o::r "/ ~' O NATIONAL UNIVE RSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES - roW03 - HOW TO MOTIVATE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT AN GIANG UNIVERSITY TO STUDY SPOKEN ENGLISH EFFECTIVELY A THESIS SUBMITIED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS (TESOL) Submitted by V U'O'ng Th] My Tam Supervisor £)~ng Th] HU'<Yng, EdD Ho Chi Minh City , April 2005 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: HOW TO MOnVATE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT AN GIANG UNIVERSITY TO STUDY SPOKEN ENGLISH EFFECTIVELY in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses in Master's Programmes issued by the Higher Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh City, April 9, 2005 VUONG TH~ MY TAM RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESES I hereby state that I, VUONG THl MY TAM, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master's Theses deposited in the Library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited 10 the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses. Ho Chi Minh City, April 9, 2005 VUONG THl MY TAM 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to take thi s opportunity to ex press my heart felt gratitude to my thesis superviso r, senior and outstanding lecturer Dang Thi Hudn g, EdD for her enthus iastic guidance, valuable co mme nts and support in the prep arati on and completion of thi s thesis. Second, I wo uld also like to thank Mr.
Nguyen Hu ynh Dat, Head of the Department of E ng lish Lin gui stics a nd Lit erature, Ho Chi Minh city Unive rsity of Socia l Science s a nd Humanitie s for orga nisi ng thi s ma ste r co urse. Third, I parti cul arl y ex press my thank s to the En gl ish teaching sta ff at An Gi ang Univer sity, es pec ially to Jack Merch ant, Juli e Ri ch ardson and Jon Moyer , the three volunteers from VIA, VSO, and MCC, as well as 82 firs t-year Eng lish majors for thei r co -operation in helping me to carry o ut the survey qu estionnaires in the thesis. Fin all y, my very spec ial than ks are sent to my family and my close friends for their moral support whe n I have done the research. III ABSTRACT Motivation has been considered one of the most important factors in leading learners to success in the process of second/foreign language learning.
It is defined as an impetus to help students obtain what they want. The study examines the teachers' perception of the importance of motivation, the factors which have most influence on enhancing first-year English majors' learning motivation, and what teachers should do to motivate students to study spoken English effectively. The results of data analysis showed that (l) most of the learners were really affected by their teachers' method of teaching and that (2) extra-curriculum activities could help improve students' motivation in studying speaking skill. The findings also revealed that (3) classmates and parents had some influence on the students' learning motivation and (4) school facilities and teaching materials had an effect on the learning of the freshmen of English at AGU.
From the results of the study I suggest that (l) the communicative approach should be applied in English teaching and learning at An Giang University in order to enhance students' motivation to study speaking skill well; (2) there should be a link between English teaching in secondary and tertiary education to help students feel more confident when studying at university; (3) teaching materials should be selected carefully to draw students' interest in the lessons and their active involvement in the learning process; (4) there should be about 20-30 students in each English class so that students could have more opportunities to practise and improve their oral skill; (5) the Department of Foreign Languages should be equipped with more audio-visual rooms to help improve students' listening and speaking skills; and (6) the relationship between AGU and foreign IV organizations should be conso lidated and developed in order to have more volunteers who co uld work for the university in many different field s of study, especially in English language teaching and learning. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Certifi llcate of onglnaly. Retention and use of the thesis ii Acknowledgement iii Abstract. iv Table of contents v List of tables viii List of graphs .ix Abbreviations X CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.
English in the world 2 1.2 English in Vietnam 4 1. Engli sh in tertiary education in Vietnam. English at An Giang University. 8 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.
Definiti on of motivation 13 2. Main kinds of motivation 14 VI 2. Difference s between spoken and written English 18 2. The roles of teachers and learner s.
The roles of teachers. The roles of learners. Overview of some teaching methods 24 2. The Grammar-Translation Method.
The Audio-lingual Method. Communicative Language Teaching. 27 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 3. Characteristics of the subjects.
Survey questionnaire for students. Survey questionnaire for teachers. 38 Vll CHAPTER FOUR: DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS 4. Responses to the survey questionnaires.
Teachers' respon ses 48 4. Discussion of the findings 56 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5. 66 BIBLIOGRAPHY 69 APPENDICES 73 Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for the teaching staff. 73 Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for students in English 75 Appendix 3 : Survey questionnaire for students in Vietnamese.
77 Vlll LIST OF TABLES 4. Students' purposes of English learning. Students' previous English learning experience. Students' perception of the importance of speaking skill.
Why stude nts like studying spoken Engli sh 42 4. Who motivate students to study spoken English. Activities motivate students to study speaking skill. Extra-curriculum activities motivate students to study speaking skill 45 4.
What the teachers do to enhance students' motivation in speaking classes. Students' opinions on the effectiveness of the textbooks used for speaking classes. 47 IX LIST OF GRAPHS 4. Teachers' perception of the importance of the students' learning motivation.
Who have the most influence on the students'learning motivation 49 4. What factors have the most influence on the students'learning motivation 50 4. What teachers often do to motivate students to speak Engli sh 51 4.Teachers' frequency of workshop participation. Teachers' frequency of reading books on motivation.
Teachers' opinions on the textbooks used at AGU. Extra-curriculum activities motivate students to improve their spoken language 55 4. Activities motivate students to improve their speaking skill 56 x ABBREVIATIONS AGU An Giang University ALM The Audio- Lingual Method CLT Communicative Language Teaching ELT English Language Teaching ELTTP English Language Teacher Training Project Ll First language L2 Second language MCC Mennonite Central Committee MOET The Ministry of Education and Training OHP Overhead projector TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages VIA Volunteers in Asia VSO Voluntary Services Overseas Xl CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Motivation is an issue that was discussed by many researchers in the past and it still draws attention from many other reasearchers at present. Although students' motivational histories accompany them into each new classroom setting, it is essential for teachers to view themselves as "active socialization agents capable of stimulating student motivation to learn" (Brophy, 1987).
As teachers, we must pay special attention to students' learning motivation in order to help our learners to get success in their learning. It can be said that a strong motivation for learning a particular language will determine the success of the learning process, as Littlewood (1984 :53) has stated: "Motivation is the crucial factor which determines whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he devotes to it and how long he preserves". Regarless of many controversial ideas on the role of motivation in second language acquisition no one could deny that any kinds of motivation can determine a high level of language proficiency. Conversely, a lack of motivation can cause troubles for learners in their learning.
Nowadays the communicative approach has been applied in most of the universities throughout Vietnam and its effectiveness has been proved. In English study today students are asked to focus not only on reading, writing, and grammar but also on speaking and listening skills. However, not many of the teachers know how to motivate students to study the oral skill. In some schools, teachers still complain about students' attitudes toward learning English.
In An Giang province, English is taught in most schools but in fact, English teaching in An Giang is not very effective, especially at An Giang University (AGU). In general, a non-English major student is required to study at least 240 periods of English during the four years of learning at the university but after graduation not many of them can use English effectively, even English-majors cannot speak English fluently. The que stion is whether students feel motivated enough when learning speaking skill and whether teachers of English at AGU have paid attention to the role of motivation in teaching, particularly those who are in charge of speaking subject. In order to answer the above questions I would like to mention briefly the role of English in the world and English in Vietnam in recent years; how English is taught in tertiary education in Vietnam, and particularly, at An Giang University.
English in the world Nowadays English is spoken all over the world. It is said to be an international language and is considered the official language of international aviation. As Broughton (1980: 1) said, ". of the 4,000 to 5,000 living languages English is by far the most widely used".
Most of the world's radio programmes are broadcast in English and even 70 per cent of the world 's mail is written in English. In over 100 countries, Engli sh is taught as a foreign language (Crystal, 1995). This proves that English has a great influence on people's lives. It exists not only in their social and cultural lives but also in economics and politics.
Today, English has become an indispensable tool for intercultural communication. It seems that English is spoken in most of international conferences all over the world. More than 300,000,000 people speak Engli sh as their first or native language and a further 300,000,000 speak it as a second language. English is the native or official language of one-fifth of the land area of the world.
It is spoken in North America, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. In South America 2 and India it is one of the official languages. Most people study English than any other language. In many countries, the textbooks in universities are in English.
Many university classes are taught in Engli sh even though their native language is not Engli sh.It is said the langu age of international business, research, and science (hnp://www.org/english/engfaqs. A statistics done by Crystal ( 1997) confirms that nearly a quarter of the world's population is already fluent or competent in Engli sh. Due to the rapid development of technology in Britain and the USA, English has become the only available tool for the twentieth- century learning. English is the language of the mass media: newspapers, radio and televi sion are largely in Engli sh.
It is also the language of law courts, local and central government, and of education. It is the language of large commercial and industrial organisations as well. "A good command of Engli sh in a seco nd language situation is considered a passport to social and economic advancement" (Broughton et ai, 1980: 6).