An exploratory study of teacher’s motivational strategies in teaching english speaking into grade eighth students at a junior high school in ha noi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
---  ---

NGUYỄN THỊ TRANG

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY
OF TEACHER’S MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES
IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING INTO GRADE EIGHTH
STUDENTS AT A JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN HANOI
(Nghiên cứu tìm hiểu về các chiến thuật tạo động lực trong giờ dạy
kĩ năng nói của giáo viên đối với học sinh khối 8 tại một trường cấp 2 ở Hà Nội)
M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field : English Language Teaching Methodology
Code : 8140231.01

Hanoi – 2021


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
---  ---

NGUYỄN THỊ TRANG

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY
OF TEACHER’S MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES
IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING INTO GRADE EIGHTH

STUDENTS AT A JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN HANOI
(Nghiên cứu tìm hiểu về các chiến thuật tạo động lực trong giờ dạy
kĩ năng nói của giáo viên đối với học sinh khối 8 tại một trường cấp 2 ở Hà Nội)
M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field

: English Language Teaching Methodology

Code

: 8140231.01

Supervisor : Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã, Ph.D

Hanoi – 2021


DECLARATION
I certify that this minor thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of the Master of Arts is the result of my own work. The
data and findings in the thesis are true and have not been published elsewhere.
Signature

Nguyễn Thị Trang

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To accomplish this study, I am indebted to many people for their
meaningful help.
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Vu
Thi Thanh Nha for her valuable guidance, enthusiastic support, critical feedback, and
especially, her enormous encouragement for the completion of the study.
I am also grateful to all the lecturers of Post-graduate Department, Hanoi,
University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University for
their enthusiastic guidance and valuable lectures during the course.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to all my colleagues and my students
at Thuong Mo Junior High School for their helpful participation in my questionnaires
and my interviews, without which my thesis could not have been accomplished.
Finally, I am indebted to my friends and my family, especially my husband for
his love, his care, his help and his enormous encouragement, which gave me great
inspiration and spiritual support for the completion of this study.

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ABSTRACT
In the age of globalization, most people are supposed to speak English well for
a better and brighter future life. Hence, teaching and learning English, especially
developing students’ speaking skills has emerged as one of the leading foci of interest.
The problem is that a number of students do not appear to speak English, even a
couple of sentences after several years studying this subject at school. This is the
common case in Vietnam, especially those in suburban areas and in the countryside.
This research is an attempt to investigate the common factors that are perceived as
speaking demotivatives by grade-eight students in a Junior High School in Vietnam
and the common strategies teachers use to motivate their students to speak English in
class. The questionnaire was delivered to 70 students at grade eight and interviews
for both teachers and students were carried out. The data generated were descriptively

analyzed. The findings are quite surprising as most of the students in the survey
admitted that they were forced to learn English and found speaking lessons boring
and difficult. Students also felt demotivated mainly because of the factors related to
textbooks; monotonous teaching methods; difficult English vocabulary and grammar.
More importantly, teachers’ inappropriate behaviours were among the foremost
factors that discouraged students to get involved in the lessons. Teachers’ fast pace
of speaking, losing temper during classes, inadequate interactive activities together
with insufficient use of modern teaching aids resulted in students’ lack of motivation
in English speaking classes. The results of the study also revealed that teachers of
English were unlikely to use motivational strategies very often when teaching
speaking. Based on these findings, the study attempted to make some suggestions:1)
Using media is very important both to increase the learners’ motivation and to give a
big opportunity to learners to explore their idea in speaking. 2) Giving more variations
techniques in teaching and learning process in general and in teaching speaking skills
in particular so as not to do monotonous. 3) Giving prizes, encouraging and giving
extra points for learners who can express their idea by speaking English well. 4)
Creating favorable atmosphere in the classroom.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CLT: Communicative Language Teaching
EFL: English as Foreign Language
L1: First language
L2: Second language
No: Number
TEFL: Teaching English as Foreign Language
TM: Thuong Mo Junior High School

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Types of students’ motivation .................................................................................... 30
Table 2: Difficulties students encounter when taking part in English speaking classes ...... 34
Table 3: Student –related demotivators in speaking English................................................. 36
Table 4: Classroom and textbook-related demotivating factors............................................ 38
Table 5: Ice-breaking techniques motivating students best before starting a speaking
lesson ........................................................................................................................................... 43
Table 6: Strategies dealing with low motivated students ....................................................... 52
Table 7: Frequency of feedback on students’ performance ................................................... 53
Table 8: The frequency of application of different motivational strategies by their
language teachers ....................................................................................................................... 55

LIST OF CHARTS AND FIGURES
Figure 1: The components of motivational teaching practice in the L2
classroom .................................................................................................................................. 18
Chart 1: Students’ perception of their English proficiency ......................................... 33
Chart 2: Students’ attitudes toward speaking lessons ................................................... 34
Chart 3: Teachers’ frequency on creating basic motivation condition in speaking
class ............................................................................................................................................. 40
Chart 4: Frequency of using different speaking activities ........................................... 45
Chart 5: Frequency of using different classroom arrangement .................................. 47
Chart 6: Students’ preference for classroom arrangement .......................................... 49
Chart 7: Frequency of using teaching aids ....................................................................... 51
Chart 8: Frequency of using teaching aids ....................................................................... 51

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TABLES CONTENT
DECLARATION...........................................................................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................ iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................................iv
LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... v
LIST OF CHARTS AND FIGURES .......................................................................................... v
TABLES CONTENT ..................................................................................................................vi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1
1. Rationale of the study .............................................................................................................. 1
2. Aims of the study ...................................................................................................................... 2
3. Research questions ...................................................................................................................3
4. Methods of the study ................................................................................................................ 3
5. Scope of the study..................................................................................................................... 3
6. Significance of the study .......................................................................................................... 3
7. Orangisation of the thesis ........................................................................................................ 3
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................................................. 5
2.1. Theoretical background of motivation ................................................................................ 5
2.1.1. Definition of motivation ..................................................................................................... 5
2.1.2. Motivation in foreign language learning. ......................................................................... 6
2.1.3. The importance of Motivation in language learning ...................................................... 7
2.1.4. Main de-motivating factors affecting motivation in foreign language learning ........... 8
2.2. Teaching Speaking and Motivational Strategies .............................................................. 11
2.2.1. Teaching speaking in foreign language .......................................................................... 11
2.2.2. Motivational strategies in teaching speaking ................................................................. 13
2.2.3. Strategies in Improving Students’ Motivation in Speaking Skill ................................ 15
2.3. Previous studies ................................................................................................................... 19
2.4. Chapter summary ............................................................................................................... 21
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................... 23

3.1. Context of the study ............................................................................................................ 23
3.1.1. Teachers ............................................................................................................................ 23
3.1.2. Textbook ........................................................................................................................... 24
3.1.3. Teaching and learning English at TM............................................................................ 24
3.2. Methodology ........................................................................................................................ 25

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3.2.1. Participants of the study .................................................................................................. 25
3.2.2. Instruments of the study .................................................................................................. 26
3.2.3. Data collection procedures .............................................................................................. 27
3.2.4. Data analysis ..................................................................................................................... 28
3.3. Chapter summary ............................................................................................................... 28
CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS ....................................................................................................... 30
4.1. Students’ attitude toward learning English ...................................................................... 30
4.2. Students’ demotivation in speaking English ..................................................................... 32
4.2.1. Students’ difficulties in speaking English ...................................................................... 32
4.2.2. Demotivating factors related to teacher ......................................................................... 35
4.2.3. Demotivating factors related to classroom and textbook ............................................. 37
4.3. Motivational strategies commonly used in speaking class............................................... 39
4.3.1. Creating the Basic Motivational Conditions.................................................................. 39
4.3.2. Generating initial motivation .......................................................................................... 42
4.3.3. Maintaining and creating motivation ............................................................................. 45
4.3.4. Giving feedback ................................................................................................................ 53
4.3.5. Students’ perceptions on teachers’ motivational strategies in speaking classes......... 54
4.3.6. Chapter summary ............................................................................................................ 57
CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION .............................................................. 59
5.1. Summary of the research ................................................................................................... 59
5.2. The research findings ......................................................................................................... 60

5.3. Recommendations ............................................................................................................... 62
5.3.1. Various use of motivational teaching strategies in Vietnam ........................................ 62
5.3.2. Contribution to classroom practices .............................................................................. 63
5.4. Limitations of the study ...................................................................................................... 64
5.5. Suggestion for further research ......................................................................................... 65
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 67
APPENDICES .............................................................................................................................. I
APPENDIX 1 ................................................................................................................................ I
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE .................................................................................................... I
PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA .................................................................................................................. VII
APPENDIX 2 ............................................................................................................................ XII
GUIDELINES OF EXPLORATORY INTERVIEW ........................................................... XII

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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
English is widely regarded as the world’s lingua franca. It has long become
one of the most effective tool to involve Vietnam with other countries in the world.
The global demands make communicating in English fluently the new standard. In
the past decades, Vietnam has witnessed a dramatic rise in the number of people using
English in daily life and business communication. Being aware of the importance of
English on the remarkable growth of society, as well as other nations, the Government
of Vietnam decided to make English compulsory to learn in general education
curriculum.
To meet the demand of developing the full potential of learners’ speaking
competence, most of the text books in Vietnam are published in communicative forms
with a wide range of activities to keep students engaged. Also, communicative
language teaching approach has been applied instead of traditional methods in which

grammatical competence is much more paid attention to. However, a large number
of students fail to fluently communicate in English. The underlying reason is that
students, mostly, follow traditional approach that focuses on grammatical
competence, developing reading skills and use of written language, which is to meet
the requirements of national examinations.
Often, knowing a foreign language is associated with speaking that language
fluently and using language orally for different purposes in today‘s globalizing world.
Though its high importance in interaction, this language skill is commonly
undervalued and simply perceived as rehearsing vocabularies and sentences in an
accurate order. In fact, speaking skill is much more than uttering words and putting
vocabularies into a sequential order; it necessitates mastering the grammar of the
target language, paralinguistic elements of the speaking skill, such as stress,
intonation, non-linguistic elements of communication (e.g., gestures and body
language), discourse, and sociolinguistic competence (Shumin, 2002). Achieving
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speaking skill, therefore, is perceived as a highly challenging process, which needs a
conscious effort from language learners. Unfortunately, with three –year experience
as an English teacher in TM junior high school, I recognized that most of students
here show their lack of motivation in learning speaking skill. They invest little time
and efforts to practice and improve their speaking skill little. They don’t cooperate
with teacher. Without the presence of motivation, even good teaching methods and
appropriate curricula do not ensure success in learning (Dörnyei, 1998). Dörnyei
(2001) further states that motivation, as a key element of the learning process, is often
regarded as a cure-all for undesirable outcomes and behaviors in education. In the
language learning domain, motivation, which is generally accepted as leading to the
success or failure of the learner when learning a foreign language, plays a pivotal role
in mastering the language. Therefore, in order to achieve long-term goals and success
in language learning, a learner needs at least a modicum of motivation (Dörnyei &

Csizér, 1998; Guilloteaux & Dörnyei, 2008). Considering the importance of
motivation in foreign language learning and the importance of the speaking skill as a
neglected language skill in EFL settings in my teaching environment, I decided to
carry out the study “An exploratory study of teacher’s motivational strategies in
teaching English speaking into grade eighth students at a junior high school in
Hanoi”. By doing that, I desire to investigate the associations with EFL learners’
motivation to speak English and the underlying reasons behind students’ participation
in speaking classrooms. Furthermore, based on the study, some motivational
strategies to improve the student’s English proficiency and involvement in oral
activities in particular will be drawn out.
2. Aims of the study
The study aims at exploring motivation of grade eighth students at a junior
high school in learning English speaking skill. Accordingly, two objectives are set by
the researcher when conducting this study as follow: To find why grade-eight students
are not motivated in speaking lesson, to discover what motivational strategies can be
applied to teaching English speaking skill.
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3. Research questions
To reach such an aim as mentioned, the study attempts to find out the
answers to the two following questions:
Question 1: What are the factors that demotivate grade-eight students during
speaking lessons?
Question 2: What motivational strategies can be applied to teach English
speaking?
4. Methods of the study
Qualitative methods were employed to answer the questions of the study. The
data were collected by means of classroom observation and survey questionnaires.
5. Scope of the study

To succeed in teaching and learning a foreign language, many factors are
pay attention to. Among these factors, motivational strategies are the focal point of
the study as a main factor in teaching speaking skills. Due to the time constraints, this
study only focuses on two English teachers and seventy students in grade eighth at
the target school in Ha Noi, therefore, the investigation of students in other schools
would be beyond the scope.
6. Significance of the study
The study hopes to contribute partly to help teacher to find out more
motivational strategies to give a help their students improve their speaking skills.
7. Orangisation of the thesis
This study concludes of five main parts:
Chapter I: Introduction presents the rationale of the study, the aims of the
study, research questions, scope of the study, significance of the study, methods of
the study, and design of the study.
Chapter II. Literature review displays the theoretical background of
motivation and of teaching speaking skills, the importance of motivation in language
learning in general and in speaking classroom in particular. The writer also revises
theories related to demotivative factors that discourage students to take part in English
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speaking class actively. Furthermore, different frameworks on strategies applied to
motivate students in speaking classrooms are also discussed. Based on these, the
writer identifies the motivational strategy framework that shapes the study. At the
end of this part, findings and limitations of previous studies are also discussed.
Chapter III. Methodology presents the context of the study, participants,
research instruments and data collection procedure and methods.
Chapter IV. Date Analysis focuses on presentation of data and detailed
description of data analysis about kind of motivation possessed by the grade eight
students, strategies used by teachers of speaking skills and motivational strategies can

be applied.
Chapter V. Results and discussion presents, analyzes and discusses the results
obtained from the study based on the questionnaire and interview questions. Besides, the
researcher also presents some discussion and interpretations of the findings of the study,
and then gives suggestions for the teachers in teaching speaking skill at the school. The
implications of the study are also given in this chapter.
Reference and Appendices are represented in the last pages of the study.

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CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter provides the theoretical background of motivation in general and
in the field of foreign language learning, discussing its definitions and classifications.
The writer then attempts to highlight main demotivating factors keeping students
from staying engaged in foreign language classroom. An overview of motivational
strategies that aid teachers to involve students in learning activities are also
mentioned. In addition, the writer makes an effort to cover briefly theories of teaching
speaking skills focusing on defining the term speaking and its importance,
spotlighting the approaches of teaching speaking skills for foreign learners. The end
of this chapter will discuss findings and limitations of previous studies related to the
issue.
2.1. Theoretical background of motivation
2.1.1. Definition of motivation
Through the past decades, much research on motivation has been undertaken.
Remarkably, however, these deceptively simple questions have provoked
considerable debate and disagreement among scholars (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2013:4).
As Martin Covington (1998:1) stated that “motivation, like the concept of gravity, is
easier to describe …. than it is to define.” Gardner (2006) share the same viewpoint
as assuming that “motivation is a very complex phenomenon with many facets…

thus, it is not possible to give a simple definition”. This is because the term
“motivation” is interpreted in different ways by different researchers. From cognitive
perspective, Keller (quoted in Brown, 2000:160) emphasized on the individual’s
decision as stating that “motivation is the extent to which you make choice about (a)
goals to pursue and (b) the effort you will devote to that pursuit.” Williams and
Burden (1997), on the other hand, approaching motivation on constructivist
viewpoint, emphasize further both on social context and individual personal choices.
They refer motivation as reasons for people’s decision on acting in certain ways and
factors influencing their choices. Elliot (2000) refers to motivation as an internal state
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that arouses someone to act pushes someone in particular directions, and keeps
engaged in certain activities. Also, Santrock (2004) claims that motivation is the
process to energize, direct, and sustain behavior. Each person is motivated differently,
and will therefore act on his or her environment in ways that are unique.
To sum up, the different definitions above illustrate well that motivation is
indeed an umbrella-term involving a wide range of different factors. However, the
core factor of motivation is the need, that is, “the fulfillment of needs is rewarding,
requires choices, and in many cases must be interpreted in a social context”. (Brown,
2000:161). As an aspect of psychology, motivation is what drives people’s behavior
and actions.
2.1.2. Motivation in foreign language learning.
As presented above, motivation “energizes” human behavior and “gives it
direction” (Dornyei, 1998:117) and is a significant dimension in language learning
(Gardner, 1985; Gardner et al. 2004). It is considered one of the most important
factors to determine the level of active personal involvement in L2 learning (Warden
& Lin, 2000). It certifies how ready and willing learners are to get more information
and to increase their ability to understand, speak, and write the L2 (Engin, 2009).
Dörnyei also cites the effort they put in the activities they want to perform:

“Motivation is about why people decide to do an activity rather than another and how
much effort and time they put in to perform the activity.” (Dörnyei, 2001, 2012). This
way, for Dörnyei, in the educational setting, motivation is what we see coming from
the students, the students' attitude towards their learning. If the student is
participative, enthusiastic, willing to learn, he is said to be motivated and are the one
with a higher probability to learn, in this case, a new language.
Moreover, in language learning, with motivation the students will achieve the
goal to learn the target language. Harmer, J (2001:51) divided motivation into two,
extrinsic (outside) and intrinsic (inside) motivation. In this case, in language learning,
extrinsic is caused by any number of outside factors, such as reward, punishment, etc.
And intrinsic comes from within the individual itself. The students are motivated by
6


the enjoyment of learning process or by a desire to make themselves feel better.
Intrinsic is especially important for achieving success, the goal of learning can be
achieved when the students come to love their learning process. It is undeniably a
strong driving force for students to behave in a specific way. Gardner, however,
mentioned two types of motivation which were the integrative and the instrumental
motivation with the emphasis on the former (Keblawi, 2005:26). According to him,
Integrative motivation reflects: “a high level of drive on the part of the individual to
acquire the language of a valued l2 community in order to facilitate communication
with that group” (Gardner, 1985:54). Or in other words, it refers to a favorable
attitude toward the target language community, possibly a wish to integrate and adapt
to a new target culture through use of the language. Instrumental motivation,
however, is defined as “Learning for perceived utility” (Gardner et al, 1983). Learners
learn another language with the purpose of some pragmatic gains, instead of social
implication with the target language community (Gardner, 2010). Instrumentally
motivated learners perform mainly for the attainment of external rewards, such as
appraisal, personal fulfillment, status or power. Hence, it can be considered that

instrumentally motivated learners’ desire to learn the second language is aligned to
accomplish some non-interpersonal purposes.
Gardner (1985) suggested that integrative motivation supersedes instrumental
motivation, because integrative motivation involves attitudinal factors and goal
orientated behaviors, which are important to second language learning process.
However, Dornyei (2001) refuted that integrative and instrumental motivation are not
on the opposite aspect, it is more like two sides of a coin. Both of them are positively
related and contribute to the achievement of language learning. In this paper, the
writer thinks that these types of motivation can affect and control the procedure an
outcome of learning. When instrumental motivation and integrative motivation are
used together in a language study, it creates more positive results for the learners.
2.1.3. The importance of Motivation in language learning
Once again, human behaviour is a complex entity. Human can behave
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differently based on different personalities, experience, purposes, etc (Dörnyei,
1998:126). Significant differences among students are often visible during classroom
interaction. Some of the students are highly active, some are talkative, while others
are passive and even seem to be not interested at all. What are the reasons behind all
these? Are they simply too motivated or not motivated enough to be involved in class?
This is a tricky task for teachers.
In language learning, Harmer (2001:52) stated that the source of motivation
come from four aspects: 1. the society we live in (make the students realize that
learning English is important, the environment has big influence on this), 2.
significant others (need support from others e.g. parents, siblings), 3. the teacher and
4. the method. When all aspects mentioned are fulfilled, it supports the students to be
motivated in the teaching learning process.
Some prior studies had been conducted under this topic. Walker (2011)
examined the motivation in language learning on Asian students in high school level.

In his paper, he mentioned factors contributed to students’ demotivation and tried to
link it with teacher’s performance. In his opinion, teacher’s performance can
influence students’ motivation to learn. Dörnyei (1998) explained the complicated
concept of motivation related to psychological aspect and defined the influence of
motivation in language learning. Dörnyei then moved further in his book to talk about
motivational strategies in which it was a more practical approach, to introduce how
to generate and maintain students’ motivation. Meanwhile, Aydin (2012) took a
different path in researching about motivation in language learning, which is to learn
about how teachers might lose motivation in teaching. What distinguishes this paper
from those prior studies is that this paper will show motivational strategies used by
the teacher in teaching speaking, then the teacher can measure the ability and
competency of students’ oral production.
2.1.4. Main de-motivating factors affecting motivation in foreign language
learning
2.1.4.1. Definition of demotivation
According to Dornyei (2001), demotivation is defined as “specific external
8


forces that reduce or diminish the motivational basic of a behavioral intention or an
ongoing action”. In other words, demotivation concerns various negative influences
that cancel out existing motivation. From this definition, it can be implied that a
‘demotivated’ learner is someone who was once motivated but has lost his or her
commitment/interest for some reason. Similar to ‘demotivation’, we can also speak
of ‘demotives’, which are the negative counterparts of ‘motives’: a motive increases
an action tendency whereas a demotive decreases it. Deci and Ryan (1985) used a
similar term “a motivation”, which means “the relative absence of motivation that is
not caused by a lack of initial interest but rather by the individual’s experiencing
feeling of incompetence and helplessness when faced with the activity”.
Dornyei (2001) pointed out that de-motivation does not mean that all positive

influences that originally made up the motivational basis of a behavior have been got
rid of. It only means that a strong negative factor restrains the present motivation with
some other positive motivates still remain ready to be activated.
2.1.4.2. Main de-motivating factors affecting motivation in second language
learning.
Dornyei (1994) studying the possible factors of demotivation among English
language learners focused on the role of effective factors at three levels of language,
learner and learning situation. The results of her study showed that the most important
elements for the learners’ demotivation concerned the learner levels and learning
situation levels. Learner level problems (e.g., lack of self-confidence, caused mostly
by negative past experiences) and learning situation level problems (e.g., being
placed into an inappropriate group for their level of English proficiency, lack of free
choice, lack of skilled teachers and lack of constancy in language learning in a relaxed
and pleasant atmosphere) were found to be the primary cause of the participants’
demotivation. Moreover, Dornyei (2001a) presented the following nine demotivating
factors based on his studies about the possible factors of demotivation:
 Teacher’s personalities, commitments, competence, teaching methods
 Inadequate school facilities (large class size, unsuitable level of classes or
9


frequent change of teachers)
 Reduced self-confidence due to their experience of failure or lack of success
 Negative attitude toward the foreign language studied.
 Compulsory nature of the foreign language study
 Interference of another foreign language that pupils are studying
 Negative attitude toward the community of the foreign language spoken
 Attitude of group members
 Course books used in class
The results of a research conducted by Ikeno (2003) also showed that some of

the demotivating factors among Japanese students were the lack of a sense of control
over what one is learning, distrust in the ability of teachers, doubts about the character
of teachers, a sense of classes being solely exam-oriented, feelings of inferiority about
one’s English ability and peers’ negative attitude toward English learning.
In addition, Tsuchiya (2006) studying the effective factors on demotivation
among some unsuccessful English language learners listed nine demotivators:
teachers, classes, the compulsory nature of English study, a negative attitude toward
the English community, a negative attitude toward English itself, reduced selfconfidence, negative group attitude, the lack of positive English speaking models and
ways of learning.
According to Phan (2010) there are three categories that de-motivate the
learners in their English learning:
- Teachers: teachers’ poor teaching techniques, lack of encouragement, help,
and good mood would affect learning process seriously and lead to the participants’
de-motivation in a class.
- Classmates: the lack of class integration and the negative attitudes of the
classmates toward class activities discouraged most of the participants to participate
in the class.
- Instructional materials, and English exams, progress and achievement: the
irrelevance of the materials to the participants “needs and goals had a negative impact
on their motivation to learn”. Because each participant’s way of understanding was
10


different from the other, they were de-motivated due to the lack of proper materials.
2.2. Teaching Speaking and Motivational Strategies
2.2.1. Teaching speaking in foreign language
Related to Ur (2012), it is argued that Speaking is often considered as a
neglected skill among four skills. It is neglected because speaking itself contains
linguistic and non-linguistics elements, such as: pronunciation, intonation,
articulation, expression and so forth. In this case, considering its features and

difficulty to master, motivation is helpful to realize teaching and learning speaking
for the students. Ur (2012: 118) argued that in teaching speaking, the teacher will find
some problems faced by the students as the challenges for the teacher, they are:
1- Shyness and Inhibition: Students are worried to make a mistake, fearful of
criticism, and simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts.
2- Finding things to say: The students cannot think anything to say, they need
to read and explore more before they speak, so that it is worth making the effort to
speak.
3- Low Participation of Individuals: The goal of teaching learning in speaking
is to aim at maximizing individual language use. But sometimes because of minimum
time or large participants, it creates lack of participation. Moreover, the tendency of
some students is too dominate, while others have little chance to speak.
4- L1-use: Students who share the same mother tongue tend to use it
because it is easier and because students feel less exposed if they are speaking
their mother tongue.
In addition, based on the journal result conducted by Gan (2012) on Australian
Journal of Teacher Education, he concluded the students’ problem in speaking skill
as follows:
1- Inadequate vocabulary
2- Grammar as stumbling block
3- Imperfectly Learned Pronunciation and Intonation
4- Inadequate Opportunities to Speak English in Class

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5- Lack of a Focus on Language Improvement in the Curriculum
6- Poor-Input Environment Outside Class
From the non-linguistic problems above, the writer concludes one problem
that seems to be consistently existed as a challenge for a teacher that is student’s

motivation. The entire problems above can be solved when the students have
motivation. Actually ―motivation is the crucial force which determines whether a
student embarks in a task at all, how much energy he devotes to it, and how long he
preservers (Littlewood, 1984:53). The development of communicative skills can only
take place if students have the motivation and opportunity to express their own
identity and relate with the people around them (Littlewood, 1981). Good motivation
in teaching learning will create good achievement too.
Bahadorfar (2014) stated that teaching speaking is a crucial part of second
language learning and teaching, speaking mastery is a priority for many second
language students; the improvement of spoken language proficiency determines the
students’ success in language learning. As speaking becomes neglected skill among
the four skills, in teaching speaking the teacher should produce good oral production
as a model to the students. Nunan (2003) stated that the teacher should produce the
English speech sounds and sound patterns; use word and sentence stress, intonation
patterns and the rhythm of the second language; select appropriate words and
sentences according to the proper social setting audience, situation and subject
matter; organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence; use language
as a means of expressing values and judgments; use the language quickly and
confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called as fluency.
Moreover, related to the speaking activities such as: discussion, debate,
presentation, role play, etc. Harmer (2001: 276) argued that there are three role of teacher
that can be applied during speaking activities, they are: as prompter, participant, and
feedback provider. As prompter, it is needed when students get lost and cannot think
what they want to say, then the teacher’s role is giving a clue, or helping them to interpret
what actually they want to deliver. As participant, the teacher changes his/her role as a
student that participates in any discussion or role play, also there, the teacher will be good
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example for students. Besides it will create good interaction between students and the

teacher and create creative atmosphere during the activity, because indirectly the teacher
still leads the whole activity but not dominant. As feedback provider, it helps students
solve their misunderstanding and hesitation during the activity. Giving feedback depends
on the teacher’s tact and appropriation of the feedback in particular situation. When
students complete their activity, the teacher should assess what they have done and
giving the feedback and correction.
Besides, in teaching speaking, the teacher will find many challenges related to
the problems faced by the students that have already mentioned above, especially
when the students have low motivation in creating oral production. As a result, the
students avoid the tasks; they always say “why do we have to do this?” when asked
to do the assignment; students give up easily. students can also be seen that they have
behavior problem, display social immaturity, have low self-esteem and selfconfidence with regard to schoolwork, have lack academic skill necessary to
complete work, have lack organizational skill, feel bored easily (Ken: 2001). What
should teachers do is to change the students’ thought and mindset and figure out what
interested or motivated them related to the learning activities. Here, the author tries
to provide motivational strategies to arouse students’ motivation in speaking.
2.2.2. Motivational strategies in teaching speaking
Motivational strategies are new approach to explore the motivation in TEFL.
Fu Xiao (2013) in his journal entitled “Motivational Strategies in Teaching English
as Foreign Language-Applying Motivation plan in TEFL” applied motivational
strategies that are divided into four components according to Dornyei (2001): creating
the basic motivational conditions; generating initial motivation; maintaining and
protecting motivation; and encouraging positive retrospective self-evaluation. In this
model, the most difficult question is: how can I know if and when the students are
motivated? In fact, based on the present state of knowledge in the field of motivation,
it is currently impossible to accurately respond to this question. Although we cannot
precisely evaluate the motivation of students, there are several approaches we can use
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to estimate and increase our awareness of the presence and quality of motivation
among the students.
On the other hand, related to other journals about motivational strategies that
conducted by Hapsari (2013) stated that motivated language teacher plays essential role
in building and developing students’ motivation in the classroom. She argued that
motivation can be manipulated through certain instructional or motivational strategies.
The motivational strategies applied are defined as method and techniques to generate and
maintain the students’ motivation. Renandya (2013) suggested four types of motivational
strategies to arouse students’ motivation in the classroom as below:
+ Teaching methods: Teaching methods should be variety. The more teachers
improve and develop their teaching methods and strategies, the more successful they
will be in engaging the students in learning activities or task.
+ Tasks: tasks that allowed the students to experience more success rather than
failure are a great boost to students’ motivation.
+ Texts, both oral and written instructional texts and materials used as
classroom materials should be interesting and relevant to the students. Text here
means the material used in teaching learning. Moreover, the instructional texts should
be engaging cognitively, affectively and socially.
+ Tests, test as a tool for correction, feedback and assessment. Test also can
drive the students to work harder to achieve the goal of learning process.
Renandya (2013) also stressed the key of motivational factors related to
teacher including teacher enthusiasm, teaches as resources, creative, and strict. She
further mentioned the goal of using motivational strategies as get students’ motivation
in learning. Teachers with the key role in the classroom have to demonstrate
motivational behaviors as well as to apply motivational strategies to create an
engaging learning environment.
Motivational strategies are techniques that promote the individual's goalrelated behavior. Because human behavior is rather complex, there are many diverse
ways of promoting it. In fact, almost any influence a person is exposed to might
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potentially affect his/her behavior. Motivational strategies refer to those motivational
influences that are consciously exerted to achieve some systematic and enduring
positive effect. Based on Cheng (2007) in his journal “The use of Motivational
Strategies in Language Instruction: the case of EFL teaching in Taiwan” conclude
the motivational strategies he used are: displaying motivating teacher behavior,
promoting students’ self-confidence, creating a pleasant classroom climate and
presenting tasks properly. Those four aspects are the motivational strategies that used
to arouse students’ motivation in the classroom.
Also on journal conducted by Astuti (2013) “Teacher’ and Students
‘Perceptions of Motivational Teaching Strategies in an Indonesian High School
Context” she implemented four motivational strategies by Dornyei (2001) : creating
the basic motivational conditions; generating initial motivation; maintaining and
protecting motivation; and encouraging positive retrospective self-evaluation. The
findings suggested that the teachers play a very important role in motivating their
students. And also conclude the two main points of her research that (1) the teacher
is a motivating factor, and (2) a relaxing and encouraging atmosphere is important in
the language classroom.
2.2.3. Strategies in Improving Students’ Motivation in Speaking Skill
Related to motivational strategies above, the writer tries to correlate between
motivational strategies to be implemented in teaching speaking skill. As a conclusion
that motivational strategies mentioned are: related to Dornyei (2001), the writer
agreed that creating the basic motivational condition in the classroom is helpful in
developing students’ motivation. In this case the appropriate teacher behaviour is
needed. The teachers should show their enthusiasm to the students, and have good
relationship with the students. High tolerance between teacher and students/students
and students is needed. It will create pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the
classroom. When the students are secure, it will be easy to manage them during
learning process.
Moreover, Renandya (2013) proposes four types of motivational strategies:

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teaching method, tasks, texts, and tests. All those aspects should be appropriate to the
students need. In teaching speaking the students have target to express their ideas freely
and spontaneously. The methods, tasks given, texts (material), and tests (assessment)
should be appropriate to the students need in achieving the goal of the learning. Various
methods can be used in teaching speaking, for instance: guessing game, performing a
skit or plylete, role-play, class-discussion/debate/seminar, speech, perform a drama,
discuss a plan (group dynamic), retell/report/argue/persuade activity (Sadtono, 2012:80).
In addition, to arouse students’ motivation in teaching speaking, the teacher
should know the students’ interest and also their language level, because they will
produce more oral production when the topic of speaking is their interest or at their
language mastery. The teacher can make a careful choice of topics and tasks to
stimulate the students’ interest. In giving tasks, Thornbury (2005) provided some
criteria for speaking task, they are:
- Productivity, producing maximally spoken language in order to provide the
best conditions for autonomous language use.
- Purposefulness, making sure that every speaking activity has a clear
outcome.
- Interactivity, the tasks such as talks and presentation should be performed
in situations where there is at least the possibility of interaction.
- Challenge, the task should stretch the students so they are forced to draw on
their available communication resources to achieve the outcome.
- Safety, the students need to feel confident, when meeting the challenges and
attempting autonomous language use with supportive classroom dynamic and nonjudgmental attitude.
- Authenticity, the task should have some relation to the real-life language use.
On the other hand, in teaching speaking the teacher also can invite a native
speaker if it is possible, as a model how to pronoun correctly from native. As a teacher
we do not criticize too much on language and content, especially for beginner, let them

concentrate on ideas. Again, the teacher should match the dialog with the social status
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