Tài liệu Proposed training module for enhancing teacher’s motivational techniques and students’ performance in basic english course in hanoi university of industry (haui) (sum)

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines CANDIDATE: BUI THI NGAN PROPOSED TRAINING MODULE FOR ENHANCING TEACHERS’ MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUES AND STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN BASIC ENGLISH COURSE IN HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY (HaUI) Specialty: English language and Literature DISSERTATION SUMARY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE THAI NGUYEN - 2014 The study was done at: INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE STUDY PROGRAMS, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Scientific supervisor: Dr. Maltida H. Dimaano The peer review 1: ......................................................... The peer review 2: ......................................................... The peer review 3: ......................................................... The dissertation is defended to the Panel of Experts at: ....................................................................................... Dissertation can be found at: - National Library - Learning Resource Center, Thai Nguyen University - Library of International Training and Development Center - Library of Batangas State University, Philippines 1 Chapter 1 THE PROBLEM INTRODUCTION Teaching English in various places at all levels expanding educational system in Vietnam is part of the mounting pressures where knowledge and ability to learn and communicate in English is a must and of importance. Vietnamese students have to pass an English language test being one of their six national examinations for them to get the certification for Secondary school education. Undergraduates and graduates of tertiary level are required to take English as a subject. Further, In Vietnam, Decision No. 1400/QDTTg approving the 10-year National Plan for “Teaching and Learning Foreign Language in the National Formal Educational System in the Period of 2008-2020” was issued on Sept. 30, 2008. Clearly, it is expected that by year 2020, most Vietnamese students who will graduate from secondary, vocational schools, colleges and universities will be able to communicate in English language confidently in their daily conversation, in their study and their work in an integrated, multi-cultural and multi lingual environment as well as making foreign language a comparative advantage of development for Vietnamese people in the course of the country’s industrialization and modernization. Motivation in English language learning plays an important role in both teaching and learning. It is also one of the main determinants of second or foreign language learning achievement. In 2 teaching, there are many techniques that are found to be motivational. In motivating students, it is considered essential that teachers must show concerns in taking time to find the techniques that best fit the class to make the lesson more successful. There is a number of motivational techniques that can be used to improve language learning. The problem of motivating students cannot be done in one simple process. In motivating students to learn, individual style and personality of the teacher if of utmost importance for it plays a significant role in the implementation of motivational techniques. Though teachers use motivational techniques in teaching, they still use the traditional methods of teaching, such as giving assignments, compiling of vocabulary tests, teaching grammar with the use of visual aids, engage students in various language activities and control their class by teaching and explaining lessons all the time. It is more of teacher centered rather than students. As an administrator of Hanoi University of Industry - a leading multi-level, multi field industrial training center in Vietnam with forty thousand students, one thousand seven hundred personnel of which one thousand four hundred are teachers and lecturers, the theme of "Proposed a training module for enhancing teachers’ motivational techniques and students’ performance in Basic English Course in Hanoi University of Industry” is chosen to study. The structure of dissertation includes 5 chapters. 3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM This study determined the relationship of teachers’ motivational techniques and students’ academic performance in Basic English Course and its implication to English Language teaching and learning in Hanoi University of Industry in order to come up with a proposed training module for enhancing teachers’ motivational techniques and students’ performance in Basic English Course Specifically, it seeks to answer the following questions: 1. What is the demographic profile of the teachers in terms of: 1.1. Age 1.2. Gender 1.3. Place of origin 1.4. Civil status 1.5. Educational qualification 1.6. Years of teaching experience? 2. What are the motivational techniques employed in teaching the Basic English course? 3. What are the levels of students’ performance in Basic English test? 4. Are there significant relationships between teachers’ motivational techniques and students’ performance in English? 5. What training module may be proposed to enhance student’s performance? SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study is believed to have profound significance to the Administrators, University Officials in Hanoi University, Faculty of 4 Foreign Language, other Faculty in Hanoi University, Students in Hanoi University and to the present and future researchers. Administrators/ University Officials. Findings of this study will provide basic information to the university officials on the importance of motivational techniques in teaching Basic English course. Result of this study can be an opener for the administrators to have plans of providing effective Faculty Development Training Program to improve the motivational techniques of teachers in teaching Basic English course which will lead to the improvement of the students’ performance in learning Basic English course. Faculty of Foreign Language. Results of the study can be useful to the faculty of Foreign Language since they will be informed on the current status on the performance of students in Basic English Course. This study also may help them improve the current motivational techniques used in teaching Basic English. It is hoped that through this study, they can choose the best training program they have to attend to improve the skills or techniques in teaching Basic English Course. Other Faculty in Hanoi University of Industry. This study will help them understand the importance of using different motivational techniques in teaching. This may encourage them to select the most appropriate motivational techniques that will improve the students’ performance. Student Researchers. This study may contribute to broaden their horizon of knowledge and may be an instrument to provide recommendations to improve the teachers’ techniques and the students’ performance as well. 5 Future Researchers. This will be of use to other researchers who might wish to conduct a similar study. Future researchers may use this study to enrich their own body of literature and substantiate their own findings. SCOPE, DELIMITATION AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY The study covered the motivational techniques used by teachers in teaching Basic English Course. The demographic profile of the teachers was used consisting of information like age, gender, place of origin and civil status. Included also in the profile are the teacher’s educational qualification and years of teaching experience. The academic performance of the 385 first year students in Academic Year 2013-2014 and the 125 teachers currently employed at Hanoi University of Industry were covered in this study as well as the significant relationships between the teacher’s motivational techniques and students’ performance in English with training module as its output. Students who were in their Second year, Third year and Fourth year respectively were not part of the study. Results of the study were be limited only on the data which gathered from the respondents in the Academic Year 2013-2014 in Hanoi University of Industry 6 Chapter 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1. REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES This chapter presents the relevant conceptual and research literature which have bearing to the present study as well as synthesis, theoretical and conceptual framework, hypothesis and definition of terms. The literatures included are found substantial to the study and give the necessary background to understand the present research. SYNTHESIS Related concepts and literatures were reviewed to support the conceptualization of the present study. The ideas of Gorham, Harmes, Kabilan and Brown regarding the contexts of teaching and learning, understanding students’ varied backgrounds different interests and language acquisition help the discussion on the topic English Language teaching and learning. The concepts of Elliott and Dweck, Ames et al, Deci, Maslow, Skinner, Nichols and de Charmes regarding motivations contributed much in the discussion of the meaning of motivation. The concepts of de Cenzo, Robbins and Coulter on motivation as a personal trait as well as on human behavior provide insights on the discussion of students’ motivation in learning while the ideas of Beck as regards to motivation and techniques enrich the discussion in the teachers’ utilization of varied motivational techniques. On the topic student performance on the other hand, ideas of Villabos, Wiggins, Meyer and Airasian contributed much in 7 enriching the discussion. Insights of Bandura, Lupdag, Atkinson provide support relative to the topic discussed regarding performance of students. Further, Widdowson, Tolimson and Frank’s ideas on classroom materials, groupings of material types and training modules provide background information on designing an instructional material in a form of a module which is the output of the study. The study of Lasagabaster, Dornyei and Sakui find similarity in the present study as they have motivation as their focus. These studies differ in the present study in terms of areas concerned like Lasagabaster deals on relationship of motivation and language proficiency, Dornyei on macro strategies to enhance motivation, Sakui on teacher’s perspective and darkside of motivation. The present study deals also on motivation but it differs to the above studies as it talks about the motivational techniques used by teachers in teaching English as well as its relationship to the academic performance of students in English. Bernaus, Ud Din, Zarif and Warden studies are similar also in the present study like the above mentioned studies as the main object of the study is on motivations though of different fields. Zarif’s study on teachers’ opinion on techniques to increase students’ motivational level and Warden’s study zero in on the existence of motivational group. The present study covers motivation also but its more on patterns of the motivational techniques utilize by English teachers as well as determining the level of academic performance of students in English and its relationships to the demographic profile of teachers. 8 The study of Henebry and Pickens find similarity to the present study as it deal with motivations and motivation techniques. Their study differs to the present study as Henebry assess the motivation theories and identify techniques to increase employee motivation. while Pickens’ focus on the perception regarding motivation of high school science students as well as specific motivational strategies used by the teachers to enhance motivation. The present study deduced on the relationship of motivational techniques of teachers and students’ performance in Basic English course at Hanoi University of Industry with training module as output. Thus, despite of the similarities of the present study to the cited studies, the present study is not a duplication of any study and has a character of its own. 2.2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The study is anchored in Stephen D. Krashen theory of second language acquisition (SLA), Lyle F. Bachman’s theory of communicative competence and Simon Dik’s functional grammar 2.3. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Along these concerns, the study made use of the systems approach to present the flow of the study. The concepts are classified as input, process and output. These are presented in Figure 1. 9 OUTPUT A. Profile of teachers: Age Gender Place of origin Civil Status Educational Qualification Years of teaching experience B. Pattern of motivational techniques C. Test performance of students in Basic English PROCESS INPUT Assessment made through: INPUT Survey Questionnaire Teacher- made Test Figure 1 Proposed Training Module Research Paradigm Figure Writing1 presents the research paradigm of the study which servesSpeaking as springboard in conducting this study. The input box Listening contains the profile of the teacher’s respondents like their age, gender, place of origin, civil status, educational qualification, years of teaching experience and professional growth. Part of the input also is the patterns of motivational techniques used by teachers in teaching Basic English course and the academic performance of students in English. 10 The process box involves the assessment of the profile of the respondents in relation to their motivational patterns in teaching Basic English course and the academic performance of students in English. These were assessed through the use of data gathering instruments, the survey questionnaire and interviews conducted from the teachers. From the assessment made, the third box of the paradigm depicts the output of the study which is the proposed training module to enhance the students’ performance in Basic English course. Chapter 3 RESEARCH METHOD AND PROCEDURE This chapter presents the research environment, research design, subjects of the study, data gathering instruments, data gathering procedure and the statistical treatment of data. Research Design This study made use of descriptive method of research to determine the relationship of teachers’ motivational techniques and students’ performance in Basic English course and its implication to English Language teaching and learning in Hanoi University of Industry. According to Best and Kahn (2007), method of research which concerns itself with the present phenomena in terms of conditions, practices beliefs, processes, relationships or trends invariably is termed as “descriptive survey study”. 11 A descriptive-correlational method will be the most appropriate method for this study because it will attempt to determine how related two or more variables are. Gay, L. R. (1987). This degree of relation is expressed as a correlation coefficient as this study will determine the relationship between the teacher’s motivational techniques and student’s performance classified as high, average and low in Basic English course. Research Environment Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) is one of the biggest state university in Vietnam composed of 3 campuses with 300 lecture rooms and halls and 200 well equipped laboratories and workshops. It covers an area 50 hectares. As a leading multi-level, multi field industrial training center in Vietnam, Hanoi University of Industry has forty thousand students, one thousand seven hundred personnel of which one thousand four hundred are teachers and lecturers. 75 % of the lecturers are with post graduate qualifications. Hanoi University of Industry as a prestigious institution is also the center of research and development in Vietnam and its focus is more on science research activities. As the largest higher education training university, HaUI has six levels of training which are in demand. These comprised higher education, undergraduate, professional college, professional school, diploma vocational training and vocational training. To keep its pace with regional and global advancement in terms of training, technology transfer and scientific research, HaUI established linkages with foreign partners in many diverse cooperation programs and 12 fields. The core values of the university to succeed are creativity, quality, development and effectiveness. Subjects of the Study The respondents of the study is composed of 385 first year College students taking up Basic English course obtained using the Slovin’s formula with five percent (5 %) margin of error and 125 English language teachers of Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI), Vietnam for the school year 2013-2014. Data Gathering Instrument The following research instruments were utilized in gathering data. Survey Questionnaire. This is designed to determine the different motivational techniques employed by teachers in teaching Basic English Course. In this questionnaire, demographic profiles of teachers were also determined in terms of age, gender, place of origin, civil status, educational qualification as well as years of teaching experience. Teacher-Made Test. This is designed to evaluate the levels of academic performance of Freshman College students in their Basic English course. Data Gathering Procedure Concepts and literatures were used to broaden knowledge and understanding of the present study. Books, journals, other reading references, published and unpublished researches and online references were used to support the discussion of the present research. 13 Two sets of instruments were prepared for this study: the survey questionnaire and the teacher-made test. Test items in the teacher-made test were subjected to a dry-run to fourth year (BSED) college students major in English while the items of survey questionnaire for teachers were likewise subjected to a dry-run to graduate students of Master of Arts in English language Teaching of Batangas State University to determine the degree of appropriateness of the items for teachers and students respectively. The survey questionnaire for teachers and teacher-made test for students underwent also validations by panel members and expert on the field. Letters of request for such validations of research instruments were sought and documentation of the proceedings were also done. As soon as the questionnaire and test were prepared, letters of request again were written and prepared to secure permission for their administration for both students and teachers. Once permission was sought and approved by the HaUI administrators, survey questionnaire was administered to teacher to determine the kind of motivational techniques employed in their teaching of the Basic English Course. The teacher made test for students was used to assess the academic performance of students in their Basic English course. Before letting the teacher respondents accomplished the survey questionnaire, a meeting was called to 125 English teachers but only 105 attended. The purpose of calling such meetings was explained to the teachers as well as the procedure in accomplishing the survey questionnaire. English teachers were requested to spend at least one hour and a half to accomplish the questionnaire for accuracy. Then afterwards, all questionnaires for teachers were retrieved and tallied. 14 As for student respondents, each class was given 55 minutes to accomplish test questionnaire where 10 minutes was allocated to explain the objective of the test as well as the instruction and 45 minutes to answer the test items. Afterwards, the test questionnaire were retrieved and tallied. Documentation of all the proceedings of the conduct and administration of questionnaire for both teachers and students were gathered Statistical Treatment of Data The data gathered were subjected to the following statistical treatment to have a meaningful interpretation and analysis of the study: Cronbach alpha. This was used to measure internal consistency of the scores of the constituent motivational technique. Frequency Count. This was used to determine the number of responses for each item. Mean. This was used to determine the average score of the students in the teacher-made test Percentage. This was used to determine the magnitude of the frequency in relation to the whole responses. Ranking. This was used to determine the positional importance of responses. Standard Deviation. This was used to determine the variation of scores of students in the teacher-made test results with respect to the mean score. T- test. This was used to find out the significant mean difference of the specify being compared. 15 Chapter 4 PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA 1. Demographic Profile of the Respondents Teachers of Basic English Course who were the respondents of the of the study were described in terms of age, gender, place of origin, civil status, educational qualification and years of teaching experience (See table 1- 7) 2. Motivational Techniques Employed in Teaching the Basic English Course (See Table 8- List of 48 motivational techniques validated to be employed in teaching the Basic English course by the respondents and grouped according 10 macro- strategies.; Table 9- List of 48 motivational techniques, their frequency of use by the respondents and grouping into macro-strategies Score rating is based on a Likert scale where) 5-Always (A) , 4-Often (O), 3-Sometimes (S), 2-Rarely (R) and 1-Never; Table 10 - List of 48 motivational techniques, their degree of importance to the respon-dents and grouping into macro-strategies Score rating is based on a Likert scale where) 5-Very important. (VI) 4Moderately important (MI), 3- Slightly important (SL), 2- Less important (LI) and 1- Not important (NI) 3. Levels of Test Performance of Students in Basic English (See Table 11 - Performance of student respondents in a teacher-made test on Basic English, Table 12 - Student's t-test comparison of the mean % scores for each test group shown as p-values) 16 4. Relationship between the Teachers’ Motivational Techniques and Students’ Performance in English (See Table 13. T-test comparison of the mean scores for frequency of use of 48 motivational techniques vis-à-vis the mean scores in the four areas of the Basic English test, shown as p-values (i.e., p>0.05 is not significantly different) 5. Proposed Training Module on Motivational Techniques (See table 14 - List of motivational techniques their macro-strategy grouping, Cronbach alpha values, significant relationship on three areas of Basic English (i.e., p>0.05) and rank. Chapter 5 SUMMARY, FINDINGS, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATION This chapter presents the summary, findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the study. Summary This study aimed to determine the relationship of teachers’ motivational techniques and students’ academic performance in Basic English Course and its implication to language teaching and learning in Hanoi University of Industry in order to come up with a proposed training module for enhancing teachers’ motivational techniques. Specifically, the study sought answers to the following questions: 1. What is the demographic profile of the teachers in terms of: 1.1. Age 17 1.2. Gender 1.3. Place of origin 1.4. Civil status 1.5. Educational qualification 1.6. Years of teaching experience? 2. What are the motivational techniques employed in teaching the Basic English course? 3. What are the levels of test performance of students in Basic English? 4. Are there significant relationships between teachers’ motivational techniques and students’ test performance in English? 5. What training module may be proposed to enhance student’s performance? The descriptive method of research was used in the study with survey questionnaire and teacher made tests as the main instruments for gathering data. There were 105 teacher respondents and 255 student respondents in the study out of 10,000 total population of Hanoi University Industry. The statistical tools used were: t-test, frequency count, Cronbach alpha, ranking and percentage, standard deviation, and mean. Findings From the gathered data, the following findings were revealed: 1. Demographic Profile of Respondents As to age of the teacher respondents, the highest percentage is that of ages ranging from 22 to 38 years old or 14.29 percent which 18 revealed that the English teachers population in Hanoi University of Industry were young, born after 1975 and comprise the new generation of post war Vietnamese. In terms of gender most of the teacher respondents are female with frequency of 100 or 95.24 percent which indicates that in English teaching profession in Vietnam, female gender dominates the profession as they are preferred by the university as compared to male teachers. For place of origin, majority or 37.14 percent of teacher respondents come from Ha Noi followed by Ha Nam with 20 percent out of 17 places in Vietnam. As revealed these two provinces or municipalities, Ha Noi and Ha Nam are said to have active and motivated teachers in English. With regards to civil status, all teacher respondents or 100 percent of them are married and value their status and that they serve as role model to their students as family status is symbol of maturity and responsibility. For educational qualifications, out of the 105 teacher respondents there are 57 or 54.29 percent who obtained Bachelor’s degree and 48 or 45.71 percent who have Master’s degree which means that more than half of the respondents only have a Bachelor’s degree indicating a limited level of competency. There are almost half a number of Master’s degree holders but no respondents with Doctoral degree. Further in teaching experience, 61.9 percent of teacher respondents have 1 to 5 years of teaching experience and the remaining 31.1 percent comprise those teachers with more than five years teaching experience which indicate that most of the respondents are mostly in their early years of their English teaching career.