VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************

NGUYỄN THỊ TUYẾT LAN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE INFLUENCE OF
PARENTAL EXPECTATIONS AND SUPPORT ON THEIR
CHILDREN’S LEARNING – ENGLISH MOTIVATION
(Một nghiên cứu điều tra về tác động của sự mong đợi và hỗ trợ
của cha mẹ đến động lực học Tiếng Anh của trẻ)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

HANOI – 2017


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************

NGUYỄN THỊ TUYẾT LAN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE INFLUENCE OF
PARENTAL EXPECTATIONS AND SUPPORT ON THEIR
CHILDREN’S LEARNING – ENGLISH MOTIVATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to send my thanks to many individuals for their invaluable help
during the conduct of the research. Without their help, the completion of this
research project would not have been possible.
First and foremost, I would like to express my special appreciation and
thanks to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Van for his remarkable supervision,
enthusiastic guidance, invaluable support and critical feedback throughout the
research.
Besides my advisor, I wouldlike to thank all the Board and teachers from
Doan Thi Diem – Ecopark private secondary school for their assistance in providing
information and distributing questionnaires and interviews to parents and students at
grade 8.
Next, I wish to send my big thanks to the students at grade 8A and 8B and
their parents for their cooperation and the valuable information they provided in my
research questionnaire and interviews.
Furthermore, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to my family and
friends, especially my mother, for standing by me and for giving me their
unconditional love, care, good assistance and patience.
Finally, my sincere thanks also go to graders and readers for their valuable
evaluation and feedback on this thesis.

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ABSTRACT
This study examines the impact of expectations and support given by the
parents on learning English motivation of grade 8 private school students. The
purpose of this study was (a) to explore parental expectation and support to
children‟s English learning, (b) to demonstrate the correlation between parental
expectation and support and their children‟s English learning motivation. Survey

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................ 5
1. Defining parental expectations ............................................................................ 5
2. Defining parental support .................................................................................... 7
3. Defining children‟s learning-English motivation .............................................. 10
3.1 Definitions of motivation ............................................................................. 10
3.2 Types of motivation...................................................................................... 10
3.3 The Importance of motivation in second language learning ........................ 12
3.4 Relevant research ......................................................................................... 12
4. Parental expectations and support and children‟s learning motivation ............. 13
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ......................................................................... 15
1. Method of the study ........................................................................................... 15
2. Context of the study ........................................................................................... 16
3. Participants......................................................................................................... 16
4. Data collection instrument ................................................................................. 17
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5. Data collection and analysis procedures ............................................................ 20
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................................... 22
1. Parental expectations ......................................................................................... 22
1.1 Short-term expectations ................................................................................ 22
1.2 Long-term expectations ................................................................................ 24
2. Parental support ................................................................................................. 24
2.1 Learning processing investment ................................................................... 25
2.1.1 Material support from parents ................................................................ 25
2.1.2 Time support from parents ..................................................................... 31
2.2 Learning processing management ................................................................ 33
2.2.1 The parental frequency of keeping in touch with school, English center
and tutor .......................................................................................................... 33
2.2.2 Rewards and punishments...................................................................... 36


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Education is essential for the development of society. The more educated the
people of a society are, the more civilized and well disciplined the society might be.
Mainly, family has responsibility to socialize children for making them productive
members of society. The more the parents involve in the process of imparting
education to their children, the more the children might excel in their academic
career and to become the productive and responsible members of society.
It has been assumed that academic achievement of students may not only
depend on the quality of schools and the teachers, rather the extent of parental
involvement has vital role to play in academic achievement of their kids. The focus
of this study is to examine a relationship (if any) between the extent of parental
involvement in academic activities of their children and the level of their children‟s
academic achievement. The transition from middle school to secondary school may
be

an

overwhelming

and

stressful

experience

for

young

indepth look at one aspect of parental involvement, involvement in academic
activities of their children, and academic achievement of secondary school students.
The non-stop development of the present society requires each family unit to
involve in their children learning more than ever. Nonetheless, it is the busy life and
financial burden that make parents always worried about how to ensure their
families‟ living standards. As a result, they do have less time to keep continual
contact with school and teachers to follow or manage their children‟s learning. This
time limitation is also the reason why mothers and fathers cannot directly instruct or
remind their kids during their learning process. It is something of a paradox that
parents often put high expectations into their children‟s education while they do not
spend much time on guiding their children to learn. One of the popular alternatives
which parents apply to compensate for this trend is financial support and investment
and then completely entrust schools, learning centers or even for tutors to care their
kids‟ learning without knowing whether or not their support is effective enough.
Parental involvement in children‟s learning has been linked with academic
achievement. Despite the fact that family is not the only factor affecting to students‟
learning environment, it plays one of the most decisive roles in children‟s learning
process. Although there is a lot of research to investigate the relationship between
parental involvement and their children‟s learning motivation, as reviewed above,

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little research has been done in the area of parental involvement and secondary
school students in Vietnam. This research project sought to identify the different
levels of parental expectations and support to their children‟s learning and how
parental involvement affects learning motivation of secondary school students.
2. Aims & Research Questions
2.1 Aims of the study
This study was conducted to investigate the following issues: (1) the types of

The study hopes to: (1) bring awareness in the community about the role of
parental involvement to their children‟s motivation towards English learning, (2)
increase the interest of the students through parents‟ involvement in their English
learning, (3)strengthen the relationship between school and parents for better
academic performance of the students.
4. Organization of the study
The study consists of 5 chapters as follows:
Chapter 1: Introduction of the research
Chapter 2: Literature review (Other research on this topic is discussed)
Chapter 3: Methodology (the way the researcher collected the data as well as
analysis them is showed)
Chapter 4: Findings and discussion
Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendations

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Parents play an extremely important part in children‟s upbringing because it
has a sharp impact on their children‟s outcomes in schools. They express passions
and strong desires to help their children obtain success regardless of race, ethnicity,
or social status. That is the reason why they always take their children‟s education
into very careful consideration. In other words, it can be said that parents are
considered as an indispensable factor in the process of promoting and supporting a
child‟s comprehensive development including physical, emotional, intellectual and
social aspects from childhood to adulthood, in which intellectual development is
one of the most outstanding. Once again, this strongly supports for favorable
parental concepts to the importance of education. It is these views that create a set
of educational belief, attitude and expectations and support among parents to their
children. Boocock (1972) shared the point that parental expectations have major

expectation typically refers to parental prediction of children‟s academic
performance based on school feedback, such as information that parents gain from
their children‟s school report. Meanwhile, idealistic expectations are the wishes,
dreams, desires, and hopeful anticipations or parental beliefs about their children‟s
academic future (Seginer, 1983).
Even though “parental expectation” may be defined variously by different
researchers, this study characterizes parental expectations which have been seen in
terms of short-term (Entwisle and Hayduk, 1978) and long-term expectations (Clare
et al., 1998). Therefore, a short-term expectation refers to parents‟ academic or
social developmental goals for their children in the immediate or near future, while
a long-term expectation accounts for the future or long-lasting anticipation of
children‟s educational attainment (Cook, 2009).
This study will be analyzing parental expectations basing on the theory of
short-term and long-term by Cook (2009) because of the following reasons:
Firstly, it is suitable for the Vietnamese society. The social development of a
developing country like Vietnam requires individuals to possess not only a broad
knowledge, high educational background, but good skills of foreign languages. To
adapt to this, it is compulsory for people to improve themselves better if they want

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to have a good stable job, and the ability to survive in a competitive world. Of
course, every parent is definitely aware of this trend. They all expect their children
to have a bright education attainment in the further future.
Secondly, it is suitable for Vietnamese parents‟ psychological development.
We must admit that English has been the most popular language widely used all
over the world. Being aware of this, fathers and mothers have tendency to provide
children with a chance of learning English as soon as possible. It is clear that there
is no reason for parents to do that, but their expectation to children. Traditionally,

do the homework. Homework can be defined as “task that are assigned to students
by teachers and are meant to be performed during nonschool hours” (Eilam, 2001,
p. 692). A student is supposed to complete his/her homework at home, parents or
other family members may be involved in the process of helping or guiding the
child. They either help the child in doing the home task assigned by the teacher or
facilitate him/her in relation to difficulties in syllabus. Research studies indicated
that parental support in doing home tasks has significant effects in students‟
motivation (Singh, 2002). Agreeing with this view, Ronald Ferguson, in his
“research-based tips for high-achievement parenting”, suggest that parents promote
reading at home, discuss reading materials with their children in ways that
encourage children to enjoy learning, and seek opportunities at home to discuss and
apply what children are learning in school, among other activities. Ferguson further
recommends that parents set clear and firm rules about homework, television
watching, and other daily activities, and that they actively seek out-of-school
opportunities and extracurricular activities that reinforce school lessons, encourage
exploration and creativity, and develop children‟s special talents (Ferguson, 2007a).
In other words, parents who are actively involved in their children‟s
education and provide a stimulating learning environment at home can help their
children develop feelings of competence, control, curiosity, and positive attitudes
about academics.
As mentioned above, if a student has a belief that a goal is unattainable, then
there is really no need to attempt to achieve that goal. Extrinsic motivation causes
students to perceive more goal as unattainable, whereas intrinsically motivated

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student will see very few goals as unattainable because that student believes that
anything is possible with effort. This is where parental involvement becomes
crucial. Even if parents are unable to assist their children with a specific subject area

There are many different definitions of motivation, especially in language
learning. Harmer (1991, p.3) explains the meaning of motivation as the “internal
drive” that pushes somebody to do something. If we think that our goal is worth
doing and attractive for us, then we try to reach that goal; this is called “the action
driven by motivation”. Lightbown and Spada (1999, p. 56) note that motivation in
second language learning is quite complicate to study which can be explained in
terms of two factors: learner‟s communicative needs and their attitudes towards the
second language community.
In addition, Parsons, Hinson and Brown (2001, p. 28) define motivation as
an important component or factor in the learning process. Learning and motivation
have the same importance in order to achieve something. Learning makes us gain
new knowledge and skills and motivation pushes us or encourage us to go through
the learning process.
Gardner (1982), in his socio-educational model, notes that motivation is
perceived to be composed of three elements. These are effort, desire and affect.
Effort refers to the time spent studying the language and the drive of the learner.
Desire indicates how much the learner wants to become proficient in the language,
and affect means the learner‟s emotional reactions related to language study.
Aree Punmanee (1991) views motivation as the process aroused by stimulus
to achieve desired purposes, behaviors or conditions. Motivation is the continuous
process based on a person‟s desire.
3.2 Types of motivation
Harmer (1991, p. 3) uses the word „goal‟ to categorize the motivation in
second language learning into two types:
1. Short-term goal means when students wish to succeed in doing something in the
near future, for example, students who want to pass their examination or to get good
grade or high scores.

10


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come to classes and learn and achieve the goal that is set for him. But when these
rewards are taken away, or sometimes even if they do not see any punishment, the
student will not be interested in coming to class and learn the language any longer.
Intrinsic motivation refers to learning itself having its own reward (Arnold,
2000, p.14). It means the learners are willingly and voluntarily (not compulsorily)
try to learn what they think it is worth or important for them. When students have
intrinsic motivation, they have the internal desire to learn and they do not have the
need for external outcomes. There are no negative impacts in having intrinsic
motivation. In addition, intrinsic motivation pushes the student to learn without
rewards, because the need is innate or come from inside or depends on their own
will. Lightbown and Spada (1999, p. 56-57) mentioned that teachers do not have
many effects on students‟ intrinsic motivation since the students are from different
backgrounds and the only way to motivate students is by making the classroom a
supportive environment.
3.3 The Importance of motivation in second language learning
Motivation has an important role in success and failure in learning a second
language. Spolsky (1990, p. 157) stated that motivated students are likely to learn
more and learn more quickly than students who are less motivated. In a particular
learning situation, students who are less motivated are likely to lose their attention,
misbehave and cause discipline problems. On the contrary, students who are more
highly motivated will participate actively and pay more attention to a certain
learning task or activity.
3.4 Relevant research
Hedge (2000) conducted a study that investigated the motivation of 20
Japanese students who were studying English. The findings indicated that the most
common reasons for studying English as a second language were for
communication with people overseas, finding employment in a high profile career,

particular.
In terms of general learning, parental expectations also strongly influence
children‟s motivation. The level of parental expectations for children‟s educational
achievement strongly predicts their level of academic attainment (Entwisle and
Hayduk, 1978; Davis-Kean, 2005). For example, parents who hold high

13


expectations for their children learning, believe in their children‟s competence,
expose them to new experiences, and encourage curiosity, persistence, and problemsolving can help their children develop an intrinsic motivation to learn. In other
words, the higher the parental expectation are, the more the demands they place on
their children; possibly also the more help parents offer their children, the higher
their children achieve their academic goals. By contrast, parents who are controlling
use rewards and punishments for academic performance, or display negativity or
anger about academics can discourage children from developing intrinsic
motivation (Gottfried, Fleming, & Gottfried, 1994).
In terms of second language learning, obviously, parents play important
parts in setting the foundation for children‟s language learning. Parental
expectations, along with parental factors (their incomes, educational attainment and
occupations) are associated with their children‟s language learning development at
school (Fernandez and Nielsen, 1986). Besides general influences, parental
expectations have significant impacts on children‟s language learning, for their
development of both their mother tongue and a second language.
In summary, this chapter makes an attempt to review main aspects of the
research that are parental expectations and support and children‟s learning
motivation. In other words, their definition, concepts, and classification are listed.
The relevant research mentioning parental role to children‟s academic achievement
is also discussed. Some brief views of the relationship between parental expectation
and support and children‟s learning motivation are also mentioned in the last part,

although questionnaire is a suitable method to collect data in this research, there are
still some aspects which cannot be demonstrated via statements only. For instance,
the reasons why parents expect their children to learn English better need to be
demonstrated. However, questionnaires in this study are used solely to find out what

15


parental expectations are, not to examine the reasons. Then, further interviews will
be the most effective method to help the researcher.
The process of conducting questionnaires and further interviews will be
discussed more specifically in the part 4 and 5 of this chapter.
2. Context of the study
This study was taken place at Doan Thi Diem-Ecopark school in Hung Yen,
a province on the suburb of Hanoi capital, which is one of the high-ranking private
schools in Vietnam. As a private school, parents wishing their children to join this
school need to have financial ability to afford the tuition and other payments for
extraordinary activities. The current tuition in this school is 4.2 million VND per
month. However, students are taken part in the most advanced learning curriculums
with the aim of developing comprehensively. In particular, English curriculum is
designed in the most suitable way to students‟ level, which requires students to have
certain level of English to follow effectively. Of course, to help students obtain
those objectives, only school involvement is not enough. Parents are considered as
one of the most important roles in supporting their children‟s learning.
3. Participants
The researcher chose 2 categories of participants. Specifically, parents and
students at grade 8 of Doan Thi Diem-Ecopark school to be the participants of the
study on the basis of their agreement to participate. As mentioned above, survey
questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection. After reviewing the literature, a
questionnaire was designed. A total number of closed ended questions were

interviews were used. It seemed appropriate for the researcher to design the
questionnaires and further interviews in Vietnamese originally. The reason for that
is to make it easier for parents and students to understand the questionnaires and
express their views in the interviews more clearly and adequately. Although parents
in this study are not too old, the researcher does not make sure whether their
English level is good. In terms of children, despite realizing that they have been
learning English for some years, it is not enough for them to express their ideas in
English. Thus, to meet the expectation of gaining clear opinions from the
respondents, questionnaires and interviews in Vietnamese are the most suitable.
However, in the process of analyzing and reporting the results, the researcher tried

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