VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGÔ PHƯƠNG THANH SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING MOTIVATION: A CASE STUDY OF STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI (Nghiên cứu tình huống về động lực học tập ngôn ngữ thứ hai của sinh viên khiếm thị tại một trường Đại học trên địa bàn Hà Nội) MA THESIS – TYPE 1 Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 HANOI – 2020 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES NGÔ PHƯƠNG THANH SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING MOTIVATION: A CASE STUDY OF STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT AT A UINVERSITY IN HANOI (Nghiên cứu tình huống về động lực học tập ngôn ngữ thứ hai của sinh viên khiếm thị tại một trường Đại học trên địa bàn Hà Nội) MA THESIS – TYPE 1 Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231. Mai Ngoc Khoi HANOI – 2020 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby state that the paper is the result of my own work in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Art of Faculty at Post- graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University of Hanoi. This research has not been submitted to any other universities or intuitions. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper.
Signature Ngo Phuong Thanh November 23, 2019 i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I am much honored to be supervised by Mr. Mai Ngoc Khoi, to whom I would like to send my deepest gratitude. It is him who gave me the confidence to work on visual impairment students – the subject that brought me a lot of inspiration. I am too lucky to have you as my mentor.
It is obvious that without your all-around supervision and guidance, this thesis could not be finished. In addition, all my heart is dedicated to my parents, who have been standing by my side, giving me tender care and support to tirelessly work on this paper. Without you – my source of motivation, I would never have enough courage to finish the research. Moreover, many thanks should go to my boy friend Mr.
Truong Hoang Long for his continuous encouragement. I fully appreciate your advice when I got lost with my thesis. Besides, I would like to thank my class classmates for being my motivation to complete this paper. Last but not least, the research is dedicated to me myself – the brave strong girl who have gone through many struggles and constantly tried hard on this road.
I deserve to be proud of myself. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT The purpose of this work is to explore the motivation of students with visual impairment through their longitudinal L2 learning journey. To this end, the research was conducted with two Vietnamese sightless learners at a University in Hanoi. The students‘ language learning autobiography and semi-structured interview were employed to collect data.
Three findings emerged from the data analysis. Firstly, sightless students had clear goals for learning English such as to get an English – related job, to communicate with other L2 speakers or to enhance knowledge. Secondly,their motivated learning behaviours were impacted by L2 learning experiences. Thirdly,they recognized learning difficulties as a source of motivation.
Based on the findings, the thesis strongly suggests that parents and teachers should empower sightless students to have a dream and shape their future L2 self by providing them with a supportive and comfortable learning environment. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definitions of Motivation.
Definition of L2 Motivation. Previous Research on Motivation and L2 Motivation. The History of Motivation Research. Traditional Approaches to L2 Learning Motivation.
The L2 Motivation Revolution in the 1990s. Recent L2 Motivational Theories & The L2 Motivational Self System. Previous Research on L2 Motivation of Impaired Students. Previous Research on the Education of Visually Impaired Students in Vietnam.
The setting of the study and participants. Data collection instruments and procedures. Language learning autobiographies. Data analysis methods.
The Portrait of Participants .34 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAP 4: FINGDINGS. Rationales for L2 learning .48 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS & DISCUSSION. XXXII v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationales for the study Along with research in the field of English language learning and teaching history, second language (L2) learning motivation has always brought great passion and interest to the researcher.
The researcher, through her teaching experience, realized that learning motivation plays a vital role in students‘ process of language learning. Consequently, the researcher has insistently sought ways to motivate her students as well as enhance their positive learning experience. This attempt drove the researcher to do a study of L2 learning motivation. Moreover, the researcher believes that it is necessary to conduct a qualitative research which presents a close look at individual learners by taking learners‘ difference and identity into account.
It is undeniable that L2 learning motivation has constantly received noticeable attention of researchers and teachers. However, the majority of researchon L2 learning motivation focuses only on the stable and generalized motives of learners (Zaragoza, 2011). For example, many studies applying quantitative approach investigate learners‘ contemporary motives in a specific time and ignore their past and future motivation. Besides, by collecting a large range of participants, these studies try to single out the most noticeable and common motives but ignores learning differences and dynamic feature of motivation.
Finally, it is the cases of students with visual impairment in the researcher‘s institution that urged her to do research on L2 language motivation of sightless learners. In the context of Vietnam education, there are few language universities, such as University of Languages and International Studies, accepting students with visual impairment. Realizing their learning difficulties, especially when these institutions have not provided enough support for these special learners, the researcher decided to study their learning motivation that was believed to keep them pursuing L2 learning and overcome learning barriers. Therefore, the recent research 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com brings in an insight into language learning motivation as well as learning barriers of sightless students who are attending University of Languages and International Studies as well as the researcher‘s institution.
The researcher conducted this paper aiming at investigating the L2 learning motivation through the lens of sightless students as considering their L2 self and identity. Statement of research questions The research was conducted to seek the answers for the following question: What factors affect second language learning motivation of visually impaired students? 3. Aims& objectives of the study First of all, the study aims to explore what motivate students with visual impairment to learn L2 before and after they enter the University. Secondly, it is to investigate what factors impact on their L2 learning motivation.
Scope of the study The aim of the study is to investigate the language learning motivation of students with visual impairment in and outside classroom setting. Therefore, the two visually impaired students at University of Language in International Studies were selected as the targeted population of the research. The selection of core participants based on three criteria: visual impairment, previous academic background and willingness to join the research. The research was conducted at Faculty of English Language Teacher Education of the university, which is the biggest provider of English teachers for the whole country.
Every student in this faculty is English major and future English teacher, so it is important for them to master English language. Moreover, this faculty accepts students with visual impairment and recently there are some sightless students attending it. Therefore, it might be the best context to carry out the research of language learning motivation of visually impaired students. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Methods of the study The study employs case study to investigate what motivate visually impaired students to learn L2. The research goals are achieved by means of qualitative data. The study was carried out by some steps as follows: First, the language learning autobiography was employed to find out their second language learning stories in the connection with learning motivation. Second, personal interviews with two students were conducted in order to: Study their rationales for learning Study their past and present learning experience to find out how L2 learning motivation was generated and changed Find out the difficulties in students‘ L2 language learning and their impacts on L2 motivation.
Then, the data were collected, sorted and analyzed qualitatively to obtain realistic results. To end with, pedagogical implications for enhancing students‘ motivation in L2 language learning was proposed based on the results found from all data collection instruments. Significance of the study The study is considered to be significant for some reasons. Firstly, the results will, for a certain extent, help the English teachers and parents who are educating and fostering visually impaired students raise awareness of the importance of motivation in L2 learning.
Secondly, the paper is expected to contribute information on sightless students‘ L2 learning motivation, as the second language education for students with disabilities has not received enough concern. Hopefully, the study will bring about the insight into language learning motivation and barriers of sightless students to others who are learning or are going to learn the English language, and then, encourage them to step forward on their English language learning journey 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com with essential preparation. Finally, the study might be a source of material for students to study motivation in learning from the lens of sightless people. Design of the study This research consists of five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter aims at stating the research problems as well as the significance of the study, proposing questions to answer, and explaining the used methodology.
Chapter 2: Literature review This includes the explanation of key definitions of Motivation, L2 learning motivation and L2 motivational self-system. Moreover, it presents the review on different previous works on Motivation and L2 Motivation to point out the research gaps. Chapter 3: Methodology This chapterpresents research methodology;the setting of the study and participants;data collection instruments and procedures. The portrait of participants is also clearly analysed in this chapter Chapter 4: Findings This chapter presents the findings of the data analysis, which will be divided into four parts: portrait of two learners, rationales for learning, learning experience and learning difficulties.
After that, the data will be explained by using L2 motivational self system. Chapter 5: Conclusions In this chapter, the three conclusions of the paper will be presented. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2. Motivation ―Motivation is, without question, the most complex and challengingissue facing teachers today.
Definitions of Motivation It is widely accepted that motivation is a fundamental constituent of the learning and teaching process. Although the term ―motivation‖ is frequently used in both educational practice and study contexts, no consensus has been reached among researchers on the exact definition of motivation (Dornyei, 1998). Analogously, Steel and Konig (2006) also share the same viewpoint about the inconsistent definition of motivation and put forth the reason as for the complexity of ―intricate and realistic situation‖ that motivation and motivational subsets occur.