Luận văn thạc sĩ Luật học: Các yếu tố gây mất động lực ảnh hưởng đến việc sinh viên chuyên ngành tiếng Anh tiếp thu tiếng Anh pháp lý tại Đại học Luật Hà Nội

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGHANOI LAW UNIVERSITY TRAN THIEN NGAN 443016 DEMOTIVATING FACTORS AFFECTING LEGAL ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENT ACQUISITION OF LEGAL ENGLISH

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY

TRAN THIEN NGAN

443016

DEMOTIVATING FACTORS AFFECTING LEGAL ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENT

ACQUISITION OF LEGAL ENGLISH AT

HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY

Hanoi — 2023

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY

TRAN THIEN NGAN

443016

DEMOTIVATING FACTORS AFFECTING LEGAL ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENT

ACQUISITION OF LEGAL ENGLISH AT

HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY

Major: Legal English

STUDENT DECLARATION

I hereby state that I: Tran Thien Ngan — ID 443016, being a candidate for thedegree of Bachelor of Arts accept the requirements of the University relating tothe retention and use of Bachelor's Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in thelibrary should be accessible for the purposes ofstudy and research, in accordancewith the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan orreproduction of the paper

April 21", 2023

Supervisor’s confirmation Researcher’s signature

Vu Van Tuan, Ph.D Tran Thien Ngan

1H

A thesis is never successfully completed in isolation I received help,encouragement, critique, consolation and from many people who deserveacknowledgement

The researcher is greatly indebted to the invaluable assistance and support

of the following generous and talented people who have made an otherwiseabstract, complex and random thoughts come into shape that this work is rightnow, wishes to express her sincere gratitude to all those who helped her in thecompletion of this humble research work which she hopes to give as hercontribution to the efforts of teachers to provide excellence in the completion ofher research They are legion but because of limited space only few are named herewhile the most are treasured more in her memory and her heart

She would like to heartily express her deepest appreciation and gratitude toher Supervisor, Dr Vu Van Tuan, for his incomparable wisdom, willing andunparallel expertise giving the author the needed guidance in the completion of thestudy;

She would love to thank all of the lecturers from the Faculty of ForeignLanguages, Hanoi Law University who have provided her with invaluablesources of knowledge and instructions during her study at this Institute;

She also wishes to thank the members of the thesis defence committeeswho were generous with their expertise and precious time Their pieces of advice,insightful criticisms, and patient encouragement aided the writing of thisdissertation in innumerable ways;

She offers her sincerest thanks to student participants who haveenthusiastically participated in the study Their participation is greatly important

to the completion of the research;

Last but never least, she must express her sincere gratitude to her familyand friends whose support has been a great significance to the success of herthesis;

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And to all those who in one way or another made this work reach its fruition,the researcher is especially blessed to have had them all.

ABSTRACTDifferent countries promulgate and implement different kinds of legacysystem to govern all activities, so there is a growing need for graduates who canmaster at least legal English to address this issue Most educational systems haveequipped students with knowledge of laws, especially in countries using English

as a foreign language where there is a combination of English and legal knowledge.This study examined four demotivating factors heavily influencing the progress oflearners who acquire legal English There are 222 representative legal Englishmajor students, who are in the courses of K44, K45, and K46 at Hanoi LawUniversity in a mixed-methods approach The results reveal that the respondentsremark that infrastructure-related factors and university/faculty-related factors areregarded as demotivating factors For teacher-related factors and student-relatedfactors are not considered as problematic to them It is advisable for schooladministrators to adjust their policies to upgrade the infrastructures to serve betterteaching qualities by reserving specialized spaces for legal English major students

to improve their legal English competency in mooting situations there Besides,they claim that there should be more chances to exchange their legal Englishabilities with other institutions and current legal practical venues to keep themupdated The findings of this study would benefit for school administrators,teachers of legal English, students and anyone who is concerned about thecapability of using legal English at work

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1 Rationale for study

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

2.1 Aims of the study

2.2 Objectives of the study

PART IT DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

English for Specific Purposes

¬ —¬ m== ằ= =oN NN OW mm C

CHAPTER 3 RESULTS AND DICUSSION

Demographic information of the respondents

The analysis of teacher-related factors affecting major legal

The analysis of university/faculty-related factors affecting major

legal English students

The summative analysis of students’ semi-structured interviews

about the demotivating factors affecting legal English major

students

The contrastive analysis about the demotivating factors affecting

legal English major students in terms of courses

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Table 5 University/faculty-related factors

Table 6 Summarized analysis of students’ semi-structured interviews

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: English for Academic Purposes: English language teaching: Second language

: English for occupational purposes: English for vocational purposes: English for medical purposes: English for business purposes: English for legal purposes: English for sociocultural purposes: Vietnam People’s Supreme Court: Ministry of Education and Training: Ministry of Justice

: Judicial Academy: Hanoi Procuratorate University: Hanoi National University Faculty of Law: HCMC Law University

: Hue University School of Law: Can Tho University Faculty of Law: Vinh University Faculty of Law: Trade Union University Faculty of Law: Saigon University Faculty of Law: Da Lat University Faculty of Law

XI

PART I.INTRODUCTIONThis part provides the context of the research by explaining the rationale,aims of the study, research questions, significance and scope of the study, alongwith the structure of the paper.

1 Rationale for study

Teaching and learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) rather thangeneral English (GE) or English for Academic Purposes (EAP) has become a focalconcern in the field of English language teaching (ELT) In its essence, Englishhas shown continued impacts on the global integration in that it has become themeans of international communication, or commonly so-called lingua franca ESPlanguage learning and teaching, to a certain extent, stems from the enormouschanges and massive economic development thanks to the far-reachingconsequences of globalization, which highlights the growth of multinationalcapitalism of some global superpowers such as Britain or the US These countrieshave an age-old accumulation of immigration from different countries; therefore,they need to employ one common language to exchange information in their dailylives and at work In addition, ideologies of progress and the desire to facilitateinternational communication, giving opportunities for knowledge expansion haveformulated the influential motivation in ESP’s establishment As such, ESPlearners are not acquiring the language for general educative purposes or for theunderstanding of literature in which the language is the subject matter of thecourse, but rather a means to the acquisition of some quite different body ofknowledge or set of skills which inquire the modification of the practicalknowledge of relevant fields (Vakilifard et al 2020) In other words, context andcontent play crucial roles in ESP pedagogy because context refers to what situationlearners would be using language skills and content implies what he or she needs

to achieve through one language (e.g., Benahnia, 2017; Wahyunengsih, 2018) Inpractice, many ELT educators (e.g., Dja’ far et al, 2016; Lebedev & Tsybina, 2018;Martinovié & Poljakovié, 2010) have perceived ESP as a radical break with amajor, worldwide educational tide of change As noted in the study of Negova and

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Umarova (2022), the finding asserts that ESP is widely recognized as sustainedgrowth and has made a substantial contribution to the field of English languagelearning and teaching With the aim to meet the communication needs of rapidlyindustrialising nations, overcome local barriers to communication, often bypromoting ‘global’ languages such as English at the expense of local languages,and contribute to the growth of multinational corporations, ESP is thought to befunctioned as more efficient, being targeted to the specific needs of the learnersfor their workplaces or academic settings (e.g., Starfield, 2016; Tahririan &Chalak, 2019; Wahyunengsih, 2018).

Obviously, one of the most remarkable factors highly influencing language

USinskiené (2014) state that motivation enables ESP students to be moreachievable and competent in their learning outcomes Motivation could beregarded as a driving force, determining human’s behaviour; thus, research onsecond language (L2) in general and ESP motivation in particular is to highlightthe need analysis of learners’ desire to keep his or her determination on acquiringthe target language However, motivation to learn ESP is obstructive due to itsnature such as peculiar writing conventions and exclusive glossary, which is so-called demotivating factors in ESP language learning and teaching studies, and areoften ignored in the research field In its essence, demotivation is possiblyinterpreted as the negligence of adequate motivation to perform a specific goal.Vakilifard et al (2020) opine that demotivation refers to the state in which a lack

of motivation results from specific external causes As a result, demotivatingfactors hinder learners’ learning motivation and result in unsuccessful competence

of ESP proficiency Consequently, understanding demotivating factors in ESPteaching and learning helps both teachers and learners be aware of the risks thatweaken student motivation Actually, there is a number of demotivating factors inESP learning and teaching, including student-related factors, teacher-relatedfactors, infrastructure-related factors, and university/faculty-related factors Thesefactors explain the reasons why students commonly regard de-motivation as ateacher-owned problem due to partially inappropriate teachers’ behaviors

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Consequently, demotivation probably leads to a negative impact on students’ ESPlearning outcomes In a similar vein, Dérnyei and Ushioda (2021) assert thatdemotivation can have a negative impact on the learners’ attitudes and behaviours,ESP learning outcomes, and teachers’ motivation In other words, ESP teachingand learning under the demotivated condition brings about low achievement ofexpected learning outcomes As such, successful ESP language learning requiresserious avoidance of demotivating factors Although there are some studies (e.g.,Navickiené et al., 2015; Nikolaeva & Synekop, 2020; Vũ, 2012) investigatingstudent demotivation in ELT, no study has examined ESP demotivating factorsinfluencing learners’ expected learning outcomes in a single study Doérnyei andUshioda (2021) regard demotivation as “another side of motivation” (p 138), soone way to increase the quality of ESP language learning and teaching in foreigncountries is getting familiar with demotivating factors among the studentsacquiring ESP subjects.

Currently, the focal issues have concentrated on the ESP approaches, whilenot many studies have been conducted on practical factors affecting the efficiency

of acquiring ESP Being aware of the importance of understanding ESP andbenefits of recognizing factors demotivating students in studying ESP, particularlylegal English, the researcher decided to implement this study with K44, K45, andK46 legal English major students at Faculty of Legal Foreign Languages at HanoiLaw University during the second term of the 2022-2023 academic year

2 Aims and objectives of the study

2.1 Aims of the study

The study on investigating the demotivating factors in learning legalEnglish is undertaken with these following aims:

- To find out the demotivating factors affecting English major students atHanoi Law University

- To examine how English major students address the demotivating factors

in legal English acquisition

2.2 Objectives of the study

- To conduct a survey questionnaire and semi-structured interviews toidentify which factors affecting most legal English major students in learning legalEnglish

- To analyze the primary data to compare which factors affect students most

in acquiring their effectiveness of learning legal English

3 Research questions

Generally, the study aimed to determine the demotivating factors inlearning legal English at Hanoi Law University to serve as the ground forrecommending some effective initiatives for learning better at legal English

Specifically, it sought to answer the following questions:

1 What typical features cause the demotivating factors on legal Englishmajor students in regard to legal English learning?

2 How would legal English major students evaluate which factors affectthem most?

4 Scope of the study

The study examines the perception of 222 legal English students who are inK44, K45, and K46 in terms of finding out demotivating factors affecting theirlegal English major students during the second term of the 2022-2023 academic

year.

5 Significance of the study

The findings would contribute some implications and useful references forESP language teachers, researchers, learners and anyone who is involved in ESPlanguage learning and teaching to improve the efficiency of ESP acquisition ingeneral and legal English in particular This would also recommend the schooladministrators to adjust their programs to meet the requirements of the currentsituations in need of legal English with school leavers

6 Methodology

The study adopted the mixed-methods approach to examine thedemotivating factors affecting legal English students in learning legal English Thedata were exploited via the researcher-made questionnaire and semi-structuredinterviews in which the questionnaire was designed to elicit information of therespondents' attitudes towards the difficulties they might encounter while studyinglegal English, while semi-structured interviews would bring more subjectiveperspectives from students The data would be assembled and processed carefully

to get the liable results to come up with conclusion and put forward someimplications for more effective legal English teaching and learning

7 Structure of the study

The study includes 3 Parts mainly organize as follows:

The first part, Introduction, consists of research’s rationale, aims, researchquestions, scope, methodology, and the importance of the study are put forward

The second part, Development, is subdivided into the following categories:Chapter 1 Literature Review specifies theoretical background, as well asrelated researches concerning demotivating factors affecting student acquisition oflegal English at Hanoi Law University

Chapter 2 Methodology provides details of the data collection instruments,procedures of data collection and procedures of data analysis — conducted at HLU

Chapter 3 Results and Discussion illustrate the detailed results of thesurvey; in specific, students’ tendency towards demotivating factors affectingstudent acquisition of legal English at Hanoi Law University is analyzed

Chapter 4 Recommendations are proposed with an aim to addressdemotivating factors affecting student acquisition of legal English at Hanoi LawUniversity

The last part, Conclusion, summarizes the study’s result and identifieslimitations to the research

PART H DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEWThis chapter reviews the theory related to the area of demotivating factorsaffecting student acquisition of legal English The knowledge accumulated would

be used to formulate the theoretical framework for the research

1.1 English for Specific Purposes

ESP refers to the teaching and learning of English as a second or foreignlanguage where the goal of learners is to use English in a particular domain.Traditionally, the teaching of ESP, in its early days, was largely motivated by theneed to communicate across languages in areas such as commerce and technology.This has temporally expanded to include other areas such as English for academicpurposes (EAP), English for occupational purposes (EOP), English for vocationalpurposes (EVP), English for medical purposes (EMP), English for businesspurposes (EBP), English for legal purposes (ELP), and English for socioculturalpurposes (ESCP) (Canarana et al., 2020) Notably, Starfield (2016) indicates thatESP is assumably viewed as an approach to ELT in which all decisions as to contentsand methods are subject to the learners’ reasons for acquiring ESP It is, thus, not amatter of teaching specialized varieties of English; not a matter of science wordsand grammar for scientists; not different from any other kinds of ELT, but concernswhat learners want to master a foreign language and the range of knowledge andabilities that enable them to use it Sharing the same opinion as Starfield (2016),Lebedev and Tsybina (2018) suppose that ESP is an approach to language teaching.Consequently, the aforementioned researchers refute to consider ESP as a product;that is, there is no particular kind of language or methodology nor does it consist of

a particular type of reading materials It is rather an approach to language learningbased on learner’s need Besides, Mauludin (2021) assumes that generally learnersmerely study English because they are interested in English language or Englishcultures as such, but because they need English for study or work purposes in theglobal environment In addition, Didenko and Filatova (2017) investigate thedefinition of ESP by identifying its absolute and variable characteristics Their

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definition makes a distinction between four absolute and two variablecharacteristics Particularly, ESP consists of English language teaching, which is (/)designed to meet the specified needs of the learner; (2) related in content (i.e., in itsthemes and topics) to particular disciplines, occupations and activities; (3) centred

on the language appropriate to those activities in syntax, lexis, discourse, semantics,and analysis of this discourse; (4) in contrast to General English ESP may be, but1S not necessarily: (/) restricted as to the language skills to be learned (e.g., readingonly); (2) not taught according to any pre-ordained methodology (p 2) Therefore,ESP can be simply deduced as the use of a specific variety of English in a specificcontext to meet the specific needs of the learner as the guiding principle proposedfor ESP by Flowerdew (2012) In other words, needs analysis and curriculum in ESPare central to design any courses within the ESP context

1.2 Legal English

Legal education normally commences with an undergraduate degreealthough in some countries law may be taught in secondary schools along withinstruction in civics or citizenship In the United States, most law schools requiregraduate entry and this is also the case in India and Pakistan The undergraduatelaw degree — in which the foundations of legal knowledge are laid — is thus thenormal initial or academic stage of legal education although most countries permit

a measure of flexibility with regard to entry (and exit) to professional qualification.Postgraduate degrees serve to prepare for specialist areas of legal work, a career inacademic law or cleanse an undistinguished first degree, and here students mayfollow a taught Master’s course or read for a higher degree leading to an MPhil orPhD In the Anglo-American system, and many other countries in the common lawworld, students are expected to pass examinations in four or five subjects at theend of each year It is also increasingly common for law schools themselves to beranked according to their research and teaching quality, such rankings appearing

in league tables organized and publicized by the government or leading

newspapers.

There was no formal legal education in Vietnam before 1858 During theperiod of French colonisation (from 1858 to 1954), a law school was established

in 1931 in Hanoi Through the 1960s, the DRV Ministry of Justice had to be closeddue to the war To meet the demand for judicial officials at this time, a JudicialTraining School was established in 1960 under the Vietnam People’s SupremeCourt (VPSC), which was missioned to train and provide human resources forVietnamese courts After the Vietnam War, a faculty of law was established in

1976 at Hanoi University (under the Ministry of Education and Training — theMOET), named Hanoi University Faculty of Law In 1979, the Judicial TrainingSchool was upgraded and renamed Hanoi College of Law Its mission was to trainjudicial officials for the Vietnamese court system In 1982, this College wasbrought under the administration of the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), and in the sameyear, it was merged with Hanoi University Faculty of Law to form Hanoi LawUniversity (HLU) This is known as the first and biggest law school in Vietnam todate In 1994, as required by judicial reform in Vietnam, another Judicial TrainingSchool was established under the VPSC to deliver training to court officials Aftermore than 20 years of operation, this school was upgraded and renamed the CourtAcademy in July 2015 Its mission is to provide professional training for courtofficials throughout the nation At present, the Court Academy is one amongseveral professional training institutions operating alongside law schools inVietnam, including the Judicial Academy (JA) and Hanoi Procuratorate University(HPU) Hanoi University re-opened a faculty of law in 1986 In 1995, HanoiUniversity was divided into two universities, the University of Natural Sciencesand the University of Social Sciences and Humanities The faculty of law was thenunder the administration of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities.After Hanoi University was upgraded and renamed Hanoi National University in

2000, this faculty of law became Hanoi National University Faculty of Law(HNUFL)

In the South, under the administration of the Republic of Vietnam (RV),three law schools were established during the Vietnam War: Saigon Faculty ofLaw, Can Tho Faculty of Law and Hue Faculty of Law However, there is no

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evidence that these early institutions have had an impact on the establishment andoperation of the current law schools which have been established since the end ofthe Vietnam War in 1975 In 1976, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) University ofEconomics was established and Saigon Faculty of Law was merged with thisuniversity In 1996 HCMC University of Economics established a Department ofLaw missioned to teach Fundamental Law and Commercial Law for non-lawstudents It was then upgraded and renamed the Faculty of Law in 2001, and started

to deliver legal education at the undergraduate level in 2005 In 1981, HLU openedanother campus in HCMC named Hanoi Law University’s campus in Ho Chi MinhCity In the late 1980s, HCMC University formed a faculty of law with its pre-1975-trained lawyers In 1996, it was merged with Hanoi Law University’scampus in Ho Chi Minh City to form HCMC Law University (HCMCLU) underHCMC University After HCMC University was upgraded and renamed HCMCNational University (HCMCNU) in 2000, HCMCLU separated and came underthe administration of the MOET At present, HCMCLU is one of the two majorVietnamese law schools, along with HLU Also in 2000, another faculty of lawwas established at HCMCNU This faculty of law was later merged with theFaculty of Economics to form the School of Economics and Law in 2010 underthe administration of HCMCNU (HCMCNU SEL)

In central Vietnam, the Hue University Faculty of Law was established in

1957 in the Republic of Vietnam It was closed after reunification in 1975 There

is no evidence of a connection between this faculty of law and the current HueUniversity School of Law (HUSL) In fact, HUSL was established in 1995 as theDepartment of Law under Hue University of Sciences In 2009, it separated fromHue University of Sciences and became Hue University Faculty of Law In early

2015, under a decision by the Vietnamese Prime Minister, it was upgraded andrenamed Hue University School of Law Additionally, many other legal educationinstitutions have been established throughout the nation such as Can ThoUniversity Faculty of Law (CUFL), Vinh University Faculty of Law (VUFL),Trade Union University Faculty of Law (TUUFL), Saigon University Faculty of

Law (SUFL), Da Lat University Faculty of Law (DUFL), and others Most of theselaw schools, however, are new and small in size.

1.3 Demotivation

“To demotivate” in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, v 10"! defines

“to make somebody less keen to work or study” They do not wish to complete oneactivity or seek to execute it without any effort because there are only a few thingsbeneficial or valid in their minds when doing anything Zoghi and Far (2014) regarddemotivation as a lack of motivation produced by the individual's sentiments ofincompetence and powerlessness when confronting with an activity Similarly, Vũ(2012) recognized four sources of learners’ demotivation as follows:

Learners believe that they lack the merit and ability to accomplish a specialactivity;

Learners think that the strategies of learning are ineffective;

Learners come to the conclusion that the effort and the energy needed or theintended result is too much;

Learners start feeling that their attempts are not responding and enoughregarding the special task to be accomplished

According to Dörnyei and Ushioda (2021), they emphasize that

“Demotivation concerns specific external forces that reduce or diminish themotivational basis of a behavioral intention or an ongoing action” (p 143).Therefore, demotivation could be the negative counterpart of motivation.Furthermore, a demotivated learner is someone who has lost his or her interest forsome reasons The loss of interest can derive from various sources of demotivation.For instance, a teacher who cannot control the class or a boring textbook can act as

a demotivation for a learner However, not all researchers agree with this definition.Mauludin (2021) argues that Dörnyel and Ushioda (2021) limit the originaldefinition of demotivation to only external factors, and also points out that, in fact,self-confidence reduction and negative attitude are regarded as demotivating factors

' Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (2020) Demotivate.

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/demotivate?q=demotivate

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in the ESP learning process Then, they suggest the need to extend Dérnyei andUshioda’s definition of demotivation (2021), including both external and internalfactors which reduce or diminish motivation during the process of ESP teaching andlearning The loss of interest or pleasure in learning can proceed from differentsources of demotivation, such as teachers and teaching methods, learnersthemselves, learning conditions like physical conditions and textbooks.

an individuals’ motivation to study and work Unmotivated learners used to beencouraged, but in some situations, for unwanted objective reasons, they lostmotivation Diminished motivation can occur when an individual has another choice

or when they are distracted For example, a student, instead of going to school,decides to stay at home to play games Therefore, demotivation can be understood

as a process of reducing or weakening a learner’s interest and motivation andinvolves both internal and external factors

According to Harmer (2010), there are four factors that can be inauspicious

to the learners’ motivation:

- Physical conditions mean the premises where classes take place Hygienenorms are usually not a problem at Lithuanian schools and universities, but class-rooms equipped with IT devices and having access to the internet are more attractiveand increase students’ learning motivation;

- Method of teaching which refers to the way the students are taught willaffect their motivation Whenever the learners feel bored with the teacher’s methods,their motivation will likely be lost or will gradually decrease;

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- A teacher, as the most powerful variable of motivation and demotivation,can become a major part in demotivating the learners Therefore, a teacher should

be aware of the factors stimulating learners’ intrinsic motivation: to set a personalexample with his/her own behavior; to create a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere in theclassroom; to present the tasks properly; to develop a good relationship with thelearners; to personalize the learning process; to increase learners’ linguistic self-confidence; to make the language classes interesting; to promote learners’autonomy; to increase the learners’ goal-orientation; to familiarize learners with thetarget language culture;

- Success refers to the appropriate level of challenge designed by the teacher

If the difficulty of work and activity is too high or too low, it can lead students to ademotivated situation in learning

Hosseinpour and Tabrizi (2013) investigated demotivating factors in EFL

in an Iranian context with 382 Persian learners of English The quantitative studyexamined seven factors including a) inadequate facilities, b) reduced self-confidence, c) class characteristics, d) lack of purpose to study English, e) teachingmethods, f) teachers and teaching styles, and g) negative attitudes toward Englishand the culture of English-speaking countries as demotivators The results revealedthat low-proficient learners perceived reduced self-confidence and negativeattitudes as more demotivating than their counterparts at other levels ofproficiency This research is not carried out with a qualitative approach to increasethe liability of the research outcomes Following the above research, Han et al.(2019) conducted a study to measure six demotivated constructs such as teachers,characteristics of classes, experiences of failure, class environment, class materials,and lack of interest The study determines main demotivating factors affectingTurkish EFL university students’ English language learning process The resultsindicate that students report negative attitudes of the classmates, teacher-relatedfactors, personal issues, class characteristics, test anxiety, failure experiences, andeducation system This research, however, does not compare teachers’ perspectives

to highlight the students’ viewpoints Similarly, Tran and Moskovsky (2022)examined Vietnamese EFL teachers’ perceptions of student-related demotivating

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factors, and the ways these factors influenced teachers and their teaching The studyemployed semi-structured interviews with 30 participating EFL teachers from 14universities in Vietnam The results proved that students limited Englishproficiency, negative attitudes towards English and English language learning,poor classroom performance, and low academic achievement are considered themost potent student-related demotivating factors for Vietnamese EFL teachers,which heavily has a range of negative consequences for teachers’ emotions,behaviours, and attitudes This study also has a delimitation when there is alimitation of respondents involved in the study In fact, there are severaldemotivating factors in learning English in general and ESP in particular Thefactors that cause the loss of interest or pleasure in learning can be internal orexternal In the present study, the demotivating factors investigated are mainly fromthe learners, the teachers and the infrastructure (Sakai & Kikuchi, 2009).

1.5 Previous studies

Typically, Ahmadi and Bajelani (2012) in their scheme supposed that thestudy outcomes as one of the indications of the study quality depend on the teaching-learning environment including teaching process (approaches, attitudes, behavior,materials, and modes of learning) and course design (contents, organization, andaims) This scheme presents the materials, intellectual, and human components ofthe teaching-learning environment, which are studied and discussed by scholars andpractitioners of the higher education field, trying to assess their impact on the quality

of studies and the ways to improve it The human aspect and analysis of the students’attitudes and their learning motivation are the key factors defining the studyoutcomes and, in the long run, the study quality Didenko and Filatova’s researchproject in 2017 was about the teacher’s role in changing a learning atmosphere into

a demotivating situation The study was done through the analysis of the writtenworks by 250 students about their learning experiences The findings revealed thatthe personal relationship of the teacher with the learners, the attitude of the teacher,the style differences between the teachers and the students, and the type of classactivities all acted as demotivating factors in the educational context

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Kikuchi (2009) interviewed 42 university students to speak about theirEnglish learning in order to find out the demotivating factors in English classes Theresults showed that there were five most common demotivating factors in Englishclasses They were the teachers’ behaviors, the use of the grammar translationmethod, the entrance examinations of the universities, the emphasis onmemorization, and the course books and materials presented in English classes.Soulimane (2015) concluded in their study that there were two main causes of losingmotivation when studying ESP Firstly, difficulties in understanding the Englishlanguage are seen as the first obstacle in the eyes of the learners Many students find

it difficult to speak and write in English because of their low level of profieciency

in this language Secondly, learners’ poor language proficiency, as far as grammarand vocabulary are concerned, is among the principal causes of their demotivation.The students’ poor performance in English decreases demotivation and affects theirdesire to learn

In Vietnam, many studies have been carried out to uncover the students’demotivation in learning legal English Lan (2022) investigated five factors causingdemotivation in learning English, namely (1) teachers’ competence and theirteaching styles (incorrect pronunciation and intonation, unclear instructions, andnegative behaviors); (2) learning environment and facilities (discouraging peers,overload activities, lack of modern technology); (3) assessment of speaking skills;(4) self-confidence; and (5) little intrinsic motivation (little interest/effort) Theoutcomes confirm that learning environment and facilities are regarded as thebiggest demotivating factors discouraging teachers from helping their students to

become active learners Another research project was conducted by Huyén (2012)

at a college The aim of the study was to discover the factors causing first-year English major students’ demotivation in learning English speaking skills In thisstudy, five demotivating factors among learners were revealed: (1) lack of intrinsicmotivation; (2) lack of self-confidence; (3) learning environment; (4) teachers’competence, behaviors and teaching methods; (5) textbook and time for speakingskills The findings emphasize the need to activate students’ self-confidence duringthe lessons An investigation into the factors affecting the students’ learning

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attitudes at a university in Central Highland of Vietnam was done by Tin & Loan in

2011 The findings show that teachers and their teaching methods have the strongestpositive influence on the students’ learning attitudes Vũ (2012) in his master thesisinvestigated three main demotivating factors influencing first-year non-Englishmajor students at a university The students revealed that students’ lack of Englishvocabulary, the large class size and inadequate English level in an English class, andteachers’ teaching methods had negative impacts on students’ motivation in theirlearning process Huong (2021) investigated challenges in learning legal Englishfrom students’ perspectives The author concluded that notable difficulties arisefrom the distinctive characteristics of legal English, differences in legal systemsbetween jurisdictions, and insufficient background knowledge of the laws

It is clear that there have been many studies investigating the factors thatdemotivate learners in learning English in Vietnam The survey subjects are mainlyhigh school and university students However, the cadets’ demotivation to learnEnglish, especially ESP, at police universities in Vietnam is still a research gap.1.6 Summary

This chapter, in general, has reviewed the previous studies concerningdemotivating factors affecting student acquisition of legal English With the vastknowledge investigated, it helps the researcher to determine the theoreticalframework which greatly contributes to the formation and basis of implementingresearch accurately In the first section of the chapter, the overview of perspectives

on English for specific purposes was insightfully discussed in order to capture thegeneral ideas about demotivating factors affecting student acquisition of legalEnglish The second section of the chapter addressed a variety of definitions oflegal English with an insight investigation of its nature The third section mentionsthe various theories relative to demotivation The fourth part discusses thedemotivating factors that have influenced the ESP learning process The fifth partoverviews previous studies discussing demotivating factors affecting students’acquisition of legal English

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Following this chapter, the researcher turned her attention to the mostimportant parts of this chapter by presenting the methodology to investigatedemotivating factors affecting student acquisition of legal English Noticeably,armed with enough knowledge relating to demotivating factors affecting studentacquisition of legal English, the researcher felt confident to conduct this research.

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CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGYThis chapter presents the research methods and techniques used for the datacollection The chapter begins with research design, which served as the roadmap

of the research, following a restatement of research questions, which are used toguide the process of data collection, and next information about the participants isalso presented This is followed by the discussion of the instrument used for datacollection, the data collection procedures and data analysis are clarified to get theresults of the research

2.1 Research design

The mixed-methods research was basically designed to conduct a sectional study of 222 representative legal English students, who were in K44,K45, and K46 courses at Hanoi Law University Approximately 430 legal Englishstudents at Hanoi Law University constituted the study population; however, theresearcher was, within the constraints of time and money, unable to collectinformation from all the population, so a stratified sampling formula (Slovin’sformula) was used to select a sample of 207 respondents For the ease andconvenience, the questionnaire was implemented via the active Google form link,which was sent to the participants’ addresses within a period of two weeks For thesemi-structured interviews, they were conducted over the phone with the 15student participants, following permission to record the interviews for the singlepurpose of transcribing the responses for this study Then, two sources of data wereaddressed by IBM SPSS v.25 application for the questionnaire, and NVivoapplication v.12 for the interview recordings The researcher exploited the resultsfrom two sources to consolidate the validity of the research findings

cross-2.2 Research Question Restated

To orient the study, the following questions should be clarified in order tospecify the demotivating factors in learning legal English at HLU

1 What typical features cause the demotivating factors on legal Englishmajor students in regard to legal English learning?

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2 How would legal English major students evaluate which factors affectthem most?

2.3 Participants

The participants were selected from three courses; namely K44 with 125legal English students, K45 with 112, and K46 with 193 In order to select thesamples from the large population, the researcher used the random samplingtechnique formula to estimate sampling size by adopting Slovin’s formula with e

= +5% to choose the equivalent samples from each course

N

nu 14+N*(ey?

n = number of samples

N = total population

e = error margin / margin of error

The outcomes yielded that K44 course had been selected 60 legal studentsout of 125 ones, K45 with 54 learners out of 112, and K46 with 93 legal studentsover 193 students Totally, 207 participants agreed to participate in the surveyquestionnaire and another batch including 15 students accepted to take part in thesemi-structured interviews Thus, the study involved 222 legal English majorstudents at HLU

2.4 Research instruments

As aforementioned, this study employed the researcher-made questionnairebasing on the factual and behavioural criteria recommended by Dérnyei andTaguchi (2010) For the survey questionnaires, they included 4 groups with 80statements equally dividing into these factors, namely teacher-related factors,student-related factors, infrastructure-related factors, and university/faculty-related factors For the semi-structured interviews, they comprised of 20 questionsfor student interviews, together with another 20 ones for practitioners’ interviews.The questionnaires were constructed internally before they were sent to 4 experts

on legal English language teaching and legal practitioners for content validation

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After that, the questionnaires were fine-tuned properly before implementing a dryrun among a group of 30 students to validate the strengths and weaknesses Theresearcher retained the statements according to the range of confidence level (a =0.76 — 0.95, fairly high; Cronbach, 1951) The final survey questionnaires included

15 teacher-related factors, 14 student-related factors, 12 infrastructure-relatedfactors, and 10 university/faculty-related factors For semi-structured interviewswith students and teachers, 10 interview questions for students were selected.Finally, the final versions were again sent back to 4 experts to examine and validatethe liability

2.5 Procedures of data collection

After completing the preparation of the proper research instruments, andthe permission to conduct the study, the researcher composed an email embeddedwith an active link to a Google Form, then the questionnaire was sent to theparticipants’ email addresses The questionnaire, which included the researcher’sinstructions, explained the objectives and relevance of the study, assuredanonymity, and gave participants the option of discontinuing participation in thestudy The respondents were asked to return the questionnaire within two weeksafter the researcher’s email was sent Simultaneously, a contact number was alsoprovided in case a respondent had any questions Participants agreeing toparticipate in the semi-structured interviews expressed their availability over thephone for about 15 minutes After two sources of the research instrument wereselected via a snowball sampling technique during the time schedule, theresearcher implemented the process of data screening together to obtain the desiredsample size Then, the appropriate data was treated by IBM SPSS v.25 applicationfor the questionnaire, and NVivo v.12 application for the interview recordings.2.6 Data analysis

The data was collected, tabulated, analyzed, and interpreted usingdescriptive statistics Specially, frequency count and percentage were used to treatthe profile of the respondents Descriptive statistics was employed to addressLikert-scale statement to find out the means and standard deviations relevant to

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the interval scales such as never or almost never true (1.0 — 1.80), usually not true(1.81 — 2.60), somewhat true (2.61 — 3.40), usually true (3.41 — 4.20), and always

or almost always true (4.21 — 5.0) To verify the different perspectives of therespondents in terms of 4 ESP demotivating factors, ANOVA was utilized to testthe disparity To ascertain the accountability of the qualitative data, NVivo v.12application was employed to address the frequency of occurrence of therespondents’ perspectives in the semi-structured interviews

2.7 Summary

This chapter specifies the research design, research questions, datacollection instrument, participants’ profiles, data collection procedures, and dataanalysis It is conclusive that the questionnaire is suitable for data collection within

a quantitative study Statistical tools are available for the exploitation of datacollected by using IBM SPSS application V.25 and NVivo 12 for the purpose of

treatment.

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CHAPTER 3 RESULTS AND DICUSSION

In this chapter, the data collected through data analysis procedures of thequestionnaire survey are demonstrated and discussed Simultaneously, the findingswere examined thoroughly and compared with the previous studies to have rich,complicated, multi-dimensional ideas

3.1 Demographic information of the respondents

Table 1 presents the demographic information of the respondents who tookpart in the study Regarding gender, the majority of the participants are 175 femalestudents, accounting for 78.8%, and the rest includes 47 male students, equivalent

to 21.2% On taking their residence into account, students mostly come from ruralareas (n = 112; same as 50.5%) Next, 73 students (equal to 32.9%) are from urbanareas, and students from mountainous areas make up 16.7% or 37 learners Inregard to the duration of learning English, 179 students (similar to 80.6%) havebeen learning English for less than 15 years, and 43 students, which is equivalent

to 19.4%, have acquired English for less than 20 years When considering the time work relative to using legal English, 203 participants, similar to 91.4% do not

part-go outside to work, but only 19 respondents (comparable to 8.6%) are workingpart-time now For the examination of the level of motivation towards legalEnglish courses, the majority of students (7 = 181; identical to 81.5%) feel highlymotivated, the successive level of students also see it fairly motivated to studylegal English However, the small number of students (7 = 5; same as 2.3%) getspoorly motivated

Table 1 Profiles of the respondents involving in the study

Demographic information n Frequency Percent

Gender Male 47 21.2

222

Female 175 78.8Residence urban areas 73 32.9

rural areas 222 112 50.5

mountainous 37 16.7

areas

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The time length of studying Less than 15 179 80.6English years 222

Less than 20 43 19.4

years

Working part-time relative to Yes 19 8.6

using legal English No “ 203 91.4

The level of motivation little motivated 5 2.3

towards legal English motivated h2 36 16.2

courses highly motivated 181 81.5

3.2 The analysis of teacher-related factors affecting major legal English

students

Table 2 indicates the teacher-related factors affecting major legal Englishstudents in learning legal English As clearly illustrated in this table, theparticipants perceive that their learning outcomes in studying legal English aresomehow influenced by technological assistance (Mí = 3.14; SD = 731%).Unfortunately, major legal English students remark that teachers should adjusttheir lesson plans to match the current situation (WM = 2.20; SD = 890%), whichseems partially contradictory to the respondents’ assessments that teachers employinnovative pedagogical techniques to teach legal English subjects (/ = 3.00; SD

= 656%) Similarly, they agree to accept that teachers provide appropriate topicsfor students to study (M= 3.03; SD = 868%) English major students expect to getlegal English handouts before/after lessons (M = 3.85; SD = 665%), which issimilar to their perspectives to reckon that teachers fail to instruct students to self-study and encourage students’ autonomy in searching for information to enhancetheir legal English competence (M = 2.93; SD = 895%) It 1s quite surprising torecognize that major legal English students consider the topics covered in the legalEnglish courses to be rudimentary and boring (M = 4.06; SD = 863%) Whenasking them whether teachers explain explanatory knowledge about the legal fieldduring the lessons, major legal English students confess to receiving adequatelectures about what the legal areas refer to by looking at their refutation index (MV

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= 1.30; SD = 819%) Besides, legal English students see it somewhat true whenrealizing that teachers create an active atmosphere thanks to their classroommanagement (M = 3.34; SD = 527%) Students do not accept the idea of teachers,who do not regularly update their lectures in legal English classes (M = 2.53; SD

= 629%), and they also disagree that teachers do not show their care to all students

in the classroom (M = 2.46; SD = 818%) In the same vein, students refute thestatement that they do not receive adequate explanations relative to the legalEnglish knowledge (M = 2.15; SD = 614%) Students also remark that teachershave not given enough suggestions and instructions to students in searching forself-study legal English knowledge basing on the assistance of informationtechnology (M = 3.21; SD = 659%) In addition, students do not appreciate thatteachers are lack of respective legal knowledge to explain the difficult legalEnglish terminologies (M = 2.39; SD = 799%) Lastly, students believe thatteachers are somehow unable to develop four major legal English skills, they justfollow the preset syllabuses (Ä⁄ = 3.31; SD = 884%)

Overall, legal English major students do not think they are experiencingdemotivating factors relating to teachers Table 2 reveals that teaching aids andrealia used in the classrooms do not assist much in teaching demonstrations.Because of the complexity and difficulties of teaching legal English, teachersshould wisely employ these teaching facilities to enhance the effectiveness of thelectures through their careful lesson preparation This outcome is consistent withthose in the previous studies (Martinovié & Poljakovic, 2010; Hosseinpour &Tabrizi, 2013; Ardeo, 2016; Bosco, 2020), which emphasizes the importance ofinstructors using teaching aids to facilitate the explanation of the meaning of legalterms Concerning classroom management, teachers have done their best toprovide an active atmosphere, this is very important as class atmosphere wouldlead to the influence of student learning outcomes, either positive or negativeresults The impact of the teacher’s classroom management has a great influence

on student learning outcomes An active atmosphere motivates learners better attheir classroom participation This aspect is in line with the finding in the previousstudies (Tuan et al., 2021; Tuan et al., 2022) They opine that different classroom

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managements have somewhat influenced student learning outcomes and this isalso reflected by the disparity between novice and experienced teachers in terms

of classroom management styles For teachers’ professional pedagogy, the focalteaching activities depend ultimately on the teachers’ abilities to convey andinstruct learners to get the most fruitful achievements As glimpsed from Table 2,legal English major students state that teachers’ professional knowledge comes up

to their expectations Actually, teachers, who are in charge of teaching ESP ingeneral, and legal English in particular, require a proficient command of bothgeneral English and specified ESP knowledge It cannot be argued that GEteachers who are not trained intensively in specified ESP subjects are good atproviding an adequate understanding of technical terms or a piece of ESPinformation, which is also found in the research finding of Saqlain et al.’s (2020).However, learner autonomy is not promoted by ESP teachers, which might be due

to the preset syllabus requiring ESP teachers to cover a large amount of knowledgewhile the time allotment in class is not enough for teachers to broaden the ESPknowledge by checking and directing students’ self-study

Table 2 Teacher-related factors

Std

Statement N Mean Deviation Description

1 Use of technology (slides, computer 207 3.14 731 somewhatassisted learning, showing videos, true

etc.) in legal English courses

motivates me and affects my learning

2 I think the instructor used a useful 207 2.220.890 usually notand practical lesson plan true

3 I like the innovative pedagogical 207 3.00 656 somewhatmethod used by the instructor to teach true

legal English courses

4 I think the material used in the class 207 3.03 868 somewhat

is useful and it includes appropriate true

topics

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5 The teachers do not provide legal

English handouts before/after lessons

6 The teachers do not guide

searching/ reading more

documents/provide documents and

websites relating to the lessons in

legal English classes

7 I think the topics covered in the

legal English courses are rudimentary

and boring

8 The teachers do not communicate

with students during the learning

process with the relevant knowledge

of legal English courses

9 I like the atmosphere of my legal

English class thanks to instructors’

active classroom management

10 Teachers do not update the

lectures in legal English classes

according to the current situations

11 Teachers only give priority to

good students, not interested in the

others in teaching legal English

classes

12 Teachers do not answer all the

students' questions during the learning

process relating to the legal English

knowledge

13 Teachers teaching legal English

classes do not guide students to

self-study legal English knowledge basing

on the assistance of information

technology

14 Teachers often fail to explainthe 207 2.39 = 799 usually notdifficult legal English terminologies true

due to their lack of respective

knowledge about the equivalent

reference

15 Teachers do not help students 207 | 3.31 «| 884 somewhatimprove their four basic English skills true

— reading, speaking, listening and

writing, together with legal English

terminologies They just try to follow

the preset syllabuses

in learning English (M = 4.11; SD = 622%) Likewise, they keep informed aboutrecent progress in their legal English major thanks to learning English (/ = 3.92;

SD = 750%) Moreover, the respondents highly expect to be given a good job in

a global company (1⁄ = 4.04; SD = 680%) Students partially agree that they feeldemotivated in learning legal English due to a less comparative learningenvironment (M = 3.28; SD = 885%) From the outcome, legal English majorstudents reveal that they find it usually true to visualize their potential positionusing legal English to bear their responsibilities and a good command of legalEnglish helps them get a good job (M/= 3.88; M= 4.14, respectively) Besides, the

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respondents feel somewhat true about their future job by having a scientificdiscussion in legal English (M = 3.27; SD = 915%) They also consider itsomewhat true by recognizing non-equivalent lexical meanings between Englishwords and Vietnamese ones (MV = 3.33; SD = 811%) As such, they evaluate that

it is difficult for them to remember legal English words and their pronunciation (MV

= 3.79; SD = 806%) Students perceive usually true to communicate withinternational experts or colleagues in terms of legal English knowledge (IM = 3.86;

SD = 902%) They see it as somewhat true to apply their legal English knowledge

to handle their future position (= 2.92; SD = 719%) Moreover, the respondentsremark it is somehow true to have a scientific talk or presentation in English in aninternational event (M = 3.00; SD = 972%), which shares the similarity withanother statement confirming that they realize the importance of learning legalEnglish to understand the professors’ lectures and knowledge relating to allsubjects in their classes (VM = 2.99)

Student motivation in ESP readiness is one of the most important factors,which determine the level of learning achievements It can be seen clearly fromTable 3 that demotivated factors do not stem from student intrinsic motivation.Their readiness in learning ESP is essential for teachers to impose theirpedagogical practices to reach the learning outcomes It is obvious from Table 3that legal English major students have a good command of GE so they are able tocommunicate fluently in English Thus, it denotes that in order to get the targetedachievements students are advised to have a good GE background beforeregistering ESP subjects This perspective is similar to the previous studiesconducted by Tin and Loan (2011); Han et al., (2019), & Vakilifard et al., (2020).Furthermore, students are motivated by extrinsic motivation when they recognizeand are fascinated by the prospect that they are likely to use their legal Englishcapabilities to address their prospective careers The objective of any trainingcourse is to equip school leavers with well-trained jobs to meet the requirements

of work positions This finding somewhat shares similarities with other studies(Navickiené et al., 2015; Nikolaeva & Synekop, 2020; Lan, 2022), but their resultsderive from the needs analysis of general ESP, not any specific subject For the

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