VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES
***
HOÀNG VĂN HỢI STUDENTS’ LOW MOTIVATION IN LEARNING
ENGLISH AT NGÔ TRÍ HÒA HIGH SCHOOL:
REASONS AND SOLUTIONS
(Động lực thấp trong việc học tiếng Anh của học sinh trường THPT
Ngô Trí Hòa: Các nguyên nhân và các giải pháp) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi - 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

FL: Foreign Language

vi


2
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
4
1.1. Previous studies on de-motivation in learning English
4
1.2. Theoretical background of low motivation (de-motivation)
8
1.2.1. Definition of motivation
8
1.2.2. The importance of motivation in foreign language learning
10
1.2.3. Low motivation or de-motivation in foreign language learning
11
1.3. Speaking
15
1.3.1. Definitions of Speaking.
15
1.3.2. The importance of Speaking
15
Summary
16
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
17
2.1. Research questions
17
2.2. Subjects
17
2.3 Context

34
3. Limitations of the study
39
4. Suggestions for further study
39
REFERENCES
41
APPENDIX 1
I
APPENDIX 2
III
APPENDIX 3
IV
APPENDIX 4
VI

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Question 1: What are the factors that cause students‟ low motivation in learning
English speaking?
Question 2: What are the factors that assist students to overcome the low motivation?

2

4. Significance of the study
As mentioned in the Aims and research questions. The study has practical significance
and pedagogical significance:
- Practical significance: to find and confirm the negative factors, barriers to
learning English of the students at Ngo Tri Hoa High School in Dien Chau District,
Nghe An Province based on the study of 100 students of the 12
th
grade.
- Pedagogical significance: to suggest some implications to teachers at Ngo Tri
Hoa School and improve the Ngo Tri Hoa High School's learning English.

5. Scope of the study
In the previous studies (see page 4), de-motivation in learning English is mentioned in
general and they aimed at several levels of learners. I limited and focused on speaking
skill only of students at Ngo Tri Hoa high school, Dien Chau district, Nghe An
province.

This study was conducted in two classes (H1 and H2) with 100 12
th
grade students at
Ngo Tri Hoa High School. This study was carried out in order to find out the reasons
causing low motivation to learn English and solutions that can help them to overcome
their problem.



4
PART B DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter is concerned with some previous studies of de-motivation and theoretical
background and definitions of motivation, low motivation. Then, the definitions of
speaking, the importance of speaking and teaching speaking in rural high school.

1.1. Previous studies on de-motivation in learning English
Hamada and Kito (2008) carried out a research to find the answer for two questions:
“What are the primary de-motivating factors in Japanese high school students?” and
“what are the root of those factors?”. Hamada and Kito conducted a quality research

to answer 4 questions”: 1) what are the upper secondary school students‟ goal for
learning English?, 2) What kinds of motivation do the students have in learning EFL in
Quang Nam?, 3) What are the factors that influencing the motivation of EFL learners
in Quang Nam?, and 4) What should be done to promote students‟ motivation in
learning EFL.

For the purpose of obtaining data that will explore why students in Quang Nam learn
English and what negative affects their English learning motivation, applied
quantitative and quality research methods on 100 students from 4 upper secondary
school in Quang Nam and 10 English teachers from those school.

Different from the result of Keblawi‟s study, the factors related to teacher in this
investigation do not have the highest percentage but the subject factors with spelling
error, 90% and listening skill difficulty with 89%. The factors was occupied by
English teacher is only 31%. Similar with the students in Hamada Kito‟s study and
Keblawi‟s research, students in upper secondary school in Quang Nam province,
Vietnamese students also encountered difficulties with textbooks and evaluation
system. However, these de-motivating factors only have small percentage, about 17%.

The result of these surveys shows many types of de-motivating factors in EFL of the
students in Quang Nam province. Nevertheless, the researchers need to have more
deep and sophisticated investigation on each factor instead of listing the de-motivation
factors.
6 In the area of second language classroom learning, student de-motivation has not been
the topic of much research with Chambers (1993), who examined the problem using
questionnaires to gather both student and teacher perspectives, providing the only
evidence, that is, his research is the only study that was fully devoted to de-motivation

students, 88 indicated that they had been de-motivated to a great or lesser extent. There
are two groups of de-motivation: group 1 is internal attribution. The former included
students‟ attitudes towards English, their experiences of failure or lack of success, and
incidents related to their self – eastern. The later consisted of teacher related factors,
the learning environment, and other external factors. They also found out that internal
factors occupied 36 % and external factors is 64 %. More surprising in 64 % of
external factors, teachers are blamed most with 35 %.

Students had overcome de-motivation basing on internal factors (71%) and external
factor (29%). Five factors that might contribute to students‟ overcoming de-motivation
were: an awareness of the important of English, personal reason, self – improvement,
self –determination, and positive attitude towards English. External factors might
include: changes in teacher behaviors, teaching method, learning condition, and
external encouragement. Trang and Baldual‟s research truly gave out many
recommendations to overcome de-motivation in learning English for English students.
However, the study only focused on the students in the university, so there is a need to
examine more the secondary school students.

Oxford‟s 1998 study advanced the understanding of de-motives by taking into account
the time factor. She recognized that de-motivation is a process that can be best
understood by “looking backward”, i.e., by asking participants to recall their learning
experiences over a period of time, in this case, five years. The students were asked to
write a stimulated recall essay using a variety of prompts, including “Describe a
situation in which you experienced conflict with a teacher”, and “Talk about a
classroom in which you felt uncomfortable”. The findings drawn from the content
analysis of the student essays revealed four broad sources of de-motivation, i.e., the
teacher‟s personal relationship with the student, the teacher‟s attitude towards the
course or the material, style conflicts between teachers and students, and the nature of
the classroom activities. However, since the prompts used by Oxford specifically
referred to the teacher‟s role as a source of de-motivation, other potential sources


1.2. Theoretical background of low motivation (de-motivation)
1.2.1. Definition of motivation
There have been so far many researches on the theory of motivation. Each author has
his/her own way of explaining what motivation is since the look at motivation from
9

different angle. Most definitions of motivation reflect the consensus that motivation is
an internal state or condition that serves to activate or energize behavior. The term
motivation is used constantly in everyday and professional context but defining
motivation precisely is a demanding task due to its complex and multination.
Motivation research was first inspired and spearheaded by social psychologist Robert
Gardner in Canada. According to Gardner ((1985), motivation is and act of stimulating
the interest of somebody to so something. He drawn out a formula of motivation:
“Motivation = effort + desire to achieve goal + attitudes”. In term of
Second/Foreign language learning, Gardner (1985, pp:10 -11) defined motivation as:

……the combination of effort plus desire the goal of learning the
language plus favorable attitudes towards learning the language,
when the desire to achieve the goal and favorable attitudes towards
the goal are linked with the effort or the drive, then we have a
motivated organism.

Besides Gardner, Williams and Burden (1997: 120) defined motivation as “ a state of
cognitive and emotional around which many researches‟ results indicate that
motivation is the main determining factors in an individual‟s success in developing a
second language (L2) or foreign language (FL). (e.g., Dornyei, 1990; Gardner, 1985).
In the book “Motivation factors in language learning” (2009) Makiko Ebate says that
motivation is the vital role in language learning; provide the primary impetus to
imitate learning L2 and later driving force to sustain the long and often tedious

curiosity, desire for stimulation and experience, and so on (Little wood, 1998:53).

1.2.2. The importance of motivation in foreign language learning
While there have been a great deal of research on the role of motivation in second
language learning, the overall findings reveal that positive attitude and motivation are
closely related to success in second language learning ( Gardner, 1985). Motivation is
also considered as “a key consideration in determining the preparedness of learners to
communicate” (Gardner, 1985:10).

Oxford and Shearin (1994) state: “Many researchers considered motivation as one of
the main elements that determine success in a second or foreign language. It
determines the extent of active, personal involvement in L2 learning”.

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Carol (1962) pointed out: “the more motivation a learner has, the more time he or she
will spend learning an aspect of a second language”. Labonde (1982), based on the
findings made by Garner and Lambert (1972), concluded that motivation and attitudes
are important factors which help determine the level of proficiency achieved by
different learners and the effects of motivation appear to be separated from the effects
of aptitude, the most successful learners will be those who have both talent and a high
level of motivation for learning. Dornyei (2001) believes that motivation needs to be
generated, maintained actively, protected and retrospectively evaluated.

Another role of motivation in foreign language learning is to promote the choice of
strategies among students learning a second or foreign language. Research has shown
that the use of specific learning strategies and techniques while studying a second or
foreign language leads to success. Oxford (1994) emphasizes “more motivated
students tend to use more strategies than less motivated students, hence, they tend to
be more successful”.

forces that reduce or diminish the motivational basis of a behavioral intention” and
describes de-motivation as various negative influences cancelling out existing
motivation. He introduces “de-motives” as being negative counterparts of “motives
ongoing action” (ibd: 143). A de-motive learner is some who “motivated bust has lost
his or her interest for some reasons”. In term of de-motive, it decreases learners‟ de-
motivation to the study of language while motive increases it. However, not all
researchers agree with this definition. Sakai and Kikuchi (2009: 58) refer to several
studies where researchers have included also internal forces, such as a learner‟s lack of
self-confidence and negative attitudes of the learners in addition to external forces.
They point out that in fact Dornyei him self (2001a) has listed reduced self-
confidence and negative attitude towards the foreign language as sources of de-
motivation. Thus, Sakai and Kikuchi feel the need to expand Dornyei‟s definition
stated above to comprehend both internal and external factors that reduce or diminish
the motivation to learn a L2. Whether external or internal, reasons for de-motivation
are many, Dornyei (2001a: 142) aims to form a portrait of a de-motivated learner by
giving hypothetical examples of learners who are de-motivated. Firstly, a de-motivated
learner can be a learner whose study group was divided into two groups depending on
the ability, and the learner was put among the „slow‟ students. Secondly, a learner‟s
motivation to learn French can diminish as result of not understanding what the
teacher is talking about in class. Thirdly, a learner can feel de-motivated because he
has suffered an embarrassing experience of having to speak in front of the class. In
13

short, according to Dornyei, a de-motivated learner is someone who once was
motivated but for one reason or another has lost his or her commitment or interest in
learning. These reasons for losing interest can be called de-motives which are the
negative counterpart of motives, and whereas motives increase action tendency, de-
motives de-energize it (Dornyei 2001a: 142).

Concerning teachers‟ communication behavior and learners‟ motivation, Gorham and

Conversely, if something triggered the termination of action (e.g. the persuasion of an
influential friend), that would be a case of de-motivation.

Dornyei (2001) also pointed out that de-motivation does not mean that a learner has
lost his or her motivation completely. On the contrary, the positive influence that
originally made up the motivational basis of behavior can still be there. For instance, a
learner may still be highly motivated to learnt English; it is important world language,
even if his or her teacher were incompetent or malevolent.

In addition, Dornyei (2001) makes a distinction between de-motivation and a-
motivation. A-motivation was introduced by Deci and Ryan (1985) as a constituent of
their self-determination theory and they (1985, as explained by Dornyei 2001a: 144)
define it as “the relative absence of motivation that is not caused by a lack of initial
interest but rather by the individual‟s experiencing feelings of incompetence and
helplessness when faced with the activity”. According to him, a-motivation refers to a
lack of motivation brought about by the realization that “there is no point……” or “it‟s
beyond my keen”. Thus, “a-motivation is insolvably related to general outcome expect
that are thought to be unrealistic”, whereas de-motivation is related to specific external
causes. Of course, some de-motivations can lead to general a-motivation regarding the
particular activity (e.g. A series of bad classroom experiences can reduce the learner‟s
self efficiency) but some other de-motive as soon as the detrimental external influence
stops to exist, other positive, and thus far oppressed, motives may again surface (e.g. If
it turns out that someone who dissuaded the individual from doing something was not
telling the truth).

To conclude, those above studies are very helpful in providing researcher with general
views on the study of the de-motivating factors in listening lesson. The most popular
data collections tool the previous researcher used were the combination of
questionnaires, interview to seek information related to the de-motivation factors in
15

language, they actually mean that they are able to speak the language.

16

It can not be denied that speaking deserves as much attention as or even more attention
than written skill. In order to carry out many of the most basic transactions, it is
necessary for learners to speak with confidence.

Summary
This chapter has presented relevant literature, which has helped to form the theoretical
framework for the study. Different definitions about motivation, the importance of
motivation in foreign language learning, definitions about low motivation (de-
motivation) in language learning and review research about it. Then, an overview on
speaking in which definition, the importance of speaking.

In the next chapter, a research will be presented to show the effects of these mentioned
factors that cause students‟ low motivation in learning English.


in Nghe An province for many years.

The school has 27 classes with over 70 teachers of different subjects. English is taught
here as a compulsory subjects by six teachers aged from 28 to 37. Currently, there are
approximately 1300 students ranged from grade 10 to grade 12. Most of the students
come from the villages in Dien Chau district and was born in farming family with
medium and low living standard.

18

The teaching of English has encountered with many difficulties. Although most
students are aware of the importance of English, few students have real interest in
learning English. In other words, the majority of the students do not pay much
attention to English. First, in classroom interaction, students are enthusiastic when
familiar subject matters are presented in Vietnamese; second, student interaction, they
rarely use English to talk to each other; except when they are asked to use English by
the teachers. To explain new words, new concepts and new structures, English is rarely
used because the students would not understand if they were explained in English.
When students answer the teachers‟ questions, they often use Vietnamese whey they
do not know the words in English or they just say, “I don‟t know”. Secondly, there is
tremendous peer pressure both among the teachers and among the students, not to
speak outside the classroom. In fact, of one spoke in English, one would be thought
unusual, isolated and even a show-off. Thirdly, there has so far been a connection with
native speakers in the school. Students do not have chance to communicate with
foreigners, which means students have no real condition to use English. Last but not
least, the school rules also cause difficulties in organizing communicative games to
stimulate the students to speak. Thus for practical purposes, the natural use of English
in our school is confined to the artificial classroom context, between four walls, in the
English language class and under school rules


100) and Norris –Holt, 2001) make some suggestions on the teaching of speaking in
rural high school as follow:
- creating a subculture of English in a rural setting
- creating a make-believe world in the classroom
- creating a content-challenging milieu in the classroom
- creating interesting lessons in which students’ attention is gain
- Creating a great deal of interaction and help to motivate students to
develop their language skills.

2.4. Methods of data collection
A combination of the main data collection instruments: questionnaires and semi-
structured interview for students. The reason for use of this combination is that one
method can be related to another one to help evaluate the low motivation factors
among students‟ learning English speaking. Furthermore, the result of one method can
help to develop or inform another method (Greence, Carecelli & Graham, 1989).