Second language learning motivation a case study of students with visual impairment at a university in hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGÔ PHƯƠNG THANH SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING MOTIVATION: A CASE STUDY OF STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI (Nghiên cứu tình động lực học tập ngôn ngữ thứ hai sinh viên khiếm thị trường Đại học địa bàn Hà Nội) MA THESIS – TYPE Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 HANOI – 2020 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES NGÔ PHƯƠNG THANH SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING MOTIVATION: A CASE STUDY OF STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT AT A UINVERSITY IN HANOI (Nghiên cứu tình động lực học tập ngôn ngữ thứ hai sinh viên khiếm thị trường Đại học địa bàn Hà Nội) MA THESIS – TYPE Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Supervisor: Dr Mai Ngoc Khoi HANOI – 2020 DECLARATION I hereby state that the paper is the result of my own work in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Art of Faculty at Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University of Hanoi This research has not been submitted to any other universities or intuitions In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Ngo Phuong Thanh November 23, 2019 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I am much honored to be supervised by Mr Mai Ngoc Khoi, to whom I would like to send my deepest gratitude It is him who gave me the confidence to work on visual impairment students – the subject that brought me a lot of inspiration I am too lucky to have you as my mentor It is obvious that without your all-around supervision and guidance, this thesis could not be finished In addition, all my heart is dedicated to my parents, who have been standing by my side, giving me tender care and support to tirelessly work on this paper Without you – my source of motivation, I would never have enough courage to finish the research Moreover, many thanks should go to my boy friend Mr Truong Hoang Long for his continuous encouragement I fully appreciate your advice when I got lost with my thesis Besides, I would like to thank my class classmates for being my motivation to complete this paper Last but not least, the research is dedicated to me myself – the brave strong girl who have gone through many struggles and constantly tried hard on this road I deserve to be proud of myself ii ABSTRACT The purpose of this work is to explore the motivation of students with visual impairment through their longitudinal L2 learning journey To this end, the research was conducted with two Vietnamese sightless learners at a University in Hanoi The students‘ language learning autobiography and semi-structured interview were employed to collect data Three findings emerged from the data analysis Firstly, sightless students had clear goals for learning English such as to get an English – related job, to communicate with other L2 speakers or to enhance knowledge Secondly,their motivated learning behaviours were impacted by L2 learning experiences Thirdly,they recognized learning difficulties as a source of motivation Based on the findings, the thesis strongly suggests that parents and teachers should empower sightless students to have a dream and shape their future L2 self by providing them with a supportive and comfortable learning environment iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Motivation 2.1.1 Definitions of Motivation 2.1.2 Definition of L2 Motivation 2.2 Previous Research on Motivation and L2 Motivation 2.2.1 The History of Motivation Research 2.2.2 Traditional Approaches to L2 Learning Motivation .10 2.2.3 The L2 Motivation Revolution in the 1990s 12 2.2.4 Recent L2 Motivational Theories & The L2 Motivational Self System 16 2.3 Visual Impairment 20 2.4 Previous Research on L2 Motivation of Impaired Students .21 2.5 Previous Research on the Education of Visually Impaired Students in Vietnam 22 2.6 Research Gap .23 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 24 3.1 Research methodology .24 3.2 The setting of the study and participants 25 3.3 Data collection instruments and procedures 27 3.3.1 Language learning autobiographies 28 3.3.2 Interview 29 3.4 Data analysis methods 29 3.5 The Portrait of Participants 30 Summary 34 iv CHAP 4: FINGDINGS 35 4.1 Rationales for L2 learning 35 4.2 L2 learning experiences .43 4.3 L2 learning difficulties .48 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS & DISCUSSION .55 Conclusion 55 Conclusion 58 Conclusion 59 IMPLICATIONS .60 REFERENCES 64 APPENDICES I Appendix A I Appendix B V Appendix C VI Appendix D XIX Appendix D XXXII v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Rationales for the study Along with research in the field of English language learning and teaching history, second language (L2) learning motivation has always brought great passion and interest to the researcher The researcher, through her teaching experience, realized that learning motivation plays a vital role in students‘ process of language learning Consequently, the researcher has insistently sought ways to motivate her students as well as enhance their positive learning experience This attempt drove the researcher to a study of L2 learning motivation Moreover, the researcher believes that it is necessary to conduct a qualitative research which presents a close look at individual learners by taking learners‘ difference and identity into account It is undeniable that L2 learning motivation has constantly received noticeable attention of researchers and teachers However, the majority of researchon L2 learning motivation focuses only on the stable and generalized motives of learners (Zaragoza, 2011) For example, many studies applying quantitative approach investigate learners‘ contemporary motives in a specific time and ignore their past and future motivation Besides, by collecting a large range of participants, these studies try to single out the most noticeable and common motives but ignores learning differences and dynamic feature of motivation Finally, it is the cases of students with visual impairment in the researcher‘s institution that urged her to research on L2 language motivation of sightless learners In the context of Vietnam education, there are few language universities, such as University of Languages and International Studies, accepting students with visual impairment Realizing their learning difficulties, especially when these institutions have not provided enough support for these special learners, the researcher decided to study their learning motivation that was believed to keep them pursuing L2 learning and overcome learning barriers Therefore, the recent research brings in an insight into language learning motivation as well as learning barriers of sightless students who are attending University of Languages and International Studies as well as the researcher‘s institution The researcher conducted this paper aiming at investigating the L2 learning motivation through the lens of sightless students as considering their L2 self and identity Statement of research questions The research was conducted to seek the answers for the following question: What factors affect second language learning motivation of visually impaired students? Aims& objectives of the study First of all, the study aims to explore what motivate students with visual impairment to learn L2 before and after they enter the University Secondly, it is to investigate what factors impact on their L2 learning motivation Scope of the study The aim of the study is to investigate the language learning motivation of students with visual impairment in and outside classroom setting Therefore, the two visually impaired students at University of Language in International Studies were selected as the targeted population of the research The selection of core participants based on three criteria: visual impairment, previous academic background and willingness to join the research The research was conducted at Faculty of English Language Teacher Education of the university, which is the biggest provider of English teachers for the whole country Every student in this faculty is English major and future English teacher, so it is important for them to master English language Moreover, this faculty accepts students with visual impairment and recently there are some sightless students attending it Therefore, it might be the best context to carry out the research of language learning motivation of visually impaired students Methods of the study The study employs case study to investigate what motivate visually impaired students to learn L2 The research goals are achieved by means of qualitative data The study was carried out by some steps as follows: First, the language learning autobiography was employed to find out their second language learning stories in the connection with learning motivation Second, personal interviews with two students were conducted in order to:  Study their rationales for learning  Study their past and present learning experience to find out how L2 learning motivation was generated and changed  Find out the difficulties in students‘ L2 language learning and their impacts on L2 motivation Then, the data were collected, sorted and analyzed qualitatively to obtain realistic results To end with, pedagogical implications for enhancing students‘ motivation in L2 language learning was proposed based on the results found from all data collection instruments Significance of the study The study is considered to be significant for some reasons Firstly, the results will, for a certain extent, help the English teachers and parents who are educating and fostering visually impaired students raise awareness of the importance of motivation in L2 learning Secondly, the paper is expected to contribute information on sightless students‘ L2 learning motivation, as the second language education for students with disabilities has not received enough concern Hopefully, the study will bring about the insight into language learning motivation and barriers of sightless students to others who are learning or are going to learn the English language, and then, encourage them to step forward on their English language learning journey teach students today For example, the topic is about fruits If students are normal people, I will look for pictures to let students look at However, for the blind, I have to find specific items for students to touch and describe I: Please tell me the experience that you feel the most comfortable and happiest when thinking about as an English learner? H: Writing English is so different with writing Vietnamese For example, when I studied Writing, I just wrote English based on what I thought in Vietnamese way in the beginning As a result, it was very funny when I translated to read After a while when I wrote a lot, I just asked teachers and friends to fix and comment many times, so I feel more comfortable to write English now I: Do you have any other experiences, moments, memories that bring you a feeling of love and pleasure? H: I sat next to a friend studying with me now His name is Hai He loves speaking English He talked to me in English everyday in class Most of the time in class, we practiced speaking English including even normal things he also told me in English I am happy because there is someone sharing the same interest with me It is very interesting to sit together and talk in English to each other I: Do you know why you like talking in English? H: First of all, my pronunciation ability was not good, so there was a friend who helped me learn English He made me it by finding a video and imitating people speaking in the video Then, I recorded what I imitated and sent him to receive comments When talking to him, I needed to speak completely by English, tried to use English when writing, when speaking, when messaging, when we met each other Gradually, it becomes habit, and I also would prefer to speak English more I: So which moment, memory you feel uncomfortable when learning English? H: I remember and am still afraid of learning skills of doing reading exercises until now For normal people, it is very easy because they just need to look and skim through to find the keywords Nevertheless, I read via the computer, XXVII it took me a long time to listen to what computer spoke For instance, my friends told me that I just needed to skim through When I did the exams, the teacher always advised me to read the questions before finding the keywords in the reading Although I followed that method, it still took me a long time, as we had to listen and read in each line, sometimes in each sentence Therefore, I spent a long time doing it and did not often get high score in my Reading I: I: Who is the most influential person to you as a language learner? Q: Perhaps it‘s Huong who is a blind like me She has helped me a lot I: Specifically, how did she affect you? H: For example, when I was attending an English club for visually impaired people, she supported and helped us to practice pronunciation other skills When I got mistakes, she commented in very detailed, enthusiastic way Moreover, she orientated us what we should when reading, writing and speaking English I: Among the people who helped you, how did it affect your English learning? H: For the first time, I thought that my Reading skill was so obsessive and difficult; even I could not it Then, she told me that I should not think it was hard, just think I could it and it in another way As a result, she taught me how to use the software to adjust the speed to become slower and to read each line and each sentence Thanks to that method, I also got better at doing Reading exercises I: Which personal factors had a strongest influence on your English learning? H: The strongest factor is my family, because there are two siblings who are visually impaired in my family I totally understood the difficulties of the visually impaired people while studying, working and doing daily activities Therefore, I want to know English so that I can learn foreign materials to help them I: Regarding your visual impairment, how does it affect your English learning, particularly your learning experiences? H: We see the document problem makes a biggest impact on us because we all use the soft copy documents However, sometimes, there are some books XXVIII without soft copy If there is a PDF file, that PDF file is the image file, so we cannot read We also cannot read hard copy books Therefore, I realize that it affects a lot Sometimes, there are some great materials, but we not have the opportunity and the conditions to reach them I: What about motivation for learning? H: In terms of motivation to study, I think that there are many opportunities for people who can see If they not learn this, they can some other things In my opinion, I cannot look, so I should try to focus well on one field; as a result, the opportunity will come to me I: That you cannot see is your motivation or makes you demotivated? H: I think that my visual impairment is one reason for me to try my best I: How you feel about your English teachers at school now, especially in English? H: I feel that all teachers at school are very friendly and enthusiastic Sometimes, I had some difficulties and asked teachers about those, and they answered in very enthusiastic way However, maybe teachers still not understand all of our troubles Besides, it is partly our faults because we are not very active in telling the teacher how to help us or how we need help, as we sometimes feel shy to it If we ask, teachers will create the most favorable conditions for us I: So you see that teachers make you feel more motivated, more inspirational in learning? H: Yes, when the teacher came to the classroom in the first lesson, the teacher came to me, asked what my methods of studying are, and asked me to send email to teachers if I need their support They will support as much as possible When examining, the teacher prepared the soft copy for us in a very thoughtful way I: Are there any teachers who make you feel inspired? H: Actually, Ms Hang teaching 1B subject inspired me the most when I am learning The most favorite thing of mine is her confidence and dynamism While studying, she always thinks of games, specific situations, gives us the comfortable XXIX learning environment We never feel bored because she always tries to link what she teaches with reality I: Do you feel demotivated when you study in any classroom or with any teacher? H: No, I always feel happy and interested in lessons when going to classroom I: How you feel about your classmates? H: My classmates are enthusiastic In the beginning, when I was new student of the class, they did not get familiar to my appearance, but they actively asked me how I studied like this Somedays, I did not go to school, they texted me to ask if I need them to come and read the documents, need any help, need them to type anything, or need to ask them anything I: Are they going to become one of motivation for you? H: Yes, when I started studying at university, I felt panic, as I heard some reviews of people that university environment is very bored and different with high school However, when I am studying here, I feel different Because some university divides into the credit classes, not study in the normal class, so they feel in that way I still feel the same at my school I: In your opinion, does the learning environment affect your learning and your learning motivation How does it affect? H: Yes, because when I come to class, teachers and friends make me feel happy, so I am interested in absorbing knowledge and working If the class environment is always stressful and full of pressure or problems such as those who are not psychologically good or are too demanding for my level, I will also feel pressure I: Do you have any expectations about your English learning environment? Which environment you feel very encouraging and give you great learning motivation? H: According to me, I need the environment providing enough equipment to support myself, teachers, and friendly friends XXX I: Which difficulties are you afraid to share with your teacher? H: For example, sometimes, there are some books and PDF file that we cannot read When we go to school, the teachers check the exercises and call us to fix them I wanted to tell teachers that this file was image file, and we could not read it I intended to share that problem with teachers, but I think that if I keep asking and demanding too much, teachers will think that I rely on my disabilities to be lazy and ask for many things Therefore, I sometimes felt shy to share with teachers XXXI Appendix D Table of Coded Transcript Ha Portr Excerpt 1: Ha’s interview ait of Sometimes, I got bad Participants points Actually, I considered them as bad points, but they are not too low Because normally my points are pretty well, but they are always the same Therefore, I was not being satisfied with myself Excerpt 2: Ha’s language learning autobiography My visual disability seems to make me different from other peers in my university I not consider it a shortcoming; it is just a difference I receive the same education and assessment as other students although this difference brings me some disadvantages in studying Excerpt 3: Ha’s language learning autobiography Look back to 18 years ago, when I was a four-year-old girl, I started learning English by usually sitting next to my cousin and listen to what his sister taught him To be honest, at first, I had no particular purpose of learning English I joined my cousin‘s lessons because I had not got anybody to play with while he was busy studying In another word, I learnt English for fun By this way, English was subconsciously absorbed, and since those days, my love for English emerged Having begun with a limited number of vocabulary and structures, I, day XXXII Hang Excerpt 5: Hang’s language learning autobiography English is one of my favorite subjects because learning a foreign language is my fascination when I was a child I started to learn English since 2009 Excerpt 6: Hang’s interview I: What is your English learning goal now? H: My goal in learning English is to be able to enhance my knowledge Later, I can help the visually impaired students like myself, or I can some works like translating books I: What kind of books you like translating? H: I like translating stories because I like literature I: What about your longterm goal of learning English? Q: My long-term goal is to study abroad I: Have you chosen any country yet? H: Maybe it is Australia, because Australia is very supportive full of opportunities I: After studying abroad, you have any other plans? H: I plan to apply for NGO to have more opportunities to help people with disabilities Excerpt 7: Hang’s language learning by day, got used to making simple conversations in English My first communicative partner was no one else, but my cousin Excerpt 4: Ha’s language learning autobiography I believe that I am able to whatever others can, but in another method Whenever daunting feeling caused by unexpected troubles invades my mind, I hear a voice inside my heart: ―Calm down! Be stronger! You are the only person who can escape yourself from this unpleasant situation‖ And I what my heart says Afterward, I have overcome all challenges I think it can be the response to those who were once afraid that I would drop the courses early due to their difficulty Rati Excerpt 10: Ha’s interview onales for I learnt English for myself, Learning and I was not influenced by anybody Everyone just encouraged me Nothing affected or changed my interest in English Excerpt 12: Ha’s interview I: According to your autobiography, you have started learning English with your cousin since you were a child So is it right that through it, you started keening on learning English? H: At that time, I just liked sitting and studying with her, and I had no idea whether I liked it or not Actually, I also enjoyed learning and worked hard on it but it is not because I love it XXXIII autobiography In the future I want to become an English teacher because I hope to have an opportunity to help the blind people like me As their chances of approaching English are low, I really want to teach them so that they will get more job opportunities Excerpt 8: Hang’s interview I: Do you read the documents, books, newspaper because you want to gain more knowledge or for any other purpose? H: I want to enrich my knowledge Moreover, later, when I teach the visually impaired students, maybe I will tell them stories and share the information that I have read from those materials Excerpt 9: Hang’s interview I: Who you study English for? H: Firstly, I learn English because English is my favorite Secondly, my parents also tried to find out which jobs are suitable to the blind After searching some information, my parents said that everyone advised me to learn language Therefore, I am also oriented by my parents However, the most important reason is my favorite of learning English Excerpt 11: Hang’s interview I: Why are you interested Excerpt 13: Ha’s interview In my opinion, firstly, it (English) can be the means that help us have chances to find a better job Nowadays, more and more people use English to communicate in working, so if our English is good, our opportunity to find a job is bigger Excerpt 15: Ha’s language learning autobiography At first, my dream was to become an editor, but then I changed my mind and wanted to become an English teacher I still not change my intention until now because I gave careful consideration Excerpt 18: Ha’s language learning autobiography It was about years that my English learning was temporarily interrupted since I lived far away from my cousin‘s house, and my primary school did not set English as a compulsory subject in the first years When restarting, I had weekly tutorial classes at home besides classes at school From that time on, learning for communication partly made room for exam purpose Passing all exams with excellent results was both my parents‘ requirements and my own ambition Excerpt 19: Ha’s interview I: What is the biggest motivation helping you overcome obstacles in studying? H: I want to prove my abilities to somebody who undervalued me They will know XXXIV in English? H: When I was years old, I often stayed at home alone, as my parents went to work all the time Therefore, my parents always opened the cartoon disks and English songs for me to hear Besides, when I was at school, I was taught English by teachers Then, I did not realize when I liked it Excerpt 14: Hang’s language learning autobiography In the future, I want to become an English teacher because I hope to have an opportunity to help blind people like me As their chances of approaching English are low, I really want to teach them so that they will get more job opportunities Excerpt 16: Hang’s interview It‘s very interesting to read the materials such as documents, books, newspapers written in English Excerpt 17: Hang’s interview There are two siblings who are visually impaired in my family I totally understood the difficulties of the visually impaired people while studying, working and doing daily activities Therefore, I want to know English so that I can learn foreign materials to help them that people like me can things that ordinary people Despite our bodies‘ defects, we are second to none ordinary people And I think that if I try, I can get equal opportunities like others Excerpt 20: Ha’s language learning autobiography My strong effort seemingly originates from my aspirations to express myself I believe that I am able to whatever others can, but in another method […]I think it can be the response to those who were once afraid that I would drop the courses early due to their difficulty It is actually necessary to give thank to this unwanted external motivation because it has strengthened my determination Excerpt 21: Ha’s language learning autobiography I soon realize the advantages of learning English, so I am more prefer it and decide to learn, pursue and identify myself with it for a long term Excerpt 22: Ha’s language learning autobiography My lower secondary school was frequently visited by foreign guesses, and I was chosen to be one of the representatives welcoming them Unless my English had been good, I could not have communicated with those guesses without language assistants Excerpt 23: Ha’s interview I: In the future, you have a dream to communicate with many other foreigners? H: Yes, of course XXXV Lear ning Experience Excerpt 24: Ha’s interview If we know English, we can travel abroad or make friends with foreign friends Thereby, we can know more about their languages and cultures Excerpt 26: Ha’s language learning autobiography To be honest, at first, I had no particular purpose of learning English I joined my cousin‘s lessons because I had not got anybody to play with while he was busy studying In other words, I learnt English for fun By this way, English was subconsciously absorbed, and since those days, my love for English emerged Excerpt 27: Ha’s interview I: Do you know when you have started being interested in this subject? H: I don‘t remember exactly Maybe when I was at Secondary School, my English teacher at school taught very well and was also enthusiastic I also had private tuition from one older brother His teaching method was not so good, but it made me more excited to learn For example, he did not attach special importance to finish all exercises at textbooks, and he taught me pronunciation At this time, I also just learned how to make sentences, write sentences and write simple paragraphs Vocabulary and grammar are not onerous like common studying program, so I am more interested to learn Excerpt 28: Ha’s interview XXXVI Excerpt 30: Hang’s interview I: Since you start learning English until now, does your love of English change a lot? H: Yes, especially when I enter university When I get into university, I like it more Even though I have to run many deadlines, I get to learn more, get access to more materials I feel that it is much more interesting Excerpt 31: Hang’s interview I: Do you have any learning experiences, moments, memories that bring you a feeling of love and pleasure? H: I sat next to a friend studying with me now His name is Hai He loves speaking English He talked to me in English everyday in class Most of the time in class, we practised speaking English including even normal things he also told me in English I am happy because there is someone sharing the same interest with me It is very interesting to sit together and talk in English to each other I: Do you know why you like talking in English? H: First of all, my pronunciation ability was not good, so there was a friend who helped me learn English He He taught me how to use language Vocabulary and grammar are just tools to use language, and we just focus on them for tests when studying at high school Excerpt 29: Ha’s interview I: As a language learner, who has the biggest impact on your English learning? H: As I mentioned before, it's my tutor Maybe it is not entirely because he had something special, but he had different teaching style Before, my English teacher was very strict and just focused on vocabulary and grammar I: When you were taught by her, were you afraid of learning English? H: I was not afraid of English, but I was afraid of her She annoyed when I was wrong or did exercise a little slow I: Did the fear of the teacher make you mind learning English? H: I also did not mind learning English because I learnt it well She did not scold me, and she scolded other people or scolded all classroom Therefore, I did not mind, but the pressure in the classroom made me feel stressed and heavy Then, she was sick, so her niece superseded her and also made the atmosphere in the classroom more comfortable Excerpt 34: Ha’s interview If our environment is concerned, supported more in spirit, I can feel comfortable and XXXVII made me it by finding a video and imitating people speaking in the video Then, I recorded what I imitated and sent him to receive comments When talking to him, I needed to speak completely by English, tried to use English when writing, when speaking, when messaging, when we met each other Gradually, it becomes a habit, and I also would prefer to speak English more Excerpt 32: Hang’s interview I: In your opinion, does the learning environment affect your learning and your learning motivation How does it affect? H: Yes, because when I come to class, teachers and friends make me feel happy, so I am interested in absorbing knowledge and working If the class environment is always stressful and full of pressure or problems such as those who are not psychologically good or are too demanding for my level, I will also feel pressure Excerpt 33: Hang’s interview I: Do you have any expectations for your English learning environment? Which environment you feel very encouraging and give you great learning motivation? H: According to me, I need the environment providing enough equipment to support myself, teachers, and friendly friends willing to try However, support is only a part of it, not biased Support helps me my best with my ability It still has to evaluate fair, positive like other students I want the evaluation to be fair, and it does not include the bias in the exams and evaluation I want the results I achieve is due to my efforts, my capacities, not because of the priority of my defects It makes me feel proud of myself, or when other people judge me, they also see my true capacity I can achieve them with my abilities, not due to the bias Lear ning Difficulties Excerpt 35: Ha’s interview I: How does your deficiency affect your learning English? H: Actually, it does not affect very much It just causes that I cannot read the material easily, so the sources of material I can approach is less For example, ordinary people can buy books to read easily, but I have to use computer resources to support Hence, the sources of documents are not various Excerpt 39: Ha’s interview Almost while studying, I am often active For example, in the first lesson, I usually ask for the books During the learning program, when I need something, I can ask teachers to support me Excerpt 40: Ha’s interview I: How you solve if you cannot read the documents in class? H: At secondary school, it XXXVIII Excerpt 36: Hang’s language learning autobiography I started to learn English since 2009 At that time, it was not so easy for blind students to approach with this subject Because there was no many sources of Braille English documents to help us widen our knowledge So that I often spend most of my free time transwriting some English books into Braille, which discourages me to try my best to study English Excerpt 37: Hang’s interview H: We see the document problem makes the biggest impact on us because we all use the soft copy documents However, sometimes, there are some books without soft copies If there is a PDF file, that PDF file is the image file, so we was easier to read because I had documents in braille At high school and university, I asked the teachers to send me the soft copy of documents and textbooks Of course, I had to spend more time and effort doing exercise than ordinary people I have to try a lot to finish exercises, but I'm still lucky because I have documents to learn Excerpt 42: Ha’s interview I also determine that I have the disadvantage in reading, especially extremely difficult reading exercise I'm afraid of this skill, and the results I achieve in Reading is not really good Excerpt 44: Ha’s interview My opportunity to take part in English excellent student contest was not possible My teacher told me that she wanted me to take part in English excellent student contest, but I could not paper-based exams Besides, there is no Braille exam paper for me, so I could not participate in the contest I just only took part in Literature exams I see that it is a slight disadvantage Excerpt 45: Ha’s interview I: As far as I know, you want to become an English teacher in the future Have you imaged your dream? H: Not yet, because it is just my dream Our job opportunities are very few, so I am not bold enough to image about my future XXXIX cannot read We also cannot read hard copy books Therefore, I realize that it affects a lot Sometimes, there are some great materials, but we not have the opportunity and the conditions to reach them Excerpt 38: Hang’s interview H: […]In the classroom, the teachers check the exercises and call me to fix them I wanted to tell teachers that this file was an image file, and I could not read it I intended to share that problem with teachers, but I think that if I keep asking and demanding too much, teachers will think that I rely on my disabilities to be lazy and ask for many things Therefore, I sometimes felt shy to share with teachers Excerpt 41: Hang’s interview I: So which moment, memory you feel uncomfortable when learning English? H: I remember and am still afraid of learning skills of doing reading exercises until now For normal people, it is very easy because they just need to look and skim through to find the keywords Nevertheless, I read via the computer, it took me a long time to listen to what computer spoke Excerpt 43: Hang’s interview For instance, my friends told me that I just needed to skim through When I did the exams, the teacher always advised me to read the questions before finding the keywords in the reading Although I followed that method, it still took me a long time, as we had to listen and read in each line, sometimes in each sentence Therefore, I spent a long time doing it and did not often get high scores in my Reading Excerpt 46: Hang’s interview H: In terms of motivation to study, I think that there are many opportunities for people who can see If they not learn this, they can some other things In my opinion, I cannot see, so I should try to focus well on one field; as a result, the opportunity will come to me I: That you cannot see is your motivation or makes you demotivated? H: I think that my visual impairment is one reason for me to try my best Excerpt 47: Hang’s learning autobiography Later when I was in high school, I came across a very sad story However, because of that, I was strongly motivated to learn English In an English lesson, when I was sitting, suddenly my English teacher came over and told me that during her lessons, I could sleep or did anything I wanted as long as I did not make noise and affected the other students When the class had speaking tests, the teacher only XL asked me simple questions such as ―What your name?‖, ―How are you?‖… This behavior made me feel hurt and sad I talked to myself that I was just blind; I had no problem with my mind For that reason, I should not be discriminated and disrespected like that Hence, I was determined to strive to learn English I just wanted to prove myself XLI ...VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES NGÔ PHƯƠNG THANH SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING MOTIVATION: A CASE STUDY OF STUDENTS. .. plus favorable attitudes toward learning and language? ?? (Lee, 2001) 10 OTHER SUPPORT INTERGRATIVENESS OTHER FACTORS MOTIVATION ATTITUDE TOWARD LEARNING STUATION LANGUAGE ACHIVEMENT LANGUAGE APTITUTE... L2 learning and overcome learning barriers Therefore, the recent research brings in an insight into language learning motivation as well as learning barriers of sightless students who are attending