VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ TUYẾN

FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN LEARNING
ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS AT AN LAO HIGH SCHOOL

NHỮNG NHÂN TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN ĐỘNG LỰC HỌC KỸ NĂNG
NGHE TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH TRƯỜNG THPT AN LÃO

M.A. MINOR THESIS SUMMARY Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi – 2012
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

3. Research questions 2
4. Scope of the study 2
5. Method of the study 2
6. Design of the study 2
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1.1 Theoretical background of motivation 4
1.1.1 Conceptions of motivation 4
1.1.2 Motivation in foreign language learning 4
1.1.3. Types of motivation in foreign language learning 5
1.1.4. Demotivating factors affecting motivation in foreign language learning 6
1.2. Theoretical background of listening 12
1.2.1. Definitions of listening 12
1.2.2. The process of listening 13
1.3. Summary 14
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 15
2.1. The setting of the study 15
2.2. Participants 15
2.3. Instruments for collecting data 16

ii
2.4. Data collection procedures 16
2.5. Summary 16
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANANYSIS 17
3.1 Data from the students' responses 17
3.1.1. Factors affecting students' motivation in learning English listening 17
3.1.1.1. Learners- related factors affecting students‟ motivation in learning
English listening 17
3.1.1.2. Teachers- related factors affecting students‟ motivation in learning
English listening 24

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Students' interest in English listening learning 17
Table 2: Students' activities in class 18
Table 3: Students' strategies in listening acquisition 19
Table 4: Students' vocabulary knowledge in listening 20
Table 5: Students' pronunciation knowledge in listening 21
Table 6: Students' connected speech knowledge in listening 22
Table 7: Students' listening skills 23
Table 8: Teachers' teaching methods 24
Table 9: Teacher‟s behavior 26
Table 10: Classroom - related factors affecting students‟ motivation in
learning English listening 27
Table 11: Students' expectations towards teachers' listening teaching skill 28
Table 12: Students' expectations towards learning environment of listening 29
Table 13: Teachers' perception of students' strategy use 30
Table 14: Students' language knowledge 32
Table 15: Teachers' behavior 34
Table 16: Teachers' teaching aid use 35
Table 17: Teachers' activities 36
Table 18: Teachers' perception of environment 37 v
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

L2
Second language
ALHS
An Lao High School
2
 The factors affecting students' motivation in learning English listening
in Grade 11 at ALHS; and
 The teachers' solutions to help students learn English listening better in
Grade 11 at ALHS.
3. Research questions
The study focuses on answering the following questions:
1. What are the factors affecting students' motivation in learning
English listening skills in Grade 11 at ALHS?
2. What can the teachers do to motivate students in learning English
listening skills in Grade 11 at ALHS?
4. Scope of the study
To improve English listening skill for the students in Grade 11 at
ALHS. The researcher's intention is to find out factors affecting students'
motivation in learning English listening and some suggestions for the teachers
to help students to improve their listening skill.
5. Method of the study
In order to achieve the aims of the study, both quantitative and
qualitative methods were used involving two instruments: survey
questionnaires and interviews.
6. Design of the study
This study consists of three main parts: the introduction, the
development and the conclusion.
Part A is the Introduction. It lays out the reasons for choosing the topic
of this thesis and points out the aims, the scope, the methods, research
questions and the design of the study.
Part B is the Development which consists of three chapters:


PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter presents conceptions of motivation, motivation in the foreign
language learning, and the theoretical background of listening skills.
1.1 Theoretical background of motivation
1.1.1 Conceptions of motivation
Motivation is necessary for everyone. It is important to help us to take
an action. Specially, in learning if we have motivation we will try our best to
study well. Defining motivation is not easy. It is an abstract concept. In fact,
many researchers gave definitions of motivation. Dornei (2001:613) defined
motivation as “a general ways of referring to the antecedents (i.e. the causes
and the origins”. He also stated that motivation explained why people decided
to do something, how hard they were going to pursue it and how long they
were willing to sustain the activitie (2001:7). The author mentioned two
dimensions of human behavior direction and magnitude (intensity) which
motivation concerns.
It can be said that motivation is something that forces us to make our
efforts to achieve a goal. As Garder (1985) stated that motivation involved
four aspects, such as a goal; an effort; a desire to attain the goal and a
favorable attitude toward the activity.
1.1.2 Motivation in foreign language learning
Motivation plays an important role in determining success or failure in
foreign language learning. Therefore, many researchers had given the
definitions of motivation in foreign language learning. However they gave
various ways of definitions. Ellis (1997) stated “Motivation involves the
attitudes and effective states that influence the degree of effort that learners
make to learn an L2.” (p 75) 5

Extrinsic motivation is the one in which the student engages in an activity in order
to obtain a reward, or to avoid a punishment. This student is not really interested
in the activity for its own sake, but rather for what it will gain them”
1.1.3.2. Integrative and instrumental motivation
When speaking the target language, learners admire the culture and
have a desire to become familiar with the society in which the language is
used (Falk, 1978).
Gardner and Lambert (1972: 132) also considered “integrative
motivation” as “a sincere and personal interest in the people and culture
represented by the other group”
Contrarily, instrumental motivation concerns the practical and concrete
rewards that student‟s desire as Ellis (1994: 75) said "Some functional reasons
such as to pass an examination, to get a better job or to get a university place
motivate learners to learn an L2 because it opens up educational and
economic opportunities for them."
In short, it is clear to see the differences between integrative and
instrumental motivation. Integrative motivation stresses a sincere and
personal interest in the people and culture, on the other hand, instrumental
motivation stresses on the practical and concrete.
1.1.4. Demotivating factors affecting motivation in foreign language learning
There have been many researches about demotivating factors in foreign
language learning and they are classified differently by various people.
Rebecca Oxford (1998) analyzed contents of essays written by 250
American students ( in high school and universities) about their learning
experiences over a period of five years. In the research, demotivating factors
are categorized: The teacher’s personal relationship with the students,
including hypercriticism, belligerence, a lack of caring, and favoritism; the 7

presentations, solving word problems.
b. Aptitude
Aptitude is a major factor determining the level of success of second
language learning. It refers to the special ability involved in second language
learning. Based on Lightbown and Spada (1999:53), aptitude concluded:
(1) Auditory ability: the ability to identify and memorize new sounds
(2) Grammatical sensitivity: the ability to figure out grammatical rules
from language samples, the ability to understand the function of particular
words in sentences.
(3)Memory: the ability to memorize new words. .
However, all successful learners may not be strong in all components of
aptitude and can still succeed at learning a second language. Some individuals
may have strong memories but only average abilities in the other components
of aptitude ( Spada, 1999)
c. Personality
Personality has a great impact on the success or failure of second
language learning. As Ellis (1997) showed that extrovert students were
advantaged in the development of language associated with interpersonal
communication. Similarly, Lightbown and Spada (1999) gave a number of
personality characteristics: extroversion, inhibition, self – esteem, empathy,
dominance, talkativeness, responsiveness
d. Learners' preference
Learners' preference refers to learning style describing an individual's
natural habitual, preferred ways of absorbing, processing and retaining new 9
information and skills (Reid, 1995) (cited in Lightbown and Spada, 1999).
Learning styles can be classified:
- Perceptual learning styles include learning through the eyes (visual), through

reasons for their love and interest in the L2 and then share these reasons with
their students.
b. Commitment to the students' progress
According to Dornyei, 2001, teachers should show commitment
towards their students' learning and progress, at the same time they should
care for what their students have learnt and succeeded. They can express
commitment towards the students by:
+ offering concrete assistance
+ offering to meet students individually to explain things
+ responding immediately when help is requested
+ correcting tests and papers promptly
+ sending learners copies of relevant interesting articles
+ arranging extra-curricular instructional programs
+ encouraging extra- assignments and offer to assist with these
+ showing concern when things are not going on
+ allowing students to call at home when they have a problem
+ being available for overtime
c. Teachers' expectations
Teachers' expectation is a factor that motivates students in learning
a language. When high expectations are set by teachers, students seems to
perform better at the subject matter and feel more competent (Good and
Brophy, 1987), because students often tend to perform at a level consistent
with the teachers' expectation.
d. Good relationship with students 11
In every field it is easier to do anything with good relationship with
someone. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to make close the gap
between teacher and students by being friendly, helpful, tolerant, and

Lightbown and Spada (1999) stated that the supportive and non- threatening
atmosphere made a contribution to learners' motivation.
1.2. Theoretical background of listening
1.2.1. Definitions of listening
There are many different ideas of the definition of listening. Based on
Bentley & Bacon, (1996), listening was an important part of the second
language learning process had also been defined as an active process during
which the listener constructed meaning from oral input.
According to Field (1998:38), listening was “an invisible mental
process, making it difficult to describe. Listeners must discriminate between
sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress
and intention, retain and interpret this within the intermediate as well as the
lager socio-cultural context of the utterance.”
Another idea of the definition of listening, Based on Susanne Flohr
and Pia Paesler (2010:3- 4), listening composed important many factors and
there were three stages of listening: pre – listening, while – listening and post
– listening. Pre – listening means that the teacher makes the students aware of
a situation and activate their prior knowledge. While – listening means that
the teacher gives the students visual support or guiding questions beforehand.
Post – listening is the stage where the students become active and work with
what they had heard.
In short, listening as the process of receiving, attending and
understanding auditory messages, that is message transmitted through the
medium of sound. 13
1.2.2. The process of listening
Listening process is an interactive process of language knowledge and
psychological activities. It is not simply decoding the message, it also
15
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter discusses the setting of the study, participants, instruments
for collecting data, and data collection procedures.
2.1. The setting of the study
The study was conducted at An Lao High School (ALHS) which is
located in the countryside of Hai Phong city. However, ALHS is one of the
local school which is well- equipped by has a good and secure education.
It has 5 buildings, 4 of which are used for studying with 36 rooms.
Internet system (world wide web) for all the teachers and students is equipped
with high speed everywhere in the school.
Each room has a camera to check teaching and learning process. In
addition school staffs are very helpful and friendly, many of them are well
educated, and got high prizes in the teaching festivals of the city. The
proportions of the students who pass the entrance university examinations
every year are very high. Therefore many parents desire to send their children
to ALHS.
Beside the above strong points, there are some weak one for all
teaching and learning at ALHS. Students live in the countryside, some of
them are in bad condition so they have difficulty in studying. Moreover, the
class size is large with about 46 students for each. It‟s difficult for teachers to
teach English well. Additionally, they don‟t have chance to communicate with
English speaking people.
2.2. Participants
The study was carried out with 120 eleventh form students and 8
teachers of ALHS
17
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANANYSIS
This chapter presents the analysis of data collected from the survey
questionnaires and interview.
3.1 Data from the students’ responses
3.1.1. Factors affecting students’ motivation in learning English listening
3.1.1.1. Learners – related factors affecting students’ motivation in
learning English listening
1) Students' motivation in learning listening
*Students' interest in English listening learning
To know how interested students are in learning English listening, let see Table 1.

Options
Question A B C D

How interested are you in learning
listening English?
A. interested


What do you often
do in listening
classes?

A. Only pay attention to activities I like.
58.3%
B. Participate actively in all activities.
33.3%
C. Get too bored with concentrating on
learning listening.
54.2%

D. Not participate in any classroom
activities.
49.2%
E. Often do other things instead.
49.2%
Table 2: Students' activities in class
When asked how actively they participated in listening activities in
class, students responded differently. The majority of the students (58.3%)
only participated in the activities they liked. 54.2% got too bored with
concentrating on listening learning. This affects students' participation in
activities. 49.2% students didn‟t participate in any activities and often did
other things instead. 33.3% participated actively in all activities. Being asked
the further interview question, most students expressed:
“I can not get the information to take part in the activities, moreover
the activities are not attractive”.