Tài liệu A study on demotivating factors of 10a1 student’s english learning at huong can high school and give some suggested solutions

HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY FACULITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES PHAM THI THUY HANG A STUDY ON DEMOTIVATING FACTORS OF 10A1 STUDENT’S ENGLISH LEARNING AT HUONG CAN HIGH SCHOOL AND GIVE SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS B.A GRADUATION PAPER Field: English Teaching Methodology Phu Tho, 2018 HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY FACULITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES PHAM THI THUY HANG A STUDY ON DEMOTIVATING FACTORS OF 10A1 STUDENT’S ENGLISH LEARNING AT HUONG CAN HIGH SCHOOL AND GIVE SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS Nghiên cứu những yếu tố giảm hứng thú học Tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 10A1 Trường THPT Hương Cần và gợi ý một vài giải pháp B.A GRADUATION PAPER Field: English Teaching Methodology Supervisor: Ngo Thi Thanh Huyen, M.A Phu Tho, 2018 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This graduation paper is my final important task on the way of obtaining my bachelor degree. It would not have been completed without the guidance and the support of many people. At this moment of accomplishment, it is my pleasant task to express my sincere thanks to all of them. First and foremost, I would like to express my endless thanks and gratefulness to my supervisor Ngo Thi Thanh Huyen M.A for her precious advice, detailed comments, valuable suggestions and enthusiastic guidance corrections from the planning stage to the completion of my thesis. Without her continual encouragement and useful documents, her careful reading and critical comments, my paper would be far from finished. Secondly, I am obliging to all my teachers in the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung Vuong University, who inspired me and gave me good knowledge of English for writing this graduation paper. Thirdly, I really wish to thank all of my colleagues and my students at Huong Can high school for their enthusiasm participating in the observation and do questionnaires. Last but not least, I would like to dedicate my concluding words to my dear family for supporting me devotedly both material and spiritual throughout my thesis-writing period. Phu Tho, 2018 Pham Thi Thuy Hang ii ABSTRACT This study aims at investigating the demotivating factors that reduces interests in English lessons of 10A1 students at Huong Can High School and possible solutions that help learners to recover their interests in English lesson. For this study, a 18-item questionnaire was constructed based on six demotivating factors: learners’ factors, teacher’s factors, environmental factors, reduced selfconfidence factors and learning content and materials. The questionnaire was completed by 42 students. Researcher observed six English periods in different skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing skill to investigate demotivating factors of students. The data were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results show that factors such as learners’ factors, teacher’s factors, environmental factors, reduced self-confidence factors are the main demotivating factors that prevent students at Huong Can High School from concentrating and motivating in their English lessons. Based on the results, researcher suggested some solutions for teachers and 10A1 students at Huong Can High School to overcome demotivation such as: having awareness of students’ need and attitude, renovating writing teaching methods to motivate students, enhancing students’ background knowledge and language knowledge. Based on the solutions, teachers can reduce the causes of demotivation using various methods applicable for the respective demotivating factors. iii LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES NO Table Page 1 Table 1.1. Theories of learning 17 2 Table 1.2. Types of motivation (in terms of communicative 24 needs) 3 Table 1.3. Dornyei’s (1994) framework of L2 motivation 24 4 Table 1.4. William and Burden’s (1997) framework of L2 25 motivation 5 Table 2.1: Students’ profiles 38 6 Table 3.1: Student’s attitudes and purposes to learn English 42 7 Table 3.2: Teacher’s enthusiasm and activities in English lessons 44 8 Table 3.3: Teaching and learning environment 46 9 Table 3.5. Learning content and materials 50 NO Figure Page 1 Figure 3.1: Student’s attitudes and purposes to learn English (%) 44 2 Figure 3.2: Student’s attitude toward teacher’s talk (%) 46 3 Figure 3.3: Teaching and learning environment (%) 48 4 Figure 3.4: Reduced self-confidence (%) 48 5 Figure 3.5: Reduced self-confidence (%) 49 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation EFL L2 Denotation English as a Foreign Language Language learning YIBO Pozanti Regional Primary Boarding School MTES Motivation Towards the Environment Scale v TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 1 1. Rationale ........................................................................................................... 1 2. Previous studies................................................................................................. 3 2.1. In the world .................................................................................................... 3 2.2. In Vietnam ...................................................................................................... 6 2.3. Study gap ........................................................................................................ 9 3. AIMS OF THE STUDY ................................................................................... 9 4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................ 10 5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ................................................................ 10 6. SCOPE OF THE STUDY................................................................................ 10 7. DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH ..................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................. 12 1.1. Language learning .......................................................................................... 12 1.1.1. Definition of language learning .................................................................. 12 1.1.2. Language learning theories ........................................................................ 13 1.1.2.1. Pavlov’s classical behaviorism ................................................................ 14 1.1.2.2. Skinner’s operant conditioning ................................................................ 14 1.1.2.3. Ausubel’s meaningful learning theory ..................................................... 15 1.1.2.4. Rogers’s humanistic psychology .............................................................. 16 1.1.3. Types of learning ......................................................................................... 17 1.1.4. Factors affecting language learning ........................................................... 19 1.2. Motivation ...................................................................................................... 20 1.2.1. Definition of motivation .............................................................................. 20 1.2.2. Motivation in foreign language learning .................................................... 22 1.2.3. Classification of motivation ........................................................................ 23 1.2.4. Factors affecting motivation in learning foreign language ........................ 27 1.3. Demotivation .................................................................................................. 28 1.3.1. Definition of demotivation........................................................................... 28 1.3.2. Demotivators in learning foreign language. ............................................... 29 vi 1.3.2.1. Learners’ factors ...................................................................................... 30 1.3.2.2. Teacher’s factor ....................................................................................... 31 1.3.2.3. Factors related to learning environment ................................................. 32 1.3.2.4. Reduced self-confidence ........................................................................... 32 1.3.2.5. Learning content and materials ............................................................... 33 1.3.3. The expressions of demotivated learners .................................................... 34 1.4. Summary ........................................................................................................ 36 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ........................................................................ 37 2.1. Participants................................................................................................... 37 2.2. Methodology .................................................................................................. 38 2.3. Data collection instruments ............................................................................ 38 2.3.1. Questionnaires ............................................................................................ 38 2.3.2. Observation ................................................................................................. 39 2.4. Procedures ...................................................................................................... 40 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................ 42 3.1. The result from questionnaires ....................................................................... 42 3.1.1. Student’s attitudes and purposes to learn English ...................................... 42 3.1.2. Teacher’s enthusiasm and activities. .......................................................... 44 3.1.3. Teaching and learning environment ........................................................... 46 3.1.4. Reduced self-confidence factors ................................................................ 48 3.1.5. Learning content and materials. ............................................................... 50 3.2. Result from class observation .................................................................... 50 3.3. Major findings from questionnaire and observation.................................... 53 3.3.1. Learners’ factors ...................................................................................... 54 3.3.2. Teacher’s factors ...................................................................................... 54 3.3.3. Environmental factors .............................................................................. 55 3.3.4. Reduced self-confidence. .......................................................................... 56 3.4. Suggested solutions to deal with students’ demotivation in English learning56 3.4.1. Having awareness of students’ need and attitude....................................... 56 3.4.2. Renovating teaching methods to motivate students .................................... 58 3.4.3. Enhancing students’ background knowledge and language knowledge ..... 59 vii 3.5. Summary…………………………………………………………………….60 PART 3: CONCLUSION ...................................................................................... 61 1. Summary of study ........................................................................................... 61 2. Implications ..................................................................................................... 62 3. Limitations ...................................................................................................... 63 4. Suggestions for further study .......................................................................... 64 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................... 65 1 PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Motivation plays a very important role in enhancing the students’ English learning performance. Dornyei (1998) put stress on the influence of motivation, which is considered as a key to learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and one of the biggest factors affecting language learners’ success. It is widely accepted that the more motivated learners are, the more successful they would be at learning a foreign language. The learners who choose English language as their major and study it as a foreign language are concerned the motivational factors that play a major role, development of skills and practicing English language in day-to-day use. According to teachers and researchers, motivation affects the rate and success of L2 learning. Moreover, motivation provides the primary impetus to start learning L2 and later the driving force to maintain the long and repeatedly annoying learning process. Motivation leads to increased effort and energy. Motivation increases the amount of effort and energy that learners spend in activities directly related to their needs and goals. It determines whether they pursue a task enthusiastically and wholeheartedly or apathetically and lackadaisically. Motivation increases initiation of and persistence in activities. Learners are more likely to begin a task they actually want to do. They are also more likely to continue working at it until they’ve completed it, even if they are occasionally interrupted or frustrated in the process (Wigfield, 1994). In general, then, motivation increases students’ time on task, an important factor affecting their learning and achievement. Motivation is a major factor in the successful study of language acquisition. Apart from the role that intellectual capacity and language aptitude play in a second or foreign language learning (Gardner & Lambert, 1972). Most teachers dream of motivated students who strive hard to achieve success. It is considered 2 goal directed and defined as ―the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favorable attitudes toward learning the language‖. Motivation is also an important contributor to language achievement in terms of linguistic outcomes, which traditionally embrace the knowledge structure of the language, i.e. vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation and the four basic skills of the language, including listening, understanding, reading and writing. However, the real situation is always different from theory. According to my observation, teacher talks and student sharing. Many students at Huong Can High School find English a difficult subject, they find English hard to learn, they only to deal with tasks in class and they don’t often learn at home. English language requires them to work hard, to invest a lot of time, to possess appropriate methods, but most students are found bored to learn English language. They encounter lots of challenges in finding appropriate methods to learn this language. A number of English teachers at this school said that most students are not interested in English. Besides, although teachers have made great efforts in applying teaching methods in instructing activities, these techniques could work for only some lessons and some students. It is clearly that demotivation causes plentiful negative effects. In a general sense, it can be stated that demotivation constitutes a barrier for a continuing, improving and enjoying language teaching and learning. A high rate of students are reported to get low marks when doing the English tests. In order to get a deeper understanding towards demotivating factors in learning English of 10a1 students to help them and their teachers know their problems better and improve their English competence, I decided to conduct the study named: ―A study on demotivating factors of 10A1 student’s English learning at Huong Can High school and give some suggested solutions” as my 3 graduation paper. It is also hoped that this paper will be a good reference for those who are interested in demotivating factors of English learners. 2. Previous studies 2.1. In the world Gorham and Christophel (1992) studied: “Demotivating factors in learning English: the case of Iran Maryam Meshkata, Masoumeh Hassani” . In this study, they tried to find out what factors were perceived as demotivation by college students who took introductory communication classes. From student’s responses to the open-ended question: ―What things decrease your motivation to try hard to do your best in that class?‖, demotivating factors were finally figured out. Their research findings pointed out three major categories of demotivating factors, i.e., context demotivating factors (factors likely to be regarded as antecedent to the teacher’s influence), structure/format demotivating factors (factors over which the teacher is likely to have some degree of influence, if not complete control), the teacher behaviors (factors likely to be perceived as under the teacher’s direct control). 79% of all responses is about teacher-related factors consisting of class structure, or format-related demotivating factors and the demotivating factors resulted from teacher behavior. In a follow-up study to find out whether the perceived demotivation sources could be the same, Christophel and Gorham (1995) used the same question to spot demotivating factors with another group of college students studying communicative English. The findings of the research were consistent with those from the first study. Nonetheless, no attempt was made in both studies to examine the cases of the students having already been demotivated before they enter the class. Chambers (1993) studied “Demotivation and language learningdemotivating factors in the EFL environment‖. In his research, he also examined the matter by using questionnaires to gather perspectives of both students and teachers. 4 The underlying causes of student’s demotivation perceived were quite different by the teachers and their students. Teachers perceived them to be related to psychological, attitudinal, social, historical and geographical reasons. The students perceived cause of demotivation were various, i.e., teacher’s behaviors, class size, etc. Nevertheless, Chambers could not try to determine what demotivating factors were or to look at them. Critically, he just listed the student’s points of view. Therefore, just a few conclusions about the impact of demotivating factors were drawn on the language learning experience. Thus, while there have been studies addressing the issues related to demotivating factors, no attempt has been made either to set a framework to help to enhance understanding about the phenomenon, or to consider it in the relation with the issues of curriculum and teaching. Besides, Oxford (1998) analyzed the content of essays written by approximately 250 American students (in high schools and universities) about their experiences in their learning over a period of five years. During this time, a variety of prompts were used, such as ―describe a situation in which you experienced conflict with a teacher’s and talk about a classroom in which you felt uncomfortable‖. In the content analysis of the data, four broad themes emerged: - The personal relationship between the teacher and the students, including a lack of care, general belligerence, hypercriticism, and patronage/favoritism. - The attitude of the teacher towards the course or the materials, including lack of enthusiasm, sloppy management and close-mindedness. - Teachers’ style conflicts with the students, including multiple style conflicts, conflicts about the amount of structure or detail and conflicts about the degree of closure or ―seriousness‖ of the class. - The nature of classroom activities, including irrelevance, overload and repetitiveness. Tunaz. M. & Erdoğan, E. (2012) in ―Determining External and Internal Demotivating Factors among Young Learners at Pozantı. Regional Primary 5 Boarding School Frontiers of Language and Teaching”. This paper took a brief look at external and internal demotivating factors among EFL young learners at Pozanti Regional Primary Boarding School (YIBO). In the search of the reasons of demotivation, a questionnaire consisting of 5-point Likert scale, open-ended questions, observations and interviews were administered. Following the evaluation of data tools, interviews were conducted with randomly chosen students, and a new lesson plan was designed and applied for 8 hours of English lesson independent from the state English book. Regretfully, this study was not exhaustive to provide solutions for demotivation due its limited application period. However, it might show that teachers could change the negative attitudes into positive ones even with little effort, though it did not occur miraculously. Lehikoinen and Leinonen (2010) conducted ―A study on motives and demotives in L2”. The aim of this research is to investigate the factors of demotivation in L2 learning of Pakistani undergraduates at the University of Balochistan, Quetta. A mixed-methods research design was employed in this study to explore the factors of demotivation. In this study, the researcher used quantitative data to obtain from the responses of a population of 116 first semester undergraduates in a questionnaire adopted from Sakai and Kikuchi (2009). The questionnaire comprised 35 closeended items on a 5-point Likert scale on six factors of demotivation: grammarbased teaching, teacher’s behavior, course contents and teaching materials, classroom environment, and lack of self-confidence and interest. Qualitative data was obtained from an open-ended question on students’ demotivating experiences in learning English in the same questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the quantitative data while the qualitative data was analyzed by using content analysis to extract the themes or factors of demotivation and their categories based on Sakai and Kikuchi’s framework. 6 The findings revealed that all six factors were cited by students as demotivating factors with teaching method, lack of facilities and course content being the most cited factors, hence supporting Sakai and Kikuchi’s (2009) framework. In addition, the qualitative data suggests that a new factor emerged – negative attitude of society towards English language - hence a contribution to the body of literature. The findings of the study have implications on the teaching and learning of English in Pakistan. Heidari (2012) worked on ―Demotivating factors on English Speaking skill: A study on of EFT Language learners and teachers’ attitude”. The study was an attempt first to get the perspectives of two groups who are basically involved in the teaching and learning processes namely, language teachers and learners, regarding their views about the factors which may negatively affect the speaking performance of language learners; and second, to see what the similarities and differences are between the students and teachers’ attitudes on the same issue. To achieve such a purpose, 215 Iranian male and female EFL learners and teachers were selected in the pre- and post- stages of the study. The researcher used data collection and data analysis methods in this study. The collected data underwent quantitative and qualitative analyses. In order to analyze the data, as it was already noted, first response of language teachers taking part in the interview were codified. Heidari found some factors that cause students’ demotivation in speaking lessons and suggest some approaches to stimulate students to speak and give recommendation for improving the speaking skill. 2.2. In Vietnam Nguyen Buu Huan & Pham Tuong Vi (2017) studied: “English-major students perception of demotivating factors in learning reading”. In their study, a number of students who major in English at Vietnamese colleges have not found learning reading appropriately motivated or even felt demotivated. This paper 7 therefore reports on demotivating factors perceived by English major students in their reading classes. By using a descriptive design, a 38-item questionnaire was undertaken with 115 students who were major in applied English studies. The items were classified into four clusters of demotivating factors such as teachers, learners, reading materials, and instruction. The findings indicated that two clusters related to teachers and learners were found to be the most influential. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen (2007) studied ―Demotivating factors for the first-year Non-English-Major Students in learning to speak English at Hai Duong College”. The research was carried out with 300 students enrolled in their firstyear at Hai Duong College. It explored students’ attitudes towards motivations in learning English and speaking skill as a Foreign-Language (EFL) from the perspectives of the learners. The research used data collection and data analysis methods through questionnaire and interview and observation to figure out five demotivating factors. They were: (1) lack of intrinsic motivation; (2) lack of selfconfidence, (3) learning environment (73,3 percent of students said that there were no extra-curricular speaking activities); (4) teachers’ competence, behaviors and teaching methods (75,1 percent of students said that the teachers spoke too fast that they could not cover) and (5) textbook and time for speaking skills (78 students thought that there were many new words and structures they are confused and the time for speaking seemed to be quite limited, which accounted for 62.5% of the total). The questionnaire also asked students to reflect on how cultural factors speaking classroom might affect their speaking and what sort of speaking they were interested in and thought they might need in the future. The research also suggested that appropriate methods and materials for teaching speaking in the study context which need to be based on a comprehensive interpretation not only of visible signs or visible needs (mainly shaped by institutional requirements and social expectations) but also of what was 8 deep inside students’ act of speaking in a foreign language, involving their own cognitive and affective process embedded in their unrecognized needs. Hoang Thi Hong Nhung (2012) researched ―Demotivating factors in listening lessons of Vietnamese students in high school”. The study investigated demotivating factors in listening lessons of 10th grade students at No.1 Lao Cai High School, techniques used by teachers to motivate their students during listening process and possible factors that help learners recover their interests in listening. This study used both quantitative and qualitative methods. For quantitative method, two questionnaires were delivered to four teachers and 110 students. A semi structure interview for teacher was also conducted to collect data qualitatively. The results show that factors such as listening difficulties, teachers’ style and competence, inadequate school facilities, lack of target language environment, and exam- orientation are the main demotivating factors that prevent students at Lao Cai High School from concentrating and motivating in their listening lessons. In addition, factors such as interest purchasing, selfimprovement, awareness of the importance of listening and desire to pass certain exams in the future are possible factors that assist students overcome their demotivation in listening lessons. Hoang Ngoc Linh (2011) made “An Investigation of Demotivating Factors in English Listening Lessons of the 10th Form Non-English Majors at Cao Bang Upper Secondary School for the Gifted” . It explored the demotivating factors in English lessons of the 10 th form non-English majors at Cao Bang Upper Secondary School for the Gifted. In order to achieve the aims, the researcher used two survey questionnaires, one for teachers and one for students. The interviewed questions structured with a list of 7 open-ended questions were based on the survey questionnaires to get a more comprehensive view of the matter. From the data analysis, it is concluded that the demotivating factors in listening lessons of the students are: (1) the teachers (teaching method, personality); (2) inadequate background knowledge of 9 English (insufficient pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar); (3) learning environment (lack of modern facilities, lack of encouragement from friends, parents); and (4) little intrinsic motivation. The findings indicated that two clusters related to teachers and learners were found to be the most influential. 2.3. Study gap According to many studies conducted by various researchers, demotivating factors are one of the most significant problems that affect not only native English speakers, but also millions of students that are learning English as a second or foreign language around the world. The vast majority of researchers have made great efforts in finding English diminishing factors, such as grammar-based teaching, teacher behavior, classroom content and teaching materials, classroom environment, and lack of self-confidence and interest. However, there has been no research to be done at Huong Can high school in this field, and my study aimed to investigate challenges encountered by students at Huong Can high school and to know whether they are affected by those same demotivating factors or not. Apart from the factors, my study helped to improve the student’s competence about their learning, which could also be regarded as a development step in carrying the better teaching and learning process in the future and this is also the first time I have studied in the 10A1 students at Huong Can High School at Huong Can - Thanh Son - Phu Tho Province with the hope that they will be more motivated to learn English. 3. AIMS OF THE STUDY The aims of the study are to investigate possible demotivating factors in learning English of 10A1 students at Huong Can High school. This study is intended to: 10 – Investigate the demotivating factors affecting 10A1 student’s English learning at Huong Can High School. – Give some solutions to improve 10A1 students’ English learning at Huong Can High School, based on the findings. 4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS In order to fulfill the purpose, the study has been carried out to find out the answers to the following questions: 1. What are the de-motivating factors affecting 10A1 student’s English learning at Huong Can High School? 2. What solutions can be suggested to improve 10A1 student’s English learning at Huong Can High School? 5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study is carried out with hope that it can be useful for teacher and students of 10A1 student at Huong Can high school to realize the essential role of English learning to the student. To teachers, I hope that when my study finishes, they will find the demotivating factors that affect not only student’s abilities in learning EFL but also the EFL’s quality and point out appropriate teaching methods. And to students, they can see those factors and avoid them, they will find themselves many interesting approaches to learning EFL effectively. In addition, my study will bring not only teacher’s teaching but also student’s learning activities and methods, students will be interested in learning English in each lesson, which may stimulate them to improve English learning and get better result. 6. SCOPE OF THE STUDY Because of lacking time, my study focused only on demotivating factors in learning English listening and speaking skills of 10A1 students at Huong Can High school. 11 7. DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH The thesis consists of 3 parts: PART I: INTRODUCTION Presents the background of the study, the purpose and aims of the study. This part also states the scope, the significance and the proposed thesis structure of the study. PART II: DEVELOPMENT This part consists of 3 chapters: Chapter 1: Literature review: This chapter focuses on previous research, theoretical background, de-motivation factors affecting student’s English learning. Chapter 2: Methodology: This chapter presents about participants, setting, research methods, three tools of data collection and the accuracy of the study. Chapter 3: Major findings and discussions: The discussion of the results is made to answer the research questions. According to the result of the research found from questionnaires, classroom observation and interview shows the findings of the research from questionnaires, classroom observation as well as interview and give some solutions to increase English learning for students. PART III: CONCLUSION This part summarizes the finding of the study, problems and difficulties encountered, limitation of the study and suggestion for further studies.