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

Aims of the study This study is conducted in order to investigate into the motivational factors that urge second-year students in FoBF to learn English as well as to find out whether th

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

  

NGUYỄN THỊ XUYẾN

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

TECHNOLOGY

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

hàng, Trường Đại học Kinh doanh và Công nghệ Hà Nội)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

60 14 10

Hanoi, September/ 2010

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

  

NGUYỄN THỊ XUYẾN

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

TECHNOLOGY

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

hàng, Trường Đại học Kinh doanh và Công nghệ Hà Nội)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

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

Hanoi, September/ 2010

Table of content

Declaration……….i

Acknowledgement……… ii

Abstract……….iii

Table of content………iv

List of abbreviation terms……… vi

List of tables and figures……….vii

INTRODUCTION 1

1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1

2 AIMS OF THE STUDY 2

3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 2

4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 3

5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 3

6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY 3

DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

1.1 Definition of motivation in L2 learning 4

1.2 Classification of motivation in language learning 6

1.2.1 Gardner’s classification……….6

1.2.2 Deci and Ryan’s classsification……… 7

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

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ….13

2.1 Context of the study 13

2.2 Subjects 14

2.3 Data collection instruments 15

2.4 Data collection procedure 17

2.5 Data analysis……… 18

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 19

3.1 Findings 19

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

3.1.1.1 Extrinsic motivation……….19

3.1.1.2 Intrinsic motivation……… 21

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

3.2 Discussions 30

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

3.2.2 Demotivating factors……….32

3.2.2.1 Subject-related demotivating factors……… 32

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

3.2.2.3 Teacher-related demotivating factors……… 34

3.2.2.4 Student-related demotivating factors………36

CONCLUSION 37

1 SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 37

2 RECOMMENDATIONS 38

3 LIMITATIONS 39

4 FUTURE DIRECTION 40

REFERENCES 41 APPENDICES

Appendix 1 : Motivation questionnaire (in English)

Appendix 2 : Motivation questionnaire (in Vietnamese)

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

Vietnamese university students

Appendix 4: Schmidt et al (1996) questionnaire

Appendix 5: Results of demotivating factors questionnaire

List of abbreviation terms

L2 Second language

EFL English as a foreign language

HUBT Hanoi University of Business and Technology FoBF Faculty of Banking and Finance

List of tables

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

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

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

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

Table 5: Internal demotivating factors……… 25

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

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

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

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

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

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Background of the study

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

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

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

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

motivational factors that underlie the Vietnamese university students‟ English language learning

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

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

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

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

2 Aims of the study

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

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

3 Research questions

This study is guided by the following questions:

1 What is Banking and Finance second-year students‟ motivation in learning English in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?

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

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

4 Significance of the study

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

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

5 Scope of the study

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

6 Design of the study

This study is composed of three following parts:

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

significance, the scope, and the design of the study

Part B: Development is organized around three chapters as follows

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

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

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

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

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

data and a discussion on the findings of this study

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

limitations, and future directions for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

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

1.1 Definition of motivation in L2 learning

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

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

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

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

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

1983, p 395)

Gardner (1985), from the social psychological point, defined motivation in L2 learning as “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” (p.10) According to this definition, motivation consists of three components: (1) effort expanded

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

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

According to Williams and Burden (1997), however, motivation is “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(s)” (Williams & Burden, 1997, p 120) In other words, motivation involves arousing interest in doing something, sustaining interest, and investing time and energy into using the necessary effort in order to achieve a certain goal

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

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

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

1.2 Classification of motivation in language learning

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

1.2.1 Gardner’s classification

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1.2.2 Deci and Ryan’s classification

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

of extrinsic motivation seems to be more internalized than external regulation

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

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

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

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

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

While integrative and instrumental motivation is difficult to separate, intrinsic and extrinsic factors, according to Brown (2000), can be easily identified in foreign language classrooms regardless of the differences between the cultural beliefs and the attitudes of learners and teachers About the relationship between intrinsic-extrinsic motivation and integrative-instrumental motivation, Schmidt et al (1996) concluded that intrinsic-extrinsic distinction is similar to integrative-instrumental distinction but not identical Both instrumental and integrative motivation can be seen as subtypes of extrinsic motivation because both are related to goals or outcomes They also stated that integrative and instrumental motivation is not a dichotomy, and that there are some learners who are both instrumentally and integratively motivated to learn a foreign language and those who are neither instrumentally or integratively motivated

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

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

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

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

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

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

on the language learning experience

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

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

in the study

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tran and Baldauf‟s (2007) study revealed that the phenomenon of demotivation not only exists in EFL learning in Vietnam but is also a serious problem The findings of this study seem to be consistent with the general results reported in previous studies when it states that the largest source of demotives is related to teachers Teachers are reported to have strong impacts on students‟ demotivation or motivation to learn Within the four

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

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

2.1 Context of the study

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

a private university in Hoang Mai District, Hanoi, Vietnam HUBT is rather famous for providing good training in two main fields: business and technology Business involves several different majors such as Banking and Finance, Accounting, Business Administration and Commerce Of all, Banking and Finance is considered the most popular major of HUBT with the greatest number of students studying in this faculty Every year there are approximately 1,000 new students enrolling in FoBF; this faculty hence receives a lot of attention of the university

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

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

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

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

Up to now, the books Market Leader Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, and Intermediate written by David Cotton, David Falvey, and Simon Kent from London Guildhall University have been used as course-books for Banking and Finance students The three books are primarily designed for business English courses for businesspeople and students of business English to develop students‟ communication skills they need to succeed in business as well as to enlarge their knowledge of business world Moreover, it

is expected that every student studying this course will become more fluent and confident

in using the language of business and should increase their career prospects

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

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

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

2.2 Subjects

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

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

2.3 Data collection instruments

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

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

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

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

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

5 items (statements 2,4,6,8,10) and extrinsic motivation includes 5 items (statements 1,3,5,7,9) All 10 statements are in a Five-point Likert-scale The Intrinsic-Extrinsic Motivational Questionnaire designed by Schmidt et al (1996) (see Appendix 4) is used as the base for the researcher to develop this questionnaire since Schmidt et al (1996) study focused on intrinsic-extrinsic motivation of EFL adult learners in Egypt, which seems to be similar to the participants and context of this study However, it is too long to apply all the

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

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

Table 2: Structure of the motivation questionnaire

The semi-structured interviews with 20 students who participated in doing the questionnaire is conducted to obtain more detailed and comprehensive information about

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

2.4 Data collection procedure

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

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

Concerning the interviews, they were conducted to gain more in-depth information about students‟ motivation and factors affecting negatively their motivation in learning English at HUBT After the researcher analyzed the questionnaires, 20 students were chosen to participate in the interview, of which 10 were identified as extrinsically motivated learners and the other were intrinsically motivated These interviews were also conducted through the Internet with the help of Yahoo!Messenger Before the interview was conducted, the interviewees were invited to join in a chat room at the time and date suitable for the interviewees All the content of the interviews were copied into Words for analyzing

2.5 Data analysis

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

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

3.1.1.1 Extrinsic motivation

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

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

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

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

8 (0.5%)

978 (72.7%)

Chart 1: Frequency and distribution of items measuring extrinsic motivation

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

“Nowadays whatever job we apply for, we are required to use English well Thus, the ability to use English is some kind of “guarantee” for the success of any career, especially for those who work in Finance and Banking ” (S4)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.1.1.2 Intrinsic motivation

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

would continue This seems to align with the result of question 2 above that English is interesting to them Especially, 59.5% of students thought that they would take English classes even if it were not required by HUBT However, many of them (68%) revealed that they did not like the English challenge More surprisingly, although 76.6% of students stated that they learned English in order to communicate with English foreigners, 54.7% of them shared the same view that they did not use English outside classrooms when they had chances

Table 3: The frequency distribution of items measuring intrinsic motivation (n= 269)

Chart 2: The frequency distribution of items measuring intrinsic motivation

The results of the semi-structured interviews with participants help to understand more about students‟ intrinsic orientation in learning English at HUBT