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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER FELTE-ULIS THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS’ BELIEFS AND PRACTICES OF MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES IN THEIR MICRO-TEACHING Supervisor : Dương Thu Mai, Ph.D. Student : Lý Hoàng Yến Course : QH2015 HANOI - 2019 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP NIỀM TIN VỀ CHIẾN LƯỢC TẠO ĐỘNG LỰC HỌC VÀ VIỆC THỰC HÀNH SỬ DỤNG CHIẾN LƯỢC CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ BA TRONG GIẢNG TẬP TẠI KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH, TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ Giáo viên hướng dẫn : T.S Dương Thu Mai Sinh viên : Lý Hoàng Yến Khóa : QH2015 HÀ NỘI - 2019 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Lý Hoàng Yến, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper. Signature June 1st 2019 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, it is my pleasure to be supervised by Ms. Duong Thu Mai, to whom I would like to express my deepest gratitude. Without her precious support, careful guidance and critical comments, the study could have not been completed. Secondly, with all sincerity, I would like to thank 109 third-year students at the Faculty of English language Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies for their enthusiastic and responsible participation in the research. Additionally, I would have not been completed the study without my classmates Vu Phuong Hanh, Tran Thi Hoai Linh, Tran Hong Duyen and my beloved friend Le Thi Thanh Huyen, who provided me listening ears and encouragement all the time. My sincere gratefulness is finally dedicated to my beloved family, especially my parents, who had been caring and supporting me wholeheartedly during the time I carried out this study. I would like to offer my regards and blessings to all of those who supported me in any respect during the completion of the study. i ABSTRACT L2 learners‟ motivation has been voiced by many scholars to be closely related to teachers‟ motivational teaching practices, yet many young teachers hardly ever employ motivational strategies in their classes. The question to answer is whether those teachers are aware of the effect of the techniques to motivate learners and practice those techniques during pre-service teacher training programs. There have been a significant body of research on this matter in the world but since there has been little research on this matter in Vietnam, this study was carried out. The study took third-year students at the Faculty of English language Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies as participants and employed mixed methods design to scrutinize the student teachers‟ beliefs and practices about motivational strategies in their micro-teaching. Specifically, 109 student teachers were invited to participate in the research surveys using stratified and simple random sampling method. Questionnaires, classroom observations and interviews were used as data collection instruments while descriptive statistics and interpretative procedures served as the main data analysis methods. The findings reveal profound beliefs of the third-year students about the effectiveness of motivational strategies as well as their attempt to apply the strategies in micro-teaching. An undisputable link between the student teachers‟ beliefs and practices about MSs was also identified since the participants had the tendency to use the strategies which they highly value. Besides their beliefs, other factors such as students and classroom conditions, particularly micro-teaching context, lesson contents and learners‟ level, also relate to the third-year students‟ application of MSs in micro-teaching. These results suggest the pre-service teachers should try to vary the use of MSs in their teaching, even the techniques that they do not evaluate, for better motivating effects. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... i ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................... iii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ........................................................................ v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS................................................................................. vii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1 1.1. Statement of research problem and rationale .......................................................1 1.2. Research aims and research questions ..................................................................2 1.3. Scope of the study.................................................................................................2 1.4. Significance of the study ......................................................................................3 1.5. Organization of the paper .....................................................................................4 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................... 5 2.1. Pre-service teachers‟ beliefs and practices ...........................................................5 2.1.1. Teachers‟ beliefs ..............................................................................................5 2.1.2. The relation between pre-service teachers‟ beliefs and practices ....................6 2.2. Motivation ............................................................................................................7 2.2.1. Definition of motivation ...................................................................................7 2.2.2. Frameworks of L2 Motivation .........................................................................8 2.2.3. Frameworks of Motivational strategies ..........................................................10 2.2.4. Studies on L2 motivation in Vietnam ............................................................17 2.3. Micro-teaching....................................................................................................19 2.3.1. Definitions and basic concepts .......................................................................19 2.3.2. Advantages and limitations of micro-teaching ..............................................20 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY .............................................................................. 22 3.1. Settings of the study ...........................................................................................22 3.2. Sampling and participations ...............................................................................23 3.3. Data collection ....................................................................................................24 3.3.1. Data collection instruments ............................................................................24 3.3.2. Data collection procedure...............................................................................26 3.4. Data analysis .......................................................................................................29 iii Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ........................................................ 31 4.1. The beliefs of the student teachers about the effectiveness of MSs ..................31 4.2. The student teachers‟ frequency of using MSs in micro-teaching .....................37 4.2.1. Data from questionnaires ................................................................................37 4.2.2. Data from classroom observations ..................................................................40 4.3. The relation between the student teachers‟ beliefs and practices about MSs. ...45 4.3.1. Motivational strategies in creating basic motivational condition ...................45 4.3.2. Motivational strategies in generating initial motivation .................................46 4.3.3. Motivational strategies in maintaining and protecting motivation .................47 4.3.4. Motivational strategies in encouraging positive self-evaluation ....................49 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION .................................................................................... 52 5.1. Major findings of the study ................................................................................52 5.2. Pedagogical implications ...................................................................................53 5.3. Limitations of the study .....................................................................................54 5.4. Suggestions for further study .............................................................................54 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 56 APPENDICES ......................................................................................................... 59 iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES List of Figures Page Figure 1: The components of motivational teaching practice in L2 classroom 12 Figure 2: The student teachers‟ beliefs about the effectiveness of MSs in creating basic motivational condition ………………………………………... 32 Figure 3: The student teachers‟ beliefs about the effectiveness of MSs in generating initial motivation …………………………………………………. 32 Figure 4: The student teachers‟ beliefs about the effectiveness of MSs in maintaining and protecting motivation ………………………………………. 34 Figure 5: The student teachers‟ beliefs about the effectiveness of MSs in encouraging positive self-evaluation …………………………………………. 36 Figure 6: The student teachers‟ self-perceived frequency of using MSs in creating the basic motivational conditions …………………………………… 37 Figure 7: The student teachers‟ self-perceived frequency of using MSs in generating initial motivation …………………………………………………. 38 Figure 8: The student teachers‟ self-perceived frequency of using MSs in maintaining and protecting motivation ………………………………………. 39 Figure 9: The student teachers‟ self-perceived frequency of using MSs in encouraging self-evaluation ………………………………………………….. 40 Figure 10: The student teachers‟ frequency of using MSs in encouraging self-evaluation as observed by the researcher ……………………………....... 40 Figure 11: The student teachers‟ frequency of using MSs in generating initial motivation as observed by the researcher ……………………………... 41 Figure 12: The student teachers‟ frequency of using MSs in maintaining and protecting motivation as observed by the researcher ………………………… 43 Figure 13: The student teachers‟ frequency of using MSs in encouraging self-evaluation as observed by the researcher ………………………………... 44 v List of Tables Table 1 The 25 Observational Variables Measuring the Teacher‟s Motivational Practice ... 13 Table 2 Data collection procedure ............................................................................................... 26 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS MS : motivational strategy MSs : motivational strategies FELTE : Faculty of English Language Teacher Education ULIS : University of Languages and International Studies L2 : second language; foreign language EFL : English as a foreign language ESL : English as a second language ELT : English language teaching MOET : Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam SDT : Self-determination theory vii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION This initial chapter justifies the problem and reasons for this research to be carried out. Furthermore, four research questions together with the aims, scope and significance of the study will be clarified. Finally, the thesis organization to orientate readers throughout the paper will be presented and close the chapter. 1.1. Statement of research problem and rationale Motivation has been recognized by both teachers and researchers as “one of the main determinants of second/foreign language (L2) learning achievement” (Dornyei, 2008, p.237). As a result, language teachers are supposed to develop skills in motivating learners or make use of several motivational strategies (MSs) in their teaching. However, according to Veenman (1984, as cited in Melnick & Meister, 2008), motivating pupils is one of the most serious problem areas of new teachers. This triggers a need for pre-service teachers to be aware of and to practice applying MSs before they come to real teaching. Within the context of the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies (FELTE-ULIS), several studies about the topic of motivation and the exploitation of MSs in stimulating learners have been carried out such as Nguyen‟s (2008) study about the frequency and effectiveness of MSs during speaking lessons for first-year students, the study of Nguyen (2011) which attempts to scrutinize the teachers‟ use of MSs in correlation with their teaching experience, and Tran‟s (2012) study which investigates the preservice teachers‟ exploitation of MSs during practicums. Given the fact that the teacher training courses provided by FELTE-ULIS do not include systematic training about MSs, these studies have acknowledged the use of MSs among teachers in their teaching and teacher trainees in practicums. This may indicate that the trainees also utilize MSs in micro-teaching, which is their earlier teaching practice; however, such utilization has not been examined. Deemed as an essential teaching practice in teacher training programs (Remesh, 2013), micro-teaching is also exploited among FELTE-ULIS third-year 1 students in their sixth semester. It is a component part of the ESL/EFL Classroom Techniques and Practices (ELT 2) course and also an early teaching practice of FELTE students. A body of research has shown that micro-teaching helps teacher trainees to “get deeper knowledge regarding the art of teaching”, “improve in-class teaching performances”, and “develop classroom management skills” (Remesh, 2013). Nonetheless, the number of studies that digs deep into the development of specific skills during micro-teaching (e.g. skill in motivating learners) is limited. Additionally, student-teachers‟ beliefs and teaching practices are proved to be interrelated during practicums, yet has not thoroughly been examined in such an early teaching practice as micro-teaching. The aforementioned points set the context for this research, which attempts to explore the beliefs and practices of FELTE-ULIS third-year students about MSs in their micro-teaching practice. 1.2. Research aims and research questions At the first place, this study aims at scrutinizing FELTE-ULIS third-year students‟ beliefs about the effectiveness of MSs and their frequency of using MSs in micro-teaching. After that, the relationship between the student teachers‟ beliefs and practices will be detected. These aims can be summarized into three research questions:  To what the extent do MSs help stimulate learners in learning as perceived by the student teachers?  What is the student teachers‟ frequency of using MSs in their microteaching?  To what extent are the student teachers‟ beliefs about MSs and their perceived practices in micro-teaching similar? 1.3. Scope of the study Firstly, as the topic of the study is “the beliefs and practices” of pre-service teachers, the focus is on scrutinizing the connection between what student teachers believe about MSs and how they practice those strategies in micro-teaching. 2 Secondly, although MSs can be defined in two ways: the strategies that can be employed by teachers to stimulate students‟ motivation and the students‟ selfregulating techniques, within the framework of this paper, the researcher only focuses on the former. Moreover, among several frameworks of MSs, this research adopts the motivational teaching practice proposed by Dornyei (2001), particularly Dornyei and Guilloteaux (2008) MOLT scheme about teachers‟ motivating behaviors as the background framework to assist data collection and analysis. Finally, this study is carried out using mixed methods design. The target participants of the study are third-year students who have just conducted a microteaching session in ELT 2 course at FELTE, ULIS. 109 student-teachers were randomly chosen to do a survey on their beliefs about MSs and their practices of those strategies in micro-teaching. Besides, the researcher conducted observation sessions on ten micro-teaching periods of twenty student teachers who were recommended by their teacher trainers. The samples are deemed to be representative of the whole population, enabling the researcher to generalize the results to all third-year students enrolling in the academic year 2018-2019 in FELTE-ULIS context. 1.4. Significance of the study With a view to examining the beliefs and exploitation of MSs of pre-service teachers in their micro-teaching, this research is believed to benefit both trainees and trainers in English teachers training programs. For student teachers, since they are not thoroughly trained all MSs during the course, this research will first provide them opportunities to reflect on their microteaching practice to reinforce the acquired MSs and secondly inform them explicitly of other strategies that they can use to motivate learners. They, therefore, will have a holistic view of MSs and be able to maximize the potentials of those strategies in future teaching. For teacher trainers, they can be more conscious of their students‟ perspectives towards the motivational practice, which can lead to adjustments in 3 their teaching methods and/or further adaptation for the teachers training courses in order to enhance the student-teachers‟ motivating skills. 1.5. Organization of the paper This research consists of five chapters: Chapter 1 – Introduction - aims at stating the research problems, the significance of the study and proposing questions to answer. Chapter 2 - Literature review - includes the explanation of key definitions as well as the review on different previous works about motivation theories and frameworks of MSs. Chapter 3 - Methodology – describes research participants and instruments; data collection procedure and data analysis method. Chapter 4 - Findings and discussion – presents, analyzes and discusses the research findings. Chapter 5 – Conclusion - summarizes research findings and implication, acknowledges the limitations of the recommendations. 4 findings, proposes pedagogical Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter aims to provide a brief review of the related literature and gives the study a more solid theoretical foundation. The definitions of the key terms such as pre-service teachers’ beliefs and practices, motivation, motivational strategies and micro-teaching will be generally presented, while a strong focus will be placed on various motivational approaches in L2 field as well as the framework of motivational strategies that the researcher is going to follow. In the last part of the chapter, the research gap will be detected from the related literature to rationalize the aims and significance of this paper. 2.1. Pre-service teachers’ beliefs and practices 2.1.1. Teachers’ beliefs Richardson (1996, p.104) defines beliefs as “psychologically-held understandings, premises or propositions about the world that are felt to be true”. Beliefs also help individuals to understand the world and serve as guides for assessing the future (Goodenough, 1963, as cited in Richardson, 1996). Therefore, in the field of L2 teaching, Zheng (2009) proffers the view that teachers‟ beliefs play an important role in understanding teachers‟ thought processes and instructional decisions in the classroom. EFL pre-service teachers‟ beliefs, as proposed by Othman and Kiely (2016), are internalized primarily from their years of language classroom experience, the beliefs and practices of their previous language teachers, as well as their personal experience. In the literature, beliefs are often mistaken for attitudes since they are both mental states that are thought to drive a person‟s action. Nevertheless, according to Fishbein (1967, as cited in Richardson, 1996), the former belong to one‟s cognition and the latter is more of an affective component. In L2 teaching, while teachers‟ beliefs are comprised of perceptions, values, and ideology, teachers‟ attitudes may involve the teacher‟s interests, enthusiasm and confidence, or their opposites, towards L2 and L2 teaching. Within the framework of this paper, however, only teachers‟ beliefs will be discussed. As proffered by Pajares (1992), the beliefs about teaching of pre-service teachers embrace their perceptions and understanding of 5 what it takes to be a teacher. These beliefs are then either nurtured or reformed as a result of their observations throughout teacher training programs. In addition, the distinction between beliefs and knowledge should also be clarified. In many studies, knowledge is used as an umbrella term to describe both what we know and what we believe, thus somehow being similar to beliefs (Zheng, 2009). Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish whether teachers refer to their knowledge or beliefs to make decisions and act in the classroom. However, as being looked closely, knowledge depends on a “truth condition” in which a premise is agreed to be true by a community of people whereas belief can be accepted as true by an individual himself (Green, 1971, as cited in Richardson, 1996). This basic difference can be exemplified by the fact that two teachers may have similar knowledge, but choose to employ different approaches in their teaching as being influenced by their own beliefs. To put it simply, knowledge is more widely accepted than beliefs and will become one‟s beliefs when it is accepted as true by that individual. Given the aforementioned difference between beliefs and knowledge, the researcher supposes that each construct has certain influences on the teaching practices of student teachers. This paper would thereby examine pre-service teachers‟ beliefs in correspondence with their knowledge acquired during teacher training programs to embrace the complexity of teachers‟ mental lives underlying their practices. 2.1.2. The relation between pre-service teachers’ beliefs and practices On the one hand, EFL student teachers‟ beliefs can have a great influence on their teacher learning and teaching practices. Specifically, according to Johnson (1994), pre-service teachers‟ beliefs are based on images of teachers, materials, activities and classroom organization generated by their own L2 learning experience and such experience relates to their instructional practices during a teaching practicum. Moreover, the study of Almarza (1996, as cited in Zheng, 2009) acknowledges that students‟ teaching practices are also consistent with knowledge and theoretical beliefs that originated from the teacher education programs. On the 6 other hand, Zheng (2009) shows that what student teachers say and do in classrooms can, in turn, shape their beliefs. That is to say, pre-service teachers can identify and examine their beliefs in relation to their classroom practices, thus being able to “eliminate detrimental beliefs” about language teaching (Peacock, 2001). As a result, researchers have acknowledged the need to examine EFL preservice teachers‟ practices in relation to their beliefs so as to enhance the quality of teachers training programs in particular, and future L2 teaching and learning in general. Notably, since motivating pupils is one of the shortcomings of young teachers (Veenman, 1984, as cited in Melnick & Meister, 2008), this paper would take account of the relation between teacher trainees‟ beliefs and practices about motivation to better their future motivational practice. 2.2. Motivation 2.2.1. Definition of motivation According to Oxford Learner‟s Dictionary (2018), motivation means “the reason why somebody does something or behaves in a particular way”. Similarly, Lai (2011) defines motivation as the reason underlying behavior which is characterized by willingness and desire. Besides, as proffered by Dornyei (2001, p.7), motivation explains “why people decide to do something, how hard they are going to pursue it and how long they are willing to sustain the activity”. Motivation can be defined in many different ways, yet proves its importance in encouraging, guiding and maintaining people‟ behaviors. Inspired by the definition of motivation, Gardner and Tremblay (1994) define motivation in L2 acquisition as the combination of positive attitudes towards learning the language and efforts together with the desire to master the language. In 1997, a similar definition of motivation was stated by Ellis as “the attitudes and affective states that influence the degree of effort that learners make to learn an L2”. Crookes and Schmidt (1991) identify L2 motivation as the learner‟s orientation with regard to the goal of learning a second language. Combining the three definitions, this study would look into L2 motivation as the learners‟ positive attitudes, direction and efforts to master the language. 7 As proffered by Dornyei (1998, p.117), motivation is deemed as a key factor that influences the rate and success of L2 learning since “without sufficient motivation, even individuals with the most remarkable abilities cannot accomplish long-term goals, and neither are appropriate curricula and good teaching enough on their own to ensure student achievement”. Therefore, it is essential that teachers create a motivational learning environment and involve students in activities with motivations to learn. 2.2.2. Frameworks of L2 Motivation Since motivation plays an essential role in L2 learning, understanding what lies behind motivation will be of great help to teachers in stimulating students to learn. As a result, there has been a great amount of research discussing different kinds and sources of motivation. Following the social psychological approach, Gardner and Lambert (1972, as cited in Dornyei, 2001) divide L2 motivation into two categories: integrative motivation and instrumental motivation:  Integrative motivation deals with “positive attitudes towards the target language group” and reflects self-desires to interact with the community of the language (Gardner & Lambert, 1959, as cited in Crookes & Schmidt, 1991, p.471).  Instrumental motivation, in contrast, refers to “more functional reasons for learning a language” or the desire to gain something practical such as meeting school requirements or getting a good job (Gardner & Lambert, 1959, as cited in Crookes & Schmidt, 1991, p.472). According to Ellis (1997), integrative motivation is considered more important in formal learning than instrumental motivation. This is because in some contexts like Vietnam, where learners have few opportunities to use the foreign language or interact with foreigners, instrumental reasons such as a need to get promotions or qualifications have more influences on language learners. Beside integrative and instrumental motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation proposed by Deci and Ryan (1985) in self-determination theory (SDT) is 8 also a well-known classification of motivation. Whilst intrinsic motivation deals with a behavior performed for its own sake in order to experience the feeling of enjoyment and satisfaction, extrinsic motivation refers to doing something “because it leads to a separable outcome” or because it is influenced by external factors like rewards, failure, competitions, and so on (Ryan & Deci, 2000, p. 55). These two types of motivation are deemed contrasting yet interrelated. Wang (2008) reports that people having to do an activity to attain certain extrinsic goals can lose their natural intrinsic interest in that activity. From a different perspective, Dornyei (1998) argued that extrinsic rewards can be combined with or can even lead to intrinsic motivation as supported by certain factors like sufficient selfdetermination. Individuals who learn an L2 because they think it is important for their educational development, for example, all fall within this case. Along with the educational shift in the 1990s, researchers wanted to close the gap between motivational theories in educational psychology and in the L2 field (Dornyei, 2001). In their article published in 1991, Crookes and Schmidt criticize Gardner‟s social psychological model for not focusing sufficiently on the L2 instructional context and call for new extended L2 motivation constructs. As a result, Dornyei (1994) proposes a more “educational” framework of L2 motivation, which conceptualizes motivation into three components: (1) the language level which addresses the social side of L2 motivation and relates to Gardner‟s theory of integrative and instrumental motivation; (2) the learner level which represents individual characteristics of learners; (3) the learning situational Level concerning the motivational factors of specific classroom settings. However, this framework of Dornyei was not seen as a proper model since there were no clear relationships among the components. The problem then set the idea for the Dornyei and Otto‟s (1998) process-oriented approach, which attempts to synthesize different conceptualizations of motivation in a systematic framework. The approach is based on the Heckhausen and Kuhl‟s Action Control Theory (1985, as cited in Guilloteaux, 2007), suggesting that students‟ motivation, in either small 9 or large scales time frame, consists of three distinct temporal stages: preactional, actional and postactional stage.  preactional stage refers to the phase during which individuals form an intention to act and select an action plan in order to realize that intention.  actional stage is when individuals translate their intention into action  postactional stage is the phase when learners evaluate their action and form inferences about future ones. Dornyei (2001) believes that learners‟ motivations are not stable, and by including a “temporal axis”, the construct can cover the ongoing changes of motivation over time. The process model of L2 motivation, moreover, has laid the foundation for a systematic and comprehensive framework of MSs of Dornyei later on. 2.2.3. Frameworks of Motivational strategies MSs are defined as (1) “instructional interventions applied by the teacher to elicit and stimulate student motivation” and (2) “self-regulating strategies that are used purposefully by individual students to manage the level of their own motivation” (Dornyei & Guilloteaux, 2008, p.57). The MSs discussed in this research belong to the first definition. Since teachers‟ use of MSs has generally believed to stimulate students‟ motivation in learning, several scholars have developed different lists of motivational techniques that teachers can apply to create a more motivational classroom environment. In line with the notion of Deci and Ryan‟s (1985) self-determination theory about intrinsic versus extrinsic motivations (see 2.2.2), several MSs were also derived. According to Urdan (2003), both tangible and intangible rewards can be effective MSs when administered properly and valued by their potential recipients. Additionally, with a focus on learners‟ autonomy, SDT does not suggest how teachers can motivate students but focuses on how they can “create the condition within which others can motivate themselves” (Deci, Connell & Ryan, 1989, as cited in Keblawi, 2000, p.32). Therefore, in order to enhance the students‟ motivation, teachers may consider allowing more autonomy for their students by 10