Influential intrinsic factors to english homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th graders at a high school in vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---oOo--- NGUYỄN THỊ HẠNH INFLUENTIAL INTRINSIC FACTORS TO ENGLI

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-oOo -

NGUYỄN THỊ HẠNH

INFLUENTIAL INTRINSIC FACTORS

TO ENGLISH HOMEWORK EFFECTIVENESS

AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN VIETNAM

(NHỮNG NHÂN TỐ NỘI SINH ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN TÍNH HIỆU QUẢ CỦA BÀI TẬP VỀ NHÀ MÔN TIẾNG ANH THEO NHẬN THỨC CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG TẠI VIỆT NAM)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Hanoi - 2017

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-oOo -

NGUYỄN THỊ HẠNH

INFLUENTIAL INTRINSIC FACTORS

TO ENGLISH HOMEWORK EFFECTIVENESS

AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN VIETNAM

(NHỮNG NHÂN TỐ NỘI SINH ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN TÍNH HIỆU QUẢ CỦA BÀI TẬP VỀ NHÀ MÔN TIẾNG ANH THEO NHẬN THỨC CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG TẠI VIỆT NAM)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Assoc.Prof Dr Lâm Quang Đông

Hanoi - 2017

Nguyễn Thị Hạnh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to sincerely thank my supervisor, Assoc.Prof Dr Lâm Quang Đông, for his support, guidance, advices, valuable comments, suggestions, provisions, love and care which benifited me much in the completion and success of this study

Secondly, my sincere grattitude is extended to the respectable teachers and loveable students at the investigated school who allowed me to distribute the questionnaires, enthusiastically answered them and helped me a lot in conducting the interview

My thanks and gratitude also go to all professors and lecturers at Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable lectures

Post-Last but not least, I would like to send my gratitude to my parents, all members in

my family and my friends for always showing their loving support and encouragement to me when writing this thesis

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the influential intrinsic factors to English homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th graders at a Vinhphuc high school The intrinsic factors mentioned included assignments characteristics and classroom factors The survey questionnaires were distributed to one hundred and four English specialized 11th graders at a Vinhphuc high school A follow-up interview with three students was also carried out so as to clarify and elucidate the questionnaires' findings The results showed differences between students' perceptions of intrinsic factors in reality and students' expectations about them On the basis of the findings several pedagogical suggestions for teachers and parents were proposed with a view

to enhancing the effectiveness of homework in students' English learning Generally, teachers were suggested to provide students with more choices in their homework and avoid repetition in homework Regarding parents, they were advised

to facilitate students' homework completion by giving them a comfortable study area and carefully consider when and how to involve in students' learning With significant findings and practical implications proposed, this study was expected to

be useful to English teaching and learning of the investigated school in particular and of Vietnam in general

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES vi

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Significance of the study 3

1.4 Scope of the study 4

1.5 Structure of the thesis 5

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Homework in English language learning and teaching 6

2.1.1 Definitions of Homework 6

2.1.2 Factors Influencing the Utility of Homework 7

2.2 Related Studies 9

2.3 Conclusive Remarks 12

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 13

3.1 Research Design: Mixed-methods research 13

3.2 Participant selection 13

3.2.1 Population 13

3.2.2 Sampling (proportional stratified sampling) 14

3.3 Data collection procedure 15

3.4 Data collection instruments 16

3.4.1 Questionnaire 16

3.4.2 Interview 16

CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 18

4.1 Assigment characteristics 18

4.1.1 Amount 18

4.1.2 Skills/Knowledge Utilized 19

4.1.3 Purposes of Homework 21

4.1.4 Level of Difficulty 25

4.1.5 Degree of Individualization 26

4.1.6 Level of Student Choice 28

4.1.7 Completion Deadlines 30

4.1.8 Social Context 31

4.2 Classroom factors 32

4.2.1 Initial Classroom Factors 32

4.2.2 Classroom Follow-up Factors 35

4.3 Conclusive Remarks 40

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 42

5.1 Summary of the Findings 42

5.1.1 Assignment characteristics 42

5.1.2 Clasroom factors 43

5.2 Implications 43

5.3 Limitations of the Study 45

5.4 Suggestions for Further Studies 45

REFERENCES 47 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1- Survey Questionnaire II APPENDIX 2: Interview Questions IX APPENDIX 3: Transcriptions of the Interview X

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

Table 1: A process model of factors influencing the effectiveness of homework

(Cooper, 2007, p 23) 8

Chart 1: The number of hour(s)/day spent on English homework 18

Table 2: The frequency of skills/ knowledge used to complete homework 19

Chart 2: The frequency of skills/ knowledge used to complete homework 20

Table 3: The purposes of English homework assigned 22

Chart 3: The Purposes of Homework 22

Table 4: Other Homework Characteristics 24

Chart 4: Level of Difficulty 25

Chart 5: Level of Individualization 26

Chart 7: Completion Deadlines 30

Chart 8: Social Context 31

Table 5: Initial Classroom Factors 32

Table 6: Follow-up Classroom Factors 35

Chart 9: Classroom Follow-up – Feedback – Comment 36

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

Homework is a topic which attracts public attention from students, parents, pedagogues and researchers, etc Many studies concerning homework have been conducted, yet announced a variety of findings Some researchers indicate that homework is effective, while some show the contrary, some approve homework assignment, whereas some raise objections However, no matter if homework is useful or harmful, it is undeniable that “homework is an important part of most school-aged children’s daily routines” (Cooper, Robinson & Patall, 2006, p 2) and homework occupies a huge part of teachers’ and students’ lives

Until now, there have been a great number of studies on homework, particularly homework for English language learning Researchers have been working on different aspects of homework such as: the role of homework in foreign language learning, the correlation between homework and student learning achievement, homework from teachers’ and parents’ perspectives, the effects of homework on students’ learning, et cetera, which will be discussed more in the literature review Generally speaking, they have made big efforts to find out to what extent homework

is effective in students’ learning process Cooper, Robinson & Patall (2006, p 9) state, “Homework assignments are influenced by more factors than any other instructional strategy.” However, the voice of students in what factors really impact

on the effectiveness of homework from their viewpoint has been investigated by only few researchers In Vietnam, the researcher of this study has not found any research paper concerning the influential intrinsic factors to English homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th graders at a high school in Vietnam Due

to the important role of students in learner-centered learning, students’ perceptions should have been investigated more thoroughly in order to provide information to assist the design and development of homework and homework policies which meet students’ needs and promote students’ English learning

In Vietnam, although the issues of homework are frequently put to discussion by the mass media or in educational forums, attention is concentrated on homework in elementary schools In 2008, the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam issued a clear guideline number 7720/BDGDT-GDTH on homework, which asks teachers not to give homework to students in elementary schools who attend a full-day curriculum There has been no policy guideline on homework for high school students so far, while grade levels exert enormous influence on the effective of homework and homework also has a big positive influence on the achievement of high school students (Cooper, 1989) The issues of homework for English in high school do not seem to be given enough attention by both Vietnamese researchers and educational administrators As an English teacher, I take a great deal of interest

in English homework given to high school students Giving homework to my students, I receive different responses from them Students' viewpoints towards the effectiveness of homework are diverse Therefore, I have a strong desire of investigating what factors influence the utility of homework for students’ English learning from their own perceptions in order to design and set appropriate and effective homework for my students

With all factors above, I decided to conduct a case study of 11th graders at a Vinhphuc high school which thoroughly investigates "influential intrinsic factors to English homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th graders." This study is hoped to fill the gap in understanding of homework and contribute some practical changes and improvement to Vietnamese education

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

This research paper aims to provide useful insight into the influential intrinsic factors to English homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th graders Being participants of the research, students are expected to show their own thoughts about English homework and share their opinions of the intrinsic factors which may have an impact on the utility of homework for their English learning First, the

researcher investigated how students perceive the intrinsic factors, including: assignment characteristic and classroom factors Then, it is the researcher’s intention to suggest a number of improvements that should be made to increase the effectiveness of homework by minimizing negative factors and maximizing positive factors

With a view to achieving the aims mentioned above, the ultimate research question that this paper will address is:

What are the influential intrinsic factors to English homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th graders?

1.3 Significance of the study

This study provides a description of high school students’ personal viewpoints on the main factors which are considered have an impact on the academic effectiveness

of English homework The perceptions elicited from students in this study are expected to have practical significance to students, foreign language teachers, parents, education administrators and researchers who have intention of developing further studies on this topic

Firstly, this study will be beneficial for foreign language teachers, particularly who teach English at high schools As the teaching time in class is limited, it is not possible for teachers to thoroughly give lectures about new knowledge, check students’ homework and pay their attention to find out the potential factors which may affect the effectiveness of homework in students’ learning simultaneously This study is hoped to provide them with the general and clear views of students on the factors influencing the utility of homework for their learning By increasing awareness of those factors, teachers may understand the advantages and disadvantages that students have while doing homework Thanks to that, they will

be able to make suitable adjustments in assigning and designing homework so as to enhance the effectiveness of homework in student’s English learning Secondly, as

for parents who perform a prominent role in the students’ learning process, especially their self-study at home, the findings of this study may become a guide for them on how to help and encourage their children’s learning by recognizing and minimizing the negative factors and maximizing the positive factors influencing homework effectiveness Moreover, there are not any national education policies and guideline on what homework at high school should be like, the regulations controlling how homework is assigned and checked in class, etc Then, with regard

to students, they will be the ones who take advantage of all adjustments and improvement in homework for English based on their own needs and perceptions Finally, regarding researchers, this study will serve as a reliable reference for those who have an interest in the topic of English homework in the future

1.4 Scope of the study

Firstly, although there are two main kinds of factors influencing the effect of homework according to the model of Cooper (2007), in the scope of a graduation paper, it is impossible to cover both extrinsic and intrinsic factors Correspondingly, the researcher has chosen to investigate only intrinsic factors including assignment characteristics and classroom factors Secondly, the population size is restricted to

104 11th English specialized graders in the D-stream The reason is that the total number of 11th graders at the chosen Vinhphuc high school is quite large It is not recommended to cover such a huge population in a graduation paper which is about

14000 words long Besides, 11th graders at the chosen high school are divided into three streams of A, D, TN based on students' focused and specialized subjects Among three streams, students in D-stream classes specialize in English, while A-stream and TN-stream students are not It means that D-stream students are English specialized, A-stream and TN stream students are non-English-specialized It is obvious that English is taught, learned, tested and perceived differently in two groups of students, which may lead to differences in dealing with their homework Consequently, if the study covers both groups, the results may not be valid

Therefore, the researcher has to restrict the size of population by focusing on English specialized group To sum up, the scope of this research is limited to the influential intrinsic factors to English homework effectiveness from the perspective

of 11th English specialized students in D-stream at a Vinhphuc high school

1.5 Structure of the thesis

The thesis is organized as follows:

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION – introduces the rationale; aims of the study; research questions; significance of the study; and the thesis structure

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW – reviews and presents relevant theories and studies to the study

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY – describes the research design, the participants selection, data collection procedure, data collection instruments

CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION – presents an analysis of the data and discusses the results of the study

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS – summarizes the study, limitations of the study and suggestions for further research

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Homework in English language learning and teaching

2.1.1 Definitions of Homework

Homework has been globally accepted as part of the student routine in a wide range

of subjects, including English Although there are numerous points of similarity between homework of other subjects and homework of English, the researcher only refers to the concept of homework in English language learning and teaching throughout this research with a view to maintaining its consistency In other words, whenever the concept of homework is mentioned in the research, it is the homework

of English learning and teaching, not of other subjects

The term homework is written in the Cambridge Dictionary as “work which

teachers give their students to do at home” This definition has severely restricted the place and the time in which homework is completed to students’ home and students’ span of time at home only However, this restriction has been removed by researchers when many of them define homework as work intended to be completed outside of school time (Wallingger, 2000) Carlsson (2009, p 9) states, “homework

is assignment to be completed outside of the regular lessons but not necessarily assigned to students by school teachers that are meant to be carried out during non-school hours” (p 15) This definition has been clarified by excluding “(a) in-school guided study; (b) home study courses delivered through the mail, television, audio

or videocassette, or the Internet; and (c) extracurricular activities such as sports and participation in clubs” (Cooper, Robinson, Patall, 2006, p 1) The phrase “meant to

be carried out during non-school hours” means “students may complete homework assignment during their study, or library time, or even during subsequent classes” (Cooper, Robinson, Patall, 2006, p 1)

Not only the restriction of the place and time is lifted, but the ways how students do their homework are also re-defined by researchers, Kidwell (cited in Pham, 2011, p 16) offers the definition of homework, which is “homework is any work or activities that pupils are asked to do outside school time, either on their own or with parents or careers” According to this definition, homework is not necessarily done

by the student him/herself Students can complete their homework with help from their parents, friends, tutors, and carers et cetera Hong & Milgram (2000) share the same point of view with Kidwell (cited in Pham, 2011, p 16) when they claim that students can decide if they do homework or not and in which circumstances and surroundings homework is complete, which is the difference between learning at school and at home In other words, doing homework, they can have their own preferences and choices about “when, where, how and with whom they prefer to do it” (Hong & Milgram, 2000, p 4)

2.1.2 Factors Influencing the Utility of Homework

The success of homework is influenced by many factors Those factors will be discussed in this part of the study As Cooper (1989) has highlighted, “because homework goes home, we have to consider variations in out-of-school environments when we think about what might determine the value of an assignment” (p 87), the factors influencing the effectiveness of homework are considered to be diverse In his work, Cooper (1989) has formed a process model of factors influencing the utility of homework Then, in 2007, he made several changes

in his model and introduced this new model in his book named “The batted over homework” - the third edition Certainly, these models cannot cover all of the available factors; however, it shows many outstanding factors that are most often mentioned by educators and parents (Cooper, 2007) The process model of factors influencing the effectiveness of homework is shown in Table 1

Four main factors influencing the success of homework assignment belong to two main categories: intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors The concept of intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors should be clarified Extrinsic factors are defined as

factors coming from outside something rather than within homework and do not belong naturally to something Accordingly, extrinsic factors of homework are factors which operate from outside of homework In the model of Cooper (2007), extrinsic factors include student characteristics, subject matter, grade level and home-community which totally do not belong to homework itself On the contrary, intrinsic factors belong to or are part of something In the model of Cooper (2007), assignment characteristics and classroom factors are considered intrinsic factors of homework which have been discussed earlier, the next three columns of the model express the process of homework completion, which is the reason why this model is called the process model This process involves two classroom stages and the last column discusses final outcomes of homework including: assignment completion, assignment performance and effects of homework

Table 1: A process model of factors influencing the effectiveness of homework

(Cooper, 2007, p 23)

Extrinsic Factors Assignment

Characteristics

Initial Classroom Factors

Classroom Follow-up

Outcomes or Effects

difficult content Purpose

Skill area utilized Degree of student choice Completion deadlines Social context

Provision of materials + Study aids + Use of the computer Suggested approaches Links to the curriculum Incentives for completion

Feedback:

+ Written comments + Grading Testing of related content

Use in class discussion

Assignment completion Assignment performance

Positive effects

+ Immediate Academic + Long-term academic + Nonacademic + Parental

Negative effects

+ Satiation + Denial of leisure time + Parental interference + Cheating + Increased student differences

2.2 Related Studies

As mentioned earlier, the battle over homework never ends and attracts the attention

of numerous parents, pedagogues and researchers Therefore, a great number of studies concerning homework have been carried out In this part of the study, the researcher will concentrate on reviewing and analyzing the studies which also deal with factors influencing the success and failure of homework assignments, especially the intrinsic ones

It is important to be conscious that there are not many in-depth studies into the factors having an impact on homework assignments’ effectiveness Researchers tend to investigate only one or a few factors among them One of the most comprehensive studies on those factors is Cooper (1989) The process model of factors influencing the effect of homework has been developed by him after years spent on reviewing and analyzing other researchers’ studies on homework issues A more detailed and adequate version of this model is introduced in Cooper (2007)

As being completed and edited several times after meta-analyzing a large number of researchers, Cooper’s synthesis in general and his model of factors in particular are invaluable reference to parents, educators and researcher who are interested in homework issues The new version of this model has been already shown and explained briefly in the previous part of the study Another study dealing with homework and factors relating to homework is the master’s thesis of Watkins (2012) This study aims at exploring “factors affecting student homework completion – individual skills of language, math, and reasoning along with motivation, quality of the assignment, teacher feedback, and the environment in which homework is completed” (Watkins, 2012, p 2) The researcher has attempted

to cover many factors which may have an impact on students’ homework completion However, one of the problems is the number of participants in the study Only 86 out of 401 students participate in the study, which may reduce the reliability of results and conclusions

The first intrinsic factor in Cooper’s model is assignment characteristics, including: amount, difficulty, purpose, skill area utilized, degree of individualization, degree

of student choice, completion deadlines and social context Sharing the same interest with Cooper, Vatterott (2010) attempts to find out what make a homework assignment effective According to this researcher, there are five characteristics of a good homework: “purposeful, efficient, personalized, doable and inviting” (Vatterott, cited in Carr, 2013, p 174) It can be easily noticed that both Cooper (2007) and Vatterott (2010) consider purpose a significant feature of homework Nonetheless, Cooper is concerned with different purposes of assignments involving instructional and non-instructional purposes, while Vatterott pays attention to the purposefulness of homework “Purposeful” means that homework assignments should be meaningful “Teachers should give students assignments that are purposeful for them and methods that work for their learning styles” (Carr, 2013, p.174) It means that purposes of homework assignments need to be understood clearly by students and “students should leave classroom with no confusion about either what they are being asked to do or how to do it” (Marzano, Gaddy & Dean, cited in Protheroe, 2009, p.43) The study of Wilson and Rhodes (2010) indicates that 43% of the students in the survey do not complete their homework as they do not understand it However, homework should never be assigned for the purpose of punishment Cooper (in Silvis, 2002, cited in Protheroe, 2009, p 44) warns, “It implies you think schoolwork is averse Kids will pick up this message.” In order to ensure the purposefulness of homework, Vatterott (2010) suggests that homework should provide teachers with feedback on students’ understanding which will enable teachers to make necessary adaptations to their instructions

Efficiency is the second hallmark of an effective homework which is similar to

“amount” feature in Cooper’s list (2007) as it also about the amount of time spent

on homework, teachers should customize tasks to suit learning style, interest of each student and provide them with choices in their assignments instead of forcing them

to do tasks that teachers want It is not necessary for teachers to let students choose

everything in their assignments Even “within compulsory homework assignments, students can be given different degree of discretion concerning which or how many parts of the assignment to complete” (Cooper, 2007, p 17) Students in the study of Watkins (2012) indicate that they want choices in their assignments

With regard to “degree of individualization”, Vatterott (2010) states that fit-all approach has to be prevented and an effective homework should make students feel competent An easy assignment to one student may be extremely difficult to another Several students may have to spend only five minutes doing an assignment which takes other students hours to complete Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to differentiate assignments so that they will be suitable for students’ needs and abilities in terms of level difficulty

one-size-Finally, the last characteristic mentioned by Vatterott (2010) is the aesthetic appeal which is totally absent from the process model of Cooper (2007) The way homework looks should never be overlooked “Wise teachers have learned that students at all levels are more motivated to complete assignments that are visual uncluttered Less information on the page, plenty of room to write answers, and the use of graphics or clip art make tasks look inviting and interesting” (Vatterott, 2010,

p 15) In general, the lists of assignment characteristics influencing homework success of both Cooper (2007) and Vatterott (2010) shares numerous things in common However, it seems that the list of Vatterott (2010) lacks a few important features of homework which have been covered by Cooper (2007), namely skill area utilized, completion deadlines and social context Nonetheless, there is a shortcoming in Cooper’s list is that Cooper fails to fully acknowledge the significance of assignments’ visually appeal to the utility of homework

Having homework done does not finish the homework process yet The various ways teachers response when homework assignments are brought back to school should be considered thoroughly A study performed by Deci, Connell and Ryan (1989) indicates that “if students feel as though they are learning on their own and

receive feedback from their teacher about what they are doing correctly and what they need to improve upon, they will be motivated to complete the assignment” (cited in Watkins, 2011), which asserts the importance of different types of feedback in homework completion Xu (2011) supports this idea by stating in his study that teachers’ feedback has a positive effect on students’ homework completion With regard to teachers’ response when homework is brought back to class, researchers have many ways to classify feedbacks into different types (Cooper, 1989; Cooper, 2007, Wallinger, 2000)

2.3 Conclusive Remarks

In this part, the key terms including homework, classifications, effects of homework and the factors influencing the effectiveness of homework have been presented and discussed Besides, after reviewing a number of related studies and theoretical frameworks, the research has discovered that the influential intrinsic factors to English homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th graders have not been investigated by any researcher yet This is the inspiration for me to choose this topic Also, the researcher has synthesized all of the information and developed an adapted model of intrinsic factors influencing the utility of homework which will be used as the framework for this study

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the researcher is going to present the research design which will be used and explain the reasons why this research design is appropriate to address the problem identified in the first chapter

3.1 Research Design: Mixed-methods research

The main method which has been chosen for this research is the mixed-methods due

to several specific reasons Mixed-method is the method which combines both quantitative and qualitative approaches in only one research Quantitative approach emphasizes objectivity by collecting the data through interviews, observation, et cetera and reporting the results through verbal means However, recently, educational researchers are increasingly recognizing the value of collecting both quantitative and qualitative dada Using mixed-methods approach may help quantitative and qualitative methods complement each other In this study, the mixed-method, namely the explanatory design, will be used flexibly to collect data from both teachers and students Theoretically, explanatory design emphasizes quantitative data Qualitative data are mainly used to illustrate or explain the quantitative data that are collected before In this research, the quantitative method will be used first to get numeric data from students Then, these numeric data obtained from students will be used in forming interview questions for students in order to get further explanation and opinions from them

3.2 Participant selection

3.2.1 Population

It should be noted that name of the participating school will not be revealed in the study due to the research ethics The subject of this research interest is the 11thEnglish graders at a high school in Vinh Phuc This selection of population has been made for certain reasons

First of all, this school has been chosen as the separation between English specialized group including D-stream classes and non-English-specialized groups including A-stream and TN-stream classes at this school is convenient for the researcher to conduct the research which focuses on the influential intrinsic factors

to English homework effectiveness from the perspective of 11th graders

Secondly, in comparison with non-English-specialized students, they certainly have more amount of homework to complete and have to spend more time doing homework at home, English language learning is much more important to them as most of them are going to take an English test in the national university entrance examination after graduating from high school Therefore, the findings of this research are supposed to be more valuable for them That is the reason why the researcher has decided to choose them as the informants of her study

3.2.2 Sampling (proportional stratified sampling)

There are 208 English specialized 11th graders studying at the participating school,

so it is not possible to study this whole big group Therefore, it is essential to select samples from the population The samples here are a number of students who are representatives of the 11th English specialized graders at the participating high school

To make sure that all students in the population have an equal chance of being selected and avoid bias, the researcher has decided to employ the probability sampling, namely Proportional Stratified Sampling The process of selecting samples

by the method and the reason why the method is chosen is explained fully below

Firstly, the Proportional Stratified Sampling is used because the researcher has prior information about the division of 11th English specialized graders into three different classes based on their learning achievement (D1, D2, D3, D4, D5) and wants the selection of sample items to reflect the differences among those classes Proportional Stratified Sampling is used with a view to helping students in all groups have equal and proportional chance to be involved in the research

Proportional Stratified Sampling means that the number of samples chosen from each group (n) is in relation to the group’s proportion in the total population (N) In this study, n and N are decided according to this relation: n/N = 0.5 Accordingly, the number of sample and the population of all 3 classes are calculated and presented in the table below

3.3 Data collection procedure

The procedure for collecting data contains three stages and involves both students

and their English teachers at school

Stage 1: Delivering questionnaires to students These questionnaires include a

number of both close-ended and open-ended questions which asked students about their perceptions of the influential intrinsic factors to English homework effectiveness Those questions are intended to cover assignment characteristics and classroom factors

comprising initial classroom factors and classroom follow-up factors

Stage 2: After collecting and analyzing data from questionnaires, it was time to

design and carry out the interviews with 2 students from each class Interviews were held to enquire about students’ further explanation and opinions which clarified the numeric data collected by questionnaires The researchers asked 3 interviewees’ for their consent in advance to make sure they agreed to attend the interview Interviews with each student were conducted simultaneously so that students could freely discuss with each other The interviews were recorded so that it was easier

for the researcher to note down the content of the interviews and analyzed it later

Stage 3: The numeric data and qualitative data gathered from questionnaires in stage 1, interviews in stage 2 were recapitulated and analyzed

3.4 Data collection instruments

As the mixed-method of explanatory design was adopted in this research, two data collection instruments were used: questionnaire and interview to ensure the validity,

reliability and sufficiency of data

3.4.1 Questionnaire

A questionnaire is a list of questions that researchers ask respondents to answer by either selecting from among available answers or writing their own answers A questionnaire contains close-ended questions or open-ended questions or both Close-ended questions provide respondents with a list of existing answers and require them to choose at least one While close-ended questions have the restriction of possible answers, open-ended questions let respondents free to write down all of answers they want

It is appropriate to use questionnaire as the main instrument in this research since it aims to investigate the large sample size of more than 100 students Using questionnaires is convenient and time-saving because it does not take much time to answer In addition, easy collecting and analyzing data from questionnaire is another advantage of this instrument

The researcher intended to design questionnaires based on the model of factors influencing the effects of homework (Cooper, 2007) Both close-ended and open-ended were used so as to collect the data of the students’ perceptions of the intrinsic factors, namely assignment characteristics and classroom factors

3.4.2 Interview

Despite being the most suitable instrument for this study, questionnaire still has some weaknesses Questionnaire is not flexible as it cannot be changed once having

been given to respondents Moreover, it is impossible to ask respondents for further information or explanation if researchers only have this kind of instrument For this reason, interview instrument is used to remedy the shortcomings of questionnaire Interview is a two-person conversation initiated and controlled by the interviewer for the specific purposes of getting research-relevant information, and focused by the researcher on content specified by research objectives of systematic description, prediction, or explanation Interview instrument is used in this research with a view

to probing more information, explanation, ideas from students to elucidate the questionnaires’ findings

Among three types of interview, the researcher decided to use semi-structured interview It meant that before conducting the interviews, the researcher had already had the general ideas or issues of what she wanted to ask interviewees Those issues arose when analyzing the numeric data from questionnaire During the interview, the conversations between the interviewer and interviewees focused on issues and topics, not very single question, like in the structured interview

CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the research question brought up in the first chapter will be answered through the analysis and discussion on the collected data from questionnaires Semi-structured interview is also used as a research instrument with

a view to probing more information and explanation from students to elucidate the questionnaires’ findings

As stated in the previous chapter, the questionnaires were delivered to all of the 11thgraders in D-stream at a Vinhphuc high school Since one student was off school when the questionnaires were distributed, there were only 207/208 participants involved in the research Among those 207 responses, the researcher eliminated the incomplete and wrong ones which did not follow the given instructions, then randomly picked out 104 qualified responses to analyze in this chapter

This result and discussion chapter will be divided into four parts according to research question about three intrinsic factors influencing the effectiveness of homework in English learning

Chart 1: The number of hour(s)/day spent on English homework

>4 hours

The above chart illustrated the length of time students spent doing homework exercises per day It was clear that over a half of all respondents said they did English homework in 1-2 hours per day Up to 15% of students admitted to having less than 1 hour each day to do English homework It was noticeable that the number of students spending more than 4 hours per day on English homework assignments was quite small, accounting for only 3%

In brief, it could be calculated that the average amount of time students spent on homework was about 3-8 hours per week (1-2 hours per day, 3-4 days per week) This amount of time was considered by students just sufficient for them to complete all homework assigned by teachers, but not in a careful way Interviewees revealed that they did not spend much time learning English and the amount of 3-8 hours per

week was just used to complete the assigned homework perfunctorily “With this

amount of time, whenever having trouble with homework problems, I cannot think carefully, deeply and attempt to solve it ” (Student 2, Personal communication,

April 27, 2017) However, according to interviewees, the time used to do English

homework varied greatly from student to student, “hard-working students who were

excellent at English tended to spend a lot of time on English homework, where less hard-working ones seemed to ignore it and often copied their classmates’ completed homework in class.” (Personal communication, April 27, 2017)

4.1.2 Skills/Knowledge Utilized

Table 2: The frequency of skills/ knowledge used to complete homework

Writing Reading Listening Speaking Foreign

Culture Grammar Vocabulary

More than 1 skill is used

Chart 2: The frequency of skills/ knowledge used to complete homework

Overall, according to the mean scores, 8 skills and knowledge mentioned were not used at the same frequency It could be seen from the chart that grammar got the highest mean scores (M = 6.03) among all of 8 skills/ knowledge, which could represent that most students found grammar most frequently used in their English homework assignments In the next two places of frequency, vocabulary (M = 5.42) and reading (M = 4.61) also got the general agreement of students on their great frequency in homework Among those skills, listening was rated the least frequent skill utilized in students’ homework However, no skill or knowledge had the mean score lower than 3.5/8, which meant that teachers did not leave out any single skill

or type of knowledge when designing homework assignments for their students Students had chances to utilize all of the skills and knowledge mentioned above in their homework exercises, but at different levels of frequency

Nevertheless, most standard deviation scores were high in comparison with the means, which can be deduced that students’ responses to those items were not moderately consistent This might be caused by the fact that students were in different classes and taught by different teachers A number of skills and knowledge might have been attached special importance by some teachers Thus, they assigned homework which required their students to utilize those skills and knowledge frequently In contrast, other teachers might have let other skills and knowledge appear more regularly in homework as they think those skills and knowledge should

be given more focus Reading (S.D = 1.62, M = 4.61) was the only skill which was

chosen as one of three most frequent skills used in homework assignments by rather common consent

To conclude, all skills and knowledge mentioned in the questionnaires were involved in students’ homework assignments Among them, grammar, vocabulary and reading skills were utilized most frequently, whereas listening was the least frequent skill According to students’ perceptions, teachers had to give much homework about grammar, vocabulary and limited homework about listening and speaking because grammar and vocabulary were the focuses of the curriculum, while listening and speaking were not Another reason was the current examinations

in Vietnam, which were predominantly on grammar, vocabulary and almost ignored listening and speaking skills (Personal communication, April 27, 2017) Asked about their expectations for the changes in the frequencies of those skills and knowledge, students showed their polarized opinions in the interview Student 2 declined any change She still wanted to be given grammar, vocabulary homework most frequently and listening, speaking homework least frequently because she thought she needed to be proficient in English grammar first before learning any

other skills She said, “If you are already good at English grammar, then you can

learn other skills But now my English grammar is poor I do not think I can understand the listening recordings ” (Personal communication, April 27, 2017)

In contrast, student 1 objected to student 2’ ideas as she believed that grammar was

not necessary for learning listening She told her own story: “I keep watching

English programs on TV, Hollywood movies frequently, so now I can listen and understand them sometimes There are a bunch of good movies For example: Avengers I have watched Avengers four times Now I can understand what the actors and actresses are speaking without Vietnamese subtitles.” Finally, she stated

that she wanted to be assigned more homework about listening, speaking and time for grammar and vocabulary should be reduced (Student 1, Personal communication, April 27, 2017)

4.1.3 Purposes of Homework

The summarized statistics for 8 items in question 5 illustrated students’ perceptions

of the purposes of homework assigned are shown in Table 3 and Chart 3 It was

clear from the graph that the overall mean scores of all items exceeded 2.0/5 This result reflected the common agreement of students on those purposes of homework assignments In other words, no purpose mentioned was strongly opposed by the respondents as a whole Receiving the highest mean scores were item a (M = 3.88) and item c (M = 3.81) Their highest mean score combining with the low standard deviations (item a: S D = 0.79, item c: S.D = 0.75) demonstrated students’ popular and firm opinion that the main purposes of English homework were to have students revise and practice knowledge already taught in class and to require students to apply many different skills and concepts to produce a single product, such as: a creative writing, a report or a project, et cetera

Table 3: The purposes of English homework assigned

a To review and practice knowledge that has already been

b To introduce knowledge to be presented in the upcoming

c To require students to apply many different skills and concepts

to produce a single product (a creative writing, a report or a

project )

3.81 0.75

d To require students to transfer knowledge, skills learned to a

e To promote the communication between students and parents 2.27 0.94

f To fulfill the directives from school administrators 2.48 1.26

h To inform parents what is going on at school 2.35 1.01

(Note: SD = standard deviation)

Chart 3: The Purposes of Homework

Mean

h g f e d c b a

Following item c, 4 non-instructional purposes of items e, f, g, h all had the mean scores ranging between 2.24 and 2.48 These low mean scores represented the students’ belief that 4 purposes mentioned above were not actually frequently set for homework assignments by their teachers According to students’ perceptions, the instructional purposes were paid more attention than the non- instructional purposes by their teachers

Also, the graph showed neutral opinion of students on item b as its mean score was 3.07 Accordingly, students revealed their feeling of uncertainty about whether English homework was assigned to introduce knowledge to be presented in the upcoming lessons to students or not

The lowest mean score, which was 2.24, fell into the purpose of item g- to punish students It meant in general, students rather disagreed that homework was assigned

to punish them An interviewed student said, “If a teacher punishes students by

giving them homework, then students will feel irritated They may copy their friends’ assignment or do their homework very perfunctorily and carelessly There

is not any benefit from the homework-as-punishment.” (Student 3, Personal

communication, April 27, 2017) Furthermore, “students might hate learning

English and had antipathy for teachers if they gave them homework as a punishment” (Personal communication, April 27, 2017) These opinions

demonstrated Cooper’s statement that assigning homework to punish students implied teachers thought schoolwork was averse, students would quickly pick up this message (cited in Protheroe, 2009)

In addition, the researcher also inquired further into the teachers’ explanations about the purposes of homework through the item e in question 5 - “How much of your homework is having its purposes explained in class by your teachers?” The overall mean and standard deviation scores of question 5 were shown in table 8 below In regards to reality, the mean score of 3.15 revealed the fact that more than a half of homework had its purposes explained in class by the teachers As compared with reality, the mean score of students’ expectation was higher (M = 3.78), which meant

that they wanted about most of their homework to have its purposes explained in advance by their teachers so that they would know why they had to do the exercises

or how helpful those homework exercises were for their English learning

In question 5, students were asked about their perceptions of several homework characteristics in the reality and their expectations about them It should be noted from Table 3 that the great majority of the items had rather high standard deviation scores, which meant that students’ responses to each question item were quite many and varied The detailed analysis of all characteristics mentioned in question 5

would be discussed in the next section

Table 4: Other Homework Characteristics

Mean S.D Mean S.D

b Too difficult for you to complete? 2.82 0.89 2.41 1.11

c A mix of both easy and difficult tasks? 3.45 1.11 3.56 1.15

e Having its purposes explained in class by your

teacher?

3.15 1.22 3.78 1.25

f Assigned the same to the whole class? 4.17 1.32 4.06 1.28

g Assigned individually based on different students’

needs and abilities?

1.60 0.95 2.59 1.5

h Assigned to groups based on different groups’ needs

and abilities?

1.71 1.01 2.67 1.44

i Compulsory for students to complete all? 3.56 1.29 2.1 1.2

j Compulsory to do, but students can decide which and

how many parts of the assignment to complete?

m Requiring students to complete in short deadlines

(less than a week)?

3.22 1.17 3.21 1.19

n Requiring students to complete in more than a week? 2.51 1.08 2.98 1.12

o Requiring students to work individually? 3.19 1.32 3.22 1.12

p Requiring students to work with others? 2.55 0.94 3.00 1.19

4.1.4 Level of Difficulty

Chart 4: Level of Difficulty

The graphic directly pointed out that among the 3 items questioning about the level

of difficulty, the highest mean score fell into item c - a mix of both easy and difficult tasks (M = 3.54), while the lowest mean score belonged to item a - too easy

for you to complete (M = 2.51) These figures indicated students’ perception that

only less than half of the assigned homework were too easy for students, whereas most of them combined both easy and difficult tasks Nevertheless, the slightly standard deviation (S.D = 1.11) showed that students’ opinions on item c were rather varied

Conversely, students’ expectations were different from the reality at school Item a, which had the lowest mean score in reality (M = 2.51), got the highest mean score

in expectations (M = 3.26), whereas, item c having the highest mean score in reality (M = 3.54), had the lowest in expectation (M = 1.8) The mean score of item b in students’ expectations (M = 2.41) was higher than in reality (M = 2,82) The deduction from those figures was that students wanted English homework in which both easy and difficult tasks The mixed ones should be reduced from most to only some “Too easy” assignments were expected to take up most of the homework given to students, while they think the number of “too difficult” ones should be decreased to less than a half of the total quantity of homework assigned

4.1.5 Degree of Individualization

Chart 5: Level of Individualization

With regard to individualization level, Vatterott (2010) claimed that one-size-fit-all approach had to be prevented and teachers should differentiate assignments so that they would be suitable for students’ ability, especially in terms of level of difficulty However, students’ responses to the questionnaires showed their own perspective which was different from Vatterott’s statement It could be seen from the chart that item f had the highest mean scores in both reality and expectation column The mean score of 4.17 in reality column indicated students’ perceptions that the one-size-fit-all homework took up more than 83% of the total homework load

Students still expected this kind of homework to take up most of the homework assignments given to them (about 81%), which was the contrast to Vatterott’s statement (2010) that one-size-fit-all homework should be prevented Nevertheless,

it is not the common opinion of all respondents as the standard deviation scores in both reality and expectation column were rather high The standard deviation score

of 1.32 in reality column pointed out that not all students received the all homework most of the time Students in some classes were always assigned the

f Assigned the same

to the whole class

g Assigned individually based

on different students' needs and ability

h Assigned to groups based on different groups' needs and ability

Reality Expectation

same homework for the whole class, while in other classes, students were assigned different homework based on their individual needs and abilities Similarly, students’ expectations about the proportion of one-size-fit-all homework were also various since the standard deviation score in expectation column was 1.28

Next were the results of students’ perception and expectations about the homework assigned individually based on the different students’ needs and abilities (item g) and assigned to groups based on different groups’ need and abilities (item h) Students’ responses to these kinds of homework were quite similar to each other Both kinds of homework were perceived to account for less than 35% of the total homework load as neither of mean scores was higher than 1.71, which meant that the teacher did not often differentiate assignments according to diverse students’ abilities and needs This perception received popular approval from students as the standard deviation scores in reality columns were low (item g: S.D = 0.95; item h: S.D = 1.01)

In other words, students’ responses to these question items were not diverse

In comparison with reality columns, the mean scores of item g and h in expectation columns were slightly higher (item g: M = 2.59; item h: M = 2.67) These figures illustrated that students wanted more assignments which were given separately to different students or groups based on their individual needs and abilities According

to their responses, the proportion of these kinds of homework should be raised from less than 35% to nearly half of the total homework load

Overall, a clear trend could be seen from the above graphic: amongst 3 homework approaches mentioned in the questionnaires, one-size-fit-all homework took the first place in students’ order of preference, next was the homework assigned individually based on different students’ needs and abilities which was followed by the last preferred one- the homework given to groups based on different groups’ needs and abilities