VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ XUYẾN MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH AMONG THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS IN FACULTY OF BANKING AND FINANCE, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY (Động lực học tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ hai Khoa Tài chính-Ngân hàng, Trường Đại học Kinh doanh và Công nghệ Hà Nội) M.A Minor Programme Thesis 60 14 10 Hanoi, September/ 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ XUYẾN MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH AMONG THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS IN FACULTY OF BANKING AND FINANCE, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY (Động lực học tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ hai Khoa Tài chính-Ngân hàng, Trường Đại học Kinh doanh và Công nghệ Hà Nội) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Major: ELT Methodology Major code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Hồng Hải, M.A Hanoi, September/ 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv Table of content Declaration………………………………………………………………………………….iii Table of content……………………………………………………………………………iv List of abbreviation terms……………………………………………………………….vi List of tables and figures…………………………………………………………………. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY. AIMS OF THE STUDY. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY. DESIGN OF THE STUDY. 4 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. Definition of motivation in L2 learning.
Classification of motivation in language learning. Deci and Ryan’s classsification…………………………………………………. Factors affecting negatively students’ motivation in L2/foreign language learning………………………………………………………………………………………. Context of the study.
Data collection instruments. Data collection procedure .18 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. 19 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Students’ motivation in learning English in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation…………………………………………………………………………………….
Factors affecting negatively the motivation in learning English…………24 3. Students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation………………………………. Subject-related demotivating factors………………………………. Learning environment-related demotivating factors……………….
Teacher-related demotivating factors………………………………. Student-related demotivating factors…………………………………36 CONCLUSION. SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. 41 APPENDICES Appendix 1 : Motivation questionnaire (in English) Appendix 2 : Motivation questionnaire (in Vietnamese) Appendix 3: Tran and Baldauf’s (2007) framework of demotivating factors in Vietnamese university students Appendix 4: Schmidt et al.
(1996) questionnaire Appendix 5: Results of demotivating factors questionnaire LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi List of abbreviation terms L2 Second language EFL English as a foreign language HUBT Hanoi University of Business and Technology FoBF Faculty of Banking and Finance SD Strongly Disagree D Disagree U Undecided A Agree SA Strongly Agree LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vii List of tables Table 1: The structure of the motivation questionnaire……………………………………… 16 Table 2: The frequency and distribution of items measuring extrinsic motivation…………. 20 Table 3: The frequency distribution of items measuring intrinsic motivation………………. 22 Table 4: The frequency of Demotivating factors by coding categories……………………. 24 Table 5: Internal demotivating factors……………………………………………………….
25 Table 6: Teacher- related demotivating factors………………………………………………. 28 Table 7: Learning environment-related demotivating factors………………………………. 29 List of charts Chart 1 The frequency and distribution of items measuring extrinsic motivation…………. 20 Chart 2 The frequency distribution of items measuring intrinsic motivation……………….
22 Chart 3 The frequency of demotivating factors by coding categories……………………… 25 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Background of the study In the globalization era, English has become more and more important as an international language; therefore, in many countries all over the world, students are required to learn English through compulsory programmes at educational institutions. Surprisingly, despite the fact that students have to learn English to pass the examination to graduate, many students fail to study it successfully. In many countries where studying English as a second or foreign language is compulsory such as China, Taiwan, or Vietnam, students usually drop out the programmes or find out the strategies to pass the exams with the least effort.
What are the reasons for this problem? Studies have shown that there are many factors, both internal and external, that influence the second/foreign language learning process such as the learning environment, the instructors, the learning conditions, the attitude of learners towards the target language, the learners‟ language aptitude, intelligence, and motivation, and so on (see Gardner (2001), Lightbown & Spada (1999), and Ellis (1985)). That is why in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, those influential factors for second/foreign language learning must be investigated carefully. Among various influential factors, Gardner (2001) stated that “motivation is a central element along with language attitude in determining success in learning another language in the classroom setting” (p.2) since he believed “many of these other variables are dependent on motivation for their effects to be realized” (Gardner, 2001, p. Other researchers such as Ely (1986); Spolsky (1989), and Scarcella and Oxford (1992) shared the same view that motivation determines how much effort students make, how often students use second/foreign language learning strategies, how much students interact with native speakers, how much input they receive in the language being learned, how well they do on curriculum-related achievement tests, how high their general proficiency level becomes, and how long they preserve and maintain second/foreign language skills after language study is over.
Hence, the study of motivation in second/foreign language learning is very important. In Vietnam, although several researchers (see Tran & Baldauf (2007)) have conducted a few motivational studies of English as a foreign language in some Vietnam‟s universities, most studies have focused mainly on the relationship between motivation and academic achievement. There have been a few attempts revealing the LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 motivational factors that underlie the Vietnamese university students‟ English language learning. Furthermore, as a lecturer of English at HUBT, the researcher herself realizes that although English is considered one of the most important subjects at HUBT with a lot of time and effort spent on teaching and learning English, students at HUBT in general and in FoBF in particular seem not to be successful in learning English.
After a great deal of talks with those students as well as the researcher‟s observation, it seems that one of the reasons may be related to students‟ motivation in learning English. However, there are not any researches conducted to investigate into the situation of students‟ motivation in learning English at HUBT in general and students in FoBF in particular. All of the above-mentioned reasons have urged the researcher to conduct the research with the title “Motivation in learning English among the second-year students in Faculty of Banking and Finance, Hanoi University of Business and Technology. Aims of the study This study is conducted in order to investigate into the motivational factors that urge second-year students in FoBF to learn English as well as to find out whether those motivational factors are intrinsic or extrinsic.
This piece of research moreover is expected to reveal the main factors that affect negatively the motivation in learning English, and the order of frequency of these demotivating factors. Finally, basing on the results of the research, this study will propose some strategies to improve the motivation in learning English of the second-year students in FoBF in particular and the students at HUBT in general. Research questions This study is guided by the following questions: 1. What is Banking and Finance second-year students‟ motivation in learning English in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation? 2.
What factors affect negatively the motivation in learning English of second-year students in FoBF? 3. Which demotivating factors are the most frequent as perceived by second-year students in FoBF? LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Significance of the study It is hoped that this study would give a full picture of English learning motivation of second-year students in FoBF, HUBT. From this research, the researcher herself together with other English teachers who are in charge of teaching English for those students can better understand the situation of their students‟ motivation in learning English as well as the factors affecting that motivation.
They then can find out appropriate methods to improve the motivation in learning English of their students as well as to reduce as many negative effects of demotivated factors as possible. Scope of the study Motivation is a broad topic with many different aspects; thus, within the scope of this study, the researcher would like to focus only on analysing types of motivation in terms of intrinsic-extrinsic motivation, and demotivating factors. In addition, this study limits itself to investigate the English language learning motivation of the second-year students in FoBF at HUBT, especially those who are interested in using the Internet. Design of the study This study is composed of three following parts: Part A: Introduction presents the background, aims, research questions, the significance, the scope, and the design of the study Part B: Development is organized around three chapters as follows.
Chapter 1- Theoretical background, conceptualizes the framework of the study through the discussion of issues and ideas on theories of motivation, types of motivation and demotivation. Chapter 2 - Methodology, presents the context, the methodology used in this study including the subject, the data collection instruments, data collection procedure, and data analysis Chapter 3 – Findings and Discussions consists of a comprehensive analysis of the data and a discussion on the findings of this study. Part C: Conclusion, offers a summary of the findings, recommendations, limitations, and future directions for further study. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND In order to lay a solid foundation for this study, some theoretical background knowledge as well as the previous studies on motivation in L2 learning and factors affecting negatively motivation in L2 learning have been reviewed.
It is obvious that the clarification of a definition is the initial step to any investigation; this chapter hence will firstly present a brief definition of motivation in L2 learning. Definition of motivation in L2 learning Motivation has been perhaps one of the most popular research topics since the beginning of the 20th century, which attracts a lot of attention of researchers both in psychology and education field. Despite the divergence of the approaches used to study motivation, its definitions are surprisingly uniform. In simple terms, motivation, based on the Latin verb for “move”, is understood as the force that makes one do something.
It is a process that involves goals, physical or mental activity, and is both instigated and sustained (Pintrick & Schunk, 1996, p. In other words, motivation in general is characterized in terms of direction, duration, and intensity. However, the definition of motivation in L2/foreign language learning is less uniform. Oxford and Shearin (1994) and Dö rnyei (1998a) shared the same view when they both pointed out that even though motivation is a term frequently used in both educational and research context, there is little agreement in the literature on the exact definition of motivation in L2/foreign language learning.
In his education-oriented theory, Keller (1983) defined motivation as “the choices people make as to what experiences or goals they will approach or avoid and the degree of effort they will exert in that respect” (p. In relation to this concept, Keller (1983) also asserted four motivational conditions that teachers should know in order to motivate students to learn. They are (1) Interest (Attention) that refers to whether learner‟s curiosity is aroused, (2) Relevance refers to whether the highly desired goal is perceived to be related to the instruction of the teacher, (3) Expectancy (Confidence) refers to whether the learner perceives the likelihood of success, and (4) Satisfaction (Outcome) refers to LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 whether extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation meet the learners‟ anticipations (Keller, 1983, p. 395) Gardner (1985), from the social psychological point, defined motivation in L2 learning as “the extent to which the individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity” (p.