VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ************************ PHẠM THI ̣HỒNG VÂN FACTORS AFFECTING MOTIVATION FOR STUDENTS' PARTICIPATION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS: A SURVEY AT HUNG VUONG VOCATIONAL COLLEGE CÁC YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƢỞNG ĐẾN ĐỘNG LỰC THAM GIA TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI CỦA SINH VIÊN HỌC NGHỀ: NGHIÊN CỨU KHẢO SÁT TẠI TRƢỜNG CĐN HÙNG VƢƠNG M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English teaching methodology Code: 60.11 Hanoi – 2015 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ************************ PHẠM THI ̣HỒNG VÂN FACTORS AFFECTING MOTIVATION FOR STUDENTS' PARTICIPATION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS: A SURVEY AT HUNG VUONG VOCATIONAL COLLEGE CÁC YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƢỞNG ĐẾN ĐỘNG LỰC THAM GIA TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI CỦA SINH VIÊN HỌC NGHỀ: NGHIÊN CỨU KHẢO SÁT TẠI TRƢỜNG CĐN HÙNG VƢƠNG M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English teaching methodology Code: 60.11 Supervisor: Nguyễn Thi Ngọc ̣ Quỳnh, Ph.D Hanoi – 2015 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “ Factors affecting motivation for students’ participation in English speaking lessons: A survey at Hung Vuong Vocational College" is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution. Hanoi, 2015 Phạm Thị Hồng Vân i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I wish to send my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Quynh, Ph.D for her valuable guidance, helpful suggestions and critical feedback throughout the research.
Also, I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to all the lecturers in the Department of Postgraduate Studies, College of Foreign languages, VNU for their useful lessons from which I have benefited a lot for the accomplishment of this study. I am greatly indebted to my first year students of business accounting from Hung Vuong Vocational College for their participation and assistance without which this study could not have been successful. Last but not least, I would like to express my special thanks to my loving parents, my husband, who offered me their love, care, support and encouragement so that I could accomplish my study. ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate factors affecting motivation and differences between high achievers and low achievers in speaking lessons of the first -year students of business accounting at Hung Vuong Vocational College.
Using correlation and Man-Whitney U test to analyse the data, the result shows that learners are highly motivated by their job orientation, teacher‟s good pronunciation, group cohesion and task difficulty. They are also demotivated by extra homework, ineffective L1 & L2 use, L2 use outside the class, their lack of self-confidence. The study also finds out some differences between two groups in terms of instrumental orientation, self-confidence, affiliative motive, teacher‟s L2 use, desire to speak as well as teacher, classroom goal structures, task difficulty and classroom atmosphere. iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
ii TABLE OF CONTENTS. Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Methods of the study.
Design of the study. Theoretical background of motivation in L2 learning. Importance of motivation in L2 .3: Major approaches and theories on language learning motivation. Psychological- cognitive approach.
Achievement motivation theory. Self-efficacy theory. Self-determination theory. Socio-cultural and contextual approaches.
Linguistic self-confidence. A situated concept of L2 motivation. A process-oriented approach to L2 motivation research .4: Factors affecting motivation in L2 learning .2: New factors added to Dornyei‟s framework .11 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Theoretical background of speaking in L2 learning.
Communicative language teaching ( CLT) .3 Guidelines for implementing communicative tasks. Research setting and participants. Techniques of collecting data.1: Quantitative research : questionnaire. Qualitative research- interview.
Personal information of the students taking part in the survey .2 Factors affect students‟ participation in speaking lessons. Learning situation level. Teacher-specific components. Group-specific motivational component.
Course-specific motivational component .Environment-specific component. Differences in factors between high achievers and low achievers. Learning situation level .1 Teacher-specific components. Group-specific motivational component.
Course-specific motivational component. Environment-specific motivational componen. 33 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. A summary of findings and implications.
Factors highly motivate learners. Factors demotivate learners. Factors give learners a moderate level of motivation. Differences between two groups in terms of language level.
Differences between two groups in terms of learner level. Differences between two groups in terms of teacher-related factors. Differences between two groups in terms of group-related factors. Differences between two groups in terms of course-related factors.
Differences between two groups s in terms of environment-related factors. Recommendations to motivate students to speak English in class. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further studies.
Questionnaire for students ( Vietnamese). Questionnaire for students (translated into English). Guiding interview questions for students. Test of normality.
IX vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.Rationale of the study In recent decades, English has been more and more important in Vietnam. It is now widely known as the major language of intercommunication, international commerce and business, science and technology and so on. Thus, people with good English proficiency will have a brighter future. They will have a great deal of chances to apply for a good job with high salary.
At Hung Vuong Vocational College, English is a compulsory subject with 120 periods. Teachers must teach four skills of which listening and speaking skills must be paid more attention. That is one of the main tasks of the college that must train students to be communicatively competent. After the course, students have to be able to communicate successfully in social situations.
It is a big challenge for teachers because at secondary and high schools, listening skill and speaking skill have been paid little attention. As a result, from my observation and my teaching experience, I realized that only some learners get involved in the speaking activities while others keep silence or do other things. Motivating students in English speaking lessons is every teacher‟s challenge, especially in vocational college. They are unwilling to take part in speaking activities in class.
This may be caused by many factors. Therefore, this study will investigate factors affecting the students‟ participation in English speaking lessons. The researcher hopes that this study will help teachers at the vocational college to find suitable methods to motivate learners. Aims of the study This study aims at investigating factors affecting learners‟ motivation to speak English among students of business accounting field at Hung Vuong Vocational College.
Three main purposes are summarized below: 1. to investigate factors affecting learners‟ motivation to speak English 2. to investigate differences in factors between high achievers and low achievers. to give motivational strategies to motivate learners.
1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Scope of the study The study was conducted with the sample selected from one hundred and eighty- nine first year students of business accounting at Hung Vuong Vocational College to explore factors affecting learners‟ motivation in English speaking lessons and compare differences between high achievers and low achievers in terms of factors. Methods of the study To achieve the aims of the study, both quantitative and qualitative methods are used. The data was collected from learners‟ questionnaire papers and interviews.
After the data was collected, analyzed and discussed, some conclusions will be drawn, and some suggestions will be made in the thesis. Design of the study The first part, introduction, includes the rationale, the aims, the scope, the method and the design of the study. The second part, development, includes three chapters. Chapter one, literature review, provides a theoretical background of motivation, factors affecting language learning.
This chapter also summaries the theoretical background of speaking in L2 learning. This is viewed as the theoretical framework for the investigation in the next chapter. Chapter 2, methodology gives the context of the study, the research questions, the participants and data analysis procedure. Chapter 3, data analysis, gives a detailed presentation of data.
The final part is conclusion. This part provides the summary of the findings and some implications for teachers of English as a foreign language. In addition, this part gives some limitations of the study and some possible suggestions for further research 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Theoretical background of motivation in L2 learning: 1.Terminological issues The concept “motivation” is seen as an important and complex element in the process of second language acquisition.
Dornyei ( 2001) pointed out the inherent problems of motivation in L2 research: motivation is abstract and not directly observable; motivation is a multi-dimensional construct and motivation is inconstant. Among many of definitions of motivation, Dornyei (2001: 7) gave a comprehensive one which concerned “ the choice of a particular action, the persistence with it and the effort expended on it”. It shows how behaviour starts, is directed and maintained. Therefore, motivation is a study of process that give behaviour energy and direction “ the dynamically changing cumulative arousal in a person that imitates, directs, coordinates, amplifies, terminates and evaluates the cognitive and motor processes whereby initial wishes and desires are selected, prioritized, operationalised and acted out” ( Dorney, 2001: 9).
In the 1990s, many works examined the relationship between learners and classroom environment, ( e. Brown, 1990, 1994; Clement, Dornyei & Noels, 1994; Crookes & Schmitdt, 1991; Dornyei, 1994a, 1994b; Julkunen, 1989, 1993; Oxford & Shearin, 1994; Skehan, 1989, 1991; Ushioda, 1994, 1996a; William, 1994). ( cited in Dornyei, 2001: 11) Lastly, in Dornyei and Otto (1998); Dornyei (2000, 2001), motivation began to be seen as dynamic and temporal. They defined motivation as “ a dynamic view”, or “ changes of motivation over time”.
Motivation can not be viewed as a stable attribute of learning that remains constant for several months or years. Instead, students‟ motivation fluctuates, going through “ ebbs and flows” ( Dornyei, 2001: 19) 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Importance of motivation in L2 Motivation is considered as a crucial factor in achieving a second language. Gardner and Lambert (1972) emphasized that motivation can influence what, when and how learners learn.
That is, motivation determines strategies to achieve the goals, the effort and persistence. Littlewood (1998: 53) indicated that “ motivation is the crucial force which determines whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he devotes to it, and how long he preserves" 1. Major approaches and theories on language learning motivation 1. Behavioral approach According to the behaviourists, all learning takes place through the process of habit formation.
Learners receive linguistic input from speakers in their environment and positive reinforcement for their correct repetitions and imitations. As a result, habits are formed ( cited in Lightbown & Spada,1993: 23). In other words, behaviorists explain motivation in terms of external stimuli and reinforcement. In the classroom, teachers often offer stimuli or reinforcement after a student performs in the foreign language.
This view is equivalent to Dornyei‟s (1994) reward system, feedback.Psychological- cognitive approach: Cognitive psychologists search for motives for human behaviour in the individual rather than in the social being, focusing primarily on psychological or internal factors, placing much more emphasis on individual‟s choice. Achievement motivation theory Atkinson (1966) viewed achievement behaviour as the result of emotional conflict between hopes for success and fears of failure. He proposed that students‟ motivation is a stable trait across different contexts, which arises largely from two personality orientations: the achievement-oriented personality and the failure- threatened personality. Thus, his theory placed a great importance on need for achievement and self-confidence which are mentioned in Dornyei‟s (1994) framework.
4 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.