An investigation of demotivators in english listening lessons of the 10th form non english majors at cao bang upper secondary school for the gifted

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES  HOÀNG NGỌC LINH AN INVESTIGATION OF DEMOTIVATORS IN ENGLISH LISTENING LESSONS OF THE 10TH FORM NONENGLISH MAJORS AT CAO BANG UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL FOR THE GIFTED (Nghiên cứu yếu tố gây nên hứng thú học nghe tiếng Anh học sinh số lớp 10 không chuyên Anh trường THPT Chuyên Cao Bằng) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi – 2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES  HOÀNG NGỌC LINH AN INVESTIGATION OF DEMOTIVATORS IN ENGLISH LISTENING LESSONS OF THE 10TH FORM NONENGLISH MAJORS AT CAO BANG UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL FOR THE GIFTED (Nghiên cứu yếu tố gây nên hứng thú học nghe tiếng Anh học sinh số lớp 10 không chuyên Anh trường THPT Chuyên Cao Bằng) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Phạm Minh Hiền, M.A Hanoi – 2011 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration Acknowledgements Table of contents List of tables and charts List of abbreviations Abstract PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Aims of the study Research questions Significance of the study Scope of the study Method of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background of demotivation 1.1.1 What is demotivation? 1.1.2 Factors demotivating foreign language learning 1.2 Theoretical background of listening comprehension 1.2.1 Definitions of listening 1.2.2 Significance of listening 1.2.3 The process of listening comprehension 1.2.4 Potential problems in learning listening comprehension Summary CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 The setting of the study 2.1.1 The school iv 2.1.2 The teachers and the students 2.1.3 The English textbook 10 2.2 Subjects of the study 2.3 Data collection instruments Summary CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS 3.1 Data analysis of students’ responses 3.2 Data analysis of teachers’ responses 3.3 Findings and discussion 3.4 Recommendations Summary PART C: CONCLUSION Summary of the study Limitations and suggestions for further study REFERENCES APPENDICE v LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Chart 3.1: Students’ attitudes towards the learning of listening English Chart 3.2: Students’ opinions on what motivates them to learn listening English Chart 3.3: Teachers’ perceptions of students’ thought over of listening skills Table 3.1: Students’ motivation in learning listening English Table 3.2: Students’ demotivation in class Table 3.3: Students’ opinions on kinds of tasks in listening lessons Table 3.4: Students’ expectations towards teachers of listening skills Table 3.5: Students’ expectations towards learning environment of listening skills Table 3.6: Teachers’ perceptions of students’ demotivation in listening skills Table 3.7: Teachers’ employment of teaching aids Table 3.8: Activities adopted by teachers in listening lessons vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L2 Second language CBUSSG Cao Bang Upper Secondary School for the Gifted vii ABSTRACT Listening has long been considered a boring and difficult skill by many second language (L2) learners This study was carried out in an attempt to investigate the demotivators in listening lessons of the 10 th non- English majors at Cao Bang Upper Secondary School for the Gifted (CBUSSG) Specifically, the study has been conducted in th the form of survey research with the informants of 102 students in the 10 form of nonEnglish Section and teachers of English at CBUSSG The main instruments employed for the data collection were survey questionnaires and structured interviews Four factors including teachers’ behaviors and teaching methods, students’ characteristics and learning environment were extracted through the analysis of data collected The research also reveals that the teachers’ behaviors and teaching methods were the most dominant demotivating factors for many students at CBUSSG It is interesting to find that textbook and curriculum were not a very strong source of demotivation Based on the findings, recommendations which are of significance to both teachers and students are provided to solve the problems At last, it is hoped that the results of this study could be of much benefit for developing teaching and learning listening English at CBUSSG PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study With Vietnam‟s entry into the WTO and opening its markets to the outside world, the demand for English speaking proficiency among people especially students is on the rise than ever before In fact, large numbers of students are being required to learn it through compulsory programs in schools and universities Therefore, the teaching and learning of English at all levels especially at high schools has been given a lot of special attention in recent years Since the introduction of the new English textbook 10 which emphasizes the need for the development of students‟ communicative competence through the four skills including speaking, listening, reading and writing, there has been shift from the traditional teaching methods to communicative language teaching However, most English language classrooms continue to be places to memorize textbooks rather than practise communication and English is still to be treated as a school subject that needs to be mastered and tested rather than a tool for communication The current teaching and learning English at CBUSSG has shown that in spite of the great efforts exerted to teach English, weakness in listening and speaking skills is a matter of great concerns because teachers tend to educate students in a manner which is directed to meet the requirements of the exams which mainly focus on extensive vocabulary and grammatical rules Because the General Secondary Exam is not directed toward the speaking and listening skills, nonEnglish major students find themselves uninterested in learning the skills which will not be examined As a result of my experience in the teaching field, I found out that most students have passive attitudes toward learning listening English due to the previous experiences that listening skill is hard to learn and they fail to take listenig input That is the reason why many of them get bored and become demotivated when listening classes start For these reasons, it is necessary to have a study on factors causing demotivation in listening lessons for students in general and for non- English majors at CBUSSG in particular In literature so far, there have been so few studies on demotivation because it is considered a relatively new issue in the field of L2 However, most of the researchers have come to an agreement to a list of common demotivating factors facing students in learning English generally and learning listening particularly These factors involve learning environment, teachers‟ teaching methods and personality 2 Aims of the study The main purpose of the study is: th - to investigate the demotivators in listening lessons of the 10 form non- English majors at CBUSSG - to give some suggestions to eliminate demotivation factors in listening lessons in order to improve students‟ listening skills Research questions To achieve the aims mentioned above, the following research questions were proposed: (1) What are demotivators in listening lessons of the 10 majors at CBUSSG? (2) th non- English What can teachers to motivate students in their listening lessons? Significance of the study This study points out factors causing demotivations in listening lessons of the 10 th form non- English majors at CBUSSG More importantly, it can be used as additional evidence for demotivation factors that Vietnamese Upper Secondary School students have when listening in English The findings and recommendations of this study will be of great use to the improvement of the teaching and learning of listening of Upper Secondary School students in general and of the 10 th form non- English majors at CBUSSG in particular The study may guide teachers to help their students eliminate demotivators in listening lessons and better their listening skills The results of the study may also be helpful for the students themselves and those who are interested in this field Scope of the study This study mainly focuses on the demotivation factors that the 10 th form non- English majors at CBUSSG have in their listening lessons The study of demotivators in other skills would be beyond of the scope It involves the participants of teachers of English and 102 students in the 10 th form of non- English Section at CBUSSG To go ahead, the thesis also offers some appropriate suggestions to better the current context Method of the study In order to achieve its aims, the research is carried out by both quantitative and qualitative methods: Firstly, the data were collected with the use of the survey questionnaire which was conducted with informants of teachers of English and 102 26 concentrate on listening b Lack of opportunities to contact to foreigners in class and use English outside class c Classroom activities are boring and overloaded d Inadequate students‟ background knowledge of English e Difficult listening texts and tasks f The topics in the listening part are boring and difficult g Lack of modern teaching and learning facilities such as projector, video, TV and Internet h Teachers‟ teaching methods, personality and behavior Table 3.6: Teachers’ perceptions of students’ demotivation in listening skills The table shows that most of the teachers (67%) agreed that the greatest demotivation in learning listening is related to their poor background knowledge of English including pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar structure According to them, it is obvious that this is a strong motive for students to learn listening According to the table, three of the six teachers pointed out that the second ranked demotivator is lack of modern teaching and learning facilities (50%) Next comes to students‟ opportunities to contact to foreigners in class and use English outside When being asked about other factors related to teachers such as teaching methods, personality and behavior, no one agreed they are also kinds of demotivators (3)Their current teaching techniques and activities used in listening classes to motivate students * Teachers’ employment of teaching aids 27 conversations, native voice) teacher‟s voice cassette- tapes VCD/CD/ Projector tasks in the textbook handouts pictures, board music games Table 3.7: Teachers’ employment of teaching aids It seems that the use of technology in the classroom becomes more and more important to the success of a language learning lesson especially listening lessons In fact, teachers at CBUSG used various teaching aids in listening lessons, however, the frequency is not very high Cassette- tapes, tasks in the textbook, handouts were often used by all the respondents Meanwhile, modern equipments such as VCD, Projector and other forms of entertainment are rarely exploited This can be understandable in such current teaching context with limited support, teachers themselves employ things available and economical *Activities adopted by teachers in listening lessons Activities play games related to listening listen for entertainment( music, film, news) match conversations information gaps 28 order the series of pictures or events getting main ideas extra- listening tasks True/ False Table 3.8: Activities adopted by teachers in listening lessons According to the table, teachers all are in favor of True/False exercises (100%) The next favorite activities are getting main ideas, matching conversations, information gaps and ordering the series of pictures or events It is reasonable because these kinds of listening tasks are available in the text book, and the teachers make use of them in stead of designing an extra-task (only often, while rarely and never employ it) Playing games related to listening and listening for entertainment are rarely provided depending on textbook design and time limited 3.3 Findings and discussion As mentioned before, the aim of this study is to explore the demotivators in th listening lessons of the 10 form non- English majors at CBUSSG One of the findings of the study that is consistent with the general results reported in previous studies is that the largest source of demotivator was related to teachers Teachers were found to have a strong impact on students‟ demotivation to learn listening English Within the demotivation categories related to teachers, teaching method and teachers‟ personality are the most dominant demotivating factors As the teacher is the key of the teaching and learning process, his/her personality has great impact on the learners' like or dislike for learning the related subject Krashen (1987:32) states that "the effective language teacher is some one who can provide input and help make it comprehensible in a low anxiety situation” In addition, the majority of the participants also admitted having suffered from some negative aspects of teaching methods such as too fast teaching rate, which raised the need to reconsider the teaching methods that have been used to teach English in order to understand possible mismatches between teaching methods and preferred student learning styles However devoted the teacher is, teaching and learning may not be effective if teaching methods not match student learning styles 29 Another important finding is that many students were demotivated because of their inadequate background knowledge of English Language knowledge is the foundation of learning English If students‟ knowledge of pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary is insufficient, it is probable that their English listening comprehension will be negatively affected by lack of language knowledge Therefore, the large number of students who lost their background knowledge are unconfident in themselves In the listening classroom, teachers need students‟ active participation but, having so many students who lack confidence and who feel nervous and anxious, makes the task of generating discussion and conversation particularly difficult Students are reluctant to answer questions and will not risk being laughed at by their peers When attending examinations, the stress of being shown as inadequate and being criticized by the teacher and parents is frequently more than students will tolerate Thus, it is unsurprising that CBUSSG students who are under pressure for a considerable period of time are often stressed and depressed, which led them to be demotivated and they lost their interests in the subject One more demotivator found in this study is learning environment Many students agreed that learning environment and lack of modern facilities at school have strong impact on their interests in the subject As we live in the age of science and technology, it is unsurprising to find out that students like some technological devices (TV, video, computer and so on) to be utilized in their listening lessons This study revealed that 35% of the respondents feel demotivated toward learning listening English because their teachers rarely use technology in presenting the English listening lessons In addition, lack of encouragement from friends, parents as well as oppurtunities to contact to foreigners in class are also a source of demotivation for students Another demotivator found in the study is students‟ little intrinsic motivation Athough they are aware of the importance of learning to listen English, few of them show their interests in learning to listen Perhaps the students tend to be more interested in other scientific subjects than languages Contrary to the result drawn from the study by Sakai and Kikuchi (2009), factors related to learning contents and materials were not found to have very strong demotivating influence compared to teacher-related factors and learning environment 30 and facilities 3.4 Recommendations The findings of this study have suggested some implications which are of significance to t eachers and st udent s (1) Have appropriate teacher behaviours One of the most important pedagogical implications derived from the findings is the teacher's behavior and personality in shaping the learner's motivation and attitudes toward learning L2 enthusiasm that make students feel like learning When classroom with low by the motivational that: "Motivation in the learning teacher smile and proceeds or asking teacher classroom behavior also needs attention because negative behaviors usually hurt students, leaving them with negative feelings toward English that are difficult to overcome (2) Apply and adapt suitable teaching methods As indicated in the findings, the teacher‟s way of organizing listening activities plays an important role in motivating students to learn If the students find the teacher‟s teaching style suitable, they will feel more interested in learning Therefore, it is neccessary and beneficial for students if various techniques for different listening tasks are employed so that demotivation can be avoided Obviously, there is no certain recipe for which techniques can work best for which task, but the important principle is the use of a variety of techniques to suit different students‟ learning styles From the findings, it is noticeable that there is always a big gap between the frequency of teachers‟ using listening activities and the students‟ preference for these activities Using games or modern technology is rarely adopted by teachers but is favoured by most of the students because they will feel more questions 31 interested in their listening lessons In addition, teachers need to select a wide range of materials to increase listening content besides using textbooks Students need to listen to different levels of English in order to be exposed to natural, lively, rich language, such as listening to English songs, seeing films with English text In these ways, it is possible to raise students‟ enthusiasm, cultivate their listening interests, and achieve the goals of learning English (3) Give students clear instructions and corrective feedback Giving feedback is necessary for the students because they are informed how well or badly they have performed By providing corrective feedback, the teacher can help students evaluate their success and progress As discussed above, the majority of students in the interview found it difficult to understand and follow the listening text due to their lack of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar structures Thus, teachers should encourage students to practise pronouncing words more and try to memorize as many words as possible Another thing is that, teachers should guide students how to with different kids of tasks One of the findings shows that students feel demotivated with activities in the classroom because they did not know how to with the listening without clear instructions from their teachers (4) Create a pleasant and relaxing atmosphere in the classroom As suggested by the respondents, teachers should create a relaxing atmostphere within the classroom while taking into account students‟ demotivation In order to achieve this, it is necessary for teachers to establish relationships of mutual trust and respect with the students This involves finding opportunities to talk with them on a personal level and letting them know that teachers have thought about them and that their individual effort is recognized Besides, teachers ought to develop positive personality types such as patience or sense of humour to make students more comfortable In addition, teachers can create relaxing atmostphere by using some techniques such as using games, visual aids, exploiting songs and music in listening lessons (5) Increase students’ self – confidence Self-confidence is generally seen as a key factor in learning a language but the important question is how to maintain and increase students‟ self-confidence and in a language classroom Teachers should encourage students to set realistic goals for 32 themselves and improve their listening English If their language proficiency is improved, they are likely to overcome the difficulties such as speech rate, native speakers‟ pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar structures (6) Raise students’ awareness of the importance of learning listening English Students‟ awareness of the importance of English was the most frequent motive that helped them to overcome demotivation and recover their interest in learning Nevertheless, an awareness of the importance of English alone was not enough to help students to overcome demotivation absolutely Students were more likely to completely overcome demotivation if their awareness of the importance of English triggered their self-determination to learn English, making them more autonomous and independent of affective factors In this respect, teachers need to support this effective internal strategy in order to help students set up and maintain their self-determination by making clear the practical benefits of learning English (7) Make better use of advanced teaching facilities and learning conditions In order to utilize technology effectively in teaching English , schools should be equipped with adequate numbers of technological devices (language labs, projectors… etc.) Additionally, teachers should be trained intensively on utilizing technology in teaching English It should be noted to learn workshop technology but in their efforts to integrate technology into the & Light, 33 PART C: CONCLUSION Summary of the study This study aims at answering the two research questions raised from the current situation of teaching and learning listening skill at CBUSSG The questions are: (1) What are demotivators in listening lessons of the 10 majors at th non- English CBUSSG? (2) What can teachers to help students motivate in their listening lessons? In order to achieve the aims of the study, first of all, a review of relevant literature on demotivation, listening conprehension is presented so that the theoretical and conceptual background can be formed for the study The next chapter reveals the setting and the research methods of the study including research questions, the participants, data collection instruments Finally, data analysis and discussion of main findings as well as a number of recommendations are presented in chapter As a teacher of English of CBUSSG, I can see that listening is a matter of great th concerns for both teachers of English in general and for the 10 non- English majors in particular Through the analysis of the data collected from the participants, the four demotivating factors were found, in which teachers‟ personality and teaching methods were demonstrated as the most demotivating one Interestingly, the teachers‟ perceptions of the demotivators were different from the students‟ ones Meanwhile, they pointed out that students‟ demotivation in learning listening rooted from the students‟ problems without anything related to them, students attribute the issue to teacher- related factors Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study Like any other research paper, it is apparent that certain limitations in the study are unavoidable Firstly, the study only uses survey questionaire for the investigation into th demotivators in listening lessons of the 10 non- English majors at CBUSG, the number of participants employed in questionaires and interview may not be enough for the researcher to have proper judgement Secondly, the study only investigates demotivation in listening skills, the results may not true to other skills 34 Thirdly, there are still many other factors related to students‟ demotivation in listening English which have not been discussed in this study This study suggests that student demotivation - the loss of motivation due to particular circumstances - is a major problem in foreign language learning settings While motivation strategies may help to overcome demotivation, there are other causes of demotivation, particularly extrinsic ones related to students, teachers and the curriculum, that also need to be more explicitly addressed In conclusion, this study is expected to make a contribution to the alleviation of demotivation for students in learning listening English It is hoped that the study will be of great benefits to both teachers and students who are interested in this field 35 References Anderson A, Lynch T (1988), Listening, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2.Arai K (2004), “What „demotivates‟ language learners? 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English The findings and recommendations of this study will be of great use to the improvement of the teaching and learning of listening of Upper Secondary School students in general and of the 10