A study on methods to enhance motivation in self learning of english major students at hung yen university of technology and education

Trang 1 HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --- GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON METHODS TO ENHANCE MOTIVATION IN SELF-LEA

HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON METHODS TO ENHANCE MOTIVATION IN SELF-LEARNING OF ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC PHƯƠNG PHÁP TẠO ĐỘNG LỰC TRONG VIỆC TỰ HỌC CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM VÀ KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Supervisor: Do Phuc Huong, PhD Student: Nguyen Thi Hoa Student number: 11417156 Hung Yen – 2021 HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON METHODS TO ENHANCE MOTIVATION IN SELF-LEARNING OF ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC PHƯƠNG PHÁP TẠO ĐỘNG LỰC TRONG VIỆC TỰ HỌC CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM VÀ KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Supervisor: Do Phuc Huong, PhD Student: Nguyen Thi Hoa Student number: 11417156 Hung Yen – 2021 i DECLARATION I certify that the thesis entitled “A study on methods to enhance motivation in self-learning of English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education” is the results of my research and substance of this thesis has not been submitted for a degree to any other university institution Hung Yen, June 2021 Signature Nguyen Thi Hoa ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the process of implementing my graduation paper, I have received lots of encouragement, precious ideas, and experiences from my teachers, family, and friends I would like to thank all my teachers in Hung Yen University of Technology and Education for their useful pieces of advice First of all, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my supervisor Ms Do Phuc Huong PhD, who gives me a great deal of supports and guidance Without her help, my paper would have never been completed Besides, my sincere thanks are also extended to all the teachers in the Foreign Languages Department of Hung Yen University of Technology and Education for their lectures and wholehearted advice to help me complete this study In my study, the ideas of many writers in the field are inevitably reflected and developed To all the authors of the publications in the list of references, I offer my sincere thanks I also would like to express my special thanks to the first-year students who helped me with my research Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents and friends who have encouraged and supported me a lot iii ABSTRACT This study on methods to enhance motivation in self-learning of English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education, the data was gathered by survey questionnaires, which were delivered to 70 the first year English major students of FFL at UTEHY, My Hao campus and Khoai Chau campus The results show that most of the students are interested in self-learning It shows that these students have practiced in their own ways As a result, some suggested techniques from my research with the desire to create excitement in self-study to encourage students to actively participate in self-study activities and to form a working attitude as well as the will to overcome difficulties to complete the assigned exercises iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vi LIST OF ABBREVIATION vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research Questions 1.4 Scope of the Study 1.5 Methodology 1.6 Design of the study CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1: Definition of self-learning 2.1.1: Process of self-learning 2.2: An Overview of Self-Learning Motivation in Viet Nam 2.3: Importance of self-learning 2.4: Benefits of self-learning 2.5: Difficulties of self-learning 2.6: Suggestions for self-learning 2.7: Summary CHAPTER III 10 THE METHODOLOGY 10 3.1 The participants 10 3.2: Methodology 10 3.3: Data Collection Procedure 11 3.4: Designing Instruments 11 v 3.5: The survey questionnaire 11 CHAPTER IV 13 MAIN FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 13 4.1: Data analysis 13 4.1.1: Data from the survey questionnaire 13 4.1.2: Data from the interview 20 4.2: Discussion and recommendations 21 4.2.1: Discussion 22 4.2.2: Recommendation 22 CHAPTER V 24 CONCLUSION 24 5.1 Summary of the study 24 5.2: Limitation of the Study 25 5.3: Suggestion for further study 26 REFERENCES 27 APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES I vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The importance of self-learning Table Student’s frequency of self-learning Table Time consuming for self-learning Table 4: The advantages of self-learning Table 5: The disadvantages of self-learning Table 6: Difficult in self-learning Table 7: The items make the students distract from self-learning Table 8: Steps make self-learning effective to students Table 9: Type of self-learning that students want to try LIST OF ABBREVIATION UTEHY: Hung Yen University of Technology and Education FFL: Faculty of Foreign Languages SLM: Self-Learning Motivation CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale It is known that students are attracted to self-study learning activities, but to what degree A gap between theoretical support and motivation to complete activities is large There are significant differences in motivation among students towards autonomous learning Can positive teacher interaction provide enough influence to bridge the gap between theoretical and actual support and resolve the differences among students towards self-learning? While creating amicable instructor-facilitated sessions can be key for enhancing learner motivation for independent learning Furthermore, teachers have an important role in supporting students in their learning process If teachers can motivate students for greater acceptance and use of self-study, then by how much, and what techniques are effective? A majority of research in the English language learning field has been focusing largely on teaching or course effectiveness, but little has been done to look at what makes learners become self-determined enough to take control of their own learning, and the factors that differentiate successful and less successful self-access users In the field of education, there is a general agreement to define the self-learning that could normally be better conceived if the appropriate techniques are used for the adequate learning of a second language with an excellent result in the student's learning This happens because this problem has been detected in the English language major students at UTEHY, they have not been able to have a visible development, mainly in the subjects of English, and they have been locked in their own limited ability The lack of a good use of the proper techniques of self-learning to learn a language, make them a bad practice of memorization, through the repetition of the knowledge handled by the teacher, which makes that the previous knowledge that had the student, preventing creativity and good preparation of appropriate self-learning techniques The lack of motivation is also an important factor since the professors fail to make the student identify with the subject of English; the student thinks that everything necessary must be the lyceum and that he does not need to use self-learning techniques for his greater development So, after considering the above, I formulate the following research problems, which are the self-learning techniques that contribute to learn English language of the first year English language major at UTEHY 1.2 Aims of the study The aim of this study is to further findings in this field by attempting to examine the effect that self-learning motivational techniques have on students’ attitudes towards their self-access study In a word, I conduct my study specifically on issues: To analyze the situation of using the techniques in self-learning for English language major students of UTEHY, then investigate how the students acquire the techniques of self-learning To find out the difficulties (advantages and disadvantages) of using self-learning techniques To give the meaning of self-learning, give some self-study suggestions for English language major students at UTEHY My purpose is to show the students the great capacity with which they can count on to learn English I has the necessary knowledge to address this research, and I have the authorization of the educational establishment to investigate, which have given us all the necessary permits, for the realization of the same, reason for which I am conducting the study for the benefit of the English language major students at UTEHY I ask the following questions: 1.3 Research Questions 1) What is the situation of using self-learning motivation techniques and the students’ acquisition of these self-learning techniques at Faculty of Foreign Languages of 18 Q7 Which of the followin g items make you d istract from se lf -le arning? Self-learning distraction Subjects % Mass media; mobile phone, computer, TV.( 1st) 41 58,6 Surroundings influence: noise, temperature, insects (2nd) 15 21,4 Your own daily emotion: being sad, being happy (3rd) 10 read, watch (4th) 5,7 Tiredness, poor health condition (5th) 1,5 Without private room at home (6th) 2,8 70 100 Unfamiliar routine: sitting long time at one place, just look, Total Table 7: The items make the students distract from self-learning We are easy to find out that students get so much distraction from different factors The most distracted factor is mass media with 41 respondents from 70 students reach at 58,6% The next one is surrounding influence: noise, temperature, insect with 15 respondents make up 21,4% The third is daily emotion: being sad, being happy accounting for 10% with respondents Beside that unfamiliar routines such as sitting alone at one place for a long time, just look, read, watch with respondents reach at 5,7% There are only 2,8% respondent Only 2.8% of respondents have difficulty with without private room at home and 1,5% with tiredness, poor health condition In short, to be honest: we all struggle with distractions to some degree Distractions can take many forms, including our phones, computers, friends, or our own thoughts In college, distractions can be even more abundant than in high school, because there are so many new opportunities and experiences available Q8 Which steps make self-learning effective to you? (Rank from 1-7, from the most 19 to the least important) Steps Respondents % (Rank) Students Be curious and serious 21 30% (The 2nd ) Setting learning goals 24 34,5% (The 1st ) Assess your learning resources 12,4% (The 3rd ) Engage in learning process 4,4% (The 6th ) Apply what you learn 7,2% (The 5th ) Collaborate with other learners 10% ( The 4th ) Share your knowledge 1,5% ( The 7th ) Table 8: Steps make self-learning effective to students From the table about steps make self-learning effective to students, we can infer that the first step is setting goals to study that counts for 24 options reach at 34,5% for the first ranking, the second is be curios and serious with 21 options make up 30%, the third is assess your learning resources with options accounting for 12,4% The forth is collaborate with other learners make up 10% (7 options), the fifth is apply what you learn with 7,2% (5 options), the sixth is engage in learning process reach at 4,4% (3 options) and only 1,5% is share your knowledge with option To sum up, although self-learning was considered a great feat some time back, it is no longer as difficult as it once was With huge amounts of free resources and access to hundreds of content sources and online courses, all you need is to put a judicious amount of time and energy into learning something new Q9 What type of self-learning you want to try? 20 Type of self-learning Respondents % Stay at home alone to study by oneself 4,3 Change the place daily: home, café, library 19 27,1 Meet other friends to study together 24 34,3 Seek online support from teachers, friends 17 24,3 On-class self-learning under teachers’ coaching and 7,1 No need to self-study any more 2,9 Other 0 70 100 orienting Total Table 9: Type of self-learning that students want to try The table is about type of self-learning that students want to try It shows us main types of self-learning that students want to try in the next time of learning English They are “meet other friends to study” reach at 34,3% in total, next is change the study place daily which gets 27,1% and the last is seeking online supports from teachers, friends make up 24,3% However, stay at home alone to study by oneself, on-class self-learning under teachers’ coaching and orienting and no need to self-study any more accounting for small percentage Self- learning has quickly grown in popularity after COVID-19 Thanks to advancements in technology, there are many options available for students who are learning remotely to make good use of their free time and develop their knowledge even without the presence or guidance of their teachers How have you incorporated selflearning into your life? Try to be a good self-learner 4.1.2: Data from the interview 21 The interview consists of questions for the first year English major students of UTEHY Because of the Sars-covid-2 pandemic, I interviewed by calling phone to them (3 students on My Hao campus) and collected lots of useful information Question 1: How often you spend time for self-learning? For this question, students said that they often spend a lot of time for self-learning, about more than 30 minutes to an hour, mainly watch English video or English talk shows on YouTube Question 2: Do you think self-study is important? if yes, give some benefits From interview, all of students admitted that self-learning is important and it helps them to improve English skills Student 1: “Of course! Self-learning makes it easier for me to memorize So my English is better than before” Student 2: “Yes! It helps me a lot in improving my English skills, mostly building a wide vocabulary.” Student 3: “Of course! it's very important because it helps me to have more vocabulary I prefer to self-learning than study in class” Question 3: Do you have any difficulty in self-learning? Student 1: “although I love self-learning but I often have some difficulties such as not being explained clearly how to use a word or phrase” Student 2: “The biggest difficulty in my self-learning is that I am distracted by surrounding factors such as noise, or the habit of surfing internet or chatting with friends, I'm always like that” Student 3: “Of course, you know it's hard to concentrate without the supervision of a parent or a teacher, so I usually study for about 30 minutes and then switch to watching Youtube” 4.2: Discussion and recommendations 22 4.2.1: Discussion In general, all students have a cooperative attitude in assisting researchers in completing this survey questionnaire The data generated from the survey questionnaire is accurate and objective The study problems are illustrated through the following points: ► The situation of using the techniques of self-learning at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education: The self-learning of first year English major students at UTEHY are quite good, students are aware of the importance and benefits of self-learning, they spend a lot of time on selflearning but have not really achieved the desired results for many reasons and the most important reason is that learning is not really serious and has not give the detail goal for self-learning ► The difficulty (advantages and disadvantages) of using self-learning techniques: * as the data above shows there are many advantages of self-learning that classroom learning does not have Maybe that's why most students prefer to study by self-learning Learning in the traditional way is quite boring, so self-learning through websites or learning English videos on Youtube is becoming more and more popular * Besides the advantages, there are also disadvantages that need to be reviewed and found appropriate solutions to make self-study more effective will be shown in the next section ► Some self-study solutions and suggestions for English language major students at UTEHY Most of students chose solutions that are proposed in the questionnaire survey In fact, these are the most basic and optimal methods to help students improve self-learning skills These are the methods that work effectively with themselves and can be applied to other students 4.2.2: Recommendation Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are proposed: Teachers should create conditions for students in self-learning in class by letting 23 students prepare their own lessons and make presentations, then teachers will comment, self-study in groups or individually Students should give a clear plans and goals, offer specific self-study methods Students need to have perseverance and patience Train yourself to be disciplined when studying in class as well as in self-study When you study, devote your whole mind, focus, and not get distracted Choosing the right learning method It is recommended to choose highly interesting learning methods such as self-learning English on Youtube, watching movies in English, listening to English music, reading magazines, stories or novel in English Selecting the trusted and well-known learning resources 24 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of the study Findings of the study that the most students are interested in self-study but there are still many limitations that need to be improved in the future However, the results show differences in percentages and means for the different variables The researcher mentioned different ways that can be effective to enhance self-learning strategy in classrooms Someone may use self-learning to take students’ attention, someone may use it to activate students’ background knowledge and someone may use it to build a good relationship and motivate the students If the provided self-learning is difficult as compared to students’ level of competence, the students will be uninterested to work with that activity Using an easy activity at the beginning help the students solve the activities easily and motivate them to participate in further activities • For the first research question, “what is the situation of using self-learning motivation techniques and the students’ acquisition of these self-learning techniques at Faculty of Foreign Languages of Hung Yen University of Technology and Education?” Students at FFL, UTEHY often spend less than 30 minutes for a time of self-learning at home Normally they have times a week to self-study It is quite a short time to self-study therefore it has not brought effectiveness in English language learning in total • “What are the advantages and disadvantages of using these self-learning motivation techniques?” is the second research question The researcher tries to find out some disadvantages and advantages of self-learning depend on the result from survey questionnaires as well as the researcher’s own opinion There are some kind of advantages of self-learning such as you can choose your own pace, materials, methods, everything is up to you; you are less stressed out 25 about failing in front of another person; you don’t pay the teacher Is neither location constrained nor time-bound, and all that is needed is access to a computer and a reliable internet connection to engage in self-learning In contrast, there are some disadvantages of self-learning such as no selfdiscipline; no face-to-face interaction; lack of flexibility Lack of input from trainers Slow evolution; good e-learning is difficult to and lack of transformational power • The last research question is “What are the implications of self-learning motivation in improving learning English language at Faculty of Foreign Languages of Hung Yen University of Technology and Education? We all know that self-learning really plays crucial role in helping improve the quality of English learning for students In order to have effectiveness in self-learning, the researcher try to give some steps as suggestions for students in applying self-learning techniques such as the learners should be curious and serious, set learning goal, assess the learners’ learning resources, engage in a learning process and apply what the learners learn 5.2: Limitation of the Study The scope of the study is quite small which is only carried out with the 70 the first year English major at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education due to lack of time and the effect of Co-vid 19 pandemic In the actual survey, this scope is not really impartial and comprehensive Furthermore, some of the students were not cooperative and they refused to fill up the survey questionnaire as it was not the part of their study Besides, most of the students were not familiar with the term ‘self-learning activities” The researcher tried her best to make the study as objective and valid as possible In conclusion, despite remaining some limitations, the author hopes this study to be able to contribute to improving self-learning skills in English for the first year English major students at UTEHY 26 5.3: Suggestion for further study Honestly, this study is limited in terms of Presentations Therefore, the following studies should focus on expanding the scope of research topics Furthermore, the subject of the study should be expanded, in addition, the further studies should invest more in time and knowledge to get the more perfect and accurate achievements 27 REFERENCES I, Books Malcolm Knowles (1975) Self-Directed Learning: A Guide for Learners and Teachers Bartram, B (2006) An examination of perceptions of parental influence on attitudes to language learning Educational Research Bradford, A (2007) Motivational orientations in under-researched FLL contexts Brown, R A (2004) Motivation for learning English among Japanese university students Information and Communication Studies Cameron, L (2003) Teaching Languages to Young Learners Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Fifth edition II Websites https://medium.com/wondr-blog/self-learning-why-its-essential-for-us-in-the-21st- century https://skilling-india.net/self-learning-definition-importance-and-advantages/ https://www.lifehack.org/853724/self-learning https://www.oxfordlearning.com/best-methods-of-self-study-for-students/ http://www.australiaawardsvietnam.org/index.php/vi/14-news/3020-what-skillsare-vietnamese-students-missing http://lyluanchinhtri.vn/home/en/index.php/cadre-training/item/378vietnam%E2%80%99s-educational-philosophy-from-tradition-to-ho-chi-minhera.html https://www.turcomat.org/index.php/turkbilmat/article/download/5699/4768#:~:tex t=Ho%20Chi%20Minh%20said%20that%20students%20should%20not%20be%20 trained,must%20have%20self%2Dstudy%20instruction I APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES The purpose of the questions below is to find out the methods to enhance motivation in self-learning of English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education Your answers are just for research aim and any private information is kept confidential Thanks for your cooperation! Are you male/female? How long have you learned English? Q1 How you feel about self-learning? Very important Important Normal Partly important Not important Q2 How often you spend for self-learning out of school? Everyday More than times a week 2-3 times a week Never Others Q3 Which of the following period of time you spend for every II self-learning? At least hours Just in hour Less than 30 minutes Maximum 15 minutes Others Q4 What are advantages of self-learning? (more than one option) You can choose your own pace, materials, methods, everything is up to you You are less stressed out about failing in front of another person You don’t pay the teacher Is neither location constrained nor time-bound, and all that is needed is access to a computer and a reliable internet connection to engage in self-learning Can take place from the comfort of anywhere as well as the luxury of any time means that it is quite valuable for those who are location or time constrained It’s cheap or free You set the pace You can it at any time You get better at doing it Others Q5 What are some disadvantages of self-learning? (more than one option) III No self-discipline No face-to-face interaction Lack of flexibility Lack of input from trainers Slow evolution Good e-learning is difficult to Lack of transformational power Others Q6 Do you find it difficult to self-learn? Always Usually Often Sometimes Rarely Never Q7 Which of the following items make you distract from self -learning? Mass media; mobile phone, computer, TV Surroundings influence: noise, temperature, insects Your own daily emotion: being sad, being happy Unfamiliar routine: sitting long time at one place, just look, read, watch Tiredness, poor health condition Without private room at home Others IV Q8 Which steps make self-learning effective to you? (rank from the highest to the lowest with number 1-7) Be curious and serious Set learning goal Assess your learning resources Engage in a learning process Apply what you Learn Collaborate with other learners Share your knowledge Q9 What type of self-learning you want to try? Stay at home alone to study by oneself Change the place daily: home, café, library Meet other friends to study together Seek online support from teachers, friends On-class self-learning under teachers’ coaching and orienting No need to self – study any more Others:………………………………………………………… APPENDIX II V INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS Question 1: How often you spend time for self-learning? Question 2: Do you think self-study is important? if yes, give some benefits Question 3: Do you have any difficulty in self-learning? THE END