Ways to motivate the first year non-English majors at Hanoi University of Technology in learning English speaking skill

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG WAYS TO MOTIVATE THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJORS AT HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL (CÁC CÁCH GÂY HỨNG THÚ CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC BÁCH KHOA HÀ NỘI HỌC KỸ NĂNG NÓI) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: Methodology Code: 601410 HÀ NỘI – 2011 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG WAYS TO MOTIVATE THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJORS AT HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL (CÁC CÁCH GÂY HỨNG THÚ CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC BÁCH KHOA HÀ NỘI HỌC KỸ NĂNG NÓI) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Nguyễn Huyền Minh, M.A HÀ NỘI – 2011 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………………………… ii ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………………… iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………………… iv LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS …………………………………… vii PART I: INTRODUUCTION …………………………………………… 1 Rationale ……………………………………………………………… 1-2 Aims of the study ……………………………………………………………… Research questions …………………………………………………………… Scope of the study …………………………………………………………… Methods of the study ………………………………………………………… 2-3 Design of the study …………………………………………………… PART II: DEVELOPMENT …………………………………………………… CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………… 1.1 Theoretical background of motivation ……………………………… 1.1.1 Definitions of motivation ……………………………………………… 1.1.2 Types of motivation …………………………………………………… 4-7 1.1.2.1 Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation …………………… 4-5 1.1.2.2 Instrumental and integrative orientations ………………… 5-6 1.1.2.3 Global, situational and task motivation …………………… 1.1.3 The importance of motivation in second language learning ……… 7-8 1.1.4 Factors affecting motivation in second language learning……… 1.1.4.1 Learners’ factors …………………………………… 9-11 1.1.4.2 Teachers’ factors …………………………………… 11-12 1.1.4.3 The atmosphere in the class ……………………………… 12-13 1.2 Theoretical background of speaking and the teaching of speaking skill 1.2.1 What is speaking? 13 13-14 1.2.2 Phases of teaching speaking …………………………………………… 14-15 v 1.2.3 Key issues in teaching speaking ………………………………………… 15-16 1.2.3.1 Reticence and dominance in speaking activities …………… 15-16 1.2.3.2 Multi-level speaking classes students to speak in the target language……………………………………………………………………… 16 1.2.4 Speaking motivational activities and techniques to motivate ………… 16 1.2.4.1 Speaking motivational activities …………………………… 16-19 1.2.4.2 Techniques …………………………………………… 19-21 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ……………………………………… 22 2.1 The current situation of teaching and learning English at HUT……… 22-23 2.2 Subjects of the study ……………………………………………………… 23 2.3 Data instruments ………………………………………………………… 23-24 2.3.1 Questionnaire for students ……………………………………………… 24 2.3.2 Questionnaire for teachers ……………………………………………… 24 2.3.3 Interviews ………………………………………………………………… 24 2.3.4 Observation ……………………………………………………………… 24-25 CHAPTER 3: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS ………………… 26 3.1 Students …………………………………………………………… 26 3.1.1 Types of motivation ………………………………………………………… 26-27 3.1.2 Students’ opinions on learning English speaking skill 27-30 3.1.3 Factors affecting students’ motivation in learning English speaking skill ………………………………………………………………………………… 30-33 3.1.4 Students’ opinions on what motivates them to speak English………… 33-36 3.2 Teachers …………………………………………………………………… 36 3.2.1 Teachers’ opinions on students’ motivation in learning English speaking …………………………………………………………………………… 36-37 3.2.2 Activities and techniques applied by teachers ………………………… 37-40 3.2.3 The teachers’ attitudes towards students who are unwilling to speak vi English and error maker ……………………………………………………… 41-42 CHAPTER 4: FINGDINGS, DISCUSSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ……………………………………… 43 4.1 Findings and discussions …………………………………… 43-45 4.2 Recommendations ……………………………………………………… 45-48 PART III: CONCLUSION ……………………………………………… 49-50 REFERENCES ………………………………………………………………… 51-53 APPENDIXES: APPENDIX A: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE STUDENTS ………… I-III APPENDIX B: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE TEACHERS … VII-IX APPENDIX C: QUESTIONS FOR THE INTERVIEW ………………………… X APPENDIX D: EXTRACT FROM THE MOTIVATION ORIENTATION OF LANGUAGE TEACHING (MOLT) OBSERVATION SCHEME ……………… XII SUMMARY OF MINOR THESIS This study is an effort to investigate ways to motivate the first year non-English majors in learning English speaking skill at Ha Noi University of Technology The main purposes of the study are to explore types of motivation possessed by the first year non-English majors at Ha Noi University of Technology, factors affecting students‟ motivation in learning English speaking skill, speaking motivational activities and techniques applied by teachers and students‟ attitudes towards them and then give several recommendations for teachers to encourage students to speak English The study is composed of three main parts Part I, the introduction, reveals the rationale, aims, research questions, scope, design, methods of the research Part II is divided into three chapters Chapter reviews theoretical background of motivation and speaking Chapter gives the instrumentation, data collection and data analysis Chapter sums up some major findings and discussion, and then presents recommendations to the English teachers Part III, the conclusion, points out what the researcher have done and what she have not done and give some suggestions for further study PART I INTRODUCTION presents the rationale, aims, research questions, scope, methods of the research and design of the study Firstly, I would like to give the rationale of the study The first reason is that I realized that the role of motivation in the success of second language learning is of great importance Secondly, a large number of students at this University cannot use English to communicate in real life In addition, there have been a limited number of studies into ways that should be used to motivate learners The second point I would love to mention is the aim of the study The study is aimed at investigating methods, activities and techniques used by the teachers to motivate the students in speaking skill and then recommending several activities and techniques to motivate the students to speak English 2 The third point is about research questions In my study, I used two main research questions: the first question is what are the activities and techniques used by the teachers to motivate students in learning English speaking skill? The second question is what activities and techniques are considered as effective tools in motivating students to speak English? The next point I would like to mention is the scope of the study The study focuses on ways to motivate students in learning English speaking skill The subjects of the study are 99 first year non-English majors and 14 teachers at Ha Noi University of Technology Next, I will talk about the methodology of the study This part is composed of participants, research methods and instruments The participants of the study are 99 first year non-English majors at Ha Noi University of Technology who have TOEIC scores below 250, have learnt English for to years, but some have taken when attending the course and 14 teachers who are currently teaching English for non-English majors at Ha Noi University of Technology In this study, I used two research methods: quantitative method (questionnaires for students and teachers) and qualitative method (interviews with students and class observations) The instruments of the study are survey questionnaires with 99 students and 14 teachers, semistructured interviews with students and observations of classes Finally, I would like to give a brief description of the design of the study This point has mentioned in the beginning of this summary PART II DEVELOPMENT consists of four following chapters: CHAPTER ONE: Literature review presents the concepts relevant to the study: motivation, speaking and the teaching of speaking skill When talking about motivation, I focused on the following aspects: definitions of motivation, kinds of motivation, the importance of motivation in second language learning, and factors affecting motivation in second language learning As for speaking and the teaching of speaking, I gave definitions of speaking, the importance of speaking, phases to teaching speaking, key issues in teaching speaking, speaking motivational activities and techniques to encourage students to speak English  Definitions of motivation There has been a variety of theories of motivation over the course of decades of research; however, in my study, I only mentioned the outlooks of Harmer (1991), Brown (1994), and Dornyei and Otto (1998) Harmer said that “Motivation is some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action If we receive a goal and if that goal is sufficiently attractive, we will be strongly motivated to whatever is necessary to reach that goal.” Brown states: “Motivation is the extent to which you make choice about (a) goals to pursue and (b) the effort you will devote to that pursuit” Dornyei and Otto claim: “Motivation can be defined as the dynamically changing cumulative arousal in a person that initiates, directs, coordinates, amplifies, terminates, and evaluates the cognitive and motor processes whereby initial wishes and desires are selected, prioritized, operationalised and acted out.”  Types of motivation There have been many ways to classify motivation; however, in this paper, only Brown‟s and Gardner‟s classification is mentioned Firstly, Brown classifies motivation into three kinds such as global, situational and task motivation (cited in Brown, 1981) Then Gardner (1985) distinguished integrative and instrumental as two types of motivation/ orientations However, according to Brown (1994: 170), motivation is categorized into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation In general, there are several types of motivation In fact, there are three main types of motivation: intrinsic, extrinsic and global motivation Harmer‟s view led me to such conclusion Harmer (1983) indicates the relationship between two kinds of motivation such as intrinsic, extrinsic, and other kinds of motivation Harmer states that extrinsic motivation consists of two sub-components: instrumental and integrative motivation He also claims that intrinsic motivation is primarily made up of parts: situational and task motivation  The importance of motivation in second language learning There have been many theorists mentioning the role of motivation in foreign language learning and teaching; however, in this paper, I only mention the views of Brown (2007), Reece & Walker (1997), Li (2009), and Wang (2009) Basing on their viewpoints, we can conclude that the success in second language learning depends on many factors such as learners‟ factors (attitude, aptitude, intelligence, personality, etc), teachers‟ factors, teaching and learning condition, and motivation Among those factors, motivation is considered as a key factor deciding the success or failure of a foreign language learning  Factors affecting motivation in second language learning A variety of factors may influence motivation in second language learning, including teaching materials, syllabus, teaching means and methods, teachers, learners themselves and so on Because the purpose of my study is to find out ways to motivate students to speak English, in this section, I will only focus on the main factors such as teachers, learners and teaching and learning conditions - Learners’ factors: There are various factors affecting foreign language learning such as aptitude, intelligence, personality, learners‟ preferences, learners‟ beliefs and age; however, in this study, only aptitude (Grass & Selinker, 2008 and Skehan, 1989), attitude (Verma cited from website: http://www0.hku.hk/clear/conference08/doc/handouts/VERMA%20Meenakshi%20H_handout pdf, and Krashen, 1985) , personality and learning style (Lightbown & Spada, 1999, Cornett, 1983, and Grass & Selinker, 2008) will be discussed because the researcher think that these factors have the greatest impact on second language learning In summary, second language learning in general and motivation in second language learning in particular are both influenced by many factors; therefore, when teaching a foreign language, teachers must study deeply factors affecting language learning in order to find out appropriate teaching methods, effective motivational strategies as well as activities inspiring learners, and so on - Teachers’ factors According to Dornyei (2001), teachers play a significant role in socializing and shaping the motivation of their students through their personal characteristics, verbal and non–verbal immediacy behaviour, active motivational socializing behaviour, and classroom management practices My study focuses on teachers‟ behaviours, relationship between teachers and students, and teachers‟ enthusiasm The outlooks relating to these factors coming from Dornyei (2001)‟s theory - The atmosphere in the classroom Besides the factors mentioned above, learning and teaching conditions in the classroom contribute to the success or failure of second language learning Concerning this aspect, the outlooks of the theorists such as MacIntyre(1999 and Young, 1999 cited in Dornyei, 2001) and Good & Brophy (1994, cited in Dornyei, 2001) have been mentioned Besides the factors such as teachers and learners, learning and teaching condition is a factor affecting success or failure of the learners Moreover, it can motivate or demotivate students  Theoretical background of speaking and the teaching of speaking skill - What is speaking? It seems that the concept of speaking is quite familiar to everyone; however, not anybody can give an exact definition of speaking In order to clarify this aspect, the researcher gave the views of Bailey (2005), Brown (1994), Burn & Joyce (1997), and Byrne (1986) On the whole, speaking is a communicative process, including the speaker, the listener, in which, the role of the speaker is providing information, and the hearer‟s is receiving information - Phases to teaching speaking According to Byrne (1991), there are three phases to promote students‟ speaking ability They are presentation phase, practice phase, and production phase - Some key issues in teaching speaking In Bailey (2005)‟s Practical English Language Teaching: Speaking as well as problems dealing with teaching speaking are presented quite clearly; however, in my study, I will only focus on two main issues that are related to my study: Reticence and dominance in speaking activities, and multi-level speaking classes - Some speaking motivational activities and techniques to motivate students to speak + Speaking motivational activities: in this paper, the researcher gave some examples of oral accuracy practice and oral fluency practice activities that can be used for motivating students in speaking lessons such as games, role play, information gap, conduct interviews, picture describing, and problem-solving activities + Techniques: According to Dornyei (2001), the objective of techniques is to „generate and enhance student motivation, as well as maintain ongoing motivated bahaviour and protect it from distracting and/ or competing action tendencies‟ This means that techniques are used to „increase student involvement and to save the action when ongoing monitoring reveals that progress is slowing, halting, or backsliding‟ (cited in Dorneyi: 2001) In this section, I will present several motivational techniques that can be used to increase their students‟ „commitment, effort and persistence‟ such as increasing the learners’ self-confidence, building a supportive learning environment, giving students appropriate guidance, making the curriculum relevant to the students, and varying speaking activities and topics In conclusion, this chapter presents the theoretical background knowledge concerning to the study It has discussed the concepts and issues relating to motivation, types of motivation, the importance of motivation and some factors affecting motivation in second language learning In addition, several aspects relating to speaking has been presented such as definitions of speaking, phases to teaching speaking, key issues in teaching speaking, speaking motivational activities and techniques to motivate students to speak The following chapters will display the methodology, the findings, discussion and the recommendations under the light of the above discussed theories CHAPTER TWO: Methodology presents a general view of the current situation of the learning and teaching the speaking skill, subjects of the study and research instrument 7 CHAPTER THREE: Data Presentation and Analysis gives the description and the analysis of the collected data The data collected is quite diversified; however, in this summary, I only concentrate on some main findings: types of motivation, factors affecting students‟ motivation in learning English speaking skill, and activities, forms of working and techniques applied by teachers and students‟ attitudes towards them  Types of motivation: According to the results of the study, students at Ha Noi University of Technology have a higher degree of extrinsic motivation in learning English speaking skill than other kinds of motivation In order to illustrate this conclusion, I would like to give some results of extrinsic factors: - To get high marks: 2% - To pass the final exam: 23.2% - A compulsory subject in the syllabus: 73.7%  Factors affecting students’ motivation in learning English speaking: The collected data also indicates that students‟ motivation at Ha Noi University of Technology is affected by two main factors: factors coming from students themselves and factors coming from teachers The following are some illustrations: Students’ factors Teachers’ factors Sts’ proficiency: Teaching methods: - Low proficiency of English: 64.6% - Teacher‟s boring teaching: 71.7% Sts’ personality and learning styles: Ts’ behaviours: - Fear of mistakes and derision: 35.4% - Teacher‟s lack of enthusiasm: 43.4% - Peers‟ dominance: 38.4% - Teacher‟s interruption or anger: 56.7% - Being not accustomed to speaking English - Teacher‟s uneven allocation of turn: 44.4% in class: 48.5% As you can see from the table above, students‟ proficiency and teaching methods have the greatest impact on students‟ motivation in learning English speaking skill 8  Activities, forms of working and techniques applied by teachers and students’ attitudes towards them In addition, the results of the study reveals that activities enjoyed by most students are playing games and picture description, forms of working liked by most students is group work, and techniques liked by most students are diversifying communicative activities, creating interesting and appropriate topics to learners‟ levels Therefore, language teachers should apply the activities, forms of working and techniques above with high frequency in teaching English speaking skill The following results are the illustrations for the conclusion above Items Activities Activities, forms of working & Activities, forms of working & techniques used by most teachers techniques liked by most students - Making up sentences orally: always - Playing games: 94.9% - Practicing guided dialogues: always - Picture description: 82.8% - Information gap: always Forms of - Individual work: always - Group-work: 54.6% working Techniques - Encourage sts to speak by suggested - Varying communicative activities: questions: 57.1% 87.9% - Creating interesting and appropriate topics to learners‟ levels: 73.7% - Creating a pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere: 64.6% As can be seen from the table above, there is a big gap between students and teachers between what teachers did to motivate students to speak and what students preferred The above are some main findings and discussions, the following chapter (CHAPTER FOUR) are about recommendations CHAPTER FOUR: Discussion and Recommendations discusses the collected data and then gives some recommendations for motivating students in learning English speaking skill 9 The discussions mainly focus on types of motivation possessed by first year non-English majors at Ha Noi University of Technology, factors affecting first year non-English majors in learning English speaking skill, and speaking motivation activities, forms of carrying out the activities and techniques applied by teachers and students‟ attitudes towards them (The discussions on these findings have been mentioned in the CHAPTER THREE) After discussing the collected data, the study gives several recommendations for motivating students to speak in class Firstly, teachers should stimulate students‟ internal factors Secondly, it is advisable for teachers to apply a variety of communicative activities and different forms of carrying out the activities In addition, teachers need to improve their attitudes towards reluctant speakers and error makers Furthermore, creating a pleasant classroom atmosphere is also very important Finally, teachers should make the topics interesting and relevant to the students  Stimulating students’ internal factors The majority of students study English because of the university requirement or their future goals, not due to their own enjoyment; therefore, it is teachers‟ responsibility to maintain the extrinsic and instrumental motivation and foster the intrinsic motivation For the extrinsically motivated students, teachers should provide them with more speaking tasks, ask them to more exercises so that they can get high marks in the exam Moreover, teachers should foster their intrinsic motivation by inserting English culture, custom and beliefs in the speaking lessons, using English songs and English films in their teaching to stimulate students‟ love for English As for the instrumentally motivated students, teachers should talk to them how each task helps them reach their goals Students who are motivated intrinsically, teachers may motivate them by varying activities, tasks and materials to raise their interests  Applying a variety of communicative activities and different forms of carrying out them It is advisable for teachers to provide students with a variety of speaking activities First, teachers should apply various games and visual aids Games can help students reduce stress, 10 which are very useful for teachers in motivating students In addition, it is thought that pictures can make the learning atmosphere interesting and relaxing; they can foster and maintain students‟ interests and attention during the speaking lesson Furthermore, teachers should promote students‟ speaking by providing them with different forms of carrying out activities Group work and pair work are believed to be very beneficial to learners Working in groups or pairs help reduce the boredom of the class and the tiredness of the students When working in groups or pairs, students have more chances to share ideas, vocabulary and grammatical structures with others Students with low proficiency of English can get help from students with higher proficiency of English  Improving teachers’ attitudes towards reluctant speakers and error makers There are three reasons why students are reluctant to speak English in class Firstly, they are often unwilling to speak because of their low proficiency of English or background knowledge Secondly, they always feel shy to speak in front of the teachers and classmates although their English is good Thirdly, teachers‟ attitudes also make them reluctant to speak Therefore, teachers should give them help when necessary, use various techniques to reduce their reluctance Besides, teachers should be tolerant of reluctant speakers as well as error makers and have a positive attitude towards them  Creating a pleasant classroom atmosphere A pleasant classroom atmosphere can create good conditions for students to express their opinions, reduce their weakness, promote their strengths and make students not feel ashamed when making mistakes while a stressful atmosphere increases students‟ anxiety that is an obstacle to their motivation in learning English speaking Therefore, teachers should create a pleasant and supportive environment  Making the topics interesting and relevant to the students Making speaking topics interesting, relevant and suitable to learners not only gives students the opportunity to take full advantage of their background knowledge and experiences but also 11 develop their creativeness in learning As a result, it can increase the amount of time and effort students spend on learning and hence foster students‟ intrinsic motivation PART II CONCLUSION gives some limitations of the study and several suggestions for the further researches  Limitations: First, because of limited time, the researcher cannot conduct an action research or other kinds of researches; as a result, the validity of this study may not be high enough In addition, the researcher not have chance to interview English teachers at Ha Noi University of technology for ways to motivate students to speak because the time I conducted the study was being the summer holiday The next problem is about the reliability of questionnaire Some participants might flatter the investigation in responding to the questionnaire or choose the opposite items on purpose  Suggestions for further researches: The further researches should investigate the subjects representing the larger situation Moreover, the researches later should focus on all language skills, and more than that in order to make sure that its reliability is high, the questionnaire should be distributed to a greater amount of students and teachers