VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HOCHIMINHCITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES PHAN THÒ TÒNH NHÔN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE MOTIVATION OF IN-SERVICE ENGLISH MAJORS AT USSH A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL SUPERVISOR: NGUYEÃN THÒ KIEÀU THU,Ph. HO CHI MINH CITY, SEPTEMBER 2006 INTRODUCTION “The fish in the water is silent, the animal on the earth is noisy, the bird in the air is singing, but man has in him the silence of the sea, the noise of the earth and the music of the air “ (Rabindranath Tagore) After the long closing door period, the Vietnamese government has recognized some dozens of year backward circumstance of higher education, knowledge and wisdom. A higher education reform is obviously necessary for itself as well as for the enhancement of the economy and the economic transition from the planned economy into the market one. In the hope that the country could participate in the nowadays globalization in which knowledge plays an important role, the university and college learners are given an optimal range of choice with the flexibility of training programs in order to raise the learners ‘level of specialty with a profound background knowledge and their reliability of new jobs which require new knowledge, competence and skill.
This was a criterion for students before 1993, though the Vietnamese have traditionally desired for studying and furthering their study if they have chances, because their study was usually confined within the walls of their own major. Since the adoption of “Doi Moi “policy in 1986 it has constructed an important role of the English language towards our integration into current trends of the world development. For people who work with science and technology or going to work in foreign organizations as the students at the In-service section, English is a helpful tool to obtain the knowledge of the field from advanced countries in the world. As a result, the changes in the role of language have demanded our students to acquire the ability of using the language rather than the knowledge of the language usage.
1 Recognizing the emergence of English, the institutional administrators have made great attempts which are in line with the general educational policies, to satisfy the above mentioned demands and to improve the English learning environment. The very first significance of higher education is that the policy helps to satisfy a great demand of people who want to get a university degree and seek opportunities for working in open-door time of that market economy. Because of the traditional monopoly of the public higher education, a very strict national entrance examination into public universities was administrated to keep high selectivity; candidates with outstanding performance were able to get admission into university. Thus they were not able to adapt themselves to the economic changes in the opening time when they graduate.
Moreover, the number of MA or BA degree holders was too small to compare with the growing demand of the blossom of private enterprises in the market economy time. As a result, in the second significant place of the higher education that carters opportunities of learning to the students’ desire, not only are the candidates given a range of choice to have access to higher education based on individual merit and capacity, but also are graduates offered opportunities to continue their learning on other majors. Macro higher education has naturally required the expansion of the national scale education by adding some new training programs and establishing other private institutions when the governmental development used to be based on the government subsidize for a long time. As a matter of fact, Vietnamese students in general, especially majored English students have intrinsically recognized the importance of English not only for a future well-paid job, a better social position, but also for their study at 2 universities and colleges.
The general impact of English is described by the statistics of a survey done by Do Huy Thinh for his research as follows: “86.9% of respondents disagreed or strong disagreed that English does not help higher education {.} thanks to English competence,., Vietnamese higher education has more faulty studying in countries where English is required, gets more access to science and technology and cooperates with the outside world. As a matter of fact, English is attracting more students than before. Vietnamese students want to have more English proficiency not only to better their lives but also to improve higher education They believe knowing English might be the shortest way to achieve these goals “ (Do Huy Thinh, 1994). The number of semi-private and public founded universities as well as evening in- service classes has increased approximately up to 20 in our country.
The existence of this model, though it cannot be compared with the public one, helps to solve the government burden of restricted educational budget. The change in the educational system has led to the sharply growing enrolment into universities. However, the matter of quality of the English classes in the evening in – service- section of public universities is controversial with high-demand, low quality state of the reality of teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam is defined in a term created by Le Van Canh (1997) “ Educational paradox “, in which the pedagogical contexts are described as both supportive of and constraining the teaching practices. The researcher suspects whether the paradoxical state is of the characteristics of the English foreign language teaching and learning in evening in- service extension of public universities.
Students learn a language, because they want to acquire, use, and communicate with those who speak the language, or perhaps they want to get to know their culture and learn about the country where the language is spoken. 3 However, what is going to happen if school insists students learning a second language that school chooses whether they wish to learn it or not. It is obvious that students who don't want to learn the language will not be able to do well in class. If we take a look at a situation in our country, English is set to learn as a second language from junior high school, so that means at least four years of compulsory study for all Vietnamese.
If we go onto process high school, we will have to learn English for another three years. It is also in the process of implementing in elementary school in the near future. With all the hard work we put into learning English, many of the students will not be able to acquire the skills we need to communicate. I believe motivation to learn has something to do with this situation.
Motivation determines the degree of effort you put into foreign or second language learning. The more motivation we may have, the more effort we tend to put into learning the language. It leads to success in learning. Many believe motivation to learn is the key element in language learning.
However, if we take a look at researches in motivation, it is hard to say what motivation is. From this point of view, it is quite important to motivate students to learn a second language. It is therefore necessary to investigate. The idea of the research comes from a very simple question: How is it that some adult learners in evening in-service section can learn a foreign language quickly and expertly while others, given the same opportunities to learn, are utter failures? Certainly a lot of answers may be provided for this question such as the influence of the teaching method, the aptitude of each individual as well as his/her socio-linguistic background.
However, the first reason seems not to be persuasive enough because some students of languages develop high level skills relatively easily while others following the same pedagogic procedures show little or no progress. The second factor - individual differences in language learning attitude - might very well account for the individual feasibility in achieving in language 4 study. Still we are not convinced that attitude is the completed answer. That makes a lot of researchers think of another possible answer: the difference in the language - learning motivation of each individual.
There is a very difficult question, which so many learners and teachers have to discover. Although, many studies have been carried out about the role of motivation and attitudes upon second language performance inside and outside class, not many similar researches have been done in Vietnamese context with Vietnamese university students as research’s subject. Therefore, it is necessary for this research to be done to fill this existing gap in the field of language learning motivation. It is undeniable that motivation is very crucial in schools /universities, because of its powerful influence on learning.
Theoretically the motivation that students bring to school is the biggest single factor affecting their success, Marshall (1987) defined motivation as “ the meaningfulness, value and benefits of academic tasks to learner regardless of whether or not they are intrinsically interesting “ Does it really matter whether students are primarily intrinsically or extrinsically oriented toward learning? 5 CHAPTER 1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY In a survey, Asia Week (1999) ranked the Vietnam National Universities at 75th out of 79 of the best national institutions in East Asia according to their quality of education and training, so foreign language education at universities is no exception, because of its high demand, low quality state of the reality of teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam. It is therefore necessary to survey the background at the In-Service Section and the factors have had such influence on the tendency of learning motivation. Among the factors that may have influence on students’ motivation, there are the background of the school - the condition of school facilities that has a considerable impact on student performance and teacher effectiveness, the teaching staff, the background of the students, the teaching curriculum and materials they use at NTT Linguistics Research Institute. In this chapter, the researcher would like to present some related information for an understanding of the issues discussed in this research 1.
Physical conditions at the in-service section ( Nguyen Tat Thanh linguistic research institute branch ) It is very important to learn about the physical conditions of the universities because it is one of the factors affecting the students’ intrinsic motivation. Students are indeed profoundly affected by what they see, hear and feel when they enter the classroom. The description will provide a clear picture of the place where the students are studying. 6 Information about Nguyen Tat Thanh branch The students study all the subjects of English in the same room.
They have no fixed room for English and no opportunities to create an appropriate environment, so that anyone coming into one of those rooms would know immediately that here English is the focus of attention. Each room is comfortable enough for study with a board, 5 electric fans, 5 neon lights, and a desk for teacher, tables and chairs for students in 4 series and 15 rows. The seating is arranged orderly in front of the teachers. There is not an audio-visual laboratory, which is very necessary in practice listening and speaking.
Because of the large size of each room (55 seats), teachers have to speak very loudly so that everyone can hear what they want to present. However, the use of micro- phones causes the inconveniences because the rooms are not soundproof, so the teacher’s voice through microphones can be disturbing to the next class. Not surprisingly, games - the tool for creating motivations - cannot be freely organized since the noise made by the participants is a big trouble; even cassette players should be turned down in order not to disturb the classes in the building. Besides, students who sit in the last row can hardly see the board clearly and the teachers’ gesture.