000029693 THE EFFECT OF MODIFIED SPEAKING CVACTIVITIES IN "BUSINESS VENTURE” ON STUDENTS' MOTIVATION AT FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY: AN EXPERIMENT ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NÓI CHUYỆN ĐƯỢC SỬA ĐỔI TRONG MÔN HỌC "KINH DOANH" ĐẾN ĐẾN ĐỘNG LỰC SINH VIÊN TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI THƯƠNG: MỘT THÍ NGHIỆM
B a c k g r o u n d t o t h e s t u d y a n d s t a t e m e n t o f t h e p r o b l e m
Motivation has long been viewed as a major force in language learning, and researchers have investigated what motivation is, its effects on L2 achievement, and the best ways for teachers to apply motivational techniques to raise classroom performance Pioneering scholars such as Brophy (1998), Chambers (1999), and Dörnyei (1994) have offered crucial insights into how to motivate learners, spurring further research into arousing student interest and helping learners master the four language skills In Vietnam, Lai Hong Ha (2004) explored motivation dimensions in the use of teaching materials, while broader efforts are still needed to address gaps in motivating students in areas like speaking lessons.
Among the four language skills, speaking is generally regarded as the most difficult to learn, yet it remains one of the most crucial abilities As communicative language teaching (CLT) gains prominence in many countries, the fundamental aim of foreign language instruction should be the acquisition of oral competence—the ability to be understood In an effective conversation class, students are encouraged to speak, learn from their errors, and gain confidence, with motivation playing a central role in these lessons.
With the aim of equipping learners with a certain level of oral competence to be successful at cross-cultural business transactions after graduation, the Foreign Trade University (FTU) has designated speaking as an important training task and incorporated it into the first-year syllabus In the academic year 2001-2002, Business Venture (Barnard &
Cady, 2000) was selected to teach non-English m ajor students of the Faculty of Business Administration (FBA) Business Venture is a speaking and listening course.
This course is designed for false beginners who may have studied some English but still need to improve their fluency It features fresh, updated material and a wide range of engaging practice activities Comprised of twelve units, it prepares learners for a broad spectrum of business situations, from dealing with clients and entertaining them to telephoning and arranging appointments The emphasis is on presenting English as a means of international communication in business settings.
After two years of using this course-book, researchers and other English teachers face a persistent problem: sustaining genuine interest in speaking classes A communicative speaking class is supposed to be as lively as possible, with role-plays that promise many challenges and surprises, and thus foster fun and motivation Yet in many classes the role-plays are boring, with students quietly stitching together key structures and prompts; the activities resemble reading or matching tasks more than speaking An informal investigation conducted in the 2003–2004 academic year yielded revealing findings Conversations with students showed that they were tired of the speaking activities; they felt these tasks stifled creativity and imagination, making them feel like machines assembling fragments, with little opportunity to use their higher thinking because the prompts were trivial Some prompts were difficult, but they could not seek help from group members to negotiate the meanings of the input Students also doubted that these reading activities would enhance their speaking ability While student responses were fairly uniform, teachers presented two conflicting views: some believed the low motivation stemmed from the activities themselves, while others argued that there was nothing wrong with the activities in the book, which had been designed by experienced book designers.
In brief, the problem of students’ low level o f m otivation is perceived as serious by both teaching staff and students Experim ents with alternatives to original activities in
Business Venture, therefore, should be carried out and this is hoped to bring new insight into the English teaching at FTU.
In the study's initial attempt to address low motivation in language learning, the researcher revised speaking activities to boost learner motivation The changes tapped into students' resources and promoted greater in-class engagement by asking them to do more preparation and share their work during class time, a student-centered approach that received positive feedback from the learners.
Motivated by the early work of modifying activities and the encouraging responses from students, the author has launched this research The study tests the experimental hypothesis that students engaging in modified activities within Business Venture will be more motivated than those working with the original activities.
The research question has been formulated as follows
Do modified speaking activities motivate the students better than the original activities in B usiness Venture ?
Motivation, as revealed later in the literature review, is a complex phenomenon It could be probed on a large scale, for example, in the study by Domyei and Csizer’s
An experimental study on motivation strategies examines the effect of two sets of speaking activities— the original and the modified versions drawn from Business Venture—on student motivation While experimental research can explore variables such as effort, language aptitude, personality traits, parental influence, and learner commitment, this particular investigation confines itself to two first-year classes that are matched on their initial motivation in a speaking class Due to time and financial constraints, the researcher limits the design to these two groups and assumes that characteristics like students’ personality traits and parental influence are comparable across them.
An investigation into how modified versus original speaking activities embedded in the course-book can influence student motivation aims to identify the most effective approach to energize learners to practice spoken English The findings are intended to provide teachers with practical guidance and strategies to boost motivation in speaking, helping students take greater interest in their study and invest more time in developing this skill By enhancing engagement with speaking activities, improvements in speaking—long regarded as one of the most challenging areas of language learning—could be achieved.
The thesis consists of five chapters.
This chapter presents the study’s rationale, clarifies the research objectives and the intended audience, and explains why the work matters It also offers a concise outline of the thesis, previewing the structure and showing how each section supports the overall aims.
Chapter two outlines the framework by discussing key issues and ideas in motivation theories, the teaching of speaking, and communicative activities The chapter is organized into three sections, including an Overview of Motivation and The Theory of Speaking, to connect theoretical insights with classroom practice.
This chapter provides a comprehensive description of the study implementation, detailing the participants, the experimental design, the data collection instruments, and the procedures, illustrated with samples of speaking lesson plans for both the experimental and control groups It also reports the pilot study findings, along with guidelines for modifying activities and the piloting process.
C hapter 4: Data analysis and discussion
This chapter provides readers with the data analysis, a summary of the major findings of the experiment as well as recommendations on the application of the modified speaking activities.
Chapter 5: Conclusion and im plications
This chapter presents the study’s major findings, discusses their key features, and examines their practical and theoretical implications It also acknowledges the study’s limitations and provides concrete recommendations for future research in this area.
This chapter sets the scene by providing theoretical background related to motivation and it then attempts to exam ine some language teaching approaches It concludes with the discussion of com m unicative speaking activities used in the classroom.
M otivation has been seen and understood by different methodologists and pedagogical researchers M otivation is one of the most significant components of learning in any educational environment (Maehr, 1984) Questions about why students engage in, pursue, and accomplish certain aims or goals or tasks, or why they avoid others, have been the subject o f scholarly inquiry since the writing of 5th century BC Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle.