Three ways to motivate the students at Banking Academy - Bacninh branch in English speaking activities = Ba cách tạo hứng thú cho sinh viên Học viện Ngân hàng -

HANOI - 2010
Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
University of languages and international studies
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



NGUYỄN MINH HỒNG
THREE WAYS TO MOTIVATE THE STUDENTS
AT BANKING ACADEMY-BACNINH BRANCH IN ENGLISH
SPEAKING ACTIVITIES
BA CÁCH TẠO HỨNG THÚ CHO SINH VIÊN
HỌC VIỆN NGÂN HÀNG-PHÂN VIỆN BẮC NINH TRONG CÁC HOẠT
ĐỘNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH
M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

HANOI - 2010
Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Supervisor: Dr. Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
University of languages and international studies
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



NGUYỄN MINH HỒNG
THREE WAYS TO MOTIVATE THE STUDENTS
AT BANKING ACADEMY-BACNINH BRANCH IN ENGLISH
SPEAKING ACTIVITIES
BA CÁCH TẠO HỨNG THÚ CHO SINH VIÊN
HỌC VIỆN NGÂN HÀNG-PHÂN VIỆN BẮC NINH TRONG CÁC
HOẠT ĐỘNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH
M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS


DECLARATION i
ABSTRACT ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
LIST OF CHARTS vi
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Background to the study 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Research questions 2
4. Significance of the study 3
5. Scope of the study 3
6. Research method 3
7. Outline of the thesis 3
PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT 5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5
1.1. Speaking 5
1.1.1. Definitions of speaking 5
1.1.2. The importance of speaking 5
1.1.3. Accuracy or fluency in the teaching of speaking 5
1.1.4. Phases to teach speaking 6
1.1.5. Common speaking activities 7
1.1.6. Problems with speaking activities 9
1.2 Motivation 10
1.2.1. Definitions of motivation 10
1.2.2. Types of motivation in foreign language learning 11
1.2.3. The importance of motivation in foreign language learning and teaching 12
1.3. Strategies for motivating students in speaking activities 13
1.4. Previous studies 17
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1. An action research 19
2. 2. Research questions 19

v
2.3. Description of the subjects 19
2. 4. The action research procedure 20
2. 5. Description of Data Collection Instruments 22
2.5.1. Questionnaires 22
2.5.2. Observations 23
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 24
3.1. Data collected from preliminary investigation stage 24
3.1.1. Data collected from questionnaire 1 24
3.1.2. Data collected from observation sheets 26
3.2. Intervention 28
3.2.1. The aims of the intervention 28
3.2.2. The intervention procedure 29
3.3. Data collected from the intervention stage 31
3.3.1. Data collected from Observation sheets 31
3.3.2. Data collected from Questionnaire 2 33
3.4. Evaluation 36
3.4.1. Comparisons 36
3.4.2. Summary 38
PART THREE: CONCLUSION 41
1. Review of the study 41
2. Pedagogical implications 41
3. Limitations and suggestions for further research 43
REFERENCES 44
APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1: Questionnaire 1 I
APPENDIX 2: Questionnaire 2 II
APPENDIX 3: Observation sheet 1 – Overall class motivation III
APPENDIX 4: Observation sheet 2 – Students’ on-task behavior IV
APPENDIX 5: Action plan implementation VI

APPENDIX 6: A sample of intervention plan VII
APPENDIX 7: Data on overall class motivation XI
APPENDIX 8: Data on the students’ on-task/off-task behavior XII


vi
LIST OF CHARTS


Chart 1: Students’ reasons for learning English speaking 24
Chart 2: Students’ attitude towards learning English speaking 25
Chart 3: Students' frequency of unwillingness to speak English in class 25
Chart 4: Factors leading to the students' low motivation in English speaking activities 26
Chart 5: Overall class motivation phase 1 27
Chart 6: Students' times on-task/off-task behavior phase 1 28
Chart 7: Overall class motivation phase 2 31
Chart 8: Students’ times on-task/ off-task behavior phase 2 32
Chart 9: Students’ opinions about the teachers’ helping
them set their own achievable goals 33
Chart 10: Students’ opinions about the teachers’ use of various speaking activities 34
Chart 11: Students’ opinions about the teachers’ use of rewards for success 35
Chart 12: Students’ attitude towards the teaching in the intervention stage 35
Chart 13: Overall class motivation before and after the intervention 37
Chart 14: Students’ times on-task/off-task before and after the intervention 37

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part one: Introduction
1. Background to the study
Theoretical perspective
Together with the trend of globalization, English is used more and more widely in

international settings. Therefore, the ability to communicate in English is very important.
Speaking plays an essential role because without it, communication cannot take place
directly between people. However, speaking is generally considered the most difficult to
learn among the four skills in English language learning.
In order to teach the students English speaking so that they become more interested in and
maintain their interest in speaking learning, when it is not seen as important for their
immediate needs other than to pass the oral exams, teachers have to find creative ways to
teach and increase students’ motivation to learn.
Being concerned with what a teacher can do to enhance student motivation in English
speaking activities, a number of interesting and applicable ideas has been found. Among
them are useful strategies from Bligh (1971), Sass (1989), Ames and Ames (1991), Harris
(1991), Dornyei (2001), Oxford and Shearin (1994): capitalize on students’ existing needs,
help students set achievable goals for themselves, give clear explanation, create a
comfortable atmosphere, vary teaching activities and methods, make learning visual,
increase students’ self- confidence, promote cooperative learning, make students active
participants in speaking activities, respond to students’ work and reward success.
Teachers should know how to use these strategies so as to increase students’ motivation in
English speaking activities. Therefore, this action research attempts to explore the
problems of the students in speaking activities and to find out the most useful strategies in
the researcher’s own teaching context.
English speaking teaching and learning at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch
Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch is a vocational school which trains students in Banking
and Accounting operations. Its English language teaching and learning program is
implemented in the first term of the students’ first year. The students are taught general
English with New Headway Elementary (Liz & John Soars, 2000) in the time span of 120
forty-five minute class periods. With 12 parallel classes, teaching is basically synchronized

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across classes; that is, all the teachers are required to teach the same textbook and go
through the same materials at more or less the same pace. Each class is composed of

students at mixed abilities.
During five years of teaching at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch, the researcher often
found many of my students were low motivated in class. There were always students
absent from class, and even for those who came to class, some of them did not participate
in the activities, some of them pretended to participate in but in fact they chatted with
others in Vietnamese, some just listened to others speaking but say nothing, some of them
even dozed off, etc. Later, after the investigation, the researcher realized that many of them
were low motivated as they did not have achievable goals for themselves, the activities in
the class were monotonous, the teacher did not create a comfortable atmosphere for them
to speak and they were afraid of making mistakes and being laughed at by their classmates.
Being aware of the importance of English speaking, motivation and motivational strategies
in English speaking, and bearing in mind the context of teaching and learning speaking at
Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch, the researcher conducted this action research on the
use of three strategies: helping students set achievable goals, varying speaking activities
and using rewards for success with the aims at motivating the students in English speaking
activities.
2. Aims of the study
This research was an attempt to motivate the students at Banking Academy-Bacninh
Branch in English speaking activities by using three strategies: helping students set
achievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for success. In order to
achieve this aim, the specific objectives of the study are:
- Finding out the causes of the students’ low motivation in English speaking activities in
order to have proper intervention to motivate them.
- Examining whether the teacher’s intervention consisting of the three changes: helping
students set achievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for success
could motivate the students in English speaking activities or not.
3. Research questions
With the above objectives, the research questions are:

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1. What are the causes of the students’ low motivation in English speaking activities?
2. Can the teacher’s intervention consisting of the three changes: helping students set
achievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for success motivate the
students in English speaking activities? If yes, to what extent?
4. Significance of the study
It is hoped that the study will identify the main causes of the students' low motivation in
speaking activities at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch. In addition, by doing this action
research, the researcher can evaluate the use of the three changes - helping students set
achievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for success - in her classes.
And this would provide the teachers with guidance and assistance to boost students'
motivation in learning to speak English. Students will find it more useful and interesting in
their learning and spend more time on this specific skill. The study will give us convincing
information about the great value of the combination of the three changes in increasing
learners' motivation.
5. Scope of the study
The research was conducted on the students at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch. Due to
the limitation of time, the researcher only focused on the use of the three changes in class
K43B in the first term, in which the researcher taught as a teacher, as K43B can be the
representative of all the classes at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch.
6. Research method
The method employed in this study is an action research, with the use of two instruments:
observations and questionnaires. All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion
are based on the data analysis.
Action research has proved to be the best choice for this study as the study was aimed at
motivating the students to take part in speaking activities within a certain context. The
combination of different instruments used in this research would help to gain reliable data
and help the researcher have a close investigation into the problems that the students were
having.
7. Outline of the thesis
The study consists of three parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion.

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The first part, “Introduction”, presents background to the study, aims of the study,
research questions, significance of the study, scope of the study, research method, and
outline of the thesis.
The second part, “Development” comprises 3 chapters:
Chapter 1, LITERATURE REVIEW, presents relevant theoretical basis for the study,
relating to speaking learning and teaching in language classroom, motivation, motivational
strategies in speaking class and presents previous studies relating to the field.
Chapter 2, METHODOLOGY, provides the readers with the definitions of the action
research, the data collection instruments. Detailed information about the research
procedure and the participants of the study is also presented.
Chapter 3, DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS, analyzes the data collected from the
preliminary investigation stage to form the hypothesis of the study. An intervention plan is
worked out and implemented. The data from the intervention stage are collected and
analyzed to make an evaluation of the effectiveness of the intervention.
The last part, “Conclusion”, reviews the study, gives out pedagogical implications,
presents the limitations of the study and gives suggestions for further study in the same
field.

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PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Speaking
1.1.1. Definitions of speaking
Speaking, as Bygate (1987) defines, involves not only the use of the right sounds in the
patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also the choice of words and inflections in the right
order to convey the right meaning.
Speaking, a productive skill, is known to have two main types of conversation namely
dialogue and monologue, which are rather different. In monologue, you give uninterrupted

oral presentation while in dialogue you interact with one or more other speakers for
transactional and international purposes.
It is noticeable from the two productive language skills that speaking is different from
writing in both processing conditions and reciprocity conditions. “First, spoken language is
affected by the time limitations, and the associated problems of planning, memory, and
production under pressure. Second, it is reciprocal activity, which has a crucial effect on
the kinds of decisions to be made.” (Bygate, 1987: 11-12)
1.1.2. The importance of speaking
In social contexts, social roles are likely to be taken by those who learn and know how to
speak, but not by those who do not have this skill. In language learning, speaking plays an
utmost important role among the four language skills (listening, reading, speaking and
writing) since it helps to identify who knows or does not know a language. Pattison (1992)
confirms that when people mention knowing or learning a language, they actually mean
that they are able to speak the language.
It cannot be denied that speaking deserves as much attention as or even more attention than
written skill. In order to carry out many of the most basic transactions, it is necessary for
learners to speak with confidence.
1.1.3. Accuracy or fluency in the teaching of speaking
Accuracy in language teaching involves the correct use of vocabulary, grammar and
pronunciation. In controlled and guided activities, accuracy is usually the focus and the
teacher makes it clear from feedback that accuracy is important. Ongoing correction is

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often appropriate during accuracy activities. In freer activities the teacher’s hopes are the
students’ correct use of the language and ability to communicate as well.
Fluency can be considered to be the ability to keep the talk going when speaking
spontaneously. When speaking fluently students should be able to get the message across
with whatever resources and abilities they have, regardless of grammatical and other
mistakes. Normally, students should not be corrected during fluency activities. In feedback
afterwards, on the other hand, favorable comment on strategies is needed to increase their

fluency.
1.1.4. Phases to teach speaking
Byrne (1988) distinguishes three following phases to develop learners’ oral ability: the
presentation phase, the practice phase and the production phase.
In presentation phase, teachers are the center of learning and teaching activities. They
work as an information provider. What students usually do in this phase is to observe and
listen to the teacher, i.e. they passively receive information. Normally, they are only asked
to practice (role-play) and dramatize a dialogue or to talk about what they have to learn
from a prose based on the previous answers at the end of this phase.
Unlike the presentation phase, at practice phase learners have to do most of talking as they
are provided maximum amount of practice in the form of controlled and guided activities
to improve vocabulary and grammar knowledge as well as fluency of speaking. The
learners, at this phase, answer the teacher’s guided questions, discuss with their partners to
find new ideas related to the topic. At the end of the practice phase, Ur (1996) suggested
what the teacher should do is to enhance the learners’ fluency of speaking. First, attention
must be fully paid by the learners. Second, the target language must be clearly heard or
repeated. Third, learners understand the meaning of new materials and finally, short-term
memory of the material must be created for later use in the lesson.
At the last phase of learning speaking, production phase, learners are given chances to
speak English freely. Being in a real situation, learners use English by themselves, not
nearly depend on the teacher’s help. Free activities are also in the form of individual work,
pair work and group work. However, pair work and group work are of great importance
and effectiveness as all learners can have chance to participate in talks, and they seem
more confident and more motivated. Moreover, this can save a great deal of time.

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In the process of teaching speaking, improvement of the speaking ability will be gained if
these three phases are followed orderly. However, they might not be applied as expected
because of time limitation, types of learners and materials in use, etc.
1.1.5. Common speaking activities

A variety of activities can be used to develop speaking skills. Below are some of the
common ones.
* Role-play
Role-play is an activity that the class is usually divided into pairs or groups. These pairs or
groups are given situations and roles to act out and explore. This acting is done for the sake
of the language and imaginative activity, not for exhibition. The various groups, therefore,
are activated simultaneously. Dangerfield (1987) suggests nine basic steps in role-play
activities as follow: Language input, Setting of context, Allocation of roles, Statement of
aim, Familiarization will roles, Demonstration, Role-play and achievement of aim, Report
back and Follow up.
Role-plays are simple to plan and easy to play and, along with games and other
communicative activities, are recommended to be used in the English speaking classes.
* Information Gap Activity (IGA)
IGA is one of the easiest and most interesting forms of communicative activity in the
speaking class. In order to get the most proficiency, the teacher can divide the class into
pairs or groups. In each pair or each group, one acts as the asker, the other the answerer, let
them discuss for a few minutes and they change the role.
IGA may take three forms: (1) One student has some information and the other has to find
it by asking questions; (2) One student has some information and tells it to the other
student; (3) Both students have different information and they tell each other.
Underhill (1987) asserts that variety of techniques can be used in IGA. Firstly, they may be
peer or group interview. Two students set out questions and answers to get certain things
about each other. Secondly, they may be peer or group description and recreation
information which one describes a picture or a design to another student who has
constructed the model from the description alone without seeing the original. Thirdly, they

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can be game like (Harmer, 1998) such as describing and drawing, describing and guessing,
finding the differences and completing a story, etc.
* Problem-solving

According to Byrne (1988), problem-solving has been used to group together a wide range
of activities that require students to find “solutions” to problems of different kinds.
Many of these problems involve processes that we commonly use in real life as follows:
- We frequently hypothesize links between two things (events, actions, people, etc.)
- We detect differences (real or imaginary)
- We grade things according to criteria (subjective or objective)
Clearly, problem-solving is believed to be necessary and suited to students of all levels. As
students are put in some situations that are similar to the real life, they actively join in the
activities because of the feeling that they are doing with their language, taking the risks of
experimenting what they have learnt. Moreover, the lessons can become more practical and
attractive to them.
* Other Picture Card Activities
The use of picture cards involves the use of pair and group work. Bellows are some useful
activities.
1. Kim’s Game: The students in groups look at the items on a table for about thirty
second. Next, the items are recovered with a cloth and the groups have to describe and
locate the items. Then the group leaders report to the class what the group had discussed.
2. What is my line: The students in groups have to ask questions of another member
within a limited time span and discover his/her occupation.
3. Twenty questions: One student is asked to write the name of an object or select a
picture of an object and place it face downwards. The others have to question this student
and try to guess what the item is.
4. Patter matching: Prepare two copies of an identical picture. One picture is pasted on a
card; the other is cut up into small pieces. One student describes the picture card while the
other tries to follow and ask more questions for clarification arrange the pieces according
to the instructions.

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5. Describe and Draw: Student A describes what he sees on his card while student B
draws on a piece of paper by following the instructions given. In this activity, student B

also has to ask questions while student gives description.
6. Spot the differences: Here again two sets of identical pictures are used and students in
pairs are told to spot a minimum number of differences.
7. Completing a Map/ Giving Directions: Two or more sets of maps are used. Some
details are given on each of the maps, but on each student’s map certain places would be
deleted and the names of these places would be listed at the bottom. The task is to ask each
other where the places are located to complete the map.
8. The Lost Twin: Each student has a small card on which are printed some of his or her
favorites, e.g. food, drink, hobby, actor, etc. There will be two copies of each card and the
students have to go round the class to find out who has an identical card (the other twin).
To sum up, the above activities are useful for developing speaking skills among students.
They can create out-of-expectation result in the speaking class.
1.1.6. Problems with speaking activities
Ur (1996) claims that a successful speaking activity should achieve a maximal student
talking time, even participation among the students, student strong motivation to speak and
comprehensibility of the students’ language.
She also points out the following common problems in a speaking class:
- Students are inhibited about trying to say things in the classroom.
- Students cannot think of anything to say.
- Some students talk much while others speak very little or not at all.
- Students tend to use their mother tongue instead of the foreign language.
(Ur, 1996: 121)
Thus, for a successful speaking lesson, the teacher, among other things, should be aware of
these problems to have appropriate and effective solutions to motivate the students to
express themselves.

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1.2. Motivation
1.2.1. Definitions of motivation
There have been so far many researches on the theory of motivation. Each author has

his/her own way of explaining what motivation is since they look at motivation from
different angles. However, motivation is generally defined as an abstract concept used to
describe the willingness of a person to expand effort to reach a particular goal. For
language learners, mastery of a language may be a goal. For others, communicative
competence or even basic communication skills could be a goal. In linguistics,
sociolinguistics and second language acquisition, a number of language learner motivation
models have been postulated.
Ausubel (1998) identified six needs constructing motivation: (1) the need for exploration,
(2) the need for manipulation, (3) the need for activity, (4) the need for stimulation, (5) the
need for knowledge, (6) the need for ego enhancement.
According to Lightbrown and Spada (1999), motivation in second language learning is a
complex phenomenon which can be defined in terms of two factors: learners'
communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language community. The
authors explain that if learners need to speak the second language in a wide range of social
situations or fulfill professional ambitions, they will perceive the communicative value of
L2 and will therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it. Likewise, if learners have
favorable attitudes towards the speakers of the language, they will desire more contact with
them.
Malone (1981) defines motivation in terms of the challenge of the activities or tasks
conducted by the teachers. According to him, challenge depends on activities that meet the
needs of students’ different levels. The tasks or activities which are too easy or too difficult
will decrease students’ motivation. On the contrary, if students find the activities
challenging enough, they will be interested more, which leads to effective learning.
Gardner and Lambert (1972) suggested that motivation to learn a second language was
grounded in positive attitudes toward the L2 community and in a desire to communicate
with and become similar to valued members of that community.
Crookes and Schmidt (1991) define motivation in terms of students' interest in and
enthusiasm for the materials and activities used in class, their persistence with the learning

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task as indicated by levels of concentration and enjoyment. Learning is only effective if
students enjoy activities and work hard.
Among what have been mentioned, Crookes and Schmidt’s definition is chosen to use in
this thesis because of two reasons. First, it is directly related to the process of teaching and
learning language which emphasizes the important roles of students. Theoretically, when
students are interested in the activities and are persistent with the learning tasks, they will
get better results in learning. Second, it is similar to what would be studied in the research
project that the researcher wants to examine the students’ interest, satisfaction and
concentration on the varied activities in class, so the working definition in the thesis is:
motivation is interest in and enthusiasm for the activities used in classrooms, attention or
levels of concentration, the effort and persistence with the learning tasks as well as the
challenge of the activities conducted by the teachers. This definition will guide the
researcher to design a questionnaire survey to get the information about the students’
learning motivation in the research.
1.2.2. Types of motivation in foreign language learning
According to theorists, there are some distinctions of types of motivation in foreign
language learning: integrative and instrumental motivation; intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation; global, situational and task motivation.
As can be found in literature, major studies in the past tended to divide motivation into two
broad categories: instrumental and integrative. Their division is mainly based on the
students' purposes. According to Gardner and Lambert (1972), “Instrumental motivation
refers to the learners' desire to learn a language for utilitarian purposes (such as
employment or travel or exam purposes) in the context of language learning”. On the other
hand, “integrative motivation refers to the desire to learn a language to integrate
successfully into the target language community”.
Wajnryb (1992) makes this clearer by stressing the importance of instrumental practical
goals and communication with the people of the culture who speak it. He claims that
instrumental motivation refers to the desire to learn a language because it will be useful for
certain practical goals such as getting a job, reading foreign newspapers or texts, passing
an exam or obtaining a promotion. On the other hand, integrative motivation refers to

wanting to learn a language for reasons of understanding, relating to or communicating
with the people whose language we speak.

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Ellis (1994) and Gardner and Lambert (1972) agree that it is essential to distinguish
instrumental and integrative motivation because, once the teachers are well aware of their
students' motivation, they can find useful ways to create and sustain the learning
motivation in their students.
Some other researchers divide motivation into two main kinds: intrinsic motivation and
extrinsic motivation. The division is closely related to the students' psychology or emotion.
According to Lepper (1988: 289-309), Ur (1996: 278-280) students who are intrinsically
motivated undertake an activity “for its own sake, for the enjoyment it provides, the
learning it permits, or the feelings of accomplishment it evokes”. On the other hand,
extrinsically motivated students perform “in order to obtain some reward or avoid some
punishment external to the activity itself, such as grades or teacher's approval”.
Another division proposed by Brown (1994) suggests three kinds of motivation: global,
situational and task motivation. According to him, global motivation is the overall
orientation of the learner towards the learning of the foreign language while situational
motivation has to do with the context of learning (classroom, total environment). On the
contrary, task motivation has to do with the way the learner approaches the specific task in
hand.
Having mentioned different types of motivation in language learning, the researcher wants
to clarify different purposes that students need to achieve, so in real teaching contexts,
language teachers at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch should apply different strategies
to help the students learn effectively and work better after graduation, not that to help them
pass the exam.
1.2.3. The importance of motivation in foreign language learning
While there has been a great deal of research on the role of motivation in second language
learning, the overall findings reveal that positive attitude and motivation are closely related
to success in second language learning (Gardner, 1985). Motivation is also considered as

“a key consideration in determining the preparedness of learners to communicate”
(Gardner, 1985: 10).
Oxford & Shearin (1994) state: “Many researchers considered motivation as one of the
main elements that determine success in a second or foreign language. It determines the
extent of active, personal involvement in L2 learning”.

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Caroll (1962) pointed out: "the more motivation a learner has, the more time he or she will
spend learning an aspect of a second language".
Labonde (1982), based on the findings made by Garner and Lambert (1972), concluded
that motivation and attitudes are important factors which help determine the level of
proficiency achieved by different learners and the effects of motivation appear to be
separated from the effects of aptitude, the most successful learners will be those who have
both talent and a high level of motivation for learning.
Dornyei (2001) believes that motivation needs to be generated, maintained actively,
protected and retrospectively evaluated.
Another role of motivation in foreign language learning is to promote the choice of
strategies among students learning a second or foreign language. Research has shown that
the use of specific learning strategies and techniques while studying a second or foreign
language leads to success. Oxford (1994) emphasizes "more motivated students tend to use
more strategies than less motivated students, hence, they tend to be more successful".
In short, motivation is a vital factor determining success or failure in second language
learning. It helps L2 learners find and maintain interest in learning a second language and
is worthy of attention of language teachers.
1.3. Strategies for motivating students in speaking activities
To answer the questions of how to motivate learners in English speaking activities, the
researcher have found interesting and applicable ideas in literature. The followings are
some useful motivational strategies adapted from Bligh (1971), Sass (1989), Ames and
Ames (1991), Harris (1991) and Dornyei (2001), Jones and Jones (1995), Oxford and
Shearin (1994), etc.

* Capitalize on students’ existing needs
Students learn to speak best when incentives for learning speaking in class satisfy their
own motives for enrolling in the course. Some of the needs students may bring to the
classroom are the need to learn speaking in order to complete a particular task or activity,
the need to seek new experiences, the need to perfect speaking skill, the need to overcome
challenges, the need to be competent, the need to succeed and do well, the need to feel
involved and to interact with other people. Satisfying such needs is rewarding in itself, and

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such rewards sustain learning more effectively than do grades. Thus, the teacher should
design in-class activities to address these kinds of needs.
* Help students set achievable goals for themselves
Individual goal setting is one of the most effective methods to enable students to
experience a sense of control over their own learning and perceive themselves as mastering
material while incorporating their own interest (Jones and Jones, 1995). It is particularly
relevant to language learning because the ultimate purpose of this prolonged process – to
communicate with foreign speakers - is several years away and is, in fact, for many
learners only moderately realistic; therefore, setting achievable goals has a powerful
motivating function. Oxford and Shearin (1994:19) noted “goal setting can have
exceptional importance in stimulating foreign language learning motivation, and it is
therefore shocking that so little time and energy are spent in the foreign language
classroom on goal setting”.
In agreement with the claim of Locke and Latham’s (1990) on goal setting, Pintric and
Schunk (1996) offer four main principles of goal setting based on the theory that can be
applied in the classroom setting.
- Goals should be clear and specific
- Goals should be challenging and difficult, but not outside the range of students’
capabilities.
- Both proximal and distal goals should be set.
- Teachers should provide feedback that increases students’ self-efficacy for obtaining the

goal.
* Give clear explanation
Some recent research shows that many students do poorly on assignments or in
participation because they do not understand what to do or why they should do it. Teachers
should spend more time explaining why we teach what we do, and why the topic or
approach or activity is important and interesting and worthwhile. In the process, some of
the teacher’s enthusiasm will be transmitted to the students, who will be more likely to
become interested. Similarly, teachers should spend more time explaining exactly what is

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expected on activities. Students who are uncertain about what to do will seldom perform
well.
* Create a comfortable atmosphere
In order to get learners more involved in class, especially in a foreign language speaking
activities, a favorable classroom atmosphere is considered indispensable. As Dornyei
(2001) argues, students often feel embarrassed in language classes because teachers force
them to speak well in front of the other classmates with their limited vocabulary. To help
change this situation and facilitate activities, teachers need to help students understand that
mistakes are all right. Therefore, he argues that teachers should correct errors in indirect
way instead. For instance, if a student says "I go to the cinema yesterday" instead of
pointing out the mistake, a teacher can say the correct sentence, "you went to the cinema
yesterday", in a non-threatening way.
Domyei (2001) goes on argues that in a safe and supportive classroom students feel
comfortable taking risk because they know that they will not be embarrassed or criticized if
they make a mistake.
* Vary teaching activities and methods
Variety reawakens students’ involvement in the activities and their motivation. Break your
routines by incorporating a variety of speaking activities and methods in your classes such
as role plays, debates, brainstorming, discussion, demonstrations, audiovisual
presentations, pair work or group work, etc. to increase your students’ motivation.

* Make learning visual
Even before young people were reared in a video environment, it was recognized that
memory is often connected to visual images. In the middle ages people who memorized the
Bible would sometimes walk around inside a cathedral and mentally attach certain
passages to object inside, so that remembering the image of a column or statue would
provide the needed stimulus to remember the next hundred lines of text. Similarly, we can
provide better learning by using images such as drawings, diagrams, pictures and charts in
speaking activities. It can be seen from researches these images can increase students’ level
of motivation.
* Increase students’ self- confidence

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Learners can perform well when they feel self-confident enough. However, the question is
how to maintain and increase the students’ confidence and self-esteem in a context - the
language classroom - which is inherently face-threatening for the learner (Dornyei, 2001).
He also suggested that language teachers should increase the learners' self-confidence by
promoting their self-conceptions of language competence, by providing regular experience
of success and emphasizing what learners can do rather than can not do, giving them the
feeling of making a useful contribution and creating classroom situations where they can
demonstrate positive features and come forward to offer help (Dornyei. 2001: 130).
* Promoting cooperative learning
Cooperative learning improves communication, lower students' anxiety, raises their self-
esteem, and improves classroom climate. Learning English through cooperative group
work allows students to learn from one another, and the teacher in a supportive
environment. They become more proficient in language as a result of group work because
they have more comprehensible input peer interactions, have better listening skill as a
result of responding to what has been said, have longer conversational turns than in whole-
class teaching situation, and focus on meaning rather than on accuracy (Kessler, 1992).
* Make students active participants in speaking activities
One of the major keys to motivation is the active involvement of students in their own

learning, especially in speaking activities. It is better to get students involved in speaking
activities, worked in pairs or groups, discussing with others, helping to decide what to do
and the best way to do it, helping the teacher, or in some other way getting physically
involved in the activities. Students learn by doing, making, writing, designing, creating and
solving. Passivity dampens student motivation and curiosity.
* Respond to students’ work
Teachers should give students proper feedback on students’ speaking as quickly as
possible. Give students some indication of how well they have done and how to improve.
For example, he can say a student’s presentation or a pair’s performance was good, with an
indication of why it was good: “Lan’s presentation is very good. Her ideas about pollution
really synthesized the ideas we had been discussing.”
* Reward success

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Teachers can help students who do not yet have powerful intrinsic motivation to learn by
extrinsic motivation in the form of rewards. Rather than criticizing unwanted behavior or
answers, rewards can correct behavior and answers. Everyone likes the feeling of
accomplishment and recognition; rewards for good work produce those good feelings.
Remember that adults and children alike continue or repeat behavior that is rewarded. The
rewards can be small and configured to the level of the students. The reward is best if it
helps to reinforce long-term goals set by students. Thus a book on English is more valued
by students who are learning English than something edible. The important point is that
extrinsic motivators can, over a brief period of time, produce intrinsic motivation. Teachers
should bear in mind that in order to achieve the best effect, they should reward success
publicly and immediately.
In short, in this section, various motivational strategies have been mentioned. It can be
seen that if they are used appropriately by teachers, they can bring about great effect on
increasing students’ motivation.
1.4. Previous studies
So far, many researchers in the world namely, Gardner (1985), Crookes and Schmidt

(1991), Dornyei (2001) and so on, have investigated what motivation is, what effects
motivation in foreign language learning and how language teachers should employ
techniques of motivation to improve their class performance. These leading figures have
brought about great insight into how to motivate learners for better achievement and their
findings have generated more research into different aspects of language teaching e.g. how
to arouse students' interest in their struggle to master the four skills.
Relating to effective techniques to motivate learners, Peacock (1997) carried out the
research “The effect of authentic materials on the motivation of EFL learners”. The
subjects of his study were 31 South Korean beginners. The study used on-task and overall
class motivation observation sheets and interview questions. The research findings
confirmed the positive effect of the authentic material on the motivation of EFL learners.
Xiaoying Wang (2007) conducted an action research project in a listening course for the
second-year English majors in one university in China. Based on the data obtained from
classroom observations, students’ journals, interviews with students, and students' response
to an open-ended questionnaire at the end of the term, she claimed that the students
developed a fairly high degree of motivation towards practicing listening due to the

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teacher’s three-part plan, one of which was helping the students set specific goals for
themselves. However, the results were not very convincing because the data collection
instruments were only qualitative.
In Vietnam, Ha Thi Lan (2003) conducted an action research on the effect of
communicative activities of pair work and group work on students’ motivation in speaking.
The subjects of the study were 30 students at Thaibinh School. In order to collect data, the
researcher used a combination of two instruments: questionnaire and classroom
observation. The findings revealed that the students were passive in speaking because of
the lack of communicative activities in class.
Another study was carried out by Hoang Thi Ngan (2006) with the purposes of finding out
how to motivate students to speak at Gia Loc Senior Secondary School. The subjects of the
study were 186 students in Grade 11 and 8 teachers teaching English in the school. The

data collection instruments used in this study were questionnaire and interview. The
findings of the questionnaire and interview showed that most of the students had great
interest in various teaching techniques and communicative activities used by their teachers.
Their preferable teaching techniques were those which gave them friendly, enjoyable and
cooperative atmosphere, in which they were given much more opportunities to speak the
language.
Two generalizations can be made about the above-mentioned studies. Firstly, they all
examine the effects of motivation on teaching and learning. Secondly, they all used similar
data collection instruments – questionnaire and observation. For these reasons, the
researcher will adapt questionnaire and observation to collect information for her study.
In this chapter, the researcher has discussed the definitions of speaking, the importance of
speaking, accuracy or fluency in the teaching of speaking, phases to teach speaking,
common speaking activities and problems with speaking activities. Theories of motivation,
types of motivation in foreign language learning and the importance of motivation in
foreign language learning were also mentioned. In addition, strategies for motivating
students in speaking activities were also focused on. All of the knowledge is concerned
with how to make teaching and learning of speaking skills more effective. Finally,
previous studies in motivation and motivation in English speaking were considered so that
the researcher can adapt their instruments in her study to have reliable data.

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1. An action research
There are many definitions of action research that have been proposed over the last forty
years. Cohen & Manion (1994: 186) define action research as "a small scale intervention in
the functioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of such an
intervention". It was stated by Nunan (1992) that action research is "problem focused",
mainly concerned with a single case in a specific situation, and tries to find solutions to the
problem in focus. It not only encourages teachers to compare methods and ideas with
critical eye and to adopt these ideas into their teaching environment but also engages them

in their teaching in a deeper way. The aim of action research is to identify “problematic”
situation or issues that participants consider worth investigating and to undertake practical
interventions in order to bring about informed changes in practice. Action Research is now
becoming increasingly popular in language education.
Action research was used as the research method for this study for some reasons. Firstly,
the researcher can combine two duties at the same time - teaching and researching, because
there are positive effects on both our knowledge and our practice. Secondly, it is beneficial
to both teachers and learners since it is concerned with improving the immediate learning
environment (Wallace, 2001). Thirdly, it is a fancy way of studying what is happening and
decide how to make it a better place, and it is manageable.
2. 2. Research questions
This action research aims at answering the following questions:
1. What are the causes of the students’ low motivation in English speaking activities?
2. Can the teacher’s intervention (combining the three changes: helping students set
achievable goals, varying speaking activities and using rewards for success) motivate the
students in English speaking activities? If yes, to what extent?
2.3. Description of the subjects
The study was conducted with the participation of 32 students in class K43B at Banking
Academy-Bacninh Branch (where I taught) and 2 teachers acting as observers.
The 32 student participants were doing their first term of the first year at Banking
Academy-Bacninh Branch. They were almost at the same age of 18. 12 of them are boys

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and 20 are girls. They have different levels of proficiency in English. They come from
different areas: 8 from big cities such as Hanoi, Haiphong; 10 from rural areas and 14 from
mountainous provinces such as Caobang, Backan, Dienbien, etc. Among them, 17 have
learnt English for 3 years (from grade 10 to grade 12), 15 have learnt English for 7 years
(from grade 6 to grade 12).
The observers have been teachers of English at Banking Academy-Bacninh Branch for
over five years and they have completed M.A courses in TESOL.

2. 4. The action research procedure
There are several ways in which the steps of action research have been analyzed. Kemmis
& Mc Taggart (1988) suggests that action research has four steps which progress as a
spiraling and evolving process: planning, action, observation and reflection. Susman
(1983) distinguishes five phases to be conducted within each research cycle: (1)
Diagnosing: identifying or defining a problem, (2) Action planning: considering alternative
courses of action, (3) Taking action: selecting a course of action, (4) Evaluating: studying
the consequences of an action, and (5) Specifying learning: identifying general findings.
Burn (1999) considered the action research process as a sequence of cycles which consists
of eleven phases: exploring, identifying, planning, collecting data, analyzing/reflecting,
hypothesizing, intervening, observing, reporting, writing and presenting.
In this study, Nunan’s action research model (1992) was applied as it is easy to carry out in
the teachers' own classroom in limited time and the steps are clear cut to follow. This
model includes six small steps: initiation, preliminary investigation, hypothesis,
intervention, evaluation, and dissemination.
This action research was implemented during 12 weeks starting from week 1 of the course.
The subjects of the study were 32 elementary students from the class K43B at Banking
Academy-Bacninh Branch who participated from the beginning to the end of the study.
Based on the selected model, the following steps were done one after the other. The
description of the six step procedure is presented as follows:
* Step 1: Initiation (week 1 to week 3)
Observing the first three speaking lessons, the researcher realized that the students’
learning motivation and their participation in speaking activities were low. Therefore, she
decided to identify factors affecting the students’ learning motivation in speaking lessons