The relationship between language learning motivation and language learning strategy use of vietnamese employees at honda company, vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ******************* HOÀNG THỊ HOA THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

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

HOÀNG THỊ HOA

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE LEARNING MOTIVATION AND LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGY USE OF VIETNAMESE EMPLOYEES

AT HONDA COMPANY, VIETNAM

MỐI QUAN HỆ GIỮA ĐỘNG LỰC HỌC NGÔN NGỮ VÀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CHIẾN THUẬT HỌC NGÔN NGỮ CỦA NHÂN VIÊN NGƯỜI

VIỆT CÔNG TY HONDA, VIỆT NAM

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

HANOI - 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

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

HOÀNG THỊ HOA

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE LEARNING MOTIVATION AND LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGY USE OF VIETNAMESE EMPLOYEES

AT HONDA COMPANY, VIETNAM

MỐI QUAN HỆ GIỮA ĐỘNG LỰC HỌC NGÔN NGỮ VÀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CHIẾN THUẬT HỌC NGÔN NGỮ CỦA NHÂN VIÊN NGƯỜI

VIỆT CÔNG TY HONDA, VIỆT NAM

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Tô Thị Thu Hương, PhD

HANOI - 2016

I hereby declare that my thesis submitted for the Faculty of Post-GraduateStudies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam NationalUniversity, apart from the help recognized, is my own work Also, this paper hasnot been submitted to any other formal course of study

Hanoi, 2016

Ho ng Thi Hoa

Second, I also wish to thank all the doctors and lecturers of the Faculty ofPostgraduate Studies, University of Foreign Languages and International Studies,Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable lectures, which are partlyapplied in this study.

Next, I would like to send my deep sense of thanks to Vietnamese employees

at Honda Co., Vietnam for their cooperation and the valuable information theyprovided in my research field

Furthermore, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to my family andfriends, especially my boyfriend, Thanh Nguyen, and my best friend, Sao Bui, whohave always been helpful to me throughout the research

Last but not least, I thank almighty the graders and readers for their interests,evaluation and feedback on this thesis

This research aims to investigate the correlation between language learningmotivation and language learning strategy use by Vietnamese employees at Hondacompany

To seek answers for the issue, a questionnaire was conducted to collect theanswers from 120 Vietnamese employees at Honda company The first section ofthe questionnaire was about how often the students used instructed strategies inlearning English and found out whether these students use any other strategies thaninstructed ones, and the second section was created to collect information about theparticipants‟ motivation level The data were then analyzed and presented in theforms of frequency, percentage and charts and tables The results indicated that allthe instructed strategies were used by the majority of the respondents and theparticipants also applied some other strategies that could be considered belonging tomemory and social groups in their English learning, and among the four types ofmotivation, their reported instrumental motivation was of the highest level.Importantly, the study found a significant, positive, and moderate correlationbetween motivation and language learning strategy use Moreover, different types ofmotivation are shown to have different correlations with strategy use Finally, thesignificant contributions of integrative and intrinsic motivation to strategy use wererevealed, which went beyond the correlational analysis for the relationship as oftenobserved in other studies

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF FIGURES vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 The statement of problem and rationale for the study 1

1.2 Significance of the study 3

1.3 Objectives of the study and research questions 4

1.4 Method of the study 5

1.5 Organization of the study 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Language learning strategies 6

2.1.1 Definitions and characteristics of language learning strategies 6

2.1.2 Classification of learning strategies 7

2.1.3 The role of language learning strategies in language learning and teaching 12

2.2 Motivation in language learning 13

2.2.1 Definitions of motivation 13

2.2.2 Types of motivation in language learning 14

2.3 Language learning strategies and motivation in language learning 17

3.3.1 Data collection instrument 22

3.4 Data analysis procedure 26

4.1 The range of language learning strategies used by Vietnamese employees at Honda Company, Vietnam 29

4.1.1 Memory strategies 29

4.1.2 Cognitive strategies 31

4.1.3 Compensation strategies 32

4.1.4 Metacognitive strategies 34

4.1.5 Affective strategies 36

4.1.6 Social strategies 37

4.2 The Vietnamese employees‟ dominant types of motivation for English language learning 41

4.2.1 Integrative motivation 42

4.2.2 Instrumental motivation 43

4.2.3 Resultative motivation 45

4.2.4 Intrinsic motivation 47

4.3 The correlation between students‟ use of LLSs and their types of motivation in English learning 48

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 52

APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1 I

LLS: language learning strategy

LLSs: language learning strategies

MA: Master of Arts

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Frequency of using memory strategies 29

Figure 2: Frequency of using cognitive strategies 31

Figure 3: Frequency of using compensation strategies 33

Figure 4: Requency of using metacognitive strategies 35

Figure 5: Frequency of using affective strategies 37

Figure 6: Frequency of using social strategies 38

Figure 7: The percentage of regular use of the most and the least popular strategies ………39

Figure 8: The students' integrative motivation 42

Figure 9: The students' instrumental motivation 44

Figure 10: The students' resultative motivation 45

Figure 11: The students' intrinsic motivation 48

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1.The statement of problem and rationale for the study

That well-paid attention to the second language learners and their learninginstead of teachers and teaching methods in the recent decades by researches hasbeen an indispensable and meaningful educational renovation that provides morecomprehensive perception on second language education for both teachers andlearners The studies of second language learning and their effectiveness that started

to be focused prominently since the second half of the twentieth century (Ellis,2003) This is well-known when various researches have been launched and theyconcentrated on how learners deal with their own learning and what makes goodlanguage learners The prominent contributions to this field can be known as thestudies by Stern in 1975, Oxford in 1990, and Griffiths in 2003 These researchersmade it clearer that a lot of responsibility for the second language learning‟seffectiveness and success is on students themselves with their ability to takeadvantage of opportunities for learning

Moreover, the strategies and techniques that language learners exploit toacquire the language and solve challenges in their language learning have been athriving area of research, especially in L2.Since Rubin and Stern (1970) revealed intheir works that the use of language learning strategies (LLSs) was beneficial forsecond language learning Bialystok (1978, p 71) also agreed that learning

strategies were the “optimal means for exploiting available information to improve

competence in a second language” Later, in 1990, in her work, Oxford found that

students can self-study effectively if using LLSs In addition, the use of language

learning strategies leads to better proficiency or achievement in mastering the targetlanguage (Lee, 2003; O‟Malley and Chamot, 1990; Rahimi et at., 2008; Griffiths,2003; Hong, 2006; Oxford, 1993)

Besides, the variables affecting language learning strategy use were also takeninto consideration by several scholars Those factors might consist of degree of

awareness, age, sex, nationality, learning style, personality traits, motivation,learning context, language teaching method and language proficiency (Zare &Nooreen, 2011; Khamkhien, 2010; Rahimi, et al 2008; Chemot, 2004; Griffiths,2003; Hong-Nam and Leavell, 2007; Green and Oxford, 1995; Ehrman and Oxford,

1989).Concerning this field, Taguchi (2002) found that “the most influential factors

were gender, English proficiency and motivation” among a number of learner and

social factors in both Japan and Australia contexts In another work by Khamkhien

(2010) which studied three factors affecting students‟ choice of LLS, motivation isthe most significant (followed by experience in studying English and gender) Inadditions, the number of studies on the relationship between motivation and LLSuse was modest What is more, the approaches to motivation were not consistentand comprehensive in these studies despite the development of research onmotivation field Most of the previous studies emphasized on the relationshipbetween motivation level and LLS use without paying attention to motivation types

In addition, one can notice that although the correlation between motivation and theuse of LLSs were discussed to some extent (Al-Qahtani, 2013; Khamkhien, 2010;Lau & Chan, 2003; Liu et al., 2014; Mochizuki, 1999; Oxford & Nyikos, 1989),little was known about the predictive power of motivation in explaining LLS use ofEFL learners

At Honda company context, there has never had any researches of languagelearning carried out Moreover, since 2015, Honda Motor Co announced widely thatthey are to make English the official language by around 2020, which means if anyemployees who cannot use English will be fired Simultaneously, all Honda staffmembers will be helped to take part in free English classes at the company in order toenhance their English skills These mean the learning and teaching context of thecompany staff members have undergone some changes Due to the above reasons, thispaper would take a deeper look at the relationship between motivation and the use ofLLSs, and the researcher decided to work with the case of Vietnamese employees atHonda company in Vinh Phuc, Vietnam, who are having extra classes

of English skills at their company which may lead to students‟ clearer motivationfor learning English.

In additions, in the context of Honda, the researcher did not choose toinvestigate the relationship between gender and LLSs because the majority ofVietnamese employees at Honda are male, so it may meet difficulties in collectingrespondents in proportion Besides, almost all Vietnamese staffs at Honda graduatedfrom universities of technical fields, or economic, and law, etc As a result, theirproficiency of English is quite the same at elementary, pre-intermediate andintermediate levels, which may give unvalued results if investigating the correlationbetween English proficiency and the use of LLSs Thus, this study was conductedwith an aim at expanding the understandings about the relationship betweenmotivation and LLSs use, especially on the role of motivation types in explainingand predicting the L2 learners‟ LLS use

In short, being aware of the rather new teaching and learning situation, thegap in research and the possibility of Vietnamese employees' increasing motivation

at Honda to learning English, the researcher designed this study to investigate the

relationship between the use of language learning strategy and their motivation for learning English of Vietnamese employees at Honda company, Vietnam 1.2 Significance of the study

As a study on the relationship between LLS use and motivation for learningEnglish of Vietnamese employees at Honda Vietnam for learning English, this workwould be of benefit for the target population, their English teacher and otherresearchers interested in the field

In the first place, this study is conducted with a hope to provide Vietnameseemployees at Honda Vietnam, to some extent, with knowledge of LLSs andencourage them to use these LLS in appropriate ways to enhance their languagelearning effect In additions, the research results would allow participants to knowmore their current use of LLS, their motivation in their learning English at presentand importantly, the correlation between these two elements is expected to be

concerned by learners and taken into their consideration Then, students may havesome changes in their choice of LLSs that are useful to their language learning andadjust their attitudes to their study actively and positively, so that their learning ismore interesting and effective.

As for their English teachers, they could base on the results of this work tofurther understand their students‟ use of LLS and their motivation After that,teachers can encourage and guide students to use LLS more effectively.Furthermore, they can even change the way of teaching or giving tasks, so that it ismore compatible and constructive for their students‟ motivation The adjustments incourse content or orientation could also be made for betterment

Last but not least, regarding the researchers who are interested in the same orrelated field, the researcher hope this paper could work as a reliable source ofreference and a basis for them to develop their works from

1.3 Objectives of the study and research questions

This study was conducted with an aim of exploring the relationship betweenmotivation and instructed LLSs use by Vietnamese employees at Honda co,Vietnam, especially the role of motivation types in explaining and predicting the L2learners‟ LLS use To fulfil this aim, firstly, this study focused on identifying theextent of the use of trained LLSs of Vietnamese employees at Honda Vietnam inlearning English Secondly, motivation types of respondents towards learningEnglish were investigated After that, this paper explored the relationship betweenrespondents‟ use of LLS and their motivation for English learning

In a nut shell, the study reported in this the thesis aims at answering threequestions below:

1 What is the range of instructed language learning strategies used by Vietnamese employees at Honda Vietnam?

2 What are Vietnamese employees‟ dominant types of motivation forEnglish language learning?

3 In what way does Vietnamese employees‟ use of language learning strategies correlate with their types of motivation for learning English?

1.4 Method of the study

The methods employed in this study to find out the answers to the proposedresearch questions are both qualitative and quantitative analyses

Quantitative analysis used in the process of data collection and analysis,which was conducted at Honda Company, Vietnam The instrument was aquestionnaire that includes fifty-statements of LLSs developed from the fifty-statement strategy inventory version 7.0 by Oxford (1989) and an adapted list ofnineteen items related to motivation types Following the phase of data collection isdata analysis to give the results for each research question and the topic of the study

Besides, with an aim at providing an understanding of the field for readersand a philosophy for the study, the researcher carried out to review, compare andevaluate a large amount of literature on LLSs and motivation by experts worldwide.These materials were then applied to construct the instrument and compare thefindings with the results of previous studies

Hopefully, this study could release meaningful and beneficial findings on therelationship between learners‟ use of language learning strategies and theirmotivation, so that certain contribution to Vietnamese employees‟ English learning

at Honda Vietnam could be made

1.5 Organization of the study

The study consists of 5 chapters

Chapter 1: Introduction of the research

Chapter 2: Literature review (Other researches on this topic are discussed)

Chapter 3: Methodology (the way the researcher collected the data as well as

analysis them is showed)

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion (features in learners‟ use)

Chapter 5: Conclusion

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Language learning strategies

2.1.1 Definitions and characteristics of language learning strategies

To be considered as one of the most vital elements contributing to learners‟success in language acquisition, language learning strategies defined and characterized

by a variety of scholars in the related field Early on, according to Tarone (1983), LLS

as “an attempt to develop linguistic and sociolinguistic competence in the targetlanguage – to incorporate these into one‟s inter-language competence” (p.67).Rubin(1987) later wrote that LLS “are strategies which contribute to the development of thelanguage system which the learners construct and affect learning directly” (p.22) Thelearning strategies also have been defined by O‟Malley and Chamot (1990:1) as

“special ways of processing information that enhance comprehension, learning, or retention of information” In line with them, Scarcella & Oxford (1992) mentioned

LLS as “specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques – such as seeking outconversation partners, or giving oneself encouragement to tackle a difficult languagetask- used by students to enhance their own learning” Obviously, a change of what is

emphasized in these definitions can be clearly seen that it shifts from finding out what they learn to how and why learners learn (Wenden 1991:11) Also, it is vital to note that

although there is a notorious relationship between leaner‟s language learning style andhis or her preferred LLS, LLS are distinct from learning styles, which refer to learner‟s

“natural, habitual, and preferred ways of absorbing, processing, and retaining newinformation and skills” (Reid, 1995, p.viii) Ellis (1994, p 532-533) affirmed that

“[s]trategies refer to both general approaches and specific actions or techniques used

to learn an L2”, and strategy use can be behavioral or mental, visible or invisible This

definition was consistent with the ideas of many other scholars in the field, especiallythose of O‟Malley and Chamot (1990) and Oxford (1989, 2001) Concerning whetherstrategy use necessitates consciousness or not, Ellis (1994), Oxford (2001), and Grabe(2009) agreed that learners make use of learning strategies

intentionally until they can implement them skillfully and automatically Above all,there was a consensus among these researchers that strategies affect directly andindirectly on learning process, exerting positive influence on students‟ task solving,language skill development, language proficiency, communicative competence,learning autonomy, self-confidence, and aiming at making the process of learningeasier and more feasible (Al-Qahtani, 2013; Dreyer & Oxford, 1996; “Author 2”,2005; Ellis, 1994; Matsumoto, Hiromori, & Nakayama, 2013; Moya, 2014; Nisbet,Tindal, & Arroyo, 2005; O‟Malley & Chamot, 1990; Oxford, 1990; Oxford, 2001;Oxford & Scarcella, 1992).

Regarding the LLS literature, this study now mentions a number of basiccharacteristics of language learning strategies that published in 2005 by Jacet (cited

in Kitakawa, 2008, p.151) First of all, LLS help learners to study language easierand contribute language acquisition (competence and performance) Secondly, LLSare “what learners can use consciously according to need and then allow them tobecome more responsible and self-directed Some LLS are behavioral (and,therefore, observable) while other are mental (and, therefore, not observable) Also,some LLS contribute directly while other contributes indirectly on inter-languagedevelopment The fifth is LLS are not distinguished by being good or not and justhave effectual way and non-effectual way LLS allow students to properly use thestrategies with appropriate guidance Finally, LLS use varies as a result of learner‟sinternal factors (sex, age, belief, aptitude, purpose, learning stage, culturalbackground, intelligence) and external factors (target language, task, environment,etc)”

2.1.2 Classification of learning strategies

Through the years, a number of researchers released the systems of languagelearning strategies in their own way LLS are defined and classified in different wayfrom each other Therefore, this field of LLS is controversial (Oxford, 1990) Theresearchers on this field have not been shared the same view As a result, thequantity and classification of LLS are “inevitable” (Oxford, 1990)

In 1971, Rubin investigated the strategies used by “good language learners”when learning a second language with an aim to apply this to “poor languagelearner” Naiman et al (1976) agreed with researchers earlier on the significance oflearners‟ strategies to their learning process A new point is they identify “good”and “poor” language learners and they found out that “poor” language learnersappeared to use a smaller number and range of strategies than “good” learners It

was believed that good language learners are “willing and accurate guessers; have

a strong drive to communicate; are often uninhibited; are willing to make mistakes; focus on form by looking for patterns and analyzing; take advantage of all practice opportunities; monitor their speech as well as that of others; and pay attention to meaning”, and the students‟ process was under direct or indirect influence of LSs

(Rubin, 1975).The female expert came to her latest classification in 1987 with threemain groups of strategies that make a direct or indirect contribution to students‟

language learning: „learning strategies‟ (with „metacognitive strategies‟ and

„cognitive strategies‟ as subclasses), „communication strategies‟, and „social strategies‟ Among strategies included in the system, only cognitive ones directly

affect learning, while the rest indirectly However, Ellis (1986) argued thatsuccessful use of communication strategies may prevent language learning, forexample, being excel at guessing meaning may prevent the desire for learning

Another prominent way of categorizing LLS belonged to O‟Malley and

Chamot (1990) with three main types, namely cognitive (applying a particular

technique to a specific task, for example repeating, summarizing, note-taking,

reasoning and analyzing), meta-cognitive (related to the learning process, for example organizing, evaluating, planning and monitoring) and socio- affective

(involving oneself and others, for example co-operating with peers and seekingclarification) O‟Malley and Chamot (1990) emphasized the cognitive strategy isthe best one “repetition as the most frequently used strategy” and gave those classed

as cognitive a special consideration, maintaining that “students without cognitive approaches are essentially learners without direction or opportunity to

meta-plan their learning, monitor their progress, or review their accomplishments andfuture learning directions” It can be seen that the meta-cognitive and cognitivestrategies correspond roughly with Rubin‟s However, there was an addition of the

social ones, which essentially acknowledged the importance of interactional

strategies in language learning (Griffiths, 2004).

Basing on the predecessors‟ works, Oxford tried to develop a taxonomy thatdiscussed before in other researches in more detail, which was considered "the mostcomprehensive classification of learning strategies to date” (Ellis, 1994) Shedivided these strategies into two main classes, direct and indirect, which are further

subdivided into six categories (cognitive strategy that allows learners to understand and produce the target language in different means, memory strategy that helps learners to store and retrieve new information later, and compensation that provides

learners the means to communicate although their knowledge is limited (Oxford,1990) under the direct class; meta-cognitive, affective, and social under the indirect

class).Meta-cognitive strategies allow students to control their cognition and their own learning, affective strategies relates to regulate learners‟ emotion, motivation, and behaviors, and social strategies that permit learners study through interaction

with others

Following is the table contains detail information of specific strategies of eachgroup

Table 1: Oxford‟s (1990) language learning strategy taxonomy

strategies

B Applying images and(help learners to store new

soundslanguage information and

C Reviewing wellretrieve this later)

communicate despite limitations in speaking and

B Arranging and planning(facilitate students‟ control of

learningtheir cognition, their own

It is observable that Oxford‟s (1990) system was more specific than previousones in terms of primary strategies and more general in terms of secondary ones.

Especially, a difference from earlier inventories is that Oxford emphasis on affective

and social strategies This seems to match with her assertion when mentioning to six

10

fundamental strategies in language learning as “tools for active, self-directed

involvement, which is essential for developing communicative competence”

Although there are differences of approaches and emphases, the strategies that are discussed and classified by researchers are similar to some extent Particularly, threetypes of cognitive, memory and compensation given by Oxford correspond to that

by O‟Malley‟s cognitive group These strategies are mental and physical actions affecting their learning input directly Also, O‟Malley and Oxford have the same kind of meta-cognitive strategies as mentioned earlier Finally, social-affective strategies by O‟Malley seem to almost cover two groups of affective and social strategies of Oxford The advantage of Oxford‟s classification in comparison with others is that the list could cover all other particular actions or activities in language learning; therefore, the system has been considered a very comprehensive, detailed and systematic taxonomy of strategies (Brown, 2007; Ellis, 1994) More

importantly, based on this taxonomy, Oxford (1989) created the Strategy Inventory

of Language Learning (SILL), which is a questionnaire on how students use the LLSs in their language learning The version for speakers of other languages

learning English of the SILL (Oxford, 1989) has been widely employed by

researchers in the field, and it served as the instrument of this study as well

Concerning previous studies, several have investigated the frequency ofusing LLS by L2 learners, but the findings were different across studies Forexample, metacognitive and cognitive strategies were revealed to be the mostfrequently used in Al-Hebaishi (2012), Al-Qahtani (2013), and Chand (2014) In themeantime, Hayati (2015) found the students made use of metacognitive andmemory strategies the most Differently, in Mochizuki (1999), Oxford and Ehrman(1995), compensation group was used the most often by L2 students However, theinconclusive findings were understandable because the participant samples haddifferent characteristics (different study levels, different learning settings, to namebut a few), and it has been acknowledged that learning strategies were likely to beaffected by many factors, which would be discussed later in this paper

2.1.3 The role of language learning strategies in language learning and

teaching

Obviously, the definitions and classifications mentioned above revealedsome roles of LLS LLS facilitate positively the language learning process as theyare used to “enhance comprehension, learning, or retention of information”(O‟Malley and Chamot (1990:1) Sharing the same view, Oxford (2001) claims therole of LLS that is to “aid acquisition”, “make learning easier, faster, moreenjoyable, more self-directed, more effective and more transferable to newsituation”

In addition, the positive impacts of LLS is also pointed out in the relationshipbetween learners‟ language proficiency and language strategy use that proved in thefindings of Nisbet et al (2005) and Oxford‟s report on South Africa learners in1996

Considering communicative approaches, Oxford (1990) claimed the role ofLLS in help “communicative competence” to be improved, LLS as “tools for active,self-directed involvement which is essential for developing communicativecompetence” (1990, p.1)

LLS also plays a significant role on enhancing language skill (Fedderholddt,1997) Each type of strategies helps to improve certain skills such as monitoring andregulating their own learning (meta-cognitive), learning and exploiting materials(cognitive) and asking other speakers to correct mistakes (social/ effective).Obviously, these skills are of necessary to the growth of learners‟ independence andautonomy (Fedderholdt, 1997) and thanks to them, students also have able tobecome better language learners (Lessard-Clouston,1997)

In addition, the suitable use of LLS could lead to students‟ “greater confidence” in classrooms, self-study and real-life communication (Oxford &Scarcella, 1992, p.63)

self-Moreover, LLS are considered as valuable clues that provide languageteachers a general picture of how their students handle, evaluate the situation, plan,

choose appropriate skills with an aim to understand, and digest language inputpresented in the classroom As a result, teachers have plan to train and adjust theirstudents in order that they can learn more effectively.

Generally, LLS become a significant part in students‟ language proficiency,skills, achievement, communicative competence, learning autonomy andconfidence Besides, these strategies also help language teaching to be moreeffective Indeed, LLS have overwhelming power to language learning andteaching

2.2 Motivation in language learning

2.2.1 Definitions of motivation

Unlike the exploration of LLS, motivation is put into research with a stablebase right from the start thanks to careful and thorough studies of influential authors

such as Gardner and his colleagues such as Lambert Nevertheless, the

controversy of conceptualizing motivation can be still not evaded

Being one of the pioneering researchers in this field, Gardner (1985) proposedneatly three constituents of motivation namely „effort‟, „desire‟, and „attitudes‟ to

learning activity By ‘effort’, the scholar meant time for language learning and the drive of the learner Next, by ‘desire’, the students‟ degree of the want to improve their language proficiency was referred to Finally, ‘attitudes’ showed the learners‟ emotional behaviors or reactions in their process of learning Meanwhile, Brown-the

behaviorist (2000) later claims that motivation simply is “the anticipation of reward”; itconcerns mainly learners‟ effort and decisions According to Ahåt (2013), Deci andRyan (1985), Dörnyei and Skehan (2003), Gardner and Lambert (1972), Gardner andMasgoret (2003), Hashemian and Soureshijani (2011), Khodadady and Khajavy (2013),Wigfield (2000), and Yu (2013), motivation plays a prominent role in L2 learning andachievement; more specifically, the motivated students could recognize their goals,exert more effort to handle the tasks, have more aspiration and less anxiety, enjoy

learning activities, draw lessons from success and failure, exploit

LLSs as an effective tool to reach the goals, and are likely to achieve higher

foreign language proficiency than the unmotivated.

Considering the definition of motivation, Harmer (1991,p.3) proposes it isregarded as “internal drive” that forces learners to do something Sharing the sameperspective, Brown (2000, p.160) also claims the “internal drive” pushing people to

do to gain Similarly, Atkinson (cited in Arnorld, 2000, p.13) considered motivation

“a cluster of factors that “energize” the behaviors and give it “direction””

Later on, in 2003, Dornyei- a famous figure in the field, defined motivation

as a process of “the dynamically changing cumulative arousal in a person” thatconcerns the reasons that promote someone‟s action, how long they will keep thataction, and how they are willing to make effort in order to pursue it Dornyei‟sconcept of motivation also matches with his construct of three phases of motivation,that are choice motivation (pre-actional stage), executive motivation (actional stage)and motivational retrospection (post-actional stage where learners analyze actionalphase) (2003) Dornyei‟s mindset have some similarities to Wlodwoski‟s althoughthe latter‟s view dated back to 1985

In his research, in 1994, Ellis also confirmed that motivation has a significantinfluence on the degree to which language learners last their learning, the types ofbehavior they apply, and their actual achievement This was reemphasized with hisidea in 2003: “motivation involves the attitudes and affective states that influencethe degree of effort that learners make to learn an L2” (p.75)

In general, although there is a variety of different definition of motivation,the authors‟ conceptualization mentioned earlier shared the same view, thatmotivation makes learners‟ spirit stronger and direct their action and carry out theirgoal in learning language

2.2.2 Types of motivation in language learning

Defining motivation types also garnered a lot of attention Gardner (1983),Gardner and Lambert (1972) posited that there were two types of motivation in

language learning: integrative versus instrumental motivation The former refers to

the reasons mainly related to the learners‟ identification with the society (Gardner,1983) or their desires and willingness to explore more about the culture of theregion using the target language, to connect more with the community and peoplespeaking that target language or to be a member of that society (Gardner andLambert, 1972, Saville-Troike, 2006) Similarly, Wilkins (1972) suggested that anintegratively motivated language learner wants to “know more of the culture andvalues of the foreign language group…to make contact with the speakers of thelanguages…to live in the country concerned” (p 184) A typical illustration is theact of learning French of many English speaking Canadians (Ellis, 2003) Incontrast, the latter is derived purely from practical reasons or non-interpersonalpurposes such as admission requirements, business opportunity or job promotion(Gardner & Lambert, 1972; Saville-Trike, 2006).For example, when a leaner study

to “pass an examination to use it in one's job, to use it in holiday in the country, as achange from watching television, because the educational system requires it”, (s)he

is instrumentally motivated (Wilkins, 1972, p.184)

While both motivation types were theorized to be essential elements ofsuccess, Csizer and Dörnyei (2005), Yu (2013) found integrative motivation themore powerful contributor to success in L2 learning Nonetheless, Dörnyei (1990),Gupta and Woldemariam (2011), Lukmani (1972), Rehman et al (2014), Wardenand Lin (2000), Yu (2014) showed that in EFL contexts where learners have fewopportunities to using the foreign language or interact with foreigners, instrumentalmotivation was more important and students were motivated more strongly byinstrumental reasons than integrative one Thus, it is understandable when a learnerwith an instrumental reason such as a need to get promotion, read document ofrelated-field in target language or necessary qualifications is more interested inlearning English in some contexts like Vietnam

Other researchers, later on, raised another well-known categorization whichdifferentiated between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation Specifically, according toSelf-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985), learning motivation‟s types are

categorized “based on the different reasons or goals that give rise to an action” that

are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation Whilst intrinsic motivation means “doing

something because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable‟, extrinsic motivationrefers to “doing something because it leads to a separable outcome” such as havinggood grades, or receiving compliments from others (Deci & Ryan, 1985, p 55)

Sharing the same view to Deci & Ryan, Harmer (1994) defines intrinsicmotivation in related to elements appeared within a class, while extrinsic motivationincludes affected factors exterior of class such as a need to pass the examinations,hope to get reward, or able to get a vacation in the future In addition, intrinsicmotivation refers to learners‟ attitude, belief, needs and personal elements In thiscase, the students will still learn willingly and voluntarily what they consider asworth and essential (Arnold, 2000) On the contrary, extrinsic motivation derivesfrom each individual and involved in external forces or outcome such as grade orteacher that help to shape learner‟s behaviors and push the learner to engage inlearning activity In general, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are not mutuallyexclusive, but mutualize each other In reality, almost people study English because

of both types of motivation As for Harmer (1991, p.4), he saw both integrative andinstrumental motivations as extrinsic motivation

In Deci and Ryan‟s opinion (1985), being extrinsically motivated could dosome harm to learning That is, when the rewards or even the punishment disappear,there is a high chance of losing motivation in students However, some researchersindicated that extrinsic motivation is effective for those with little motivation.Concerning intrinsic type, Lightbown and Spada (1999) agreed that it brings noharmful effects because the needs derive from inside This motivation type was alsoconsidered the underlying factor in L2 learning success (Baleghizadeh & Rahimi,2011; Grabe, 2009; Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000; Liu et al., 2014)

Another type was discussed by Ellis (2003, p 75): „resultative motivation’.

All above sorts of motivation have been identified based on the assumption thatmotivation stimulates language learning and contributes to achievement; however, in

many cases, motivation could result from learning (Ellis, 2003) This scholarreasoned that success and sense of achievement in language learning could sustainexisting level of motivation or may cause more or, in some context, even lessmotivation.

Besides, Ellis (2003) seems to imply that integrative, instrumental andresultative categories all belong to extrinsic motivation because in Ellis‟sclassification there are four types: integrative, instrumental, resultative, and intrinsiccategories In this research, Ellis‟s system of motivation was applied due to the factthat it covered all main types of motivation discovered previously

2.3 Language learning strategies and motivation in language learning

The factors affecting L2 learners‟ strategy use have been investigated by avariety of increasing researchers Although discussed in just a few studies, thestrong relationship between L2 learning strategy use and motivation was recorded

In a research of foreign language learners in Midwestern America, Oxford andNyikos (1989) stated that among many factors, motivation was the most influential

and “the degree of expressed motivation was the single most powerful influence on

the choice of language learning strategies” More particularly, the level of

motivation has a positive correlation with the number and the frequency of

strategies students apply The superiority of motivation over study experience,gender, study major, English proficiency, enjoyment, etc., in correlating with andaffecting LLS choice and use was supported in Khamkhien (2010), Lau and Chan(2003), and Mochizuki (1999) Besides, significant correlation between LLS useand motivation was also reported in Al-Qahtani (2013), Baleghizadeh and Rahimi(2011), Gupta and Woldemariam (2011), Liu et al (2014), Matsumoto, Hiromori,and Nakayama (2013), and Xu (2011)

Moreover, this relationship between LLS use and motivation was found to bemediated by different strategies and motivation types Schmidt and Watanabe‟s (2001)results showed that cognitive and metacognitive were correlated most strongly withmotivation In Oxford and Nyikos (1989), it was reported that the students‟

instrumental desire was not interrelated with communication strategies However,the opposite was found in Ehrman (1990) In the meantime, Al-Qahtani (2013)suggested that both integrative and instrumental strategies significantly correlatedwith LLS use, but the former possessed the higher correlation For intrinsic andextrinsic motivation, Vandergrift (2005), Baleghizadeh and Rahimi (2011) showedthat both were significantly correlated with strategies.

The above listed studies had some undeniable strengths For example, Oxfordand Nyikos (1989), Schmidt and Watanabe‟s (2001) recruited a huge number ofparticipants (1200 and 2089 respectively), and in Oxford and Nyikos (1989) there was

a large amount of evidence for the SILL‟s reliability and validity However, thereexisted some gaps and limitations In Gupta and Woldemariam (2011), Lau and Chan(2003), Matsumoto, Hiromori, and Nakayama (2013), Vandergrift (2005), the focalattention of their research was the strategies for only one in four English skills (writing,strategies, reading strategies, and listening strategies), which cannot cover all the range

of LLSs Similarly, Baleghizadeh and Rahimi‟s (2011) research was confined to onlymetacognitive strategies For some other studies, the measurement of motivation wasnot so well-developed In Khamkhien (2010), Mochizuki (1999), Oxford and Nyikos(1989), the number of items pertaining to motivation was relatively small (thirteen, one,and six respectively) What is more, Khamkhien (2010), Oxford and Nyikos (1989)only employed the two-point scale questions in the motivation questionnaires (stronglyagree/moderately agree and yes/no respectively), which might not reflect exactly thestudents‟ opinion and their level of motivation In addition, many of the studiesinvestigating LLS use and motivation relationship only scrutinized one or two types ofmotivation or did not clarify the motivation types investigated Several did not reportthe results for each motivation types as well Besides, some scholar noted thatmotivation is not stable in many cases (Dörnyei & Skehan, 2003) and often changes as

a function of study results, social and classroom setting, beliefs, and feelings (Grabe,2009; Mazumder, 2014; Waninge, Bot, & Dörnyei, 2014; Xu & Case, 2015) Asidefrom this, different motivation types could

be beneficial in different contexts as argued by Brown (2007) Therefore, the results

of previous investigations are not always applicable to a certain place of anothercontext On top of that, the majority of previous studies in the field merelyconducted correlation analysis while the causality in the LLS use and motivationrelationship is worth investigating Conspicuously, further researches are necessary,especially in L2 context where the shortage of research exactly addressing therelationship between LLS use and motivation types into consideration exists

To sum up, it would appear that there exists a relationship betweenmotivation and which LLSs the learners use and how often these strategies wereutilized Nevertheless, the effects of different strategy groups and motivation types

on the relationship have not been clarified well enough in the past Thus, along withthe room for improvement in previous research, became the rationale behind thepresent study

Summary: In this chapter, two main aspects of the research that are LLS and

motivation mentioned by providing some scholars‟ viewpoints In other words, theirconcepts, classification are listed, analyzed, compared with each other Finally, therelationship between how learners‟ use of LLS and their motivation are handled asthe last part These contents are pointed out with an aim as a base to build up thequestions in the questionnaire and the determination of the research design, both ofwhich are presented in the following chapter

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research questions

This study examines 3 research questions:

1 What is the range of instructed language learning strategies used by Vietnamese employees at Honda Company?

2 What are Vietnamese employees‟ dominant types of motivation for Englishlanguage learning?

3 In what way does Vietnamese employees‟ use of instructed language leaning strategies correlate with their types of motivation for learning English?

3.2 Participants

150 in a total of 1500 Vietnamese employees at Honda co in Vinh Phuc,Vietnam were selected on the basis of their voluntary participation to be the samplefor this study and helped to find answers to three above questions

Participants were chosen from all three English classes at Honda Co Thereare two semesters for learning English at Honda Co every year Basing on theresults of their placement test at the beginning of each semester, employees weredistributed into suitable English classes at three levels: Elementary, intermediateand advanced Nevertheless, there were a small number of employees engaged inclasses of elementary level and advanced level every semester; therefore, this studycould be said to be solely focused on the intermediate level participants

The course session lasted 32 lessons and the course book used through the

course entitled New English File at intermediate level, which develops four all

students‟ language skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing In a short time,the English classes aim at encouraging and helping employees in learning English

as much effective as possible with an aim at satisfying conditions as the company‟s

policy publicized in 2015; therefore, English teachers cooperated with each other tomake a list of language learning strategies must be used and included for teachingthem in curriculum That is, in addition to training students four English skills based

on knowledge arranged in course book, students were learned about languagelearning strategies to develop their vocabulary, grammar, and their ability ofcommunication There were some typical examples that teachers usually made use

of to teach language learning strategies as followed: Firstly, for improving the

participants‟ new words, students were required to make some sentences used that

word Besides, teachers often encourage students to think of situations (make a mental picture) that the new words could be used In some other cases, teachers

used synonym words or called some students stood in front of the class to act outthe new words, the rest of students guessed what it is Secondly, to developstudents‟ communication ability, English was the only language used in the classes,

so students are encouraged to ask their teacher or pairs to say it again or slow down

if they misunderstood Also, teachers created a friendly study environment to dealwith cases of shy students Moreover, students were free to make gestures or usedknown words or phrases to express the unknown words Finally, for strategies ofenhancing the fluency of English grammar, teachers often provided students withshort sample emails or letters at the end of each lesson, and required them to read,find out the patterns of each sentence and write respective answer emails or letters

at home and then, submitted those for correction in the following lesson

The researcher came to all three classes explaining about the research, andasking for students‟ voluntary participation Then, the questionnaires were provided

to all students who agreed to participate in these classes After excluding somequestionnaires which were not filled in completely, 120 questionnaires were used asdata for the study

The samples have some basic features such as: they are all Vietnameseemployees at Honda Company, 32 are female and 88 are male The period of timethat they have worked at Honda is from one to ten years Their major is not English

and their first language is Vietnamese Besides, their range of age is from 23 to 35

years old They studied the same English curriculum and course book entitled New

English File mostly at intermediate level Moreover, reformed project of English

throughout the company publicized in 2015 and applied since 2020 would decidejob opportunity of existing workers and caused great effect on their Englishlearning Therefore, this is a chance for them to improve English skills; and theresearcher think this may lead to employees‟ better motivation for learning English.Thus, exploring employees‟ type of motivation and their use of language learningstrategies is the focus of the study

3.3 Data collection methods

3.3.1 Data collection instrument

This study uses the data collection instrument that is a questionnaireconsisting of two major sections: one pertained to the participants‟ use of LLSs, andthe other was about their motivation to learn English (See Appendix 1)

The first section in this study was to find out LLSs used by Vietnameseemployees at Honda Company, i.e answering research question number one Theresearcher adapted Oxford‟s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL)version 7.0 Oxford (1989) invented the SILL, based on her taxonomy, and theversion 7.0 is designed for speakers of other languages learning English as a second

or foreign language Oxford‟s instrument consisted of a background questionnaireand a list of LLSs Nevertheless, the part of background questionnaire by Oxfordwas excluded in this paper because two studies‟ objectives are different from eachother In her research, Oxford worked on variables influence on choice of LLSs byuniversity student; therefore, she included background questionnaire that shementioned some other elements such as mother tongue or English proficiency.Meanwhile, this study concentrated on the relationship between the use of instructedLLSs and motivation for learning English, which was a smaller area compared withOxford‟s As a result, some questions were not related to the situation of this study.Besides, considering questions that concerning motivation in

Oxford‟s instrument only covered two motivation types and was not enough for athesis focusing more on motivation Consequently, this paper included four types ofmotivation in the second section Apart from the background questionnaire, thisstudy adopted the list of LLSs designed by Oxford as the main instrumentation thatsystematically covered four English skills of listening, reading, speaking andwriting and were completely concluded from her taxonomy of LLSs For ages, avariety of scholars have demonstrated the efficiency of this strategy questionnaire.

In Oxford‟s point of view, answering a strategy questionnaire like the SILL mayeven help participants understand themselves more because they can self-score andhave feedback right after completing (1992, p.33) Additionally, in his work, Ellis

(1994) claimed that this Oxford‟s piece of research is “perhaps the most

comprehensive classification of learning strategies to date” Moreover, through a

number of tests, researches, and reviews, this Oxford‟s product has been proven to

be high in reliability and validity (Oxford & Nyikos, 1989) Because the participantsare in non-English major and workers, the researcher of this study translated theSILL into Vietnamese with an aim to help participants can fully understand everyword in the SILL To make sure, the author also piloted the questionnaire with somestudents who are now workers at Honda company The result was that nounsuitability was found Students in the pilot study also did not meet any difficulty

in choosing the answers under the scale of five points As a result, this study usedOxford‟s instrument for LLSs for the first section without any changes

The first section of the questionnaire adopted fifty closed-ended questions, ormore exactly, fifty statements used in the forms of rating scales in the SILL by Oxford(1989) with a role of measuring students‟ level of employing English LSs There were

six parts A, B, C, D, E and F corresponding to Oxford‟s six types of LLSs: memory

cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective, and social strategies respectively,

and they contained respectively nine, fourteen, six, nine, six,

and six items Each group was composed of the statements mentioning strategies used

by language learners, for example, “I review English lessons often, I read English

without looking up every new word” Particularly, for this section, the participants

were required to rate how true these statements were for themselves on the scale of

five options: (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) always or almost true of me The

respondent never uses that strategy if he or she chooses level 1, and it is the otherway round for the selection of level 5 Oxford (1989) also suggested the way tointerpret the mean scores of the students‟ self-ratings If the means are equal 4.5 orabove (out of 5), the strategies are always or almost always used; if from 3.5 to lessthan 4.5, the strategies are usually used; if from 2.5 to less than 3.5, the frequency ismedium, and the strategies are sometimes used; if from 1.5 to less than 2.5, thestrategies generally are not used; if the mean is less than 1.5, the strategies are never

or almost never used This scale was applied to interpret the results in this study aswell In additions, the author included an open-ended question as the questionnumber 51 of language learning strategies that respondents use but this study failed

to list (if any)

The second section of the questionnaire included 19 statements as to thestudents‟ motivation types These statements were divided into four parts of

integrative, instrumental, resultative, and intrinsic motivation In the first two

parts, the items were adapted from Gardner (1985) and Hernandez (2006) The fouritems in the integrative motivation part mentioned learners‟ desires to know thelanguage, the English culture and the people especially who come from Englishspeaking regions Conversely, the eight items of the instrumental motivation part wereabout practical reasons to learn English, for example, the helpfulness of English intraveling and working in oversea environment, in getting better jobs, qualifications.Next, adjusted from the investigation of Madrid and Pérez (2001), three items of thethird part were designed to have information about learners‟ resultative motivation.Particularly, these items helped to identify if the study results affect negatively orpositively students‟ motivation and how strong the influences are Finally, intrinsic

type was discussed in the last part with three items asking about learners‟ love andenjoyment for learning English itself These items were from Tsai and Chang‟s(2013) questionnaire.

Besides, this section of the questionnaire also applied the 5-point Likert ranging from

(1) strongly disagree to (2) disagree, (3) neither, (4) agree and (5) strongly agree.

Moreover, the way to interpret the mean scores into the degree to which the studentswere motivated to learn English was made compatible with the system used for thefrequency of LLS use presented above That is, if the mean scores were equal 4.5/5

or higher, the students‟ motivation was considered extremely high; if from 3.5 toless than 4.5, their motivation was high, if from 2.5 to less than 3.5, it was atmedium level; if from 1.5 to less than 2.5, their motivation was low; if less than 1.5,the students were not motivated at all, or extremely low

Data and results from all statements in two sections of the questionnaire areused to find the answers for the research question three, that is the correlation (if any)between learners‟ use of instructed LLSs and their motivation in English learning

3.3.2 Data collection procedure

The researcher conducted a pilot study with a group of ten Vietnameseemployees at Honda Vietnam with an aim to discuss with this group and find outand correct any mistakes, ambiguity and misunderstanding, so that these could beavoided in the full scale study Then, thanks to the research expert‟s opinion, theresearcher finalized the questionnaire and administered it to the respondents

When delivering, the author helped the respondents to understand the topic andobjective of the questionnaire Moreover, in order that participants could be fully aware

of what systems of options were used in the questionnaire, what they had to read anddecide on, where they could put the ticks and write their basic information to completethe questionnaire, the overall guide was given in Vietnamese orally The researcherdirectly observed the respondents‟ process of filling the form and welcomed them toraise their voice if they did not understand anything or wanted to

give any suggestions The author was always ready to explain everything to theparticipants.

The researcher also met some difficulties in distributing questionnaires Afew employees were not confident to fill in the questionnaire because they were notgood at English, and afraid that their responses would negatively affect the results

of the research Others seemed to just put ticks to finish without having a look at thestatements To deal with this problem, the researcher had to emphasize what theauthor needs are reliable results that did not concern respondents‟ Englishproficiency and explained in person but briefly to them the importance of theiranswers to the study and said “thank you” in advance

Finally, the uncompleted answers or those with seemingly random ticks wereexcluded, and only the completed questionnaires were collected and counted Theseanswers were used for data analysis

3.4 Data analysis procedure

After collecting questionnaire, the researcher carried out to analyze data insome steps Firstly, items were categorized according to related research question.Then, the data was converted into numerical form using the SPSS program version16.0 in which all the variables (questions in the questionnaires) are ordinal

The range of language strategies used by the participants and their types ofmotivation were investigated in the rating scales so that results collected couldanswer the first two research questions The frequency of each option wascalculated and displayed in percentage terms Data were illustrated by means oftables and stacked bar charts

The last research question is about the correlation between respondents‟ use

of LLS and their motivation To see the relationship between the frequency of usingLLS and their motivation, a Spearman-rho test, which is a test to find out thecorrelation of ordinal variables, was employed Spearman‟s correlation is astatistical measure of the strength of a monotonic relationship between paired data

(which are LLS frequency and motivation level in this study) and it is denoted by r

of which the value is such that -1 < r < +1 The closer r is to +1 or -1, the strongerthe monotonic relationship While positive values indicate a relationship such that

as values for one increase, values for the other also increase, negative valuesindicate a relationship such that as values for one increase, values for the otherdecrease Ratner (2004) provided guidelines for interpreting the strength ofcorrelation:

r = 0 indicates no linear relationship or no correlation, i.e there is notendency for one variable to either increase or decrease when the other increases

r values from more than 0 to less than +0.3 (from more than -0.3 to less than0) indicate a weak correlation

r values from 0.3 to less than 0.7 (from more than -0.7 to -0.3) indicate amoderate correlation

r values from 0.7 to less than 1.0 (from more than -1.0 to -0.7) indicate astrong correlation

r = +1 or -1 indicates a perfect linear relationship: as one variable increases(decreases) in its values, the other variable also increases (decreases) via an exactlinear rule

Furthermore, Spearman-rho test in SPSS also provided p-value along withthe r value This p-value was to decide whether there is any evidence to suggest thatmonotonic correlation is absent in the population It is believed that a small p(traditionally less than 0.05) gives strong evidence against the null hypothesis – theabsence of correlation, and the null hypothesis could be rejected (Rumsey, 2011) Acorrelation with p value less than 0.05 is statistically significant In this thesis, asmall p value approved the likelihood of a monotonic correlation between LLS useand the population‟s motivation for learning English and that correlation werestatistically significant

Finally, the data which were converted and presented in the previous stepwould be interpreted By analyzing, the choice of groups of instructed LLSs and the

frequency and popularity of the use by Vietnamese employees at Honda Co cameout Apart from that, which reasons for learning English and indications ofmotivation are agreed by the biggest number of participant were also found out anddominant motivation types or the types with the highest reported level of motivationwere revealed As for the third research question, the values of r and p describe howthe respondents‟ use of LLS and their motivation level related to each other Itmeans that whether the two related significantly or strongly to each other or notwere found The relation may be between a group of LLSs and a type of motivation.Moreover, a comparison was made to find statistically significant and strongestrelations Eventually, conclusions were drawn for each question in the questionnaireand each research question.

Summary: This chapter has showed the methodology applied in this research by

means of a questionnaire with elaborating questions for 120 Vietnamese employees

at Honda co In the chapter, the process from collecting data to analyzing them isemphasized on: voluntary sampling was used at first, then questionnaires weredistributed to the sample All participants‟ confusions were clarified and theirsuggestion was also taken into consideration to make an amendment to thequestionnaire The questionnaire‟s format and content were explained carefully inthis chapter The results collected were then transferred into numerical forms andpresented in charts and graphs This presentation of the methodology would helpmake the easier way for studying the next chapter

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 The range of language learning strategies used by Vietnamese

employees at Honda Company, Vietnam.

4.1.1 Memory strategies

Firstly, the range of the first group of direct strategies- memory strategies

employed by the Vietnamese employees is found with detailed information shown

in the chart below

31,5

27,4

42,5 40%

4,1 2,7 4,1

0 0%

LLS1 LLS2 LLS3 LLS4 LLS5 LLS6 LLS7 LLS8 LLS9

Somewhat true of me Usually not true of me Never or almost never true of me

Figure 1: Frequency of using memory strategies

The statistic data show that all the memory strategies in the list are used by amajority of the respondents in their language learning The number of employeeswho never uses a specific strategy fluctuates only from 2.7% to 16.4% across the

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