The relationship between students’ motivation and their out of class learning strategies a survey at a high school in vietnam

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONSAMTB: Attitude/ Motivation Test Battery EFL: English as Foreign Language ELT: English Language Teaching ESL: English as Second Language GLL: Good Language Learner L2

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST –

A SURVEY AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN VIETNAM

Quan hệ giữa động lực và các chiến lược học tập ngoài giờ học của học sinh: Nghiên cứu khảo sát tại một trường trung học phổ thông ở Việt

Nam

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

HANOI - 2017

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST –

A SURVEY AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN VIETNAM

Quan hệ giữa động lực và các chiến lược học tập ngoài giờ học của học sinh: Nghiên cứu khảo sát tại một trường trung học phổ thông ở Việt

Nam

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Lê Văn Canh

HANOI - 2017

I hereby assure that this dessertation is my own work and it has notbeen previously submitted to any institution in application for admission to adiploma or other qualifications

Hanoi, 2017

Đỗ Thị Thuỷ

First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the lecturers ofthe Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Foreign Languages andInternational Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their invaluableinstructions and assistance Their step-by-step guidance helps me get closer toscientific researches and equips me with necessary knowledge to be able tocarry out research on foreign/ second language (L2) on my own Especially, Iwould like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr LeVan Canh, whose erudite understanding of various fields related to L2teaching and learning has enlightened me He himself is not only a great anddevoted lecturer but also a famous researcher I could not have finished mythesis without his supervision

My special thanks also go to my family member, my friends and colleagueswho always stand by me to support me and encourage me to complete thecourse Besides, I would like to thank my beloved students in Yen Dinh 3high school for their contribution to my paper

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to other people working atULIS for their help

This study focuses on identifying students‟ motivation and their class learning strategies and investigating whether there is any relationshipbetween them A total of 90 ten-grade students were asked to complete thesurvey questionnaires within 30 minutes They had to complete 15 sentences

out-of-on motivatiout-of-on drawn from Attitude/Motivatiout-of-on Test Battery by R.Gardnerwith 6 point Likert scale and 10 sentences on out-of-class learning strategiesextracted from the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning by R.Oxfordwith 5 point Likert scale The results show that instrumental motivation ranksfirst and metacognitive strategies are the most frequently used The majority

of the students learned English because they had to take English exams Whenthey were not in class, they often listened to English songs or played games inEnglish to acquire this language Besides, most of motivation types havepositive and significant correlations with six categories of learning strategiesexcept for compensation strategies Intrinsic motivation has the highestcoefficients Also, the more demotivated the students were, the less strategicthey were Base on the findings, it is suggested that students should beencouraged to acquire knowledge both inside and outside classroom context

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF FIGURES ix

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Research aims and objectives 1

3 Research questions: 2

4 Scope of the research 2

5 Significance of the research 2

6 Organization of the thesis 2

PART B - DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER I REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 4

1.1 Motivation 4

1.1.1 Definition of motivation 4

1.1.2 Prominent motivation theories 4

1.1.1.5 Dörnyei’s motivational self system 10

1.2.Learning strategy 10

1.2.1.Conceptualizations of learning strategy 10

1.2.2 Oxford’s language learning strategy inventory 11

1.3 Out-of-class learning strategies 13

1.1.4 The role of out-of-class learning in foreign language teaching 15 1.1.5 Previous studies on the relationship between motivation and out-of -class learning strategies 16

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 18

2.1 The research setting 18

2.2 Research design 18

2.2.1 Research methodology 18

2.2.2 Participants 18

2.2.3 Instruments 18

2.3 Data Collection Procedure 20

CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 22

3.1 Reasons for learning English 22

3.2 The students’ main types of language learning strategies and activities 22

3.2.1 Language learning strategies 22

Table 2: Summary of descriptic statistic for language learning strategy use 23

3.2.2 Out – of – class learning activities 24

3.3 Students’ motivation types 25

3.4 The relationship between students’motivation and their out-of-class learning strategies 27

PART C- CONCLUSION 31

1 Major findings of the study 31

2 Conclusions 32

3 Implications 33

4 Limitations of the study 34

5 Suggestions for further study 35

REFERENCES 36 APPENDIX I

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AMTB: Attitude/ Motivation Test Battery

EFL: English as Foreign Language

ELT: English Language Teaching

ESL: English as Second Language

GLL: Good Language Learner

L2: Second or Foreign Language

SILL: Strategy Inventory for Language learningSPSS: The Statistical Package for Social Science

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Reasons for learning English 19

Table 2: Summary of descriptic statistic for language learning strategy use 20

Table 3: Out-of-class activities 21Table 4: Motivation types 22Table 5: Correlations between motivation types and out-of-class learningstrategies 25Table 6: Correlations between motivation and out-of-class learning

strategies 27

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: A simple representation of the socioeducational model - Adoptedfrom Gardner (2001) 4Figure 2: Orientation subtypes along the self-determination continuum

–Adopted from Ryan & Deci (2000) 5

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

Out-of-class study time is essential in students‟ language learning, butfew studies in ELT investigate students‟ out-of-class study: the time theyspend on out-of-class learning and the strategies they use for this type oflearning Most of the studies on EFL students‟ learning strategies focus on in-class learning strategies, leaving this important area of learning under-explored Teachers tend to pay more attention to the strategies students useinside than those outside classroom while “Out-of-class activities are alsolinked with real life applications; this connection is key to fostering moreauthentic language usage and autonomy” (Pearson, 2004) However,therelationship between motivation and learning strategies in Yen Dinh 3 highschool where I work has not been studied, which prevents the application ofproper methods of teaching and learning Therefore, I have carried out thisresearch with the desire to find suitable teaching methods and know how tomotivate the students to learn better, especially outside classroom

2 Research aims and objectives

The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between students‟motivation for language learning and their choice of learning strategies,especially the choice of out-of-class learning strategies

- To gain understanding about the influence of motivation on out-of-class learning strategies choice.

3 Research questions:

The study focuses on the following research questions:

class - learning strategies?

4 Scope of the research

This study focuses on measuring the students‟ motivation including intrinsic,extrinsic, integrative, and instrumental as well as amotivation; their choice ofout-of-class learning strategies and the relationship between the two factors

5 Significance of the research

The research result can help teachers determine the types of motivationamongst students and help students know about the importance of motivation

as well as learning strategies in acquiring a foreign language Moreover, theresearch aims at assisting teachers to find suitable teaching methods so as tomotivate their students to learn English better

6 Organization of the thesis

The thesis is organized as follows:

Part A - Introduction: Provides the rationale of the study, aims, objectives,research questions, scope and significance of the study

Part B - Development: Consists of three chapters

Chapter I – Literature review: Briefly introduces the theoreticalbackgrounds related to motivation, language learning strategies, out – of –class language learning as well as previous research on the relationshipbetween motivation and out - of - class learning strategies

Chapter II – Methodology: focuses on research setting, research design,research methods and introduces the participants, instruments and procedure

of data collection and process

Chapter III – Findings and discussion: presents the results of the study andsome discussion

Part C – Conclusion: summarizes the main points of the study, compares theresults with previous research in the field, points out the limitations andsuggests further study

PART B - DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 1.1 Motivation

1.1.1 Definition of motivation

Despite a lot of researches done with motivation, its exact definition hasbeen a challenge even among great researchers Dörnyei (1998: 117)

commented, “Although motivation is a term used in both education and

research contexts, it is rather surprising how little agreement, one can find inthe literature with regard to the exact meaning of the concept”

On examining research studies conducted in relation to motivation, it wasfound that the concept of motivation was defined in different ways Keller(1983) defined motivation as “the direction of effort making a student willing

to learn and as an intrinsic power” Relating motivation to learn a secondlanguage (L2), Gardner (1985) proposed, “Motivation is a term which is oftenused with respect to second language learning as a simple explanation ofachievement” Schunk (1990) defined it as “inclining towards a process ofbehaviour oriented to a certain goal and sustaining it”; Brown (1994) gave thedefinition of motivation as “the extent to which you make choices about (a) agoal to pursue and (b) the effort you will devote to the pursuit.”

It is a well established belief among most researchers that motivation iscrucial in students‟ learning However, the concept of motivation provescomplex since it takes respectable number of different disciplines to arrive at

a reasonable understanding of its different facets

1.1.2 Prominent motivation theories.

The four main theories to be reviewed here are Gardner‟s motivation theory,the Self-determination theory, Goal theories and Attribution theory In

addition, there is a critical reference to one of the most common model on

1.1.2.1 Gardner’s Motivation Theory

The most influential model of language learning motivation in the earlysixties through the eighties of the previous century was that developed byRobert Gardner, a Canadian social psychologist The model came to beknown as the Socioeducational Model (Gardner, 1985) Gardner definedmotivation as a „combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal oflearning the language plus favourable attitudes towards learning thelanguage.‟ In his model, he introduced two components of motivation:attitudes towards the learning situation and integrativeness

The most developed and researched facet of Gardner‟s (1985) motivation

theory has been the integrative aspect The significant of this concept is

attested to by its appearing in Gardner‟s theory in three different forms

-integrative orientation, -integrativeness, and the -integrative motive (Dörnyei,

2003) In broad terms, an “integrative” orientation concerns a positiveinterpersonal/ affective disposition toward the language learning group andthe desire to interact with and even become similar to valued member of thatcommunity It implies an openess to and respect for, other cultural groups andways of life; in the extreme, it may involve complete identification with thecommunity Thus, a core aspect of the integrative disposition is some sorts of

a psychological and emotional identification (Dörnyei, 2003) Gardner (2005)

stated that “individuals for whom their own ethno-linguistic heritage is amajor part of their sense of identity would be low in integrativeness; those forwhom their ethnicity is not a major component, and who are interested inother cultural communities would be high in integrativeness” The secondfacet involves attitudes toward the school, reactions to the textbooks,

evaluation of the language teacher and the language course etc Clearly, the nature of the learning situation will influence a student‟s motivation.

Figure 1- A simple representation of the socioeducational model

Adopted from Gardner (2001) The dotted square represents the borders of theintegrative motivation

1.1.2.2 The Self – determination theory.

Deci and Ryan‟s (1985) self-determination theory is one of the mostinfluential theories in motivational psychology (Dörnyei, 2003) According tothe theory, developed by Deci and his associate, „to be self determiningmeans to experience a sense of choice in initiating and regulating one's own

choices and exercise a high degree of control, such as what the student doesand how they do it (Deci et al., 1991) Self-determination can be supported byproviding opportunities for students to be challenged, such as leadershipopportunities, providing appropriate feedback and fostering, establishing andmaintaining good relationships between teachers and students Thesestrategies can increase students' interest, competence, creativity and desire to

be challenged and ensure that students are intrinsically motivated to study Onthe other hand, students who lack self-determination are more likely to feeltheir success is out of their control Such students lose motivation to study,which causes a state of "helpless learning" Students who feel helpless readilybelieve they will fail and therefore cease to try Over time, a vicious circle oflow achievement develops.

The theory distinguishes between two kinds of motivations: intrinsic andextrinsic The first refers to an individual‟s motivation to perform a particularactivity because of internal rewards such as joy, pleasure and satisfaction ofcuriosity Whereas in extrinsic motivation the individual expects an extrinsicreward such as good grades or praise from others In line with the notion ofautonomy and intrinsic motivation, the self determination theory offers a veryinteresting look at motivation by setting a different agenda for languageteachers Rather than focusing on how people (e.g teachers in the classroom)can motivate others, the focus should be on „how people can create theconditions within which others can motivate themselves‟ (Deici &Ryan,1985)

Figure 2: Orientation subtypes along the Self- determination continuum -

Adapted from Ryan & Deci (2000:27)

1.1.1.3 Attribution theory

The Attribution theory of students‟ motivation was largely influential in the

psychologist, Fritz Heider that describes the processes by which individualsexplain the causes of their behavior and events A form of attribution theory

beliefs about how the causes of success or failure affect their emotions andmotivations According to him, the most important factors affectingattribution are ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck Attributions areclassified along three causal dimensions: (1) locus of control (two poles:internal vs external), (2) stability (do causes change over time or not?), and(3) controllability causes one can control such as skills vs causes one cannotcontrol such as luck, others‟ action, etc.)

When one succeeds, one attributes successes internally („my own skill‟).When a rival succeeds, one tends to credit external (e.g luck) When one fails

or makes mistakes, external attribution is often used, attributing causes tosituational factors rather than blaming ourselves When others fails or makesmistakes, we will more likely to use internal attribution, saying it is due totheir internal personality factors

As the main proponent of the theory, Bernard Weiner argued the subjectivereasons to which we attribute our past successes and failures considerablyshape our motivational disposition In a school context, learners tend toascribe their failures or success (locus or causality) to a number of reasons:ability and effort, luck, task, difficulty, mood, family, background, and help orhindrance from others The previous can be placed on a continuum of internal

vs external reasons depending on whether the individuals see themselves orothers as the causes of their actions Because of the generally high frequency

of language learning failure worldwide, attribution processes are assumed toplay an important motivational role in language studies ((Dörnyei,2003)

Individuals formulate explanatory attributions to understand the events theyexperience and to seek reasons for their failures When individuals seekpositive feedback from their failures, they use the feedback as motivation toshow improved performances For example, using the intrapersonalperspective, a student who failed a test may attribute their failure for notstudying enough and would use their emotion of shame or embarrassment asmotivation to study harder for the next test A student who blames their testfailure on the teacher would be using the interpersonal perspective, and woulduse their feeling of disappointment as motivation to rely on a different studysource other than the teacher for the next test

1.1.1.4 Goal theories

Goal-setting theory is based on the notion that individuals sometimes have

a drive to reach a clearly defined end state Often, this end state is a reward initself

There are two Goal theories that have been particularly influential in thestudy of motivation: the Goal Setting theory and the Goal Orientation theory.The Goal Setting theory was mainly developed by Locke and Latham (1990)within industrial and organizational psychology with frequent references toworkplace setting The theory suggests that goals have two aspects: internaland external The Goal Setting theory suggests that there are three maincharacteristics of goals that cause them to differ: difficulty, specificity andcommitment In Tremblay and Gardner‟s (1995) proposed motivationconstruct, they introduced the concept of “goal salience‟ as a centralcomponent, conceptualized as a composite of the specificity of the learner‟sgoals and the frequency of Goal- setting strategies used (Dörnyei, 2003)

1.1.1.5 Dörnyei’s motivational self system

Dörnyei (2005) designed the motivational self-system of L2 learning TheL2 motivational self-system forms links with conceptualizations of L2motivation by Noels (2003) and Ushioda (2001) This motivational self-system has three components: the ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self, and L2learning experience The ideal L2 self is a person‟s imagined ideal future self

as a second language speaker This ideal L2 self promotes motivation byinspiring the present self to strive to become the ideal self, which promotesintegrative and internalized instrumental motivation in language learning Theought-to L2 self includes the attributions a person believes they should have

in order to meet expectations or avoid negative outcomes, which is associatedwith extrinsic motivational orientations The L2 learning experiencecomponent includes the situational and environmental aspects of the languagelearning process as well as one‟s subjective learning experience

One specific area in which motivational factors can be seen at work is in theuse of different learning strategies Studies by Oxford and Nyikos (1989)showed that the “degree of motivation is the most powerful influence on howand when students use language learning strategies” To investigate therelationship between these factors further, it is important to first distinguishspecifically what learning strategies are

1.2.Learning strategy

1.2.1.Conceptualizations of learning strategy

The word “strategy” comes from the ancient Greek word strategia, which

means steps or actions taken for the purpose of winning a war.The warlikemeaning of strategia has fortunately fallen away, but the control and goaldirectedness remain in the modern version of the word (Oxford, 1990)

In defining the language learning strategy, Oxford & Crookall (1989) statedthat “different researchers use different terms and different concepts”.According to Wenden & Rubin (1987), language learning strategies can bedefined from the aspect of language learning behaviours, such as learning andregulating the meaning of a second or foreign language, cognitive theory,such as learners‟ strategic knowledge of language learning, and the affectiveview, such as learners‟ motivation, attitude, etc It is argued that three points

of views can improve language learning O‟Malley, Chamot and theircolleagues (O‟Malley et al., 1985, Chamot & O‟Malley, 1990) were devoted

to studying the use of learning strategies by ESL learners in the US Based ontheir research, language learning strategies were divided into three maincategories, metacognitive, cognitive, and social affective which refer tolearners‟ planning their learning, thinking about the learning process,monitoring their own comprehension or production, and evaluating theoutcomes of their own learning Next, Rubin (1987), defined languagelearning strategy as those “that contribute to the development of the languagesystem which the learner constructs and (which) affects learning directly”.Moreover, the definition by Oxford (1990) also included cognitive, emotional,and social aspects of language learning strategies that enhance learners‟language learning proficiency and self-confidence

1.2.2 Oxford’s language learning strategy inventory

Oxford (1990) classified learning strategies inventory as operationsemployed by the learner to aid in the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use ofinformation Learners can adopt more specific strategies to make theirlearning more direct and effective Oxford categorized these learning actions

as direct or indirect strategies Direct strategies help learners store and recoverinformation; they assist learners in producing the language to fill in the gap of

unknown knowledge Direct strategies include memory, cognitive, andcompensation strategies Meanwhile, indirect learning strategies echo directstrategies, but manage language learning without direct involvement Indirectstrategies are metacognitive, affective, and social strategies The functions ofeach strategy defined by Oxford (1990) are as follows:

Direct strategies

item or concept with another but do not necessarily involve deep understanding

in direct way, e.g., through reasoning, analysis, note-taking, summarizing,synthesizing, outlining, reorganizing information to develop stronger schemas(knowledge structures), practising in naturalistic settings, and practicing structuresand sounds formally

reading, using synonyms and “talking around” the missing word to aid

speaking and writing; and strictly for speaking, using gestures or pause

words) helps the learner make up for missing knowledge

Indirect strategies

preferences and needs, planning for an L2 task, gathering and organizingmaterials, arranging a study space and a schedule, monitoring mistakes, andevaluating task success of any type of learning) are employed for managingthe learning process overall

talking about feelings, rewarding oneself for good performance, and using deep breathing or positive self- talk

- Social strategies (e.g., asking questions to get verification, asking forclarification of a confusing point, asking for help in doing a language task, talkingwith a native speaking conversation partner, and exploring cultural and socialnorm) help the learner work with others and understand the target culture as well

as the language

Rebecca Oxford‟s Strategy Inventory for Language learning (SILL) is themost influential instrument in the area of language learning strategies and laysout the most exhaustive hierarchy of learning strategies to date

1.3 Out-of-class learning strategies

Much interest has been expressed in out - of - class language learningstrategies Pickard (1996) reported that some studies formulate usefultypologies of strategy use (Naiman, 1978; Oxford, 1990; Rubin, 1975); allhighlighted the importance of the out-of-class strategies employed voluntarily

by learners outside the language classroom Pickard (1996, p 150) alsoreported that: “These language learning strategies encompass student-initiatedactivities, such as listening to the radio and reading newspapers.”

Rubin (1975) identified seven general characteristics of the good languagelearner, which include such out-of-class strategies as seeking outopportunities to use the language by looking for native speakers, and going tothe cinema or to other cultural events

Out-of-class learning, as it relates to language learning, has recently beenbroadly defined as any kind of learning that takes place outside the classroomand involves self-instruction, naturalistic learning or self-directed naturalisticlearning (Benson 2001: 62)

Benson (2001:62) divides out-of-class learning into three categories:

-Self instruction, where learners deliberately plan to improve the targetlanguage and search out resources to help them do this, for example by usingself study grammar books to improve their grammar

through communication and interaction with the target language group, forexample when engaged in discussions with English speaking classmates orcolleagues

out a language learning situation, but may not focus directly on learning thelanguage while they are in that situation For example, learners may subscribe to

an English newspaper everyday with the underlying aim of improving theirvocabulary, but may read it mainly for the news without undertaking any specificlearning activities

Benson (2001) referred to the dearth of research on out-of-class language learning, and its importance to the theory and practice of autonomy

Macaro (2001) proposed some activities which students would use into the habits of looking for the foreign language outside the classroom:

to the foreign language outside the classroom by reading or listening to language,they can also try to speak the foreign language outside the classroom

friends in order to develop this idea that language learning can take place outsidethe classroom and can involve social activities: writing a letter to their friends with

10 deliberate mistakes, asking them to underline the mistakes, recording a dialoguetogether, practicing a scene together, trying to work out a foreign language texttogether

-Taking notes: Teachers should allow students to take notes whenever theywant It helps to remember and notice something interesting and differentabout their current knowledge and the input they are receiving.

-Materials: We have also considered a dossier of materials which we can use

in order to train learners to use strategies These materials are designed to

«scaffold» the strategy in question

1.1.4 The role of out-of-class learning in foreign language teaching

The significance of out-of-class learning was evident in a seminal study onGood Language Learners (GLLs) by Rubin in 1975 One of the characteristics

of GLLs is their interest in looking for opportunities to use the language, forinstance speaking to native speakers and going to the cinema This notion isstrengthened by Stern (1992) who highlighted that a GLL possesses sociallearning strategy The strategy includes making communicative contact withtarget language and target language community Nunan‟s studies ofsuccessful language learners from variety of contexts and language learningbackgrounds demonstrate, „the determination to apply their developinglanguage skills outside the classroom‟ can play a crucial role for learners interms of their second language development (Nunan, 1991)

Ellis (1994) concluded that learners get the most benefit from formallanguage instruction when it is coupled with opportunities for naturalexposure to the language

In reality, many teachers tend to increase assignments or tests to encourageout-of-class study without considering how students‟ second languagelearning motivation affects their out-of-class learning strategies (Fukuda

&Yoshida, 2013) This fact neccesiates the research on the topic

1.1.5 Previous studies on the relationship between motivation and out of class learning strategies

-Learners‟ motivation and their application of the learning strategies couldhave a correlated relationship Many researchers report that there is arelationship between motivation level and strategy use, and they affect eachother (Oxford, 1990; Pintrich 1999; Oxford & Nyikos, 1989.) From 1990s, theinterest in the effect of motivation on strategy use has risen Oxford (1990)investigated the relationship between learners‟ motivation and strategy use,and she found that learners who have higher motivation towards languagelearning tend to use more strategies than learners who have lower motivation.Studies by Oxford and Nyikos showed that the “degree of motivation is themost powerful influence on how and when students use language learningstrategies” (Scarcella & Oxford, 1992, p 53) Pintrich and Garcia (1995)posited that motivated students tend to use more learning strategies compared

to less motivated one Besides, they suggested that intrinsically motivatedstudents employed more cognitive strategies such as elaboration andorganization Pintrich (1999) focused on the relationship between learners‟motivational belief and self-regulated strategies (cognitive, meta-cognitive,resource- management strategies) in his study, and he found that havingdifferent motivational beliefs makes a difference in the use of self-regulatedstrategies On the other hand, the effect of strategy use on learners‟motivation has also come to light in other studies Oxford and Nyikos (1989)claim that “not only does high motivation lead to significant use of languagelearning strategies, but high strategy use probably leads to high motivation aswell” (1989, p.296)

Studies have also shown that motivation and metacognition influence class learner behaviour (Pickard 1995, Wenden 2001, Lamb 2002) Both

out-of-factors have been identified as important aspects of learner autonomy whichaffect the type of activities learners choose to complete and why, as well aswhat they learn from them.

Schmidt (2001) suggested that learners‟ acquisition of a second/foreignlanguage might not always indicate a positive correlation with their learningstrategies Some successful learners might have already adopted certaineffective strategies, whereas less successful learners might still in the process

of searching for effective strategies, leading them to continue trying to use abroader range of strategies Sato et al (2008) have concluded from theirfindings that teachers who provide variable learning strategies and usedifferent materials motivate and interest many learners Pearson (2004), inparticular, notes that intrinsically motivated students seem to exert more effort

in using the language outside However, according to him, we cannot makesuch easy generalization because the nature of out-of-class learning isidiosyncratic in the sense that learners spend their time and effort outside theclass differently

Fukuda and Yoshida (2013) studied factors affecting Japanese EFLstudents‟ out-of-class learning and found that factors such as clear courseaims, strong student-teacher relationships, on-threatening classroomenvironments, and interactive classroom procedures affected out-of-classstudy time However, the study did not provide any information about thestrategies the students used for out-of-class learning

There might be a bidirectional relationship between these two variables;motivation and strategy use affect each other Apparently, the relationshipbetween these two variables in L2 learning is different depending on thecontext where the research is carried out Therefore, additional researchfocusing on the bi-directional effects of motivation and strategy use is needed

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 2.1 The research setting

The research is carried out at Yen Dinh 3 high school in Thanh Hoaprovince This school is located in a rural area and the students learn English

as a compulsory subject at school The students spend about 135 minutesstudying English at school The materials used for teaching and learningEnglish are English textbooks (belonging to seven-year program series)published by Education publisher

It is supposed that the students do not have high motivation in learningEnglish because they have little opportunity to use English in real contexts.They might also use few learning strategies, especially those outside theclassroom

2.2 Research design

2.2.1 Research methodology

The survey research method is applied Questionnaire was delivered to students

to find out students‟ motivation and out - of - class learning strategies

2.2.3 Instruments

The data for this study were collected by means of survey questionnaire,which is composed of three parts Part I (both close and open questions )includes personal information, reasons for learning English and their out- of –class learning activities This part aims at finding out the main reasons whystudents are learning English and what activities they often do outsideclassroom to learn English With the information collected, the author desires

to have an overview of students‟ motivation and strategies in learningEnglish Part II and III are questionnaires which ask frequency of students‟language learning strategy use and motivation level Part II focuses onmotivation and part III contains statements about out-of-class learningstrategies The survey instruments of these parts involve two sets ofquestionnaires: (Part II) The Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB)(Robert Gardner, 1985) – the English version and (Part III) the StrategyInventory for Language Learning or SILL (Oxford, 1990) The SILL is apaper-and-pencil survey and widely used for investigating language learners‟strategy use all over the world The questions of SILL are answered by 5-point Likert scale (1: Never or almost never true of me 2: Usually not true of

me 3: Somewhat true of me 4: Usually true of me 5: Almost or almostalways true of me) For answering the AMTB, 6-point Likert scale, studentshave to choose among the options: 1: Strongly disagree, 2: Moderatelydisagree, 3: Slightly disagree, 4: Slightly agree, 5: Moderately agree and 6:Strongly agree

The total number of the questions in the questionnaires in part II and III is

25 (15 about motivation and 10 about out of class learning strategies) Thenumber of the questions are cut down to suit the students‟ ability and learningcontext The statements in the two parts of the questionnaires are not modified

to assure the reliability and validity of the data collected Bilingual version of