Gia Thao Nguyen, Nguyen Ngoc Tram Anh, Trinh Khanh Chi presenting at the Conference.

In addition, other topics also left many impressions with creative approaches:

- Current students' attitudes towards the middle names "Van" and "Thi" (study of students in Ho Chi Minh City) of student Le Nhu Y (class of 2022) reflects changes in cultural and social concepts of names.

Image: Student Le Nhu Y presents a report on the issue of the middle name "Van/Thi".

- Two topics: Wordplay techniques in rap lyrics, a survey of the Rap Viet program season 4 (2024) by a group of 5 students Duong Thanh Tinh, Phan Thi Kieu Han, Lo Bao Huyen, Trinh Thi Vu Linh, Pham Thi Hong Loan (class 2022) and Vietnamese Rap singing and Rap singing techniques from a psycholinguistic perspective by student Tran Trieu Vi (class 2021) bring a new linguistic perspective, contributing to positioning rap language as a cultural phenomenon and personal expression.

Image: Student group Duong Thanh Tinh, Phan Thi Kieu Han, Lo Bao Huyen, Trinh Thi Vu Linh, Pham Thi Hong Loan presented a report on wordplay techniques in Rap lyrics.

- The psycholinguistic and pragmatic analyses of advertising topics: Association and association in some cosmetic advertisements on television by a group of 2 students Do Tran Khanh Trang, Nguyen Tran Minh Hanh (class of 2022) and Advertising discourse of some English centers in Ho Chi Minh City from a multimodal approach by a group of 2 students Tieu Kim Uyen, Le Trung Hieu (class of 2021) are evaluated as having quite good application potential.

Photo: Student group Do Tran Khanh Trang and Nguyen Tran Minh Hanh presented their report at the Conference.

The evaluation board consists of lecturers with in-depth expertise and extensive experience in guiding scientific research. The board gave directional comments, helping student groups continue to perfect their topics and expand the scope of their research.

After the presentation, the topics received many questions, shares, and comments from the attendees.

Image: Participants asked questions and gave comments at the Conference.

Image: Participants asked questions and gave comments at the Conference.

At the end of the conference, the Faculty representative congratulated all the participating groups and affirmed: “The conference is not only an intellectual playground but also a place to nurture young language researchers in the future”.

The excellent and good topics will have the opportunity to be introduced to participate in the selection round of school-level reports in the coming time.

Photo: Evaluation board, student reporting group and participants taking souvenir photo.

FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS