Integrating community service learning into university curriculum: Perspectives from EFL teachers and students

Abstract

Community service learning (CSL) has been regarded as a pedagogical tool which provides students with opportunities to participate in a service activity to meet social needs and simultaneously gain benefits for themselves. There has been a tendency in the world to include CSL in higher education training programs. This study aims to investigate Vietnamese EFL teachers’ and students’ perceptions of CSL and their practices of a CSL-integrated course at a university of foreign languages in central Vietnam. The study involved 61 teachers and 201 students and employed quantitative and qualitative approaches. The findings revealed that both teachers and students showed strong support for CSL, and that the teachers, especially more experienced teachers, had more positive beliefs than the students about the five categories surveyed: perceptions of CSL, role of the school, benefits for teachers, benefits for students, and feasibility of CSL integration. Also, the participants believed that CSL was to be a tool to help students develop professionally, personally, and academically.