Speaker
Description
This case study explores the role of breath control techniques as a supportive learning strategy for pharmaceutical students studying English for Specific Purposes. The research investigates how students apply breath regulation during their English learning process and examines its influence on key aspects such as concentration, anxiety reduction, pronunciation, and vocabulary retention. Grounded in educational psychology, emotion regulation theory, psycholinguistics, and cognitive load theory, the study employs written questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with a sample of pharmacy students. Results indicate that breath control positively impacts learners' focus and helps reduce language learning anxiety, which in turn enhances pronunciation clarity and memory retention of specialized vocabulary. Participants report that practicing breath regulation before and during study sessions fosters a calmer mental state and better engagement with learning materials. While acknowledging potential limitations such as individual differences in technique effectiveness, the findings suggest breath control is a valuable, low-cost strategy that can be integrated into English for Specific Purposes instruction to improve learning outcomes. This research offers practical implications for educators seeking to support student well-being and academic performance in English language learning, and it encourages further investigation into physiological techniques in language education.
Biography
After 2 years of teaching English for medicine in University of Health Sciences- the eighth member of VNU-HCM, Trung continues his career in UMP standing for University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh city. His interests range from Natural Language Processing (NLP) to Teaching methods, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Information and Communication Technology (ICT). He has been working as reviewer for International Conference of TESOL and Education (ICTE) as well as some other journals such as International Journal of TESOL and Education (i-jte) and International Journal of Language Instruction (i-jli), which both belong to ICTE Press. In addition to the experience of instructing healthcare-based English at tertiary level, Trung had had more than 10 years instructing classes ranging from in-person tutor to small groups, which offers a variety of perspectives and perception of language instruction regarding program design, psycholinguistics and second language acquisition.
