VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ******************* HOÀNG THỊ HOA THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE LEARNING MOTIVATION AND LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGY USE OF VIETNAMESE EMPLOYEES AT HONDA COMPANY, VIETNAM MỐI QUAN HỆ GIỮA ĐỘNG LỰC HỌC NGÔN NGỮ VÀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CHIẾN THUẬT HỌC NGÔN NGỮ CỦA NHÂN VIÊN NGƯỜI VIỆT CÔNG TY HONDA, VIỆT NAM M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ******************** HOÀNG THỊ HOA THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE LEARNING MOTIVATION AND LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGY USE OF VIETNAMESE EMPLOYEES AT HONDA COMPANY, VIETNAM MỐI QUAN HỆ GIỮA ĐỘNG LỰC HỌC NGÔN NGỮ VÀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CHIẾN THUẬT HỌC NGÔN NGỮ CỦA NHÂN VIÊN NGƯỜI VIỆT CÔNG TY HONDA, VIỆT NAM M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Tô Thị Thu Hương, PhD HANOI - 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby declare that my thesis submitted for the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, apart from the help recognized, is my own work. Also, this paper has not been submitted to any other formal course of study.
Hanoi, 2016 Ho ng Thi Hoa i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to send my thank you to many individuals for their invaluable help during the conduct of the research. First and foremost, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. To Thi Thu Huong, who gave me enthusiastic instructions, precious support and critical feedback on the construction of the study. This has always been one of decisive factors in the completion of this thesis.
Second, I also wish to thank all the doctors and lecturers of the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable lectures, which are partly applied in this study. Next, I would like to send my deep sense of thanks to Vietnamese employees at Honda Co., Vietnam for their cooperation and the valuable information they provided in my research field. Furthermore, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to my family and friends, especially my boyfriend, Thanh Nguyen, and my best friend, Sao Bui, who have always been helpful to me throughout the research. Last but not least, I thank almighty the graders and readers for their interests, evaluation and feedback on this thesis.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This research aims to investigate the correlation between language learning motivation and language learning strategy use by Vietnamese employees at Honda company. To seek answers for the issue, a questionnaire was conducted to collect the answers from 120 Vietnamese employees at Honda company. The first section of the questionnaire was about how often the students used instructed strategies in learning English and found out whether these students use any other strategies than instructed ones, and the second section was created to collect information about the participants‟ motivation level. The data were then analyzed and presented in the forms of frequency, percentage and charts and tables.
The results indicated that all the instructed strategies were used by the majority of the respondents and the participants also applied some other strategies that could be considered belonging to memory and social groups in their English learning, and among the four types of motivation, their reported instrumental motivation was of the highest level. Importantly, the study found a significant, positive, and moderate correlation between motivation and language learning strategy use. Moreover, different types of motivation are shown to have different correlations with strategy use. Finally, the significant contributions of integrative and intrinsic motivation to strategy use were revealed, which went beyond the correlational analysis for the relationship as often observed in other studies.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vi LIST OF FIGURES.
vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. The statement of problem and rationale for the study. Significance of the study. Objectives of the study and research questions.
Method of the study. Organization of the study. 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Language learning strategies.
Definitions and characteristics of language learning strategies. Classification of learning strategies. The role of language learning strategies in language learning and teaching. Motivation in language learning.
Definitions of motivation. Types of motivation in language learning. Language learning strategies and motivation in language learning. Data collection instrument.
Data analysis procedure. The range of language learning strategies used by Vietnamese employees at Honda Company, Vietnam. The Vietnamese employees‟ dominant types of motivation for English language learning. 41 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
The correlation between students‟ use of LLSs and their types of motivation in English learning. I v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Co.: company EFL: English as foreign language LS: learning strategy LSs: learning strategies LLS: language learning strategy LLSs: language learning strategies MA: Master of Arts vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Frequency of using memory strategies. 29 Figure 2: Frequency of using cognitive strategies. 31 Figure 3: Frequency of using compensation strategies.
33 Figure 4: Requency of using metacognitive strategies. 35 Figure 5: Frequency of using affective strategies. 37 Figure 6: Frequency of using social strategies. 38 Figure 7: The percentage of regular use of the most and the least popular strategies.
…………………39 Figure 8: The students' integrative motivation. 42 Figure 9: The students' instrumental motivation. 44 Figure 10: The students' resultative motivation. 45 Figure 11: The students' intrinsic motivation.
48 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.The statement of problem and rationale for the study That well-paid attention to the second language learners and their learning instead of teachers and teaching methods in the recent decades by researches has been an indispensable and meaningful educational renovation that provides more comprehensive perception on second language education for both teachers and learners. The studies of second language learning and their effectiveness that started to be focused prominently since the second half of the twentieth century (Ellis, 2003). This is well-known when various researches have been launched and they concentrated on how learners deal with their own learning and what makes good language learners. The prominent contributions to this field can be known as the studies by Stern in 1975, Oxford in 1990, and Griffiths in 2003.
These researchers made it clearer that a lot of responsibility for the second language learning‟s effectiveness and success is on students themselves with their ability to take advantage of opportunities for learning. Moreover, the strategies and techniques that language learners exploit to acquire the language and solve challenges in their language learning have been a thriving area of research, especially in L2.Since Rubin and Stern (1970) revealed in their works that the use of language learning strategies (LLSs) was beneficial for second language learning. 71) also agreed that learning strategies were the “optimal means for exploiting available information to improve competence in a second language”. Later, in 1990, in her work, Oxford found that students can self-study effectively if using LLSs.
In addition, the use of language learning strategies leads to better proficiency or achievement in mastering the target language (Lee, 2003; O‟Malley and Chamot, 1990; Rahimi et at., 2008; Griffiths, 2003; Hong, 2006; Oxford, 1993). Besides, the variables affecting language learning strategy use were also taken into consideration by several scholars. Those factors might consist of degree of 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com awareness, age, sex, nationality, learning style, personality traits, motivation, learning context, language teaching method and language proficiency (Zare & Nooreen, 2011; Khamkhien, 2010; Rahimi, et al. 2008; Chemot, 2004; Griffiths, 2003; Hong-Nam and Leavell, 2007; Green and Oxford, 1995; Ehrman and Oxford, 1989).Concerning this field, Taguchi (2002) found that “the most influential factors were gender, English proficiency and motivation” among a number of learner and social factors in both Japan and Australia contexts.
In another work by Khamkhien (2010) which studied three factors affecting students‟ choice of LLS, motivation is the most significant (followed by experience in studying English and gender). In additions, the number of studies on the relationship between motivation and LLS use was modest. What is more, the approaches to motivation were not consistent and comprehensive in these studies despite the development of research on motivation field. Most of the previous studies emphasized on the relationship between motivation level and LLS use without paying attention to motivation types.
In addition, one can notice that although the correlation between motivation and the use of LLSs were discussed to some extent (Al-Qahtani, 2013; Khamkhien, 2010; Lau & Chan, 2003; Liu et al., 2014; Mochizuki, 1999; Oxford & Nyikos, 1989), little was known about the predictive power of motivation in explaining LLS use of EFL learners. At Honda company context, there has never had any researches of language learning carried out. Moreover, since 2015, Honda Motor Co. announced widely that they are to make English the official language by around 2020, which means if any employees who cannot use English will be fired.
Simultaneously, all Honda staff members will be helped to take part in free English classes at the company in order to enhance their English skills. These mean the learning and teaching context of the company staff members have undergone some changes. Due to the above reasons, this paper would take a deeper look at the relationship between motivation and the use of LLSs, and the researcher decided to work with the case of Vietnamese employees at Honda company in Vinh Phuc, Vietnam, who are having extra classes 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com of English skills at their company which may lead to students‟ clearer motivation for learning English. In additions, in the context of Honda, the researcher did not choose to investigate the relationship between gender and LLSs because the majority of Vietnamese employees at Honda are male, so it may meet difficulties in collecting respondents in proportion.
Besides, almost all Vietnamese staffs at Honda graduated from universities of technical fields, or economic, and law, etc. As a result, their proficiency of English is quite the same at elementary, pre-intermediate and intermediate levels, which may give unvalued results if investigating the correlation between English proficiency and the use of LLSs. Thus, this study was conducted with an aim at expanding the understandings about the relationship between motivation and LLSs use, especially on the role of motivation types in explaining and predicting the L2 learners‟ LLS use. In short, being aware of the rather new teaching and learning situation, the gap in research and the possibility of Vietnamese employees' increasing motivation at Honda to learning English, the researcher designed this study to investigate the relationship between the use of language learning strategy and their motivation for learning English of Vietnamese employees at Honda company, Vietnam.
Significance of the study As a study on the relationship between LLS use and motivation for learning English of Vietnamese employees at Honda Vietnam for learning English, this work would be of benefit for the target population, their English teacher and other researchers interested in the field. In the first place, this study is conducted with a hope to provide Vietnamese employees at Honda Vietnam, to some extent, with knowledge of LLSs and encourage them to use these LLS in appropriate ways to enhance their language learning effect.