AN INVESTIGATION INTO TINH GIA 2 HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION TO LEARN ENGLISH

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HÓATRƯỜNG THPT TĨNH GIA 2 SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM AN INVESTIGATION INTO TINH GIA 2 HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION TO LEARN ENGLISH Người thực hiện: Nguyễn

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HÓA

TRƯỜNG THPT TĨNH GIA 2

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

AN INVESTIGATION INTO TINH GIA 2 HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION TO LEARN ENGLISH

Người thực hiện: Nguyễn Xuân Thành

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page TABLE OF CONTENTS……… i

PART 1: INTRODUCTION ……… 1

1.1 Rationale ……… … 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study……… 1

1.3 Scope of the study ……… 2

1.4 Research methodology ……… 2

1.5 Significance of study ……… 2

PART 2: CONTENT ……… 2

Theoretical background

2.1 Definition of motivation in language learning……… 2

2.2 Types of motivation……… … 3

2.3 Factors affecting students’ motivation……… 3

2.4 Teachers’ role in motivating the students……… 7

Design of Research Methods ……… 8

2.5 Participants ……… 8

2.6 Research instrument ……… 8

2.7.1 The questionnaire……… 9

2.7.2.The interview……… 10

2.7.3 Data collection ……… 10

2.8 Data analysis……… 10

2.9 Procedures ……… 10

2.10 Findings from questionnaire and data analysis……… 11

2.11 Findings from interview and data analysis………… 12

2.12.1 Motivating factors……… 12

2.12.2 Discussion of the questionnaire and interview findings ……… 12

PART 3: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS ……… 15

3.1 Conclusions……… 15

3.2 Pedagogical implications ……… 16

3.2.1 For teachers……… 18

3.2.2 For students……… 19

3.2.3 For facilities, teaching and learning equipment ……… 20

3.3 Recommendation……… 20

REFERENCES………

APPENDICES………

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Motivation is perhaps the single most important factor affecting the outcome ofsecond language learning Indeed, Dörnyei (2001, p 5) contends that when secondlanguage learners have sufficient motivation, most of them can acquire a workingknowledge of the language He further maintains that second language learners’ultimate success or failure is determined by their sustained ‘enthusiasm,commitment and persistence’ in the long and drawn out process of languagelearning While there have been a large number of studies on student motivation,little has been researched regarding the motivation to learn English in a rural highschool in Vietnam This is the rationale for conducting this study, which is aimed atgaining information about students’ motivation at Tinh Gia 2 High School Theunderstanding gained could have positive implications for current teaching andlearning practices, based on the adopted motivational theory Furthermore,students’ motivation to learn English may be enhanced, thus enabling them tobetter integrate into their new learning environment, eventually improve theircareers, and ultimately contribute more to society

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The research was conducted with the aim of investigating the students’ motivation

to learn English, what type of motivation that dominates and factors shaping theirmotivation in language learning The findings of this research would make anattempt to raise awareness of teachers of the importance of motivation towardsstudents’ success in learning English and find suggestions for motivating students

in English classes

Therefore, the study is designed to achieve the following objectives:

 To find out the students’ motivational orientations in learning English

as a curriculum subject;

 To find out the factors that shape the students’ motivationalorientation



3 Scope of the study

Motivation in second language learning achievement has been a heated issueattracting attention of researchers However, unlike other researches, this studyonly focuses on exploiting and analyzing the kind of dominant motivation andfactors shape students’ motivation at Tinh Gia 2 High School in Thanh Hoa Due totime limit, to implement the study, 100 students of three graders at Tinh Gia 2 High

School were chosen randomly in order to fill out questionnaire Then, 20 studentswere invited to interview for in-depth and valuable information.

4 Research methodology

This part clarifies the choice of research methodology of this study It will provide

an overall description of design of research, methods, participants, research

instrument, data collection, data analysis, and procedures

5 Significance of study

It is hoped that through this research, I will get deeper insight into about the reality

of teaching and learning English at Tinh Gia 2 High School in Thanh Hoa Thewonderful thing is that, the researcher is thirsty for gaining better knowledge ofmotivation as well as its impact on English teaching and learning process with aview of applying them to teach efficiently My further desire is that this study’soutcome will make small contribution towards boosting the efficiency of Englishteaching and learning, which will be helpful for the researchers as well ascounterparts in teaching job in the future

PART 2: CONTENT

2.1 Theoretical background

Motivation in language learning is defined differently from different theoreticalperspectives According to Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary - 7th edition(2005), motivation is “that which moves or induces a person to act in a certain way;

a desire, fear, reason, etc which influences a person’s volition: also often applied to

a result or object which is desired.” To think of motivation as belonging only to theinitial stages of an action, - that is as concerned with arousing initial interest andturning it into a decision to engage in some activity - is only a limitedunderstanding of the term The need to maintain this state of arousal, to determinesomeone to make the necessary effort to complete an action is also of greatimportance This idea is reflected in the definition given by Williams and Burden(1997, p 120) who see motivation as “a state of cognitive and emotional arousal, astate which leads to a conscious decision to act and gives rise to a period ofsustained intellectual and/or physical effort”

Gardner (1982), in his socio-educational model, notes that motivation is perceived

to be composed of three elements These are effort, desire and affect Effort refers

to the time spent studying the language and the drive of the learner Desireindicates how much the learner wants to become proficient in the language, andaffect means the learner’s emotional reactions related to language study

Basing on Gardner’s definition, this study was conducted to identify the students’motivation to learn English in a rural high school in Thanh Hoa Gardner (1982), inhis socio-educational model, notes that motivation is perceived to be composed ofthree elements These are effort, desire and affect This definition is an adequaterationale for conducting this study, which is aimed at gaining information aboutstudents’ motivation.

2.2 Types of motivation

Motivation has been classified into integrative motivation vs instrumentalmotivation; intrinsic motivation vs extrinsic motivation in the literature Thesetypes of motivation are reviewed below

1 Integrative motivation, defined as the desire to be a part of recognized or

important members of the community or that society that speak the secondlanguage It is based on interest in learning the second language because of theirneed to learn about, associate or socialize with the people who use it or because ofpurpose or intention to participate or integrate in the second language using thesame language in that community; but sometimes it involves emotion or affectivefactors a great deal (Saville-Troike, 2006, p 86) This type of motivation isdefined as desire to identify with and integrate with the target language culture (Ur,

1996, p 276)

2 Instrumental motivation involves the concepts of purely practical value in

learning the second language in order to increase learners’ careers or businessopportunities, giving them more prestige and power, accessing scientific andtechnical information, or just passing a course of their study in school (Saville-Troike, 2006, p 86)

2.3 Factors affecting students’ motivation

2.3.1 Personality variables

In general, many people see an association between personality attributes and thesuccessful acquisition of a second language While successful students may displaydifferent types of characteristics (they may be extrovert, self-confident, active,passive, independent as well as introvert or shy), unsuccessful students are morefrequently described as demonstrating a lack of self-confidence and being shy,afraid to express their opinions and nervous Whatever their form of behavior,students who try to adopt a more flexible attitude towards the learning of a foreignlanguage seem to have greater chances of success than those whose affective filter

is constantly up Referring to the problem of motivation, W Rivers (1964) hasobserved that personal motifs such as fear or anxiety may combine with learnedsocial motifs such as a desire for status in a group and for social approval, creating

a series of reactions that may inhibit or work towards progress in a foreignlanguage Up to a point, an anxious learner may try hard to catch up with the groupand acquire proficiency in a language A friendly/supportive environment may bedecisive in such a situation But the judgment of classmates can also be harmful,destroying the self-belief in one’s ability to succeed Combined with a generalizedfear of negative evaluation, it may inhibit or distract the learner from the task ofattending and remembering new items Williams and Burden (1997, p.100) alsospeak of a state called “learned helplessness” referring to people who feel that theyhad no control over their actions and see intelligence as something unchangeableand failure as essentially due to a lack of ability In conclusion, learners’ inhibitionmay be the result of both internal and external factors, and being related to theability or inability to find solutions to problems in the past

2.3.2 Attitudes of learners

In general, most people seem to agree that attitudes and motivation are closelyrelated to success in language learning This explains perhaps why some peoplehave a much easier time of learning languages than others; in the same classroomsetting, some students progress rapidly, while others just struggle along and neverachieve command of a second language Krashen has drawn attention to the factthat variables in second language acquisition derive both from the amount ofcomprehensible input the acquirer receives and understands and from the strength

of the affective filter When the only reason for learning a second language isexternal pressure, internal motivation may be minimal and attitudes towardslearning are likely to be negated On the other hand, if students have favorableattitudes towards the foreign language and its speakers, towards the teacher and thecourse, they will probably be more attentive in the class, would take assessmentsmore seriously and, willing to achieve more, would look for situations when theycan obtain further practice in the foreign language Some critics (Gardner, 1985)make a distinction between different types of attitudes according to factors in theenvironment or subject characteristics such as age or sex Thus we can speak ofattitudes revolving around the educational aspects of second language acquisition(educational attitudes) and of social attitudes, focusing on cultural implications ofsecond language acquisition Sex differences are also thought to influence attitudesand motivation: experience indicates that girls tend to demonstrate significantlymore positive attitudes towards learning languages than boys, a good example inthis respect being the overwhelming majority in the faculties of philology andforeign languages Though many researchers (Spolsky, 1989; Williams andBurden, 1997) do not believe in an absolute biological basis for learning, there arecases when differences of age may have an important influence upon the process offoreign language learning The notion that young children pick up foreign

languages more easily than older learners is clearly challenged by the evidence ofareas in which the latter do better However, the adults’ emphatic capacity andopenness to get involved in “real communication”, their ego permeability may belower especially because of external causes.

2.3.3 Learning styles

Closely related to the problem of students’ attitudes towards the language course isthe problem of their different learning styles Researchers and foreign languageteachers have gradually become conscious that individual students have preferredmodalities of learning Consequently, when learners are given some freedom tochoose one way of learning or another, they might do better than those who findthemselves forced to learn in environments where a learning style, which does notsuit them, is imposed as the only way to learn One of the views put forward by theinitiators of humanistic approaches to learning was that teachers should be allowed

to adapt their programmes with due attention to the objectives of their students andthe needs of the area where they are teaching Though, this might not always beeasy, a concern for the students’ learning styles might be of great help inmotivating them to learn The existence of power relationships between languages

is one of the reasons why people have favorable or unfavorable attitudes towardslearning a particular language Subjects, who select instrumental reasons overintegrative ones, often take into consideration the economic and practicaladvantages of learning a foreign language A good example in this respect is thepresent situation in Romanian schools where learners and the parents, faced withthe opportunity of choosing between English and French, generally choose theformer as it has become a kind of lingua franca, placing those who are able to use it

in a more favorable position then those who are proficient in French In the sameway, members of a minority group may have different attitudes and motivationwhen learning the language of a majority group than those of a majority groupmembers learning a minority language Here, the case of immigrants is perhaps themost relevant

2.3.4 Teacher as a motivating factor

The teachers as the most powerful variable of motivation and demotivation, can

become a major part in demotivating the learners

The teacher plays an important role in ensuring that students are motivated andcontinue to be committed in their learning throughout the tenure of their studies.Almost everything about the teacher, including his or her personal characteristics,can have an influence on student motivation Many studies on good languageteachers have identified general teacher characteristics deemed to be desirable andwhich tend to generate positive appraisals of second language learning in the

classroom The following characteristics are often cited as being associated withgood teachers (Borg, 2006; Brophy, 1998; Dörnyei , 2001; Miller, 2012, Renandya,

2013, 2014b)

2.3.5 Teacher teaching methodology as a motivating factor

Teaching Method which refers to the way that students are taught must affect their

motivation Whenever the learners feel bored at the teacher’s method, theirmotivation would likely be lost or gradually decreased As he said, “If the studentsloses confidence in the method, they will become demotivated” (Harmer, 1991, p.5)

Motivating teachers are knowledgeable about different kinds of teaching methods.But more importantly, they have deep understanding about how these methodswork with different groups of learners in different learning contexts They are notdogmatic about certain kinds of methods and do not subscribe to a single method.They believe that there is no single best method that will work with every group ofstudents

2.3.6 The Text

The text here refers to language teaching materials (print and electronic; oral andwritten) that teachers use in the language classroom, including course books andtheir accompanying resource materials (e.g., CD, DVD), teacher-developedmaterials or multimodal materials from the internet, and any other supplementarymaterials Instructional materials play an important role in the language classroom

It is hard to imagine a language class without instructional materials because much

of the tasks and activities of a language lesson are often organized around books or other instructional materials

course-2.3.7 The Task

Language tasks and activities serve pedagogical purposes, but unfortunately not all

of them are perceived to be useful, interesting and engaging by the students.Indeed, students often associate language learning tasks and activities withclassroom chores, things that they have to do to fill in time, or worse, for teachers

to ‘take a break’ while students are doing some work either individually or ingroups In addition, students can not always see the value of the activities (e.g.,tasks that require students to change active to passive sentences) and often find thetasks too challenging (e.g., answering comprehension questions based on a readingpassage which is linguistically too demanding), which reduces the chances ofsuccess in completing the tasks

2.3.8 The Test

An oft-heard complaint from teachers is that our education system tends to give toomuch attention to testing and examinations Our teaching, they say, is oftenovershadowed or even dictated by tests and examinations Not surprisingly,teachers often teach in order to prepare students for the tests and examinations Insome places, the situation has become so bad that people actually talk about aculture of learning where testing has become the dominant mode of learning in theclassroom Such an examination-oriented classroom then becomes a source offrustration, fear of failure, feeling of anxiety, and a fertile breeding ground for thedevelopment of excessive spirit of competition (instead of healthy competition andcooperation) and other negative feelings and attitudes towards learning

2.4 The teachers’ role in motivating the students

Nowadays the role of the teacher is recognized as being highly significant in all thestages of the motivational process Motivation is no longer thought of only asintegrative or instrumental It is also considered a key to learn something in manycases created, fostered and maintained by an enthusiastic and well-preparedclassroom teacher Because of the importance of the nature of the interactions thatoccur between learners and teachers, many studies have been dedicated to thediscussions of the influence of teachers in the process of foreign language learning.Given the complexity of the issue it may well constitute the subject of a separatepaper What we shall attempt here is just summary of important qualities a goodteacher usually displays As mentioned above, the researcher should place theteacher’s enthusiasm, acknowledgement and stimulation of students ideas, thecreation of a relax and enjoyable atmosphere in the classroom, the presentation ofactivities in a clear, interesting and motivating way, the encouragement of pupilswith difficulties, helping them to increase their expectations of themselves In anarticle published in 1982, Mary Finocchiaro has added to all these the importance

of (a) making sure the students comprehend every dialogue, utterance, the gist ofthe reading passage; (b) giving them extensive practice in using verbal or non-verbal alternatives for communicative expressions, structures or language items; (c)correcting important errors tactfully by rephrasing a question, expanding ananswer, or by merely saying “listen” and giving the correct answer; (d) letting themeither grade their own papers or do so with a partner; (e) showing concern forschool or community problems of individuals; (f) making it possible for them toenjoy small successes and the feeling that they are making definite – even if slow –progress toward their goals As Finocchiaro argues in points (c),(d),(e), the problem

of error correction plays a very important role in the process of motivating or motivating students Being constantly aware that all human learning isfundamentally a process involving the making of mistakes may help any teacher inusing mistakes and errors creatively during the teaching activity, for they hold in

de-them some of the keys to the understanding of the process When teachers help thelearners to develop an internal sense of control as well as feelings of effectiveness

in their ability to carry out tasks, then there are great chances for the learners tobecome motivated to learn External reinforces in the form of rewards, good marks

or simple praise, are often considered to be excellent ways of motivatingunderachieving or reluctant learners Conversely, extra homework, punishment orother sanctions, proved not only ineffective in bringing about positive change, butalso having exactly the opposite effect As Williams and Burden (1997, p 138)have rightly observed when “feedback actually provides information to learnersthat enables them to identify specific aspects of their performance, it should proveboth motivating and helpful to them to move into the zone of next development If,

on the other hand, the feedback fails to provide this kind of information, it couldhave entirely the opposite effect”

Research Design

2.5 Participants

Of the 100 Tinh Gia 2 High School students including 30 graders 10th , 30 graders

11th and 40 graders 12th who accepted the invitation to join this study All of themwere 50 males and 50 females They ranged in age from 15-18 and were learning atTinh Gia 2 High School

2.6 Research instruments

The current study employs a mixed method design which includes both quantitativeand qualitative research methods Such a method integrates both approaches toprovide a much more detailed and comprehensive picture of which is beinginvestigated In this study the qualitative data (interviews) was conducted after thequantitative data collection to deepen understanding and interpretation of theresults For the purpose of obtaining data that will explore why high schoolstudents learn English and what affects their English learning motivation, theresearcher conducted this study by using the following tools for data collection:Common instruments of data collection for a survey study are the questionnaire andinterviewing (Brown, 2001) The questionnaire, according to Brown (2001) isparticularly efficient for gathering data on a large scale basis Interviewing, on thecontrary is useful in gaining insights into the views and opinions of the participants

in a particular language setting (Brown, 2001, p 6) The survey reported in thisstudy involved 100 students in one high school Therefore, the questionnaire is anappropriate instrument of data collection

In addition to the questionnaire, a semi-structured interview was conducted with asmall number of the students who were selected from the questionnaire respondents

as a complimentary data collection instrument

2.7.1 The questionnaire

A questionnaire consisted of two parts (see Appendix 1) The first part was adaptedfrom Gardner's (1985) Gardner’s Attitude/ Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) tomeasure the students' integrative/ instrumental motivation in learning English Thispart of the questionnaire contains items reflecting the integrative/ instrumentalmotivation and a five- point Likert Scale ranged from "strongly disagree to stronglyagree" was used The integrative motivation scale includes items (11-20) to find outhow much the learners learn English with a genuine interest to assimilate with thetarget language, culture, community, their way of life and literature, which wouldshow their integrativeness toward the target language But, the instrumentalmotivation scale includes items(1-10) aiming at measuring the respondents'utilitarian reasons for studying English, such as passing an exam, obtainingfinancial rewards, getting a job or pleasing another person(s) The second part wastailored by the researcher to explore the factors shaping high school students’motivation to learn English 20 randomly chosen students were interviewed andasked to tick their choosing factors in the table of 15 possible affecting factorsdesigned by the researcher (see Appendix 2 and Appendix 3)

The items of the questionnaire were developed basing on Gardner and Lambert’sresearch on types of motivation (1972) to identify the dominant kind of motivationintegrative or instrumental (see Appendix A)

Depending on the results of relevant studies and the factors affecting students’

motivation declared in theoractical background section, which enabled theresearcher to design interview questions and 15 possible affecting factors to exploresome factors which might shape high school students’ motivation to learn Englishand fit the rural high school students context The items of the questions weretranslated into Vietnamese by the researcher to prevent any interference due tomisunderstandings in L2 (see Appendix B, Appendix C)

Basing on the result from the questionnaire, interview questions were conductedwith 20 randomly chosen students from those to search for the factors shaping theirmotivation

To help the researcher to clarify any gaps in data appearing after interviewing,interviewees were asked to tick the factors they chose in the table of 15 possiblemotivating factors generated by the researcher (see Appendix C)

2.7.2 The interview

Concerning the interviews, they were conducted to gain a more in depthunderstanding of the factors shaping the learners' motivation The 20 interviewedstudents were chosen according to their rate in English (10 from those who ratedthemselves good in English and 10 from those who were rated weak learners) Ofthe 20 interviewees, one by one was invited to answer 4 researcher’s preparedinterviewing questions in 15 minutes The interviewing questions were inVietnamese in order to avoid misunderstandings (see Appendix D)

2.8 Data collection

The questionnaires were distributed to the 100 students during their normal classsession during which time they were given clear instructions and explanation forfilling out the questionnaire The questionnaires were then collected uponcompletion

The interviews recorded by the researcher were conducted for 20 students learning

at Tinh Gia 2 High School with the purpose of gathering valuable and reliablefactors shaping their motivation to learn English

2.9 Data analysis

The data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed using the SPSS program.The data concerning subjects’ general background as well as their comments werecalculated and presented in percentage Adapting from Gardner’s Attitude /Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) to measure the students' integrative/ instrumentalmotivation in learning English, a five-point Likert scale was used to measure thedominant motivation Such scale was used in the questionnaire to specify the level

of the agreement or disagreement based on the following criteria: The researcherdesigned the questionnaire basing on two types of motivation including integrative,instrumental motivation of Gardner and Lambert (1972) identified in literaturereview

A five- point Likert Scale ranged "strongly disagree = 1, disagree = 2, uncertain =

3, agree = 4 , strongly agree = 5 "

Mean Range Interpretation

3.68 – 5.00 High degree of Motivation

2.34 – 3.67 Moderate degree of Motivation

1.00 – 2.33 Low degree of Motivation

Data collected from the questionnaire was analyzed using SPSS Descriptiveanalyses using descriptive statistics of Mean scores were mainly used to measurethe levels of motivation.

The mean value or score of a certain set of data is equal to the sum of all the values

in the data set divided by the total number of values A mean is the same as anaverage For example, if a certain data set consists of the numbers 2, 5, 5, 8 and 10,the sum of the numbers is 30 Since there are five total numbers in the data set, themean of the set is equal to 6 because 30 divided by 5 equals 6

In this study: mean scores =

100

)}

5 ( ) 4 ( ) 3 ( ) 2 ( ) 1 {( A  B  C  D  E

Strongly disagree = 1, disagree =2, uncertain = 3, agree =4 , strongly agree = 5.

A is the number of participants who strongly disagreed.

B is the number of participants who disagreed.

C is the number of participants who were uncertain

D is the number of participants who agreed.

E is the number of participants who strongly agreed.

100 is the total of participants.

2.10 Procedures

At the very beginning of the study, permission was gained from the principals ofthe targeted schools who showed a willingness to collaborate in this study Toguarantee a positive participation, the subjects were informed that their answerswould be confidential and they were not required to write or give their names atany stage of the study The questionnaire was administered by the researcher and

100 students participated in completing the questionnaire during the Englishclasses The respondents were chosen equally from literary and science sections.The students were assured that the main objective of the researcher was to find outtheir motivation to learn English Moreover, the students were told that theiranswers and opinions would not affect their grades or their teachers' impression andtheir participation in the survey would help teachers to understand their desires andproblems Students were encouraged to ask questions at any time during theprocess

Concerning the interviews, they were conducted to gain a more in depthunderstanding of the factors shaping the learners' motivation The 20 interviewedstudents were chosen according to their rate in English (10 from those who ratedthemselves good in English and 10 from those who were rated weak learners) The results of both processes provided a rich body of data on which to baseconclusions about the learners' motivation The survey results were tabulated and

the interviews transcriptions were analyzed.

2.11 Findings from questionnaire and data analysis

This part presents overall details of the study’s results The following two tables(Table 4.1 and 4.2 see Appendix) outlines all the 20 questioned items, theirresulting itemized mean scores, using descriptive statistics of Mean scores and theircorresponding motivation levels, which serve as the basis for further interpretationand implications

Table 4.5 The Comparison Between Integrative and Instrumental Motivation

Instrumental Motivation 3.47 Moderate

Integrative Motivation 3.17 Moderate

Table 4.5 presents the comparison between instrumental and integrativemotivation It reveals that the mean score of instrumental motivation (3.47) ishigher than the mean score of integrative motivation (3.17) However, the overallmean score of both types of motivation of 3.32 is considered as a moderate degree

of motivation As can be seen from table 4.5., the instrumental motivation of TinhGia 2 high school students is more dominant than integrative one, which is also theanswer for the research question

2.12 Findings from interview and data analysis

This part presents overall details of the study’s results from interviewing andquestionnaire to gain more understanding about factors shaping students’motivation to learn English The findings will serve as the basis for furtherinterpretation and implications

4.12.1 Motivating factors.

Basing on the result from the questionnaire, interview questions were made toconduct with 20 randomly chosen students from 100 participants to search for thefactors shaping their motivation (see Appendix 2)

To help the researcher to clarify any gaps in data appearing after interviewing, 20interviewees were asked to tick the factors they chose in the table of 15 possiblemotivating factors generated by the researcher (see Appendix 3)

This part of the questionnaire was designed to investigate the factors motivating thestudents when learning English The question asked to recognize the motivatingfactors was "which one of the following factors motivated you when studyingEnglish?"(see Appendix 3) The respondents had an opportunity to choose morethan one factor Then, the factors were ranked according to their frequency fromthe most frequent to the least (see Table 4a Appendix ).

2.12.2.Discussion of the questionnaire findings

With reference to previous research, it was noted that while the present findingswere consistent with some studies, they are at variance with others For example,the present study showed that instrumental reasons for learning English werepreferred over integrative ones The results show the students’ demonstrated greateremphasis on instrumental reasons for learning the English language includingutilitarian (e.g You want to pass the exams at the high school, You aspire to passUniversity Entrance exam, Being proficient in English can lead to more successand achievements in life) and occupational reasons (e.g You will need English foryour future career, Studying English can be important for you because youthink it will someday be useful in getting a good job) This is in harmony withthose results of Sarjit Kaur (1993), Al- Quyadi (2002) and Qashoa (2006) Thisapparently reinforces the idea that the students see English as playing a vital role intheir lives, either currently or in the future On the other hand, the findings of thisstudy were different from those of researchers in other countries (Vijchulata & Lee,1985; Benson, 1991) as the findings of the latter studies showed that integrativereasons were preferred over instrumental ones

Based on the comparison and assessment, it is discovered that Tinh Gia 2 HighSchool students are more strongly instrumentally motivated to learn English whichcan answer the research question of the motivation found is more integrative orinstrumental

2.12.3 Discussion of the interview findings

Concerning with the factors shaping high school students' motivation to learnEnglish, the findings of the survey and interviews in this study are in line with theextension of the first part of the definition would take into consideration the types

of motivation as identified by researchers at different moments in time in literaturereview, such as (Gardner, 1985; Lightbown & Spada, 1993; Wright, 1987; Spolsky,1989) They all have come to draw a distinction between two types of motivation:when the only reason for learning a foreign language is to gain something outsidethe activity itself, such as passing an exam, obtaining financial rewards, getting ajob or pleasing another person(s), the motivation is likely to be instrumental As theterms themselves indicate, it is caused by a combination of external factors and

used as a means or instrument to obtain something When its purpose is to enableone to communicate with the members of a specific language community, thenmotivation is considered to be integrative In order to offer a clear image of theintegrative - instrumental dichotomy, Spolsky (1989, p.124) borrows Harter’smodel (1982) and represents it in the following way: Integrative Preference forchallenge, Curiosity/interest, Independent mastery, Independent judgment, Internalcriteria for success Versus Instrumental Preference for easy work, Pleasing ateacher/getting grades, Dependence on teacher in figuring out problems, Reliance

on teacher’s judgment about what to do, External criteria for success Followingthis model, it comes out clearly that the greater the value the individuals attach tothe accomplishment of an activity, the more highly motivated they will be toengage in it and later to put sustained effort until they achieve their goal Thisdistinction also tells us that both internal and external factors have an importantrole to play in motivating learners

From the ideas presented above, it can be revealed that two factors shaping Tinhgia 2 High School students’ motivation are internal and external Internal islearners’ communicative needs and external is their social and educationalattitudes However, They tend to be influenced by external factors much more Inother words, most of the students want to learn English on account of instrumentalmotivation In respect of the instrumental motivation, the results as shown in theprevious section indicated that having many future career opportunities, passing theexams, getting a good job, satisfying parents, getting good marks, as well ascontinuing a higher education inside the country are some of the most commoninstrumental motivation for learning English in the rural high schools As shown inthe results of questionnaire and interview, 100% of the respondents like to studyEnglish for getting a good job because the labor market offers more high-payingjobs for those who know English and it is noticed that knowledge of English is aprerequisite for getting good jobs particularly in the private sector Besides, one canhardly find job advertisements without conditions related to English proficiency

As a result, more and more young people are becoming involved in Englishlearning programmes hoping that some day they may obtain a satisfying profitablejob

For the things above, it is widely believed that the majority of high school students’English learning motivation instead derive from inner power, they tend to becontributed by external factors much more In other words, most of students want

to learn English on account of instrumental motivation In the interview, whenbeing asked if English was their favorite subject, half of the students responded

“Yes” and the rest said “No” and when being asked about their purpose to learn

English, majority of the students’ responses was that They study English for getting