VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ************** NGÔ THỊ KIM ANH TEACHER MOTIVATION AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THEIR CLASSROOM TEACHING - A CASE STUDY (Động lực của giáo viên và ảnh hưởng của nó tới việc dạy học trên lớp - Một nghiên cứu trường hợp cụ thể) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 HANOI – 2017 z VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ************** NGÔ THỊ KIM ANH TEACHER MOTIVATION AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THEIR CLASSROOM TEACHING - A CASE STUDY (Động lực của giáo viên và ảnh hưởng của nó tới việc dạy học trên lớp - Một nghiên cứu trường hợp cụ thể) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 Supervisor : Assoc. Lê Văn Canh HANOI – 2017 z DECLARATION I, Ngô Thị Kim Anh, an MA.
learner of the Faculty of Post - Graduate Studies of ULIS., hereby declare that this thesis is my own work. Documented references have been provided full. In addition, this thesis has not been submitted for assessment in other formal courses in any other university. I also accept all the requirements of ULIS relating to the retention and use of M.A Graduation Thesis deposited in the library.
Hanoi, July 2017 Ngô Thị Kim Anh i z ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to acknowledge the support of people who assisted me to complete the thesis. Firstly, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Assoc. Lê Văn Canh, who was always ready to give me wholehearted guidance and valuable encouragement during the time of conducting the research. I would also like to thank the Management Board and all the enthusiastic lectures of Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Language and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their useful lectures and their support for learners.
I am thankful to four teachers at Einstein high school and one teacher at Tran Nhan Tong High School for their big devotions of time and efforts to participating in my study. Without their enthusiastic help, this thesis could not have been successfully conducted. Finally, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my beloved family for providing me continuous engagement throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and writing the thesis. Without all their help, this accomplishment would not have been possible.
Hanoi, July 2017 Ngô Thị Kim Anh ii z ABSTRACT Teacher motivation plays an important role in the promotion of teaching and learning in foreign language education despite the lack of concern about it. This study investigated some aspects of teacher motivation: the motivation for choosing teacher as a career; the changes of teacher motivation in their career life; and teacher motivation‟s influence on their classroom teaching. The study was conducted by using qualitative analysis. The data were collected from email interviews and observations of five sample teachers at two high schools in Hanoi.
The results of the study reveal that intrinsic motivation is the most chosen reason for deciding to be a teacher; teacher motivation changes insignificantly despite the difficulties and some participants‟ altruistic motivation turns to intrinsic one; intrinsic motivation seems stronger than extrinsic motivation; and good teaching by those who are highly motivated may bring positive outcomes to students. iii z TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration. III Table of contents. VII List of tables.
VIII PART A: INTRODUCTION. Background of the study. The Role of Teachers. The Recent Situation of Teaching English in Vietnam.
A Brief Description of the Study. Significance of the Study. Aims of the Study. Scope of the Study.
Design of the Study. 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of Teacher Motivation. Models of Theoretical Framework of Teacher Motivation Research.
Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT). Achievement-Goal Theory (AGT). Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Studies on Motivation and Demotivation of Teachers.
Identification of the Gaps in Related Research. Context of the Study. Data Collection Instruments. Data collection procedure.
18 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Teacher motivation to choose teaching as a career. Intrinsic and altruistic motivations of the teaching job choice. Extrinsic motivations of the career choice.
Teaching motivation and demotivation of in-service teachers. Intrinsic and altruistic motivation of in-service teachers. Extrinsic motivation of in-service teachers. Teachers‟ highest goal and expectancy.
Teaching demotivation of in-service teachers. Changes of teaching motivation. Changes of opinions about teaching values. Changes of teaching enthusiasm.
Teaching job determination. Teacher motivation‟s influence on their classroom teaching. Teacher motivation and class preparation. Teacher motivation‟ influence on their regulation of lesson plans in classroom.
Teacher motivation‟s influences on their efforts to make a good classroom environment. Teacher motivation‟s influences on their teaching innovation. Teacher motivation and self-reflection on teaching. Teacher motivation‟s influences on the two representatives‟ classroom performance.
Observation of a Private School Teacher‟s Classroom Teaching. Observation of a State School Teacher‟s Classroom Teaching. Recommendations for Future Research. I vi z ABBREVIATIONS T Teacher S Student Ss Students P1 participant 1 P2 participant 2 P3 participant 3 P4 participant 4 P5 participant 5 Q question EVT expectancy-value theory AGT achievement-goal theory SDT self-determination theory O1 observation 1 O2 observation 2 O3 observation 3 ULIS University of Languages and International Studies EFL English as a foreign language vii z LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Intrinsic motivation to choose the job as an English language teacher Table 2: Extrinsic motivation to choose the job as an English language teacher viii z PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Background of the Study 1. The Role of Teachers Teachers play an important role in the learning process of students since students often consider teachers as the good mirror to learn. There have been a lot of researches which have proved that teachers play a significant role in quality of teaching students (Carr-Hill 1984, Riddell 1988, Eric Hanushek 2011, Sujeewa Hettiarachchi 2013). In Vietnam, education, especially teachers, also devotes significantly to the development of the country.
During the process of revolution, the Communist Party and the State of Vietnam have always affirmed that education and training are the central and the most important national policy, which play the key role of the State. Meanwhile, teachers and educational officers are considered the pivotal role in the decision of the quality of education. It is announced in the Resolution 29 NQ/TU that there must be a fundamental and all-sided innovation in education in which teachers are the important target. Besides, one of the first solutions mentioned in the Project “Teaching and learning foreign languages in the national educational system – period 2008-2020” (shortly called “Project 2020”), approved by the president of Vietnam on August 30th 2008, is related to teacher issue.
The Recent Situation of Teaching English in Vietnam Efficient English teaching in Vietnam is a big educational concern because of the worrying situation of English level of Vietnamese. According to the EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI), a global language training company, Vietnam ranked the 33th over 63 non-speaking English countries in EF EPI 2014 Rankings. Although it is recognized that the English level of Vietnamese has developed rapidly, Vietnam is ranked in the group of Low Proficiency with the percentage of 51. In fact, the result may be much lower because the research was carried out with the tests on the Internet by the subjects who mainly lived in the urban areas.
Through the process of carrying out Project 2020, a variety of challenges in teaching and learning English have been obviously displayed. In Project 2020, one of 1 z the missions of the project is that English and some other languages are the compulsory foreign languages which will be taught in the national educational system so that most of Vietnamese youth who graduate from universities and colleges can work and communicate confidently in global working environment. In Vietnamese educational curriculum, English is one of the three core subjects. However, teaching and learning English at schools have faced to big challenges.
Despite its enormous fund of 9,400 billion dongs, Project 2020 has not achieved the parallel results. For example, in the National Secondary Examination, English is the subject which has the lowest mark average (in 2015, 88% of students got the marks lower than 5, in 2016, the percentage is 91,2%). Among other reasons for the situation such as the inconvenient communication environment, limited chances for language practice, poor teaching facilities, the reasons related to the teacher factor also have great influences on the project‟s results. The qualified teachers at secondary schools account for only 33%, meanwhile the number at high school is 26%.
The serious teacher shortage is also one of the causes of the issue. There are about 17,000 - 18,000 primary schools; however, the number of official teachers is just about 7,000. As a result, there is not enough English education as the project‟s requirements. There has existed a big unbalance demand of English learning between urban and rural area.
The cities or towns often have much more people who want to study English for jobs or for other purposes than countryside, so the urban English teachers tend to have higher opportunities to earn good income or professional development than rural teachers. Such results of the project reflect quite obviously the real picture of teaching and learning English in Vietnam. Undeniably, teachers are always one of the most factors which determine the quality of education. A Brief Description of the Study 2.
Significance of the Study There has just been a few of the studies on the topic of teacher motivation in Vietnam. Dealing with the topic of motivation, most of the researchers have been interested in the issues related to students‟ but not to teachers‟. Among more than 2.000 theses and dissertations of the students of Post-graduate Department, ULIS, Vietnam National University since 2002, there have been nearly 60 theses and 2 z dissertations which deal with the topic „motivation‟. However, most of them are about student motivation.
There has been only one research which works on teacher motivation (Dao Thi Huyen, 2012) but it has not explored the influence on teachers‟ performances in the class. It is also difficult to find research on this topic in other organizations or universities in Vietnam. The study will add more information of teacher motivation research and find out its influence on teacher‟s performance. Aims of the Study - The researcher desires to find out the extrinsic (objective) and intrinsic (subjective) factors of teacher motivation.
- The study explores the change of teacher motivation in their job process. - The study aims at discovering the teacher motivation‟ influences on teachers‟ performance in the class. It is really necessary to find out how these factors affect their classroom teaching because it helps to find out what factors bring the greatest impact on teachers‟ job. Then, the study may give some suggestions of how to be more effective in classroom teaching.
What motivates teachers to choose teaching career? 2. How do their motivations change over time? 3. What affects their motivational change? 4. How do their motivations influence their classroom teaching? 2.
Scope of the Study The study is an investigation of teaching motivation of the teachers at two high schools in Hanoi. Among them, four teachers come from Einstein high school (private school) and one comes from Tran Nhan Tong high school (state school). The two schools belong to the two basic educational systems in Vietnam which have different characteristics. Design of the Study This study is composed of three following parts: Part A: Introduction presents the background, the significance, aims, research questions, the scope, and the design of the study Part B: Development is organized around three chapters as follows.