THREE WAYS TO MOTIVATE THE STUDENTS AT BANKING ACADEMYBACNINH BRANCH IN ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

In order to teach the students English speaking so that they become more interested in andmaintain their interest in speaking learning, when it is not seen as important for theirimmediat

part one: Introduction

1 Background to the study

Theoretical perspective

Together with the trend of globalization, English is used more and more widely ininternational settings Therefore, the ability to communicate in English is very important.Speaking plays an essential role because without it, communication cannot take placedirectly between people However, speaking is generally considered the most difficult tolearn among the four skills in English language learning

In order to teach the students English speaking so that they become more interested in andmaintain their interest in speaking learning, when it is not seen as important for theirimmediate needs other than to pass the oral exams, teachers have to find creative ways toteach and increase students’ motivation to learn

Being concerned with what a teacher can do to enhance student motivation in Englishspeaking activities, a number of interesting and applicable ideas has been found Amongthem are useful strategies from Bligh (1971), Sass (1989), Ames and Ames (1991), Harris(1991), Dornyei (2001), Oxford and Shearin (1994): capitalize on students’ existing needs,help students set achievable goals for themselves, give clear explanation, create acomfortable atmosphere, vary teaching activities and methods, make learning visual,increase students’ self- confidence, promote cooperative learning, make students activeparticipants in speaking activities, respond to students’ work and reward success

Teachers should know how to use these strategies so as to increase students’ motivation inEnglish speaking activities Therefore, this action research attempts to explore theproblems of the students in speaking activities and to find out the most useful strategies inthe researcher’s own teaching context

English speaking teaching and learning at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch

Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch is a vocational school which trains students in Bankingand Accounting operations Its English language teaching and learning program isimplemented in the first term of the students’ first year The students are taught general

English with New Headway Elementary (Liz & John Soars, 2000) in the time span of 120

forty-five minute class periods With 12 parallel classes, teaching is basically synchronizedacross classes; that is, all the teachers are required to teach the same textbook and go

through the same materials at more or less the same pace Each class is composed ofstudents at mixed abilities.

During five years of teaching at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch, the researcher oftenfound many of my students were low motivated in class There were always studentsabsent from class, and even for those who came to class, some of them did not participate

in the activities, some of them pretended to participate in but in fact they chatted withothers in Vietnamese, some just listened to others speaking but say nothing, some of themeven dozed off, etc Later, after the investigation, the researcher realized that many of themwere low motivated as they did not have achievable goals for themselves, the activities inthe class were monotonous, the teacher did not create a comfortable atmosphere for them

to speak and they were afraid of making mistakes and being laughed at by their classmates.Being aware of the importance of English speaking, motivation and motivational strategies

in English speaking, and bearing in mind the context of teaching and learning speaking atBanking Academy-Bacninh Branch, the researcher conducted this action research on theuse of three strategies: helping students set achievable goals, varying speaking activitiesand using rewards for success with the aims at motivating the students in English speakingactivities

2 Aims of the study

This research was an attempt to motivate the students at Banking Academy-BacninhBranch in English speaking activities by using three strategies: helping students setachievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for success In order toachieve this aim, the specific objectives of the study are:

- Finding out the causes of the students’ low motivation in English speaking activities inorder to have proper intervention to motivate them

- Examining whether the teacher’s intervention consisting of the three changes: helpingstudents set achievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for successcould motivate the students in English speaking activities or not

3 Research questions

With the above objectives, the research questions are:

1 What are the causes of the students’ low motivation in English speaking activities?

2 Can the teacher’s intervention consisting of the three changes: helping students setachievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for success motivate thestudents in English speaking activities? If yes, to what extent?

4 Significance of the study

It is hoped that the study will identify the main causes of the students' low motivation inspeaking activities at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch In addition, by doing this actionresearch, the researcher can evaluate the use of the three changes - helping students setachievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for success - in her classes.And this would provide the teachers with guidance and assistance to boost students'motivation in learning to speak English Students will find it more useful and interesting intheir learning and spend more time on this specific skill The study will give us convincinginformation about the great value of the combination of the three changes in increasinglearners' motivation

5 Scope of the study

The research was conducted on the students at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch Due tothe limitation of time, the researcher only focused on the use of the three changes in classK43B in the first term, in which the researcher taught as a teacher, as K43B can be therepresentative of all the classes at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch

6 Research method

The method employed in this study is an action research, with the use of two instruments:observations and questionnaires All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusionare based on the data analysis

Action research has proved to be the best choice for this study as the study was aimed atmotivating the students to take part in speaking activities within a certain context Thecombination of different instruments used in this research would help to gain reliable dataand help the researcher have a close investigation into the problems that the students werehaving

7 Outline of the thesis

The study consists of three parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion

The first part, “Introduction”, presents background to the study, aims of the study,

research questions, significance of the study, scope of the study, research method, andoutline of the thesis

The second part, “Development” comprises 3 chapters:

Chapter 1, LITERATURE REVIEW, presents relevant theoretical basis for the study,relating to speaking learning and teaching in language classroom, motivation, motivationalstrategies in speaking class and presents previous studies relating to the field

Chapter 2, METHODOLOGY, provides the readers with the definitions of the actionresearch, the data collection instruments Detailed information about the researchprocedure and the participants of the study is also presented

Chapter 3, DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS, analyzes the data collected from thepreliminary investigation stage to form the hypothesis of the study An intervention plan isworked out and implemented The data from the intervention stage are collected andanalyzed to make an evaluation of the effectiveness of the intervention

The last part, “Conclusion”, reviews the study, gives out pedagogical implications,

presents the limitations of the study and gives suggestions for further study in the samefield

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Speaking

1.1.1 Definitions of speaking

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

Speaking, a productive skill, is known to have two main types of conversation namelydialogue and monologue, which are rather different In monologue, you give uninterruptedoral presentation while in dialogue you interact with one or more other speakers fortransactional and international purposes

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

1.1.2 The importance of speaking

In social contexts, social roles are likely to be taken by those who learn and know how tospeak, but not by those who do not have this skill In language learning, speaking plays anutmost important role among the four language skills (listening, reading, speaking andwriting) 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 meanthat they are able to speak the language

It cannot be denied that speaking deserves as much attention as or even more attention thanwritten skill In order to carry out many of the most basic transactions, it is necessary forlearners to speak with confidence

1.1.3 Accuracy or fluency in the teaching of speaking

Accuracy in language teaching involves the correct use of vocabulary, grammar andpronunciation In controlled and guided activities, accuracy is usually the focus and theteacher makes it clear from feedback that accuracy is important Ongoing correction is

often appropriate during accuracy activities In freer activities the teacher’s hopes are thestudents’ correct use of the language and ability to communicate as well.

Fluency can be considered to be the ability to keep the talk going when speakingspontaneously When speaking fluently students should be able to get the message acrosswith whatever resources and abilities they have, regardless of grammatical and othermistakes Normally, students should not be corrected during fluency activities In feedbackafterwards, on the other hand, favorable comment on strategies is needed to increase theirfluency

1.1.4 Phases to teach speaking

Byrne (1988) distinguishes three following phases to develop learners’ oral ability: thepresentation phase, the practice phase and the production phase

In presentation phase, teachers are the center of learning and teaching activities They

work as an information provider What students usually do in this phase is to observe andlisten to the teacher, i.e they passively receive information Normally, they are only asked

to practice (role-play) and dramatize a dialogue or to talk about what they have to learnfrom a prose based on the previous answers at the end of this phase

Unlike the presentation phase, at practice phase learners have to do most of talking as they

are provided maximum amount of practice in the form of controlled and guided activities

to improve vocabulary and grammar knowledge as well as fluency of speaking Thelearners, at this phase, answer the teacher’s guided questions, discuss with their partners tofind new ideas related to the topic At the end of the practice phase, Ur (1996) suggestedwhat the teacher should do is to enhance the learners’ fluency of speaking First, attentionmust be fully paid by the learners Second, the target language must be clearly heard orrepeated Third, learners understand the meaning of new materials and finally, short-termmemory of the material must be created for later use in the lesson

At the last phase of learning speaking, production phase, learners are given chances to

speak English freely Being in a real situation, learners use English by themselves, notnearly depend on the teacher’s help Free activities are also in the form of individual work,pair work and group work However, pair work and group work are of great importanceand effectiveness as all learners can have chance to participate in talks, and they seemmore confident and more motivated Moreover, this can save a great deal of time

In the process of teaching speaking, improvement of the speaking ability will be gained ifthese three phases are followed orderly However, they might not be applied as expectedbecause of time limitation, types of learners and materials in use, etc.

1.1.5 Common speaking activities

A variety of activities can be used to develop speaking skills Below are some of thecommon ones

Role-plays are simple to plan and easy to play and, along with games and othercommunicative activities, are recommended to be used in the English speaking classes

* Information Gap Activity (IGA)

IGA is one of the easiest and most interesting forms of communicative activity in thespeaking class In order to get the most proficiency, the teacher can divide the class intopairs or groups In each pair or each group, one acts as the asker, the other the answerer, letthem discuss for a few minutes and they change the role

IGA may take three forms: (1) One student has some information and the other has to find

it by asking questions; (2) One student has some information and tells it to the otherstudent; (3) Both students have different information and they tell each other

Underhill (1987) asserts that variety of techniques can be used in IGA Firstly, they may bepeer or group interview Two students set out questions and answers to get certain thingsabout each other Secondly, they may be peer or group description and recreationinformation which one describes a picture or a design to another student who hasconstructed the model from the description alone without seeing the original Thirdly, they

can be game like (Harmer, 1998) such as describing and drawing, describing and guessing,finding the differences and completing a story, etc.

* Problem-solving

According to Byrne (1988), problem-solving has been used to group together a wide range

of activities that require students to find “solutions” to problems of different kinds

Many of these problems involve processes that we commonly use in real life as follows:

- We frequently hypothesize links between two things (events, actions, people, etc.)

- We detect differences (real or imaginary)

- We grade things according to criteria (subjective or objective)

Clearly, problem-solving is believed to be necessary and suited to students of all levels Asstudents are put in some situations that are similar to the real life, they actively join in theactivities because of the feeling that they are doing with their language, taking the risks ofexperimenting what they have learnt Moreover, the lessons can become more practical andattractive to them

* Other Picture Card Activities

The use of picture cards involves the use of pair and group work Bellows are some usefulactivities

1 Kim’s Game: The students in groups look at the items on a table for about thirty

second Next, the items are recovered with a cloth and the groups have to describe andlocate the items Then the group leaders report to the class what the group had discussed

2 What is my line: The students in groups have to ask questions of another memberwithin a limited time span and discover his/her occupation

3 Twenty questions: One student is asked to write the name of an object or select a

picture of an object and place it face downwards The others have to question this studentand try to guess what the item is

4 Patter matching: Prepare two copies of an identical picture One picture is pasted on a

card; the other is cut up into small pieces One student describes the picture card while theother tries to follow and ask more questions for clarification arrange the pieces according

to the instructions

5 Describe and Draw: Student A describes what he sees on his card while student B

draws on a piece of paper by following the instructions given In this activity, student Balso has to ask questions while student gives description

6 Spot the differences: Here again two sets of identical pictures are used and students in

pairs are told to spot a minimum number of differences

7 Completing a Map/ Giving Directions: Two or more sets of maps are used Some

details are given on each of the maps, but on each student’s map certain places would bedeleted and the names of these places would be listed at the bottom The task is to ask eachother where the places are located to complete the map

8 The Lost Twin: Each student has a small card on which are printed some of his or her

favorites, e.g food, drink, hobby, actor, etc There will be two copies of each card and thestudents have to go round the class to find out who has an identical card (the other twin)

To sum up, the above activities are useful for developing speaking skills among students.They can create out-of-expectation result in the speaking class

1.1.6 Problems with speaking activities

Ur (1996) claims that a successful speaking activity should achieve a maximal studenttalking time, even participation among the students, student strong motivation to speak andcomprehensibility of the students’ language

She also points out the following common problems in a speaking class:

- Students are inhibited about trying to say things in the classroom

- Students cannot think of anything to say

- Some students talk much while others speak very little or not at all

- Students tend to use their mother tongue instead of the foreign language

(Ur, 1996: 121)Thus, for a successful speaking lesson, the teacher, among other things, should be aware ofthese problems to have appropriate and effective solutions to motivate the students toexpress themselves

1.2 Motivation

1.2.1 Definitions of motivation

There have been so far many researches on the theory of motivation Each author hashis/her own way of explaining what motivation is since they look at motivation fromdifferent angles However, motivation is generally defined as an abstract concept used todescribe the willingness of a person to expand effort to reach a particular goal Forlanguage learners, mastery of a language may be a goal For others, communicativecompetence or even basic communication skills could be a goal In linguistics,sociolinguistics and second language acquisition, a number of language learner motivationmodels have been postulated

Ausubel (1998) identified six needs constructing motivation: (1) the need for exploration,(2) the need for manipulation, (3) the need for activity, (4) the need for stimulation, (5) theneed for knowledge, (6) the need for ego enhancement

According to Lightbrown and Spada (1999), motivation in second language learning is acomplex phenomenon which can be defined in terms of two factors: learners'communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language community Theauthors explain that if learners need to speak the second language in a wide range of socialsituations or fulfill professional ambitions, they will perceive the communicative value ofL2 and will therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it Likewise, if learners havefavorable attitudes towards the speakers of the language, they will desire more contact withthem

Malone (1981) defines motivation in terms of the challenge of the activities or tasksconducted by the teachers According to him, challenge depends on activities that meet theneeds of students’ different levels The tasks or activities which are too easy or too difficultwill decrease students’ motivation On the contrary, if students find the activitieschallenging enough, they will be interested more, which leads to effective learning

Gardner and Lambert (1972) suggested that motivation to learn a second language wasgrounded in positive attitudes toward the L2 community and in a desire to communicatewith and become similar to valued members of that community

Crookes and Schmidt (1991) define motivation in terms of students' interest in andenthusiasm 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 ifstudents enjoy activities and work hard.

Among what have been mentioned, Crookes and Schmidt’s definition is chosen to use inthis thesis because of two reasons First, it is directly related to the process of teaching andlearning language which emphasizes the important roles of students Theoretically, whenstudents are interested in the activities and are persistent with the learning tasks, they willget better results in learning Second, it is similar to what would be studied in the researchproject that the researcher wants to examine the students’ interest, satisfaction andconcentration on the varied activities in class, so the working definition in the thesis is:

motivation is interest in and enthusiasm for the activities used in classrooms, attention or levels of concentration, the effort and persistence with the learning tasks as well as the challenge of the activities conducted by the teachers This definition will guide the

researcher to design a questionnaire survey to get the information about the students’learning motivation in the research

1.2.2 Types of motivation in foreign language learning

According to theorists, there are some distinctions of types of motivation in foreign

language learning: integrative and instrumental motivation; intrinsic and extrinsic

motivation; global, situational and task motivation.

As can be found in literature, major studies in the past tended to divide motivation into twobroad categories: instrumental and integrative Their division is mainly based on thestudents' purposes According to Gardner and Lambert (1972), “Instrumental motivationrefers to the learners' desire to learn a language for utilitarian purposes (such asemployment or travel or exam purposes) in the context of language learning” On the otherhand, “integrative motivation refers to the desire to learn a language to integratesuccessfully into the target language community”

Wajnryb (1992) makes this clearer by stressing the importance of instrumental practicalgoals and communication with the people of the culture who speak it He claims thatinstrumental motivation refers to the desire to learn a language because it will be useful forcertain practical goals such as getting a job, reading foreign newspapers or texts, passing

an exam or obtaining a promotion On the other hand, integrative motivation refers towanting to learn a language for reasons of understanding, relating to or communicatingwith the people whose language we speak

Ellis (1994) and Gardner and Lambert (1972) agree that it is essential to distinguishinstrumental and integrative motivation because, once the teachers are well aware of theirstudents' motivation, they can find useful ways to create and sustain the learningmotivation in their students.

Some other researchers divide motivation into two main kinds: intrinsic motivation andextrinsic motivation The division is closely related to the students' psychology or emotion.According to Lepper (1988: 289-309), Ur (1996: 278-280) students who are intrinsicallymotivated undertake an activity “for its own sake, for the enjoyment it provides, thelearning it permits, or the feelings of accomplishment it evokes” On the other hand,extrinsically motivated students perform “in order to obtain some reward or avoid somepunishment external to the activity itself, such as grades or teacher's approval”

Another division proposed by Brown (1994) suggests three kinds of motivation: global,situational and task motivation According to him, global motivation is the overallorientation of the learner towards the learning of the foreign language while situationalmotivation has to do with the context of learning (classroom, total environment) On thecontrary, task motivation has to do with the way the learner approaches the specific task inhand

Having mentioned different types of motivation in language learning, the researcher wants

to clarify different purposes that students need to achieve, so in real teaching contexts,language teachers at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch should apply different strategies

to help the students learn effectively and work better after graduation, not that to help thempass the exam

1.2.3 The importance of motivation in foreign language learning

While there has been a great deal of research on the role of motivation in second languagelearning, 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 & Shearin (1994) state: “Many researchers considered motivation as one of themain elements that determine success in a second or foreign language It determines theextent of active, personal involvement in L2 learning”

Caroll (1962) pointed out: "the more motivation a learner has, the more time he or she willspend learning an aspect of a second language".

Labonde (1982), based on the findings made by Garner and Lambert (1972), concludedthat motivation and attitudes are important factors which help determine the level ofproficiency achieved by different learners and the effects of motivation appear to beseparated from the effects of aptitude, the most successful learners will be those who haveboth 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 ofstrategies among students learning a second or foreign language Research has shown thatthe use of specific learning strategies and techniques while studying a second or foreignlanguage leads to success Oxford (1994) emphasizes "more motivated students tend to usemore 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 languagelearning It helps L2 learners find and maintain interest in learning a second language and

is worthy of attention of language teachers

1.3 Strategies for motivating students in speaking activities

To answer the questions of how to motivate learners in English speaking activities, theresearcher have found interesting and applicable ideas in literature The followings aresome useful motivational strategies adapted from Bligh (1971), Sass (1989), Ames andAmes (1991), Harris (1991) and Dornyei (2001), Jones and Jones (1995), Oxford andShearin (1994), etc

* Capitalize on students’ existing needs

Students learn to speak best when incentives for learning speaking in class satisfy theirown motives for enrolling in the course Some of the needs students may bring to theclassroom are the need to learn speaking in order to complete a particular task or activity,the need to seek new experiences, the need to perfect speaking skill, the need to overcomechallenges, the need to be competent, the need to succeed and do well, the need to feelinvolved and to interact with other people Satisfying such needs is rewarding in itself, and

such rewards sustain learning more effectively than do grades Thus, the teacher shoulddesign in-class activities to address these kinds of needs.

* Help students set achievable goals for themselves

Individual goal setting is one of the most effective methods to enable students toexperience a sense of control over their own learning and perceive themselves as masteringmaterial while incorporating their own interest (Jones and Jones, 1995) It is particularlyrelevant to language learning because the ultimate purpose of this prolonged process – tocommunicate with foreign speakers - is several years away and is, in fact, for manylearners only moderately realistic; therefore, setting achievable goals has a powerfulmotivating function Oxford and Shearin (1994:19) noted “goal setting can haveexceptional importance in stimulating foreign language learning motivation, and it istherefore shocking that so little time and energy are spent in the foreign languageclassroom on goal setting”

In agreement with the claim of Locke and Latham’s (1990) on goal setting, Pintric andSchunk (1996) offer four main principles of goal setting based on the theory that can beapplied in the classroom setting

- Goals should be clear and specific

- Goals should be challenging and difficult, but not outside the range of students’capabilities

- Both proximal and distal goals should be set

- Teachers should provide feedback that increases students’ self-efficacy for obtaining thegoal

* Give clear explanation

Some recent research shows that many students do poorly on assignments or inparticipation because they do not understand what to do or why they should do it Teachersshould spend more time explaining why we teach what we do, and why the topic orapproach or activity is important and interesting and worthwhile In the process, some ofthe teacher’s enthusiasm will be transmitted to the students, who will be more likely tobecome interested Similarly, teachers should spend more time explaining exactly what is

expected on activities Students who are uncertain about what to do will seldom performwell.

* Create a comfortable atmosphere

In order to get learners more involved in class, especially in a foreign language speakingactivities, a favorable classroom atmosphere is considered indispensable As Dornyei(2001) argues, students often feel embarrassed in language classes because teachers forcethem to speak well in front of the other classmates with their limited vocabulary To helpchange this situation and facilitate activities, teachers need to help students understand thatmistakes are all right Therefore, he argues that teachers should correct errors in indirectway instead For instance, if a student says "I go to the cinema yesterday" instead ofpointing out the mistake, a teacher can say the correct sentence, "you went to the cinemayesterday", in a non-threatening way

Domyei (2001) goes on argues that in a safe and supportive classroom students feelcomfortable taking risk because they know that they will not be embarrassed or criticized ifthey make a mistake

* Vary teaching activities and methods

Variety reawakens students’ involvement in the activities and their motivation Break yourroutines by incorporating a variety of speaking activities and methods in your classes such

as role plays, debates, brainstorming, discussion, demonstrations, audiovisualpresentations, pair work or group work, etc to increase your students’ motivation

* Make learning visual

Even before young people were reared in a video environment, it was recognized thatmemory is often connected to visual images In the middle ages people who memorized theBible would sometimes walk around inside a cathedral and mentally attach certainpassages to object inside, so that remembering the image of a column or statue wouldprovide the needed stimulus to remember the next hundred lines of text Similarly, we canprovide better learning by using images such as drawings, diagrams, pictures and charts inspeaking activities It can be seen from researches these images can increase students’ level

of motivation

* Increase students’ self- confidence

Learners can perform well when they feel self-confident enough However, the question ishow to maintain and increase the students’ confidence and self-esteem in a context - thelanguage classroom - which is inherently face-threatening for the learner (Dornyei, 2001).

He also suggested that language teachers should increase the learners' self-confidence bypromoting their self-conceptions of language competence, by providing regular experience

of success and emphasizing what learners can do rather than can not do, giving them thefeeling of making a useful contribution and creating classroom situations where they candemonstrate positive features and come forward to offer help (Dornyei 2001: 130)

* Promoting cooperative learning

Cooperative learning improves communication, lower students' anxiety, raises their esteem, and improves classroom climate Learning English through cooperative groupwork allows students to learn from one another, and the teacher in a supportiveenvironment They become more proficient in language as a result of group work becausethey have more comprehensible input peer interactions, have better listening skill as aresult of responding to what has been said, have longer conversational turns than in whole-class teaching situation, and focus on meaning rather than on accuracy (Kessler, 1992)

self-* Make students active participants in speaking activities

One of the major keys to motivation is the active involvement of students in their ownlearning, especially in speaking activities It is better to get students involved in speakingactivities, worked in pairs or groups, discussing with others, helping to decide what to doand the best way to do it, helping the teacher, or in some other way getting physicallyinvolved in the activities Students learn by doing, making, writing, designing, creating andsolving Passivity dampens student motivation and curiosity

* Respond to students’ work

Teachers should give students proper feedback on students’ speaking as quickly aspossible Give students some indication of how well they have done and how to improve.For example, he can say a student’s presentation or a pair’s performance was good, with anindication of why it was good: “Lan’s presentation is very good Her ideas about pollutionreally synthesized the ideas we had been discussing.”

* Reward success

Teachers can help students who do not yet have powerful intrinsic motivation to learn byextrinsic motivation in the form of rewards Rather than criticizing unwanted behavior oranswers, rewards can correct behavior and answers Everyone likes the feeling ofaccomplishment and recognition; rewards for good work produce those good feelings.Remember that adults and children alike continue or repeat behavior that is rewarded Therewards can be small and configured to the level of the students The reward is best if ithelps to reinforce long-term goals set by students Thus a book on English is more valued

by students who are learning English than something edible The important point is thatextrinsic motivators can, over a brief period of time, produce intrinsic motivation Teachersshould bear in mind that in order to achieve the best effect, they should reward successpublicly and immediately

In short, in this section, various motivational strategies have been mentioned It can beseen that if they are used appropriately by teachers, they can bring about great effect onincreasing students’ motivation

1.4 Previous studies

So far, many researchers in the world namely, Gardner (1985), Crookes and Schmidt(1991), Dornyei (2001) and so on, have investigated what motivation is, what effectsmotivation in foreign language learning and how language teachers should employtechniques of motivation to improve their class performance These leading figures havebrought about great insight into how to motivate learners for better achievement and theirfindings have generated more research into different aspects of language teaching e.g how

to arouse students' interest in their struggle to master the four skills

Relating to effective techniques to motivate learners, Peacock (1997) carried out theresearch “The effect of authentic materials on the motivation of EFL learners” Thesubjects of his study were 31 South Korean beginners The study used on-task and overallclass motivation observation sheets and interview questions The research findingsconfirmed the positive effect of the authentic material on the motivation of EFL learners

Xiaoying Wang (2007) conducted an action research project in a listening course for thesecond-year English majors in one university in China Based on the data obtained fromclassroom observations, students’ journals, interviews with students, and students' response

to an open-ended questionnaire at the end of the term, she claimed that the studentsdeveloped a fairly high degree of motivation towards practicing listening due to the

teacher’s three-part plan, one of which was helping the students set specific goals forthemselves However, the results were not very convincing because the data collectioninstruments were only qualitative.

In Vietnam, Ha Thi Lan (2003) conducted an action research on the effect ofcommunicative activities of pair work and group work on students’ motivation in speaking.The subjects of the study were 30 students at Thaibinh School In order to collect data, theresearcher used a combination of two instruments: questionnaire and classroomobservation The findings revealed that the students were passive in speaking because ofthe lack of communicative activities in class

Another study was carried out by Hoang Thi Ngan (2006) with the purposes of finding outhow to motivate students to speak at Gia Loc Senior Secondary School The subjects of thestudy were 186 students in Grade 11 and 8 teachers teaching English in the school Thedata collection instruments used in this study were questionnaire and interview Thefindings of the questionnaire and interview showed that most of the students had greatinterest in various teaching techniques and communicative activities used by their teachers.Their preferable teaching techniques were those which gave them friendly, enjoyable andcooperative atmosphere, in which they were given much more opportunities to speak thelanguage

Two generalizations can be made about the above-mentioned studies Firstly, they allexamine the effects of motivation on teaching and learning Secondly, they all used similardata collection instruments – questionnaire and observation For these reasons, theresearcher will adapt questionnaire and observation to collect information for her study

In this chapter, the researcher has discussed the definitions of speaking, the importance ofspeaking, accuracy or fluency in the teaching of speaking, phases to teach speaking,common speaking activities and problems with speaking activities Theories of motivation,types of motivation in foreign language learning and the importance of motivation inforeign language learning were also mentioned In addition, strategies for motivatingstudents in speaking activities were also focused on All of the knowledge is concernedwith how to make teaching and learning of speaking skills more effective Finally,previous studies in motivation and motivation in English speaking were considered so thatthe researcher can adapt their instruments in her study to have reliable data

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 An action research

There are many definitions of action research that have been proposed over the last fortyyears Cohen & Manion (1994: 186) define action research as "a small scale intervention inthe functioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of such anintervention" It was stated by Nunan (1992) that action research is "problem focused",mainly concerned with a single case in a specific situation, and tries to find solutions to theproblem in focus It not only encourages teachers to compare methods and ideas withcritical eye and to adopt these ideas into their teaching environment but also engages them

in their teaching in a deeper way The aim of action research is to identify “problematic”situation or issues that participants consider worth investigating and to undertake practicalinterventions in order to bring about informed changes in practice Action Research is nowbecoming increasingly popular in language education

Action research was used as the research method for this study for some reasons Firstly,the researcher can combine two duties at the same time - teaching and researching, becausethere are positive effects on both our knowledge and our practice Secondly, it is beneficial

to both teachers and learners since it is concerned with improving the immediate learningenvironment (Wallace, 2001) Thirdly, it is a fancy way of studying what is happening anddecide how to make it a better place, and it is manageable

2 2 Research questions

This action research aims at answering the following questions:

1 What are the causes of the students’ low motivation in English speaking activities?

2 Can the teacher’s intervention (combining the three changes: helping students set achievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for success) motivate the students in English speaking activities? If yes, to what extent?

2.3 Description of the subjects

The study was conducted with the participation of 32 students in class K43B at BankingAcademy-Bacninh Branch (where I taught) and 2 teachers acting as observers

The 32 student participants were doing their first term of the first year at BankingAcademy-Bacninh Branch They were almost at the same age of 18 12 of them are boys

and 20 are girls They have different levels of proficiency in English They come fromdifferent areas: 8 from big cities such as Hanoi, Haiphong; 10 from rural areas and 14 frommountainous provinces such as Caobang, Backan, Dienbien, etc Among them, 17 havelearnt English for 3 years (from grade 10 to grade 12), 15 have learnt English for 7 years(from grade 6 to grade 12).

The observers have been teachers of English at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch forover five years and they have completed M.A courses in TESOL

2 4 The action research procedure

There are several ways in which the steps of action research have been analyzed Kemmis

& Mc Taggart (1988) suggests that action research has four steps which progress as aspiraling and evolving process: planning, action, observation and reflection Susman(1983) distinguishes five phases to be conducted within each research cycle: (1)Diagnosing: identifying or defining a problem, (2) Action planning: considering alternativecourses of action, (3) Taking action: selecting a course of action, (4) Evaluating: studyingthe consequences of an action, and (5) Specifying learning: identifying general findings.Burn (1999) considered the action research process as a sequence of cycles which consists

of eleven phases: exploring, identifying, planning, collecting data, analyzing/reflecting,hypothesizing, intervening, observing, reporting, writing and presenting

In this study, Nunan’s action research model (1992) was applied as it is easy to carry out inthe teachers' own classroom in limited time and the steps are clear cut to follow Thismodel includes six small steps: initiation, preliminary investigation, hypothesis,intervention, evaluation, and dissemination

This action research was implemented during 12 weeks starting from week 1 of the course.The subjects of the study were 32 elementary students from the class K43B at BankingAcademy-Bacninh Branch who participated from the beginning to the end of the study.Based on the selected model, the following steps were done one after the other Thedescription of the six step procedure is presented as follows:

* Step 1: Initiation (week 1 to week 3)

Observing the first three speaking lessons, the researcher realized that the students’learning motivation and their participation in speaking activities were low Therefore, shedecided to identify factors affecting the students’ learning motivation in speaking lessons

and the first research question formed was: " What are the causes of the students’ low motivation in English speaking activities?"

* Step 2: Preliminary investigation (From week 4 to week 6)

Data about the learners which may be factors affecting students’ motivation in Englishspeaking activities were collected in week 4 in order to confirm the problem stated in step

1 and find out the causes of low motivation (using questionnaire 1, see Appendix 1)

To establish the baseline of students’ motivation, the three speaking lessons of unit 4, 5, 6were conducted in an usual way, without any treatment and were observed usingObservation sheet 1 (Appendix 3), Observation sheet 2 (Appendix 4) right after everylesson to measure students’ interest, enthusiasm, persistence with learning tasks

* Step 3: Hypothesis

The analysis and discussion of the initial data led to the following hypothesis:

The combination of three changes: helping students set achievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for success would increase the students’ motivation in speaking activities.

* Step 4: Intervention (from week 7 to week 12)

Based on the analysis of the data collected from questionnaire, observation and on theliterature review relating to motivational strategies in speaking activities (as discussed inChapter 1), an action plan consisting of three parts: helping students set achievable goals,varying speaking activities and using rewards for success was developed

- Lesson plan writing and preparation for plan implementation: Basing on the main

reasons found, the researcher read literature to get more knowledge and suggestedsolutions Then speaking lesson plans for Units 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 were designed Inthese speaking lessons, the three strategies - helping students set achievable goals, varyingspeaking activities and using rewards for success - were used to motivate the students tospeak

- Plan implementation: In the six speaking lessons of units 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12, the

newly designed lesson plans were applied with the same group of students During the 6weeks of the intervention, the speaking lessons were handled in a different way, using thethree above-mentioned changes The lessons were observed using Observation sheet 1

(Appendix 3), Observation sheet 2 (Appendix 4) right after every lesson to measurestudents’ interest, enthusiasm, persistence with learning tasks After the planimplementation finished, Questionnaire 2 (Appendix 2) was conducted to gatherinformation about the students’ attitude towards and assessment of the changes in teaching.

In this step, the second research question formed was how the three changes in teaching: helping students set achievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for success improved students’ motivation in speaking lessons.

* Step 5: Evaluation

When information had been collected, the data from the two observation sheets of the lastsix lessons were then analyzed and compared with the data of two observation sheets of thefirst three lessons in order to evaluate the suggested solutions in the action plan Thecomparison was then used as evidence to show how useful the changes used by the teacherwere

Questionnaire 2 was also analyzed to gather information about the students’ attitudetowards and assessment of the changes in teaching Through the students’ responses, theresearcher could evaluate the effectiveness of the changes more exactly

* Step 6: Dissemination

The action research procedure and its results were reorganized and presented in form of athesis, which was shared with the researchers’ colleagues and some other teachers,especially younger ones

2 5 Description of Data Collection Instruments

In order to collect the data, the researcher used a combination of two instruments:Questionnaire and Observation to guarantee the objectiveness of the data

2.5.1 Questionnaires

Questionnaires are used when we want to tap into the opinions and ideas of our learnersand we do this by asking questions The answers are usually recorded in some ways so thatthey become available for subsequent reflection and analysis (Wallace, 2001) In thisstudy, two questionnaires were designed because they provided the researcher withresponses which could be easily quantified and analyzed