MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY ------------------------------------------ DANG KIEU ANH DEMOTIVATING FACTORS IN EFL READING CLASSES: AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES AT NGUYEN HUU CANH VOCATIONAL SCHOOL, DISTRICT 7, HO CHI MINH CITY Major: TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES Major code: 60140111 MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Supervisor: NGUYEN THU HUONG, Ph. HO CHI MINH City, 2016 Tai Lieu Chat Luong STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that the thesis entitled "Demotivating factors in EFL Reading Classes: An investigation into Teachers’ and Students’ Perspectives at Nguyen Huu Canh Vocational School, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City" is my own work. Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not contain material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma. No other person's work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis.
This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other educational institution. Ho Chi Minh City, September 2016 Dang Kieu Anh i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My study would have been impossible without any assistance. Therefore, I would like to express my endless thanks and gratefulness to the people who have helped me during the time of doing research for the completion of this thesis. First and foremost, I wish to send my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr.
Nguyen Thu Huong for his enthusiasm, guidance and encouragement throughout the research. I appreciate all his contribution of time, helpful advices and scholarly support to the accomplishment of my research. I also would like to thank all my friends in Tesol 7 community, who directly or indirectly contributed to my thesis. My deepest thanks go to Tran Thi Kim Ngan and Nguyen Thi Kim Loan, who encouraged me to overcome my personal problems and spent much time editing my thesis professionally.
I also feel thankful for my colleagues and students at Nguyen Huu Canh Vocational School with their willing participation in the study. Last but not least, I would like to show my special thanks to my beloved family for their wholehearted support as well as significant encouragement during the time I conducted the thesis. ii ABSTRACT English has been a compulsory subject and one of mandatory requirements for graduation at NHC Vocational School. However, many students do not like English, especially reading classes.
They feel boring and refuse to engage in reading activities. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify what factors perceived demotivating in reading classes. Two questionnaires and follow-up interviews were carried out to gather data from the participation of eight teachers and 106 students teaching and studying at school. The SPSS version 22.0 was utilized for analyzing collected data.
The participants' opinions were examined four clusters of demotives, namely text book, reading texts, reading tasks and teacher-related factors. The results show that reading tasks, teacher-related factors and text book are three major categories of demotivating factors, whereas, reading texts category is the least salient one. With respect to reading tasks, reproduction tasks contribute to students' demotivation. Besides, some tasks with easy level also make students less motivated.
In terms of teacher-related factors, teaching method is the key factor causing loss of motivation in teachers' and students' perspective. Teaching behavior and activities have significant influences on learners' demotivation. Regarding text book, using copied handouts is an issue that demotivates students in reading classes. The findings include analysis of different opinions from teachers' and students' viewpoints based on these factors.
At the end of the study, some pedagogical implications and recommendations to school authority, teachers, students and on learning materials are provided. Hopefully, these suggestions can help students re-motivate their learning through future experiments and improve their learning reading in English. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES .ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .xi Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION .1 Background of the study .2 Statement of problem .5 Significance of the study .6 Organization of the study.
5 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. 7 Overview of Chapter Two .1 Definitions of reading .2 Types of reading .3 Factors affecting teaching and learning reading .1 Teacher-related factors.2 Material-related factors .3 Reader-related factors .1 Definition of motivation .2 Levels of motivation and steps for generating motivation .1 Definition of demotivation .2 Demotivating factors in EFL learning .1 Related studies on demotivation in language learning in the world .2 Related studies on demotivation in reading in the world.3 Related studies on demotivation in Vietnamese context .4 Research gap and implications for the study.4 Hypothesis and Research model .2 Material: “Solutions” textbook.3 Follow-up interviews .1 Interview for teachers .2 Interviews for students .4 Data collection procedure .1 Pilot test with questionnaire .2 Questionnaire to students .3 Questionnaire to teachers .3 Follow-up interviews .1 Focus group interview to students .2 Individual interviews to teachers .1 Reliability of the questionnaire .2 Analyses of data from the questionnaire .3 Analyses of data from the interviews .6 Summary of Chapter 3. 55 Chapter 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .1 Research question 1: What are the characteristic patterns of demotivating factors perceived by students and teachers?. Demotivating factors perceived by students .1 Students' general viewpoints on demotivating factors regarding the 4 issues and their attitude towards reading learning in a reading class .2 Students' perceptions in each particular cluster of demotivating factors .2a Demotivating factors relating to Reading tasks .2b Demotivating factors relating to Teacher - related factors .2c Demotivating factors relating to Textbook.
Demotivating factors perceived by teachers .1 Teachers' general viewpoints on demotivating factors regarding the 4 issues and their attitude towards reading learning in a reading class .2 Teachers' perceptions in each particular cluster of demotivating factors .2a Demotivating factors relating to Textbook .2b Demotivating factors relating to Reading tasks .2c Demotivating factors relating to Teacher - related factors .2 Research question 2: To what extent are teachers' perspectives different from students' in terms of the characteristic patterns of demotivating factors? .1 Differences between teachers' and students' general viewpoints on the factors causing demotivation .2 Differences between teachers' and students' opinions relating to Textbook .3 Differences between teachers' and students' opinions relating to Reading tasks .4 Differences between teachers' and students' opinions relating to Teacher - related factors .3 Summary of the findings .3 Discussion of the findings .1 Research question 1: What are the characteristic patterns of demotivating factors perceived by students and teachers? .1 Reading tasks and learners' demotivation .2 Teacher-related factors and learners' demotivation .3 Textbook and learners' demotivation .2 Research question 2: To what extent are teachers' perspectives different from students' in terms of characteristic patterns of demotivating factors?.1 Different viewpoints regarding Reading tasks.2 Different viewpoints regarding Teacher-related factors .3 Different viewpoints regarding Textbook. 89 Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .1 Conclusion to Research question 1 .2 Conclusion to Research question 2 .1 Implications for school authority .2 Implications for Teachers and English teaching staff .3 Implications for materials and resources .4 Implications for students .3 Limitations and recommendations for further research. 139 viii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 2.1: The research model .1: Teachers' demographic data .2: Students' demographic data .1: Interview Protocol for Teachers .2: Interview Questions for Teachers .3: Interview Protocol for Students .4: Interview Questions for Students .3: Reliability of the questionnaire .1: Students' viewpoints on four clusters of demotivating factors .2a: Students' opinions about task types causing demotivation .2b: Students' opinions about task difficulty and authenticity .3a: Students' opinions about teaching methods causing demotivation .3b: Students' opinions about teaching behavior causing demotivation .3c: Students' opinions about teaching activities causing demotivation .4: Students' opinions about textbook causing demotivation .5: Teacher's viewpoints on four clusters of demotivating factors .6: Teachers' opinions about textbook causing demotivation .7a: Teachers' opinions about task types causing demotivation.7b: Teachers' opinions about text difficulty and authenticity causing demotivation .8a: Teachers' opinions about teaching methods causing demotivation .8b: Teachers' opinions about teaching behavior causing demotivation .8c: Teachers' opinions about teaching activities causing demotivation .9: Differences between teachers' and students' general viewpoints on the factors causing demotivation.10: Differences between teachers' and students' opinions relating to Textbook .11: Differences between teachers' and students' opinions relating to Reading tasks .12a: Differences between teachers' and students' opinions relating to Teaching methods .12b: Differences between teachers' and students' opinions relating to Teaching behavior .12c: Differences between teachers' and students' opinions relating to teaching activities .13: Summary of the findings.1: Pedagogical implications according to demotivating factors. 92 x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as Foreign Language SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences NHC: Nguyen Huu Canh (School) IT: Informatics Technology MA: Master of Arts TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages MOET: Ministry of Education and Training Sig.
(2-tailed): Significance (two-tailed) xi Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter demonstrates an introduction to the present study. Initially, it briefly describes development of education in general, language learning and trends as well as current problems in English learning in Vietnam, specifically as an overall background. Then, it presents related issues and factors influencing learning reading skill in the specific context of Nguyen Huu Canh Vocational School. Finally, it includes the significance of the study and plans out the study organization.1 Background of the study In the context of renovation stage, English has become the dominant foreign language to be taught in Vietnam (Le H.
English has been put into national educational system for a long time and come into one of the compulsory subjects in all universities, colleges and almost all upper and lower secondary schools and even in several primary schools. Besides, English is always considered as the prerequisite for students to enter higher level of education or seek more chances to improve knowledge and competence in developing countries. These days, many educational programs and projects have been established and developed for years including renovation program in teaching and learning to achieve progress and competence in using a foreign language for learners at vocational schools, colleges and universities (Government, 2008). For these reasons, it is essential to enhance quality of teaching and learning English with proficient training four basic skills in which reading is the most challenging skill, especially for vocational level learners, according to the author's personal observation.
Moreover, reading is not only a valuable means to achieve background knowledge in order to promote English proficiency in other skills 1 but a way to revise and fulfill language competence (Pastel & Jain, 2008; Robb & Susser, 1989). Despite recognizing the importance of English learning, in reality the teaching and learning of English as well as reading skill have encountered difficulties. These were described as demotivating factors in English classes, especially during reading time. In fact, demotivation is not a new concept in the field of foreign language learning research.
In the world, a number of previous studies (Dornyei, 2001a; Jomairi, 2011; Kaivanpanah & Ghasemi, 2011; Kikuchi & Sakai, 2009; Trang & Richard B. Baldauf, 2007) have been conducted to indicate significant demotivating factors. Doing research on demotives helps not only researchers but also language teachers because they have more chances to understand theories on motivation as well as know that motivation is one of the key factors driving language learning success. In the light of demotivating factors, the present study is an attempt to seek the influences of these factors on students' learning in reading classes.2 Statement of problem In Nguyen Huu Canh's reading classes, lessons have been taught intensively through presenting new issues with respect to introduction of key words, structures, main ideas and strategies used to complete reading process before starting to read.
This type of reading is common traditional method in teaching reading skill in Vietnam (Hoang, 2007; Huynh, 2008). According to Huynh (2008), intensively instructed reading was not really related to practical aspects regarding text format, topics, content, etc.