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

ĐÀO NGUYỄN THÚY HÀ

A STUDY ON ENGLISH LEARNING GOALS AND
MOTIVATION OF THE SECOND – YEAR STUDENTS AT
MILITARY ACADEMY OF LOGISTICS

(Nghiên cứu về mụ ti u v
si h vi

g

học tiếng Anh của

ăm hai tại Học viện Hậu cần)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field

: English Teaching Methodology

Code

: 60140111

HANOI, 2016


Supervisor : Asso . Prof. Dr. L Vă Ca h

HANOI, 2016


DECLARATION

I certify that this thesis is entirely my own work. Documented references
have been fully provided. I have not been submitted this thesis for assessment in
any other formal course of study.
Hanoi, 2016

Đ o Nguyễn Thúy Hà

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge with great attitude to the
support, guidance and invaluable critical feedbacks which I have received from my
supervisor Dr. Le Van Canh in completion of this research.
I would also like to express my thankfulness to all the teachers at English
Department, Military Academy of Logistics (MAL) for their help in completing the
survey questionnaire as well as for their willingness to share the ideas on the
accomplishment of the study.
My sincere thanks are also extended to the second – year students at MAL
who have actively participated in the study when I collected the data for this thesis.
Without their help, this project could not have been completed.
Last but not least, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the

Table 1: Common Reference Levels: self-assessment grid (Level B1)
Table 2: Common Reference Levels: Qualitative aspects of spoken language use.
Table 3: Student‟s goals toward learning Speaking skill
Table 4: Student‟s goals toward learning Listening skill
Table 5: Student‟s goals toward learning Writing skill
Table 6: Student‟s goals toward learning Reading skill
Table 7: The frequency distribution of items measuring extrinsic motivation
(n = 120)
Table 8: The frequency distribution of items measuring intrinsic motivation (n=120)
Table 9: Student‟s desire to learn English
Chart 1: Students‟ level of English
Chart 2: Frequency distribution of items measuring extrinsic motivation
Chart 3: Frequency distribution of items measuring intrinsic motivation.
Chart 4: Students‟ attitude toward English learning
Chart 5: Students‟ attitude toward the need of English learning

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ABBREVIATIONS
L2:

Second language

MAL:

Military Academy of Logistics

SDT:


ABBREVIATIONS............................................................................................ v

INTRODUCTION........................................................ .............................. 1
1. Rationale of the study .................................................................................... 1
2. Aims of the study ........................................................................................... 2
3. Research questions ........................................................................................ 2
4. Significance of the study ................................................................................ 2
5. Scope of the study .......................................................................................... 2
6. Design of the study ......................................................................................... 3

DEVELOPMENT.......................................................... ............................. 5
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................5
1.1. Definition of learning goals and motivation.............................................. 5
1.1.1. Learning goals............................................................................................. 5
1.1.2. Motivation............................................................................. ...................... 6
1.1.3. Adopting the Common European Framework (CEFR) at Military Academy
of Logistics……………………………………………… .................................... 8
1.2. Motivational theory........................................................ .............................. 11
1.2.1. Intrinsic motivation............................................... ..................................... 11
1.2.2. Extrinsic motivation.................................................................................... 12
1.3. The relationship between learning goals and motivation........... ............... 14

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1.3.1. Expectancy – value theory............................................... ........................... 14
1.3.2. Achievement goal theory.............................................. .............................. 14
1.3.3. Self-determination theory....................................... .................................... 17
CHAPTER 2 : METHODOLOGY........................................... ......................... 20
2.1. Context of the study........................................................ .............................. 20

language of international communication has been acknowledged by the
government, English teaching and learning have been given more and more priority
in Vietnam. According to Canh (2004, p.167), learning English can “contribute to
students‟ personal, linguistic, social, and culture development”. The study of
Dornyei (2001) has shown that there are many factors involved in setting learning
goals and motivation. That‟s why the influences of learning goal and motivation on
learning English should be investigated carefully to solve the above-mentioned
problem.
In the process of teaching and learning English, motivation and setting goals, as
indicated by research, are two essential elements in learning the second/ foreign
language. Furthermore, as a lecturer of English at Military Academy of Logistics, I
have realized that although English is considered one of the main subjects at
Military Academy of Logistics (MAL) with a lot of time and effort spent on
learning, most of students in general and the second – year students in particular
seem not to be successful in learning English. After I talk with those students as
well as observation, most of them lack of motivation and do not set their own
learning goal during the process of learning. However, up to now, there has not
been any research conducted to investigate into this issue at MAL.

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This is the reason why I choose “A study on learning goals and motivation of the
second-year students in learning English at Military Academy of Logistics.” is
the topic for my minor thesis. It is hoped that this study will figure out a concrete
picture of learning goals and motivation of the second- year students at MAL,
which can help teachers who want to motivate their students in learning English.
2. Aims of the study
The aims of the study are to investigate the factors affecting learning goals and
motivation of the second-year students in learning English at Military Academy of

I also intend to focus on the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
6. Design of the study
The thesis consists of three parts: the introduction, the development, and the
conclusion.
Part One – Introduction: provides rationales, aims of the study, research
questions, significance, and the scope of the study and its design.
Part Two – Development: is organized around three chapters as follows:
Chapter 1: Literature review: conceptualizes the framework of the study
through the discussion of the issues and ideas on theories of learning goals and
motivation, and the relationship between them.
Chapter 2: Methodology: presents the context, the methodology used in this
study including the subject, the data collection instruments, data collection
procedure, and data analysis.

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Chapter 3: Findings and Discussions: consists of a comprehensive analysis
of the data and a discussion on the findings of this study.
Part Three – Conclusion: offers a summary of the findings, recommendations,
limitation, and future directions for further study.

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PART A: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Definition of learning goals and motivation
1.1.1. Definition of learning goal
Goal Theory is a social-cognitive theory of achievement motivation developed by

goal-setting behavior: (1) the propensity to set goals; (2) the content of the goals set;
(3) the stability of set goals over time; (4) the typical specificity of goals set; and (5)
the typical difficulty of goals set.
1.1.2. Motivation
The word “motivation”, coined from Latin word “movere”, is understood as the
forces that make one do something. Motivation has been perhaps one of the most
popular research topics since the beginning of the 20th century, which attracts a lot
of attention of researchers both in psychological and educational field. All the
motivation theories in general want to explain the fundamental question of why
humans behave as they do, and therefore we cannot assume any simple and
straightforward answer.
Gardner (1985, p.10), in his socio-educational model, notes that “motivation refers
to the combination of effort plus desire the goal of learning the language plus
favorable attitudes towards learning language”. He chooses to define motivation by
specifying three aspects of motivation: (1) effort refers to the time spent studying
the language and the drive of the learner; (2) desire indicates how much the

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learner wants to become proficient in the language, and (3) affect means the
learner‟s emotional reactions related to language study (Gardner, 1985, p.13).
Crookes and Schmidt (1991) give their viewpoint of motivation including both
internal and external aspects. Internal aspects consist of interest level, perception of
relevance, expectancy of success or failure, and perception of reward. On the other
hand, external aspects include the overt decision to learn and persistent learning
behavior and high involvement. As a result, learning is only effective if students
enjoy activities and word hard.
According to Lightbrown and Spada (1999), motivation in second language learning
is a complex phenomenon which can be defined in term of two factors: learners‟

of Logistics.
The CEFR for languages was developed by the Council of Europe over more than
20 years before being officially launched during the European Year of Languages in
2001. Since then the CEFR has grown in popularity both in Europe and across the
world.
The framework is used to benchmark communicative language ability in reading,
writing, speaking and listening. The CEFR is divided into 3 levels; basic users
(Level A), independent users (Level B) and proficient users (Level C).
Military Academy of Logistics (MAL) has set Level B1 as English language
proficiency target for the students from the second year to the pre-graduation time
since 2013.

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Table 1 and Table 2 show the framework at Level B1 which students have to
achieve.
Table 1: Common Reference Levels: self-assessment grid (Level B1)
I can understand the main points of clear standard
speech on familiar matters regularly encountered in

UNDESTANDING

work, school, leisure, etc. I can understand the main
Listening

point of many radio or TV programs on current affairs
or topics of personal or professional interest when the
delivery is relatively slow and clear.
I can understand texts that consist mainly of high

can narrate a story or relate the plot of a book or a film

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and describe my reactions.
I can write simple connected text on topics which are
WRITING Writing

familiar or of personal interest. I can write personal
letters describing experiences and impressions

Table 2: Common Reference Levels: Qualitative aspects of spoken language use.
Have enough language to get by, with sufficient vocabulary to
express him/ herself with some hesitation and circumlocutions
RANGE

on topics such as family, hobbies and interest, work, travel and
current events.

Use reasonable accurately a repertoire of frequently used
ACCURACY

“routines” and patterns associated with more predictable
situations.
Can keep going comprehensibly, even though pausing for

FLUENCY

grammatical and lexical planning and repair is very evident,

grades. The motivation comes from the pleasure one gets from the task itself or
from the sense of satisfaction in completing or even working on the task. An
intrinsically motivated student may want to get s good grade on an assignment, but
if the assignment does not interest that student, the possibility of a good grade is not
enough to maintain his or her motivation to put any effort into the project.
Furthermore, Dornyei (2001) subdivides intrinsic motivation into three subtypes:
(1) intrinsic motivation to know refers to motivation for “engaging in an activity for
the pleasure and satisfaction of understanding something new, satisfying one‟s
curiosity and exploring the world” (p.28), (2) intrinsic motivation toward

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achievement is the feeling of satisfaction associated with attempting to surpass
oneself, to cope with challenges and to accomplish or to create something, in other
words, it indicates the effort to realize the goal or master a task, and (3) intrinsic
motivation to experience stimulation is the type of motivation to engaging in an
activity to experience pleasant sensations stimulated by the activity itself (Dornyei,
2001, p. 149)
1.2.2 Extrinsic motivation
Extrinsic motivation can be regarded as the opposite of intrinsic motivation. The
goal connected with intrinsic motivation is a positive learning effect that lasts long
time, but the goal of an extrinsically motivated student is completely different.
Dornyei (2001, p.27) stated that extrinsic motivation involves performing behaviour
as a means to an end, that is, it originated outside the individual and is concerned
with external environmental factors that help shape students‟ behaviour.
An extrinsically motivated person will work on a task even when they have a little
interest in it because of the anticipated satisfaction they will get from some reward.
The rewards can be something as minor as a smiley face to something major like
fame or fortune. For example, in the case of a student, the reward would be a good

According to Brown (2000), intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can be easily
identified in foreign language classrooms regardless of the differences between the
cultural beliefs and the attitudes of learners and teacher. In addition, Schmidt (1996)

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concluded that intrinsic – extrinsic distinction is similar to integrative – instrumental
distinction but not identical.
In scope of this study, due to the limitation of M.A minor thesis, I only focus on
investigating to find out the intrinsic/extrinsic motivation which is possessed by the
second – year students at MAL.
1.3. The relationship between learning goals and motivation
1.3.1. Expectancy – value theory
Eccles (1983) defined and measured expectancies for success as children‟s beliefs
about how well they will do on upcoming tasks, either in the immediate or longer
term future. Ability beliefs are de-fined as the individual‟s perception of his or her
current competence at a given activity. Ability beliefs thus are distinguished
conceptually from expectancies for success, with ability beliefs focused on present
ability and expectancies focused on the future.
Expectancies focus on future success and, as such, are distinct from, although
related to, ability beliefs, which focus on present ability (Wigfield & Eccles, 2002).
Subjective task values refer to the “quality of the task that contributes to the
increasing or decreasing probability that an individual will select it” (Eccles, 2005,
p. 109). Expectancies and values are influenced by the individual‟s goals and
general self-schema (short- and long-term goals, self-concept and ability beliefs,
and perceptions of task difficulty). Values are also influenced by the individual‟s
affective reactions. More distally, past performance and aptitude, as well as the
socializers‟ expectations and behaviors, influence these goals, self-schema, and
affective reactions.


poses. Therefore, whether students feel more or less confident in a certain task
depends on their judgment of their present abilities to succeed at that task.
Individuals displaying a strong performance goal orientation also display a tendency
to avoid challenging situations. As such, these individuals tend to select easier tasks
that will permit them to achieve success and avoid judgments of incompetence
(Elliot & Dweck, 1988), and tend to avoid learning situations, which might be
accompanied by errors and perceptions of incompetence on the part of others
(Dweck, 1989). In addition, performance goal oriented individuals often respond to
task failure with negative effect, negative ability attributions (Bandura & Dweck,
1985, Leggett & Dweck, 1986), and low levels of task persistence (Farr et al., 1993)
In short, students with mastery goal orientation, even if their ability is low,
choose challenging tasks that foster learning. They are willing to risk displays of
ignorance and incompetence in order to acquire skills and knowledge. For them,
learning is more important than success or positive recognition by others. On the
other hand, students with performance goal orientation need to perceive their ability
to be high and their chance of success to be great before they will attempt a
challenging task. If their goal is to obtain a favorable judgment of ability, rather
than to learn, they will choose tasks in which they are likely to obtain a
favorable judgment, even if they do not learn anything from doing the task
(Bandura & Dweck, 1985).
These two goal orientations determine different consequences in achievement
context. In general, task orientation is regarded as more adaptive than ego
orientation. Task orientation is related to selection of challenging tasks, effective
study strategies, positive attitudes toward learning, and positive emotions, whereas

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