Teacher related demotives in EFL speaking classes at a vietnamese university

Specifically, quantitative method was used to examine the factors relating to teachers that demotivate students to learn English speaking skills from 1 students’ and 2 teachers’ perspect

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Major: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

HANOI – 2018

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Major: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Dr Ngô Thu Hương

Ngô Thu Hương

HANOI – 2018

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Declaration

I hereby certify the thesis entitled “Teacher-related demotives in EFL speaking

classes at a Vietnamese university” as my own work in the fulfillment of the

requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Hanoi, August, 2018

Trần Thị Ngọc Mai

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Acknowledgements

I have now made it to the last stage of my MA journey During this interesting but at the same time challenging journey, I have been given continuous support of a number of people whom I would like to acknowledge here

First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Ngô Thu Hương The insightful academic comments she gave me, her enthusiasm for my research, and more importantly, her patience were greatly appreciated

Second, I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to the staff and students of the university where my research was conducted The study would not be complete without their consent of participation

My special thanks also go to the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University

of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi National University Without the knowledge I have learned from the intellectuals and the support of the staff in the

Faculty, I could not have finished my MA journey

And last but not least, my heartfelt thanks are towards my beloved family, especially to my Mom and Dad, my mother-in-law, my younger brother, and my husband for loving me, trusting me, supporting me unconditionally and accepting me

as I am Very importantly, my gratitude goes out to my little son and my

daughter-to-be, who give me motivation and strength to become a better me

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Abstract

The present research investigated teacher-related demotives in EFL speaking classes at a university in Vietnam This mixed method study aimed at addressing four main objectives Specifically, quantitative method was used to examine the factors relating to teachers that demotivate students to learn English speaking skills from (1) students’ and (2) teachers’ perspectives; and (3) identify the similarities and differences in the two groups’ perceptions of such demotivators Qualitative method (i.e semi-structured interview) was employed to further inform the quantitative results and to address the final research objective which was to (4) seek ways to assist students to overcome demotivation when learning English speaking skills

The quantitative findings revealed four factors relating to teachers including their traditional teaching methods, controlling communicative styles, the absence of valid testing and assessment; and insufficient English speaking competence as possible demotivators in EFL learners’ learning of speaking skills Significantly, meaningful statistical differences were computed in the teachers and students’ perceptions of teaching methods and teachers’ communicative styles Specifically, the students highly blamed their demotivation in speaking classes for teachers’ controlling communicative styles, while the teachers ranked this demotivator the third They instead believed that inappropriate pedagogy had the most destructive influence on EFL learners’ motivation to learn speaking skills

The qualitative findings generally supported the quantitative ones and unveiled several recommendations for teachers to assist EFL students to overcome demotivation to learn speaking skills, i.e making speaking lessons more communicative and interactive; choosing speaking topics of students’ interests; providing constructive, informative feedbacks; being friendly, approachable and fair

to students

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Table of contents

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of figures vi

List of tables vi

List of abbreviations vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Statement of the problem 1

2 Aims and objectives 2

3 Research questions 3

4 Significance of the study 3

5 Scope of the study 4

6 Organization 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1.1 The concept of second/foreign language speaking skills 6

1.1.1 Knowledge areas of L2 speaking skills 6

1.1.2 L2 speaking skills and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 8

1.1.3 Factors affecting the learning of English speaking skills 10

1.2 Demotivation and demotives in second/ foreign language learning 12

1.2.1 Definition of demotivation in second/ foreign language learning 12

1.2.2 Demotives in second/foreign language learning 14

1.2.3 Demotivation in English speaking skills 18

1.2.4 Teacher-related demotives 20

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 25

2.1 Research design 25

2.2 The setting of the study 27

2.2.1 Research site 27

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2.2.2 Participant selection 27

2.3 Data collection instruments 29

2.3.1 Questionnaire 29

2.3.2 Semi-structured interview 31

2.4 Data collection procedures 33

2.4.1 Questionnaire 33

2.4.2 Semi-structure interview 35

2.5 Data analysis 37

2.5.1 Quantitative analysis 37

2.5.2 Qualitative analysis 37

2.6 Ethical considerations 38

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 40

3.1 Findings 40

3.1.1 Research question 1 40

3.1.2 Research question 2 44

3.1.3 Research question 3 47

3.1.4 Research question 4 52

3.2 Discussions 55

PART C: CONCLUSION 60

1 Summary of the key findings 60

2 Limitations of the current research 61

3 Suggestions for further studies 61

REFERENCES 63 APPENDICES I

APPENDIX A I APPENDIX B IX APPENDIX C XIII

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List of figures

Figure 1.1: Classification of demotives in English learning

Figure 3.1: Mean score of four subtypes of teacher-related demotives reported

by students and teachers

Figure 3.2: Frequencies of students’ self-perceived English speaking skills

List of tables

Table 2.1 Outline of the Current Program of Research

Table 2.2: Classification of the items in the questionnaire

Table 2.3: Key interview questions description

Table 3.1: Students’ Mean Levels, 95 % Confidence Interval of the Means, Standard Deviation

Table 3.2: Teachers’ Mean Levels, 95 % Confidence Interval of the Means, Standard Deviation

Table 3.3: Mean scores of demotivator subtypes between students and teachers, t-test and significant levels

Table 3.4: Mean level of students’ self-perceived English speaking proficiency Table 3.5: Correlations between teacher-related demotive subtypes and self-perceived English speaking proficiency

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List of abbreviations

EFL English as a Foreign Language

ESL English as a Second Language

MOET Ministry of Education and Training

SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

This introductory part aims to state the research problem and rationale for the study It then outlines the objectives of this thesis, along with the research questions This is followed by the reason why the research is significant The scope of this research is then discussed The last section specifies the organization of the paper

1 Statement of the problem

The English language, widely known as the global language, has become popular

in Vietnam for some decades (Van, 2010) The language is considered by Vietnamese authorities as the most important foreign language at all national education levels, particularly in higher education as a result of globalization It has been highlighted in the legal documents entitled ‘Teaching and learning foreign language in the national education system in the period of 2008–2020’ lately issued by the Vietnamese government and the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) that Vietnamese higher education should prepare a well-equipped labor force to work in

a global economy (MoET, 2008) In other words, students need to acquire an English level proficient enough to communicate effectively in an international working environment Different from the expectation, research has indicated that a number of higher education learners, especially non- English major students, demonstrate poor levels of English proficiency (see Van, 2008; Do, 2012), which has concerned the researcher, also a lecturer teaching English in Vietnamese higher education According to Dörnyei and Ushioda (2011), the success or failure in second language acquisition (SLA) is determined by a range of factors including aptitude, intelligent and motivation As motivation is acknowledged as one of the determining factors in mastering a second or foreign (L2) language, the fact that Vietnamese students are at rather low English proficiency, especially speaking skills, may be contributed by the fact that Vietnamese students have low motivation to learn the language (Huong, 2015) While a large body of research has confirmed that motivation has the great potential to enhance learners’ levels of second language proficiency (Dörnyei, 1998b; Gardner, 2010), few studies were conducted to examine how the “dark side” of

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motivation (Dornyei & Ushioda, 2011) – demotivation, impacts L2 learning The significance of studies on demotivation lies in the detrimental influences of the phenomenon on the learning outcomes (Falout & Falout, 2005) According to Dörnyei and Ushioda (2011), language-learning failure is a salient phenomenon and the study of its causes is often directly related to demotivation Despite the fact that demotivating factors largely impact the learning outcomes, and are said to directly lead to learning failure, it is likely to be entirely or at least, partly neglected in language learning and teaching studies (Soureshjani & Riahipour, 2012) Moreover, among a scant body of research on demotivation so far, most of the studies generally investigated the phenomenon in L2 learning and teaching, instead of focusing on any particular aspects such as the learning and teaching of vocabulary, pronunciation, or four language skills Furthermore, while the existing literature found a wide range of factors demotivating L2 learners, for instance previous learning experiences, attitude towards the language, learning environment, curriculum, and the teachers, few attempts were made to dig into an individual source of demotivation As such, the current thesis aimed to address these research gaps and extended the research line to Vietnamese context where the study of demotivation is still scarce by investigating

teacher-related demotives in EFL speaking classes at a Vietnamese university

2 Aims and objectives

The overarching aim of the present study was to understand the demotivating factors relating to teachers in English speaking classes at a university in Vietnam Accordingly, the thesis attempted to achieve four objectives The first objective was

to examine students’ perceptions of what might demotivate them in their English speaking classes (as aforementioned, this study examined teacher-related demotives only) The second objective was to understand how the teachers answered the same question from their own perspective The third objective was to investigate the similarities and/ or differences in perceptions of teachers-related demotives between the teachers and the students The fourth and final objective was to outline ways to

4 Significance of the study

The current program of research, which explored the perceptions of forces originating from teachers that demotivate EFL learners to learn English speaking skills in Vietnam, is significant at both practical and theoretical levels At a practical level, this study identified the demotivating factors (in this study only those relating

to teachers are researched) that demotivates students in their English speaking classes The current research’s findings may assist teachers to understand students’ perceptions of detrimental factors, particularly those relate to teachers that affect them

in their English learning This information may enable teachers to reflect on their current teaching practices and improve their future practices The research findings also provide a number of insights to the university managerial boards and foreign language policy makers Based on this research, they may suggest the changes in the professional development programs for the teachers or some changes in the foreign language policies, which aims to benefit students’ English learning

At a theoretical level, the present study complements existing literature of L2 demotivation as it addressed the gaps in this area In particular, this research has

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provided an insight into demotives deriving from teachers that negatively influence higher education students’ English speaking skills; explained why teachers have such paramount impacts on their demotivation in a Vietnamese collectivist culture; and proposed ways for teachers to assist students to deal with demotivation

Moreover, since little research has used mixed methods to explore L2 demotivation, this work has made a contribution to the methodology by providing the rationales of collecting both quantitative and qualitative data and demonstrating a clear procedure of analyzing, converging two data sets in single research This research has indicated that collecting both quantitative and qualitative data enabled the researcher to bring out the best of both paradigms to investigate layers of students’ motivation (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011)

5 Scope of the study

The present thesis aimed at gaining insights into demotivating forces in the learning of speaking skills Due to its minor scope, teacher-related demovies were selected as the subject of this study Particularly, the research investigated what EFL learners and teachers at a Vietnamese university thought about different demotivators originating from teachers Besides, meaningful comparisons were made to identify similarities and differences between the perceptions on the subject of the two groups

of participants Furthermore, the thesis sought to outline ways that teachers could consider to assist students to overcome their demotivation to study English speaking skills

6 Organization

This thesis is made up of three major parts, namely Introduction, Development, and Conclusion

Part A: Introduction has provided an overview of the current research The

statement of the problem and research gaps have been identified and discussed, which assisted the researcher to form five research questions The significance of the study is also highlighted in this first part The introductory part ends with the structure of the research program

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Part B: Development consists of four chapters Chapter 1 provides literature review on two centerpieces of the thesis, i.e the concept of speaking skills and demotivation in second/foreign language (L2) learning Chapter 2 describes the research design and methodology of the research Chapter 3 presents, analyzes, and discusses the findings obtained from the interviews and the questionnaires Also, some implications are made based on the findings

The study ends with part C: Conclusion, which provides the summary, conclusion and recommendations for further research Limitations of the present research program are also discussed

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the key concepts, i.e speaking skills and demotivation in second/foreign language learning, that inform the current study In the first section, the key points about L2 speaking skills, including knowledge areas of L2 speaking skills, the implementation of communicative language teaching (CLT) in teaching the skills, and factors that potentially influence the learning of English speaking skills are outlined The second section of this chapter discusses four issues regarding to demotivation, namely definition of the phenomenon, demotivating factors, demotivation in English speaking skills, and teacher-related demotives

1.1 The concept of second/foreign language speaking skills

1.1.1 Knowledge areas of L2 speaking skills

Along the history of second/foreign language teaching and learning, L2 speaking has always been considered as the most essential skill to be mastered (Richards, 2008; Nazara, 2011) At present, the need for proficiency in English speaking has been dramatically increasing due to the strengthening position of English as a language for international communication (Nazara, 2011) According to Richards (2008), the mastery of speaking skill in English is a priority for many L2 learners The tendency to prioritize speaking is also reflected in the fact that speaking competence is regularly considered a measure of one's mastery of English

Although L2 learners often regard L2 speaking as the most important skill to acquire, a number of them claim it the most complex and challenging to acquire (Bailey, 2003) “While speaking is totally natural, speaking in a language other than our own is anything but simple.” (Bailey, 2003, p.48) Despite being defined as brief

as the productive aural/oral skill that consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning, speaking is a multifaceted construct (Nazara, 2011) Specifically, L2 speaking is more than to form grammatically correct sentences and

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to utter them A well-known example of such a grammatically correct, however semantically ill-formed sentence "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" was composed by Chomsky (1957) As such, L2 speaking involves more than mechanics The three areas of knowledge that composes speaking ability can be stated as follows:

- First, the mechanical elements of language (pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary), which allows speakers to use the right words in the correct sequence and appropriate pronunciation

- Second, the speaking functions (transaction and interaction), which enables the speaker to know when the clarity of the message is needed (as in carrying out the transaction or in exchanging of information) and when a deep understanding is not necessary (as in the development of relations)

- Third, the pragmatics and sociocultural norms (such as turn-taking, rate of speech, length of pauses between speakers, relative roles of participants) which enable an individual to realize the conversational situation, whom he is talking to, and what the purpose of speaking is, etc

(Nazara, 2011) While L2 speaking is the mostly sought skill for an individual to be regarded competent in a L2 language (Richards, 2008), the skill seems to be underestimated or even ignored in a number of higher education institutions in Vietnam, especially in non-English major programs (Hong, 2006) This can be explained by the fact that in such programs, English is just a smaller part of a wider degree in other specialist areas such as economics, and engineering (Huong, 2015) The subject, therefore, counts for

a few credits of the whole curriculums In the research site of this study, English weighs only 20 out of 177-181 credits of each major In addition, it is common among non-English major programs that written tests which mostly focus on grammar elements, reading and writing skills are used as testing and assessment tools at mid-term and final term level In other words, speaking skills are rarely tested, or only count for a minor proportion of the subject scores As a result, many students and even teachers are ‘examination-oriented’ They spend less time on oral skills than

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what are likely to be included in the exams Even when instructors occasionally teach speaking skills, the focus of the lessons are sentence structures or pronunciation of individual words However, to be an effective speaker in another language rather than one’s own is never an easy task as speaking is more than to form grammatically correct sentences It rather covers broad areas of mechanics, functions, pragmatics, and social interaction Therefore, any L2 teaching methodology used in the classroom should seek ways to improve the competency of learners in these areas

1.1.2 L2 speaking skills and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

Due to the belief that that language proficiency equals to communication ability, the teaching and learning trend started to slide towards communicative proficiency

As a result, the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has gained considerable popularity CLT is a method of L2 language teaching of which main inspiration is communicative competence The notion of communicative competence is defined as

“the aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts” (Brown, 2007, p 219) Richards (2005) contended that such a notion encompasses a wide range of abilities including four areas:

- Linguistic/grammar competence: the knowledge of grammar rules, lexis, syntax, phonetics and vocabulary of the target language and the ability to use them

- Sociolinguistic/pragmatic competence: the knowledge of how to express messages in accordance with the relationship between the speaker, the listener, the topic, and the setting

- Discourse competence: the ability to understand the context and to know how

to link utterances of language to make coherent whole and meaningful texts

- Strategic competence: the ability to manage difficulties that may arise in communication

CLT, underlining the importance of focusing on the functional and communicative aspects of language rather than the grammar and vocabulary building (Richards & Rodgers, 2014), is one the most favorable methods in teaching speaking

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skills That is because speaking is a productive skill used as a communication tool through oral form (Bailey, 2003) It places the first rank in communication compared with the other skills Moreover, it is advocated that language learning purposes are firstly focused on the ability to communicate in speaking The existence of communicative competence in teaching speaking is, therefore, the goal that must be achieved

In short, CLT emphasizes the communication of meaning rather than the practice of grammatical forms in isolation It assists learners to develop necessary knowledge and skills for appropriate interpretation and use of a language in different communicative settings In practice, some of the characteristics of CLT include learner centeredness, focus on both meaning and linguistic forms in context, use of collaborative activities, promotion of authentic materials and of relevant and meaningful classroom activities, and new roles for teachers as facilitators and negotiators of meaning (Richards & Rodgers, 2001)

In Vietnam, CLT has gained its popularity since its first implementation in the 1990s (Ngoc & Iwashita, 2012) Viet (2008) even addressed CLT as an event of pedagogical imperialism, by which he meant it is an approach of priority Many universities in Vietnam are attempting to employ CLT into syllabus design, examination and teaching (Ngoc and Iwashita, 2012) However, the effectiveness of CLT in English language teaching (ELT) in Vietnam is still questioned Ngoc and Iwashita (2012) argued that after a long period of learning English, most Vietnamese learners still cannot use it effectively as a means of communication Among many practical factors militating against successful implementation of CLT in Vietnam is the EFL context Living in EFL context, Vietnamese learners lack real exposure to the target language They have few opportunities to take part in meaningful communication interaction, hence, have little motivation to communicate in English outside the classroom Another constraint on the practice of CLT in Vietnam is grammar-based examinations Despite the new set of textbooks from grade 6 to 12 approved by MOET, and the course books chosen by universities all promote CLT,

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few adjustments have been done regarding the nature of examinations at either the national or the institutional level (Ngoc and Iwashita, 2012) In most non-English major programs, exams are designed to test only linguistic competence rather than communicative competence

To conclude, though the wide spread on CLT in ELT is reasonable, the practice

of this approach in Vietnam should not be simply adopted, but rather adapted to suit the EFL context Furthermore, changes in examinations should also be considered to reduce negative washback of high-stakes exams

1.1.3 Factors affecting the learning of English speaking skills

Second/foreign language learning in general, and English learning in particular, involves various factors that would affect the process of learning either positively or negatively Realizing these factors and their relationship with learners’ achievement might help identifying what problems the achievement faces, so that solutions could

be found and improvements could be developed (Andreou, et al., 2005) As such, many attempts have been made to investigate the affecting factors in L2 learning so far Sawir (2005) tried to examine the effect of prior learning experience on the language learning of international students in Australia The data gathered from interviews suggested that the learning difficulties were grounded in students' prior learning experiences which focused on grammar and reading skills in teacher-centred classrooms, not conversational skills and in beliefs about language learning instilled during schooling Andreou et al (2005) augured that L2proficient level and gender emerged as the most affecting factors in L2 learning Montero, R L (2014) explored different social conditions that influence the effective L2 learning of students at a university in Costa Rica Through this study, factors such as motivation, cultural background and economic status was proven to be crucial in the language learning process A recent thesis on external and internal variables affecting L2 learning was conducted by Guzmán-Rodríguez in 2017 The study highlighted some factors such

as motivation, attitude, personality, learning strategies, social factors and the role of parents

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Along with the spread of globalization which stimulates the vital part of English

as an international language in communication, factors that influence the learning of English speaking skills has also gained more concerns Hamad (2013) carried out an investigation to explore factors that negatively affect English language speaking skills in Saudi colleges for girls Questionnaires (n = 150 students) and interviews (n

= 10 teachers) were exploited as data collection instruments The findings from both quantitative and qualitative data showed that the instructors, students, curriculums and textbooks, teaching methods, and teaching and learning environment were reported to affect the learning of speaking skills In the context of China, Liu (2015) conducted a qualitative study (N=147 students) aiming at exploring factors that were likely to affect engineering students’ English listening and speaking ability The author concluded that the participants’ listening and speaking skills could be influenced by both internal (i.e learning attitude, learning motivation, learning method and strategy, and autonomous learning situation) and external factors (i.e social environment, English teachers, teaching resources, teaching materials, and curriculum settings) Moreover, the findings of the research said that there was no significant influence of gender and parental factors on students’ listening and speaking ability, which is inconsistent to previous studies (see Andreou et al., 2005

& Montero, 2014) Among studies on factors affecting students’ speaking competence in Vietnamese context was a mixed method research carried out by Tuan and Mai (2015) The participants of the investigation were 203 students and 10 teachers at a high school in the South of the country The results collected from questionnaire and classroom observation revealed that students’ speaking performance was impacted by topical knowledge, listening ability, motivation, teachers’ feedback during speaking activities, and time for preparation

Though it is hard to address all the factors that have influence on the learning

of language, it has been indicated from a number of studies that psychological and sociological factors occupy a major role in L2 learning To discuss the social psychological aspects of second language learning, Gardner (1977) suggested the

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study of four areas that influence second language learning: social factors, individual differences, factors affecting attitudes and motivation, and costs and benefits of second language learning Among those areas, attitudes and motivation were strongly highlighted due to their paramount influence on L2 learning, especially oral skills While a large body of research has confirmed that motivation has the great potential

to enhance learners’ levels of L2 proficiency (Dörnyei, 1998b; Gardner, 2010), the detrimental effects of its negative counterpart, i.e demotivation, still seems to be underresearched (Dornyei & Ushioda, 2011) This present study, hence, tried to provide an insight into one of the demotivating forces which is related to teachers In the following section, several aspects of demotivation, specifically definition of the phenomenon in L2 learning; various categories of demotivating factors; demotivation

in English speaking skills; and most importantly, teacher-related demotives, are, hence, discussed as groundings for this thesis

1.2 Demotivation and demotives in second/ foreign language learning 1.2.1 Definition of demotivation in second/ foreign language learning

Demotivation is widely regarded by a number of authors as the antithesis of motivation (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011; Falout & Maruyama, 2004; Kikuchi, 2015) Therefore, it is said that in order to understand the concept of demotivation thoroughly, it is reasonable to have a brief view of its positive counterpart, i.e motivation The past few decades have witnessed many efforts to define L2 motivation One of the conceptualizations proposed lately by Dörnyei and Ushioda (2011) said that motivation is what drives people to make certain decisions, to participate, consume and pursue any actions or behaviors In other words, motivation

is responsible for determining human behaviors However, how motivation to learn a second language can be defined is far less clear (Huong, 2015) Narrowing down from the said general concept, Walker (2011) construed motivation in ESL/EFL contexts as “the direction and magnitude of human behavior towards learning a second or foreign language” (p.3) Focusing on the area of language learning, Oxford

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and Shearin (1994) claimed that motivation decides the extent of active, personal involvement in L2 learning

While a plethora of studies have strived to investigate the concept of motivation

in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) from a multitude of perspectives, there is still

a scant body of research studying the paramount notion of demotivation in both foreign and second language learning contexts In spite of the fact that the first research on demotivation was publicized round 2 decades ago, the concept has not been fully adopted yet in the field of L2 research and still few clear definitions of demotivation have been proposed In the field of language learning, Dörnyei and Ushioda (2011) defined demotivation as “specific external forces that reduce or diminish the motivational basis of a behavioral intention or an ongoing action” (p.139)

In the light of this definition, they argued that demotivation differs from amotivation, a related concept introduced by Deci and Ryan in 1985 In Dörnyei and Ushioda’s (2011) conceptualization, demotivation is related to specific external forces that cause a reduction in motivation On the other hand, amotivation refers to

a lack of motivation caused by the realization that there is no point in studying a foreign language; or a student’s belief that studying a foreign language is beyond his/her capacity (Kikuchi, 2015) Dörnyei and Ushioda (2011) also added that complete loss of motivation would lead to amotivation

The problem of Dörnyei and Ushioda’s (2011) definition, however, is that it has not been empirically determined whether or not demotivation completely deprived from external forces (Kikuchi, 2015) A number of researchers (Arai, 2004; Falout & Maruyama, 2004) included in their studies of demotivation both external factors such

as teachers, curriculums, and class materials; and factors that are internal to leaners, such as a lack of self-confidence and negative attitudes In addition, despite their definition of demotivation as being caused by external factors, even Dörnyei and Ushioda (2011) listed two internal factors, i.e reduced self-confidence and negative attitudes towards the foreign language, as sources of demotivation Therefore,

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Kikuchi (2015) expanded Dörnyei and Ushioda’s (2011) conceptualization and defined demotivation as “specific internal and external forces that reduce or diminish the motivational basis of a behavioral intention or an ongoing action” (p.3)

With regard to the aforementioned literature review, a working definition, which is strongly influenced by the one stated by Kikuchi (2015), for the current research is proposed below

Demotivation in language learning refers to forces that weaken students’ existing motivation, hence, negatively impact their acquisition and achievement These demotivating factors which are also entitled demotivators or demotives can originate either internally or externally from learners

1.2.2 Demotives in second/foreign language learning

As demotivation was described as something that “concerns various negative influences that cancel out existing motivation” (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011), many researchers conducted a variety of studies on factors that cause a drop in motivation

in L2 learning In this present thesis, such negative forces are addressed as demotives, demotivating factors, or demotivators Dörnyei and Ushioda (2011) clarified the notion of demotives by comparing it with the negative counterparts of motives While

“a motive increases an action tendency whereas a demotive decreases it” (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011, p 138) In accordance with the working definition of demotivation adapted in this study, demotives in language learning are either intrinsic or extrinsic factors that lead to a decline in students’ motivation to learn the language Significant studies on demotives in L2 learning are discussed in this section

Dörnyei (1998a) conducted a qualitative study, aiming to find out the variety

of demotivating factors The subjects were 50 secondary school pupils in various schools in Budapest who were studying either English or German as a foreign language and had been identified as being particularly demotivated by their teachers

or peers The data collected from structured interviews revealed nine major demotivating factors as follows:

- The teacher: personality, commitment, competence, teaching method

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- Inadequate school facilities: group is too big or not the right level; frequent change of teachers

- Reduced self-confidence: experience of failure or lack of success

- Negative attitude towards the L2

- Compulsory nature of L2 study

- Interference of another foreign language being studied

- Negative attitude towards L2 community

- Attitudes of group members

- Course book

In spite of the fact that the author blamed demotivation on external causes, one third of the demotive types in the category (i.e reduced self-confidence, negative attitude towards the L2 and towards the L2 community) is internally originated The strength of Dörnyei’s (1998a) study lies in its focused approach on the subject More clearly, the researcher’s investigation targeted directly on demotivation by gathering descriptive and detailed information from demotivated learners, which offered interesting insights into the sources of demotivation However, the strength stated above might be the weakness of the research (Muhonen, 2004) Although focusing

on demotivated students seems to be logical, it is rather subjective to regard a learner demotivated without apparently prompted symptoms Furthermore, a learner is not necessarily demotivated to “experience a temporary drop in motivation because demotivating factors are external forces that reduce motivational basis of an ongoing action” (Muhonen, 2004, p.32) In other words, any learners have the possibility of having been demotivated, hence, excluding a group of learners could lead to the incomplete list of demotives

Sakai and Kikuchi (2009) provided a review of a number of locally published studies of demotivators in the Japanese EFL context and identified six common demotivating factors, namely teachers, characteristics of classes, experience of failure, class environment, class materials and lack of interest The description of each type of demotives based on Sakai and Kikuchi’s (2009) summary is followed:

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- Teachers: teacher attitudes, lack of teaching competence or language proficiency, personality and teaching styles

- Characteristics of classes: course content and pace, focus on difficult grammar

or vocabulary, monotonous and boring lessons, and focus on university entrance exams and memorization of language

- Experience of failure: disappointment due to test scores, lack of social acceptance by teachers and classmates, and the feeling of unable to memorize vocabulary and idioms

- Class environment: attitudes of classmates, the compulsory nature of English study, friends’ attitudes, inactive classes, inappropriate level of difficulty and inadequate use of school facilities

- Class materials: unsuitable or uninteresting materials

- Lack of interest: learners’ own sense that the English used at school is not practical and is unnecessary Learners’ low regard for English speaking people Base of these six areas, Sakai and Kikuchi (2009) developed a 35-item questionnaire to investigate factors that reduce learners’ motivation to learn English (N = 656 Japanese senior high school students) Analysis of the descriptive statistics revealed five significant factors: (1) Learning Contents and Materials; (2) Teachers’ Competence and Teaching Styles; (3) Inadequate School Facilities; (4) Lack of Intrinsic Motivation; (5) Test Scores

While the research on demotivation in Vietnam was scarce, Trang and Baldauf (2007) conducted a case study to investigate possible forces triggering a reduction in learners’ motivation to learn English among Vietnamese EFL learners The researchers carried out a content analysis of stimulated recall essays from 100 university students who were asked to reflect on their foreign language learning experiences The findings addressed a wide range of demotives which falls into two major domains, i.e intrinsic and extrinsic attributes The description of various items

in each type of demotivators is demonstrated in the Figure 1.1 as below

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Figure 1.1 Classification of demotives in English learning (Trang & Baldauf, 2007)

The category of demotives above is systematic and consistent to the conceptualization of demotivation as “specific internal and external forces that reduce

or diminish the motivational basis of a behavioral intention or an ongoing action” (Kikuchi, 2015, p.3) adopted in this study Furthermore, Trang and Baldauf’s (2007)

Class atmosphere Opportunities

to use English Learning conditions

Class time

Textbook

Teacher-related demotivating factors

Teachers' behaviors Teachers' competence

Teaching methods

Grading and assessment

Other external factors

Obligation

Negative changes

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study was conducted in Vietnam, which is parallel with the context of this minor thesis, their classification of demotives is, therefore, chosen as the theoretical

framework of the current research

1.2.3 Demotivation in English speaking skills

While the research interest in demotivation has emerged for about two decades, most studies generally concern the effects of demotivation or demotivators in L2 learning, instead of digging into individual aspects of L2 learning, particularly speaking skills (Soureshjani & Riahipour, 2012; Afrough, et al., 2014) Speaking is considered a crucial skill that language learners should master, yet, it represents an actual challenge for them (Bailey, 2003) According to Ur (1990), students may face numerous obstructions in achieving oral proficiency which may reduce their motivation to raise voice in language speaking classes Despite the detrimental impacts that demotivation has on students’ speaking skills, few investigations were implemented on this affair

In the context of Iran, Soureshjani and Riahipour (2012) conducted a mixed method research on factors negatively affecting students’ learning of the speaking skills The sample of the research was 120 students taking an intermediate English course and 70 teachers of English in a language institute in Shahrekord, Iran The study sought to find out and compare teacher and learner participants’ views of the demotivating factors on the learners’ speaking skills In order to achieve such goal, interviews were carried out with 15 teachers and 10 learners, and two variants of questionnaires were administrated to 70 teachers and 120 students The finding of the study indicated that the students’ oral competence was strongly affected by the phenomenon of demotivation A series of demotivating factors including teachers, peers, and materials were detected Significantly, both teacher and student participants addressed teachers as one of the most serious force of demotivation to the students’ learning of speaking skills

Utilizing similar data collecting methods, Afrough, Rahimi, and Zarafshan’s work based in Iran in 2014 attempted to detect the most demotivating factors affecting

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the speaking skill as perceived by high school students and teachers Twelve students and twelve teachers took part in semi-structured interviews from which some demotivating factors were identified The demotives arisen from the interviews together with the factors in the literature were included in the 25-item questionnaire which was answered by 300 high school students and 80 high school teachers The factors emerged from the investigation comprised negative attitude toward learning L2, teachers’ inadequate competence and performance, lack of technological facilities in classroom, lack of adequate teaching materials, unfavorable classroom environment, and insufficient opportunities for speaking practice While Soureshjani and Riahipour (2012) aimed to explore the similarities and differences between students’ and teachers’ perceptions towards demotives to English speaking skill, Afrough, Rahimi, and Zarafshan (2014) merely ranked the factors in terms of frequency without comparing and contrasting the responses from the two groups of participants However, the discouraging sources addressed in the later study are much more specific than those in the former one

Another recent effort in investigating demotives in L2 speaking skills was made

by Zahia in 2015 The research was carried out in a university in Algeria Two versions of questionnaire were administrated to 50 students and 9 teachers in order to examine their attitudes toward the different factors demotivating learners to speak and hinder their oral proficiency According to the data gathered, both groups of respondents believed that the awareness of the demotivating factors might enable students to remotivate They also agreed on the fact that insufficient time to practice speaking; teachers’ competence; lack of modern teaching materials; lesson content; reduced self-confidence; lack of relaxed classroom environment; and assessment were the most demotivating factors among the students In addition to the factors mentioned above, the students supposed teachers’ feedback as a demotive, while the teachers considered teachers’ teaching methods, personality, and peers’ influence the most demotivating ones

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In short, despite the detrimental impacts that demotivation has on students’ speaking skills, this remain an under-research area Still few investigations were implemented to explore the influence of demotivation and identify the demotives on EFL learners’ oral proficiency Furthermore, while the influence of demotivation on speaking skills was probed in different contexts such as Iran and Algeria, none has been found in Vietnam so far In addition, the existing works on demotivation on EFL students’ oral skills, merely addressed different demotives generally with little comparisons and explanations In order to fill in these research gaps, this research aims at providing a closer view on teacher-related demotives in speaking classes in the particular context of Vietnam, with comparisons between learners and teachers’ perspectives

1.2.4 Teacher-related demotives

As teacher-related demotives is the key concept of this paper, this section, first, tries to provide a comprehensible definition of the notion Then, a number of empirical studies that have partially tapped the issue are discussed The section ends with the descriptions of four main groups of teacher-related demotives that are selected as the theoretical framework of this research

Among a number of demovies, the existing literature highlighted teacher-related factors as one of main demotivators Dornyei and Ushioda (2011, p 28) asserted that

“everything teachers say or do and how they communicate and behave in the classroom may potentially influence student motivation in different ways” Accordingly, demotivators, especially those relating to teachers, are deemed to be detrimental to students’ motivation and their learning of English However, little existing research has investigated teacher-owned demotivators as the primary subject

It is, therefore, quite hard to seek for a working definition of the notion related demotives, however, can be defined literally as negative factors depriving from teachers that diminish students’ motivation and their learning of English Demotivators depriving from teachers have been briefly addressed and proved

Teacher-in a range of scholars (i.e Gorham & Christophel, 1992; Christophel & Gorham,

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1995; Oxford, 1998; Dörnyei, 1998a; and Trang & Baldauf, 2007) A study on demotivation by Gorham and Christophel (1992), using both qualitative and quantitative techniques, revealed that nearly two thirds of the reported sources of demotivation in these investigations were teacher-owned, by which it meant the reduction of motivation was attributed to what the teacher had done or had been responsible for The researchers also posed a rank of the frequency of the demotivating factors mentioned by the participants Among them, four out of the five most demotivating forces were teacher-owned as listed below

- Dissatisfaction with grading and assignments

- The teacher being boring, bored, unorganized and unprepared

- The inferior organization of the teaching material

- The teacher being unapproachable, self-centered, biased, condescending and insulting

In 1995, the authors operated a follow up study to ascertain whether the replication of the demotives occurred in a different group of participants, and they obtained the compatible findings

Among little research focusing on teachers’ influences on demotivation was a qualitative study conducted by Oxford in 1998 Two hundred and fifty EFL students were asked to write an essay about their experiences over a period of five years basing

on such prompts as “Describe a situation in which you experienced a conflict with a teacher” and “Talk about a classroom in which you felt uncomfortable” In the content analysis of the data, four broad themes emerged (details as below) were both directly and indirectly originated from teachers

- The teacher’s personal relationship with the students, including a lack of caring, general belligerence, hypercriticism and patronage/favoritism

- The teacher’s attitude towards the course or the material, including lack of enthusiasm, sloppy management and close-mindedness

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- Style conflicts between teachers and students, including multiple style conflicts, conflicts about the amount of structure or detail and conflicts about the degree of closure or ‘seriousness’ of the class

- The nature of the classroom activities, including irrelevance, overload and repetitiveness

Dörnyei (1998a) conducted one-to-one interviews with fifty EFL learners who has been regarded as demotivated by their teachers or peers The demotivating aspects about the teacher were related to his or her personality, commitment to teaching and attention paid to students Teachers’ competence, teaching methods, style and rapport with students were also considered demotivating forces (Dörnyei, 1998a) In addition, reduced self-confidence which was partly due to some classroom events within the teacher’s control was the second frequent source of demotivation in the study In other words, reduced self-confidence indirectly related to teacher Accordingly, the largest proportion of demotivation either directly or indirectly concerned the teacher, which

is consistent with the results reported in other papers

The detrimental impact of teacher-related demotivators was not only proved in foreign contexts as previously mentioned, but also in Vietnamese context which is similar to the setting of the current research In the case study of Vietnam, Trang and Baldauf (2007) operated a content analysis of stimulated recall essays on EFL learning experiences of 100 university students The research findings showed that teacher-owned factors were the most frequent causes of demotivation (counted for 38%) Four types of teacher-related demotives were revealed with the highest frequency of teaching method (26%), followed by teacher behavior (7%), teacher competence (4%), and grading and assessment (1%)

To sum up, a number of previous studies (Gorham & Christophel, 1992; Christophel & Gorham, 1995; Oxford, 1998; Dörnyei, 1998a; and Trang & Baldauf, 2007) emphasized that teachers could generate potent demotivation to ESL/EFL learners Among several demotives in language learning that are teacher-owned, for example teachers’ personality, teachers’ attitudes towards the course or the materials,

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style conflicts between teachers and students, and teachers’ being unapproachable, self-centered, and biased, four aspects, namely teaching methods; testing and assessment; teachers’ communicative styles; and teacher’s English competence emerged as major teacher-related demotives These influential domains were, therefore, targeted in this minor thesis and are discussed below

Teaching method comprises how teachers manage their teaching; and organize

their classes Dornyei’s study (1998 cited in Dornyei & Ushioda, 2011) shows that the methods used by the teacher may have a positive of negative effect on the students’ willingness to learn In such teaching methods as audio-lingual and grammar-translation, teachers often hold the controlling role in the class, while in lately methods, their role changes into assisting In other words, teachers’ role in different methods is distinct; therefore, their influence also varies According to Richards and Rodgers (1986), teachers’ roles in methods are associated to the subsequent issues:

- The types of functions teachers are expected to fulfil: director; counsellor; or model; etc

- The degree of control teachers have over how learning process takes place

- The degree to which the teacher is responsible for determining the content of what is taught

- The interactional patterns that develop between teachers and learners

Testing and assessment which is under teachers’ control, also has

understandable influences on learner’s motivation A number of students tend to be grade driven How students are assessed and the grades they get are seen as influential factors in demotivation If students get bad marks, this will reduce their self-confidence, which may lead to demotivation eventually

Teachers’ communicative styles, also defined as teachers’ behaviour and

personality, is also claimed as potential influences to students either positively or negatively Behaviours including angriness and discrimination are often responsible for demotivating students That teachers get angry and shout at any learners

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understandably appears as a detrimental impact on student motivation (Soureshjani

& Riahipour, 2012) The discrimination among learners is also influential For instance, the fact that teachers give preferences to excellent students can lead weak learners to consider themselves of no importance and eventually lose the desire to learn or to speak (Soureshjani & Riahipour, 2012) Moreover, it is also worth to consider teachers’ personality when investigating learners’ demotivation As defined

by Mullins (2005), personality consists of stable characteristics which explain why a person behaves in a particular way Accordingly, teachers’ personality traits are reflected not only in their classroom performance, especially in their selection of instructional activities, materials, strategies, and classroom management techniques, but also their interaction with students (Henson & Chambers, 2002)

Teachers’ competence play an obvious role in lowering students’ motivation

(Sakai & Kikuchi, 2009) According to European Commission (2013), the concept of competence, in teaching, encompasses the following features:

- it involves tacit and explicit knowledge, cognitive and practical skills as well

as dispositions (motivation, beliefs, value orientations and emotions);

- it enables teachers to meet complex demands, by mobilizing psycho-social resources in context, deploying them in a coherent way;

- it empowers the teacher to act professionally and appropriately in a situation;

- it helps ensure teachers' undertaking of tasks effectively (achieving the desired outcome) and efficiently (optimizing resources and efforts);

- it can be demonstrated to a certain level of achievement along a continuum

(European Commission, 2013, p.10)

As teacher’s competence is a complex combination of knowledge, skills, understanding, values, attitudes and desire, this thesis, within its minor scope, only concerned teachers’ English speaking competence, which is directly linked to the topic under research

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CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter considers methodological issues of the paper In the first section, the rationale for why mixed method research was chosen for this study was sketched Afterwards, issues relating to participant selection, instruments, procedures of data collection and data analyses are presented respectively The last sections of the chapter concern ethical issues and limitations of the entire research

2.1 Research design

Mixed methods paradigm, where qualitative and quantitative approaches complement one another, is gaining increasing prominence and utility in several research fields including applied linguistics and language teaching and learning (Riazi & Candlin, 2014) This spreading trend is understandably explained by two major reasons First, mixed methods research enables researchers to triangulate two different data sets (quantitative and qualitative data) to answer the same research questions, thus to ensure the validity of the inferences (Huong, 2015) Second, it assists researchers to obtain a complete picture of the phenomenon under study by answering research questions that cannot be addressed by only one (qualitative or quantitative) approach Due to these advantages, a mixed methods study is reasonably

conducted to consider teacher-related demotives in speaking classes at a university

in Vietnam

The present research program comprises a pilot phase and two main phases The pilot phase was conducted in order to refine the data collection instruments, namely questionnaire and semi-structure interview questions As the participants of the study were Vietnamese non-English major students, whose English proficiency is low, the questionnaire was translated into the language they were native to The translated questionnaire was piloted with a small group of students so as to get their feedback

on accuracy, clarity and cultural appropriateness of all items Besides, the interview procedure was also piloted with two students and one teacher participant After the tools were cultivated through the pilot step, they were exploited in the quantitative and qualitative phase In the first main phase (quantitative phase), questionnaires

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were administered to both students (n=135), and teachers (n= 26) This phase sought

to answer three research questions (RQ1 – RQ3) The second main phase employed semi-structure interview to collect qualitative data from 6 students and 3 teachers This phase aimed to provide more explanation for RQ1 – RQ3 and deal with RQ4 which proposed ways for teachers to assist students to overcome demotivation in speaking classes The original qualitative data were in Vietnamese, which were then translated to English for analysis The outline of this mix-method research is tabulated

- Semi-structured interview questions

- To pilot the translated questionnaire in order

to examine the validity

of the instrument and to ensure the equivalence

of the translated questionnaire and the original one

- To pilot the interview procedure in order to refine the questions

- Translated questionnaire was administered to students

- Discussions with students about the wording of the questionnaire were conducted

- Guided interview questions were asked and refined

- To address the teacher-originating demotives reported by non-English major students and teachers

- To compare and contrast the demotivating incidents

as perceived by students and teachers

Refined questionnaires were administered to students and teachers

- To triangulate the data collected from

questionnaires

- To delve into the teacher-related demotives that are regarded as the most demotivating

- To scrutinize suggestions for assisting students to conquer teacher-related demotivation

- Interviews were conducted in the language of participants’ preference (mostly

in Vietnamese)

- Guided questions were asked

2.2 The setting of the study

2.2.1 Research site

In the current research program, a multidisciplinary institution of higher education where the researcher has worked for two years was selected as the research site The university which is based in Hanoi, has approximately 24,000 students who major in thirteen different disciplines such as information technology, economics, accountancy, electrical and electronic engineering, textile and fashion designing In other words, the population of this study were non-English major students

The university was selected as the research site of this work due to two main reasons First, according to Marshall and Rossman (2014), being familiar with an area brings considerable advantages for researchers in gaining access to the research site Hence, having worked in this institution for two years, the researcher had ease of access for data collection Secondly, as the current research program investigates the phenomenon of demotivation which is more popular among non-English major, this institution of higher education was ideal

2.2.2 Participant selection

Participants of pilot study

As recommended by Beauford, Nagashima, and Wu (2011), the translated survey instruments need to be piloted within three to ten people who are as close to the future participants as possible Six students with similar characteristics, thus, were

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invited to take part in the pilot study They have certain qualities akin to the target population in that they are Vietnamese, fell within the same age range (aged from 18-20), and were non-English major learners After completion of the questionnaires, two of these participants also took part in the interviews, which attempted to model the procedure in order to refine the questions

Student participants

Multistage cluster sampling was employed in this research In the first stage, second-year student cluster was selected This participant pool was targeted because two years of experience at university might enable them to better understand and articulate their attitudes toward studying English in general and speaking skills in particular Within the second-year cluster, three sub-clusters were picked, which is the second phase of the sampling process Specifically, three classes of different majors, namely garment technology; electronic and communication; and finance and banking, were chosen as the sample of this study The choice was made not only upon convenience, but also to ensure the representativeness of the sample for such a multidisciplinary institution of higher education institute The clustering method helped the researcher reach one of the goals of the research, which is to make conclusions pertaining to the population obtained from a sampling group’s results Due to the representativeness of a sample in cluster sampling, it was reasonable to make generalizations from the results of the sample back to the population In short,

135 second-year non-English major students were the participants of this study with the response rate of 93.3%

Teacher participants

To recruit teacher participants for this study, I sought permission and assistance from the Dean of the Faculty of English in the university where this study was conducted I scanned the timetable of the current semester and sorted out the teachers working with second-year students The Dean then provided me with the contact information of these lecturers An invitation to participate in the research with a link

to the online questionnaire was emailed to a total of 26 teachers Twenty one of them

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had completed and submitted the online questionnaire, which represents a 80.7% return rate

2.3 Data collection instruments

This section aims at reasoning and describing the two data collection instruments employed in this research which are questionnaire and semi-structured interview Particularly, two separate variants specified for student and teacher participants of each tool are compared and contrasted in details

2.3.1 Questionnaire

Questionnaire, defined as “any written instruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statements to which they were reacted either by writing out their answers or selecting from among existing answers” (Brown, 2001), is widely utilized in research because of its simplicity and convenience Makey and Gass (2015) affirmed that questionnaire is one of the most common methods to collect self-reported data on attitudes and opinions from a large group of participants because using questionnaires in research is not only economical but also time-saving To be more specific, questionnaires can supply a large amount of data at a relatively low cost (Dörnyei, 2003) As questionnaires are relatively simple and straightforward, participants do not have to spend an excessive amount of time giving their responses (McClelland, 1994)

In this paper, a questionnaire targeting to explore the teacher-related demotives that impacts learners’ experience to learn English speaking skills from both students and teachers’ perspectives was employed Two questionnaire variants were utilized

so that comparisons could be drawn between attitudes of the two sets of participants While the teachers had little difficulties in comprehending the tool, the other group

of respondents, due to their rather low level of English proficiency, found several hindrances to understand every item Therefore, a Vietnamese version of the questionnaire was administered for student participants According to Beauford et al (2011), translating an instrument from one language to another is needed when

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potential participants do not speak or are not fluent in the language available in existing instruments

Description of the questionnaire

As specified above, there are two versions of the questionnaire, one for students and the other for teachers Both questionnaire variants comprise two sections which asks for the participants’ demographic information (section 1) and measures the respondents’ perceptions of teacher-related demotives in English speaking classes (section 2) While the purposes of these parts are identical in the two renditions, there are some minor differences, mostly in terms of wording, between the questionnaire for students and that for teachers so that the tool is more appropriate for its targeted respondents The specifications of items in section 2 (both surveys) are followed Section 2 was the teacher-related demotive scale that was either based on previous relevant works or arisen from the pilot phase This section was considered the core of the survey, therefore, presented in both renditions The measure includes

35 items which fell into four subscales, namely TM-Teachers’ teaching method (12 items), TA-Testing and assessment (6 items), CS-Teachers’ communicative style (10 items), and TC-Teachers’ English speaking competence (7 items) The item numbers are presented in detail in Table 2.2

Table 2.2

Classification of the items in the questionnaire

Teachers’ teaching methods 1; 4; 7; 9; 10; 13; 16; 19; 22; 25; 28; 31 Testing and assessment 3; 15; 21; 27; 33; 35

Teachers’ communicative styles 2; 5; 8; 11; 14; 17; 20; 23; 26; 29

Teachers’ English speaking competence 6; 12; 18; 24; 30; 32; 34

With regard to teachers’ methods of teaching, such incidents as how often teachers deliver speaking lessons, how much control they handle, what kinds of material they use, how they carry out speaking tasks, and whether they give corrective feedback are covered As for testing and assessment, there are six items concerning

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how teachers deal with designing, implementing, scoring oral tests, as well as whether they care about the backwash of such tests In the matter of teachers’ communicative styles, their behaviors toward learners, especially angriness and discrimination are taken into account Last but certainly not least, seven items relating to teachers’ English speaking competence in terms of range (topical vocabulary), accuracy (grammar, pronunciation, and intonation), fluency, interaction (discourse functions), and coherence (connectors and cohesive devices) are included These items are based

on the descriptions of oral proficiency (level 5) of the Common European Framework

of Reference for Languages (CEFR) This norm is selected because of its popularity

in Vietnamese context Furthermore, a national educational project, aiming to reform the teaching and learning of English at all educational levels, entitled ‘Teaching and learning foreign language in the national education system in the period of 2008–2020’ (MoET, 2008), has approved to standardize higher education lectures’ proficiency up to C1 level

In this research, the teacher-related demotive scale indicated to have acceptable intimal consistency reliability with Cronbach's alpha of 0.881 for TC; 0.904 for CS; 0.826 for TA; 0.876 for TM and 0.811 for the total scale In this part, respondents are inquired to express their degree of agreement toward different teacher-related demotivating incidents on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree A high mean score on each subscale indicates a high level of agreement of that construct

A semi-structured interview means questions are predetermined, but the interviewer