Rationale of the study
Among four macro skills of languages, listening skills make a significant contribution to the process of acquiring language Listening skills play a crucial role in communication It has been estimated that the time people spend on communication activities 45 percent is devoted to listening, only 30 percent to speaking, 16 percent to reading and a mere 9 percent to writing by Rivers, W.M & Temperley, M.S (1978) In addition, it also requires a wide range of knowledge and ability: knowledge of phonology, vocabulary, semantics of the language in use, culture of its people, and their life experiences in the topic, their ability to predict and respond However, how to listening English well is a problem for many learners of English, especially for the students of colleges and universities Despite the fact that the students have been learning English since they were at secondary or high school, most of students are weak at listening skills and have a lot of difficulties in listening acquisitions They even become stressful and ignorant in listening lessons
In literature, there have been numerous studies conducted by the international teachers and researchers to investigate a multitude of factors that may affect language learning Among all, motivation has been proved to play a significant role in determining whether students succeed or fail in school In other words, there has been a highly positive relationship between motivation and learners‟ achievement in language learning According to Oxford and Shearin (1996, cited in Ha 2009: 163-164), motivation directly influences how much effort students make, how often students use L2 learning strategies, how much students interact with native speakers, how much input they receive in the language being learned, how well they do on curriculum related achievement tests, how high their general proficiency level becomes, and how long they preserve and maintain L2 skills after language study is over Ely (1986); Oxford & Shearin (1996) Particularly, toward learning listening skills, motivation is one important element in foreign language teaching in general and learning English listening skills in particular
With six years of teaching English at College of Industrial Techniques (CIT), the researcher has realized that students normally lack of motivation in learning English in general and in listening skills in particular In fact, most students have passive attitudes toward learning listening English due to the previous experiences that listening skill is hard to learn and they fail to take listening input Many of them get bored and become de- motivated when listening classes start They are generally less aware of its importance In addition to the lack of well-equipped facilities, classes at colleges and universities are usually very large-between fifty and sixty students Another problem is students‟ low level of proficiency in terms of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, skills Listening skill is treated equally as other skills in terms of time allocation The foreign language they learn is often presented in the first language, the emphasis is on grammar only with the aim to help students pass the exams given by either the school examination board or the Ministry of Education and Training All of these have inspired the author to make an attempt to carry out the research “Factors affecting non-English major students‟ motivation in learning English listening skills at CIT” This will be the basis for the researcher in general and the teachers of English at CIT in particular in arousing motivation for students in listening skills, helping them to get involved in different listening activities, keep their efforts during learning process and then achieve successes.
Aims of the study
This survey is conducted in order to investigate the factors affecting non-English major students‟ motivation in learning English listening skills at CIT
Objectives of the study are summarized as follows:
- To investigate the non-English major students‟ level of motivation in learning English listening skills at CIT
- To identify the factors affecting non-English major students‟ motivation in learning English listening skills at CIT.
The research questions
To achieve the aims mentioned above, the following research questions were proposed:
1 How motivated are the non-English major students in learning English listening skills at CIT?
2 What are the factors affecting non-English major students‟ motivation in learning English listening skills at CIT?
Scope of the study
This study mainly focuses on the factors affecting non-English major students‟ motivation in learning English listening skills at CIT However, due to the limit of time and the scope of a minor thesis, the researcher only carried out to investigate the non-English major students‟ level of motivation in learning English listening skills at CIT and identify the factors affecting non-English major students‟ motivation in learning English listening skills at CIT The other study of this minor thesis would be beyond of the scope.
Method of the study
This survey research uses two instruments to collect the data Firstly, the survey questionnaire was conducted with 55 students randomly chosen from about 300 first year students at CIT Secondly, semi-structured interviews with 5 students, who have done the survey questionnaire, were carried out.
Design of the study
This study consists of three main parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion
Part A is the Introduction It lays out the reasons for choosing the topic for this thesis and points out the aims, the scope, the methods and the design of the study
Part B is the Development It consists of three chapters:
Chapter 1: Literature Review presents the theoretical background of motivation, the theoretical background of listening skills and discussion of issues and aspects concerning the topic of the study
Chapter 2: Methodology gives the situation analysis, participants; instruments for collection data and data analysis method are discussed in this chapter
Chapter 3: Findings and Discussions present the results from the detailed analysis of
Part C is the Conclusion It summarizes the major findings and points out the limitations of the study Furthermore, some suggestions for further studies are also given in this part
LITERATURE REVIEW
Theoretical background of motivation
Motivation plays an important role in the process of English learning – teaching
Research shows that motivation is one of the main determining factors in an individual‟s success in developing a L2, it is crucial for L2 learning by Dornyei (1994); Oxford &
Shearin (1996) because it directly influences how much effort students make, how often students use L2 learning strategies, how much students interact with native speakers, how much input they receive in the language being learned, how well they do on curriculum related achievement tests, how high their general proficiency level becomes, and how long they preserve and maintain L2 skills after language study is over
For many years, a lot of different proposed definitions of motivation have been provided
According to Dornyei (2001), motivation is one of the most important factors that influences the rate and success of second language learning He states, “Motivation provides the primary impetus to initiate learning the L2 and later the driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning process” He claims that without sufficient motivation, even individuals with remarkable abilities couldn‟t accomplish long-term goals However, high motivation can make learners get considerable achievement in spite of their language aptitude and learning condition
As Dornyei (2001: 7) claims that “ motivation explains why people decide to do something, how hard they are going to pursue it and how long they are going to sustain their activities.” While Woldkowski, R J (1998) explains that in the broadest sense, motivation is "a value and a desire for learning" Motivation involves a student‟s desire to participate in the learning process It is also concerned with the reasons or goals which underlie a student‟s participation in learning activities
According to Crooks and Schmidt (1991), motivation is defined in terms of interest in and enthusiasm for the teaching methods used in the class; persistence with the listening task as indicated by levels of attention or action for an extended duration; and levels of concentration and enjoyment From the researcher‟s point of view, this definition is exactly right for the motivation in this study The motivation being investigated in this study is the levels of students‟ motivation generated in the listening lessons whether students are interested and enthusiastic in listening task with high concentration and enjoyment
1.1.2 Types of motivation in foreign language learning
Motivation can be classified in different ways In some studies, motivation is categorized: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation Besides, motivation in foreign language learning is more broadly categorized into two types: integrative and instrumental motivation In addition, there are some different categorized of motivation as follows: global, situational, task, resultative motivation Yet due to the scope of the study, the focus was on two types: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation : Intrinsic motivation is generally possessed by people having personal interests in doing something and helping to set their goals People are intrinsically motivate not because accomplishing the activity they do brings a rewards, but because doing the activity itself is a reward by Dornyei (2001:51)
Dornyei (2001) notes that a student with intrinsic motivation participates in his/ her learning for its own sake, for the enjoyment it provides, the learning it permits, or the feelings of accomplishment it evokes
Extrinsic motivation: Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, derives from an anticipation of rewards such as praise, awards, prizes, and evaluation and fear for punishment as extrinsically motivated students does the activity itself, and this kind of motivation refers to learning situations where the reason for doing a task is something other than an interest in the task itself by Williams & Burden (1997:40)
The goal connected with intrinsic motivation is a positive learning effect that lasts a long time, but the goal of an extrinsic motivated student is completely different Ur (1996) points out that extrinsic derives from the influence of some kind of external incentives, as distinct from the wish to learn for its own sake or internet in learning tasks Many sources of extrinsic motivation are beyond the influence of important people, such as parents
However, other sources are certainly affected by teacher action, including success and its rewards, failure and its rewards, failure and its penalties, authoritative demands, tests, competition Teachers use extrinsic motivation to stimulate learning or encourage students to perform in a particular way It is one of the most powerful motivations It is operative when an individual is motivated by an outcome that is external or somehow related to the activity in which she or he is engaged
In short, the category of motivation is useful for carrying out this study Based on the analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation mentioned above, the teacher can stimulate students to participate in tasks actively by the innovation of teaching methods
1.1.3 The role of motivation in second language learning
Learner motivation has become more and more commonly recognized as one of the major defining factors for success in learning English
Reece & Walker (1997) express that “motivation is a key factor in the second language learning process” They stressed that a less able student who is highly motivated can achieve greater success than the more intelligent student who is not well motivation
Among the things that do clearly affected mastery of a second language is the kind of motivation that a learner has Finegan (1994:466)
As Littlewood (1984:53) puts it “in second language learning as well as in other fields of human learning, motivation is the crucial force which determines whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he devotes to it, and how long he preserves”
Besides, Hedge (2000: 23) affirms, “motivation is of crucial importance in the classroom, whether learners arrive with it or they acquire it through classroom experiences”
Furthermore, Dornyei (2001) states that a learner with enough motivation is likely to gain an acceptable knowledge of an L2 despite his language aptitude or other cognitive characteristics Even the brightest student without enough motivation is unlikely to persist long enough to achieve any really useful language Therefore, motivation is crucial for L2 learning, and it is essential to understand what our students‟ motivations are.
Theoretical background of listening skills
In second language learning and teaching, listening is defined as the process of understanding speech in a second or foreign language
Listening plays a vital role in our social life that no one can deny Indeed, listening takes up as much as fifty percent of our everyday communication time and it is the most used language skill at work and at home by God (2002)
According to Rost (1994) listening now becomes an essential element of communication
Listening is essential for interaction A learner can express himself orally but never be able to communicate with speakers of English if unable to understand what is said to him
As Grant (1987), he states that the listening skill includes everything from learning particular sounds to comprehending complicated messages Without this skill, communication can break down Therefore, successful communication really depends on listener or receivers of messages
Yagang (1993) provide a simpler definition as listening is considered “the ability to identify and understand what others are saying.” In order to understand what is listening, the concept of listening by Underwood (1989) is extracted „listening is the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from something you hear.”
Also according to Underwood (1989) to listen successfully to spoke language, we need to be able to work out what speakers mean when they use particular words in particular ways on particular occasion, and not simply to understand the words themselves
All in all, listening involves a multiplicity of skills It is a complex, active processes of interpretation in which listener match what they hear with what they have already know
Teaching listening as well as learning listening is not simple, complex and difficult processes Teachers and students meet many challenges in this skill
Mendelsohn (1998) emphasizes that in teaching listening; teachers need to help students become self-regulated learners He claims that listening should be changed from product to process, and the role of teacher is to teach his/her learner “how” to listen, not to test their listening proficiency during listening lessons
Vandergrift (1999) composed a pedagogical sequence in which teachers and students‟ responsibility were indentified clearly in listening lessons This consequence can develop teachers‟ awareness of the process of listening and help students acquire the met cognitive knowledge to success in listening comprehension The consequence consists of three main periods: planning for the successful completion of a listening task, monitoring comprehension during a listening task and valuating the approach and outcomes of a listening task
For the period of planning for the successful completion of a listening task, pre-listening activities takes a very important role These activities help students make decisions about what to listen for and, subsequently, to focus attention on meaning while listening During this critical phase of the listening process, teachers prepare students for what they will hear and what they are expected to do First, students need to bring to consciousness their knowledge of the topic, their knowledge of how information is organized in different texts and any relevant cultural information Second, a purpose for listening must be established so that students know the specific information they need to listen for and/or the degree of detail required Using all the available information, students can make predictions to anticipate what they might hear
During the listening process, students monitor their comprehension and make decisions about strategy use Students need to evaluate continually what they are comprehending and check the consistency with their predictions, and the internal consistency, for example, the ongoing interpretation of the oral text or interaction Teacher intervention during this phase is virtually impossible because of the ephemeral nature of listening Periodic practice in decision-making skills and strategy use can sharpen inference skills and help students to monitor more effectively
In addition, students need to evaluate the results of decisions made during a listening task
The teacher can encourage self-evaluation and reflection by asking students to assess the effectiveness of strategies used Group or class discussions on the approach taken by different students can also stimulate reflection and worthwhile evaluation Students are encouraged to share individual routes leading to success, for instance, how someone guessed the meaning of a certain word or how someone modified a particular strategy
In order to help students consciously focus on planning, monitoring and evaluation before and after the completion of listening tasks, teachers can develop performance checklists
These instruments help students prepare for a listening task and evaluate their own performance
1.2.3 The factors affecting motivation in learning listening skills
There are a variety of factors influencing learners‟ motivation such as learners, parents, community, the learning context, the teacher, the subject matters, teaching and learning conditions, ect However, the author of this research pays much of the attention to some influential factors, namely: students‟ factors, teachers‟ factors and learning conditions
Personality: Personality of the students constitutes a major factor contributing to success or failure in language learning For example, Ellis (1997) proves that extrovert students are advantaged in the development of language associated with interpersonal communication From the same point of view, Lightbown & Spada (1999) give a number of personality characteristics: extroversion, inhibition, self – esteem, empathy, dominance, talkativeness, responsiveness To sum up, personality characteristics are likely to affect second language learning including extroversion, relaxation, self-esteem (self-confidence), anxiety and empathy other” In learning listening, they are expressed through the awareness of the importance of listening, learners‟ needs (personal growth, cultural enrichment, practical goals, and integrative reason) and learners‟ effort and interest in learning and practicing listening
Students’ lack of basic knowledge of English: Among these factors, the first and most influential factor is their background knowledge Background knowledge refers to the existing information on a specific topic in each language lesson Therefore, if students lack this type of knowledge, it is really challenging for them to get involved in learning activities They are likely to be unable to comprehend new knowledge, and more seriously, they may lose their interests in learning lessons Realizing the importance of this factor, the teacher needs to provide students with suitable background information for the lesson and helps them use it effectively
Besides language items such as vocabulary and grammatical structures may have impact on students‟ feelings This causes them difficulties in getting meaning as well as practicing language skills Just as Underwood (1989:17) said, “ For people listening to a foreign language , an unknown word can be like suddenly dropped barrier causing them to stop and think about the meaning of the word and thus making them miss the next part of the speech” When hearing unknown words, they easily become worried and stop continue hearing the next part of speech to try to work out the meaning of the new word Students need to develop the skill of keeping up with the speaker even if this means letting part which they have failed to sort out pass
Students’ preference: It refers to learning styles involving an individual‟s natural habitual, preferred ways of absorbing, processing and retaining new information and skills There are two types of learning styles related to second language learning:
- Perceptual learning styles include learning through the eyes (visual), through the ears (aural) and through touch and body movement (hap tic)
- Cognitive learning styles: field-independence and field-dependence, reflectivity and impulsivity and ambiguity tolerance
Students’ beliefs: Learners have strong beliefs about how their language instruction should be delivered or expectations of how classes should be organized and taught “These beliefs are usually based on previous learning experiences and the assumption (right or wrong) that a particular type of instruction is the best way for them to learn.” Lightbown (1999:
59) Hence; teachers should help learners expand their repertoire of learning strategies and thus develop greater flexibility in their ways of approaching language learning
Previous studies in the world and in Vietnam
The impact of motivation in foreign language learning has been recognized significantly by many educational researchers
Gardner (1985), Dornyei (2001), Brown (1994) etc., have generated the concept of motivation, its effects in foreign language learning and applicable strategies for improving learners‟ motivation in class In the light of their researches, teachers are able to answer the question how to motivate learners for success and their findings encourage or support educational researchers to do more research in different aspects of language teaching
Sakai and Kikuchi (2009) investigated 6 factors from reviewing previous studies of de- motivation in learning, concluding teachers, characteristics of classes, experiences of failure, class environment, class materials, and lack of interest They administrated a 35- item questionnaire to 656 Japanese high school students and identified the following sources of de-motivation: 1) Learning contents and materials, 2) Teachers‟ competence and teaching style, 3) Inadequate school facilities, 4) Lack of intrinsic motivation, and 5) Test scores In contrast to both previous studies, teacher-related factors were not the most de- motivating factors, that learning contents and materials and test scores are the prominent de-motivating factors for various students
Kikuchi (2011) conducted a research among 1334 Japanese senior high school students at
7 high schools The questionnaire was used as the data instrument The de-motivation was found from these sources: students‟ difficult experience or loss of interest in learning In addition, influence from teachers also causes de-motivation and material focusing on difficult reading passage and/or vocabulary causes the strongest sense of de-motivation
Kikuchi‟s study also reviews on de-motivation and de-motivators of previous study in detail The questionnaires he used depend on analysis of other study and chose the most effective points such as from Dornyei, Oxford and Gardner His study is one part of the background for this study However, only questionnaire was used If there were interviews with students, the deeper information could be collected from students
Relating to factors affecting students‟ motivation to study English, Tuyen, N.T (2012) did research on “factors affecting students‟ motivation in learning English listening skills at An Lao high school” The researcher uses a questionnaire of two parts and interview as the data collection The study revealed that students lacked listening strategies, but teachers didn't teach those listening strategies regularly Teachers had to face in teaching listening was that students lacked language knowledge and vocabulary Moreover, learning environment and learning facilities also badly affected teaching and learning listening
Another study conducted by Huong, N.T.T (2010) to investigate non-majors‟ motivational factors in learning English listening at Hai Phong private university Participants were 186 English non - major students at TOEIC level 2 in total of 1078 students from seven different classes The data was collected using a survey questionnaire in Likert Scale pattern After analyzing five learners‟ related factors, the findings showed that the effect of each factor on students‟ motivation was different while, for each factor, the ideas were shown rather similarly in both groups of participants coming from the country and from the urban areas
Overall, there have been number of studies in motivation in foreign language learning and learning English skills However, there has been little research into factors affecting non-English major students‟ motivation in learning English listening skills at College of Industrial Techniques This is the gap that the current thesis study tries to bridge By doing research through questionnaires a semi-structured interview, this study hopes to add further evidence to the small but growing body of research on this topic.
Summary
In this chapter, motivation has not been paid more attention from Vietnamese students and researchers From the factual contexts that the researcher works in and finds the matter interesting and necessary, this study aims to measure the factors affecting non-English major students‟ motivation in learning English listening skills at CIT
Among the factors identified by previous researchers and depending on the context of teaching and learning English at CIT, the researcher wants to put emphasis on the following factors: the teacher-related factors, the student-related factors, and learning conditions.
METHODOLOGY
Participants
This survey was carried out with 55 first -year non-major students from CIT All of them compulsorily studied English for General Purpose as a foreign language in their first school year like other colleges in Vietnam Their age ranged from 18 to 20 There were 55 participants for the study of which 9 were females and 46 were males Most of them came from countryside and mountainous areas (25 students) and towns (18 students) while 12 students were from cities like Lang Son, Quang Ninh or Lao Cai Their different places of domicile somehow led to a greatly various experience in their learning the English language
When this research was carried out in April in 2014, the participants were in their second term of the first school year Up to the time of the study, they had been studying English at CIT for the first term and 9 weeks (3 periods per week), 87 periods in total and took one end-of-term examinations of English The second semester was chosen to the time for this survey because at that time, students were familiar with the students‟ life as well as gained some experiences of English learning and did exams at university
To some extent, some students especially who come from Bac Giang city and some cities are good at English knowledge and skills The others are evaluated as in the low level in English Consequently, there are only a small number of students who actually have positive motivation in learning; the rest have strong pressure to pass exams.
Instrument for collecting data
The instruments used in this study were: a questionnaire and a semi structure interview with the students
Questionnaire 1: (See Appendix 1) was conducted at the first week of the research with 55 students The questionnaire aims to find out students‟ attitude towards listening skills and investigate the students‟ level of motivation in learning English listening skills The factors come from themselves and from their previous teachers that affect their participation, and their enthusiastic in listening activities The results from the questionnaire can help the researcher identify possible reasons for students‟ low motivation in learning English listening skills
Questionnaire 2: In order to find out study the factors affecting non-English major students‟ motivation in learning English listening skills at CIT after 5 weeks of implementation The research finds out factors that students‟ lack of basic knowledge and lack of confidence in learning English listening skills The other factor is those teachers‟ style and method in teaching English listening In addition, inadequate school facilities, lack of target language environment, and exam- orientation are also factors affecting that prevent students at College of Industrial Techniques from concentrating and motivating in their learning English listening skills
To make sure that the students understand the questions, the researcher spend about thirty minutes guiding them to answer and explaining difficult terms when she delivered the questionnaire to the students
According to Moser and Kalton (1971), interview is described as a means of eliciting relevant information and personal opinion from the respondents The advantages of interviews include the ability to examine the teachers‟ responses, take notes of their ideas and investigate their feelings about learning English listening skill
After conducting the survey questionnaire, the semi-structured interview (See Appendix 2) was carried out with five students to get better insights into the research questions and to discuss for further information about the items raised in the questionnaires Students are chosen to the semi-structured interview come from different classes of the first year at CIT and have learnt English for least three years at high school before entering college The participants are invited to answer the questions with the researcher‟s explanation of the questions and clarifying unclear answers, each interview last about 15 to 20 minutes The answers from interviews with students are named from student 1 to student 5 (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5) All the answers then were mentioned in the following part
All the interviews were carried out in Vietnamese in the form of an informal conversation between the researcher and the students The data collected from the interview was recorded and then translated into English words for the purposes of the study.
Data collection procedures
The data collection procedures were conducted six week before the ending of the second semester in April in 2014
Before giving a survey questionnaire, the researcher explains the purpose of the study and instructs students to finish all questions depending on their case in 20 or 25 minutes They were also informed that all their information was kept in secret and for researching purpose
After the research analyzed the questionnaires, five students were chosen to participate in the interview
All collected data were firstly read through to obtain a sense of the overall data and the interview transcriptions were jotted down Then, the findings were written in forms of reflective notes and summaries of field notes for the researcher easy to follow before the information was displayed in forms of tables and figures All collected data were analyzed by researcher alone to avoid inconsistency or possible biases.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
Findings
Survey questionnaire was used to investigate the level of students‟ motivation in learning English listening skills The following chart 1 indicates the results of questions from 1 to 3 in the survey questionnaire
3.1.1.1 Students’ attitudes towards the learning of listening English
Chart 1: Students’ attitudes towards the learning of listening English
Chart 1 above reveals that most of the students consider learning to listening English important while only (1.8%) students think that it is not important at all to learn listening English It is evident that the majority of them are aware of the importance of listening skill, (21.8%) students agree that the listening skill is very important and 26 out of 55 (47.3%) students thought that listening skill is rather important 16 out of 55 students (29.1%) accepted the little importance of listening skill in English
Most of the students think learning listening English is very important And listening is a basic skill, nowadays everybody needs to know it in this diversified society In the interview, most of the students claim that:
“Today English is very important because it is an international language People use it in all fields and aspects of life If anyone wants to find a good job after graduating, you have to learn English well” (S3)
As can be seen in chart 1, an overwhelming number of the students (78.2%) viewed listening as the most difficult skill The rest of the students (21.8%) reported that listening skill is as difficult as other skills (reading, speaking, writing), and none of them considered listening skill to be an easy one or easier than other language skills The main reason is that listening skill is not familiar to them The researcher found the most common and significant answers in the interview, students often find listening is the most difficult skill
In addition, they always feel nervous and confused when they listen to English As one student claimed in the interview that:
“Although I have learnt English for nearly 8 years, I often feel nervous and confused when I listen to English.” (S1)
Chart 1 shows that (63.6%) of the respondents are not much interested in learning to listening English; while (18.2%) of the subjects are little interested in it and 3.6% are not interested in it at all The percentages above suggest that the teachers may have difficulty in teaching listening Though students know the importance of it but it is a difficult subject and students do not often have a chance to communicate in the real life to use listening skill When being asked why they were not very interested in learning English listening though they knew the importance of it, most of them said this is a difficult skill and they do not have a chance to communicate in the real life to use listening skill
From the result of the first three questions of the survey questionnaire above, we can conclude that although most of students believe English listening skill is important and many of them like learning this skill However, they feel that it is more difficult than other skills such as speaking, reading and writing
3.1.1.2 Students’ motivation in learning listening English
Students' participation in listening activities in class
47.3% always often sometimes rarely never except when asked by the teacher
Chart 2: Students’ participation in speaking lessons
In answering question 4, which asked students for their current participation in listening lessons, the answers are presented in term of percentage in chart 2 The chart presents only 5.5% of the respondents was always willing to listening in the class 12.7% of students said that they often listen in English class Whereas 47.3 % listen it rarely and 9.1% never listen if they were not called by their teachers 29.1% of students sometimes listen when they find listening activities interesting and suitable Being asked the further interview question, most students expressed:
“I cannot get the information to take part in the activities; moreover the activities are not attractive” (S4)
Students' motivation in learning listening skills
Students‟ motivation plays an important role in deciding the level of their participation in class activities The statistics in chart 3 shows the students‟ motivation in learning listening skills
Chart 3: Students’ motivation on learning listening skills
(A =It is one of the compulsory skills in the textbook/English course; B= It will be helpful for my future job; C= It helps me enjoy English news, songs and films;
D= It helps me communicate with foreigners; E= other(s))
It can clearly be seen that all the students asked (81.2 %) said that listening skills are helpful for their future job A quite large number of students (67.3%) learn listening because it is one of the compulsory skills It includes in their English course book
(23.6%) students say that they want to learn listening English because it helps them enjoy English news, songs and films Only very small number of students (16.4%) learns listening because they want to communicate with foreigners The other (7.3%) give other reasons for their learning listening Among five interviewees, more than two third of them said that English is useful They want to learn English to read books and newspapers in English and to communicate with foreigners, especially this is their subject and they have to learn to pass the exams as one said:
“If you don’t learn English, you can never pass the exams to leave this college” (S2)
A student says that: “I want to study at higher level of education The rest would go abroad after finishing the course, so I study listening English.”
In short, we can come to conclusion that the students‟ level of motivation in listening class is very low Their participation in listening class is rather poor and unequal They found it uninteresting The majority felt reluctant to listen English in class Students were passive in class, they answer the questions English only when be asked by the teachers but not participate freely Thus, the question raised here is what factors affecting students
„motivation in learning English listening skills
3.1.2 Factors affecting non-English major students’ motivation in learning English listening skills at CIT
3.1.2.1 The student-related factors affecting non-English major students’ motivation in learning English listening skills
I feel de-motivated in learning listening English because (of)…
(You can tick (√) more than one options)
A I find it difficult to understand the native speakers‟ accent on the tape 72.7%
C I lack some necessary grammar structures 47.3%
D I lack background knowledge about the topics in listening lessons 34.5%
E I can hear nothing in listening activities 43.6%
F I am not confident in listening lessons when I paticipate in listening activities
G I feel embarrassed in listening activities 25.5%
Table 1: The student-related factors
From the table, the highest percentage of the students (72.7%) report that they don‟t participate enthusiastically in listening lessons because they find it difficult to understand the native speakers‟ accent on the tape (60.0%) most of them lack vocabulary to communicate and (47.3%) of them doesn‟t have enough grammar structures to make
In the interview, the students also strongly agree that, lack of basic knowledge lets them find a lot of difficulty in learning and de-motivate them Most of them think that all parts are difficult because they lack basic knowledge of the language when they are at high school such as vocabulary, grammar, or skills; thus, when they study at college, they cannot catch up with their classmates, as well as follow teachers‟ lessons
When being asked for further information in the interview, most of the students claim that:
“I cannot follow my teachers and catch up with my classmates although how hard I have tried I feel disappointed and do not want to learn English.”
As one student claimed in the interview that:
“For me, English pronunciation and stress is the most difficult, I cannot imitate the way my teacher makes model the sound like Vietnamese rather English and I never remember where the word tress is.” (S2)
It seems that many students lack intrinsic motivation to learn English at CIT, they just learn because of exams or as a condition to leave the university
In addition, many of them report that English is a difficult language for them to learn and half of them admit that they lose interest in learning English at the university due to the reasons above Besides, students thought they are able to learn English and their personality is not the strong reason to de-motivate them in learning
Some others found difficulties in listening:
“I find listening is the most difficult skill I can understand my teacher in class but I cannot understand what is said in the tape.” (S1, S4)
Discussions
As mentioned before, the aim of this study is to explore the factors affecting non- English major students‟ motivation in learning English listening skills at CIT The research realized that most of the students understood the importance of learning English listening
However, they were not very interested in learning English Their reasons for learning English were various Some of them learned English because English was a compulsory subject and the other reason was their success in the examinations and so on Additionally, there was still a gap between teachers' teaching methods and their students' preference
Another important factor is that many students are de-motivated because of their students‟ lack of basic knowledge, lack of vocabulary; pronunciation and lack of self- confidence in learning English listening skills are the foundation of learning English If students‟ knowledge of pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary is insufficient, it is probable that their English listening comprehension will be negatively affected by lack of language knowledge Therefore, the large number of students who lost their background knowledge is unconfident in themselves In the listening classroom, teachers need students‟ active participation but, having so many students who lack confidence and who feel nervous and anxious, makes the task of generating discussion and conversation particularly difficult Students are reluctant to answer questions and will not risk being laughed at by their peers Thus, it is unsurprising that CIT students who are under pressure for a considerable period of time are often stressed and depressed, which led them to be de-motivated and they lost their interests in the subject
In addition, teachers‟ behaviors and teachers‟ method also admitted having suffered from some negative aspects of teaching methods such as use old-fashioned teaching methods and materials, not give clear enough instructions, use inferior equipment, not give sufficient explanations, neglecting to give any feedback, teachers always strict in class, which need to reconsider the teaching methods and behaviors of the teachers that have been used to teach English in order to understand possible mismatches between teaching methods and preferred student learning styles However devoted the teacher is, teaching and learning may not be effective if teaching methods do not match student learning styles
One more factor in this study is learning environment Many students agreed that learning environment and lack of modern facilities at school have strong impact on their interests in the subject As we live in the age of science and technology, it is unsurprising to find out that students like some technological devices (TV, video, computer and so on) to be utilized in their listening lessons This study revealed that the respondents feel de- motivated toward learning listening English because their teachers rarely use technology in presenting the English listening
Conclusions
The aim of this study was to investigate “Factors affecting non-English major students' motivation in learning English listening skills at College of Industrial Techniques" After collecting and analyzing the data, the researcher has discovered quite many serious factors affecting non-English major students‟ motivation in learning English listening skills The data is collected using the survey questionnaire and semi-structured interview The data analyses are conducted carefully, which led to the success of the thesis when the thesis answered the research questions given In this research, there are three factors that affect students‟ motivation in learning English listening skills: the student- related factors, the teacher-related factors and learning conditions at CIT Students share common ideas of factors that students faced in listening The research finds that students had problems with their language knowledge, vocabulary, self-confidence, students‟ personality and students‟ belief Besides the study shows that lack of modern teaching and learning facilities, boring atmosphere, big class size, textbook/ English course are uninteresting Concerning with teachers, teachers‟ behaviors and the teaching methods are some extent de-motivated students in learning English In order to have a better situation in learning English listening skills, students should apply various learning methods
Additionally, teachers should help students to improve their language knowledge more often by correcting their pronunciation immediately whenever they make mistakes.
Recommendations
In the light of these findings, here are some recommendations for all teachers and students to overcome their problems in teaching and learning listening
Students should take part in the listening activities more actively, so that they find joyful to learn listening In addition, they should study the order of each Task carefully before listening and try their best to predict what they are going to listen based on the words or pictures given
They also should improve their pronunciation and increase their vocabulary at home more often They should prepare the listening lessons more carefully by reviewing the vocabulary and structures learnt in previous lessons, studying the pictures and the questions in listening sections to predict the content of the listening text, reading related passages in English or Vietnamese to improve their background knowledge In addition, they should practice listening to English at home every day For example, they can listen to English songs or watch English news on television, which helps them get used to different accents of speakers, improve their pronunciation, and increase their vocabulary
Teachers should know their students' psychologies, backgrounds, aptitudes and personalities Then, they design interesting and useful multi – level listening activities and encourage students to be involved in them Moreover, teachers should give students more chances to communicate in English in the real life Such as: teachers hold an English speaking club for students to join in Specially, as many other people, sometimes students also like a change, therefore teachers should hold an outdoor activity in which students communicate in English or let them listen to music, watch a film or listen to the news
Using games or modern technology is adopted by teachers and it is favoured by most of the students because they will feel more interested in their listening lessons In addition, teachers need to select a wide range of materials to increase listening content besides using textbooks Students need to listen to different levels of English in order to be exposed to natural, lively, rich language, such as listening to English songs, seeing films with English text In these ways, it is possible to raise students‟ enthusiasm, cultivate their listening interests, and achieve the goals of learning English
If teachers can apply these methods, they will be really successful in stimulating students to learn listening Additionally, teachers need to pay more attention to students' language knowledge The teachers should be more precise in pronouncing for students to follow In addition, connected speech is also a big obstacle for students Therefore teachers, should inform students about features of connected speech of spoken language at any time in learning process for students so as not to feel stressful and surprised when listening
Furthermore, students often listen to every detail, so teachers should help them to listen for key words to get information Another recommendation is that teachers should create joyful atmosphere in the class to motivate students to learn listening Teachers should be more friendly, enthusiastic, and humorous to students, so that they feel comfortable and excited about the lesson
For the learning conditions in the college, they should equip CDs, CD players, loudspeakers and projectors with high quality as well as alternative teaching materials on listening to create advantages for the teaching and learning English listening skills
In addition, the number of students in your class is too crowded or their class size are too big, they should organize regular practice-based seminars or group meetings for the students to exchange their learning experience and discuss the effective ways of presenting listening lessons.
Limitations of the study
In any research papers, limitations are unavoidable The study presents in this minor thesis is of no exception The limitations of this study lie in the time limitation and the author‟s knowledge Firstly, the study only uses survey questionnaire and a semi- structured interview for the investigation into factors affecting non-English major students‟ motivation in learning English listening skills at CIT, so to some extent, the finding may not be generalized to all the students of the college Secondly, the study is only about listening skill but not the other skills such as reading, speaking, or writing Thirdly, there are many factors affecting students‟ motivation in English listening learning; however the study only focused on some of them Finally, the study is mainly based on information obtained from questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, therefore it should be supplemental by actual observations of students‟ behaviors and teachers‟ practices which is beyond the scope of the study Then, as the time for this study is limited, mistakes and shortcomings are inevitable The researcher would like to receive constructive comments and remarks so that the research work could be further improved.
Suggestions for further research
For further study, it is necessary to conduct on a larger number of students for more reliable findings And it should be carried out on students of other years like the first, third and fourth Moreover, as mentioned in the part Limitations, the data collection methods and semi-structured interview should really be improved with the more careful further research can be conducted in other contexts of studying listening skill rather than the situation of colleges In addition, in further research studies, other changes should be used to find out the best way of motivating students in learning English listening skills
Finally, the form of this research can be applied in other skills such as reading, writing, and speaking The authors of such further research can apply a number of changes to the course and collect valuable data and semi-structured interview to improve teaching and learning at College of Industrial Techniques
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APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE Dear my student,
This survey questionnaire is designed to gather information for my research into
“Factors affecting non-English major students’ motivation in learning English listening at College of Industrial Techniques” Your assistance in completing the following items is highly appreciated Data collected will remain confidential and be used only for the study purpose
Thank you very much for your cooperation!
FACTORS AFFECTING NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’MOTIVATION IN
Please choose the answer(s) you think it is the most appropriate to you:
Question 1: How is listening skill important to you?
B as difficult as other skills
Question 3: How interested are you in learning English listening skills?
Question 4: How often do you participate in listening activities in class?
E never except when asked by the teacher
Question 5: Why do you learn listening skill? (You can tick more than one answer)
A It is one of the compulsory skills in the textbook/ English course
B It will be helpful for my future job
C It helps me enjoy English news, songs and films
D It helps me communicate with foreigners
Question 6: I feel de-motivated in learning listening English because (of)…
(You can tick (√) more than one options)
A I find it difficult to understand the native speakers‟ accent on the tape
C I lack some necessary grammar structures
D I lack background knowledge about the topics in listening lessons
E I can hear nothing in listening activities
F I am not confident in listening lessons when I paticipate in listening activities
G I feel embarrassed in listening activities
Question 7: Which statement(s) is/are true about your previous teacher of English?
(You can choose more than one option)
A Using old-fashioned teaching methods and materials
B Not giving clear enough instructions
D Neglecting to give any feedback
E Teachers‟ instructions were not clear enough
F Teachers always strict in class
APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONS FOR THE INTERVIEW
(A semi-structure interview is a conducted with five students choose randomly by the research)
1 Do you think learning English is important? Why?
2 In your opinion, is it easy or difficult to learn English listening skills? Why? Why do you learn listening skill?
3 How do you feel interest in learning English listening skills? What factors make you feel de-motivated? What factors make you feel motivated?
4 What do your teachers‟ teaching method attract you?
5 How do you feel about your class atmosphere? Why?
6 How many students in your class? Do the number of students affect to your learning English listening skills?
7 What do you think about your textbook/ English course (New English File Elementary)?