Factors affecting motivation for 10th graders' engagement in English speaking classes A survey at SaPa high school, Lao Cai ảnh hưởng đến động lực tham gia và

Abstract

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Abstract

With an investigation into the reality of teaching and learning English speaking at SPHS,
and an examination of the factors affecting motivation for 10 Graders’ engagement in
English speaking classes (ESC), this research is aimed at (1) investigating types of
motivation possessed by grade 10 students at SPHS, (2) finding out some factors affecting
motivation for students’ engagement in ESC, (3) exploring teachers’ and students’ attitudes
towards speaking skill and speaing activities in ESC, (4) surveying the activities and
techniques applied by teachers and students’ preferences at this school and recommending
some strategies for teachers and students to enhance grade 10 students of engagement in
ESC. The research data collection instruments are questionnaire, interview and classroom
observation. The result taken from the questionnaire, interview and observation reveals that
the majority of students possess instrumental and extrinsic motivation, some of them
integrately and intrinsically learn it, resultative motivation ranks the smallest number of
participants. It also indicates that the factors affecting motivation and demotivation come
from students, teachers and classroom learning environment. The activities and techniques
teachers apply have the great influence on students’ engagement. Basing on the findings of
the research, the study suggested some recommendations for both teachers and students to
improve the teaching and learning speaking in the school.
Table of Contents

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Table of Contents

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vii
LIST OF FIGURES viii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS ix
PART 1: INTRODUCTION ix
1. Rationale for the study 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Methods of the study 2
4. Scope of the study 3
5. Organization of the study 3
PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1. An overview of speaking in L2 learning 4
1.1. Definition of speaking 4
1.2. Approaches to the teaching of speaking 4
The Grammar translation Method (GTM) 4
The Direct Method (DM) and Audiolingualism 5
Communicative Language Teaching 5
1.3. The roles of the teacher in different stages of teaching speaking 5
1.4. Motivation in speaking in classroom 6
1.4.1. Motivation 6
1.4.2. Motivation in the classroom setting 7
1.4.3. Factors affecting students unwilling to speak in classroom 8
1.4.4. Some conditions for effective motivation in speaking 8
1.4.5. Motivational macrostrategies 8
2. Concept of students’ engagement and factors affecting motivation for students’
engagement 9
2.1. Concept of students’ engagement 9
2.2. Factors affecting students’ engagement 10
2.2.1. Students’ learning styles 10
2.2.2. Students’ motivations 11

2.2.3. Teacher’s teaching techniques 11
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2.2.4. Teachers’ personal qualities and characteristics 11
2.2.5. Effective classroom learning environment 13
CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY 15
1. Research setting 15
1.1. An overview of the research site 15
1.2. Description of the teachers of English and students 15
1.3. The materials of teaching and learning 16
2. Participants 17
2.1. Population 17
2.2. Sampling 17
3.3. Detailed description of participants 17
3.4. Data collection instruments 17
3.4.1. Questionnaires 18
3.4.2. Interviews 18
3.4.3. Classroom observations 19
3.5. Data Collection Procedures 19
CHAPTER THREE 20
DATA ANALYSIS, DISCUSSION OF MAJOR FINDINGS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS 20
1. Data analysis 20
1.1. Data analysis from Students’ Questionnaire 20
1.1.1. Students’ motivation in engaging in ESC 20
1.1.2. Factors affecting motivation for students’ engagement in ESC and students’
attitude towards activities and techniques applied by teachers 24
1.2. Data analysis from Teachers’ Questionnaire 27
2. Major findings and discussions 31

2.1. Research question 1 31
2.2. Research question 2 31
2.3. Research question 3 33
2.4. Research question 4 34
3. Recommendations for motivating students to engage better in ESC 34
3.1. Recommendations for teachers 34
3.1.1. Promoting students’ internal factors 35
3.1.2. Building effective classroom learning environment 36
3.1.3. Varying speaking activities 37
3.1.4. Managing speaking turns in class 37
3.1.5. Combining the textbook and relevant materials and recognize the potential
value of available facilities of the school and the Internet 38
3.1.6. Being enthusiastic, tolerant, helpful, friendly, creative and active 38
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3.2. Recommendations for the students 39
3.2.1. Cooperating with their teachers 39
3.2.2. Taking risks 39
PART 3: CONCLUSIONS 40
1. Conclusions 40
2. Limitations and suggestions for further study 41
REFERENCES 42
APPENDIX 1 I
APPENDIX 2 IV
APPENDIX 3 XIII
APPENDIX 4 XVII
APPENDIX 5 XIX
List of Tables

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List of Tables

Table 1. Types of motivation (see Appendix 1) 20
Table 2. Students’ learning styles (See Apendix 1) 24
Table 3. Factors making students reluctant to engage in ESC (see Appendix 1) 24
Table 4. Students’ difficulties in getting engaged in ESC (see Appendix 1) 25
Table 5. Factors encouraging students to engage in ESC (see Appendix 1) 25
Table 6. Factors help students get engaged better in ESC (see Appendix 1) 25
Table 7. Students’ expectations toward their teachers (see Appendix 1) 27
Table 8. The activities teachers give to their students to enhance students’ engagement in
ESC and students’ attitudes toward activities teachers creating (see Appendix 1) 29
Table 9. The techniques teachers use to motivate students to engage in ESC (see Appendix
1) 29
Table 10. Teachers’ evaluation on speaking skill of English 10 textbook (see Appendix 1) 30

List of Figures

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List of Figures
Figure 1. The perspective of students to the importance of speaking skill 21
Figure 2. Students’ desire to learn speaking English 21
Figure 3 . Students’ interest in engaging in ESC 22
Figure 4. Students’ frequency in engaging in speaking English in English classes 22
Figure 5. Students’ reluctance degree in speaking lessons 23
Figure 6 . Students’ perspective on the topics in English 10 textbook 23
Figure 7. Students’ perspective on the tasks in English 10 textbook 23
Figure 8. Students’ favourite activities in ESC 25
Figure 9. Students’ perspective on teachers’ activities in ESC 26
Figure 10. Teachers’ reaction to students’ speaking mistakes 26

Figure 11. Teachers' perspective on the importance of speaking to students 27
Figure 12. Teachers' perspective on the problems facing in teaching English speaking 28
Figure 13. Teachers using individual, pair work and group work in speaking lesson 28

List of Abbreviations and Conventions

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List of Abbreviations and Conventions

L2 Second Language
CLT Communicative Language Teaching
GTM Grammar translation Method
DM Direct Method
AM Audiolingual Method
ESC English speaking classes
OfSTED Office of Standards in Education
SPHS Sa Pa high school
Sa Pa SP
LC Lao Cai
% Percent


Part 1: Introduction


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PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale for the study
The ever-growing need for good communication skills in English has created a huge

demand for English teaching around the world. The result is that its status in education
system and settings is an extraordinary one (Rossner and Bolitho, 1990, p.5). In
correspondence to this trend, in Vietnam, the importance of English as a language of
international communication has been acknowledged by the Government; English teaching
and learning have been given more and more priority. English is considered as a compulsory
subject in the school curriculum in recognition that “it can contribute to students’ personal,
linguistic, social, and cultural development” (Canh, 2004, p.167)

In the process of teaching and learning English, there are many factors affecting the success
of language learners such as aptitude, 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.

After 7 year experience of teaching English at a 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. It is
undeniable that if the students are motivated, their speaking will be completed more
successful and their difficulties in speaking will no longer exist. However, there still exists
many difficulties facing teachers in teaching English speaking to students and motivating
them to engage actively in ESC, especially students in Sa Pa (SP) come from a variety of
socio-economic groups and they are multicultural as well as multi-level. It can be observed
that ethnic minority students are always very reserved which leads to many difficulties in
communication. On the other hand, the Kinh students in SP are quite active because of
tourism development service. They also have much better learning condition outside class
than ethnic students. I agree with Paul C. Gorki (2005: 12) that multicultural education is
challenging situation and our goal is to give all students the balance chance to achieve her or
his fullest at school as well as in the classroom regardless of who they are. How to achieve
Part 1: Introduction

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this goal is a big question.
This is the reason why I choose studying on factors affecting motivation for 10th graders’
engagement in ESC is the topic for my thesis.

2. Aims and research questions of the study
The study aims at exploring the factors affecting motivation for 10th graders’ engagement in
ESC at SPHS, Lao Cai (LC). The objectives of the research are as follows:
 To examine the types of motivation possessed by grade 10 students at Sapa high
school in engaging in English speaking classes.
 To exploring the factors influencing the students’ motivation in engaging in English
speaking classes.
 To examine teachers and students’ attitudes towards speaking skill and speaking
activities in ESC.
 To determine effective techniques to enhance the students’ motivation in engaging in
English speaking classes

To achieve these aim and objectives, the study sets out to answer the following research
questions:
(1). What are the types of motivation possessed by grade 10 students at Sapa high
school in engaging in English speaking classes?
(2). What are factors influencing the students’ motivation in engaging in English
speaking classes?
(3). What are teachers and students’ attitudes towards speaking skill and speaking
activities in ESC?
(4). What techniques could be applicable to enhance the students’ motivation in
engaging in English speaking classes?

3. Methods of the study

The study employed survey research. In my study, data were collected via questionnaires,
interviews and classrooms observation in order to increase the credibility of the findings: (1)
Giving questionnaires for both teachers and students; (2) Interviewing students; (3)
Oserving classroom to get information about both teachers’ approach of teaching and
students’ habit of learning in class as well as ascertain the prevalent problems forwarded by
the students and teachers during the interview and questionnaire.
Part 1: Introduction


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4. Scope of the study
There exist a variety factors affecting motivation for 10th graders’ engagement in English
speaking classes. However, it is not my intention to cover all of them because of the time
and length constraint of the study, I only focus on the factors come from learners, teachers
and classroom learning environment. In this study, students’ engagement happened only in
speaking activities in ESC.

5. Organization of the study
Apart from Introduction (Part 1) and Conclusions (Part 3), the research is divided into three
chapters:
 Chapter One: Literature Review – provides a theoretical basis for the study.
 Chapter Two: Methodology – includes an overview of the approach used in
conducting the study. It also provides a thorough description of the data collection
procedures as well as the analytical procedures.
 Chapter Three: Data analysis, discussion of major findings and recommendations –
reports the findings of the study and discusses the prominent aspects. In this chapter,
answers to the four research questions are also given. The answers are also the major
findings which help the research find a practical basis for further recommendations.

Part 2: Development – Chapter One: Literature Review

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PART 2: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter One: Literature Review

This chapter reviews the most basic knowledge of speaking in L2 learning, motivation, the
aspects of students’ engagement and factors affecting motivation for students’ engagement
in ESC.

1. An overview of speaking in L2 learning
1.1. Definition of speaking
Florez (1999) defined speaking “an interactive process of constructing meaning that
involves producing and receiving and processing information”. (cited in Balley, 2005:2). It
is “often spontaneous, open-ended and evolving”, but it is not completely unpredictable. In
other words, “speaking consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey
meaning”. (Bailey, 2005:2).

Bygate (1997) stated that speaking was a skill which deserved attention every bit as much as
literacy skill. It is often thought of as a “popular” form of expression that uses the
unprestigious “colloquial” register. Speaking is in many ways an undervalued skill. Perhaps
this is because we can almost all speak, 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 sounds in the right order to convey the right meaning” (cited in
Bygate, 1997:5).

1.2. Approaches to the teaching of speaking
The Grammar translation Method (GTM)
In grammar translation lessons, speaking consists largely of reading translations aloud or

doing grammar exercises orally. There are few opportunities for expressing original
thoughts or personal needs and feeling in English (Bailey, 2005:16). In the GTM, students
are taught to analyze grammar and to translate from one language to another. The GTM,
therefore, does not really prepare students to speak English, and it is not entirely appropriate
for students who want to improve their speaking skills. This method is not consistent with

Part 2: Development – Chapter One: Literature Review

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the goals of increasing English learners’ fluency, oral production, or communicative
competence.

The Direct Method (DM) and Audiolingualism
The DM emphasized speaking in that “new teaching points were introduced orally” rather in
writing. Also, lessons emphasized speaking and listening, which were practiced “in a
carefully graded progression organized around question and answer exchanges between
teachers and students” (cited in Bailey, 2005:17). The DM strongly influenced the
development of the Audiolingual Method (AM). Nunan (2003) points out that in
Audiolingualism, speaking is taught by having students repeat sentences and recite
memorized dialogues from the textbook. Repetition drills-a hallmark of the AM- are
designed to familiarize students with the sounds and structural patterns of the language.
Lessons followed the sequence of presentation, practice, and production. (cited in Bailey,
2005:17).

Communicative Language Teaching
The goal of language teaching in the light of CLT is to develop communicative competence.
In CLT classroom, learners are encouraged to contribute as much as they gain, and learn in
an independent way. CLT favours interaction among small numbers of learners with a
purpose to maximize the time each learner learns and uses languages, shares information
and negotiates meaning. Through interaction learners’ experience can be modified, many

kinds of learning strategies made aware and applied, and especially classrooms move away
from teacher-centeredness to learner-centeredness, which is an essential element to raise
learners’ motivation in language learning. CLT features more interaction-based activities,
such as role-plays and information gap tasks. Pair work and group work are typical
organizational features of interaction-based lessons in CLT.

For all its advantages over the other methods, the author has decided to choose CLT for the
teaching and the treatment of the study.

1.3. The roles of the teacher in different stages of teaching speaking
Byrne, D (1986) listed three stages of teaching speaking: the presentation stage, the practice
stage and the production one. In each stage, the role of the teacher is different. At the

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presentation stage, the teacher is considered an informant role. The teacher introduces
something new to be learned and present it in such a way that the meaning of the new
language is as clear and memorable as possible. The students listen and try to understand. At
this point of the lesson, the teacher is at the centre of the stage. Therefore, teacher’s time
spending should be sensible so that the students get enough time to practise themselves. At
the practice stage, it is the students’ turn to do most of the talking while teacher’s main task
is to devise and provide the maximum amount of practice, which must the same time be
both meaningful and memorable. The teacher’s role, then, is completely different from that
at the presentation one. The teacher is like the skillful conductor of an orchestra, giving each
of the performers a chance to participate and monitoring their performance to see that it is
satisfactory. At the final stage, the production one, the teacher takes on the role of manager
and guide. Students are given opportunities to use language freely. Sometimes students can
make mistakes at this stage, but mistakes are unimportant. The more importance is that
students have chance to use language as they wish, to try to express their own ideas.

Moreover, they become aware that they have learnt something useful to them personally,
and are encouraged to go on learning. However, students will probably seem to the teacher
to lurch backwards and forwards rather than make steady progress. It will not be so easy for
the teacher to measure students’ performance as it was at the practice stage, nor is there any
easy recipe for success. So, what is needed is flexibility, tolerance, patience on teacher’s
part and, above all, an understanding of the learners’ difficulties.

To sum up, the teacher through speaking lesson should work as a motivator. Whatever
teacher is doing in the classroom, his/her ability to motivate the students, to arouse their
interest and involve them in what they are doing, will be crucial. Therefore, some key
factors of teacher’s role are teacher’s own performance- the mastery of teaching skills,
which depend on teacher’s careful preparation; teacher’s selection, and presentation of
topics and activities, and, of course, teacher’s own personality, which, in language teaching,
must be flexible enough to allow the teacher to be both authoritative and friendly at the
same time.

1.4. Motivation in speaking in classroom
1.4.1. Motivation
Gardner (1985) (quoted from Nunan 1999: 232-233) states that motivation is a key

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consideration in determining the preparedness of learners to communicate. Motivation refers
to the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the good of learning the language plus
favourable attitudes toward learning the language. That is, motivation to learn a second
language is seen as referring to the extent to which the individual work or strives to learn the
language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity.

Gardner and Lambert (1985) introduces the major types of motivation: Instrumental

motivation and Integrative motivation, Resultative motivation and Intrinsic motivation. (1)
Instrumental motivation: When learners need English as an instrumental to reach a
particular goal such as passing oral test, getting a good job with high salary and so on. In
this case, motivation is the reflection of an external need; (2) Integrative motivation: When
learners internally want to integrate themselves into the culture of the target language. (3)
Resultative motivation: is known as the cause of achievement. It can also be the result of
learning. The fact shows that learners who experience success in learning may become more
motivated to learn; (4) Intrinsic motivation: plays a significant role in most learners’ success
or failure. For them, what happens in the classroom will be of great importance in
determining their attitudes to language and in supplying motivation, intrinsic autonomy and
self-actualization whereas extrinsically motivated learners anticipate a reward from outside
and beyond the self such as money, prize

1.4.2. Motivation in the classroom setting
Lightbown and Spada (1999: 57-58) stated that if the teacher could make classrooms places
where students enjoy coming because the content is interesting, goals was challenging yet
manageable and clear, and where the atmosphere was supportive and non-threatening,
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: (1) Motivating students into the lesson: 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: (2) Varying the activities, tasks and materials: Lessons which always consist
of the same routines, patterns and format often lead to a decrease in attention and an
increase in boredom. Varying the activities, tasks, and materials can help to avoid this and
increase students’ interest levels; (3) Using co-operative rather than competitive goals: Co-
operative learning activities are those in which students must work together in order to

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complete a task or solve problem. These techniques will increase the self-confidence of
students, including weaker ones.

1.4.3. 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, incomprehensible
input. (cited in Nunan, 1999:234)

1.4.4. Some conditions for effective motivation in speaking
Nunan (1999) pointed out some preconditions for effective motivation:
1. Supportive Environment: including orderly classroom, teacher is skilled in
classroom management; students are no anxious and feel comfortable taking risks,
feedback is positive.
2. Appropriate level of difficulty: tasks are neither too easy nor too difficult; students
know what they have to do, criteria for success is clear.
3. Meaningful learning: students know what and why they learn; activities are
meaningful; the relationship between activities and objective is clear; tasks are
sequenced so that new tasks build on and extend ones that come before; students are
given a reason to be in class.
4. Strategies: motivational strategy is matched to instructional need; particular
strategies are not overused; teacher uses a range of strategies; there is a learning-
how-to-learn dimension to instruction.
5. Content: students can relate content to own experience; topics are interesting.
(Nunan, D. 1999:235)

1.4.5. Motivational macrostrategies
Dornyei and Csizer (1998) gave “Ten commandments for motivating language learners”: (1)
Set a personal example with your own behaviour; (2) Create a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere

in the classroom; (3) Present the tasks properly; (4) Develop a good relationship with the
learners; (5) Increase the learner’s linguitics self-cofidence; (6) Make the language class
interesting; (7) Promote learner autonomy; (8) Personalise the learning process; (9) Increase
the learners’ goal-orientedness; (10) Familiarise learners with the target language culture
(p.215).


Part 2: Development – Chapter One: Literature Review

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2. Concept of students’ engagement and factors affecting motivation for students’
engagement
2.1. Concept of students’ engagement
Students’ engagement can be identified in terms of three kinds of interaction. Moore (1989)
identified three types of interactions namely learner-instructor interaction, learner-learner
interaction and learner-content interaction.

As for the interaction between students to their teachers, this can take the form of teacher
delivering information, encouraging the leaner, or providing feedback. Students who are
considered to maintain a good interaction with their teacher always take part in the class
discussion as well as contact the teacher by coming to see him/her outside classroom, even
sending emails. They become involved in what is happening in the classroom by asking for
more information or explanation, sharing a personal experience in relationship to the topics,
or volunteering to perform an activity. Therefore, engagement is in more ways than just
attending by coming to class on time and staying there entire period, and getting to know the
teacher. Students who are attentive (e.g., work on problems with the teacher during class,
laugh at jokes, respond to their teacher’s questions) are showing their desire to be active
learners.
Bailey (2005) also shares his interesting view:
As teachers, we should not assume that students who don’t talk much in class are

not participating. Some learners prefer to listen more than speak. Others speak very
quietly- almost privately We should also remember that just because students are
quiet, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are not participating on some level How
can we as teachers tell when quiet students are participating in class? Sometimes
we can watch their eye movements and head nodding.
(P.171)

Next, the interaction between students themselves is established by the exchange of
information and ideas that occurs among students about the course in the presence or
absence of the instructor. This type of interaction can take the form of group projects or
group discussion. The learner-learner interaction can foster learning through collaboration
and knowledge sharing. Then, the kind of interaction between students and material can be
understood as students obtain information from the course materials.


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2.2. Factors affecting students’ engagement
To involve students in English speaking classes, it is necessary to understand the factors
affecting motivation for students’ engagement. These factors generally come from both
learners, teachers and effective classroom learning environment. The discussion of major
factors will be mentioned in the following sections.
2.2.1. Students’ learning styles
Style, as Brown (1994) defined, refers to either personality (e.g., self-esteem, extroversion,
anxiety) or cognition (e.g., left/right brain orientation, ambiguity tolerance, field sensitivity).
Enduring traits, tendencies and preferences that differentiate one person from another can be
considered characteristics of style. A successful language learner can manipulate effectively
his learning style including some characteristics such as risk-taking, extroversion
(personality trait), quite right-brain dominance, intuition, logic (cognitive traits) and the list

may goes on. That means, he is willing to live with uncertainty without getting flustered or
understanding every word; he can make his own opportunities for practice in using the
language inside and outside the classroom; he uses contextual cues to help him in
comprehension. It is apparent that this student is an active learner. He further argues one
learning style issue that influences learners’ speaking in class is the contrast between
reflectivity and impulsivity. Reflective learners prefer to think about their answers or
comments before speaking in class. They are generally cautious, while impulsive learners
tend to be more impetuous and may take a gamble. They may respond immediately, often
before they’ve thought through their ideas completely.

Unlike Brown’s definition of learning style, Willing (1985, cited in Nunan,1988:93)
classifies learner styles into four types: (1) Concrete learners: they preferred learning by
games, pictures, films and videos, talking in pairs and learning through the use of cassettes.
(2) Analytical learners: these learners liked studying grammar, studying English books,
finding their own mistakes, and learning through reading newspapers. (3) Communicative
learners: they liked to learn by observing and listening to native speakers, talking to friends
in English and learning English wherever possible. (4) Authority-oriented learners: they
liked the teacher to explain everything, writing everything in their notebooks, having their
own textbook, learning to read, studying grammar, learning English words by seeing them.

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2.2.2. Students’ motivations
In second language learning, motivation is considered a complex phenomenon that
Lightbown and Spada (1999) defined in terms of two factors: learners’ communicative
needs and their attitudes towards the second language in a variety of social contexts or to
accomplish professional ambitions, they will seize the communicative value and therefore
will be motivated to acquire proficiency in it. Similarly, if learners have positive attitudes

towards the speakers of the language, they will have desire to communicate or contact them.
Teachers, therefore, should realize the source of a student’s motivation to meet particular
needs as well as to “actively ‘push’ learners to realize their full potential and make
maximum progress” (Ur, 1996:273).

2.2.3. Teacher’s teaching techniques
teachers who know a lot about teaching and learning and who work in
environments that allow them to know students well are the critical elements of
successful learning.
(Darling-Hammond, 1997, p.8).

Teachers’ teaching techniques that usually correspond to an approach and a method can
vary greatly from one teacher to another. Consequently, different teachers’ techniques create
different degree of students’ participation. Traditional methods such as GTM, DM often
lead teachers to the choice of using teacher-centered techniques which mostly focus on
grammatical and phonological accuracy. These techniques are, for instance, choral
repetition, drilling substitution, content explanation and narrative presentation seem so
mechanical and simple that they will result in learners’ passiveness and limit their
participation in learning. On the contrary, in the light of CLT, teachers’ techniques turn into
learner-centered instead of teacher-centered. The examples of these techniques can be
named as role-play, problem solving, games, pair and group work, interview and discussion.
It is apparent that when using these techniques, teachers can encourage more students to
engage in the lesson because the main actors of these activities are learners.

2.2.4. Teachers’ personal qualities and characteristics
Although “the perfect set of personal qualities and characteristics for an effective teacher

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12

has not been found” (Barry, 1993:93), it would be accurate to say that in order to involve
students in engaging in the lesson, teacher firstly should be one that students trust and
respect. The teacher’s prestige will make student feel “safe” in his lecture and thus they are
willing to participate more. Wright, Horn and Sanders (1997) carried out a study to examine
the relative magnitude of teacher effects on students’ achievement in the US. After
analysing the achievement scores of more than 100,000 students, they conclude that “the
most important factor affecting student achievement is the teacher” (p.63). The following
characteristics of a teacher who students trust and respect are pointed out by Kevin Berry
(1993):

Being natural: the teacher should present himself as real person. To be more
concrete, he should express the feeling of a normal person such as happiness,
annoyance, etc, should laugh with students when humorous situation occur.
Therefore, the relationship between the teacher and students will be closer, which
helps increase students’ engagement and their co-operation with teachers in the
process of teaching and learning.

Being warm: The teacher considers students as his fellow people, respect their
personal characteristics, and is happy to have them around.
Being pleasant: The teachers’ attitude toward students expresses his relaxation,
friendliness in the relationship with his students. Besides, being pleasant also
means being enthusiastic toward the job of teaching.

Being approachable: an approachable teacher is the one who makes students feel
good about being with him and the one students can come to see when they have
matters.

Being tolerant: As students are very sensitive to the way teachers treat to the
others, the idea that teachers are fair and consistent with all students in the class is
highly appreciated. To establish a closer relationship, it is vital that teachers be

cordial, acceptant, and tolerant of even those students who are considered “cold”
and “difficult to train”.

It has been shown above that the first criteria to be a good teacher is being trusted and
respected. Indeed, a perfect teacher is not only the one that students can trust and respect but
also owns certain qualities to become effective teacher. In general, the 10 most important
qualities of a good teacher who can encourage students to engage actively in lesson are: (1)
encourage active learning, (2)be sincere, friendly and supportive, (3) create positive and
friendly classroom atmosphere, (4) be enthusiastic about what he/she teaches, (5) have
“eyes in the back of her/his head”, (6) well planned and well organized. She/he also gets
students involved in this planning and organization, (7) treat students as individuals, (8)

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manage the classroom, (9) enthuse students, (10) be fair, firm, flexible

It may be well worth noting that these characteristics and personal qualities of a teacher can
help much in improving and reinforcing good relationship between students and the teacher.
The main point to note here is that such good interaction and relationship, if is maintained
during the process of learning and teaching, not only increases student motivation and
creates a positive environment for learning but also enhances students’ participation in
learning and students’ active learning.

2.2.5. Effective classroom learning environment
This section discusses the components of an effective classroom-learning environment. As
discussed in the previous part, teachers play a significant role in students’ academic
achievement and are central to the creation of the classroom climate. Burns (1990) says that:
In many areas of instruction, the teacher is the key person in the learning situation,
providing information, explaining concepts or skills, and giving examples. Students

interact with the teacher and with each other, but it is the teacher who directs the
instruction, leads lessons, prompts responses, and paces the class. (p28)

For Fraser (2001), the principles that can assist teachers to maximise an optimal climate for
learning are the “effort, commitment, and critical scrutiny by teachers to ensure that
classroom culture enhances and extends the learning of all students” (p.15). He further
explains that:
Whether teachers are consciously aware of it or not, what they value and their
philosophy on learning permeates their classrooms and affects the experiences of
students. A classroom climate that encourages deep-level learning, rigorous scrutiny
of ideas, respect for people and property, concentration and curiosity, perseverance
and passion, and burning desire ‘to know’, depends upon a certain culture. This
culture is developed by teachers but with students, so that students are actively
involved in making decisions, taking responsibility, learning from errors and
realising accomplishments. (p.15-16)

Another important factor connected to children’s time-on-task, is the teacher’s academic
orientation. Effective English teachers emphasise academic instruction, and see learning as
the main class goal. This means that they spend most of their time on curriculum-based
learning activities, and create a task-orientated, but supportive environment. They spend
time on academic activities rather than on personal matters, group dynamics, socialising or
free time (Brophy and Good, 1986; Griffin and Barnes, 1986; Lampert, 1988). Teachers

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who give whole class instruction have also been found to spend more time monitoring
children’s achievement. There were also likely to be less student disruptions, thus increasing
time-on-task (Pollard, Broadfoot, Croll, Osborn, and Abbott, 1994; Borich, 1996). A study
undertaken by the Office Standards in Education (OfSTED) on The Teaching of Number in

Three Local Education Authorities (1997) also concludes that in the best lesson there was
usually a higher proportion of time spent teaching the class together, often at the start and
sometimes at the end of the lesson, with individual and group work closely linked to the
whole-class work.

The advantage of co-operative group learning have been highlighted by Burns (1990) that:
Students’ learning is supported when they have opportunities to describe their own
ideas, hear others explain their thoughts, speculate, question, and explore various
approaches. To provide for this, learning together in small groups gives students
more opportunities to interact with concepts than do class discussions. Not only do
students have the chance to speak more often, but they may be more comfortable
taking the risks of trying out their thinking during problem-solving situations in the
setting of a small group. (p.25)

Advocates of cooperative learning in small groups suggest that greater opportunities for
discussion and explanation may develop children’s thinking skills, as well as helping to
verbalise and structure their thoughts. When students work in small groups, they can help
each other with their learning. When students have opportunities to discuss his or her
confusions, self-help can occur. Crabill (1990) explains that:

The best way to learn a subject is to teach it, and small-group learning allows
students to experience the other side of the learning process-teaching. By his or her
own trial and error, by hearing peers making mistakes and recover, helps the
student begins to understand the process of learning. (p.204)

By cooperative learning in small groups children can share their own ways of thinking and
reflect on them and on the thinking and ideas of others. This exchange may encourage
students to engage in more higher-order-thinking. Cooperative learning in small groups
enhances conceptual understanding and higher achievement on problem solving tasks
(Crabill, 1990; Verchaffel and De Corte, 1993; Townsend and Hicks, 1997). Besides,

research has shown that students from ethically or cultural diverse back grounds learn more
effectively in cooperative learning groups and that cooperative learning groups help to
increase self-esteem for these learners (Sleeter, 1997).

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15
Chapter Two: Methodology

This chapter includes a justification for the approach the author used in conducting the
research. It also provides a brief presentation of how the author collected the necessary data
as well as the analytical procedure to draw conclusions based on the collected information.

1. Research setting
1.1. An overview of the research site
SP is one of the districts in a mountainous province of LC. There are many differences
between SP town and the villages. SP town is rich and exciting because of tourism; on the
other hand, the villages in SP where four minority ethnic groups Mong, Tay, Dao, Giay live
in are very poor. Therefore, students’ learning condition in SP is much different from each
other. SPHS is located in the centre of SP town. 60% of school students are minority ethnic
students. Despite the fact that LC province has achieved national standards in the
universalization of junior secondary education (Report by Lao Cai PPC, 2007), in some
remote areas, SP included, it is very hard to consult students to continue their study to high
school level. That is because of many reasons, such as: the poverty, traditional culture of
early marriage, the limited awareness of the benefit of having higher education in the
ethnics groups. For that reason, annually, there are not enough students to enrol in high
school level in SP. So it is difficult for us to hold placement test for students which leads to
multi-level students in the classes.

1.2. Description of the teachers of English and students

In SPHS, there are 5 teachers of English aged from 26 to 45. Their experience in teaching
English varies from 3 to 20 years. Most of them graduated from Foreign Language
Teachers’ Training Universities. These teachers are qualified for the job. SPHS has two
teachers of English who are key teachers of LC province. They both have rich teaching
experience and subject matter knowledge. They had been teaching English for more than ten
years in high school. Generally, all of the teachers of English in this school love teaching
and have positive attitudes to supporting their students’ learning.

Students in SPHS come from a variety of socio-economic groups. Students come from SP

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16
town have better learning condition outside classroom. Many of them are able students and
have had quite good results during their secondary education. Some of them have a lot of
chance to practise speaking English with native speakers so their speaking skill is quite
good. On the contrary, students coming from ethnic minority groups live very far from the
centre of the town and their families’ income comes from farming which is considered one
of the lowest income groups in Vietnam. They have their own traditional culture and
languages and their mother languages are not Vietnamese. They finished secondary
education in local secondary schools in their villages which have poor learning condition so
they have had not very good results in secondary school education. Although the local
government has priority policies to provide education for these groups and encourages
students to go to school as offered ethnic students free accommodations in the school’s
hostel and free food, those students need extra help from teachers after school time in order
to improve their quality of work.

1.3. The materials of teaching and learning
The textbooks currently used to teach English are English 10, English 11 and English 12
published by Ministry of Education and Training. I would like to focus on English 10 in my

thesis. The teaching content of English 10 textbook follows the theme-based approach and
is developed on six broad themes which are subdivided into 16 topics corresponding to 16
units and a “Test yourself” after every 3 units. All units have the same structure, starting
with the theme of the unit, followed by four lessons focused on language skills and ending
with language focus. Language skills are developed in parallel with the development of such
language knowledge as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation.

With strengths, the textbook is expected to contribute better quality of English learning in
Vietnam high school. In terms of curriculum development, the introduction of the new
textbook can be new fresh air blowing into the teaching and learning situation at secondary
schools in Vietnam. However, to a large number of ethnic minority students, the new
English textbook set as well as English 10 are very difficult. Very often the amount of new
vocabulary in one unit was too much for students. In addition, many topics in the English
textbooks were strange to their daily lives and background.

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2. Participants
2.1. Population
The target population for this study comprises 5 teachers of English and 80 students of
tenth-grade at SPHS. The brief description of the teachers of English and students has been
mentioned in the earlier sections of this chapter.

2.2. Sampling
The researcher used convenience sampling in this study. The sampling plan proposed for the
current study was a two-stage stratified cluster design (Jacobs et al., 2003). The first stage
consisted of selecting high school, and the second stage consisted of a sample of teachers
and students for questionnaires and interviews, a sample of classrooms and English
speaking lessons from the tenth-grade classrooms for observation in the sample school.

After participant selections were made, appointments were made to arrange suitable times
for questionnaire, interview and observation lessons. Five teachers of English and all
students in the two tenth-grade classrooms at SPHS agreed to take part in the study.

3.3. Detailed description of participants
There are two groups of participants in this study. The first group involves five teachers of
English who are currently teaching English at SPHS. They were observed and given the
questionnaires by the researcher. They are all female and are ranging from 26 to 45 years
old. Their teaching experience at high schools varies from 5 to 23 years. The variety in the
participants’ age, qualification, and teaching experience is expected to provide reliability
and validity for the study. The second group deals with eighty students who come from two
classes (10A5 and 10A6) at SPHS. 43.75% of the students are Kinh people who live in SP
town, the others belong to ethnic minorities Mong, Tay, Dao, Giay (Mong: 20%, Tay:
18.75%, Dao: 15% and Giay: 2.5%) and they live in the villages of SP district. The
students’ living condition, their learning outside class conditions, their attitudes, motivation
for foreign language learning are not the same.

3.4. Data collection instruments
In order to get information, the main data collection instruments for this study were

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questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations.

3.4.1. Questionnaires
Questionnaires for students
This questionnaire was designed with three main parts with 17 questions administered to 80
students. Part I was about the students’ personal information which included students’
ethnic group, place of domicile and their average mark of English subject in the first term of

Grade 10. Part II was designed to elicit the students’ opinions about their motivation in
learning speaking English. Part III would collect some information relating to factors
affecting motivation for students’ engagement in ESC and students’ attitude towards
activities and techniques applied by teachers.

Questionnaires for teachers
The survey to the teachers with nine questions comprised two sections: Part I was the
demographic information, which contained the teachers’ gender, age and the number of
years they had been teaching English language in high school. Part II was about teachers’
opinion on students’ motivation in engaging ESC, activities and techniques they had been
using to motivate students, their comment about speaking skill in English 10 textbook and
their own experiences of teaching speaking to help students get engaged actively in ESC.

3.4.2. Interviews
In this study, the interviews were carried out in a following week after the questionnaires
with 40 students, who were chosen randomly for the interview, 20 students from class 10A5
and 20 from 10A6. The aim of the researcher for interviews is to get better insights into the
research questions and to discuss for further information about the items raised in the
questionnaires. The participants were invited to answer the questions with the researcher’s
explanation of the questions and clarifying unclear answers, each interview lasted for about
10 minutes. The informal talks were sometimes done between the researcher and students
during breaks to have in-depth understanding about the teaching method teachers had just
applied and students’ preferences. The questions for interviews were conducted mainly in
Vietnamese, only with English words, phrases, or sentences when the interviewees felt a
need. Basic interview questions were prepared (for details of the interview, see Appendix
4). With interviewees’ permission, the interviews were taken note. All interview data were
analyzed interpretatively.