CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationales
The Department of English - Tay Bac University operates within the curriculum
framework of the Ministry of Education and Training. However, the fact shows that there
has not been a specific curriculum for English Departments, which makes it difficult for
the teachers to design their own syllabus based on general objectives of the Ministry of
Education and Training. After the course the students have to be able to communicate
successfully in social situations such as talking about life or career. They have to take part
in discussion, negotiation or explanation of social issues, agree or disagree with others’
opinions, They have to gain confidence in communicating successfully, using
communicative strategies to express their ideas, and feelings appropriately and fluently.
However, there is a fact that the students do not gain these objectives.
In order to achieve these objectives, the teachers have to invest a lot of time,
energy, passion, intelligence and creativity into designing suitable lessons as well as
finding out how to teach speaking skill to help the students achieve the above objectives.
Therefore, the teacher should begin analyzing students’ needs, and interests in learning
English during the process of designing lesson activities.
After several years of teaching speaking skills, we have found that the first year
students are still quite passive in speaking English. They do not actively participate in
speaking activities. Students’ participation in classroom activities has been the centre of
various TEFL research. In general, it can be affected by a variety of factors coming from
teachers’ side like teacher’s teaching methods, teachers’ characteristics, teachers’
knowledge; students’ side such as motivation, attitudes, personality, learning styles, age,
gender differences; and others including classroom environment, types and contents of
activities, etc. All the factors, even they are subjective or objective, are composed of social,
cognitive and affective features. These features are equally important for learners to learn
an L2.
It can be seen from the fact of our teaching and learning that students’ learning is
much affected by their feelings and emotion. When being asked if they like learning
English or not one of the students who had poor participation in learning answered: “I
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factors affecting students’ participation in classroom speaking activities, and learners’
participation and related issues is reviewed.
1.3. Research Questions
To achieve the aims which are mentioned above, the following research questions
were raised for exploration:
1. What are the students’ motivation and attitudes towards speaking English?
2. To what extent does anxiety affect their participation in speaking English?
3. What is the relationship between their personality and their participation in
speaking activities?
1.4. Scope of the study
Learners’ participation in language learning can be affected by many factors which
are closely related. Among these factors, affective factors seem to be a complex one that
needs to be studied. However, the study only focuses on the first year students of English
at Tay Bac University because at this level learners often have more difficulties than those
of higher levels. Further more, the study only focuses on speaking activities because
speaking skill is one of the most important and difficult skills, and need developing for
their future job as teachers.
1.5. Method of the study
In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the study uses a survey questionnaire
as the sole research instrument for collecting data. There have been many studies on
factors in second/foreign language learning which employed survey questionnaires as the
major method. After the data is collected, analyzed and discussed, some conclusions will
be drawn, and some suggestions will be made in the thesis.
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1.6. Design of the study
The study consists of four chapters: Chapter one includes the rationale, the aims,
the research questions, the scope, the method and the design of the study.
Chapter two provides a theoretical background of factors and affective factors
affecting students’ participation in classroom speaking activities such as anxiety,

learning agenda. Schumanns (1977) found that such factors strongly influenced their SLA.
The general factors are variables that are characteristic of all learners. They differ not in
whether they are present in a particular individual’s learning, but in the extent to which
they are present, or the manner in which they are realized. General factors can be further
divided into those that are modifiable (likely to change during the course of SLA) such as
motivation, and those that are not modifiable (do not change in strength or nature as SLA
takes place) such as aptitude (Ellis, 1985). He also concludes that personal and general
factors have social, cognitive and affective aspects. Social aspects are external to the
learner and concern the relationship between the learner and native speakers of the L2 and
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also between the learner and other speakers of his own language. Cognitive and affective
aspects are internal to the learner. Cognitive factors concern the nature of the problem-
solving strategies used by the learner, while affective factors concern the emotional
responses aroused by the attempts to learn an L2. Different personal and general factors
involve all three aspects in different degrees. For example, aptitude is thought of as
primarily cognitive in nature, but also involves affective and social aspects. Personality is
primarily affective, but also has social and cognitive sides. Age is a factor that may involve
all three aspects fairly equally. Also, learning style is composed of social, cognitive and
affective features.
It has been proved that learner factors play an important role in SLA. In this study,
we would like to study affective factors only.
2.2. Theoretical foundation of Affective factors in second language learning
2.2.1. Humanistic perspective
Humanistic education has been paid much attention to for ages, therefore, in
language teaching humanism is a crucial factor. To the meaning of the term ‘humanistic’
as applied to language teaching, Gertrude Moskowitz (1978) has devoted more pages and
more explicit attention than anyone else. One of her statements is that ‘through the ages
man has been striving to become more human’. This is apparently consistent with the
general definition of ‘ humane’. She says that what is called ‘humanistic’ education is
related to a concern for personal development, self-acceptance and acceptance by others, in

Brown (1980) derives his use of the term ‘humanism’ largely from references to the work
of Carl Rogers:
We can see in Rogers’ humanism quite a departure from the scientific analysis of
Skinnerian psychology, and even from Ausubel’s rationalistic theory. Rogers is not as
concerned about actual cognitive process of learning since, he feels, if the context of
learning is properly created, then human beings will, in fact, learn everything they need
to . That is, there will be no irresponsible dilettanism resulting in incomplete coverage of
the subject matter. The teacher as facilitator must therefore provide the nurturing context
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for learning and not see his mission as one of rather programmatically feeding students
qualities of knowledge which they subsequently devour. (1980, p.77).
David Nunan (1991) in his discussion of a number of methods which advocate a
diverse range of classroom techniques believes that ‘if learners can be encouraged to adopt
the right attitudes, interests and motivation in the target language and culture, as well as in
the learning environment in which they find themselves, then successful learning will
occur, and that if these affective factors are not right, then no set of techniques is likely to
succeed, regardless of how carefully they have been devised or how solidly they based on
the latest theory and research’. (p. 234).
Stevick (1990), who has taken up and extended the work of Curran, Gattegno and
Lozanow, became interested in applying principles of humanistic psychology to language
learning and teaching after he became dissatisfied with both audio-lingual habit theory and
cognitive code learning. He came to the conclusion that success or failure in language
teaching depends not so much on whether one adopts inductive or deductive techniques for
teaching grammar, nor whether one engages in meaningful practice rather than in pattern
drills, but in the extent to which one caters to the learner’s affective domain.
2.2.2. Towards a definition of affect
Among various definitions provided by scholars in the field of second language
acquisition we will turn our attention to the most relevant ones. Arnold (1999) defines
affect in terms of “aspects of emotion, feeling, mood or attitude which condition
behaviour”, whereas Dickinson (1987: 25) characterises it as being concerned with the

facilitate the delivery of input to the language acquisition device.
To summarize, the Affective Filter hypothesis implies that our pedagogical goals
should not only include supplying comprehensible input, but also creating a situation that
promotes a low filter. The effective language teacher is someone who can provide input
and help make it comprehensible in a low anxiety situation.
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Language
Acquisition
Device
2.2.4. Affective goal of second language competence
In the second language acquisition, the combinations of sounds, the formal
distinction, the numerous syntactic rules and semantic relationships are not only new and
in many respects unexpectedly different from the first language, but they often arouse an
emotional response; they may appear puzzling, arbitrary, frustrating, confusing, sometimes
amusing, and occasionally also attractive and pleasing. One affective objective of language
teaching must be to overcome any sense of rejection of the language and its features on the
part of the learner.
Stern (1992) in his discussion of affective goal of second language competence
believed that ‘the learners should be encouraged to cultivate not only an intellectual
understanding of what is obligatory, but intuitive sense of right or wrong, in other words,
or a feeling of being at home in the language. It is part of affective goal that the learner
should engage in target language activities, and that he should do so with positive feelings;
that is we should encourage the learner to use the language willingly and even with
enjoyment.’ (p. 87).
2.3. Affective factors affecting students’ participation in classroom speaking activities
Learners, in particular classroom learners, react to the learning situation, they find
themselves in a variety of affective ways. For example, Schumann (1977) reports being
unable to settle down to study Farsi and Arabic until he had achieved order and comfort in
her physical surroundings. Bailey (1980) discusses a classroom crisis that occurred when
her French teacher administers a test that the class considered unfair. Ellis and Rathbone

effects, and which motivates and facilitates as well as disrupts and inhibits cognitive
actions such as learning.
There are a lot of reasons for assuming that an anxious learner will not be a good
one. Anxiety will distract from the task of attending to and remembering new items; it will
discourage from the practice that will establish items. A number of earlier studies failed to
find evidence of the effect of general anxiety on second language learning. Bailey (1983)
analysed the diaries of 11 learners and found that they tended to become anxious when
they compared themselves with other learners in the class and found themselves less
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proficient. Bailey also identified other sources of anxiety, including test and learners’
perceived relationship with their teachers. Ellis and Rathbone (1987) reported that some of
their diarists found teachers’ questions threatening. These and other possible sources of
anxiety (like communication apprehension, tests, fear of negative evaluation) in the foreign
language classroom are reflected in the questionnaires which a number of researchers have
devised to measure learner anxiety such as Gardner and Smythe (1975), and Cope (1986).
When anxiety does arise relating to the use of second language learning, it seems to
be restricted mainly to speaking and listening, reflecting learners’ apprehension at having
to communicate spontaneously in the target language. Anxiety manifests itself in speech in
a greater degree of pausing, in a lack of coherence, in the insertion of fillers, and in an
increased number of false starts.
In short, there is sufficient evidence to show that anxiety is an important factor in
second language acquisition in general and in students’ participation in speaking activities
in particular. Anxiety is best seen not as a necessary condition of successful L2 learning,
but rather a factor that contributes in differing degrees in different learners. Therefore,
language educators should strive to promote a non-threatening learning environment and
“user-friendly” oral exams which students could prepare for well in advance, in order to
prevent negative interactions between language anxiety and other personality variables
such as learning styles, motivation, and personality types. Teachers themselves could
eventually discover and apply the most effective techniques in controlling anxiety.
2.3.2. Motivation

motivation. In later research, Gardner (1985) has continued to assert the importance of
integrative motivation, although he now acknowledges that instrumental motivation can
also lead to successful learning. However, Gardner argues that whereas instrumental
motivation emerges a significant factor only in some studies, integrative motivation has
been found to be invariably related to L2 achievement.
Harmer divides motivation into extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation.
Extrinsic motivation is caused such outside factors as passing an exam, the hope of
financial reward, good career, or the possibility for future travel, etc. In contrast, intrinsic
motivation is caused by inside factors like the enjoyment of the learning process itself or
by a desire to learn the target language.
In order to make students motivated in learning, we have to understand the sources
of motivation. According to Harmer, the sources of motivation are diversified. They may
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derive from the society we live in, parents of old siblings, the teacher and the method.
Among these sources, the teacher and the method may be of the most importance. For the
teacher, his or her attitudes and enthusiasm help create a positive classroom atmosphere.
For the method, it means involving both teacher and students’ confidence shown in the
way of teaching and learning.
With a view to helping teachers realize whether a learner is motivated or not, Ur
(1996) points out some typical characteristics of a motivated learner which include:
● Positive task orientation: The learner is willing to tackle tasks and challenges,
and has confidence in his or her success.
● Ego-involvement: The learner finds it important to succeed in learning in order to
maintain and promote his or her own positive self-image.
● Need for achievement: The learner has a need to achieve, to overcome difficulties
and succeed in what he or she sets out to do.
● High aspiration: The learner is ambitious, goes for demanding challenges, high
proficiency, top grades.
● Goal orientation: The learner is aware of the goals of learning, or of the specific
learning activities, and directs his or her efforts towards achieving them.

According to Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), “attitude is seen as “a
complex mental orientation involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions to
act in certain ways”, whereas Collins Cobuild Student’s Dictionary states: “Your attitude
to something is the way you think and feel about it”. Psychological theories on attitudes
refer to an evaluative, emotional reaction (i.e. the degree of like or dislike associated with
the attitudinal object) comprising three components: affect, cognition, and behaviour, these
components undergoing change when there is “dissonance” or disagreement between them
(Rajecki 1990; Zimbardo & Lieppe 1991).
Research into the relationship between attitudes and second language achievement
was carried out as early as the 1950s by Gardner and Lambert, and later by Schumann
(1975). There are two significant kinds of attitude, Gardner believes: attitudes to the people
who speak the target language, and attitudes to the practical use to which the learner
assumes he or she can put the language being learned. Gardner suggests that the effects of
the two kinds of attitudes are different; ‘whereas the first set of attitudes is fairly
consistently related to achievement, the second shows more variable set of relationships’
(op.cit: 39).
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Attitude refers specifically to states of emotions and thought relating to the target
language, to the learning of the target language, and to the culture of the target language.
Learner attitudes to the second language can be represented by the continuum in the
following figure:
Very positive Positive Neutral Negative Very negative
Enthusiastic
about L2.
Enjoys listening
to, speaking,
reading, and
writing L2.
Praises L2
Enters into spirit

(Stern, 1992: 88)
It is clear that to achieve second language competence in terms of affective goal, a
language course should be designed to cultivate neutral to positive attitudes on the
continuum. In the early stages the characterization of attitudes under neutral seems
appropriate and one would expect successful learners to move towards the positive end of
the continuum as they progress. A course needs not necessarily lead to a very positive
evaluation which may be regarded as excessive. On the other hand, a course which leads
many students to a negative or very negative evaluation must be considered, on the
affective score, a failure. Therefore, student attitudes to the language must be a matter of
concern in the second language learning and teaching.
Discussing the student attitude to the L2 learning, Stern (1992) gives the below
figure describing student’s attitudes to L2 learning as an affective goal.
A B C D E
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Very positive Positive Neutral Negative Very negative
Enthusiastic about Tackles L2 Accepts L2 Learning L2 Hates having
Learning L2 learning with without treated as to learn L2
confidence and enthusiam unpleasant Resists learning
enjoyment. task L2.
Is willing and Avoids L2
co-operative learning
Handles Is irritated
difficulties by L2 learning
in a positive spirit Wants to drop out
Figure 3. Range of student attitudes to learning L2 expressed as learning outcomes
(Stern, 1992: 92)
It can be seen that only A and B can be regarded as successful learners. If large
numbers of students respond to instruction with C, D, or E on the continuum, the reaction
would indicate failure with possible serious consequences.
Furthermore, student attitudes to the teacher and course materials have also been

In the eyes of many language teachers, the personality of their students constitutes a
major factor contributing to the success or failure in language learning. Learners also
consider personality factors to be important. Personality has been explored in terms of a
number of personal traits such as extroversion/introversion, risk-taking, empathy, tolerance
of ambiguity, self-esteem, inhibition. In Eysenck’s (1982) theory extroverts are sociable,
like parties, have many friends and need excitement; they are sensation-seekers and risk-
takers, like practical jokes and are lively and active. Conversely introverts are quiet, prefer
reading to meeting people, have few but close friends and usually avoid excitement (p.
154).
There are two major hypotheses regarding the relationship between
extroversion/introversion and L2 learning. The first, which has been the most widely
researched, is that extroverted learners will find it easier to make contact with other users
of second language and therefore will obtain more input and do better in acquiring basic
interpersonal communication skills. The rationale for this hypothesis is that sociability will
result in more opportunities to practise, more input, more success in communicating in L2.
It is believed that extroversion is helpful in acquiring oral skills. The second hypothesis is
that introverted learners will do better at developing academic language ability. The
rationale for this hypothesis comes from studies which show that introverted learners
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typically enjoy more academic success, perhaps they spend more time reading and writing
(Griffiths, 1991b).
Studying personality factors, Ely (1986a) describes that risk-takers show less
hesitancy, are more willing to use complex language, and are more tolerant of errors. They
are less likely to rehearse before speaking, and comes to conclusion that risk-taking
positively related to voluntary classroom participation.
A study by Adelaide Heyde (1979) found that a high level of self-esteem was
associated with second language proficiency. Self-esteem refers to the degree to which
individuals feel confident and believe themselves to be significant people. Presumably,
learners with high self-esteem are less likely to feel threatened when communicating in a
strange language or in an unfamiliar situation. They may also be more ready to risk making

the kind of activities they are involved in. Other studies of House (1986) found that
learners confined themselves to an ‘interactional core’ in the discussion, failing to use
‘discourse lubricants’ such as topic introducers and various kinds of supportive and
amplifying moves. In contrast, the role-play conversations sounded much more natural. In
any cases where participation is strictly controlled, there may be few opportunities for
learner interactions. Ellis (1994) identified a number of factors that may affect the nature
of the interactions in practice sessions, for example whether the learners’ responses are
volunteered or nominated, the teacher’s policy regarding the distribution of practice
opportunities, and individual learner differences that affect the degree of anxiety
experienced.
In general, the importance of learner participation in L2 acquisition has been
proved in a number of studies. The quantity and quality of leaner participation varies
according to task and is affected by different factors such as student attitudes, teacher’s
policy, learner differences as mentioned above. Therefore, it is important for teachers of L2
to take into consideration the nature of learner participation.
CHAPTER 3. THE STUDY
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In chapter one, I introduced the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the
scope and the design of the study.
In chapter two I presented a literature review of theoretical foundation of affective
factors and some of the affective factors affecting students’ participation in classroom
speaking activities.
This chapter presents the study. It includes the context of the study, the research
questions. The research method, the participants, and the findings of the study.
3.1. The context of the study
At Tay Bac University, English majors have to study four skills in seven semesters.
In the first and second semester (first year), students, in their speaking development,
mainly learn conversation skills. English is taught during the first and the second term with
the total of 90 periods with the aim of developing students’ ability of conducting English
conversations in which students can communicate and interact with each other orally with

provinces in the country such as Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh, Nam Dinh, not only from the
North West of the country. However, such variables as age, gender, place of living are not
considered in this research.
3.5. Materials
In order to collect the data for the research, a set of survey questionnaires was
designed and used to find out the affective factors affecting student participation in
speaking activities. The factors such as anxiety, motivation, attitudes, and personality were
based on some previous study as mentioned in chapter 2.
3.6. Procedures
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The questionnaire was delivered to the students in their classroom. Most of them
took about 30 minutes to finish all the questions. They were encouraged to give their true
answers and any copied answer would distort the data of my research. I confirmed to them
that the research was carried out to improve their English learning, especially their
speaking skills, so all their answers are kept secret and used for research only. The
questionnaires are also translated into Vietnamese in order to help all the students
understand and answer all the questions.
3.7. Data analysis
The questionnaire consists of 30 questions in which 28 questions about such factors
as attitudes, motivation, anxiety, and personality are raised; question 29 and 30 are two
open ended questions of which answers depend on different students with the hope to find
out situations in which students enjoy and not enjoy speaking English in classroom.
The 28 questions were designed and belonged to four groups of learner factors on the basis
of previous study as presented in the previous chapter.
The questions in the questionnaire will be analyzed in groups in terms of such factors as
attitudes, anxiety, motivation and personality.
3.7.1. Learner attitudes
Option Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question5 Question 6
n % n % n % n % n % n %
a 24 32.9 20 24.7 12 16.4 53 72.6 14 19.2 40 54.8

their low level of participation in speaking activities. As can be seen from the table, only
19.2 % of the students considered it important for them to speak English better than the
others.
Clearly, the students do not have positive attitudes to speaking English, they do not
think speaking English better than the others is important. That is the reason why while
talking with the students they told us that they liked writing more than speaking. This may
be because they were familiar to writing since they were at high school where speaking
was not paid much attention to. Therefore, studying at university where they have to learn
the four skills causes them a lot of difficulties in which speaking is one of the most
difficulties. They are still not aware of the importance of speaking skills. And even some
of them are aware of it still face with a lot of difficulties while speaking which make them
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afraid of speaking and not like speaking even when being appointed by the teacher.
Besides, when being asked about the situations they enjoy speaking most in the classroom,
many of them agree that if the teacher is friendly, happy, cheerful and enthusiastic, and if
the teacher understand students and know how to encourage them, they will enjoy speaking
more; and if the topics are interesting, exciting and familiar to them, they will also take
part in the activity more; and they only like to discuss with the students they like. Also
many of the students say if the teacher is strict, often gets angry, and unfair that means the
teacher only pays attention to one group but not the others, they do not want to speak
English either.
In addition, the statistics in Table 1 shows that most of the students (54.8%) like
listening to others speaking English more than speaking to themselves. This explains why
they are very passive in classroom speaking lesson. When being asked to discuss in groups,
only some of the group members speak and the others just listen.
In summary, the findings show us that most of the students do not really enjoy
speaking English in the classroom, they do not realize the importance of taking
opportunities to speak English in classroom, and they are not often happy when being
appointed by the teacher to speak English in the class, their attitudes to the teacher and his
teaching, and their classmates are also one of the important affective factors affecting their