How To Motivate The First Year Students At Haiphong Polytechnics College In Speaking Activities.pdf

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES ***  *** ĐỖ HỮU TRƯỜNG HOW TO MOTIVATE THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT HAIPHONG POLY[.]

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***  *** ĐỖ HỮU TRƯỜNG HOW TO MOTIVATE THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT HAIPHONG POLYTECHNICS COLLEGE IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES (Phương pháp khuyến khích sinh viên năm thứ trường Cao đẳng nghề Bách Nghệ Hải Phịng hoạt động nói) M.A MINOR PROGAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.01.11 Hanoi – 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***  *** ĐỖ HỮU TRƯỜNG HOW TO MOTIVATE THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT HAIPHONG POLYTECHNICS COLLEGE IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES (Phương pháp khuyến khích sinh viên năm thứ trường cao đẳng nghề Bách Nghệ Hải Phịng hoạt động nói) M.A MINOR PROGAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.01.11 Supervisor: Dr Trần Thị Thu Hiền Hanoi – 2014 DECLARATION To the best of my knowledge and belief, this minor thesis contains no material which has previously been submitted and accepted for any other degree in any university The thesis is my own work and based on my own research It involves no material previously published or written by any other person, except where due reference is acknowledged in the paper Hanoi, 2014 Đỗ Hữu Trường i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I wish to send my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Dr Tran Thi Thu Hien for her valuable guidance, helpful suggestions and critical feedback throughout the research I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to all the lecturers in the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, VNU for their useful lessons from which I have benefited a lot for the accomplishment of this study I am greatly indebted to my students at marine engine and navigation departments and my colleagues at HPC for their participation and assistance without which this study could not have been successful Last but not least, I would like to express my special thanks to my family and my close friends who offered me their love, care, support and encouragement so that I could accomplish my study ii ABSTRACT This minor thesis is carried out to investigate what kinds of speaking activities are currently used in the speaking lessons for first-year students at HPC and some suggestions are given to motivate students in these activities The study has collected data from two survey questionnaires to find out the fact of the current situation of teaching and learning speaking skill for and of the first-year students at HPC The results from these two survey questionnaires have revealed some aspects of teaching and learning speaking skill at the college From these results, some suggestions have been proposed to teachers, students and college rector in order to motivate students in leaning speaking and to improve the quality of teaching and learning speaking skill iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS HPC: Haiphong Polytechnics College ESP: English for Specific Purposes CLT: Communicative Language Teaching L2: Second Language LIST OF THE TABLES Table 1: Types of motivation………………………………………………………… 21 Table 2: Students’ main demotivating factors in a speaking lesson 22 Table 3: Teachers’ activities and students’ preferences ……………………… 23 Table 4: Students’ expectation on teachers’ teaching ………………………… 24 Table 5: Teacher’s opinions on teaching English speaking and students’ motivation in speaking English……………………………………………… 25 Table 6: Teachers’ current teaching method …………………………………… 26 Table 7: Difficulties teachers often faced in teaching English speaking……… 27 Table 8: Techniques applied by teachers in motivating students……………… 28 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION……………………………………………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………… ii ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………… iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ………………………………………………… iv LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………… vii TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………………… vii PART A: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………… 1 Rationale…………………………………………………………………… Aims of the study …………………………………………………………… Research questions……………………………………………………… Scope of the study…………………………………………………………… Methods of the study ……………………………………………………… Significance of the study…………………………………………………… Design of the study……………………………………………………… … PART B: DEVELOPMENT………………………………………………… CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………… 1.1 Motivation in foreign language learning……………………………… 1.1.1 Definitions of motivation………………………………………… 1.1.2 Types of motivation in foreign language learning……………… 1.1.3 Some conditions for effective motivation in speaking…………… 1.2 Demotivation in foreign language learning…………………………… 1.2.1 Definitions of demotivation………………………… 1.2.2 Demotivating factors in foreign language learning……………… 1.3 Teaching speaking skill in foreign language …………………………… 13 1.3.1 Definitions of speaking………………………………………… 13 1.3.2 Approaches to the teaching of speaking………………………… 14 1.3.3 The roles of the teacher in different stages of teaching speaking 15 v CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY…………………………………………… 17 2.1 Context of the study……………………………………………………… 17 2.2 The research approach………………………………………………… 18 Questionnaire for the students……………………………………… 18 Questionnaire for the teachers……………………………………… 18 Observation………………………………………………………… 19 2.3 Participants……………………………………………………………… 19 2.4 Data collection procedures……………………………………………… 20 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS………………… 21 3.1 Results from students’ questionnaire…………………………………… 21 3.1.1 Students‟ personal information………………………………… 21 3.1.2 Types of motivation……………………………………………… 21 3.1.3 Demotivating factors in a speaking lesson……………………… 22 3.1.4 Activities used by teachers and students‟ preferences…………… 23 3.1.5 Students‟ expectation on teachers‟ teaching…………………… 24 3.2 Results from teachers’ questionnaire…………………………………… 25 3.2.1 Teachers‟ personal information………………………………… 25 3.2.2 Teacher‟s opinions towards teaching English speaking and students‟ motivation in speaking English……………………………… 25 3.2.3 Current teaching method ………………………………………… 26 3.2.4 Difficulties in teaching English speaking……………………… 27 3.2.5 Techniques and activities applied by teachers…………………… 28 3.3 Findings and discussions………………………………………………… 29 3.3.1 The current situation of learning speaking of first-year students at Haiphong Polytechnics College…………………………… 29 3.3.2 The current situation of teaching speaking for first-year students at Haiphong Polytechnics College…………………………… vi 31 3.4 Suggested techniques for motivating students in speaking activities… 33 3.4.1 Suggestions for the teachers……………………………………… 33 3.4.2 Suggestions for the students……………………………………… 35 3.4.3 Suggestions for the college rector and academic department…… 36 PART C: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………… 37 Conclusions………………………………………………… 37 Limitations of the study…………………………………………………… 38 Suggestions for further study……………………………………………… 38 REFERENCES 40 APPENDICES………………………………………………………………… I APPENDIX 1………………………………………………………………… I APPENDIX 2………………………………………………………………… IV APPENDIX 3………………………………………………………………… VII vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale It can not be denied that English is very important nowadays It is considered to be a very significant and necessary tool used in many fields such as science, technology, diplomacy and so on It is seen as a means to bridge the gap and promote mutual understanding and cooperation among countries in the world In Vietnam, at present, the role of English has been more and more increasingly crucial because of the fact that Vietnam has succeeded in becoming an official member of WTO since 2006 Being aware of the great significance of English, more and more people desire to master it in hope of making English an useful means to serve their own purposes However, how to teach and learn English in general and English speaking skill in particular effectively is a matter of controversy Speaking skill should be kept in mind to be the most popular and effective way of communication At Haiphong Polytechnics College (HPC), English is considered to be an important factor for students‟ success in future career Therefore, learning English, especially learning speaking is necessary for students when they finish their study and work on international ships However, there is a fact that during speaking lessons, students are often inactive and passive in participating speaking activities The interaction between teachers and students is ineffective and restricted As a result, after the English course, students‟ competence of English is not much improved for working on board ships For this reason, I would like to make a study on “How to motivate the first-year students at Haiphong Polytechnics College in speaking activities” Hopefully, this minor thesis will help motivate first-years students in English speaking lessons at learning efforts Students should feel comfortable taking intellectual risks because they know that they will not be embarrassed or criticized if they make a mistake.” Good and Brophy (1994) Secondly, teacher‟s good relationship with the student is also a key factor of motivation in student learning The teacher should create the relationship of mutual trust and respect with students This relationship also involves finding opportunities to talk with them on a personal level and letting them know that teachers have thought about them and that their individual effort is recognized (Dornyei, 2001: 120) The third factor is teacher‟s enthusiasm Csikzentmihalyi (1997) said that teachers needed to be “enthused and involved in the teaching process and in the material they are teaching” Csikzentmihalyi also pointed out that enthusiastic teachers were the ones who loved what they were doing, who showed by their dedication and their passion that make students willing to pursue knowledge The last factor is teacher‟s dedication to the students‟ academic progress Teachers should take care of what their students have learnt and succeeded (Dornyei, 2001) They should also offer tangible assistant, responding immediately when help is requested, correcting tests, arranging extra- assignments and so on Dornyei (2001) said that “teachers are the designated leaders of the class group” and therefore, they cannot lack their responsibility for maintaining their own commitment to the teaching process because the lack of this responsibility will cause “psychological absence” from teaching process, which is the fastest way to undermine the motivational base of the learners Lightbown and Spada (1999: 57-58) stated that if the teacher could make classrooms places where students enjoy coming because the content was interesting and relevant to their age and level of ability, where the learning goals was challenging yet manageable and clear, and where the atmosphere was supportive 11 ... suggestions to motivate first- year students in learning speaking skill Research Questions What is the current situation of teaching and learning speaking skill to and of the first- year students at HPC?... study is an attempt to: Investigate the current situation of teaching speaking skill to first- year students at HPC Identify these students? ?? demotivating factors in learning speaking skill Propose... learning speaking of first- year students at Haiphong Polytechnics College? ??………………………… 29 3.3.2 The current situation of teaching speaking for first- year students at Haiphong Polytechnics College? ??…………………………