A Study On English Learning Goals And Motivation Of The Second – Year Students At Military Academy Of Logistics.pdf

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES *************************** ĐÀO NGUYỄN THÚY HÀ A STUDY ON ENGLISH LEARNING GOALS A[.]

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *************************** ĐÀO NGUYỄN THÚY HÀ A STUDY ON ENGLISH LEARNING GOALS AND MOTIVATION OF THE SECOND – YEAR STUDENTS AT MILITARY ACADEMY OF LOGISTICS (Nghiên cứu mụ ti u v si h vi g học tiếng Anh ăm hai Học viện Hậu cần) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 HANOI, 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐÀO NGUYỄN THÚY HÀ A STUDY ON ENGLISH LEARNING GOALS AND MOTIVATION OF THE SECOND – YEAR STUDENTS AT MILITARY ACADEMY OF LOGISTICS (Nghiên cứu mụ ti u v si h vi g học tiếng Anh ăm hai Học viện Hậu cần) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 Supervisor : Asso Prof Dr L Vă Ca h HANOI, 2016 DECLARATION I certify that this thesis is entirely my own work Documented references have been fully provided I have not been submitted this thesis for assessment in any other formal course of study Hanoi, 2016 Đ o Nguyễn Thúy Hà i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge with great attitude to the support, guidance and invaluable critical feedbacks which I have received from my supervisor Dr Le Van Canh in completion of this research I would also like to express my thankfulness to all the teachers at English Department, Military Academy of Logistics (MAL) for their help in completing the survey questionnaire as well as for their willingness to share the ideas on the accomplishment of the study My sincere thanks are also extended to the second – year students at MAL who have actively participated in the study when I collected the data for this thesis Without their help, this project could not have been completed Last but not least, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the members of my family who have constantly supported, inspired and encouraged me to carry out the thesis Hanoi, 2016 Đ o Nguyễn Thúy Hà ii ABSTRACT This study is aimed at investigating learning goals and motivation of the second- year students in learning English at Military Academy of Logistics, Hanoi The main purposes of this study were to find out: (1) the student‟s learning goals regarding English learning; (2) the relationship between learning goals and motivation The subjects of this study were 120 second – year students at Military Academy of Logistics These students were invited to answer the questionnaire and some of them joined in the interview The study consists of three main parts The first one is an introduction including the rationale, aims, research questions, significance, scope, methods, and design of the study The second part contains four chapters Chapter I focuses on the theoretical background of the study, which is about learning goals and motivation Chapter II is about the methodology of the study Chapter III deals with data analysis Chapter IV presents major findings based on data analysis The last past offers the summary of the study, limitations and suggestions for further research iii LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Table 1: Common Reference Levels: self-assessment grid (Level B1) Table 2: Common Reference Levels: Qualitative aspects of spoken language use Table 3: Student‟s goals toward learning Speaking skill Table 4: Student‟s goals toward learning Listening skill Table 5: Student‟s goals toward learning Writing skill Table 6: Student‟s goals toward learning Reading skill Table 7: The frequency distribution of items measuring extrinsic motivation (n = 120) Table 8: The frequency distribution of items measuring intrinsic motivation (n=120) Table 9: Student‟s desire to learn English Chart 1: Students‟ level of English Chart 2: Frequency distribution of items measuring extrinsic motivation Chart 3: Frequency distribution of items measuring intrinsic motivation Chart 4: Students‟ attitude toward English learning Chart 5: Students‟ attitude toward the need of English learning iv ABBREVIATIONS L2: Second language MAL: Military Academy of Logistics SDT: Self-determination theory SD: Strongly Disagree D: Disagree U: Undecided A: Agree SA: Strongly Agree v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF TABLES iv ABBREVIATIONS v INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims of the study Research questions Significance of the study Scope of the study Design of the study DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of learning goals and motivation 1.1.1 Learning goals 1.1.2 Motivation 1.1.3 Adopting the Common European Framework (CEFR) at Military Academy of Logistics……………………………………………… 1.2 Motivational theory 11 1.2.1 Intrinsic motivation 11 1.2.2 Extrinsic motivation 12 1.3 The relationship between learning goals and motivation 14 vi 1.3.1 Expectancy – value theory 14 1.3.2 Achievement goal theory 14 1.3.3 Self-determination theory 17 CHAPTER : METHODOLOGY 20 2.1 Context of the study 20 2.2 Subjects of the study 21 2.3 Data collection instruments 22 2.4 Data collection procedures 23 2.5 Data analysis 24 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 26 3.1 Learning goals and motivation 26 3.2 The relationship between learning goals and motivation 36 3.3 Summary of the chapter 39 CONCLUSION 41 Summary of the findings and discussions 41 Limitations 42 Future direction 43 REFERENCES 45 APPENDIX I Appendix 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE I Appendix 2: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS IX Appendix 3: Schmidt et al (1996) intrinsic-extrinsic motivational questionnaire XI vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale for the study In the globalization era, English has become more and more important as an international language; therefore, in many countries all over the world, students are requires to learn English through compulsory programmes at educational institutions In correspondence to this trend, the importance of English as a language of international communication has been acknowledged by the government, English teaching and learning have been given more and more priority in Vietnam According to Canh (2004, p.167), learning English can “contribute to students‟ personal, linguistic, social, and culture development” The study of Dornyei (2001) has shown that there are many factors involved in setting learning goals and motivation That‟s why the influences of learning goal and motivation on learning English should be investigated carefully to solve the above-mentioned problem In the process of teaching and learning English, motivation and setting goals, as indicated by research, are two essential elements in learning the second/ foreign language Furthermore, as a lecturer of English at Military Academy of Logistics, I have realized that although English is considered one of the main subjects at Military Academy of Logistics (MAL) with a lot of time and effort spent on learning, most of students in general and the second – year students in particular seem not to be successful in learning English After I talk with those students as well as observation, most of them lack of motivation and not set their own learning goal during the process of learning However, up to now, there has not been any research conducted to investigate into this issue at MAL motivated Similarly, a student does the work because he personally believes it is valuable for his chosen career Both examples involve instrumentalities, yet the latter case entails personal endorsement and a feeling of choice, whereas the former involves mere compliance with an external control Like intrinsic motivation, according to Dornyei (2001), extrinsic motivation is divided into four subtypes: (1) external regulation refers to “the least selfdetermined form of extrinsic motivation, coming entirely from external sources such as rewards or threat” (p.28), for example, a student with external regulation may learn English because his parents ask him to learn or his teacher encourages him to learn; (2) interjected regulation involves “ externally imposed rules that student accepts as norms to be followed in order not to feel guilty” (p.28), for instance, an interjected student may his homework because he feels guilty if he does not so; (3) identified regulation occurs when the student engages in an activity as he highly values and identifies with the behaviour, and see it useful to do, a student with the identified regulation may learn English because it is necessary for him to listen to English songs or watch films in English.; lastly (4) integrated regulation indicates “choiceful behaviour that is fully assimilated with the individual‟s other values, needs and identity” (p.28) An example is that a student learns English because he thinks English proficiency is a part of an educated cosmopolitan culture that everyone in his country must adopt According to Brown (2000), intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can be easily identified in foreign language classrooms regardless of the differences between the cultural beliefs and the attitudes of learners and teacher In addition, Schmidt (1996) 13 concluded that intrinsic – extrinsic distinction is similar to integrative – instrumental distinction but not identical In scope of this study, due to the limitation of M.A minor thesis, I only focus on investigating to find out the intrinsic/extrinsic motivation which is possessed by the second – year students at MAL 1.3 The relationship between learning goals and motivation 1.3.1 Expectancy – value theory Eccles (1983) defined and measured expectancies for success as children‟s beliefs about how well they will on upcoming tasks, either in the immediate or longer term future Ability beliefs are de-fined as the individual‟s perception of his or her current competence at a given activity Ability beliefs thus are distinguished conceptually from expectancies for success, with ability beliefs focused on present ability and expectancies focused on the future Expectancies focus on future success and, as such, are distinct from, although related to, ability beliefs, which focus on present ability (Wigfield & Eccles, 2002) Subjective task values refer to the “quality of the task that contributes to the increasing or decreasing probability that an individual will select it” (Eccles, 2005, p 109) Expectancies and values are influenced by the individual‟s goals and general self-schema (short- and long-term goals, self-concept and ability beliefs, and perceptions of task difficulty) Values are also influenced by the individual‟s affective reactions More distally, past performance and aptitude, as well as the socializers‟ expectations and behaviors, influence these goals, self-schema, and affective reactions 14 1.3.2 Achievement goal theory Achievement goals are competence-based aims that individuals target in evaluative settings Originally, two distinctive achievement goals were identified based on the definition of personal competence: mastery and performance goals (Dweck & Leggett, 1988) Specifically, mastery goals reflect perceived competence in terms of absolute evaluative standards or task master When someone is task-involved, her primary goal is learning and mastery of the task for its own sake Task involvement appears when the student is intrinsically interested in the activity and judges herself in a self-referenced manner Therefore, task oriented goals rely on comparisons with requirements of the task and/or internal comparisons with one‟s past attainment or one‟s maximum potential attainment There is a focus on effort and improvement According to Dweck (1989), individuals displaying a master goal orientation are more likely to seek challenging situations, regardless of their perceived level of ability or expectations of success Even when faced with failure, mastery goal oriented individual view the situation as a learning opportunity for personal growth (Bandura & Dweck, 1985) In this context, failure is seen as useful feedback simply meaning that the current strategy is insufficient for the particular task and that more effort and ingenuity is needed for mastery (Elliot & Dweck, 1988) Performance goal represent a focus on demonstrating competence or ability and how ability will be judged relative to others Unlike students with master goal orientation, students with performance goal orientation, if they think they are more likely to fail, are more likely to withdraw from the challenge that a difficult task 15 poses Therefore, whether students feel more or less confident in a certain task depends on their judgment of their present abilities to succeed at that task Individuals displaying a strong performance goal orientation also display a tendency to avoid challenging situations As such, these individuals tend to select easier tasks that will permit them to achieve success and avoid judgments of incompetence (Elliot & Dweck, 1988), and tend to avoid learning situations, which might be accompanied by errors and perceptions of incompetence on the part of others (Dweck, 1989) In addition, performance goal oriented individuals often respond to task failure with negative effect, negative ability attributions (Bandura & Dweck, 1985, Leggett & Dweck, 1986), and low levels of task persistence (Farr et al., 1993) In short, students with mastery goal orientation, even if their ability is low, choose challenging tasks that foster learning They are willing to risk displays of ignorance and incompetence in order to acquire skills and knowledge For them, learning is more important than success or positive recognition by others On the other hand, students with performance goal orientation need to perceive their ability to be high and their chance of success to be great before they will attempt a challenging task If their goal is to obtain a favorable judgment of ability, rather than to learn, they will choose tasks in which they are likely to obtain a favorable judgment, even if they not learn anything from doing the task (Bandura & Dweck, 1985) These two goal orientations determine different consequences in achievement context In general, task orientation is regarded as more adaptive than ego orientation Task orientation is related to selection of challenging tasks, effective study strategies, positive attitudes toward learning, and positive emotions, whereas 16 quite often ego orientation is associated with selection of easier tasks, trivial learning strategies, concern for social status, and thoughts of escape and behavioral withdrawal when difficulties are encountered (Kaplan & Maehr, 2007) However, if high perceived competence is combined with high task orientation, then ego orientation supports positive achievement outcomes (Standage & Treasure 2002) 1.3.3 Self – determination theory Central to self –determination theory (SDT) is the distinction between autonomous motivation and controlled motivation Autonomy involves acting with a sense of volition and having the experience of choice In the words of philosophers such as Dworkin (1988), autonomy means endorsing one‟s actions at the highest level of reflection Intrinsic motivation is an example of autonomous motivation When people engage an activity because they find it interesting, they are doing the activity wholly volitionally (e.g., I learn because it is fun) In contrast, being controlled involves acting with a sense of pressure, a sense of having to engage in the actions The use of extrinsic rewards in the early experiments was found to induce controlled motivation (Deci, 1971) SDT postulates that autonomous and controlled motivations differ in terms of both their underlying regulatory processes and their accompanying experiences, and it further suggests that behaviors can be characterized in terms of the degree to which they are autonomous versus controlled Autonomous motivation and controlled motivation are both intentional, and together they stand in contrast to a-motivation, which involves a lack of intention and motivation SDT distinguishes between a-motivation (i.e., lack of motivation) and motivation A-motivation involves not having an intention to act, whereas motivation involves 17 intentionality Within motivation, SDT distinguishes between autonomous motivation and controlled motivation Autonomous motivation includes intrinsic motivation and well-internalized extrinsic motivation Thus, being autonomously motivated means being motivated by one‟s interest in an activity and/or because the value and regulation of the activity have been integrated within one‟s self Controlled motivation consists of external regulation (the only type of extrinsic motivation that was considered when research focused on the dichotomy between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) and introjected extrinsic motivation Thus, the degree of one‟s controlled motivation reflects the degree to which one feels coerced or seduced by external contingencies or by their introjected counterparts The concepts of autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and a-motivation concern a person‟s relation to an activity or sets of activities Thus, they are relatively state-like motivational concepts These motivational variables are predicted from both (1) aspects of the social environment, including both aspects of the learning climate; and (2) individual differences in causality orientations, namely, the autonomous orientation, the controlled orientation, and the impersonal orientation As such, the degree to which people are autonomously motivated for their jobs would be predicted from the supports for autonomy in their work contexts and their own autonomous causality orientation Similarly, the degree of their controlled motivation would be predicted from the control in the work context and their own controlled causality orientation People‟s a-motivation would be predicted from the a-motivating aspect of their work context and from their impersonal orientation 18 In summary Ford (1992) explains that most behavior is simultaneously informed and guided by multiple goals Goals can take on a variety of forms, with high-level goals (e.g “I want to be bilingual”) being supported by lower-level goals (e.g “I want to well/have fun in this class”), which are often accompanied by action steps (e.g “I will study to get an „A‟ on this Spanish test”) Goals can relate to achievement, security, socialization, etc., and the most “motivating” activities are those that relate to the pursuit of multiple goals Since mastering a language is not a goal to be achieved within a short time, Dörnyei (1994) suggests that planners set sub-goals (proximal sub-goals) that can be achieved within a short time Such sub-goals might have a powerful motivating function for they also provide learners with feedback on their progress They can, once achieved, increase self-efficacy and motivation The more students feel self-determined and task-oriented, the more likely they were to report higher levels of intrinsic motivation (Ryan and Connell, 1998, p.38) In addition, Brunel (2001) indicates that goal orientation is not only linked to intrinsic motivation but also to the most self-determination form of extrinsic motivation, namely identified regulation 19 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY In this chapter, the context and the subject of the study, the data collection instruments, the data collection procedure, and the data analysis procedures will be presented 2.1 Context of the study This study is conducted at Military Academy of Logistics (MAL), a military academy in Long Bien District, Hanoi, Vietnam MAL has two campuses: at Son Tay and at Long Bien MAL is rather famous for providing good training in army ordnance There are two training levels at MAL: Civil training and Military training Military training involves several different majors such as Ordnance, Finance, Petrol, and Construction Every year, there are approximately 500 new students enrolling in Military training All of them are male at the age of 18 to 23 Entering the school, they have to pass the exam of Math, Physics, and Chemistry, thus, they are supposed to have the elementary level of English In fact, most of them are not good at English; even their four skills are limited At MAL, English is one of the subjects of Faculty of Basic Society After a year, trained at Son Tay, the students come back to the main campus at Long Bien to study subjects of Faculty of Basic Society, involving in English Hence, the students have to study English during two and a half years at MAL and complete 32 credits of English (equivalent with 540 periods) before being allowed to take the Graduation examination with the level of A1 (CEFR) by the end of the fourth-year In addition, language learning equipment (e.g CD-players, tape players, and extra reference books) is also available and of high quality In 2015, about 10 multimedia classrooms are settled, in each of these classrooms, there are computers, 20 screens, and projectors In term of the number of students, on average, there are about 30 to 35 students in each class, which is a good size for a language class There are 20 teachers of English at English Department at MAL All of them graduated from different universities in Vietnam but they major in English Most of English teacher have got M.A degrees However, none of them have studied abroad Furthermore, they are young, enthusiastic, and dynamic; nevertheless, some of the teachers not have experiences because they are not trained to be teachers That is the reason for their poor management in classroom, even in some cases, some pedagogical situations can happen 2.2 Subjects of the study Initially, 120 students (equivalent with classes) who are studying the second year at MAL were invited to participate in this study All of them are male and are ranging from 18 to 20 years old They come from different parts of Vietnam from rural or mountainous area to big cities That is why they have owned different methods of instructions and achieved different level of English proficiency However, most of them are supposed to be at Elementary level of proficiency, especially some below this level Those students studied English for at least seven to eight years at schools, but they not study English during a year being trained at Son Tay, therefore, most of them forget the knowledge of English In addition, they are not familiar to the teaching and learning method at MAL, which focus on four skills of English: listening, speaking, reading, and writing Hence, those students have a lot of difficulties in starting learning English at the first semester of the second year It leads to their poor result of English 21 Furthermore, all of them use Vietnamese in their daily conversation so they rarely have chance to use English as a means of communication Also, they have to stay at school, the limitation of free time and Internets well as lacking of the English clubs or English centers prevent them from improving and practicing their English, except for some time in classroom with teachers and classmates 2.3 Data collection instruments This study employs a mixed method design that includes both qualitative and quantitative research methods so as to get a more detailed and comprehensive picture about what is investigated In my study, qualitative data is gained from interviews and quantitative data is achieved from questionnaire In order to ensure that the participants can understand correctly the content of the questionnaire and the interview both of them are conducted in Vietnamese 2.3.1 Survey questionnaire The questionnaire consists of two parts with ended questions: Part I: Types of learning goals and motivation  The questionnaire about learning goals includes questions; the aim is to explore the students‟ learning goals in learning English In this study, I base on the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statement designed by Jacqueline Bott VanHouten (NCSSFL) and Elvira Swender (ACTFL)  The questionnaire about motivation is also designed with two compositions: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation All 10 statements are in a Fivepoint Likert-scale In this study, I base on the Intrinsic-Extrinsic Motivational Questionnaire designed by Schmidt et al (1996) because it 22 seems to be similar to the participants of this study However, due to the limitation of M.A minor thesis, it is too long to apply 20 items of Schmidt et al (1996); therefore, I only choose 12 items which indicate intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors Part II: The relationship between learning goals and motivation: consists of four questions to find out the way how learning goals relate to the student‟s motivation 2.3.2 Interviews In this study, the interviews were carried out in a following week after the questionnaires with 120 students, who are chosen randomly for more in-depth data The aim for interviews is to get better insights into the research questions and to discuss for further information about items raised in the questionnaires Each of the interviewees was invited to answer the questions with the researcher‟s explanation of the questions and clarifying under answers, each interview lasted for about 10 minutes The informal talks were sometimes done during breaks The questions for interviews were conducted mainly in Vietnamese because it is better for the participants to express their ideas naturally and truly Basic questions were prepared (see Appendix 3) With interviewees‟ permission, the interviews were recorded and taken note All interview data were analyzed interpretatively 2.4 Data collection procedure The questionnaire was first piloted to a small sample of 50 students to check its validity and reality The piloted questionnaire then was re-edited and delivered to 70 students again and finally delivered to 120 students at the middle of the second term of the school year 2015-2016 The students had 20 minutes to complete the questionnaire The purpose and importance of the study were explained While 23 students were completing the questionnaire, any questions were clarified by me Fortunately, 120 out of 120 questionnaires were returned Concerning the interview, they are conducted to gain more in-depth information about students‟ types of learning goals and motivation, and factors affecting negatively these as well as the influences of learning goals on motivation at MAL After being analyzed the questionnaires, 15 students were chosen by chance to participate in the interview It took place in a face to face situation with the students, and the interviews were taken note or tape-recorded The interviews helped me to get the necessary information on the factors affecting the learning goals and motivation at MAL Tải FULL (67 trang): https://bit.ly/3wKXMdv Dự phòng: fb.com/TaiHo123doc.net 2.5 Data analysis After all the questionnaires were returned, I collected them to check, sort, and number carefully The results of the recording process were then input into my computer for analyzing I analyzed the data with both the qualitative and quantitative method By the quantitative method, I found out the learning goals and types of motivation which belonged to the students as well as the relationship between them Besides, the qualitative method by interview helps understand the reason why the students owed these types of learning goals and motivation more deeply To ensure the consistency of the data, except when recording the participants‟ responses to the questionnaires, during the process of analyzing the data achieved from the questionnaires and the interviews, I completely did them alone 24 2.6 Summary In brief, this chapter has presented in detail the context, the subject, the two sets of instruments, and the procedure of collecting data and analyzing data of the study The following chapter will deal with the findings and discussions 25 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS In this chapter, the students’ learning goals; their motivation in term of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as well as the relationship between their learning goals and motivation will be focused These are reflected through the data of the conducted questionnaire and interviews This comprehensive analysis leads to a better understanding of these issues After all, it will lay a firm foundation for a discussion and further recommendations in the following part of the study 3.1 Learning goals and motivation of the second-year students 3.1.1 Learning goals Tải FULL (67 trang): https://bit.ly/3wKXMdv Dự phòng: fb.com/TaiHo123doc.net Question aims at finding out the students‟ level of English at MAL It is students‟ grades in the examination when they start studying the second year The form and level of the test is based on CEFR level with total mark of 100 Chart 1: Students' level of English - 44 45-69 >70 8.3% 12.5% 79.2% Chart 1: Students’ level of English The chart reveals that nearly 80% of the students who only get 0-44 marks in the test have low level of English ability and 12.5% of them achieve CEFR level A2 26 with 45-69 marks Unsurprisingly, there are a small number of students (8.3%) who have better results than others In fact, when interview is carried out, the students admit that theyare extremely bad at English Take some answers as example: “I only get 21 marks in the test I cannot hear any information in Listening part.” (Student 12) “When I learnt at high school, I used to be fairly good at learning English; however, after a long time I not use it so I forget so much.” (Student 2) In order to measure students‟ learning goals at MAL, the goals to four skills of learning English considered include presentational speaking, presentational writing, interpretive listening, and interpretive reading Question measures the student‟s goals toward learning Speaking skill Statements Percentage (%) I can introduce myself to someone 20.7 I can ask and talk about friends, classmates, and teachers 19.2 I can talk about my favorite music, movies, and sports 22.8 I can talk about jobs and career plans 37.2 Others 0.1 Table 3: Student’s goals toward learning Speaking skill The above table reveals that to talk about jobs and career plans is the main learning goal of speaking learning It accounts for 37.2% In addition, 22.8% of them set the goal that is to talk about their music, movies, and sports Besides, out of 120 students chose the option “Others”, and students of them who join in the interview share that they try to learn English speaking harder for the higher purposes as expressed in what they say in the interview: 27 6811693 ... intentional, and together they stand in contrast to a- motivation, which involves a lack of intention and motivation SDT distinguishes between a- motivation (i.e., lack of motivation) and motivation A- motivation. .. Hà ii ABSTRACT This study is aimed at investigating learning goals and motivation of the second- year students in learning English at Military Academy of Logistics, Hanoi The main purposes of this... learning goals related to their motivation in learning English? Significance of the study The study indicates types of learning goals and motivation which are possessed by most of the second- year students