FACTORS AFFECTING ENGLISH NON MAJOR FIRST YEAR STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN LEARNING READING SKILLS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

thạc sỹ, luận văn, ngoại ngữ, tiếng anh, khóa luận, chuyên đề

Motivation, as indicated by research, is an essential element in language learning ingeneral and in learning reading in particular The fact that the students at HaUI oftenparticipate in the reading lessons reluctantly and inactively has encouraged the author toinvestigate the reason why their motivation in learning reading is rather low and to givesome suggestions for enhancing their motivation It is hoped that the study will be helpfulfor the author and other teachers at HaUI in finding appropriate teaching methods tostimulate their students in their reading lessons

II Aims of the Study

The purposes of the study is to investigate the factors affecting motivation inlearning reading among the first year non-English major students at Hanoi University ofIndustry The principal purposes of the study are summarized as follows:

1 To examine kinds of motivation possessed by the first year students in learningreading

2 To investigate factors affecting learners’ motivation in reading lessons

3 To examine the methods and techniques used by teachers of English to motivatetheir learners in reading lessons

4 To suggest some methods to stimulate learners to read in English and to givesome recommendations for improving the reading materials for the first- year students

III Research Questions

The study was carried out in order to find the answers to two research questions:

1 What are the types of motivation possessed by the first- year students in learningreading?

2 What are the factors affecting the students’ motivation in learning reading skills?

IV Significance of the Study

The study indicates kinds of motivation which are possessed by most of the firstyear students at Hanoi University of Industry, which is of benefit to teachers of English in

this university It also describes the factors affecting motivation in classroom settings.Furthermore, it gives some suggestions for the teachers to improve the textbook and sometechniques to stimulate students Hopefully, it can help the students to improve theirreading skills as well as the teachers to upgrade their teaching methods.

V Scope of the Study

There are three levels of training at Hanoi University of Industry: College level,Junior College level and Vocational Training level (bậc Đại học, Cao Đẳng và Trung cấp).Within its scope, the study is limited only to the non-major first-year students of Collegelevel

VI Methods of the Study

In seeking answers to the research questions, survey questionnaires and classobservation were chosen to obtain relevant information for the study The strategic method

of the study is quantitative one That is all remarks, considerations, and conclusions aremade largely based on the analysis of the statistic data collected through the questionnairesurvey Class observation is carried out as a supplementary to the survey questionnaires

VII Design of the Study

The thesis consists of three parts: the introduction, the development and theconclusion The introduction provides the basic information such as the rationale of thestudy, aims, research questions, significance, scope and methods of the study The main

content includes four chapters Chapter 1, Literature Review, conceptualizes the nature of

the reading skills, motivation and factors affecting motivation in learning reading Chapter

2, Research Methodology, presents the methodology used in the study Chapter 3, Data Analysis, covers a comprehensive analysis on the data collected from the survey, interview and the observation The last chapter, Major Findings and Suggestions, offers some major

findings and suggestions for enhancing students’ motivation in learning reading skills Theconclusion is a review of the study, future directions for further research and limitations ofthe study

Part II: Development

Chapter 1: Literature Review

Introduction

This chapter involves different issues in the theories of the reading in a foreignlanguage and motivation It will present an overview on reading theories, motivationtheories and motivation in learning the reading skill

1.1 Overview on Reading Theories

1.1.1 Definition and Types of Reading

* Definition

Reading is an activity with a purpose A person may read in order to gaininformation or verify existing knowledge, or in order to critique a writer's ideas or writingstyle A person may also read for enjoyment, or to enhance knowledge of the languagebeing read The purpose(s) for reading guide the reader's selection of texts

Ur (1996: 38) defines "reading means reading and understanding" According toHarmer (1989: 153), "reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain The eyesreceive messages and the brain then has to work out the significance of these messages"

Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text,resulting in comprehension The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs thatencode meaning The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what thatmeaning is Reader knowledge, skills, and strategies include

* Linguistic competence: the ability to recognize the elements of the writingsystem; knowledge of vocabulary; knowledge of how words are structured into sentences

* Discourse competence: knowledge of discourse markers and how they connectparts of the text to one another

* Sociolinguistic competence: knowledge about different types of texts and theirusual structure and content

* Strategic competence: the ability to use top-down strategies as well as knowledge

of the language (a bottom-up strategy)

The purpose(s) for reading and the type of text determine the specific knowledge,skills, and strategies that readers need to apply to achieve comprehension Readingcomprehension is thus much more than decoding Reading comprehension happens whenthe reader knows which skills and strategies are appropriate for the type of text, andunderstands how to apply them to accomplish the reading purpose

* Types of Reading

Nutall (2000: 38) indicates two main types of reading: intensive and extensivereading For him, these are not just two contrasting ways of reading but an infinitivevariety of interrelated and overlapping strategies Actually, both of these two types arecomplementary and necessary

Extensive Reading

Extensive reading is generally associated with reading large quantities with the aim

of getting an overall understanding of the material Lewis and Hill (1992: 109) point outthat "extensive reading means students have a general understanding of the text withoutnecessarily understanding every word" This type of reading is suitable for students' self-learning in order to train them to read directly and fluently in the foreign language for theirown enjoyment without the aid of the teacher However, extensive reading can be bestachieved only through an instructional program Extensive reading sometimes involves

skimming and scanning as strategies to gain general sense of a text, skimming for the gist

and scanning for some key details

In short, for second or foreign language learners, both intensive and extensivereading are of great importance as they act as a means to gain knowledge but also todevelop learners' language skills

1.1.2 Characteristics of an Effective Reader

According to Wassman and Rinsky (1993: 5), an effective reader needs "anunderstanding of the reading process and an understanding of how to go about readingdifferent types of printed information"

Reading research shows that good readers

* read extensively

* integrate information in the text with existing knowledge

* have a flexible reading style, depending on what they are reading

* are motivated

* rely on different skills interacting: perceptual processing, phonemic processing,and recall

* read for a purpose

1.1.3 Approaches to Teaching Reading Skills

Bamford and Day (1998: 124-141) state that around the world there are at least fourdistinctive approaches to the teaching of second or foreign language reading: grammar-translation, comprehension questions, skills and strategies, and extensive reading

Skills and Strategies

By this approach, the teacher has to prepare for students to read one or two-pagepassage maybe by pre-teaching vocabulary that appears in the reading passage Studentsthen read the text silently while keeping in mind two or three "while-reading" questions.After reading, they have to share their answers in pairs or groups Finally, they completevarious tasks or exercises that require them to demonstrate a global comprehension of thepassage and their grasp of particular reading skills or strategies

Extensive Reading

The goal of extensive reading is for students to become willing and able readers in

a second or foreign language Students individually read books and other materials at theirown speed mainly for homework

In short, the four approaches to the teaching of reading a second or foreignlanguage are not exclusive and in reality they may be mixed in any particular course orclassroom However, in the context of Hanoi University of Industry, comprehensionquestion approach is mainly applied to teaching reading for non-English-major students

1.1.4 Stages of a Reading Lesson

It is a common knowledge that a reading lesson consists of three important stages:pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading Obviously, each stage has its owncharacteristics and time allocation

* Pre-reading Stage

This stage is carried out before the students begin reading the texts It plays anessential part in the whole process of a reading lesson According to Williams (1984: 37),the purposes of the pre-reading stage are:

- To introduce and arouse interest in the topic

- To motivate learners by giving a reason for reading

- To provide some language preparation for the text

Normally, pre-reading phrase often lasts from two to ten minutes depending oneach lesson Before delivering activities for this stage, the teacher needs to take theobjectives of the lesson, the situation of teaching and learning, the students' needs intoaccount

* While-reading Stage

Williams (1984: 38) states that while-reading stage is the main part of a readinglesson with the following specific aims:

- To help understanding of the writer's purpose

- To help understanding of the text structure

- To help clarify text content

At this stage, the teacher needs to help students comprehend the text thoroughlywhile the students have to apply to the best their reading skills like skimming, scanning,guessing, etc to understand the text as well as the writer's purposes conveyed through thereading text Apparently, time allocation for this is nearly two thirds of the whole lesson

* Post-reading Stage

Post-reading stage is the last step of a reading lesson so it is the time for students'production What they produce will reflect how well they comprehend the text "The post-reading stage is aimed at consolidating or reflecting upon what has been read and relatingthe text to the learners' own knowledge, interests or views" (Williams, 1984: 39).Normally, it takes ten or fifteen minutes to complete all activities at this stage

1.2 Overview on Motivation

1.2.1 Definition of Motivation

Most definitions of motivation reflect the consensus that motivation is an internalstate or condition that serves to activate or energize behavior Woolfolk (2001: 366) statesthat "motivation is an internal state that arouses directs and maintains behavior" Sharingthe same point, Brown (2000: 160) suggests that "motivation is some kind of internal drovewhich pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something" Williams and Burden

(1997: 119) also point out that the reason for and factors affecting your choice of behaving

in this way but not in others and how much effort you decide to make in order to obtainyour objects are all aspects relating to motivation

Motivation also refers to the need and desire According to McKay and Tom (1999:2), the need and desire to communicate with others in the new language provide strongmotivation for most newcomers In a similar but more specified way, Lightbown andSpada (1999: 6) state that motivation in second language learning is a complexphenomenon which can be defined in terms of two factors: learners' communicative needsand their attitudes towards the second language community If learners need to speak thesecond language in a wide range of social situations or to fulfill professional ambitions,they will perceive the communicative value of the second language and will therefore bemotivated to acquire proficiency in it Likewise, if learners have favorable attitudestowards the speakers of the language, they will decide more contact with them

1.2.2 Types of Motivation

There are many different kinds of motivation:

- "Integrative": the desire to identify with and integrate into the target-language culture.

According to Garner and Lambert (1972), (cited in Ellis, 1997: 509), motivation isstrongly influenced by integrative orientation to language learning In their words, "anintegrative orientation involves an interest in learning an L2 because of a sincere andpersonal interest in the people and culture represented by the other group"

- "Instrumental'': the wish to learn the language for purposes of study or career

promotion

Ellis (1997: 75) regards instrumental motivation as some functional reasons forlearning-to pass an examination, to get a better job, or to get a place at university

- "Intrinsic": the urge to engage in the learning activity for its own sake It has been

termed "cognitive drive", very typical of young children and tends to deteriorate with age.Intrinsic motivation "comes from the individual" (Harmer, 2001: 51) or "stems fromfactors such as interest or curiosity" (Woolfolk, 2001: 368)

- "Extrinsic": motivation that is derived from external incentives.

Extrinsic motivation "is caused by any number of outside factors such as: the need

to pass an exam, the hope of financial reward or the possibility of future travel" (Harmer,2001: 51) Ur (1996: 277) points out that extrinsic derives from the influence of some kind

of external incentives, as distinct from the wish to learn for its own sake or interest in

learning tasks Many sources of extrinsic motivation are beyond the influence of importantpeople, such as parents However, other sources are certainly affected by teacher action,including success and its rewards, failure and its penalties, authoritative demands, tests,competition.

- "Global": the overall orientation of the learner towards the learning of the foreign

language According to Brown (1987), (cited in Ur, 1996: 276), it may be affected byprevious education, a large number of social factors as well as the teacher's own attitudesconveyed either unconsciously or through explicit information and persuasion

- "Situational": Brown (1987), (cited in Ur, 1996: 276) states that situational motivation

refers to the learning context: classroom, total environment which is assumed to beinfluenced by teacher action

- "Task":

In some learning situations, many learners' reason for learning a foreign language isnot because of the interest in the culture and target language community but the interest inlearning tasks They may find the kind of learning activities enjoyable and becomeproductively engaged in learning tasks, and sustain that engagement In other words, theselearners are intrinsically motivated (Ellis, 1997: 76)

Brown (1987) (cited in Ur, 1996: 276) also states that task motivation occurs whenlearners are encouraged to invest efforts and energy in doing a particular task attractivelydesigned by the teacher and they succeed

- "Resultative":

Ellis (1997: 76) claims that "motivation is the result of learning Learners whoexperience success in learning may become more, or in some contexts, less motivated tolearn" Truly, in some contexts like Vietnam, success in learning Korean may intensifyVietnamese students' liking for Korean culture, and thus, stimulates them to learn more

Among them, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations have an important part to play inclassroom settings Most writers agree that intrinsic and extrinsic interact with each other

As a result, learners can be either motivated by internal or external factors depending onthe circumstances and conditions the activity is performed

1.2.3 Importance of Motivation in second Language Learning

Most motivation theorists assume that motivation is involved in the performance ofall learned responses; that is, a learned behavior will not occur unless it is energized As aresult, motivation affects the extent of active, personal involvement in second languagelearning Obviously, unmotivated students are insufficiently involved and therefore unable

to develop their potential L2 skills Therefore, motivation is one of the main determiningfactors in success in foreign or second language learning Oxford and Shearin (1996: 121-122) point out: "Motivation is important because it directly influences how students use L2learning strategies, how much students interact with native speakers, how much input theyreceive in the language being learned (the target language), how well they do oncurriculum-related achievement tests, how high their general proficiency level becomes,and how long they preserve and maintain L2 skills after language study is over Therefore, motivation is crucial for L2 learning, and it is essential to understand what ourstudents' motivations are" In addition, Harmer (1999: 51) confirms that "it is accepted formost fields of learning that motivation is essential to success".

Ellis (1997: 515) concludes that the relationship between motivation andachievement is an interactive one A high level of motivation does stimulates learning, butperceived success in achieving L2 goals can help to maintain existing motivation and evencreate new types

1.2.4 Characteristics of Motivated Learners

Actually, the term motivation on its own is rather difficult to define It is easier andmore useful to think in terms of the "motivated learner" Motivated learners are those whoparticipate willingly and actively in learning activities in class

According to Naiman et al (1978) (cited in Harmer, 1999: 42), "the most successfullearners are not necessarily those to whom a language comes very easily; they are thosewho display typical characteristics, most of them clearly associated with motivation".Below is the list:

- Positive task orientation: the learner has confidence in his or her success

- Ego involvement: the learner finds it important to succeed in learning

- Need for achievement: to overcome difficulties and succeed in what he or she setsout to do

- High aspirations: the learner goes for demanding challenges and high proficiency

- Goal orientation: the learner is very aware of the goals of learning

- Perseverance: the learner is not discouraged by setbacks or apparent lack ofprogress

- Tolerance of ambiguity: the learner is not frustrated by a temporary lack ofunderstanding; he or she thinks it will come later

Sharing the same point, Crookes and Schmidt (1989) (cited in Ellis, 1997: 42)describe a motivated student as someone "becomes productively engaged on learning

tasks, and sustains that engagement, without the need for continual encouragement ordirection" Additionally, Lightbown and Spada (1999: 57) state that motivated students areusually those who participate actively in class, express interest in the subject-matter, andstudy a great deal.

1.2.5 Strategies to Encourage Motivation and Thoughtful Learning

According to Woolfolk (2001: 421), there are five necessary conditions that mustexist in a classroom namely: fulfilling basic requirements, building confidence and positiveexpectations, showing the value of learning, helping students to stay focused on the tasks,and instrumental value Basing on these conditions, he points out strategies to booststudents’ motivation as follows:

The first strategy is fulfilling basic requirements These requirements consist of anorganized class environment, a supportive teacher and challenging but reasonable work

Secondly, it is necessary to build students’ confidence and positive expectation byasking students to make their learning goals clear, specific and attainable Moreover,students will feel more confident when they are guided to work at their own levels, whenthey are assured that academic ability is improvable

Thirdly, students will be fully aware of the value of their learning when the teacherties class activities to students’ interests, arouses their curiosity, and makes the learningtask fun

The fourth strategy is helping students stay focused on the task by giving studentsopportunities to respond to the task, providing them chances to create a finished product.The teacher should teach them appropriate learning tactics for different kinds of exercises

Finally, for instrumental value, it is essential to explain to students the connectionsbetween school and life outside of school Besides, teachers should provide themincentives for learning when needed and using authentic tasks

As motivation plays an important role in teaching and learning a foreign language,the teacher should know strategies to boost students’ motivation and to obtain success inteaching

1.3 Motivation in Learning Reading

1.3.1 Importance of Motivation in Learning Reading

Resnick and Lester (2000: 5) state that "motivation is one of the most importantingredients in skilled reading" Most of the English learners complain that they feel boredwith the reading lesson One reason is the fact that reading is the most difficult and boring

of the four practical skills Students often lose interest in the reading text and are

reluctantly participate in the reading lesson From this fact, it is an important part of areading teacher's job to motivate learners (Girard, 1977: 20).

I.3.2 Factors Affecting Students' Motivation in Learning Reading

In the literature so far, there have been so few studies on the factors that influencestudents' motivation in learning reading in a foreign language However, most ofresearchers have come to an agreement to some common factors affecting students'motivation These include students' factors, teacher's factor and reading materials factor

1.3.2.1 Students' Factors

No one can deny that reading in a foreign language plays a vital part in academicstudies, personal development and professional success However, reading in a foreignlanguage is really difficult Scholars agreed that problems in reading for foreign languagelearners may be either in reading skill, language or readers' background knowledge

Reading Skill Problems

Students' reading skills or reading strategies can affect their motivation in engaging

in the text Reading strategies can be defined as "plan for solving problems encountered inconstructing meaning" (Duffy, 1993: 232) They range from bottom-up vocabularystrategies such as looking up an unknown word in the dictionary to a more comprehensiveaction such as connecting what is being read to the reader's background knowledge

Students’ limited reading skills create many problems Generally, they read in aforeign language slower than in their first language Moreover, they do not know how touse the appropriate ways to read They just look at every single word, read slowly from thebeginning to the end and consequently fail to grasp the general meaning of the passage.Sometimes, they may encounter a lot of vocabulary, a long text or an unfamiliar topic, yetthey can not concentrate well on the text and when they get to the last paragraph they maynot recall what they have read in the first ones

If a learner does not know how to make use of grammatical, logical and culturalclues, he will read the text with less comprehension than he might expect Poor readingcomprehension may result in disinterest in reading He may be trapped in a vicious circle:

Doesn’t understand → read slowly

Doesn’t read much → doesn’t enjoy reading

Diagram 1: The Vicious Circle of the Weak Readers (Nuttall, 1982: 167)

Language Problems

According to Aebersold and Field (1997: 138), knowing vocabulary and structures

is necessary for getting meaning from a text Students' limited knowledge of vocabularyand structures makes it really difficult for them to read the text As a result, students maygive up exploring the text

Readers' Background Knowledge

Background knowledge refers to the existing information on a specific topic Whenreaders deal with a reading text, the first problem is that they may encounter an unfamiliartopic The content of the text is comparatively new and difficult for them to understand,which may make them lose their interest in reading the text

In addition to these above factors, another factor that is believed to contribute more

or less to learner’s success and motivation in second language learning is learner’preferences

Learner Preferences

Learners’ preferences refer to learning styles involving an individual’s natural, habitual, and preferred ways of absorbing, processing, and retaining new information and skills (Reid, 1995) (quoted in Lightbown and Spada, 1999: 58) It means that learners have

their own preferences for how to learn the new material

1.3.2.2 Teachers’ Factor

Linguistics leaves out an essential element of the teacher’s role, that of a modelteacher Nuttall (1982: 192) states that “showing that you are a reader means carryingbooks around with you, referring to books as you teach, reading out brief passages thatmay interest students, talking about what you are reading at the moment, and handlingbooks as if you loved them” He also says teacher’s job as “providing, first, suitable textsand second, activities that will focus the students’ attention on the text”

Learners’ motivation in foreign and second language learning is strongly influenced

by what happens in the classroom, including teachers’ teaching methods, teachers’personality and teachers’ rapport with learners

 Teachers’ Teaching Methods

Teachers’ teaching methods refer to a set of techniques or activities used to getlearners involved in learning to achieve a goal One of the reasons for learning a foreignlanguage among many learners is that they find learning activities interesting It means that

teachers’ teaching techniques or activities can either motivate or demotivate learners tolearn.

Harmer (1991: 12) finds that classes in which the teachers present a variety ofactivities are far more likely to ensure learners’ continuing interest and involvement inlearning, whereas classes in which the teachers continually give the same activities are notlikely to engage learners’ interest For example, if all reading activities always focus onscanning specific information and learners are never asked to anything else, reading willbecome less interesting The same is true of any activity that is constantly repeated

Furthermore, learners considerably vary in personality, preferences and beliefs Theactivity that is particularly appropriate for one learner may not be ideal for another Thus, aparticular teaching method can not satisfy the needs or the interests of all learners

It is clear that a variety of teaching activities can contribute to learners’ motivationwhile routine and monotony endanger it

 Teachers’ Personality

Much of the learning of foreign of a foreign and second language is done through

the interaction between the teacher and the learners During the learning process, “all learners are likely to be influenced by their personal feelings about their teachers, and therefore, their perceptions of their teachers and of the interaction that occurs between them and their teachers will undoubtedly affect their motivation to learn” (Williams and

Burden, 1997: 13) Teacher personalities like sensitivity, encouragement, sympathy,enthusiasm are always highly appreciated by learners

 Teachers’ Rapport with Learners

In addition to teacher personalities, a good rapport between the teacher and learner isconsidered significant for learners to cooperate well with the teacher Wubbel and Levy

(1991) (quoted in Williams and Burden, 1997) emphasize that “teachers who demonstrated more relationship, as well as friendly and understanding behavior in their interaction with learners were found to foster greater learner achievement and more positive attitudes towards their subjects Teachers who showed more uncertain, dissatisfied, and admonishing behavior produce the reverse effect”

1.3.2.3 Reading Materials' Factors

Reading materials are one of the most important factors determining students'

motivation According to Broughton (1984: 102), "The choice of an appropriate text is very important in building up students' reading competence" Also, students are more likely to be

motivated to read more by reading materials that are interesting and relevant to their ageand level of ability (Lightbown and Spada, 1999: 57).

Actually, texts play an important role in teaching and learning reading because they are

a means to introduce new lexical, phonetic as well as grammatical items of the targetlanguage They are also a means to help students to enrich their background knowledge.Thus, the teacher needs to take the following points into consideration (Grellet, 1981: 20)when choosing appropriate authentic texts to suit with different reading activities:

- The language of the text

- The content of the text

- Vocabulary and grammatical structures

- Types of reading activities

In addition, Nuttall (1996) (quoted in Brown, 1990: 314) offered three criteria forchoosing reading texts for students: (1) suitability of content: material that students willfind interesting, enjoyable, challenging, and appropriate for their goals in learning English;(2) exploitability: a text that facilitates the achievement of certain language and contentgoals, that is exploitable for instructional tasks and techniques, and that is integratable withother skills (listening, speaking, writing); readability: a text with lexical and structuraldifficulty that will challenge students without overwhelming them

Conclusion

The chapter so far has presented literature concerning the subject matter of thestudy It talked about different theories related to the reading skills and reading activities Ithas also discussed the concepts and ideas about motivation in general and in second orforeign language in particular Furthermore, the important role of motivation in learningthe reading skill and factors affecting students' motivation in learning this skill have beenreviewed

The following chapter will display the methodology of the research under the light

of the above-mentioned theories

Chapter 2: Research Methodology

Introduction

This chapter will analyze the situation of the study with the description of thesubjects, the materials used by informants and the instruments applied to collect data

2.1 Situation Analysis

2.1.1 Setting of the Study

The study was conducted at Hanoi University of Industry, one of the universitiesthat trains qualified practical engineers English is a compulsory subject in the trainingprogram The students have to complete a two-year-and-a-half English course and theyneed to obtain the Certificate level B in using English as one of the requirements for theirBachelor’s degree Thus, English is taught in the formal setting with two stages During thefirst one, which lasts two years, students study general English with the four languageskills, namely: listening, speaking, reading and writing In the second stage, students studyESP (English for specific purposes) with a focus on reading and translating technicaldocument relating to their future career Students are also trained to use English for basicdaily communication in workshop contexts

The first stage is important to the students' development of the four skills since theyhave more time and opportunities to practice language skills basically and systematicallythan in the second one Also, the first stage which provides essential grammar andvocabulary serves as a base for studying the second one Students study 120 periods ofEnglish in each semester during the first stage However, there is only one period ofreading a week Totally, there are 15 periods of reading a semester Thus, it is not enoughfor the students to develop their reading skills which are assumed to be necessary inreading technical materials and instructions

2.1.2 Subjects

* The first-year Students

Most of the first-year students at HaUI, aged from 19 to 21, both male and female,have learnt English for nearly 4 years or more, 3 years at secondary school and nearly oneyear at the English Department They all have similar background, that is, they all finishedsecondary school and passed the Entrance Exam to HaUI However, they come fromdifferent parts of northern Vietnam The majority is from the countryside At the time ofthe study, they were in the second term of the first year

* The Teachers of the Non- major English Division 2

There are 10 teachers of English in the Non-major English Division 2 All of themhave been teaching for the division for at least one year 7 have graduated from the EnglishDepartment, College of Foreign Languages, National University, Hanoi; 3 have graduatedfrom Hanoi University of Foreign Languages Some of them have got M.A degrees.However, none of them have studied abroad They teach all four language skills, that is,there are no teachers specialized in teaching reading skills

2.1.3 Reading Materials

The materials used for teaching and learning English for the first stage at HaUI arechosen with the aim to develop students' communicative skills Students study Englishwith the textbook chosen by the Department without any survey on students’ needs andinterests: "International Expression”- Pre-intermediate by Taylor, L (2004, 1sted, OxfordUniversity Press) The reading texts are rather long, requiring good reading techniques.Some reading texts have many difficult and unfamiliar words to students

2.1.4 Teaching and Learning Strategies

It is a common knowledge that teachers are responsible for helping their students touse every possible strategy during the act of reading In other words, teachers need to haveknowledge of the strategies available for use while reading There are several usefulstrategies for readers like skimming, scanning, summarizing, predicting, etc Readingstrategies can be taught to the students In order to become proficient readers, studentsneed to adopt different types of reading strategies and in different ways However, students

at HaUI have never been taught reading strategies They are usually asked to read the textthen do some tasks The teachers may or may not instruct students about these readingstrategies Therefore, students often find it difficult to fulfill the tasks, which maydemotivate them to learn reading

2.2 Sample and Sampling

The sample was drawn from two sources: from 1,000 first-year students and from

10 teachers teaching in the Non-major English Division 2, English Department, at HanoiUniversity of Industry

The first-year students were assigned to 20 different classes Six students in eachclass were randomly selected to fulfill the questionnaire Totally, 120 students (12 % of thefirst-year students) answered the questionnaire

Ten teachers (100 % of the teacher population) who have been teaching English atthe Department for at least one year were invited to join the research Their ages rangedfrom mid-twenties to mid-thirties There were four male teachers and six female teachers.

2.3 Instrumentation

The instruments used to gather the information for the study will be described asfollows:

2.3.1 Instrument 1- Survey Questionnaire

Two set of survey questionnaire were completed with the assistance of 120 first-yearstudents and 10 teachers in the Non- major English Division 2 This method allowed theresearcher to collect the data needed in ‘quantitative form’ A good point of this method isthat it is quite easy to summarize, analyze and report the collected data as all informantssubmit the answer to the same questions In addition, the informants can express theiropinions on teaching and learning the reading skills in a free way as their personalinformation is not included in the questionnaire

2.3.1.1 The Questionnaire for the Students

The questionnaire for the students (Appendix 1) was designed with two parts Parts oneconsists of four questions to find out about the students’ sex, which department theybelong to, where they come from, how long they have learnt English and what mark theygot in their English subject last semester Part two includes five questions with which theresearcher desires to explore the students’ kind of motivation in learning the reading skillsand the factors affecting their motivation Questions 3 and 4 attempted to ask studentsabout the ways they would like to participate in the reading lessons and their preferencesfor activities and techniques used by the teacher during the reading lessons Question 5tried to find out the causes to the students’ difficulties in dealing with the reading lessons

2.3.1.2 The Questionnaire for the Teachers

The questionnaire for the teachers (Appendix 2) consists of two parts (with 8questions) Part 1 asks about their opinions on teaching the reading skills, the things theyoften do in their reading lessons Part 2 is about their comments on the reading texts in thetextbook

2.3.2 Instrument 2-Class Observation

It was an on-the-spot observation in which the researcher watched, and recorded allactivities as they were performing in the real classroom settings The observation enablesthe researcher to elicit reliable data In other words, it is a means to check the reliability ofthe data collected from the questionnaire More importantly, the researcher intended to

observe the impact of teacher’s teaching methods, teacher’s personality and teacher’srapport with students on students’ motivation.

The author of the study observed two classes (DHK2 D1 and DHK2 KHMT2) Thereason for choosing those classes is that they belong to different faculties (Electricity andComputer Science) Each class was picked up randomly from its group The observationwas carried out in two different lessons in these classes For each lesson, the researcherobserved for 45 minutes

Two teachers under the author’s observation are the teachers in Non-major EnglishDivision 2, who have been teaching English at this university for at least one year Theywere the teachers in charge of these classes from the beginning of the semester There aresome differences between the teachers In the first place, one of them is 23 years old andthe other one is in the mid-thirties Consequently, their teaching experience must bedifferent

Two units were chosen to be observed are unit 5 and unit 9 The purpose forchoosing these units was that they contained rather long reading passages with manyunfamiliar words, which may make the readers bored Therefore, the researcher intends toobserve how the teachers dealt with the long texts, how they explained the new words andwhat techniques they used to motivate students

Conclusion

This chapter has presented the methodology employed in the research The nextchapter will offer a descriptive data analysis of the collected data