(Luận văn thạc sĩ) application of VARK learning styles model in promoting motivation of non english major students in english class in a police institution

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ************* NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ THƯƠNG APPLICATION OF VARK LEARNING

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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

NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ THƯƠNG

APPLICATION OF VARK LEARNING STYLES MODEL

IN PROMOTING MOTIVATION OF NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

IN ENGLISH CLASS IN A POLICE INSTITUTION

(Ứng dụng của mô hình học tập VARK trong việc nâng cao động lực học tập

cho sinh viên không chuyên trong giờ học tiếng Anh tại một đơn vị giáo dục của Cảnh sát)

M.A THESIS (Applied program)

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01

Hanoi - 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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

NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ THƯƠNG

APPLICATION OF VARK LEARNING STYLES MODEL

IN PROMOTING MOTIVATION OF NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

IN ENGLISH CLASS IN A POLICE INSTITUTION

(Ứng dụng của mô hình học tập VARK trong việc nâng cao động lực học tập

cho sinh viên không chuyên trong giờ học tiếng Anh tại một đơn vị giáo dục của Cảnh sát)

M.A THESIS (Applied program)

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01

Supervisor : Dr Nguyễn Thị Mai Hương

Hanoi - 2019

ABSTRACT

This study was intended to investigate the application of VARK model to promote the motivational state of Non-English major students in a police institution More specifically, the author strived to implement her treatment within one cycle of an action research and aimed to examine (i) the students‟ opinion towards VARK model, and (ii) the effectiveness of VARK towards the motivational state of the students in learning English

To gain the above mentioned objectives, an action research project was conducted with the participant of 31 non-English major students at an academy

in Ministry of Public Security The data gathered from pre-treatment and treatment questionnaire distributed to the students, and interviews with some of the participants The duration of the treatment was 12 weeks and all the findings reported in this study reflect the result of one cycle of an action research project

post-It was shown that the majority of the students benefited from the model and their motivation was positively influenced The most outstanding evidence was found

in the participants‟ remarkable improvement in spending time for English after class hour and their increasing linguistic level in terms of higher expectation in English result and progress On the basis of the findings, it is suggested that it is important to adopt a new approach in teaching English to make the learning process more enjoyable

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research paper would not have been completed without the help of people

to whom I would like to express my deep gratitude

Firs and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr Nguyen Thi Mai Huong, my supervisor, for her wholehearted support, precious guidance which were decisive factor to the completion of my study

Also, I would like to give extend my special thanks to all the lecturers and officers working at the Postgraduate Faculty, University of Languages and International Studies, for their supporting me while I was studying and conducting this thesis

I would like to give my warmest thanks to all the research participants, my dear students Without their valuable opinions and ideas in the questionnaires and interviews, the research would not have been accomplished

Last but not least, I owe my colleagues at the Foreign Languages Department of The People‟s Police Academy and my family for their support Their patience and care which helped me go beyond what sometimes looks like an enormous task

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “ Application of VARK learning styles model in promoting motivation of non-English major students in English class in a police institution”, which is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Language Teaching Methodology at Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi is the result of my own work I have provided fully documented references to the work of others The material in this thesis has not been submitted for any other university or institution wholly and partially

Hanoi, 2019

Nguyen Thi Ha Thuong

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLIL : Content and language integrated learning VARK : Visual, Aural, Read/Write, Kinesthetic

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Mean scores of the 8 items on attitudes toward learning English 41 Table 2: Mean scores of the 8 items on the linguistic self-confidence 43 Table 3: Mean scores of the 7 items on students‟ classroom behaviors 45 Table 4: Mean scores of the 5 items on students‟ opinions towards the current teaching styles 46 Table 5: Mean scores of the 13 items on students‟ attitudes towards the VARK model 48 Table 6: Mean scores of the 3 items on students‟ attitudes towards learning English after participating in VARK teaching-learning model 50 Table 7: Mean scores of the 5 items on students‟ linguistic self-confidence after participating in VARK teaching-learning model 51 Table 8: Mean scores of the 7 items on students‟ classroom behavior after participating

in VARK teaching-learning model 52

Figure 1: Time for English after class 42 Figure 2: Students‟ willingness to volunteer and ability to understand instructions‟ guideline 44 Figure 3: Students‟ concentration and desire to take challenging exercises 45 Figure 4: Understanding about learner's preferences & styles and classroom atmosphere 47 Figure 5: Time for English after class 50

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

DECLARATION iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES v

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 4

1.3 Scope of the study 4

1.4 Methods of the study 5

1.5 Significance of the study 7

1.6 Structure of the thesis 8

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 10

2.1 An overview of motivation 10

2.1.1 Definition of motivation 10

2.1.2 Classifications of motivation 12

2.1.3 Components of foreign language learning motivation 16

2.2 Dörnyei’s framework for motivational strategies 17

2.2.1 Creating the basic motivational conditions 17

2.2.2 Generating initial motivation 18

2.2.3 Maintaining and protecting motivation 19

2.2.4 Rounding off the learning experience: encouraging positive self-evaluation 21

2.3 An overview of VARK model 23

2.3.1 What is VARK learning styles? 24

2.3.2 Understanding a visual preference 24

2.3.3 Understanding an aural preference 25

2.3.4 Understanding a read/write preference 26

2.3.5 Understanding a kinesthetic preference 26

2.4 Previous studies ……… 27

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 29

3.1 Research design 29

3.1.1 Rationale for the use of action research 29

3.1.2 The action procedure 30

3.2 Research context 34

3.2.1 The academy context 34

3.2.2 Current learning and teaching of English at the Academy 35

3.3 Research participants 36

3.4 Research instruments 37

3.4.1 Description of the questionnaires 37

3.4.2 Semi-structured interview 38

3.5 Data collection procedures 39

3.6 Data analysis procedures 39

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 41

4.1 Pre-treatment 41

4.1.1 The English language learning motivational state prior the treatment 41

4.1.2 The students‟ opinions towards the current teaching styles 46

4.2 Treatment and Post-treatment 47

4.2.1 Research question 1: What are students‟ opinions towards the VARK model? 47

4.2.2 Research question 2: How does the VARK model affect the students‟ motivational state in learning English? 49

4.3 Summary of the findings 53

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 55

5.1 Conclusion 55

5.2 Pedagogical implications from the findings 55

5.3 Limitations of the study 56 REFERENCES 58 APPENDICES I

APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 VIII APPENDIX 3 XII APPENDIX 4 XVI APPENDIX 5 XVII APPENDIX 6 XVIII APPENDIX 7 XXV

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the study

English is a global language which has been believed to be a vital key leading to success in such an integrated world According to Crystal (2006) report, this language is spoken as the first language by approximately 330 to 360 million people and the number of second-language speaker ranges greatly from 470 million to more than 1 billion When combining native and non-native speakers, English is the most widely spoken language worldwide In Vietnam, learning English has been a trend and students who are able to communicate fluently in English can gain some certain privilege and their future career can be ensured However, learners‟ attitude and motivation to learn English as a subject are not the same and differences are found among regions, institutions, and classrooms While some learners devote much of their time and effort in learning the target language, many appear to be unwilling and even indifferent to the necessity of mastering English This fact is a result coming from various factors among which motivation plays a considerably influential effect As Dörnyei (1994:273)

stated, “motivation is one of the main dominants of second/foreign language learning achievement.” Later, Dörnyei (2005: 65) emphasized the role of motivation since “motivation provides the primarily impetus to initiate second language learning and later the driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning process; indeed, all the other factors involved in second language acquisition presuppose motivation to some extent”

For nearly 5 years working at the institution, the author has talked with many non-major English students most of whom share the same feeling that English course is the most difficult one To pass the entrance exam to attend the institution, the students must gain a pretty high result but not all of them are confident in their language competence Passive classroom, unresponsive learners, silent atmosphere in language class are frequently met; the author even

finds it uneasy to stimulate the fairly advanced learners and make them have more active participation in the lessons

Although the students are required to gain B1 level as a condition to receive graduation paper, many of them feel reluctant to learn English and little progress

is made during the course As a language teacher, the author understands that she cannot effectively teach the target language if the relationship between motivation and its effect on language acquisition is not recognized and valued

As Epstein and Rogers (2001) explained, because motivation has a vital role in deciding academic success, teachers need to develop various abilities to promote students‟ motivational level This notion was agreed by Grolnick and Ryan (1987) when they emphasized the role of motivation which has been linked to

The department where the author has been working at was assigned by the Directorate Board to design a new English course book for the police students The title of the course book is “English for Police”, which has been applied in real teaching-learning since 2016 There are 2 „English for Police‟ course books with the target of A2 and B1 level (in the Common European framework of reference for languages) They provide a wide range of police-works-related topics, all the tasks and activities are designed to enable learners to practice the

4 communicative skills Since the content of the course books are about police works listed as investigation, surveillance, the penal code of Vietnam and so on,

it is challenging for both learners and teachers There have been many times the author heard about students‟ complaint about the pressure that they have undertaken while studying the English course Consequently, there arouses a necessity in employing a teaching-learning model which can help increase the learners‟ motivation and encourage them to participate in English classes

Stimulations will help students to be more attracted to learning sessions and instantly give attention to the lessons instructed by the teachers It is also true that teachers should be creative in diversifying education techniques in class by

addressing students‟ learning needs Effective learning method can draw students‟ interest and attention to the topic being taught Interest is an effective nature and also the key factor that influences students to learn, as Harackiewicz, Smith and Priniski (2016:220) pointed, “interest is a powerful motivational process that energies learning, guides academic and carrer trajectories and is essential to academic success.” Besides, in learning process, student diversity is

a factor which needs to be taken into consideration by teachers Drago and Wagner (2004) affirmed that students possess the diversity in learning styles which has become their priority and teachers should effectively deliver the course according to the students‟ needs Teachers should be aware that before planning their teaching process and assessment in classrooms, they should initially consider this diversity factor Teachers must create the right learning atmosphere with students‟ academic achievement and their needs, so that, various learning experience structure are assignable to all students There have been many structures and models proposed by experts since the idea of individualized learning styles became popular in the 1970s One of them is VAK developed by Walter Burke Barbe and colleagues in 1979 This notion of sensory was later expanded by Neil Fleming, his VARK model was launched in

1987 through work done at Lincoln University (Fleming, 2006) This includes diverse learning style such as visual, auditory, read or write and kinesthetic Each learner is a unique individual who has his own strength and preferences VARK learning styles model has great influence on the way teachers approach their classroom instruction It is vital to incorporate the intelligences and abilities to ignite students‟ competence so that they can reach the highest result

in learning process Personally, the author strongly believes that teachers can promote new possibilities for learning, with greater emphasis on long-term learning, this supports the development of students‟ creativity and critical thinking Besides, different teaching strategies can foster a collaborative classroom in which students comfortably explore themselves and direct their

own learning Once boundaries are extended, barriers are broken through; anxiety or discomfort will be diminished, then, learning process becomes more enjoyable

As Kemp, Morrison, Ross (1998) suggested, it is important for the effectiveness

of teaching environments to take account of group or individual learners‟ characteristics The author decided to choose VARK among many models to motivate students to have more engagement in learning English and then to motivate them practice their skills Although this model has received different viewpoints from experts and it has not been introduced widely in Vietnam, the decision was supported by a notion agreed by Murphy et al (2004), learning based on VARK learning style model provides a medium for self-knowledge and exploring opportunities in classrooms, thus, making a more productive learning experience and enjoyment among students The author hopes that students are given the opportunity to study in distinctive situations and presentation methods until they are capable to identify the most suitable technique and their own individual learning style

1.2 Aims of the study

The study was conducted with an attempt to find a way of making the learning English process more inspiring and enjoyable to a group of non-major first-year police students at the People‟s Police Academy The students were expected to have more involvement and play more active roles in classroom activities Among a wide variety of motivational models, the author chose VARK (Fleming, 2006) to attract students and encourage them participating in the learning process Specifically, it addressed the following research questions:

1 What are students‟ opinion towards VARK model?

2 How does the VARK model affect the students‟ motivational state in learning English?

1.3 Scope of the study

Motivation plays a significant role in the process of learning a language Language teachers cannot effectively teach a language if they do not understand

the relationship between motivation and its effect on language acquisition In this study, the author does not attempt to take all the aspects of the concept into consideration Due to time constraints, this action research just measured the English learning motivational state of 31 first year non-English major police students from group TC3-D43 at The People‟s Police Academy before and after the writer‟s treatment as the application of VARK model (Fleming, 2006) during their first semester of the English course All of them are from different majors who are required to take a placement test to join an English class to avoid the problem of multi-level learners The time when the research was conducted was

at the beginning of the second semester of the session 2017-2018 The researcher was also a participant who played the role of teacher appointed to be

in charge of the class from the beginning of the semester This promotes a consistent procedure in implementing this research The data collection instruments include the survey questionnaire, and semi-structured interview to achieve the purpose of the research Moreover, all the learning activities were designed to ensure that they satisfy the VARK features and follow the content of the course book

1.4 Methods of the study

The research approach that the author employed is action research which followed the procedures guided by steps in the action research cycle by Kemmis and McTaggart (1998) To come to the analysis and findings, the questionnaires, and semi-structured interview were adopted as the data collection instruments The action taken in the study was VARK model (Fleming, 2006) designed for the duration of 12 weeks and Dörnyei‟s framework of motivational strategies was adapted The four steps of the action proposed by Kemmis and McTaggart (1998) were implemented as followed:

Step 1: Planning

When the author recognized the low motivational state of most of non-English major students at the Academy, she decided to make changes to address the

student‟s needs Firstly, the VARK survey was conducted to investigate each student‟s learning styles and preferences Besides, pre-treatment questionnaires were distributed to each learner so that the researcher could understand and measure the participants‟ motivational state in learning English The participants were reminded not to write their names on the questionnaire and the researcher created friendly, welcome atmosphere to ensure that all the answers received would be honestly and freely made A report on types of students‟ learning styles and motivation in the learning process was listed in a table with analysis The data was analyzed to make a plan to tackle the issue The result suggested that the low level of motivation was resulted from classroom language activities which are not only dull but also fail to address learners‟ needs and learning styles Consequently, there arouses a need to adopt some new kinds of teaching-learning model like VARK (Fleming, 2006) to stimulus students‟ engagement and motivation because it helps the teachers explore the different preferences and talents of each learner The researcher played the role as a teacher who implemented detailed lesson plans and create appropriate activities as well as prepare all the tools, visual aids so that the new teaching approach can be applied in her classroom

Step 2: Acting

The VARK model is applied following some of Dörnyei‟s motivational strategies in classroom All the activities should be consistent to the units following the course syllabus In the first semester in which the action research

is implemented, learners are expected to gain level of A2

Step 3: Observing

After each period, the teacher wrote her teaching diary to notice any problems

that occurs The notes consist of 2 main parts: (1) descriptive information and (2) reflective information In the first part, the researcher documented detail

information about the factual and settings of the class, any classroom behaviours, conversations or discussions, any non-verbal conversations that she

noticed All the information helps reveal the participants‟ feelings, attitudes, thoughts about the tasks/activities they were enrolling in The teacher also tried

to note down if there were people who remained silent for more than 3 periods Besides, during the lesson, the teacher recorded the frequency of hand-raising from participants in the namelist to mark their contribution and improvement In the second part, the researcher recorded her thoughts, question that came up during observation This helps bring about an insight review of the lessons because the researcher can focus on her impressions of the class atmosphere, ideas concerning things she should or should not implement to design more suitable activities for the next period, and then have more concentration on unanswered questions or unsolved problems that remain These notes were reviewed so that the researcher can have immediate and appropriate adjustment for the next period Moreover, at the end of each lesson, she conducted a short mini-interview to investigate her students‟ feeling and encourage any suggestion for the next English lesson

Step 4: Reflecting

After the duration of 12 weeks, the post-treatment questionnaire was conducted

to evaluate the influence of the model on student‟s learning motivation 03 among the participants were randomly selected to complete the semi-structure interview so that the writer can gather more in-depth data All of these would help to come to the analysis and findings to answer all the research questions

1.5 Significance of the study

This study describes, analyzes, and evaluates a research project to investigate the effectiveness when applying VARK learning styles model (Fleming, 2006)

in promoting motivation in non-English major students when enrolling in languages class By conducting this research, it is hoped that the findings may help teachers to have a closer look at the current situation of applying VARK learning styles model (Fleming, 2006) in English classroom Teachers can investigate the success level when employing different types of activities in

developing students‟ proficiency Besides, teachers can look back their effort to integrate this learning styles in communicative class for themselves; hence the better quality of teaching and learning can be reached so that students can benefit from the activities

VARK learning styles model (Fleming, 2006) offers English language teachers a richly diversified way of understanding and categorizing human cognitive abilities, and combinations of abilities, heightening our awareness of what makes learning possible and effective for individual students By integrating VARK learning styles in the language classroom, teachers can easily approach the areas of personal meaningfulness of their students because they highlight the difference inherent in the students and employ appropriate activities that can ignite individuals‟ competence at the center of teaching and learning process All the four main types of learning styles (visual, auditory, reading/writing kinesthetic) can be brought into great consideration in the language classroom since they constitute distinct frames for working on the same linguistic content This diversity of presentations enables students to learn in their best way; at the same time, boredom in lessons can be reduced significantly since language learning requires frequent reviewing over the same material if learning is to be sustained

1.6 Structure of the thesis

This study is composed of five following parts:

Chapter 1: Introduction

It presents the back ground, aims, research questions, the significance, the scope and the design of the study

Chapter 2: Literature Review

This chapter conceptualizes the framework of the study through the discussion

of issues and ideas on definitions of motivations, types of motivation and VARK model

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

The third chapter presents the context, the methodology that was employed in the study including the subject, data collection instruments, data collection procedure and analysis

Chapter 4: Results and Discussions

The fourth chapter consists of a comprehensive analysis of the data and a discussion on the findings of the action research

Chapter 5: Conclusion

This last chapter proposes a summary of the findings, recommendations, limitations and directions for further study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter proposes a review of the literature related to motivation in learning English and VARK model In each section, the definition and explanation of the key terms is presented together with the studies worldwide

2.1 An overview of motivation

As Dörnyei (2001:1) agreed, “„motivation‟ is best seen as a broad umbrella term that covers a variety of meanings.” In the field of second and foreign language acquisition, the concept of motivation came from social psychology The initial purpose of this literature review is to discuss the motivation definition and types

of motivation

2.1.1 Definition of motivation

Motivation is a multifaceted construct and different researchers in psychology and other social science disciplines define it in many different ways Dörnyei (1998) argued on the exact definition of „motivation‟ He commented, “although

„motivation‟ is a term frequently used in both educational and research contexts,

it is rather surprising how little agreement there is in the literature with regard to the exact meaning of the concept” (p.117) The word “motivation” derives from

the Latin word “movere” and stands for „to move‟ According to The Short

Oxford English Dictionary, motivation is “that which moves or induces a person

to act in a certain way; a desire, fear, reason, etc which influences a person‟s volition: also often applied to a result or object which is desired.” However, to think of motivation as belonging only to the initial stages of an action, that is as concerned with arousing initial interest and turning it into a decision to engage

in some activity – is only a limited understanding of the term The need to maintain this state of arousal, to determine someone to make the necessary effort

to complete an action is also of great importance This notion was supported in a definition by William and Burden (1997:120) who defined motivation as “a state

of cognitive and emotional arousal which leads to a conscious decision to act, and which gives rise to a period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort in

order to attain a previously set goal (or goals).” Then, motivation is a concept which is usually associated with interest, commitment, enthusiasm, and persistence to achieve goals

Success in second language learning is often related to the concept of

„motivation‟ Motivation is the most used concept for explaining the failure or success of a language learner, as Dörnyei (2001:1) stated, “language teachers frequently use the term „motivation‟ when they describe successful or unsuccessful learners.” The term motivation in a second language learning context is seen according to Gardner (1985:10) as “referring to the extent to which the individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to

do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity.” He also explained the term with the precision of mathematical demonstration: motivation is a combination of effort plus desire to achieve a goal plus favorable attitudes towards the goal to be accomplished (Gardner, 1985:11) Then, motivation consists

of these following components: effort to achieve a goal, desire to learn the language, satisfaction with the language activity and attitudes towards the goal While a variety of definitions of the term “motivation” have been suggested, this paper will use the definition suggested by McDonough (2007:369) who saw it

as, “motivation is what moves us to act, in this context to learn English, to learn

to teach English, or to teach it.” He described motivation as a “property of the learner” which it is also a transitive concept and it can also come from a coach

or a teacher Especially in school, students are often unmotivated to follow the lesson wherefore their teachers should be able to motivate them Motivation is dynamic and changes over time, especially in the usually long-drawn out process of language learning It is thus remarkably complex and the teacher's role in influencing the learners‟ motivation central, and difficult It goes far beyond the provision of reward (itself dependent on the learner's self-efficacy)

It involves providing a supportive and challenging learning environment, but also facilitating the development of the learners‟ own motivational thinking,

beyond simply identifying their original orientation The author also takes another definition into consideration which was proposed by Crookes and Schmidt (1991), motivation involves interest in and enthusiasm for the materials used in class; persistence with the learning task, as indicated by levels of attention or action for an extended duration; and levels of concentration and enjoyment

In short, each approach to motivation reflects different perspectives and there exist differences in the teaching contexts, with different fields, in different teaching-learning conditions and even with different learners and teachers Most

of the educationalists and researchers identified the 3 components of motivation: the choice of learning a language, the effort expended on it and the persistence with it

into two orientations labelled integrative and instrumental which have

become the most widely known concepts associated with Gardner‟s work in the second language field

Integrative orientation refers to the positive disposition of an individual to learn

a language, its culture, and its community as Gardner (1985:82) defined as “a motivation to learn a second language because of positive feelings toward the community that speaks that language.” It is thought that students who are most successful when learning a target language are those who like the people that speak the language, admire the culture and have a desire to become familiar with

or even integrate into the society in which the language is used (Falk 1978)

When someone becomes a resident in a new community that uses the target language in its social interactions, integrative motivation is a key component in assisting the learner to develop some level of proficiency in the language It becomes a necessity, in order to operate socially in the community and become one of its members

On the other hand, instrumental orientation refers to the practical reasons of an

individual to learn a language This orientation is the utilitarian counterpart of integrative orientation in Gardner‟s theory, pertaining to the potential pragmatic gains of second language proficiency, such as getting a better job or a higher salary or gaining a scholarship This feature was stated in Hudson (2000) as the desire to obtain something practical or concrete from the study of a second language, and Gardner and Lambert (1959:267) when they mentioned the

“utilitarian value of linguistic achievement” Instrumental motivation is often characteristic of second language acquisition, where little or no social integration of the learner into a community using the target language takes place, or in some instances is even desired

There was disagreement about the effects of integrative and instrumental motivation on language learning As mentioned later by Gass and Selinker (2008), integrative motivation was regarded as superior to instrumental motivation for predicting the success of second language learning, because if students respect the target culture, they may read literature or practice the language and thereby be able to improve their language skills (Vaezi, 2008) However, argument can be found in Dörnyei (1990) who suggested that instrumental motivation could be more important than integrative motivation for foreign language learners since foreign language learners are not likely to have sufficient knowledge and experience to take part in the culture of the people who speak the target language in their early stage of language learning Over the past decade, different studies conducted worldwide revealed that instrumental motivation and integrative motivation play a supportive role

respectively in different situation, towards distinct respondents While it is agreed that integrative motivated learners might have a significant and strong reason to learn the second language, Gardner's emphasis on integrative motivation for language learning may not fit in all language learning situations (Schmidt, Boraie, and Kassabgy, 1999) Actually, integrative and instrumental motivations are not necessarily mutually exclusive Later, Brown (2000) stated that learners rarely have a single type of motivation when learning a second language The motivation of learning a second language is usually a combination of different forms of orientations He has cited an example of international students who are residents in the United States The international students learn English for academic purposes while wishing to be integrated with the people and culture of the country at the same time This example has clearly shown that integrative and instrumental motivations can mutually exist

In some cases, it is difficult to divide instrumental and integrative motivations Additionally, students‟ learning goals were broken up into different motivation clusters One of the most general and well-known distinctions in motivation

theories is that of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as Vallerand (1997)

reported As Schmidt et al (1996) cited in Carreira (2005), intrinsic-extrinsic distinction is similar to integrative-instrumental distinction, but not identical Deci and Ryan (1985) claimed that intrinsic motivation concerns behavior performed for its own sake in order to experience pleasure and satisfaction such

as the job of doing a particular activity or satisfying one‟s curiosity This notion

is later supported by Coon and Mitterer (2012), intrinsic motivation occurs when the individual acts without any obvious external rewards and he simply enjoys

an activity, take it as a chance to explore his potentials In brief, this type of motivation is internal; the individual invests time, money and energy in the chosen activity for personal reasons Unlike intrinsically motivated learner, a person who is extrinsically motivated might learn the target language even when

he or she has no interest in it, solely for the purpose of receiving the anticipated

reward or avoiding punishment Extrinsic motivation is driven by desire for reward from outside: parents, employers, teachers or others This type of motivation may have a negative purpose to avoid punishment, ridicule or loss of status (Ryan and Deci, 2000) and it also involves “performing a behavior as a

means to an end, that is to receive some kind of reward e.g good grades”

(Dörnyei, 2003:39) These rewards are “tangible benefits or cost, if the reason for learning the language is taken away there is no incentive to continue engagement in the learning process” (Dörnyei, 2003:39) In short, extrinsic motivation is external force drives a learner to learn a second language for tangible rewards or pressures, rather than for the fun of it

It is important to notice that motivation changes over time, as Dörnyei (2003) suggested And it cannot be viewed as a stable attribute of learning that remains constant for several months or years; however, a student‟s motivation fluctuates going through certain ebbs and flows Such variation may be caused by a “range

of factors, such as the phase of the school year, e.g motivation might decrease with time or the type of activity that the students face” (Dörnyei, 2003:21) This was earlier mentioned in Dörnyei and Schmidt (2001) that each individual‟s motivation for success at a given task are based on their attitudes, beliefs, their ability to have some sort of control over the task, the perceived value of the task, and the apparent competence for the task It could be concluded that each student processes the task and activities differently, and a person‟s motivation is not fixed, it can change in learning process Someone may start off with instrumental motivation but this develops later into integrative motivation Or, students may start with integrative motivation but later can lose over time their interest in learning a second language and change their motivation in an instrumental one Likewise, students in different contexts may be motivated to learn a second language by different orientations and their reasons to learn may root from intrinsic or extrinsic factors With different groups of learners, researchers and teachers can explore different knowledge and come up with a variety of findings

2.1.3 Components of foreign language learning motivation

In this paper, the author would mention two famous frameworks of second language motivation which were proposed by Dörnyei (1994) and Williams & Burden (1997)

According to Dörnyei, his framework (see appendix 5) is a good example of the

„educational approach‟ as it specifically focused on motivation from a classroom perspective It conceptualized second language motivation in terms of three levels:

The first level is language level encompasses various components related to

aspects of the second language, such as the culture and the community, as well

as the intellectual and pragmatic values and benefits associated with it That, is, this level represents the traditionally established elements of second language motivation associated with integrativeness and instrumentality

The second lever is learner level involves individual characteristics that the

learner brings to the learning process, most notably self-confidence, which reflects the influence of Richard Clément‟s work on the topic

Lastly, the learning situation level is associated with situation-specific motives

rooted in various aspects of second language learning within a classroom setting: course-specific motivational components (concerning the motivational impact of the teacher‟s personality, behaviors and teaching style/practice); and group-specific motivational components (related to the characteristics of the learner group)

Later, in 1997, another detailed framework of motivational components was offered by Marion Williams and Bob Burden (see appendix 6) as part of a larger overview of psychology for language teachers They also considered second language motivation to be a complex, multi-dimensional construct, but the grouping of the components followed different principles form the earlier framework The principal grouping category in this construct is whether the

motivational influence is internal or external, and within these two categories

they distinguished a number of subcomponents, following some current themes

in educational psychology

2.2 Dörnyei’s framework for motivational strategies

As Dörnyei (2001) defined, motivational strategies are techniques which can be employed to increase the individual‟s goal-related behavior, they are the influences that are purposefully utilized in order to gain enduring positive effects Motivational strategies are employed consciously to maintain ongoing motivated behavior and protected it from distracting tendencies and also to generate and promote learner‟s motivation

And he emphasized motivation generally refers to an important human characteristic which is rather complex One of the reason for this is that motivation is an aspect of the classroom environment and normally we look at the characteristics of the whole learner group rather than the individual learner However, the term “motivation” is associated with an individualistic perspective, it focuses on the individual‟s values, attitudes, goals and intentions Dörnyei (2001) proposed a process-oriented organization which focuses both on the individuals and learning environment It includes: (i) creating the basic motivational conditions, (ii) generating initial motivation, (iii) maintaining and protecting motivation, (iv) encouraging positive retrospective self-evaluation and (v) rounding off the learning experience: encouraging positive self-evaluation

2.2.1 Creating the basic motivational conditions

This step offers the initial motivation conditions used to promote classroom motivation Such conditions are: appropriate teacher behaviors, a pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the classroom, a cohesive learner group with appropriate group norms Among the 3 conditions, Dörnyei (2001) concluded that the teacher behavior is the most important motivational tool A teacher‟s behavior is considered to be „appropriate‟ when they involve 4 general points: enthusiasm, commitment to and expectations for the student‟s learning, relationship with the students, relationship with the students‟ parents The second condition – atmosphere in the classroom ranks number 2 among the

motivational dimensions And the ideal classroom climate can be identified as the sense of mutual trust and respect among the members The factors to form an

„emotional safe zone‟ in class can be named as the norm of tolerance, the use of humour and the physical environment (the classroom decoration and arrangement) Lastly, a considerable importance is put on group cohesiveness and group norms To make the learning process more enjoyable, it is needed to create a sense of „community‟ with a strong feeling of „being together‟ which is promoted during interaction, co-operation, the sharing among members and so

on Besides, it is agreed that there is needed to be „rules of conduct‟ which determine what class members can and cannot do It is noticed that class members include not only the students but also the teacher

2.2.2 Generating initial motivation

The motivational dimension related to this phase refers to choice motivation because it leads to the selection of the goal or task to be pursued Dörnyei (2001) divided these facets into five broad groups

The first is enhancing the learners‟ language-related values and attitudes

It is explained that each person has a value system which involves his attitudes, beliefs and feelings This value system has a decisive role in forming the person‟s preferences and approaches to activities Dörnyei (2001) distinguished three relatively value dimensions: (1) intrinsic value – relates to the interest in and anticipated enjoyment of the actual process of learning the target language (2) integrative value – relates to the target language itself (the culture it convey), the attitudes toward the language and its speaker, and (3) instrumental value – relates to the results and benefits of the learning process

The second group is increasing the learners‟ expectancy of success Dörnyei (2001: 57) wrote that “Expectancy is in the mind of the learner.” When the learners are motivated and have a positive mood, it is more likely to increase their expectancies There are several methods to heighten the learners‟ expectancy of success: provide sufficient preparation, offer assistance, let

students help each other, make the success criteria as clear as possible, model success, consider and remove potential obstacles to learning

Thirdly, it is important to increase the learners‟ goal orientedness Because there exist the „official class‟ goal, the „group‟ goal and the „individual‟ goal, the teacher should carefully considers: individual goals, institutional constrains and success criteria

Furthermore, the teachers should make the teaching materials relevant for the learners Because one the demotivating factors for learner is when they learn something has little relevance to the needs Then, need analyses is necessary and

it can be done by interviews, chats, discussion, writing assignments, and questionnaires With the obtained information, the teachers can link the topics and activities to students‟ real life experiences and preferences

The very last group is creating realistic learner beliefs Generally, learners have their own beliefs about language learning; however many of them are not correct It is important for both teacher and students to discuss and make it clear about: the difficulty of language learning, foreign language aptitude, the nature

of language learning, learning and communication strategies, motivation and expectations

2.2.3 Maintaining and protecting motivation

It is unavoidable that the initial motivation may fade out and it needs to be actively nurtured Because human behaviour is rather complex and ongoing human behavior can be modified in many different ways, the range of motivational strategies relevant to this phase is wide and Dörnyei (2001) surveyed the 8 most powerful executive areas

The first area is making learning stimulating and enjoyable To encourage further student involvement, teachers can create a more enjoyable learning environment by applying three main types of strategy: breaking the monotony of learning, making the tasks more interesting, increasing the involvement of the students

Secondly, it is adviced that teachers should present tasks in a motivating way This actually is about the way teachers administer tasks and offer a more exciting way to introduce or to present the topics to be learnt There are three functions that a motivating introduction of an activity should have: explaining the purpose and the utility of a task, whetting the students‟ appetite, providing appropriate strategies to do the task

Thirdly, setting the specific learner goals is another effective strategy Because the more specific the goals is, the easier the learner can structure the learning process When setting goals, it is important to keep in mind these characteristics: clear and specific, measurable, challenging and difficult, realistic Dörnyei also mentioned a suggestion by McCombs and Pope (1994) which simplified the features of a goal into an „ABCD‟ principles: achievable, believable, conceivable and desirable

Besides, protecting the learners‟ self-esteem and increasing their self-confidence should not be neglected It is crucial aspect of motivational teaching practice to buid the learners‟ confidence Playing the roles of a facilitator, guider and supporter, a teacher can apply direct or indirect ways which can be suggested as: providing experiences of sucess, encouraging the learners, reducing language anxiety and teaching learner strategies

Another strategy to be mentioned is allowing learners to maintain a positive social image Because school is not merely an educational environment, when engaging in a class, the learners are put in a context where they can gain lessons and implications about the social life At the same time, to make the learning process friendly and motivating, it is advised that teachers should allow their students to maintain a positive social image

Furthermore, in the teaching and learning process, cooperation among the learners should also be encouraged and promoted It has been proved that students in cooperative environments have more positive attitudes towards

learning There are many reasons for the favourable impact of cooperation on motivation, some of them are: it fosters class cohesiveness; it increases the learners‟ expectancy of success; it achieves a synthesis of academic and social goals; there is a sense of obligation and moral responsibility; and it helps create

a positive emotional tone

Regarding the learners as independent individuals, teachers should also create learner autonomy Learner autonomy is closely related to motivation in psychology because according to the „self-determination‟ theory, the freedom to choose and to have choice, rather than being forced to behave following someone else‟s desires, is a prerequisite to motivation Teachers can present an autonomy-supporting teaching practice by following these two points: (1) increase learner involvement in organizing the learning process This can be achieved by: allowing learners choices about aspects of the learning process, giving students positions of genuine , encouraging student contributions and peer teaching, encouraging project work and allowing learners to use self-assessment procedures (2) a change in the teacher‟s role This is described as non-traditional teaching style and the teachers will play the role of facilitator, a helper and instructional designer who leads learners to discover and create their own meanings about the world

Last but not least, teachers should promote self-motivating learner strategies It

is a fact that not all classrooms are ideal for learners to study; many of them can have environmental distractions or distracting emotional and have adverse conditions However, it is students‟ self-motivating capacity that push the learning quality It is suggested that self-motivating strategies are made up of five main classes: commitment control strategies, metacognitive control strategies, satiation control strategies, emotion control strategies and environmental control strategies

2.2.4 Rounding off the learning experience: encouraging positive evaluation

self-This last phase concerns the learners‟ retrospective evaluation of how things were performed Students‟ appraisal of their works and performance depend not

only on the level of success they achieved but also on the way they themselves interpret their achievement It is the teachers‟ role to help their students to have

a more positive light when evaluating their successes and failures in a more constructive way This will become feasible if the teachers follow the strategies

as described below

The very first strategy is promoting motivational attributions Attribution theory

is relevant to the study of language learning for two reasons: (1) failure in learning a second language is very common (2) language aptitude is a frequently-mentioned notion It is suggested to promote effort attributions and prevent ability attributions This can be done by: providing effort feedback, refusing to accept ability attributions, modeling effort-outcome linkages, encouraging learners to offer effort explanations and making effort and perseverance a class norm

Secondly, it is needed to provide motivational feedback in the teaching process Besides grades, feedback does contribute to changes in students‟ behaviors Feedback has at least 3 functions: (i) gratifying function – praise can increase learner satisfaction and improve the learning spirit; (ii) communicating trust and encouragement, motivational feedback can result in a positive self-concept and self-confidence; and (iii) informative and promote the learner to reflect constructively on the fields that need improvement

Another strategy to be take into consideration is increasing learner satisfaction Satisfaction relates to the recognition of success, it is important because it validates effort, reinforces the value of experience and affirms the entire learning process Teachers can choose among these techniques: monitor and recognize learners‟ accomplishments, take time to celebrate success, regularly take stock of progress, include tasks which involve the public display or performance of the outcome, make progress tangible, provide a reinforcing event for positive closure at the end of significant units of learning

Lastly, offering rewards and grades in a motivating manner is advisable The role of rewards and grades has been the most controversial area Although

rewards and grades are usable and can be applied in any teaching context, these simplistic devices actually do motivation a great deal of damage The potential damages of rewards can be: (1) they undermine the existing motivation (2) they divert the students‟ attention away from the real task (3) students can easily succumb to the „min-max principle‟ when they attempt to maximize rewards with a minimum of effort Besides, there are some concerns related to giving grades: (1) extreme pressure to meet the standard can occur, which may results

in cheating or uncritical students (2) the importance of having good grades may overweight the learning process (3) the learners‟ ability may attract more attention that the effort (4) learners anxiety may increase due to the knowledge being assessed Then, teachers are advised to be cautious and have a motivating manner when offering rewards and grades, other forms of motivational practices are suggested to try

The author followed this strategies framework as background to develop the application of VARK model in her action research to answer all the research questions

2.3 An overview of VARK model

and techniques and there are theories that aim to account for differences in individuals‟ learning Gordon (1998) proposed that learning styles have effects

on educational process and how students perform Dunn and Griggs (1998) simply defined learning style as the attitude, favorites and conducts that learners adopt in their learning Duff (2000) defined learning style in a more

which act as an indicator on how individuals interact and respond to learning environment Some people may find that they have a dominant style of learning, with far less use of the other styles Others may find that they use different styles in different circumstances People can develop ability in less dominant styles, as well as further develop styles that they already use well

There are many models on learning styles that can be identified from earlier studies such as models developed by David A Kolb, Peter Honey and Alan Mumford, Walter Burke Barbe, Neil Fleming and so on The researcher chose the one developed by Neil Fleming in 2006 to employ in her action research and this part aims to analyze the theory related to this model, namely VARK.

2.3.1 What is VARK learning styles?

VARK model was developed by Neil Fleming in 2006; actually, this model was expanded upon the earlier three learning modalities (which was identified by VAK) proposed by Walter Burke Barbe in 1979 The VARK (visual, aural/auditory, read/write and kinesthetic) Learning Style falls under the umbrella of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) NLP “encompasses the three most influential components involved in producing human experience: neurology, language and programming” (Dilts, 2016, para 1) NLP investigates the interactions between how neurological (mind) and linguistics (language) within an individual impact behavior (programming)

This learning style is modified by classifying students to four different modes which based on different senses, namely visual, aural, reading, and kinesthetic And the name of the model itself, originated from those senses prefix letters (V,

A, R, and K) According to Ismail (2010) cited in Norasmah and Mohd (2010), dividing students according to modes is necessary so that the effectiveness of each lesson to different VARK learning mode can be observed Murphy et al (2004) added by saying that learning based on VARK learning style model provides a medium for self-knowledge and exploring opportunities in classrooms, thus, making a more productive learning experience and enjoyment among students

2.3.2 Understanding a visual preference

Visual learners learn by seeing, they have a high ability for visual recall These students prefer to use list to maintain their advance rate in learning as well as

arranging their ideas and mind Apart from that, visual students are easy to be disturbed or change in focus by movements or actions, whereas, noise, usually

do not bother them (Drago & Wagner, 2004) They frequently use hand movements while talking and have a tendency to look upwards when thinking (Pritchard, 2009) Moreover, visual students like to use Visual representations such as figures, pictures, posters, maps display and symbolic tools such as graph, flowcharts, hierarchies, models, and arrow which represent printed information They also are able to explain a concept to others by drawing a figure or picture (Murphy et al 2004) Miller (2001) in his study explained that

as much as 29 percent of the students are more inclined to visual learning style where they possess intelligence in using pictures, and optical illusion and models in three dimensional forms According to Piping (2005) cited in Norasmah and Mohd (2010), students that have visual intelligence are usually rich with imagination and are inclined to be creative and imaginative Fleming added the need to recognize that visual learners prefer graphics The written word would not be as valuable, especially when used as a visual additive in a classroom with only words on media “It must be more than mere words in boxes that would be helpful to those who have a Read/write preference” (Fleming, 2017)

2.3.3 Understanding an aural preference

Aural/auditory learners learn by listening, they favor the audio and have a high ability for auditory recall These students give more attention to the words delivered by teachers They prefer to listen than writing lecture notes; repetition, summaries are their preference and they benefit from discussions, lectures, stories As Murphy et al (2004) pointed, aural students discuss on answers or by listening to recording over then examination topics Students who learn with this mode are easily interrupted noise (Drago & Wagner, 2004) Pritchard (2009) added, these learners are likely to tilt their heads and use eye movements when concentrating or recalling information According to Miller (2001), this type of

students can remember information through loud reading or mouthing when reading, especially when learning something new Students can strengthen their memory by listening again to audio tape recordings, by teaching other people and discussing with teachers After lectures end, discussion about topics which were taught with classmates, is a way to clarify their understanding Aural students usually read easily, narrate cleverly, write story or poetry effortlessly, learn foreign language fast, have good vocabulary, spell smoothly, like to write letters, and own strong ability in remembering names or facts (Armstrong, 2004) Within this learning style, Fleming (2017) added chatting and email as they possess more abbreviations, colloquial terms, slang and non-formal language

2.3.4 Understanding a read/write preference

This preference is for information displayed as words Students with the tendency of reading prefer printed word and text as a method to gain information They like list, glossary, textbooks, lecture notes, or circulation This preference emphasizes text-based input and output – reading and writing in all its forms but especially manuals, reports, essays and assignments These students like to arrange lecture notes into sketch form, paraphrase classroom notes, and study multiple choice exam questions (Murphy et al 2004) Besides, according to Drago and Wagner (2004), these students are note takers They study better through note taken from lecture or from difficult reading materials

Not surprisingly, many teachers and students have a strong preference for this mode (Fleming, 2017)

2.3.5 Understanding a kinesthetic preference

Although measured as a separate category in VARK, learning through kinesthetic is a measurement mode, regarded to the combination of various

reality, “either through concrete personal experiences, examples, practice or simulation” (Fleming & Mills, 1992:140-141) This idea is also supported by

(Murphy et al 2004) when he stated that “priority kinesthetic referring to

learning achieved using experience and practice.” In other words, kinesthetic

own background of experiences and less so, the experiences of others They

prefer demonstrations, simulations, videos and movies of “real” things, as well

as case studies, practice and applications The key is the reality or concrete nature of the example As Drago and Wagner (2004) describes the characteristics of predisposing kinesthetic students as those who emphasize more in experience in learning something and usually, they have high energy and prefer to apply touch, movement, and interaction to their environment

are fond to move and are active, quick in learning physical skills, fond to think while moving, perform well in certain athletic field, more likely to use movements as an aid for remembering various cases, have good coordination and awareness on tempo, and are easy to relax

2.4 Previous studies

styles but a moderate number of them selected VARK learning styles model to work on Firstly, some researchers from the University of Joensuu (now merged into the University of Eastern Finland) measured the learning preferences of students enrolled across a number of undergraduate computing courses (Bednarik Fränti, 2004) The group used the VARK Questionnaire to determine students‟ learning preferences to explore whether students with a particular preference would perform better across the courses they were studying Their results showed no strong evidence that students who preferred

a single modality would be more successful across courses Students with a balanced VARK profile had slightly better performance Later, another work conducted by Hussain (2017) came to conclude that VARK model is a famous one due to its simplicity and effectiveness in consistent with its pedagogical implications More specifically, it promotes learners to attain process and

retain new information as a learning process Recently, a small group of 3 researchers at Sripatum University-Chonburi Campus and Burapha University have employed VARK model to categorize the students in computer course (Veena Khongpit, Krich Sintanakul, and Thanyarat Nomphonkrang, 2018) The research results revealed some statistic about the participants‟ learning styles Besides, it was found that the teaching material design should be done

by creating creative activities and environment in consistent with the learning abilities of the learners in order to promote their motivation and perception Regarding the effectiveness of using a VARK methodology on student achievement and learning outcomes, two researchers implemented a study at Australian Catholic University in Australia (Wright & Stokes, 2015) Their participants were in economics classes The VARK model was used to both diagnose the learning styles of the students in the classroom as well as underpin the teaching and learning strategies implemented in each economics unit It showed the importance to consider these preferences in developing teaching and learning approaches To most successfully develop these skills, it

is important to develop activities that promote interest and relevance for the students and allows for students to progress at their own pace In short, there was very little result to be found about the application of VARK learning styles

in language learning or its relation to any approach related to motivational theory Then, this action research project appears to approach a very new path

in second/foreign language teaching section in Vietnam

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter explains the methodology of the current research, including the research design, the participants, the data collection instruments and procedure, and data analysis

3.1 Research design

The research is carried out to answer the following research questions:

1 What are students‟ opinion towards VARK model?

2 How does the VARK model affect the students‟ motivational state in learning English?

3.1.1 Rationale for the use of action research

Carr and Kemmis (1986:162) defined action research as “a form of reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own practices, their understanding of these practices, and the situations in which the practices are carried out.” This definition reveals that action research is is tied to self-reflection and it is problem-focused Besides, Ferrance (2000) clarified action research as a process

self-in which participants examself-ine their own educational practice systematically and carefully, using the techniques of research The author wishes to become a participant who enrolling in the process of making changes and offer an insightful picture of the teacher-researcher‟s own teaching practice

This action research initially aims to solve an immediate problem of the author‟s teaching context As Burns (2010:2) stated, action research involves “taking a self-reflective, critical, and systematic approach to exploring your own teaching contexts” This was also supported by Denscombe (2010:6) who wrote that “an action research strategy's purpose is to solve a particular problem and to produce guidelines for effective practices.” It can be understood that action research is a reflective process of progressive problem solving to improve the addressed issues It is undertaken by people whose aim to improve their strategies,

practices and knowledge of the environment within which they practice The two typical features namely as problem-focus and contextual-specificity of action research enable the writer to select it as the most suitable one to implement her study.

3.1.2 The action procedure

The action research was conducted during 12 weeks of the first semester of the English course of D43 (it was within the duration of the second semester of session 2017-2018) The author developed her study in 4 steps following Kemmis and McTaggart (1998) action research cycle: (1) Planning (understanding a problem and identifying potential strategies) (2) Acting (executing the strategies), (3) Observing (noticing outcomes of the strategies), and (4) Reflecting (evaluating the outcomes of the strategies) In the second step, Dörnyei‟s framework of motivational strategies was adapted and it was conducted in four phases

Step 1: Planning

The researcher-teacher realizes the problem when English appears to be the least favored subject to a large number of non-English major students, silent learning atmosphere was commonly seen in English classes Pre-treatment questionnaire was conducted to target at students‟ motivational state prior the treatment The questions assess the students‟ attitude towards learning English, their linguistic