nghiên cứu động lực học tiếng anh của người học tiếng anh trực tuyến khóa tiếng anh cơ bản 1 tại tienganh123 com

This study is an attempt to investigate motivation of online learners at course Basic English 1 at tienganh123.com and factors affecting their motivation then find out activities, techn

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ THU HƯƠNG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ONLINE LEARNERS’

MOTIVATION OF BASIC ENGLISH 1 AT

TIENGANH123.COM

(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỘNG LỰC HỌC TIẾNG ANH CỦA NGƯỜI

HỌC TIẾNG ANH TRỰC TUYẾN KHÓA TIẾNG ANH CƠ BẢN

1 TẠI TIENGANH123.COM)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

HANOI, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ THU HƯƠNG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ONLINE LEARNERS’

MOTIVATION OF BASIC ENGLISH 1 AT

TIENGANH123.COM

(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỘNG LỰC HỌC TIẾNG ANH CỦA NGƯỜI

HỌC TIẾNG ANH TRỰC TUYẾN KHÓA TIẾNG ANH CƠ BẢN

1 TẠI TIENGANH123.COM)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor: PROF.DR HOÀNG VĂN VÂN

HANOI, 2014

DECLARATION

I certify that this thesis is the result of my own research for the Degree of

Master of Arts at website tienganh123.com and that this thesis has not been submitted

for a degree to any other university or institution wholly or partly

Ha Noi, September 2014

Trần Thi ̣ Thu Hương

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This study would have been impossibly completed without the assistance of special people

First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness and gratitude

to Prof Dr Hoang Van Van for his valuable guidance, helpful suggestions and critical feedback throughout the research His enthusiastic assistance, guidance, support, and his wisdom greatly contributed to the fulfillment of my thesis

My heartfelt gratitude is also to my colleagues and students at tienganh123.com

for their tremendous supports in the collection of data and information for my study

My appreciation also goes to my loving parents and my husband whose unconditional loving, understanding, encouragement, and support are invaluable during

ABSTRACT

Online language learning is a trend nowadays It attracts more and more learners and brings a variety of advantages to improve learning environment Motivation is a key factor to success of second language learning acquisition, not only in offline classes or traditional classes, but also in online courses This study is an attempt to

investigate motivation of online learners at course Basic English 1 at tienganh123.com

and factors affecting their motivation then find out activities, techniques applied in the web and students‟ preference, some suggested solutions to stimulate students to learn online and get good results when choosing this learning method

The study consists of three parts Part A, the introduction, states the rationale, aims, scopes, design and methods of the research Part B, the development, is divided into three chapters Chapter 1 provides an overview of motivation and online language

learning Chapter 2 presents the methods used in the study including the setting of the

study, individuals participating in the study, instruments, data collection and data analysis Chapter 3 shows the detailed results together with a comprehensive analysis

on the data collected from the survey questionnaires and the interview Part C, the conclusion, presents the conclusions, the study‟s limitations and suggestions for further study

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

I LIST OF TABLES:

Table 1: Participants by age and gender………20

Table 2: The students’ experience of learning English ………… ……….…… 12

Table 3: The students’ reasons for learning online……….………22

Table 4: The teachers’ opinions on “Basic English 1”….……… 29

Table 5: The students’ opinions on “Basic English 1”……….………….30

II LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: Types of students’ motivation in learning English online ……… 25

Chart 2: The students’ interest in learning through the internet……… 26

Chart 3: Factors affecting students’ motivation in learning online……….27

Chart 4: Learners’ preference when learning English online … 29

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION………i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… ii

ABSTRACT……… …iii

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS……… iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS……… v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Research questions 2

4 Scopes of the study 2

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Overview of motivation 5

1.1.1 Definitions of motivation 5

1.1.2 Types of motivation 6

1.1.2.1 Integrative vs instrumental motivation 6

1.1.2.2 Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation 7

1.1.2.3 Global, situational and task motivation 8

1.1.2.4 Resultative motivation 8

1.2 Overview of learning second language through the internet 9

1.2.1 Online language learning 10

1.2.2 The fact of online language learning in Vietnam 11

1.2.3 Motivation and online language learning 12

1.2.3 1.The importance of motivation in learning language online 12

1.2.3.2 The factors affecting students‟ motivation in learning English through the internet 13

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 15

2.1 The context of the study 15

2.2 Participants 16

2.3 Instruments 17

2.4 Data collection procedures 18

2.5 Data analysis 18

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, MAJOR FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS 20

3.1 Demographic information 20

3.2 Data analysis and major findings 21

3.2.1 The identification of students‟ motivation 21

3.2.1.1 Types of students‟ motivation 21

3.2.1.2 The students‟ interest in learning through the internet 24

3.2.1.3 Factors affecting students‟ motivation in learning through the internet 25

3.2.2 Students preference when learning online and their opinions on Basic English 1, tienganh123.com 27

3.2.2.1 Students preference when learning online 27

3.2.2.2 Teachers‟ and students‟ opinion on Basic English 1 30

3.2.2.2.1 Teachers‟ opinions on Basic English 1 29

3.2.2.2.2 Students‟ opinions on Basic English 1 30

3.3 Suggestions for motivating students in learning at Basic English 1, tienganh123.com 32

3.3.1 Improving the materials 32

3.3.2 Developing testing and assessment system 33

PART C: CONCLUSION 35

1 Conclusions 35

2 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 37

REFERENCES 39 APENDIXES I APENDIX A: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE STUDENTS I APENDIX B: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE TEACHERS IV

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Today, new technologies provide learners with a wider array of opportunities to study and learn languages, but, since these opportunities are largely available on a voluntary out-of-school basis, they further highlight the importance of learners‟ motivation Though a number of studies have been carried out on the relationship of online learning to motivation in classroom settings, there has yet been little research

on language learning motivation in out-of-school settings

It can be clearly seen that in Vietnam, we are mainly teaching and learning English

in non-native language environment, so students do not have much chance to expose to real, native English However, with the development of the internet and technology nowadays, it gives us more chances to bring English nearer to the learners Learning through the internet is rapidly growing and attracting more and more learners in Vietnam On the other hand, how to get a good result when learners learn English in that environment, and how to maintain the learning process

by students themselves are key points deciding the outcome of the learning Thus, motivation will play the center role to push students learn by themselves without any demand from teachers

From the above reasons, the author would like to investigate the motivation of

online learners, particularly the learners at the course - Basic English 1 at website

tienganh123.com to find a way to attract them to learn, and help them to be good at

English even in non-native environment like Vietnam

2 Aim of the study

The study aims at investigating the motivation in learning English online of learners

at the course Basic English 1 at website tienganh123.com To achieve this aim, the

study sets out to obtain three specific objectives as follows:

- Identifying types of motivation possessed by learners at the course Basic English 1

at website tienganh123.com in learning online

- Studying factors affecting motivation in learning English online

- Finding out strategies to develop motivation of students in order to improve their results of learning online

4 What are appropriate strategies to develop students‟ motivation in learning

English online at tienganh123.com?

4 Scope of the study

Mentioning online language learning and learner‟s motivation, the study “An

investigation into online learners’ motivation of Basic English 1 at tienganh123.com” has many interesting aspects However, due to the limitation of

time and knowledge, the author would like to cover just the types of motivations

processed by online learners at Basic English 1 at tienganh123.com, the factors

affecting online learners‟ motivation and appropriate strategies to develop students‟

motivation in learning English online at tienganh123.com

5 Methods of the study

The theoretical background of the study is mainly based on the references and analysis to relevant theories about motivation and online language learning of many authors The study is carried out on the basis of a survey questionnaire, interviews and course observation

In theoretical part, reference materials on motivation and online language learning

have been gathered and reviewed to establish the framework for the study

In practical part, a survey questionnaire and interviews are carried out to answer the questions raised for the study

6 Significance of the study

The study focuses on the importance of motivation and identifies the factors affecting students‟ motivation in learning English online Its findings are believed to

be helpful for teachers and learners of English and website developers to be aware

of the vital role of motivation to students‟ results and to help them find a better way

to attract more students to this way of learning Since then, the study suggests some motivational strategies for better result when learning through the internet

7 Design of the study

The study is designed with three parts as follows:

PART A: INTRODUCTION

The part presents the rationale of the study, aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study, methods of the study and the significance

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Literature review

The chapter provides theoretical backgrounds of motivation and online language learning In this chapter, the theories for motivation, brief introduction of online language learning, motivation in online language learning and main factors affecting motivation in online English learning are discussed

Chapter 2: Methodology

The chapter presents the methodology used in this study including data collection, the procedure of data collection and data analysis and instruments

Chapter 3: Data analysis and findings

The chapter shows the results of the data analysis based on the course observation,

survey questionnaires and interview

PART C: CONCLUSION

This part summarizes the major findings and discussion, points out the limitations

of the thesis, provides some implications and makes some suggestions for further

study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is concerned with the theoretical background of motivation, including the definition of motivation and several types of motivations In addition, it also gives overview of learning second language through the internet The author will mention the history of learning through the internet, and the facts of that learning in Vietnam One more important feature that will be presented is motivation in learning English through the internet

1.1 Theoretical background of motivation

1.1.1 Definitions of motivation

Many scholars have given definitions of motivation Most of them agree that motivation is the driving force that creates the flux from desire to will in life The following definitions of motivation are given by researchers:

“Motivation is some kinds of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something.” (Brown, 2000:160)

“Motivation explains why people decide to do something, how hard they are going to pursue it and how long they are willing to sustain the activities.” (Dornyei, 2001:7)

“Motivation is an internal state that arouses directs and maintains behavior.” (Kleinginna, 1981:6)

“Motivation involves the attitudes and effective states that influence the degree of effort that learners make to learn a second language.” (Ellis, 1997:5)

“Motivation can be constructed as a state of cognitive and emotional arousal, which leads to a conscious decision to act, and which gives rise to period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort in order to attain a previously set goal (or goals).” (William, 1997:120)

Although different scholars have different ways to approach definitions of motivation, they all share the point of view that motivation has roots in physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and social areas

1.1.2 Types of motivations

Motivation can be classified into integrative vs instrumental motivation (Gardner and Lambert, 1972); intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation (Moore, 1992); global, situational and task motivation (Brown, 1990); instrumental, integrative, resultative and intrinsic (Ellis, 1994)

1.1.2.1 Integrative and instrumental motivation

The theory mostly influences the field of language learning motivation it the educational model given by Gardner (1985) This model focuses on the impact of attitudes towards second language (L2) communities on motivation and student achievement According to this model, motivation includes three components:

social-effort, want and effect This model also classifies motivation into two types:

integrative and instrumental

Integrative motivation: Integrative motivation is defined as “a sincere and personal

interest in the people and culture represented by the other language group” by Lambert (1974: 98) Gardner‟s later socio-educational model (1985) adds three

aspects of student motivation: (effort time and drive), desire (extent of language proficiency wished for) and effect (emotional reactions to language study)

Integrative motivation is the desire on the part of the student to feel a relationship with the people, the society and the culture of the language that is learned, and is usually referred to in the context of living in the target language community (Falk

1978, and Finnegan, 1999)

Instrumental motivation: On the other hand, Gardner and Lambert (1972: 132) refer

to “the practical value and advantages of learning a new language” Instrumental motivation concerns the practical and concrete rewards that student‟s desire (Hudson, 2000) This relates to achievement purposes for instance passing an exam

or getting a degree A student‟s opinion of a given language is significantly shaped

by its perceived usefulness and relevance to future career goals (Chambers, 1999)

1.1.2.2 Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

According to Harmer (1994) motivation is separated into two main categories: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation From his point of view, intrinsic motivation concerns with what is taken place in the classroom whereas the extrinsic

is concerned with factors outside the classroom Therefore, he considered integrative motivation and instrumental motivation as of extrinsic motivation

Moore (1992: 173) proposes the distinction of the two concepts, that is: “Intrinsic

motivation is what learners bring to the learning environment, that is, their internal attributes: attitudes, values, needs and personal factors In contrast, extrinsic motivation originates outside the individual and is concerned with external environmental factors that help shape students’ behavior.”

Hence the main difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is the goals of the students When motivated intrinsically, students study subject materials for the sake of learning They find studying enjoyable and learning new ideas as a reward itself With extrinsic motivation, students are influenced by the outside factors such

as getting teacher and peer praise, acquiring a good grade or some other type of reinforcement that a teacher or peer might offer, so they study for the sake of outside influences

Another difference that is worth mentioning is that research shows that intrinsically motivated students learn more than extrinsically motivated ones This could be due

to the fact that intrinsically motivated students are also extrinsically motivated But

on the other note, extrinsically motivated students are seldom found to be

Motivating students to become intrinsically motivated is not an easy task for teachers To some students, they enjoy learning For the others, this is where the challenge really comes in From what perceived, Moore (1992: 178) suggests the ways to motivate those learners that “in intrinsic motivation, the external incentives

and rewards that are used to get students to learn or work modify their action are artificially devised techniques Ideally, once extrinsic motivation has been used to help develop intrinsic motivation, it should be phased out.”

1.1.2.3 Global, situational and task motivation

Brown (1981) identifies three types of motivation:

(1) Global motivation that consists of a general orientation to the goal of learning a

L2;

(2) Situational motivation is the type of motivation which varies according to the

situation in which learning takes place (classroom learning, naturalistic learning)

(3) Task motivation, which is motivation for performing particular learning task

Brown explains that some of all three types of motivation are required for learning a foreign language For instance, a learner may have high global motivation to learn the foreign language, but low task motivation for doing a certain activity While the second motivation does not depend on the teacher, the first and especially the third motivation is where teachers can have an influence and help learners develop, maintain and enhance their motivation by discussing the benefits of learning the foreign language by designing and using tasks and activities that are interesting, engaging and enjoyable for learners

1.1.2.4 Resultative motivation

Resultative motivation is concerned with the relationship between motivation and achievement, which Ellis (1994) identified as interactive Learner‟s motivation is strongly affected by their achievement Students who perform well in classrooms are more likely to gain confidence and to be more willing to participate However, Gardner, Smythe and Clement (1979) suggested that „while greater motivation and attitudes lead to better learning, the converse is not true‟ (Cited from Ellis, 1994) But „the vicious circle of low motivation = low achievement = lower motivation‟ could always develop (Ellis, 1994) Interest is a powerful psychology tool in receiving attention from students and urging them to make efforts There are

various ways that teachers could help students to develop their intrinsic interest motivation, such as welcoming students with a big smile, or introducing new activities into the classroom

1.2 Overview of second language learning through the internet

In 1992 the World Wide Web was launched, reaching the general public in 1993

The Web offers enormous potential in language learning and teaching The internet

is very useful for teaching English Teachers can use it for gathering information for their classes, including teaching plans and materials for classroom use They can subscribe to mailing lists related to TEFL/TESL, and exchange information with other teachers Then they can discuss normal issues they meet in their teaching, and get suggestion from other teachers Moreover they can subscribe to electronic journals or newsletters either by e-mail or using the World Wide Web and keep up with new trends of English teaching, finding new or interesting publications They can consult with publishers on teaching materials

Students can use a mailing list, IECC-Survey, to conduct surveys for class projects They can subscribe to student lists to exchange ideas with other students around the world There are many learning materials on the World Wide Web, and students can use them to study English They can read news in English using either by e-mail or

on the World Wide Web Students' newspapers or newsletters can be posted on the World Wide Web Nowadays, there are a lot of education websites coming out to help students learn subjects They can get knowledge themselves and arrange their own schedule to learn on the internet

Using the internet for English teaching is new, and there are few books and papers

on the subject, though there are many resources on the Internet We need to explore ways to find materials on the internet and experiment with using them to improve our teaching Using the internet to teach language in class is very helpful and interesting Moreover these days with the development of the internet and technology, a new way of teaching and learning language was born: Learning through the internet Students and teachers do not need to meet directly to learn,

they can stay at home and attend online courses, out-of- school learning In this research, the author would like to study this kind of learning and the motivations that students often have when they join in them, the difficulties in motivating online students, and gives some suggestions on how to motivate them

1.2.1 Online language learning

The instructional use of the internet and computer-mediated communication (CMC) has introduced the benefits of real-time, many-to-many discussions by an entire class or small groups (Warschauer, Mark, Heidi Shetzer and Christine Meloni, 2002) Such features are believed to boost student motivation in language learning; however, the impact of technology use on learner motivation in language learning has not been well explored As suggested by Brown (1994) and later discussed by Meunier (1998), the effect of technology use on language learning motivation falls into two categories: situational motivation, which assesses comfort, anxiety, and risk taking in particular language learning contexts, and task motivation, which accounts for the relevance and excitement originating from specific language learning activities

Regarding situated motivation, both language anxiety and technology anxiety (Warschauer, 1996) have been shown to decrease when students use CMC In addition, the use of CMC not only promotes classroom participation, but also leads

to more equal student participation in the CMC environment (Warschauer, 1996)

As for task motivation, a number of studies have shown that students were instrumentally motivated when using particular online tools, such as email (Warschauer, 1996), computer-assisted conversation (Meunier, 1998; Warschauer, 1996), or blogs (Alm, 2008; Sun, 2009)

The emergence of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and Web 2.0 offers online communities where individuals can talk with and learn from native speakers Online language learning is more autonomous than school-based learning because online learning is initiated by the students themselves, allowing them to control the pace of learning This kind of learning are attracted to a lot of learners, especially

today when assessing to the internet is easier than ever Investigating the motivation

of online language learners may shed light on an important new domain in second language acquisition

1.2.2 The fact of online learning in Vietnam

Beside the traditional ways of learning, leaning through the internet is considered as the model of future education Especially in Vietnam, it can help stop the passive teaching and learning, teacher reads and students write Students have to have their own plans and schedule for learning, and they become active in their learning process Nowadays in Vietnam online learning is mostly applied for teaching and learning foreign language There are some famous websites such as: tienganh123.com, onedu.vn, hellochao.vn, etc Although having existed recently, these sites are warmly welcome by the users, especially youth and workers, who have no time for offline classes From the number of these websites‟ subscribers,

we can see how rapidly this learning style has been developing For example,

tienganh123.com founded in 2008, up to now it has had 1.479.197 users, hellochao.vn founded in 2011 and it has 74.665 followers on facebook now And

there are more and more new websites coming each year Online learners started to get used to this way of learning, most of them see that learning through the internet has strongest points which are flexibility of time and place to learn, and financial saving Moreover learners can adjust their learning fast or slow These are the advantages that traditional learning cannot have because you can learn a lesson many times or slowly if you want instead of attending one lesson by teacher in offline classes

Although online learners don‟t meet teachers or other learners directly, they can contact in variety of different ways, for instant chatting online, joining forums, writing mails or learning groups on the internet Learning process is also convenient for learners; they just need a computer assessed to the internet, and learn at any time they want

Moreover learning through internet is not only convenient but also visual, which is especially good for learning second language Students have chance to listen to native speakers, watch videos from variety of sources in target language such as

BBC News, VOA News, New York Times… Thus the disadvantages that students

don‟t have chance to exposure to native language can be dealt easily now Seeing the advantages of learning a second language online, many learners in Vietnam now choose this way to improve their learning

However, it also has some issues making learners confused and hesitated when choosing Because learners have to be very active on their own, they have to set up their own plan to learn and follow it closely Unless learners are committed to the learning process, they will stop at any time, and then the result is not much Many people feel curious and try to learn online, but they cannot maintain the process of learning after some lessons or they do not learn regularly so finally their language is not improved How to take advantage of this learning style, and how to boost this learning are really big questions for educators and also web administrators

1.2.3 Motivation and online language learning

1.2.3.1 The importance of motivation in learning language online

Like any courses, motivation plays a centered role in keeping students engaged to the course Specially, for online courses, its role is now extremely important Without motivation, students do not want to attend the course any more

Consider for a moment a traditional classroom Why do students attend their classes? Perhaps their presence is being recorded by the instructor, or perhaps they are particularly interested in the topic Regardless, upon enrolling in a face-to-face course, learners are aware that they are expected to devote significant blocks of time each week to that course But why do students participate in face-to-face course activities? To start, they already are seated in the classroom, so they may as well participate Additionally, the effects of instructor modeling of desired activities and peer participation can motivate the reluctant learner to become more active

In the online class, attendance is distinctly different Hence one of the most crucial issues facing developers of online course is to maintain and develop the motivation

of students since the factors that influence motivation are embedded in most aspects

of online learning Motivation in general is defined as “the magnitude and direction

of behavior and the choices of people make as to what experiences or goals they will approach or avoid and to the degree of effort they will exert in that respect” (Keller, 1983)

1.2.3.2 The factors affecting students’ motivation in learning English through the internet

Understanding what motivates online learners is important because motivated students are more likely to engage in activities that help them learn and achieve, says Brett Jones, associate professor of educational psychology at Virginia Tech Based on an extensive review of the literature on student motivation, Jones has developed the MUSIC model of student motivation, which identifies five main

factors that contribute to student motivation: eMpowerment, Usefulness, Success,

Interest, and Caring

eMpowerment – Students feel empowered when they feel that they have some

control over some aspects of their learning This can involve giving students choices “Is there some way that we can give students at least a little bit of control

by giving them choices? Is there a way to give students some options to bring in something from their own lives or make some decision about a topic within that narrow assignment that lets them feel like they have some control over it?” Jones says

Usefulness – Students need to see that the course is useful and relevant to them

within the course and beyond In some cases it will be obvious that the skills that students will acquire in a course will directly contribute to their success in a chosen career field In other cases, that connection will not be as clear Jones recommends being explicit about how the skills and knowledge students acquire in the course can be applied beyond school One way to do this is to give students chance to

interview professionals in their chosen careers about what skills and knowledge contributed to their success

Success – Students need to feel that they can succeed in the course if they make a

reasonable effort The instructor can help students succeed by setting expectations, providing feedback, and facilitating the course so that students have access to additional resources if needed “What resources do you have available for them to succeed? If you thought ahead you can know what problems students typically run into A lot of times you can create additional documents or videos that explain the more difficult concepts,” Jones says

Interest – There are two types of interest that contribute to student motivation:

situational interest and individual interest Situational interest refers to an aspect of

a course that is enjoyable or fun Situational interest can be enhanced by novelty and emotions Situational interest is often short lived, but it can lead to longer-term individual interest, which refers to how the content relates to the individual

Caring – Students need to feel that the instructor (and other students) care that they

learn Jones assumed that although caring is a big motivator for children; it would not play a large role in online higher education courses He was wrong In fact, in a study of 609 online learners, caring was the number one predictor of online instructor ratings “It turns out that caring is very important even for adult learners,” Jones says Jones recommends providing regular feedback and asking students whether the feel that they‟re getting the support they need

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

The research methodology plays an important role in any research which determines considerably the reliability and validity of the study Therefore, it required the researcher prudence and caution to single out the method that best suits the aims and objectives of the study In the light of this philosophy, combined quantitative and qualitative methods are employed within the framework of the study

2.1 Context of the study

The study is conducted in an online website teaching English, tienganh123.com This is one of the biggest website teaching English in Vietnam with over 1 million subscribers There are two main categories in this web; they are English for kids (under grade 5) and English for students and adults (from grade 6) The course the

author chooses to observe and analyze is Basic English 1, which is the beginning

course for adult learners, or anyone who wants to start with basic English There are fourteen topics and three tests in the course, learners need to finish each lesson and required tasks before moving to the next lesson They will learn grammar, vocabulary, speaking, listening, writing and pronunciation in each lesson There have been a large number of learners up to now However, at the same time, there are about 25 students attending the course Therefore the author just gives questionnaires to 52 students in this course

The content of the course are designed by teachers and web designers with variety

of activity and authentic materials The topics and grammatical structures which are

selected based on the outline of the communicative course books such as New

Headway, New Cutting Edge, New English File, etc are the most common to a daily

life Each lesson contains the following parts: vocabulary, grammar, reading, listening, pronunciation, speaking, and a review test These parts aim to develop students‟ skills in reading, listening, speaking and writing Students need to finish tasks required and the test to pass a lesson One of the great things in this course is

that students have chance to expose to native language All the audios and videos in English are recorded by native speakers

From my own observation, learners are really motivated at the beginning of the course, the number of students attend the course at the first lessons are large But their enthusiasm seems to be lost during the course, because the numbers decrease

by the lesson However, the students who can go through to the end of the course can get quite good achievement They can talk about general topics with ideas and suitable vocabulary and grammar, and they can do grammatical tasks or read quite well, but their pronunciation is still worse than the other skills Thus the issue here

is how to attract student to commit with the course from the beginning to the end Most of teachers and designers interviewed agreed that more things need to be done

to increase students‟ motivation

2.2 Participants

The study was conducted with the participation of 52 students chosen randomly

from Basic English 1, tienganh123.com; they are the most recent students attending

the course in 2014 They aged from 12 to middle-aged and the ratio of male to female is 21/29 Before doing the research, the author anticipated that learners are mainly adults who have jobs and do not have much time to attend normal classes However, when sending emails to learners randomly, the number of adolescents is

higher than expected All of them have been learning English with tienganh123.com

for at least 2 months They have joined the course at different time, but all in 2014 and they have finished at least two thirds of the course

The teachers joined in the study include:

- Three teachers designing the curriculum and the lessons in the course They all graduated from University of languages and international studies They aged from 24 to 28

- Two supporting teachers who often chat and answer learners‟ questions during the course One of them is English major student at Hanoi national university of international languages; one has graduated from that university

- One IT engineer who supports the teachers about technology and software to present the lessons on the web He is 24 and has a bachelor degree in information and technology

2.3 Instruments

Three instruments were employed to collect the data for the study as follows:

2.3.1 Survey Questionnaires

Survey questionnaires for the teachers:

The questionnaires for the teachers were designed with three main parts in English: The first part was designed to gather personal information about the teachers (their gender, age, teaching experience)

The second part was designed to get the teachers‟ opinions about issues of teaching online and which techniques they have been using to motivate their students

The last part was designed to get teachers‟ comments on the course content and their suggestion to improve it

Survey questionnaires for the students

The questionnaires for the students were designed with two main parts in Vietnamese

The first part was to get the students‟ personal information about their gender, age, duration they have learnt English

The second part was designed to elicit students‟ opinions on their English learning

online in Basic English1, tienganh123.com

The purpose of the questionnaires was to obtain the snapshot of students‟ motivation in learning English online and their comments on the lessons and their expectations on the course

2.3.2 Interview

The interview was to get teachers‟ comment and opinions about the course and difficulties they get in motivating online students, and techniques they used to

attract them to the course The interview consists of 10 questions and was carried out in Vietnamese in an informal conversation between the teachers and researcher

2.3.3 Observation

The researcher observed the attendance of the learner in the course, and saw their assignment‟s marks, to find out their commitment to the course, and draw some conclusion about their learning result and have ideas about the reason why some do not go to the end of the course

2.4 Data collection procedures

The data collection was conducted during three weeks of June, 2014 All students were asked to do questionnaire when they had completed at least their two thirds of the course, so they may have an overview on the challenges they had been facing

with online language learning

With the permission of the administration of tienganh123.com and the help of one

IT engineer, the questionnaires were sent to students by email in the first week The questionnaire was sent to 60 students, and only 52 replied Then the conclusions were drawn out from detailed answers getting back

During the second week, the interview with teachers was carried out In an informal conversation, researcher asked the teachers about the opinions on learning languages online, the challenges they met and techniques they use to motivate students Finally conclusions are drawn from their feedback

2.5 Data analysis procedures

The data collected from different sources were inspected, cleaned, transformed, and modeled with the goal of highlighting useful information, suggesting conclusions, and supporting decision making The interview transcription will be jotted down It will be generated and analyzed by the researcher alone to avoid inconsistency or possible biases and then displayed in forms of charts, tables and figures

A series of analytical categories from the statements was also conducted in order to quantify the open-ended questions from the questionnaires

In short, in this chapter, the methodology of the study has been displayed as the guidelines for the researcher to follow during the implementation of the study In the next chapter, the analysis of the data and the findings will be identified in detail