MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
QUY NHON UNIVERSITY
HUYNH THI MINH THY
STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN LEARNING
ENGLISH: A STUDY AT A HIGH SCHOOL
IN PHU CAT DISTRICT
Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching
Code: 8140111
Supervisor: Dr. HA THANH HAI
BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN
HUỲNH THỊ MINH THY
ĐỘNG CƠ HỌC TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH MỘT TRƢỜNG
TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG TẠI HUYỆN PHÙ CÁT
Ngành: Lý luận và phƣơng pháp dạy học bộ môn tiếng Anh
Mã số: 8140111
Ngƣời hƣớng dẫn: TS. HÀ THANH HẢI
i
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I totally assure that the thesis “STUDENT‟S MOTIVATION IN
LEARNING ENGLISH: A STUDY AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN PHU CAT
DISTRICT” is my own work for the purpose of graduating the MA course of
Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching.
The content of this thesis has not been published or written by any other
authors except for some references which are used in this thesis.
The thesis has not been submitted for any degree or diploma in any
university.
Binh Dinh, 2022
Huỳnh Thị Minh Thy
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
During the period of doing the research, much considerable support and
great encouragement from my teachers, friends, and family were given to me
so that I could overcome difficulties and complete my master thesis
successfully.
First of all, I would like to show my deep gratitude to my respected
supervisor, Dr. Ha Thanh Hai, who gave me his helpful guidance and were
together with me from the beginning to the end of my thesis. Without his
companion, encouragement, and helps, I do not think I could finish a MA
thesis which met nearly all of the requirements of an MA thesis like that.
Second, my special thanks also go to students and my colleague Nguyen
Lan Phuong at a high school in Phu Cat District. I greatly appreciate their
time and efforts in filling questionnaires, answering interview questions.
Third, I owe an unpaid debt to all the qualified and experienced teachers
who helped me broaden my knowledge about Theory and Methodology of
English Language Teaching and my friendly classmates who gave me
unforgettable memories during the two-year master course.
Last but not least, I am extremely thankful to my parents, especially my
husband who gave spirit supports in the past two years of pursuing this MA
course.
iii
ABSTRACT
Among the factors influencing students‟ studies, motivation is
considered to be one of the most important reasons for different achievement
levels. The purposes of this study are to find out the students' levels of
motivation to study English, to investigate the relationship between students'
motivation and their achievement. The subjects are 114 high school students
in Phu Cat. The instruments used for data collection are questionnaires and
interviews. The data from the returned questionnaires is statistically analyzed
by using the SPSS program to derive percentages, frequencies, means,
standard deviations, as well as to perform exploratory factor analysis. Major
findings from this study indicates that the majority of the students are
motivated. Students' motivation and their English learning achievement are
strongly and positively correlated with each other. If we want to improve
achievement, we should influence motivation. The findings could be useful
for researchers and teachers in improving students‟ achievement by devising
effective teaching and learning strategies to increase students‟ motivation.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................ iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................... vi
LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................... vii
LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................... viii
CHAPTER 1 ..................................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 1
1.1. Rationale .................................................................................................... 1
1.2. Aim and Objectives ................................................................................... 2
1.2.2 Aim .................................................................................................... 2
1.2.2 . Objectives ........................................................................................ 2
1.3. Scope of the Study ..................................................................................... 2
1.4. Research Questions ................................................................................... 3
1.5. Significance of the Study........................................................................... 3
16. Organization of the Study ........................................................................... 3
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................... 5
2.1. Previous Studies ........................................................................................ 5
2.2. Theoretical Framework ........................................................................... 12
2.2.1. Definition of Motivation................................................................. 12
2.2.2. Types of Motivation ....................................................................... 16
2.2.3. Instrumental Motivation ................................................................. 18
2.2.4. Integrative Motivation .................................................................... 20
2.2.5. Motivation in relation to achievement ............................................ 22
2.3. Summary.................................................................................................. 26
v
CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY .................................................................. 27
3.1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 27
3.2 Research approach .................................................................................... 27
3.3 Participants ............................................................................................... 27
3.4 Research site ............................................................................................. 28
3.5 Data collection methods ........................................................................... 29
3.5.1 Questionnaire................................................................................... 29
3.5.2 Interview .......................................................................................... 32
3.6. Data analysis ............................................................................................ 34
3.7. Summary.................................................................................................. 37
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS ............................ 38
4.1. Findings and discussions ......................................................................... 38
4.1.1 Findings and discussions in instrumental motivation ...................... 38
4.1.2 Findings and discussions in integrative motivation........................ 42
4.1.3 Findings and discussions in motivation .......................................... 46
4.1.4 Findings and discussions in motivation and academic achievement ......47
4.1.5. Finding from interview .................................................................. 48
4.2 Chapter summary...................................................................................... 51
CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS ................................ 53
5.1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 53
5.2. Summary of the key findings .................................................................. 53
5.3. Implications ............................................................................................. 53
5.4 Limitation of the study ............................................................................. 54
5.5 Suggestions ............................................................................................... 55
REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 57
APPENDIX
vi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
L2: Second Language
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
SD: Strongly Disagree
D: Disagree
N: Neutral
A: Agree
SA: Strongly Agree
LLM: Language Learner Motivation
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Number
Tables
Page
Table 3.1
Items in questionnaire
31
Table 3.2
Cronbach‟s Alpha calculated by SPSS version 26
35
for the questionnaire
Table 3.3
Items scores
36
Table 3.4
Standard of Mean
36
Table 4.1
Students responses to instrumental items
38
Table 4.2
Descriptive Statistic of instrumental items
39
Table 4.3
Students responses to integrative items
42
Table 4.4
Descriptive Statistic of integrative items
43
Table 4.5
Mean scores and standard deviations of the
46
motivational types (N = 114)
Table 4.5
Academic results
47
Table 4.6
Interview results from students
49
viii
LIST OF FIGURES
Number
Tables
Page
Figure 3.1
The percentage of participants by gender
28
Figure 4.1
Students‟ response item Q1
40
Figure 4.2
Students‟ responses item Q7
41
Figure 4.3
Students‟ responses item Q15
42
Figure 4.4
Students‟ responses item Q2
44
Figure 4.5
Students‟ responses item Q3
45
Figure 4.6
The percentage of students‟ academic results
47
1
CHAPTER1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Ratinale
Language plays an essential role in human life because it is considered as
an useful tool to help people express what they think and what they want to
convey to others in terms of spoken and written form. As a global language,
English is becoming more and more popular in Viet Nam, the English
learners have become younger and younger and English has been a
compulsory subject in school for a long time. Mastering English is very
important for the students especially, because English is necessary as a means
of getting knowledge.
In the Vietnamese educational system, teachers pay attention to help
students learn English effectively. When learning English, different students
have different difficulties and problems. They can make different mistakes in
English pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary usage. These exert heavily
influence on students‟ motivation in learning English. Some of the students
feel that English is very difficult to study. On the other hand, some students
feel anxious and bored in learning English. As a result, they get low
achievement in English. It is believed that motivation is an important factor in
learning and teaching English. In fact, motivation is a key in the process of
learning. If the students are not motivated to learn, they will simply not learn.
Pardee (1990) states that a motive is what encourages the person to act in a
certain way or develop a tendency for a particular behavior.
Moreover, teachers should know the psychological theory and the process
of English learning in order to encourage and enhance students‟ motivation in
learning English. Learners‟ motivation of learning a language is considered as
2
a crucial factor influencing the achievement and proficiency of learning. If
students are given motivation, students can learn a language better and can
last the learning enthusiasm longer.
As the instrumental and integrative motivation have not been investigated
among this specific population yet, it is still unknown whether or not those
types of motivation can affect these students‟ achievement. Hence, the
researcher conducts this study to determine what motivates the students to
study English and also see if this motivation has an influence on their
achievement or not.
1.2. Aim and Objectives
1.2.2 Aim
The main target of this research is to find out whether the students hold
integrative or instrumental motivation English language learning and
understand the correlation between the students‟ types of motivation and their
academic achievement.
1.2.2 . Objectives
The study proposes the objectives as follows:
a. To identify the types of motivation that the EFL learners‟ hold toward
learning English.
b. To find out the relationship between these types of motivation and
their academic achievement.
1.3. Scope of the Study
The study is conducted with the samples selected from students at a high
school. The data for this study is obtained through questionnaire administered
to the total number of 114 students. Identifying whether they are integratively
or instrumentally motivated, the researcher may able to formulate measures
3
for the improvement of their learning motivation in English language.
1.4. Research Questions
The main questions of this research are:
1) What types of motivation do students hold toward learning English?
2) What is the relationship between the students‟ types of motivation and
their academic achievement?
1.5. Significance of the Study
This study hopefully can give some contribution as follows:
1) Theoretically, the research should be seen as contribution in
understanding students‟ motivation in learning English.
2) Practically, the findings from the present study may assist teachers
who can create motivation for their students and effective atmosphere in
English classes.
1.6. Organization of the Study
Chapter 1: Introduction
The rationale, the aims, research questions, the scope, and the design of
the study are included in this chapter. The reasons for choosing the topic
“Student‟ motivation in learning English: A study at a high school in Phu Cat
district” of the research are clearly demonstrated.
Chapter 2: Literature review
This chapter is divided to two subparts – previous studies about learning
English motivation and the correlation between motivation and academic
results, theoretical background. The first part is a brief review of previous
studies which are relevant to this research while the second part provides the
knowledge of theoretical framework used to conduct the research.
4
Chapter 3: Methodology
This chapter presents research method, research procedures, the ways to
collect and analyze data. Research Methodology clearly demonstrates
research methods used it this study, data collection, data analysis, procedures,
and reliability and validity of the research. This chapter can help readers to
understand deeply the way the writer collects, analyses data as well as the
steps of conducting the research to fulfill the aims of the research with the
assurance of the objectiveness of the research.
Chapter 4: Findings and discussion
The results from the data analysis are presented in this chapter, and the
discussions about the results are made. This chapter presents research findings
and discussions which provide an answer to the research questions. Based on
the answers to the research questions, this chapter investigate the students‟
motivation level and discusses the correlation between the students‟ types of
motivation and their academic achievement in learning English at a high
school in Phu Cat.
Chapter 5: Conclusion and implications
This chapter gives the summary of the content of the study, draw
conclusions and implication. Recommendations for further research are also
demonstrated.
5
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter includes two parts: The previous studies and theoretical
background. A review of previous studies is presented at the beginning of this
chapter. After that, theoretical background is clearly demonstrated as a basic
framework of the research
2.1. Previous Studies
Al-Atemi & Shuib (2009) conducted a study on learners‟ motivation and
attitudes towards learning English in Yemen. The study emphasized three
motivational constructs, i.e., instrumental, integrative, and personal
motivation. The results of the study showed that both instrumental and
personal reasons were important motives for learning English. However,
integrative motivation had the least impact on learners‟ language learning.
In Japan, students‟ motivation in learning English language were also of
concern for many researchers. One of the most relevant studies was that of
Benson (1991) who conducted 300 freshmen to assess their motivation
towards learning English. The results illustrates the significance of integrative
and personal goals as elements in motivation among Japanese college students
as he says, “integrative and personal reasons for learning English were
preferred over instrumental ones" (Benson, 1991, p. 34).
Alqahtani (2018) explored English language learning motivation and
English language learning anxiety in Saudi military cadets, a structural
equation modelling approach. There were 174 participants in Saudi Military
Academy elementary level cadets took part in this study. These cadets were
learning English as one of the civilian subjects throughout their three years at
the academy. Quantitative method was used in this study, and the
6
questionnaire was developed by the author with five points of Likert scale.
The result showed that the cadets‟ positive attitudes towards the learning
environment motivated them to invest more effort and persistence in learning
English. However, their negative attitudes towards the learning environment
affected their L2, which increased their English learning anxiety. The
researcher then recommended that the parents encourage their child (L2
learners) on their language-learning attitude. In that case, the students might
get motivated to invest more effort in learning English.
Roohani (2001) studied integrative and instrumental motivation towards
learning English as a foreign language of senior students at two public and
private universities. The results revealed that the students at the public
university were more integratively motivated as compared with their peers at
the private one.
Neng Aprilia Purmama1 et al (2019) said motivation is the influential
factor in learning activity. Without having motivation, students find it hard to
succeed in learning because the students‟ effort and desire affect the learners
in achieving the learning goals. By getting motivation students will be spirited
in learning process, so they will be shoved to comprehend English well. From
the earlier explanation of the data, the writers concluded that students of
eighth grade at MTs Mathla‟ul Anwar have a motivation in studying English.
Pham Thi Hong Van (2014) carried out a study on factors affecting
learners‟ motivation to speak English among students of business accounting
at Hung Vuong Vocational College using questionnaires and interviews as the
main data collection instruments. The result revealed that the participants
showed their tendency towards instrumental motivation in English learning.
Factors related to the teachers like pleasant personality, good pronunciation
and efficient use of Vietnamese and English in class as well as elements
7
connecting with the learners like their lack of self-confidence, trouble in
pronunciation and vocabulary strongly affect their motivation in English
speaking class.
Siriluck and Sirithip (2004) also conducted a study about the relationship
between motivation and proficiency in English learning of undergraduate
students. The study showed clearly that high English proficiency students are
more integratively motivated than low English proficiency students. However,
there was no significant difference in the level of instrumental motivation
between the two groups of students. Moreover, the study also showed that
high English proficiency students are more motivated than low English
proficiency students with low English achievement.
In line with that, a study conducted by Lee (2015) noted that learning
achievement is the change that occurred in students after following a learning
process. Learning result is a response that is given by students. Learning
results found are not only knowledge but also the change of students‟
behavior from negative to positive.
The research conducted by Marlina (2007) related to students‟ motivation
in learning English as the second language found that most of the students
study English since they want to get a better job, since they know English is
an international language. This motivation refers to instrumental motivation
which can impact the success in learning English. There were 75 students
from elementary to advanced levels. Those students have a different
motivation in learning English. This study tries to investigate the level of
students‟ motivation in learning English and also to know whether they are
predominantly integratively or instrumentally motivated towards English
learning.
Masgoret and Gardner (2003) carried out a research to estimate the
8
magnitude of the contributions that motivation and attitudes make in the
second language. Integrativeness and attitudes toward the learning situation
were two correlated variables that supported the individual's motivation to
learn a second language, but that motivation was responsible for achievement
in the second language. This conceptualization implied that integrativeness
and attitudes toward the learning situation were related to achievement in the
second language, but that their effect was indirect, acting through motivation
Abdur Rehman &Hafiz Ahmad Bilal (2014) explored the role of
motivation in learning English language for Pakistani learners. From the
result of this research they concluded that the percentage of integratively
motivated students is lower (i.e 24%) than instrumentally motivated students
(i.e 70%) so in the Pakistan context, students are highly instrumentally
motivated in learning English language.
Achmad and Yusuf (2016) found out the motivational factors for
learning English in Aceh, Indonesia. There are 100 students in the study. A
questionnaire was used to collect data on three motivational factors, i.e.
intrinsic, extrinsic, and integrative. Although the results for these three factors
were similar, the most important motivation to learn English is integrative.
The researchers then suggest that the teachers consider activities that involve
students to interact with people who use English as an international language.
Carreira (2003) revealed developmental declines in intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation of students for learning EFL, which could be happening
in other subjects, too. There were five factors behind the motivation of
students: interest in foreign countries, intrinsic motivation, caregivers‟
encouragement, instrumental motivation, and anxiety. This study made a
contribution towards revealing and understanding the motivation of Japanese
elementary students for learning EFL.
9
Samejon (2015) piloted a study on tertiary level students in the
Philippines. His aim was to investigate extrinsic motivation factors in learning
English as a second language. It is a descriptive-survey study. The researcher
found that the students mainly have personally valued learning the macro
skills of the language. The students also believe that learning the skill is
instrumental for reasons such as getting high grades. In the end, the
researchers aim to extend this study to other students at different levels of
education.
Ali Tanggaraj (2020) concluded that the BTESL students have
instrumental motivation towards learning ESL. Although instrumental
motivation gains the highest scores among all four types of motivation, it was
just a bit higher by 0.31 than integrative motivation. In that case, teachers or
lecturers of ESL should encourage all types of motivation in the classroom
and instruct students towards achieving goals. For instance, integrative
motivation enhances students to learn a language and communicate with the
community, instrumental motivation enhances students to learn a language for
utilitarian and academic reasons, resultative motivation enhances students to
achieve more and more, and intrinsic motivation enhances students to get the
best results from participating in activities. Therefore, it is crucial to promote
all types of motivation for L2 learners.
Humphreys and Spratt (2008) investigated Hong Kong tertiary
students„ motivation towards learning English, Putonghua and an elected
language. The results revealed that students learned Putonghua with more
instrumental motivation. However, 12 English and the chosen language were
more related to integrative motivation. One important finding was that the
students were aware of the instrumental value of English, but the motive to
learn English was not instrumental. The researchers emphasized on
10
integrative motivation as the key for teachers in Hong Kong to address their
students in learning English.
Peipei Li & Guirong Pan(2009) studied 65 juniors from two classes and
they were divided into three groups: low achievers, moderate achievers and
high achievers according to their TEM-4 grades, instrumental motivation
plays an important role in English majors‟ acquisition; both high achievers
and lower achievers have higher instrumental motivation; high achievers have
higher sense of achievement while low achievers have lower sense of
achievement. Students with higher motivation always achieve greater success
in their language learning, while those lacking motivation make no attempts
in the process of language learning and often fail the exam. If a student lacks
motivation, it seems that he is unlikely to achieve success no matter who the
teacher is or what the curricula are, whereas the highly motivated students can
succeed in any conditions. Therefore, arousing students‟ motivation has
become an important part in foreign language teaching. Teachers should
concentrate on increasing students‟ motivation and developing the skills or
strategies to make them more competent so that they are able to take
ownerships of their own learning.
Interested in young learners, Hoa (2013) carried out a study on students‟
motivation in learning English at Nhan Phuc Primary School. She delivered
questionnaires to 180 students from 3rd to 5th grades to find out the type of
learners‟ motivation, factors affecting their motivation and appropriate
teaching techniques to motivate them to study English. She then chose fifteen
students for further interviews. The results illustrated that students have a
tendency towards intrinsic motivation in learning English and three prevailed
factors influencing their motivation are students‟ self-interest, caregiver‟s
encouragement and anxiety.
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