THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES LE THI BAY THE EFFECT OF GAMES ON GRADE 10TH STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN ENGLISH CLASS AT TRAN HUNG DAO HIGH SCHOOL (Ảnh hưởng của trò chơi đối với động lực học của học sinh khối 10 trong lớp học tiếng Anh tại trường trung học Trần Hưng Đạo) M. THESIS Field: English Language Code: 8220201 Thai Nguyen, 2019 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES LE THI BAY THE EFFECT OF GAMES ON GRADE 10TH STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN ENGLISH CLASS AT TRAN HUNG DAO HIGH SCHOOL. THESIS APPLICATION ORIENTED Field: English Language Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Dr. Duong Duc Minh Thai Nguyen, 2019 DECLARATION I hereby declare that the minor thesis entitled “The effect of games on grade 10th students’ motivation in English class at Tran Hung Dao high school” is my own work.
To the best of my knowledge, it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportion of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at the School of Foreign Languages – Thai Nguyen University or any other education institutions. The thesis has not been submitted to any other examining body and has not been published. Any contribution made to the research by others is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. Le Thi Bay Supervisor Dr.
Duong Duc Minh i ACKNOWLEGEMENTS This research paper would not have been completed without the help of many people to whom I would like to express my deep gratitude. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Duong Duc Minh, Ph. for his wholehearted support, continuous motivation and precious guidance which was decisive factors to the completion of the thesis.
I thank all my family and dear friends for their lifting my spirits at each turning point of this journey as well as for their great encouragement and valuable help during the data collection process. Last but not least, I extend my special thanks to all the research participants. Without their valuable opinions and ideas in the questionnaires, the study would not have been accomplished. ii ABSTRACT This paper aims at investigating the effect of games on grade 10th students’ motivation in English class at Tran Hung Dao high school, Quang Ninh province and seeks to determine the extent to which using games in learning process affects the improvement in students’ motivation in learning process, how students experience the teacher’s practice and behavior and measure the students’ perceptions of the using games in learning environment with respect to its effectiveness.
Questionnaire, observation and structured interview were used as the main tools to collect data. Both quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods were used to provide enough data for the present study. The results from the data revealed that the using games in learning process significantly affected students’ motivation in language classes. In addition, most of the students involved in the study are generally happy about using language games in their study and they recognize the benefits of the language games in enhancing interaction between them and their classmates as well as their teacher.
Key words: language games, high school students, motivation, attitudes, performance iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vi LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES. vii PART 1: INTRODUCTION.
Aims of the thesis. Scope of the thesis. Significance of the thesis. Structure of the thesis.
6 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of motivation. Definition of games. Games in English language teaching.
12 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Data collection procedures. 20 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS. Results of questionnaire.
Results of observation. Results of Semi-structures interview. 28 PART 3: CONCLUSION AND RECOMENDATIONS. Recommendations and suggestions for further study.
VI v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS MMOs: Massively multiplayer online games NFL: National foreign language PPP: Present- practice- produce technique vi LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES page Chart 1: Students’ ideas of the importance of using games in English learning process 21 Chart 2: Students’ opinion of using games in real contexts 22 Chart 3: Students’ understanding of the lesson 22 Chart 4: Students’ attitude to teaching method 23 Chart 5: Students’ interaction in English lessons 24 Chart 6: Students’ difficulties in playing games 24 Chart 7: Comparison of students’ motivation through lessons. 25 vii PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. In the current globalization and integration trend, English is considered to be the most widely used language in the world, as nearly 60 countries use English as their primary language, their mother tongue, and nearly 100 countries use English as second-language English. Therefore, this foreign language plays a very important role in the current integration of globalization.
Human relations as well as cooperation, investment in any fields from science, business, commerce, transportation, technology, communication, tourism to the opportunities in learning, expanding ties to co-operate not only in Vietnam but also in other regions of the world. Especially since Vietnam became the 150th member of the World Trade Organization and the transformation of Vietnam, the world during the Industrial Revolution 4. We are entering a new economic phase with many opportunities and challenges. With the opening of the market we have a very strong economic development opportunity, along with the demand for high quality human resources meeting labor requirements in the age of integration, English is one of the tools that help us to reach and grasp those opportunities.
Therefore, the demand for training and development of foreign languages, especially English in Vietnam is increasingly focused and enhanced. However, at present, although the focus on foreign language training at the school level, the results have not yet reached the required standards. The objectives set out in the project "Teaching and learning foreign languages in the national education system for the period of 2008 - 2020" have created a strong impetus in teaching and learning foreign languages; However, from the objective to the actual results of the project, the distance is very far. On November 16, 2016, Mr.
Phung Xuan Nha - Minister of Education and Training announced that “the government had failed to meet the goals of the NFL scheme for the 2008-2020 periods” (VN, 2016). Limited English proficiency results in loss of the opportunity to study and work for many students. 1 So as to learn a language well, students demand a relaxed atmosphere that increases motivating and this can be gained through games. Using games in teaching not only helps students to learn better but also increase students' motivation, rapport, cooperation and social interaction.
On the one hand, playing games helped the students get ability for language, this good language ability helps students be self-confident and express themselves in their future life. The game is very useful to improve motivation among shy students who cannot express their feelings or thoughts in front of others. By using the game, students can be more active, self-reliant and energetic to study about the environment, the world they live in, and take part in the teaching and learning process. We can teach all skills and components through game play, based on a learner-centered approach, while we are teaching; we must pay attention to the meaning, relevance and level of learners (Widodo, 2006) At Tran Hung Dao High School, students live mainly in mountainous areas, with difficult conditions, their English communication environment is not available, and having a few chances to access learning languages resources as well as opportunities to communicate in foreign languages.
Most students who have moderate level of learning, limited access to learning and access to outside knowledge, lack of opportunity to practice communication, Besides, being a foreign language teacher, the researcher have been step by step innovating, integrating and diversifying teaching methods into teaching periods in my classes to create the most comfortable atmosphere as possible for students to access the foreign language what they are learning best Adding that, teaching English in most of Vietnam public schools often only focuses on tasks and exercises in the textbook, lack of many important activities, such as: active discovery, analysis, interpretation, problem-solving, memory, and physical activities, which leads to the boredom and be difficult for motivating students in learning foreign language. Hence in order to improve the teaching English in the classes more and more efficiently, as well as overcome these 2 weaknesses, that is reason the researcher conduct the research “The effect of games on grade 10th students' motivation in English language class at Tran Hung Dao high school”. And this research was implemented at Tran Hung Dao High School, Quang Ninh Province. Aims of the thesis.
This study aims to find out the using of language games in teaching and learning foreign language and its role in promoting students’ motivation in learning English. Especially, the research attempts to discover whether using games in the classroom makes the Tran Hung Dao high school students motivated to learn English. Based on this information, the study tries to give satisfactory answers to the following research questions: 1. What is the impact of using games on grade 10th students’ motivation in Tran Hung Dao high school? 2.
What are the students’ attitudes towards using games in the English foreign language classroom? 3. Scope of the thesis This study only focused on using language games in teaching to stimulate student’s motivation in learning English for 10th students at Tran Hung Dao high school, Dong Trieu district, Quang Ninh Province. The scope of this research included the students in classes 10A1 with the total of 38 students include 20 females and 18 males at Tran Hung Dao high school. Most of them come from mountainous areas not have many opportunities to learn English.
Significance of the thesis Findings from this thesis contributed to the field of promoting student motivation in learning English process. First, this study provides a suitable 3 approach for teachers to enhance the quality of teaching and learning process in Vietnam. Another possible contribution of this study focuses on evaluating the productiveness and learner attitudes and motivation of using games in learning process in order to determine the changes for improvements in terms of teaching and learning methods. Last but not least, the study contributed to dealing with the investigation of how teacher practice and behavior may influence student’s satisfaction of using games in learning environment.
Structure of the thesis Part 1: Introduction This part is the introduction which contains the rationale, aims and objectives, the research questions, the scope, the methods, the significance of the thesis. Chapter 1: Literature review. This chapter is the literature review which includes an overview of the theoretical background and the previous researches related to the study. Chapter 2: Research methodology.
This chapter presents in details about the method of the study restating the research questions and describes the setting where the study is conducted, the participants, and the instruments used to collect data, and the procedures of data collection. Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion. This chapter focuses on the results of data analysis and the findings are shown which aims at describing the analysis of data in detail and giving the summary of the findings as well as a thorough discussion of the findings of the 4 study. Some explanations and interpretations of the findings are also presented in this chapter.
Part 3: Conclusions and Recommendations. This part includes the conclusion, recommendation, limitations of the study and some suggestions for further research. 5 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Definition of motivation.
Gardner (1985) said that motivation is perceived as a goal-directed factor since it involves four aspects: a goal, effortful behavior, a desire to reach the goal, and favorable attitudes toward an activity. Motivation works as the starting point for learning and supporting the process of foreign language learning.