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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ NGỌC MAI TEACHER-RELATED DEMOTIVES IN EFL SPEAKING CLASSES AT A VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITY (Những yếu tố liên quan đến giáo viên làm giảm động lực thực hành nói Tiếng Anh của sinh viên tại một trường đại học ở Việt Nam) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Major: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 HANOI – 2018 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ NGỌC MAI TEACHER-RELATED DEMOTIVES IN EFL SPEAKING CLASSES AT A VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITY (Những yếu tố liên quan đến giáo viên làm giảm động lực thực hành nói Tiếng Anh của sinh viên tại một trường đại học ở Việt Nam) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Major: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Supervisor: Dr. Ngô Thu Hương Ngô Thu Hương HANOI – 2018 Declaration I hereby certify the thesis entitled “Teacher-related demotives in EFL speaking classes at a Vietnamese university” as my own work in the fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Hanoi, August, 2018 Trần Thị Ngọc Mai i Acknowledgements I have now made it to the last stage of my MA journey. During this interesting but at the same time challenging journey, I have been given continuous support of a number of people whom I would like to acknowledge here. First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Ngô Thu Hương. The insightful academic comments she gave me, her enthusiasm for my research, and more importantly, her patience were greatly appreciated. Second, I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to the staff and students of the university where my research was conducted. The study would not be complete without their consent of participation. My special thanks also go to the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi National University. Without the knowledge I have learned from the intellectuals and the support of the staff in the Faculty, I could not have finished my MA journey. And last but not least, my heartfelt thanks are towards my beloved family, especially to my Mom and Dad, my mother-in-law, my younger brother, and my husband for loving me, trusting me, supporting me unconditionally and accepting me as I am. Very importantly, my gratitude goes out to my little son and my daughter-to-be, who give me motivation and strength to become a better me. ii Abstract The present research investigated teacher-related demotives in EFL speaking classes at a university in Vietnam. This mixed method study aimed at addressing four main objectives. Specifically, quantitative method was used to examine the factors relating to teachers that demotivate students to learn English speaking skills from (1) students’ and (2) teachers’ perspectives; and (3) identify the similarities and differences in the two groups’ perceptions of such demotivators. Qualitative method (i.e. semi-structured interview) was employed to further inform the quantitative results and to address the final research objective which was to (4) seek ways to assist students to overcome demotivation when learning English speaking skills. The quantitative findings revealed four factors relating to teachers including their traditional teaching methods, controlling communicative styles, the absence of valid testing and assessment; and insufficient English speaking competence as possible demotivators in EFL learners’ learning of speaking skills. Significantly, meaningful statistical differences were computed in the teachers and students’ perceptions of teaching methods and teachers’ communicative styles. Specifically, the students highly blamed their demotivation in speaking classes for teachers’ controlling communicative styles, while the teachers ranked this demotivator the third. They instead believed that inappropriate pedagogy had the most destructive influence on EFL learners’ motivation to learn speaking skills. The qualitative findings generally supported the quantitative ones and unveiled several recommendations for teachers to assist EFL students to overcome demotivation to learn speaking skills, i.e. making speaking lessons more communicative and interactive; choosing speaking topics of students’ interests; providing constructive, informative feedbacks; being friendly, approachable and fair to students. iii Table of contents Declaration.............................................................................i Acknowledgements................................................................ii Abstract................................................................................ iii Table of contents...................................................................iv List of fggres........................................................................vi List of tables.........................................................................vi List of abbreviations.............................................................vii PART A: INTRODUCTION..........................................................1 1. Statement of the problem...................................................1 2. Aims and objectives............................................................2 3. Research qgestions.............................................................3 4. Signifcance of the stgdy.....................................................3 5. Scope of the stgdy..............................................................4 6. Organization......................................................................4 PART B: DEVELOPMENT...........................................................6 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW.............................................6 1.1. The concept of second/foreign langgage speaking skills.....6 1.1.1. Knowledge areas of L2 speaking skills.......................................6 1.1.2. L2 speaking skills and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT).........................................................................................................8 1.1.3. Factors afecting the learning of English speaking skills .........................................................................................................................................10 1.2. Demotivation and demotives in second/ foreign langgage learning...............................................................................12 1.2.1. Defnition of demotivation in second/ foreign language learning......................................................................................................................12 1.2.2. Demotives in second/foreign language learning................14 1.2.3. Demotivation in English speaking skills..................................18 1.2.4. Teacher-related demotives..............................................................20 iv CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY..................................25 2.1. Research design............................................................25 2.2. The setting of the stgdy.................................................27 2.2.1. Research site............................................................................................27 2.2.2. Participant selection............................................................................27 2.3. Data collection instrgments............................................29 2.3.1. Questionnaire...........................................................................................29 2.3.2. Semi-structured interview................................................................31 2.4. Data collection procedgres.............................................33 2.4.1. Questionnaire...........................................................................................33 2.4.2. Semi-structure interview..................................................................35 2.5. Data analysis.................................................................37 2.5.1. Quantitative analysis...........................................................................37 2.5.2. Qualitative analysis..............................................................................37 2.6. Ethical considerations....................................................38 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS...............................40 3.1. Findings........................................................................40 3.1.1. Research question 1.............................................................................40 3.1.2. Research question 2.............................................................................44 3.1.3. Research question 3.............................................................................47 3.1.4. Research question 4...................................................................................52 3.2. Discgssions.................................................................... 55 PART C: CONCLUSION............................................................60 1. Sgmmary of the key fndings.............................................60 2. Limitations of the cgrrent research....................................61 3. Sgggestions for fgrther stgdies.........................................61 REFERENCES........................................................................63 APPENDICES...........................................................................I APPENDIX A....................................................................................................................I APPENDIX B.................................................................................................................IX APPENDIX C...............................................................................................................XIII v vi List of figures Figure 1.1: Classification of demotives in English learning Figure 3.1: Mean score of four subtypes of teacher-related demotives reported by students and teachers Figure 3.2: Frequencies of students’ self-perceived English speaking skills List of tables Table 2.1. Outline of the Current Program of Research Table 2.2: Classification of the items in the questionnaire Table 2.3: Key interview questions description Table 3.1: Students’ Mean Levels, 95 % Confidence Interval of the Means, Standard Deviation Table 3.2: Teachers’ Mean Levels, 95 % Confidence Interval of the Means, Standard Deviation Table 3.3: Mean scores of demotivator subtypes between students and teachers, t-test and significant levels Table 3.4: Mean level of students’ self-perceived English speaking proficiency Table 3.5: Correlations between teacher-related demotive subtypes and selfperceived English speaking proficiency vii List of abbreviations EFL English as a Foreign Language ESL English as a Second Language L2 Second language MOET Ministry of Education and Training SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences viii PART A: INTRODUCTION This introductory part aims to state the research problem and rationale for the study. It then outlines the objectives of this thesis, along with the research questions. This is followed by the reason why the research is significant. The scope of this research is then discussed. The last section specifies the organization of the paper. 1. Statement of the problem The English language, widely known as the global language, has become popular in Vietnam for some decades (Van, 2010). The language is considered by Vietnamese authorities as the most important foreign language at all national education levels, particularly in higher education as a result of globalization. It has been highlighted in the legal documents entitled ‘Teaching and learning foreign language in the national education system in the period of 2008–2020’ lately issued by the Vietnamese government and the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) that Vietnamese higher education should prepare a well-equipped labor force to work in a global economy (MoET, 2008). In other words, students need to acquire an English level proficient enough to communicate effectively in an international working environment. Different from the expectation, research has indicated that a number of higher education learners, especially non- English major students, demonstrate poor levels of English proficiency (see Van, 2008; Do, 2012), which has concerned the researcher, also a lecturer teaching English in Vietnamese higher education. According to Dörnyei and Ushioda (2011), the success or failure in second language acquisition (SLA) is determined by a range of factors including aptitude, intelligent and motivation. As motivation is acknowledged as one of the determining factors in mastering a second or foreign (L2) language, the fact that Vietnamese students are at rather low English proficiency, especially speaking skills, may be contributed by the fact that Vietnamese students have low motivation to learn the language (Huong, 2015). While a large body of research has confirmed that motivation has the great potential to enhance learners’ levels of second 1 language proficiency (Dörnyei, 1998b; Gardner, 2010), few studies were conducted to examine how the “dark side” of motivation (Dornyei & Ushioda, 2011) – demotivation, impacts L2 learning. The significance of studies on demotivation lies in the detrimental influences of the phenomenon on the learning outcomes (Falout & Falout, 2005). According to Dörnyei and Ushioda (2011), language-learning failure is a salient phenomenon and the study of its causes is often directly related to demotivation. Despite the fact that demotivating factors largely impact the learning outcomes, and are said to directly lead to learning failure, it is likely to be entirely or at least, partly neglected in language learning and teaching studies (Soureshjani & Riahipour, 2012). Moreover, among a scant body of research on demotivation so far, most of the studies generally investigated the phenomenon in L2 learning and teaching, instead of focusing on any particular aspects such as the learning and teaching of vocabulary, pronunciation, or four language skills. Furthermore, while the existing literature found a wide range of factors demotivating L2 learners, for instance previous learning experiences, attitude towards the language, learning environment, curriculum, and the teachers, few attempts were made to dig into an individual source of demotivation. As such, the current thesis aimed to address these research gaps and extended the research line to Vietnamese context where the study of demotivation is still scarce by investigating teacher-related demotives in EFL speaking classes at a Vietnamese university. 2. Aims and objectives The overarching aim of the present study was to understand the demotivating factors relating to teachers in English speaking classes at a university in Vietnam. Accordingly, the thesis attempted to achieve four objectives. The first objective was to examine students’ perceptions of what might demotivate them in their English speaking classes (as aforementioned, this study examined teacher-related demotives only). The second objective was to understand how the teachers answered the same question from their own perspective. The third objective was to investigate the similarities and/ or differences in perceptions of teachers-related demotives between 2 the teachers and the students. The fourth and final objective was to outline ways to assist students to overcome their demotivation or in other words to motivate them to study English speaking skills. 3. Research questions To achieve the goals mentioned above, the research sought to answer the following questions: 1- What are the teacher-related demotives in English speaking classes reported by EFL students? 2- What are the teacher-related demotives in English speaking classes reported by EFL teachers? 3- What are the similarities and/or differences between students’ and teachers’ perceptions of teacher-related demotives in English speaking classes? 4- What can teachers do to help students overcome demotivation when learning English speaking skills? 4. Signifcance of the stgdy The current program of research, which explored the perceptions of forces originating from teachers that demotivate EFL learners to learn English speaking skills in Vietnam, is significant at both practical and theoretical levels. At a practical level, this study identified the demotivating factors (in this study only those relating to teachers are researched) that demotivates students in their English speaking classes. The current research’s findings may assist teachers to understand students’ perceptions of detrimental factors, particularly those relate to teachers that affect them in their English learning. This information may enable teachers to reflect on their current teaching practices and improve their future practices. The research findings also provide a number of insights to the university managerial boards and foreign language policy makers. Based on this research, they may suggest the changes in the professional development programs for the teachers or some changes in the foreign language policies, which aims to benefit students’ English learning. 3 At a theoretical level, the present study complements existing literature of L2 demotivation as it addressed the gaps in this area. In particular, this research has provided an insight into demotives deriving from teachers that negatively influence higher education students’ English speaking skills; explained why teachers have such paramount impacts on their demotivation in a Vietnamese collectivist culture; and proposed ways for teachers to assist students to deal with demotivation. Moreover, since little research has used mixed methods to explore L2 demotivation, this work has made a contribution to the methodology by providing the rationales of collecting both quantitative and qualitative data and demonstrating a clear procedure of analyzing, converging two data sets in single research. This research has indicated that collecting both quantitative and qualitative data enabled the researcher to bring out the best of both paradigms to investigate layers of students’ motivation (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011). 5. Scope of the stgdy The present thesis aimed at gaining insights into demotivating forces in the learning of speaking skills. Due to its minor scope, teacher-related demovies were selected as the subject of this study. Particularly, the research investigated what EFL learners and teachers at a Vietnamese university thought about different demotivators originating from teachers. Besides, meaningful comparisons were made to identify similarities and differences between the perceptions on the subject of the two groups of participants. Furthermore, the thesis sought to outline ways that teachers could consider to assist students to overcome their demotivation to study English speaking skills. 6. Organization This thesis is made up of three major parts, namely Introduction, Development, and Conclusion. Part A: Introduction has provided an overview of the current research. The statement of the problem and research gaps have been identifed 4 and discussed, which assisted the researcher to form fve research questions. The signifcance of the study is also highlighted in this frst part. The introductory part ends with the structure of the research program. Part B: Development consists of four chapters. Chapter 1 provides literature review on two centerpieces of the thesis, i.e. the concept of speaking skills and demotivation in second/foreign language (L2) learning. Chapter 2 describes the research design and methodology of the research. Chapter 3 presents, analyzes, and discusses the fndings obtained from the interviews and the questionnaires. Also, some implications are made based on the fndings. The study ends with part C: Conclusion, which provides the summary, conclusion and recommendations for further research. Limitations of the present research program are also discussed. 5 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presents the key concepts, i.e. speaking skills and demotivation in second/foreign language learning, that inform the current study. In the first section, the key points about L2 speaking skills, including knowledge areas of L2 speaking skills, the implementation of communicative language teaching (CLT) in teaching the skills, and factors that potentially influence the learning of English speaking skills are outlined. The second section of this chapter discusses four issues regarding to demotivation, namely definition of the phenomenon, demotivating factors, demotivation in English speaking skills, and teacher-related demotives. 1.1. The concept of second/foreign langgage speaking skills 1.1.1. Knowledge areas of L2 speaking skills Along the history of second/foreign language teaching and learning, L2 speaking has always been considered as the most essential skill to be mastered (Richards, 2008; Nazara, 2011). At present, the need for proficiency in English speaking has been dramatically increasing due to the strengthening position of English as a language for international communication (Nazara, 2011). According to Richards (2008), the mastery of speaking skill in English is a priority for many L2 learners. The tendency to prioritize speaking is also reflected in the fact that speaking competence is regularly considered a measure of one's mastery of English. Although L2 learners often regard L2 speaking as the most important skill to acquire, a number of them claim it the most complex and challenging to acquire (Bailey, 2003). “While speaking is totally natural, speaking in a language other than our own is anything but simple.” (Bailey, 2003, p.48). Despite being defined as brief as the productive aural/oral skill that consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning, speaking is a multifaceted construct (Nazara, 2011). 6 Specifically, L2 speaking is more than to form grammatically correct sentences and to utter them. A well-known example of such a grammatically correct, however semantically ill-formed sentence "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" was composed by Chomsky (1957). As such, L2 speaking involves more than mechanics. The three areas of knowledge that composes speaking ability can be stated as follows: - First, the mechanical elements of language (pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary), which allows speakers to use the right words in the correct sequence and appropriate pronunciation. - Second, the speaking functions (transaction and interaction), which enables the speaker to know when the clarity of the message is needed (as in carrying out the transaction or in exchanging of information) and when a deep understanding is not necessary (as in the development of relations). - Third, the pragmatics and sociocultural norms (such as turn-taking, rate of speech, length of pauses between speakers, relative roles of participants) which enable an individual to realize the conversational situation, whom he is talking to, and what the purpose of speaking is, etc. (Nazara, 2011) While L2 speaking is the mostly sought skill for an individual to be regarded competent in a L2 language (Richards, 2008), the skill seems to be underestimated or even ignored in a number of higher education institutions in Vietnam, especially in non-English major programs (Hong, 2006). This can be explained by the fact that in such programs, English is just a smaller part of a wider degree in other specialist areas such as economics, and engineering (Huong, 2015). The subject, therefore, counts for a few credits of the whole curriculums. In the research site of this study, English weighs only 20 out of 177-181 credits of each major. In addition, it is common among non-English major programs that written tests which mostly focus on grammar elements, reading and writing skills are used as testing and assessment tools at mid-term and final term level. In other words, speaking skills are rarely 7 tested, or only count for a minor proportion of the subject scores. As a result, many students and even teachers are ‘examination-oriented’. They spend less time on oral skills than what are likely to be included in the exams. Even when instructors occasionally teach speaking skills, the focus of the lessons are sentence structures or pronunciation of individual words. However, to be an effective speaker in another language rather than one’s own is never an easy task as speaking is more than to form grammatically correct sentences. It rather covers broad areas of mechanics, functions, pragmatics, and social interaction. Therefore, any L2 teaching methodology used in the classroom should seek ways to improve the competency of learners in these areas. 1.1.2. L2 speaking skills and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Due to the belief that that language proficiency equals to communication ability, the teaching and learning trend started to slide towards communicative proficiency. As a result, the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has gained considerable popularity. CLT is a method of L2 language teaching of which main inspiration is communicative competence. The notion of communicative competence is defined as “the aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts” (Brown, 2007, p. 219). Richards (2005) contended that such a notion encompasses a wide range of abilities including four areas: - Linguistic/grammar competence: the knowledge of grammar rules, lexis, syntax, phonetics and vocabulary of the target language and the ability to use them. - Sociolinguistic/pragmatic competence: the knowledge of how to express messages in accordance with the relationship between the speaker, the listener, the topic, and the setting. - Discourse competence: the ability to understand the context and to know how to link utterances of language to make coherent whole and meaningful texts. 8 - Strategic competence: the ability to manage difficulties that may arise in communication. CLT, underlining the importance of focusing on the functional and communicative aspects of language rather than the grammar and vocabulary building (Richards & Rodgers, 2014), is one the most favorable methods in teaching speaking skills. That is because speaking is a productive skill used as a communication tool through oral form (Bailey, 2003). It places the first rank in communication compared with the other skills. Moreover, it is advocated that language learning purposes are firstly focused on the ability to communicate in speaking. The existence of communicative competence in teaching speaking is, therefore, the goal that must be achieved. In short, CLT emphasizes the communication of meaning rather than the practice of grammatical forms in isolation. It assists learners to develop necessary knowledge and skills for appropriate interpretation and use of a language in different communicative settings. In practice, some of the characteristics of CLT include learner centeredness, focus on both meaning and linguistic forms in context, use of collaborative activities, promotion of authentic materials and of relevant and meaningful classroom activities, and new roles for teachers as facilitators and negotiators of meaning (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). In Vietnam, CLT has gained its popularity since its first implementation in the 1990s (Ngoc & Iwashita, 2012). Viet (2008) even addressed CLT as an event of pedagogical imperialism, by which he meant it is an approach of priority. Many universities in Vietnam are attempting to employ CLT into syllabus design, examination and teaching (Ngoc and Iwashita, 2012). However, the effectiveness of CLT in English language teaching (ELT) in Vietnam is still questioned. Ngoc and Iwashita (2012) argued that after a long period of learning English, most Vietnamese learners still cannot use it effectively as a means of communication. Among many practical factors militating against successful implementation of CLT in Vietnam is the EFL context. Living in EFL context, Vietnamese learners lack real 9
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