(SKKN 2022) The implementation of motivational teaching strategies in EFL classrooms at high school level

How do the teachers’ motivational teaching strategies affect students’ classroom motivation in terms of the level of their attention, participation and volunteering?...18 3... motivation

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ

TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN LAM SƠN

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF MOTIVATIONAL

TEACHING STRATEGIES IN EFL CLASSROOMS

AT HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL

Người thực hiện: Lưu Cẩm Hà Chức vụ: Giáo viên

Đơn vị công tác: Trường THPT Chuyên Lam Sơn

SKKN thuộc môn: Tiếng Anh

1.3 Research methodology 3

1.3.1 Data collection methods 3

1.3.2 Data analysis methods 8

2 CONTENTS 8

2.1 Theoretical background 8

2.1.1 Motivation 8

2.1.2 Types of motivation 9

2.1.3 Motivational strategies 10

2.1.4 Motivational teaching strategies in the field of learning and teaching English as a foreign/second language 10

2.2 Practical background 13

2.2.1 Perceptions of teachers 13

2.2.2 Perceptions of students 15

2.2.3 The relationship between teachers’ and students’ perception of motivational strategies 16

2.3 Solutions to the problems 17

2.3.1 How do teachers apply motivational strategies in their teaching practices? 17

2.3.2 How do the teachers’ motivational teaching strategies affect students’ classroom motivation in terms of the level of their attention, participation and volunteering? 18

3 CONCLUSION 21

3.1 Summary of findings 21

3.2 Implications 22

3.3 Suggestions for further studies 22

REFERENCES 24

APPENDICES 29

APPENDIX A 29

APPENDIX B 37

APPENDIX C 38

1 INTRODUCTION Reasons for choosing the topic.

There are various researchers in the field of language learning showing thatmotivation is of great importance for successful learning (Dornyei, 2001a; BrokDen, Levy, Brekelmans & Wubbels, 2006; Oxford & Shearin, 1994; Oxford,1994) Likewise, Dornyei (2001a) also puts an emphasis on motivation ofstudents when learning a new language In learning a foreign/ second language,motivation is indeed one of the most important and influential factors toindividuals, compared with aptitude, learning style and the age of the learners(Dornyei, 2001a) Regardless of aptitude, learners’ ability and intelligence,students with higher motivation are likely to learn more effectively During the1990s, the research about motivation for learning English as a second/foreignlanguage (ESL/EFL) evolved into describing and focusing into the factors thatimpact the motivation of the students (Cheng & Dornyei, 2007).Notwithstanding such concern, the number of studies on how to enhancemotivation of students using specific strategies or through the application of thetheory of centralized knowledge in practical classes is relatively small inspecific situations (Dornyei & Otto, 1998)

In Vietnamese EFL context, English teaching and learning have confrontedseveral obstacles Two main factors are identified by Hoang (2018) as students’low motivation and limited opportunities to practice communicating in the targetlanguage Alerted by the need to renovate foreign language education, theMinistry of Education and Training (MOET) has invested abundant resources,both intellectual and material, in the National Foreign Language Project 2008-

2020, aiming to enhance EFL teachers’ proficiency through extensive trainingprograms across the country (Chi, 2017) However, even when the teachers aremore proficient, students neither feel motivated by nor benefit much from theiractual poor teaching performance (Nguyen, 2017) In such situation, the reform

of EFL system with an emphasis on motivation should deserve a considerationand necessarily be a response While foreign language achievement isinfluenced by motivation, motivational strategies in teaching are claimed toinfluence students’ motivation (Dornyei, 1994; Dornyei, 1998; Dornyei, 2001).Besides, although numerous studies have been done on motivational strategies

in many countries including Hungary (Dörnyei & Csízer, 1998), Taiwan (Cheng

& Dörnyei, 2007), Spain (Bernaus & Gardner, 2008), South Korea (Guilloteaux

& Dörnyei, 2008), Indonesia (Kassing, 2011), this area is still under-investigated

in the EFL context of Vietnam All these conditions, henceforth, have offeredthe researcher a chance to conduct a study on the implementation ofmotivational teaching strategies at high school level

Research aims and questions.

First, the study was conducted for the purpose of discovering the perception

of teachers and students about the significance of motivational teaching

motivational teaching strategies that are employed to motivate students and howthose strategies affect students in terms of their attention, participation andvolunteering In short, the researcher looked for the answers to these questions:

1 How do high school teachers and students perceive the use ofmotivational teaching strategies in EFL classrooms?

2 How do teachers apply motivational strategies in their teaching practices?

3 How do teachers’ motivational teaching strategies affect students’classroom motivation in terms of the level of their attention, participation,and volunteering?

Research methodology

Data collection methods

The triangulation method of observation, interviews and questionnaireswere employed during the process of data collection Specifically, aquestionnaire was used for 120 students randomly selected from four classes ofgrade 10 and grade 11 at Lam Son High School; a set of questions was used tointerview 9 teachers, therefore, data about the implementation of motivationalstrategies could be gathered from different viewpoints Finally, classroomobservation with a comprehensive classroom observation scheme was also vitalfor the researcher to make the educational research more accessible andpractical

Student Questionnaire

The student questionnaire (see Appendix A) was designed to investigate theperceptions of students toward the use of motivational strategies in theirclassroom The ideas of students about the frequency of 25 motivationalstrategies, which were adopted from the Motivational Orientation of LanguageTeaching (MOLT) classroom observation scheme developed by Dornyei andGuilloteaux (2008, p.76), were examined However, with a view to simplifyingthe questions for students, the researcher used descriptive term instead oftechnical term of 25 motivational strategies The questionnaire was designedbased on the Likert scale with 5 points, anchored at 1 (never) and 5 (usually).The data from the survey was used to answer research question 1 aboutperceptions of students toward the use of motivational strategies

In order to get clear ideas of each item from the participants, the translation

of questionnaire into Vietnamese had to be done, with the assurance for themeaning of all questions not to be changed

Semi-structured Interview

In the interviews, respondents were the English teachers of Lam Son HighSchool for The Gifted They were asked questions about the implementation ofusing motivational strategies to improve students’ learning(see Appendix B).The content of questions were based on Dörnyei’s framework (2001):generating, maintaining and protecting motivation as well as encouragingpositive retrospective self-evaluation Besides, respondents would share all thestrategies that they have deployed in English classes and the benefits they get

from these strategies in teaching and learning process The data from theinterview were to answer research question 1 about perceptions of teacherstoward motivational strategies.

Each respondent would be interviewed as an informal comfortable sharing.Each interview took place in approximately twenty minutes

Classroom Observation

This research employed the MOLT scheme of Dornyei and Guilloteaux(2008, p.76) as the observation scheme in classroom observation However, theresearcher had significant changes in order to make the scheme more suitableand valuable to the research

There are two frameworks in the original MOLT classroom scheme:Dornyei’s system of motivational teaching practice (2001) and Spada andFrohlich’s classroom observation scheme, the Communication Orientation ofLanguage Teaching (COLT) (1995) A time-sampling format which recordedevery minute of relevant classroom is applied by the MOLT However, in thisstudy, the researcher did not follow time-sampling format of Spada andFrohlich’s (1995) An emphasis on frequency of each strategy was added instead(see Appendix C)

The two main concerns of the content categories in the MOLT scheme areteacher’s motivational teaching practice and learners’ motivated behavior Thefactors of the teacher’s motivational teaching practice originated from Dörnyei’s(2001) model of motivational teaching practice described earlier in the literaturereview On that ground, Guiiloteaux and Dornyei developed 25 motivationalvariables which are clearly definable and observable (presented in Table 1).These variables were categorized in the observation sheet into four groups:teacher discourse, participation structure, encouraging positive retrospectiveself-evaluation, and activity design The data gathered from teachers’s aspectwas to answer research question 2 and 3

Table 1: The 25 Observational Variables Measuring the Teacher’s

Motivational Practice (Guiiloteaux & Dornyei, 2008, p.63)

No Variables Description

1 Social chat Having an informal (often humorous) chat with the

students on matters unrelated to the lesson

2 Signposting

Stating the lesson objectives explicitly or givingretrospective summaries of progress already madetoward realizing the objectives

8 Scaffolding

Providing appropriate strategies and/or models to helpstudents complete an activity successfully (e.g., theteacher thinks aloud while demonstrating, remindstudents of previously learned knowledge or skills thatwill help them complete the activity, or has the classbrainstorm a list of strategies to carry out the activity)

cooperation

Setting up a cooperative learning activity, or explicitlyencouraging students to help one another, offeringsuggestions on how best to do this

autonomy

Offering students a choice of activities, involving them

in making decisions regarding the timing of an activity,having them use the Internet or do research (e.g., for oralpresentations, projects, and displays)

11 Referential

questions

Asking the class questions to which the teacher does notalready know the answer, including questions about thestudents’ lives

12 Group work The students are mingling, working in fluid pairs, or

working in groups (simultaneously or presenting to the

whole class).

13 Pair work The students are working in fixed pairs (simultaneously

or presenting to the whole class)

14 Tangible reward Offering students tangible rewards (e.g., candy,

stickers ) for successfully taking part in an activity

15 Personalization Creating opportunities for students to express personal

meaning (e.g., experiences, feelings, opinions)

17 Intellectual

challenge

The activity presents an intellectual challenge (e.g., itinvolves a memory challenge, problem or puzzlesolving, discovering something, overcoming obstacles,avoiding traps, or finding hidden information)

feedback

Focusing on what can be learned from the mistakes thathave been made, and from the process of producing thecorrect answer

24 Effective praise Offering praise for effort or achievement that is sincere,

specific (i.e., more than merely saying “Good job!”), andcommensurate with the student’s achievement N.B.:Ability feedback (“You are very good at English”) or

praise involving social comparison (“You did better thananyone else in the class”) is not recorded as effectivepraise.

25 Class applause

Celebrating a student’s or group’s success, risk-taking,

or effort by applauding (either spontaneously orfollowing the teacher’s lead)

The learners’ motivated behavior was assessed by students’ levels ofengagement in classroom activities To elaborate, the researcher determined thelearners’ level of motivated behaviors in terms of the proportion of students whowere attentive or actively took part in activities during the class and whovolunteered in oral activities This study also followed the three-level scale of

Guiiloteaux and Dornyei (2008) but made a slight change which defined very

low = less than one third of the students, low = one thirds to two thirds of the

students and high = more than two thirds of the students (p 62)

Table 2 presents a description of the three variables belonging to thelearners’ motivated behavior category

Table 2: Observational Variables Measuring Learners’ Motivated Behavior(Guiiloteaux & Dornyei, 2008, p.62)

Variables Description

Attention

Students appear to be paying attention: They are notdisplaying any inattentive or disruptive behavior; they arelooking at the teacher and following his or her movements,looking at visual stimuli, turning to watch another student who

is contributing to the task, following the text being read, ormaking appropriate nonverbal responses

Participati

on

Students are actively taking part in classroom interaction

or working on assigned activity

Volunteeri

ng for

teacher-fronted activity

The students are volunteering without the teacher having

to coax them in any way

Data analysis methods

Firstly, responses from closed-ended questions from the questionnaires

were calculated converted into numerical form Descriptive statistics were used

to display the findings from the survey Since the fact that almost all the datadrawn from questionnaires were numerical statistics, these data were put incategories based on the literature review and then illustrated in tables and chartsfor the researcher to examine and comment more easily In the next step,responses from questions from the interview were transcribed and categorised

by key words of the statements to be used to answer the first research question

To process the observational data, the researcher watched the video again,combined with field notes and then based on the observation scheme to drawconclusion about motivational strategies in use and student’s reactions regardingtheir attention, participation and volunteering.

2 CONTENTS 2.1 Theoretical background

2.1.1 Motivation

A large volume of studies on L2 (second language) learningmotivation is available Motivation is a complex term Many studies havebeen carried out to define and explain motivation in different ways, butall of them focused on the same main construct Dörnyei (2001) defines it

as the struggle to persist doing actions and to encounter any obstacles.Motivation is what makes actions continue Supporting this definition,Harmer (2008) stated that what makes people achieve their goals areinterior energies which he calls ‘motivations’ This definition serves as theinside power that help people to reach their goals Gardner (2007) also definedmotivation as the incorporation of positive notions to learn another languagewith the power of achieving foreign language (FL) learning goals.These scholars defined motivation as the hidden need or desire toaccomplish the target of language learning which explains peoples’behaviors for doing certain actions Furthermore, Graham and Weiner(1996) showed in their study that motivation is the reason behind peoples’actions and thoughts This is an indication of how motivation can shape peoples’performance affecting the way the person thinks In the same vein, AbrudanCaciora, (2008) added that motivation is the internal force that pushes one’sactions Motivation is what makes the purpose of the action maintained andstimulated Thus, motivation is strongly linked to success in doing anyactivity The more motivated the learner is, the more remarkable progress

he will make Motivation is the only reason for doing one activity with a highinterest (Ames, 1990) All these broad definitions indicate the relationshipbetween motivation and foreign language achievement Motivation isconsidered one of the most important factors in second language acquisition(Sun, 2010) because it is thought to determine the level of active personalinvolvement in language learning Ultimately, all the above definitions embodythe meaning of motivation that the current study would utilize in relation

to motivational strategies in the FL classroom

2.1.2 Types of motivation

Regarding foreign language acquisition, the scholars usually distinguished

between the two best classifications for motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic

motivation The differences between them were made up by Dci and Ryan

(2000)

1) Independence, in choosing what to do, and how to do it

2) Competence, capacities, and abilities by which we figure out how tocontrol our environment

3) Relatedness, the relationship we create through our association with others.This assumption has a huge implication for students possessed with this learningprocedure To be specific, students will probably experience intrinsic motivation

in an environment that advanced the fulfilment of these requirements than in theone which dismisses them (Brophy 2014) Additionally, as indicated by a fewinvestigations, intrinsically motivated learning has a tendency to be moreprofitable than the extrinsically oriented one (Dci& Ryan, 2000)

Extrinsic Motivation

On the other hand, the individuals who are extrinsically motivated areplayed out a specific activity not because they truly enjoy it, but because ofreward that is accessible in their environment (Topalov, 2011) The extrinsicobjective can differ from short-term goals (decent evaluations, prizes fromeducator and parents, participating in a competition, etc to long-term ones(probability of winning a scholarship, better openings for work, etc) Certaininvestigation completed in the 1980s demonstrated that rewards could lead to adecrease in intrinsic motivation among individuals who are already doing cretinthings because of their own purpose (Brophy, 2004)

Despite the fact that the qualification between those two sorts of motivation

is still essential while we are talking about motivation, the attitude towardsextrinsic motivation has changed Today, it is believed that intrinsic motivationand extrinsic reward-motivated learning (Topalov, 2011; Abdullah & Al-Mofti,2017) As a result, it is essential to look at the build of motivation, not as asingle element but rather as a multi-functional one The effective filter isbelieved to assume an important part in getting L2 understandable information

It may not be used by the L2 procure if there is no “mind block” Furthermorethe successful filter act barrier to acquisition Besides, the filter is up when theacquirer is unmotivated, lacking confidence (Krashen, 2009)

2.1.3 Motivational strategies

Simply, motivational strategies is the method to motivate students inlearning activities Guilloteaux and Dornyei (2008) defines motivationalstrategies as the instruction of the teachers towards the students whenconducting teaching activities and this leads to the increase in the motivation ofthe students Dornyei (2001b) further considered motivational strategies as

“techniques that promote the individual’s goal-related behaviour” (p.28) Inbrief, motivational teaching strategies are steps or techniques utilized byteachers in teaching practices to enhance students’ motivation in learning asecond/foreign language.

2.1.4 Motivational teaching strategies in the field of learning and teaching

English as a foreign/second language

According to Guilloteaux & Dornyei (2008), research of motivationalteaching strategies is usually based on “sound theoretical considerations” (p.56).While effective and motivational teaching strategies have been proposed byscholars in education and educational psychology areas, few were specificallycontributed by second/foreign language scholars (Kassing, 2011) Dornyei(2001b) introduced the most notable framework in the area of second/foreignlanguage that can accommodate diverse teaching strategies The model ofDornyei comprises four main dimensions as below

Figure 1: The Components of a Motivational L2 Teaching Practice

(Dornyei, 2001b, p.29)

The framework is based on Dornyei’s systematic overview of the extensivemotivational techniques in teaching a second/foreign language (Dornyei,2001b) The four dimensions include the macro-strategies associated with eachdimension Dornyei (2001) broke these macrostrategies down further into about

100 specific motivational strategies This list of motivational teaching strategieshas been of frequent use for researchers to discover what strategies are perceived

by language teachers or students as effective in motivating students In thisresearch, the motivational strategies framework of Dornyei (2001, p.29) served

as a background to the study when the researcher designed the classroomobservation instruments

Traditionally, motivational psychologists have been more concerned aboutwhat motivation is than about how we can use this knowledge to motivatelearners (Guilloteaux & Dornyei, 2008) Recently, however, there has been amarked shift and more researchers have decided to look at the pedagogical

implications of research by conceptualizing ‘motivational strategies’.According to Kassing (2011), a number of scholars have proposed and publishedslightly different frameworks or lists of recommended teaching strategies whichare most likely to motivate students to learn (for example Brophy, 2010;Dornyei, 1994; Oxford & Shearin, 1994; Williams & Burden, 1997) These aresupposed to be applied by classroom practitioners in improving their teachingpractice However, most of those diverse techniques recommended lackedsupporting empirical evidence as they were drawn from personal teachingexperiences or scholar’s own beliefs about the effectiveness of those strategieswithin their classroom Dornyei (1996) addressed this issue in his studies ofteaching and through the interviews with two groups including graduatestudents and international teachers joining the British Council summer course.After that, Dornyei (1996) developed a set of motivational teaching strategiesthat he refers to as the “Semi-intuitive set of ten motivational macro-strategies”

Figure 1: Dornyei’s semi-intuitive set of ten motivational teaching

strategies (1996)

The semi-intuitive set of ten motivational teaching strategies

1 Create interesting language classes by choosing diverse and engagingtopics, materials and activities

2 There are fun, funny and class games

3 Create a pleasant and friendly atmosphere

4 Promote learners' autonomy by allowing freedom in the classroomand sharing as much responsibility as possible with learners

5 Make the course relevant by analysing needs and adjusting thecurriculum accordingly

6 Put a personal example in promoting and committing yourself

7 Develop learners' confidence by encouraging them, giving thempositive feedback and ensuring that they often have a sense of success

8 Create a real foreign language by introducing its culture, usingauthentic materials, inviting native speakers and arranging native-speakingfriends for your students

9 Develop good and reliable relationships with learners

10 Emphasize the usefulness of foreign language knowledge

Further empirical evidence was collected in a study to identify dynamicteaching strategies based on class data (Dornyei & Csizer, 1998) This study was

an attempt to revise the list of initial strategies by putting them into research andclassroom-based systems The strategies have been selected based on aquestionnaire for a total of 200 EFL teachers in various language teachingorganizations, from elementary to university, in Hungary Based on teachers’responses, there was a list of ten motivational strategies that the participantsconsidered to be the most important strategies for its usefulness in theclassrooms The proposed strategies are widely known as “TenCommandments” (Nakata, 2006, p.64)

Figure 1: Ten commandments of motivation based on Dornyei & Csizer’

study (1998, p.215)

Ten Commandments of motivation

1 Set a personal example

2 Create a pleasant and comfortable atmosphere in the classroom

3 Present the task properly

4 Develop good relationships with learners

5 Increase confidence in learners' language

6 Make the language class interesting

7 Promote learners' autonomy

8 Personalize the learning process

9 Increase learners with targeted orientation

10 Familiarize learners with the target language culture

Clearly, this list of teaching strategies was more concrete, condensed andless overwhelming for average classroom teachers to manage than the previouslists (Dornyei, 1996) However, since every single classroom and languagelearning environment is unique in numerous ways, teachers and practitionersmust be careful when using of a list of motivational teaching strategies thatcame from a single empirical study

2.2 Practical background

Following is the answer to research question 1: “How do high school

teachers and students in Vietnam perceive the use of motivational teaching strategies in EFL classrooms?”

2.2.1 Perceptions of teachers

Among nine teachers being interviewed, the youngest is 25 years old andthe oldest is 44 years old The wide range of age as well as of experience inteaching English of these teachers obviously led to different points of viewtoward using motivational teaching strategies in classroom

Regarding the role of motivational strategies, all the teachers agreed that itwas of pivotal importance for teachers to utilize strategies to motivate studentsbecause “when students are motivated, their learning attitude will be morepositive, hence better knowledge acquisition on that day” (T1) This opinioncorresponds to the findings of several studies about the relationship betweenmotivational practices and learner’s motivation which emphasized that the level

of teachers’ commitment and enthusiasm greatly affect learner’s motivation.(Dornyei, 1998; Trang & Baldauf, 2007; Guilloteaux & Dornyei, 2008) Interms of perceptions about a motivated class, four young teachers (who areunder 30) believed that a motivated class need to remain the positive energywhich could draw students’ attention to most activities in class Besides, theinteraction between teacher and students and interaction among students is also

a factor contributing to a motivated classroom (T2) It can be easily seen that

from the perspective of young teachers, two strategies arousing attention and

promoting cooperation are the two leading factors resulting in a motivated

classroom Senior teachers, however, thought that a motivated class was onlyperceived through what students could gain after a lesson and there was nospecial strategy to maintain a motivated classroom

On deeper investigation about motivational strategies during the lessonsthrough interviews, the researcher found that among nine teachers interviewed

in the survey, the younger the attendants are, the more versatile they are inmotivating learners in EFL classes As the youngest teacher being asked, teacher

T1 adopted tangible reward and team competition in most of her lessons In

order to carry this out, intellectual and vocabulary games were frequently held

so that the winning team would get a visible achievement This view was alsoshared by other young teachers aged under 30 years old Another approach assuggested by teacher T4, who has been working in the field for just seven years

was group work and pair work As can been seen from above-mentioned

activities, communicative language teaching (CLT) stands out as a commonmethod among the group of surveyed young teachers since most of theirmotivational teaching strategies are communication-based which facilitatesinteraction between L2 learners A different pattern of motivation was identified

among senior teachers, whose preferences lied with promoting instrumental

values and scaffolding Teacher T6 shared:

“I always talk about the importance of English in our lives and repeat it during the lessons so that students can develop self-awareness about learning English Besides, I always instruct students very carefully before carrying out a task or exercise I show them step by step in order to make it as simple as possible for students to do.”

There was an exception of teacher T3 who also motivated his students by

distributing tangible reward However, this was not on the grounds of team working activities but individual competition instead When it comes to

feedback session, all nine teachers said that they always gave comments tostudents on both strong and weak points of them and more importantly,

emphazise on what can be learned from the task or exercises (process feedback)

“My students are at teen age and very sensitive to comments from others As a teacher, I always take both strengths and weak points of my students into consideration and try to deliver the feedback to them as positively as possible.” (T5)

Self-evaluation was not encouraged due to the lack of autonomy of students.

Moreover, not all students have the ability to revise their work, not to mentionpeer correction Students were only required to revise their performance afterbeing checked by the teacher or by following the correct answers given byteachers

In context of teaching and learning English in Vietnam today, all teachersshared the opinion that high school students are still under high pressure ofpassing the national exam which places strong focus on grammar andvocabulary As a result, strategies which directly enhance the learning process

right in the class are of great importance Promoting instrumental values,

scaffolding, intellectual challenge, individual competition and process feedback

are five strategies that all teachers regareded as the most useful strategies indeveloping students’ motivation

“In my opinions, there are various ways to motivate students to learn in my classrooms But to name most important strategies that are useful in context of Vietnam, I would like to choose scaffolding, individual competition, process feedback, intellectual challenge and promoting instrumental values because these strategies directly impact the knowledge acquisition of students…” (T1)

2.2.2 Perceptions of students

First and foremost, the researcher grouped 25 motivational strategies intofour categories based on the MOLT observation scheme: Teacher discourse,Participation structure, Activity design and Encouraging positive retrospectiveself-evaluation

In group of Teacher discourse, with the highest mean of 4.05, scaffolding,

the practice of providing strategies/models to help students complete a task,stood out as a preferable method that students thought their teachers applied the

most in EFL classrooms This was closely followed by signposting (mean =

3.80) as a majority of students agreed that their English teachers made reference

to previous lesson’s progress and new lesson’s objectives As regards self

relevance-based methods, few students thought that the communicative purpose

or utility of the activity was mentioned in the class as this item had a rather low

mean of 1.65 However, this was not the case for promoting instrumental values

and establishing relevance which enjoyed a high mean of 3.56 and 3.02

However, regarding the Participation structure, the pattern for in-class working

activities, compared to the previous group was rather contradicting While pair

work was quite popular in EFL classrooms with a mean of 3.30, the figure of group work was much lower at 1.96 The same inclination was identified among

feedback-focused strategies in the last categogy Specifically, the mean of

process feedback (3.03) was higher than that of neutral feedback (2.77) although

this gap was unnoticeable Another group of items that shared such discrepancy

was praise-based with the mean of class applause (3.77) considerably outnumbering that of effective praise (2.43).

Apart from above-mentioned items, other motivational strategies were not

recommended by the students as their teachers’ common practices such as social

chat (1.08), promoting integrative values (1.11), arousing curiosity or attention

(1.50), tangible reward (1.68) and promoting autonomy (1.03)

Table 3: Means of motivational strategies perceived by students

3 Stating the communicative purposes/ utility of the activity 1.65

Table 4: Common strategies perceived by teachers and students

Teachers Students

Promoting instrumental values Promoting instrumental values

Individual competition Individual competition

Process feedback Process feedback

Promoting cooperation Establishing relevance

Tangible reward

In terms of similarities, both groups agreed that instruction-based

approaches such as scaffolding were frequently adopted in the class The same pattern was identified in promoting instrumental values, team competition,

individual competition, pair work and process feedback

However, the most noticeable difference was found in mixed responses

about the utility of tangible rewards as an incentive in EFL classrooms Both

junior and some senior teachers answered in the interview that: “I often makeuse of tangible rewards such as snacks or learning aids to incentivize students inthe classrooms and this works quite well on them.”

Meanwhile, only a minority of surveyed students approved of the frequentuse of tangible rewards among their EFL teachers with a low mean of 1.75

Other controversial items were arousing attention, promoting cooperation and

group work whose utility was said to be popular among young teachers By

contrast, these motivational methods were said to be unfamiliar among studentswith rather low mean of 1.50, 1.63 and 1.96 respectively On the other hand,from students’ view, there existed three common strategies that did not appear in

teachers’ practices including: signposting, establishing relevance and class

applause

2.3 Solutions to the problems

In this part, the answers to research question 2 and 3 will be presented

2.3.1 How do teachers apply motivational strategies in their teaching

practices?

According to six observation sessions and field notes, there were a number

of motivational teaching strategies that observed EFL teachers adopted in theirclassroom

It was obvious that signposting was the most popular method to be utilized

in almost every class with five out of six teachers applying it Generally, theteachers broke the ice by some warm-up games or casual communicationactivities before proceeding to the signposting method – listing out the lessonobjectives either on the boards or slides Exceptionally, T5 was the onlyinstructor who briefly introduced the focus of the listening lesson andimmediately assigned the students with textbook exercises

In terms of establishing relevance and class applause, a half of the

observed teachers adopted these strategies to incentivize their students in EFL

classrooms As regards establishing relevance, in order to incorporate this tactic

in the lesson, all three teachers of class 10X2, 11X3 and 11X4 left it to the lastminutes of the lesson as a wrap-up message What was interesting to note is thatthey all made reference to the matters on either a local or global scale Forexample, while T2 of class 10X2 related to Ben En – a local national park inThanh Hoa with some relevant facts in lesson Unit 10: Ecotourism, both T3 ofclass 11X3 and T4 of class 11X4 took the issue of energy sources by discussingthe danger of nuclear power or energy crisis as a global issue With respect to

class applause, this motivational approach was usually adopted in accordance

with individual-based or team-based tasks To be specific, while T2 of class10X2 and T5 of class 10X5 asked the class to clap their hands when a studentcould give the correct answers, either in oral or written forms, T6 of class 10X6held a team competition and gave class applause to the winning team

Apart from those motivational methods, other strategies namely tangible

rewards, process feedback, intellectual challenge, pair work, scaffolding and individual competition were utilized by two out of six teachers in the

observation phase Social chat, team competition, group work and referential

questions also appreared but only in one class.

In comparison with responses from interviews, there were three strategiesthat were stated by the teachers in the interviews but not witnessed in classroom

observation namely arousing attention, promoting cooperation and promoting

instrumental values However, a group of other strategies, though not being

previously mentioned by the teachers, was utilized at least in one class such as

social chat and referential question The strategy signposting, in constrast with

interview results, was even made use of by five teachers; class applause and

establishing relevance were also unexpectedly found in half of the observed

classroom It was interesting to note that three strategies signposting, class

applause and establishing relevance belong to the group of common strategies

perceived by students

2.3.2 How do the teachers’ motivational teaching strategies affect students’

classroom motivation in terms of the level of their attention, participation and volunteering?

In order to investigate the answer for this question, the MOLT classroomobservation scheme was employed with regards to students’ attention,participation and volunteering under the impact of different motivationalstrategies These three items could be regarded as very low, low or highdepending on the number of students observed in each category With 35students as the average class size observed by the researcher, if below one third

of the class (12 students) were involved in that activity, the impact would berated as ‘very low’ If the fraction ranged between 1/3 and 2/3, the rating would

be considered as ‘low’, which means more than two thirds of the students (over

24 students) participating in the activity would render it ‘high’

From the analysis of research question 2, there was a list of 13 motivational

strategies utilized by EFL teachers in classroom: signposting, establishing

relevance, class applause, tangible reward, process feedback, intellectual challenge, pair work, scaffolding, individual competition, social chat, team competition, referential questions and group work In this analysis section, the

researcher will elaborate on the impacts of these strategies exerting on threeaspects of students in the class, namely attention, participation and volunteering

The impact of motivational teaching practice on students’ level of attention

in classroom.

Figure 4: Motivational strategies’ impact on students’ level of attention

Out of 13 motivational strategies, establishing relevance and social chat were

the two most engaging methods to students with 90% of them observed These

was followed by referential questions, in which approximately 75% of students

were involved in Between 27 and 30 students were noticed to pay close

attention to intellectual challenges, scaffolding, class applause and process

feedback For example, as the teacher carried out a live checking section of

students’ writing samples in one writing lesson of class 10X6, a good number ofstudents (30 out of 45) were highly engaged in the activity and took notes oftheir peers’ mistakes for later self correction Besides, a prime example of the

appeal of social chat to students was evident in class 11X4 when teacher T4

captured the whole class’s attention by sharing her daughter’s passion for herfavorite Korean boy band BTS Only one or two exceptions were noticed to pay

no attention to the teacher’s chat in an attempt to break the ice

The only exception was signposting Although this strategy was utilized in

five out of six observed classes, very few students were attentive when theteacher was stating or writing the lesson objectives on the board They usuallylooked at the textbook or wrote something in their notebooks Therefore, the