“Factors demotivating the second-year Accounting major students to learn ESP at Hanoi College of Technology and Economics”

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* PHAN THỊ VÂN ANH FACTORS DEMOTIVATING THE SECOND-YEAR ACCOUNTING MAJOR STUDENT

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

PHAN THỊ VÂN ANH

FACTORS DEMOTIVATING THE SECOND-YEAR ACCOUNTING MAJOR STUDENTS TO LEARN ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES AT HANOI COLLEGE OF

TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMICS

Những nhân tố gây ảnh hưởng tiêu cực cho sinh viên năm thứ hai ngành Kế toán khi học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành tại trường

Cao đẳng Công nghệ và Kinh tế Hà Nội

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

PHAN THỊ VÂN ANH

FACTORS DEMOTIVATING THE SECOND-YEAR ACCOUNTING MAJOR STUDENTS TO LEARN ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES AT HANOI COLLEGE OF

TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMICS

Những nhân tố gây ảnh hưởng tiêu cực cho sinh viên năm thứ hai ngành Kế toán khi học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành tại trường

Cao đẳng Công nghệ và Kinh tế Hà Nội

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: DƯƠNG THỊ NỤ, PhD

Hanoi, 2014

Hanoi, August 17th, 2014 Signature

Phan Thị Vân Anh

Secondly, I gratefully acknowledge all the lectures at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies for providing us with knowledge from precious and helpful lectures

Thirdly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all my colleagues and my students at Hanoi College of Technology and Economics for providing support and assistance in completing my minor thesis

Last but not least, my hearted thanks go to my family and my friends for their enormous spiritual support

Hanoi, August 2014

ABSTRACT

For recent years, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has been an important area in English language teaching and learning However, there has been very little research reported on demotivation of students in the course of learning ESP, especially in learning English for Accounting The aim of this study was therefore to investigate factors demotivating the second-year Accounting major students to learn ESP at Hanoi College of Technology and Economics (HCTE) A survey questionnaire was carried out by 97 Accounting major students at HCTE Furthermore, in order to back up the validity of the collected data from the questionnaire, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 randomly selected students who had already done the survey questionnaire Other semi-structured interviews were also conducted with four teachers who were teaching ESP at HCTE at that time The findings of the study revealed four demotivating factors including: students’ lack of self-confidence due to their experience of failure and lack of specialized background knowledge, teachers’ behaviors, competence and teaching methods, considered as a strongly demotivating factor, the course book and teaching facilities Based

on the findings, some solutions were provided to help students to overcome their demotivation in learning ESP It is hoped that the results of this study will be helpful to improve ESP teaching and learning at HCTE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of abbreviations vi

List of tables vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Research questions 1

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Methods of the study 2

6 Design of the study 2

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 3

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 3

1.1 Conceptions of motivation 3

1.2 Conceptions of demotivation 3

1.3 Factors affecting students’ demotivation 4

1.4 Related issues of ESP 6

1.4.1 The definition of ESP 6

1.4.2 Classification of ESP 7

1.4.3 ESP teachers 8

1.4.4 ESP learners 10

1.4.5 ESP materials 11

1.5 Previous studies on demotivation in the world and in Vietnam 12

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 14

2.1 Research questions 14

2.2 Situation analysis 14

2.2.1 Setting of the study 14

2.2.2 Participants of the study 15

2.3 Data Collection 16

2.3.1 Questionnaire for students 16

2.3.2 Interviews for students 16

2.3.3 Interviews for teachers 16

2.4 Data analysis 17

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 18

3.1 Results 18

3.1.1 Data analysis of students’ survey questionnaire and interviews 18

3.1.1.1 Personal information of the students taking part in the survey 18

3.1.1.2 Student-related demotivating factors 18

3.1.1.3 Teacher-related demotivating factors 20

3.1.1.4 The course book 22

3.1.1.5 Teaching and learning conditions 23

3.1.1.6 Solutions suggested by the students 23

3.1.2 Data analysis of teacher interviews 24

3.2 Major findings and discussion 26

3.3 Pedagogical implications 27

3.3.1 Improving ESP teachers’ specialized knowledge 27

3.3.2 Improving ESP teachers’ behaviors and teaching methods 27

3.3.3 Helping students to enrich their background knowledge 28

3.3.4 Adapting the current course book 28

3.3.5 Improving the facilities and learning conditions 28

PART C: CONCLUSION 30

1 Conclusions 30

2 Limitations of the study 31

3 Suggestions for further study 31

REFERENCES 32 APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 III APPENDIX 3 V APPENDIX 4 VI

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESP: English for specific Purposes

ELT: English Language Teaching

EAP: English for Academic Purposes

EOP: English for Occupational Purposes

GE: General English

HCTE: Hanoi College of Technology and Economics

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Students’ profiles (Total number of the students: 97) 18

Table 2: Student-related demotivating factors 19

Table 3: Teacher-related demotivating factors 20

Table 4: The course book 22

Table 5: Teaching and learning conditions 23

PART A: INTRODUCTION

The first part of this thesis is to introduce the rationale, the aims of the study as well

as the research questions which the study was to carry out to find out the answers It also presents the significance of the study, the scope of the study, an overview of the methods employed to conduct the research, as well as its design

1 Rationale

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is an important area in English language teaching and learning today ESP is also a compulsory subject for students who passed General English (GE) courses at Hanoi College of Technology and Economics (HCTE) Moreover, having a good knowledge of GE and especially ESP is considered to be necessary means for any graduates to get better jobs

However, after teaching ESP for several years, especially English for Accounting, I have come to realize that most of the students in HCTE meet the difficulties in learning ESP They seem to lack motivation in learning ESP Moreover, motivation is considered to

be one of the most important elements in language learning There are a variety of factors affecting students’ motivation Among these factors are their learning purposes, instructional content or teaching methods…

Up to now, many researchers have examined motivation and demotivation in learning GE However, there has been very little research reported on demotivation of students in the course of learning ESP Therefore, the purpose of this study is to ascertain factors that demotivated the second-year Accounting major students to learn ESP at HCTE

I do hope that the results of the study can help students to overcome their demotivation in learning ESP and help teachers to improve the effectiveness of teaching ESP at HCTE

2 Aims of the study

With the above rationale, the study was conducted with the following aims:

- To identify factors demotivating the second-year accounting major students to learn ESP at HCTE

- To recommend some suggestions for teachers and students at HCTE to get better ESP teaching – learning

3 Research questions

In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims, the following research questions were asked in the study:

Question 1: What are the factors that demotivate the second-year accounting major

students to learn ESP at HCTE?

Question 2: What solutions can be offered to minimize these factors and help

students at HCTE to overcome their demotivation?

4 Scope of the study

The scope of the study is to find out factors that demotivate the second-year Accounting major students in learning ESP at HCTE It involves the participation of 4 teachers of English and 97 second-year accounting major students at HCTE who have just

finished ESP To go ahead, it also offers some suggestions to better the current context

5 Methods of the study

To achieve the aims of the study, the study used both qualitative and quantitative methods for data collection and analysis The data were collected by means of the survey questionnaire and the interviews The questionnaire for students and the semi-structured interviews were used to get students’ opinions on their demotivation factors in learning ESP The semi-structured interviews for teachers were also used to find out their ideas about factors demotivating their students in ESP classes All comments, findings and suggestions given in the thesis were based on the analysis of the data

6 Design of the study

The study includes three parts

Part A, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, aim of the study, scope of the study, methods of the study and design of the study

Part B, DEVELOPMENT, consists of three main chapters:

Chapter 1, LITERATURE REVIEW, provides conceptions of motivation and demotivation in language learning The main issues related to ESP are also presented in this chapter

Chapter 2, RESEARCH METHODOLOGY, presents the methodology used in the study

Chapter 3, RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS, provides a detailed presentation of data and detailed description of data analysis The implications of the study are also given

in this chapter

Part C, CONCLUSION, is a review of the study Furthermore, this part also points

out the limitations of the study and provides some suggestions for further studies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will briefly present a theoretical background of the study with the examination of the concepts most relevant to the thesis’s topic It consists of the concepts

of motivation and demotivation as well as factors affecting students’ demotivation Besides, the overall of ESP will be discussed

1 1 Conceptions of motivation

There have been a number of motivation concepts by different authors It is strongly believed that motivation plays a significant role in academic learning in general and the second language learning in particular Motivational factors or motives have been considered as kinds or inducements with the effect of energizing ongoing action (Dӧrnyei, 2001)

Keller (1984) assumed that “interest” is one of the main apparatus of motivation in

foreign and second language learning Meanwhile Gardner (1985) considered the

importance of efforts and desires to obtain the learning goal “Motivation in the present

context refers to the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning plus favorable attitudes towards learning the language” (p 10)

However, Littlewood (1998) found that motivation is complexly combined by

different components including “the individual’s driver, need for achievement and success,

curiosity, desire for stimulation and new experience, and so on” and “motivation is both intrinsically and extrinsically-originated”(p.53)

In short, it can be deduced that motivation is the way learners set up goals and spend effort to pursue them

1.2 Conceptions of demotivation

Traditionally, motivation has been considered as a many-sided construct consisting

of various positive influences However, there is another aspect of motivation left without being properly attended, it is demotivation

Dӧrnyei (2001) suggested that demotivation concerns “specific external forces that

reduce or diminish the motivational basis of a behavioral intention or an ongoing action”

These negative external factors consist of items such as the class environment, teaching situations, methods, teachers’ behaviors and so on In addition, in his study, Dӧrnyei (2001, p.143) also identifies the three negative factors that cannot be considered as instances of

demotivation: powerful distraction, continuing loss of interest in a long-lasting, ongoing activity, and the sudden recognitions of the costs of an activity

Furthermore, Dӧrnyei (2001) made a distinction between demotivation and amotivation The term amotivation was first used by Deci and Ryan (1985) According to them, amotivation refers to lack of motivation and an amotivation learner is someone who

thinks “there is no point in me pursuing this” Dӧrnyei (2001) stated that demotivation

does not mean that a learner has lost his or her motivation completely while an amotivation learner has lost his or her motivation totally The difference between the two related terminations is that when an amotivated learner is someone who has found the general outcome expectations to be unrealistic for one reason or another, a demotivated learner is someone whose motivation has decreased due to some external factors In the course of time, demotivation can develop into amotivation (Dӧrnyei, 2001), that is, a series of demotivating experiences can lead to a complete loss of motivation

In brief, a demotivating factor is some external force that reduces or decreases the learner’s motivation However, an amotivating factor is not so much an external factor as something that is produced by the learner

1.3 Factors affecting students’ demotivation

There have been a number of factors that demotivate students in learning the second language Dӧrnyei (2001) carried out a research on demotivation, aiming to find out the variety of demotivating factors The study was a qualitative one with the subject of

50 secondary school pupils in Budapest who were studying either English or German as their second language The research results indicated nine areas of concern as follows:

1 The teachers’ personalities, commitment, competence, teaching methods

2 Inadequate school facilities (big group, not the right level, or frequent change of teachers)

3 Reduced self-confidence due to their experience of failure or lack of success

4 Negative attitudes towards the second language study

5 Compulsory nature of the second language study

6 Interference of another foreign language that pupils are studying

7 Negative attitudes towards the community of the second language spoken

8 Attitudes of group members

9 Course books used in the class

However, Oxford (1998) conducted a qualitative study on demotivation, focusing

on a teachers’ influence on both motivation and demotivation She took into account the time factor by asking 250 students, both in high schools and universities, to write about their experiences over a period of five years She recognized that some of demotivating factors include:

1 The teacher’s personal relationship with students

2 The teacher’s attitude towards the course and material

3 Style conflicts between teachers and students

4 The nature of classroom activities

Sun Yun-Fang (2008) in the PhD thesis at Indiana University titled “Motivation to speak: Perception and attitude of non-English major students in Taiwan” conducted a study

on Taiwanese students motivation to speak English at a university in northern Taiwan Questionnaires on motivation and anxiety were used to ask 115 non-English majors in two English conversation classes to give their perceptions and attitudes toward English conversation class Then follow-up interviews were conducted with six volunteer students for deeper analysis of their willingness to use English to communicate in the class, and what activities they prefer in English conversation class 56% of the surveyed students stated that teachers have strong impact on their willingness to use English to participate in class activities They most preferred a class size of between 15-20 students 81% of the surveyed students preferred more interactive activities such as group discussion on practical and interesting topics and a more relaxing learning environment The results implied that teachers need to be more flexible to meet students' needs such as daily conversation skills, pragmatics, business communication skills and public speaking skills

Furthermore, Falouta, Elwoodband and Hood (2009) conducted a study on 900 university EFL learners to investigate demotivating factors in learning EFL in Japan, and the relationship between past demotivating experiences and present proficiencies In their study, demotivating factors were grouped into three categories: external conditions of the learning environment, internal conditions of the learner, and reactive behaviors to demotivating experiences Internal and reactive factors were shown to correlate with long-term EFL learning outcomes

Thu (2012) conducted a study on 89 second-year students of electronics and 3 teachers to investigate factors demotivating the Electronics-major students in ESP classes

at Sao Do University In her study, both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed She recognized that some of demotivating factors include: student-related factors, teacher-related factors and the English for Electronic course book In student-related factors, there were five factors: (1) students’ experiences of failure; (2) students’ English ability; (3) students’ lack of specialized background knowledge; (4) students’ lack of self-confidence; (5) students’ expectations In teacher-related factors, there were three factors: (1) teachers’ teaching methods; (2) teachers’ lack of specialized background knowledge; (3) teacher’s lack care of learners’ need analysis In the English for Electronic course book, there were some reasons: (1) containing many long and difficult specialized reading texts; (2) lots of new words and difficult terms; (3) only focusing on reading and writing skills, ignoring speaking and listening skills which students were supposed to need for their future careers

It was her study that helped the author effectively in the research process

In short, even though there were few studies on the field of demotivation, the researchers tried to find out the demotivating factors affecting students’ second language leaning These factors can be classified into student-related factors, teacher-related factors, teaching and learning conditions and course books used in the class

1.4 Related issues of ESP

1.4.1 The definition of ESP

ESP has been defined differently by different authors Dudley-Evans and St John

(1998, p 1) stated that “the teaching of ESP has been seen as a separate activity within

English Language Teaching (ELT), and ESP research as an identifiable component of applied linguistics research” In addition, Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p.19) emphasized

that ESP should be seen as an approach, not a product It is an approach which is directed

by specific and apparent reasons for learning However, in their definition Dudley-Evans and St John (1998, p 4-5) identified absolute and variable characteristics of ESP:

a Absolute characteristics:

- ESP is designed to meet specific needs of the learner;

- ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the disciplines it serves;

- ESP is centered on the language (grammar, lexis, register), skills, discourse and genres appropriate to these activities

b Variable characteristics:

- ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines;

- ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of general English;

- ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution

or in a professional work situation It could, however, be used for learners at secondary school level;

- ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students Most ESP courses assume basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be used with beginners

To sum up, all the above definitions show that ESP is a language skill course However, its domains not only relate to distinctive content, but also to discipline- specific lexis, genres and registers (Munby, 1978)

1.4.2 Classification of ESP

Traditionally, ESP can be classified into two major groups according to when they take place: English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) Robinson (1991) showed a distinction between these two areas in the following tree diagram

Figure 1: ESP Classification by experience

(Robinson, 1991, taken from Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998, p.6)

English For Academic Legal Purposes

English For Management Finance and Economics

The diagram above shows that the specific ESP course will depend largely on whether it is categorized as EAP or EOP The division of ESP into EAP and EOP

according to when they take place is very important because “they will affect the degree of

specificity that is appropriate to the course” (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998, p.6)

According to discipline or professional area, another division of ESP is presented

as follows:

Figure 2: ESP classification by professional area

(Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998, p.6)

To sum up, it is obvious that ESP which is taught to students of Accounting major

at HCTE belongs to English for Management Finance and Economics and it is a type of English for Academic Purposes

English For Medical purposes

English For Business Purposes

Pre- Vocational English

Vocational English English for specific purposes

English for Academic Purposes English for Occupational Purposes

to master language and subject matter both An ESP teacher has to be open minded, curious and enthusiastic At the same time, he not only acts as a teacher but he has to play several other roles too He may be asked to organize courses, to set learning objectives, to establish a positive learning environment in the classroom, and to evaluate students’ progress

As ESP teaching is extremely varied some authors (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998) use the term “practitioner” rather than “teacher” to emphasize that ESP work involves much more than teaching Therefore, ESP practitioner can have several roles

The first role is the ESP practitioner as a teacher The teacher has the opportunity to draw on students’ knowledge of the content in order to generate communication in the classroom ESP teachers need to have considerable flexibility, be willing to listen to learners, take interest in the disciplines or professional activities the students are involved

in, and to take some risks in their teaching

The second role is the ESP practitioner as course designer and material provider ESP practitioners often have to provide the material for the course This involves selection

of published material, adapting material if it is not suitable, or writing it ESP teachers also need to assess the effectiveness of the teaching material used whether it is published or

self-produced

The third role is the ESP practitioner as researcher ESP teachers need to be in

touch with the research Teachers carrying out a needs analysis, designing a course, or writing teaching materials need to be capable of incorporating the findings of the research, and those working in specific ESP situations need to be confident that they know what is involved in skills such as written communication

The fourth role is the ESP practitioner as collaborator This may involve cooperation in which ESP teacher finds out about the subject syllabus in an academic context or the tasks that students have to carry out in a work or business situation Or it may involve specific collaboration so that there is some integration between specialist studies or activities and the language It might involve the language teacher specifically preparing learners for the language of subject lectures or business presentations Another possibility is that a specialist checks and comments on the content of teaching materials

that the ESP teacher has prepared

The last role is the ESP practitioner as evaluator The ESP practitioner is often

involved in various types of evaluation - testing of students, evaluation of courses and teaching materials Evaluation of course design and teaching materials should be done while the course is being taught, at the end of the course and after finishing the course, in order to assess whether the learners have been able to make use of what they learned and to find out what they were not prepared for Evaluation through discussion and on-going

needs analysis can be used to adapt the syllabus

In brief, ESP teachers as a practitioner have many roles in ESP teaching Hutchison and Waters (1987), hence, assumed that “adaptability” and “flexibility” are the foremost requirements of an ESP teacher Moreover, when designing a syllabus, selecting, and/or writing materials, as well as teaching the course, ESP teachers should have at least some basic knowledge about the subject matter in question, which is ideally supported by a genuine interest in it It is even more important that they act as facilitators and encourage students to share their own knowledge about the subject matter with the class and to actively participate in the learning process

1.4 4 ESP learners

ESP learners play an important role in ESP courses So, what is the role of the ESP learner and what is the task he/she faces?

Interest for Learning

People learn languages when they have opportunities to understand and work with language in a context that they comprehend and find interesting In this view, ESP is a powerful means for such opportunities Students will acquire English as they work with materials which they find interesting and relevant and which they can use in their professional work or further studies The more learners pay attention to the meaning of the language they hear or read, the more they are successful; the more they have to focus on the linguistic input or isolated language structures, the less they are motivated to attend their classes

The ESP student is particularly well disposed to focus on meaning in the matter field In ESP, English should be presented not as a subject to be learned in isolation from real use, nor as a mechanical skill or habit to be developed On the contrary, English should be presented in authentic contexts to make the learners acquainted with the particular ways in which the language is used in functions that they will need to perform in their fields of specialty or jobs

subject-Subject-Content Knowledge

Learners in the ESP classes are generally aware of the purposes for which they will need to use English Having already oriented their education toward a specific field, they see their English training as complementing this orientation Knowledge of the subject area enables the students to identify a real context for the vocabulary and structures of the ESP classroom In such way, the learners can take advantage of what they already know about the subject matter to learn English

Learning Strategies

Adults must work harder than children in order to learn a new language, but the learning skills they bring to the task permit them to learn faster and more efficiently The skills they have already developed in using their native languages will make learning English easier Although you will be working with students whose English will probably

be quite limited, the language learning abilities of the adult in the ESP classroom are potentially immense Educated adults are continually learning new language behavior in their native languages, since language learning continues naturally throughout our lives They are constantly expanding vocabulary, becoming more fluent in their fields, and adjusting their linguistic behavior to new situations or new roles ESP students can exploit these innate competencies in learning English

In a word, the learners come to the ESP class with a specific interest for learning, subject matter knowledge, and well-built adult learning strategies They are in charge of developing English language skills to reflect their native-language knowledge and skills

1.4.5 ESP materials

One of the main factors in teaching ESP is materials selection, adaptation, or writing Selecting materials carefully will help the learners to improve their skills and knowledge and meet the demand of them There are two kinds of materials, namely: readily available textbooks and tailor-made materials Selecting to use readily available textbooks or tailor-made materials depends on the learners' subject area

Ellis and Johnson (1994, p.115) emphasize, the choice of materials has a major impact on what happens in the course This impact is demonstrated on the following three levels:

1 It “determines what kind of language the leaners will be exposed to and, as a

consequence, the substance of what they will learn in terms of vocabulary, structures, and

functions”

2 It “has implication for methods and techniques by which the learners will learn”

3 Last but not least, “the subject of or content of the materials is an essential

component of the package from the point of view of relevance and motivation”

In brief, after analyzing learner needs and setting objectives for the course, the ESP teacher has to select materials that will help the learners to achieve the course objectives (Ellis and Johnson, 1994) These materials should meet the demand of learners in order to encourage learners’ motivation

1.5 Previous studies on demotivation in the world and in Vietnam

As mentioned in 1.3, the most concerned studies on demotivating factors in learning the second language were discussed They are studies by Oxford (1998), Dӧrnyei (2001), Sun Yun-Fang (2008), Falouta, Elwoodband and Hood (2009) and Thu (2012) Besides, there are some other studies carried out in the context of Vietnam to explore demotivating factors for students’ second language learning at different levels of education

Hang (2010) investigated the demotivators in English speaking lessons of the 10thgrade students at Nam Sach High School The 10-item questionnaire adapted from Hamada

& Kito (2007) was administered to 126 10th grade students and another 5-item questionnaire was delivered to 8 teachers to get information An interview was carried out

in Vietnam to get more thorough understanding of the matter In this study, there were five factors about demotivation in learning to speak English were found: (1) teacher’s competence and teaching style (incorrect pronunciation, not very good intonation, not clear instructions, negative behaviours); (2) learning environment and facilities (not encouraging peers, overload activities, rare use of modern technology); (3) assessment of speaking skill; (4) self-confidence; and (5) little intrinsic motivation (little interests/ effort)

Huyen (2012) investigated demotivating factors for the first year non-English major students in learning to speak English at Hai Duong college The study involved the participants of 8 teachers of English and 120 first year non-English major students In her study, both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed From the data analysis, a list of five demotivating factors among learners was revealed: (1) lack of intrinsic motivation; (2) lack of self-confidence; (3) leaning environment; (4) teachers’ competence, behaviors and teaching methods; (5) textbook and time for speaking skills

However, there has been very little research reported on demotivation of students in

the course of learning ESP, especially in learning English for Accounting Therefore, the researcher decided to study on Accounting-major students’ demotivation in learning ESP

at HCTE

Summary

In short, this chapter provides different viewpoints on motivation and demotivation The chapter also provides the main demotivating factors affecting students’ second language learning Besides, the conceptions of ESP, classifications of ESP and main issues

in learning and teaching ESP are also presented In the following chapter, the methodology employed in the study will be presented

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the researcher will describe the current situation of learning and teaching ESP at HCTE Then the research methodology used to carry out the study will be discussed in detail

2.1 Research questions

The study was conducted to answer the two following research questions:

Question 1: What are the factors that demotivate the second-year accounting major

students to learn ESP at HCTE?

Question 2: What solutions can be offered to minimize these factors and help

students at HCTE to overcome their demotivation?

English for Accounting

English for Accounting is a compulsory subject and occupies 2 credits at HCTE Students study English for Accounting in 3rd semester after finishing Basic English one and two in the two first semesters

Objectives of English for Accounting: After studying ESP, students will be able to:

- Pronounce and use correctly vocabulary related to some accounting topics

- Understand grammar points such as passive voice, conditional sentences, relative clauses and some structures

- Develop their skills including reading and writing: understand some English texts related to accounting and write paragraphs (about 100-150 words) describing some topics

of accounting

Students and their background

The age of the students varies from 18 to 24 They come from different provinces in the country and have different English background Most of them are from the rural or remote areas, where there are no good opportunities for studying English, these students commonly did not spend much time learning English at high school before The others come from cities Theoretically, they have all finished three years or seven years of learning English at school before entering HCTE Most of them are female students (about 70%) To some extent, there are some students whose English is very good, but generally the target students' English proficiency is still low level Most of them are afraid of studying ESP

The course book

The course book “English for Accounting” was designed by a group of teachers at HCTE It based on the course book “English for Finance” by Cao Xuan Thieu and his colleagues (2008) It consists of six units Each unit is often divided into five parts, namely: Reading comprehension, Language focus, and Word study and Vocabulary The reading part includes reading texts related to accounting and tasks designed to help students to deeply understand the texts The second part, language focus, presents grammar issue in both theory and practice The last part, word study and vocabulary, focus on vocabulary practice exercises and a list of new vocabulary items and their explanation in English and then meanings in Vietnamese at the end of each unit The exercises in this part are often blank-filling, on ward for each blank in separate sentences or paragraph so that students can revise the contents and vocabulary as well, finding the opposites, word-formation, grouping words

Teaching facilities

It cannot deny that teaching facilities play an important role in teaching English All teachers at HCTE are supplied with a CD player A lab has just built However, conditions for English teaching and learning at HCTE are still not very good The main teaching aids used are blackboards and textbooks There are only some rooms equipped with projectors Most of teachers have to use their own computers There are few English books, magazines, newspapers in the library for reference

2.2.2 Participants of the study

The participants of the study included a group of 4 teachers of English for