Chuyên đề tốt nghiệp: Demotivating factors of Business English students in English lessons at NEU and strategies for remedying demotivation

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITYFACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGESDEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ENGLISH

x\NH TẾ QW

TRAN THI NGOC ANH

DEMOTIVATING FACTORS OF BUSINESS ENGLISH

STUDENTS IN ENGLISH LESSONS AT NEU AND STRATEGIESFOR REMEDYING DEMOTIVATION

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITYFACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGESDEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ENGLISH

TRAN THI NGOC ANH

DEMOTIVATING FACTORS OF BUSINESS ENGLISH

STUDENTS IN ENGLISH LESSONS AT NEU AND STRATEGIESFOR REMEDYING DEMOTIVATION

Hanoi, March 2023

First and foremost, I would like to show my gratitude to my supervisor MsNguyen Thi Thien Huong for giving me support and guidance through theprocess of making this thesis She always gives useful advice and a clear

explanation whenever I ask.

Also, my special thanks go to all of the BE students who participated infulfilling my survey, and all staff of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, NationalEconomics University for their dedicated and helpful suggestions for my futurejob and topic’s direction.

My appreciation also extended to the reliable work of many researchersand investigators The finding of their studies is convincing evidence helping mecomplete my study.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my friends in my team who arealso supervised by Ms Thien Huong for their friendliness and kindness Theyalways give me excellent advice and remind me of important information.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This study combined cooperative tasks with qualitative and quantitativeresearch approaches to examine the factors that students perceived asdemotivating in their English learning and their recommendations for addressingthem Eighty-one Business English freshmen and sophomores at NationalEconomics University answered an online questionnaire with 10 questions To fit

with the educational setting at NEU, the original collection of items wasmodified from two studies by Sakai and Kikuchi (2009) and Hassakhah,Mahdavi Zafarghandi, and Fazeli (2015) Four main factors were identified from

the analysis: learner-related factors, teacher-related factors, curriculum-relatedfactors, and environment-related factors Learner-related factors are the mostfrequent cause of low motivation for students Based on the findings, this reportconcluded by making some recommendations related to demotivating factors

which are helpful for BE students For internal factors, students can remotivate

themselves by “understanding the purpose of learning English” and “setting agoal” For external factors, teachers can remotivate students by “making a high-press response to a student’s idea, making fair reward, explaining answers inprecise detail, providing interesting learning materials, altering assessment types”.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONSLA: Second Language Acquisition

EFL: English as a foreign language

NEU: National Economics University

BE: Business English

Table 3 Research instruments

LIST OF TABLES

iv

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2 Proposal framework of demotivating factors in English lessons

Figure 4.1 Participant intake

Figure 4.2 The importance of knowing the demotivating factors in Englishlessons

Figure 4.3 Learner-related demotivating factors

Figure 4.4 Curriculum-related demotivating factors

Figure 4.5 Environment-related demotivating factors

Figure 4.6 Teacher-related demotivating factors

Figure 4.7 Frequency of demotivating factors

Figure 4.8 Potential solutions to learner-related demotivating factors

Figure 4.9 Potential solutions to curriculum-related demotivating factors

Figure 4.10 Potential solutions to environment-related demotivating factors

Figure 4.11 Potential solutions to teacher-related demotivating factors

Figure 5 SMART goals setting

In Rationale 11.2 The aims Toà 2

1.3 Research QU€SẨIOTIS - . G1 TH HH nh 3

1.4 Scope oi š.ồ.'"' 31.5 The significance of this S{UỈY - 5 11191 1v kg ng re 3

1.6 Structure Of the TÊDOYFK -ó- «6 G11 TH HH HH Hy 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEÔW HH ng ng nh 52.1 Definition of motivation and demotIVafION - 0 cv 5

2.1.1 Definition Of HIOTÏVGFÏOHH, SG Hết 5

2.1.2 Definition Of @IOFVAfÏOH cv kg việt 62.2 Related terms nh 62.2.1 AMOTVATION SH TH nhà 62.1.2 K€IHOfVAÍÏOHH nh TH Hư 62.3 Previous studies of demotivating ÝaCfOTS - - «se siết 72.4 Theoretical ÍTaIWOTK - sgk rệt 11

2.4.1 Internal sources Of €IOfÏVAfÏOH o5 rkeree 12

2.4.2 External sources Of đ@IIOflVAHHOHH SGK, 13

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY - 5 11 911911191 H1 9v ng ru 163.1 Research mmethO - s21 9T ng HH nh nh 173.2 xu ố ố 173.3 Research Setting 7n a Ö5ÕÕ 173.3.1 National ECONOMICS HHV€TSÏẨW Ă Ăn HH kg kg ru T73.3.2 The Faculty of Foreign Language, Department of Business English 193.4 Research 1nSfTUIT€TIS - G6 3 131 9n ng ng ngư 203.5 Data Collection 0 23

vi

3.6 Data annaÌÏS1S - - c 1n HH HT TH HH HH 23

CHAPTER 4 MAJOR FINDINGS G nnHnHnHnHg gggrưy 24

4.1 Demographic đÌafa - - - - 2s 11119 19v HH HH Hy 244.2 Students’ perception on demotivating factors in English lessons 24

4.3 Internal and external demotivating factors «++<ss++sssseeesse 25

4.3.1 Internal demotivating ƒCÍOFS Ăn ve 254.3.2 External demotivating Í((CÍOT cv key 264.4 Frequency of demotivating ÍaCẨOTS - «cv kg ng rưy 294.5 Potential SỌUfIOTiS Ghi rhm 30

CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDA TION sư 35

5.1 Recommendation for students 5 5 11191 S9 E9 rệt 355.2 Recommendation for teachers 6 5 11111 991 91 9 vn rrkt 37CONCLUSION 0d 4I

IS la cece 41

2 Limitations and suggestions for further Study «+++<<+++ss++ses+ 41

vii

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION1.1 Rationale

Nowadays, English is considered the most widely used global languagebecause of commercialization and globalization Thanks to English, people fromdifferent geographic regions, cultures, identities, and religions can exchangeinformation, knowledge, and technology In addition, all the formal studies orresearch projects are forcibly written in English.

The current development of globalization requires students to be active

and actively acquire knowledge In learning, to achieve high results, studentsmust focus and practice more than before However, along with the developmentof high technology and the change in lifestyle after the covid 19 pandemic, manystudents have changed their views and attitudes toward learning Specifically,after the pandemic, many universities have used two forms of learning in parallel(distance learning and face-to-face learning), including the National Economics

University The combination of these two forms means that students have to

change to accommodate a larger volume of assignments This combination isflexible because students can stay at home while still absorbing knowledge.

However, it causes more students to become unmotivated to go to school, leading

to reduced teacher-student interaction and, as a result, lower achievement.

In addition, the university level has much higher requirements in terms oflearning methods as well as the amount of knowledge to memorize Pupils mustactively acquire and absorb knowledge under the direction of teachers rather thanwaiting for teachers to give it to them as they did in high school In addition tolearning skills in class, students also have to practice many skills on their ownoutside of school These burdens gradually make students become exhausted.Most students in this circumstance do not understand why, despite their best

efforts, their academic performance is still decreasing and their interest in

extracurricular activities has diminished Instead of seeking help, many studentswill silently blame themselves for being lazy', or 'low motivation’ and continueto fall into negative thinking, continue to lose motivation, and lose direction.

The epidemic also makes changes in the student’s attitudes andbehaviours toward learning The youth now give more attention to taking care oftheir mental and physical health rather than in the past For example, studentsspend more time concentrating on their nutrition, healthier relationship, or

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-entertainment instead of learning As a result, the motivation to learn decreases

while the motivation for other activities increases.

There are thousands of studies established in Vietnam to find out thefactors which demotivate Vietnamese pupils from English classes For example,students at Tra Vinh University were the subjects of a study by Ngoc and Ngoc

(2021) about demotivating factors in learning English They discovered that these

factors included unclear study goals, a lack of motivation in learning thelanguage, poor English, and failing to score well on tests In addition, students

were affected by untrained, unfriendly professors, crammed classrooms, and alack of technological resources.

Many of the students who take English classes at NEU do not really careabout the subject and do not actively participate in class activities, which resultsin a monotonous environment and poor performance To improve this situation,learners must find a way to regain their motivation Teachers at NEU alsoincorporate a variety of teaching methods to help students regain motivation.However, the result was not as expected Therefore, it is urgent to find out thereasons why students are demotivated and find appropriate solutions to help

students increase their motivation However, there seems to be little data and

official research relevant to demotivating factors of English major students at

Vietnam's universities Consequently, the topic “Demotivating factors ofBusiness English students in English lessons at NEU and strategies for

remedying demotivation” was chosen to help others have insight into thiscircumstance.

1.2 The aims of the study

This study's major objective is to look into the demotivating elements inEnglish classes of BE students at National Economics University Based on thedata collection, the study also proposes some solutions to enhance interest in

English classes for these students.

In order to achieve the aims, the following tasks need to be fulfilled:

- What are the internal and external demotivating elements of BE studentsin English lessons at NEU?

- What solution can be done to remotivate BE students in English lessonsat NEU?

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-1.3 Research questions

With the aims mentioned above, this study is to answer three followingresearch questions:

- What are the internal and external demotivating elements of BE students

in English lessons at NEU?

- What solution can be done to remotivate BE students in English lessons

at NEU?

1.4 Scope of the study

Demotivation in learning is the factor preventing students from Better

academic performance and higher academic grades This study’s concentration ison demotivating elements which affect negatively the academic performance ofBE students Accordingly, to improve the quality of teaching and learningEnglish, this study proposes some solutions.

e Research content: This analytical research focuses mainly on the internal

and external factors, as well as their ranking according to the frequency of

impacts (by using an online questionnaire survey method).

e Research space: This study limits its coverage to 81 BE students (First and

second year) at NEU.

e Duration of the research: The research carries out from February to Marchin the second semester of the year 2023.

1.5 The significance of this study

The significance of this study is it proposes innovation in teaching

approaches for BE students at NEU as well as pupils around Vietnam The

findings of this study are also expected to help teachers and administrators in theFaculty of Foreign languages determine the factor leading to demotivatedstudents in classes Besides, this report also helps teachers to understand themotivating factors and the perspectives of students on their teaching methods Ontop of that, the recommendation will support teachers to develop the designs andprograms or enhance some activities to increase students’ interest in the subject.Finally, this report could be useful material for further study relevant to the topic.

1.6 Structure of the report

This report comprises six main parts:

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-Chapter one — Introduction: The first part gives an introduction about thetopic, including rationale, objectives, research questions, scope, significance, andthe outline of the research.

Chapter two - Literature review aims to analyze and compare the results ofseveral studies that were previously introduced to the research area This partfocuses on different definitions of motivation and demotivation and the internaland external factors of demotivation.

Chapter three — Methodology gives information about participants,research method, research setting, data collection and data analysis.

Chapter four — Major findings give us answers to the research questionswhich had been proposed in the introduction sector This chapter also makes acomparison between the research findings with previous outcomes of otherscholars.

Chapter five — Recommendation provides several useful methods andteaching approaches to increase attractiveness and motivation in BE classes.

Conclusion: This part summarizes the results as well as acknowledges the

limitations of the study Several possible suggestions for further investigation arealso highlighted in this section.

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW2.1 Definition of motivation and demotivation

2.1.1 Definition of motivation

Motivation is considered a significant element in study and work Theword “motivation” is derived from the Latin word "moveo-movere," which inEnglish means "to move” Hence, it is considered a factor that directs ourbehaviours in a particular direction As a result, the term "motivation" can beunderstood in an array of ways and refers to ideas like “yearning, push, volition,

desire, wish, pressure, interest, aim, purpose, etc”.

There has been a lot of study and articles defining “motivation” indifferent ways Williams & Burden (1997, p 120) defined motivation as “a stateof cognitive and emotional arousal, a state which leads to a conscious decision toact and gives rise to a period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort’.

According to Dornyei (1998), motivation has received widespread supportfrom teachers and investigators as one of the significant factors influencing therate and achievement of foreign language learning According to Kendra Cherry(2022), motivation refers to the reason why an individual is doing something.

She defines “Motivation is the process that initiates, guides, and maintains oriented behaviours” Some internal forces, such as a person's intention anddesire, can motivate people to act (Gardner and Lambert, 1972).

goal-In the context of education, Dörnyel and Csizér (1998) claimed that evenstudents with the most exceptional abilities cannot attain long-term goals withoutsufficient motivation, and appropriate curricula and effective instruction arenecessary to ensure students' success Also, motivation has received widespreadsupport from teachers and investigators as one of the significant factorsinfluencing the rate and achievement of learning (Dornyei, 1998).

In the language classes, motivation is a result of both an effort and a desireto fulfil the goal of language learning (Gardner and Lambert, 1972) The successof language acquisition is thought to be influenced by motivation, which also hasa key impact on the effectiveness and productivity of English language education(Jin, 2014) Freeman (2006) stated that "motivation is less a quality but fluid play,an ever-changing one coming from the processes of interaction of numerousactors, both internal and external, in the ever-changing complex world of the

learner" (p.563).

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-2.1.2 Definition of demotivation

While motivation has been widely addressed in the language teaching

context, demotivation is Less likely to be embraced According to Dörnyel(2001), demotivation is “specific external forces that reduce or diminish themotivational basis of a behavioural intention or an ongoing action” (p.143) Thisdefinition suggests that demotivation is about the external factors which have anegative effect on learning language acquisition He also said that demotivationdoes not indicate that a student has entirely lost motivation This simply impliesthat alternative positive motives are still available to be triggered when thecurrent motive is limited by a strong negative element For instance, even if a

student's teachers were incompetent or hostile, they might still inspire them to

study English as a global language Sakai and Kikuchi (2009) broadened thedefinition of Dornyei to include both internal and external factors that lowerstudent motivation.

2.2 Related terms2.2.1 Amotivation

It is confusing to distinguish two terms demotivation and amotivation.Deci and Ryan were the ones who first established the idea of amotivation (1985).Amotivation, according to their definition, is the relative lack of motivation that

is brought on by a person's sentiments of failure and powerlessness whenconfronted with the action rather than by a lack of initial desire.

Amotivation is defined as "the complete absence of motivation,"according to Dörnyel (2001), whereas demotivation refers to "diminishedmotivation." He defines a demotivated learner as someone whose enthusiasm forlearning has decreased because of certain demotivators On the other hand, anamotivated student lacks passion as a result of realizing "there is no point in mepursuing this" He also points out that pupils may become amotivated over timeas a result of negative motivators It means that if students feel demotivated for along time, it will lead to amotivation.

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-Many investigators have been suggested for some ways to remotivatelearning during classes Raising students' awareness of the value of studying

English and increasing their willingness to achieve can be effective strategies for

overcoming demotivation, according to Trang and Baldauf (2007).

According to the study by Jung, Sook Kyung (2011), pupils wereremotivated both unintentionally and consciously Students were unintentionallyremotivated when they saw improved exam scores, a fresh learning environment,

and a variety of English media Students were also remotivated when they hadthe opportunity to use English Students remotivated themselves intentionallywhen they were aware of the instrumental importance of English for the job anddesired to improve their test results.

Another method to remotivate learning a language is modern facilities likelaptops or computers Kim (2010) came to the conclusion in his study thatInformation Technology and media are vital to EFL attitude and motivation.

A study by Wang and Littlewood (2021) indicated various strategies toremotivate students The study suggested that teachers should propose a varietyof fascinating learning materials to their students, including not just printedbooks but also electronic materials such as audio-visual books, and the textsshould be up-to-date and suitable for the learners’ interest and competence level.In the lack of parental support and encouragement, students' motivation suffers.As a result, students can be remotivated by parental encouragement Students inthis study suggested that they may be remotivated if the teacher demonstratedhow to complete the activities, provided specific and precise directions, andensured that all students understood the task Furthermore, both too simple andtoo difficult assignments can have a detrimental impact on student's motivation,thus students believe they can be remotivated when the teacher selects tasks withan acceptable amount of effort A reward is also a useful way to help studentsremotivate Teachers should limit the tasks they have and keep in mind that

quality wins quantity Teachers must ensure that each task is needed and relevant.Students also propose that, in addition to homework, teachers use alternateassessment methods such as “quizzes and portfolios’’.

2.3 Previous studies of demotivating factors

Many studies have been conducted to look into how demotivating factorsaffect language learning Chambers (1993) is the first author in the field of ef

7

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-(second language acquisition) to address the problem of demotivation In hisstudy, the teachers noted that demotivated students displayed laziness, lack of

effort, lack of interest in learning, and lack of self-confidence Some pupilscomplained to their lecturers for frequently criticizing their work and providing

insufficient explanations Instructors made use of substandard tools and outdatedmaterials Others blamed the volume of pupils in the classrooms and language-

learning facilities Overall, his study found that the teacher, prior language

learning experiences, and attitudes carried from home to the language classroomall had an impact on students’ attitudes toward language learning (Hirvonen,

Huan & Vi (2017) have done research on perceptions of demotivatingfactors in learning reading by English-major students They divided demotivatingfactors in L2 into four categories; they are “factors related to negative feedback,factors related to learners, factors relating to reading materials, and factorsrelated to instructions” This research showed that the least demotivating factor

was thought to be instruction, but negative feedback from professors was thoughtto be the most demotivating element.

Sakai and Kikuchi (2009) found six factors that demotivate students in a

study they conducted with Japanese high school students: the learning content

and materials, lack of interest (intrinsic motivation), test results, the teacher'scompetence and teaching style, the school's facilities, and the classroom

environment The first three of the six demotivators were shown to have the mostinfluence on demotivation (connected to learners), whereas inadequate schoolresources had the least (Hassaskhah, Zafarghandi, & Fazeli, 2015) However, it

was discovered that teacher-related elements did not have as much of an impactas “learning content and materials” or “exam scores”, which were seen as the twomost notable demotives among students.

Muhonen (2004) indicated that the teacher had a crucial role in developingstudents’ motivation Almost half of the students (65/58.6%) reported feelingdemotivated by the teacher, who was also the most significant demotivator foralmost half of them (54/48.7%) This study's conclusion that teachers have asignificant impact on student demotivation is consistent with earlier studies on

demotivation (e.g., Chambers 1993, Dérnyei 1998, Oxford 1998) She also stated

that the textbook and exercise book were the most potent demotivating elements.

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-They were generally thought to be monotonous, infantile, and full of activitiesthat were either too simple or too challenging.

The demotivation in learning English seems to less appear in kindergartenand primary school It is undeniable that the level of vocabulary and English

grammar is becoming more difficult due to grades and age This fact may be one

of the causes leading to demotivation in learning English According to Song andKim (2017), the majority of pupils had fluctuations while they learned English,and they showed demotivation clearly in secondary school and high school.

Students are frequently more vulnerable to being demotivated whenlearning English as a foreign language (EFL) The obligation to learn English asa compulsory subject has been revealed in studies of EFL learners to be the mainsource of their demotivation (e.g., Kikuchi, 2015 - Japanese learners; Trang &Baldauf, 2007 - Vietnamese learners) It means that if English is an optionalsubject at school, students would be more motivated and more interested inlearning English.

Further research findings on the central role of the teacher are availableregarding Asian environments, where a teacher-centred teaching approach is still

widespread In the survey of Kikuchi (2009), he discovered that the traditionalteacher-centred approach was mainly responsible for the demotivation ofJapanese high school EFL students The biggest cause of demotivation forVietnamese EFL students, according to Trang and Baldaufs 2007 research, wastheir teachers' methods of instruction Nonetheless, opposite results have beenreported by other investigators The study by Sahragard and Alimorad (2013)produced a comparable conclusion They found that there were seven factors that

demotivated EFL students in Iranian high schools, and they discovered that thedemotivation caused by ineffective teachers and improper teaching methods wasnot as strong as other influences, such as the L2 learning curriculum or a lack of

interest in English.

Bahrami and Araghi (2013) identified 7 criteria that are demotivating: 1)

Factors relating to teachers 2) course-book-related factors, 3) related factors, 4) personality-associated problems, 5) class environment-relatedelements, 6) finance-related factors, and 7) other variables, such as the society'snegative attitude toward the English language and the lack of nearby languageschools This study found that the most common demotivating characteristics

management-9

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-were those related to the teacher, such as the teacher's inactivity, incompetence,manner, attitude toward weak pupils, error correction, style of teaching, and leveladjustment Similarly to this, Alkaboody (2013) showed that teachers' behavioursare thought to be the biggest source of demotivation in the classroom.

In Bangladesh, 46 respondents (teachers and students) from various

departments of both private and public institutions participated in a study

conducted by Ullah and Fatema (2013) After analyzing statistics andinformation, they found 10 sources leading to demotivation: (1) poor vocabularyand structural knowledge; (2) inexperienced teachers; (3) intensive readingmaterials; (4) non-contextual and less attractive materials; (5) difficult andlengthy reading passages; (6) anxious class environment; (7) boring readingpractices; (8) negative feedback from lecturers; (9) exam-oriented study; (10)unchanging question styles and testing process The three most notable ones outof the 10 were “lack of teacher's training, non-contextual and less interesting, anddifficult reading passages”.

Hirvonen's (2010) research aimed to identify the external and internalelements that had an adverse effect on immigrant students’ motivation to learnEnglish as well as the factors that assisted immigrant students in overcoming

their demotivation in a school in Finland The participants ranged in age from

14 to 17 The study used a qualitative methodology, and semi-structured

interviews were used to get the information The outcome shows that external

demotives were regarded as having greater influence than interior demotives.Four categories of external motivators were identified by the results: the teacher,the learning environment, the learning materials and course content, and thesimultaneous studying of other languages The internal demotivating elementswere divided into three categories: failure in the past, lack of success, andattitudes toward English.

Intending to stop the transmission of the virus COVID-19, face-to-faceteaching and learning activities had to be suspended Teaching and learning

activities are assisted by technology for both students and teachers According toAdara and Najmudin (2020), both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, thedemotivating factors that affect students differ significantly The biggestdemotivating factorin schools before the outbreak was poor facilities Testscores have become the respondents' greatest demotivating aspect after the

10

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-outbreak Nonetheless, even after the epidemic, respondents are still impacted byteachers’ related factors and instructional materials Online learning was alsodiscovered to be one of the students’ demotivating issues since they feel split offfrom real-life interaction and burdened by the lack of a reliable internet

connection and appropriate technology for online learning The findings implythat altering the learning environment can have an impact on both the motivation

and demotivation of students.

In the study of Santosa & Riady (2021), 368 EFL learners of Indonesianundergraduate students from private universities were asked to find out thedemotivating factors in learning during covid 19 pandemic To collectquantitative data for this study, a 34-item questionnaire with five categories -

"course books, inadequate school facilities, test scores, noncommunicativemethods, and teachers' competence and teaching styles” - were used Themajority of respondents (78.21%) indicated that studying English duringCOVID-19 was demotivating because of the non-communicative approachimposed by the teacher's absence from the face-to-face setting.

According to a study by Iftanti, Imelda, & Yunita (2023), 71 out of the 76individuals who responded to the survey stated to feel demotivated when using

the online learning method Based on the analysis findings, six categories have

been determined as demotivating elements, including: “(1) lecturers, (2) students,

(3) internet connection, (4) learning environment, (5) learning ecosystem, and (6)

supporting facilities” There were three significant characteristics, includinglecturers (reported by 34 respondents), students (mentioned by 29 respondents),

and an internet connection (29 respondents).

Investigating the motivating and demotivating factors of students in theEnglish education study program during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tabitha andPramono (2022) revealed that “teachers’ performances & attitudes, contents &materials, students’ intrinsic motivation, and classmates’ attitudes turn out to bemotivating factors” The biggest motivating component is the performance and

attitude of the teachers Only the technical aspect proves to be demotivating.

2.4 Theoretical framework

Demotivating factors can be divided into two categories: internal factors(lower self-confidence, personalities), and external causes (textbook reference,book-related issues, teachers, group members' attitudes).

11

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-In general, the external variables are primarily made up of teacher-related,

environment-related, important others-related, and curriculum-relatedcomponents (Lai, 2013), whereas the internal factors are primarily made up of

learner-related aspects (Falout et al., 2009).

2.4.1 Internal sources of demotivation

As mentioned above, learner-related factors are considered the maininternal sources of demotivation Elahi Shirvan and Talebzadeh (2020) define

learner-related elements as the concept that learners' motivation will be

weakened if they undergo negative learning emotions, such as low confidence,low interest in learning, a bad linguistic attitude, and excessive study anxiety(Falout et al., 2009).

Students with low proficiency tend to blame themselves for their lack ofmotivation, according to Falout & Falout (2005) They thought that their poorEnglish proficiency and inability to manage their emotions were the reason fortheir lack of willingness to study Even worse, learners were more likely to getstuck in a negative emotional spiral where they would blame themselveswhich led to their bad performance, and then blame themselves again.

Language anxiety is a component that contributes to the student's uneaseand anxiety and is also seen as a learning demotivator This anxiety may berelated to the learners' normal anxiety or anxiety related to their languageproficiency Researchers have also mentioned language anxiety as a

demotivating element (Aida, 1994; Brown, Robson, and Rosenkjar, 2001;Gardner, Day, & MacIntyre, 1992) The anxiety also comes from the fear ofassessment and peer pressure Pupils who use incorrect English will worry moreabout the opinions of others and fear being laughed at They will typicallyminimize any chances of using English since they are stuck in the circumstanceof worrying and making errors (Xaypanya et al., 2017).

Another factor in internal sources is pupils misunderstanding the core

value of learning a second language Some pupils might not understand the valueof learning English and may view it as a difficult subject (Kaivanpanah andGhasemi, 2011) They wrongly think that learning English is pointless for theirfuture and that there is no benefit to doing so As a result, they feel demotivatedand leading to bad academic performance.

12

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-2.4.2 External sources of demotivationTeacher-related factors

Teachers or instructors are the people who give knowledge and valuablelessons to learners Besides, their role is very important in motivating students inlearning In contrast, many students blame the bad score and the demotivating

feelings for the teachers "Teacher-related factors" are the negative features of a

teacher's professional characteristics, instructional skills, and classroombehaviors (Kikuchi, 2009).

The directly related factors include a teacher's basic teaching skills, theteachers’ sense of responsibility, their personalities, how they interact withstudents, and their teaching strategies According to Sakai and Kikuchi (2009),poor teaching skills by teachers are obvious in things like improper pronunciation,

unclear explanations, etc Besides, irresponsible teachers usually refuse thepersonal problems of students or reduce the teacher-student interaction andcommunication Consequently, teachers seem not friendly or unapproachablewhich leads to demotivated learners (Unal and Yanpar Yelken, 2016) Logically,teachers’ personalities and behaviours were at the top list of nine demotivatingfactors mentioned by Dörnyeli (1998) It means that pupils would prefer to chooseto interact with a kind and sympathetic instructor over an aggressive or

hostile one.

A teacher-centred classroom and the type of in-class activities are twoelements that are indirectly related to teachers (Falout and Falout, 2005).Students are under varied levels of enrollment pressure to pass certaintests around the world Teachers must explain basically everything in a lesson tohelp students understand and rarely allow them to present what they have gained.

Grammar lessons are always operated in this teaching style, especially in severalAsia countries, Vietnam is no exception As a result, learners are often absentfrom these classes, making them isolated from the knowledge and diminishingmotivation.

A study by Falout and Maruyama (2004) showed an interesting finding.According to this study, the teacher’s influence differs with students of variouslevels Falout and Maruyama divided 164 Japanese freshmen into two groups:low-proficient and high-proficient The results indicated that high—proficientlearners tended to blame the demotivation on external factors, especially factors

13

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-related to their teachers In contrast, low-proficlent students claimed theirdemotivation due to internal elements.

Curriculum—related factors

English language characteristics, tedious learning materials, andexaminations are the key curriculum-related factors (Falout and Falout, 2005).Learning a language requires hard—work and a high ability to memorizevocabulary and complicated grammatical structures which makes many studentsfeel tired They are even more under pressure since they have to overcome boringmaterials and abundant tests and tasks In the study of Kikuchi (2009), 52Japanese students were involved in the fulfilment of a questionnaire to finddemotivators while studying English The outcomes indicated that among thefive causes of their demotivation, college entrance examinations and the natureof English courses and textbooks were three curriculum-related factors Sometests only covered vocabulary and complex grammar In addition, pupils whofailed these exams would receive punishment Besides, the participants indicatedthat there were a lot of new words, structures, idioms, phrases, and clauses whichwere hard for them to remember Therefore, the obsession with learning

enhances more and more demotivated students.

Environment-related factors

The physical characteristics of the classroom seem to have an adverseeffect on students’ motivation levels For instance, pupils may adopt a negativeattitude that would negatively impact the student's motivation level if theclassroom was dark inside, the design was unattractive and depressing, or thechairs and tables were uncomfortable The physical classroom setting, includingthe size of the class, the inadequate equipment, and the unappealing space, wasconsidered a source of demotivation (Gorham and Christophel, 1992) In theirstudy, 36% of the participants attributed their lack of motivation to thestructure/format aspect, which was strongly associated with the physical class

The school facilities also affect students in language acquisition Ifstudents can study in a modern and spacious classroom or school, they will bemore comfortable and motivated Inadequate educational amenities were one ofthe main sources of demotivation in Sakai and Kikuchi's (2009) study.

14

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-Insufficient educational infrastructure was one of six elements they determinedthat were demotivating the Japanese language learners from high achievement.

Besides the classroom environment, the social environment can bring bothbenefits and negative influences for students For example, support from familyor an important person can help learners be more motivated and happier Kim

(2011) utilized a questionnaire to look at how after-class English tutoring affectsstudents' motivation The findings demonstrated that students’ learning

motivation, expectations, and satisfaction were impacted by parents' financialsupport for after-class English tutoring To be more specific, students who tookpart in tutoring classes gained higher motivation and enjoyment than studentswho did not attend Moreover, significant relatives of pupils, such as parents, orclassmates, may have an impact on their demotivation For instance, friends,close family members, and teachers were listed as significant influencers byHassakhah et al (2014) Demotivation among students would be directly causedby parents' hostile attitudes about studying English, peers' unwilling cooperation

in group work, and poor friendships among students.

Other factors

The school's resources, including its technology, visual materials, and theinternet could be mentioned as the other factors Several similar studies haverevealed that the setting of the school has an impact on student's motivation(Kojima, 2004; Ikeno, 2002; Zhang, 2007) To clarify, the presence of suchamenities and the use of them are significantly associated with students' levels ofmotivation, whereas their absence or underuse may demotivate students in

From the theories above, this study focuses on 4 factors: learner-relatedfactors, curriculum-related factors, environment-related factors and teacher-related factors The factors are shown in figure 2.

15

Tran Thi Ngoc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

Figure 2 Proposal framework of demotivating factors in English lessons

16

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY3.1 Research method

e Primary data:

The method utilized in this study is both quantitative and qualitative Thequestionnaire covered 11 questions which were designed online based on the

principle of the research The Likert five-point scale with five degrees from 1-5

corresponding to the following degrees: "Strongly disagree", "Disagree",

"Neutral", "Agree" and "Strongly agree" was used to rate 4 demotivating clusters.

The bottom of the list was an open question about participants' recommendationsto remotivate learning in English classes to get a better view of students’

expectations The questionnaire was posted in several groups of NEU students orsent directly through the message to collect information The finding was thenanalyzed and calculated online with the help of Google tools.

For this paper, the questionnaire is designed based on several previousstudies both in Vietnam and in other countries in the “previous studies ondemotivating factors” part of this research The data research includes 4 clustersrelated to learner, teacher, curriculum, and environment.

completed at least one semester of studying 4 English skills at university.Therefore, they have their own experience in English learning journey, which isthe basic requirement for the research.

3.3 Research setting

3.3.1 National Economics university

- Name: National Economics University (NEU)

- Type: Public University

17

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

Slogan: Innovation, integration, development- Established: 25 January 1958

- President: Prof Phạm Hồng Chương

- Location: Hanoi, Vietnam

National Economics University (NEU) is one of Vietnam's mostprestigious universities, focusing in Economics, Management, and BusinessAdministration Furthermore, NEU manages a network of over 40 universitiesmajoring in business administration and economics The institution has grown

into a prominent hub for national and international academic interchange.

NEU is one of the most prestigious universities in Vietnam, which isfamous for its quality education program, advanced modern facilities, anddynamic and talented student Many of the most senior leaders for theCommunist Party of Vietnam and the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,as well as many well-known businesses, were trained at National Economics

University The university also acts as a resource for in-depth economic analysis

and macroeconomic policy advice for the State of Vietnam Numerous graduatesof the university have a proven track record of great achievement andcarry significant positions in both the government as well as the private sector.

In 1956, the university was founded with the name College of Finance andEconomics In 1965, its name was changed to the University of Finance andEconomics In 1985, the university altered its name to National Economics

University which is the official name nowadays.

NEU not only pays attention to national students, but it also concentratesto develop international academic collaboration NEU welcomes exchange

students from Asia (China, Japan, Laos, South Korea, etc) and even America

(United States) and Oceania (Australia) and so on It has been associated withmore than 100 institutions and organizations from 30 different countries.

Throughout its history, the school has achieved a number of notableaccomplishments In an increasingly competitive environment, NEU puts a high

priority on the quality of training and employment preparation for undergraduate

students The university offers a diverse range of training programsincluding nine schools, seventeen faculties, and one institute.

18

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-With over 1200 academic and staff members, including over 150professors and associate professors and more than 200 Ph Ds, NEU currentlytrains and educates over 35 000 students each year at the Bachelor, Master, andPh D levels Every year, the university produces a large number of outstandingstudents, giving a reliable source of quality work force for the market in a varietyof professional specialties that contribute to the overall economic success of the

NEU intends to be a forerunner in economics, management, and businessadministration knowledge invention in the near future Furthermore, theuniversity desires to be a destination that attracts and fosters talent, as well as anendowment of high-quality human resources that will support Vietnam's long-term progress In addition, the school's directors established long-term goals tobecome a research-oriented and multi-discipline institute ranked in the top five of

Vietnam along with the top 100 in Asia in economics, management, and businessadministration.

3.3.2 The Faculty of Foreign Language, Department of Business EnglishAddress: 705, A1, National Economics University

The Faculty of Foreign Languages was established on November 26, 2003,

and is one of National Economics University's newest departments with a trackrecord of quick and sustainable expansion.

At present, the faculty's training programs are divided into threedepartments: Business English, Non-Specialized Foreign Language, andVietnamese and Language Theory.

The Faculty of Foreign Languages started formally enrolling and trainingbachelor with a major in Business English in the 2006-2007 academic year Theprogram includes subjects of English major, focus on Business English, andintegrates some additional courses in Business Administration taught in Englishto make a difference and enhance competitiveness This is an advantageous

condition for students majoring in Business English to have access to business

administration subjects, accomplishing two objectives of practising English andat the same time completing economic and business knowledge whichcontributes to improving students' working capacity in the future.

The Faculty of Foreign Languages and Economics' principal role is to give

foreign language education to long-term ordinary students, English for Business

19

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-English majors, -English for Advanced, High Quality, and POHE program

students In addition, the faculty teaches English to students in several master'sdegree programs and associate degrees, such as the Bachelor of BusinessAdministration program, which is affiliated with Dongseo University in Korea.

Not only does the FFL teach English, but it also teaches Vietnamese to

international students, allowing them to better integrate into the NEU study

Significant educational achievements have been achieved by the Facultyof Foreign Languages The development of a new major among the system'smany others is the key to their success Nearly 500 students are majoring inbusiness English at the faculty as of October 2022, and more than 1200 studentswho majored in it have graduated Also, nearly 50 members of the faculty aredirectly teaching foreign language classes to about 9,000 pupils.

The faculty has a total of 48 members on staff, including one AssociateProfessor, five PhDs, ten Masters, and two Bachelors Business English has beentaught in both the main program and the extra-curricular program at the Faculty

of Foreign Languages for a long time Furthermore, the Faculty of ForeignLanguages offers high-quality lecturers with international training who can teacheconomics and business administration courses in English The relationshipbetween National Economics University and many worldwide universities is apowerful motivator for providing good facilities as well as a comprehensivesystem of textbooks, lectures, and up-to-date reference materials to the faculty.This has produced an ideal environment for students to study and grow in boththeir professional and personal lives.

3.4 Research instruments

The questionnaire in the study by Sakai and Kikuchi (2009) and

Hassaskhah, J., Mahdavi Zafarghandi, A., and Fazeli, M (2015) was used asresources for this study’s data collection instrument The questionnaire'squestions are divided into four categories and were designed using 11/35items from Sakai and Kikuchi (2009) and 11/77 items from Hassaskhah, J.,Mahdavi Zafarghandi, A., and Fazeli, M (2015) about demotivational variables.Several items were changed in the word form or word choice a little bit in orderto meet the purposes of this thesis The four elements that were measured asbeing demotivating were: “learner-related factors, teacher-related factors,

curriculum-related factors and environment-related factors”.

20

Tran Thị Ngọc Anh — 11190553 — Business English 61B

-These 22 items were divided into four categories to measure related factors (8 items), teacher-related factors (7 items), curriculum-related

learner-factors (2 items) and environment-related learner-factors (5 items).

Item Sources

Learner-related Ihave difficulty memorizing | Modified from Sakai and

factors words and phrases Kikuchi (2009)“T am not confident enough to

cooperate in class activities.”

Teacher-related Teachers ridicule students’ Modified from Sakai and

factors mistakes Kikuchi (2009)

“Teachers discriminateamong students.”

Hassaskhah, Mahdavi

Zafarghandi, and Fazeli

21