MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ NGUYEN THI THANH HUY AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICE OF USING REWARDS IN TEACHING YOUNG ENGLISH LEARNERS AT SOME PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN HUE CITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.11 SUPERVISOR: TRAN QUANG NGOC THUY, Ph.D HUE, 2017 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ------------ NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HUY NGHIÊN CỨU NHẬN THỨC VÀ THỰC TIỄN CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHẦN THƯỞNG TRONG GIẢNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH TẠI CÁC TRƯỜNG TIỂU HỌC Ở THÀNH PHỐ HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. TRẦN QUANG NGỌC THÚY HUẾ, 2017 ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. Signature Nguyen Thi Thanh Huy iii ABSTRACT The research is conducted to investigate teachers’ perceptions of using rewards and how they apply rewards in EFL classes for young language learners.
Besides, the research also aims to find out the difficulties that teachers often encounter when using rewards in their teaching. Questionnaires, interviews and class observations are used to collect the data needed for analysis. In this research, 40 teachers and 50 pupils from some primary schools in Hue city participated in the main study; the students were in the fifth grade and the teachers taught English for fifth grade students at the time of data collection. At three primary schools in Hue city, two written questionnaires, one for teachers and one for students, were delivered; the class observation was conducted for fifteen English periods and twenty five interviews were carried out.
After that, the data from questionnaires, class observations and interviews were analysed and interpreted to answer the research questions. Based on the results of the data analysis, teachers’ perceptions and practice of using rewards are presented. The findings show a high percentage of teachers who have been using rewards in their English teaching concurred about positive effects of rewards. Moreover, the teachers have creatively used different kinds of rewards in various ways to motivate their students to learn English.
Regarding difficulties, the imbalance between the students’ demands and the teachers’ supplies of tangible rewards is the most challenging. These findings lay the foundations for some pedagogical implications of using rewards properly and effectively to motivate students in learning English and to provide teachers with some suggestions in applying rewards in English teaching. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to all my teachers at Hue University College of Foreign Languages for their valuable lectures, which laid the foundation for this thesis, their knowledge, their thoughtfulness as well as their sympathy. I would particularly like to show my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Dr.
Tran Quang Ngoc Thuy for her scholarship, patient guidance, encouragement, and constructive supervision throughout my research. Without her experienced guidance, her valuable suggestions and recommendations, my research would still be far from finished. I take this opportunity to thank the leaders as well as my colleagues at Apple English Club 2001 for their help and care for me during the time I implemented the research. I would also like to thank all teachers and pupils at the primary schools I visited for my data collection in Hue City.
I am sincerely grateful to the staff members at the Information Resource Center of Hue University College of Foreign Languages, those who have helped me with useful sources of materials. I am also indebted to all my friends who have kindly given me assistance and encouragement. Without them, I would have no such great motivation to complete the study. Last but not least, the support extended to me by the members of my family has been immeasurable.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to my husband and my son, for their support and encouragement throughout my study. I am also profoundly grateful to my parents, my sister and my brother for their love and encouragement during the time I was studying. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages SUB COVER PAGE. i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP.
v TABLE OF CONTENTS. vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. viii LIST OF FIGURES. ix CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION.
Aims of the research. Significance of the research. Structure of the research .4 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definitions of motivation.
Types of motivation. Intrinsic motivation versus extrinsic motivation. Instrumental versus integrative motivation. Rewards in education and its applications in young language learners’ classroom.
Effects of using rewards in education. Types of rewards. Short-term rewards. Long-term rewards.
Teachers’ choice: Short-term rewards or long-term rewards. Effects of rewards on young learners’ motivation. Characteristics of young learners. Effects of rewards on young learners’ motivation.
Teachers’ roles in using rewards to motivate young learners. Review of related studies .20 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY. Interviews as a data collection instrument. Interviews in this research .29 CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Teacher’s perceptions of using rewards in teaching English. Teachers’ practice in using rewards in teaching English. Difficulties in applying rewards in EFL classes .38 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. Limitation and further research .63 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English as a foreign language YLLs : Young language learners viii LIST OF FIGURES Table 4.1 Percentage of teachers’ using rewards in teaching English .2 Purposes of using rewards in English teaching.3 Frequency of using rewards in English teaching .4 Appropriateness of using rewards in English teaching .5 Kinds of rewards to be used in English lessons .6 Effectiveness of using rewards in English teaching .7 Students’ feeling towards rewards .8 Students’ opinions on benefits of rewards .9 Difficulties in using rewards in English lessons .38 ix CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale Motivation is one of the key factors in teaching English to people in general and young language learners (YLLs) in particular. It can be defined as a driving force that pushes someone to do something. How to motivate students has been a topic of great interest and importance to teachers and researchers. As for Bell (cited in Ames, 1990), “there are three things to remember about education.
The first one is motivation. The second one is motivation. The third one is motivation” (p. That is to say, for language learners of any ages, motivation plays an essential role as a key element for learning to take place.
Therefore, Hedge (2001), stated that “teachers need to try and understand what motivates class and learners, as well as to identify the problems that learners face” (p. Poor student achievement is often attributed to a lack of motivation and rewards are given in an attempt to increase student motivation. Students with learning disabilities are very often unmotivated because school is one failure after another to them. However, it seems that just a few researches have been done to explore exactly what motivates students in general and primary students in particular.
What is more, one thing should be paid much attention to is how teachers and educators can improve motivation in their students by the use of rewards. It is clear that learners mainly decide what they would like to learn, but a teacher can also have positive impacts on students’ motivation to some extent. There have been incidences where a learner might not be interested in learning English at the beginning, but thanks to the influence of the teacher, the situation changes. For YLLs, as rewards can reinforce and at the same time anticipate young children’s willingness to learn, they are broadly used in the field of education, especially in early years’ settings, to stimulate children towards learning activities.
Most schools nowadays want to develop their students’ interest in life-long learning. Even though there are a variety of different approaches and 1 teaching methods today, not all of them might be effective for everybody. Some teachers do not seem to be aware which instructions and practices work and are helpful to language learners. They sometimes teach in the same way they themselves were taught at school, or how they have learned it during their studies at university, but are often unaware of the effect their instruction and practices consequently have on their students’ learning processes.
In addition, there are also numerous educators who would love to try out different techniques, but are simply not sure where to start or which ones are effective. It is in every educator’s best interest, and usually it is their intention, to help learners be successful in their studies. Therefore, a key duty of teachers is to help and support students in their learning processes by finding strategies and methods that are effective. Additionally, they should facilitate their learning in general, and with regard to language learning, make students feel confident and competent in using the foreign language.
On the other hand, students who continue to learn throughout their lives must actively make decisions and take actions to develop their own education. In other words, they have no teacher giving grades to assess or evaluate their performances. The autonomic learning habits should be created from young, and therefore, elementary school education should take the responsibility to create an environment in which students can enjoy learning and see learning as a life-long process. It is believed by researchers that intrinsic motivation plays an important part in a person’s desire to study, and his/her willing to take on new challenges and keep working on them.
In order to equip students with these characteristics, elementary school teachers need to understand how intrinsic motivation can be effective in facilitating students’ learning and ultimately lead to their interest in life-long learning. This thesis reviews the theoretical background and research literature related to intrinsic and extrinsic motivational theory, with particular focus on the concept of rewards with the hope that reward system might be made use of in teaching English for YLLs appropriately. Aims of the research 2 The research is carried out for these purposes: - to investigate teachers’ perceptions of rewards and how they apply rewards in EFL classes - to explore the helpfulness of rewards and the relation between motivation and rewards - to provide some suggestions in using rewards in EFL classes in a proper and effective way 1. Research questions This research is intended to answer these following questions: 1.
What are teachers’ perceptions of using rewards in EFL classes? 2. How are rewards used in teaching young English learners? 3. What difficulties do teachers have when using rewards in EFL classes? 1. Research scope The research focuses on the technique of using rewards in the field of pedagogy only.
Besides, the researcher just carries out the investigation into the fifth- grade students in some primary schools in Hue City. Significance of the research Teachers can influence the level of motivation in students by structuring the classroom so that students want to achieve. Some approaches that teachers use to motivate students include providing students with high expectations, positive feedback, choices, and also making students feel valued (Brown, 2007). Previous research suggests that the use of extrinsic rewards is also an effective strategy for increasing student motivation (Reitman, Murphy, Hupp & O'Callaghan, 2004; Wheatley, West, Charlton, Sanders, Smith & Taylor, 2009, cited in Drexler, 2010).
Regardless of the methods used, it is important to consider the way these systems are implemented in the classroom, and how student learning is impacted based on the teachers' decisions and opinions about student motivation. The researcher believes that if a teacher's perspective is not taken into consideration, key information about the use of extrinsic motivation may be overlooked.