The overall mean of six motivational types- 123docz.net

3.64

4.46 4.04 3.84

3.05 3.36

0.5 0 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

(LUAN.van.THAC.si).an.investigation.into.the.relationship.between.motivations.and.language.learning.strategies.of.first.year.students.at.faculty.of.electrical.engineering.technology..hanoi.university.of.industry(LUAN.van.THAC.si).an.investigation.into.the.relationship.between.motivations.and.language.learning.strategies.of.first.year.students.at.faculty.of.electrical.engineering.technology..hanoi.university.of.industry(LUAN.van.THAC.si).an.investigation.into.the.relationship.between.motivations.and.language.learning.strategies.of.first.year.students.at.faculty.of.electrical.engineering.technology..hanoi.university.of.industry(LUAN.van.THAC.si).an.investigation.into.the.relationship.between.motivations.and.language.learning.strategies.of.first.year.students.at.faculty.of.electrical.engineering.technology..hanoi.university.of.industry

Table 4 and chart 1 indicate the means, frequency and percentage for six types of motivation with three remarkable features. First and foremost, the participants respond with a high degree of motivation in learning English (the mean of overall motivation = 3.73). Second, it is clear that among six types of motivations, most participants have strong instrumental motivation with the highest mean of 4.46. As is shown by table 4, approximately 3.1 % (n=3) of subjects is in a low degree of instrumental orientation, 10.4 % (n=10) of subjects is in medium degree and 86.5% (n=83) of subjects were in high degree of motivation. Third, compared with the instrumental motivation in the chart, motivational strength gets the lowest mean score (mean = 3.06). The majority of the students (42.7%) rank this factor in medium range, 30.2 % in low range and 27.1%

for high range. The means for each motivational item were synthesized in Table 5.

Table 5: Descriptive Statistic for Each Motivational Item

Types of motivation Motivational items Mean

Intrinsic motivation 3.64

Intrinsic 1 1. I would take this class even if it were not required.

4.07

Intrinsic 2 2. I enjoy using this language outside of class whenever I have a chance.

4.07

Intrinsic 3 (Language requirement)

3. I mainly study this language to satisfy the university language requirement.

2.78

Instrumental orientation

4.46

Instr 1 4. Increasing my proficiency in this language will have financial benefits for me.

4.63

Instr 2 5. I am learning this language to understand films, videos or music.

4.3

Integrative orientation 4.04 Integrative 1 6. I am learning this language to be able to

communicate with friends who speak it.

4.04

Competitiveness 3.84

Competitive 1 7. Getting a good grade in this class is the most important thing for me right now.

3.77

Competitive 2 8. I want to do better than the other students in this class.

3.92

Motivational Strength 3.05

Mt strength 1 9. I often feel lazy and bored when I study for this class.

3.02

Mt strength 2 10. When course work is difficult, I either give up or only study the easy parts.

3.08

Anxiety 3.36

Anxiety 1 11. I don’t worry about making mistakes when speaking in front of this class

3.23

Anxiety 2 12. I am afraid that my teacher is ready to correct every mistake I make.

3.49

Table 5 represents the means for each motivational item. The means of 3 items (25% of the overall items) are in the middle range (mean 2.34 – 3.67), while 9 items (75% of the overall items) fit in the high range (mean 3.68 – 5). There is no item is in the low degree of motivation (mean 1 – 2.33). Considerably, with regard to 12 sub-types of motivations, the mean score of item 4 (having financial benefits) is the highest (mean = 4.63) while that of item 3 (satisfying mainly the university language requirement is the lowest (mean= 2.78). Moreover, the table 4 reveals that the students highly accept items 4 and 5 as being fundamental reasons to their desire to learn English. It means

that they have a strong agreement that studying English can allow them to understand films, videos or music and communicate with friends who speak it.

In regard to the interview results concerning the participants’ motivation, there are four noticeable points raised.

Firstly, half of interviewees, in terms of intrinsic motivation, mentioned that they enjoy learning English for their inside interest. For example, one student stated: “Learning English is one of my hobbies.” (S5).

Secondly, concerning instrumental orientations, most of interviewees implied that they like studying English for various practical reasons such as getting a good job, improving future career, getting financial benefits, passing the exam, completing required subjects, travelling abroad or further education, for instance, “I think I can find a good job position with better salary. Moreover, I don’t have to pay for studying English again because at my university, if I fail the exam, I will learn the second time or even the third time with a huge amount of money.” (S3)

Thirdly, half of respondents mentioned they study English because they had a desire to integrate with the English speaking people to make friends, “learning English well brings me a lot of chances to communicate and make friends” (S4); build relationships and broaden their knowledge about English people or culture, “English helps me connect to the other side of knowledge” (S9).

The last main point is that some students mentioned the importance of studying English as it is the most dominant international language and it enables them to access to the technology more effectively. This statement is cited from Student 3’s speech, “I dream of being an engineer so I learn English to catch up with new technology innovations and developments.” is one of examples. Another example is that student 10 revealed

“English is an international and popular language so learning English helps me to be

more confident when I communicate with other people who speak English. I love England and English is one of the best and useful languages I have ever known.”

Obviously, the two data sources from survey questionnaires and interviews indicated that the participants responded with a high degree of motivation in learning English.

They learned English primarily because they have great instrumental motivations to obtain practical purposes such as passing the exam or completing required courses and acquire better opportunities for pursuing a good career or travelling abroad. They also learned English for integrative orientations such as communicating with native speakers or broadening social relationships. The rank order for other factors was competitiveness, intrinsic motivation and anxiety. Motivational strength was found to receive the lowest frequency of ranking.

3.1.2. Students’ language learning strategy use

Part B in the questionnaire was designed to provide data which addresses the second research question. The means, frequency and percentage for all strategy factors were shown in Table 6.

Table 6: Summary of Descriptive Statistic for Language Learning Strategy Use Types of language

strategies M

1 ~ 2.4 2.5 ~ 3.4 3.5 ~ 5 Freq Perc

(%) Freq Perc

(%) Freq Perc (%)

Memory strategies 3.67 2 2.1 32 33.3 62 64.6

Cognitive strategies 4.12 2 2.1 19 19.8 75 78.1

Compensation strategies 3.22 8 8.3 50 52.1 38 39.6 Metacognitive strategies 3.75 5 5.2 24 25.0 67 69.8

Affective strategies 3.68 6 6.3 17 17.7 73 76.0

Social strategies 4.32 2 2.1 11 11.5 83 86.5

Overall 3.79