Motivation in learning english among the second year students in faculty of banking and finance, hanoi university of business and technology

FUTURE DIRECTION...40 REFERENCES...41 APPENDICES Appendix 1 : Motivation questionnaire in English Appendix 2 : Motivation questionnaire in Vietnamese Appendix 3: Tran and Baldauf’s 2007

NGUYỄN THỊ XUYẾN

MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH AMONG THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS IN FACULTY OF BANKING AND FINANCE, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND

TECHNOLOGY (Động lực học tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ hai Khoa Tài chính- Ngân hàng, Trường Đại học Kinh doanh và Công nghệ Hà Nội)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

60 14 10

Hanoi, September/ 2010

AND TECHNOLOGY (Động lực học tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ hai Khoa Tài chính-

Ngân hàng, Trường Đại học Kinh doanh và Công nghệ Hà Nội) M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Major: ELT Methodology Major code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Hồng Hải, M.A

Hanoi, September/ 2010

Table of content

Declaration……….i

Acknowledgement……… i

i Abstract……….iii

Table of content………iv

List of abbreviation terms……… vi

List of tables and figures……….vii

INTRODUCTION 1

1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1

2 AIMS OF THE STUDY 2

3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 2

4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 3

5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 3

6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY 3

DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

1.1 Definition of motivation in L2 learning 4

1.2 Classification of motivation in language learning 6

1.2.1 Gardner’s classification……….6

1.2.2 Deci and Ryan’s classsification……… 7

1.3 Factors affecting negatively students’ motivation in L2/foreign language learning……… 9

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ….13

2.1 Context of the study 13

2.2 Subjects 14

2.3 Data collection instruments 15

2.4 Data collection procedure 17

2.5 Data analysis……… 18

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 19

3.1 Findings

19 3.1.1 Students’ motivation in learning English in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation……… 19

3.1.1.1 Extrinsic motivation……….19

3.1.1.2 Intrinsic motivation……… 21

3.1.2 Factors affecting negatively the motivation in learning English…………24

3.2 Discussions

30 3.2.1 Students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation……….30

3.2.2 Demotivating factors……….32

3.2.2.1 Subject-related demotivating factors……… 32

3.2.2.2 Learning environment-related demotivating factors……….33

3.2.2.3 Teacher-related demotivating factors……… 34

3.2.2.4 Student-related demotivating factors………36

CONCLUSION 37

1 SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 37

2 RECOMMENDATIONS 38

3 LIMITATIONS 39

4 FUTURE DIRECTION 40

REFERENCES 41 APPENDICES

Appendix 1 : Motivation questionnaire (in English)

Appendix 2 : Motivation questionnaire (in Vietnamese)

Appendix 3: Tran and Baldauf’s (2007) framework of demotivating factors in

Vietnamese university students

Appendix 4: Schmidt et al (1996) questionnaire

Appendix 5: Results of demotivating factors questionnaire

List of abbreviation terms

English as a foreign language

Hanoi University of Business and Technology

Faculty of Banking and Finance

List of tables

Table 1: The structure of the motivation questionnaire……… 16

Table 2: The frequency and distribution of items measuring extrinsic motivation…………. 20

Table 3: The frequency distribution of items measuring intrinsic motivation……… 22

Table 4: The frequency of Demotivating factors by coding categories………. 24

Table 5: Internal demotivating factors………. 25

Table 6: Teacher- related demotivating factors………. 28

Table 7: Learning environment-related demotivating factors……… 29

List of charts Chart 1 The frequency and distribution of items measuring extrinsic motivation…………. 20

Chart 2 The frequency distribution of items measuring intrinsic motivation……… 22

Chart 3 The frequency of demotivating factors by coding categories……… 25

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Background of the study

In the globalization era, English has become more and more important as aninternational language; therefore, in many countries all over the world, students arerequired to learn English through compulsory programmes at educational institutions.Surprisingly, despite the fact that students have to learn English to pass the examination tograduate, many students fail to study it successfully In many countries where studyingEnglish as a second or foreign language is compulsory such as China, Taiwan, or Vietnam,students usually drop out the programmes or find out the strategies to pass the exams withthe least effort What are the reasons for this problem? Studies have shown that there aremany factors, both internal and external, that influence the second/foreign languagelearning process such as the learning environment, the instructors, the learning conditions,the attitude of learners towards the target language, the learners‟ language aptitude,intelligence, and motivation, and so on (see Gardner (2001), Lightbown & Spada (1999),and Ellis (1985)) That is why in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, thoseinfluential factors for second/foreign language learning must be investigated carefully

Among various influential factors, Gardner (2001) stated that “motivation is acentral element along with language attitude in determining success in learning anotherlanguage in the classroom setting” (p.2) since he believed “many of these other variablesare dependent on motivation for their effects to be realized” (Gardner, 2001, p.2) Otherresearchers such as Ely (1986); Spolsky (1989), and Scarcella and Oxford (1992) sharedthe same view that motivation determines how much effort students make, how oftenstudents use second/foreign language learning strategies, how much students interact withnative speakers, how much input they receive in the language being learned, how well they

do on curriculum-related achievement tests, how high their general proficiency levelbecomes, and how long they preserve and maintain second/foreign language skills afterlanguage study is over Hence, the study of motivation in second/foreign language learning

is very important In Vietnam, although several researchers (see Tran & Baldauf (2007))have conducted a few motivational studies of English as a foreign language in someVietnam‟s universities, most studies have focused mainly on the relationship betweenmotivation and academic achievement There have been a few attempts revealing the

motivational factors that underlie the Vietnamese university students‟ English languagelearning.

Furthermore, as a lecturer of English at HUBT, the researcher herself realizes thatalthough English is considered one of the most important subjects at HUBT with a lot oftime and effort spent on teaching and learning English, students at HUBT in general and inFoBF in particular seem not to be successful in learning English After a great deal of talkswith those students as well as the researcher‟s observation, it seems that one of the reasonsmay be related to students‟ motivation in learning English However, there are not anyresearches conducted to investigate into the situation of students‟ motivation in learningEnglish at HUBT in general and students in FoBF in particular

All of the above-mentioned reasons have urged the researcher to conduct the

research with the title “Motivation in learning English among the second-year students

in Faculty of Banking and Finance, Hanoi University of Business and Technology.”

2 Aims of the study

This study is conducted in order to investigate into the motivational factors thaturge second-year students in FoBF to learn English as well as to find out whether thosemotivational factors are intrinsic or extrinsic This piece of research moreover is expected

to reveal the main factors that affect negatively the motivation in learning English, and theorder of frequency of these demotivating factors Finally, basing on the results of theresearch, this study will propose some strategies to improve the motivation in learningEnglish of the second-year students in FoBF in particular and the students at HUBT ingeneral

3 Research questions

This study is guided by the following questions:

1 What is Banking and Finance second-year students‟ motivation in learning

2 What factors affect negatively the motivation in learning English of second-year students in FoBF?

3 Which demotivating factors are the most frequent as perceived by second-year students in FoBF?

4 Significance of the study

It is hoped that this study would give a full picture of English learning motivation

of second-year students in FoBF, HUBT From this research, the researcher herselftogether with other English teachers who are in charge of teaching English for thosestudents can better understand the situation of their students‟ motivation in learningEnglish as well as the factors affecting that motivation They then can find out appropriatemethods to improve the motivation in learning English of their students as well as toreduce as many negative effects of demotivated factors as possible

5 Scope of the study

Motivation is a broad topic with many different aspects; thus, within the scope ofthis study, the researcher would like to focus only on analysing types of motivation interms of intrinsic-extrinsic motivation, and demotivating factors In addition, this studylimits itself to investigate the English language learning motivation of the second-yearstudents in FoBF at HUBT, especially those who are interested in using the Internet

6 Design of the study

This study is composed of three following parts:

Part A: Introduction presents the background, aims, research questions, the

significance, the scope, and the design of the study

Part B: Development is organized around three chapters as follows.

Chapter 1- Theoretical background, conceptualizes the framework of the study

through the discussion of issues and ideas on theories of motivation, types of motivationand demotivation

Chapter 2 - Methodology, presents the context, the methodology used in this study

including the subject, the data collection instruments, data collection procedure, and dataanalysis

Chapter 3 – Findings and Discussions consists of a comprehensive analysis of the

data and a discussion on the findings of this study

Part C: Conclusion, offers a summary of the findings, recommendations,

limitations, and future directions for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In order to lay a solid foundation for this study, some theoretical background knowledge as well as the previous studies on motivation in L2 learning and factors affecting negatively motivation in L2 learning have been reviewed It is obvious that the clarification of a definition is the initial step to any investigation; this chapter hence will firstly present a brief definition of motivation in L2 learning.

1.1 Definition of motivation in L2 learning

Motivation has been perhaps one of the most popular research topics since thebeginning of the 20th century, which attracts a lot of attention of researchers both inpsychology and education field Despite the divergence of the approaches used to studymotivation, its definitions are surprisingly uniform In simple terms, motivation, based onthe Latin verb for “move”, is understood as the force that makes one do something It is aprocess that involves goals, physical or mental activity, and is both instigated and sustained(Pintrick & Schunk, 1996, p.4-5) In other words, motivation in general is characterized interms of direction, duration, and intensity

However, the definition of motivation in L2/foreign language learning is lessuniform Oxford and Shearin (1994) and Dörnyei (1998a) shared the same view when theyboth pointed out that even though motivation is a term frequently used in both educationaland research context, there is little agreement in the literature on the exact definition ofmotivation in L2/foreign language learning

In his education-oriented theory, Keller (1983) defined motivation as “the choicespeople make as to what experiences or goals they will approach or avoid and the degree ofeffort they will exert in that respect” (p 389) In relation to this concept, Keller (1983) alsoasserted four motivational conditions that teachers should know in order to motivatestudents to learn They are (1) Interest (Attention) that refers to whether learner‟s curiosity

is aroused, (2) Relevance refers to whether the highly desired goal is perceived to berelated to the instruction of the teacher, (3) Expectancy (Confidence) refers to whether thelearner perceives the likelihood of success, and (4) Satisfaction (Outcome) refers to

whether extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation meet the learners‟ anticipations (Keller,

1983, p 395)

Gardner (1985), from the social psychological point, defined motivation in L2learning as “the extent to which the individual works or strives to learn the languagebecause of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity” (p.10).According to this definition, motivation consists of three components: (1) effort expanded

to achieve a goal, (2) a desire to learn the language, and (3) satisfaction with the task oflearning the language (Gardner, 1985, p.13)

Crookes and Schmidt (1991) suggested an expanded definition of language learningmotivation They stated that language-learning motivation has both internal and externalaspects Internal aspects consist of interest level, perception of relevance, expectancy ofsuccess or failure, and perception of rewards On the other hand, external aspects includethe overt decision to learn, persistent learning behavior, and high involvement

According to Williams and Burden (1997), however, motivation is “a state ofcognitive and emotional arousal which leads to a conscious decision to act, and whichgives rise to a period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort in order to attain apreviously set goal(s)” (Williams & Burden, 1997, p 120) In other words, motivationinvolves arousing interest in doing something, sustaining interest, and investing time andenergy into using the necessary effort in order to achieve a certain goal

Dörnyei (1998) gave a comprehensive definition of motivation Motivation, fromhis process-oriented point of view, is “a process whereby a certain amount of instigationforce arises, initiates action, and persists as long as no other force comes into play toweaken it and thereby terminate action or until the planned outcome has been reached”(Dörnyei, 1998, p.118)

In brief, each approach to motivation reflects a different perspective from whichL2/foreign language learning motivation is conceptualized There are differences in theway different researchers define motivation because they study motivation from theperspectives of different languages in different contexts, with different subjects anddifferent learning conditions However, from whatever angle the researchers look at theconcept of motivation in L2/foreign language learning, most of them have identified threecrucial components of motivation: (1) the conscious decision directed to the goal of

learning a language, (2) the effort expanded to achieve that goal, and (3) the sustenance ofthat goal/effort.

1.2 Classification of motivation in language learning

Different researchers describe different reasons/motives why people learn alanguage following different theories; thus, there exists different ways to classifymotivation in language learning In this paper, the researcher would like to review only twoways of classification of motivation in language learning of some famous researchers,namely Gardner, and Deci and Ryan since their theories of motivation are considered themost fundamental and influential in the field of motivational psychology and education

1.2.1 Gardner’s classification

By the early 1990s, Gardner‟s motivation theory and framework dominated thefield Motivation, as defined by Gardner, is a composite construct of goal, desire to attainthe goal, effortful behavior, and favorable attitudes towards the activity involved inachieving the goal (Gardner, 1985, p.50) He proposed that motivation could have differentorientations, mainly integrative orientation and instrumental orientation

Integrative motivation or integrativeness refers to positive attitudes towards thetarget language group, and willingness to learn an L2 in order to learn about, interact with

or become closer with the L2 community Instrumental motivation on the other hand isassociated with more functional reasons for L2 learning such as to get a better job/apromotion/a scholarship, or simply to pass a required examination (Gardner, 1985)

EFL learners are identified as instrumental performers if they learn the language topass an examination, to use it in their work, or even use it in the country where it is spoken.Integrative performers, however, are found to possess sympathetic attitudes towards theculture of the target language and its speakers They probably see great value in being able

to speak a foreign language and experience an appreciation of different cultures

Gardner and Lambert (1972) suggested that individuals with an integrativeorientation would demonstrate greater motivational effect in learning a L2, and as a result,they would achieve higher L2 proficiency That is why of the two orientations, integrativemotivation has been usually held as superior (Crook & Schmidt, 1991) However, Gardner(1985) claimed, “an integrative motive is not the only predictor” (p.83) of achievement in

L2 but simply those who are integratively motivated will be more successful in languagelearning than those who are not so motivated (Gardner, 1985).

Although Gardner‟s classification is very famous and popular in the field ofmotivation research, it has been criticized by many researchers such as Shaw (1981);Clement, Dörnyei, and Noels (1994); Dörnyei (2001), and others According to Shaw(1981), in parts of the world where English is learned as a foreign language, the integrativemotivation, in the way it is understood by Gardner, plays only a minor role in theachievement of English language learning because English is considered “a bonafideinternational or intra-national language which is not inseparably connected to anyparticular countries” (Shaw, 1981, p 112) In addition, in many countries around the world(Vietnam as an example) EFL learners do not have many opportunities to interact with thetarget language speakers or go to English-speaking countries It can also be noted that incase of EFL learning, instrumental motivation seems to be more important and popular.Another criticism comes from Clement , Dörnyei and Noels (1994) Such researchers haveconcluded that integrative and instrumental motivation is entwined rather than separated,and that to attempt to pose them as antithetical is fruitless Therefore, it is difficult todistinguish integrative motivation from instrumental one

1.2.2 Deci and Ryan’s classification

Deci and Ryan‟s (1985) theory of intrinsic/extrinsic motivation and determination is one of the most influential theories in mainstream motivationalpsychology (Dörnyei, 2001, p.58) The theory distinguishes between two main kinds ofmotivation: intrinsic and extrinsic Intrinsic motivation deals with individual‟s motivation

self-to perform a particular activity for its own sake in order self-to experience pleasure andsatisfaction, such as the joy of doing a particular activity or satisfying one‟s curiosity.Extrinsically motivated individual, on the other hand, perform a specific activity to achievesome instrumental end such as earning a reward (e.g good grades) or avoiding punishment(Dörnyei, 2001, p.27)

Although intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation are typically considered dimensional constructs, Vallerand (1997) has divided intrinsic motivation into three sub-types and extrinsic motivation into four sub-types

uni-Intrinsic motivation is subdivided into intrinsic motivation to know, intrinsicmotivation toward achievements, and intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation(Dörnyei, 2001, p.28) Intrinsic motivation to know refers to motivation for “engaging in

an activity for the pleasure and satisfaction of understanding something new, satisfyingone‟s curiosity and exploring the world” (Dörnyei, 2001, p.28) Intrinsic motivationtowards achievements is the feeling of satisfaction associated with attempting to surpassoneself, to cope with challenges and to accomplish or to create something In other words,this subtype of intrinsic motivation refers to the effort to realize a goal or master a task.Intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation refers to motivation to engaging in anactivity to experience pleasant sensations stimulated by the activity itself (Dörnyei, 2001)

Extrinsic motivation is divided into four subtypes, namely external regulation,introjected regulation, identified regulation, and integrated regulation

External regulation, according to Dörnyei (2001), refers to “the least determined form of extrinsic motivation, coming entirely from external sources such asrewards or threats” (p.28) A student with external regulation, for example, may learnEnglish because his/her parents ask him/her to learn or their teacher encourages him/her tolearn Since for a student with external regulation, the reason for learning a foreign/secondlanguage is completely regulated by contingencies outside the individual, the student‟seffort and involvement in language learning would be expected to decrease once thisreason is removed

self-Introjected regulation, as stated by Dörnyei (2001), involves “externally imposedrules that student accepts as norms to be followed in order not to feel guilty” (p.28) Forinstance, an introjected student may do English reading exercises at home because s/hefeels guilty if s/he does not do so Therefore, for those with introjected regulation, learningtakes place as long as they feel the need to reduce guilt or to self-aggrandize This subtype

of extrinsic motivation seems to be more internalized than external regulation

Identified regulation occurs when the student engages in an activity as s/he highlyvalues and identifies with the behavior, and sees it useful to do (Dörnyei, 2001) Forexample, a student with the identified regulation may learn English because it is necessaryfor him/her to listen to English songs or watch films in English

The last and also the most developmentally advanced form of extrinsic motivation

is integrated regulation As Dörnyei (2001) stated, integrated regulation involves

“choiceful behavior that is fully assimilated with the individual‟s other values, needs andidentity” (p.28) For instance, a student who learns English because s/he thinks Englishproficiency is a part of an educated cosmopolitan culture that everyone in his/her countrymust adopt is considered integrated one.

Of the two motivation types, extrinsic motivation has traditionally been viewed assomething that can undermine intrinsic motivation (Dörnyei, 2001) Some studies haveconfirmed that students will lose their natural intrinsic motivation in an activity if theyhave to do it to meet some extrinsic requirement However, as Deci and Ryan (1985)argued, external rewards can be combined with or can even lead to intrinsic motivation ifthey can enhance the feeling of competence

While integrative and instrumental motivation is difficult to separate, intrinsic andextrinsic factors, according to Brown (2000), can be easily identified in foreign languageclassrooms regardless of the differences between the cultural beliefs and the attitudes oflearners and teachers About the relationship between intrinsic-extrinsic motivation andintegrative-instrumental motivation, Schmidt et al (1996) concluded that intrinsic-extrinsicdistinction is similar to integrative-instrumental distinction but not identical Bothinstrumental and integrative motivation can be seen as subtypes of extrinsic motivationbecause both are related to goals or outcomes They also stated that integrative andinstrumental motivation is not a dichotomy, and that there are some learners who are bothinstrumentally and integratively motivated to learn a foreign language and those who areneither instrumentally or integratively motivated

1.3 Factors affecting negatively students’ motivation in L2/foreign

language learning

Within L2/foreign language learning motivation research, there is a tendency toconceive motivation as a kind of a cumulative force whose strength ranges “… on acontinuum from zero to strong” (Dörnyei, 2001, p.141) However, teachers‟ and students‟experiences suggest that certain negative influences, or demotives can also have asignificant effect on motivation Dörnyei (2001) defined demotives as “specific externalforces that reduce or diminish the motivational basis of a behavioral intention or anongoing action” (p.43) Demotivation is also considered a shared feature of most L2/foreign

language learning where the language studied is a required school subject As Chamber (1983) stated, many L2/foreign language teachers may be familiar with some student who,

“….makes no effort to learn, shows no interest, demonstrates poor concentration, produces little or no homework, fails to bring materials to lessons, claims to have lost materials; doesn‟t respond well to extra help; lacks a belief in own capabilities; demonstrates lethargy, „what‟s the use?‟ syndrome, and gives negative or nil response to praise; is unwilling to cooperate, distracts other pupils,…” (as cited in Dörnyei, 2001, p.147)

Despite the popularity of demotivation phenomenon in L2/foreign languagelearning, just a few studies on this topic have been conducted Chamber‟s (1993) studyinvestigated demotivation in language learning in four schools in the UK by using thequestionnaires to gather both teachers‟ and students‟ perspectives Teachers participating

in the study perceived the causes of demotivation as related to a variety of reasons such aspsychological, social, historical, and geographical Students, on the other hand, blamedtheir teachers and learning materials as the main causes of demotivation Based on his data,unfortunately, Chamber could only draw a few conclusions about the impact of demotives

on the language learning experience

Oxford‟s (1998) study is considered an advance in the understanding of demotives.She carried out a content analysis of essays written by nearly 250 American students abouttheir learning experience over a period of five years with the help of some prompts such as

“Describe a situation in which you experienced conflict with a teacher” or “Talk about aclassroom in which you feel uncomfortable” The results of the study revealed four broadsources of demotivation, namely the teacher‟s personal relationship with the students (e.g.lack of caring), the teacher‟s attitudes towards the course or the material (e.g lack ofenthusiasm), style conflicts between teachers and students, and the nature of the classroomactivities Nevertheless, as Oxford‟s prompts specifically refer to the teacher‟s role incausing demotivation, other potential sources might not have been provided by participants

in the study

Dörnyei‟s (1998b) study used long structured interviews to collect demotivesamong students who have experienced demotivation The results of the study revealed ninemain demotivating factors; of which teacher is the most frequent source of demotivation.The demotivating aspects about the teacher are related to his/her personality, commitment

to teaching, attention paid to students, competence of subject matters and teaching

methods Reduced self-confidence is the second most frequent source of demotivation.This, on one hand, derives from experience of failure or lack of success; on the other hand,reduced self-confidence is directly related to the teacher in the classrooms Inadequateschool facilities are as frequent as reduced self-confidence It includes the group being toobig or not on the right level, or teachers changing too frequently Negative attitude towardsthe L2 is the fourth source of demotivation, followed by the compulsory nature of the L2study, which means, for instance, feeling compelled to choose English over anotherlanguage because of its utility and popularity Interfere of another foreign language beingstudied comes sixth This demotivating source could be easily seen in mixing up twolanguages Negative attitude towards L2 community is the seventh source of demotivation.For example, some students participating in Dörnyei‟s (1998b) study stated that they foundAmerican culture with its best-known aspects such as McDonalds and films unattractive.The eighth source of demotivation is attitudes of group members For instance, a studentalways feels embarrassed because s/he thinks the group members laugh at him/her because

of his/her poor English skills The last source of demotivation study is the course book.(see Dörnyei, 2001, p.152-153)

The strength of Dörnyei‟s 1998b study lies in his focused approach to studyingdemotivation To be more clearly, his study focuses on students who are identified asdemotivated ones, which offers detailed and comprehensive insights into the source ofdemotivation since these learners have presumably given them many thoughts However,the variety of demotivating factors might be wider if students that are not specificallydemotivated are not excluded from the study because in fact, every learner has someexperience of feeling demotivated during the process of L2 learning

In Vietnam, Tran and Baldauf (2007) conducted a research on demotivation inEnglish language learning using stimulated recall essays from 100 university students oftheir foreign language learning experiences The study offered a framework ofdemotivation (See Appendix 3)

Tran and Baldauf‟s (2007) study revealed that the phenomenon of demotivation notonly exists in EFL learning in Vietnam but is also a serious problem The findings of thisstudy seem to be consistent with the general results reported in previous studies when itstates that the largest source of demotives is related to teachers Teachers are reported tohave strong impacts on students‟ demotivation or motivation to learn Within the four

demotive categories related to teachers, teaching methods provide the largest source ofdemotives Teacher‟s inappropriate classroom behavior is also a major demotivating factorsince it usually hurts students‟ feelings and leaves them with negative attitudes towardsEnglish Demotives that result from the learning environment account for 21% and 5% arerelated to other external factors including obligation factors and negative changes instudents‟ courses Internal demotivating factors accounts for 36% of the total number ofdemotivating encounters Of which, students‟ experiences of failure or lack of success arethe highest Another important finding of Tran and Baldauf (2007) is that many studentsare demotivated because of inadequate background knowledge of English It is reported inthat study that university syllabi usually set progressive standards for subsequent classesthat students are supposed to have to meet, and teachers in subsequent classes keep these inmind when they prepare lessons Hence, students who fail to make adequate progress intheir previous classes find themselves with gaps in their knowledge and are incapable ofdealing with current lessons, and feel demotivated.

In conclusion, this chapter has reviewed some of the most popular and widely-usedtheories on motivation, types of motivation, demotivation and factors affecting negativelymotivation in learning a second/foreign language After considering some previous pieces

of research on those matters, the researcher realized that although motivation is stated toplay a very important role in EFL learning, and demotivation is a common problem inmany EFL learning environments in Vietnam in general and in HUBT in particular, thosematters have not been received much attention from Vietnamese researchers There havebeen few attempts investigating into the situation of business students‟ motivation inlearning English in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, especially to the extents offactors that demotivate those students Thus, this study is conducted with the hope to shed

a light on those matters in a specific EFL context in Vietnam, FoBF, HUBT

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the context and the subject of the study, the data collection instruments, the data collection procedure, and the data analysis procedure will be presented.

2.1 Context of the study

This study is conducted at Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUBT),

a private university in Hoang Mai District, Hanoi, Vietnam HUBT is rather famous forproviding good training in two main fields: business and technology Business involvesseveral different majors such as Banking and Finance, Accounting, BusinessAdministration and Commerce Of all, Banking and Finance is considered the most popularmajor of HUBT with the greatest number of students studying in this faculty Every yearthere are approximately 1,000 new students enrolling in FoBF; this faculty hence receives alot of attention of the university

At HUBT, English is considered an extremely important subject to all studentsregardless the majors they are learning; the students hence have to study English duringthree and a half years at HUBT and complete 72 credits of English (equivalent with 1080periods) before allowed to take the Graduation examination by the end of the fourth year

In addition, HUBT always looks for new ways to improve the quality of teaching andlearning English Hence, in the school year 2010-2011, HUBT plans to pilot a new Englishcourse called DynEd with the freshmen (K15) and the sophomore (K14) in FoBF DynEd

is an English-learning software that allows students to learn English online so that they canpractice their English more at home, and teachers can easily manage their study records viathe Internet

What is more, to prepare for students to learn English well, about 20 multi-mediaclassrooms are settled In each of these classrooms, there are computers, projectors, andscreens In addition, language learning equipment (e.g CD-players, tape players, and extrareference books) is also available and of high quality Each week, students will have onevideo lesson that focuses on practicing listening skills and pronunciation Moreover, onaverage, there are about 30 students in each English class, which is a good size for alanguage class

Up to now, the books Market Leader Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, andIntermediate written by David Cotton, David Falvey, and Simon Kent from LondonGuildhall University have been used as course-books for Banking and Finance students.The three books are primarily designed for business English courses for businesspeopleand students of business English to develop students‟ communication skills they need tosucceed in business as well as to enlarge their knowledge of business world Moreover, it isexpected that every student studying this course will become more fluent and confident inusing the language of business and should increase their career prospects.

The assessment is based on two examinations per each semester namely semester exam and Computer-based Multiple-choice Test At the End-of-semester exam,students‟ four English skills, Speaking-Listening-Writing-Reading are assessed After that,students will take Computer-based Multiple-choice test consisting of 120 multiple-choicequestions in 90 minutes All multiple-choice questions are based on what students havelearnt in the course books

End-of-English teachers at HUBT graduated from different universities in Vietnam but all

of them majored in English Moreover, most of them are very young, enthusiastic, anddynamic Nevertheless, some of teachers do not have teaching experience since they werenot trained to be teachers That is why for those teachers managing classrooms is difficult,especially when some pedagogical situations happen

2.2 Subjects

Initially all 900 students (equivalent with 30 classes) who are studying the secondyear in FoBF at HUBT were invited to participate in this study Of which, 238 students aremales (26.5%) and the rest 662 students are females (73.5%) All of those students wereborn in 1990 or 1991 They come from different parts of Vietnam (from rural/mountainousareas to big cities) That explains why they have experienced different methods ofinstructions and achieved different levels of English proficiency However, all of them aresupposed to be at Pre-intermediate level of proficiency Those students have studiedEnglish for at least eight years, and have finished the first year of studying businessEnglish at HUBT; thus, they are supposed to be familiar with the teaching and learningmethods at HUBT However, all of them use Vietnamese in their daily conversations, and

they rarely have chances to use English as a means of communication, except for sometime in the classroom with teachers and classmates.

2.3 Data collection instruments

This study employs a mixed method design that includes both quantitative andqualitative research methods in order to get a more detailed and comprehensive pictureabout what is investigated

In this study, qualitative data is gained from semi-structured interviews andquantitative data is achieved from self-report questionnaire Self-report questionnaire isused in this study since motivation, as Dörnyei (2001) stated, is “an abstract term thatrefers to various internal processes and states It is therefore not subject to directobservation but must be inferred from some indirect indicator, such as the individual‟sself-report accounts” (p.185) In order to ensure that the participants can understandcorrectly the content of the questionnaire and the interview, both of them are conducted inVietnamese

The questionnaire consists of three parts The table 2 displays the structure of thequestionnaire

Part I: Background Information: This part is designed to gather the informationabout the participants‟ demographic information including gender, number of years oflearning English, and hometown

Part II: Motivational Questionnaire The Motivational Questionnaire includes twocompositions: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation Intrinsic motivation consist of

5 items (statements 2,4,6,8,10) and extrinsic motivation includes 5 items (statements1,3,5,7,9) All 10 statements are in a Five-point Likert-scale The Intrinsic-ExtrinsicMotivational Questionnaire designed by Schmidt et al (1996) (see Appendix 4) is used asthe base for the researcher to develop this questionnaire since Schmidt et al (1996) studyfocused on intrinsic-extrinsic motivation of EFL adult learners in Egypt, which seems to besimilar to the participants and context of this study However, it is too long to apply all the

20 items of Schmidt et al (1996); hence, the researcher only chose 10 items which mostobviously indicate intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors and also are most appropriatewith Vietnamese students

Part III: Demotivating factors questionnaire This part includes 20 items (fromstatement 11 to statement 30) All statements are in a Five-point Likert-scale All 20 itemsare developed based on Tran and Baldauf‟s (2007) framework of demotivating factorsmentioned by Vietnamese Economics Students (see Appendix 3) Tran and Baldauf‟s(2007) framework is chosen because its participants and its context are similar to those ofthis study However, it would be too long if all 48 demotivating factors mentioned in thatframework were applied in this questionnaire; thus, only the most 20 frequent factors areused.

Table 2: Structure of the motivation questionnaire

PART I Gender, years of learning English,

Background information hometown

Type of motivation Intrinsic motivation 5(Q2, Q4, Q6, Q8,

Q10)Attitudes towards English 2 (Q11, Q12)Experience of failure or lack of 3 (Q13, Q14, Q15)success

Demotivating factors Teacher‟s behavior 2 (Q17, Q18)

Q24)Grading and assessment 2 (Q25, Q26)

Opportunities to use English 1 (Q29)

students‟ motivation in learning English and the factors that demotivate them to learnEnglish at HUBT.

2.4 Data collection procedure

The sampling method is simply to get as many questionnaires to be filled andreturned as possible In addition, as the scope of this study is to focus on second-yearstudents in FoBF who usually use the Internet, right at the beginning of the study, an emailwas sent to the email addresses of all second-year students in FoBF to ask for theirwillingness to participate in the study To guarantee the positive participation, the studentswere assured that it would not take them more than 10 minutes to finish the questionnaireand all the information provided in the questionnaire would be kept confidential and usedfor research purposes only Unfortunately, only 269 out of 900 (approximately 29.9%)students replied and agreed to participate in the study All of them are those who can easilyget access to the Internet at home and usually use the Internet to keep in touch with theirfriends as well as to send their home assignments to their teachers In other words, they areidentified as Information Technology lovers

The questionnaire was first piloted to a small sample of 60 students to check itsvalidity and reality The piloted questionnaire then was re-edited, and administered to 269students by the researcher six weeks before the new school-year (2010-2011) The studentswere informed that they could do the questionnaire in as much time as they wanted andsent it back to the email address of the researcher Fortunately, 269 out of 269questionnaires were returned

Concerning the interviews, they were conducted to gain more in-depth informationabout students‟ motivation and factors affecting negatively their motivation in learningEnglish at HUBT After the researcher analyzed the questionnaires, 20 students werechosen to participate in the interview, of which 10 were identified as extrinsicallymotivated learners and the other were intrinsically motivated These interviews were alsoconducted through the Internet with the help of Yahoo!Messenger Before the interviewwas conducted, the interviewees were invited to join in a chat room at the time and datesuitable for the interviewees All the content of the interviews were copied into Words foranalyzing

2.5 Data analysis

After all the questionnaires were returned, the researcher printed them out to check,sort, and number The researcher herself coded the participants (by named them P1, P2,and so on) Due to the constraint time and large number of questionnaires to be analyzed,five English teachers (who are the researcher‟s colleagues) were recruited to record theparticipants‟ responses to the questionnaires with the researcher The results of therecording process were then input into a computer for analyzing with the help of theprograms Word 2000 and Excel 2000 For each part of the questionnaire, the total number

of respondents choosing answer choice SD and D, U, and A and SA was counted andcompared using the functions DCOUNT, AVERAGE, and SUM

After conducted, all the content of the interviews with 20 students were copied intoWord 2000 The researcher read each response of each student to sort out the reasons forthem learning English, and the demotivating factors

To ensure the consistency of the data, except when recording the participants‟responses to the questionnaire, during the process of analyzing the data achieved from thequestionnaires and the interviews, the researcher did them alone

Thus, so far, this chapter has presented in detail the context, the subject, the twosets of instruments, and the procedure of collecting data and analyzing data of the study.The following chapter will deal with the findings and discussions

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

In this chapter, the students’ motivation in learning English in terms of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, as well the factors affecting negatively the students’ motivation in learning English, which are reflected through the data of the conducted questionnaire and the semi-structured interviews, will be in focus This comprehensive analysis leads to a better understanding of the type of motivation and the actual factors that demotivate the students to learn English, in turn, will lay a firm foundation for a discussion and further recommendations in the following part of the study.

3.1.1.1 Extrinsic motivation

Table 2 and Chart 1 show that students in this study have a strong extrinsicmotivation in learning English On average, 72.7 % students agreed and strongly agreedwith the items measuring extrinsic motivation Of which, 100% participants agreed andtotally agreed that they learned English in order to get a good job in the future 242 out of

269 (90%) students stated that everybody in Vietnam should be able to speak English.Learning English to communicate with foreigners is also a statement chosen by manyparticipants accounting for 76.6% 67.3% of students shared that they learned English

because it is a compulsory subject at HUBT However, there are only 80 out of 269students agreeing and strongly agreeing that the only reason they learned English was topass the exams at HUBT.

Table 2: The frequency distribution of items measuring extrinsic motivation (n = 269)

D&SD

%

A&SA 40

20 0

Chart 1: Frequency and distribution of items measuring extrinsic motivation

Concerning the interview results, it is not surprising that all the intervieweesclaimed that they learned English for various practical goals such as getting a good job,improving the career future, or pursuing higher education overseas Take the followinganswers to the question “Why do you study English” as examples

“Nowadays whatever job we apply for, we are required to use English well Thus, the

“All the members in my family work in Banking, and they want me to follow the family’s tradition They always say to me that if I do not learn English, I will not be able to work my way up through the bank I have to learn English so that I can have a good job in the future ” (S7)

“After graduating from HUBT, I want to continue my higher education overseas , perhaps

in Australia because my older brother is there So learning English is a basic condition for me to realize my ambition.”(S5)

Nine out of twenty students joining the interview mentioned the importance ofEnglish as an international language Whereas, most of the students interviewing stated thatlearning English enables them to use the Internet easily as well as to integrate with Englishspeaking people

“I think that English is an international language It is used in almost all countries around the world If we want our country to develop, we should be able to use English Hence, in

my opinion, everybody in Vietnam should know English .” (S14)

“I think that English is an essential condition in the integration process of Vietnam If I know English, I can contribute more to the development of our country ” (S20)

“I want to travel oversea, to make friends with foreigners and to introduce our country, our culture, and our people to other countries .”(S8)

“I use the Internet very often, and English helps me to make use of Internet more easily I

wish that I can read e-books, watch movies and listen to music in English on the Internet” (S10).

In brief, the results of the questionnaire and the interview show that second-yearstudents in FoBF possess strong extrinsic motivation in learning English The major reasonthat urges them to study English is for the good job in the future In addition, it can beconcluded that the important role of English in the world nowadays is also a crucial factormotivating those students to learn English

3.1.1.2 Intrinsic motivation

The table 3 and the chart 2 illustrate the frequency and the distribution of the itemsmeasuring intrinsic motivation to learn English of second-year students in FoBF Thesereveal that students participating in this study have rather strong intrinsic orientation inlearning English at HUBT 51.5% of students participating in this study claimed that theyliked learning English and English lessons were very interesting 128 out of 269participants (equivalent to 47.5%) revealed that when class ended they usually wished it

would continue This seems to align with the result of question 2 above that English is

interesting to them Especially, 59.5% of students thought that they would take English

classes even if it were not required by HUBT However, many of them (68%) revealed that

they did not like the English challenge More surprisingly, although 76.6% of students

stated that they learned English in order to communicate with English foreigners, 54.7% of

them shared the same view that they did not use English outside classrooms when they had

100 80 60

A&SA

%

SD&D 40

20 0

Chart 2: The frequency distribution of items measuring intrinsic motivation

The results of the semi-structured interviews with participants help to understand