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



PHAN THỊ THÙY LINH

FACTORS AFFECTING MOTIVATION IN LEARNING
SPEAKING ENGLISH OF GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT
THANH BA HIGH SCHOOL

( Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng tới động lực học nói tiếng Anh của
học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Thanh Ba)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

HANOI - 2016


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



PHAN THỊ THÙY LINH


Phan Th Thùy Linh

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research has been accomplished with the help and encouragement of many
people to whom I would like hereafter to express my deep appreciation.
First and foremost, I would like to express my great attitude to my supervisor,
Dr. Dương Thị Nụ for her invaluable inspiration, assistance and guidance during the
time I tried to complete this paper.
I am thankful to all lecturers and staff of the Post-Graduate Department of
University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University for
their scientific knowledge, guidance and enthusiasm during my course.
I am greatly indebted to my students from class 10A1 to class 10A5 and my
colleagues at Thanh Ba high school for their participation and assistance without
which this study could not have been successful.
And my heartfelt thanks are due to my dear family members who are always
beside me to support and encourage me to fulfill my study.

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ABSTRACT
This exploratory research is an attempt to investigate factors affecting
motivation in speaking English of the 10th grade students at Thanh Ba high school.
The main purposes of the study are to find out: types of motivation possessed by
grade 10 students at Thanh Ba high school, factors affecting students‟ motivation in
speaking English, activities and techniques applied by teachers and students‟

4. Methods of the study ........................................................................................... 2
5. Scope of the study ............................................................................................... 2
6. Significance of the study...................................................................................... 3
7. Design of the study .............................................................................................. 3
PART B. DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ............................................. 4
1.1. Theoretical background of motivation in L2 learning........................................ 4
1.1.1. Definition of motivation ...................................................................... 4
1.1.2. Types of motivation ............................................................................ 5
1.1.3. Factors affecting motivation inL2 learning……………………………6
1.2.1. Definition of speaking ....................................................................... 11
1.2.2. Approaches to the teaching of speaking ............................................ 11
1.2.3. The roles of the teacher in different stages of teaching speaking ....... 12
1.2.4. Motivation in speaking in classroom ................................................. 13
CHAPTER 2. METHODOLOGY ...................................................................... 15
2.1. The setting of the study ................................................................................... 15
2.2. Subjects .......................................................................................................... 16
2.3. Applying techniques and activities of CLT in teaching speaking at Thanh Ba
high school ........................................................................................................... 17
2.4. Participants ..................................................................................................... 17
2.5. Data collection instruments ............................................................................. 18

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2.5.1. Survey Questionnaires ................................................................................. 18
2.5.2. Interviews .................................................................................................... 19
2.5.3. Class observations ....................................................................................... 20
2.6. Data collection procedures…………………………………………………….16
CHAPTER 3- DATA ANALYSIS ...................................................................... 21


British Broadcasting Corporation

CLT

Communicative Language Teaching

FM

Frequency modulation

L2

Second Language

SLA

Second Language Acquisition

VOA

Voice of America

vi


LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS

1. List of tables
Table 1.Reason for types of motivations ............................................................... 22

people with good English proficiency are extremely needed in any fields of society.
As a result, there has been a positive trend of teaching and learning English across
the country. People, from children to adults, learn English with different purposes.
In general, despite deriving from different purposes, every one wants to turn
English to become their own instrument in their lives.
In the process of teaching and learning English, there are many factors affecting the
success of language learners such as attitude, age, personality, motivation and so on,
among which motivation plays an important role. Researchers on motivation have
pointed out that learners who are highly motivated can learn a foreign language
better than those who are not and vice versa.
With some years of experience in teaching English in some foreign language center
and two years of experience in teaching English at high school, I have realized that
motivation is one of the key factors that determine students‟ success or failure in
language learning. For teaching and learning speaking skill, the great impact of
motivation is not an exception. Although motivation in learning English is not a
new topic, it still is an unsolved problem of Grade 10 students at Thanh Ba High
school. This is the reason why I choose studying on factors affecting motivation in
speaking English of grade 10 students as the topic for my minor thesis. This study
will examine types of motivation that students have in speaking and point out some
factors that affect their motivation to speak. It also investigates the activities and
techniques applied by teachers, students‟ preferences and demands, and some
difficulties teachers faced in teaching speaking. The researcher hopes that this study
will figure out a concrete picture of motivation in speaking English of grade 10
students at Thanh Ba high school and it will be of help for teachers who want to
increase students‟ motivation in speaking English learning.

1


2. Aims of the study

Because of the limited time and within an M.A. minor thesis, the researcher intends
to make a brief view of the current situation of teaching and learning English
speaking skill of the 10th grade students at Thanh Ba high school; identifies factors
affecting their speaking stimulation; examines techniques and activities used by

2


teachers

and

students‟

preferences

and

demands;

then

suggests

some

recommendations for teachers to encourage students to speak English and overcome
difficulties in teaching speaking.
6. Significance of the study
First, the information about types of motivation possessed by grade 10 students in

correlation with second language achievement and proficiency. The motivated
learners are usually more active in learning, while unmotivated learners are more
likely to cause classroom disturbances. However, motivation is extremely difficult
to define and measure. In Atkinson‟s point of view (cited in Arnold, 2000:13),
motivation is a term used to describe what “energizes” a person and what directs his
activity. While Dornyei and Otto regarded motivation as a function of a person‟s
thought and defined it as „the dynamically changing cumulative aroused in a person
that initiates, directs, coordinates, amplifies, terminates and evaluates the cognitive
and the motor processes whereby initial wishes and desires are selected, prioritized,
operationalized and acted out‟(cited in Dornyei, 2001: 9). In his word, Ellis stated
that „motivation involves the attitudes and effective states that influence the degree
of effort that learners make to learn an L2‟ (Ellis, 1997: 75). Similarly, Brown
(2000: 160) indicated that „motivation is some kind of internal drive which pushes
someone to do things in order to achieve something‟
It can be seen that different researchers approach motivation definition in different
ways. However, they all share the same point of view that motivation combines
effort and desire plus favorable and occurs as a result of a combination of internal
and external influences. This research, therefore, will follow the definition of
motivation proposed by Gardner (1982: 132- 147) that motivation is perceived to be
composed of three elements including 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 illustrates
the learner‟s emotional reactions with regard to language study.

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1.1.2. Types of motivation
According to the point of view of many previous researchers, motivation can be
divided into three types: Integrative and instrumental motivation, intrinsic and

1.1.3.1. Some previous researches on motivation
Garden, R. M. I. (2013). Factors affecting students‟ academic motivation to achieve
Excellence in Level 1 NCEA English (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy). University of
Otago.
Ibrahim Abdelrahim Ibrahim Humaida (2012). Motivation to Learn English among
College Students in Sudan, , Faculty of Arts & Science-Tabarjal, Aljouf University,
King Saudi Arabia.
Naghmeh Babaee (2012). Motivation in Learning English as a Second Language,
University of Manitoba.
Nhung, N.T.M. (2003). Motivation and Factors Affecting Motivation in Learning
English Writing of the Freshment at the Department of English and AngloAmerican culture, VNU-CFL. Unpublished MA Dissertation. CFL-VNU.
Ratanawalee Wimolmas, A Survey Study of Motivation in English Language
Learning of First Year Undergraduate Students at Sirindhorn International Institute
ofTechnology (SIIT), Thammasat University, Thailand.
Although there are many previous researches on motivation and factors affecting
motivation in learning English, the studies focus on other subjects as the first year
students, or students of non-English majors and scope of the study is focus on
writing skill or motivation in learning in general. That the reason why this study
was carried to find out clearly factors affecting motivation in learning, especial in
speaking English skill.
1.1.3.2. Dornyei’s extended motivational framework.
Dornyei (2001:112- 113) analyzed L2 learning motivation within a framework of
three levels, which offers a vast list of motivational components;
(1) Language level involves factors related to the L2 such as the culture, the
community as well as practical values and benefits connected with learning
L2.

6



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(Dornyei, 2001) and internal and external factors (Williams and Burnden, 1997).
Although researchers have had some different views in this issue, they all have
come to an agreement with a list of common factors affecting students‟ motivation.
These factors can be divided into three groups: teacher‟s factors, students‟ factors
and learning condition factors.
 Students’ factors
The first factors are students‟ intelligence and aptitude. Intelligence, according to
Lightbown and Spada (1999: 52), refers to „performance on certain kinds of test‟
and aptitude is something which „involves both underlying language learning
capacity and a capacity to handle decontextualized language‟ (Ellis, 1997: 522).
Lightbown and Spada also point out that language aptitude is usually described as a
combination of four factors: (1) the ability to identify and memorize new sounds,
(2) the ability to understand the function of particular words in sentences, (3) the
ability to figure out grammatical rules from language samples and (4) the ability to
memorize new words (1999: 53).
The second is students‟ personality. In the eyes of many language teachers, the
personality of the students constitutes a major factor contributing to success or
failure in language learning. Ellis (1997) has proved that extroverted learners are
advantaged in the development of the kind of language associated with basis
interpersonal communication skills and that extroverted learners may also be more
likely to participate actively in oral communication (1997: 523). Shared the same
view with Ellis, Lightbown and Spada list a number of personality characteristics
that have a great influence on the success of second language learners: extroversion,
inhibition, self- esteem, empathy, dominance, talkativeness and responsiveness
(1999: 54- 55).
The third factor is learners‟ age. Children are believed to be better than adults in
acquiring an L2 in general and in speaking a new language with native- like fluency

a powerful „motivational tool‟. Alison (1993) stated that teacher‟s behavior could
„persuade‟ or „attract‟ students to engage in on- task behaviors (cited in Dornyei
2001: 120). „The teacher should be a patient, encouraging person who supports
students‟ learning efforts. Students should feel comfortable taking intellectual risks

9


because they know that they will not be embarrassed or criticized if they make a
mistake‟ (Good and Brophy, 1994 - cited in Dornyei, 2001: 121).
Secondly, teacher‟s good relationship with the student is also a key element of
motivation in student learning. The teacher should establish the relationship of
mutual trust and respect with students. This relationship also involves finding
opportunities to talk with them on a personal level and letting them know that
teachers have thought about them and that their individual effort is recognized.
(Dornyei, 2001: 120).
The third factor is teacher‟s enthusiasm. Csikzentmihalyi (1997) said that teachers
needed to be „enthused and involved in the teaching process and in the material they
are teaching‟ (cited in Dornyei, 2001: 178). Csikzentmihalyi also points out that
enthusiastic teachers are the ones who love what they are doing, who show by their
dedication and their passion that make students willing to pursue knowledge (cited
in Dornyei, 2001: 177- 178)
The last factor is teacher‟s commitment to the students‟ academic progress.
Teachers should care for what their students have learnt and succeeded (Dornyei,
2001). They should also offer concrete assistant, responding immediately when help
is requested, correcting tests, arranging extra- assignments and so on.
In short, teacher‟s attitude, behavior as well as the general level of their
commitment towards the students, their learning and their subject matter, constitute
some of the most prevailing influences on student motivation. Dornyei says that
„teachers are the designated leaders of the class group‟ and therefore, they cannot

and so take the skill too much for granted. In his own view, Mackey (1965) shows
that „oral expression involves not only the use of the right sounds in the right
patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also a choice of words and inflections in the
right order to convey the right meaning‟(cited in Bygate, 1997: 5). To sump up,
speaking is the action of conveying information or expressing one‟s feelings or
thinking by oral words.
1.2.2. Approaches to the teaching of speaking
There are three approaches the teaching speaking: the Grammar- translation
method, The Direct Method and Audiolingualism and Communicative Language
Teaching.

11


In the Grammar- translation method, students are taught to analyze grammar and to
translate from one language to another. This method is not consistent with the goals
of increasing English learners‟ fluency, oral production, or communicative
competence. The Direct Method strongly influenced the development of the
Audiolingual Method. Speaking is taught by having students repeat sentences and
recite memorized dialogues from the textbook. Because two above methods did not
lead to fluent and effective communication in real- life situations, the
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) evoked. The goal of language teaching
in the light of CLT is learner- centeredness to develop communicative competence
which is an essential element to raise learners‟ motivation in language learning.
CLT favors interaction among small numbers of learners with a purpose to
maximize the time each learner learns and uses languages, shares information and
negotiates meaning. CLT features more interaction- based activities, such as roleplays and information gap tasks. Pair work and group work are typical
organizational features of interaction- based lessons in CLT.
In summary, among some approaches of the language teaching methods mentioned
above, CLT is the most appropriate way to teach students to communicate. My

1.2.4.1. Motivation in the classroom setting
Lightbown and Spada (1999: 57- 58) stated that the content is interesting and
relevant to their age and level of ability, where the learning goals was challenging
yet manageable and clear, and where the atmosphere was supportive and nonthreatening, teachers could make a positive contribution to students‟ motivation to
learn. Two researchers replicated findings from studies by Graham Crookes and
Richard Schmit (1991) and pointed out some pedagogical practices for teachers to
motivate students in classroom setting: Motivating students at the opening stages of
lessons, remark teachers make about forthcoming activities can lead to higher levels
of interest on the part of the students; Varying the activities, tasks and materials;
Using co- operative rather than competitive goals: students must work together in
order to complete a task or solve problem. These techniques will increase the selfconfidence of students, including weaker ones.

13


1.2.4.2. Factors affecting students unwilling to speak in classroom
Tsui (1996) found out five principal factors affecting the reluctance of the student to
speak up in class: students‟ perceived low proficiency in English, students‟ fear of
mistakes and derision, teachers‟ intolerance of silence, uneven allocation of turns
and incomprehensible input(cited in Nunan, 1999: 234). In his investigation, Oxford
(1998) also stated some factors that decrease students‟ motivation in classroom: The
teacher‟s personal relationship with the students, the teacher‟s attitude, style
conflicts between teachers and students about the amount of structure and conflicts
about the amount the degree of closure or „seriousness‟ of the class, the nature of
the classroom activities, including irrelevance, overload and repetitiveness (cited in
Dornyei, 2001: 146). In summary, although two researchers give many different
factors, it might be gathered in three factors group as students‟ factors, teachers‟
factor and learning condition‟s factors.
1.2.4.3. Some conditions for effective motivation in speaking
According to Nunan (1999), there are some preconditions for effective motivation

express themselves. The last is the lack of materials for reference and self- study.
There is a library at school but there are not many books, English newspapers and
magazines for reference. Moreover, some facilities needed for learning such as
computers, projectors are not enough. There are no language labs and library
Internet for students, too.
In school year 2015- 2016, the students at Thanh Ba high school continue to take
part in new syllabus which was designed following communicative approach. It
required students not only expert in doing grammar exercises but also in practicing
multi- skills. Normally, there are only three periods (135 minutes) of studying
English every week. Yet, it is not enough for the students to practice and develop
their skills as well as to enrich their background knowledge, vocabulary and
structure capacity. What‟s more, English is hardly used to talk outside class. As a
result, these factors may affect students‟ motivation in learning English especially
15


in learning English speaking. So, it is advisable for the teachers to employ various
techniques to arouse students‟ interest in learning English speaking. They, then,
may improve their speaking skill and other language skills.
2.2. Subjects
 Grade 10 students
Grade 10 students, both male and female, had similar backgrounds, come from
villages or town, finished secondary school with 4 years of learning English.
The students under investigation have just finished the first term of grade 10 school
year. Although they have had for over four years of learning English, their English
proficiency has been very low. It can not deny that most students want to learn
English well, but their condition, learning environment and their capacity do not
allow them to do so. About two third of them are from farmer families so that their
lives are rather poor so it is not equipped enough for learning. Moreover, outside
class time, they often help their families with farming and housework so often have