THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHER VARIABLES ON STUDENTS MOTIVATION: A SURVEY AT LUONG VAN TUY SPECIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL IN NINH BINH (Khảo sát ảnh hưởng của các yếu tố thuộc về giáo viên tới động lực học của học sinh tại trường THPT chuyên Lương Văn Tụy, Ninh Bình)

THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHER VARIABLES ON STUDENTS MOTIVATION: A SURVEY AT LUONG VAN TUY SPECIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL IN NINH BINH 1. Conclusion The study is conducted with the purpose of gaining understanding of LVT school students’ perspectives on teacher variables affecting their motivation. It is undoubted that teacher is a key motivational determinant whose variables are highly influential to students’ motivation. Nevertheless, the extent to which each one influences students’ motivation is quite different. Although the study focused on the students’ perspectives, it has significant implications for the teachers of the school and the teacher trainers. 2. Limitations of the study The study has several major limitations. Firstly, it is a smallscale study with a limited coverage of one third of the students at school. However, the students are representatives of students at the school. Secondly, the study did not have the data from teachers. The main reliance on the use of questionnaires does not provide indepth information reflecting the complexities of English language teaching. Finally, the questionnaire administration can be a problem because the amount of time given to the students is around 40 minutes which may affect their responses. 3. Suggestions for further studies Despite the limitations, the study contributes to the knowledge of the teacher at LVT specialized high school about their impact on their students’ motivation. To overcome the above mentioned limitations and provide indepth information, some further studies are desired. First, another study is to be done at a larger scale which involves greater number of students and data should be collected from the teachers to get higher reliability and validity. Secondly, a study focusing on teacher related factors that demotivate students at is worth being carried out. Thirdly, a study on other factors affecting students’ motivation at the school should be focused on.

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

HÀ THỊ THANH THỦY

THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHER VARIABLES ON STUDENTS'

MOTIVATION: A SURVEY AT LUONG VAN TUY

SPECIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL IN NINH BINH

(Khảo sát ảnh hưởng của các yếu tố thuộc về giáo viên tới động

lực học của học sinh tại trường THPT chuyên

Lương Văn Tụy, Ninh Bình)

(MA MINOR PROGRAM THESIS)

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

HÀ THỊ THANH THỦY

THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHER VARIABLES ON STUDENTS'

MOTIVATION: A SURVEY AT LUONG VAN TUY

SPECIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL IN NINH BINH

(Khảo sát ảnh hưởng của các yếu tố thuộc về giáo viên tới động

lực học của học sinh tại trường THPT chuyên

Lương Văn Tụy, Ninh Bình)

(MA MINOR PROGRAM THESIS)

Major: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Le Van Canh

I, Hà Thị Thanh Thủy, hereby certify that the thesis “The influence of teacher variables on students’ motivation at Luong Van Tuy specialized high school, NinhBinh” is submitted for the partial fulfilment of the Degree of Master of

Arts at the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies - University of Languages andInternational Studies - Vietnam National University, Hanoi I also declare that thisthesis is result of my own research and efforts and that it has not been submitted forany other purposes

Hanoi, 2015Signature

Hà Thị Thanh Thủy

First of all, I would like to express my indebtedness and sincere gratitude to

my supervisor Assoc Prof Dr Le Van Canh for his invaluable guidance and greatsupport without which this thesis would not have been completed

Besides, I am heartily thankful to all the lecturers and teachers of the Faculty

of Post Graduate Studies University of Languages and International Studies Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable and interesting lectures andassistance during my study at the university

-Many thanks would go to all the teachers of English and students at LuongVan Tuy specialized high school, Ninh Binh whose active participation andcooperation helped me to fulfil this study

Last but not least, I send my special thanks to my husband, my family and

my friends who provided abundant assistance and encouragement while this workwas in progress

This study examines the effects of teacher variables on students’ motivation

at Luong Van Tuy specialized high school in Ninh Binh This study adopts thesurvey design The research made use of narratives and a standardised questionnairefor data collection Initially, a number of students were asked to write a guidednarrative to identify teacher variables having effects on their motivation Results ofthis analysis were used to develop the survey questionnaire, which wasadministered to a larger number of the students whose responses were analysedquantitatively After the questionnaire responses were analysed, several studentswere invited to write a free narrative about the teacher that most influenced theirlearning motivation This aims at further enhancing the results got fromquestionnaire analysis The findings revealed the teacher variables stronglyaffecting students’ motivation They are personality, teaching methodology,attitude, and English proficiency

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIGURES viii

LIST OF APPENDIXES ix

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 3

3 Objectives 3

4 Research questions 4

5 Scope of the study 4

7 Significance of the study 4

8 Structure of the Thesis 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1.1 Definitions of motivation 6

1.2 Types of motivation 7

1.3 Teacher variables affecting students’ motivation 8

1.3.1 The personal characteristics of teachers 9

1.3.2 Teacher immediacy 9

1.3.3 Active motivational socialising behaviour 10

1.3.4 Classroom management 10

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 12

2.1 The context of the study 12

2.1.1 The research site 12

2.1.2 Participants 12

2.2 Data collection instruments 13

2.2.1 Narratives 13

2.2.2 Questionnaire 13

2.2.3 Reliability of the Questionnaire 14

2.3 Data analysis 15

CHAPTER 3: MAJOR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 16

3.1 From guided narrative 16

3.2 From Survey Questionnaire 18

3.3 Teacher variables that affects students’ motivation 21

3.3.1 Personality 21

3.3.2 Teaching Methodology 23

3.3.3 Teacher’s attitude 29

3.3.4 Teacher’s English proficiency 32

3.4 From free narrative 34

3.4.1 Story 1, 2 and 3 34

3.4.2 Story 4: 35

3.4.3 Story 5 and 6 35

CHAPTER 4: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS 37

4.1 Summary of main findings 37

4.2 Implications 37

PART C: CONCLUSION 38

1 Conclusion 38

2 Limitations of the study 38

3 Suggestions for further studies 38

REFERENCES 39 APPENDIXES I

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LVT school Luong Van Tuy specialized high school

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 3.2: The most influential motivating factors 17Table 3.3: The most influential demotivating factors 18

Table 3.5: Students’ rating of the influence of teacher’s personal

Table 3.6: Students’ rating of the influence of teacher’s professional

Table 3.7: Student’s rating of the influence of teaching practices on

Table 3.8: Student’s rating of the influence of teacher’s attitude on

Table 3.9: Student’s rating of the influence of teacher’s English

LIST OF APPENDIXES

Page

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

It is acknowledged that motivation plays a critical role in academic learning

in general and it is particularly true of the “sustained process of mastering a second/foreign language (L2)” (Dörnyei, 2005, p 616) Motivation is important because itcontributes to the achievement, but it is also important itself as an outcome It is asignificant factor in student learning as it is positively correlated with students’willingness to learn, high level of cognition, creativity and performance (Liu et al2012) Regarding the persistent correlation between motivation and success in L2learning, Dörnyei (1998) asserts that “motivation provides the primary impetus toinitiate L2 learning and later the driving force to sustain the long and often tediouslearning process Without sufficient motivation, even individuals with the mostremarkable abilities cannot accomplish long-term goals Similarly, appropriatecurricular and good teaching are not enough on their own to ensure students’achievement Additionally, high motivation can make up for considerabledeficiency both in one’s language aptitude and learning condition” and “motivationcan lead students to continue learning even after they fulfil a specific goal” Theother reason why some scholars are interested in investigating motivation might bethe complexity of the issue Human motivation to learn is a phenomenon involving

a number of different sources and conditions Some of the motivational sources aresituation_specific that is they are rooted in the student’ immediate learningenvironment whereas some others appear to be more stable and generalized,stemming from a succession of student’s past experience in social world (Dörnyei,2001) Although there have been numerous studies on factors that influencestudents’ motivation such as gender differences, students’ interest, supportiveparental involvement, learning environment, not many studies have been conducted

on how teacher variables affect students’ motivation I believe that teachersinfluence students’ motivation to learn as much as other factors, and therefore Ihave decided to conduct this study

Current learning and teaching English at Luong Van Tuy specialized high school.

Regarding English language teaching and learning, the local and schoolleaders, teachers, students and their parents pay a lot of attention to it becauseEnglish is among the most important subjects at the school Firstly, it is acompulsory subject and one of the required one in the examination the studentshave to pass in order to be qualified for the General Education Diploma It is alsothe subject a large number of students choose to pursuit as the core one to take part

in university entrance examination Furthermore, it is the main one of the students atEnglish major classes Last but not least, it is going to be the language of instructionused at classes specialized in natural sciences according to “The Project of ForeignLanguage Education in the National Educational System for the period 2008-2020”.Normally, at LVT school, students in each class have three periods learning Englishwith the English textbook and extra periods in the afternoon for consolidation everyweek In English major classes the total periods are 12 and the materials are notonly the text book issued by Ministry of Education and Training but also the onesadapted by the teachers The responsibility of teaching the language is on the hand

of the teachers of English at the school There is no foreign teacher here

Identification of the problem

I have been a teacher at the school for more than 10 years During this period

of time, I have noticed that though English is quite significant subject, there are twoopposite sides of the situation At some classes, the atmosphere was very cheerful.Students appeared to be paying attention: they were not displaying any inattentive

or disruptive behaviour, they were looking at the teacher and following his or hermovements, looking at visual stimuli, turning to watch another student who iscontributing to the task, following the text being read or making appropriatenonverbal responses They actively took part in classroom interaction or worked onassigned activities At least one third of the students were volunteering without theteacher having to coax them in any way After class, they made every effort toimprove their English by attending extra classes, courses or making use of media

available and complete all the homework or assignments that they are required Incontrast, at some other classes, the atmosphere was very dull due to the students’passiveness Many students failed to engage in the classroom activities even whenthey could perform very well if they tried Some showed not much interest to thesubject and learning the language as expected They do not fulfil any of the tasksrequired Then, I decided to investigate the situation by several means First, Iattended both types of classes I noted remarkable features of classes down Then Ihad open talks with students The talks turned out to be lively discussions in which

my students honestly expressed their true feelings about learning English Most ofthem shared the view that their teacher had huge influence on their motivationbecause teacher is not only the instructor, facilitator but also their main inputbecause students do not have exposure to the target language When this issue wasbrought to the discussion held at the English Department, it received considerableattention and generated serious argument among teachers From the reality and theirexperience, all came to the conclusion that teachers are definitely among the mostinfluential motivating factors

With a view to clarifying to what extent the teacher variables affect students’motivation in the school context in order to better her teaching and help hercolleagues gain deeper understanding on the matter, the researcher carried out thisresearch and also submitted it in partial fulfilment of the requirements for theDegree of Master of Art

2 Aims of the study

The study attempts to investigate how teacher related factors or variablesaffect students’ motivation within the context of a specialized high school

3 Objectives

The objectives of the study are as follows:

- To find out student’s opinion on teacher variables which influence theirmotivation to learn English

- To classify teacher variables that have positive and negative influence onstudents’ motivation to learn English according to the students’ self-reports

2 How do these variables influence students’ motivation?

5 Scope of the study

The study limits itself to the understanding of students’ perspective onteacher variables that have influence upon their motivation to learn English Thestudent participants were from a specialized high school in Ninh Binh province

6 Research methodology

As this study is a survey study in nature, a mixed - methods approach wasemployed to achieve the needed triangulation Accordingly, data was collected fromvarious sources such as observation, students’ narratives, and questionnaire Thecollected data were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively

7 Significance of the study

The study is of great value as it, firstly, provides an in-depth investigationinto the issue to provide certain knowledge for teachers at LVT school to rely onwhen dealing with issues that involve motivational concerns and when makinginstructional decision Furthermore, it could serve well those who have been quiteinterested in the research of language learning motivation and may supplyresearchers with knowledge for deeper study as well It could also provide valuableinformation for teacher trainers and the authorities

8 Structure of the Thesis

The study consists of three main parts:

Chapter 1: Literature Review:

Theoretical background related to language teaching, language acquisitionand mostly motivation as well as variables is presented

Chapter 2: Research Methodology

The chapter discusses the methodology including situation analysis,participants, data collection instruments

Chapter 3: Major findings and discussions

The chapter gives an analysis of the data, presents the major findings andgives discussion about the findings

Chapter 4: Summary of the findings and recommendations

Summary is provided and implications are put forward in the chapter

Part C: Conclusion:

Part C gives the conclusion from the results of the findings, limitations of thestudy and some suggestions for further research

Ellis (1997, p 75) defines motivation as “the effort which learners put into

an L2 as a result of their own need or desire to learn” and he indicates that

“motivation involves the attitude and affective states that influence the degree ofeffort that learners make to learn an L2” Hence, in his viewpoint, motivation tolearn a second language refers to the extent to which the individual works or strikes

to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced inthe activity

All these definitions of motivation share one common limitation that theyview motivation as a solely cognitive construct Aware of this limitation, otherresearchers (e.g Dörnyei, 2009; Ushioda, 2009) have recently shifted their focus onthe situated complexity of the second language (L2) learning motivation processand called for the adoption of the socio-dynamic perspective on L2 motivationresearch Attention thus focuses on the interaction between the learning situation(e.g instructional techniques, classroom environment, interpersonal relations) andindividual motivational cognitions and behaviours (e.g goals, attitude, beliefs, self-regulatory strategies (Dörnyei, 2002, Dörnyei & Tseng, 2009) From this theoreticalperspective, researchers have found that certain aspects of teacher behaviour andteacher - student relations play a significant role in shaping students’ intrinsicmotivation (Noels, et al., 1999)

Because of the complexity of L2 learning motivation and considering the aim

of this study, the following definition by Dörnyei and Otto (1998) is adopted Theseauthors define L2 learning motivation “the dynamically changing cumulativearousal in a person that initiates, directs, co-ordinates, amplifies terminates andevaluates the cognitive and motor process whereby initial wishes and desires areselected, prioritised, operationalized and (successfully or unsuccessfully) acted out”(p 65)

1.2 Types of motivation

Gardner and Lambert (1972) divided several attitudinal and motivationalfactors that contributed to learning success into instrumental and integrativemotivation

Instrumental means learners study a language in order to achieve practicalgoals such as getting a job or completing translation tasks, while integrativemotivation means that learners study English to become more knowledgeable aboutculture of English speaking countries and societies and to integrate themselves intothe culture

Gardner and his colleagues found that integrative motivation, which refers to

“a sincere and personal interest in the people and culture represented by the otherlanguage group” (Lambert, 1974, p 98) was a more powerful predictor of linguisticachievement as it was consistently correlated with L2 linguistic achievement.Meanwhile, one area where instrumental motivation can prove to be successful is inthe situation where learner is provided with no opportunity to use the targetlanguage and therefore, no chance to interact with members of the target group.Gardner and Lambert (1972) suggested that individuals with an integrativeorientation would demonstrate greater motivational effort in learning an L2 and,thus, achieve greater L2 competence However, Ely (1986) argued that it is notalways easy to distinguish between the two types, which seem to be quitereasonable

Another categorization is from Deci (1975, cited in Brown 2007) who putmotivation into intrinsic and extrinsic one

Intrinsic motivation is inclinations without any extrinsic rewards such asprize or money It is to do with “behaviour performed for its own sake in order toexperience pleasure and satisfaction” (Dörnyei, 2001, p.27)

Conversely, extrinsic motivation is related to the same extrinsic rewards It isabout “performing a behaviour as a means to an end, that is to receive someextrinsic reward or to avoid punishment” (Dörnyei, 2001, p.27)

In other words, intrinsically motivated people accomplish a task for aninternal interest whereas extrinsically motivated people perform an activity because

of an interest external to the activity Notably, it has been argued that intrinsicmotivation is more effective than extrinsic motivation in language learning for long-term retention Nevertheless, research on intrinsic/extrinsic motivation by Deci, E.L

& Ryan, R M (1991) shows that under certain circumstances if sufficiently determined and internalised, extrinsic rewards can be combined with, or even lead

self-to, intrinsic motivation

1.3. Teacher variables affecting students’ motivation

Because motivation is a complex construct, it is affected by a variety ofdifferent factors However, since the primary aim of this study is to gain insightsinto how teacher variables affect the students’ motivation from the students’perspectives, only the literature on teacher variables influencing students’motivation in L2 learning is reviewed

Studies conducted by Dörnyei and Csizé’s (1998) and Chambers’s (1999)confirmed that of all the factors that were hypothesised to contribute to the students’positive or negative appraisal of L2 learning, the teacher came out on top for allcohorts surveyed and that almost everything a teacher does in the classroom has amotivational influence on students

Trang & Baldaulf (2009) conducted a questionnaire survey on 100Vietnamese university undergraduates and found that “the largest source ofdemotives was related to teachers And within the four demotive categories related

to teachers, teaching methods provided the largest source of demotives” (p 100)

According to Dörnyei (2001, p 35), the multiple influences teachers have onstudents’ motivation are seen through four interrelated dimensions:

1.3.1 The personal characteristics of teachers (e.g level of motivation,

commitment, warmth, empathy, trustworthiness, competence, etc)

The characteristics determine the rapport between teachers and students andlargely responsible for the affliative motive, which refers to the students’ need to dowell in school in order to please the teacher or other superordinate figures(including their parents) (Ausubel et at., 1978)

Motivational teacher influences are manifold, ranging from the rapport withthe student to specific teacher behaviours which “persuade” and/or ‘attract’ students

to engage in on -task behaviours A key element is to establish relationships ofmutual trust and respect with the learners (Alison, 1993) According to Dörnyei(2001), this involves finding opportunities to talk with them on a personal level andletting them know that we have thought about them and that their individual effort

is recognized Another factor which many believe to be the most importantingredient of motivationally successful teaching is enthusiasm Students take cuesfrom their teachers about how to respond to school activities Enthusiastic teachersconvey a great sense of commitment to and excitement about the subject mattercontent, not only in words but also by body language

1.3.3 Active motivational socialising behaviour

According to Brophy and Kher (1986), Juvonen and Nishina (1997), Pintrichand Schunk (1996), there are three channels through which teachers communicatetheir beliefs, expectations and attitude, thereby pressing their students to adoptsimilar belief, attitude, expectations and associated behaviours The channels bywhich teachers can exert direct and systematic motivational influence by means ofactively socialising the learner’s motivation are:

- Modelling: setting an example both in terms of effort expenditure andorientations of interest in the subject

- Task presentation: calling students’ attention to the purpose of theactivity they are going to do, its interest potential and practical value and thestrategies that may be useful in achieving the task, thus raising students’ interest,metacoginitive awareness and expectation of success

- Feedback/reward system: communicating a clear message about theirpriorities, value preferences and attributional belief

1.3.4 Classroom management

Teachers are in almost total control of the running of the classroom,including setting and enforcing rules, establishing procedures and organisinggrouping activities These in turn greatly influence the students’ motivation;therefore, the teacher’s classroom management practices constitute a fourth centralmotivational domain

Lewin et al.’s (1939) classic study on leadership styles shows that a lack oforder generates a great deal of stress and undermines student achievement Twoaspects of the managerial role are particularly important:

- Setting and maintaining group norms

Group norms are central determinants of student behaviour in classroomsettings Through their position as designated leaders, teachers have a specialresponsibility in setting up and maintaining those rules If the teacher does not payenough attention to enforcement of the established norms, learners immediately

receive a clear message that those rules are not really important, which will result inthe rules rapidly being discounted and disobeyed

- The teacher’s type of authority

Providing order in itself may not be sufficient to generate motivation becausestudent motivation is also a function of the teacher’s authority type, that is, whetherthe teacher is autonomy supporting or controlling Sharing responsibility withstudents, offering them options and choices, letting them have a say in establishingpriorities and involving them in the decision-making process enhance student self -determination and intrinsic motivation (Deci et al., 1991)

To sum up, motivation is quite a complex concept and understooddifferently It possesses not only psychological but also social as well as educationalcharacteristics Therefore, its influence is diverse Within a chapter of a study it isimpossible to embrace everything related to the concept Only a brief review ispresented in the hope to bring readers most general features and help them getfurther understanding of the concept in order to catch objectives of the research

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The chapter presents the context of the study, participants, data collectioninstruments, data collection instruments, data analysis

2.1 The context of the study

2.1.1 The research site

The study was carried out at Luong Van Tuy specialized high school,NinhBinh (LVT school) The school is situated in heart of the province, and namedafter the local hero Luong Van Tuy There are 11 types of major classes namelymath, informatics, physics, chemistry, biology, literature, history, geography,English, French and two non- major classes As being the unique specialized highschool of the province, it receives huge support from local authorities and people;the school has all facilities to meet the requirements of teaching and learningactivities Every classroom is equipped with a projector, a computer linked to theinternet, a cassette player and other teaching as well as learning aids

There are 12 teachers of English at the school There is no foreign teacherworking at the school

Students of the school are candidates who are qualified enough to pass anentrance exam organized by Ninh Binh Department of Education and Training andput into classes according to their major subjects

2.1.2 Participants

The participants in the research were 84 students including those from alltypes of classes: They are all 10th form, 11th form and 12th form students withdifferent backgrounds levels of English One third of the participants are at Englishmajor classes, whose English proficiency is at least intermediate and they havestudied English for longer period of time than the others and English is of greatimportance to them The other students are from classes specialized in both naturaland social sciences and even from non-major classes Their English proficiencyranges from elementary to intermediate The participants also include the studentsthat the researcher is teaching

The purpose of choosing participants from diverse groups is to obtain richinformation for the research.

2.2 Data collection instruments

Dörnyei (2001a) claims “a combination of qualitative and quantitative designmight bring out the best of approaches while neutralizing the shortcomings andbiases inherent in each paradigm” (p 242) Therefore, a mixed-methods approachwas adopted in this study Data were collected from various sources includingstudents’ guided narratives, free narrative and survey questionnaire

2.2.1 Narratives

According to Barkhuizen, Benson and Chik (2014), narrative inquiry bringsstorytelling and research together either by using stories as research data or by usingstory telling as a tool for data analysis or presentation of findings (p 3) These scholars

go on to state that “narrative content can certainly contribute to a richer and morerounded understanding of language teaching and learning as lived experience (p 6)

Narratives can be guided or free A guided narrative is “a story in skeletalform” (Barkhuizen et al (2014, p 45) In this study both types of narratives: guidedand free were used In the first phase of the study, 28 students were randomlyselected from different class and invited to write a guided narrative (See Appendix1A) The primary aim of guided narrative is to identify the teacher relatedmotivating and demotivating factors and gain students’ general understanding onthese factors It provides insights into the issue and help develop ideas for potentialquantitative research - questionnaire Based on the information from the students’guided narratives, a questionnaire was written (see Appendix 1B) and thenadministered among 84 other students After the questionnaire responses wereanalysed, several students were invited to write a free narrative about the teacherthat most influenced their learning motivation (Appendix1C)

2.2.2 Questionnaire

A 21-item questionnaire, which was composed of both closed-ended andopen-ended items based on Dörnyei’s (2001) teaching practices and on the

information gained from guided narrative The variety of item types was used toelicit different types of data (Brown, 2001; Dörnyei, 2003) Part 1 (Question 1 to11) are open - ended questions that were supposed to elicit the students’ rich,detailed and personal perspectives of teacher variables affecting their motivation,their satisfaction with the teachers’ English proficiency, personality and teachingmethodology Part 2 (Question 1 to 10) is of multiple- choice type, finding outstudents’ responses to different classroom activities and teacher’s behaviours Tomake respondents feel comfortable in understanding the instruction and questionsaccurately, the questionnaire was written in Vietnamese The data were entered intothe SPSS software (v.16.0) for processing and analysis.

2.2.3 Reliability of the Questionnaire

The case processing summary aims at measuring the validity of the data The information

in the table shows that none is excluded so all the responds are valid

Case Processing Summary

The estimated overall internal consistency was 0.992 This confirmed thatthe instrument to be highly reliable in measuring the influence of teacher relatedfactors on students’ motivation A similar process was carried out to estimate thereliability coefficient for each of the sub-scales The Corrected Item-TotalCorrelation ranges from 0.871 to 0.961 so all items are highly reliable and valuablefor the study

2.3 Data analysis

Data collected were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively.

In the initial phase of the study, a random number of students (28) wereinvited to write a guided narrative to identify the teacher related motivating as well

as demotivating variables and their general understanding of those variables Thenarratives were analysed first thematically As Boyatzis (1998) writes inTransforming Qualitative Information, thematic analysis is a process of “encodingqualitative information” (p 7) The researcher reviewed the data, developed

“codes” (words or phrases that serve as labels for sections of data), made notes andsorted into categories The researcher moved the analysis from a broad reading ofdata towards discovering pattern and identified the common themes The purpose ofthis qualitative analysis was to identify the common themes as well as get thestudents’ general perception of how teacher variables affected their motivation tolearn English at the school Results of this analysis were used to develop the surveyquestionnaire, which was administered to a larger number of students Whilestudent’s narratives were analysed using qualitative methods, their responses to thequestionnaire were analysed quantitatively The purpose of the quantitative analysiswas to identify the general patterns of the way the students perceived how teachersinfluenced their motivation to learn English After the questionnaire analysis wasdone, a number of students were asked to write free narratives about the teachermotivating or demotivating them The free narratives, like the guided ones, wereanalysed qualitatively The “key” lexical items, the characters, settings and plotswere analysed to determine what ideas the narratives illustrate generally or whattype of teacher affects either positively or negatively students’ motivation inparticular The aim of having students write free narrative was to enhance thevalidity and reliability of the outcomes of the questionnaire