động cơ của học sinh, thái độ của cha mẹ ảnh hưởng đến việc học tiếng anh của các em học sinh trường thpt

HuNG YeN department of education and trainingduong quang ham senior high school ****************** Initiative and experience STUDENT MOTIVATION, PARENTAL ATTITUDES AND INVOLVEMENT IN CH

HuNG YeN department of education and training

duong quang ham senior high school

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

Initiative and experience

STUDENT MOTIVATION, PARENTAL ATTITUDES AND INVOLVEMENT IN CHILDREN’S ENGLISH LEARNING AT

DUONG QUANG HAM SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Subject : English Academic year : 2012-2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I

TABLE OF CONTENTS II

LIST OF TABLES IV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS V

CHAPTER 1: REASON FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC 1

1.1 REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC 1

1.2 A IMS OF THE S TUDY 3

1.3 S COPE AND S IGNIFICANCE OF THE S TUDY 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 M OTIVATION IN L2 LEARNING 4

2.1.1 Definition 4

2.1.2 Types of Motivation 5

2.1.3 Role of motivation in L2 learning 6

2.1.4 Studies into integrative and instrumental motivations 8

2.2 P ARENTS AS A FACTOR AFFECTING STUDENTS ’ MOTIVATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING .10

2.3 S TUDIES INTO PARENTAL ATTITUDES AND INVOLVEMENT IN CHILDREN ’ S LANGUAGE LEARNING 13

2.3.1 Parental attitudes in children s language learning’ 13

2.3.2 Parental involvement in children s language learning’ 16

2.4 S UMMARY 19

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 20

3.1 D ATA C OLLECTION I NSTRUMENTS 20

3.1.1 Questionnaires 20

3.2 S UBJECTS 23

3.2.1 Student population 23

3.2.2 Parents 24

3 3 P ROCEDURES 24

3.4 D ATA ANALYSIS 25

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 27

4.1 S TUDENTS ’ MOTIVATION IN ENGLISH LEARNING 27

4.1.1 Integrative motivation in English learning 27

4.1.2 Instrumental motivation in English learning 30

4.1.3 Parental attitudes and involvement as perceived by students 32

4.2 P ARENTAL ATTITUDES AND INVOLVEMENT IN CHILDREN ’ S ENGLISH LEARNING JUDGED BY PARENTS 35 4.3 PARENTAL ATTITUDES AND INVOLVEMENT IN CHILDREN’S ENGLISH LEARNING PERCEIVED BY

STUDENTS AND PARENTS 38

4.4 C ORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS ’ MOTIVATION AND PARENTAL ATTITUDES AND INVOLVEMENT IN CHILDREN ’ S ENGLISH LEARNING 39

4.5 S UMMARY 41

CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 42

5.1 R ECOMMENDATIONS 42

5.1.1 Parents 42

5.1.2 Teachers 43

5.1.3 School 44

5.2 C ONCLUSION AND FURTHER RESEARCH 46

REFERENCES 49

APPENDICES 53

APPENDIX A1: 53

STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE

APPENDIX A2: 57

VIETNAMESE VERSION OF STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE

APPENDIX B1: 62

PARENT Q UESTIONNAIRE

APPENDIX B2: 64

VIETNAMESE VERSION OF PARENT Q UESTIONNAIRE

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Students’ Integrative Motivation in English learning

Table 2: Students’ Instrumental Motivation in English learning

Table 3: Motivation by Vietnamese and Chinese students

Table 4: Parental attitudes and involvement as perceived by students

Table 5: Parental attitudes and involvement in children’s English learning

Table 6: T-test value of mean scores of parental attitudes and involvement in

children’s English learning perceived by students and by their parents

Table 7: R-values of students’ motivation and parental attitudes and involvement

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

A: agree

D: disagree

DQH: Duong Quang Ham

EFL: English as a foreign language

SLA: second language acquisition

StrA: strongly agree

StrD: strongly disagree

TL: target language

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This introductory chapter provides three parts: the reason for choosing the topic, theaims of the study, the scope and significance of the study

1.1 Reasons for choosing the topic

The study of motivation in second language acquisition (SLA) has become an importantresearch topic with the development of socio-educational model on second language(L2) motivation (Gardner & Lambert, 1972; Gardner, 1985; Gardner & MacIntyre,1993; Tremblay & Gardner, 1995) According to Gardner and Lambert (1972),motivation to learn an L2 is grounded in positive attitudes toward the L2 communityand in a desire to communicate with valued members of that community and becomesimilar to them This desire is integrative orientation, which is a support for languagelearning, while an instrumental orientation is associated with the desire to learn L2 forpragmatic gains such as getting a better job or higher salary (Dornyei, 2001; Gardner &Lambert, 1972)

L2 motivation is indeed a prerequisite condition for the success of L2 learners like foodfor the brain Successful language learning can only take place if the learner has goalsand an inner drive to achieve these goals (Crookes & Schmidt, 1991) L2 motivationcan be seen as a desire to study the foreign language to understand and use thelanguage that learners are learning and to serve their purposes For example, motivation

in learning English as a foreign language (EFL) involves a student’s desire toparticipate in the English learning process (Gardner, 1985) Without L2 motivation,learners would feel bored, and then they just learn to pass the exams or please theirparents (Krashen, 1982) Gradually, they would be afraid of studying L2

Motivation plays a significant role in the process of learning a language Languageteachers cannot effectively teach a language if they do not understand the relationshipbetween motivation and its effect on language acquisition as well as its affectingfactors The core of motivation is what might be called passion, which relates to aperson's intrinsic goals and desires Successful learners know their preferences, theirstrengths and weaknesses, and effectively utilize strengths and compensate for

weaknesses Successful language learning is linked to the learner’s passion (Karaoglu,2008).

One of the factors affecting L2 motivation maintaining is parents Parents can beconsidered as the most important in increasing and maintaining student motivation inL2 learning According to Wlodkowski and Jaynes (1990), parents can greatlyinfluence and maintain their child’s motivation for a lifetime Parental influences are anintegral part of students’ motivation Indeed, the home environment and family supportmay be major factors influencing the school student (Walberg, Paschal, & Weinstein,

1985 as cited in Hein & Wimer, 2007) Fortunately, many modern parents nowadaysare aware of the fact that failure or success of their children depends greatly on theparents themselves - “the first and long life teacher” (Hein & Wimer, 2007) In order tosucceed in education in general and in teaching English in particular, teachers shouldunderstand the factors affecting student motivation Once teachers can understand theparental influence, they would probably find ways to cooperate with parents to motivatestudents more so that the students could be successful English learners

Important as motivation and the role of parents in maintaining and enhancingmotivation are, it is a sad fact that in rural areas in Vietnam like Hungyen, themotivation for English is low Unlike parents in big cities such as Hanoi andHochiminh city, many of whom are so involved in their children’s English learning asshown in the number of children taking extra courses and scoring so high in English,parents in non-urban areas do not seem to have given due attention to this subject.Unfortunately, no effort so far has been spent on exploring this aspect of learning aswell as the attitudes of the parents towards their children’s English learning Obviously,

an investigation into this area will bring about the information needed to gain an insightinto how students in those less advantageous areas are driven toward the mostimportant language in today’s globalization context, how their parents feel toward thesubject and how these two aspects are inter-related

1.2 Aims of the Study

The study aimed at investigating the level of student motivation and their parent’attitudes and involvement in their English learning at DQH Senior High School

1.3 Scope and Significance of the Study

The study was conducted at DQH Senior High School in Vangiang district, Hung Yenprovince

The study focused on examining student motivation in the language that they arelearning: English and their parents’ attitudes and involvement in their English learning

It is expected to provide deeper understanding of how students in less advantageousareas in Vietnam feel toward the language and what kind of motivation is stronger It isalso intended to draw a picture, though far from comprehensive, on how parents inthose districts are involved in their children language learning From all thisimplications on how to better motivate the students, how to maximize parents’ support,how to initiate and sustain parents’ engagement could be drawn

The study certainly had practical value for teachers teaching English in DQH SeniorHigh School in particular, and for any researchers who would like to improve languageteaching as well as learning in general Knowing the factors affecting studentmotivation would assist the search for better teaching and learning process

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Motivation as a significant factor in language learning has attracted interest of variousresearchers and the literature is, therefore, very rich This chapter, however, limits itself

to issues that are most pertinent to the research focus They are types of motivation,roles of motivation and parental attitudes and involvement in children’s languagelearning The review also covers studies into possible roles of parents in shaping thestudents’ motivation for the language

2.1 Motivation in L2 learning

2.1.1 Definition

Research on motivation in L2 learning has been heavily influenced by the work ofCanadian psychologist Gardner and MacIntyre (1993) According to Gardner (1985), ahighly motivated individual will want to learn the language, enjoy learning it, and strive

to learn it The Gardnerian theory of L2 learning motivation is based on the definition

of motivation as “the extent to which the individual works or strives to learn thelanguage because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity”(Gardner, 1985)

In this definition, motivation is described as goal-directed Gardner (1985) proposesthat in order to understand why learners are motivated, it is necessary to understand thelearner’s ultimate goal or purpose for learning the language He refers to this as thelearner’s orientation (Gardner, 1985) Besides, he identifies two distinct orientations forlearning a language, which are integrative and instrumental orientations

2.1.2 Types of Motivation

2.1.2.1 Integrative Motivation

Integrative motivation or integrative orientation refers to a learner’s desire to learnmore about the cultural community of the target language (TL) or to assimilate to somedegree in the target community (Gardner, 1985) Moreover, integrative motivationrefers to a desire to increase the affiliation with the target community Integrativemotivation is characterized by the learner's positive attitudes towards the TL group and

the desire to integrate into the TL community (Gardner, 1982; Gardner, 1985) In thissense, the student with integrative motivation likes to learn the TL as he wants to knowmore about its culture and people

In addition, integrative motivation is a key component in assisting the learner todevelop some level of proficiency in the language When someone becomes a resident

in a new community that uses the TL in social interactions, it becomes a necessity tooperate socially in the community and become one of its members It is also theorizedthat integrative motivation underlies successful acquisition of a native likepronunciation (Finegan, 1999) It is thought that students who are most successful inlearning a TL are those who like the people that speak the language, admire the cultureand have a desire to become familiar with or even integrate into the society in whichthe language is used (Falk, 1978)

In EFL setting such as Vietnam, especially in small, quiet towns, where there are veryfew English speakers and the exposure to English cultures is very low, it is important toconsider the actual meaning of the term "integrative." As Benson (1991) suggests, amore appropriate approach to the concept of integrative motivation in the EFL contextwould be the idea that it represents the desire of the individual to become bilingual,while at the same time becoming bicultural This occurs through the addition of anotherlanguage and culture to the learner's own cultural identity As Vietnam ispredominantly a monoculture society, opportunities to use the TL in daily verbalexchanges are relatively restricted, especially in the countryside where foreigners rarelyappear Hence, there is limited potential for integrating into the TL community It could

be anticipated that the integrative motivation under investigation would not be verystrong

2.1.2.2 Instrumental Motivation

Instrumental motivation or Instrumental orientation underlies the goal to gain somesocial or economic reward through L2 achievement, thus referring to a more functionalreason for language learning (Gardner, 1985) Instrumental motivation is a moreutilitarian orientation It refers to learner’s desires to learn the language in order toaccomplish some non-interpersonal purpose such as to pass an exam, to get ascholarship, to advance a career, to meet the requirements for school or universitygraduation, to apply for a job, to achieve higher social status, and so forth (Clement et

al., 1994; Dornyei, 1990; Hudson, 2000; Verma, 2005) This is generally characterized

by the desire to obtain something practical or concrete from the language study

In brief, it is clear that the latter refers to the need to acquire a language as a means forattaining goals such as career advancement or successful further study The former,however, refers to the desire to learn a language in order to become closer to the cultureand society of the TL group To gain a clear and deep understanding about motivationroles, types, the following studies are supposed to be useful

2.1.3 Role of motivation in L2 learning

The study of motivation in SLA has become an important research topic with thedevelopment of the socio-educational model on L2 motivation (Gardner & Lambert,1972; Gardner, 1985; Gardner & MacIntyre, 1993; Tremblay & Gardner, 1995).According to Gardner and Lambert (1972), motivation to learn an L2 is grounded inpositive attitudes towards the L2 community and a desire to communicate with valuedmembers of that community and become similar to them The latter desire is integrativemotivation, which is a better support for language learning, while instrumentalmotivation is associated with a desire to learn L2 for pragmatic gains such as getting abetter job or a higher salary (Clement, Dornyei, & Noels, 1994; Dornyei, 2001;Gardner & Lambert, 1972).; Hudson, 2000; Verma, 2005)

Without motivation, success will be hard to achieve (Ushioda, 2000) Motivationprovides the primary impetus to begin learning a second/foreign language and tosustain the long and difficult learning process (Brown, 2000; Ely, 1986; Gardner, 1985;Gardner & Lambert, 1972; Nunan, 2000; Nunan & Lamb, 1996; Oxford & Shearin,1994; Scarcella & Oxford, 1992; Williams & Burden, 1997) The role of orientation canhelp arouse motivation and direct it towards a set of goals, with either a stronginterpersonal quality (integrative motivation) or a strong practical quality (instrumentalmotivation) (Dornyei, 2001) Studies in the psychology of learning affirm that withoutmotivation little can be learned (Williams & Burden, 1997) Additionally, numerousresearch studies on L2 motivation reveal that, in general, motivation enhances SLA;learners ranking high on integrative motivation work harder and learn faster than thosewho are low on integrative motivation (Clement et al., 1994; Gardner, 1985; Gardner &MacIntyre, 1991; Tremblay & Gardner, 1995; Liu, 2007, etc.) Therefore, integrativeand instrumental orientations or intrinsic and extrinsic motivations contribute to the

learning of an L2 Nevertheless, as to which one is more important varies from context

to context Likewise, students in different contexts may be motivated to learn an L2 bydifferent orientations This is why the issue is still worth further exploration insituations with different groups of learners

It is worth noting that L2 motivation is recognized as one of the prerequisites forsuccessful language learning Motivation is “a very important, if not the most importantfactor in language learning” (Van Lier, 1996) without which even “gifted” individualscannot accomplish long-term goals, whatever the curriculum and whoever the teacher.Instrumental motivation as a contributing factor to learners’ effort and success in SLA:

“the greater the value that individuals attach to the accomplishment of or involvement

in the activity, the more highly motivated they will be to engage in it initially, and later

to put sustained effort into succeeding in the activity” (Verma, 2005; Williams &Burden, 1997)

2.1.4 Studies into integrative and instrumental motivations

It has been shown that both integrative and instrumental motivations are important Astudent might learn an L2 well with an integrative motivation or with instrumentalmotivation, or indeed with both, for one does not rule out the other or with othermotivation Both integrative and instrumental motivations may lead to success, but lack

of either would cause problems (Gardner, 1985)

Firstly, integrative motivation has been found to sustain long-term success whenlearning an L2 (Ellis, 1997; Taylor, Meynard & Rheault, 1977) In some of the earlyresearch conducted by Gardner and Lambert (1972), integrative motivation is viewed asbeing of more importance in a formal learning environment than instrumentalmotivation (Ellis, 1997) In later studies, integrative motivation has continued to beemphasized, although now the importance of instrumental motivations is also stressed.However, it is noteworthy that instrumental motivation has only been acknowledged as

a significant factor in some research, whereas integrative motivation is continuallylinked to successful SLA It has been found that generally students select instrumentalreasons more frequently than integrative reasons for the study of languages (Gardner &Lambert, 1972; Liu, 2007; Ushioda, 2000; Wong, 2005) They are also good languagelearners Nevertheless, it should be repeated that those who do support an integrative

approach to language study are usually more highly motivated and overall moresuccessful in language learning

Gardner and Lambert (1972) conducted an important study in the Philippines Theresearchers switched from the study of French to the study of English, which is themost prestigious language in the Philippines The subjects in this study were highschool students who had approximately six years of formal training in English.Additionally, English has been the means of instruction since the third grade In thestudy, Gardner and Lambert (1972) concluded that those students who wereinstrumentally motivated and received support in their homes succeeded in Englishlanguage development more than those students who were not instrumentally oriented.Nevertheless, those students who identified with the foreign language culture andlanguage seemed to be in a position of advantage in the language acquisition process.Finally, and most important, Gardner and Lambert (1972) concluded that in the foreignlanguage setting, teachers and administrators should try to help students developintegrative motivation toward the foreign language and its culture In L2 setting, it is offundamental importance to help students develop both instrumental and instrumentalmotivations

Man-Fat’s (2004) study focused on the relationship between integrative motivation andL2 achievement among Chinese L2 learners in Hong Kong The respondents of thestudy included 41 students at St Francis Xavier's College (SFXC) SFXC is a boys'school in Hong Kong with Chinese secondary students aged from 12 to 18 The datacollection instruments used in the study were a questionnaire adapted from Gardner'sAttitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMI) (Gardner, 1985) and a semi-structuredinterview The findings revealed that instrumental goals, especially future careerdevelopment and meeting more varied people with career-related purposes are moreimportant than integrative goals such as appreciating British arts and literature Inaddition to high instrumental motivation, the findings of the study showed thatintegrative was also important to the respondents

Liu (2007) conducted a research study on Chinese students’ motivation to learn English

at the Tertiary Level The purpose of the study was to investigate Chinese students’attitudes towards and motivation to learn English and the correlations of the saidvariables with the students’ English proficiency The subjects included 202 third-yearnon-English majors (51 females and 151 males) in six classes in a southern university

in China The instrument used in the study consisted of a motivation questionnaire, anopen-ended question and an English proficiency test A modified 44-item questionnaireadapted from Gardner’s (1985) and Clement et al.’s (1994) studies The findingsrevealed that the students had positive attitudes towards learning English and werehighly motivated to study it, and that they were more instrumentally than integrativelymotivated Their attitudes and motivation were positively correlated with their Englishproficiency This means the more positive attitudes students have, the more motivatedthey are and as a result, the higher score they get in English proficiency.

2.2 Parents as a factor affecting students motivation in language learning ’

Parents play a crucial role in enhancing children’s motivation to learn an L2 Outsidethe school environment, Wlodkowski and Jaynes (1990) present four major influences

on an individual’s motivation to learn, which are family, school, the child as anindividual, and culture As Williams (1994) has explained, many factors affect students'commitment to study such as their home background, physical tiredness, events in theirpersonal life, health, previous educational experience, personality and the onset ofadolescence Within the limited scope of this study, the impact of parental factor,specifically parents’ attitudes and involvement on students’ L2 motivation will bereviewed

Parental attitudes and involvement are very important in enhancing motivation tochildren’s language learning Gardner (1985) finally suggests that although thestudents’ perception of their parents’ support is not directly related to their performance

in class, their willingness to learn and their motivation are substantially enhanced bysuitable encouragement from their parents In fact, parental attitudes and involvementtend to yield highly effective results in language learning Gardner (1968) thinks it ismeaningful to distinguish two roles of the parent which relevant to his child’s success

in a second-language program, i.e., active role and passive role Gardner (1968)explains the former is the role whereby the parent actively and consciously encouragesthe student to learn the language In this active role, the parent monitors the child’slanguage-learning performance, and to the extent that he plays this role to promotesuccess That is, the parent watches over the child and makes sure he does hishomework, encourages him to do and in general reinforces his successes Gardner(1968) also believes it is safe to assume differences in the extent to which parents vary

in this encouragement function would have some influence on the child’s performance

in any learning situation On the contrary, the passive role is more subtle, and Gardner(1968) thinks it is more important, primarily because the parent would probably beunaware of it By the subtle role, Gardner (1968) means the attitudes of the parenttoward the community whose language the child is learning He believes these attitudesare important because they influence the child’s attitudes and motivation

To contrast these roles, Gardner (1968) explains that if an English speaking parentmight actively encourage a child to learn French, he may stress the importance of doingwell in that course, and might see that the child does his homework, and so forth Inthis case, he might be perceived as actually helping the child This is the active role.However, this same parent might hold positive or negative attitudes toward the targetcommunity To the extent that he holds negative attitudes toward the target community,

he may be undermining his active role by transferring to the child negative attitudetowards the target community whose language the child is learning (Gardner, 1968)

Therefore, like teachers, it is believed that parents can have remarkable impact onstudents’ motivation to learn at school and at home as well Webb and Palinscar (1996)emphasizes the critical role of parents like teachers that can influence students’motivation and engagement in class Parents are considered to play a more critical role

in their child’ SLA (Gardner, 1960; Gardner & Lambert, 1972) Specifically, supportfrom home is very important for students’ motivation to learn a second language Ifparents value both the native language and English, communicate with their children inwhichever language is most comfortable, and show support for and interest in theirchildren’s progress, the children will definitely be more motivated to learn the L2(Wlodkowski & Jaynes, 1990)

Concerning family, Wlodkowski and Jaynes (1990) assert that parents appear to be theprimary influence on child’s motivation to learn Family has an impact on motivation atevery stage of development, lasting through secondary school and beyond Healthy,effective families possess positive attitudes and behaviors toward their children thathelp them to succeed in school and life (Wlodkowski & Jaynes, 1990) With parentsbeing a child’s first and most important teacher, it seems obvious that family will have

a significant influence on the development of a child’s motivation to learn Garrett(1995) (as cited in Wlodkowski & Jaynes, 1990) asserts in a speech at the OklahomaAdministrator’s Conference “the smallest school in America is the family”, whichillustrates the significant role that family has in education and motivation of students

Of the family, parental influences are an integral part of students’ motivation One ofthe most effective areas of increased student motivation lies not in the schools at all, but

in the homes of the students Parental involvement here continues to be the mostinfluential factor in student achievement and motivation Students whose parents areclosely involved in their school lives and who monitor their progress fare best in highschool From the research findings, Brophy (1987) finds significant proof that parentsand family are the leading models and motivators for secondary education students.More importantly, children’s home environment can shape the initial constellation oflearning attitudes When parents nurture their children to learn by encouraging them toexplore and ask questions, they will develop a sense of competence and self-efficacyand autonomy, which help enhancing their motivation to learn Additionally, Brophy(1987) advocates, motivation to learn is stimulated most directly through modeling,communication of expectations, and direct instruction or socialization by significantothers, especially parents and teachers Additionally, scholars like Wlodkowski andJaynes (1990), Gottfried et al (as cited in Dornyei, 2001) believe that parents, apartfrom peers, also play a major role in affecting students’ motivation to learn as parents’support is the main reference point reinforcing students’ goals during their process oflearning

In conclusion, parents should be assumed that they are concerned and competentpeople; they are making their best efforts for the good of their children; they have tocontend with pressure and responsibilities; and they need support in their efforts towardproblem solving (Wlodkowski & Jaynes, 1990)

2.3 Studies into parental attitudes and involvement in children s language ’

learning

2.3.1 Parental attitudes in children s language learning’

Motivation in L2 learning has been a research topic of great interest to researchers andeducators for years There have been various research projects done in this aspect (e.g.Gardner & Lambert, 1959; Gardner, 1960; Gardner & Feenstra, 1968; Gardner &Lambert, 1972, etc.) Moreover, several research studies conducted in recent years(Madileng, 2007; Liu, 2007; Sung & Padilla, 1998; Wong, 2005) demonstrate howmuch motivation influences student in L2 learning and some emphasize the role ofparents in student’s SLA

In their first studies, Gardner and Lambert (1959), and Gardner (1960) investigatedEnglish-speaking high school students who were taking French lesson in Montreal interms of language-learning aptitude, verbal intelligence, attitude toward the Frenchcommunity and intensity of motivation to study French Moreover, Gardner (1960)found that those students with integrative motivation to study French, had parents whoalso had an integrative motivation toward the French community In this respect,Gardner (1960) concluded that the students’ integrative motivation depended on thefamily’s attitudes.

Related to the topic of the previous study, Gardner and Feenstra (1968) investigatedparental influence on students of French in Ontario Basing on the result of theirresearch, Gardner and Feenstra (1968) confirmed the result of Gardner’s previousstudies Those parents, who were concluded to hold more positive attitudes toward theFrench language and community, encouraged their children to learn French more thanthose parents who did not have positive attitudes toward the French language andcommunity

After the series of studies described above, Gardner and Lambert (1972) decided toextend their research to a non-Canadian setting to test the generalizability of their ideasabout motivation, attitudes, and the language learning process For this purpose, theyconducted a series of studies in Louisiana, Maine, because it presented an active Frenchsubculture The third state, Connecticut, was chosen as a reference for foreign languagelearning, and as an example of a more “typical American region”

In Louisiana and Maine, Gardner and Lambert (1972) investigated the attitudes andmotivation of American high school students toward the French language and people.The findings showed that parents in Louisiana seemed to encourage their children tolearn French for instrumental reasons However, unlike the Louisiana setting, whereparental attitudes played an important role in motivating students, in Maine, motivationapparently seemed to stem from a positive view of the French teacher and sensitivityfor the feeling of others Furthermore, an instrumental orientation originated in thosehomes where parents shared many French friends

Sung and Padilla (1998) conducted a research on student motivation, parental attitudes,and involvement in the learning of Asian languages in elementary and secondaryschools The respondents consisted of 591 students, where elementary occupied 140

students from two different schools and 450 for secondary students from six differentschools in California The aims of the study were to examine the student motivationtoward the learning of Chinese, Japanese, or Korean in public school in California.Information was collected by means of a questionnaire, one for parents and one forstudents The findings revealed that elementary students were more motivated overalltoward Asian language study than were older students Besides, younger studentsperceived their parents as more involved in their language study than did high schoolstudents The findings further showed that elementary school parents had positiveattitudes toward L2 and were more motivated in the child’s language learning thanwere parents of high school students It is important to note that the students in thisstudy made no distinction between instrumental and integrative motives for learning aforeign language Students here had the right to choose the language they liked to learn.

Another recent research project carried out by Madileng (2007) with an empiricalinvestigation in the relationship between motivation and English second languageproficiency when English was viewed as a medium of instruction The respondents ofthe study were 52 first year students at the Ekurhuleni West College of the ALbertoncampus registered for Business Studies A questionnaire and a language proficiency testwere used for the data collection The results of the study proved that parental supportwere generally low and never went above 25.6% and that the students who got the leastparental support were low performers

In brief, parental attitudes towards their child’s language learning play a vital andcrucial role in the development of SLA More specifically, when children are receivingfrequent encouragement from their parents, they would be more motivated to learn thelanguage; as a result, they would put more effort to learn it To some extent, they wouldeven be willing to study it In other words, parents’ attitudes can shape their children’motivation to learn the language and parental involvement holds a more significant part

in maintaining their children’s motivation The latter issue is reviewed in the followingsection

2.3.2 Parental involvement in children s language learning’

Although little research has been done to examine students’ motivation to learn Englishversus their parental involvement, several studies provide clues to this criticalcomponent of L2 learning

In the 1990s, researchers (Crookes & Schmidt, 1991; Mahlobo, 1999) studied theeffects of variables like the contribution of parents in their children’s SLA andproficiency and the influence of other variables like the school and classroomenvironment The curriculum of the home is characterized by family values thatmanifest from parent-child interaction Such values set a foundation of individualresponsibility, hard work, perseverance and the importance of education andeducational achievement The literature review highlights parents’ socio-economicstatus, parents’ level of education, and appropriate family context and culture asinfluential on learner motivation.

2.3.2.1 Parents socio-economic status’

Some research indicates that there is a significant relationship between parents’ economic status and their children’s level of intelligence (Milner, 1986 as cited inMahlobo, 1999)

socio-Families with low socio-economic status lack items such as books, magazines, radios,television, TV games, computers and computer games that can serve to stimulatechildren intellectually and provide exposure to English This can affect the learners’ESL proficiency and academic performance since such learners tend to be characterized

by a lack motivation, poor academic achievement, poor language skills, inductive ratherthan deductive reasoning, as well as inability to use high order cognitive strategies likeanalysis and evaluation (Du Toit, 1993 as sited in Mahlobo, 1999)

In the light of previous research, Wong (2005) conducted a research on “StudentMotivation and English Attainment” in Hong Kong The research study aimed atinvestigating the motivation patterns of the two groups of Hong Kong students withdifferent cultural backgrounds and at examining the relationship between theirmotivation to learn English and English attainment The respondents included 50students The tools for gathering information were a questionnaire and an EnglishAttainment Test The findings revealed that peer is the most influential factor affectingstudents’ motivation to learn while parents play the least significant role and thatparental guidance was not sufficient during students’ process of learning English.Wong (2005) further explained most parents in this study were working class, theireducational level might not be sufficient to solve their children’s English problems andsometimes the family income could barely support the expenses of the whole family

making it difficult for the parents to care for their children’s studying as well as Englishlearning Therefore, parents’ education and financial status were the foremostproblems, which indirectly devastated students’ learning motivation.

2.3.2.2 Parents educational background’

The parents’ level of education also determines their levels of aspirations for theirchildren, parental involvement in the education of their children and the family valuesystems With this respect, children of highly educated parents benefit more fromeducation as their parents are able to assist more in their learning Such children canmake more progress than those who are not fully supported by their parents due to pooreducational backgrounds (Driessen, Vander Slik, & De Bot, 2002)

What is more important, parental involvement entails their assistance in high scholasticachievement, offering academic guidance and provision of resources on school relatedtasks and managing and emphasizing educational activities of their children rather thanpleasurable things like TV programs, choice of books and magazines (Ferhmann et al.,

1987 as cited in Mahlobo, 1999) This means that expression of affection and interest

in the child’s academic and personal growth, effective value systems, family practices,parental beliefs and attitudes toward education can contribute to promote motivationand positive self-concept In contrast, when parents cannot speak or understandEnglish, the learners’ acquisition of English is not supported and reinforced afterschool hours Such parents may also feel ill-equipped to assist with homework(Madileng, 2007)

2.3.2.3 Parental expectations from learners

Parents’ expectation of scholastic success, a better career, as well as high professionalstatus attainment, are important and easily transmitted through a development of afamily context and culture which values education in so far as it leads to self-improvement and high self-esteem (Schnider & Lee, 1990 as cited in Mahlobo, 1999).They point out that such a context can be created through, amongst others, verbalencouragement of children to excel in EFL tasks, helping them with English homeworkand practical projects, monitoring when possible and support from an EFL perspective.Parents should also provide reading materials such as books, newspapers andmagazines with topics of interest to their children

Parental expectations in learning EFL can also be a from of hope that can help childrenstrive to become better English learners as well as more motivated to learn , thus it isnatural for parents to have expectations about their children Therefore, it is necessarythat parents should let children know what their expectations are (Gardner, 1968) Oncechildren know their parents’ hope, they would want to please their parents and try theirbest to work hard to realize that hope Consider an example, rural Vietnamese parentscan hope that one day their children with good knowledge of English will work in aforeign company in order to be well-paid and support for the whole family

In conclusion, a variety of studies show that a home conductive to learning and a familycontext which include the parents’ level of education, positive educational aspirationsand effective involvement in their children’s improvement in ESL proficiency, canresult in high general scholastic performance(Gardner, 1968; Gardner & Lambert,1972; Madileng, 2007; Wong, 2005) This is a clear indication that education and ESLachievement is not the responsibility of the school alone For education to succeed,parents should also play a prominent role in the education of their children

2.4 Summary

All this suggests that an investigation into parents’ role in promoting children’smotivation needs to consider both aspects and their manifestations In this chapter, thegeneral information about motivation in L2 learning was explored First, the definition

of motivation, types and roles of motivation were reviewed through previous studies.Second, role of parents in generating children’s motivation in language learning wasalso reviewed through numerous research projects All these were helpful because theyprovide the background knowledge of the present research study

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter consists of four main sections Section 3.1 provides details on the datacollection instruments Section 3.2 describes the subjects participating in the study Theprocedures and the setting are presented in the next two sections respectively and thelast one is the data analysis

3.1 Data Collection Instruments

To have the answers to the research questions, information was elicited from parent andstudent questionnaires

3.1.1 Questionnaires

A questionnaire is usually considered the most appropriate research instrument forgathering information concerning the attitudes of the respondents There are threereasons for this (Gillham, 2000) First, a questionnaire is confidential and therespondents can remain anonymous Second, a questionnaire is easy to administer,enabling the researcher to survey a large number of respondents Third, in many casesthe respondents can complete the questionnaire when it suits them These advantageshave encouraged the use of questionnaires in this research, which made use of arelatively large number of participants

3.1.1.1 Student questionnaire (Appendix A1)

The main objective of the student questionnaire was to measure student motivation inEnglish learning and to determine the types of motivation they had In an attempt totriangulate the data on parental attitudes and involvement in their child’s Englishlearning one section of the student questionnaire is devoted to eliciting learners’perceptions of their parents’ role There are three sections in the student questionnaire

Section A has five statements (from 1 to 5) attempted at gauging students’ integrativemotivation Students are required to state reasons for their studying English in anintegrative way All five items were adapted from Clement et al., (1994) (as cited inDornyei, 2001) Some of these items were once administered by Sung and Padilla

(1998) and Liu (2007) with the same purpose to measure students’ integrativemotivation

Section B consists of nine statements (from 6 to 14), which focus on the students’InstO, instrumental reasons for learning English These include better job opportunities,traveling as well as motives like being respected The first four items were adapted

from Gardner’s (1985) with some minor changes For example, “English”, the TL of this study replaced “French”, the TL, in Gardner’s (1985) study Items 10 to 12 are

statements adapted from Clement et al’s (1994) (as cited in Dornyei, 2001) and item 13

from Dornyei’s (1990) (as cited in Dornyei, 2001) Item 14 (English is a compulsory subject at school) was added to the list as this was believed to be one popular reason for

Vietnamese students to learn English

Section C with 12 statements (from 15 to 26) elicits the students’ perceptions about thesupport they get from their parents Some statements were adapted from Gardner’s(1985), Sung and Padilla’s (1998) and Madileng’s (2007) studies, which are all aimed

at exploring parents’ support from students’ perceptions Again, changes have beenmade to make the items more suitable for the purpose of the study and the researchcontext For example, to elicit the students’ opinion of how their parents are involved in

their language learning, the subject of each statement is “my parents” instead of “I ” In

addition, as mentioned in section B, “English”, which refers to the language that students are learning at school, replaced “French” in Gardner’s (1985) study The original item of Gardner’s (1985) “My parents feel that because we live in Canada, I should learn French” was changed to the statement “My parents feel that because we live in the countryside, I do not need to learn English” Other items were added considering the characteristics of DQH students For example, “My parents give me anything that I need to study English well ”

Finally, it is worth noting that the student questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese

to ensure better comprehension

3.1.1.2 Parent questionnaire (Appendix B1)

The purpose of this questionnaire was to specify the attitudes and involvement ofparents in their children’s English learning The questionnaire was translated intoVietnamese too because virtually all the parents were observed to be unable to use

English The parent questionnaire includes 12 questions, which were identical to those

in Section C of the student questionnaire

Question 1 elicits information about parents’ feeling about their children’s need to learnEnglish

Questions 2, 8 and 9 seek information about parents’ encouragement in their children’slearning English, e.g ask them to watch English television programs and/or listen toEnglish radio programs

Question 3 is to ask the parents if they believe English should spend more timestudying English

Questions 4 and 5 are to record parents’ beliefs in the importance of English in generaland after graduation in particular

Questions 6, 7, 11 are designed to collect information about how parents help theirchildren do English homework, whether they tell them to get help from the teacher ifthey have problems with learning English and support everything for them to studyEnglish well

Questions 10 and 12 are to discover the information about whether parents feel proudwhen their children study English well and to ask if they force their children to learnEnglish

Responses to items on both the student and parent questionnaires were recorded onfive-point Likert scales ranging from “strongly agree” (5) to strongly disagree” (1).This five -point rating scale was administered in the present study because they are verypopular with educational researchers and have been shown to work quite well (Johnson

& Christensen, 2000)

3.2 Subjects

3.2.1 Student population

The 10th graders were selected to be the research group for this study as their subjectpreferences were believed not to be affected by the pressure from the Graduation andUniversity Admission exams as the 11 and 12 graders There are 28 classes with 1,257students at DQH High School, in which grade 10 comprise 10 classes, each of whichhas approximately 49 students The total population of 10th-grade students is 496, 249

of whom are girls The age ranges from 16 to 17 and all students have learned Englishfor at least four years and finished the set of textbooks used for junior secondary schooli.e., English 6, 7, 8 and 9 It was necessary to select a sample because the population of

496 students is too large for this study given the time constraints

3.2.1.1 Student sample

99 tenth graders (50 females and 49 males) were randomly selected (one in every five)

to make a sample that is expected to represent the population of Grade 10 students atDQH High School Johnson and Christensen (2000) argue that a random selectionwould produce a sample that might be representative of the total population as eachindividual in a given population has an equal chance of being selected This, in manycases, is done by assigning a number or code to each person and then generating asequence (Gillham, 2000) In this study, the class attendance lists were used and onestudent was chosen from a sequence of five students of the same gender

3.2.2 Parents

There were 99 parents participating in the study, corresponding to 99 students Parentsparticipating in this survey research were the ones whose children were studying atDQH Senior High School and took part in this survey It should be repeated thatvirtually all the parents have never learned EFL

3 3 Procedures

The study was carried out as follows

First, all the students selected as the subjects and their parents were coded usingnumbers to secure confidentiality All these numbers were then recorded onto thequestionnaires Then copies of the student questionnaire were distributed Any querieswere taken care of and the subjects were asked to return the handouts when they hadfinished

In the next stage, the copies of parent questionnaire were then given to the students whowould hand it on to their parents The parents were asked to complete the questionnaire

in a week’s time and students submitted their parents’ questionnaires to the teacherresearcher at school

Finally, the data collected was analyzed to generate the answer to the researchquestions

All information gathered was kept completely confidential and used for the researchpurpose only

Stage 2

In order to measure the central tendency that students and their parents have, the results

of the survey were computed in terms of mean (M), standard deviation (SD), mode(Md), and range to examine the students’ level of motivation to learn English and theirparents’ attitudes and involvement (Vogt, 1999 as cited in Creswell, 2005) The mean

gives an average for all of the scores SD is a sort of average of the distance of all thenumbers from the mean (Brown, 2001) In other words, SD is a measure of how widelyvalues are dispersed from the average value (the mean) Because the values of SD showthe dispersion of the answers, the higher the value of SD is, the bigger the dispersion isand the lower the less The smaller value of dispersion suggests the mean scores areconsidered to be reliable (Nachmias, 1996) The Md is the score that appears mostfrequently in a list of scores It is used when researchers want to know the mostcommon score in an array of scores on a variable The maximum (Max) and minimum(Min) score for each item in this study is 5 and 1 respectively The neutral point is 3.Max calculation helps in pointing out the largest value in a set of values while Mincalculation is useful in providing the smallest set of values

Apart from M, SD and Md for each statement, frequency and rate were also mentioned

to produce more specific explaination

As mentioned earlier, responses to items on both the student and parent questionnaireswere recorded on five-point Likert scales ranging from “strongly agree” (5) tostrongly disagree” (1) It is worth noting that, the items which expressed negativeattitudes towards learning English, had values assigned to their alternatives reversed,namely, the response “strongly disagree” got a value of 5 instead of 1, the choice

“strongly agree” got a value of 1 instead of 5, and so on

Stage 3

In this stage, the t-test was applied to assess whether there is any difference between

the perceptions of students and parents The result of t-test was computed in terms of t.

by r and is referred to as Pearson’s r It assumes any value between -1.00 to + 1.00

inclusive If r = 0 there is no correlation If r = 30 or r = -.30, there is small or weak

correlation If r = 75 or r = 75, there is large or strong correlation A correlation of 1.00 or + 1.00 indicates perfect correlation (John & Christensen, 2000).

-CHAPTER 4: results AND DISCUSSIONS

This chapter presents the results and the discussions of the data collected The chaptercomprises the following sections: 1) the students’ integrative motivation in Englishlearning; 2) the students’ instrumental motivation in English learning; 3) the level ofparental attitudes and involvement in children’s English learning as peceived by thestudents; 4) the level of parental attitudes and involvement in children’s Englishlearning; then 5) the possible connection between 1, 2, 3 and 4

Of all 99 copies of student questionnaire administered, all 99 were collected whereas ofall 99 parent handouts distributed, only 92 were returned Therefore, seven pairs ofparents and students were with held from the data pool

4.1 Students motivation in English learning ’

4.1.1 Students integrative motivation in English learning’

Table 1 (p 30) demonstrates the students’ integrative motivation in English learning.The overall level of integrative motivation in DQH students was not high The mostcompelling reason for those students to learn English is their desire for listening toEnglish music (M = 4.18, SD = 0.90 and Md = 4) while the wish to live like Englishpeople seemed to be the least strong motive It can be argued that students in this studyare all teenagers so they like music, singing songs as they help them relax after hard-learning hours Especially, listening to English songs may make them curious about thecontent of the songs, so if they want to understand the songs’ meanings, they have tolearn English

Responding to item 1- the desire to meet and speak with foreigners (M = 3.69; SD =1.09)- the majority of the students would appreciate the chance to communicate withforeigners in English However, more than 18 % of students reported that they did nothave a need to converse with foreigners, and that was not their reason for Englishlearning This can be due to the fact that these students found it too difficult for them tomeet and communicate with foreigners in such rural area as their hometown

Table 1 : STUDENTS INTEGRATIVE MOTIVATION IN ENGLISH LEARNING (n = 92)’

1 English will allow me

to meet and converse

with foreigners.

3 (3.3%) (15%)14 (14%)13 (43%)40 (24%)22 3.78 1.03 4

3 English will enable

me to get to know

various cultures and

peoples

10 (11%) (38%)35 (12%)11 (22%)20 (17%)16 2.88 1.21 2

4 I would like to go to

an English speaking

country to live

20 (22%) (46%)42 (30%)28 (2%)2 (0%)0 2.13 0.77 2

5 I would like to live

like the way that

English people live.

33 (36%) (29%)27 (27%)25 (8%)7 (0%)0 2.06 0.96 1

Total mean = 15.05; SD = 2.99; Md = 15; Min = 9 ; Max = 21

(StrD : Strongly Agree ; A: Agree; N: Neutral; D: Disagree; StrA: Strongly Disagree)

In contrast to the high mean scores of items 2 and 1, the respondents got quite lowscore in items 3, 4 and 5 As can be seen, 49% of the subjects disagreed with Item 3 -the goal to explore different cultures and peoples in the world With M = 2.88, Md = 2,

it is suggested that the majority of the respondents might not study English for thatworldwide culture reason and the SD was 1.21 demonstrated a small dispersionbetween respondents’ answer All this could be explained by the fact that students inthe countryside have no or little opportunities to meet foreigners or be immersed inbooks about English-speaking cultures As a result, students here did not know muchabout foreign culture or they did not even think they would need to know it

Item 4 asked respondents whether they learned English just because they wanted to go

to an English speaking country to live or not The mean score of 2.13 and SD of 0.77demonstrated the fact that the majority of students in DQH Senior High school were notoptimistic at all at the chance of going abroad Only two of the respondents said theywere studying English because they wished to go abroad to live in future This suggests

1 All the data related to the students’ motivation is recorded in Tables 1, 2, 4 and the parents’attitudes and involvement in Table 5 All the items are organized from the highest mean score

to the lowest Therefore, the question numbers are not the same as in the questionnaires

limited knowledge of the world culture and scanty travel opportunities for students inareas like Hung Yen.

All the data collected was strongly connected to the low positive response to item 5 asking whether the subjects would like to live the way English people live or not Thisresult showed that the respondents had not been aware of the fun and benefit associatedwith exploring foreign culture; neither had they shown any interest in English livingstyle at all The mean score was 2.06 and SD score was 0.96

-To conclude, as is shown in Table 1, the level of the integrative motivation was rathermoderate (total mean = 15.05, SD = 2.99 and Md = 15) This might be due to the factthat students in rural areas have few opportunities to meet and converse with foreigners,

or people who have traveled abroad The chances for them to be in contact with thetarget culture could be very scarce too In fact, the only chance for rural seniorsecondary school students to travel internationally is a full scholarship However aseducation advancement opportunities for teenagers in this area are rare, so are theirdream to go It would be interesting to find any similar pattern of interest towardinstrumental motivation in English learning presented in the following section

4.1.2 Students instrumental motivation in English learning’

Table 2 below presents the students’ instrumental motivation in English learning Theresult generally shows that the vast majority of the respondents held a high level ofinstrumental motivation Instrumental orientation was believed to cause QDH students

to learn English more than integrative orientation with the total mean scores of theformer M = 34.94 and of the latter M = 15.05

Table 2 : STUDENTS INSTRUMENTAL MOTIVATION IN EL (n=92)’

11 I may need English later (for jobs,

studies, traveling) (0%)0 (5%)4 (3%)3 (51%)47 (41%)38 4.36 0.62 4

8 English will someday be useful in

getting a good job (1%)1 (7%)6 (11%)10 (38%)35 (43%)40 4.23 0.89 5

14 English is a compulsory subject 0