An exploratory study of students’ perceptions of homework at a hanoi high school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *********************** TRẦN NHƯ QUỲNH AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF HOMEWORK AT A HANOI HIGH SCHOOL (Khám phá nhận thức học sinh việc làm tập nhà trường trung học phổ thông Hà Nội) M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 HANOI – 2021 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *********************** TRẦN NHƯ QUỲNH AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF HOMEWORK AT A HANOI HIGH SCHOOL (Khám phá nhận thức học sinh việc làm tập nhà trường trung học phổ thông Hà Nội) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Supervisor: Dr Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã HANOI - 2021 DECLARATION I hereby certify the thesis entitle ‘An exploratory study of students’ perceptions of homework at a Hanoi high school’ is our own study in the fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Hanoi, March 2021 Tran Nhu Quynh i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Vu Thi Thanh Nha, who willingly devoted her time to offering me professional guidance and practical comments on my research If it had not been for her detailly valuable critical comments and suggesstions, this study would not have been fulfilled Secondly, my deepest gratitude is extended to my parents as well as friends because of their support and encouragement throughout my thesis Without them, I may have given up in the middle of doing research Thirdly, I would love to give my sincere aprreciation to The ULIS Post-Graduate Department who creates learning conditions for us to pursue higher education and always willing to be of help if needed Last but not least, this research could not have been conducted had it not been for the cooperation of a Hanoi high school’s students during the process of data collection Because of all of their support, therefore I finally have done the research and felt deeply grateful in my heart ii ABSTRACT The present study was carried out in the hope of exploring students’ perceptions of homework In order to seek answers to the big question, a set of questionnaires for 70 respondents were utilized to collect the data The survey consisted of 50 items which were used to gauge students’ perceptions of homework After collecting and analyzing the questionnaire based on SPSS (M and SD are mainly used), the survey ended with three questions in which students were in turn interviewed to give a long and accurate answers about their opinions of components of a good English homework, influences of homework completion on their academic performance, and skills learnt from homework fulfillment The findings of this study revealed that the majority of high school students had positive perceptions of homework Although they sometimes felt hatred to homework completion on account of its difficulties and its vast quantity, they still believed homework played an integral part in their accademic performance and formed indispensable study skills Thanks to doing homework on a daily basis, students progressively improved their academic performance and step-by-step shaped their study habit Students also reported that they learnt responsibility, selfregulation, time-management and other skills from the regularities of homework on going Besides, the research indicated that there were not any observable differences in students’ perceptions towards homework in their attitudes, time spent, forms of homework, and their preferred ways to homework They mostly reached an agreement that homework should not be too easy as it would make them feel bored or gruelling to complete it Homework needed to be appropriate to their level Besides, it was all agreed that homework should be completed in approximately no more than two hours; otherwise, it would become stressful and annoying In particular, were homework to be done less than one hour due to its uncomplicatedness, students would feel bored and demotivated But if homework which was too challenging and required more than three hours to be finished, they soon would suffer from fatigue and hostility Furthermore, they all admited that iii “Practice knowledge learnt in the class”, “Prepare new lessons”, “Do extended assignment which is related to knowledge learnt in the class and some advanced adds-on” are their favorable well-qualified homework although some spontaneously suggests “make video”, “role play” ,“do on the internet” and “pure exercise, no theory” which excited their learning In short, home academic tasks should be carefully designed in terms of level, variety, authenticity and enjoyment in order to give students a stimulus to get them done Other factors such as parents, friends, peers and other environmental elements should be taken into consideration in students homework completion It is hoped that this study will bring out students’ perceptions of English homework, therefore in turn can shed some light and provide guidelines for Vietnamese teachers and Vietnamese Education Ministry in planning it as a tool to assist student learning iv TABLE OF CONTENT Page DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Objectives of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Methods of the study 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Homework 2.1.1 History of homework 2.1.2 View of homework and working definition 2.2 Cooper’s theory: homework’s merits and demerits 2.3 Trautwein’s theory 11 The frequency and length of homework 12 The type of homework 12 Roles of parents 13 Roles of peers 14 Roles of teacher 14 Expectancy and value component 15 v Environment and concentration 15 Extra-curricular activities 15 2.4 Previous studies 16 2.5 Summary 18 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 21 3.1 Research questions 21 3.2 Research method: Survey 21 3.2.1 Introduction 21 3.2.2 Types of survey research: Exploratory survey 22 3.2.3 Survey research designs: Cross-sectional design 23 3.2.4 Steps in carrying out a survey: steps 24 3.2.5 Sampling: PURPOSIVE 27 3.2.6 Pilot study 28 3.2.7 The outcomes of the pilot study 28 3.2.8 Summary 31 3.3 Setting of the study 31 3.4 Participants 32 3.5 Data collection instruments: Questionnaire & Interview 33 3.5.1 Questionnaire 33 3.5.2 Interview 33 3.6 Data collection procedure 35 3.7 Data analytical framework 36 3.8 Data analysis procedure 36 3.9 Summary 37 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 38 4.1 Introduction 38 4.2 Findings.…………………………………………… ………………… 38 4.2.1 Questionaire data analysis 38 4.2.2 Interview data analysis 45 vi 4.3 Discusion ………………………………………………………………… .48 4.3.1 Research question 1: What are high school sudents’ perceptions of English homework? 48 4.3.2 Research question 2: What factors will influence their homework completion practices? 49 4.3.3 Research question 3: What homework benefits students perceive of? 53 4.4 Other findings 54 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 55 5.1 Summary 55 5.2 Implications 58 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 59 REFERENCE 60 APPENDIX I APPENDIX .II APPENDIX IX vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESL: English as a second language SD: Standard deviations SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Science GPA: Grade Point Average SILL: Strategy Inventory for Language Learning viii I: Why you think so? S2: you know now is 4.0, we need to know how to test in the internet There are some examinations that require IT skills For example, IETLS test People may not paper test either I: Anything else? S2: It think homework should be relevant It needs to help us focus what we learnt in the class But still, variety are needed I: I see I think I got enough information Thanks for your time and your useful information S2: Oh no problem I can go now? I: Yes Have a nice day and see you later Group 2: those who having fair viewpoint toward homework Group2 M SD GPA (the first semester 2020-2021 S3 3.44 0.86 7.8/10 S4 3.30 0.89 4.3/`10 S5 3.11 0.94 7.3/10 I: What is your name? S3: My name is Nguyen Dang Khoa (alias name) I: Do you like learning English? S3: Yes Of course XV I: Do you think English plays an important role in your career future? S3: Yes, I: Do you often self-study English at home? S3: Yes I: How much time you spend learning English per day? S3: More than hours per day And not just English I: Yes, I see Now I would like to ask you some questions about homework Are you ready to answer? S3: Yes, I’m ready I: Do you think homework is important? S3: Yes I understand lesson much better when I learnt English I: Anything else you can learn from homework? S3: Umhh I helps me become intelligent I: Why you think so? S3: I think I am more critical Learning in class is not enough Doing homework helps me realize something that I confused when I not understand lesson I: I agree “According to your opinion, what are components of good English homework?” S3: The homework could have knowledge related to what is learned in class, maybe practice some structures, new words or reading skills” less but qualified, teachers has to prepare their own assignment, not copy from the internet or else they are unqualified XVI I: Oh Why you think teacher need to prepare homework? Can the teacher ask students to exercise just in textbook and students’ book? S3: Uhmm I think not We all have the internet, and we can search answer on the internet if teacher assign homework which are the same exercise we can find on the internet I: Anything else about components of good homework? S3: Actually, some students in my class love doing project I feel normal about it We can project or not But I would rather homework which is close to targeted language that will appear in the exam I: Do you think daily homework completion has any influences on your academic performance? If no, why?/ If yes, how? S3: As I mentioned before, of course yes I got better score since I have done homework daily I also used grammatical structure correctly I: Are there any skills you learnt from homework completion? S3: A lot The skill I can learn from completing homework is retraining what I learned and learning more new things in the homework, reading and speaking skill maybe I: Can you be more specific? S3: For example, this is the first time I was asked to speaking homework When I studied at secondary school, we just focused on grammar test I: Oh I see Anything you can think of? S3: Uhmmm And also the first time I used email to contact with teacher I didn’t date to contact them when I was in secondary school Maybe it is about communication skill I have to think a lot when I emailed teacher XVII I: I see you I have got enough information So, think I am gonna close the interview here Thank again for your time and your information Have a nice day! S3: Have a nice day teacher, see you tomorrow! I: What is your name? S4: My name is Nguyễn Hương Quỳnh (alias name) I: Do you like learning English? S4: Yes Of course I: Do you think English plays an important role in your career future? S4: Yes I: Do you often self-study English at home? S4: Yes I: How much time you spend learning English per day? S4: About hours I: Yes, I see Now I would like to ask you some questions about homework Are you ready to answer? S4: Yes I: Do you think homework is important? S4: Yes I: Anything else you can learn from homework? S4: Umhh maybe I am better at English XVIII I: “According to your opinion, what are components of good English homework?” S4: Homework could be: grammar exercises, vocabulary, gap filing,….A good homework should: not too much for students, moderate post I: Oh Do you like to doing homework that asks you to make a video? S4: Not really I just want to multitple choice I think I: Anything else about components of good homework? S4: I can’t think of anything now I: Do you think daily homework completion has any influences on your academic performance? If no, why?/ If yes, how? S4: I think it is yes But I don’t know why I still got bad grade though I homework a lot I: How many per hours you spend doing homework? S4: A lot I take note everything carefully I: Have you ever looked at your note more often? S4: No I just wrote it down I: I see your problem now It is kind of rote learning, you are not learning English actively S4: What is your point? I: You want to be better you need both theories and practice and revision Lack one of those will stop you from learning English better S4: Uhm … XIX I:Are there any skills you learnt from homework completion? S4: I don’t know Maybe more independent I am not close with anyone in the class and I homework on my own I: Just ask me if you find anything difficult to understand S4: I will Thank you teacher I: You are welcome I guess I have enough information now Thank you for your time S4: Let me know if you need anything I: Yes Thank you Have a nice day! S4: Have a nice day teacher See you tomorrow I: What is your name? S5: My name is Nguyen Ngoc Linh (alias name) I: Do you like learning English? S5: Yes Of course I: Do you think English plays an important role in your career future? S5: Yes, every jobs need English I: Do you often self-study English at home? S5: Yes I: How much time you spend learning English per day? S5: More than hours per day I: Yes, I see Now I would like to ask you some questions about homework XX Are you ready to answer? S5: Yes, I’m ready I: Do you think homework is important? S5: Yes I understand class lesson better I: Anything else you can learn from homework? S5: revise knowledge I guess I: I agree Have you ever not done about homework? S5: Yes sometimes I: Are there any factors that influence your homework incompletion? S5: Uhmmm When the homework are too difficult I: Ok I get it There are three questions which I need you to take into consideration I means taking time to think about it and then answer me very carefully Is it ok with you? S5: Yes I: Thank you The first question, “According to your opinion, what are components of good English homework?” S5: Not too much and focus on the language we will have to sit an exam I: Anything else? S5: Multiple-choice I: What you mean “multiple choice”? S5: I mean we often take the grammar multiple-choice test I don’t want the assignment asking me to write and listen It sometimes wastes time XXI I: But writing and listening helps you improve skills? S5: But it doesn’t serve me in the test I: Ok I got it Are there anything you want to suggest? S5: Uhm… No I: Now, we are moving the second important question Do you think daily homework completion has any influences on your academic performance? If no, why?/ If yes, how? S5: Of course It helps me revise knowledge though sometime it is overloaded But still, I got better grade when I practice exercise more often I: Are there any skills you learnt from homework completion? S5: reading, writing, and time management I: Can you tell me more about time management? S5: I had a lof of homework to do, not just English That’s why I have to divide time property to get all of it done before I go to the class I: How about reading? S5: Reading is my weakness Sometimes when I have to reading comprehension exercise, I understand the passage but I still circle the incorrect option I: And writing? S1: Uhmmm I am used to writing all new vocabulary and grammar on the notebook Ih helps me both learn new language but also writing skill I: Anything else? XXII S5: Uhm I just thought about it I: So, I think I have got enough information and I am gonna close the interview here Thank again for your time and your information Have a nice day! S5: Have a nice day teacher, bye and see you soon -Group 3: those who having negative viewpoint toward homework Group2 M SD GPA (the first semester 2020-2021 S6 2.5 0.97 7.5/10 S7 2.58 0.89 9.1/10 S8 2.33 0.92 4.5/10 I: What is your name? S6: My name is Nguyen Khanh Vy (alias name) I: Do you like learning English? S6: Uhm Just so so I: Do you think English plays an important role in your career future? S6: May be yes I: Do you often self-study English at home? S6: Yes I: How much time you spend learning English per day? S6: Just more than per day XXIII I: Yes, I see Now I would like to ask you some questions about homework Are you ready to answer? S6: Yes, I’m ready I: Do you think homework is important? S6: I don’t like to homework but I think it is important I: Why you think so? S6: It helps to get better grade I: Are there any factors that influence your homework incompletion? S6: Time, I think so I: Can you be more specific? S6: I have a lot of assignment, both in-class and out-of-class Sometimes I just don’t want to it because of no reason I: I see, “According to your opinion, what are components of good English homework?” S6: Hmm I don't want homework, no matter what kind of homework that is I: Anything else? I: Do you think daily homework completion has any influences on your academic performance? If no, why?/ If yes, how? S6: Yes Homework support the class learning and exam Just it I: Are there any skills you learnt from homework completion? S6: Writing I: Can you tell me more about writing? XXIV S6: The teacher often asked us to write grammar rules and functions in the notebook I know how to arrange present things logically I: Anything else? S6: Maybe speaking I got a speaking activity every two weeks I: Anything elso? S6: Uhm…no I: So, I think I have got enough information and I am gonna close the interview here Thank again for your time and your information Have a nice day! S6: Have a great day teacher! I: What is your name? S7: My name is Dao Duy Anh (alias name) I: Do you like learning English? S7: Definitely I learnt English when I was a kid I: Do you think English plays an important role in your career future? S7: Of course I am gonna follow my father’s footstep I: What you want to become in the future? S7: A manager I: Do you often self-study English at home? S7: Yes XXV I: How much time you spend learning English per day? S7: From to hours per day based on the level of difficulty of the exercise I: Yes, I see Now I would like to ask you some questions about homework Are you ready to answer? S7: Yes I: Do you think homework is important? S7: Yes I: Anything else you can learn from homework? S7: Critical thinking I: Why you think so? S7: I often IELTS test and the questions are sometimes struggling It makes me think a lot When I found out the answer, I was so happy I: “According to your opinion, what are components of good English homework?” S7: I think the ideal homework is one that consists of all knowledge gathered in the lesson, with increased difficulty so that it's more intriguing Last, and the most important of all is the removal of re-writing grammar structures, new words that aren't new, generally getting rid of anything that doesn't require thinking I: Anything else? S7: I don’t want to work others I mean I prefer working individually And I don’t want to work in projects It is boring and unhelpful XXVI I: Do you think daily homework completion has any influences on your academic performance? If no, why?/ If yes, how? S7: Yes But if the homework are good quality I: Are there any skills you learnt from homework completion? S7: As I mentioned before, critical thinking I: Anything else? S7: The knowledge you are working on I: I see I think I have enough information now Thanks you for your interview time Have a nice day! S7: Have a nice day teacher, see you soon S8: My name is Tran Khanh Nguyen (alias name) I: Do you like learning English? S8: Not really I: Do you think English plays an important role in your career future? S8: May be yes I: Do you often self-study English at home? S8: Yes I: How much time you spend learning English per day? S8: About hours per day I: Yes, I see Now I would like to ask you some questions about homework Are you ready to answer? XXVII S8: Ok I: Do you think homework is important? S8: Uhm…yes I: Why you think so? S8: It helps revise knowledge I: Are there any factors that influence your homework incompletion? S8: Overload I: Can you be more specific? S8: I have a ton of homework, not just English I: I see, “According to your opinion, what are components of good English homework?” S8: It is best to assign the correct focus and moderate assignment I: Anything else? S8: That’s it I: Are there any skills you learnt from homework completion? S8: Time control I: Can you tell me more about time control? S8: It means I have to homework right the schedule I wasn’t allowed to submit late or I will be punished I: Anything else? S8: Not skill but academic knowledge XXVIII I: Contine to tell me more S8: Uhm… Grammar I mean better at grammar I: Do you want to to homework on the internet? S8: Sometimes because it is convenient I: Do you want to project assignment? S8: Not really Projects take time but I don’t have time I: Ok The last question Do you think daily homework completion has any influences on your academic performance? If no, why?/ If yes, how? S8: I hate to say it but yes I helps to improve score I: So are you willing to homework now? S8: Uhmm if it is not too much I: I see I think I have enough information now Thank you for your interview time Have a nice day! S8: Have a nice day teacher XXIX ... periods of time—often years or decades They are generally observational in nature, with quantitative and/or qualitative data being collected on any combination of exposures and outcomes, without any... chapter ends with an explanation of data analytical framework and data analysis procedure 3.1 Research questions As mentioned in the introduction section of the thesis, this study targets at. .. Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Hanoi, March 2021 Tran Nhu Quynh i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my heartfelt