Application of VARK learning styles model in promoting motivation of non english major students in english class in a police institution

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

NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ THƢƠNG

APPLICATION OF VARK LEARNING STYLES MODEL
IN PROMOTING MOTIVATION OF NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS
IN ENGLISH CLASS IN A POLICE INSTITUTION
(Ứng dụng của mô hình học tập VARK trong việc nâng cao động lực học tập
cho sinh viên không chuyên trong giờ học tiếng Anh tại một đơn vị giáo dục của Cảnh sát)

M.A THESIS (Applied program)

Field

: English Teaching Methodology

Code

: 8140231.01

Hanoi - 2019


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

NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ THƢƠNG

APPLICATION OF VARK LEARNING STYLES MODEL
IN PROMOTING MOTIVATION OF NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS
IN ENGLISH CLASS IN A POLICE INSTITUTION
(Ứng dụng của mô hình học tập VARK trong việc nâng cao động lực học tập
cho sinh viên không chuyên trong giờ học tiếng Anh tại một đơn vị giáo dục của Cảnh sát)

M.A THESIS (Applied program)

Field

: English Teaching Methodology

Code

: 8140231.01

Supervisor : Dr. Nguyễn Thị Mai Hƣơng

Hanoi - 2019


ABSTRACT
This study was intended to investigate the application of VARK model to
promote the motivational state of Non-English major students in a police
institution. More specifically, the author strived to implement her treatment
within one cycle of an action research and aimed to examine (i) the students‟
opinion towards VARK model, and (ii) the effectiveness of VARK towards the
motivational state of the students in learning English.

To gain the above mentioned objectives, an action research project was
conducted with the participant of 31 non-English major students at an academy
in Ministry of Public Security. The data gathered from pre-treatment and posttreatment questionnaire distributed to the students, and interviews with some of
the participants. The duration of the treatment was 12 weeks and all the findings
reported in this study reflect the result of one cycle of an action research project.
It was shown that the majority of the students benefited from the model and their
motivation was positively influenced. The most outstanding evidence was found
in the participants‟ remarkable improvement in spending time for English after
class hour and their increasing linguistic level in terms of higher expectation in
English result and progress. On the basis of the findings, it is suggested that it is
important to adopt a new approach in teaching English to make the learning
process more enjoyable.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research paper would not have been completed without the help of people
to whom I would like to express my deep gratitude.
Firs and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Nguyen
Thi Mai Huong, my supervisor, for her wholehearted support, precious guidance
which were decisive factor to the completion of my study.
Also, I would like to give extend my special thanks to all the lecturers and
officers working at the Postgraduate Faculty, University of Languages and
International Studies, for their supporting me while I was studying and
conducting this thesis.
I would like to give my warmest thanks to all the research participants, my dear
students. Without their valuable opinions and ideas in the questionnaires and
interviews, the research would not have been accomplished.

Last but not least, I owe my colleagues at the Foreign Languages Department of
The People‟s Police Academy and my family for their support. Their patience and
care which helped me go beyond what sometimes looks like an enormous task.

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DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “ Application of VARK learning
styles model in promoting motivation of non-English major students in English
class in a police institution”, which is submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Language Teaching
Methodology at Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and
International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi is the result of my
own work. I have provided fully documented references to the work of others.
The material in this thesis has not been submitted for any other university or
institution wholly and partially.

Hanoi, 2019

Nguyen Thi Ha Thuong

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLIL

: Content and language integrated learning

VARK

: Visual, Aural, Read/Write, Kinesthetic

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Mean scores of the 8 items on attitudes toward learning English .................. 41
Table 2: Mean scores of the 8 items on the linguistic self-confidence ........................ 43
Table 3: Mean scores of the 7 items on students‟ classroom behaviors ...................... 45
Table 4: Mean scores of the 5 items on students‟ opinions towards the current teaching
styles ............................................................................................................................. 46
Table 5: Mean scores of the 13 items on students‟ attitudes towards the VARK model .. 48
Table 6: Mean scores of the 3 items on students‟ attitudes towards learning English
after participating in VARK teaching-learning model ................................................. 50
Table 7: Mean scores of the 5 items on students‟ linguistic self-confidence after
participating in VARK teaching-learning model ......................................................... 51
Table 8: Mean scores of the 7 items on students‟ classroom behavior after participating
in VARK teaching-learning model ............................................................................... 52

Figure 1: Time for English after class ................................................................ 42
Figure 2: Students‟ willingness to volunteer and ability to understand
instructions‟ guideline ........................................................................................ 44
Figure 3: Students‟ concentration and desire to take challenging exercises ...... 45
Figure 4: Understanding about learner's preferences & styles and classroom
atmosphere .......................................................................................................... 47

Figure 5: Time for English after class ................................................................ 50

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................. ii
DECLARATION ................................................................................................ iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES .................................................................. v
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 1
1.1. Rationale of the study .................................................................................. 1
1.2. Aims of the study .......................................................................................... 4
1.3. Scope of the study ......................................................................................... 4
1.4. Methods of the study .................................................................................... 5
1.5. Significance of the study .............................................................................. 7
1.6. Structure of the thesis .................................................................................. 8
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW........................................................ 10
2.1. An overview of motivation......................................................................... 10
2.1.1. Definition of motivation ............................................................................ 10
2.1.2. Classifications of motivation..................................................................... 12
2.1.3. Components of foreign language learning motivation.............................. 16
2.2. Dörnyei’s framework for motivational strategies ................................... 17
2.2.1. Creating the basic motivational conditions ............................................... 17
2.2.2. Generating initial motivation .................................................................... 18
2.2.3. Maintaining and protecting motivation ..................................................... 19
2.2.4. Rounding off the learning experience: encouraging positive selfevaluation ............................................................................................................ 21
2.3. An overview of VARK model .................................................................... 23

2.3.1. What is VARK learning styles? ................................................................ 24
2.3.2. Understanding a visual preference ............................................................ 24
2.3.3. Understanding an aural preference ........................................................... 25
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2.3.4. Understanding a read/write preference ..................................................... 26
2.3.5. Understanding a kinesthetic preference .................................................... 26
2.4. Previous studies ………………………………………………………… 27
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................... 29
3.1. Research design .......................................................................................... 29
3.1.1. Rationale for the use of action research .................................................... 29
3.1.2. The action procedure ................................................................................. 30
3.2. Research context ......................................................................................... 34
3.2.1. The academy context................................................................................. 34
3.2.2. Current learning and teaching of English at the Academy. ...................... 35
3.3. Research participants ................................................................................ 36
3.4. Research instruments................................................................................. 37
3.4.1. Description of the questionnaires .............................................................. 37
3.4.2. Semi-structured interview ......................................................................... 38
3.5. Data collection procedures ........................................................................ 39
3.6. Data analysis procedures ........................................................................... 39
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .............................................. 41
4.1. Pre-treatment .............................................................................................. 41
4.1.1. The English language learning motivational state prior the treatment ..... 41
4.1.2. The students‟ opinions towards the current teaching styles ..................... 46
4.2. Treatment and Post-treatment.................................................................. 47
4.2.1. Research question 1: What are students‟ opinions towards the VARK
model? ................................................................................................................. 47
4.2.2. Research question 2: How does the VARK model affect the students‟

motivational state in learning English? ............................................................... 49
4.3. Summary of the findings ........................................................................... 53
Chapter 5: CONCLUSION .............................................................................. 55
5.1. Conclusion ................................................................................................... 55
5.2. Pedagogical implications from the findings ............................................. 55
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5.3. Limitations of the study ............................................................................. 56
REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 58
APPENDICES ...................................................................................................... I
APPENDIX 1 ......................................................................................................... I
APPENDIX 2 ................................................................................................... VIII
APPENDIX 3 .....................................................................................................XII
APPENDIX 4 ................................................................................................... XVI
APPENDIX 5 .................................................................................................. XVII
APPENDIX 6 ................................................................................................ XVIII
APPENDIX 7 ................................................................................................. XXV

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Rationale of the study
English is a global language which has been believed to be a vital key leading to
success in such an integrated world. According to Crystal (2006) report, this
language is spoken as the first language by approximately 330 to 360 million
people and the number of second-language speaker ranges greatly from 470
million to more than 1 billion. When combining native and non-native speakers,

English is the most widely spoken language worldwide. In Vietnam, learning
English has been a trend and students who are able to communicate fluently in
English can gain some certain privilege and their future career can be ensured.
However, learners‟ attitude and motivation to learn English as a subject are not
the same and differences are found among regions, institutions, and classrooms.
While some learners devote much of their time and effort in learning the target
language, many appear to be unwilling and even indifferent to the necessity of
mastering English. This fact is a result coming from various factors among
which motivation plays a considerably influential effect. As Dörnyei (1994:273)
stated, “motivation is one of the main dominants of second/foreign language
learning achievement.” Later, Dörnyei (2005: 65) emphasized the role of
motivation since “motivation provides the primarily impetus to initiate second
language learning and later the driving force to sustain the long and often
tedious learning process; indeed, all the other factors involved in second
language acquisition presuppose motivation to some extent”.
For nearly 5 years working at the institution, the author has talked with many
non-major English students most of whom share the same feeling that English
course is the most difficult one. To pass the entrance exam to attend the
institution, the students must gain a pretty high result but not all of them are
confident in their language competence. Passive classroom, unresponsive
learners, silent atmosphere in language class are frequently met; the author even
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finds it uneasy to stimulate the fairly advanced learners and make them have
more active participation in the lessons.
Although the students are required to gain B1 level as a condition to receive
graduation paper, many of them feel reluctant to learn English and little progress
is made during the course. As a language teacher, the author understands that
she cannot effectively teach the target language if the relationship between

motivation and its effect on language acquisition is not recognized and valued.
As Epstein and Rogers (2001) explained, because motivation has a vital role in
deciding academic success, teachers need to develop various abilities to promote
students‟ motivational level. This notion was agreed by Grolnick and Ryan
(1987) when they emphasized the role of motivation which has been linked to
higher grades and achievement in school.
The department where the author has been working at was assigned by the
Directorate Board to design a new English course book for the police students.
The title of the course book is “English for Police”, which has been applied in
real teaching-learning since 2016. There are 2 „English for Police‟ course books
with the target of A2 and B1 level (in the Common European framework of
reference for languages). They provide a wide range of police-works-related
topics, all the tasks and activities are designed to enable learners to practice the
4 communicative skills. Since the content of the course books are about police
works listed as investigation, surveillance, the penal code of Vietnam and so on,
it is challenging for both learners and teachers. There have been many times the
author heard about students‟ complaint about the pressure that they have
undertaken while studying the English course. Consequently, there arouses a
necessity in employing a teaching-learning model which can help increase the
learners‟ motivation and encourage them to participate in English classes.
Stimulations will help students to be more attracted to learning sessions and
instantly give attention to the lessons instructed by the teachers. It is also true
that teachers should be creative in diversifying education techniques in class by
2


addressing students‟ learning needs. Effective learning method can draw
students‟ interest and attention to the topic being taught. Interest is an effective
nature and also the key factor that influences students to learn, as Harackiewicz,
Smith and Priniski (2016:220) pointed, “interest is a powerful motivational

process that energies learning, guides academic and carrer trajectories and is
essential to academic success.” Besides, in learning process, student diversity is
a factor which needs to be taken into consideration by teachers. Drago and
Wagner (2004) affirmed that students possess the diversity in learning styles
which has become their priority and teachers should effectively deliver the
course according to the students‟ needs. Teachers should be aware that before
planning their teaching process and assessment in classrooms, they should
initially consider this diversity factor. Teachers must create the right learning
atmosphere with students‟ academic achievement and their needs, so that,
various learning experience structure are assignable to all students. There have
been many structures and models proposed by experts since the idea of
individualized learning styles became popular in the 1970s. One of them is VAK
developed by Walter Burke Barbe and colleagues in 1979. This notion of
sensory was later expanded by Neil Fleming, his VARK model was launched in
1987 through work done at Lincoln University (Fleming, 2006). This includes
diverse learning style such as visual, auditory, read or write and kinesthetic.
Each learner is a unique individual who has his own strength and preferences.
VARK learning styles model has great influence on the way teachers approach
their classroom instruction. It is vital to incorporate the intelligences and
abilities to ignite students‟ competence so that they can reach the highest result
in learning process. Personally, the author strongly believes that teachers can
promote new possibilities for learning, with greater emphasis on long-term
learning, this supports the development of students‟ creativity and critical
thinking. Besides, different teaching strategies can foster a collaborative
classroom in which students comfortably explore themselves and direct their
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own learning. Once boundaries are extended, barriers are broken through;
anxiety or discomfort will be diminished, then, learning process becomes more

enjoyable.
As Kemp, Morrison, Ross (1998) suggested, it is important for the effectiveness
of teaching environments to take account of group or individual learners‟
characteristics. The author decided to choose VARK among many models to
motivate students to have more engagement in learning English and then to
motivate them practice their skills. Although this model has received different
viewpoints from experts and it has not been introduced widely in Vietnam, the
decision was supported by a notion agreed by Murphy et al. (2004), learning
based on VARK learning style model provides a medium for self-knowledge
and exploring opportunities in classrooms, thus, making a more productive
learning experience and enjoyment among students. The author hopes that
students are given the opportunity to study in distinctive situations and
presentation methods until they are capable to identify the most suitable
technique and their own individual learning style.
1.2. Aims of the study
The study was conducted with an attempt to find a way of making the learning
English process more inspiring and enjoyable to a group of non-major first-year
police students at the People‟s Police Academy. The students were expected to
have more involvement and play more active roles in classroom activities.
Among a wide variety of motivational models, the author chose VARK
(Fleming, 2006) to attract students and encourage them participating in the
learning process. Specifically, it addressed the following research questions:
1. What are students‟ opinion towards VARK model?
2. How does the VARK model affect the students‟ motivational state in learning
English?
1.3. Scope of the study
Motivation plays a significant role in the process of learning a language.
Language teachers cannot effectively teach a language if they do not understand
4

the relationship between motivation and its effect on language acquisition. In
this study, the author does not attempt to take all the aspects of the concept into
consideration. Due to time constraints, this action research just measured the
English learning motivational state of 31 first year non-English major police
students from group TC3-D43 at The People‟s Police Academy before and after
the writer‟s treatment as the application of VARK model (Fleming, 2006) during
their first semester of the English course. All of them are from different majors
who are required to take a placement test to join an English class to avoid the
problem of multi-level learners. The time when the research was conducted was
at the beginning of the second semester of the session 2017-2018. The
researcher was also a participant who played the role of teacher appointed to be
in charge of the class from the beginning of the semester. This promotes a
consistent procedure in implementing this research. The data collection
instruments include the survey questionnaire, and semi-structured interview to
achieve the purpose of the research. Moreover, all the learning activities were
designed to ensure that they satisfy the VARK features and follow the content of
the course book.
1.4. Methods of the study
The research approach that the author employed is action research which
followed the procedures guided by steps in the action research cycle by Kemmis
and McTaggart (1998). To come to the analysis and findings, the questionnaires,
and semi-structured interview were adopted as the data collection instruments.
The action taken in the study was VARK model (Fleming, 2006) designed for
the duration of 12 weeks and Dörnyei‟s framework of motivational strategies
was adapted. The four steps of the action proposed by Kemmis and McTaggart
(1998) were implemented as followed:
Step 1: Planning
When the author recognized the low motivational state of most of non-English
major students at the Academy, she decided to make changes to address the

5


student‟s needs. Firstly, the VARK survey was conducted to investigate each
student‟s learning styles and preferences. Besides, pre-treatment questionnaires
were distributed to each learner so that the researcher could understand and
measure the participants‟ motivational state in learning English. The participants
were reminded not to write their names on the questionnaire and the researcher
created friendly, welcome atmosphere to ensure that all the answers received
would be honestly and freely made. A report on types of students‟ learning
styles and motivation in the learning process was listed in a table with analysis.
The data was analyzed to make a plan to tackle the issue. The result suggested
that the low level of motivation was resulted from classroom language activities
which are not only dull but also fail to address learners‟ needs and learning
styles. Consequently, there arouses a need to adopt some new kinds of teachinglearning model like VARK (Fleming, 2006) to stimulus students‟ engagement
and motivation because it helps the teachers explore the different preferences
and talents of each learner. The researcher played the role as a teacher who
implemented detailed lesson plans and create appropriate activities as well as
prepare all the tools, visual aids so that the new teaching approach can be
applied in her classroom.
Step 2: Acting
The VARK model is applied following some of Dörnyei‟s motivational
strategies in classroom. All the activities should be consistent to the units
following the course syllabus. In the first semester in which the action research
is implemented, learners are expected to gain level of A2.
Step 3: Observing
After each period, the teacher wrote her teaching diary to notice any problems
that occurs. The notes consist of 2 main parts: (1) descriptive information and
(2) reflective information. In the first part, the researcher documented detail

information about the factual and settings of the class, any classroom
behaviours, conversations or discussions, any non-verbal conversations that she
6


noticed. All the information helps reveal the participants‟ feelings, attitudes,
thoughts about the tasks/activities they were enrolling in. The teacher also tried
to note down if there were people who remained silent for more than 3 periods.
Besides, during the lesson, the teacher recorded the frequency of hand-raising
from participants in the namelist to mark their contribution and improvement. In
the second part, the researcher recorded her thoughts, question that came up
during observation. This helps bring about an insight review of the lessons
because the researcher can focus on her impressions of the class atmosphere,
ideas concerning things she should or should not implement to design more
suitable activities for the next period, and then have more concentration on
unanswered questions or unsolved problems that remain. These notes were
reviewed so that the researcher can have immediate and appropriate adjustment
for the next period. Moreover, at the end of each lesson, she conducted a short
mini-interview to investigate her students‟ feeling and encourage any suggestion
for the next English lesson.
Step 4: Reflecting
After the duration of 12 weeks, the post-treatment questionnaire was conducted
to evaluate the influence of the model on student‟s learning motivation. 03
among the participants were randomly selected to complete the semi-structure
interview so that the writer can gather more in-depth data. All of these would
help to come to the analysis and findings to answer all the research questions.
1.5. Significance of the study
This study describes, analyzes, and evaluates a research project to investigate
the effectiveness when applying VARK learning styles model (Fleming, 2006)
in promoting motivation in non-English major students when enrolling in

languages class. By conducting this research, it is hoped that the findings may
help teachers to have a closer look at the current situation of applying VARK
learning styles model (Fleming, 2006) in English classroom. Teachers can
investigate the success level when employing different types of activities in
7


developing students‟ proficiency. Besides, teachers can look back their effort to
integrate this learning styles in communicative class for themselves; hence the
better quality of teaching and learning can be reached so that students can
benefit from the activities.
VARK learning styles model (Fleming, 2006) offers English language teachers a
richly diversified way of understanding and categorizing human cognitive
abilities, and combinations of abilities, heightening our awareness of what
makes learning possible and effective for individual students. By integrating
VARK learning styles in the language classroom, teachers can easily approach
the areas of personal meaningfulness of their students because they highlight the
difference inherent in the students and employ appropriate activities that can
ignite individuals‟ competence at the center of teaching and learning process.
All the four main types of learning styles (visual, auditory, reading/writing
kinesthetic) can be brought into great consideration in the language classroom
since they constitute distinct frames for working on the same linguistic content.
This diversity of presentations enables students to learn in their best way; at the
same time, boredom in lessons can be reduced significantly since language
learning requires frequent reviewing over the same material if learning is to be
sustained.
1.6. Structure of the thesis
This study is composed of five following parts:
Chapter 1: Introduction
It presents the back ground, aims, research questions, the significance, the scope

and the design of the study.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
This chapter conceptualizes the framework of the study through the discussion
of issues and ideas on definitions of motivations, types of motivation and VARK
model.

8


Chapter 3: Research Methodology
The third chapter presents the context, the methodology that was employed in
the study including the subject, data collection instruments, data collection
procedure and analysis.
Chapter 4: Results and Discussions
The fourth chapter consists of a comprehensive analysis of the data and a
discussion on the findings of the action research.
Chapter 5: Conclusion
This last chapter proposes a summary of the findings, recommendations,
limitations and directions for further study.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter proposes a review of the literature related to motivation in learning
English and VARK model. In each section, the definition and explanation of the
key terms is presented together with the studies worldwide.
2.1. An overview of motivation
As Dörnyei (2001:1) agreed, “„motivation‟ is best seen as a broad umbrella term
that covers a variety of meanings.” In the field of second and foreign language

acquisition, the concept of motivation came from social psychology. The initial
purpose of this literature review is to discuss the motivation definition and types
of motivation.
2.1.1. Definition of motivation
Motivation is a multifaceted construct and different researchers in psychology
and other social science disciplines define it in many different ways. Dörnyei
(1998) argued on the exact definition of „motivation‟. He commented, “although
„motivation‟ is a term frequently used in both educational and research contexts,
it is rather surprising how little agreement there is in the literature with regard to
the exact meaning of the concept” (p.117). The word “motivation” derives from
the Latin word “movere” and stands for „to move‟. According to The Short
Oxford English Dictionary, motivation is “that which moves or induces a person
to act in a certain way; a desire, fear, reason, etc which influences a person‟s
volition: also often applied to a result or object which is desired.” However, to
think of motivation as belonging only to the initial stages of an action, that is as
concerned with arousing initial interest and turning it into a decision to engage
in some activity – is only a limited understanding of the term. The need to
maintain this state of arousal, to determine someone to make the necessary effort
to complete an action is also of great importance. This notion was supported in a
definition by William and Burden (1997:120) who defined motivation as “a state
of cognitive and emotional arousal which leads to a conscious decision to act,
and which gives rise to a period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort in
10


order to attain a previously set goal (or goals).” Then, motivation is a concept
which is usually associated with interest, commitment, enthusiasm, and
persistence to achieve goals.
Success in second language learning is often related to the concept of
„motivation‟. Motivation is the most used concept for explaining the failure or

success of a language learner, as Dörnyei (2001:1) stated, “language teachers
frequently use the term „motivation‟ when they describe successful or
unsuccessful learners.” The term motivation in a second language learning
context is seen according to Gardner (1985:10) as “referring to the extent to
which the individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to
do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity.” He also explained the
term with the precision of mathematical demonstration: motivation is a
combination of effort plus desire to achieve a goal plus favorable attitudes
towards the goal to be accomplished (Gardner, 1985:11). Then, motivation consists
of these following components: effort to achieve a goal, desire to learn the
language, satisfaction with the language activity and attitudes towards the goal.
While a variety of definitions of the term “motivation” have been suggested, this
paper will use the definition suggested by McDonough (2007:369) who saw it
as, “motivation is what moves us to act, in this context to learn English, to learn
to teach English, or to teach it.” He described motivation as a “property of the
learner” which it is also a transitive concept and it can also come from a coach
or a teacher. Especially in school, students are often unmotivated to follow the
lesson wherefore their teachers should be able to motivate them. Motivation is
dynamic and changes over time, especially in the usually long-drawn out
process of language learning. It is thus remarkably complex and the teacher's
role in influencing the learners‟ motivation central, and difficult. It goes far
beyond the provision of reward (itself dependent on the learner's self-efficacy).
It involves providing a supportive and challenging learning environment, but
also facilitating the development of the learners‟ own motivational thinking,
11


beyond simply identifying their original orientation. The author also takes
another definition into consideration which was proposed by Crookes and
Schmidt (1991), motivation involves interest in and enthusiasm for the materials

used in class; persistence with the learning task, as indicated by levels of
attention or action for an extended duration; and levels of concentration and
enjoyment.
In short, each approach to motivation reflects different perspectives and there
exist differences in the teaching contexts, with different fields, in different
teaching-learning conditions and even with different learners and teachers. Most
of the educationalists and researchers identified the 3 components of motivation:
the choice of learning a language, the effort expended on it and the persistence
with it.
2.1.2. Classifications of motivation
Gardner and Lambert‟s (1972) theory of motivation draws an important
relationship between motivation and orientation (which is Gardner‟s term for
a „goal‟). Various psychological approaches differ greatly in terms of the
assumed role of goals in them: in goal theories, obviously, goals constitute
the motivational foci, whereas in self-determination theory, goals do not
appear in the core motivation concept at all. Gardner‟s motivation theory falls
into two orientations labelled integrative and instrumental which have
become the most widely known concepts associated with Gardner‟s work in
the second language field.
Integrative orientation refers to the positive disposition of an individual to learn
a language, its culture, and its community as Gardner (1985:82) defined as “a
motivation to learn a second language because of positive feelings toward the
community that speaks that language.” It is thought that students who are most
successful when learning a target language are those who like the people that
speak the language, admire the culture and have a desire to become familiar with
or even integrate into the society in which the language is used (Falk 1978).
12


When someone becomes a resident in a new community that uses the target

language in its social interactions, integrative motivation is a key component in
assisting the learner to develop some level of proficiency in the language. It
becomes a necessity, in order to operate socially in the community and become
one of its members.
On the other hand, instrumental orientation refers to the practical reasons of an
individual to learn a language. This orientation is the utilitarian counterpart of
integrative orientation in Gardner‟s theory, pertaining to the potential pragmatic
gains of second language proficiency, such as getting a better job or a higher
salary or gaining a scholarship. This feature was stated in Hudson (2000) as the
desire to obtain something practical or concrete from the study of a second
language, and Gardner and Lambert (1959:267) when they mentioned the
“utilitarian value of linguistic achievement”. Instrumental motivation is often
characteristic of second language acquisition, where little or no social
integration of the learner into a community using the target language takes
place, or in some instances is even desired.
There was disagreement about the effects of integrative and instrumental
motivation on language learning. As mentioned later by Gass and Selinker
(2008), integrative motivation was regarded as superior to instrumental
motivation for predicting the success of second language learning, because if
students respect the target culture, they may read literature or practice the
language and thereby be able to improve their language skills (Vaezi, 2008).
However, argument can be found in Dörnyei (1990) who suggested that
instrumental motivation could be more important than integrative motivation for
foreign language learners since foreign language learners are not likely to have
sufficient knowledge and experience to take part in the culture of the people
who speak the target language in their early stage of language learning. Over
the past decade, different studies conducted worldwide revealed that
instrumental motivation and integrative motivation play a supportive role
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respectively in different situation, towards distinct respondents. While it is
agreed that integrative motivated learners might have a significant and strong
reason to learn the second language, Gardner's emphasis on integrative
motivation for language learning may not fit in all language learning situations
(Schmidt, Boraie, and Kassabgy, 1999). Actually, integrative and instrumental
motivations are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Later, Brown (2000) stated
that learners rarely have a single type of motivation when learning a second
language. The motivation of learning a second language is usually a
combination of different forms of orientations. He has cited an example of
international students who are residents in the United States. The international
students learn English for academic purposes while wishing to be integrated
with the people and culture of the country at the same time. This example has
clearly shown that integrative and instrumental motivations can mutually exist.
In some cases, it is difficult to divide instrumental and integrative motivations.
Additionally, students‟ learning goals were broken up into different motivation
clusters. One of the most general and well-known distinctions in motivation
theories is that of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as Vallerand (1997)
reported. As Schmidt et al. (1996) cited in Carreira (2005), intrinsic-extrinsic
distinction is similar to integrative-instrumental distinction, but not identical.
Deci and Ryan (1985) claimed that intrinsic motivation concerns behavior
performed for its own sake in order to experience pleasure and satisfaction such
as the job of doing a particular activity or satisfying one‟s curiosity. This notion
is later supported by Coon and Mitterer (2012), intrinsic motivation occurs when
the individual acts without any obvious external rewards and he simply enjoys
an activity, take it as a chance to explore his potentials. In brief, this type of
motivation is internal; the individual invests time, money and energy in the
chosen activity for personal reasons. Unlike intrinsically motivated learner, a
person who is extrinsically motivated might learn the target language even when
he or she has no interest in it, solely for the purpose of receiving the anticipated

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reward or avoiding punishment. Extrinsic motivation is driven by desire for
reward from outside: parents, employers, teachers or others. This type of
motivation may have a negative purpose to avoid punishment, ridicule or loss of
status (Ryan and Deci, 2000) and it also involves “performing a behavior as a
means to an end, that is to receive some kind of reward e.g. good grades”
(Dörnyei, 2003:39). These rewards are “tangible benefits or cost, if the reason
for learning the language is taken away there is no incentive to continue
engagement in the learning process” (Dörnyei, 2003:39). In short, extrinsic
motivation is external force drives a learner to learn a second language for
tangible rewards or pressures, rather than for the fun of it.
It is important to notice that motivation changes over time, as Dörnyei (2003)
suggested. And it cannot be viewed as a stable attribute of learning that remains
constant for several months or years; however, a student‟s motivation fluctuates
going through certain ebbs and flows. Such variation may be caused by a “range
of factors, such as the phase of the school year, e.g. motivation might decrease
with time or the type of activity that the students face” (Dörnyei, 2003:21). This
was earlier mentioned in Dörnyei and Schmidt (2001) that each individual‟s
motivation for success at a given task are based on their attitudes, beliefs, their
ability to have some sort of control over the task, the perceived value of the task,
and the apparent competence for the task. It could be concluded that each
student processes the task and activities differently, and a person‟s motivation is
not fixed, it can change in learning process. Someone may start off with
instrumental motivation but this develops later into integrative motivation. Or,
students may start with integrative motivation but later can lose over time their
interest in learning a second language and change their motivation in an
instrumental one. Likewise, students in different contexts may be motivated to

learn a second language by different orientations and their reasons to learn may
root from intrinsic or extrinsic factors. With different groups of learners,
researchers and teachers can explore different knowledge and come up with a
variety of findings.
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