FACTORS AFFECTING CHILDREN’S MOTIVATDS TO ION TO LEARN ENGLISH AND METHOTEACH PRIMARY STUDENTS EFFECTIVELY

In the era of modernization nowadays, English has become a significantly important role in peoples lives and both in work and study. English is the most commonly accepted language when people from different countries gather together for conferences, debates as well as social gatherings or in business activities, and even in travel. It gradually became a common language needed by people to communicate all over the world. According to Akbari (2016), conversation without a common language between academicians from different nationalities, both in the virtual and real world would prove impossible. Especially in international integration, we have many opportunities for international cooperation with other countries, knowing another foreign language will be the key to giving you the opportunity to develop yourself at work, improve your selfworth and social lifestyle levels will also be enhanced. The trend of starting to learn English early has become a worldwide phenomenon. According to the assessment of the university in Winnipeg, there are 142 countries in the world where English is a compulsory element in their educational policy, not only in Vietnam. Currently, English is a mandatory subject for students from elementary to university in Viet Nam. Children must gradually get used to learning English as soon as they enter grade

THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

**************

GRADUATE PAPER TITLE: FACTORS AFFECTING CHILDREN’S MOTIVATION TO

LEARN ENGLISH AND METHODS TO TEACH

PRIMARY STUDENTS EFFECTIVELY

Student name: Pham Thi Hoang Dung Student code: 1922202010548

Class: D19AV05 Course: 2019-2023 Major: English Language Lecturer: Nguyen Thi Kieu Huong

Binh Duong, November 30 th , 2022

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

Student full name: Pham Thi Hoang Dung

Student ID: 1922202010548

Title of paper: Factors affecting children’s motivation to learn English and

methods to teach primary students effectively

I hereby confirm that I am the sole author of the paper presented Where thework of others has been consulted, this is duly acknowledged in the paper’sbibliography I have also not consulted any other unnamed online sources Allverbatim or referential use of the sources named in the bibliography has beenspecifically indicated in the text

Binh Duong, December 3 rd , 2022

Signature

Pham Thi Hoang Dung

Thanks to the support of everyone from whom I received manynecessary encouragements, valuable and well-timed assistances in order tocomplete my graduation paper I would like to express my appreciation to all

of them

First of all, I would like to express special thanks to all the Englishlecturers at Thu Dau Mot University for teaching and guiding us withprecious skills and knowledge in the English curriculum so that we can applyand complete this report successfully and also apply important experiences toready for my future job after graduation

With deepest gratitude, I would like to appreciate my thesis advisor,

Ms Nguyen Thi Kieu Huong who has always been willing to give me manyvaluable suggestions, encouragement, and guidance to complete this studysuccessfully during the completion of my graduate thesis Without herenthusiastic guidance, I am sure that I would not have been able to completethis research paper with my limited knowledge

I would also like to thank Thu Dau Mot University for giving me manyopportunities and a good learning environment so that I can pursue mydreams, experience the knowledge of the major I have learned, and improvemyself better

Primary students at Phu Hoa 1 Primary School participateenthusiastically in the survey questionnaire

Last but not least, I am really grateful to express profound thanks to myfamily and friends Those who always encourage me, give me positive adviceand motivate me to overcome all difficulties to complete my studies well.One more time, I sincerely thank everyone who has helped me duringthe process of my graduate paper!

Today, it is widely acknowledged that English has become the most important role in daily life and at all levels of education in the world as well as in Vietnam Many countries integrate English into their curriculum and children begin to contact and learn English at an early age Thus, when primary students learn English too early, they face a lot of complicated factors when they haven't known much about their mother tongue instead of learning another language so which leads to losing motivation in learning English First, this study is to find out the cause of the gradual loss of motivation in learning English Second, this study also wants to find out possible solutions

to help children learn English more effectively So I applied qualitative and quantitative methods to collect data using a questionnaire by distributing it

to 50 students randomly studying at Phu Hoa 1 Primary School Based on the research results, there are three main factors affecting children gradually losing motivation when learning English: classroom environment, teacher's behavior, and teaching methodologies So it will be a basis to find appropriate methods to teach English to primary students This study is important because it helps to find out the factors that reduce motivation in learning, thereby helping schools, teachers, and also young learners find solutions to increase learning motivation and learn English more effectively.

Keywords: motivation, factors, methods

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF FIGURES viii

LIST OF CHARTS ix

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1

1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY 1

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 2

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 2

1.5 THESIS OUTLINE 2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 DEFINITION OF MOTIVATION 4

2.1.1 Definition of motivation in learning a language 5

2.2 TYPES OF MOTIVATION IN LEARNING 6

2.3 THE ROLE OF MOTIVATION IN LEARNING A LANGUAGE 7

2.4 PREVIOUS STUDIES 8

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 8

3.1 RESEARCH METHODS 10

3.1.1 Research design: 10

3.2 POPULATION AND SAMPLING 10

3.2.1 Population description: 10

3.2.2 Sample description: 10

3.3 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS 11

3.4 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES 11

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURES 12

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS 13

4.1 THE AWARENESS OF PRIMARY STUDENTS IN LEARNING ENGLISH 13

4.2 FACTORS AFFECT CHILDREN’S MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH 16

4.2.1 Classroom environmental factors can affect children's motivation to learn English 17

4.2.3 Teaching methodologies affect children's motivation to learn English 20

CHAPTER 5: RESULT AND DISCUSSION 25

5.1 PRIMARY STUDENT’S PERCEPTION OF LEARNING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE 25

5.2 THE FACTORS THAT CAUSE PRIMARY STUDENTS TO LOSE MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH 26

5.3 THE APPROPRIATE SOLUTIONS THAT MAY HELP ELEMENTARY STUDENTS INCREASE THEIR MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH 27

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 29

6.1 SUMMARY OF THE KEY FINDINGS 29

6.2 LIMITATIONS 29

6.3 CONCLUSION 29

6.4 RECOMMENDATIONS 30

REFERENCE 32

APPENDICE 34

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Age of the survey participants………11

Table 2 Learning English is difficult for primary students 13 Table 3 Primary student’s attitude towards the learning of English as a second foreign language 14 Table 4 Classroom environmental factors affect primary student's

motivation to learn English 17 Table 5 Teacher’s behavior factors affect primary student's motivation to learn English 19 Table 6 Teaching methods affect primary student's motivation to learn English 21

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Data ana lysis formula 12 Figure 2 Factors affect children’s motivation in learning English 17

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1 Overview of the different sources of intrinsic motivation 7

Chart 2 Primary student’s reason for learning English 16 Chart 3 Students' opinions about participating in English extracurricular activities 22 Chart 4 Students' opinions about the time to learn English should take 23 Chart 5 Student's opinion about the effective teaching methods 24

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In the era of modernization nowadays, English has become a significantlyimportant role in people's lives and both in work and study English is themost commonly accepted language when people from different countriesgather together for conferences, debates as well as social gatherings or inbusiness activities, and even in travel It gradually became a commonlanguage needed by people to communicate all over the world According toAkbari (2016), conversation without a common language betweenacademicians from different nationalities, both in the virtual and real worldwould prove impossible Especially in international integration, we havemany opportunities for international cooperation with other countries,knowing another foreign language will be the key to giving you theopportunity to develop yourself at work, improve your self-worth and sociallifestyle levels will also be enhanced The trend of starting to learn Englishearly has become a worldwide phenomenon According to the assessment ofthe university in Winnipeg, there are 142 countries in the world whereEnglish is a compulsory element in their educational policy, not only inVietnam Currently, English is a mandatory subject for students fromelementary to university in Viet Nam Children must gradually get used tolearning English as soon as they enter grade 1 Thus, it is too early to contactand learn English when children lack of awareness and understanding well intheir mother tongue instead in learning another language Most of us believethat children can learn a second language better than adults, but in reality,there is no clear evidence for this belief (Suryantari, 2018) Primary studentshave to face a lot of difficulties in their studies and also lose motivation inlearning English They feel pressured and have their knowledge burrowedinstead the psychological fear that overcomes their souls when they have tolearn English

1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY

This report is an attempt to find out the factors affecting children's motivation

to learn English which elementary students faced to and appropriate methods

to teach effectively

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study makes sense in that it finds out the factors that cause difficultiesfor primary students in learning English Understanding the aspirations ofprimary students at Phu Hoa 1 Primary School and also elementary students

in all schools in general about the factors that need to be changed for them tolearn English better Furthermore, this research paper also recommendsappropriate methods to teach English to primary students effectively

1.5 THESIS OUTLINE

The study includes six main chapters: chapter 1 (Introduction), chapter 2(Literature Review), chapter 3 (Methodology), chapter 4 (Data analysis),chapter 5 (Result and Discussion), and chapter 6 (Conclusion)

Chapter 1 (Introduction) introduces the background of the study, aims of the

study, research questions, significance of the study, and outlines the structure

of the study

Chapter 2 (Literature Review) provides the literature relevant to the present

study This theoretical review includes sections on the definition of terms(motivation, motivation in learning a language, types of motivation inlearning, role of motivation in learning a language) and previous studies

Chapter 3 (Methodology) discusses the research methods, population and

sampling, research instruments, data collection procedures and data analysisprocedures

Chapter 4 (Data Analysis) reports the results of the questionnaire

Chapter 5 (Discussion) interprets the results then discusses them in relation

to the research questions

Chapter 6 (Conclusion) summarizes the main findings of this study,

discusses limitations of the present study, and provides recommendations forschool, teachers, and also for students

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This second chapter introduces readers to the research's theoreticalunderpinnings by explaining some of the basic ideas needed to understand theresearch, as well as a review of previous research on the topic Definition ofmotivation, type of motivation, the importance of motivation, and factors oflacking motivation in learning are important themes chosen to be addressed inthis section

2.1 DEFINITION OF MOTIVATION

There are many definitions of motivation, but the simplest definition ofmotivation is the desire for something that motivates a person to work toward

a particular result or goal ( Baumeister, 2016)

But in fact, the term "motivation" was initially derived from the Latin wordmovere, which means "to move or to urge"

According to Wikipedia, the term "motivation" is the reason for thebeginning, continuation, or end of an action at a certain point in time.Motivational states are often understood as the internal forces of a person oranimal that induce their tendency to act

Luthans (1998) gives a comprehensive definition of motivation, motivation isthe process of arousing, energizing, directing, motivating, and maintainingbehavior and performance in a particular action It is the process ofencouraging people to act to achieve desired results, and goals

As defined by Daft (1997), motivation stimulates fervor and determination topursue a certain course of action

Reeve (2015) asserts that motivation is an internal process within us Nomatter how we define it, as a motivation, need, or wish, motivation is aninternal condition we desire for a change, either about ourselves or ourenvironment When we tap into this energy, motivation gives the person thedrive and direction needed to be able to interact with the environment in anappropriate and adaptive way

Robbins (1998) also states that motivation is one's willingness to exert thehighest degree of effort towards organizational goals, provided that sucheffort is capable of meeting some of the needs of its own needs

Kuye (2001) further confirms what Robbins stated earlier that motivationoriginates when an individual is willing to put in more effort to achieve the

goals and desires set by the organization, provided that the effort is capable ofmeeting an individual's needs.

In addition, Kleinginna (1981) argues that motivation is an internal state orfactor that stimulates or energizes a behavior and directs that behavior to

"work harder and harder with high level of commitment and focus” or thedesire to achieve a goal, reward or otherwise For example, motivation is whathelps you lose weight to be slim, get good grades in exams, push you toadvance at work, or earn a lot of money to buy a house in a big city.Definitions of motivation abound In fact, the definitions that the expertsmentioned above all have in common is that they include words like "want",

"goal", "desire", "desire", "pursue" and " need" In short, motivation makesyou act in a way that brings you closer to your goal

2.1.1 Definition of primary student’s motivation in learning English

Motivation plays a vital role in the primary student process of learning alanguage

According to Gardner (1985), Motivation is understood as a combination ofthe “desire” to learn a language, a positive attitude towards it, and putting

“effort” into learning

Pintrich (2003) argues that motivation is a condition to activate and maintain

a person's behavior toward a set goal Motivation is an essential factor inlearning and assessing a student's achievement and ability to learn throughoutlife from elementary school to university in both informal and formal learningsettings For instance, children who are motivated to learn, and are motivatedand determined to learn, tend to engage and persist longer, have betteracademic results, and perform better than children on standardized schoolachievement tests Therefore, Gardner (1985) asserts that motivation is afactor that can influence language learning in people of all ages, especiallyprimary students which is demonstrated by young learners' willingness to putmore effort into achieving goals in learning language and a positive attitudetoward learning

As a result of detailed research by Stephen McDonough (2007), Motivation isthe factor that motivates us to take action, in this context is to learn English.There are four factors included to explain motivation in learning English:

§ The reason why we want to learn it

§ The power of wanting to learn

§ What kind of people are we

§ The mission, our assessment of what it requires we need to act

The core of learning motivation is the passion for learning, which is related toone's intrinsic goals and objectives, the desire to achieve goals, and highacademic achievement

2.2 TYPES OF MOTIVATION IN LEARNING

In general, there are various types of motivation have been analyzed andpresented in the literature Many theories suggest that there are two maintypes of motivation that influence primary students in learning: intrinsic andextrinsic

Williams and Burden (1977) state that intrinsic motivation is the desire to dosomething because it is worthwhile

Based on hypothesis of Huitt, W (2011), Intrinsic motivation is internal andoccurs in each individual, desire to do or achieve something because theyreally want, enjoy or see the value and feel achieved success while doing it.Extrinsic motivation happens from a variety of factors external to theindividual and often involves extrinsic recompense such as titles, passingMath exams, well-paid jobs, social recognition, or compliment For instance,

a student who really tries hard wants to be able to master the knowledge andexplain mathematical operations to be able to study better in math by workinghard on daily homework, diligently reading books, marking mistakes, andredoing are examples of intrinsic motivation As for working hard onhomework, and memorizing formulas to receive a reward or a new toy, that is

an external motivation

Thus, each motivation plays an important role in learning, although theirpurposes and results are different, both are factors to motivate learners to trytheir best to achieve the set goals

In addition, it is further recognized that the intrinsic factor of motivation can

be further classified into either body/physical, mind/mental(cognitive/thinking, affective/emotional, conative/volitional), ortranspersonal/spiritual ( Huitt, W, 2011)

Let’s take a look at the diagram below to see a brief overview of the differentsources of intrinsic motivation that have been studied previously.

Chart 1 Overview of the different sources of intrinsic motivation

2.3 THE ROLE OF MOTIVATION IN LEARNING A LANGUAGE

Many previous studies have shown that motivation is considered a significantrole in the success or failure of a language learner

In education, motivation is a key to help learners focus on their own goals andstrive to achieve them Motivated learners will try their best to achieve theirgoals, when faced with difficulties, they will find the causes and solutions toovercome them, and learn from their own mistakes to be able to get better.They strive to acquire knowledge of their own volition, not forced by anyreason Therefore, students who are motivated to learn and have goals tostrive for, often achieve better academic results than other learners(Spolsky,1990)

Cognition

Motivation to learn

Besides, motivation in learning helps learners become positive, full of energy,and feel enthusiastic in each lesson Learners will be more likely to take theinitiative in learning and persevere through difficulties Students who are lessmotivated in some situations will lose focus, misbehave and causedisciplinary problems that affect other learners In addition, motivation is also

an important factor in helping learners to focus more on listening to lectureswhen at school, then they will understand and absorb knowledge more easily,and at the same time enhance their cognitive abilities

In general, lack of motivation in learning occurs for many reasons

Jafari (2003) argues that a teacher explains the subject in a boring way, lacksunderstanding of a student's psychological state, and learning ability, forcingstudents to learn Thus, these factors make the learning

process more difficult

Trong Tuan (2012) expressed that environmental factors also affect learners'motivation in learning If a classroom is overcrowded, there isn't enoughlighting or instructional equipment which leads to

lose motivation of students as well as affect the quality of teaching andlearning English

Trong Tuan (2012) also stated that teachers and teaching methods also affectthe motivation of primary students Young learners are often influenced bytheir teachers, learning environment, teaching methods, and peers in theclassroom The teacher's interest in the learning process for each student has acertain influence on the children's motivation and orients them towardeffective learning Creating games, and innovating teaching methods toimprove learning motivation as well as concentration and interest in learning.MacIntyre (1999) believes that a good classroom environment is necessary tomotivate learners to feel comfortable learning a language in these idealconditions

Good and Brophy (1994) also argue that learner motivation cannot bedeveloped in a class that is too strict, teachers should create an effectivelearning environment for students, a comfortable and friendly learningenvironment.

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 RESEARCH METHODS

3.1.1 Research design:

Research is understood as the act of collecting and analyzing data to gain abetter understanding of a particular topic or situation ( Creswell, 2012) Theresearcher applied the qualitative method, quantitative method, and collecteddata using a questionnaire in this study which aims to find out factors thataffect children's motivation in learning English at Phu Hoa 1 Primary Schooland students’ aspirations during their learning English This school is selected

in order to have a better understanding of primary students' perception oflearning English in two different learning English environments Thus, therole of the researcher in this study is an observer, explorer, and distributor ofquestionnaires to find out the factors affecting children's motivation to learnEnglish and suggest effective teaching methods to help elementary studentsincrease their motivation in learning English

3.2 POPULATION AND SAMPLING

3.2.1 Population description:

The population of this study comprises 50 students at Phu Hoa 1 PrimarySchool The main reason that the researcher chose the group of studyparticipants is because the researcher has studied in these learningenvironments and interacted with the respondents before and they areexpected to provide valuable data for the study Furthermore, no one hasconducted research related to the issues of English language motivation ofprimary students in this school

3.2.2 Sample description:

The samples of the study are random elementary students from grades 2 to 5

at Phu Hoa 1 Primary School who are just studying English at school for thequestionnaire in the study Phu Hoa 1 Primary School has 39 classes with

1450 students including 7 grade 1, 7 grade 2, 8 grade 3, 8 grade 4, 9 grade 5

In all, 50 elementary students agreed to participate in the survey The subjects

we surveyed are primary students from grades 2 to 5 Specifically, 13 students

in grade 2, 19 students in grade 3, 6 in grade 4, and 12 students in grade 5

Table 1 Age of the survey participants

3.3 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS

§ Questionnaire:

A questionnaire is a way to collect data from respondents According toBabbie (2010), a questionnaire is a document that provides a series ofquestions and different types of items to collect information suitable forresearch analysis Brown (2001) also states that a questionnaire is a type ofconvenient written interview that provides respondents with a set of questions

or comments that they are expected to answer by writing responses orchoosing one of the suggested answers Besides, the questionnaire is anappropriate tool to collect data from a large number of respondents, whichmeans elementary school students in this case Moreover, the researcherexpects to interview English teachers as an additional data collection tool.The questionnaire with a total of 28 questions was divided into three parts bythe researcher The first part of the questionnaire consisted of 4 personalinformation questions and 4 multiple-choice questions which are used to getinformation about the reason why learning English The second part of thequestionnaire included 8 questions about the awares of learning English Andthe third part included 16 questions about factors that affect children'smotivation in learning English There are five scales of measurement:strongly agree, agree, no opinion, disagree, and strongly disagree

3.4 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES

This research is only open to primary students at Phu Hoa 1 Primary School.This questionnaire was conducted from 15 to 29 October 2022 All data were

collected through questionnaires at this school and student feedback wasrecorded and analyzed through statistics table

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURES

The data gathered from elementary students from grades 2 to 5 and interviewEnglish teachers were analyzed by using quantitative and qualitative methods.All questions were conducted in Vietnamese and then translated into English.And the analysis of the collected data was performed as frequency andpercentage displayed as a formula in figure 1

Figure 1 Data ana lysis formula

In which :

P: percentage of respondents in the statement

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS 4.1 THE AWARENESS OF PRIMARY STUDENTS IN LEARNING ENGLISH

At the beginning of this study, primary students at Phu Hoa 1 Primary School

1 were asked some background questions in order to better understand theirperceptions about the awareness of learning English The results indicatedthat learning English is very difficult for primary students when they still donot understand their mother tongue, instead of learning another language

Table 2 Learning English is difficult for primary students

Table 1 shows the number and percentages of students who think learningEnglish is very difficult for elementary students As revealed in the tableabove, most of the students (54%) strongly agreed with the statement.Meanwhile, students who agreed made up 30% Besides that, there are twoopinions: no opinion takes 4% and disagree with 12%

Table 3 Primary student’s attitude towards the learning of English as a

second foreign language

No Statement Scales Student’s

response

Percentage (%) Frequency

2.1 I would like to

continue learning

English

Strongly agree

No opinion

Strongly disagree

No opinion

Strongly disagree

No opinion

Strongly disagree

As indicated in above Table 2, for item 2.1, elementary students were asked

to show thoughts on whether they want to continue learning English andabout 48% of the respondents reported that they disagree, 10% stronglydisagree, 18% strongly agree and 24% agree That means most studentsabout 58% have a negative attitude toward learning English

For item 2.2, students were asked whether they feel pressure to learn Englishand 30% of the respondents replied that they strongly agree, 52% agree, 6%have no opinion, 10% disagree, and about 2% of them strongly disagree According to the statistics in item 2.3, primary students when asked if theywant to learn English at school and 62% of students answered that theystrongly disagree, 28% disagree, 2% had no opinion, 6% agree, and 2%strongly agree

Thus, it sounds reasonable to say that primary students have no desire tocontinue learning English as a second foreign language

Chart 2 Primary student’s reason for learning English

In chart 2, the researcher explains student's reasons for learning English andalso find out student’s motivation in learning There were 3 options for thispart Most of the learners (52%) think that learning English because it is acompulsory subject Some learners (30%) think that learning English isinteresting Others (18%) are taking it as a hobby

4.2 FACTORS AFFECTING CHILDREN’S MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH

Although elementary school students are probably well aware of theimportance of learning English nowadays Learning English well brings manybenefits in study, work or degree However, to be able to motivate yourself tolearn English well is extremely difficult even for adults Learning English forprimary students is a big challenge that requires schools and teachers tounderstand and find solutions to increase their motivation to learn English,making them feel excited and eager to learn more not because it is acompulsory subject.

According to the student's information from the questionnaire, interview andobservations, It is found that the primary students generally had problems inlearning English as a second language Having classified, there are three mainfactors that influence their motivation in learning English These includeclassroom environmental factors, teacher's behavior, and teachingmethodologies The summary of students’ motivation problems is presented

in the following figure:

Figure 2 Factors affect children’s motivation in learning English

4.2.1 Classroom environmental factors can affect children's motivation

to learn English

Table 4 Classroom environmental factors affect primary student's

motivation to learn English

response

Percentage (%)