MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY HUYNH THI MINH THY STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH: A STUDY AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN PHU CAT DISTRICT Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 8140111 Supervisor: Dr. HA THANH HAI BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN HUỲNH THỊ MINH THY ĐỘNG CƠ HỌC TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH MỘT TRƢỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG TẠI HUYỆN PHÙ CÁT Ngành: Lý luận và phƣơng pháp dạy học bộ môn tiếng Anh Mã số: 8140111 Ngƣời hƣớng dẫn: TS. HÀ THANH HẢI i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I totally assure that the thesis “STUDENT‟S MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH: A STUDY AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN PHU CAT DISTRICT” is my own work for the purpose of graduating the MA course of Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching. The content of this thesis has not been published or written by any other authors except for some references which are used in this thesis.
The thesis has not been submitted for any degree or diploma in any university. Binh Dinh, 2022 Huỳnh Thị Minh Thy ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the period of doing the research, much considerable support and great encouragement from my teachers, friends, and family were given to me so that I could overcome difficulties and complete my master thesis successfully. First of all, I would like to show my deep gratitude to my respected supervisor, Dr. Ha Thanh Hai, who gave me his helpful guidance and were together with me from the beginning to the end of my thesis.
Without his companion, encouragement, and helps, I do not think I could finish a MA thesis which met nearly all of the requirements of an MA thesis like that. Second, my special thanks also go to students and my colleague Nguyen Lan Phuong at a high school in Phu Cat District. I greatly appreciate their time and efforts in filling questionnaires, answering interview questions. Third, I owe an unpaid debt to all the qualified and experienced teachers who helped me broaden my knowledge about Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching and my friendly classmates who gave me unforgettable memories during the two-year master course.
Last but not least, I am extremely thankful to my parents, especially my husband who gave spirit supports in the past two years of pursuing this MA course. iii ABSTRACT Among the factors influencing students‟ studies, motivation is considered to be one of the most important reasons for different achievement levels. The purposes of this study are to find out the students' levels of motivation to study English, to investigate the relationship between students' motivation and their achievement. The subjects are 114 high school students in Phu Cat.
The instruments used for data collection are questionnaires and interviews. The data from the returned questionnaires is statistically analyzed by using the SPSS program to derive percentages, frequencies, means, standard deviations, as well as to perform exploratory factor analysis. Major findings from this study indicates that the majority of the students are motivated. Students' motivation and their English learning achievement are strongly and positively correlated with each other.
If we want to improve achievement, we should influence motivation. The findings could be useful for researchers and teachers in improving students‟ achievement by devising effective teaching and learning strategies to increase students‟ motivation. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vi LIST OF TABLES. vii LIST OF FIGURES. Aim and Objectives.
Scope of the Study. Significance of the Study. Organization of the Study. Definition of Motivation.
Types of Motivation. Motivation in relation to achievement .5 Data collection methods. 37 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS. Findings and discussions .1 Findings and discussions in instrumental motivation .2 Findings and discussions in integrative motivation.3 Findings and discussions in motivation .4 Findings and discussions in motivation and academic achievement.
Finding from interview. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. Summary of the key findings .4 Limitation of the study. 57 APPENDIX vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L2: Second Language EFL: English as a Foreign Language SD: Strongly Disagree D: Disagree N: Neutral A: Agree SA: Strongly Agree LLM: Language Learner Motivation vii LIST OF TABLES Number Tables Page Table 3.1 Items in questionnaire 31 Table 3.2 Cronbach‟s Alpha calculated by SPSS version 26 35 for the questionnaire Table 3.3 Items scores 36 Table 3.4 Standard of Mean 36 Table 4.1 Students responses to instrumental items 38 Table 4.2 Descriptive Statistic of instrumental items 39 Table 4.3 Students responses to integrative items 42 Table 4.4 Descriptive Statistic of integrative items 43 Table 4.5 Mean scores and standard deviations of the 46 motivational types (N = 114) Table 4.5 Academic results 47 Table 4.6 Interview results from students 49 viii LIST OF FIGURES Number Tables Page Figure 3.1 The percentage of participants by gender 28 Figure 4.1 Students‟ response item Q1 40 Figure 4.2 Students‟ responses item Q7 41 Figure 4.3 Students‟ responses item Q15 42 Figure 4.4 Students‟ responses item Q2 44 Figure 4.5 Students‟ responses item Q3 45 Figure 4.6 The percentage of students‟ academic results 47 1 CHAPTER1 INTRODUCTION 1.
Ratinale Language plays an essential role in human life because it is considered as an useful tool to help people express what they think and what they want to convey to others in terms of spoken and written form. As a global language, English is becoming more and more popular in Viet Nam, the English learners have become younger and younger and English has been a compulsory subject in school for a long time. Mastering English is very important for the students especially, because English is necessary as a means of getting knowledge. In the Vietnamese educational system, teachers pay attention to help students learn English effectively.
When learning English, different students have different difficulties and problems. They can make different mistakes in English pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary usage. These exert heavily influence on students‟ motivation in learning English. Some of the students feel that English is very difficult to study.
On the other hand, some students feel anxious and bored in learning English. As a result, they get low achievement in English. It is believed that motivation is an important factor in learning and teaching English. In fact, motivation is a key in the process of learning.
If the students are not motivated to learn, they will simply not learn. Pardee (1990) states that a motive is what encourages the person to act in a certain way or develop a tendency for a particular behavior. Moreover, teachers should know the psychological theory and the process of English learning in order to encourage and enhance students‟ motivation in learning English. Learners‟ motivation of learning a language is considered as 2 a crucial factor influencing the achievement and proficiency of learning.
If students are given motivation, students can learn a language better and can last the learning enthusiasm longer. As the instrumental and integrative motivation have not been investigated among this specific population yet, it is still unknown whether or not those types of motivation can affect these students‟ achievement. Hence, the researcher conducts this study to determine what motivates the students to study English and also see if this motivation has an influence on their achievement or not. Aim and Objectives 1.2 Aim The main target of this research is to find out whether the students hold integrative or instrumental motivation English language learning and understand the correlation between the students‟ types of motivation and their academic achievement.
Objectives The study proposes the objectives as follows: a. To identify the types of motivation that the EFL learners‟ hold toward learning English. To find out the relationship between these types of motivation and their academic achievement. Scope of the Study The study is conducted with the samples selected from students at a high school.
The data for this study is obtained through questionnaire administered to the total number of 114 students. Identifying whether they are integratively or instrumentally motivated, the researcher may able to formulate measures 3 for the improvement of their learning motivation in English language. Research Questions The main questions of this research are: 1) What types of motivation do students hold toward learning English? 2) What is the relationship between the students‟ types of motivation and their academic achievement? 1. Significance of the Study This study hopefully can give some contribution as follows: 1) Theoretically, the research should be seen as contribution in understanding students‟ motivation in learning English.
2) Practically, the findings from the present study may assist teachers who can create motivation for their students and effective atmosphere in English classes. Organization of the Study Chapter 1: Introduction The rationale, the aims, research questions, the scope, and the design of the study are included in this chapter. The reasons for choosing the topic “Student‟ motivation in learning English: A study at a high school in Phu Cat district” of the research are clearly demonstrated. Chapter 2: Literature review This chapter is divided to two subparts – previous studies about learning English motivation and the correlation between motivation and academic results, theoretical background.
The first part is a brief review of previous studies which are relevant to this research while the second part provides the knowledge of theoretical framework used to conduct the research. 4 Chapter 3: Methodology This chapter presents research method, research procedures, the ways to collect and analyze data. Research Methodology clearly demonstrates research methods used it this study, data collection, data analysis, procedures, and reliability and validity of the research. This chapter can help readers to understand deeply the way the writer collects, analyses data as well as the steps of conducting the research to fulfill the aims of the research with the assurance of the objectiveness of the research.
Chapter 4: Findings and discussion The results from the data analysis are presented in this chapter, and the discussions about the results are made. This chapter presents research findings and discussions which provide an answer to the research questions. Based on the answers to the research questions, this chapter investigate the students‟ motivation level and discusses the correlation between the students‟ types of motivation and their academic achievement in learning English at a high school in Phu Cat. Chapter 5: Conclusion and implications This chapter gives the summary of the content of the study, draw conclusions and implication.
Recommendations for further research are also demonstrated. 5 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter includes two parts: The previous studies and theoretical background. A review of previous studies is presented at the beginning of this chapter. After that, theoretical background is clearly demonstrated as a basic framework of the research 2.
Previous Studies Al-Atemi & Shuib (2009) conducted a study on learners‟ motivation and attitudes towards learning English in Yemen. The study emphasized three motivational constructs, i., instrumental, integrative, and personal motivation. The results of the study showed that both instrumental and personal reasons were important motives for learning English. However, integrative motivation had the least impact on learners‟ language learning.
In Japan, students‟ motivation in learning English language were also of concern for many researchers. One of the most relevant studies was that of Benson (1991) who conducted 300 freshmen to assess their motivation towards learning English. The results illustrates the significance of integrative and personal goals as elements in motivation among Japanese college students as he says, “integrative and personal reasons for learning English were preferred over instrumental ones" (Benson, 1991, p. Alqahtani (2018) explored English language learning motivation and English language learning anxiety in Saudi military cadets, a structural equation modelling approach.
There were 174 participants in Saudi Military Academy elementary level cadets took part in this study. These cadets were learning English as one of the civilian subjects throughout their three years at the academy.