Luận văn three ways to motivate the students at banking academy bacninh branch in english speaking activities

students es, give clear explanation, create a comfortable atmosphere, vary teaching activities and methods, make learning visual, increase students’ self- confidence, promote cooperativ

NGUYEN MINH HONG

THREE WAYS TO MOTIVATE THE STUDENTS

AT BANKING ACADEMY-BACNINH BRANCH IN ENGLISH

SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

BA CACH TAO HUNG THU CHO SINH VIEN HOC VIEN NGAN HANG-PHAN VIEN BAC NINH TRONG CAC HOAT

DONG NOI TIENG ANH

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 1410

HANOI - 2010

'VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

~ -EO#OGRGS:

NGUYEN MINH HONG

THREE WAYS TO MOTIVATE THE STUDENTS

AT BANKING ACADEMY-BACNINH BRANCH IN ENGLISH

SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

BA CACH TAO HUNG THU CHO SINH VIEN HOC VIEN NGAN HANG-PHAN VIEN BAC NINH TRONG CAC

HOAT PONG NOI TIENG ANH

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Dr Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa

HANOI - 2010

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION „1

Backgronnd to the stuẩy co wel Airns af the sludy 2

Outline of the thesi:

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Speaking

1.1.1 Delinitiens oŸ speaking

1.1.2 The importance of speaking

1.1.3 Accuracy or flucney in the teaching of speaking

1.1.4 Phases to teach speaking

1.1.5, Common speaking activities

1.1.6, Problems with speaking aotivities

2.3 Description af the subjects

2 4, The action rescarch procedure

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1 Data collected from pretiminary Investigation sfage

3.1.2 Data collected from observation sheets

3.2, Intervention

3.2.1 The aims of the intervention

3.2.2 The intervention procedure

3.4.1 Compatisons cceneieeeieeerrie 36 3.4.1 Summary 38 PART THREE: CONCLUSION

1 Review of the study

APPENDIX 1: Questionnaire 1 - - I APPENDIX 2: Questionnaire 2 ụ APPENDIX 3: Observation sheet 1 — Overall class moivation OI APPENDIX 4: Observation sheet 2 Students’ on-task behavior AV APPENDIX 5: Action plan implementation VI APPENDIX 6: A sample of intervention plan vit APPENDIX 7: Data on overall class motivation -

APPENDIX 8: Data on the students’ on-task/off-task behavior XU

Chart 2: Students’ attitude towards learning English speaking 225

Chart 3: Students’ frequency of unwillingness to speak English in class 25 Chart 4: Vactors leading to the students’ low motivation in English speaking activities 26

Chart 5: Overall class motivation phase 1 scccseeessssensneessseiaeesansinecsenen 2? Charl 6: Siudents' times on-lask/off-lask behavior phase 1 28 Chart 7: Overall class motivation phase 2 ceneerrrieorseo 3L Charl &: Siudents’ times on-task/ offask behavior phase 2 32

Chart 9: Students’ opinions about the teachers’ helping

them set their own achievable goals 33 Chart 10: Students’ opinions about the teachers’ use of vanous speaking activities

Chart 11: Students’ opinions about the lsachers’ use of rewards for success: 35 Chart 12: Students’ attitude towards the teaching in the intervention siage 3Š Chart 13: Overall class motivation before and aller the intervention 37

Chart 14: Students’ times on-task/off-task before and after the intervention 3?

In order to teach the students English speaking so that they become mate interested in and maintain their interest in spcaking Icaming, when it is not sccn as important for their immediate needs other than to pass the oral exams, teachers have to find creative ways to

teach and increase students’ motivation to learn

Being concemed with what a teacher can do to enhance student motivation in Linglish

help students es, give clear explanation, create a

comfortable atmosphere, vary teaching activities and methods, make learning visual,

increase students’ self- confidence, promote cooperative learning, make students active

1 achievable goals for them

the researcher's own leaching context

English speaking teaching and learning at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch

Uanking Academy-Dacnin Branch is a vocational school which trains students in Banking and Accounting upcrations Tis English language tcaching and Tearing program is implemented in the first term of the students’ first year The students are taught general English with New Headway Elementary (Liz & John Soars, 2000) in the time span of 120 forty-five minute class periods, With 12 parallel classcs, teaching is basically synchronized

found many of my students were low motivated in class ‘There were always students

to speak and they were afraid of making mistakes and being langhed at by their classmates

eing aware of the importance of English speaking motivation and motivational strategies

int Friglish speaking, and boming in taind the conlext of Isaching and Tearning speaking al Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch, the researcher conducted this action research on the use of three strategies: helping students set achievable goals, varying speaking activities and using tewards for snc

with the aims at motivating the sturlenls in Engtish speaking

activities

2 Aims of the study

This research was an attempt to motivate the students at Banking Academy-Baoninh Branch in English speaking activities by using three strategies: helping students set achievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for success In order to

achicve this aim, the specific objectives of the study arc:

- Finding out the causes of the students’ low motivation in English speaking activities in

order to have proper intervention to motivate them,

- Examining whether the teacher’s intervention consisting of the three changes: helping students set achievable goals, varying speaking activities and using tewards for success

could motivate the students in English speaking activitics or not

3 Research questions

With the above objectives, the research questions arg

1 What are the causes of the students’ low motivation in English speaking activities?

2 Can the teacher’s intervention consisting of the three changes: helping students set achievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for success motivale the students in English speaking activities? If yes, to what extent?

4 Significance of the study

It is hoped that the study will identify the main causes of the students’ low motivation in speaking activities at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch, In addition, by doing this action vesearch, the researcher can evaluate the use of the three changes - helping students set

5 - in her classos

achievable goals, varying speaking avtivitics and using rewards for suoeo:

And this would provide the teachers with guidance and assistance to boost students! motivation in learning to speak Lnglish Students will find it more useful and interesting in their leaning and spend more ti

¢ on this specific skill The study will give us convincing information about the great value of the combination of the three changes in increasing

learners’ motivation

5, Scope of the study

"The research was conducted on the students at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch Due to

‘the limitation of time, the researcher only focused on the use of the three changes in class

K43B in the first tem, in which the rescarcher taught as a teacher, as K43B can be the

representative of all the classes at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch

7 Outline of the thesis

‘The study consists of three parts: the introduction, the developnent and the conchusin

Chapter 1, LITERATURE REVIEW, presents relevant theoretical basis for the study,

relating to speaking leaning and teaching in language classroom, motivation, motivational strategies in speaking class and presents previous studies relating to the field

Chapler 2, METHODOLOGY, provides the readers with the definitions of the action

resuarch, iho dala colfcction instrwmonls Delailed information shout the rescarch procedure and the participants of the study is also presented

Chapter 3, DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS, analyzes the data collected from the preliminary investigation stage to form the hypothesis of the study An intervention plan is worked oul and implemented The data from the interverition stage are collected and

analyzed to make an evaluation of the effectiveness of the intervention

The last part, “Conclusion”, reviews the study, gives out pedagogical implications, presents the limitations of the study and gives suggestions for fither study in the same field

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Speaking

1.1.2 Definitions of speaking

Speaking, as Bygate (1987) defines, involves not only the use of the right sounds in the patterns of thythin and intonation, but also the choice of words and inflections in the righ! order to convey the sight meaning

Speaking, @ productive skill, is known to have two main types of conversation namely dialogue and monologue, which are rather different In monologue you give uninterrupted oral presentation while im dialogue yon interact with one or more other speakers for transactional and international purposes

It is noticeable fiom the two productive language skills that speaking is different fom writing in both processing conditions and reciprocity conditions, “Kirst, spoken language is affected by tha time Tirnilations, and the associated problems of plarmings, memory, and

production under pressure, Second, it is reciprocal activity, which has a crucial effect on the kinds of decisions to be made.” (Bygate, 1987: 11-12)

1.12, The importance of speaking

In social contexts, social roles are likely to be taken by those who leam and know how to speak, but not by those who de not have this skill In language learning, speaking plays an uhnosl important role among the four language skills (listening, reading spoaking and writing) since it helps to identify who knows or does not know a language Pattison (1992) confirms that when peopls mention knowing or learning a language, they actually mean that (hoy arc ablz to speak the language

1 cammot be denicd that speaking deserves as much aflention as ar even more allention than written skill In order to carry out many of the most basic transactions, it is necessary tor Jeamers to speak with confidence

1.13 Accuracy or fluency in the teaching of speaking

Accuracy in language teaching involves the correct use of vocabulary, grammar and

pronunciation In controlled and guided activities, accuracy is usually the focus and ths teacher makes it clear from feedback that accuracy is important Ongoing correction is

with whatever resources and abilities they have, regardless of grammatical and other

Tn feedback

y aclivil

mistakes, Normally, students should not be corrected during nen

afterwards, on the other hand, favorable comment on strategies is needed to increase their

fluency

1LA, Phases to teach speaking

Byme (1988) distinguishes three following phases to develop leamers’ oral ability: the presentation phase, the practice phase and the production phase

In presentation phase, teachers are the center of leaming and teaching activities, They work as an infomation provider What studcnts usually do in this phase is to observe and listen to the teacher, ie they passively receive information, Normally, they are only asked

lo praclice (role-play) and dramatize @ dialogne or to talk about whal they have to learn from a prose based on the previous answers at the end of this phase

Unlike the presentation phase, at practice phase learners tave to do most of talking as they are provided maxizzum amount of practice in the form of controlled and guided activities

to improve vocabulary and grammar knowledge as well as fluency of speaking The Jearncrs, at this phase, answer the teacher’s guided questions, discuss with their partners to find new ideas related to the topic At the end of the practice phase, Ur (1996) suggested what the teacher should do is to enhance the learners’ fluency of speaking, First, attention must be fully paid by the leamers Second, the target language must be clearly heard or repeated, Third, leamers understand the meaning of new materials and finally, short-term

memory of the material must be created for later use in the lesson

At the last phase of learning speaking, prodietion phase learners are given chances to speak English frecly Being in a read situation, leamers usc English by thomsclves, not neatly depend on the tcacher’s help Free activitics arc also in the form of individual work, pair work and group work However, pair work and group work are of great importance and effectiveness as all teamers can have chance to parlicipats in talks, and they seem amore confident and more motivated, Moreover, this can save a great deal of time

In the process of teaching speaking, improvement of the speaking ability will be gained if

these three phases are followed orderly However, they might not be applied as expected

because of time limitation, types of learners and materials in use, etc

1.1.5 Common speaking activities

A variety of activities can be used to develop speaking skills Below are some of the common ones

* Role-play

Role-play is an activity that the class is usually divided into pairs or groups These pairs or

groups are given situations and roles to act out and explore This acting is done for the sake

of the language and imaginative activity, not for exhibition The various groups, therefore, are activated simultaneously, Dangerfield (1987) suggests nine basic steps in role-play activities as follow: Language input, Setting of context, Allocation of roles, Statement of

aim, Familiarization will roles, Demonstration, Role-play and achievement of aim, Report

back and Follow up

Role-plays are simple to plan and easy to play and, along with games and other communicative activities, are recommended to be used in the English speaking classes

* Information Gap Activity (IGA)

IGA is one of the easiest and most interesting forms of communicative activity in the

speaking class In order to get the most proficiency, the teacher can divide the class into

pairs or groups In each pair or each group, one acts as the asker, the other the answerer, let

them discuss for a few minutes and they change the role

IGA may take three forms: (1) One student has some information and the other has to find

it by asking questions; (2) One student has some information and tells it to the other student; (3) Both students have different information and they tell each other

Underhill (1987) asserts that variety of techniques can be used in IGA Firstly, they may be peer or group interview Two students set out questions and answers to get certain things

about each other, Secondly, they may be peer or group description and recreation

information which one describes a picture or a design to another student who has

constructed the model from the description alone without seeing the original Thirdly, they

According to Byme (1988), problem-solving has been used to group together a wide range

of activities that require students to find “solutions” to problems of different kinds

Many of these problems involve processes that we commonly use in real life as follows

- We frequently hypothesize links between two things (events, actions, people, etc.)

- We detect differences (real or imaginary)

- We grade things according to criteria (subjective or objective)

Clearly, problem-solving is believed to be necessary and suited to students of all levels As

students are put in some situations that are similar to the real life, they actively join in the

activities because of the feeling that they are doing with their language, taking the risks of

experimenting what they have learnt Moreover, the lessons can become more practical and

attractive to them

* Other Picture Card Activities

The use of picture cards involves the use of pair and group work Bellows are some usefiil

activities

1, Kim’s Game: The students in groups look at the items on a table for about thirty second Next, the items are recovered with a cloth and the groups have to describe and

locate the items Then the group leaders report to the class what the group had discussed

2 What is my line: The students in groups have to ask questions of another member within a limited time span and discover his/her occupation

3 Twenty questions: One student is asked to write the name of an object or select a

picture of an object and place it face downwards The others have to question this student

and try to guess what the item is

4, Patter matching: Prepare two copies of an identical picture One picture is pasted on a

card; the other is cut up into small pieces One student describes the picture card while the

other tries to follow and ask more questions for clarification arrange the pieces according

to the instructions.

5 Describe and Draw: Student A describes what he sees on Ins card while student B

draws on a picee of paper by (ollowing the instructions given, In this aclivity, student B also has to ask questions while student gives description

6, Spot the differences: Here again two sets of identical pictures are used and students in pairs are told to spot a minimum number of differences

7 Completing a Map/ Giving Directions: Two ot more sets of maps are used, Some details are given on each of the maps, but on each student’s map certain places would be deleted and the names of these places would be listed at the bottom The task is to ask cach other where the places are located fo complete the map

8 The Lest Twin: Each student has a small card on which are printed some of his or her favorites, ¢.g food, drink, hobby, actor, etc ‘here will be two copies of each card and the

students have to go round the class to find ont who has arridentical card (the other iwin),

To sum up, the above activitics arc uscful for developing speaking skills among students

“They can create out-of-expectation result in the speaking class

4.16, Prablems with speaking activities

Tt (1996) claims that a sueczssBl speaking aotivity shonld achieve a rnaximal student talking time, even participation among the students, student strong motivation to speak and

conyrehensibility of the studenls’ langnags

She also points out the folowing commen prabloms in a speaking class

- Smtdenis are inhibited about trying to say things in the classroom

+ Stidonts carmot think of anything to say

- Some students talk much while others speak very little or not at ali

- Students tend to use their mother tongue instead of the foreign language

(Ur, 1996: 121)

“Thus, for a successful speaking lesson, the teacher, among other things, should be aware of these problems lo have appropriale and effective solutions to motivate the students 1a express themselves,

1.2 Motivation

1.2.1 Definitions of motivation

There have been so far many researches on the theory of motivation Each author has

his/her own way of explaining what motivation is since they look at motivation from

different angles However, motivation is generally defined as an abstract concept used to

describe the willingness of a person to expand effort to reach a particular goal For

language learners, mastery of a language may be a goal For others, communicative

competence or even basic communication skills could be a goal In linguistics,

sociolinguistics and second language acquisition, a number of language leamer motivation models have been postulated

Ausubel (1998) identified six needs constructing motivation: (1) the need for exploration,

(2) the need for manipulation, (3) the need for activity, (4) the need for stimulation, (5) the

need for knowledge, (6) the need for ego enhancement

According to Lightbrown and Spada (1999), motivation in second language learning is a complex phenomenon which can be defined in terms of two factors: learners’

communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language community The

authors explain that if learners need to speak the second language in a wide range of social

situations or fulfill professional ambitions, they will perceive the communicative value of L2 and will therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it Likewise, if learners have

favorable attitudes towards the speakers of the language, they will desire more contact with

them

Malone (1981) defines motivation in terms of the challenge of the activities or tasks

conducted by the teachers According to him, challenge depends on activities that meet the

needs of students’ different levels The tasks or activities which are too easy or too difficult will decrease students’ motivation On the contrary, if students find the activities

challenging enough, they will be interested more, which leads to effective learning

Gardner and Lambert (1972) suggested that motivation to leam a second language was

grounded in positive attitudes toward the L2 community and in a desire to communicate

with and become similar to valued members of that community,

Crookes and Schmidt (1991) define motivation in terms of students’ interest in and

enthusiasm for the materials and activities used in class, their persistence with the learning

Si

task as indicated by levels of concentration and enjoyment Learning is only effective if

students enjoy activities and work hard

Among what have been mentioned, Crookes and Schmidt’s definition is chosen to use in this thesis because of two reasons First, it is directly related to the process of teaching and

learning language which emphasizes the important roles of students Theoretically, when

students are interested in the activities and are persistent with the learning tasks, they will

get better results in learning Second, it is similar to what would be studied in the research

project that the researcher wants to examine the students’ interest, satisfaction and concentration on the varied activities in class, so the working definition in the thesis is: motivation is interest in and enthusiasm for the activities used in classrooms, attention or

levels of concentration, the effort and persistence with the learning tasks as well as the

challenge of the activities conducted by the teachers, This definition will guide the

researcher to design a questionnaire survey to get the information about the students’

learning motivation in the research

1.2.2 Types of motivation in foreign language learning

According to theorists, there are some distinctions of types of motivation in foreign

language learning: integrative and instrumental motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation; global, situational and task motivation

As can be found in literature, major studies in the past tended to divide motivation into two

broad categories: instrumental and integrative Their division is mainly based on the

students’ purposes According to Gardner and Lambert (1972), “Instrumental motivation

refers to the leamers' desire to leam a language for utilitarian purposes (such as

employment or travel or exam purposes) in the context of language learning” On the other

hand, “integrative motivation refers to the desire to leam a language to integrate

successfully into the target language community”,

Wajnryb (1992) makes this clearer by stressing the importance of instrumental practical

goals and communication with the people of the culture who speak it He claims that

instrumental motivation refers to the desire to learn a language because it will be useful for

certain practical goals such as getting a job, reading foreign newspapers or texts, passing

an exam or obtaining a promotion On the other hand, integrative motivation refers to wanting to learn a language for reasons of understanding, relating to or communicating

with the people whose language we speak

Ellis (1994) and Gardner and Lambert (1972) agree that if is essential to distinguish

instrumental and integrative motivation bevausc, onec the teachers are well aware of their

students! motivation, they can find useful ways to create and sustain the learning

motivation in their students

Some other researchers divide motivation into two main kinds: intrmsic motivation and

extrinsic motivation The division

toscly related to Ur According to Leppar (1988; 289-305), Ur (1996; 278-280) students who are intrinsically motivated undertake an activity “for its own sake, for the enjoyment it provides, the

students psychology or emotion

learning it permits, or the fectings of accomplishment it evokes” On the other band, extrinsically motivated students perform “in order to obtain some reward or avoid some punishment external to the activity itself, such as grades or teacher's approval”,

Another division proposed by Brown (1994) suggests three kinds of motivation: global, siluational and task motivation, According to tim, global motivation is the ovsrall orientation of the learner towards the leaming of the foreign language while situational motivation has to do with the context of learning (classroom, total environment) On the contrary, task motivation has Lo do wilh tho way the loaner approaches the specific task in

hand

Having mentioned different types of motivation in language learning, the rescarcher wants

to clarify different purposes that students need to achieve, so in real teaching contexts, Janguage leachers al Banking Avademy-Bacninh Branch should apply different strategies

to help the students learn effectively and work better after graduation, not that to help them

pass the exam,

1.2.3, The importance of motivation in foreign language learning

While there has ben a great deal of research on the role of motivation in second language Jearning, the overall findings reveal that positive attitude and motivation are closely related

to success in sacond language foaming (Gardner, 1985), Motivation is also considered as

“a key consideration in detenmming the preparedness of leamers to communicate”

(Gardner, 1985: 10)

Oxford & Shearin (1994) state: “Many researchers considered motivation as one of the main elermmis thal determine success in a second or foreign language IL determines the extent of active, personal involvement m L? leaning”

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Caroll (1962) pointed out: "the more motivation a learner has, the more time he or she will

spend learning an aspect of a second language"

Labonde (1982), based on the findings made by Garner and Lambert (1972), concluded that motivation and attitudes are important factors which help determine the level of

proficiency achieved by different leamers and the effects of motivation appear to be

separated from the effects of aptitude, the most successful learners will be those who have

both talent and a high level of motivation for learning

Doryei (2001) believes that motivation needs to be generated, maintained actively, protected and retrospectively evaluated

Another role of motivation in foreign language learning is to promote the choice of

strategies among students learning a second or foreign language Research has shown that

the use of specific learning strategies and techniques while studying a second or foreign language leads to success Oxford (1994) emphasizes "more motivated students tend to use

mote strategies than less motivated students, hence, they tend to be more successful”

In short, motivation is a vital factor determining success or failure in second language learning It helps L2 learners find and maintain interest in leaming a second language and

is worthy of attention of language teachers

1.3 Strategies for motivating students in speaking activities

To answer the questions of how to motivate learners in English speaking activities, the researcher have found interesting and applicable ideas in literature The followings are

some useful motivational strategies adapted from Bligh (1971), Sass (1989), Ames and Ames (1991), Harris (1991) and Domyei (2001), Jones and Jones (1995), Oxford and Shearin (1994), ete

* Capitalize on students’ existing needs

Students lear to speak best when incentives for learning speaking in class satisfy their

own motives for enrolling in the course Some of the needs students may bring to the

classroom are the need to leam speaking in order to complete a particular task or activity, the need to seek new experiences, the need to perfect speaking skill, the need to overcome

challenges, the need to be competent, the need to succeed and do well, the need to feel

involved and to interact with other people Satisfying such needs is rewarding in itself, and

such rewards sustain learning more effectively than do grades Thus, the teacher should

design in-class activities to address these kinds of needs

* Help students set achievable goals for themselves

Individual goal setting is one of the most effective methods to enable students to

experience a sense of control over their own learning and perceive themselves as mastering

material while incorporating their own interest (Jones and Jones, 1995) It is particularly

relevant to language learning because the ultimate purpose of this prolonged process — to

communicate with foreign speakers - is several years away and is, in fact, for many leamers only moderately realistic, therefore, setting achievable goals has a powerful

motivating function, Oxford and Shearin (1994:19) noted “goal setting can have

exceptional importance in stimulating foreign language leaming motivation, and it is

therefore shocking that so little time and energy are spent in the foreign language classroom on goal setting”

In agreement with the claim of Locke and Latham’s (1990) on goal setting, Pintric and

Sclunk (1996) offer four main principles of goal setting based on the theory that can be

applied in the classroom setting

- Goals should be clear and specific

- Goals should be challenging and difficult, but not outside the range of students’ capabilities

- Both proximal and distal goals should be set

- Teachers should provide feedback that increases students’ self-efficacy for obtaining the

goal

* Give clear explanation

Some recent research shows that many students do poorly on assignments or in participation because they do not understand what to do or why they should do it Teachers

should spend more time explaining why we teach what we do, and why the topic or

approach or activity is important and interesting and worthwhile In the process, some of

the teacher’s enthusiasm will be transmitted to the students, who will be more likely to

become interested Similarly, teachers should spend more time explaining exactly what is

-15-

expected on activities, Students who are uncertain about what to do will seldam perform

well

" Create «comfortable atmosphere

In order In yet earners more involved in olass, espucially in a foreign language speaking activities, a favorable classroom atmosphere is considered indispensable As Domysi (2001) argues, students often feel embarrassed in language classes because teachers force

‘them to speak well in front of the other classmates with their limited vocabulary To help change this situation and facilitate activitics, teachcrs need to hetp students understand that mistakes are all right ‘Therefore, he argues that teachers should correct errors in indirect

way instead Tor inslance, if a sludent says “T yo lo the cinema yesterday" inslead of pointing ouf the mistake, a teacher can say the correct sentence, "you went to the cinema

‘yesterday", ina non-threatening way,

Domyei (2001) goas on argues that in a safe and supportive classroom students fzel comfortable taking risk because they know that they will not be embarrassed or criticized if thoy make a mistake

" Vary teaching activities and methods

Varicly reawakens sludents* involvement in the activities and their motivation Break your

routines by incorporating a varizty of speaking activitics and methods in your classes such

as role plays, debates, brainstorming, discussion, demonstrations, audiovisual

presentations, pair work or group work, ele lo increase your students? motivation

* Make learning visual

Even before young people were reared in a video environment, it was recognized that aicmary is often connected to visual images In the middl: agcs people who memorized the Bible would sometimes walk around inside a cathedral and mentally attach certain passages lo objact inside, so thal remembering the image of a column or slatue would provide the needed stimulus to remember the next hundred Linas of text Sumilatly, we can provide better learning by using images such as drawings, diagrams, pictures and charts in speaking activities It can be sean from researches these images can increase students” level

of motivation

" Increase students’ self- confidence

Learners can perform well when they feel self-confident enough Llowever, the question is

how ta maintain and increase the stu s° confidence and sclf-estecmn im a contexl - the

Janguage classroom - which is inherently thce-threatening for the learner (Domyei, 2001)

He also suggested that language teachers should increase the learners’ self-confidence by

‘promoting their sclf-conceptions of language competence, by providing regular expericnes

of success and emphasizing what learners can do rather than can not do, giving them the feeling of making a useful contribution and creating classroom situations where they can demonstrate positive features and come forward to offer Lielp (Dornyci 200L: 130)

* Promoting cooperative learning

Cooperative learning improves communication, lower students’ anxiety, Taisex their self esteem, and improves classroom climate Learning English through cooperative group work allows students to learn from one another, and the teacher in a supportive environment, They bovome more proficient im language as a resull of group work because they have more comprehensible input peer interactions, have better listening skill as a result of responding to what has been said, have longer conversational furns than in whole- class loanhing sitnafian, and focus on mncaning rather lun on aecuracy (Keastor, 1992)

* Make students active participants in speaking activities

One of the major keys to motivation is the active involvement of students in their own learning, ospecially in speaking activilics IL is belter to got sludents invalved in speaking activities, worked in pairs or groups, discussing with others, helping to decide what to do and the best way to do it, helping the teacher, or in some other way getting physically involved in the activilics, Students tearm by doing, making, wriling, designing, creating and solving, Passivity dampens student motivation and curiosity

* Respond to students’ work

Teachers should give students proper feedback on students’ speaking as quickly as possitle, Give students some indication of how well they have done and how to improve

For cxauple, hic can say a sludent’s presentation or a pair's parformance was good, with an

indication of why it was good: “Lan’s presentation is very good Her idcas about pollution

really synthesized the ideas we had been discussing.”

* Reward success

-3đÿ-

Teachers can help students who do not yet have powerful intrinsic motivation to leam by

extrinsic motivation in the form of rewards Rather than criticizing unwanted behavior or

answers, rewards can correct behavior and answers Everyone likes the feeling of

accomplishment and recognition, rewards for good work produce those good feelings Remember that adults and children alike continue or repeat behavior that is rewarded The rewards can be small and configured to the level of the students The reward is best if it

helps to reinforce long-term goals set by students Thus a book on English is more valued

by students who are learning English than something edible The important point is that

extrinsic motivators can, over a brief period of time, produce intrinsic motivation Teachers

should bear in mind that in order to achieve the best effect, they should reward success publicly and immediately

In short, in this section, various motivational strategies have been mentioned It can be

seen that if they are used appropriately by teachers, they can bring about great effect on

increasing students’ motivation

1.4 Previous studies

So far, many researchers in the world namely, Gardner (1985), Crookes and Schmidt

(1991), Doryei (2001) and so on, have investigated what motivation is, what effects

motivation in foreign language learning and how language teachers should employ

techniques of motivation to improve their class performance These leading figures have

brought about great insight into how to motivate learners for better achievement and their

findings have generated more research into different aspects of language teaching e.g how

to arouse students’ interest in their struggle to master the four skills

Relating to effective techniques to motivate learners, Peacock (1997) carried out the research “The effect of authentic materials on the motivation of EFL leamers” The subjects of his study were 31 South Korean beginners The study used on-task and overall class motivation observation sheets and interview questions The research findings

confirmed the positive effect of the authentic material on the motivation of EFL leamers Xiaoying Wang (2007) conducted an action research project in a listening course for the

second-year English majors in one university in China Based on the data obtained from

classroom observations, students’ journals, interviews with students, and students’ response

to an open-ended questionnaire at the end of the term, she claimed that the students

developed a fairly high degree of motivation towards practicing listening due to the

teacher’s three-part plan, one of which was helping the students set specific goals for

themselves Hows

instruments were only qualitative

vor, the Tes nol very convincing because the data collection

In Vietnam, Ha Thi Lan (2003) conducted an action research on the effect of communicative activities of pair work and group work on students’ motivation in speaking The subjects of the study were 30 students af Thaibinh School In order fo colfcet dala, tha sesearcher used a combination of two instruments: questionnaire and classroom observation ‘Ihe findings revealed that the students were passive in speaking because of

the lack of communicative aclivitics im class

Another sludy was carried out by TToang Thi Ngan (2006) with the purposes of finding out how to motivate students to speak at Gia Loc Senior Secondary School, The subjects of the

study were 186 students in Grade 11 and 8 teachers teaching English in the school Tha

data collection insimmonts used in this study wore questionnaire and interviow Ths findings of the questionnaire and interview showed that most of the students had great

inierest in various teaching techniques and communicative activities used by their teachers

‘Their proferabl: teaching lechriques were those which gave than friendly, enjoyable and cooperalive almosphere, in which they were given mach more opportniiics to speak the language

“Two generalizations can be made about the above-mentioned studies Firstly, they all examine the effects of motivation on teaching and learning, Secondly, they all used simitar data collection instruments questionnaire and observation For these reasons, the researcher will adapt questionnaire and observation to collect information for her study

In this chapter, the researcher has discussed the definitions of speaking, the importance of speaking, accuraey or fluency in the leaching of speaking, phases to teach speaking, common speaking activities and problems with speaking activities, Theories of motivation, types of motivation in foreign language leaming and the importance of motivation in forcign language leaming were also mentioned, In addition, slrategics for mmolivating students in spcaking activitics were also focused on All of the knowledge is conccined with how to make teaching and leaming of speaking skills more effective Finally, previous studies in mofivation and motivation in English speaking were considered so thal the researcher can adapt their instruments in her study to have reliable data,

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOCY

2.1L An action rescarch

Thore arc many definitions of action rescarch that have been proposed over the last forty

‘years, Cohen & Manion (1994: 186) define action research as “a small scale intervention in the fimetioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of such an intervention", TL was slaled by Nunan (1992) that action rescarch is "problem focused", amainly concemed with a single case ina specitic situation, and tries to find solutions to the problem in focus, It not only encourages teachers to compare methods and ideas with critical eye and to adopt these idoas inlo their teaching environment bul also ongages ther

in their teaching in a deeper way The aim of action research is to identify “problematic”

situation or issues that participants consider worth investigating and to undertake practical

interventions in order to bring about informed changes in practice Action Research is now

‘becoming increasingly popular in language cducation

‘Action research was used as the research method for this study for some reasons Firstly, the researcher can combine two duties at the same time - teaching and researching, because there are positive effects on both our knowledge and our practice Secondly, itis beneficial

to both teachers and lamers since if is concormed with improving the immediate learning environment (Wallace, 2001), Thirdly, it is a fancy way of studying what is happenmng and decide how to make it a better place, and it is manageable

2 2 Research questions

‘This action research aims at answering the following questions;

1 What are the causes of the students’ low motivation in Nnglish speaking activities?

2 Can the teacher’s intervention (combining the three changes: helpmy students set

achievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for success) motivate the

students in English speaking acitvities? If ves, to what extent?

2.3 Description of the subjects

‘The study was conducted with the participation of 32 students in class K13B at Banking

Acadcmy-Baeninh Branch Qwlicrc 1 wugh) and 2 teachers acting as observers

‘The 32 student participants were doing their first term of the firsl yoar at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch, They were almost at the same age of 18 12 of them are boys

and 20 are girls They have different levels of proficiency in English ‘they come from different areas: 8 fron big cities such as Hanoi, Haiphong, 10 from rural arcas and 14 from mountainous provinces such as Caobang, Backan, Dienbien, ete, Among them, 17 have Jeamt English for 3 years (ftom grade 10 to grade 12), 15 have leamt English for 7 years (from grate 6 0 grade 12)

‘The observers have bean lcachcrs of English at Ranking Academy-Bacninh Branch for

over five years and they have completed M.A courses in TESOL,

2 4, The action research procedure

‘There are several ways in which tho slops of action rescureh have boon analyzed, Kemmis

& Mc Taggart (1988) suggests that action research has four steps which progress as a spiraling and evolving process: planning, action, observation and reflection Susman (1983) distinguishes five phases to be conducted within each research cycle: (1) Diagnosing; identifying or defining a problem, (2) Action planning: considering altenativ:

courses of action, (3) ‘Taking action: selecting a course of action, (4) Evaluating’ studying

the consequences of an action, and (5) Specifying learning: identifying general findings Burn (1999) considered the action research process as a sequence of cycles which consists

of eleven phases: exploring, identifying, planning, collecting data, analyzing/reflecting, hypothesizing, intervening, observing, reporting, writing and presening,

In this study, Nunan’s action researcli model (1992) was applied as if is easy to carry out in the teachers’ own classroom in limited time and the steps are clear cul 1 follow This model includes six small steps: initiation, preliminary investigation, hypothesis,

intervention, evaluation, and dissemination

‘This action research was implemented curing 12 weeks starting from week 1 of the course

‘The subjsols of the study were 32 clomentary students from the cfass K43R at Barking Avademy-Bacninh Branch who participated from the beginning to the end of the study Based on the selected model, the following steps were done one after the other ‘the

description of the six slep procedure is presented as follows

* Step i: Initiation (week } ta week 3)

Observing the first three speaking lessons, the researcher realized that the students’ learning motivation and their participation in spcuking activilics wore low, Thorelore, she decided to identity factors affecting the students’ learning motivation in speaking lessons

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and the first research question formed was: "What are the causes of the students’ low

motivation in English speaking activities?"

* Step 2: Preliminary investigation (From week 4 ta week 6)

Data about the leamers which may be factors affecting students’ motivation in iinglish

spesking activities ware collceted in week 4 in arder lo confirm the problern stated in step

1 and find out the causes of low motivation (using questionnaire 1, see Appendix 1)

‘Lo establish the baseline of students’ motwvation, the three speaking lessons of unit 4, 5, 6 were conducted in an usual way, wilhoul any treatment and were observed using Obsorvalion sheet 1 (Appandix 3), Obscrvation sheol 2 (Appendix 4) right after overy Jesson to measure students’ interest, enthusiasm, persistence with leaming tasks

* Step 3: Hypothesis

‘The analysis and discussion of the initial data led to the following hypothesis

The combination of three changes: helping students set achievable goals, varying

Speaking activities and using rewards for success would increase the students’

motivation in speaking activities

* Step 4: Intervention (from week 7 to week 12)

Based on the analysis of the data collected from questionnaire, observation and on the literature revicw relating to motivational strategics in spcaking activitics fas discussed in Chapter 1), an action plan consisting of three parts: helping students set achievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for success was developed

- Lesson plan writing and preparation for plan implementation: [3asing on the main

reasons found, the tescarcher read Tilcraiure o gol more knowledge and suggested solutions Then speaking lesson plans for Units 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 were designed In these speaking lessons, the three strategies - helping students set achievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for success - were used to motivate the students to speaks

- Plan implementation: In the six speaking lessons of units 7, 8, 9, 10, Li and 12, the newly designed lesson plans were applied with the same group of students, During the 6 weeks of the intervention, the speaking lessons were handled in a different way, using the three abovementioned changes The lessons were observed using Observation shect 1

especially younger ones

2 5, Description of Data Collection Instruments

In order to collect the data, the researcher used a combination of two instruments: Questionnaire and Observation to guarantee the objectiveness of the data

2.5.1, Questionnaires

Questionnaires are used when we want to fap into the opinions and ideas of our leamers and we do this by asking questions The answors arc usually recorded in some ways so thal they become available for subsequent reflection and analysis (Wallace, 2001) In this study, two questionnaires were designed because they provided the researcher with responses which could be easily quantified and analyzed

allilnds towards and as: ment of the changes int teaching: spoaking aller the six w

action plan implementation

To make sure that the students understood the questions, the researcher spent about 30 minutes guiding them to answer and explaining difficult terms when she delivered the

questionnaires to the sturlents,

2.8.2, Observations

Observation sheet 1 (Adapted from Peacock (1997)) was to explore the overall level of

Glass motivation including the follawing components: leamers’ inlerest, concentration,

enjoyment, enthusiasm, persistence with the learning task Each item in this sheet was

scared on a scale of 1 (ow) to 5 (high) ‘The maximum possible mark by Observation sheet

1 was 40

Observation sheets 2 (Adapted from Peacock (1997) focused on the on-task behavior of

students, There are twelve columns and 32 rows (comesponding to 32 students in class

K43B) ‘Two observers placed themselves in an unobtrusive position in the classroom and staried observing when students had been working for two minutes The students were

observed one by one, consecutively, clockwise around the class Each of them was

observed in five seconds Ihe assessment was "1" if the observed student was on-task and

“0" if the observed stndenl was off-task Then the observers passed ơn the next students They continued until all students had been observed and assessed 12 times

The class was observed 9 times during 9 weeks (3 times at the preliminary stage and 6

times at the intervention stage) These 9 observed units were organized as follows: in the

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 3.1 Data collected from preliminary investigation stage

3.1.1 Data collected from questionnaire 1

In order to find out the causes of students’ low motivation in English speaking activities,

the researcher firstly investigated their reasons for leaming English speaking through

Question 1 Only 2 students stated that they were interested in English speaking skill, 8

students wanted to be able to communicate in English, 15 students believed that English speaking is necessary for their future job while 30 students claimed that they learned English speaking because it is compulsory at school One of them gave out another reason

that s/he wanted to go abroad after graduating In short, it is assumed that the students

learned English speaking mainly because it was a compulsory part in school syllabus

Chart 1: Students' reasons for learning English speaking

They are interested in English speaking stall

Through Question 2, the students’ attitude towards leaming English speaking was

revealed The results show that more than half of the students (56.3%, 18 students) were

not fully aware of the importance of English speaking 12.5% (4 students) did not mind if

English speaking is important to them or not 15.7% (5 students) thought that English

speaking is not important at all and 28.1% (9 students) responded that English speaking is

little important Only 43.7% (14 students) found English speaking rather important (37.5%,

12 students) or very important (6.2%, 2 students) to them It can be seen that the students

can not have high level of motivation in English speaking activities when they are not fully aware of the importance of English speaking.

Inglish in class Among these students, 14 students (43.8%) always felt unwilling, 9

students (28.1%) usually (clt unwilling, and 3 students (9.4%) sometimes (ett unwilling Onty 4 students (12.5%) said that they spoke whenever they were told to do and 2 (6.224) answered that they always seek for chances to speak in class, These figures prove that the frequency of the students’ unwillingness in speaking was high (The results can be found in the responscs to Question 3)

Chart 3: Students’ frequency of enwillingness to speak English in chiss 62%

BA Abways

BB Usnally

OC Sometimes

GP Speak whenever they arc told to

DR Abways seek for chances ta speak in class

In an attempt to find ont factors leading to the students’ low motivation, the researcher gave

ont the question “What facior’s) takes) you imwilling to speak English in class?” (Question 4), A Jorge umber of students (26 students) expressed that one of the factors was that leaming goal is not to communicate in Linglish Clearly, their motivation in English speaking activilics could not be high if they did not Ieam English to communicate Another factor raised by 24 students was monotonous speaking activities, In addition, there were two other causes: being aftaid of making mistakes then being laughed at by other classmalgs, and impleasant atmosphere in the classroom Both of the two causes Tevsived