Dimotivating factors for the first year non english major students in learning to speak english at hai duong college

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES **************************************** NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HUYỀN DEM

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ****************************************

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HUYỀN

DEMOTIVATING FACTORS FOR THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS IN LEARNING

TO SPEAK ENGLISH AT HAI DUONG COLLEGE

CÁC YẾU TỐ LÀM GIẢM HỨNG THÚ TRONG VIỆC HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TẠI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG HẢI DƯƠNG

M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY

CODE: 601410

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ****************************************

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HUYỀN

DEMOTIVATING FACTORS FOR THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS IN LEARNING TO SPEAK ENGLISH AT HAI DUONG COLLEGE

CÁC YẾU TỐ LÀM GIẢM HỨNG THÚ TRONG VIỆC HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TẠI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG HẢI DƯƠNG

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGYCODE: 601410

SUPERVISER: DO BA QUY, M.Ed.

HANOI, 2012

1.1 Theoretical background of speaking 4

1.2.Theoretical background of demotivation 8

1.3 Previous studies on the topic 13

2.1 An overview of current situation of teaching and learning 16

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 22 3.1 Data analysis of students’ responses 22

3.1.2 Students’ ideas about demotivating factors in learning

24speaking English

3.2 Data analysis of teachers’ responses 303.2.1 Teachers’ opinions on students’ attitudes towards speaking

30skills

3.2.2 Teachers’ ideas about students’ demotivation in learning to

31speak English

3.2.3 The frequency of teaching techniques and activities used by

32teachers in speaking lessons

3.2.4 Teachers’ opinions on what motivates students to learn to

33speak English

3.3 Major findings and discussion 333.3.1 Demotivating factors in learning English speaking skills for 33

the first year non-English majors at HDC

3.3.2 Solutions suggested by the teachers and the students to

35overcome demotivation in the learning of speaking skills

English as a Foreign Language

English Language Teaching

English as a Second Language

Hai Duong College

Second Language

Master of Arts

Doctor of Philosophy

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

Chart 1 Students’ perceptions of the importance of speaking skills 22

Chart 3 Teachers’ perceptions of students’ thought over speaking 30

skills

Table 1 Students’ attitudes towards the learning of speaking skills 23

Table 6 Students’ opinions on what motivates them to learn speaking 29

EnglishTable 7 Teachers’ opinions on students’ participation in speaking class 31Table 8 Teachers’ ideas about students’ demotivation in learning 31

speaking EnglishTable 9 The frequency of teaching techniques and activities used in 32

speaking lessonsTable 10 Teachers’ opinions on what motivates students to learn 33

speaking English

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study

Language skills have never been more important than today because in aglobal world where information travels fast, and people frequently interact acrossborders, the ability to communicate effectively is very necessary It can not bedenied that English is now considered to be a means of international communicationand an important tool to connect countries all over the world It is English that plays

an essential role in the path of industrialization and modernization as well as in theprocess of integration and globalization of every country in the world

In Vietnam, English teaching and learning has become a great concern overthe last decades It has been a compulsory program in most of educational campusessuch as institutions, universities, colleges and schools at different levels There aremore and more people desiring to know and master English because of differentpurposes: to pass examinations, to keep up with the latest development in scienceand technology in the world, or to cater their practical needs

Among the four skills known as listening, speaking, writing and listening,speaking skill plays an important part in language teaching in the context ofVietnam For many learners, speaking skill is the most important of the four skills in

a second language in general and in English in particular However, it is the fact thatmost of students at Hai Duong College (HDC) seem to consider speaking skill to bethe most challenging From observations and teaching experiences, the authorrealizes that students pay little attention to communicative skills such as listeningand speaking They seem to have lost interest in learning English and they are notactive in participating in speaking activities They feel nervous in speaking classand become demotivated in learning speaking These lead to the underachievementand have a negative effect on students in learning English as a foreign language.With the desire to identify the factors affecting students’ demotivation and find out

some solutions for this problem, I decided to choose the topic “Demotivating

Factors for the First Year non-English Major Students in Learning to Speak

English at Hai Duong College” as the title of my minor thesis.

2 Aims of the study

The major purposes of this study are:

- To identify the demotivating factors affecting the first year non-English majors learning to speak English

- To figure out some suggested solutions to eliminate the demotivation and help to improve students’ speaking skills

3 Research questions

The study is implemented to find out the answers for the following questions:

1 What are the demotivating factors affecting the first year non-English major students in learning to speak English at HDC?

2 What solutions do the teachers and the students suggest to overcome the students’ demotivation in learning speaking skills?

4 Methods of the study

To achieve the aims of the study, both quantitative and qualitative methodsare employed The data was collected by means of questionnaires and interview.Two sets of survey questionnaires, one for students and the other for teachers, weremainly used to get information and evidence for the study To get more reliabledata, an interview was conducted All the comments, remarks, recommendationsand conclusions provided in the thesis were based on the analysis of the data

5 Scope of the study

This study is limited to the student’s demotivation in learning to speakEnglish at HDC Therefore, the investigation of the issue on other skills will not beincluded in the study Furthermore, it should be taken into consideration that thesubjects of the study are the first year non-English majors who are being taughtspeaking skill under the communicative approach

6 Design of the study

This minor thesis is divided into three main parts: Introduction,Development, and Conclusions

Part A, Introduction, presents the rationale, the aims, the research questions,

the methods, the scope as well as the design of the study

Part B, Development, consists of three chapters:

Chapter one, Literature review, revises the relevant theories as the base for

carrying out the research In addition, related studies are also mentioned in thischapter

Chapter two, Methodology, provides the methodology underlying the

research which includes the setting of the study, research questions, participants,data collection instruments, data collection procedure as well as data analysisprocedure

Chapter three, Data analysis and discussion, shows a detailed presentation of

data analysis to answer the research questions The discussion of the findings is alsoincluded in this chapter

Part C, Conclusions, addresses the key issues in the study, comes up with

some recommendations to cope with the problem Furthermore, this part also pointsout some shortcomings of the study as well as provides some suggestions for furtherstudies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews relevant theories and studies that can be the base forconducting the research The background knowledge of speaking and demotivation

as well as previous studies concerning the topic of the study will be presented

1.1 Theoretical background of speaking

1.1.1 The nature of speaking

Of the four macro inter-related language skills: listening, speaking, readingand writing, speaking seems intuitively the most important According to Ur (1996),people who know a language are referred to as speakers of that language, as ifspeaking included all other types of skills, and many, if not most foreign languagelearners are primarily interested in learning to speak

Speaking skill requires the masters speak with confidence to carry out a lot oftheir most basic transactions Byrne (1986) proved that the nature of oralcommunication is a two-way process between the speaker and the listener involvingthe productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding When thespeaker starts a message, the listener decodes, and responds to the message in turns

In spite of not being a set curriculum in most schools, speaking skill has beenillustrated to be a fundamental skill for a child to succeed in life

1.1.2 Definition of speaking

According to Brown (1994), speaking is an interactive process ofconstructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processinginformation It is “often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving” but it is notcompletely unpredictable Its form and meaning are dependent on the context inwhich it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences,the physical environment, and the purpose for speaking

In addition, Chaney and Burk (1998:13) defined speaking as "the process ofbuilding and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in

a variety of contexts" Bailey (2005:2) also argued that “speaking is the productive,oral skill It consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning.”

Mackey (1995, cited in Bygate, (1987:5)), affirmed speaking as “oralexpression involves not only the use of right sounds in the patterns of rhythm andintonation, but also the choice of words and inflections in the right order to conveythe right meaning.”

Brown and Yule (1983) pointed out a useful distinction between two basiclanguage functions which are transactional function and interactional function Thetransactional function is concerned with the transfer of information whereas theinteractional function is to maintain the social relationships

According to Nunan (1992), there is a difference between the two types ofconversations called dialogue and monologue The first type refers to the ability togive and interrupt oral presentation while the second type refers to the interactionwith one or more other speakers for transactional and interactional purposes

1.1.3 The role of speaking in foreign language teaching

In the view of language teaching, language has been divided into four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing based on the purpose of analysis andinstruction It is undeniable that speaking skill plays the most important part inforeign language teaching because it is fundamental to human communication (Ur,1996) Knowing the language means being able to speak the language Furthermore,

macro-it is the vehicle to establish and maintain social relationships as well as to achieveprofessional advancement

In the international relationship, English speaking ability is obviously crucial

to be able to participate in the wider world of work The speaking skill is measured

in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the language For the reasons

mentioned above, it is really vital that language teachers should pay great attention

to the teaching of speaking skill

1.1.4 Factors affecting the learning of speaking

According to Richards & Rogers (1986), one needs to have communicativecompetence to be successful in learning to speak a language However, this isaffected by both subjective factors such as: psychology, linguistics, culture andobjective factors such as: class size, materials used and learning environment

Linguistics factors

According to Burns and Joyce (1997), the linguistic factors that inhibit theuse of the spoken language include difficulties in transferring from the learners’ firstlanguage to the target language in term of the sounds, rhythms, and stress patterns.Furthermore, learners may have difficulties in understanding the Englishgrammatical patterns which are different from those of their mother tongue

Psychological factors

Psychological factors include cultural shock, previous negative social orpolitical experiences, lack of motivation, anxiety or shyness in class, especially iflearners’ previous learning experiences were negative

1.1.4.2 Objective factors

Textbook

Seldon (1988: 237) considered textbook to be “the visible heart of any ELTprogram” In English as a foreign language context, it may even constitute the mainand perhaps only source of language input that learners receive and the basis forlanguage practice that occurs both inside and outside the classroom However, therestill remain some limitations about textbook The first problem is that textbooks areoften implicitly prescriptive and thus might control the methods, processes, andprocedures of classroom practice and “deskill” teachers (Allwright, 1982) Thesecond problem is that since textbooks are often written for global markets, theymight not suit all classrooms and might require adaptation to better meet students’true needs (Richards, 2005).

Learning environment

Language learning environment is of considerable importance to learners ofEnglish Being in an English speaking environment will help to improve students’English speaking skills since students have to hear and speak in English However,

it is not very easy for students to go abroad so as to live in an English speakingcommunity Therefore, students should take advantage of speaking opportunities inclass by working in groups and working in pairs For English language teachers,upgrading teaching methods and creating various activities are good ways toencourage students to participate in speaking activities

1.2 Theoretical background of demotivation

1.2.1 Definition of demotivation

It is strongly believed that motivation plays a significant role in academiclearning in general and the second language learning in particular Motivationalfactors or motives have been considered as kinds or inducements with the effect ofenergizing ongoing action (Dörnyei, 2001) For a long time, many studies have beenconducted to explore the motivational factors affecting second language learning.However important motivation is, it is obviously not the only factor relevant tosecond and foreign language learning There is “another side of motivation” (Sakaiand Kikuchi, 2009) that makes learners lose their interest in learning a second

language called demotivation Since it is a relatively new issue in the field of second

language motivation, many researchers in the second language learning field haveonly started to work on this topic fairly recently

Dörnyei (2001) suggested that demotivation concerns “specific external

forces that reduce or diminish the motivational basis of a behavioural intention or anongoing action” These negative external factors consist of items such as the classenvironment, teaching situations, methods, teachers’ behaviours and so on.According to the researcher, demotivation does not mean that all the positiveinfluences that originally make up the motivational basis of a behaviour have beenannulled; rather, it is only the resultant force that has been dampened by a strongnegative component

However, the definition given by Dörnyei is not approved by some otherresearchers Sakai and Kikuchi (2009) believed that Dörnyei limited the originaldefinition of demotivation to only external factors and that his definition may need

to be expanded to cover both internal and external factors which reduce or diminishthe motivation to study English

There are many reasons for demotivation whether the factors are external orinternal Dörnyei (2001a) gave hypothetical examples of learners who are

demotivated to form a portrait of a demotivated learner Firstly, a demotivatedlearner can be a learner who was put among the “slow” students Secondly, alearner’s motivation to learn French can be diminished as result of notunderstanding what the teacher is talking about in class Thirdly, a learner can getdemotivated when speaking in front of the class with an embarrassing experience.According to Dörnyei (2001a), a demotivated learner, in short, is someone whoinitially has had motivation to accomplish a goal or to engage in an activity and haslost his or her motivation to do so because of negative external influences.

Furthermore, Dörnyei (2001a) made a distinction between the states of

“diminished motivation” and “totally loss of motivation”, that is to say demotivationand amotivation respectively Demotivation, according to Dörnyei (2001a), does not

by all means entail that all the positive influences that in the beginning made up themotivation basis have been lost It could be regarded as the negative counterpart ofmotivation The notion of amotivation was introduced by Deci and Ryan (1985).According to them, amotivation refers to lack of motivation and an amotivated

learner is someone who thinks “there is no point in me pursuing this” Dörnyei (2001) stated that demotivation does not mean that a learner has lost his or her

motivation completely while an amotivated learner has lost his or her motivationtotally The difference between the two related terminations is that when anamotivated learner is someone who has found the general outcome expectations to

be unrealistic for one reason or another, a demotivated learner is someone whosemotivation has decreased due to some external factors In the course of time,demotivation can develop into amotivation (Dörnyei, 2001), that is, a series ofdemotivating experiences can lead to a complete loss of motivation However, if thedemotives cease to exist for reason, the level of motivation can return to normal

1.2.2 Factors affecting students’ demotivation

Despite the probable importance of demotivation in learning in general, andsecond and foreign language in particular, to date not much research has been

conducted on student demotivation In other words, few studies have investigatedthe factors influencing demotivation at different levels of education so far Thestudies by Gorham & Christophel (1992), Chambers (1993), Gorham and Millete(1997), Dörnyei (2001), Oxford (1998), Keblawi (2006), Trang and Baldauf (2007),Kikuchi and Sakai (2009), Tabatabaei & Molavi (2012) discussed in the followingillustrate that demotivation in learning a second language is a matter of concernworldwide.

According to Gorham & Christophel (1992), two-thirds of the demotivatingfactors pertinent to instructional are related to teachers The two researchers tried toexplore what factors were perceived as demotives by college students takingintroductory communication class by administering the open-ended question: “Whatthings decrease your motivation to try hard to do your best in your class?” Theresearch findings revealed three main categories of demotives They are: (1) contextdemotives (factors likely to be regarded as antecedent to the teacher’s influence);(2) structure/ format demotives (factors over which the teacher is likely to havesome degree of influence, if not complete control), and (3) teacher behaviours

(factors likely to be perceived as under the teacher’s direct control)

Chambers (1993) conducted a study on motivation which attempted toexplore the factors that influenced pupils’ motivation in learning foreign languages.The emphasis was particularly on learning German in the UK According to theresearcher, the teacher was the key factor in everything Not only was he or she thereason why the pupils both looked forward or dreaded to learn a new language, buthe/she was also the source of motivation as well as demotivation

To investigate the degree to which teacher’s perceptions of what affectsstudent motivation were similar to those found in student reports, Gorham andMillete (1997) carried out a study to respond to the open-ended question, “What doyou perceive decreases students’ motivation to try to do their best in this class and

to achieve your instructional goals?” The results pointed out that teachers andstudents agreed on a set of central factors that are relevant to demotivation In spite

of these similarities, teachers were more likely to believe that student demotivation

is the result of performance-related factors such as the students’ lack of success ongraded work, the students’ lack of prerequisite skills or knowledge and the students’heavy workload However, students blamed teacher behaviour for theirdemotivation These factors include poor presentation skills, lack of enthusiasm onthe role of the instructor, and to the instructor’s overall choice and organization ofcourse material

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

on a teachers’ influence on both motivation and demotivation She took into accountthe time factor by asking 250 students, both in high schools and universities, towrite about their experiences over a period of five years The findings drawn fromthe analysis of the essays revealed four broad sources of demotivation:

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

Dörnyei (2001) carried out a research on demotivation, aiming to find outthe variety of demotivating factors The study was a qualitative one with thesubjects of 50 secondary school pupils in Budapest who were studying eitherEnglish or German as their second language and had been identified as beingparticularly demotivated by their teachers or peers The research results indicatednine 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 studied

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

Chang & Cho (2003) explored the demotivating factors of English languagelearning among Taiwanese junior high school students From the data analysis ofthe ninety-one essays written by students, eight factors were identified as thesources of demotivation They are: (1) learning difficulties; (2) threats to self-worth;(3) monotonous teaching; (4) poor teacher-student relationship; (5) punishments; (6)general and language-specific anxiety; (7) lack of self-determination; and (8) poorclassroom management

Keblawi (2006) studied demotivators of Arab learners of English.Participants in the study were 294 Arab learners of English in Israel in years 9 and

10 The demotivating factors that students referred to and that were related to

teachers were classified into two main groups: teachers’ style and personality traits.Furthermore other factors such as textbooks and evaluation system were identified

by learners as demotivating

Kikuchi and Sakai (2009), explored demotivating factors for high schoolstudents in Japan through a 35-item questionnaire administering to 112 students.From the data analysis, a list of five demotivating factors among Japanese learnerswas revealed: (1) learning contents and materials; (2) teachers' teaching styles; (3)inadequate school facilities; (4) lack of intrinsic motivation; and (5) test scores

Tabatabaei & Molavi (2012) conducted a study using Attitude/ MotivationTest Battery, Interchange Objective Placement Test and a modified version ofStuart D Warrington’s questionnaire to examine the demotivating factors affectingEFL learning of Iranian Islamic seminary students According to the study, themajor demotivating factors which lead to frustration an undesired outcome amongIranian EFL seminary students were: (1) the frequency of English class, (2) other

important subjects to be studied, (2) the shortage of time and lack of English usage

in students’ daily lives, and (4) the desire to be sent to other countries to propagateIslam

In short, in spite of few studies on the field of demotivation, the researcherstried to find out the demotivating factors affecting students’ second languagelearning Among all the factors investigated, the teacher, teaching methods, learningcontext, and learner’s attitudes toward second language seem to be the big ones inany case

1.3 Previous studies on the topic

As mentioned in 1.2.2, the most concerned studies on demotivating factors inlearning an L2 were discussed They are studies by Gorham & Christophel (1992),Chambers (1993), Gorham and Millete (1997), Dörnyei (2001), Oxford (1998),Chang & Cho (2003), Keblawi (2006), Kikuchi and Sakai (2009), Tabatabaei andMolavi (2012)

There are some other studies carried out in the context of Vietnam to exploredemotivating factors for students’ second language learning at different levels ofeducation

Trang and Baldauf (2007) investigated demotivation involving Vietnamesestudents from a university of economics, using a case study, with three main foci:(i) the reasons (i.e the demotives) underlying demotivation, (ii) the degree ofinfluence of different motives and (iii) student's experiences in overcoming demotivation.Findings indicated two classifications of demotivating factors:

internal attributions and external attributions The former included students’attitudes towards English, their experiences of failure or lack of success, andincidents related to their self-esteem; the latter consisted of teacher-related factors,the learning environment, and other external factors

Tuyet (2010) conducted a study to investigate the factors causingdemotivation in learning writing among the 10th grade students at Doan Thi Diem

private high school The researcher administered two sets of questionnaires to 75

10th form students and 5 teachers In addition, the observation was carried out intwo different lessons in two classes Findings indicated that factors causingstudents’ demotivation in learning writing skill come from both the students and theteachers They are: (1) students’ personality and intelligence; (2) students’ lack ofbackground knowledge; (3) teachers’ teaching methods; and (4) writing topics inthe textbook

Linh (2011) explored the demotivators in English lessons of the 10th formnon-English majors at Cao Bang Upper Secondary School for the Gifted In order toreach the aims, the researcher used two survey questionnaires, one for teachers andone for students The interviewed questions structured with a list of 7 open-endedquestions were based on the survey questionnaires to get a more comprehensiveview of the matter From the data analysis, it is concluded that the demotivators inlistening lessons of the students are: (1) the teachers (teaching method, personality);(2) inadequate background knowledge of English (insufficient pronunciation,vocabulary, grammar); (3) learning environment (lack of modern facilities, lack ofencouragement from friends, parents); and (4) little intrinsic motivation

Hang (2010) investigated the demotivators in English speaking lessons of the

10th grade students at Nam Sach High School The 10-item questionnaire adapted fromHamada & Kito (2007) was administered to 126 10th grade students and another 5-itemquestionnaire was delivered to 8 teachers to get information An interview was carriedout in Vietnamese to get more thorough understanding of the matter In this study, fivefactors 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)

Of all the studies mentioned, there are none in which demotivators forstudents in learning to speak English at any college campus were investigated Thisinspires the researcher to conduct a research project to identify the primary factorsdemotivating students learning to speak English at HDC.

1.4 Summary of the chapter

To sump up, this chapter conceptualizes the discussion of issues and aspectsconcerning the topic of the study This literature review serves as the base for theresearcher to conduct the study In the following chapter, the methodologyemployed in the study will be presented

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the writer describes the current situation of learning andteaching English at HDC as the setting for the study The methodology used to carryout the study is also presented in detail

2.1 An overview of current situation of teaching and learning English at HDC 2.1.1 Hai Duong College

HDC, the research site, is situated in Hai Duong City, which is about 60kilometers from Hanoi Capital The school was founded in 1965 and was firstnamed Hai Duong Teacher Training College Because of the fall demand ofDepartment of Education and Training and the expansion of the training target tomultiple branches, it was renamed Hai Duong College (HDC) in 2009 For nearly

50 years, HDC has been a reliable address for students not only in Hai Duongprovince but also some nearby areas

2.1.2 The students

In the school year 2011-2012, there are nearly 3,000 students assigned in 9different departments Most of the students come from Hai Duong City and theeleven districts of Hai Duong province The majority major in economics branchessuch as accounting, finance and banking, corporate administration, etc while theminority major in teacher training English is taught here as a compulsory subjectfor the first two years It is considered to be one of the core subjects because itserves as a means of international communication

Although most of the students studied English at secondary and uppersecondary schools, their English proficiency is very low Furthermore, many ofthem do not pay attention to English It is thought that they learn English justbecause it is a compulsory subject Therefore, communicating in English isimpossible for the majority of the students and the subject, for them, seems to be themost challenging at college

2.1.3 The teachers

There are 10 teachers of English currently working at Department of ForeignLanguages at HDC Their age’s range is from 26 to 59 years old They all graduatedfrom College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi – VNU.Among them, four got their Master Degrees, two are doing their MA courses andthe other four teachers got their Bachelor Degrees In general, they are helpful andwilling to make some renovations in their teaching methodology

2.1.4 The teaching and learning conditions

In spite of being considered to be a very important subject, conditions forEnglish teaching and learning are not very good The main teaching aids used areblackboards and textbooks Each teacher is provided with a speaker and some CDs.However, they have to use their own computers since there are only some roomsequipped with projectors and computers No videos are provided There are notmany English books, magazines, newspapers in the college library for students tomake use of Besides, the classrooms are physically crowded, with limited space foractivity organization

2.1.5 The textbooks

The textbook used for the first year economics majors is Market Leader –Elementary by David Cotton, David Falvey and Simon Kent, published by Pearson,

2004 The book was designed according to communicative approach It consists of

12 units based on the topics involved in international business and 4 revision units.Each unit covers 8 parts providing students with four communicative skills and evenlanguage skills for a wide range of business situations Speaking skill is the mostprominent one which is presented in every part of each unit Generally speaking, thetextbook has proved to be appropriate for economics majors However, it is also abig challenge for both teachers and students due to students’ English lowproficiency and teachers’ lack of experience

The textbook used for teacher training majors is Life Lines - Elementary byTom Hutchinson, published by Oxford University Press, 1999 It covers 14 units

with different topics relating to real 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, andpronunciation There is an extension unit after every two units This helps thestudents to review theories and practice more exercises And in each unit, importantparts are highlighted to remind the students to remember.

2.2 Methodology

2.2.1 Subjects of the study

The subjects of the study included 120 first year non-English major studentsand 8 teachers of English at HDC

The target population of students consisted of 856 first year economicsmajors The reason for the researcher’s option is that economics majors form thelarge majority (approximately 90%) of the first year students They are usingMarket Leader – Elementary by David Cotton, David Falvey and Simon Kent,Pearson 2004 as the main textbook These students, aged from 18 to 22, wereassigned in different classes according to their different majors They have beenlearning English at both secondary and upper secondary school for 7 years In order

to save time, the researcher decided to randomly choose three classes to be thesample of the study The classes selected were Accounting 1B, Accounting 1C andFinance & Banking 1A Altogether, there were 125 students in these three classes.Among 125 delivered questionnaire copies, the researcher received 120 responses

Eight teachers who are currently teaching English for the first year English majors at HDC were selected to be the subjects of the second questionnaire.Their age range is from 26 to 38 All of them were trained in English LanguageMethodology at College of Foreign Languages and they have been teaching Englishfor at least three years These teachers are believed to be dedicated and receptive inthe teaching career

non-2.2.2 Data collection instruments

Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in order to reducepotential limitations of relying on a single approach and enhance confidence in thecollected data as recommended by Nunan (1992) In this study, the quantitative datawere collected from two questionnaires and were analyzed statistically Aninterview was followed to deepen understanding and interpretation of the results.

2.2.2.1 Survey questionnaire

Questionnaire for the students

The first questionnaire adapted from Trang & Baldauf (2007), Demotivation:

Understanding Resistance to English Language Learning – The Case of Vietnamese Students, consists of 8 questions The questionnaire was conducted in Vietnamese to

ensure the reliability of the questionnaire for the respondents The purpose of thisquestionnaire was to elicit:

(1) Students’ attitudes towards the learning of speaking skills (Questions 1 to 5)

(2) Students’ opinions on demotivating factors in learning speaking English (Question 6)

(3) Students’ interest and expectations (Questions 7, 8)

The respondents must choose only one answer for questions 1 to 7 while theycan choose more than one option for the last question

Questionnaire for the teachers

The second questionnaire consisting of 5 questions was administered to 8 teachers of English with the aim to identify:

(1) Teachers’ perceptions of students’ attitudes towards the learning of speaking skills (Questions 1, 2)

(2) Teachers’ ideas about students’ demotivation in learning to speak English(Question 3)

(3) Teachers’ current teaching techniques and activities employed in

speaking lessons (Question 4)

(4) Teachers’ opinions on factors motivating students in learning speaking English (Question 5)

For questions 1, 2 and 4, the respondents must choose only one answer whilethey can choose more than one option for two questions 3 and 5.

2.2.2.2 Interview with the students

Apart from two questionnaires, an interview was also conducted with a group

of 10 students randomly selected from the three classes The interview wasstructured with a list of 10 open-ended questions These questions were based on thesurvey questionnaires in order to get a better understanding of the subject matter

2.2.3 Data collection procedure

Data collection was conducted via the questionnaires for both the teachersand the students First, the two sets of questionnaires – one for students and one forteachers - were developed on the criteria which are the most appropriate to thestudy Then, these were administered to 125 students and 8 teachers of English atHDC after they had been told the purposes and guided how to complete thequestionnaire carefully In order to ensure that they would have enough time to giveaccurate information, the participants were asked to return the questionnaires aweek later There were totally 128 responses gathered, of which 120 came from thestudents and 8 came from the teachers

Besides, ten students from those three classes were randomly chosen for theinterview to yield more interesting points Structured interviews of fifteen to twentyminutes were administered in Vietnamese with each participant in an informalatmosphere to minimize their anxiety While asking a series of questions preparedbeforehand, the researcher recorded the students’ answers by tape recordings Andnote-taking was also applied to get more reliable information

2.2.4 Data analysis procedure

Data gathered from the responses of the teachers and the students were sortedand analyzed to get the answers for the research questions The quantitative datacollected from the questionnaires were converted into percentages and illustrated inthe form of charts and tables As for student interviews, the recordings

were transcribed, translated into English, and presented by citing relevantresponses After that, a descriptive and interpretive analysis was applied tosynthesize those data.

2.3 Summary of the chapter

This chapter has identified the setting, participants, instruments, andprocedure of the study The next chapter will present the figures and data collectedfrom survey questionnaires and student interviews, from which some initialconclusions about the questioned issues of the study start to take shape

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter will provide a careful and comprehensive analysis on the datacollected from the survey questionnaires and the interview Then, prominentfindings will be presented in accordance with the discussions of the relating fields

3.1 Data analysis of students’ responses

3.1.1 Students’ attitudes towards speaking skills

Understanding the students’ points of view towards speaking skills is veryimportant, especially for the teachers If the students appreciate the role of speakingskills when learning English, they will form precise motivations and attitudes.These will decide the effects of the students in learning to speak English

31.7%

Very important Rather important Somewhat important

41.7%

Unimportant

22.5%

4.2%

Chart 1: Students’ perceptions of the importance of speaking skills

Chart 1 shows the students’ perceptions of the importance of speaking skill

It is clearly seen that over 70% of the respondents recognized the significance ofEnglish speaking skills while only 4% did not think that it was necessary to learnspeaking English In the interview, most of students also stated the importance ofspeaking skill and gave reasons for their attitudes After accumulating their points

of views, the researcher found the most common and significant ideas as follow:

“English is an international language in the world today It is used everywhere and in every aspect of life It helps me to have a good job in the future and it plays a vital role on the path of industrialization and modernization.”

Although the students were aware of the importance of speaking skills, notmany of them showed their interest in learning to speak English This can beillustrated in the table below.

5 What do you often do in speaking class?

A Actively take part in all activities

Question B Only take part in the activities I like

16.7 38.3 31.7 13.3

5 C Passively participate when being asked D Get bored and do other things

instead

Table 1: Students’ attitudes towards the learning of speaking skills

Table 1 presents the students’ attitudes towards the learning of speakingskills The table shows that 25.8% of the respondents showed their interest inlearning to speak English; 45% did not pay much attention to English speaking

23

The above table also illustrates that the amount of time spent on practisingspeaking outside the class was different among the students Only 17.5% usually did

it at home; 25% sometimes spoke English outside speaking class; 41.7% seldompractised speaking, and surprisingly, 15.8% never minded this Some of them addedthe reasons for not working on it as follows:

I don’t often spend time practising speaking skills outside the class because I have a lot of homework to do Moreover, I find it unnatural to speak English at home.

Concerning students’ purposes of learning speaking skills, it is interesting tofind that they had different purposes Nearly half of the students (40%) claimed thatthey learned it just because they expected to pass the English exams; 37.5 %believed it could help them get good jobs in the future Meanwhile, 12.5% hopedtheir knowledge of English could be improved, and 10% agreed that it could meettheir interest of the subject

As presented in the table, a small number of the students (16.7%) really gotinvolved in speaking activities; 38.3% only paid attention to their favorite activities;31.7% responded only when being requested by their teacher Unexpectedly, 10%felt bored and did the other things when they were in speaking class

In short, it is quite evident that the majority of the subjects saw theimportance of speaking skills However, the minority of them showed their interestand really participated in the lesson Therefore, it can be drawn that little intrinsicmotivation may be a demotivating factor for students in learning speaking English

3.1.2 Students’ ideas about demotivating factors in learning speaking English

 Students’ opinions on student-related factors

1 English pronunciation is very difficult 19.2 61.7 7.5 6.7 5.0

2 I don’t have enough vocabulary and grammar to

express my ideas

3 I don’t understand the lessons I think I do not

30.0 29.2 11.7 20.8 8.3have basic background knowledge of English

4 I’m very nervous and afraid of losing my face in

18.3 45.0 12.5 17.5 6.7front of my peers and my teacher

Table 2: Students’ opinions on student-related factors

* Notes: Strongly agree (SA) – Agree (A) – No idea (NI) – Disagree (D) – Strongly

disagree (SD)

As shown in Table 2, approximately 90% of the participants agreed that theyencountered difficulties expressing their ideas due to their lack of vocabulary and

grammar Besides, 80.9% affirmed it was hard to pronounce English words When

being asked about their challenges, eight out of ten students interviewed claimed that:

English pronunciation is quite difficult My teacher says we should imitate native speakers but it is hard work I usually forget the exact pronunciation and try

to pronounce the words in the ways I speak Vietnamese.

The above table also shows that 63.3% felt nervous and were afraid of losingface when speaking while 59.2% thought that they could not understand the lessonswell due to their inadequate background knowledge It can be concluded that lack ofself-confidence strongly demotivates the first year students’ learning speakingEnglish

 Students’ opinions on teacher-related factors

5 My teacher usually gets angry when her students

10.8 25.0 15.8 35.8 12.5make mistakes

6 My teacher isn’t caring, enthusiastic, flexible or

15.8 43.3 21.7 14.1 5.0interactive with students

7 My teacher prefers good students in the class 11.7 39.1 8.3 23.3 17.5