Students’ low motivation in learning English at Ngo Tri Hoa High school Reasons and solutions = Động lực thấp trong việc học tiếng Anh của học sinh trường THPT

Rationale of the study In the English teaching and learning, among the four skills, the speaking skill plays an important part in language teaching in the context of Vietnam.. The study

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

-*** -

HOÀNG VĂN HỢI

STUDENTS’ LOW MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH AT NGÔ TRÍ HÒA HIGH SCHOOL:

REASONS AND SOLUTIONS

(Động lực thấp trong việc học tiếng Anh của học sinh trường THPT

Ngô Trí Hòa: Các nguyên nhân và các giải pháp)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi - 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

-*** -

HOÀNG VĂN HỢI

STUDENTS’ LOW MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH AT NGÔ TRÍ HÒA HIGH SCHOOL:

REASONS AND SOLUTIONS

(Động lực thấp trong việc học tiếng Anh của học sinh trường THPT

Ngô Trí Hòa: Các nguyên nhân và các giải pháp)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng

Hanoi - 2013

ABBREVIATIONS

EFL: English as a Foreign Language L2: Second Language

FL: Foreign Language

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3 The factors of low motivation in students‟ learning English speaking class Table 4 The external factors of low motivation

Table 5 The internal factors of low motivation

Table 6 Students‟ idea on what motivates them to learn English speaking

2.4 Methods of data collection 19

3.1.1 The factors of low motivation in students‟ learning English 22

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

In the English teaching and learning, among the four skills, the speaking skill plays an important part in language teaching in the context of Vietnam At Ngo Tri Hoa High school, students seem to have lost motivation in learning English and they are not active in participating in all activities such as Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing These lead to the underachievement and a negative effect on students in learning English as a foreign language

I have been a teacher of English at Ngo Tri Hoa High school in Dien Chau district, Nghe An province for 6 six years Ngo Tri Hoa is not a gifted school However the quality of teaching and learning is quite high in compassion with other school in this area English is compulsory subject and there are 4 English periods per week I am very sad to realize that most of student in grade 10 are interested in learning English, but their interest is gradually reduced in grade 11, and they are almost not motivated in learning English any more when they are in grade 12 Why this happens? What factors cause their low motivation? This is the reason why I decided to choose this title of the study “Students’ low motivation in learning English at Ngô Trí Hoà High School”

2 Aims of the study

The study is carried out to meet the following aims to

- Overview the status to learn English, bad situation, contribution voice to raise engine and the quality of the school‟s learning English later

- Identity the low motivation in English Speaking lesson of the 12th form students

- Suggest some feasible solutions to eliminate the low motivation factors in English lessons in order to better students‟ English learning

4 Significance of the study

As mentioned in the Aims and research questions The study has practical significance and pedagogical significance:

- Practical significance: to find and confirm the negative factors, barriers to learning English of the students at Ngo Tri Hoa High School in Dien Chau District, Nghe An Province based on the study of 100 students of the 12th grade

- Pedagogical significance: to suggest some implications to teachers at Ngo Tri Hoa School and improve the Ngo Tri Hoa High School's learning English

5 Scope of the study

In the previous studies (see page 4), de-motivation in learning English is mentioned in general and they aimed at several levels of learners I limited and focused on speaking skill only of students at Ngo Tri Hoa high school, Dien Chau district, Nghe An province

This study was conducted in two classes (H1 and H2) with 100 12th grade students at Ngo Tri Hoa High School This study was carried out in order to find out the reasons causing low motivation to learn English and solutions that can help them to overcome their problem

6 Design of the study

This minor thesis is divided into three parts

Part A, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, the aims, and research questions, significance of study, method and design of the study

Part B, DEVELOPMENT, includes three chapters

Chapter 1, LITERATURE REVIEW, presents various concepts most relevant to the research topic such previous studies on de-motivation in learning English and definition of motivation, low motivation and de-motivation, the importance of motivation in foreign language learning Besides, the following are also included in this chapter: definition of speaking, the importance of speaking English skill

Chapter 2, METHODOLOGY, provides the methodology underlying the research

which includes the general information about study subjects, the current state of teaching and learning English at Ngo Tri Hoa High School This chapter also focuses

on the methods of data collection

Chapter 3, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION, gives a detailed presentation of data and a detailed description of data analysis Some explanations and interpretations of the findings of the study are also presented

Part C, CONCLUSION, emphasizes the implication of the study in which certain techniques for improving speaking skill to students at Ngo Tri Hoa high school Furthermore, this chapter also points out the limitations of the study and provides some suggestions for further studies

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is concerned with some previous studies of de-motivation and theoretical background and definitions of motivation, low motivation Then, the definitions of

speaking, the importance of speaking and teaching speaking in rural high school

1.1 Previous studies on de-motivation in learning English

Hamada and Kito (2008) carried out a research to find the answer for two questions:

“What are the primary de-motivating factors in Japanese high school students?” and

“what are the root of those factors?” Hamada and Kito conducted a quality research

by mean of questionnaire on 100 second-year students, aged 16-17 a public high school in Tohuku The English proficiency level of most the students are slightly below the National average for the Japanese high school students The students were ask to 11 questionnaires with 4 scales: “Yes”, “Not really”, “No” and “Not at all” The questionnaire focused on finding the factors of the motivation, for example, “Some friends around you do not like English Has it de-motivated you?”, “Has teacher‟s pronunciation de-motivated you?”, “Have you lost interest in English?” etc Then, they exercised the interview with 26 second - year students selected randomly from 100 students who had responded to the questionnaire to have deeply understanding the roots of these factors

In this study, five factors about de-motivation were found: 1) Learning environment and facilities, 2) Teacher‟s competence and teaching style, 3) Little intrinsic motivation, 4) Non-communicative methods, 5) Textbooks and lesson Moreover, Hamada, Y and Kito, K found out one notable factor that some students said they had started having negative feelings toward English when they were in Junior high school However, other students revealed that they had not interested or had any purpose in studying from the beginning

This study found almost the de-motivation factors that language learner have and gave some important suggestions for English teacher and students However, there is a need find out the roots of these de-motivation factors and to examine more sophisticatedly the issue of English itself

An investigation into English learning motivation of upper secondary school students

in Quang Nam province by Phan Van Hoa and Le Viet Ha (2009) was carried with the aim at finding English goals and motivation and some factors that influencing the motivation of the students In this case, the writers investigate students with the hope

to answer 4 questions”: 1) what are the upper secondary school students‟ goal for learning English?, 2) What kinds of motivation do the students have in learning EFL in Quang Nam?, 3) What are the factors that influencing the motivation of EFL learners

in Quang Nam?, and 4) What should be done to promote students‟ motivation in learning EFL

For the purpose of obtaining data that will explore why students in Quang Nam learn English and what negative affects their English learning motivation, applied quantitative and quality research methods on 100 students from 4 upper secondary school in Quang Nam and 10 English teachers from those school

Different from the result of Keblawi‟s study, the factors related to teacher in this investigation do not have the highest percentage but the subject factors with spelling error, 90% and listening skill difficulty with 89% The factors was occupied by English teacher is only 31% Similar with the students in Hamada Kito‟s study and Keblawi‟s research, students in upper secondary school in Quang Nam province, Vietnamese students also encountered difficulties with textbooks and evaluation system However, these de-motivating factors only have small percentage, about 17%

The result of these surveys shows many types of de-motivating factors in EFL of the students in Quang Nam province Nevertheless, the researchers need to have more deep and sophisticated investigation on each factor instead of listing the de-motivation factors

In the area of second language classroom learning, student de-motivation has not been the topic of much research with Chambers (1993), who examined the problem using questionnaires to gather both student and teacher perspectives, providing the only evidence, that is, his research is the only study that was fully devoted to de-motivation

in second language learning completed so far In contrast to the findings of the Gorham and Millette‟s study (1997), the reasons underlying student de-motivation were perceived quite differently by the teachers and their students Teachers perceived the causes of de-motivation to be related to psychological, attitudinal, social, historical and geographical reasons, but they explicitly excluded themselves The students‟ perceived reasons, but they explicitly excluded themselves The students‟ perceived reasons for de-motivation also varied, i.e., teachers‟ behaviors, class size, etc Unfortunately, Chambers did not try to determine what de-motives were or to look at them critically, instead simply listing the students‟ opinions As a result, Chambers could draw only a few conclusions about the impact of de-motives on the language learning experience Thus, while there have been studies that have explored issues related to de-motives, no attempt has been made either to create a framework to aid in better understanding the phenomenon, nor to relate it to issues of curriculum and teaching

Trang and Baldual (2007) used Stimulated recalled method to collect retrospective data of de-motivation in learning English The research was carried out on 100 second-year students from University of Economic in central Vietnam with the aim at finding the answer for four questions:

1 To what extent, de-motivation is a problem?

2 What are the factors that are likely to contribute to de-motivate?

3 Are de-motivates different in terms of their levels of impact?

4 What are factors that assist students to overcome de-motivation?

The students in this study were asked to recall their English learning experiences, to think back across the whole learning process, then write an essay

With the use of this method the writers discovered that out of the sample of 100 students, 88 indicated that they had been de-motivated to a great or lesser extent There are two groups of de-motivation: group 1 is internal attribution The former included students‟ attitudes towards English, their experiences of failure or lack of success, and incidents related to their self – eastern The later consisted of teacher related factors, the learning environment, and other external factors They also found out that internal factors occupied 36 % and external factors is 64 % More surprising in 64 % of external factors, teachers are blamed most with 35 %

Students had overcome de-motivation basing on internal factors (71%) and external factor (29%) Five factors that might contribute to students‟ overcoming de-motivation were: an awareness of the important of English, personal reason, self – improvement, self –determination, and positive attitude towards English External factors might include: changes in teacher behaviors, teaching method, learning condition, and external encouragement Trang and Baldual‟s research truly gave out many recommendations to overcome de-motivation in learning English for English students However, the study only focused on the students in the university, so there is a need to examine more the secondary school students

Oxford‟s 1998 study advanced the understanding of de-motives by taking into account the time factor She recognized that de-motivation is a process that can be best understood by “looking backward”, i.e., by asking participants to recall their learning experiences over a period of time, in this case, five years The students were asked to write a stimulated recall essay using a variety of prompts, including “Describe a situation in which you experienced conflict with a teacher”, and “Talk about a classroom in which you felt uncomfortable” The findings drawn from the content analysis of the student essays revealed four broad sources of de-motivation, i.e., the teacher‟s personal relationship with the student, the teacher‟s attitude towards the course or the material, style conflicts between teachers and students, and the nature of the classroom activities However, since the prompts used by Oxford specifically referred to the teacher‟s role as a source of de-motivation, other potential sources might not have been provided by participants in the study

Dornyei (1998) started a qualitative analysis by conducting structured long interviews

in 10 to 30 minutes of 50 high school students who were studying English as a foreign language Nevertheless, in his study the participants were not of cross-sectional students but were those who had been identified by the teachers or peers as being particularly de-motivated He identified nine types of de-motivators:

(1) The teachers (personality, commitment, competence, teaching method) (2) Inadequate school facilities (group is too big or not the right level; frequent change of teachers)

(3) Reduced self-confidence (experience of failure of lack of success)

(4) Negative attitudes towards the L2

(5) Compulsory nature of L2 learning

(6) Interference of another foreign language being studied

(7) Negative attitudes towards L2 community

(8) Attitudes of group members

(9) Course book used in the language class

The compulsory nature of L2 studies and the interference of a third language were first discovered in this study The negative effect of the compulsory nature of L2 learning is obviously related to the lack of learner autonomy and lack of self-determination Among nine factors, teacher factor ranks first The teacher‟s personality commitment

to teaching, attention paid to the students, competence, teaching method, style and rapport with students can have a direct impact on students de-motivation Students also attribute their lack of confidence to teacher‟s indirect negative influence, such as rigid classroom management, their perception of teacher‟s strict marking Such results were consistent with previous studies Therefore, it is of vital importance to analyze the teacher factor in order to find possible solutions to de-motivation

1.2 Theoretical background of low motivation (de-motivation)

1.2.1 Definition of motivation

There have been so far many researches on the theory of motivation Each author has his/her own way of explaining what motivation is since the look at motivation from

different angle Most definitions of motivation reflect the consensus that motivation is

an internal state or condition that serves to activate or energize behavior The term

motivation is used constantly in everyday and professional context but defining

motivation precisely is a demanding task due to its complex and multination Motivation research was first inspired and spearheaded by social psychologist Robert Gardner in Canada According to Gardner ((1985), motivation is and act of stimulating the interest of somebody to so something He drawn out a formula of motivation:

“Motivation = effort + desire to achieve goal + attitudes” In term of

Second/Foreign language learning, Gardner (1985, pp:10 -11) defined motivation as:

……the combination of effort plus desire the goal of learning the

language plus favorable attitudes towards learning the language,

when the desire to achieve the goal and favorable attitudes towards

the goal are linked with the effort or the drive, then we have a

motivated organism

Besides Gardner, Williams and Burden (1997: 120) defined motivation as “ a state of cognitive and emotional around which many researches‟ results indicate that motivation is the main determining factors in an individual‟s success in developing a second language (L2) or foreign language (FL) (e.g., Dornyei, 1990; Gardner, 1985)

In the book “Motivation factors in language learning” (2009) Makiko Ebate says that motivation is the vital role in language learning; provide the primary impetus to imitate learning L2 and later driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning process Without sufficient motivation, students can not accomplish long-term goals and we can not ensure their achievement According to Trang and Baldau (2007):

Motivation is crucial for L2 learning because motivation directly

influences how much effort students make, how much often students use

L2 learning strategies, how much students interact with native

speakers, how much input receive in the language being learned, hoe

well they do on curriculum related achievements tests, how high their

general proficiency level becomes, and how long they preserve and

maintain L2 skills after study is over

Lightbown and Spada (1996:6) state that motivation in second language learning is a complex phenomenon which can be defined in terms of two factors: learners‟ communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language community Motivation has been defined as the learner‟s orientation with regard to the goal of learning a second language Learners with positive attitudes toward the subject and high motivation are likely to be successful in second language learning (Gardner, 1985)

Crookes and Schmidt (1991) define motivation in terms of students‟ interest in and enthusiasm for the materials and ACTIVITIES used in class, their persistence with the learning task as indicated by levels of concentration and enjoyment Learning is only effective if students enjoy activities and work hard

In second language learning as in other fields of human learning, motivation is the crucial force which determines whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he devotes to it, and how long he preserves It is a complex phenomenon and includes many components: the individual‟s drive, need for achievement and success, curiosity, desire for stimulation and experience, and so on (Little wood, 1998:53)

1.2.2 The importance of motivation in foreign language learning

While there have been a great deal of research on the role of motivation in second language learning, the overall findings reveal that positive attitude and motivation are closely related to success in second language learning ( Gardner, 1985) Motivation is also considered as “a key consideration in determining the preparedness of learners to communicate” (Gardner, 1985:10)

Oxford and Shearin (1994) state: “Many researchers considered motivation as one of the main elements that determine success in a second or foreign language It determines the extent of active, personal involvement in L2 learning”

Carol (1962) pointed out: “the more motivation a learner has, the more time he or she will spend learning an aspect of a second language” Labonde (1982), based on the findings made by Garner and Lambert (1972), concluded that motivation and attitudes are important factors which help determine the level of proficiency achieved by different learners and the effects of motivation appear to be separated from the effects

of aptitude, the most successful learners will be those who have both talent and a high level of motivation for learning Dornyei (2001) believes that motivation needs to be generated, maintained actively, protected and retrospectively evaluated

Another role of motivation in foreign language learning is to promote the choice of strategies among students learning a second or foreign language Research has shown that the use of specific learning strategies and techniques while studying a second or foreign language leads to success Oxford (1994) emphasizes “more motivated students tend to use more strategies than less motivated students, hence, they tend to

be more successful”

In short, motivation is a vital factor determining success or failure in second language learning It helps L2 learners find and maintain interest in learning a second language and is worthy of attention of language teachers

1.2.3 Low motivation or de-motivation in foreign language learning

Motivation plays a very important role in L2; many teachers are looking for the best ways to motivate students Past motivation research has mainly concentrated on the positive motivational influences “A motive has been seen as kind of inducement whose force ranges on a continuum from zero to strong” (Dornyei, 2001) In addition

to positive influences there are, however, negative effects that de-energies action (Dornyei, 2001) The darker side of motivation, de-motivation, has been found to play

a crucial role in learning process but yet it has been neglected as a research topic until recently Christopher and Gorham (1995) found that the strongest influence on motivation was not the presence of motivators in the classroom, but the absence of low motivators (de-motivators) At the beginning of the semester, the absence of context low motivators At the beginning of the semester, the absence of de-motivators and

teacher behavior de-motivators positively affected motivation So what is low motivation (de-motivation)? According to my observation, I have the linear The model of motivation loss is as followed

MOTIVATION  LOW MOTIVATION  DEMOTIVATION

However, the boundary of de-motivation and low motivation sometimes are not clear From now on, the tow terms will be used interchangeable so that I used the phrase

“low motivation” as a term throughout the article

In light of Dornyei‟s considerations, “De-motivation” concerns “specific external

forces that reduce or diminish the motivational basis of a behavioral intention” and

describes de-motivation as various negative influences cancelling out existing

motivation He introduces “de-motives” as being negative counterparts of “motives

ongoing action” (ibd: 143) A de-motive learner is some who “motivated bust has lost his or her interest for some reasons” In term of de-motive, it decreases learners‟ de-

motivation to the study of language while motive increases it However, not all researchers agree with this definition Sakai and Kikuchi (2009: 58) refer to several studies where researchers have included also internal forces, such as a learner‟s lack of self-confidence and negative attitudes of the learners in addition to external forces They point out that in fact Dornyei him self (2001a) has listed reduced self-confidence and negative attitude towards the foreign language as sources of de-motivation Thus, Sakai and Kikuchi feel the need to expand Dornyei‟s definition stated above to comprehend both internal and external factors that reduce or diminish the motivation to learn a L2 Whether external or internal, reasons for de-motivation are many, Dornyei (2001a: 142) aims to form a portrait of a de-motivated learner by giving hypothetical examples of learners who are de-motivated Firstly, a de-motivated learner can be a learner whose study group was divided into two groups depending on the ability, and the learner was put among the „slow‟ students Secondly, a learner‟s motivation to learn French can diminish as result of not understanding what the teacher is talking about in class Thirdly, a learner can feel de-motivated because he has suffered an embarrassing experience of having to speak in front of the class In

short, according to Dornyei, a de-motivated learner is someone who once was motivated but for one reason or another has lost his or her commitment or interest in learning These reasons for losing interest can be called de-motives which are the negative counterpart of motives, and whereas motives increase action tendency, de-motives de-energize it (Dornyei 2001a: 142)

Concerning teachers‟ communication behavior and learners‟ motivation, Gorham and Christophel (1992) had identified three categories of sources of motivator and de-motivators Context, structure/format and teacher behavior motivators are de-motivators Context factor is antecedent to the teacher‟s influence which is beyond the teacher‟s control such as; personal laziness, length of class, desire to do well belongs

to the context factors Structure/format factors are like the organization of the class material, grading, and opportunity to participate in which the teacher has some degree

of control Lastly, teacher behaviors are related to the teacher‟s characteristics, for instance, the enthusiasm, humor, and accessibility of the teacher Christophel and Gorham (1995) investigated college students‟ perception of the sources of motivation and de-motivation They suggested that context factors are student-owned source of motivation and de-motivation, while structure/format decisions and teacher behaviors are teacher-owned The results of their study showed that most students perceived the sources of motivation as student-owned and de-motivation as teacher-owned In a word, negative behaviors of teachers are the main sources of de-motivator in students‟ view

However, the notion of de-motivation cannot be related to every reluctant learner Dornyei (2001) has distinguished at least three negative factors that can not be referred

to as de-motivators Firstly, an attractive alternative action that serves as a powerful distraction (e.g watching television instead of doing one‟s homework) These can not

be seen as de-motivators because they do not carry negative value Therefore, instead

of reducing motivation they distract a leaner by presenting a more attractive alternative Secondly, gradual loss of interest in a long-lasting, ongoing activity can not be regarded as a de-motivator because de-motivators are specific factors or incidents that reduce motivation on a single event Thirdly, the sudden realization that

the costs of pursuing a goal are too high is rising (e.g when someone recognizes how demanding it is to attend an evening course while working during the day) This is the result of an internal process of deliberation, without any specific external trigger Conversely, if something triggered the termination of action (e.g the persuasion of an influential friend), that would be a case of de-motivation

Dornyei (2001) also pointed out that de-motivation does not mean that a learner has lost his or her motivation completely On the contrary, the positive influence that originally made up the motivational basis of behavior can still be there For instance, a learner may still be highly motivated to learnt English; it is important world language, even if his or her teacher were incompetent or malevolent

In addition, Dornyei (2001) makes a distinction between de-motivation and motivation A-motivation was introduced by Deci and Ryan (1985) as a constituent of their self-determination theory and they (1985, as explained by Dornyei 2001a: 144) define it as “the relative absence of motivation that is not caused by a lack of initial interest but rather by the individual‟s experiencing feelings of incompetence and helplessness when faced with the activity” According to him, a-motivation refers to a lack of motivation brought about by the realization that “there is no point……” or “it‟s beyond my keen” Thus, “a-motivation is insolvably related to general outcome expect that are thought to be unrealistic”, whereas de-motivation is related to specific external causes Of course, some de-motivations can lead to general a-motivation regarding the particular activity (e.g A series of bad classroom experiences can reduce the learner‟s self efficiency) but some other de-motive as soon as the detrimental external influence stops to exist, other positive, and thus far oppressed, motives may again surface (e.g If

a-it turns out that someone who dissuaded the individual from doing something was not telling the truth)

To conclude, those above studies are very helpful in providing researcher with general views on the study of the de-motivating factors in listening lesson The most popular data collections tool the previous researcher used were the combination of questionnaires, interview to seek information related to the de-motivation factors in

learning English Most of them prove that de-motivation in learning L2 is not a strange problem; it happens in almost every L2 lesson However, there has never been any research on low motivation factors carried out by Ngo Tri Hoa‟s teachers I hope that I can improve my students‟ learning and my teaching I really want to implement the survey low motivation in English lesson That the reason why I do this thesis

1.3 Speaking

1.3.1 Definitions of speaking

Speaking, as Bygate (1987) defines, involves not only the use of the right sounds in the patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also the choice of words and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning

Speaking skill is known to have two main types of conversation namely dialogue and monologue, which are rather different In monologue, you give uninterrupted oral presentation while in dialogue you interact with one or more other speakers for transactional and international purposes

It is noticeable from the two productive language skills that speaking is different from writing in both processing conditions and reciprocity conditions “First, spoken language is affected by the time limitations, and the associated problems of planning, memory, and production under pressure Second, it is reciprocal activity, has a crucial effect on the kinds of decisions to be made” (Bygate, 1987: 11-12)

1.3.2 The importance of speaking

In social context, social roles are likely to be taken by those who learn and know how

to speak, but not buy those who do not have this skill In language learning, speaking play an utmost important role among the four language skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing) since it helps to identify who knows or does not know a language Pattison (1992) confirms that when people mention knowing or learning a language, they actually mean that they are able to speak the language

It can not be denied that speaking deserves as much attention as or even more attention than written skill In order to carry out many of the most basic transactions, it is necessary for learners to speak with confidence

Summary

This chapter has presented relevant literature, which has helped to form the theoretical framework for the study Different definitions about motivation, the importance of motivation in foreign language learning, definitions about low motivation (de-motivation) in language learning and review research about it Then, an overview on speaking in which definition, the importance of speaking

In the next chapter, a research will be presented to show the effects of these mentioned factors that cause students‟ low motivation in learning English

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Chapter 2 will present the survey research including research questions, subjects, context of the research and methods for data collection To achieve the aims of the study, the qualitative method is employed and the following steps are involved:

- Collecting data by survey questionnaires for students

- Conducting an interview with students who are randomly chosen for further information of the study

I based on the five factors of Hamada and Kito (2008) and used them to make questions for students to answer

All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion are based on the data analysis This data hoped to confirm and support the results obtained from other sources

2.1 Research questions

This research is aimed at answering the following questions:

Q1 What are the factors that cause students’ low motivation in learning English speaking?

Q2 What are the factors that assist students to overcome their low motivation?

2.2 Subjects

The study was conducted at Ngo Tri Hoa high school, which is situated in the centre of Dien Chau town, Nghe An province The school was established in 1998 and it has been reliable for training quality not only in Dien Chau district but also

in Nghe An province for many years

The school has 27 classes with over 70 teachers of different subjects English is taught here as a compulsory subjects by six teachers aged from 28 to 37 Currently, there are approximately 1300 students ranged from grade 10 to grade 12 Most of the students come from the villages in Dien Chau district and was born in farming family with medium and low living standard

The teaching of English has encountered with many difficulties Although most students are aware of the importance of English, few students have real interest in learning English In other words, the majority of the students do not pay much attention to English First, in classroom interaction, students are enthusiastic when familiar subject matters are presented in Vietnamese; second, student interaction, they rarely use English to talk to each other; except when they are asked to use English by the teachers To explain new words, new concepts and new structures, English is rarely used because the students would not understand if they were explained in English When students answer the teachers‟ questions, they often use Vietnamese whey they

do not know the words in English or they just say, “I don‟t know” Secondly, there is tremendous peer pressure both among the teachers and among the students, not to speak outside the classroom In fact, of one spoke in English, one would be thought unusual, isolated and even a show-off Thirdly, there has so far been a connection with native speakers in the school Students do not have chance to communicate with foreigners, which means students have no real condition to use English Last but not least, the school rules also cause difficulties in organizing communicative games to stimulate the students to speak Thus for practical purposes, the natural use of English

in our school is confined to the artificial classroom context, between four walls, in the English language class and under school rules

The subjects of this study consisted of 100 students in grade 12, from 12 H1, 12 H2

at Ngo Tri Hoa High School, is located in a rural area of Nghe An Province where the researcher is teaching The teaching and learning equipment is not sufficient It is not equipped with modern teaching equipment such as overhead projectors, computers etc Therefore teachers cannot use electronic teaching plans In English lessons, the main materials used are simply a blackboard, textbooks 95 percent of students come from farming families which don‟t have much money to support for their learning and to equip modern Medias such as cassette, CD, the internet for their children English learning Especially, their proficiency, competence and motivation are very low Although the majority of the students started to learn English in lower secondary school, their proficiency is rather low There are few students who can master the grammatical items and vocabularies and are able to communicate in English, even a

part of students returned as an English beginner when they came in high school Furthermore, students‟ psychology in rural areas towards learning a foreign language prevents them being comfortable and confident in general and in this study in particular

2.4 Context

The teaching of speaking in rural high school is more challenging than in urban ones Firstly, the dominant language used outside classroom is the mother tongue Secondly, there is not available device for students to access English as well as foreign language environment for them to master their skill Anyone speaking English can be seen as strange creature Thirdly, with the focus of study, being directed towards university entrance examinations, students generally have little desire or motivation to improve their language skills Finally yet importantly, at rural high school, a series of grammatical items to be taught in any one year is listed

However, these difficulties do not mean that they cannot be solved Andrew 100) and Norris –Holt, 2001) make some suggestions on the teaching of speaking in rural high school as follow:

(1984:97 creating a subculture of English in a rural setting

- creating a make-believe world in the classroom

- creating a content-challenging milieu in the classroom

- creating interesting lessons in which students’ attention is gain

- Creating a great deal of interaction and help to motivate students to

develop their language skills

2.4 Methods of data collection

A combination of the main data collection instruments: questionnaires and structured interview for students The reason for use of this combination is that one method can be related to another one to help evaluate the low motivation factors among students‟ learning English speaking Furthermore, the result of one method can help to develop or inform another method (Greence, Carecelli & Graham, 1989)

semi-The data collection methods applied in this study was aimed at collecting both quantitative and qualitative data to take advantages of analytical-immunological and exploratory interpretive paradigms in applied linguistics (Nunan, 1996) The quantitative data collected from two questionnaires and were analyzed statistically whereas the qualitative data were obtained from the structured interview

2.4.1 Questionnaires for students

Questionnaires were applied in the research because it is relatively popular means of collecting data (Nunan, 1992) Moreover, questionnaires are considered an effective way of collecting data quickly in term of affective dimension of teaching and learning as beliefs, attitudes, motivation and references (Richard and Lockhart, 1994) The questionnaires consist of 18 close-ended questions and one ended question (see appendix) The questionnaire was based on the principle of measuring the main factors that have affected students‟ low motivation and suggesting solutions that can help students to overcome their problem

Among the sample population participated in the questionnaire, 50 were males and 50 were females They were all in grade 12 As the first step of the survey, a questionnaire was printed in Vietnamese so that they can easily answer the questions

in it Responses required were only “yes” or “no” by ticking in appropriate column, except the last question, which was provided to focus students‟ answers on their own experiences

2.4.2 Semi – structured interview

Besides questionnaire, a follow-up one - on – one interview with one group of subjects was conducted This is done following the ideas by Gillham (2000: p32):

“You will see which topics or questions could usefully be developed and

explored in detail in a semi-structured interview If you want to convey a

picture of the reality of people’s lives and more importantly, what their

questionnaire responses might mean, then a face – to – face interview is a

method In other words, it doesn’t just illustrate, it also illuminates”.

The advantages of the semi-structured interview are, in the first instance, that it gives the interviewee a degree of power and control over the course of the interviewer a

great deal of flexibility Finally, the interview can follow up a respondent‟s answers to obtain more information and clarify vague statements (Nunan, 1987, p150)

The purposes of the semi-structured interviews are to study students‟ opinions on their difficulties in teaching English as well as listen to their guide solution to eradicate the factors of low motivation in English lesson The interview was carried out in Vietnamese in the form of an informal conversation between the researcher and ten

12th grade students chosen at random in the student list of two classes They were 5 students number 4th, 10th, and 21st, 40th and 48th in class 12H1 Five students number

5th, 17th, and 25th, 41st and 50th in class 12H2 The students were asked to go to another room for interview The 25 – minute interview was structured with a list of 8 open-ended questions The questions in the interview were based on those questions in the questionnaire, but were extended to get more thorough understanding of the matter The data were recorded, transcribed for the analysis purpose, and then translate into English

Summary

The second chapter has presented the research site whole notable contextual feature is that learning English is compulsory and students tend to put their focus on grammar and vocabulary What is more, the subjects of the study and the data collection methods have been discussed in this chapter In the next chapter, the data analysis and discussion will be presented