Luận văn a study on non majors' motivational factors in learning english listening at hai phong private university

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYEN THI THU HUONG A STUDY ON NON-MAJORS’ MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS IN LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING AT HAI PHONG PRIVATE UNIVERSITY NGHIÊN CỨU VÉ NHỮNG YE

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES:

NGUYEN THI THU HUONG

A STUDY ON NON-MAJORS’ MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS

IN LEARNING ENGLISII LISTENING AT HAI PHONG

PRIVATE UNIVERSITY

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHŨNG YÊU 1Ô ANH HUONG DEN HUNG THU HOC NGHE TENG

ANH CUA SINH VIEW KHONG CHUVEN TAI TRUONG PAT HOC DAN LAP HAT PHONG)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: Knglish Methodology Code: 601410

Hanoi — 2010

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI THU HUONG

A STUDY ON NON-MAJORS’ MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS

IN LEARNING ENGLISH LISTENING AT HAI PHONG

PRIVATE UNIVERSITY

(NGHIÊN CỨU VÉ NHỮNG YEU TO ANH HUONG DEN HUNG THE HOC NGHE TLENG ANE:

CA SINH KIÊN KHÔNG CHUYEN TẠI TRƯỜNG DAL HOC DAN LAP HAl PHONG)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Methodology Code: 601410

Supervisor: Vin ThE Thanh Binh, M.A

Hanoi - 2010

4 Method of the study

5 Scope of the study

6 Significance of the study

7 Design of the stutty

PART IT: DEVELOPMENT

CILAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.2.3, Common approaches to listening tcahing se seeeeeeoeeaee LE

CHAPTER 2; RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.2.2 TOLIC — test — based program and listening materials 14

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANAIYSIS co eee 16

CHAPTER 4: EINDINGS, DISCUSSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 36

4.11 What faetors have posifive sfeets on siudenis” motivation in leaming listening

WlnL faotors hayc negatve clftets on sludenls` raotivation in lcanrirg listcring? 36

4.1.2 Do the Eictors have the same or different effects on the students ttom the ưrban

4,2, Recommendations for motivating students in learning listening 37

4.2.1 Improving students’ beliets in their auditory abilities and interests in learning,

4.2.2 Combining a varicly of listening materials, visual aids ond games 38 4.2.3 Combining various stratogies in teaching listening 38 4.2.4 Being nice and polite, enthusiastic, close, hmmorous and flexible 39 2.5 Hoping sInđents to iinprove theïr cultural knowledge 39 4.2.6 Providing a variety of homework and practice lost 39

1 List of tables

Table 6: Students" belisf EuetOE, cuc su nereegeeererireraearoroeeo TX

2 List of charts

Chart 4: Students’ extroversion «ccc siesistieaiseiieieiaeianenstastmsnenee: 1B

Chart 7: Students’ perceived the tmportance of listerung se «eo: 2Ù

Chun! 9: Students’ interest in listening ccustintvtstistisineietiveestn snes Bh Chart 10: Studemts’ language learring fbr comrnunicative needs cóc 22

Chart 12: Students’ language leaming for short term practical goals

Students’ ambiguily toleranoe

Students’ beliefs in their new learning styles Students’ beliefs in the ways lo learn listening

Students' affitudcs towards tcachers” prc — listcning s†agc

Students’ attitudes towards teachers" while — listsning sage

Students’ altitudes towards teache

? post —fislening slage

Students’ attitudes towards teachers’ feedback

Students’ attitudes towards test requirements

Students’ altitudes towards test content

1 Rationales

In the process of global integration, English is widely spoken all over the world and has

Decome an international language used for all aspects of life: business, education, politics, etc

Therefore, mastery of English is, nowadays, one of the desires of most generations Having

assessed the importance of English in the market ceonomy and responding to learners’ needs,

in 2005, the Ministry of Education and ‘Training signed an agreement with Educational

Testing Institute — based in the Uniled Stales regarding the use of TORIC (Test of English for Titernalional Communication) to assess students’ English language proficieney Thus,

universities and colleges in Vietnam can apply the TOEIC program to teach and evaluate

students’ learning oucomes instead of the old program and tests for A, B, C certificates

The TOEIC - test — based program has been used at Hai Phong Private University (HPU)

in Hai Phong, Vietnam since 2008, However, this program itself has raised some controversial

issues With bwo - year experience in teaching Dnglish for non - reajors and from what the

researcher observed in TOEIC classes, it can be found that many lecturers failed in listening

periods especially conceming ‘TOLIC materials They complained about students’ indifference

“A study on

to their lectures despitz they had well — prepared tesson plans From thal reason

non-majors’ motivational factors in leaming English listening al Hai Phong Private

University” was chosen for the thesis With this study, the researcher hopes to find out inolivalionat factors affecting students’ learning listening al TIPU This will be the basis for

the researcher in particular and the HPU teachers of English in general in arousing motivation

for students in listening, helping them to get involved in different listening activities, keep their efforts during learning process and then achieve suceesses

2 Aims of the study

The research aims at investigating motivational factors affecting non — majors in Jearning English listening al TTPU There are two tain purposes as follows:

1, To assess motivational factors that affect non majors at TOEIC level 2 in learning

listening

2 To suggest mucthods for Icachers lo stimulale sludenis in learning listening and help

these learners overcome demotives.

‘The study focuses on answering these following questions

+ What factors have positive effects on students’ motivation in learning Hislening? What factors have negative affects on students’ motivation in learning listening?

- Do the faotors have the same or different effets on the students ftom the urban or rural areas?

- What methods should be uscd to improve students’ motivation in listening aetivitics?

4 Method of the study

‘The stralegies for completion of the thesis inchide:

- Quantitive method (questionnaire) was used with participants of non English majors

at Hai Phong Private University

~ The source of dala for the sturty wes sludent respemdenls: 186 sludonts at TORIC tevel 2

~ Close survey questionnaire was used to collect information and evidence for the study,

- All recommendations and conchisions included in this study were based on the data analysis,

5, Scopes of the study

Firstly, because of the large number of HPU non — English major students at HPU, the

rescarcher earmot do an all — inclusive study so she chose non — majors learning TOPIC level

2 as participants

Secondly, there are some factors incnding learners - related factors, teachers - related factors, teaching and learning cnvironmental fhetors afiteting students’ motivation In the study, the researcher will only focus on two components;

Leamers - related factors consist of aptitudes, personalily, motivalion and altitudes,

preference, and belioks,

Teachers - related thetors consist of behaviors, competence, methods, grading and

assessment

6 Significance of the study

Motivational factors assessed in this study will help teachers have better techniques and leaching aclivities Therefore, norr-majors can overcome devolives lo achieve great successes

in second language acquisition,

‘The study is also used as reference for teachers of English at HPU to compile more suitable

suitable books for the TOEIC — test — based program

7 Design of the study

Part Il is the Development consisting of three chapters:

Chapter I — Literature Review - presents the theoretical background related to motivation, listening and motivation in leaning second language lislerring

Chapter 2 Research methodology - gives the situation analysis, subjects, data collection instruments, data collection procedures

Chapter 3 — Data Analysis — shows the detailed resulls of the survey and a comprehensive analysis on the data collected

Chapter 4 - Findings, discussions and recommendations — refers to major findings, discussions and offers some recommendations for crihaneing students’ motivation in listening skills

Part IL is the Conelusion presenting the review of the study, suggestions for further

research and limilalions of the study.

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Theoretical background of motivation

LLL Definition of motivation

For many years, a lot of different proposed definitions of motivation have been provided According to Joromy Harmer (2003-51), “motivation is some kind of intemal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something” While, Wlodkowski and Jaynes (1990 6) explain Uni in the broadest sense, motivation is "a valug and a dosira for earning"

Motivation involves a student's desire 10 participatc in the learning process It is also concerned with the reasons or goals which underlie a student's participation in learning activities (Lumsden, 1994) From the same point, Sandra Lee McKay and 1 Iomberger (1996:5) point out that motivation refers to the combination of desire and effort made towards goal, it relates to individual’s rationale for any activity (Gardner, 1985) Motivation is also

defined hy Marion Williams and Richard Burden as “a

late af cognitive arousal” which provokes a decision to act The strength of motivation depends on how much value the individual places on the outcome he or she wishes to achieve

TL can be scon that itiffersnt linguists approach motivation in different ways, However, they share the same point of view that motivation combines four factors including, =ffort, desire, drive and attitudes which always interrelate in any learning activity Thus, motivation

rificant offeets on studonis daring the kearring process in order to achiave their goals

1.12, Classification of motivation in second language learning

LLL Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

Motivation can be from insidz or oulside a person, which forms two kinds of motivation intrinsic and extrinsic, Intrinsie motivation, in Harmer’s opinion, “comes from within the individual and a person might be motivated by the enjoyment of learning process itself or by the desire to make them feel better”, Resides, Edward Dect (1975-23) defines intrinsic motivation: “intrinsically motivated activities are ones for which there is no apparent reward except the activity itself People seem to engage in the activities for their own sake”

Contrarily, extrinsic motivation is caused by number of outside factors (Harmer, 2003)

It includes circumstances, situations, rewards or punishment “Extrinsic motivation is one in

which the student engages in an activity in order to obtain a reward, or to avoid a punishment

‘This student is not reaily interested in the activity for its own sake, but rather for what it will

gain them” (Woolfolk, 2001) Deuglas Brown (2007) explaines “extrinsic motivation is fusled

by the anticipation of a reward fiom outside and beyond the self”

In comparing two kinds of motivation above, the main difference found is the goals of

the students With infrinste motivation, the student sludics subject meterial far the sake of learning Extrinsically motivated students study for the sake of outside influenecs

1.1.2.2 integrative and instrumental motivation

Motivation falls into two other calegories: inlegralive and instrumental, Dornyei (2001) and Gardner and Lambert (1972) suggest that “integrative motivation refers to positive

attitudes and feelings toward the target language group” While, Lambert (1974-98) define

inlogrative motivation as “a sincere and personal inlorest in the people and culture represented

by the other language group.” He explains that some leamers might choose to leam a particular second language because they were interested in the people and culturs

Contrary to integrative motivation is the form of motivation rcfzrred to as instrumental motivation, Domyei (2001) and Gardner and Lambert (1972) detine it as “the potential utilitarian gains of second language proficiency such as getting a job or higher salary” Gardner (1985:168) stale: “an instrumental motivation is a powerlul tuolivater, it will intluence achievement” So, it is seen that learners will have instrumental motivation if they make efforts to learn a second language for some functional reasons

In short , there arc marked differenecs between integrative and instrumental motivation Obviously, not a simple type of motivation can fully account for failure or success in language learning Thus, its oflen better ta improve both types of motivation for higher achievernent

EL

Positive and negadive motivation

There are two kinds of emotional motivation: positive and negative In positive motivation, people are more likely to learn longer, leam under harder conditions just because they feel appreciated and happier Carl A Roper, Joscph J Grau, Lynn F Fischer (2006;79) wrote “a positive motivated person is led to expect a positive consequence for achieving the objective This is offen called a reward or an incentive.” Negative motivation is the flip side of that cain, where the person is made to “perceive that failing 40 achieve the objective will bring a negative

consequence — a punishment or disincentive’(A Roper J Grau, F Fischer, 2006:79)

Apart form six basie kinds of motivation mentioned, there are still other kinds of motivation: resulative motivation (eamers have fiom second language achievement and the resull of learning), global motivation (motivation consists of a general orientation to the gual

of leaming a second language), situational inotivation (motivation varies according to the situation in which learning takes place), and task motivation (motivation for performing particular learning tasks) (Brown, 1981)

1.13 Motivational factors in second language learning

Motivational factors in second language learning are classified differently by various people, Gardner & Smythe (1975) state thal the original model of motivation contains four main components; group - specific attitudes, tearnars' motives for leaming the tarpet language,

affective factors and extrinsic and intrinsic motivation From Richard B Baldauf Hr &

Trang,T TT (The Journal of Asia TEFL Vol 4, No.1, pp 90-91), motivational factors inelude

internal factors and external factors, From the researcher’s point of view, motivational thetors consist of leamers - related fictors, teachers - related factors, teaching and learning cnvironmental factors

1.13.1, Learners — related factors

the development of language associated with interpersonal communication From the same

point of view, Lightbown and Spada (1999) give a number of personality characteristics

exlroversion, inhibilion, self — esteem, empalhy, dominance, talkativeness, responsiveness

To sum up, personality characteristics are likely to affect second language learning

including extroversion, relaxation, self-esteem (self-confidence), anxiety and empathy

Motivation and attitudes

According te Gardner (1985), “the relationship between attitudes, motivation and second

language achievement is complex; they always interact and influence each others” In learning listening, they are expressed through the awareness of the importance of listening, learners”

needs (personal growth, cultural enrichment, practical geals, and intergrative reason) and

learners’ effort and interest in learning and practicing listening

Learners’ preference

It retéts to learning styles involving an individual’s natural habitual, preferred ways of

absorbing, processing and retaining new information and skills (Reid, 1995) There are two

types of caming styles related to sccond language Iearning

- Perceptual learning styles include leaming through the eyes (visual), through the ears

(aural) and through touch and body movement (haptic)

- Cognilive leaning styles

Field-independence and field-dependence: field independent learners tend to perceive

elements independently of a context or field and focus on details They are more analytical

Contrarily, ficld — dependent Icarners tend to perceive the whole ficld or situation and focus

on general meaning ‘hey are more relational

Reflectivity and impulsivity: reflective learners tered lo make a slawer, more calculated dceision while impulsive learners tend to make a quick guess at an answer to a problern

Right-brain and lefi-brain dominance: the right brain perceives and remembers visual, tactile,

and auditory images and the left brain is associated with logical, analytical thought, with

mathematical and lincar processing of information

Ambiguity tolerance: the person who is tolerant of ambiguity is willing to accept innovative and creative possibilities and not be disturbed by ambiguity and uncertainty,

Learners’ beliefs

Leamers have strang beliefs about how their language instruction should be delivered or

expectations of how classes should be organized and taught “These belicfs arc usually based

on previous learning experiences and the assumption (right or wrong) that a particular type of

instruction is the best way for them to learn.” (Lightbown, 1999-59 ), Hence; teachers should help learners expand their repertoire of learning strategies and thus develop greater flexibility

in their ways of approaching language learning

Age of acquisition

“Age of acquisition is an important factor in setting limits on the development of native

—like mastery of'a second language” (Lightbown & Spada, 1999) ‘The relationship between a learner’s age and bis“har potential for suc

in second language learning is obviously seen The relationship nzeds to take into account: the stage of second development, the goals of learning, and the context in which the leamer learns second

Niceness and politeness: the teacher encourages students to learn and never insults them Enthusiasm: the cacher is willingly to help students whenever they want

Flexibility; the teacher must have quickly response to problems arisen, solve them

Closeness: the teacher gets on well with students, Therefore, students can sometimes sharc their difficultics in real life with their teacher

Sense of humor: the teacher involves more than simply telling jokes Rather, it seems to deal

more with a teach:

's ability 1o pleasantly commnmicate with students

Teacher's competence

It refers to teacher’s proficiency, social and cultural background knowledge The

proficiency shows by the level of mastenng and using the second language the ability to

perform teachers’ mastcry suitably to the content of cach Icsson Social and cultural

background knowledge is known with the understanding of society and culture in both the seoond language community and the mother Longue communily and shown in Leaching

Teaching methods

‘Teaching methods refers to a set of techniques and activities used to get leamers involved

in learning to achicve a goal In listening, teaching methods of anz lesson can be different,

they depend on three stages: pre — listening, while — listening and post — listening However, when deciding what teaching method to use, a teacher needs to consider students! background knowledge, environment, and Jearning goals The teachers aware that students learn in different ways so they must use techniques which cater to multiple learning styles to help students tolain information and strengthen understanding

Grading and assessment

Grading refers to the zating assigned to an individual and it takes time for him of her to gel a higher grade Whereas, assessment is sormelhing a teacher does every day when gauging where students arz in the learning process It is a part of the ongoing educational process and enhances learning Grading and assessment in learning a second language concem to three terms including focdback, test r2quirenont and tes! content

EL

Teaching and learning environmental factors

Physical conditions

Physical conditions that refer te the classroom sizc, books, chairs, desks, tables, lights,

boards, projectors, and camera affect students’ motivation umel Harmer (1991) confirms that

“physical conditions had great impact on students’ learning as well as the subject matter”

A pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the classroom

Lightbown and Spada (1999) give that the supportive and non _ threatening atmosphere

made a contribution to learners’ motivation It encourages students to express their own

opinion and thinking Macintyre (1999) and Young (1999) point that students’ anxicty was

created by a tense classroom climate - one of the factors that undermine leaming effectiveness and second motivation (cited in Dornysi, 2001:121}

14 Characteristics of motivated learners

According to Naiman et al (1978) (cited in Harmer, 1999:42), there is a list of

characteristics of motivated learners:

Positive task oricntation: the learners tend to tackle tasks and challenges willingly and

have confidence in their success

Fgo — involvement: the learners see the imporlance in maintaining and promoting their

own positive self images to the others

Need for achievement: ‘he learners want to overcome difficulties and achieve success.

High — aspirations: This is the reason for the learners" grcat ambition, high demanding for challenges, proficiency,

Goal orientation: the learners are very aware of the goals of learning amd direct their efforts towards achieving goals

Perseverance: ‘T'he learners make effort in learning and they are not discouraged by any selbucks or apparcal lack of progress

Tolerance of ambiguity: The Icamers arc not distwbed by situation involving a temporary lack of understanding ‘They are still confident for the later understanding

Sharing the sane point, Crooks and Schmidt (1989) (ciled in Pltis, 1997:42) describe a motivated student as someone who “becomes productively engaged on learning tasks, and

sustains that engagement, without the need for continual encouragement or direction”

1.2 Theoretical background of stening

£21, Definition of listening

There are different points of view on the definition of listening According to Field (1298:38), listening is “an invisible mental process, making it difficult to describe, Listeners must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress and intention, retain and interpret this within the intermediate as well as the lager socio-cullurat context af the uileranes.” Mary Underwood (1989:1) giv

baal “Tistening

is the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning ftom something we hear so that

the listener mmst recognize and interpret the other factors which are used to convey the messages”, According to Susanne Flohr and Pia Pacsler (2010:3- 4), listening composes important many factors and there are three stages of listening: pre — listening, while — listening and post — listening, Pre — listening means thot the leacher makes the sludents aware of a siluition and aetivate their prior knowledge, White — listening means thal Ihe lcacher gives the students visual support or guiding questions beforehand Post listening is the stage where the students become active and work with what they had heard” All in all, is a complex, active process of interpretation in which listeners matches what they hear with what they alrcady know, Listening involves a sender, a message, and a receiver (the listener) and also consists of three stages: pre — listening, while — listening and posl — listzning

1.2.2, The process of listening

Listening process is viewed differently It can be divided into steps or is considered as an

interpretive process, Lisa J, (2008:1) looks at listening with a five - step proccss; attending, understanding, interpreting, responding and remembering, While, other linguists give five common sleps: hearing, allending, understanding, responding and remembering Tearing is a prerequisite to listening It occurs when sound waves strike the ear Attending is a psychological choise involving filtering out some messages and focusing on others Understanding refers to making sense ofa message by assigning meaning lo il, Respanding is providing feedback to the speaker Lastly,

from memory In five steps above, the responding step seems to be omitted because learners

‘amembering is the process of recalling information

proce: ing and lop — down processing In the view of Brown, bolton

up processing means that learners rely on “their linguistic knowledge to recognize linguistic elements — vowels, consonants, words, sentences to do the construction of the meaning” In top-down processing, Icamers usc their prior knowledge to make predictions about the text

“The top-down model of listening involves the listener in actively constructing meaning based

on expectations, inferences, intentions, knowledge of schema and other relevant prior

knowledge and by a sclsetive processing of the inpul” (Brown, 1994)

1.2.3 Common methods of teaching a 2" language listening

There are four common methods of teaching English listening: grammar — translation,

grammar method, audio — lingual mcthod and task — based method (Le, 2006:4)

Grammar — translation method

This method views language as a descriptive sel of finile rule that gives access lo the

language Students in the clhoad always “listen lo a description of the rule ðŸ thz sopond

language As a result, when the second language is used, the focus of any listening will be on translation of Jexical terms and grammar structures"(VJohn Hlowerdew & Lindsay Miller, 2005:4) According to Canh, L.V, (2003:60), grammar — translation method cmphasizes on memotization of verb paradigms, grammar rules, vocabulary, and translation of literary texts”, Grammar method

The main idea of grammar based listening exercises is to analyze the language by its

components and reconstruct an incomplete text Rost (1994:35) (cited in John Flowerdew,

Lindsay Miller, 2005:6) statos that “in order to understand, we must know how words and phrases are bound to each other” Thus, teacher requires students to look at the written text while they are listening to the recording This forces them to do several things: identify words

by their position in the sentence, work out the relationship between words and phrases, use forward and backward cues, and make intelligent guesses based on text ones,

Ando — lingual method

The method is claimed to be “scicntific” and “new” “Tt was thoorctivally underpinned

by structural linguistic, which held that learning a language involved mastering the building blocks of the Fanguage and learning the rules and the behaviorisl theory af learning, which viewed language as a form of behavior like other aspects of human activities” (Canh, L.V,

2003:65) In this method, the linguistic patterns are elicited, repeated and tested until the

Tespons

s given by the student in the forcign language arc aulomalic The more studenls repeal

a comrect phrase or sentence, the stronger of their memory of the structure will be

Task - based method

In this method, listening lesson is based around the completion of activities or tasks 50 that teacher should understand listening materials and process materials into a variety of tasks

in order to develop students’ conmmicative competence, ‘Task means “a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprchending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than on form” (Canh, L.V,2003:102) The typical listening lesson of this method follows certain stages: pre — task, task, planning, report, analysis and practice

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Introduction

This chapter will analyze the situation of the study, the subjects, the instruments for collecting data and data collection procedure

2.2 Situation analysis

2.2.1 The setting of the study

‘The study was conducted at HPU located in Hai Phong city Like most of the universities

in Vietnam, HPU has both

rong and weak poinls for tzaching nnd loarning

‘The strong points cxist in facilities and staf, The first is about, modern facilities There are 8 buildings with 60 new projectors equipped in most of the rooms Each classroom has fans, neon lamps, desks and chairs especially one camera at the comer in arder to check teaching of lecturers, learning of students and tricking in cxaminations, The library has more than 60,000 books and thousands of digital documents intemet system is equipped with very high speed The svcond strong point is umversily staffs In 326 good and ontlusiastic university stafis, there are about 200 fill time well educated lecturers in which the rate of lecturers having MA and higher degrees is up 82,6% In addition, other good lecturers from

farnous universities bath in Hanoi and in Hai Phong are invited to teach

On the other band, there arc a lot of weak points for tcaching and learning at HPU Firstly, facilities are extensive but not enough for the need of leaming, Secondly, library is large but tack textbooks

pecially TORIC materials Thirdly, teachers’ exporienas in teaching, TOEIC is not more than two years while teachers have to teach the great number of periods Fourthly, the class size is large - at least 34 students for cach class ‘Therefore, teachers will face with prablems in monitoring work, giving feedback, sclting up communicative tasks as well as paying attention to all students during class time Fitthly, the allocation for periods among subjects is not made suitably especially for parts in the TOEIC — test based program TORIC tistening level 2 has fiftsen periods for the whole semesler while fileen mils i Reward book has forty five periods Lastly, students are always gathered for diffzrent subject classes so they do not know each other well, which makes difficult for teachers to conduct

activilics

Although it is unavoidable that there are strong and weak points for leaming and teaching

at HPU at the same time, in comparison with other universitiss all ovar Vietnam, HPU is still assumed as a university with a good educational environment

2.3.2 The TOEIC — test— based program and listening materials

" The TOEIC — test - based program

‘The TOEIC — test — based program has been implemented at PU since 2008 In the whole program, there are 8 frame marks The cliss division depends on the marks that

students get in TOEIC tests There are § types of classes in the correspondence to 8 levels as

AI the end of cach term, students have lo lake part in final- term sxaminations lo go into next higher TOEIC level However, all students do not need to follow all eight levels becamse it seems to be impossible, Thus, the university gives some different marks that students must get bofare their graduation, The marks dapond on students’ different specializations, characteristics of their learning abilities as well as the need of recruiting market The details are in the following table:

Both social and technical fields (coffege) 455

* Listening books for the TOEIC tests

The TOFIC books inchufe grammar book:

vocabulary books, reading books, listening books, practice listening books and supplementary Reward books used for all levels Most of

them are compiled by tcachers of English in Forcign Languages Department Listening books are designed depending on the book “Learning 1o listen 1, 2 and 3” written by Lin Lougheed

in 2003 Listening books of level 2 are lessons complied from unil 9 to unil, 16 in the book

“Learning to listen 1°, Basic TOEIC is the book assigned as reference book for this level

2.2.3, Subjects

The study wes carried out with the participation of 186 stutents al HPU These sludents are between 18- 21, both male and female, have learnt English for at Icast nearly four years, three years at high school and about one year at university ‘They get used to learning a language by focusing extensive vocalmlary and grammatical structures so language fimction and communicative competence are their weak points

‘The students were randomly chosen from 1078 learners at OEIC level 2 during the

school year 2010 - 2011 belonging to seven classes Certainly, il was very difficull (o sctect random sample of individuals since the students had already been assigned to different classes

In this case, cluster random sampling was chosen

2.3 Instrument for collecting data

After carefully examining the instruments given by Hoa, H X and Minh, N, T T (2006) and concerning her teaching experience, the investigator designed the close — ended questionnaire in Likert Seale pal

1 lo gel the information on factors alToeling English nem — majors in leaming listening This kind of questionnaire is easy to understand and answer It also takes less time to complete than the other kinds of questionnaire

2.4 Data collection procedures

First, the questionnaire was delivered to students of seven different classes of the Brst tant in the school year 2010 — 2011 lo measure motivational factors, Then, the data was collected and prepared for the next step of the analysis

2.5 Conclusion

‘Ts chapter has been presented the methodology employed in the research ‘Phe next chapter will offer a descriptive data analysis of the collected data

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS

3.1 Introduction

Tn this chapter, with dala colfecied from the survey quostionnmirc, # comprohousive analysis will be presented with two kinds of participants from the countryside and urban areas

3.2 Personal information

The first part was designed for gathcring the participants’ information of hometown

‘The data is shown in the following table

Table 1: Students’ hometown

As can be seen from the table that, in 186 students participated in the research, there are

112 suburbanites (60 %) and 74 urbanites (40%) Obviously, the percentage of the first group

is onc and a half more than the second one

3.3 Learners - related factors that affect student’s motivation in practicing listening

3.3.1, Aptitude factor (see the table 2 from the appendix 3)

Statement 1: T can identify new sounds and memorize them easily

The chart indicates the information about auditory ability of the students coming from

the countryside and urban areas Overall, the rates of all five ideas by comparing two groups

are quite similar The highest rates (59%, 57%) fall in “disagrec” while the lowest rates (1%,

0%) exist in “strongly agree”

Due to the fact that the students do not believe in their own auditory abilities, they become less confident and may lead failure in learning Therefore, teachers may face with difficulties in choosing materials that fit the students’ proficiency

Statement 2: I can figure out grammatical rules from language samples

Chart 2: Students’ grammatical sensitivity

The chart shows that a large promotion of the students (73% of the suburbanites, 86% of

the urbanites) admits their sensitivities in learning English grammatical rules and only few people (11%, 8%) have difficulties in discovering structures Obviously, this is one of strong

points of HPU students, which makes it easy for teachers to design listening activities while they do not need to care much about grammar

Statement 3: I can memorize new words for along time

Chart 3: Students’ ability in memorizing new words

The chart indicates that nearly a half of the students participating in the survey (49%

from the countryside, 50% from urban areas) can not remember new words for a long time.

Meanwhile, nearly one third of respondents (25%, 31%) possess long — term memory So, it

may take more time for teachers to teach, expand and revise words before listening

To sum up, although most of the students think that they have poor auditory ability,

almost all of them are confident with grammatical sensitivity Concerning the ability of

remembering new words, the number of students with short — term memory is much bigger

than the number of students having long — term memory As a result, the aptitude mostly has

negative effects on students’ motivation in learning listening As aptitude is the factor that

“predicts whether individuals become efficient learners of foreign language in a classroom

setting” (Lightbown and Spada, 1999: 53), HPU students may easily fail in learning English if

they do not try harder

3.3.2 Personality factor (see the table 3 from the appendix 3)

Statement 4: I like learning English through extracurricular activities

As can be seen from the chart 4, 59% of the suburbanites and 74% of the urbanites prefer

learning English through extracurricular activities Only 12% of each group dislikes activities

outside classroom Meanwhile, the percentages of “no idea” are up to 29% for the suburban

group and 15% for the urban group It means that the majority of learners is energized by

being with people and interacting with them, and can often think best if they can talk over

their ideas,

Chart 4: Students’ extroversion

The chart 4 also indicates that the learners from urban areas are more extrovert than the

learners from suburban areas

Statement 5: I always feel relaxed in listening activities

strongly | Agree Neutral Disa agree

Country city

Chart 5: Students’ relaxation

It can be drawn from the chart that 27% of the suburbanites and 25% of the urbanites are

comfortable during listening activities 27% and 32% of the two groups choose neutral idea 38% of the suburbanites and 34% of the urbanites choose the “disagree” The “strongly disagree” idea is shown with the rates of 8% and 9%, So, relaxation negatively affects students’ learning because lack of relaxation during listening process makes students uncomfortable and passive This is one of reasons why learners do not concentrate on learning and easily make noise in class As a result, controlling the whole class becomes more difficult for teachers

Statement 6: I never feel embarrassed when speaking in front of the class

Chart 6: Students’ self — confidence

According the chart 6, most of the HPU students find unconfident in listening activities

Regarding the suburban group, 52% do not believe in their own abilities and 14% totally

disagree with this personality Only 11 students (10%) feel unembarrassed and 24% have no

idea Concerning the urban group, the highest rate (36%) also exists in the idea “disagree” The

other rates are 14% (strongly disagree), 34% (neutral), 3% (strongly agree) and 7% (agree)

Lack of self — confidence found in the chart 6 is unbeneficial to students’ motivation

When the students have low self-esteem, they can not dream up goals Without goals, listening

becomes meaningless and boring

In conclusion, personality factor contributes negatively to HPU students’ motivation in

learning English Although the students can be advantaged in the development of language

relating to interpersonal communication (Ellis, 1997) because of extroversion, inhibition and

low — esteem discourages them from risk — taking which is necessary for progress in language

learning (Lightbown and Spada, 1999-55)

3.3.3 Motivation and attitude factor (see the table 4 from the appendix 3)

Statement 7: I find listening skill very important

Chart 7: Students’ perceived the importance of listening

As shown in the above chart, nearly all of the students (91% from the countryside and

92% from the urban areas) see necessity of learning listening The students’ appreciation

brings about positive effect on students” learning when it makes them have big efforts for a

long time to obtain the goals they set

Statement 8: I practice listening English everyday

As can be seen in the chart, a lot of students (more than 60% for each group of

participants) do not try to achieve their goals in learning listening This means that whenever

they face with challenges in listening, they seem to give it up easily It is the current situation

that makes teachers find difficult to design tasks at levels being appropriate to both the students”

low proficiency levels and the standard levels of the TOEIC final - term tests

Sương | Agee Neutral Disagree Strongly

county avy

Chart 8: Students’ effort in listening

Statement 9: I feel very interested in listening

According to the chart 9, the number of the students experiencing interests is a bit bigger

than the number of the students experiencing boredom Moreover, by comparing two groups’

opinions, there is the same trend of answering the statement although the rates in each idea are

not totally similar: 45% from suburban areas and 40% from urban areas are fond or very fond

of listening skill, 28% of the suburbanites and 29% of the urbanites find it boring and 27% and

31% express neutral ideas, This makes easy for teachers to work with class having both kinds

of students

Statement 10: Listening helps me to talk to various foreigners

According to the chart, the communicative needs of two kinds of the participants is quite

similar: 37% and 38% (strongly agree), 43% and 46% (agree), 13% and 11% (neutral), 5%

and 4% (disagree), 2% and 1% (strongly disagree) However, there is great disparity between

the conflicting opinions of both two groups when the rates of people having this need are

many times more than the rates of the others This result shows that communication is one of

main goals of the majority of HPU students That is the advantage for teachers to teach

listening skill in the TOEIC - test — based program because the program intends to develop

English proficiency and highly focuses on communication Thus, this need is beneficial to

Chart 10: Students’ language learning for communicative needs

Statement 11: Listening brings me joy and pleasure

country ay

Chart 11: Students’ language learning for joy and pleasure

It can be seen from the chart 11 that joy and pleasure are not the main reason for most of the students in learning listening because the rates are only 5%, 7% (strongly agree), 25%, 28% (agree) while there are 21%, 19% (disagree) and 5%, 5% (strongly disagree) Noticeably,

nearly a half (44% and 41%) circles neutral ideas Once reasons for learning are not from

students themselves, it takes time to create a variety of reasons for learners

Statement 12: I learn English because you it is a compulsory subject at university

%

sgee

Chart 12: Students’ language learning for short— term practical goals

‘As seen fiom the above chart, “meeting graduation requirements” goal is seen to be

influential to learners’ motivation in learning English when the rate of the students learning English for this reason is much more than the rate of the people with other reasons: more than

half people admit that they learn English only because they are forced; 37% from the

countryside and 26% from urban areas believe that they learn English for many other

purposes; only 30% of the 186 students have no idea This shows a bad phenomenon that the

students only pay attention to their marks while the real knowledge and skills are usually