5

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration i
Acknowledgements ii
Abstract iii
Table of contents iv
List of tables and figures vii
List of abbreviations ……………………………………………………………………viii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Rationales of the study 1
1.2. The aims of the study 2
1.3. Research questions 2
1.4. Scope of the study 3
1.5. Methods of the study 3
1.6. Significance of the study 3
1.7. Design of the study 3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATUREREVIEW 4
2.1 Introduction
2.2. An overview of motivation 4
2.2.1. Definitions of motivation. 4
2.2.2. The role of motivation in second language learning 5
. 2.2.3. Types of motivation 5
2.2.3.1. Integrative vs. instrumental motivation 5
2.2.3.2. Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic motivation 6
2.3. An overview of the nature of reading 7
2.3.1. Definitions of reading 7
2.3.2. Types of reading 8
2.3.3. Factors affecting students‟ motivation in the learning enviroment 10

4.1. Introduction 23
4.2. Findings and discussions. 23 7

4.2.1. Results from teacher‟s survey questionnaire (see Appendix 2) 23
4.2.1.1 Teacher„s personal information 23
4.2.1.2 Teacher‟s opinions towards students‟ motivation 23
4.2.2. Results from students‟ survey motivation 27
4.2.2.1. Types of students‟ motivation in learning reading 27
4.2.2.2. Factors affecting students‟ motivation in learning reading 28
4.2.3. Results of the relationship between motivation and reading strategies: 28
4.3. Recommendations 30
4.3.1 The teachers 30
4.3.1.1. Improving the teacher‟s roles 30
4.3.1.2. “Top ten” principles for teaching reading(Adapting by Ray Williams) 32
4.3.1.3.Basic principles of motivation exist that are applicable to learning in any
situation (Adapting by Matthew Weller, Los Angeles Business Journal, March 14,
2005): 34
4.3.2. The students 35
4.3.2.1. The role of reading skill to the students‟ learning English and future career 35
4.3.2.2. The role of reading materials to the motivation for learning reading skill 36
4.3.2.3 The students‟comments on their current reading lessons 36
CHAPTER 5 : CONCLUSION 38
5.1 Conclusions 38
5.2. Limitations and suggestions for further study 38
REFERENCES 40
APPENDIXES

9

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 1: Respondents by gender
Figure 2: Respondents by age
Figure 3: Techniques to motivate
Table 1. Teacher‟s opinions on student‟s motivation of the reading stages
Table 2. Problems teachers facing in teaching reading
Table 3. Activities applied by teachers by frequency
Table 4: The necessary reading skill to enhance reading ability in the view of the teachers
Table 5: The distribution of the freshmen‟s reasons for learning reading
Table 6: Factors affecting students‟ motivation in reading
Table 7: Relationship between motivation and reading strategies
Table 8: Relationship between motivation and reading strategies


To master English, the students need to grasp all four skills that are closely related
to one another: Listening, speaking, reading and writing. Among these skills, reading is an
important one because it does not only help student develop other language skills, but also
provides them knowledge on the target language. According to Byrne,“reading is an
important way of expanding the students’ receptive knowledge of the language and in
terms of classroom activities, it is an effective way of simulating students to talk and
write”. As we read, we go back to the time, pass across the oceans and barriers of
language, religions and cultures. Through reading, we can escape into the mind of a
philosopher, observe with a scientist, stay with scholar, analyze with a critic and live
through a novel or a play.
Reading is one of the most important skills in learning English. Being a teacher of
English at Nghe An college, I realized that most of students face many problems in
learning reading. This is due to the fact that reading lesson is so boring that student often
feel tired and stressed. Students often experience the lack of reading strategies which are
essential for them to overcome the challenges in the classroom so motivation is one of the
key factors that determine student ‟success or failure in language learning. One of the
major concerns of educators and parents is motivating students so that they work at the
best of their abilities ( Guthrie, Solomon 1997). The key is to motivate them in such a way
that they want to do the task that we are assigning .For this reason, I decided on choosing
“The relationship between first –year Nghe An college students’ motivation to read and
their use of reading strategies”
1.2. Aims of the study
* To identify types of motivation possessed by the first-year-college students in
learning reading 11

* To investigate some factors affecting students' motivation in learning reading.
* The major purpose of this study is to find out whether there is any relationship
12 1.7. Design of the study
The study consists of three main parts: the introduction, the development and the
conclusion.
Chapter 1 introduces rationale, aims of the study, the research questions as well as
scope, significance of the study and methods of the study.
Chapter 2 deals with an overview of the theoretical background of the research. It
is concerned with the issues relevant to the topic of the research motivation and reading
strategies, classification of the reading, motivation in reading, the importance of motivation
in reading, factors affecting students‟ motivation in the learning environment, the role of
the teacher and the students in teaching and learning, reading comprehension strategies, the
relationship between motivation and the use of reading strategies.
Chapter 3 presents the method used in the study including situation analysis,
instruments and the procedure of data analysis and shows the detailed results together with
a comprehensive analysis on the data collected from the survey questionnaires
Chapter 4 gives some major findings, discussions of finding, and
recommendations to reading motivation activities and techniques employed by the teachers
at NJTTC, strategies for developing reading skill to first -year -students at Nghe An
college
Chapter 5, the last chapter of the study, is the conclusion where all the main
contents of the study are summarized and limitations of the study and suggestions for
further studies are presented.


Activity
Stimulation
Knowledge
Ego enhancement
Motivation is one affective component that is influences by instruction. Motivation
is a function of students‟ perception of the value of information ( Mc Combs 1996 ).
Wittrock (1986) claimed that motivation as the process of initiating, sustaining and
directing activity.
According to Little wood,W.(1998) pointed out the complex phenomenon of
motivation from many different components
In second language learning as in every other field of human learning, motivation
is the crucial force which determines whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how 14

much energy he devotes to it and how long he perceives. It is a complex phenomenon and
includes many components the individual drive, need for achievement and success,
curiosity, desire for stimulation and new experience and so on (1998: 53)
Mean while, the working committee on motivation in foreign language learning at
the North East Conference of 1970 defines Motivation
…a force or incentive within a person, that person’s needs, ideas, organic state and
emotions
… the process of providing wits a motive or motives, the stimulation and
maintenance of an active interest in foreign languages (North aEast Conference report
1970.34)
2.2.2. The role of motivation in second language learning.
Motivation is a key factor is successful language learning. Oxford and Shearin
(1996: 121-122) stated that: “Motivation is important because it directly influences how
often students use second language learning strategies how much students interact wits

language to operate socially in that society.
Finegan (1999:568) pointed out "integrative motivation typically underlines
successful acquisition of a wide range of registers and a native –like pronunciation"
* Instrumental motivation
In contrast to integrative motivation, instrumental motivation is known by the
desire to gain something practical or concrete from the study of a foreign language. Ellis
(1994) claimed "some functional reason 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 (1994:75)
2.2.3.2 Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic motivation
Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic
* Intrinsic motivation:
Intrinsic motivation is what learners bring to the learning motivation
Intrinsic motivation is known that the students wish to complete the task because
they are interested refers to :motivation to engage in an activity for its own sake”
(Woldkowski,1991). He means that activity itself is our benefit, so we do not need any
other kinds of rewards or punishment. He states that intrinsic motivation “is the natural
tendency to seek out and conquer challenges as we pursue personal interests and exercise
capabilities”. The factors of support of intrinsic motivation: competence (feeling that you
know how to do things), autonomy (being able to perform an activity by yourself without
external help) and relatedness ( connection with your social environment like helping the
others).

16

* Extrinsic motivation:
Harmer (2001:51) gives easily understandable definition that extrinsic motivation


17

“Reading is a tool, and its definition is influenced by the reader‟s purpose and the
demands of the situation. Trying to define reading in terms of one single function is like
trying to define a hammer merely as something used for striking nails. Hammers also used
to pry out nails, to shape metal, to force things that don‟t quite fit, and even crack nuts.
Imagination and situation work to define the function of a tool. Simply put: reading is
comprehending, interpreting, and applying textual material. This definition implies that
reading involves more than, and extends further than, the printed page. The reader brings a
great deal of information and perspective presented on the page.” (Manzo and Manzo)
Goodman pointed out that “Reading is a psycholinguistic process by which the
reader, a language users, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been
encoded by a writer as a graphic display”, and the act of reconstruction is viewed as“a
cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing and confirming.” (Goodman, 1971:135)
In brief, each person can have a different definition of reading and we can not tell
which is better because each of them focuses on one important matter of reading. However,
we find that there is a close relationship between reading and understanding. Therefore,
being a language teacher, we must understand the nature of reading thoroughly to help our
students read effectively.
In 1948 an investigation on second language and teaching by Agard and Dunkel
state:
Reading is an important skill of these foreign students. Fortunately it is one in
which most of them are well prepared when they come. Reading is the skill in whish have
had the most of practice and which suffers least from being taught by a teacher whose
acquaintance with the foreign language is slight.
2.3.2 Types of reading
There are a great deal of ways to classify reading such as the classification
according to manners of reading and the classification according to the purposes of
reading. In this study the two kinds of reading mentioned are intensive reading and

above is not that intensive reading is bad, only that it is limited in what it tries to do.
* Extensive reading
Extensive reading usually takes place outside class and is used to obtain a general
understanding of a subject and includes reading longer texts for pleasure, as well as
business books. Use extensive reading skills to improve your general knowledge of
business procedures. Do not worry if you understand each word. Extensive reading will
vary with student motivation and institutional resource. Characterization of extensive
reading is to contract it with intensive reading. Intensive reading activities in the classroom
on texts which are usually not more than a page or so in the length are intended to train
students in the strategies needed for successful reading. Meanwhile, extensive reading 19

shows many opportunities to practice reading strategies and develop different type of
knowledge. Due to the importance of extensive reading in foreign language learning,
2.3.3. Factors affecting students’ motivation in the learning environment
2.3.3.1. Parental influences
It may be easy to forget that the students‟ motivation to learn in school context is
strongly affected by certain people who are not directly involved in the school scene:
students‟ parents. Educational psychologists have long recognized that various family
characteristics and practices are linked with school is generally thought to be motivation.
Gottfried et al,1994). According to Eccles et al.(1998) four parenting factors have been
traditionally identified as significantly shaping student motivation;
* Developmentally appropriate timing of achievement demands/ pressure;
* High confidence in one‟s children‟s abilities;
* A supportive affective family climate;
* Highly motivated role models.
2.3.3.2. The teacher
The teachers‟ role in shaping student motivation is just as complex as that of the

interesting, and the students enjoy reading it, they will be motivated to read more, and vice
versa. Thirdly, there should be variety in the range and type of exercises. A text with many
kinds of accompanying exercises probably covers many different skills.
Besides, suitable activities the teacher provides can focus the students‟ attention of
specific skills necessary for efficient reading. Normally, there are three main activities in a
reading comprehension text which are called pre-reading stage, while-reading stage, and
post-reading stage, the teacher has to make students be aware of what they are going to
read and do during the lesson. At while-reading stage, the teacher‟s main function is to
offer help to students if necessary. And at post-reading stage, the teacher is considered as a
guide or an adviser to help the students express their own ideas through their understanding
of the text.
To sum up, the two main duties of the teacher in helping the students to be efficient
readers are to provide suitable reading materials and suitable reading activities. To fulfill
his role, the teacher should know the reading skill that students need for reading.
2.3.3.3. The reading texts
The reading texts play an important role to students‟motivation in reading in terms
of its level of challenge, its topic and content. If the students are assigned to read the text
beyond their language proficiency level, they become overwhelmed. The students would
also be frustrated and tired when encountering with a great deal of unknown words,
complex sentence structures and so on. In the case the topic of the text is not interesting
and irrelevant to their experience and knowledge they may stop reading because they can
not understand the meaning of the text enough to satisfy their expectations need or 21

interests. It is a challenge for the teacher to select the text or exploit the texts in what ways
that improve students‟ interests and motivation in reading.
In general, if students enjoy what they read, the reading comprehension is the best
achieved. Although, it is said that “literature is caught, not taught”, the text must satisfied

22

pets, and sports. If your learners are interested in Britain, the USA, or another English-
speaking country, a coursebook with that country as the main theme can provide a good
supply of topics. You may also be able to use authentic materials from those countries, for
example, magazine and newspaper articles, cassettes of song, and video of television
programmes.
2.3.3.4 Feedback
Feedback is another element which has impact on students‟ motivation. Many
teachers tend to think that they are authoritative in class and result of which is that they
will immediately correct the students‟ errors whenever they are spotted. If the students are
always provided with such kind of feedback, they might apparently lose interest at some
stage and become completely demotivated, Dornyei (1994) suggests that feedback should
be positive and students‟ errors should not be over emphasized.
2.4. Motivation in reading
2.4.1 The importance of motivation in reading
Motivation to read independently appears to be a key component of reading success
and should be a goal of reading instruction. Teachers are not merely responsible for
providing instruction in the mechanics of text and reading, they also bear responsibility for
instilling in all students a desire to read independently from a variety of sources. Although
research has provided a wealth of information to inform instruction on themechanics of
text, there are few findings from well-designed, experimental research studies to guide
educators in motivating students to spend a great deal of time reading widely and
independently
2.4.2.The role of the teacher and the students in teaching and learning Reading.
2.4.2.1 The role of the teacher
We suggest that is may be of limited value merely to add stratery training as
anorther element of the syllabus without considering the implications for teachers. Simply
adding learner training tasks to the language syllabus may result in little more than yet
another curricular activity that learners perform because the teacher tells them to, resulting

understand how texts work and what they do when they read. It is the fact that the student
is the heart of the reading lesson and the element which determines the success of a reading
lesson Moreover, they also have to do other exercises and maybe they have to encounter
and solve the difficulties by themselves. In addition, the students can be the important
element that helps teacher fullil his duties. On the other hand, the students are the providers
of feedback to the teacher through their expression and understanding of the reading texts.
Without the students‟ feedback, the teacher does not know how to make the reading lesson
become most effective. Moreover, because the student is the heart of a reading lesson, all
the teacher‟s activities are to provide the students with as much knowledge as possible. If
the teacher does not know how much knowledge his students can receive from his 24

reaching, he can not have appropriate method for his students to study effectively.
Therefore, the student may negotiate with the teacher find out the suitable method of study
as well as select appropriate reading materials and activities. Furthermore, through the
students‟ reflections, the teacher may find out his mistakes and draw up his own
experience to teach better and perfect himself.
2.5. Reading Comprehension Strategies
2.5.1. What is a Teaching Strategy?
“Strategy” in a general sense, refers to a “well-planned series of actions for
achieving an aim” (Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman, 1995: 1244). Thus, a
teaching strategy is a conscious plan comprising a wide range of selected skills and
techniques, which is targeted at the achievement of an objective. In a way, strategy is
implementational since it is connected with how different types of learning and teaching
activities are carried out in the classroom. Due to this reason, it is not exaggerating to
assume that an appropriate teaching strategy is vital to enhance learning as to encourage
students to activate their own learning styles (Dunn & Griggs, 1990)
2.5.2. Nature of Reading Comprehension Strategies

sociolinguistic competence.
On the whole, for the illustrations above, it can be commonly noted that reading
comprehension strategies are of the major goal to enhance the reader‟s communicative
competence.
Greater Self-Direction for Readers
Reading comprehension strategies encourage greater overall self-direction for
readers. Self-direction is extremely important for English learning readers because they
will not always have their teachers around to guide them as they use the language outside
classroom, Moreover, self-direction is essential to the active development of ability in a
new language.
Thanks to conditioning by the culture and educational system, however, many
English learning readers (even adults) are passive and accustomed to being spoon-fed.
They prefer to be told what to do, and they do only what is clearly essential to get a good
grade-even if they fail to develop useful skills in the process. Attitudes and behaviors like
these make reading more difficult and must be changed, or else any effort to train readers
to rely more on themselves and use better strategies is bound to fail. Just new strategies
will be not very effective to readers unless they begin to want greater responsibility for
their own reading.
Reader‟s self-direction is not an “all or nothing” concept, it is often a gradually
increasing phenomenon, growing as readers become more comfortable with the idea of
their own responsibility. Self-directed readers gradually gain greater confidence,
involvement, and proficiency. 26

2.5.2.2. Other Features of the Nature of Reading Comprehension Strategies
Problem Orientation
Reading comprehension strategies are tools. They are used because there is a
problem to solve, a task to accomplish, an objective to meet, or a goal to obtain. For

27

However, sometimes readers do combine strategies in a predictable way. For
instance, readers often preview the material by skimming or scanning, then they read it
more closely while using questioning, contextualizing, and summarizing to better their
understanding of the material. In addition, some reading comprehension strategies contain
within themselves an internal sequence of steps.
2.6. The relationship between Motivation and the use of reading strategies
This study investigates the relationship between motivation and the use of reading
strategies. Motivation is an important factor in learning strategies .It„s necessary to identify
the type of motivation that assist in the successful acquisition of a second language. There
are two kinds of motivation: integrative motivation and instrumental motivation Integrative
motivation is a key motivation that promotes the learner to develop that language to
operate socially in that society.
Instrument motivation is normally characterized by the desire to obtain something
practical or concrete from the study of a second language acquisition, when there is little or
no social integration of the learner into a society using the target language.
Students have been found varying considerably in both the overall frequency with
which they employ reading strategies and particular types of reading strategies they use.
Some factors have been found to affect the choice of reading strategies .The major purpose
of this section is to find out where there is any relationship between motivation and choice
of reading strategies, and which type of motivation will influence students‟choice of
reading strategies.


techniques to activate students‟ knowledge, arousing their interest in reading
3.3. Participants
The total numbers of the freshmen of English at NJTTC were 119 students
generally aged from 18 to 21 .the majority were female (94 female students and 25 male
students). They came from different rural districts of Nghe An province. Most of them
entered this college as their wish of becoming teachers at junior schools, however, some of
them regarded it as their wish of becoming teachers at junior school,
The students under the investigation had learned English for at least three years at
upper secondary school and had just finished their first term of the first year at the Foreign
Language department, NJTTC at the time the study was carried out. Of the 10 teachers, all 29

of them have to least 5 years‟ experience of teaching English. They all have B.A degree in
English and six of them have M.A degree.
3.4. Instruments data collection
To obtain the information for the study, the researcher used two instruments.
* Instrument one: A questionnaire completed by the student
Two main parts were focused in the questionnaire. The first part was about the
student‟ demographic information which included the students‟ geneder, age, the number
of years they had been learning English. The second part was designed to elicit the
students‟ opinions about the reading subject. It consisted of 18 statements of motivation,
six of which are instrumental motivation and the rest are integrated motivation.
* Instrument two: A questionnaire completed by the teachers.
The survey questionnaire completed by the teachers included 8 questions. These
questions was mainly about what they had done to motivate their students to read. The first
part in the survey was about demographic information, which contained the teacher‟s
gender, age, the number of year they had been teaching English and reading. The second
parts with the questions about teachers‟s opinion on students‟ motivation in reading