Motivating grade 11 students to learn english through examination taking strategy training at yen thanh 2

thạc sỹ, luận văn, ngoại ngữ, tiếng anh, khóa luận, chuyên đề

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Nowadays, in the era of the globalization and international exchange, English has become

a ‘lingua franca’ which according to Jeremy Harmer (2001:1), can be defined as alanguage widely adopted for communication between two speakers whose nativelanguages are different from each other’s and where one or both speakers are using it as a

‘second’ language It has been used almost all over the world in many different areas such

as diplomacy, science, technology, business, culture, tourism, etc There is no doubt thatEnglish is one of the most important means of communication and access to information

In this context, the teaching and learning of English is more and more necessary

In Vietnam, in recent years, English as a foreign language has gained considerableattention It has become a compulsory subject in the syllabus of many schools, collegesand universities It has been taught and learnt throughout the country, both urban areas andrural (or remote) ones Even in the countryside, children now start learning English whenthey are in grade 3 or 4 However, the fact is that the teaching and learning of English hasnot been effective yet, especially that in rural areas There are still many people whocannot use English well after finishing English courses

As a teacher of English at a rural upper secondary school, the researcher is concernedabout her students’ English learning She has been teaching 4 classes of grade 11.Although her students have learnt English since they were in grade 6 under the newsyllabus and new methods based on the communicative approach, their English is still notvery good Of course, they can hardly use English to communicate Also their marks intests and examinations are rather low Additionally, many of the students seem not to beinterested in learning English According to them, English is difficult and not verynecessary for their future, because after school most of them will be farmers or workersonly In other words, they do not have much motivation for learning it The practical goalfor most of the students is just to pass tests and examinations to graduate from the uppersecondary school Moreover, the grade 11 students are the ones who are going to leaveschool in over one year, so it is rather difficult to change their goal and motivation Thequestion is what teachers should do to help their students learn English better in this

environment, where the English language input is limited and non-conducive to learningthe target language The researcher has thought a lot about this fact, about the students’goal and motivation Wondering if examination-taking strategy training can help tomotivate the students, she decided to conduct the study on “Motivating grade 11 students

to learn English through examination-taking strategy training at Yen Thanh 2 uppersecondary school” to find out the answer, and further, to help improve the teaching andlearning of English at her school

2 Research hypothesis

This study was designed to test the following hypothesis:

Examination-taking strategy training can help to motivate grade 11 students to learnEnglish

3 Aims of the study

The purpose of the study is to investigate the possibility of using examination-takingstrategy training to motivate grade 11 students to learn English at Yen Thanh 2 uppersecondary school It aims specifically at:

- considering the student motivation and the reality of training and application ofexamination-taking strategies in the context of grade 11 students at Yen Thanh 2 uppersecondary school

- investigating changes in student motivation after applying examination-taking strategytraining in lessons

- examining student attitude towards the examination-taking strategy training

- giving some recommendations for motivating students to learn English throughexamination-taking strategy training

4 Significance of the study

The study is expected to make a better understanding of motivation to second languagelearning In addition, it offers the theoretical basis for language learning strategies,examination-taking strategies, and the motivational roles of strategy training in general andexamination-taking strategy training in particular

Practically and pedagogically, the findings of the study are believed to be useful forteachers of English to be aware of the essential role of examination-taking strategy training

to students’ motivation in English learning Besides, the recommendations for usingexamination-taking strategy training to enhance students’ motivation, which are based on

the theoretical background and the current situation of learning English at Yen Thanh 2upper secondary school, hopefully can help the teachers motivate their students to learnEnglish.

5 Scope of the study

Although there are many different ways to motivate students to learn English, all theseissues cannot be fully covered in this paper Due to the limited time and the length of aminor thesis, the researcher only focuses on exploiting examination-taking strategytraining as a way of motivating grade 11 students at Yen Thanh 2 upper secondary school.Besides, the target that the study investigates and serves is just 115 students from 3 classes

of grade 11 at this school

6 Methods of the study

This study was intended to conduct as a piece of action research According to GinaWisker (2001), action research is research that we carry out with our students in order totry out an idea or innovation, test a hypothesis about their learning and see ‘what wouldhappen if ’ Michael J Wallace (1998) also points out that action research involves thecollection and analysis of data related to some aspects of our professional practice Withthis action research, the researcher used some different methods based on both quantitativeand qualitative approaches: survey questionnaires for students, consisting of one pre-treatment questionnaire and one post-treatment questionnaire; follow-up interviews;classroom observations

The steps of the study are as follows:

(1) Spend one month collecting baseline data through classroom observations These werecarried out by the researchers herself and some of her colleagues Besides, get the students

to answer the pre-questionnaire to find out the reality of student motivation and theirknowledge of examination-taking strategies

(2) Form the hypothesis that examination-taking strategy training can help to motivategrade 11 students to learn English

(3) Provide the students with the examination-taking strategy training whenever possible

in the regular lessons for one month and half a month The classroom observations werealso carried out by the researcher and her colleagues in this period

(4) After one month and half a month, the students were invited to answer the questionnaire to find out the changes in their motivation as well as their attitude toward the

post-examination-taking strategy training The follow-up interviews were also employed togather indepth information.

(5) Analyze the collected data and discuss the findings

(6) Disseminate the outcomes

7 Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts: the introduction, the development, and the conclusion

Part A: Introduction – presents the basic information including rationale, research

hypothesis, aims, significance, research methods, scope, and design of the study

Part B: Development – consists of three chapters

Chapter 1: Literature Review – provides the literature concerning motivation in

second language learning, learning strategy training, and examination-taking strategytraining as a motivating factor

Chapter 2: The study – reports the setting, research hypothesis, participants,

instruments, data collection procedure and analysis The detailed results of the surveys and

a critical comprehensive analysis on the data collected are presented

Chapter 3: Major findings, discussions and recommendations for motivating students to learn English through examination-taking strategy training – shows major

findings and discussions and offers recommendations for motivating students to learnEnglish through examination-taking strategy training

Part C: Conclusion – is a summary of the study in which limitations of the study and

suggestions for further research are presented

PART B DEVLOPMENTCHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Overview of motivation in language learning

1.1.1 Definitions of motivation

Motivation is accepted for most fields of learning to be essential to success Withoutmotivation we will almost certainly fail to make the necessary effort Therefore, it makessense to try and develop our understanding of it

Motivation is defined in different ways by different researchers According to MarionWilliams and Richard Burden (1997:120), motivation is a ‘state of cognitive arouse’ whichprovokes a ‘decision to act’ as a result of which there is ‘sustained intellectual and/orphysical effort’ so that the person can achieve some ‘previously set goal’ Sharing the sameview, Jeremy Harmer (2001:51) states that ‘at its most basic level, motivation is some kind

of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something.Additionally, Woolfolk (2001:366) defines motivation as ‘an internal state that arouses,directs and maintains behavior’

Briefly, motivation is something involving the attitudes and affective states that influencethe degree of effort that one makes to achieve some certain goal It is not only arousinginterest but also sustaining interest and investing time and energy into putting the effort toachieve those goals

1.1.2 Importance of motivation in language learning

Learner motivation has become more commonly recognized as perhaps the majordetermining factor for successful learning in general, whether one is an adult learner takingdistance education courses, or an upper secondary school student pushing one’s waythrough the battery of required courses needed to graduate It has been found in variousstudies that motivation is very strongly related to achievement in language learning AsWilliam T Littlewood puts it (1984:53), ‘in second language learning as well as in everyother field of human learning, motivation is the crucial force which determines whether alearner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he devotes to it, and how long heperseveres’ Besides, Tricia Hedge (2000:23) affirms: ‘motivation is of crucial importance

in the classroom, whether learners arrive with it or whether they acquire it through

classroom experiences’ About this issue, Oxford and Shearin (1996:121-122) also argue:

‘Motivation is important because it directly influences how often students use L2 learningstrategies, how much students interact with native speakers, how much input they receive

in the language being learned (the target language), how well they do on related achievement tests, how high their general proficiency level becomes, and how longthey persevere and maintain L2 skills after language study is over Therefore, motivation iscrucial for L2 learning, and it is essential to understand what our students’ motivation are’

curriculum-As a result, motivation should be paid attention in teaching and learning second languages

1.1.3 Common factors affecting learners’ motivation in language learning

There is a variety of factors affecting learners’ motivation such as parents, community,learning context, teacher, subject, etc However, in this paper, the researcher only focuses

on some common and important factors, namely, learner’s factors, teacher’s factors,learning materials and learner’s success in second language learning

1.1.3.1 Learner’ factors

Among these factors, the first and most important factor is their background knowledge.Background knowledge refers to the existing information on a specific topic in eachlanguage lesson Therefore, if students lack background knowledge, it is difficult for them

to get involved in learning activities They will be unable to comprehend new materialsand more importantly, they will lose their interest in learning lessons Realizing theinfluence of this factor, the teacher needs to provide the amount of background informationavailable and to see that they are able to use them

Besides, language items such as vocabulary and grammatical structures can be considered

to have an impact on the students’ feelings This causes difficulties in getting meaning aswell as practicing language skills

The student’ aptitude is also an important factor that influences his motivation If one finds

he is able to do something well, surely he feels self-confident and likes it very much Theother factor is learners’ language learning strategies Learners’ strategies can affect theirmood to participate actively in learning activities Strategies are helpful to students becausethey enable them to improve their learning proficiency as well as efficiency in learning.Moreover importantly, strategies help learners to process the lessons actively and toconnect what they are learning to their own knowledge However, learners must be flexible

in employing strategies; otherwise, their expectations to the learning are not met In

addition, it is true that more highly motivated learners use a significantly greater range ofappropriate strategies than less ones It is advisable for teachers to teach learners strategies

in lessons and let them practice frequently

Besides, the teacher’s techniques and activities are of great impact on learners’ motivation.Without good techniques and interesting activities, learners may be left in confusion andboredom while dealing with learning tasks Therefore, teacher should invest more effortand thoughts in the materials, the ways, and the time to use techniques and activitiescarefully for a specific stage of teaching and assessing the learning performance

Lastly, the teacher should be aware of learners’ learning needs, consisting of theirmotivation for learning and the purposes that language learning has in their lives A goodteacher should be the person who can find ways to pull the students and the lessontogether

1.1.3.3 Learning materials

One of the most important factors which influence the learners’ motivation is learningmaterials The materials which are interesting and relevant to the learners will motivatethem to learn more For example, when learners have to face a text or a task beyond theirlanguage proficiency with many unknown words and complex sentences, they becomeoverwhelmed, frustrated and tired Besides, if the topic or content of the text is not

interesting, familiar and relevant to their experience and interests, they may stop learning.What’s more, the lack of variety in task types also makes learners reluctant to engage fullywith the activity.

1.1.3.4 Learner’s success in language learning

It is realized that motivation for language learning could be much enhanced with success.According to Ur (1996:278), “learners who have succeeded in past tasks will be morewilling to engage with the next one, more confident in their chances of succeeding, andmore likely to preserve in their efforts” Jeremy Harmer (2001:52) also affirms that

‘nothing succeeds like success’ so ‘if the teacher can help students in the achievement ofshort-term goal, this will have a significant effect on their motivation’ Obviously, it isbetter for the teacher to appreciate students’ success

1.2 Overview of examination-taking strategy training

1.2.1 Language learning strategy training

1.2.1.1 Definitions of language learning strategies

A lot of research into language learning strategies has been done since 1960s Up to nowthe term ‘language learning strategy’ has been defined by many researchers In Wendenand Rubin’s words (1987:19), language learning strategies are defined as “…any sets ofoperations, steps, plans, routines used by the learner to facilitate the obtaining, storage,retrieval, and use of information.” Stern (1992:261) states that “the concept of learningstrategy is dependent on the assumption that learners consciously engage in activities toachieve certain goals and learning strategies can be regarded as broadly conceivedintentional directions and learning techniques.” According to Chamot (2004:14-26),

“learning strategies are the conscious thoughts and actions that learners take in order toachieve a learning goal” Oxford (1990:17) divides strategies into major types, direct andindirect She defines direct strategies as those requiring mental processing of the language.However, the three groups that compose direct strategies do this processing differently andfor different purposes For example, memory strategies, such as grouping or usingimagery, have a highly specific function, which is to help students store and retrieve newinformation Cognitive strategies, on the other hand, such as summarizing or reasoningdeductively, enable learners to understand and produce new language by many differentmeans Finally, compensation strategies like guessing or using synonyms, allow learners touse the language despite their often-large gaps in knowledge The second group of

strategies discussed by Oxford is indirect strategies These are called “indirect” becausethey support and manage language learning without directly involving the target language.They are divided into metacognitive, affective, and social strategies Metacognitivestrategies, like centering your learning and evaluating and monitoring, are “actions which

go beyond purely cognitive devices, and which provide a way for learners to coordinatetheir own learning process” (1990:136) Affective strategies, however, such as loweringyour anxiety, encouraging yourself, and taking your emotional temperature, deal withemotion, attitudes, motivations, and values Finally, the third indirect strategy groupdefined by Oxford involves social strategies, like asking questions, cooperating peers andproficient users of the target language, and empathizing with others

It is accepted that providing learners with learning strategies is very important Languagelearning strategies are good indicators of how learners approach tasks or problemsencountered during the process of language learning Developing skills in these areas, such

as metacognitive, cognitive, social and affective can help the language learner build uplearner independence and autonomy whereby he can take control of his own learning

1.2.1.2 Strategy training as a motivating factor

Since learning strategies in general and language learning strategies in particular are veryimportant, it makes sense to help learners know and use them well In other words,providing learners with learning strategies are necessary Research indicates that languagelearners at all levels use strategies, but that some or most learners are not fully aware of thestrategies they use or the strategies that might be most beneficial to employ When learnersbecome aware of the range of strategies from which they can choose during languagelearning and use, they will have many opportunities to succeed Success will help enhancelearners’ motivation On the other hand, when learners know how to use strategies, theywill become more self-confident One of the strategies to boost learners’ motivationsuggested by Woolfolk (2001:421) is building learners’ confidence and positiveexpectation With success, the confidence will certainly help improve students’ motivation.Therefore, it can be said that learning strategy training is a motivating factor

1.2.2 Examination-taking strategy training

1.2.2.1 Definitions of examination-taking strategies

Although the term “examination” and “test” are distinguished as different terms in manycases, in this paper “examination-taking strategies” and “test-taking strategies” areconsidered the same They are used to refer to strategies exploited in test situations

According to Andrew D Cohen (1998:219), “test-taking strategies consist of bothlanguage use strategies and test-wiseness strategies” He points out that language usestrategies are steps or tasks that learners consciously select in order to accomplish languagetasks, and include retrieval strategies, rehearsal strategies, cover strategies, andcommunication strategies All four types of strategies are used in test taking, sincerespondents need to retrieve material for use on the test, may need to rehearse it beforeusing it (such as in speaking or writing tasks), are likely to use some cover strategies inorder to look good, and may well to engage in genuine communication if the tests orquizzes call for it In Cohen’s view, these various language use strategies constitute test-taking strategies when they are used to help produce responses to testing tasks The secondgroup of test-taking strategies is test-wiseness These strategies are not necessarilydetermined by proficiency in the language being assessed, but rather may be dependent onthe respondents’ knowledge of how to take tests One such test-wiseness strategy consists

of opting out of the language task at hand (e.g through a surface matching of someinformation in the passage with the identical information in one of the response choices) Asecond strategy would be to make use of material from a previous item when it ‘givesaway’ the answer to a subsequent one This is also a form of matching, but across itemsrather than within them, and, as in the previous case, the respondent may make the matchwithout understanding the material very well or at all Another test-wiseness strategyconsists of taking shortcuts to arrive at answers (e.g not reading the text as instructed butsimply looking immediately for the answers to the given reading comprehensionquestions)

In Mc Donough’s words (1995:105), these strategies are called test-wise, i.e “having someingenuity, knowledge, or strategy to outwit the tester and find the right answer from theclues in the test format rather than from actual knowledge of the language or skill inlanguage use

In short, examination-taking strategies or taking strategies are the strategies the taker uses to take the test, including language use strategies and test-wiseness ones.Language use strategies are considered close to the learner’ competence while test-

test-wiseness ones are sometimes not Despite this fact, in many cases test-test-wiseness can helptest-takers a lot As Cohen (1998:218) puts it, the strategy of studying the questionscarefully before reading the text may be crucial for the particular respondents, especiallythe ones who do not have good retentive memory when they read in that language In theother words, in some cases, test-wiseness strategies can well supplement language usestrategies.

1.2.2.2 Examination-taking strategy training as a motivating factor

There is no doubt that test-taking strategies are very important, especially for the students,for whom tests are a fact of life Thus, it is very essential for teachers to provide studentswith test-taking strategy training Knowing and using test-taking strategies well will helpthem to become more confident and lower anxiety Besides, well-equipped test-takingstrategy students surely get high marks in tests, that is, succeed in their learning Moreover,one of students’ certain goals is passing tests and examinations Test-taking strategytraining, therefore, is their interest and meets their needs As mentioned in the parts above,all of these things such as confidence, success, interest, etc will motivate them to activelyengage in learning process Briefly, test-taking strategy training is really a motivatingfactor for students’ learning

1.2.3 Principles to provide students with examination-taking strategy training

Before conducting the test-taking or examination-taking strategy training, it is essential to

be well aware of its aims

According to Cohen (2003), strategy training aims at providing learners with the tools to

do the following:

 Self-diagnose their strengths and weaknesses in language learning

 Become aware of what helps them to learn the target language most efficiently

 Develop a broad range of problem-solving skills

 Experiment with familiar and unfamiliar learning strategies

 Make decisions about how to approach a language task

 Monitor and self-evaluate their performance

 Transfer successful strategies to new learning contexts

He then presents three different instructional frameworks of conducting strategy trainingproposed by Pearson and Dole (1987), Oxford et al (1990), and Chamot and O’Malley(1994) As he puts it, each of these three frameworks has been designed to raise student

awareness of the purpose and rationale of strategy use, give students opportunities topractice the strategies they are being taught, and help them use the strategies in newlearning context.

Oxford (1994) suggests some principles of language learning strategy training as follows:

 Language learning strategy training should be based clearly on students’attitude, beliefs, and stated needs

 Strategies should be chosen so that they mesh with and support each other and

so that they fit the requirements of the language task, the learners’ goals, andthe learners’ style of learning

 Training should, if possible, be integrated into regular language learningactivities over a long period of time rather than taught as a separate, shortintervention

 Students should have plenty of opportunities for strategy training duringlanguage classes

 Strategy training should include explanations, handouts, activities,brainstorming, and materials for reference and home study

 Affective issues such as anxiety, motivation, beliefs, and interests-all of whichinfluence strategy choice-should be directly addressed by language learningstrategy training

 Strategy training should not be solely tied to the class at hand; it should providestrategies that are transferable to future language tasks beyond a given class

 Strategy training should be somewhat individualized, as different studentsprefer or need certain strategies for particular tasks

 Strategy training should provide students with a mechanism to evaluate theirown progress and to evaluate the success of the training and the value of thestrategies in multiple tasks

As a type of language learning strategies, test-taking strategies can be trained on the abovebasis In addition, in Matter’s view (1986:1), “Ideally, test preparation activities should not

be additional activities imposed upon teachers Rather, they should be incorporated into theregular, ongoing instructional activities whenever possible”

To sum up, the teacher should take these issues in consideration before providing studentswith test-taking strategy training

The chapter has presented issues and aspects concerning the topic of the study It has discussed the concepts and ideas relating to motivation in general and in second language learning in particular What’s more, common factors affecting students’ motivation in language learning have reviewed Besides, given the purpose of the study, the author mainly focuses on the discussion of strategy training, especially taking strategy training as

a motivating factor The following chapter will display the methodology of the research under the light of the above discussed theories

CHAPTER 2 THE STUDY

2.1 The setting of the study

2.1.1 The syllabus and assessment

This study was conducted at Yen Thanh 2 upper secondary school, a rural school of Nghe

An province, where the environment for teaching and learning English was limited.Although English has been taught and learnt as a compulsory subject here for 8 years, ithas been rather new and difficult for the students Like in many other schools in Vietnam,there exists two kinds of syllabus here: the old one for the current grade 12 students andthe new one for the current grade 10 and 11 students The school year 2007-2008 is the lastone when the old syllabus is taught and learnt, after that the new syllabus will becompletely covered the grades The new syllabus with the communicative approach isconsidered interesting but rather challenging for the teachers It mainly focuses onequipping students with communicative ability and competence to perform basic languagefunctions receptively and productively, using correct language forms and structures In thenew textbooks, the new syllabus content is arranged according to themes Most of thethemes are considered to be rather close to the contexts of the students’ daily life such ashome, school, recreation, community, and the natural and social world Each unit in thenew textbooks has 5 lessons: 4 for 4 skills – reading, speaking, listening, writing and 1 forlanguage focus In general, it is agreed that the new syllabus has a lot of improvement ascompared to the old one However, the current examinations, especially final ones, arealmost in the format of multiple-choice questions and mainly focus on grammar,vocabulary, pronunciation, reading comprehension and some controlled writing, but notlistening and speaking skills This makes the English lessons at class, especially listeningand speaking lessons become boring and useless for students while the teachers arewavering without knowing how they should teach to gain the best results

2.1.2 The teachers

In Yen Thanh 2 upper secondary school there are totally 9 teachers of English aged 23 to

45 All of them have got the University Bachelor’s Degree but their time lengths ofteaching English are different The oldest teacher has nearly 25 years of teachingexperience, and the youngest just has nearly one year As rural teachers, they have fewopportunities to upgrade their teaching and do not have a lot of teaching aids and materials

to help their work Despite all these disadvantages, they are always eager for knowledgeand willing to adjust to new thinking and apply better ways to improve their teaching

quality Especially, all of them took part in the in-service training workshop of curricularinnovation organized by Nghe An Department of Education and Training.

2.1.3 The students

Most of the students at Yen Thanh 2 are from farmer families so their lives are rather poor.They do not have enough good conditions to learn, especially to learn English Apart fromlearning, they have to help their families with housework and farming The current grade

12 students have been learning English for 3 years but their English is very bad The ease

of old examination rules has made them lazy since they began learning English in grade 10and now in their opinion they really “have no head for English” The current 10 and 11students seem more worried when these rules are stricter and stricter but their learning hasnot been improved yet Although they have been learning English under the new syllabuswith new textbooks for nearly six years (from Grade 6), English is still something difficultand strange to them To learn English well, the environment for learning is very important.However, they hardly have opportunities to use English outside the English classes.Moreover, their parents, the actual farmers, who hardly know anything about English, donot encourage them to learn it As a result, most of the students do not know what theylearn English for, except for the reason of passing the final examination They do not knowits importance in the modern life as well as in their future They become bored withlearning it In each class, there are only a few students really learning English and beinginterested in learning it The rest almost forget all the things they have learnt Once thelearners have no motivation for learning, the learning quality is very difficult to beimproved

The participants for the survey questionnaires were 115 students from 3 classes of Grade

11 at Yen Thanh 2 upper secondary school, including both male and female ones Theywere all from the countryside They have been learning English under the new syllabus

with the new textbooks since they were in Grade 6 When participating the study, thestudents were in the second term of the school year In the researcher’s observation, theirEnglish proficiency was at the average level as compared with the other grade 11 students

of the school The researcher was the third teacher to teach these students It means that thestudents had chances to learn with many different teaching methods and styles fromdifferent teachers

The selection of participants for the interviews was based on the survey data so that 2participants who reported the least changes and 8 who reported the most changes inattitudes and motivation were interviewed for more insights into the effect of examination-taking strategy training as a motivating factor More participants with attitudinal changes

in comparison with the unchanged were selected so as to be more convenient in verifyinghow those changes could take place

2.4 Data collection instruments

Given the aim of the study, the researcher used two main kinds of research instruments:questionnaires for students and follow-up interviews Besides, class observations were alsoemployed to supplement the above instruments

2.4.1 Questionnaires

Questionnaires were employed in this study to test the researcher’s hypothesis According

to Bill Gillham (2000:6), using questionnaire has some advantages: low cost in time andmoney; easy to get information from a lot of people very quickly; respondents cancomplete the questionnaire when it suits them; analysis of answers to closed questions isstraightforward; less pressure for an immediate response; respondents’ anonymity; lack ofinterviewer bias; standardization of questions (but true of structured interview); canprovide suggestive data for testing an hypothesis

The questions were designed in both close and open-ended forms Among them, somequestions have more than one answers that can be accepted so that respondents can havemore freedom to express their own ideas All the questions were written in Vietnamese toassure that respondents did not have any language problems in understanding thequestionnaire items

In this study, two questionnaires were designed to gather the needed dada: one deliveredbefore and one delivered after the treatment

2.4.1.1 Pre- questionnaire

The pre-questionnaire included 15 questions arranged into 3 parts Part I aimed at elicitinginformation about the respondents’ background containing their name, the class they werelearning, the place they are living, and their average mark in English in the first term Part

II was intended to obtain information about the students’ goals and motivation Motivationwere measured with the measures such as interest in learning English, motivation intensityincluding effort in learning, desire to learn and attitude towards English lessons, and self-efficacy including student’s perception of his/her aptitude to learn and ability to succeed inthe future Part III would gather information about the students’ perceived knowledge andapplication of examination-taking strategies as well as their perception of the teachers’examination-taking strategy training

2.4.1.2 Post- questionnaire

The post-questionnaire was composed of 12 questions and also arranged into 3 parts Part Iwas designed to be the same as part I of the pre-questionnaire to gather respondents’biodata Part II consisted of the same questions as the ones 3-10 in Part II of the pre-treatment questionnaire with the aim of finding out students motivation changes.(For the

results, see Appendix 3) Part III aimed at obtaining information about the students’ attitude

towards the given examination-taking strategy training and their preferences of trainingactivities

2.4.2 Interviews

Despite the above mentioned advantages, questionnaire also has some unavoidabledisadvantages Its reliability and data quality may be low Sometimes, it is impossible tocheck seriousness or honesty of the answers (Bill Gillham, 2000:8) This is especially true

of studies of motivation, which is an abstract, attitudinal concept Therefore, it is advisable

to incorporate more than one method in a study That’s the reason why the follow-upinterviews were also adopted in this study This was semi-structured interview whichaimed to provide an insight into the responses made in the questionnaires In other words,this interview was intended to gather in-depth information and make the data obtainedfrom the questionnaires more reliable and convincing The interview was conducted withthe participation of 10 students who had notable changes in attitude and motivation inlearning English 10 questions were compiled in a paper sheet The participants wereinvited to answer the questions with the researcher explaining the questions and clarifyingunclear answers All the interviews were conducted in Vietnamese, audio-taped, and lasted

around one hour The data collected from the interview were transcribed for the purpose of

analysis (For the interview transcript, see Appendix 6).

2.4.3 Classroom observations

To support and check the reliability of the data collected with the survey questionnaires,class observations were chosen in the study First, the researcher designed the observation

checklists (See Appendix 7) Then, she observed, took notes of what was happening in the

real classroom settings The observations were conducted regularly within the Englishlessons before and during the treatment This instrument was very important for teachers torealize their students’ fluctuations in motivation Then there could be prompt action

2.5 Data collection procedures

Firstly, the pre-questionnaire was administrated at the beginning of February to measure

‘input motivation’ and gather information about the reality of training and usingexamination-taking strategies by the teachers and students The participants had one day tothink carefully and give their answers After collecting the pre-questionnaire, theresearcher taught the students for one month and half a month inserting the examination-taking strategy training into the lessons as much as possible At the end of March, the post-questionnaire was delivered to obtain information of the students’ attitude towards theexamination-taking strategy training in lessons and their motivation for learning English.Apart from questionnaires, class observations were carried out before and during thetreatment Lastly, a follow-up interview of 10 participants was conducted in the followingweek to get qualitative data explaining for the changes

2.6 Inserting the examination-taking strategy training into lessons to motivate students

Studies on motivation have suggested many ways to facilitate learning and teaching.However, in this study, the researcher only exploited examination-taking strategy training

as a technique to motivate students to learn English It was used in English lessonswhenever possible These were the things the researcher tried to do for one month and half

a month:

 Providing the students with the general awareness of examination-taking strategies

at the beginning of the month when the new technique was applied

 Carrying out the steps of training students examination-taking strategies asfollows:

- Asking students about the strategies they often exploited to deal with tasks

- Explicitly introducing them to the new strategies which were more effective andguiding them how to apply it into the tasks as examples

- Helping them practice as much as possible

- Giving them opportunities to transfer these strategies into new tasks and gain somecertain achievements

 Using numerous activities to train students examination-taking strategies:

- Training through past papers or sample tests

- Training through explanations and handouts

- Training through the tasks in the textbook

- Training through language games

- Training through the lessons of correcting the tests

- Using discussions

- Using brainstorming

- Assigning homework

- Organizing short tests

- Practicing in pairs, groups and individually

2.7 Data analysis

The opinions made by the grade 11 students at Yen Thanh 2 upper secondary school inresponse to the questionnaires were consolidated and categorized by the researcher Theresults were subsequently tabulated and converted to percentages for the conveniences ofanalysis Along with the information via survey questionnaires, information gainedthrough interviews and class observations were added to assist interpretation

2.7.1 Results from pre-treatment questionnaire

 PERSONAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Chart 1 Students’ living place

Part I of the questionnaire aimed at gathering students’ personal background information.The first data collected under the survey were participants’ full name, the class they werelearning, and the place they were living As can be seen from the chart, all of theparticipants came from the countryside, among them 30% were living in the mountainousarea, only 7% were living in the town It could be interpreted that most of participants hadfaced difficulties accessing learning materials and practicing language skills

The next question was intended to collect the information about participants’ averagemarks in English in the first term of Grade 11 Of 115 participants, 48 students got mark 5

or higher (42%) and 67 (58%) got marks under 5 Noticeably, only one participant got highmark (8.2) These figures indicated the students’ low performance in English

From the answers to the first question in Part I, we could have a better understanding ofour respondents with their necessary background information

 STUDENT MOTIVATION FOR LEARNING ENGLISH

 Students’ goals for learning English

Question 1 Why do you learn English?

From the chart, it can be seen that most of the participants (89%) had extrinsic motivation,that is, their wish to get higher marks in English tests and pass examinations forces them tolearn English, and they had to learn it as a compulsory subject (e) In the follow-upinterview, 8 students said that they had to learn English to pass the final examinationbecause it was their most important goal The future job was also one of students’ concernswhen leaving school Some of respondents (37%) were learning English because they

7%

30%

63%

mountainous village town

plain village

hoped to get good jobs in the future (c) Besides, 15% were learning English tocommunicate (b) whereas 11% wanted to enter universities with their English knowledge(d) Clearly, these students appeared to be aware of the role of English in the modern life.Especially, 18% of the respondents answered that they liked English, the people andculture of native English countries (a) Among ‘other purposes’ (g), 5 respondents saidthey were learning English because they like English songs When interviewed, onerespondent said she liked to listen to and sing English songs very much These types ofinstrumental and integrative motivation are very good and should be encouraged.Especially, 3% of the respondents affirmed that they were learning English because theiraverage mark in English is higher than in the others (f) In general, when students hasextrinsic motivation, they could feel unwilling and forced to learn In contrast, withintrinsic motivation, students are usually eager and happy to learn.

Chart 2 Students’ goals for learning English

Question 2 How necessary is English for your future?

As can be seen from the chart, 37 % of the respondents thought English was necessary totheir future; meanwhile other 18% had no ideas about this Noticeably, there were 45 %underestimating the necessity of English to their future job The data showed that whilesome students knew well about the role of English in the modern life, some others didn’t

In the follow-up interview, one student said: “Really I don’t know what I am learningEnglish for I know I will not be able to enter universities or colleges After leaving school,

I will still work as a farmer” It is this poor perception of the role of English that decreased

the student motivation and made the English learning quality bad This also interpretedwhy many students said they were learning English only because it is a compulsory subject

in the syllabus and in the final examination

Chart 3 Students’ perceived necessity of English to their future

 Student interest in learning English

Question 3 How do you rate your interest in learning English?

In response to the direct question of interest, a significant 49% of the students said theirinterest in learning was low This figure is high as compared to 25% interested students.Besides, the respondents who had unresolved answers made up 26% It means that theserespondents’ interest was not really strong and high To sum up, less students in the surveywere interested in learning English than those who were not

Question 4 How do you rate the relevance of lesson content to your interest?

Although the instructional content was innovated along with the new textbook and thetopics were considered to be close to the context of students’ life, only 29% said it wasrelevant to their interest On the other hand, 40% of the students underrated the relevance

of lesson content to their students and 31% gave no comments about this In a small talk,one student complained: “English is very difficult for me I don’t know how to learn itbetter In English lessons, I almost don’t master anything” Clearly, relevance plays animportant role in motivating students, so it is advisable to adapt the lesson content to meetstudents’ needs and interest

 Student motivation intensity

Very necessary 13%

Necessary 33%

No idea 18%

Not necessary

at all 6%

Not necessary 30%

Question 5 How do you rate your effort in learning English?

Chart 4 Student effort in learning English

The data from the chart shows 61% of the students rated their effort as very low or low.17% were neutral in their answer, which means they didn’t really try hard Only 22%affirmed their level of effort was high and very high Observations in class also pointed outthat students’ participation in task completion and willingness to communicate was low

Question 6 How much time do you spend on doing home study on average?

Table 1 Students’ amount of time spent on doing home study

Time spent on learning English outside the classroom also shows how much effort onecommitted to master it Only 15% said they spent more than 3 hours learning English athome 61% spent about 1-2 hours a week on home study in English; meanwhile 13% saidthey did self-study at home for about 2-3 hours a week It is worrying when 11% admittedthey did not study English at home Given the weekly 3 periods of formal 45-minutelessons in class, it is expected that students should spend at least the same amount of timestudying at home or else It can be seen in terms of effort, student motivation to learn

English was relatively low Direct ratings to student effort (Question 5) revealed the same

result It is also revealed from the analysis that interest in English (25%) is correspondentwith the effort (22%) one pays to learn it

Very high 5% Very low8%

Low53%

I don't know

17%

High17%