HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY NO.2
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY

======

TRAN NHAT ANH

A STUDY ON FACTORS DEMOTIVATING
STUDENTS TO LEARN ENGLISH SPEAKING AND SUGGESTED
SOLUTIONS FOR THE 11TH GRADE STUDENTS
AT NGUYEN DANG DAO HIGH SCHOOL

(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF PEDAGOGY IN ENGLISH)

Hanoi, May 2016


HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY NO.2
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY

======

TRAN NHAT ANH

A STUDY ON FACTORS DEMOTIVATING
STUDENTS TO LEARN ENGLISH SPEAKING AND SUGGESTED
SOLUTIONS FOR THE 11TH GRADE STUDENTS
AT NGUYEN DANG DAO HIGH SCHOOL

(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

My thesis is finished thank to the help of many people.
Firstly, I would like to express my deepest thank to Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, M.A., for her
valuable and enthusiastic help in giving me useful ideas, materials and support to finish my
thesis.
Secondly, I would like to express my particular thanks to all the lectures of Foreign
Languages Faculty of HPU N0.2 whose lectures have enriched my academic knowledge of
English in the past.
Thirdly, I also would like to express my sincere thanks to ninety-eight students of classes
11A1 and 11A3 at Nguyen Dang Dao high school in the academic year of 2015-2016 for their
contribution in my study.
Last but not least is the sincere support from my beloved family members and friends in the
process of finishing the thesis.

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ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to identify factors that demotivate high school students to learn
English speaking. A survey questionnaire with 29 questions was completed by 98 students.
The study identified four groups of factors negatively affecting students' motivation: Studentrelated factors, Teacher-related factors, Curriculum-related factors, Teaching and learning
condition-related factors. The analysis of the gathered data revealed that the insufficient time
to practice speaking, teachers' method, teachers' attitude, lack of positive feedbacks, lack of
active activities & games, topics in textbook, lack of self-confidence and classroom
atmosphere are the most influential factors. Accordingly, the writer suggested some solutions
to help students overcome their demotivation in speaking classes. In addition, implications
and suggestions for the further research are made with the hope for better methods to help
teachers reduce negative factors affecting students’ motivation during the process of learning
speaking English.

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Table 4: Student-related Factors ............................................................................................... 21
Table 5: Teacher’s Method ....................................................................................................... 23
Table 6: Teacher’s Attitude & Teaching Style ......................................................................... 25
Table 7: Curriculum-related Factors ........................................................................................ 27
Table 8: Teaching and Learning Condition-related Factors ..................................................... 29
Table 9. Factors Motivating Students to Speak ....................................................................... 30
Table 10. What Teachers Do to Motivate Students to Take Part in Speaking Activities. ....... 32
Table 11: Students’ Attitude after 2 Lessons ........................................................................... 32

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP.......................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................iii
LIST OR ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................ iv
LIST OF GRAPHS ................................................................................................................... v
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................... v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................ vi

PART ONE
INTRODUCTION

I. Rationale ................................................................................................................................. 1
II. Aims of the study ................................................................................................................... 2
III. Significance of the study ...................................................................................................... 2
IV. Methods of the study ............................................................................................................ 2
V. Scope of the study.................................................................................................................. 2
VI. Design of the study ............................................................................................................... 3

II.2.1. Survey Questionnaire (Appendix A and Appendix B) .................................................. 14
II.2.1.1 Rationale Behind the Use of Survey Questionnaire .................................................... 14
II.2.1.2. Construction of the Survey ......................................................................................... 15
II.2.1.2.1. Construction of the Pre-survey ................................................................................ 15
II.2.1.2.2. Construction of the Post-survey ............................................................................... 15
II.2.1.3. Aim of this Technique ................................................................................................ 15
II.2.1.4 Administration of the Try-out ...................................................................................... 16
II.2.1.4.1. Preparation of the Try-out ........................................................................................ 16
II.2.1.4.2. Try-out ..................................................................................................................... 16
II.2.1.4.2.1. Pre-survey Questionnaire ...................................................................................... 16
II.2.1.6.2. Post-survey questionnaire ........................................................................................ 16
II.2.2. Interview ........................................................................................................................ 16
II.2.2.1. Rationale behind the Use of Interview........................................................................ 16
II.2.2.2. Construction of the Interview ..................................................................................... 17
II.2.2.3. Aim of this Technique ................................................................................................ 17
II.2.2.4. Try-out ........................................................................................................................ 17
II.3. Situation Analysis ........................................................................................................... 17
II.3.1. The Setting of the Study ................................................................................................ 17

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II.3.2. Subjects of the Study ..................................................................................................... 18
II.4. Data Analysis .................................................................................................................. 18

CHAPTER THREE
THE RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

III.1. Reality of the 11th Grade Students’ Motivation.......................................................... 20
III.2. Factors Demotivating Students to Learn English Speaking ..................................... 20

who speak it is as their first language. Moreover, it is used as an official language in many
countries. English is an international language, which is used in science, technology,
economy, culture, medicine, education and many other fields.

In Vietnam, the country

attaches great importance to the industrialization, modernization and globalization of
education, English becomes more and more important. That is the reason why English is the
first foreign language introduced in primary schools and one of compulsory subjects taught in
the majority of high schools in Vietnam.
Of four main skills of English including listening, speaking, reading and writing,
speaking ability seems to be the most important (Donald, 2010). The website
www.usingenglish.com has a poll: “Which language skill is the most important?” with the
total votes of 612.438 and comments of 4.607. The result shown that 38.90% people thought
that all of the four skills are equally important, 35.81% voted for speaking, 13.73% voted for
listening, 7.44% for reading and only 4.12% voted for writing (date: 03.11.2015). From the
above figures, many learners agree that speaking is the most important.
Actually, there are several factors that affect our English speaking skills such as
listening comprehension, grammatical accuracy, pronunciation, vocabulary, fluency,
motivation, enthusiasm, self-confident, etc. Motivation is proved to have an important role in
developing students’ speaking ability. According to Harmer (1991) “Motivation is energy of
students which come from inside or outside encouraging themselves to do something”.
Motivation can push someone to complete a course of work. Motivation is also a passion to
do something. It will give strength to student to speak up. Success or failure in language
learning seems largely dependent on students’ motivation.
The 11th grade students at Nguyen Dang Dao high school have to learn English as a
compulsory subject. The fact is that many students can write English very well but they are
afraid of speaking English. After two weeks of observing, the writer found that 97% of the
students in class 11A1 and 11A3 at Nguyen Dang Dao high school felt demotivated in
learning English, especially in speaking classes. Only some students get involved in activities

IV. Methods of the study
To achieve the objectives of the study, the following research techniques were applied
for data collection:
1. Survey questionnaire.
2. Interview.
V. Scope of the study
The study is restricted to find factors that demotivate the 11th-students in speaking
classes at Nguyen Dang Dao high school. The subjects chosen for this study were 98 the 11 th
grade students (forty five students in class 11A1 and fifty three students in class 11A3) at
Nguyen Dang Dao high school.

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Within the scope of the thesis and the writer's power, some solutions are suggested to
help students overcome their demotivation in learning speaking English. The writer only can
interfere in teachers' teaching method-related factors. Two suggested activities including
discussion activity and brainstorming activity were applied in speaking classes. Students'
responses toward two lessons were quite positive.
VI. Design of the study
This minor thesis consists of three parts:
Part one, INTRODUCTION, present the rationale, aims of the study, significance of
the study, methods of the study, scope of the study and design of the study.
Part two, DEVELOPMENT which is divided into 3 chapters:
Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND presents the background on students’
motivation, factors causing demotivation, motivation and speaking ability and previous
studies.
Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY presents the methods used in the study.
Chapter 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION shows the results and analysis on the data
collected from survey questionnaire and interview.

I.1.2. Types of Motivation
Most of the studies have shown that motivation is divided into two categories which
are intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.
According to Lumsden (1994), intrinsic motivation is energy coming from inside of
the student. This type of motivation exists within the individual rather than relying on any
external pressure. (Things you do because they bring you joy and happiness).
In contrast, extrinsic motivation comes from outside of the individual. An extrinsically
motivated student studies and learns for other reasons. Such a student performs in order to
receive a reward, like graduating or passing a test or getting a new shirt from mom, or to
avoid a penalty like a failing grade (Lumsden, 1994).

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Besides, for the further explanation about extrinsic motivation, according to Gardner
& Lambert’s research (1972), there are two main types of extrinsic motivation: they are
integrative motivation and instrumental motivation.
1) Integrative motivation
In the integrative motivation, students need to be attracted by the culture of the target language
community. It involves students’ reasons for learning the language. To strengthen this motivation,
students wish to integrate themselves into that culture and learn hard to master the language. A weaker
form of this motivation would be the desire to know as much as possible about the culture of the target
language community (English).
2) Instrumental motivation
This motivation describes a situation in which students believe that mastery of the target language will
be instrumental in getting them a better job, position, or status. The language is an instrument in their
attainment of such a goal.

Many people question that “Which is best, intrinsic motivation or extrinsic
motivation?” The answer for this question is that the role of them is equal. As you have seen,


Goal orientation: the student is very aware of the goal of learning, or of specific learning activities,

and directs his or her efforts toward achieving them.
f.

Perseverance: the student consistently invests a high level of effort in learning, and is not

discouraged by setbacks or apparent lack of progress. – in text cited
g.

Tolerance of ambiguity: the student is not disturbed and frustrated by situations involving with a

temporary lack of understanding or confusion, he or she can live with these patiently in the confidence
that understanding will come later.

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I.2. Demotivation
I.2.1. Definitions of Demotivation
Is demotivation the opposite of motivation? Demotivation is seen as the “dark side” of
motivation (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011, p.138). Dörnyei (2001) attempted to provide a
definition for demotivation “concerns specific external forces that reduce or diminish the
motivational basis of a behavioral intention or an ongoing action” (p.138-139). Thus,
demotivation could be regarded as the negative counterpart of motivation.
Cambride Dictionaries Online defines demotivation as the “lack of interest in and
enthusiasm about your work”. The definition indicates that with a loss of motivation, your
attitude towards work is seriously affected. It may get worse when you want to quit your
work.

3) Inadequate school facilities was the third frequent source of demotivation.
4) Negative attitude towards the L2 was the fourth source of demotivation.
5) The compulsory nature of the L2 study was the fifth source of demotivation.
6) Interference of another foreign language being studied came sixth.
7) Negative attitude towards the L2 community was the seventh source of
demotivation.
8) Attitudes of group members came eight. For one student this meant always feeling
embarrassed because he or she felt that the other group members laughed at him or her
because of his or her poor English skills.
9) The course book was the ninth source of demotivation.
Oxford (1998, as quoted in Dörnyei 2001) conducted a qualitative study on
demotivation, which focused on a teacher’s influence on (de)motivation. Four broad themes
emerged from the data.
1) The teacher’s personal relationship with the students was the first theme and it
included issues such as, the teacher showing lack of caring and enthusiasm.
Furthermore, the teacher was criticized for being hypercritical and for patronizing or
favoring a student.
2) The teacher’s attitude towards the course or material was the second theme and it
referred to his or her lack of enthusiasm, sloppy management and close mindedness.
3) Style conflicts between teachers and students was the third theme. This theme
included issues such as, multiple style conflicts and conflicts about the amount of
structure and or detail. Also, there were conflicts about the degree of closure or
seriousness of the class.
4) The nature of classroom activities was the fourth theme. It included aspects such
as, irrelevance overload and repetitiveness.
Ushioda (1998) interviewed 20 Irish learners of French and questioned them to
identify what they found to be demotivating factors in their L2-related learning experiences
without specifying any prompts. Her findings were not unlike the conclusions in previous
studies. In other words, the demotives were related to negative aspects of the institutional
learning context such as teaching methods and learning tasks.

meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants
themselves, their experiences, the environment, and the purposes for speaking.
According to Fowler & Thompson (2000), speaking is “the action of conveying
information or expressing one’s thoughts and feelings in spoken language”. In some cases, the
message is given will be influenced by emotion, the attitude of the speaker.
Another expert, Theodore Huebner (1960) says “Language is essentially speech, and
speech is basically communication by sounds”. According to him, speaking is a skill used by
everybody in daily life communication. The skill is acquired by much repetition, it primarily a
neuromuscular and not an intellectual process. Speaking consists of competence in sending
and receiving messages.
From the above definitions, it can be concluded that speaking is expressing ideas,

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opinions, or feelings to others by using words or sounds of articulation in order to inform,
exchange and persuade. Speaking skill can be learnt and improved by using some teachinglearning methodologies.
I.3.2. Types of Classroom Speaking Performance
There are six types of speaking performance that students are expected to carry out in
the classroom (Brown, 2001, p.271). The six types of speaking performances in the classroom
are presented as follows:
a. Imitative
In this type of performance, students are asked to repeat or imitate the teacher’s speech
or tape recorder. Imitation of this kind is carried out not for the purpose of meaningful
interactive but for focusing on some particular elements of language form. In other
words, this activity focuses more on form rather than on meaning. Such activity is also
called “drilling”. Drills offer students opportunity to listen and to orally repeat certain
strings of language that may pose some linguistic difficulties-either phonological or
grammatical. They offer limited practice through repetition. Furthermore, Brown
(2001, p.272) indicated that drills could help establish certain psychomotor patterns (to

This type of activity is carried out more for purpose of maintaining social relationships
than for the transmission of fact and information. Related to this, Klippel (1994, p.4)
suggested that since foreign language teaching should help students achieve some kind
of communicative skill in the foreign language, all situations in which real
communication occurs naturally have to be taken advantage of and many more
suitable ones have to be created.
f. Extensive (monologue)
The final speaking performance, extensive (monologue) is for learners at intermediate
to advanced levels. They are required to give extended monologues in the form of oral
reports, summaries or short speeches, which can be planned or delivered without
preparation.

I.3.3. Characteristics of Good Speaking Activities
According to Ur (1996, p.120), there are many characteristics of good speaking
activities which are as followed:
a. Learners talk a lot
As much as possible of the period of time allotted to the activity is occupied by learner talk
b. Participant is even
All of students get a chance to speak and contributions are fairly evenly distributed, so, classroom
discussion is not dominated by a minority of talkative participations.
c. Motivation is high
Leaner are eager to speak because they are interested to the topic and have something new to say about
it, or because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective.
d. Language is of an acceptable level
Learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other and of
an acceptable level of language accuracy.

Motivation is an essential element in the teaching and learning process. In speaking
classes, motivation encourages students to express their thoughts, opinions and ideas.


phenomenon to figure out how the students think of this subject. Teachers suppose that
learners are demotivated due to the social, attitudinal and psychological states excluding
themselves completely, whereas, learners argue that it is a consequence of their teachers’
behaviors and attitudes and consider them as the main factors.
Dörnyei (1998) worked out the nine demotivating categories in the order of frequency:
the teacher, inadequate school facilities, reduced self-confidence, negative attitude towards
the L2, compulsory nature of L2 study, interference of another foreign language being
studied, negative attitude towards L2 community, attitudes of group members, and

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coursebook. Dörnyei’s demotivating factors have been considered a standard and have
become the guideline in developing questionnaires and interviews in conducting researches on
demotivation (Chang & Hwang, 2004; Dörnyei, 2001a; Falout & Maruyama, 2004; Kikuchi,
2009; Kim, 2009; Sakai & Kikuchi, 2009).
Besides, Oxford (1998) inDemotivation in foreign language learning, he conducted a
qualitative study on demotivation, which focused on a teacher’s influence on (de)motivation.
The data was analyzed by conducting content analysis. Four broad themes emerged from the
data. (1) The teacher’s personal relationship with the students was the first theme, (2) the
teacher’s attitude towards the course or material was the second theme, (3) style conflicts
between teachers and students was the third theme, (4) the nature of classroom activities was
the fourth theme.
Additionally, Chang and Hwang (2004) used Dörnyei’s nine demotivating factors to
interview 70 Korean high school students, and the result showed that the students attributed
their demotivation mostly to their teachers’ teaching style, particularly the focus on grammar,
reading, and exams. The second demotivating factor was the lack of chances to communicate
in English, followed by the compulsory nature of learning English in Korea.
The next research was done by Trang & Baldouf (2007) is Demotivation:
Understanding Resistance to English Language Learning – The Case of Vietnamese Students.

exams,

vocabulary


memorization, and textbooks and reference books. Among the demotivating factors identified,
two were teacher-related.
Additionally, Kaivanpanah & Ghasemi (2011) described such general factors that
made learner lose their motivation in speaking class as learning contents, materials, and
facilities.
Huyen (2012) found out five demotivating factors: (1) lack of intrinsic motivation; (2)
lack of self-confidence; (3) learning environment; (4) teachers’ competence, behaviors and
teaching methods; and (5) textbook and time for speaking skills.
According to Zahia (2015) demotivating factors were considered in students’ and
teachers’ perspectives. From the teachers’ perspective, insufficient time to practise, teachers’
teaching methods, personality, competence, lack of modern teaching materials, lesson
content, reduced self-confidence, peers’ influence, lack of relaxed classroom environment,
and assessment are the major demotivating factors. While students think that time devoted to
speaking, teachers’ competence and feedback, lack of modern teaching materials, lesson
content, lack of relaxed classroom environment, reduced self-confidence and assessment are
the most demotivating factors among them.

I.5. Summary
In summary, the chapter has reviewed different viewpoints on motivation in foreign
language learning and particularly focused on factors negatively affecting students’
motivation in learning English. Besides, the conceptions of speaking, the correlation between
motivation and speaking ability are also presented.
Status of students with low motivation in learning speaking English at Nguyen Dang
Dao high school is a big problem. None of previous studies investigated the factors negatively
influencing students’ motivation in speaking classes at this school. The mentioned reasons

The post-survey questionnaire (See Appendix B) was used after two speaking lessons
with suggested activities had been carried out. This technique reflects students’ opinion on
their motivation in speaking sessions.
II.2.1.1 Rationale behind the Use of Survey Questionnaire
The survey questionnaire is one of the most effective instruments for collecting data in
social science. Advantages of using questionnaire which Gillham (2000) highlights are: less
pressure on respondents, not under pressure of interview bias and analysis of answer is
straightforward. Firstly, we choose this technique for the following reasons. Unlike
interviews, students do not need to face directly to the questioner, so they have plenty of time
to think about the questions and give their answers. Moreover, learners are not required to
write their name or personal information when they answer the questions in the survey. This

14


helps them to feel comfortable, no pressure. Therefore, they will answer honestly. Another
advantage of survey questionnaire is that with the obvious questions and short answers, the
synthesis and analysis of data will be easier than other methods.
As in the case, a set of questionnaires was designed to investigate the 11th grade
students’ opinions about the factors making them demotivated in learning speaking at Nguyen
Dang Dao high school in the school year 2015-2016
II.2.1.2. Construction of the Survey
II.2.1.2.1. Construction of the Pre-survey
The materials used to design the questionnaire were taken from the books concerned
with the speaking skill and motivation in education.
The pre-survey questionnaire (Appendix A) for students is divided into three parts
with 26 questions.
Part 1: Personal information & Self-assessment: There are some questions to seek out
the general information about the participants and their perception of learning English
speaking. (Question 1-5)