NHỮNG yếu tố TÌNH cảm ẢNH HƯỞNG tới sự THAM GIA của SINH VIÊN vào HOẠT ĐỘNG nói ở TRÊN lớp một NGHIÊN cứu điển HÌNH về SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH năm THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG đại học tây bắc

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationales
The Department of English - Tay Bac University operates within the curriculum
framework of the Ministry of Education and Training. However, the fact shows that there
has not been a specific curriculum for English Departments, which makes it difficult for
the teachers to design their own syllabus based on general objectives of the Ministry of
Education and Training. After the course the students have to be able to communicate
successfully in social situations such as talking about life or career. They have to take part
in discussion, negotiation or explanation of social issues, agree or disagree with others’
opinions, They have to gain confidence in communicating successfully, using
communicative strategies to express their ideas, and feelings appropriately and fluently.
However, there is a fact that the students do not gain these objectives.
In order to achieve these objectives, the teachers have to invest a lot of time,
energy, passion, intelligence and creativity into designing suitable lessons as well as
finding out how to teach speaking skill to help the students achieve the above objectives.
Therefore, the teacher should begin analyzing students’ needs, and interests in learning
English during the process of designing lesson activities.
After several years of teaching speaking skills, we have found that the first year
students are still quite passive in speaking English. They do not actively participate in
speaking activities. Students’ participation in classroom activities has been the centre of
various TEFL research. In general, it can be affected by a variety of factors coming from
teachers’ side like teacher’s teaching methods, teachers’ characteristics, teachers’
knowledge; students’ side such as motivation, attitudes, personality, learning styles, age,
gender differences; and others including classroom environment, types and contents of
activities, etc. All the factors, even they are subjective or objective, are composed of social,
cognitive and affective features. These features are equally important for learners to learn
an L2.
It can be seen from the fact of our teaching and learning that students’ learning is
much affected by their feelings and emotion. When being asked if they like learning
English or not one of the students who had poor participation in learning answered: “I
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don’t really like learning English. The reason why I’m here to study English is I have no
other choice.” I was very surprised at what the student said. This also helped me
understand why that student didn’t participate actively in the speaking activities. It can not
be denied that the student’s feelings and attitudes toward learning English affect his
learning process in general and his participation in learning activities in particular.
Research on second/foreign language acquisition has identified a variety of factors
hypothesized to account for some of the variance in the level of proficiency attained by
individuals learning a second language. The factors considered may generally be classified
into two basic categories: cognitive and affective variables. Cognitive variables are the
relatively stable ability characteristics of learners that may affect the success with which an
individual learns another language. These are factors such as aptitude, intelligence, and
certain cognitive style characteristics. Affective variables, on the other hand, describe
individual characteristics relating to factors such as attitude and motivation.
In fact there are quite a lot of affective factors other than motivation and attitude,
but in this study I limit the concept to four factors: attitude, motivation, anxiety, and
personality. Although there have been many studies on affective factors conducted in
various contexts, especially factors causing anxiety in second/foreign language learning,
not a single one has ever been done on students in the mountainous areas. This study is an
attempt to explore this issue in relation to speaking English.
In conclusion, the study is of great value in terms of both theoretical and practical
aspects. From the theoretical angle, it provides us with the knowledge about the factors and
affective factors affecting students’ participation in speaking activities, and also the study
can be an implication for teachers who want to enhance learners’ participation in their
learning.
1.2. Aims of the study
The study was carried out to find out some of the affective factors affecting the first
year students’ participation in classroom speaking activities, and why these factors affect
their participation in classroom activities. In order to find out a theoretical framework or
the investigation in this thesis, the literature on the factors affecting second language
learning, theoretical foundation of affective factors in second language learning, affective

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factors affecting students’ participation in classroom speaking activities, and learners’
participation and related issues is reviewed.
1.3. Research Questions
To achieve the aims which are mentioned above, the following research questions
were raised for exploration:
1. What are the students’ motivation and attitudes towards speaking English?
2. To what extent does anxiety affect their participation in speaking English?
3. What is the relationship between their personality and their participation in
speaking activities?
1.4. Scope of the study
Learners’ participation in language learning can be affected by many factors which
are closely related. Among these factors, affective factors seem to be a complex one that
needs to be studied. However, the study only focuses on the first year students of English
at Tay Bac University because at this level learners often have more difficulties than those
of higher levels. Further more, the study only focuses on speaking activities because
speaking skill is one of the most important and difficult skills, and need developing for
their future job as teachers.
1.5. Method of the study
In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the study uses a survey questionnaire
as the sole research instrument for collecting data. There have been many studies on
factors in second/foreign language learning which employed survey questionnaires as the
major method. After the data is collected, analyzed and discussed, some conclusions will
be drawn, and some suggestions will be made in the thesis.
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1.6. Design of the study
The study consists of four chapters: Chapter one includes the rationale, the aims,
the research questions, the scope, the method and the design of the study.
Chapter two provides a theoretical background of factors and affective factors
affecting students’ participation in classroom speaking activities such as anxiety,

motivation, attitudes, personalities, teacher characteristics and classroom atmosphere; a
theoretical foundation of affective factors and learner participation. This is viewed as the
theoretical framework for the investigation in the next chapter.
Chapter three presents the study. It includes the context of the study, the research
questions, the research method, the participants and the findings of the study.
Chapter four is the conclusion of the study, providing the summary of the findings
and some implications for teachers of English as a foreign language. Some possible
suggestions for further research are also discussed in this chapter.
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CHAPTER 2: RELATED LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Learner factors affecting second language learning
It is believed that learners have different characteristics which lead to more or less
successful language learning. For example, some teachers believe that extroverted learners
are better at acquiring communicative skills than introverted learners. However, the
identification and classification of different individual factors has proved to be
problematic. Different researchers use different labels to describe different set of
behavioural traits. So it is not easy to compare and evaluate the results of their
investigations. Each factor is not a unitary construct but a complex of features which are
manifest in a range of overlapping behaviours. It is, therefore, not surprising to find that a
number of terms have been employed to describe the phenomena such as ‘affective,
cognitive, and social factors’ (Tucker et al. 1976), ‘attitudinal and motivational
characteristics’ (Gardner 1976), ‘language aptitude, motivation, learning strategies,
cognitive and affective factors’ (Skehan, 1989), and “age, social-psychological factors,
personality, cognitive style, learning strategies’ (Larsen-Freeman and Long, 1991).
In an attempt to impose some order on this set of terms and concepts, Rod Ellis
(1985) proposes to make an initial distinction between personal and general factors.
According to him, personal factors are highly idiosyncratic features of each individual’s
approach to learning a L2. They include ‘nesting patterns’ (the need for a secure and
orderly home base before learning can effectively begin), ‘transition anxiety’ (the stress
generated by moving to a foreign place), and the desire to maintain a personal language

learning agenda. Schumanns (1977) found that such factors strongly influenced their SLA.
The general factors are variables that are characteristic of all learners. They differ not in
whether they are present in a particular individual’s learning, but in the extent to which
they are present, or the manner in which they are realized. General factors can be further
divided into those that are modifiable (likely to change during the course of SLA) such as
motivation, and those that are not modifiable (do not change in strength or nature as SLA
takes place) such as aptitude (Ellis, 1985). He also concludes that personal and general
factors have social, cognitive and affective aspects. Social aspects are external to the
learner and concern the relationship between the learner and native speakers of the L2 and
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also between the learner and other speakers of his own language. Cognitive and affective
aspects are internal to the learner. Cognitive factors concern the nature of the problem-
solving strategies used by the learner, while affective factors concern the emotional
responses aroused by the attempts to learn an L2. Different personal and general factors
involve all three aspects in different degrees. For example, aptitude is thought of as
primarily cognitive in nature, but also involves affective and social aspects. Personality is
primarily affective, but also has social and cognitive sides. Age is a factor that may involve
all three aspects fairly equally. Also, learning style is composed of social, cognitive and
affective features.
It has been proved that learner factors play an important role in SLA. In this study,
we would like to study affective factors only.
2.2. Theoretical foundation of Affective factors in second language learning
2.2.1. Humanistic perspective
Humanistic education has been paid much attention to for ages, therefore, in
language teaching humanism is a crucial factor. To the meaning of the term ‘humanistic’
as applied to language teaching, Gertrude Moskowitz (1978) has devoted more pages and
more explicit attention than anyone else. One of her statements is that ‘through the ages
man has been striving to become more human’. This is apparently consistent with the
general definition of ‘ humane’. She says that what is called ‘humanistic’ education is
related to a concern for personal development, self-acceptance and acceptance by others, in

other words, making students ‘more human’. But what does it mean ‘to be more human’?
For Moskowitz, there seem to be two major emphases. The first is on feelings. ‘Humanistic
education takes into consideration that learning is affected by how students feel about
themselves’ (p.12). ‘It is concerned with educating the whole person, the intellectual and
the emotional dimensions’ (p.11). Her second emphasis is on bringing out the uniqueness
of each individual.
The glosses that other writers have provided for humanistic have been briefer.
Medgyes (1986) cites Moskowitz, and says:
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In both the Humanistic – Psychological Approach and the Communicative Approach,
learners are seen not so much as full-time linguistic objects at whom language teaching is
aimed, but rather as human individuals whose personal dignity and integrity, and thee
complexity of whose ideas, thoughts, needs and sentiments, should be respected Foreign
language teachers must contribute to the self-actualizing process (1986, p.109).
Richards and Rodger (1986), again citing Moskowitz, say that ‘In sum, humanistic
techniques engage the whole person, including the emotions and feelings as well as
linguistic knowledge and behavioral skills’ (p.11). Terrell (1982) describes ‘affective-
humanistic activities’ as those that explore the students’ values, ideas, opinions, goals and
feelings as well as their experiences’ (p.281). Roberts (1982) speaks of the “humanistic/
psychological” or “whole engagement’ approach, a term that, for him, covers ‘ a range of
methods and techniques which on the surface may seem unconnected’, but which he says
share at least two significant assumptions:
That the affective aspects of language learning problems are as important as the cognitive
aspects. And therefore the learners should be treated in some sense as a ‘whole person’.
(p.101)
That the answers to language learning problems are more likely to come from psychology
than from linguistics. (ibid).
Similarly, Bhanot (1983) says that ‘humanistic approaches draw their inspiration
from psychology rather than from other disciplines such as linguistics’, and that ‘language
learners are regarded as “whole persons” with emotional and intellectual needs’ (p.361).

Brown (1980) derives his use of the term ‘humanism’ largely from references to the work
of Carl Rogers:
We can see in Rogers’ humanism quite a departure from the scientific analysis of
Skinnerian psychology, and even from Ausubel’s rationalistic theory. Rogers is not as
concerned about actual cognitive process of learning since, he feels, if the context of
learning is properly created, then human beings will, in fact, learn everything they need
to . That is, there will be no irresponsible dilettanism resulting in incomplete coverage of
the subject matter. The teacher as facilitator must therefore provide the nurturing context
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for learning and not see his mission as one of rather programmatically feeding students
qualities of knowledge which they subsequently devour. (1980, p.77).
David Nunan (1991) in his discussion of a number of methods which advocate a
diverse range of classroom techniques believes that ‘if learners can be encouraged to adopt
the right attitudes, interests and motivation in the target language and culture, as well as in
the learning environment in which they find themselves, then successful learning will
occur, and that if these affective factors are not right, then no set of techniques is likely to
succeed, regardless of how carefully they have been devised or how solidly they based on
the latest theory and research’. (p. 234).
Stevick (1990), who has taken up and extended the work of Curran, Gattegno and
Lozanow, became interested in applying principles of humanistic psychology to language
learning and teaching after he became dissatisfied with both audio-lingual habit theory and
cognitive code learning. He came to the conclusion that success or failure in language
teaching depends not so much on whether one adopts inductive or deductive techniques for
teaching grammar, nor whether one engages in meaningful practice rather than in pattern
drills, but in the extent to which one caters to the learner’s affective domain.
2.2.2. Towards a definition of affect
Among various definitions provided by scholars in the field of second language
acquisition we will turn our attention to the most relevant ones. Arnold (1999) defines
affect in terms of “aspects of emotion, feeling, mood or attitude which condition
behaviour”, whereas Dickinson (1987: 25) characterises it as being concerned with the

learner’s attitude towards the target language and its users, and with his/her emotional
responses. Stevick (1999: 44) propounds the following interpretation (1982):
One’s ‘affect’ towards a particular thing or action or situation or experience is how that
thing or that action or that situation or that experience fits in with one’s needs or
purposes, and its resulting effect on one’s emotions … affect is a term that refers to the
purposive and emotional sides of a person’s reactions to what is going on. (Stevick,
1999: 55)
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2.2.3. The Affective Filter Hypothesis
The Affective Filter hypothesis (Krashen, 1987) states how affective factors relate
to the second language acquisition process. The concept of an affective filter was proposed
by Dulay and Burt (1977). They have suggested that attitudinal factors may relate to
second language acquisition in the following ways: ‘performers with optimal attitudes have
lower affective filter. A low filter means that the performer is more open to the input, and
that the input strikes deeper. Thus, having the right attitudes may do two things for second
language acquirers: it will encourage them to try to get more input, to interact with
speakers of the target language with confidence, and also to be more receptive to the input
they get.’
The following figure represents the affective filter and how it relates to second
language acquisition:
Filter
Input - - - - Acquired competence
Figure 1: Operation of the Affective Filter (Krashen, 1987: p.39)
‘The affective filter acts to prevent input from being used for language acquisition.
Acquirers with optimal attitudes are hypothesized to have a low affective filter.
Classrooms that encourage low filters are those that promote low anxiety among students,
that keep students off the defensive’ (p.32).
It can be seen from the Affective Filter Hypothesis that the effect of affect is
outside the language acquisition device proper. It still maintains that input as the primary
causative variable in second language acquisition, affective variables acting to impede or

facilitate the delivery of input to the language acquisition device.
To summarize, the Affective Filter hypothesis implies that our pedagogical goals
should not only include supplying comprehensible input, but also creating a situation that
promotes a low filter. The effective language teacher is someone who can provide input
and help make it comprehensible in a low anxiety situation.
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Language
Acquisition
Device
2.2.4. Affective goal of second language competence
In the second language acquisition, the combinations of sounds, the formal
distinction, the numerous syntactic rules and semantic relationships are not only new and
in many respects unexpectedly different from the first language, but they often arouse an
emotional response; they may appear puzzling, arbitrary, frustrating, confusing, sometimes
amusing, and occasionally also attractive and pleasing. One affective objective of language
teaching must be to overcome any sense of rejection of the language and its features on the
part of the learner.
Stern (1992) in his discussion of affective goal of second language competence
believed that ‘the learners should be encouraged to cultivate not only an intellectual
understanding of what is obligatory, but intuitive sense of right or wrong, in other words,
or a feeling of being at home in the language. It is part of affective goal that the learner
should engage in target language activities, and that he should do so with positive feelings;
that is we should encourage the learner to use the language willingly and even with
enjoyment.’ (p. 87).
2.3. Affective factors affecting students’ participation in classroom speaking activities
Learners, in particular classroom learners, react to the learning situation, they find
themselves in a variety of affective ways. For example, Schumann (1977) reports being
unable to settle down to study Farsi and Arabic until he had achieved order and comfort in
her physical surroundings. Bailey (1980) discusses a classroom crisis that occurred when
her French teacher administers a test that the class considered unfair. Ellis and Rathbone

(1987) studied and reported that one of the beginner learners of German was unable to
learn any German during a period because of a boyfriend problem. These and other studies
testify to the complexity and dynamic nature of learners’ affective states and the influence
these have on their ability to concentrate on learning.
Students’ participation can be identified as students’ involvement in classroom
activities, and in this case, speaking activities. It is shown in interactions between students
and students, and between students and teacher. Students’ participation can be measured by
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students’ sense of responsibility and cooperation in classroom activities for their own
learning progress and of the whole class. For instance, they are willing to share their
experience and information about the related topics, volunteer to answer the teacher’s
questions, volunteer to perform the tasks, etc.
It is not easy to study all the affective factors affecting students’ participation in
oral activities. It can be affected by different affective factors originating from students,
teachers and other classroom related factors such as anxiety, personality, interests in
language learning, classroom interaction, classroom environment, motivation and attitudes.
In the following sections, some of the factors will be discussed.
2.3.1. Anxiety
Anxiety is one of several affective factors which can influence attention and hence lead
to deterioration in language performance. There are different types of anxiety. A
distinction can be made between trait anxiety, state anxiety, and situational-specific
anxiety. Scovel (1978) defines trait anxiety as ‘a more permanent predisposition to be
anxious’. It is perhaps best viewed as an aspect of personality. State anxiety can be
defined as apprehension that is experienced at a particular moment in time as a response to
a definite situation (Spielberger 1983). It is a combination of trait and situation-specific
anxiety. This latter type consists of the anxiety which is aroused by a specific type of
situation or event such as public speaking, examinations, or class participation.
Psychological definitions of anxiety refer to a “transitory emotional state or condition
characterised by feelings of tension and apprehension and heightened autonomic nervous
system activity” (Spielberger 1972: 24), a state which can have both negative and positive

effects, and which motivates and facilitates as well as disrupts and inhibits cognitive
actions such as learning.
There are a lot of reasons for assuming that an anxious learner will not be a good
one. Anxiety will distract from the task of attending to and remembering new items; it will
discourage from the practice that will establish items. A number of earlier studies failed to
find evidence of the effect of general anxiety on second language learning. Bailey (1983)
analysed the diaries of 11 learners and found that they tended to become anxious when
they compared themselves with other learners in the class and found themselves less
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proficient. Bailey also identified other sources of anxiety, including test and learners’
perceived relationship with their teachers. Ellis and Rathbone (1987) reported that some of
their diarists found teachers’ questions threatening. These and other possible sources of
anxiety (like communication apprehension, tests, fear of negative evaluation) in the foreign
language classroom are reflected in the questionnaires which a number of researchers have
devised to measure learner anxiety such as Gardner and Smythe (1975), and Cope (1986).
When anxiety does arise relating to the use of second language learning, it seems to
be restricted mainly to speaking and listening, reflecting learners’ apprehension at having
to communicate spontaneously in the target language. Anxiety manifests itself in speech in
a greater degree of pausing, in a lack of coherence, in the insertion of fillers, and in an
increased number of false starts.
In short, there is sufficient evidence to show that anxiety is an important factor in
second language acquisition in general and in students’ participation in speaking activities
in particular. Anxiety is best seen not as a necessary condition of successful L2 learning,
but rather a factor that contributes in differing degrees in different learners. Therefore,
language educators should strive to promote a non-threatening learning environment and
“user-friendly” oral exams which students could prepare for well in advance, in order to
prevent negative interactions between language anxiety and other personality variables
such as learning styles, motivation, and personality types. Teachers themselves could
eventually discover and apply the most effective techniques in controlling anxiety.
2.3.2. Motivation

There has been a great deal of research on the role of motivation in second
language learning. The overall findings show that positive motivation is related to success
in the second language learning (Gardner, 1985).
It is a matter of common knowledge that motivation “is a very important, if not the
most important factor in language learning” (van Lier, 1996: 98), without which even
‘gifted’ individuals cannot accomplish long-term goals, whatever the curricula and
whoever the teacher. Therefore, the concept of language learning motivation has become
pivotal to a number of theories of L2 acquisition, and motivation has been widely accepted
by teachers and researchers as one of the key factors influencing the rate and success of
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second/foreign language (L2) learning, often compensating for deficiencies in language
aptitude and learning. It could be said that all other factors involved in L2 acquisition
presuppose motivation to a certain degree.
Motivation in second language learning is a complex phenomenon which can be
defined ‘as an affective factor alongside culture shock’ (Schumann, 1978). Motivation is
defined as emotions that constitute the source of the drive to expend effort required to learn
a second or foreign language (Atonia, 1981). It is also defined in terms of two factors:
learners’ communicative needs and their attitude towards the second language community.
If learners need to speak the second language in a wide range of social situations or to
fulfill professional ambitions, they will perceive the communicative value of the second
language and will therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it. Likewise, if learners
have favourable attitudes towards the speakers of the language, they will desire more
contact with them. Gardner and Lambert (1972) identified motivation as integrative
motivation and instrumental motivation. Integrative motivation involves an interest in
learning an L2 because of ‘a sincere and personal interest in the people and culture
represented by the other language group’ (Lambert 1974: 98). And instrumental
motivation refers to the practical value and advantages of learning a new language. SLA
research has shown that these types of motivations are a key factor in L2 learning. In the
earlier research (Gardner and Lambert, 1972), integrative motivation was seen as more
powerful predictor of achievement in formal learning situations than instrumental

motivation. In later research, Gardner (1985) has continued to assert the importance of
integrative motivation, although he now acknowledges that instrumental motivation can
also lead to successful learning. However, Gardner argues that whereas instrumental
motivation emerges a significant factor only in some studies, integrative motivation has
been found to be invariably related to L2 achievement.
Harmer divides motivation into extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation.
Extrinsic motivation is caused such outside factors as passing an exam, the hope of
financial reward, good career, or the possibility for future travel, etc. In contrast, intrinsic
motivation is caused by inside factors like the enjoyment of the learning process itself or
by a desire to learn the target language.
In order to make students motivated in learning, we have to understand the sources
of motivation. According to Harmer, the sources of motivation are diversified. They may
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derive from the society we live in, parents of old siblings, the teacher and the method.
Among these sources, the teacher and the method may be of the most importance. For the
teacher, his or her attitudes and enthusiasm help create a positive classroom atmosphere.
For the method, it means involving both teacher and students’ confidence shown in the
way of teaching and learning.
With a view to helping teachers realize whether a learner is motivated or not, Ur
(1996) points out some typical characteristics of a motivated learner which include:
● Positive task orientation: The learner is willing to tackle tasks and challenges,
and has confidence in his or her success.
● Ego-involvement: The learner finds it important to succeed in learning in order to
maintain and promote his or her own positive self-image.
● Need for achievement: The learner has a need to achieve, to overcome difficulties
and succeed in what he or she sets out to do.
● High aspiration: The learner is ambitious, goes for demanding challenges, high
proficiency, top grades.
● Goal orientation: The learner is aware of the goals of learning, or of the specific
learning activities, and directs his or her efforts towards achieving them.

● Perseverance: The learner consistently invests a high level of effort in learning,
and is not discouraged by setbacks or apparent lack of progress.
● Tolerance: The learner is not disturbed or frustrated by situations involving a
temporary lack of understanding or confusion; he or she can live with these patiently and
in the confidence that understanding will come later.
Downs (2000) also points out some conditions that help increase students’
motivation. He says that motivation increases when students feel acknowledged and
understood, when students are confident they can succeed, when language has a
communicative purpose, and when students take responsibility for their own learning.
Clearly, motivation plays an important role in the success of language learning in
general, but we may wonder how much or to what extent motivation accounts for students’
participation in oral activities. We may not give the correct answer but it can be concluded
with certainty that the degree of motivation is directly proportional to the level of
involvement in oral activities. To be more concrete, the more motivated the learners are,
the more actively they will participate in oral activities.
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To some up, integrative (or intrinsic) motivation has been shown to be strongly
related to L2 achievement. It combines with instrumental (or extrinsic) motivation to serve
as a powerful predictor of success in formal contexts. Learners with integrative motivation
are more active in class and are less likely to drop out. However, integrativeness is not
always the main motivational factor in L2 learning, some learners may be more influenced
by other factors like self-confidence, friendship or attitudes. Therefore, we, teachers, must
be responsible for sustaining their motivation otherwise it may be weak and die. When
students are motivated either extrinsically or intrinsically as long as their motivation is
enough sufficient intensity they will have in themselves a force that pushes them to
participate more actively in classroom activities in general and oral activities in particular.
2.3.3. Attitudes
Another important facet of the learning process is that of students’ attitudes to learning.
There have been numerous definitions given to attitudes and beliefs, starting from
dictionary definitions to those given by psychologists and education researchers.

According to Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), “attitude is seen as “a
complex mental orientation involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions to
act in certain ways”, whereas Collins Cobuild Student’s Dictionary states: “Your attitude
to something is the way you think and feel about it”. Psychological theories on attitudes
refer to an evaluative, emotional reaction (i.e. the degree of like or dislike associated with
the attitudinal object) comprising three components: affect, cognition, and behaviour, these
components undergoing change when there is “dissonance” or disagreement between them
(Rajecki 1990; Zimbardo & Lieppe 1991).
Research into the relationship between attitudes and second language achievement
was carried out as early as the 1950s by Gardner and Lambert, and later by Schumann
(1975). There are two significant kinds of attitude, Gardner believes: attitudes to the people
who speak the target language, and attitudes to the practical use to which the learner
assumes he or she can put the language being learned. Gardner suggests that the effects of
the two kinds of attitudes are different; ‘whereas the first set of attitudes is fairly
consistently related to achievement, the second shows more variable set of relationships’
(op.cit: 39).
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Attitude refers specifically to states of emotions and thought relating to the target
language, to the learning of the target language, and to the culture of the target language.
Learner attitudes to the second language can be represented by the continuum in the
following figure:
Very positive Positive Neutral Negative Very negative
Enthusiastic
about L2.
Enjoys listening
to, speaking,
reading, and
writing L2.
Praises L2
Enters into spirit

of L2.
Feels at home in
L2.
Feels good and
confident about
L2
Recognizes
tolerates, and
accepts L2.
Acknowledges
and differences
and difficulties.
Has no marked
sense of
discomfort or
disorientation
Finds it hard to
accept L2.
L2 strange.
Feels
uncomfortable
and disoriented
about most
aspects of L2
Feels L2 is odd,
annoying,
confusing, and
ugly.
Rejects L2
Figure 2. Range of student attitudes to target language

(Stern, 1992: 88)
It is clear that to achieve second language competence in terms of affective goal, a
language course should be designed to cultivate neutral to positive attitudes on the
continuum. In the early stages the characterization of attitudes under neutral seems
appropriate and one would expect successful learners to move towards the positive end of
the continuum as they progress. A course needs not necessarily lead to a very positive
evaluation which may be regarded as excessive. On the other hand, a course which leads
many students to a negative or very negative evaluation must be considered, on the
affective score, a failure. Therefore, student attitudes to the language must be a matter of
concern in the second language learning and teaching.
Discussing the student attitude to the L2 learning, Stern (1992) gives the below
figure describing student’s attitudes to L2 learning as an affective goal.
A B C D E
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Very positive Positive Neutral Negative Very negative
Enthusiastic about Tackles L2 Accepts L2 Learning L2 Hates having
Learning L2 learning with without treated as to learn L2
confidence and enthusiam unpleasant Resists learning
enjoyment. task L2.
Is willing and Avoids L2
co-operative learning
Handles Is irritated
difficulties by L2 learning
in a positive spirit Wants to drop out
Figure 3. Range of student attitudes to learning L2 expressed as learning outcomes
(Stern, 1992: 92)
It can be seen that only A and B can be regarded as successful learners. If large
numbers of students respond to instruction with C, D, or E on the continuum, the reaction
would indicate failure with possible serious consequences.
Furthermore, student attitudes to the teacher and course materials have also been

investigated in some work. Students often have very different views of the kind of teacher
they think is best for them. Some prefer a teacher who, in Stevick’s (1980) term, creates
‘space’ for them to pursue their own learning paths. Others prefer a teacher who structures
the learning tasks much more tightly. Bailey (1980) states a definite preference for a
democratic teaching style. She notes that student-student interaction in class rose sharply
after a sense where the students had protested to the teacher about an unfair test. John
Schumanns also expresses a desire for a personal learning agenda in language learning. He
observes: “I discovered that I like to have my own agenda in second language learning I
like to do it my way. However, I found my agenda is often in conflict with my teacher’s”
(1978: 246). Many students comment adversely on the problems of having to abide
someone else’s teaching plan (Mcdonough, 1978). Pickett’s (1978) study of successful
language learning reveals greater diversity in attitudes towards the role of the teacher.
Some learners wanted the teacher to act as ‘informant’, but others praise teachers who
were logical, clear, and systematic. The main generalization to emerge from Pickett’s study
is that learners need to feel sympathy for their teacher, and also want him or her to be
predictable.
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Learners also have different attitudes to teaching materials. In general, adult
learners dislike having a coursebook imposed upon them in a rigid way. They prefer a
variety of materials and the opportunity to use them in ways they choose for themselves.
For instance, Mcdonough’s students often object to the pace and intensity of the short five-
week courses they took part in. They are unable to cope with external pressure.
In short, these studies dealt with learner attitudes in language learning and shared
the conclusion that learner attitudes are an important factor affecting second language
learning process. It is therefore essential for language teachers to pay attention to learners’
attitudes. We need to design and implement our lessons on the language-learning process
which would incorporate attitude-change methods. If need be, we should change curricula
in order to maintain and improve students’ attitudes. It is also essential to help students get
rid of ineffective and harmful preconceived notions on language learning.
2.3.4. Personality

In the eyes of many language teachers, the personality of their students constitutes a
major factor contributing to the success or failure in language learning. Learners also
consider personality factors to be important. Personality has been explored in terms of a
number of personal traits such as extroversion/introversion, risk-taking, empathy, tolerance
of ambiguity, self-esteem, inhibition. In Eysenck’s (1982) theory extroverts are sociable,
like parties, have many friends and need excitement; they are sensation-seekers and risk-
takers, like practical jokes and are lively and active. Conversely introverts are quiet, prefer
reading to meeting people, have few but close friends and usually avoid excitement (p.
154).
There are two major hypotheses regarding the relationship between
extroversion/introversion and L2 learning. The first, which has been the most widely
researched, is that extroverted learners will find it easier to make contact with other users
of second language and therefore will obtain more input and do better in acquiring basic
interpersonal communication skills. The rationale for this hypothesis is that sociability will
result in more opportunities to practise, more input, more success in communicating in L2.
It is believed that extroversion is helpful in acquiring oral skills. The second hypothesis is
that introverted learners will do better at developing academic language ability. The
rationale for this hypothesis comes from studies which show that introverted learners
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typically enjoy more academic success, perhaps they spend more time reading and writing
(Griffiths, 1991b).
Studying personality factors, Ely (1986a) describes that risk-takers show less
hesitancy, are more willing to use complex language, and are more tolerant of errors. They
are less likely to rehearse before speaking, and comes to conclusion that risk-taking
positively related to voluntary classroom participation.
A study by Adelaide Heyde (1979) found that a high level of self-esteem was
associated with second language proficiency. Self-esteem refers to the degree to which
individuals feel confident and believe themselves to be significant people. Presumably,
learners with high self-esteem are less likely to feel threatened when communicating in a
strange language or in an unfamiliar situation. They may also be more ready to risk making

mistakes or projecting a reduced image of themselves. It is concluded that self-esteem is
positively correlated with oral production.
In conclusion, learners’ affective factors are obviously of crucial importance in
accounting for individual differences in learning outcomes. Whereas learners’ beliefs about
language learning are likely to be fairly stable, their affective states tend to be volatile,
affecting not only overall progress of the language learning but particular learning
activities and skills. Their affective factors have been investigated in many studies which
may prove most effective in exploring how these factors are brought about and what effect
they have on learning.
2.4. Learner participation
It has been hypothesized that opportunities for using L2 resources are important for
acquisition (Ellis, 1994). It is not surprising to find that learner opportunities for
participating productively in the L2 classroom are constrained, then it would seem that
learning may be inhibited in the classroom.
Ellis considers participation from the point of views of both quantity and quality.
Quantity refers to the amount of learner classroom participation. A number of studies have
examined the relationship between the amount of learner classroom and L2 proficiency,
and the results are mixed. While the amount of participation may not be a key factor in L2
acquisition, a stronger case can be made for the importance of high-quality participation.
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Swain’s (1985) comprehensible output hypothesis claims that acquisition is promoted
when there are opportunities for pushed output, not just any kind of output.
One of the factors that seems to determine the quality of learner participation in
classroom settings is the degree of control the learners exercise over the discourse.
Cathcart (1986) studied the different kinds of communicative acts performed by eight
Spanish-speaking children in a variety of school settings. She found that situations where
the learners had control of the talk were characterized by a wide variety of communicative
acts and syntactic structures, whereas the situations where the teacher had control seemed
to produce single-word utterances, short phrases, and formulaic chunks. Other researchers
have also found marked differences in the quality of learners’ participation depending on

the kind of activities they are involved in. Other studies of House (1986) found that
learners confined themselves to an ‘interactional core’ in the discussion, failing to use
‘discourse lubricants’ such as topic introducers and various kinds of supportive and
amplifying moves. In contrast, the role-play conversations sounded much more natural. In
any cases where participation is strictly controlled, there may be few opportunities for
learner interactions. Ellis (1994) identified a number of factors that may affect the nature
of the interactions in practice sessions, for example whether the learners’ responses are
volunteered or nominated, the teacher’s policy regarding the distribution of practice
opportunities, and individual learner differences that affect the degree of anxiety
experienced.
In general, the importance of learner participation in L2 acquisition has been
proved in a number of studies. The quantity and quality of leaner participation varies
according to task and is affected by different factors such as student attitudes, teacher’s
policy, learner differences as mentioned above. Therefore, it is important for teachers of L2
to take into consideration the nature of learner participation.
CHAPTER 3. THE STUDY
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In chapter one, I introduced the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the
scope and the design of the study.
In chapter two I presented a literature review of theoretical foundation of affective
factors and some of the affective factors affecting students’ participation in classroom
speaking activities.
This chapter presents the study. It includes the context of the study, the research
questions. The research method, the participants, and the findings of the study.
3.1. The context of the study
At Tay Bac University, English majors have to study four skills in seven semesters.
In the first and second semester (first year), students, in their speaking development,
mainly learn conversation skills. English is taught during the first and the second term with
the total of 90 periods with the aim of developing students’ ability of conducting English
conversations in which students can communicate and interact with each other orally with

fluent English. The textbook chosen is New Interchange 1 &2 by Jack C. Richards,
Johnathan Hull and Susan Proctor. After the course students have to use natural and useful
English for everyday situation and purposes related to school, social life, work, leisure,
holiday, environment, etc. In addition students have to personalize the language they learn,
make use of their knowledge and experiences, and express their ideas and their opinions.
However, it can be seen from the fact that these objectives have been achieved because of
many different factors in which the factors come from students should be accounted for.
Our research focuses on some affective factors affecting students’ participation in
classroom speaking activities.
3.2. The research questions
As mentioned above, the aim of the study is to seek answers to the following
research questions:
1. What are the students’ motivation and attitudes towards speaking English?
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2. To what extent does anxiety affect their participation in speaking English?
3. What is the relationship between their personality and their participation in
speaking activities.
3.3. Research method
The study was conducted via a set of survey questionnaires delivered to first year
majors of English at Tay Bac University. It is believed that surveys are the most commonly
used descriptive method in educational research. There are a lot of advantages to using
survey questionnaires as a research method, especially their unprecedented efficiency in
terms of researcher time, researcher effort, and financial resources (Dorney: 2003). In our
study the use of questionnaires is efficient in obtaining necessary information, and enables
us to receive data from a large number of learners in a limited period of time.
3.4. Participants
In total, 73 students at Tay Bac university participated in this study. This is also so
the total number of the first year majors of English at Tay Bac University. That is the
reason why we could not a larger number of participants for the research. Most of them
are female (only 6 students are male) aging from of 18 to 20. They come from different

provinces in the country such as Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh, Nam Dinh, not only from the
North West of the country. However, such variables as age, gender, place of living are not
considered in this research.
3.5. Materials
In order to collect the data for the research, a set of survey questionnaires was
designed and used to find out the affective factors affecting student participation in
speaking activities. The factors such as anxiety, motivation, attitudes, and personality were
based on some previous study as mentioned in chapter 2.
3.6. Procedures
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The questionnaire was delivered to the students in their classroom. Most of them
took about 30 minutes to finish all the questions. They were encouraged to give their true
answers and any copied answer would distort the data of my research. I confirmed to them
that the research was carried out to improve their English learning, especially their
speaking skills, so all their answers are kept secret and used for research only. The
questionnaires are also translated into Vietnamese in order to help all the students
understand and answer all the questions.
3.7. Data analysis
The questionnaire consists of 30 questions in which 28 questions about such factors
as attitudes, motivation, anxiety, and personality are raised; question 29 and 30 are two
open ended questions of which answers depend on different students with the hope to find
out situations in which students enjoy and not enjoy speaking English in classroom.
The 28 questions were designed and belonged to four groups of learner factors on the basis
of previous study as presented in the previous chapter.
The questions in the questionnaire will be analyzed in groups in terms of such factors as
attitudes, anxiety, motivation and personality.
3.7.1. Learner attitudes
Option Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question5 Question 6
n % n % n % n % n % n %
a 24 32.9 20 24.7 12 16.4 53 72.6 14 19.2 40 54.8

b 49 67.1 53 72.6 61 83.6 20 24.7 59 80.8 33 45.2
Table 1. Student attitude
In which:
Question 1. I really enjoy speaking English in the classroom.
Question 2. Speaking activities in the classroom always excites me.
Question 3. In the classroom I often take every opportunity to speak English.
Question 4. In the classroom I often feel unhappy when the teacher asks me to speak
English.
Question 5. It’s important for me to speak English better than other students in my
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class.
Question 6. In the classroom I prefer listening to others speaking English to speaking it
myself.
a: agree b: disagree
It can be seen from the table that most students do not have positive attitude to
English speaking and speaking activities. It is illustrated by the collected information in
which 67.1 % report that they do not enjoy speaking English in the classroom, 72.6 % of
the students assume that speaking activities do not always excite them. These attitudes are
explanations for their poor participation in speaking activities which can be realized from
the answers to the question 3, only 16.4 % of the students often take every opportunity to
speak English. Especially, when being asked by the teacher to speak English 72.6% of
them often feel unhappy. This is understandable because most of them do not really enjoy
speaking English, this is also one of the reasons why they do not often feel happy when
being appointed by the teacher to speak English. Moreover, when answering the open-
question (question 29, Appendix I ), many of them share the idea that one of the situation
they do not want to speak English in the classroom is being appointed to speak by the
teacher. Meanwhile, only more than 20 % of the students feel happy when being asked or
appointed by the teacher. That is the reason why when being appointed by the teacher to
speak English most students do not often actively answer the teacher’s questions. And
consequently, students are afraid of being asked to speak English in classroom, leading to

their low level of participation in speaking activities. As can be seen from the table, only
19.2 % of the students considered it important for them to speak English better than the
others.
Clearly, the students do not have positive attitudes to speaking English, they do not
think speaking English better than the others is important. That is the reason why while
talking with the students they told us that they liked writing more than speaking. This may
be because they were familiar to writing since they were at high school where speaking
was not paid much attention to. Therefore, studying at university where they have to learn
the four skills causes them a lot of difficulties in which speaking is one of the most
difficulties. They are still not aware of the importance of speaking skills. And even some
of them are aware of it still face with a lot of difficulties while speaking which make them
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afraid of speaking and not like speaking even when being appointed by the teacher.
Besides, when being asked about the situations they enjoy speaking most in the classroom,
many of them agree that if the teacher is friendly, happy, cheerful and enthusiastic, and if
the teacher understand students and know how to encourage them, they will enjoy speaking
more; and if the topics are interesting, exciting and familiar to them, they will also take
part in the activity more; and they only like to discuss with the students they like. Also
many of the students say if the teacher is strict, often gets angry, and unfair that means the
teacher only pays attention to one group but not the others, they do not want to speak
English either.
In addition, the statistics in Table 1 shows that most of the students (54.8%) like
listening to others speaking English more than speaking to themselves. This explains why
they are very passive in classroom speaking lesson. When being asked to discuss in groups,
only some of the group members speak and the others just listen.
In summary, the findings show us that most of the students do not really enjoy
speaking English in the classroom, they do not realize the importance of taking
opportunities to speak English in classroom, and they are not often happy when being
appointed by the teacher to speak English in the class, their attitudes to the teacher and his
teaching, and their classmates are also one of the important affective factors affecting their

learning. And these are explanations for their low level of participation in speaking
activities.
It can be also inferred from the findings that student attitudes are closely related to
their participation in learning process in general and in speaking activities in particular.
3.7.2. Learner anxiety
It has been proved that language anxiety exists indeed and that it has a considerable
effect on second language learning. However, this effect is complex and difficult to
appraise. It is believed that an understanding of language anxiety causes and investigation
into how to reduce anxiety will lead to success in learner performance and learning
satisfaction; and in this case to succeed in speaking skills student have to participate
actively in speaking activities.
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