An investigation into non-English major students’ motivation in English language learning at Phuong Dong University, Hanoi = Nghiên cứu động lực học tiếng Anh

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Chart 1: Students‟ attitude on English learning at PDU Chart 2: Students‟ attitude on English Table 1: Students‟ desire to learn English Table 2: Students‟ reas

(Nghiên cứu đô ̣ng lực học tiếng Anh của các sinh viên không chuyên tiếng Anh tại Trường Đại Học Dân Lập

Phương Đông, Hà Nội )

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 6014.0111

HANOI, 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

BÙI THỊ PHƯƠNG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AT PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY, HANOI

(Nghiên cứu đô ̣ng lực học tiếng Anh của các sinh viên không chuyên tiếng Anh tại Trường Đại Học Dân Lập

Phương Đông, Hà Nội )

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 6014.0111

Supervisor : Dr Mai Thị Loan

HANOI, 2013

DECLARATION

I certify that this thesis is entirely my own work Documented references have been fully provided I have not been submitted this thesis for assessment in any other formal course of study

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, D.r Mai Thi loan for her support, encouragement and valuable guidance through out the process of conducting this study

My special thank is for D.r Le Van Canh and all my other lecturers for their useful and valuable lectures that I got at the MA course at the University of Languages and international studies, VNU I am indebted to them for basic knowledge on teaching methodology and research methodology

This study would not have been completed without the participation of non-majored students and teachers of English at Phuong Dong University I am grateful for their sharing time on English learning with me

Finally, I would like to thank all authors and linguists who have provided me with a treasure of knowledge about motivation, so that I can have basic theoretical background for the study

Without all their help, this thesis would not be completed as expected

Hanoi, 2013

Bui Thi Phuong

ABSTRACT

Motivation has been a concern of so many linguists and scholars for its essential role in language learning Discovering learners‟ motivation will help teachers and educationalists have best methods to help their learners succeed

The study was conducted with the participation of 300 non-majored students at the same psychological age group (18-22) from different faculties and 10 teachers at Phuong Dong University It is an investigation of non-majored students‟ motivation

at Phuong Dong University with the aim of finding best methods to improve their motivation in English learning In order to gain this aim, the study has found out students‟ desire for learning English, the reasons they are learning English, their difficulties and their favourite activities and teaching methods in the classroom as well as teachers‟ suggestions for useful methods The result showed that non majors

at PDU possess different kinds of motivations with a majority of students learning English for their future career Not many of them are satisfied with teaching facilities and teaching methods at school They prefer motivational activities such as games, songs, pictures and some of communicative activities such as listening and speaking They also want to practice exercises in the final exams for high marks and

a good degree after graduation Useful methods applied by teachers are also investigated for the basis of the most appropriate implications on teaching and learning English at PDU

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

Chart 1: Students‟ attitude on English learning at PDU

Chart 2: Students‟ attitude on English

Table 1: Students‟ desire to learn English

Table 2: Students‟ reasons for learning English

Table 3: Factors of learning environment and facilities

Table 4: Factors of teachers and teaching methods

Table 5: Factors of learners‟ problems

Table 6: Students‟ favourite activities and tasks

Chart 3: Teachers‟ roles

Chart 4: English skills focused

Chart 5: Motivational teaching methods

ABBREVIATIONS

L2: Second language

PDU: Phuong Dong University

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF TABLES iv

ABBREVIATIONS v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Method of the study 2

6 Organization of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Motivation in language learning 4

1.2 Classification of motivation 6

1.3 Factors affecting students’ motivation 8

1.4 Strategies to motivate students in the classroom 11

1.5 Summary of the chapter 13

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 14

2.1 The context of the study 14

2.2 Subjects 15

2.3 Instruments 16

2.4 Data collection and analysis procedure 17

2.5 Summary of the chapter 17

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 18

3.1 Data analysis of questionnaire for students 18

3.1.1 Students’ motivation 18

3.1.2 Factors affecting students’ motivation 22

3.1.2.1 Learning environment and facilities 22

3.1.2.2 Teachers and teaching methods 24

3.1.2.3 Learner’s problems 26

3.1.3 Students’ favourite activities and tasks 27

3.2 Data analysis of questionnaire for teachers 30

3.3 Summary of the chapter 33

CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS 34

4.1 Teachers’ roles, responsibility and awareness 34

4.1.1 Teachers’ roles 34

4.1.2 Teachers’ enthusiasm and responsibility 35

4.1.3 Teachers’ awareness of students’ interest and expectations in the class 35

4.2 Motivational teaching methods 35

4.2.1 Warm-up activities and visual aids 35

4.2.2 Variety of activities 36

4.2.3 The revision book 37

4.2.4 Focus on listening and speaking skills 37

4.2.5 Further activities and worksheets 38

4.2.6 Clear instruction and explanation about the goals of each activity and lesson 38

4.2.7 Winning cards 39

4.3 Some other proposals to improve students’ motivation in English learning at PDU 39

4.3.1 Teaching facilities 39

4.3.2 Teacher education programs 40

4.3.3 English contests, outdoor activities and English club 40

4.4 Summary of the chapter 40

PART C: CONCLUSION 41

1 Summary of the study 41

2 Recommendations for further researches 42

REFERENCES 44 APPENDICES I

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

English, as an international language, is widely used in most fields in most countries

in the world nowadays Among them, Vietnam has been aware of the importance of English to improve economic development and enhance international relationships

It is undeniable that English is the bridge to introduce Vietnamese culture and people to others in the world In the first place, Vietnamese people started learning English as a requirement of their job and nowadays they learn for different purposes Some learn English for their future jobs; some learn English for their desire to discover knowledge and some may want to learn English for their interest For university students, English is a compulsory subject as well as job requirement after graduation However, as my experience at PDU, not all my students like English and not many of them satisfy with English lessons in the classroom It is obvious that the effectiveness of teaching and learning English in schools should be taken into account

It is said that teaching is one of the easiest jobs in the world but teaching well is one

of the most difficult It is no doubt that everyone can tell others what he or she knows but not so many can become good teachers because teaching in general and teaching language in particular always requires a large effort from the teacher In fact, teachers always have to face with a number of problems in the class One of the difficulties most English teachers have experienced when teaching is students‟ passivity to learn the language in the class The answers to some questions such as how to counter with students‟ lack of effort, desire and motivation in learning English, how to get don‟t want to learn learners involved in classroom activities need to be based on students‟ expectations in language classes Moreover, an understanding about their motivation to learn and factors negatively affecting their

motivation will be the key to this problem

Motivation is not a new term in the language-teaching field and many studies by scholars, linguistics and educationalists have proved that motivation is an important

aspect of successful learning Therefore, they attempt to find out the most useful ways to motivate students in the class However, effectiveness and application of these methods always vary in different contexts In fact, up to now, there has not been any research on non-majors‟ motivation at Phuong Dong University, one of the oldest private universities in Ha Noi in which, as my experience, students‟ motivation in learning English is quite different from other schools

For all the reasons above, this study is hoped to reveal student‟s motivation as well

as factors influencing their motivation in the class so that pedagogical implications can be drawn to help students more interested in learning English

2 Aims of the study

The study aims at investigating non-English major students‟ motivation in English learning at PDU and proposing professional implications on how to support teachers

in motivating non- English learners to learn English

3 Research questions

To achieve above aims the study will answer following questions

1) What kinds of motivation do non-English major students at PDU possess?

2) What factors negatively affect non-English major students’ motivation in English learning at PDU?

3) What are their favourite activities and tasks in the English class?

4) What implications can support teachers to improve students’ motivation to learn English?

4 Scope of the study

The study is an investigation of motivation in English learning of first year and second year non- English major students at PDU only and then some useful implications for teachers to make students more motivated in the English class will

be suggested

5 Method of the study

To achieve the aim of the study, the study is carried out by following steps:

- First, a survey questionnaire for students was conducted to investigate students‟ motivation in English learning, factors affecting motivation and expectations in the English class at PDU

- Second, a survey questionnaire for teachers was delivered to investigate teachers‟ opinions about some motivational tools as well as useful methods they are applying to motivate their students in the classroom

- Then data were collected, sorted and analyzed quantitatively to explore

non-majors‟ motivation

- Last, some pedagogical implications for improving students‟ motivation in

learning English were suggested at the end of the study

6 Organization of the study

The thesis consists of three main parts:

PART A- Introduction: provides general introduction of the study with the

rational, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the method and the organization of the study

PART B- Development: is divided into four chapters:

Chapter 1 discusses theoretic backgrounds that are relevant to the study such as

different views on motivation in language learning, the importance of motivation in language learning, kinds of motivation, factors affecting learners‟ motivation and strategies enhancing motivation in foreign and second language learning

Chapter 2 presents the context of the study, data collection instruments and

procedure of data collection

Chapter 3 describes the process of collecting data and the detail analysis of the

collected data from which some findings, explanation and interpretation of the findings of the study are presented

Chapter 4 discusses some pedagogical implications on how to motivate

non-majored students in learning English at PDU

PART C: Conclusion: summarizes what have been done in the study and presents

some possible suggestions for the further researches The references and appendices are also included in this final part

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, a review of some of the aspects of the concept of motivation such as definition, classifications, roles and factors affecting learners‟ motivation will be provided Several motivating tools for language learning suggested by various theorists and practitioners will be also briefly presented and discussed

1.1 Motivation in language learning

Motivation is something internal to human beings It drives human beings to act It

is also related to satisfaction of needs and desire of human beings to perform or achieve a goal „To motivate‟ means “to make somebody want to do something, especially something that involves hard work and effort” (Oxford Advance Learners‟ Dictionary)

In language learning, motivation refers to learners‟ desire and effort to achieve the goals of getting good results in tests or being more successful in future career It is undeniable that motivation is particularly important in education in general and in the classroom in particular because of its strong impact on students‟ learning As a critical component of learning, motivation is essential in getting students to engage

in academic activities It is also important to determine how much students will learn from the activities they perform or the information to which they will be exposed to

Researchers have different views on the term of motivation in language teaching and learning Many of these motivation theories are based on goal achievement where people are motivated by the prospect of success

Harmer (1983: 3) has a broad view of motivation: motivation is some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action He also mentions another important term of motivation: goal He explains that if we perceive a goal and if that goal is sufficiently attractive, we will be strongly motivated to do whatever is necessary to reach that goal

Beside Harmer, other researchers also attempt to explain what motivation is Thus, motivation to learn a foreign language can be describe as a complex of construct, involving effort and desire, as well as favorable attitude toward learning the language in hand (Gardner, 1985) It is a tool to explain why people decide to do something, how hard they are going to pursue it, and how long they are willing to sustain the activity (Dörnye, 2001) It is also a complex phenomenon and includes many components such as the individual‟s drive, need for achievement and success, curiosity, desire for stimulation and new experience, and so on (Littlewood, 1998:53)

Regarding to motivation in the teaching-learning process, it is stated that students will work longer, harder and with more vigor and intensity when they are motivated Bernaus (1995, 11-20) after investigating the role of motivation in foreign language learning has founded that „motivation accounts for 48.5% of students‟ English proficiency‟ and concluded that motivation is the main factor affecting students‟ foreign language acquisition, followed by socio-cultural factor He also emphasized that the motivational factors are more important than other factors in favouring students‟ English achievement

Littlewood (1998:53) also states that in second language learning, motivation is the crucial force which determines whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he devote to it, and how long he perseveres

Another role of motivation is to promote the choice of strategies to become successful in academic activities The use of specific learning strategies and techniques while studying a second language leads to success According to Oxford (1994), “more motivated students tend to use more strategies than less motivated students, hence, they tend to be more successful”

In general, motivation can be understood as a desire to achieve a goal, combined with the energy to work towards that goal In the classroom, this theory is confirmed by the fact that the students pursue the goal to gain some kinds of rewards such as praise, grades, scholarships, certificates, diplomas, good job and so

on However, learners‟ motivation can change overtime and have effect on their language

in that community As pointed by Harmer (1983: 3), the strong form of integrative motivation wishes to integrate himself into the target culture and a weak form of such motivation would be the students‟ desire to know as much as possible about the culture of the target language community

On the other hand, the instrumental motivation concerns practical values in learning the second language such as passing exams, financial rewards, furthering a career or gaining promotion (Harmer: 1983; Gardner and Lambert: 1959) It is a determination to acquire another language to achieve such goals as a good job or social recognition (Gardner and Lambert, 1959)

In fact, it is difficult to attribute learning language success to certain integrative or instrumental because integrative and instrumental motivations are mutually inclusive Most situations in learning language involve a mixture of each type of motivation (Dörnyei, 1998) The importance of integrative and instrumental motivation depends on situations or contexts, whether learning language functions more as a foreign language or as a second language (Gardner and Lambert, 1959) Another popular view on types of motivation divided motivation into extrinsic and intrinsic motivation

According to Harmer (1983: 3) extrinsic motivation is related to the concept of

goal He explains that students who decide to go and study a language to obtain

some goal that they wish to reach Extrinsic motivation is based on external outcomes such as rewards and punishment This motivation could bring a negative impact to the students, because with extrinsic motivation, students do not learn with their strong intention or will but they study it because they are pushed by the interest in the rewards or the punishment

Intrinsic motivation refers to the motivation to engage in an activity because that activity is enjoyable and satisfying to do He states that „intrinsic motivation plays

by far the larger part in most students‟ success or failure as language learner‟ Because this type of motivation is from within the students, they are always willingly and voluntarily try to learn what they think it is worth or important for them When students have intrinsic motivation, they have the internal desire to learn without the need for external outcomes

Kathleen Bailey (1986, quoted in Brown, 2000: 165-166) illustrated the relationship between the intrinsic-extrinsic construct and integrative-instrumental orientation with the diagram:

Integrative

L2 learner wishes to integrate with the L2 culturen(e.g., marriage or immigration)

Someone else wishes the L2 learner to know the L2 for integrative reasons (e.g., Japanese parents send kids to Japanese- language school)

Instrumental

L2 learner wishes to achieve goals utilizing L2 (e.g, for a career)

External power wants L2 learner

to learn L2 (e.g., corporation sends Japanese businessman to U.S for language training)

It is obvious that different kinds of motivation are closely related to each other They do not exclude each other According to Gilakjani, Lai-Mei Leong and Sabouri (2012), „it is hard to consider motivation as something that is either simply internal or external to the learner‟ because „intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is

relevant to integrative and instrumental motivation in relation to L2 language learning‟ They explain: learners who study hard to learn L2 may be intrinsically or extrinsically motivated or many have a mixture of both intrinsic and extrinsic reasons prompting them As extrinsic motivation may turn out to be integrative motivation if someone else wishes the L2 learner to know the L2 for integrative reasons; extrinsic motivation could turn out to be instrumental motivation if an external power wants the L2 learner to learn the L2 language In addition, intrinsic motivation can turn out to be integrative motivation and intrinsic motivation can also turn out to be instrumental motivation if the L2 learner wishes to achieve goals utilizing L2 The learners with similar instrumental motivation might show a striking difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation Similarly, the learners with the same integrative motivation can show vast differences of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

1.3 Factors affecting students’ motivation

Some researchers have presented and analyzed factors affecting motivation Most these views agree that most common factors include teacher‟s factors, learners‟ factors and physical factors Among these theories, I support Harmer and Dornyei‟s view on factors influencing negatively and positively on extrinsic and intrinsic

motivation

According to Harmer (1983), the factor affecting extrinsic motivation most is students‟ attitude toward the language This attitude may be influenced by those around him who have positive or negative attitude to the culture or the target language community or by his previous experiences as a student

He also states factors that can affect intrinsic motivation as follows:

Physical condition: physical conditions have a great effect on learning and can alter

a student‟s motivation either positively or negatively For example if student have to study in the bad lighting classroom, overcrowded with too many students, have to look at the small board, or in the unpleasant smell classroom, they can lose their motivation or their motivation in learning will be lowered

Method of teaching: the ways that students are taught must have some effects on

their motivation Whenever the learners feel bored with the teacher‟s method, their motivation would likely be lost or gradually decreased, whereas, if they are interested in the teaching method, they will find it motivating

The teacher: Teachers are considered as the most powerful variable of motivation

and demotivation, and can become a major part in demotivating the learners Denis Girard (1970, cited in Harmer, 1983:5-6) suggested some qualities a teacher should have to help in providing intrinsic motivation:

- The teacher has to make his classes interesting

- The teacher must be fair, treat his students equally and as far as possible

understand and act on the worries and aspirations of his pupils

- The teacher must offer a good model as the target language user

- The teacher must be a good technician…

Success: Success plays a vital part in the motivation drive of a student It refers to

the appropriate level of challenge designed by the teachers If the difficulty of work and activity is too high or too low, it can lead students to a demotivated situation in learning As Harmer (1983:6) pointed out, to give high challenge activities may have a negative effect on motivation Students can also equally be demotivated by

too low level of challenge

Dornyei (1994: 279-280) also studied the possible factors of demotivation among English language learners focused on the role of effective factors at three levels of language, learner and learning situation His study showed that the learners‟ demotivation concerned with the learner levels and learning situation levels One of the learners‟ problems is lack of self-confidence, caused mostly by negative past experiences and some of learning situation level problems are being placed into an inappropriate group; lack of free choice, lack of skilled teachers and lack of constancy in language learning in a relaxing and pleasant atmosphere

Moreover, Dornyei (2001, cited in Ghadirzadeh, Hashtroudi, Shokri, 2012) presented nine demotivating factors based on his studies about the possible factors

of demotivation:

- Teachers‟ personalities, commitments, competence, teaching methods

- Inadequate school facilities (large class sizes, unsuitable level of classes or

frequent change of teachers)

- Reduced self-confidence due to their experience of failure or lack of success

- Negative attitude toward the foreign language studied

- Compulsory nature of the foreign language study

- Interference of another foreign language that pupils are studying

- Negative attitude toward the community of the foreign language spoken

- Attitudes of group members

- Course books used in class

Related to the relationship between demotivation factors and the strength of motivation, Ghadirzadeh, Hashtroudi, Shokri (2012) when studying demotivating factors for English language learning among university students, attempted to answer the question: “Is there any significant difference between the two groups of more and less motivated students for English language learning?” The results ofmultivariate analysis of variance showed statistically significant differences between the two groups for two factors (lack of perceived individual competence and lack of intrinsic motivation) while there were no statistically significant differences for the other three demotivating factors (inappropriate characteristics of teachers‟ teaching methods and course contents, inadequate university facilities and focus on difficult grammar)

Among all these factors, teachers and teaching methods are considered the most important ones that affect students‟ motivation negatively or positively because in the class, the teacher always has to play different roles such as a leader, a supporter

an encourager etc The way the teacher encourages students definitely affects students‟ motivation the most

1.4 Strategies to motivate students in the classroom

The question of how to motivate students to learn always calls the concern from many teachers and researchers According to Dornyei.Z and H-F Cheng (2007), motivation is one of the key factors that determine success in L2 learning, strategies

in motivating language learners should be seen as an important aspect of the theoretical analysis of L2 motivation Generally, they agree that extrinsic and intrinsic motivation should be combined, but teachers should target at the intrinsic motivation as the main long-term motivation to students‟ learning

Dörnyei (1998b) offered a set of Ten Commandments for motivating learners All these these ten items focus on what the teacher can and should do to stimulate intrinsic motivation:

1) Set a personal example with your own behavior

2) Create a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere in the classroom

3) Present the task properly

4) Develop a good relationship with the learners

5) Increase the learner‟s linguistic self-confidence

6) Make the language classes interesting

7) Promote learner autonomy

8) Personalize the learning process

9) Increase the learners‟ goal-orientedness

10) Familiarize learners with the target language culture

Dörnyei (2001, cited in Gardner.R and Bernaus.M, 2008) then grouped these strategies into four categories:

- Creating basic motivational conditions by adopting appropriate teacher

behaviours, having a good relationship with students, maintaining a pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the classroom

- Enhancing learners' language-related values and attitudes, increasing their

expectancy of success, increasing their goal-orientedness

- Improving the quality of learning experience, increasing students‟

self-confidence, creating learner autonomy…

- Encouraging positive self-evaluation by promoting attributions to effort rather

than to ability, providing motivational feedback and increasing learner satisfaction

Brown (2001: 82) introduces guidelines to teachers to motivate students intrinsically

- Teachers‟ role: the role of teachers is emphasized as enablers, not rewarders That means teachers should not use too many tangible or immediate rewards It

is better if they stimulate students‟ self-determination and self-satisfaction The rewards should be only the supplementary motivated resource when necessary And it is advisable that teachers help learners set some personal goals and learning strategies to reach these goals

- Teaching approaches: Brown then suggests some teaching approaches that are

considered intrinsic motivation such as learner-centered, cooperative and content-based teaching Instead of providing learners with all the necessary things to learn, the teacher gives them opportunities to make choices in activities, topics and discussions, etc

- Test: he also mentions the importance of test with some special intentions from

teachers with the potential of intrinsic motivation The tests should involve students‟ input and are face-valid in the eyes of students

Oxford and Shearin (1996: 139) also offer practical suggestions for teachers to motivate students According to him, teachers can motivate students by identifying why they are studying the new language and help them shape their own belief about success and failure in second language learning They also need to make the L2 classroom a welcoming, positive place where psychological needs are met and where language anxiety is kept to a minimum Besides, teachers can urge students

to develop their own intrinsic rewards through positive talk, guided

self-evaluation, and mastery of specific goals, rather than comparison with other students

As far as many a educationalist are concerned, the ratio of using intrinsically and extrinsically motivated ways in teaching depends on many other factors such as teachers‟ teaching style, the students‟ age and characteristics, the stages of the lesson and so on The right of choosing the appropriate methods and strategies are

in hand of the teacher Many factors involved in the success of applying motivating resources, but some notes like young learner‟s preference and needs should be taken into account

1.5 Summary of the chapter

The chapter has reviewed some knowledge related to motivation theory in language teaching and learning It has provided the basic understanding about the general views of motivation, kinds of motivation, factors affecting motivation as well as strategies to motivate students in the classroom Based on this knowledge, an investigation of non-majored students‟ motivation at PDU will be introduced in the

next chapter

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

This chapter will present the context of the study and research methodology including subjects, instruments and data collection and analysis procedure

2.1 The context of the study

Founded in 1994, Phuong Dong University is one of the oldest private universities

in Ha Noi At the present, there are over 9000 students placed in 6 different fields including Foreign Languages, Economics and Management, Electrical Engineering, Information Technology, Architecture and Environment Technology The main campus in Trung Kinh Street is training about 6000 students of four departments: Foreign Languages, Economics and Management, Information Technology and Environment Technology The school has a library on the seventh floors serving reference materials for students and but non-majors have no chance to learn English with projectors There are also four computer rooms serving information technology courses and examination

At Phuong Dong University, non-English major students have to learn English as a compulsory subject They are required to complete four general English terms in the first year and second year and an ESP term in the third year Each English class has from 20 two 35 students At the end of each term, students are always examined on four skills including listening, speaking, reading and writing Most first year students‟ level of English proficiency ranges from beginning to pre- intermediate level When they were at high school, they got used to translation grammar teaching method in which the teachers focused on the rules of grammar structures and students practiced the drills to remember those structures Therefore, at university, most students have difficulties in listening and speaking skills

Among 21 teachers of English currently teaching non-majors at the main campus in Trung Kinh street, 15 of them got the MA degrees They are all female ranking from 24 to 45 and have at least two years teaching non-majors at PDU

The textbooks used in general English courses are New Headway series (the third edition) by Liz and John Soars Two first terms deal with the Elementary book and

the two later terms learn the pre-intermediate book Because of the final examination format, students are always required to practice and complete all language skills during the course including listening, speaking, writing, reading comprehension and language forms Besides, practicing and working in pairs and groups are of the most popular activities in the class to prepare for the final speaking test

2.2 Subjects

The study was first conducted with the participation of 325 first and second year students randomly chosen from different departments representing 3000 first year and second year students of PDU Among them, there are 75 students from Information Technology, 100 students from Environment Technology and 150 students from Economics and Management Department The majority of students are aged from 18 to 22 They come from different backgrounds and environments, varied from the cities to mountainous areas Some students are living in the central Hanoi Most of them have been learning English for at least 7 years but enrolled the course with low and medium level of English proficiency

These groups of students are chosen for the study for the two following reasons: First, only first year, second year and third year students are required to learn General English at PDU A study on first year and second year students who have just completed the first and second term of English is ideal to understand their reasons for learning English and plan strategies for improving their motivation in later terms

Secondly, a study on students sharing the same type of drives and condition of learning but differing in learning majors and styles can help define the different levels and kinds of motivation more sufficiently The number of students from the faculty of economics and management are bigger than those of any other faculty at PDU and assumed to learn English better than others and seem to be more interested in English Most of them have higher level of language proficiency than those from other departments because English is one of their main subjects at the

university entrance exams They also want to develop their abilities in using English

as their future career requirements By contrast, the other part of students from other departments tend to regard English as less important than the other subjects, so most

of them just learn English in order to pass the exams

The other group of ten teachers at PDU ranges from 24 to 45 years old Among them, two teachers have been teaching English at PDU for two years and eight teachers have had from five to ten year experience teaching at PDU Seven of them have got MA degrees but all of them have had few opportunities to discuss new teaching techniques at the PDU

2.3 Instruments

In order to obtain data and information for the study, two sets of questionnaires for non-majored students and teachers are used Using questionnaires is one of the most popular instruments to investigate opinions and one of the best choices to collect data from a large group of subjects at the same time

Questionnaire for the students was delivered to students for the purpose of finding

their motivation, factors having impact on their motivation as well as their

expectations in the English class Question items are all written in Vietnamese and

are divided into four main parts:

- The first part provides some general information about students in terms of

name, gender, age, learning major, province and years of leaning English

- The second part of the survey aims at investigating students‟ motivation in

learning English at PDU Categories include students‟ attitude towards English learning in the classroom (question 1), students‟ desire to learn English (questions 2-5) and kinds of motivation that non majors at PDU possess (question 6)

- The third part of the questionnaire includes 24 items investigating factors that

may negatively affect students‟ motivation in learning English at PDU Factors assumed consist of textbook and curriculum (items 1-3), facilities (items 4-5), classroom environment (items 6-9), teachers (items 10- 13), teaching methods (items 14-21) and learners‟ problems (items 22-24) It is also aimed at finding

out students‟ attitude toward the learning environment, teachers and teaching methods at PDU as well as how much they are affecting their motivation in English learning

- 12 items of the fourth part of the questionnaire investigate students‟ attitude

toward some most popular activities and tasks in the classroom at PDU with the aim to discover students‟ preferred learning activities and expectations in the classroom so that strategies for improving their motivation can be suggested

Questionnaires for the teachers: the questionnaire for the teachers is aimed at

finding out their opinions and suggestions for improving students‟ motivation to learn English at PDU The survey conists of 5 questions: question 1 asks for the roles of the teacher in the class; Question 2 finds out the most prefered skills focused in the class; Question 3 and 4 investigate useful methods that teachers are

applying to motivate students in English learning; Question 5 asks for teachers‟ proposals to improve students‟ motivation

2.4 Data collection and analysis procedure

The data are collected and analyzed by following steps:

- Questionnaires were first delivered to the students and teachers after the English

lessons at the end of the first English term (with first year students) and second English term (with second year students) at PDU

- After collecting information, data were consolidated and categorized

- The results then were analyzed and presented in forms of tables, charts and

figures

Data analysis and findings will be presented and discussed in the next chapter

2.5 Summary of the chapter

By means of questionnaires for teachers and students, the researcher hoped to conduct a qualitative and quantitative result of the research The generalization of the conducted data was expected to provide relatively exact information about real teaching situation at PDU The teachers and students chosen randomly would make the research more objective There may exist unavoidable limitations during the research but it is hoped that the reliable basis for the data analysis and findings will

be provided

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, an analysis on questionnaires for students and teachers will be reported Then, explanations and interpretations of the findings in the study will

Question 1 aims at finding out the students‟ attitude toward English lessons and English learning at PDU

Chart 1: Students’ attitude on English learning at PDU

The chart reveals that over a third of the students have positive attitudes toward English learning at the school and approximately two third of them show little or no interest in English lessons in the classroom These numbers show the low students‟ satisfaction with the English course at school and raise the question of why so many students do not like learning English and how much teaching environment and teaching methods are affecting their desire to learn English

Question 2 measures students‟ desire toward English learning

Chart 2: Students’ attitude on English

According to the chart, a large percentage of students (61.2%) like learning English and surprisingly, only 5.6% of the subjects have no interest in English learning The rest of 33.2% hold neither positive nor negative attitude toward English learning It can be inferred that most students at PDU are interested in English and have positive attitude toward English

The level of students‟ desire to learn English is measured with question 3, 4, 5:

3 How often do you

attend English clubs?

Learn English on your own

everyday

Make no attempt to learn it

5 After the English

course at PDU, you

will…

Study English in other places and try

to use English as much as possible

Continue to improve English

at home

No attempt to learn and use English any more

Table 1: Students’ desire to learn English

Desire is one of the elements of motivation indicating the level of one‟s commitment in attaining a goal The results in the table show that the majority of students have a strong desire to learn English Although only 9% of them usually attend the English club at the school, 84.8% of them want to learn English if it were not taught at the school and 88.9 % students want to improve English after the course by doing extra English courses or studying at home These results also reveal students‟ intention to make effort to obtain the goal

Besides findings about favorable attitude, desire and effort to attain the goal, a discovery of students‟ reasons for learning English will help teachers understand more about students as well as their goals of learning English

Question 6: Why do you want to learn English? Because ?

Reasons

Number

of subjects

d It makes me become a more confident, knowledgeable

and skillful person

g I want to listen to international music, watch films and

read English books

h I want to understand English speaking countries and their

culture and values

According to the results in the table, students at PDU are studying English for different reasons In general, they learn English due to some main kinds of motivation such as integrative motivation and instrumental motivation It can be founded that the majority of the students at PDU possess instrumental reasons to learn English with 73.8% of the students agree that English is useful for their job in the future and 44.9 % of the students want to get high grades at all subjects and a good degree after graduation Besides, a considerable percentage of students study English as a compulsory subject This proves that around nearly one third are negatively instrumentally motivated

Beside instrumental reasons for learning English, a large percentage of students integratively wants to learn English to become a more confident, knowledgeable and skillful person (47.4%) or to communicate and make friends with foreign people (53.9%) As English is an international language, it is desirable that most students set the goal of being able to communicate with English speakers or at least understand their English songs, books or TV programmes However, only 19.1% want to understand English speaking countries, their culture and values because in fact, non-majors are provided few opportunities to communicate with English speaking people

The results also reveal that non-majors possess both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation Intrinsically-motivated students think that English is an interesting subject and they learn English to fulfill their other interests such as listening to international music, watching films and reading English books while a larger number of students possessing extrinsic motivation are learning English for different goals

It can be seen that many of non-majors possess more than one type of motivation For example, some students claimed that they learn English because it is a compulsory subject but they also think that English makes them more confident, knowledgeable and skillful The combination of different reasons to learn English shows the real situations at PDU and a higher rate possessing instrumental

motivation than integrative motivation reflects students‟ perception about the role of English in the school in particular and in the society in general It is obvious that English is extremely necessary for their future career This result is identical to Winke Paula M.‟s research (2005) in which she discovered learners‟ motivation based on the responses to the question “why are you learning Arabic” The result showed that “students often have a mixed bag of responses” and a student can possess all integrative, instrumental, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

3.1.2 Factors affecting student’s motivation

After finding out kinds of motivation that students possess, a discovery of factors which may negatively influence students‟ intrinsic motivation is necessary to have a adequate evaluation as well as plans for the innovation Three main factors investigated in the research are found as follows:

3.1.2.1 Learning environment and facilities

Factors affecting motivation in the

classroom

Strongly disagree or disagree

There are not enough teaching

facilities such as cassettes,

projectors…

There are too few reference books and

English materials in the library

The classroom is too quiet and boring 16.9% 49.8% 25.2% 4.3% 3.7%

Students in the class are not friendly

and helpful

5.8% 18.2% 39.7% 25.5% 10.8%

Table 3: Factors of Learning environment and facilities

According to Hammer (1983: 5), a physical condition is one of the factors having a great impact on learning and can alter a student‟s motivation either positively or negatively In this research, in order to find out how the learning environment and facilities affect student‟s motivation, some certain points measured include textbook, teaching curriculum, teaching and learning facilities, and library and classroom environment The results in the above table show that only 13.2% of students think that the course book is too difficult and a large number of them (44.5%) agree or strongly agree that the course books used in the course are too easy and topics in the book are boring and out of date However, over a half of students (69.6 %) claims that curriculum is overloaded because there is too much homework Apparently, students always want to have a challenging textbook but little homework An easy book certainly cannot encourage students to discover and actively participate in, whereas, when having to do too much homework, students will feel stressed and demotivated However, these results do not mean that textbooks used in the schools are inappropriate In fact, before attending the English course at the university, almost all students have at least 7 years learning English but only a few of them can speak English fluently Therefore, exercises and language focus parts in the course book may be a bit easy but the strong points of the book are to help students improve their listening and speaking skills effectively Another factor affecting students‟ motivation is teaching and learning facilities 63.7% students claim that the school does not have enough teaching facilities such

as cassette, CD, projectors…and only 11.1% of the students are satisfied with the teaching facilities of the school 71.4% of the students also agree that there are too few reference books and English materials in the library