NGHIÊN cứu về VIỆC THỰC HIỆN các CHIẾN lược dạy tạo ĐỘNG lực ở các TRƯỜNG THPT tại VIỆT NAM

Enhancing students’ motivation has always been an immense intact field in Vietnam’s educational system, which is awaiting scholars and researchers to cultivate in and bring fruitful changes to the wellbeing of their own students. With her deep concern about this notion, I carried out a study titled “ The implementation of motivational teaching strategies in Vietnam’s high schools”. The aims of this study was to describe how high school teachers and students in Vietnam perceive the use of motivational teaching strategies in EFL classrooms, identify the motivational strategies utilized by teachers and reveal the effects of those strategies on students’ behaviors in the class. This study follows both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Questionnaire, interviews and observation were employed to triangulate the information from various aspects and hence ensure the validity as well as reliability of the research.

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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC THỰC HIỆN CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC DẠY TẠO ĐỘNG LỰC Ở CÁC TRƯỜNG THPT TẠI VIỆT NAM

Giáo viên hướng dẫn : Ths Phạm Ngọc Khánh Ly

ACCEPTANCE

I hereby state that I: Luu Cam Ha, QH.2015.F1.E3, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (programme) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Student

Lưu Cẩm Hà

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my devoted supervisor, Ms Pham Ngoc Khanh Ly, M.A whose intellectual consultancy and spiritual encouragement were an indispensable factor in the fulfillment of this research Besides, I sincerely appreciate the cooperation of teachers and students from Thanh Hoa‘ high schools in finishing the questionnaires, participating in the interviews and allowing me to observe their classrooms

Last but not least, I want to thank all of my beloveds, without whom I could not have completed this project Thank my peer, Nguyen Thi Phuong Linh, for her instant support and knowledgeable suggestions Thank my sister, Ngo Lan Huong , for her unconditional love and care during the stressful time of research Most remarkably, I am grateful to my family members for loving, understanding, supporting and encouraging me to overcome difficulties to complete this work

ABSTRACT

Enhancing students‘ motivation has always been an immense intact field in Vietnam‘s educational system, which is awaiting scholars and researchers to cultivate in and bring fruitful changes to the wellbeing of their own students With her deep concern about this notion, I carried out a study titled ― The implementation

of motivational teaching strategies in Vietnam‘s high schools‖ The aims of this study was to describe how high school teachers and students in Vietnam perceive the use of motivational teaching strategies in EFL classrooms, identify the motivational strategies utilized by teachers and reveal the effects of those strategies

on students‘ behaviors in the class This study follows both quantitative and qualitative research methods Questionnaire, interviews and observation were employed to triangulate the information from various aspects and hence ensure the validity as well as reliability of the research

The study yielded significant findings in response to the proposed questions Firstly, the study confirms that high school teachers in Vietnam were aware of the importance of motivational practices in EFL classroom However, there were some strategies that were highlighted by teachers but not recognized by students Next, the observation revealed that the most popular and effective motivational strategies

demonstrated in classrooms are: establishing relevance, class applause, tangible reward, process feedback, intellectual challenge, pair work, scaffolding, individual competition, and team competition These strategies have triggered a high level of

student‘s attention, participation and volunteering

Based on these findings, implications were made for teachers and classroom teaching With a view to enhancing learners‘ motivation in particular and improving the quality of teaching and learning English in general, not only do teachers have to apply effective motivational strategies perceived by students more frequently but they also need to reconsider the implementation of motivational strategies that were not appreciated by students

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the study and the statement of problems of the research 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Scope of the study 2

1.4 Methods of the study 3

1.4.1 Data collection methods 3

1.4.2 Data analysis methods 3

1.5 An overview of the rest of the paper 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Motivation 5

2.1.1 Definitions 5

2.1.2 The role of motivation in second/foreign language learning 6

2.1.3 The relationship between teaching strategies, learners’ motivation and learners’ academic performance 7

2.2 Motivational strategies 9

2.2.1 Definitions 9

2.2.2 Motivational teaching strategies in the field of learning and teaching 9

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 15

3.1 Research design 15

3.2 The research setting 15

3.3 Research Participants 16

3.3.1 Teachers 16

3.3.2 Students 16

3.4 Data collection instrument 16

3.4.1 Student Questionnaire 17

3.4.2 Semi-structured interview 17

3.4.3 Classroom Observation 18

3.5 Data collection procedure 22

3.6 Data analysis 23

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 25

4.1 Research question 1: How do high school teachers and students in Vietnam perceive the use of motivational teaching strategies in EFL classrooms? 25

4.1.1 Perceptions of teachers 25

4.1.2 Perceptions of students 27

4.1.3 The relationship between teachers’ and students’ perception of motivational strategies 29

4.2 Research question 2: How do teachers apply motivational strategies in their teaching practices? 30

4.3 Research question 3: How do the teachers‘ motivational teaching strategies affect students‘ classroom motivation in terms of the level of their attention, participation and volunteering? 31

4.3.1 The impact of motivational teaching practice on students’ level of attention in classroom 32

4.3.2 The impact of motivational teaching practice on students’ level of participation in classroom 33

4.3.3 The impact of motivational teaching practice on students’ level of volunteering in classroom 34

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 36

5.1 Summary of findings 36

5.2 Implications 36

5.3 Limitations of the research 37

5.4 Suggestions for further studies 38

REFERENCE 40

APPENDICES 45

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

FIGURES

Figure 1: The Components of a Motivational L2 Teaching Practice (Dornyei,

2001b, p.29) 10 Figure 2: Dornyei’s semi-intuitive set of ten motivational teaching strategies

(1996) 11 Figure 3: Ten commandments of motivation based on Dornyei & Csizer’ study

(1998, p.215) 12 Figure 4: Motivational strategies’ impact on students’ level of attention 32 Figure 5: Motivational strategies’ impact on students’ level of participation 33

TABLES

Table 1: The 25 Observational Variables Measuring the Teacher’s

Motivational Practice (Guiiloteaux & Dornyei, 2008, p.63) 19 Table 2: Observational Variables Measuring Learners’ Motivated Behavior

(Guiiloteaux & Dornyei, 2008, p.62) 22 Table 3: Means of motivational strategies perceived by students 28 Table 4: Common strategies perceived by teachers and students 29

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the rationale of the study as well as the aim, the objectives, and the scope of the research

1.1 Rationale for the study and the statement of problems of the research

There are various researchers in the field of language learning that showed motivation is a very important factor of learning (Dornyei, 2001a; Brok Den, Levy, Brekelmans & Wubbels, 2006; Oxford & Shearin, 1994; Oxford, 1994) Likewise, Dornyei (2001a) also puts an emphasis on motivation of students when learning a new language In learning a foreign/ second language, motivation is indeed one of the most important and influential factor to individuals in language learning (compared with aptitude, learning style and the age of the learners) (Dornyei, 2001a) Regardless of aptitude, learners‘ ability and intelligence, students with higher motivation are likely to learn more effectively

During the 1990s, the research about motivation for learning English as a second language (ESL) evolved into describing and focusing into the factors that impact the motivation of the students (Cheng & Dornyei, 2007) Notwithstanding such concern, the number of studies on how to enhance motivation of students using specific strategies or through the application of the theory of centralized knowledge

in practical classes is relatively small in specific situations (Dornyei & Otto, 1998)

On the other hand, the ESL teachers should also be aware of contexts of the research about motivation because specific strategies of a particular study may not

be appropriate for all ESL teaching and learning actitivities or situations

In the Vietnamese EFL context, English teaching and learning have confronted several obstacles Two main factors are identified by Hoang (2018) as students‘ low motivation and limited opportunities to practice communicating in the target language Alerted by the need to renovate foreign language education, the Ministry

of Education and Training (MOET) has invested abundant resources, both intellectual and material, in the National Foreign Language Project 2008-2020, aiming to enhance EFL teachers‘ proficiency through extensive training programs

feel motivated by nor benefit much from their actual poor teaching performance (Nguyen, 2017) In such situation, the reform of EFL system with an emphasis on motivation should deserve a consideration and necessarily be a response While second language (L2) achievement is influenced by motivation, motivational strategies in teaching are claimed to influence students‘ motivation (Dornyei, 1994; Dornyei, 1998; Dornyei, 2001) Besides, although numerous studies have been done

on motivational strategies in many countries including Hungary (Dörnyei & Csízer, 1998), Taiwan (Cheng & Dörnyei, 2007), Spain (Bernaus & Gardner, 2008), South Korea (Guilloteaux & Dörnyei, 2008), Indonesia (Kassing, 2011), this area is still under-investigated in the EFL context of Vietnam All these conditions, henceforth, have offered the researcher a chance to conduct a study on the implementation of motivational teaching strategies in Vietnam‘s high schools

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

First, the study was conducted for the purpose of discovering the perception of high school teachers and students in Viet Nam about the significance of motivational teaching strategies in EFL classrooms Then the researcher tried to find out the motivational teaching strategies that high school teachers use to motivate students and how those strategies affect students in terms of their attention, participation and volunteering In short, the researcher looked for the answers to these questions:

1) How do high school teachers and students in Vietnam perceive the use of motivational teaching strategies in EFL classrooms?

2) How do teachers apply motivational strategies in their teaching practices? 3) How do teachers‘ motivational teaching strategies affect students‘ classroom motivation in terms of the level of their attention, participation, and volunteering?

1.3 Scope of the study

First, although ―the implementation of motivational teaching strategies in Vietnam‘s high schools‖ has been generally set as the title of the whole study, this paper places a stronger focus on the stategies that each teacher employed to motivate students in their classrooms To exemplify, teachers might have social chat

with students at the beginning of the lesson or offer tangible reward for good performance In addition, the researcher wanted to find out the effects of those strategies indicated by learners‘ motivated behavior in the classroom

Finally, it is noteworthy that the samples of the study were restricted to classes

of two high schools Nevertheless, the survey results are hoped to contribute to literature from Vietnam

1.4 Methods of the study

1.4.1 Data collection methods

The triangulation method of observation, interviews and questionnaires were employed during the process of data collection Specifically, a questionnaire was used for 200 students and a set of questions was used to interview 9 teachers so that data about the implementation of motivational strategies could be gathered from different viewpoints Finally, classroom observation with a comprehensive classroom observation scheme was also vital for the researcher to make the

educational research more accessible and practical

1.4.2 Data analysis methods

In the first place, the collected data would be classified to answer the three research questions Specifically, all of the data gathered from the questionnaire for students and teachers‘ interview are to answer the first question; and data gathered from classroom observation would provide the answer to the second and third research question

Then, for each research question, data would be summarized into infographics

to facilitate the synthesis, comparison and generalization of the data Finally, the most important data from interviews are frequently cited when necessary to illustrate the analysis of data

1.5 An overview of the rest of the paper

The rest of the paper consists five chapters as follows:

Chapter 2 – Literature review: sets the theory background for the whole study, including definitions of key concepts and related studies

Chapter 3 – Methodology: justifies the population and samples and the

carried out

Chapter 4 – Findings and discussion: presents, discusses and analyses the findings that the researcher found out from the data collected according to the four research questions

Chapter 5 – Conclusion: summarises the main issues discussed in the paper from the aims, procedures to the major findings, the implications, the limitations of the research, and recommendation for future researches

Following the final chapter are the References and Appendices

Summary

In this chapter, the researcher has indicated these following points:

 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study

 Aims and objectives of the study

 Scope of the study

 Methods of the study

 An overview of the rest of the paper

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This second chapter sheds light on the literature of the study, specifically the background and a number of studies related to the research topic To begin with, a sketchy picture of the research background will be provided with an overview of the two key concepts, namely ―motivation‖ and ―motivational strategies‖ Then, the role of motivation and motivational strategies in learning second/foreign language will be mentioned Finally, a brief review of the related studies about the relationship between motivational practices and learners‘ motivation will disclose the research gap and hence, justify the aims and objectives of this research paper

2.1 Motivation

2.1.1 Definitions

According to Online Cambridge Dictionary, motivation is ―the enthusiasm for doing something‖ (2019) In educational field, the term ―motivation‖ is broadly used because motivation is believed to be one of the leading factors that influence learning and teaching activities as well as academic achievement (Brophy, 2010; Dornyei 2001b) As a result, this term has been defined, analysed and conceptualized by many scholars Harmer defines motivation as ―some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something‖ (2001, p.51) Similarly, Brown also considers motivation as ―an inner drive, impulse, emotion or desire that moves one toward a particular action‖ (1987, p.117) Keller‘s definition of motivation refers to the choices that people make as to what experiences or goals they will approach or avoid and the amount of effort they will put in that respect (1983, as cited in Ziahosseini and Salehi, 2008) From another opinion, motivation is thought to be responsible for ―why people decide to do something, how long they are willing to sustain the activity and how hard they are going to pursue it" (Dörnyei, 2001a, p8)

With respect to the field of second/foreign language learning, Gardner (2001) argues that motivation of a person will drive him to put efforts into some activities

to achieve their objectives He also noted that the person with high motivation will

goal Motivation to learn a foreign or second language is usually high when people realize that this language will be valuable to them in view of the amount of effort that will be required to be put into learning it (Kassing, 2011) Wiiliams & Burdern (1997) considers motivation as an emotional and cognitive arousal which leads to a conscious decision to act, and increase the intellectual and physical effort to achieve the set goals Later, Otto and Dornyei (1998) define motivation as ―the dynamically changing cumulative arousal in a person that initiates, directs, coordinates, amplifies, terminates, and evaluates the cognitive and motor processes whereby initial wishes and desires are selected, prioritized, operationalized and acted out‖ (p.64)

Briefly, there are several theories that offer the explanations about motivation Despite its complexity that many scholars have put efforts to analyze and understand, Ada Bier (2014) stressed that most researchers in the field of second/foreign language learning agree that motivation is closely related to the selection of a specific action, which drives students to do their best to pursue it

2.1.2 The role of motivation in second/foreign language learning

There are a great number of studies show that learners‘ academic performance and attainment can be attributed to by many factors such as age, gender, attitude, aptitude, learning method, motivation, learning style and language learning strategies (Dornyei, 1994; Gardner, Tremblay & Masgoret, 1997; Dornyei & Csizer, 1998; Kormos & Csizer, 2008) Among these factors, learner‘s motivation has been regarded by researchers working in the field of second/foreign language learning as one of the most influential factors in the process of second/foreign language learning (Dornyei, 2001a; Liando et al., 2005; Oxford, 1994) With significant level

of motivation, language learners will stand a high chance of success during the process of exploring the nature of the language they are studying (Kimura, Nakata

& Okumura, 2001)

Besides learning ability, motivation is considered as the leading factor contributing to various educational success (Keller, as cited in Schmidt, Boraie & Kassagby, 1996) Specifically, these researchers also suggest that motivation of a learner can indicate the rate and success 13 of second/foreign language attainment Therefore motivation is one of the main determinants of successful second/foreign

language learning (Dornyei, 1994, as cited in Kassing, 2011)

A significant amount of research has shown that motivation plays a key role in second/foreign language learning because it has direct impact on students‘ effort, students‘ level of general proficiency, and their perseverance and maintenance on foreign language skills after completing their language study (Cheng & Dornyei, 1998; Trang & Baldauf, 2007) Similarly, it gives language learners the driving force necessary to persist in a long learning process (Kassing, 2011) In fact, in many cases, students with greater second/foreign language learning motivation receive better grades and achieve better proficiency in the target language (Wu &

Wu, 2009) The appropriateness and effectiveness of the curriculum and every matter relating to aptitude and intelligence of an individual are not as vital as motivation Without sufficient motivation, hardly any individuals are likely to be successful in accomplishing long-term goals (Brown, 2000; Dornyei & Csizer, 1998; Oxford & Shearin 1994) Moreover, high levels of motivation can make up for considerable deficiencies both in learners‘ language aptitude and learning context (Dornyei, 2001a, as cited in Kassing, 2011)

In essence, motivation is very crucial the success of a second/foreign language learner Students‘ motivation, therefore, has constantly been a dominant topic for researchers and educationists in the field of second and foreign language learning

to investigate and practice

2.1.3 The relationship between teaching strategies, learners’ motivation and learners’ academic performance

As motivation is regarded as a leading factor in determining success in second/foreign language learning, strategies that generate and maintain language learners‘ motivation attract the interest of many researchers and educators There are several studies conducted by researchers to have a better understanding about the way to create and increase motivation for learners in teaching and learning second and foreign language (Dornyei & Csizer, 1998; Bernaus & Gardner, 2008) Nakata (2006) notes about the differences between the motivation and the attitude While the attitude usually stays unchanged, motivation fluctuates over time Brophy

motivation, academic achievement and the amount of effort may be affected by two main factors including internal and external factors (such as parents, teachers, classmates and communities) This finding implies that motivation of students is something a teacher can influence

Among the external factors that impact motivation of students in learning a second/foreign language, teaching strategies and teaching practices play a more significant role than others (Dornyei, 1998; Cheng & Dornyei, 2007; Guilloteaux & Dornyei, 2008; Dornyei, 2001a; Trang & Baldauf, 2007) The studies of these researchers conclude that ―the level of commitment and enthusiasm of the teachers is one of the most important factors that affect learner‘s motivation (Dornyei, 1998, p.130) and the choice of teaching strategies in the classroom will affect students‘ motivation to learn In their study about demotivation in English language learning in Vietnamese context, Trang and Baldauf also reached the conclusion that teachers contributed greatly to the motivation of students to learn English Among the four demotivating categories related to language teachers, teaching methods were considered the primary source of students‘ demotivation This explicitly indicated that teachers and their use of teaching methods had a strong impact on students‘ demotivation or motivation to learn (Trang and Baldauf, 2007, as cited in Kassing, 2011)

In the research of Nikolov (1999), he found that students‘ motivation and their proficiency of foreign language skills were greatly affected by experiences triggered

by teachers‘ strategies in the classroom As a significant part of the classroom environment, teachers obviously affect both students‘ motivation in learning and their academic achievement If appropriate classroom conditions are provided and motivational teaching strategies are utilized, students will be motivated to learn (Dornyei, 2001a)

Recently, Guilloteaux and Dornyei (2008) in their research about the motivational teaching practices used by English language teachers in South Korea point out that there is a close relationship between the language teachers‘ motivational teaching practices and level of the learners‘ motivated behaviors in English classroom Guilloteaux and Dornyei (2008) concluded that motivational

teaching practices of the teachers directly impacted and related with the response as well as the motivation of the students

Based on aforementioned studies, it is obvious that teachers influence their students‘ level of motivation and engagement in classroom activities Enhancing students‘ motivation is an ongoing process as motivation to learn fluctuates It requires hard work by teachers and persistence in creating suitable and effective strategies in teaching the second/foreign language in their classrooms

2.2 Motivational strategies

2.2.1 Definitions

Motivational strategies can be defined as the method to motivate students in activities of learning and teaching English as a second/ foreign language Guilloteaux and Dornyei (2008) defines motivational strategies as the instruction of the teachers towards the students when conducting teaching activities and this leads

to the increase in the motivation of the students Dornyei (2001b) further considered motivational strategies as ―techniques that promote the individual‘s goal-related behaviour‖ (p.28) In brief, motivational teaching strategies are steps or techniques utilized by teachers in teaching practices to enhance students‘ motivation in learning

a second/foreign language

2.2.2 Motivational teaching strategies in the field of learning and teaching

English as a foreign/second language

According to Guilloteaux & Dornyei (2008), research of motivational teaching strategies is usually based on ―sound theoretical considerations‖ (p.56) While effective and motivational teaching strategies have been proposed by scholars in education and educational psychology areas, few were specifically contributed by second/foreign language scholars (Kassing, 2011) Dornyei (2001b) introduced the most notable framework in the area of second/foreign language that can accommodate diverse teaching strategies The model of Dornyei comprises four main dimensions as below

Figure 1: The Components of a Motivational L2 Teaching Practice

(Dornyei, 2001b, p.29)

The framework is based on Dornyei‘s systematic overview of the extensive motivational techniques in teaching a second/foreign language (Dornyei, 2001b) The four dimensions include the macro-strategies associated with each dimension Dornyei (2001) broke these macrostrategies down further into about 100 specific motivational strategies This list of motivational teaching strategies has been of frequent use for researchers to discover what strategies are perceived by language teachers or students as effective in motivating students In this research, the

motivational strategies framework of Dornyei (2001, p.29) served as a background

to this study

Traditionally, motivational psychologists have been more concerned about what motivation is than about how we can use this knowledge to motivate learners (Guilloteaux & Dornyei, 2008) Recently, however, there has been a marked shift and more researchers have decided to look at the pedagogical implications of research by conceptualizing ‗motivational strategies‘ According to Kassing (2011),

a number of scholars have proposed and published slightly different frameworks or lists of recommended teaching strategies which are most likely to motivate students

to learn (for example Brophy, 2010; Dornyei, 1994; Oxford & Shearin, 1994; Williams & Burden, 1997) These are supposed to be applied by classroom practitioners in improving their teaching practice However, most of those diverse techniques lacked supporting empirical evidence as they were drawn from personal teaching experiences or scholar‘s own beliefs about the effectiveness of those strategies within their classroom Dornyei (1996) addressed this issue in his studies

of teaching and through the interviews with two groups including graduate students and international teachers joining the British Council summer course After that, Dornyei (1996) developed a set of motivational teaching strategies that he refers to

as the ―Semi-intuitive set of ten motivational macro-strategies‖

Figure 1: Dornyei’s semi-intuitive set of ten motivational teaching strategies

(1996)

The semi-intuitive set of ten motivational teaching strategies

1 Create interesting language classes by choosing diverse and engaging topics, materials and activities

2 There are fun, funny and class games

3 Create a pleasant and friendly atmosphere

4 Promote learners' autonomy by allowing freedom in the classroom and sharing

as much responsibility as possible with learners

5 Make the course relevant by analysing needs and adjusting the curriculum accordingly

6 Put a personal example in promoting and committing yourself

7 Develop learners' confidence by encouraging them, giving them positive feedback and ensuring that they often have a sense of success

8 Create a real foreign language by introducing its culture, using authentic materials, inviting native speakers and arranging native-speaking friends for your students

9 Develop good and reliable relationships with learners

10 Emphasize the usefulness of foreign language knowledge

Further empirical evidence was collected in a study to identify dynamic teaching strategies based on class data (Dornyei & Csizer, 1998) This study was an attempt to revise the list of initial strategies by putting them into research and classroom-based systems The strategies have been selected based on a questionnaire for a total of 200 EFL teachers in various language teaching organizations, from elementary to university, in Hungary Based on teachers‘ responses, there was a list of ten motivational strategies that the participants considered to be the most important strategies for its usefulness in the classrooms The proposed strategies are widely known as ―Ten Commandments‖ (Nakata, 2006, p.64)

Figure 1: Ten commandments of motivation based on Dornyei & Csizer’

study (1998, p.215)

Ten Commandments of motivation

1 Set a personal example

2 Create a pleasant and comfortable atmosphere in the classroom

3 Present the task properly

4 Develop good relationships with learners

5 Increase confidence in learners' language

6 Make the language class interesting

7 Promote learners' autonomy

8 Personalize the learning process

9 Increase learners with targeted orientation

10 Familiarize learners with the target language culture

Clearly, this list of teaching strategies was more concrete, condensed and less overwhelming for average classroom teachers to manage than the previous lists (Dornyei, 1996) However, since every single classroom and language learning environment is unique in numerous ways, teachers and practitioners must be careful when using of a list of motivational teaching strategies that came from a single empirical study

Obviously, the teacher‘s use of motivational strategies is generally believed to enhance student motivation, yet the literature has little empirical evidence to support this claim Gardner and Tremblay (1994) already highlighted the gap between proposed techniques and its actual effectiveness in language classrooms With a view to reflecting the potential effectiveness of motivational strategies, they stated that without empirical evidence, it was not sensible to justify strong claims in favor of using such strategies Therefore, they suggested that researchers should investigate motivational strategies in actual language classrooms Taking a look back, it can be concluded that not many L2 scholars have taken Gardner and Tremblay‘s recommendation ―Validation studies are labor-intensive because they require the researcher to apply experimental designs and extensive classroom observation‖ (Guiiloteaux & Dornyei, 2008, p.56) There were only two public studies of Cheng & Dornyei (2007) and Dornyei & Csizer (1998) that had the explicit objective to provide empirical data on the effectiveness of motivational strategies However, these studies only relied on teachers‘ responses about the importance of certain strategies and the frequency of using them in classroom The findings were not based on documentation of the actual nature of the participating teachers‘ motivational practice nor any student behavior to which such practice might have been linked Being aware to fill the gap of providing empirical data to research of motivational strategies, Guilloteaux and Dornyei (2008) conducted an investigation of 40 ESOL classrooms in South Korea involving 27 teachers and more than 1,300 learners The study examined the link between the teachers‘ motivational teaching practice and their students‘ language learning motivation Unlike other usual practice of L2 motivation research, which heavily relies on self-

employed in this study: a classroom observation scheme, a student questionnaire and a teacher evaluation scale A classroom observation instrument was specifically developed for this investigation, the motivation orientation of language teaching (MOLT), which was used to assess the quality of the teacher‘s motivational teaching strategies as well as the level of the students‘ motivated behavior This observation scheme follows the real-time coding principle of Spada and Frohlich‘s (1995) communication orientation of language teaching (COLT) scheme but uses categories of observable teacher behaviors derived from Dornyei (2001) motivational strategies framework for foreign language classrooms

This study concluded that the teachers‘ motivational teaching practice was directly related to the students‘ immediate response in the classroom and their approach to classroom learning Though the teachers participating in this research implemented a limited range of motivational strategies in their practices, it was found that there was a positive connection between the motivational language teaching strategies used by teachers and student‘ motivation in the context of study

In this study, I wanted to provide more empirical data about the implementation of motivational strategies in the context of Vietnam, so the classroom observation scheme MOLT of Guilloteaux and Dornyei (2008) has been adopted with some adjustments Accordingly, the implementation of motivational strategies would be noticed and noted by the frequency of each strategy in the classroom

Summary

To sum up, this chapter has reviewed the key terms and the studies on the same research topic so as to set the theoretical background for the whole study It has pointed out that there is a need for the researcher to investigate the practices of motivating students in EFL classrooms in Vietnam high schools

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

The previous chapter reviews the literature on the research topic and works of other researchers for the theoretical background of this study In this chapter, the research setting, the participants, the instruments and the procedure of data collection and analysis are going to be discussed comprehensively

3.1 Research approach

This study follows exploratory sequential mixed methods design which combines both quantitive and qualitative approach According to Aliaga and Gunderson (2000), the quantitative approach examines phenomena in a measurable way on research subjects while qualitative research is an approach to exploration, description and interpretation based on the means of surveying experiences, perceptions, motivations, intentions, behaviors, attitudes Qualitative method with in-depth interviews, in addition, aims to develop measurement which cannot be found in previous research

First, the quantitive method was conducted with closed ended questionnaires

to collect and analyze date from students Then, the qualitative approach was carried out with interviews for teachers and classroom observation

3.2 The research setting

The research was conducted during semester two of school year 2018-2019 and involved high school teachers and students from two high schools in Thanh Hoa Thanh Hoa city is 150 kilometres from Ha Noi city, the capital of Vietnam, belongs to Thanh Hoa province, a fast-developing province in Vietnam and under the central control of the government (PCI, 2018, as cited in BAO CAO CHI SO, 2019) In the aspect of education, Thanh Hoa is the province with the high balance level with high school graduation level in the school year of 2017 – 2018 at 97,46%

(So Giao duc va Dao tao tong ket nam hoc 2017-2018, 2018) In particular, the two

high schools chosen as the sample were of the top high schools in Thanh Hoa City with high quality in the activities of teaching and learning English Although these two schools are not the school in the centre of big cities or in urban areas such as the well-established high schools in Ha Noi City or Ho Chi Minh City, these schools

are also not in rural areas so the conditions for the activities of leaning and teaching English are also adequate

to 31 years With the high range of teaching experience of the teachers, the researcher will be able to collect a wide range and various point of views and the experience in the activities of learning and teaching English in high school

All nine English teachers from both schools have bachelor degrees in English language teaching and all of these teachers were certified to be at C1 level (CEFR)

in their English proficiency issued by the Ministry of Training and Education The educational background and the certification prove the capacity of the teachers to conduct the activities of learning and teaching English in high school level

3.3.2 Students

Data will be collected from 200 students (over 962 students) in Grade 10 and Grade 11 from two high schools Grade 12 students were not involved because the students in Grade 12 from both schools are in the period of reviewing and need to pay attention to the High School Graduation Exam ahead The student age ranges from 15 to 17 years old and they all started learning English from eight years old (grade 3 at primary school)

The 200 students who joined the survey are both from natural sciences specialized and social sciences specialized classes This groups of variable increases the variety in the responses from participants with various points of view, hence the reliability of the results can be guaranteed

3.4 Data collection instrument

To obtain a valid and reliable picture of the motivational strategies implemented in the research context, the researcher used three different types of instrument: a student questionnaire, teacher semi-structured interview and a

classroom observation scheme

3.4.1 Student Questionnaire

The student questionnaire (see Appendix A) was adopted to investigate the perceptions of students toward the use of motivational strategies in their classroom The ideas of students about the frequency of 25 motivational strategies, which were adopted from the MOLT classroom observation scheme developed by Dornyei and Guilloteaux (2008, p.76), were examined However, with a view to making it understandable for students, I used descriptive term instead of technical term of 25 motivational strategies For example, instead of using the term ―social chat‖, I described it as ―Teacher has an informal (often humorous) chat with the students on matters unrelated to the lesson.‖ The questionnaire was designed based on the Likert scale with 5 points, anchored at 1 (never) and 5 (usually) The data from the survey was used to answer research question 1 about perceptions of students toward the use of motivational strategies

In order to get clear ideas of each item from the participants, the translation of questionnaire into Vietnamese had to be done, with the assurance for the meaning of all questions not to be changed

of worth‖ (Seidman, 2013, p.9) Semi-structured interview‘s benefits also include

―the ability to gain rapport and participants‘ trust, as well as a deeper understanding

of responses Data sets obtained using this style will be larger than those with structured interviews‖ (Santiago, 2009, p 5) With this type of interview in research, the teachers may be asked extra questions which are not prepared before the interview, thus can collect more data (Kajornboon, 2004)

English at high schools in Thanh Hoa They were asked questions about the implementation of using motivational strategies to improve students‘ learning (see Appendix B) The content of questions were based on Dörnyei‘s framework (2001): generating, maintaining and protecting motivation as well as encouraging positive retrospective self-evaluation Besides, respondents would share all the strategies that they have deployed in English classes and the benefits they get from these strategies in teaching and learning process The data from the interview were to answer research question 1 about perceptions of teachers toward the use of motivational strategies

Each respondent would be interviewed as an informal comfortable sharing Each interview took place in approximately twenty minutes

3.4.3 Classroom Observation

Classroom observation was utilized as a supportive instrument for answering question 2 and 3 By observing, the researcher could explore more about ways teachers used to motivate students in classroom and students‘ reaction to each motivational strategy According to Morrison (1993, p.80, cited in Cohen et.al 2007, p.396), observation helps researcher gather data on the ―physical setting‖, the

―human setting‖, the ―interactional setting‖ and ―programme setting‖ and it is a powerful tool to assess non-verbal behaviour (Bailey 1994, p.244, cited in Cohen et.al 2007, p.397)

This research employed the Motivation Orientation of Language Teaching (MOLT) scheme of Dornyei and Guilloteaux (2008, p.76) as the observation scheme in classroom observation However, the researcher had significant changes

in order to make the scheme more suitable and valuable to the research

There are two frameworks in the original MOLT classroom scheme: Dornyei‘s system of motivational teaching practice (2001) and Spada and Frohlich‘s classroom observation scheme, the Communication Orientation of Language Teaching (COLT) (1995) A time-sampling format which recorded every minute of relevant classroom is applied by the MOLT However, in this study, I did not follow time-sampling format of Spada and Frohlich‘s (1995) due to time and capacity constraints of a graduation paper I placed the focus on the presence and frequency

of each strategy (see Appendix C)

The two main concerns of the content categories in the MOLT scheme are teacher‘s motivational teaching practice and learners‘ motivated behavior The factors of the teacher‘s motivational teaching practice originated from Dörnyei‘s (2001) model of motivational teaching practice described earlier in the literature review On that ground, Guiiloteaux and Dornyei developed 25 motivational variables which are clearly definable and observable (presented in Table 1) These variables were categorized in the observation sheet into four groups: teacher discourse, participation structure, encouraging positive retrospective self-evaluation, and activity design The data gathered from teachers‘s aspect was to answer research question 2 and 3

Table 1: The 25 Observational Variables Measuring the Teacher’s Motivational

Practice (Guiiloteaux & Dornyei, 2008, p.63)

No Variables Description

1 Social chat Having an informal (often humorous) chat with the

students on matters unrelated to the lesson

2 Signposting

Stating the lesson objectives explicitly or giving retrospective summaries of progress already made toward realizing the objectives

4 Establishing

relevance

Connecting what has to be learned to the students‘ everyday lives (e.g., giving grammatical examples with references to pop stars)

integrative values

Promoting contact with L2 speakers and cultural products and encouraging students to explore the L2 culture and community

8 Scaffolding

Providing appropriate strategies and/or models to help students complete an activity successfully (e.g., the teacher thinks aloud while demonstrating, remind students of previously learned knowledge or skills that will help them complete the activity, or has the class brainstorm a list of strategies to carry out the activity)

cooperation

Setting up a cooperative learning activity, or explicitly encouraging students to help one another, offering suggestions on how best to do this

autonomy

Offering students a choice of activities, involving them in making decisions regarding the timing of an activity, having them use the Internet or do research (e.g., for oral presentations, projects, and displays)

11 Referential

questions

Asking the class questions to which the teacher does not already know the answer, including questions about the students‘ lives

The students are mingling, working in fluid pairs, or working in groups (simultaneously or presenting to the whole class)

13 Pair work The students are working in fixed pairs (simultaneously or

presenting to the whole class)

14 Tangible reward Offering students tangible rewards (e.g., candy, stickers )

for successfully taking part in an activity

15 Personalization Creating opportunities for students to express personal

meaning (e.g., experiences, feelings, opinions)

16 Element of

interest,

The activity contains ambiguous, paradoxical, problematic, controversial, contradictory, incongruous, or exotic

creativity,

fantasy

material; connects with students‘ interests, values, creativity, fantasy, or arouses their curiosity (e.g., predict- and-confirm activity)

17 Intellectual

challenge

The activity presents an intellectual challenge (e.g., it involves a memory challenge, problem or puzzle solving, discovering something, overcoming obstacles, avoiding traps, or finding hidden information)

22 Process feedback

Focusing on what can be learned from the mistakes that have been made, and from the process of producing the correct answer

25 Class applause

Celebrating a student‘s or group‘s success, risk-taking, or effort by applauding (either spontaneously or following the teacher‘s lead)

The learners‘ motivated behavior was assessed by students‘ levels of engagement in classroom activities To elaborate, the researcher determined the learners‘ level of motivated behaviors in terms of the proportion of students who were attentive or actively took part in activities during the class and who volunteered in oral activities This study also followed the three-level scale of

Guiiloteaux and Dornyei (2008) but made a slight change which defined very low = less than one third of the students, low = one thirds to two thirds of the students and high = more than two thirds of the students (p 62)

Table 2 presents a description of the three variables belonging to the learners‘ motivated behavior category

Table 2: Observational Variables Measuring Learners’ Motivated Behavior

(Guiiloteaux & Dornyei, 2008, p.62)

Variables Description

Attention

Students appear to be paying attention: They are not displaying any inattentive or disruptive behavior; they are looking at the teacher and following his or her movements, looking at visual stimuli, turning to watch another student who is contributing to the task, following the text being read, or making appropriate nonverbal responses

Participation Students are actively taking part in classroom interaction or

working on assigned activity

3.5 Data collection procedure

First, the first draft of the questionnaire was designed based on theoretical background and the researcher‘ assumption, in comprehensible Vietnamese and English Four students were invited to pilot the questionnaire for students Piloting the questionnaire is a necessary step in conducting a survey since according to Cohen et al., ―wording of questionnaires is of paramount importance and that

pretesting is crucial to their success‖ (2007, p.241) Piloting was carried out to check the clarity of the questionnaire items, instructions and layout

After the four sets of questionnaire had been adjusted, the official questionnaire was finalised and ready to be distributed The next days, the researcher went to select classes to invite students to do the questionnaire The students were fairly enthusiastic about helping the researcher to do the survey

In the same week of collecting the questionnaire, the researcher also managed

to conduct interview with the teachers The researcher began with a brief explanation of the format, the length of the interview and asked teachers for any questions before actually recording the interviews During the interview, questions were asked one at a time and neutrality was kept consistently On the one hand, responses were encouraged and extra questions were added frequently to exploit in-depth information from the interviewees On the other hand, reorientation was made tactfully whenever the respondents went off track while jottings were taken carefully during the interview for better data collation later on

The next step was conducted in the classrooms Six observations took place in the following week with each lasted for 45 minutes Particularly, the researcher observed how the implementation of motivational strategy in the classroom occured For each class observation, the observation scheme was prepared by the researcher

at an earlier time (see Appendix C) Along with this, the researcher completed field notes in the class observations (see Appendix D for field notes) A small camera attached to a tripod stayed in the back of the classroom and silently recorded the

observations with the consent of both teachers and students

3.6 Data analysis

Firstly, responses from closed-ended questions from the questionnaires were calculated converted into numerical form Descriptive statistics were used to display the findings from the survey Since the fact that almost all the data drawn from questionnaires were numerical statistics, these data were put in categories based on the literature review and then illustrated in tables and charts for the researcher to examine and comment more easily In the next step, responses from questions from the interview were transcribed and categorised by key words of the statements to be

To process the observational data, the researcher watched the video again, combined with field notes and then based on the observation scheme to draw conclusion about motivational strategies in use and student‘s reactions regarding their attention, participation and volunteering

Summary

In a nutshell, this chapter has given justification for the methodology employed in this study by stating the participants involved in the process of data collection which were English teachers and students from 2 high schools in Thanh Hoa Afterward, the data collection and analysis method in this study were also described Such justifications would supply a paved way for the analysis of the data

in the next part of the paper

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In chapter 3, the methodology of this research has been described and justified with discussing the selection of participants which were students and teachers from 2 high schools in Thanh Hoa In this chapter, all the data gathered will be analysed and discussed to find the answer to each research question In addition, this chapter is also going to discuss the connection between these findings and previous studies reviewed

in the literature to justify similarities as well as the new findings on the topic

4.1 Research question 1: How do high school teachers and students in Vietnam perceive the use of motivational teaching strategies in EFL classrooms?

4.1.1 Perceptions of teachers

Among nine teachers being interviewed, the youngest is 28 years old and the oldest is 53 years old The wide range of age as well as of experience in teaching English of these teachers obviously led to different points of view toward using motivational teaching strategies in classroom

Regarding the role of motivational strategies, 100 % of teachers agreed that it was of pivotal importance for teachers to utilize strategies to motivate students because ―when students are motivated, their learning attitude will be more positive, hence better knowledge acquisition on that day‖ (T1) This opinion corresponds to the findings of several studies about the relationship between motivational practices and learner‘s motivation which emphasized that the level of teachers‘ commitment and enthusiasm greatly affect learner‘s motivation (Dornyei, 1998; Trang & Baldauf, 2007; Guilloteaux & Dornyei, 2008) In terms of perceptions about a motivated class, four young teachers (who are under 40) believed that a motivated class need to remain the positive energy which could draw students‘ attention to most activities in class Besides, the interaction between teacher and students and interaction among students is also a factor contributing to a motivated classroom (teacher T2) It can be easily seen that from the perspective of young teachers, 2

strategies arousing attention and promoting cooperation are the two leading factors

resulting in a motivated classroom Senior teachers, however, thought that a motivated class was only perceived through what students could gain after a lesson

On deeper investigation about motivational strategies during the lessons through interviews, the researcher found that among nine teachers interviewed in the survey, the younger the attendants are, the more versatile they are in motivating learners in EFL classes As the youngest teacher being asked, teacher T1 adopted

tangible reward and team competition in most of her lessons In order to carry this

out, intellectual and vocabulary games were frequently held so that the winning team would get a visible achievement This view was also shared by other young teachers aged under 40 years old Another approach as suggested by teacher T4,

who has been working in the field for just seven years was group work and pair work As can been seen from above-mentioned activities, communicative language

teaching (CLT) stands out as a common method among the group of surveyed young teachers since most of their motivational teaching strategies are communication-based which facilitates interaction between L2 learners A different pattern of motivation was identified among senior teachers, whose preferences lied

with promoting instrumental values and scaffolding Teacher T6 shared:

lessons so that students can develop self-awareness about learning English Besides, I always instruct students very carefully before carrying out a task or exercise I show them step by step in order to make it as simple as possible for students to do.‖

There was an exception of teacher T3 who also motivated his students by

distributing tangible reward However, this was not on the grounds of team working activities but individual competition instead When it comes to feedback session, all

nine teachers said that they always gave comments to students on both strong and weak points of them and more importantly, emphazise on what can be learned from

the task or exercises (process feedback)

―My students are at teen age and very sensitive to comments from others As a teacher, I always take both strengths and weak points of my students into consideration and try to deliver the feedback to them as positively as possible.‖ (T5)

However, self-evaluation was not encouraged due to the lack of autonomy of students Moreover, not all students have the ability to revise their work, not to mention peer correction Students were only required to revise their performance after being checked by the teacher or by following the correct answers given by teachers