A survey of factors that demotivate first year non major students in learning english at university of labor and social affairs 002

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT --- NGUYỄN THỊ THU THỦY A SURVEY OF FACTORS THAT DEMOTIVATE FIRST YEAR MAJ

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT -

NGUYỄN THỊ THU THỦY

A SURVEY OF FACTORS THAT DEMOTIVATE FIRST YEAR MAJOR STUDENTS IN LEARNING ENGLISH AT UNIVERSITY OF

NON-LABOR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS

(KHẢO SÁT CÁC YẾU TỐ GÂY GIẢM HỨNG THÚ HỌC TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN NĂM NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC

LAO ĐỘNG – XÃ HỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 6014.0111 Supervisor: Dr Nguyễn Đức Hoạt

Hanoi, 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT -

NGUYỄN THỊ THU THỦY

A SURVEY OF FACTORS THAT DEMOTIVATE FIRST YEAR MAJOR STUDENTS IN LEARNING ENGLISH AT UNIVERSITY OF

NON-LABOR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS

(KHẢO SÁT CÁC YẾU TỐ GÂY GIẢM HỨNG THÚ HỌC TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN NĂM NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC

LAO ĐỘNG – XÃ HỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 6014.0111

Hanoi, 2013

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DECLARATION

I, hereby, certify the thesis entitled “A Survey of Factors that Demotivate First-Year Non-Major Students in Learning English at University of Labor and Social Affairs” is the result of my own research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and that this thesis has not, wholly or partially, been submitted

for any degree at any other universities or institutions

Author’s signature

Nguyễn Thị Thu Thủy

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility

to complete this thesis

First of all, I wish to send my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Duc Hoat, for his valuable guidance, helpful suggestions and critical feedback throughout my research

Also, I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to the staff members in the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies for their useful lessons from which I have benefited a lot for the accomplishment of this study

I am greatly indebted to my students and my colleagues at University of Labor and Social Affairs for their participation and assistance without which this study could not have been successful

Last but not least, I would like to express my special thanks to my loving parents, my love, my dear sister and my close friends who offered me their love, care, support and encouragement so that I could accomplish my study

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ABSTRACT

This study aims to investigate the factors that demotivate the first – year major students in learning English at the University of Labor and Social Affairs (ULSA) In this study, 140 first-year non-major students from different faculties of ULSA were chosen as the subjects A questionnaire and an interview were used as the data collection instruments The findings of the study showed that the factors demotivating students in learning English derive from 3 sources: students, learning conditions and teachers In details, among the factors, students’ lack of basic knowledge and lack of confidence were the most demotivating then followed by the class atmosphere, inadequate facilities, big size class and the teacher’s lack of commitment Based on the findings of the study, some discussion and implications were made along with recommended suggestions for further research.At last, it is hoped that the results of this study could be of much benefit for developing teaching and learning English at University of Labor and Social Affairs

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIGURES vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research Questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Methods 2

6 Organization of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Motivation 4

1.1.1 Definition of motivation 4

1.1.2 The importance of motivation in foreign or second language learning 5

1.2 Demotivation 7

1.2.1 Definition of demotivation 7

1.2.2 Factors that demotivate students in learning 9

1.2.2.1 Teacher-related factors 10

1.2.2.2 Learner-related factors 12

1.2.2.3 Learning conditions 14

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1.3 Previous studies in the world and in Vietnam 15

1.4 Demotivation and English learning at ULSA 18

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 21

2.1 Participants and setting of the study 21

2.1.1 Participants 21

2.1.2 Setting of the study 22

2.2 Data collection 23

2.2.1 Data collection instruments 23

2.2.2 Data collection procedures 25

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 26

3.1 Findings 26

3.1.1 Factors that demotivating students to learn English at ULSA 26

3.1.1.1 Student-related factors 26

3.1.1.2 Teacher-related factors 30

3.1.1.3 Learning conditions 32

3.1.2 The comparison among factors demotivating students in learning English 34

3.2 Discussions 34

PART C CONCLUSION 40

1 Conclusions 40

2 Pedagogical implications 40

3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research 41

REFERENCES 42 APPENDICES

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ULSA: University of Labor and Social Affairs

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: Students’ opinions on student-related factors

Table 3.2: Students’ opinions on teacher-related factors

Table 3.3: Students’ opinions on factors related to learning conditions Table 3.4: Comparison among factors

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1: Students’ opinions on Student-related factors

Figure 3.2: Students’ opinions on teacher-related factors

Figure 3.3: Students’ opinions on factors related to learning conditions Figure 3.4: Comparison among 3 groups of factors

Figure 3.5: Comparison among factors

a better life As a result, there has been a positive trend of teaching and learning English across Vietnam Both children and adults learn English with different purposes Children learn it as compulsory subject at schools and their parents want that Students learn English to pass the exams, to study aboard or to find a good job

in the future Adults learn English in order to communicate with foreigner, do business or just to relax with English music, films and newspapers and books In general, despite deriving from different purposes, everyone wants to turn English to become their own instrument in their lives

As an English teacher, students’ proficiency and interests in learning English are things that get lots of the teacher’s care and time Truly, we, teachers, really want to have an effective and interesting lesson each day And it is clear that students also hope and like to learn in those lessons like that However, teachers often say that they can easily recognize students who do things not relevant to the lesson or do not pay attention to the lessons, some even say that because they do not like English As an English teacher, I am always thinking about this and really want

to find the solutions for eliminating factors that demotivate students’ motivation in learning English because the researchers on motivation and demotivation have pointed out that “the strongest influence on motivation was not the presence of motivators in the classroom, but the absence of demotivators” (Christophel

&Gorham, 1995) At the beginning of the semester, the absence of context

2 Aims of the study

This survey is conducted in order to investigate demotivating factors to the first year non-major students’ English learning at ULSA The researcher would expect to reveal the main factors that demotivate students in learning based on the result of research, this study will propose some solutions that can help students overcome demotivation as well as enhance motivation in learning English

3 Research Questions

In order to reach the research aims, the researcher attempted to answer the following questions:

1 What factors demotivate students in learning English?

2 What factors most frequently demotivate them in learning English?

4 Scope of the study

There are various factors affecting students’ learning English However, as the title

of the study, the present research only focuses on exploring the demotivating factors

at ULSA The reasons why the 1st year students chosen as the subjects of the study will be further discussed in the following chapter

5 Methods

This study which is both quantitative and qualitative consists of two instruments to collect the data Firstly, the survey questionnaire was conducted

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with 140 students from 4 classes of four faculties at ULSA, 35 students in each class would be choose according to their even numbers in the name list Secondly, semi-structured interview with 20 students, who have done the questionnaire, were carried out

6 Organization of the study

This survey-designed study consists of three parts

Part A deals with the introduction This chapter provides the rationale, aims,

research questions, scope, methods, and design of the study

Part B presents the development, which includes three chapters

Chapter 1 deals with theoretical background and academic viewpoints on

definition of motivation, the role of motivation, definition of demotivation, and factors that demotivate students in learning and demotivation in learning English, some previous studies related and the case of ULSA

Chapter 2 describes methodology This chapter is composed of description

of methodology of the study, participants and setting of the study, data collection

instruments, data collection procedure, and data analysis procedure

Chapter 3 presents data analysis and discussion This chapter analyses,

discusses the results achieved from the study and offers some implications of the study

Part C is the conclusion that presents the author’s reflection and the

outcomes of the study as well as indicates some limitations of the study and finally gives some suggestions for further research

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this part, the author would like to give short review of motivation, the importance of motivation in language learning, demotivation, demotivating factors, previous studies and demotivation and ULSA

do something, which is first determined by their beliefs about the value of what they

do and then how to face with challenge together with the support they get from around, i.e people or environmental working – is motivation “[Motivation] is an abstract, hypothetical concept that we use to explain why people think and behave

as they do” (Dornyei, 2001) However, this opinion is not fulfilled because in some cases, there is no motivation Later, his definition was clearer when he suggested three dimensions responsible for motivation: “the choice of particular action”, “the effort expended on it” and “the persistence with it”

Dornyei and Otto (1988) concluded that motivation is a “dynamically changing cumulative arousal in a person that initiate, directs, coordinates, amplifies, terminates, and evaluates the cognitive and motor processes whereby initial wishes and desires are selected, prioritized, operationalised and (successfully or unsuccessfully) acted out” In their view, motivation is a complex phenomenon of arousal which can change when a person works out and is an influential factor throughout an action or a process

In short, motivation seems to be considered a highly complex issue which is easier to describe than to define Different researchers have different ways of defining motivation since they study motivation in different contexts: different languages, with different subjects and different teaching -learning conditions In this study, the researcher understand motivation under three important factors of motivation found by prior researchers: (1) the determination to the goal of learning

a language, (2) the effort to achieve that goal, (3) the maintenance of that goal or effort and one thing should be remember about motivation is that it is not stable all the time, motivation can change or be changed, increase or decrease over periods

1.1.2 The importance of motivation in foreign or second language learning

Many researchers have shown that motivation plays an important role in determining the result of foreign/ second language learning process According to Brown (2007), “motivation is one of the most important factors that will influence students’ English achievement or performance It has a close relationship with students’ success or failure in English teaching in college Therefore teacher must

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pay more attention to this aspect” Motivated students are likely to learn more and learn more quickly than students who are less motivated They also participate willingly, actively and pay more attention to a certain learning task or activity and gain more success and high marks

Gardner (1985) stated that positive attitude and motivation are related to success in learning a second/ foreign language A highly motivated individual will want to learn the language, enjoy learning the language, and strive to learn the language

According to Naiman et al (1978), the most successful students display certain typical characteristics which are clearly associated with motivation as follow Students really want to solve the tasks and challenges, and they are confident in their success They think that success in learning is important to display their own self-imagine They have a need to attain and overcome difficulties and get the goals that they set out to do before These students go for demanding challenges and top grades, high proficiency They are aware of the goals of learning and direct them to get them They consistently spend high level of effort in learning and are not encouraged by setback or apparent lack of progress They are not disturbed or frustrated by situations involving a temporary lack of understanding or confusion They are patient to be confident that understanding will come later

All researchers agreed that motivation is a determinant to learning success Motivation helps to form good habits of learning (pay more attention,), right behavior (aware of the goals, want to attain language, go for demanding challenges) and all successful students show motivation as evidence contributing to their success

Moreover, motivation not only has positive effects on motivated students but also influence others’ motivation It can be spread among students Motivated students can be sources to engage or stimulate others to learn when they interact or work in groups during tasks or activities because in the light of psychology people tend to be affected unconsciously

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In short, it is clearly that motivation is the essence of language learning because it affects directly to students’ behaviors, habits, and it determines the success or failure in foreign language learning

1.2 Demotivation

1.2.1 Definition of demotivation

Demotivation is a relatively new issue in the field of second/foreign language learning Christophel and Gorham (1995) believed that “the strongest influence on motivation was not the presence of motivativators in the classroom, but the absence of demotivators” It has been regarded as “another side of motivation”(e.g Dornyei & Ushioda, 2011; Falout & Maruyama, 2004; Sakai & Kikuchi, 2009) or in other words, the negative of motivation which “has a negative impact on students, preventing them from gaining expected learning outcomes” (Trang & Baldauf, 2007)

According to Oxford Advance dictionary, “demotivate” means “to make somebody feel that it is not worth making an effort” Because there is something that raises meaninglessness or worthlessness in their mind when doing anything, they do not want to pursue the task as well as try to perform it without any effort

According to Zhang (2007), demotivation can be defined as “the force that decrease students’ energy to learn and/or the absence of the force that stimulates students to learn”

According to Dorneyi (2001), demotivation refers to “external forces that reduce or diminish the motivational basis of a behavioral intention or an ongoing action” However, not all the researchers agreed with this definition Sakai and Kikuchi (2009) stated that “Dorneyi limited the original definition of demotivation

to only external factors” and they also pointed out that in fact, Dorneyi (2001) himself considered self-confident reduction and negative attitude as demotivating factors in learning process Then they felt the need to expand Dorneyi’s definition

of demotivation, concluding both external and internal factors which reduce or diminish motivation during the process of learning The loss of interest can originate from many sources of demotivation, such as a teacher who cannot control

From the sources of motivation, researchers agree that motivation can be affected internally (inside the learners) or externally (outside the learners) Thus, the other side of motivation, demotivation, also refers to both internal and external forces which decrease interest and motivation in language learning process Demotivation is different from the total loss of learner’s motivation According to Dorneyi (2001), amotivation refers to lack of motivation resulting from realizing that there is no point Amotivation was introduced by Deci and Ryan (1985) as a constituent of their self-determination theory and they (1985, as explained by Dornyei 2001a: 144) define it as “the relative absence of motivation that is not caused by a lack of initial interest but rather by the individual’s experiencing feelings of incompetence and helplessness when faced with the activity”

In fact, the positive influences that come from motivational basis can still be there and positive motives may still be active in a learners’ learning process together with negative influences However, through time, demotivation can develop into amotivation (Dornyei, 2001), that is, gradually demotivating experiences can lead to the total loss of motivation, i.e amotivation Dornyei and

Ushioda (2011) have argured that “Some demotives can lead to general amotivation regarding the particular activity (e.g a series of horrendous classroom experiences can reduce the learner’s self-efficacy)”

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In this study, demotivation is understood as a process of reducing or diminishing learners’ interest and motivation which concerns both external and internal factors

1.2.2 Factors that demotivate students in learning

Because of its strong impacts in learning, researchers have tried to investigate factors that demotivate students to learn The studies discussed in the following illustrate that demotivation is a matter of concern worldwilde

According to Chambers (1993), the underlying causes of student demotivation perceived were quite different by the teachers and the students While teachers perceived them to be related to psychological, attitudinal, social, historical and geographical reasons The students perceived the causes of demotivation were various, i.e, teacher’ behaviours, class size, ect However, Chambers did not try to determine what demotivating factors were or to look at them critically, he just listed the students’ points of view

Oxford (1998) conducted a qualitative study on demotivation, which focused

on a teacher’s influence on both motivation and demotivation The finding from her study revealed four broads sources of demotivation:

1 The teacher’s personal relationship with students

2 The teacher’s attitude towards the course and materials

3 Style conflicts between teachers and students

4 The nature of classroom activities

In his study, the prompts specifically referred to the teacher’s responsibility

as a source of demotivation, participants in the study might not provide other potential sources

According Dornyei’s study (originally in 1998 but based on 2001), there are

9 categories of factors that demotivate students in foreign language learning as follows:

1 The teacher

2 Inadequate school facilities

3 Reduction of self-confidence due to the experience of failure or success

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4 Negative attitude toward the foreign language study

5 Compulsory nature of the foreign language study

6 Interference of another foreign language that pupils are studying

7 Negative attitude toward the community of the foreign language spoken

8 Attitude of group members

9 Coursebooks

Among 9 factors, the teacher factor ranks first Teachers’ personality, commitment to teaching, attention paid to the student, competence, teaching method, style and rapport with students can have a direct impact on students demotivation Students also blame teachers’ indirect negative influence such as rigid classroom management for their lack of confidence Therefore, it is important to analyze the teacher factors on order to ascertain possible solution to demotivation

Based on the theoretical basis mentioned above, factors demotivating students in foreign language learning can be classified into 3 large groups: teacher-related factors, learner-related factors, teaching and learning conditions

to learn with a teacher because of the personality of the teacher is good and interesting But on the contrary there are also some students who feel discouraged, demotivated, lazy, indifferent, sleepy and noisy because the teacher’s personality is not good and not interesting Thus, teacher’s negative attitudes have a strong impact

on students’ motivation Teacher’s love and caring seem to be the most important characteristics for a teacher to exhibit Hunsaker (1988) claimed that “the main

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value of humor in the classroom lies in its use to stimulate, illustrate, motivate and ease tensions” In Weaver and Cotrell’s study (1987), one student said “it’s not so much sense of humor; they need to show students that they are human” Weaver and Cotrell (1987) established 10 steps for teachers to become more comfortable and humorous in the classroom:

1 Smile/ Be lighthearted

2 Be spontaneous/ natural (Relax control a little/ break the routine occasionally; Be willing to laugh at yourself/ don’t take yourself so seriously)

3 Foster an informal climate/ be conversational and loose

4 Begin class with a thought for the day, a poem, a short anecdote, or a humorous example

5 Use stories and experiences that emerge from the subject matter Use personal experiences

6 Relate things to the everyday life of students

7 Plan lectures/ presentations in short segments with humor injected Plan a commercial break Use a slide or overhead

8 Encourage a give-and-take climate between yourself and students Play off their comments Learn their names

9 Ask students to supply you with some of their jokes, stories, or anecdotes Share these

10 Tell a joke or two Do outrageous things Admit you are no good at it Appear human

• Teacher’s commitment to the students’ progress

Besides, teachers’ commitment strongly affects to students’ motivation as many researchers have believed that the teacher’s commitment is the significant predictor of student effectiveness This is based on arguments claiming that student achievement is intertwined with teacher’s commitment to their works, their school and their students (Firestone and Rosenblum, 1988) According to Dorneyi (2001), teachers should show commitment towards their students’ learning and progress, at the same time they

 Teaching methods

Teaching methods consisting of the teacher’s techniques and activities are of great impact on learners’ motivation Without good techniques and interesting activities, learners may be left in confusion and boredom while dealing with learning tasks Therefore, teacher should invest more effort and thoughts in the materials, the ways, and the time to use techniques and activities carefully for a specific stage of teaching and assessing the learning performance Arikal et al (2008) claimed that effective teachers should have a student-centered classroom, should be creative and should teach outside the syllabus

1.2.2.2 Learner-related factors

There are various factors demotivating students in second or foreign language learning, however these following factors are inferred to be the most determinant

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• Learner’s lack of basic knowledge of English

Among the factors, the first and most important factor is their basic knowledge Background knowledge refers to the existing information on a specific topic in each language lesson Therefore, if students lack background knowledge, it is difficult for them to get involved in learning activities They will be unable to comprehend new materials and more importantly, they will lose their interest in learning lessons Realizing the influence of this factor, the teacher needs to provide the amount of background information available and to see that they are able to use them

Besides, language items such as vocabulary and grammatical structures can

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

Learner’s prior knowledge is known to be an important prerequisite for individual knowledge construction and learning outcome Theoretical approaches stress the importance of learner’s background knowledge when acquiring new learning material (Weinert and Helmke, 1998) It can be implied that if the student lacks of background knowledge, he can easily get demotivated because he must feel more difficult in learning

 Learner’s personality

Through the learner’s personality varies from person to person, it is a key factor that can motivate or demotivate the learner in learning foreign or second language learning Many researchers on demotivation of learners’ personalities have been investigated In addition, there is a close connection between a person’s personality type and their learning style If they find their own style is not suitable

to the context of learning, they will be demotivated

 Learner’s lack of confidence

Learner’s motivation can strongly decrease depending on how much confidence learner’s lack As a result, when a learner lacks confidence toward the language they are learning and the environment they are in, they can easily get

 Classroom atmosphere

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Other factors related to learning environment is a pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the classroom as Lightbown and Spada (1999) claimed that supportive and non-threatening atmosphere makes a contribution to learner’s motivation In other words, negative, stressed, unsafe and boring atmosphere tremendously demotivate students in learning For example, one student often felt confused and unconfident because she felt that other groups laughed at her poor English skills (Dorneyi’s study, 2001)

• The textbook

It is the fact that not every course book is interesting and attractive to students When students do not like the course book, they describe it “the worst course book in the world” and “incredible bad” (Dorneyi, 2001) It is strange that students feel motivated with the course book they hate

1.3 Previous studies in the world and in Vietnam

 Dorneyi’s study

Dorneyi’s study (originally in 1998 but based on 2001) was qualitative The Subjects consist of 50 pupils in various secondary schools in Budapest, Hungary who were studying either German or English as a foreign language and they had been considered as being particularly demotivated by their teachers or peers He collected the data by using structured interviews from 10 to 30 minutes The subjects were asked

to answer a list of questions but they were allowed to speak freely

From the data, nine categories of demotivating factors were the teacher, confident reduction, inadequate school facilities, negative attitude toward L2, the compulsory nature of the L2 learning, interference of another foreign language, negative attitude toward the L2 community, attitude of group member and course book

self-The teacher-related factors accounted more than half of all demotivating factors Two factors with significant proportions (more than 10%) were inadequate school facilities and negative attitude toward the L2 The strength of Dorneyi’s study laid in his focused approach to study demotivation In detail, he focused students who were identified as demotivated one, which offered details and

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comprehensive insights into the sources of demotivation However, the source of demotivating factors might be wider if the study consists of students who are not specifically demotivated because in fact, every leaner has some experience of being demotivated at some time and different levels during the process of L2 learning

 Sakai and Kikuchi’s study

Sakai and Kikuchi (2009) investigated 6 factors from reviewing previous studies of demotivation in learning, concluding teachers, characteristics of classes, experiences of failure, class environment, class materials, and lack of interest They administrated a 35-item questionaired to 656 Japanese high school students and identified the following sources of demotivation: 1) Learning contents and materials, 2) Teachers’ competence and teaching style, 3) Inadequate school facilities, 4) Lack of intrinsic motivation, and 5) Test scores In contrast to both previous studies, teacher-related factors were not the most demotivating factors, that learning contents and materials and test scores are the prominent demotivating factors for various students

• Kikuchi’s study

Kikuchi (2011) conducted a research among 1334 Japanese senior high school students at 7 high schools The questionnaire was used as the data instrument The demotivation was found from these sources: students’ difficult experience or loss of interest in leanring In addition, influence from teachers also causes demotivation and material focusing on difficult reading passage and/or vocabulary causes the strongest sense of demotivation Kikuchi’s study also reviews

on demotivation and demotivators of previous study in detail The questionnaires he used depend on analysis of other study and chose the most effective points such as from Dornyei, Oxford and Gardner His study is one part of the background for this study However, only questionnaire was used If there were interviews with students, the deeper information could be collected from students

 Trang & Baldauf’s study

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In case of Vietnamese students, Trang & Baldauf (2007) conducted a research on demotivation from 100 university students in learning English The students were asked to write an essay of factors that demotivate them on learning a foreign language Trang & Baldauf (2007) found out that: Students found demotivation to be an unavoidable phenomenon in English learning in Vietnam and they offered a framework of demotivation Students mentioned demotivation coming from internal attributions such as attitude toward English, experiences of failure or lack of success, or self-esteem Students also mentioned the sources of demotivation as external attributions such as from teachers (behavior, competence, methods etc.), from learning environment (classroom atmosphere, opportunities to use English, learning conditions, text books ect.) And other demotivating factors such as obligation (compulsory nature of English, parents’ interference) or negative changes (teacher replacements, learning environmental changes)

Trang and Baldauf’s (2007) study revealed that demotivation existing in EFL learning in Vietnam is serious phenomenon The findings of their study seem to be similar to the previous study when it stated that the biggest source of demotivation

is relevant to the teachers Among the four categories related to teachers, teaching methods were considered to be the largest source of students’ demotivation Second, teachers’ inappropriate behavior in classroom was also a major demotivating factor because it hurt students’ feeling and left them with negative attitude toward English Among the internal factors, students’ experiences of failure or lack of success are the highest Another important finding in their study was that many students felt demotivated because their background knowledge of English was not adequate The study also mentioned that university syllabus usually set progressive standards for students which they were asked to meet Therefore, students who failed in previous classes find themselves lack of knowledge and were incapable of dealing with current lessons, and felt demotivated This study is very helpful to the researcher’s understanding because it was conducted with Vietnamese students and revealed various demotivating factors that students were influenced However, I think if they

In short, each study reflects different points in investigating demotivating factors just because the researchers used different ways to collect data in different contexts In addition, the subjects and the learning conditions are not the same However, from these studies above, it can be concluded that, demotivation varies from many sources, such as teachers, students, learning conditions etc

1.4 Demotivation and English learning at ULSA

Demotivation can be at any context and level of language teaching and learning, with nearly 4 years of teaching English at ULSA, the researcher have recognized the exit and effect of this phenomenon In lots of talks in breaks or meetings, the first year students often receive a lot of attention, especially at the beginning of the school year because they are new students Many teachers have often claimed that students have not paid attention to the lessons and have actively not taken part in the activities They also said that although students at least had

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learnt English at high school, they seem to be beginners in learning English at university In addition, many teachers have claimed students’ inconfidence when answering teachers’ questions The teachers also claimed about the big class size, form 65 to 80, it is hard for the teachers to conduct a lesson and keep the class discipline About students, through many times attending other classes and my class, many students have shown their uninterest and inactiveness in learning They just keep silent until their teacher calls or only take part in some activities or do their private things As mentioned before, decreasing in motivation has strong impact on the quality of teaching and learning There open a big gap that need to fulfill – what are the causes of these phenomenon and how to sort out these problems? From the interesting theories and the factual context of teaching and learning English at ULSA, the researcher finds the need to conduct a study on demotivating factors to the first-year non-major students in learning English

In conclusion, this chapter has reviewed some of the most popular theories

on motivation, effects of motivation, demotivation, and factors that demotivate students in learning foreign/ second language After considering some previous pieces of research on these matters, the researchers realized that the more important role motivation is believed to play in EFL learning, the more common and serious problem demotivation is in many EFL learning environment in Vietnam in general and in the researcher’s university, ULSA in particular However, demotivation has not been paid more attention from Vietnamese teachers and researchers From the factual contexts that the researcher works in and finds the matter interesting and necessary, this study aims to measure the factors that demotivate first- year non-major students at ULSA in learning English Among the factors identified by previous researchers and depending on the context of teaching and learning English

at ULSA, the researcher wants to put emphasis on the following factors: (1) the teacher-related factors (2) the student-related factors; and (3) learning conditions

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Most of them started learning English before attending the university The length of time they spent on English ranged from 0 to 12 years Among 140 students, 53.6% (75 students) had spent from 7-8 years studying this language; 20.7% (29 students) had learnt English for 3-4 years while 8.5% (12 students) had learnt English for 9-10 years while 9.3% (13 students) have had 5-6 years to learn English and 0.5 % (7students ) have been learning English for 11-12 years Especially, 2.9% (4 students) have never learnt English before None of them had learnt English aboard

To pass the entrance exams to be students at ULSA, among them, 42 students had English as one of the main subjects

When this research was carried out in May 2013, the participants were in their second term of the first school year Up to the time of the study, they had been

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studying English at ULSA for the first term and 7 weeks (6 periods per week), 87 periods in total and took one end-of-term examinations of English The second semester was chosen to the time for this survey because at that time, students were familiar with the students’ life as well as gained some experiences of English learning and did exams at university

To some extent, some students especially who come from Hanoi and some cities are good at English knowledge and skills The others are evaluated as in the low level in English Consequently, there are only a small number of students who actually have positive motivation in learning; the rest have strong pressure to pass exams

2.1.2 Setting of the study

This study was conducted at ULSA, a university in Hanoi, where English has been teaching as a compulsory subject like many other universities in Vietnams The book used for the first year students at ULSA is Lifeline – Elementary by Tom Hutchinson, published by Oxford University Press The course book at it consists of

14 units with 14 different topics relating to our life such as entertainment, survivors, travel, fashion, health, experiences and so on Each unit is divided into 5 sections: grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing, listening and speaking, and pronunciation Especially, the book supports students with some supplementary such as grammar reference, functional language, tape script, work book and key

At University of Labor and Social Affairs, 9 teachers take charge of teaching Basic English Among them, 4 have MA Degree and the rest hold a bachelor degree in English Language Teaching Five of them have more than 5 years teaching experience

To become students at ULSA, they have to pass the entrance exam in different groups such as A, A1, C or D At the university, there are approximately

65 -80 students with different levels of English were put to study in the same class and same textbook It is easy to see that the number of students in a class at ULSA

is very large; from experiences of more than 3 years of teaching, it is still a big barrier to my teaching

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Although most students attended every lesson, many of them showed their uninterest in learning English in class Therefore they did not want to learn Many commented that they came to classes because teachers marked their attendance and if they were off more than 20% of the total lessons, they could not attend the final exam

Therefore, this survey was conducted to investigate factors demotivating students in English learning and to suggest some resolutions

2.2 Data collection

2.2.1 Data collection instruments

To fit the purpose of the study, the instruments used to collect data are the questionnaire and informal interview for students

• Questionnaire

Questionnaire was used to collect the data because according to Nunan (1992),

it is relatively popular means of collecting data of its advantages Moreover, questionnaires are considered an effective way of collecting data quickly in term of affective dimension of teaching and learning as beliefs, attitudes, motivation and references (Richard and Lockhart, 1994) Questionnaire for this research is composed

of 2 parts The first part aims to collect information of respondents including gender, age, and length of English learning The next part was used to elicit students’ opinion about demotivating factors in their learning Here, a Likert scale is used in the closed questions in order that the responses could readily be quantified and analyzed The participants are required to rate each item on a 4-point scale by circling the response (1, 2, 3, or 4) which coded for different levels of agreement or other categories The survey questions for the questionnaires were adapted from Kikuchi’s study (2011) (See Appendix) Because in his study, Kikuchi mentioned various previous studies to analyze and test out theories and point out which factors have strong effects on demotivation persuasively All the factors for his survey and questionnaires were taken under consideration and deep analysis In this study, the questionnaires (part 2)

were adapted from Kikuchi (2011), Learners Perceptions of Demotivators in Japanese High School English Classroom

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Structure of the demotivation questionnaire

Part 1: Gender, hometown, the length of learning English

Part 2: Demotivating factors

The questionnaire for students consists of 26 questions (see Appendix) For

every question, informants are asked to tick their view

Twenty-six questions of the surveys for students are grouped into 3 parts as follows:

A Students’ opinions on demotivating factors relating to themselves

- A1 Lack of basic knowledge ( Question 10)

- A2 Lack of confidence (Questions 7, 9)

- A3 Student’ personality (Questions 6, 8)

- A4 Student’s belief (Questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

B Students’ opinions on demotivating factors relating to teachers

- B1 Teacher’s personality (Questions 11, 12)

- B2 Teacher’s commitment (Questions 19)

- B3 Teacher’s incompetence (Questions 17, 18)

- B4 The teaching methods (Questions 13, 14, 15, 16)

C Students’ opinions on demotivating factors relating to tlearning conditions