STATE BANK OF VIETNAM BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------o0o----------- GRADUATION THESIS MAJOR: ENGLISH FOR BANKING AND FINANCE FACTORS AFFECTING MOTIVATION OF FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS TOWARDS LEARNING ENGLISH ONLINE AT BANKING ACADEMY STUDENT: DOAN THI THU PHUONG STUDENT ID: 21A7510111 CLASS: K21ATCA SUPERVISOR: MS. NGUYEN THI MINH HANG (MBA) Hanoi, May 2021 17014127717821000000 STATE BANK OF VIETNAM BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------o0o----------- GRADUATION REPORT MAJOR: ENGLISH FOR BANKING AND FINANCE FACTORS AFFECTING MOTIVATION OF FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS TOWARDS LEARNING ENGLISH ONLINE AT BANKING ACADEMY STUDENT: DOAN THI THU PHUONG STUDENT ID: 21A7510111 CLASS: K21ATCA SUPERVISOR: MS. NGUYEN THI MINH HANG (MBA) Hanoi, May 2021 Acknowledgement During the process of doing this graduation paper, I have received many necessary assistance, valuable ideas and timely encouragement from my teachers, families and friends. This paper could not have done without the help, encouragement and support from a number of people who all deserve my sincerest gratitude and appreciation.
First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor - Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Hang, the English teacher of the English Department, who has always been willing to give me precious advices and suggestions so that I can complete this study successfully. I am so thankful to students of K23 and K24 at the Foreign Language Department for their participation in this study. I would like to acknowledge my thanks to all the authors of the books, articles and the other materials which were listed in the reference part for their ideas that have been developed and contributed to the study.
Last but not least, my particular thanks are given to my parents for their encouragement and support which played a crucial role in my graduation paper. Declaration I certify my authorship of the study report “Factors affecting motivation of English major first-year students towards learning English online at Banking Academy”. I confirm that this graduation report is my own work, is not copied from any other person's work (published or unpublished), and has not previously submitted for assessment either at Banking Academy or elsewhere. Student Phuong Doan Thi Thu Phuong Abstract Along with the situation of the pandemic called Covid-19, it can be accepted that motivation plays an inevitable role as one of the most important factors in learning foreign languages online.
This study aimed at investigating factors affecting motivation in learning English online of freshmen at Banking Academy. Then, the study would indicate the solutions to enhance the motivation in learning English online. The sample of the study consisted of 83 participants studying in the Faculty of Foreign Languages. In the study process, the students received the questionnaire which was related to the factors mentioned.
Then, the collected data from this instrument were all analyzed. The study indicated factors that can motivate first-year students towards learning English online including learning environment, teacher, parental, technological and intrinsic factors. It is expected that this study could contribute to the benefit of both students and teachers in learning and teaching English online. Keywords: motivation, first-year English majored students, learning English, online Table of Contents Acknowledgement.
ii List of tables and figures…………………………………………………………………………….1 Significance of the study .2 The aims of the study .4 The scope of the study. 2 Chapter II: Literature review .1 Fundamental concepts of motivation .2 Motivation in online learning .2 Self-determination theory .3 Factors affecting students’ motivation in learning English online .1 Short-term and long-term goals. 13 Chapter III: Methodology. 15 Chapter IV: Results and Discussion .1 Summary of the study.
41 List of tables and figures Table 1: Intrinsic factors of motivation. 16 Table 2: Learning Environment. 19 Table 3: Teacher issues. 21 Table 4: Parental issues.
24 Table 5: Technological issues .1 Significance of the study Nowadays , it goes without saying that English is one of the most popular and influential foreign languages in the world. Indeed, living in an era of globalization, this language acts as a bridge in communicating with other countries’ people, connecting to new cultures and knowledge. Moreover, based on English fluency, we can obtain job opportunities in a variety of aspects such as international business, education, media, aviation, etc. Due to its significance, nowadays, more and more international businesses or firms are recruiting candidates with their proficiency in English.
However, mastering a foreign language like English is not a simple thing. Thus, creating motivation plays an important role as the deciding factor in grasping the mastery of English to reach the international level. However, this could be challenging for students when in the first place, English is not an easy language to master. Moreover, due to Covid pandemic, we have turned to emergency remote learning, which has caused many difficulties for students.
Especially for freshmen, they have to face not only the above two problems, but also the trouble in the transition period between high school and university. All of the three factors I have mentioned could result in lack of motivation for all students, especially English major students at Banking Academy without an exception. For those reasons, I decided to carry out a research about “Factors affecting motivation of first-year English majored students in learning English online at Banking Academy” as my graduation thesis.2 The aims of the study The study focuses on the following aims: 1. Identify the factors affecting motivation of first year English majored students at Banking Academy toward learning English online 1 2.
Provide some recommendations to stimulate students’ motivation in learning English online 1.3 Research questions To achieve the above mentioned study objectives, the study is conducted to answer the following questions: 1. What are the factors affecting English-majored freshmen’s motivation in learning English online ? 2. Which changes are needed to enhance motivation for learning English online ? 1.4 The scope of the study This research was conducted for nearly 3 months, from the end of February to the end of May, completing on 23rd May 2022. The study analyzes the factors affecting motivation in learning English online for first-year English majors students.
Indeed, the scope is limited to engage the feedback of students from K23 and K24 who both experienced the online version of their first-year studying for the first time. This period would last for the maximum of nearly 2 weeks and because of time and knowledge limitations, this study can only investigate a small number of English department freshmen (83 responses). Besides, this study could not represent all students at Banking Academy, it only focuses on first-year English majored students.5 The structure of the thesis paper Chapter I: Introduction Chapter II: Literature review Chapter III: Methodology Chapter IV: Results and Discussions Chapter V: Conclusion 2 Chapter II: Literature review 2.1 Fundamental concepts of motivation 2.1 Motivation There are many definitions of the term “motivation” mentioned by many researchers in linguistics, some of which are mentioned below. First of all, a definition extracted from Oxford Dictionary commented that “motivation is the reason or cause for doing something” or in other words “motivation is the feeling of wanting to do something, especially that relates to being hardworking and effective”.
To be more well-defined, John M.Keller (2009) showed that “motivation refers widely to people’s aspiration, their choice and commitment to what to do”. Tae-Young Kim (2021) also briefly concluded that the word “motivation” indicated “person’s desire or willingness to begin”. Nevid (2021) wrote that “The term “motivation” refers to factors that activate, direct and sustain goal-directed behavior” and “Motives are the “whys” of behavior – the needs or wants for driving behavior and explain what we do”. For instance, employees who are motivated tend to work productively, meet the business’s needs and put effort in every task; or students with motivation could participate more actively in class and help create a positive learning environment.
In terms of language learning, it should be noted that motivation plays a vital role in the process of learning a foreign or second language. Zoltán Dörnyei & Jill Hadfield (2014) stated that “teachers often use the term “motivation”in order to describe learning successful or unsuccessful”. To put it differently, “motivation is considered as one of the factors that influences the academic success of students”, according to Esti Royani.L Oxford (1996) also introduced three levels in learning motivation which are desire to learn, integrativeness ( reason for language learning), and attitudes. Indeed, a desire for language acquisition is found on all levels within the construct of motivation.
Therefore, due to lack of motivation, learners may encounter a 3 number of obstacles. Without goals or desire to learn, it would be challenging for learners to achieve effective results in learning. To sum up, motivation is one of the most important factors that cause success or failure in learning.2 Motivation in online learning Remote education today has become a prevalent phenomenon since the outbreak of the Covid epidemic. Indeed, online learning can be explained as “ forms of learning partly or entirely based on the internet” (Fitzgerald and et al., 2018) or “learning that is facilitated by electronic technologies” (Nicole A.
However, in this condition, these concepts should be defined and according to Jennifer Mathes (2020), “Online learning uses the internet as a delivery method to offer thoughtfully designed, quality, student- focused learning experiences, built on proven best practices that create effective interactions between learners, peers, instructors, and content”. In relation to motivation in online courses, Ucar, Hasan, Kumtepe, Alper Tolga (2021) stated that “motivation is crucial for successful completion of the students’ online courses” and also mentioned some factors that could affect online learning such as “digital fatigue, poor instructional design, facilitator competence, course design, assessment practice and student support” In terms of English online courses, Emily Stark (2019)’s study showed differences in the reported motivations and the use of learning strategies between students in online courses, and exposed some connections between different types of motivation and learning strategies and student performance in a course. Moreover, the importance of interaction between teachers and students exploited by Hasan Aydin (2013) and the use of technology in language learning are important factors in order to increase student motivation, according to Panos Panagiotidis, Pinelopi Krystalli (2018). Therefore, it can be concluded there is an interplay between learners’ motivation and online classrooms.3 Demotivation Having delved into the nature of motivation, a fact is that during the online learning process, if students can not get motivated, they may be negatively influenced.
Therefore, beside the positive angle, it can be implied that demotivation is the dark side of motivation. Demotivation can be simply understood as the feeling of no interest in learning English online. Indeed, the loss of interest can come from distinct sources of demotivation. For instance, unplanned lessons or inappropriate teaching methods can perform as one of the reasons for demotivating students.
However, demotivation is not only external and Keita Kikuchi (2015) stated his point of view by describing demotivation as “the specific internal and external forces that reduce or diminish the motivational basis of a behavioral intention or an ongoing action”. Based on the concept of Keita Kikuchi, demotivation can also wrap up internal and external factors such as learning environments, lecturer issues, parental factors, technology factors, etc. As Gilly Salmon (2004) said, “an uninteresting e-activity” or “a chance unfortunate remark” could be strong demotivators for learning online. Additionally, technology also plays an indispensable role in a virtual class.
For instance, joining an English course on zoom and realizing that you lost the sound or the picture could make learners feel demotivated and dispirited in learning online. Therefore, being aware of demotivational factors is able to help students avoid or minimize adverse influences.2 Self-determination theory The concept of self-determination has been brought into play in education. Mithaug and et al. (2002) stated their explanation in “why and how opportunities to learn affect learning”.