A study of how to motivate second-year English
majors at the Faculty of English, Hanoi National
University of Education

Trần Ngọc Giang

Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ
Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15
Người hướng dẫn: Assoc.Prof. Dr. Trần Xuân Điệp
Năm bảo vệ: 2010

Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Kỹ năng nghe; Phương pháp dạy học

Content:
PART 1: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale.
In the field of teaching and learning foreign languages in general and the English language in
particular, motivation has always been playing an essential role to achieve success and
improvement. In many cases, students are still unsuccessful just because they lack motivation to
learn. That is why many researchers and educationalists have been sharing the same idea that the
best method of teaching is to improve their motivation in the learning process.
Being an English teacher at a university for nearly three years, the author has always tried best to
facilitate the students’ study of English. Through teaching experiences and everyday observation,
the author notices that when studying English at university, the author’s students normally
encounter many difficulties in listening skill. Moreover, their lack of motivation in learning and
practicing this skill has been recognized. All of these have inspired the author to make an attempt
to carry out this research in order to find out the way to motivate the students in their listening
classes.
Another reason for conducting this research study is the appropriateness of its type, which is
action research, in the present situation of the author. Being a teacher teaching English at a
university, the author has to fulfill the tasks of teaching and doing research at the same time.

4.2. Practical significance
The study is expected to facilitate better understanding of motivation in foreign language
learning in general and in EFL in particular. Practically and pedagogically, the findings of the
study are strongly believed to help English teachers see more clearly the essential roles of
motivation in the teaching of English and to supply them with some basic ideas of how to find
suitable ways of motivating their students in learning English, especially listening skill. In
addition, the author expects that this research study can provide other teachers and those who
may be concerned with ideas and fundamental grounds to conduct further research studies in the
field of boosting students’ motivation in EFL.
5. Scope of the study
An infinite variety of ways can be used to motivate students in learning English. However, due to
the limit of time and capacity, the researcher only focuses on exploiting the effectiveness of three
changes made during the listening course at FOE, HNUE in enhancing the second-year English
majors’ motivation in learning and practicing this challenging skill. What was changed during
the course is the way to start it, the way in which each lesson is conducted and managed, and the
way to assess the students.
6. Methods of the study
This study was designed in the form of an action research. According to Gina (2001), action
research is the type of research we carry out with our students in order to try out an idea or
innovation, or to test a hypothesis about the students’ learning and see what would happen.
Besides, Michael (1998) also points out that action research involves the collection and the
analysis of data related to certain aspects of our professional practice. In this study, the
researcher applied a number of different methods, based on both qualitative and quantitative
approaches: classroom observations, students’ writing journal, interviews, and questionnaires.
First and foremost, a pre-treatment questionnaire was employed to reveal some information
about the students’ motivation and the work of teaching and learning the skill of listening they
had been receiving so far. Bearing in mind the hypothesis that some changes made to the course
can improve students’ motivation, the researcher carried out these modifications on the students
during the semester. In order to investigate the motivational effectiveness of these changes,
classroom observation, students’ journal, and informal interviews together with a post-treatment

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