Pedagogical implications and conclusion

Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1. Rationale of the study Nowadays English language has gained its significance among a number of foreign languages such as French, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, etc... in the world as well as in Vietnam. The importance of English has been realized in Vietnam because English is considered to play a crucial role on the path of industrialization and modernization of the country. Therefore, English is now taught in almost every school, college, university and language centre all over the country. One of the main tasks assigned to foreign language teaching at school is that of training students to be communicatively competent. In an industrialized and modernized society, and in the time of globalization, communicative competence is required in the spoken as well as written form. It means communication can be conducted orally or in written documents. In many fields of life, being able to speak English is a necessity. For high school leavers, a good oral communicative competence in English may enable them to get a scholarship in a university in an English speaking country such as in the USA, in Britain, in Australia and so on, which is believed to ensure a much brighter future for them. Moreover, high school leavers who can speak English are easier to find a job with quite a big salary in a foreign company or a joint venture one, or to do an oversea job. Especially, graduates of a good command of English whose basic knowledge is what they obtain at school have a great deal of chances to be offered a good job with a big salary in a both state and private company. Thus, it is obvious that being able to speak English brings about a better career prospect. At Gia Loc senior secondary school, like at many other high schools in Vietnam, English has been a compulsory subject in secondary curriculum for many years. The fact is that, due to the demand of the senior secondary school graduation and university entrance examinations, the students' focus is on grammar and vocabulary, which means little attention has been paid to speaking skill. Besides, teaching English at school is mainly performed with a traditional method- the Grammar Translation method, which focuses mainly on grammatical and vocabulary items. As a result, students who are passive recipients become structurally competent but communicatively incompetent. While speaking may be a necessity for school leavers, and may serve as a “keystone” in successful communication, evidence shows that too many school students are unwilling to take part in speaking activities in class. This may be caused by many factors, among which is the lack of motivation. Motivation is one of the key issues in language teaching and it has long been believed to have a good impact on success or failure of a language learner. Skills and techniques to motivate students to practise the four basic skills, especially speaking skill, are essential for language teachers. Many researchers in the world namely, Gardner (1985), Ellis (1997), Littlewood (1998), Zoltan Dornyei (2001) and so on, have investigated what motivation is and what dimensions of motivation have effects on second language learning. In Vietnam, there have been a few studies on motivation of learners in English learning both in general and in particular skills such as speaking, listening, reading and writing. Yet no researcher has conducted investigation into the development of motivation in speaking skill for senior secondary school students in rural areas such as at Gia Loc senior secondary school. 1.2. Aims of the study This study is carried out to meet the following aims: 1. To investigate the current English speaking teaching and learning situation at Gia Loc senior secondary school. 2. To identify the motivation and factors making the students reluctant to speak in class. 3. To give an insight into the speaking teaching techniques used to motivate the students to take part in speaking activities. 4. To suggest some realistic and appropriate class teaching techniques to help the students better their speaking skill. 1.3. Scope of the study In order to improve speaking skill for students at Gia Loc senior high school, the teachers can make use of a variety of techniques and a number of things should be done. However, the researcher's intention is only to overview a brief of current situation of English teaching and learning speaking English in grade 11 and to identify the factors making the students reluctant to speak, to study some techniques used by the teachers to see if they workable, and to make some suggestions on useful techniques to help the students better their speaking skill . 1.4. Methods of the study To achieve the aims of the study, both quantitative and qualitative methods are used and the following tasks are involved: - Collecting data for the analysis from 186 students grade 11. - Collecting data for the analysis from eight teachers teaching English in the school. - Interviewing eight students for further information of the study. All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion are based on the data analysis. 1.5. Design of the study. This minor thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, the aims, scope, methods and design of the study. Definitions of terms are also presented in this chapter. The second chapter, REVIEW OF LITERATURE, presents various concepts most relevant to the research topic such as definition of motivation, motivation in L2 learning, types and importance of motivation, and factors affecting motivation in L2 learning. Furthermore, the following are also included in this chapter: definition of speaking, the importance of speaking, approaches to develop speaking skill, the teaching of speaking in rural area and at senior secondary school. Chapter three, METHODOLOGY, provides the methodology underlying the research which includes the general information about the study subjects, the teaching and learning speaking situation at Gia Loc senior high school. This chapter also focuses on the methods of data collection. Chapter four, PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA, gives a detailed presentation of data and a detailed description of data analysis. Some explanations and interpretations of the findings of the study are also presented. Chapter five, PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONs AND CONCLUSION, provides the summary of the findings, emphasizes the implication of the study in which certain techniques for improving speaking skill to the students at Gia Loc senior high school are suggested. In addition, this chapter also points out the limitations of the study and provides some suggestions for further studies. 1.6. Definitions of terms Since terms used in special education are often somewhat unique to the area, the terms relevant to this research are defined as below: Aptitude: refers to learners’ ability to learn an L2. EFL: stands for English as a foreign language. Global motivation: refers to a general orientation to the goal of an L2 learning. Instrumental motivation: refers to the desire to obtain something practical from the study of an L2. Integrative motivation: can be seen as an orientation of a successful learner who shows an interest in people speaking the target language, the culture and customs in that society. ( Falk, 1987 ) Extrinsic motivation: refers to learners' reasons for language learning which derives from the influence of some kinds of external incentives (Ur, 1996) Intrinsic motivation: refers to learners' interest in language learning activities (Ellis, 1997) Integrative motive: a broad concept which includes attitude, integrativeness and motivation. L2: refers to a target language that learners aim to master. The L2 in this study refers to English as a foreign language which is taught at Gia Loc high school. Learner preference: implies a learner’s natural, habitual, preferred way of absorbing, processing and retaining new information and skills. Learning strategies: are the ways learners use to accumulate new L2 items and automate existing rules. Motivation: implies an internal force or reason for an action. It describes a person’s willingness to attempt to reach any goal. ` Motivation in L2 learning: can be defined as a combination of effort and desire to achieve the goal of language learning plus a favorable attitude towards learning the language. ( Gardner, 1985 ) Physical conditions: refers to the classroom, the classroom size, desks, chairs, tables and etc. Proficiency: shows the learner’s ability to perform well in L2 learning. Target language: refers to the language that learners are trying to master other than their mother tongue. Teachers: refers to the teachers who teach English at the school. CHAPTER 2: review of literature Chapter 2, Review of Literature, presents some of the most important issues in the theories of motivation for teaching language in general and teaching speaking in particular, and speaking, namely, theoretical background and the nature of speaking. 2.1. Theoretical background of motivation 2.1.1. Definitions of motivation. There have been so far many researches on the theory of motivation which have generally come to a conclusion that motivation is an abstract concept used to describe the willingness of a person to expand effort to reach a particular goal. Some scholars and psychologists of the first half of the 20th century determined two interior factors of motivation, instincts and drives, which are of great importance in our lives. However, in the second half of the 20th century, researchers found that self- actualizing tendencies are the central force in motivation in people. Maslow (1970), analysises two groupings of seven levels of basic needs. They are deficiency needs including physiological, safety, belongingness and love, and being needs consisting of cognitive, aesthetic and self-actualization. Williams and Burden (1997) points out "Motivation is concerned with such issues as why people decide to act in certain ways and what factors influence the choices they make. It also involves decisions as to the amount of effort people are prepared to expand in attempting to achieve their goals." (1997: 119). The concept of motivation has recently been seen differently “How individual’s conscious attitudes, beliefs, and interpretation of events influence their behaviour.” (Dornyei: 2001). He states, “ Motivation explains why people decide to do something, how hard they are going to pursue it and how long they are willing to sustain the activities.” (2001: 17) 2.1.2. Motivation in second language learning Motivation is not only a vital but also a highly complex factor determining success or failure in L2 learning. Therefore, the concept of motivation in L2 learning has been studied by a number of authors. Keller (1984) (quoted in Ellis, 1994) defines "interest" as one of the major components of motivation in foreign and second language learning. Nonetheless, Gardner (1985) sees the important role of effort and desire to achieve the learning goal “Motivation in the present context refers to the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning plus favourable attitudes towards learning the language.” (1985:10) Similarly, Ellis (1997) emphasizes the role of attitudes and effective states “Motivation involves the attitudes and effective states that influence the degree of effort that learners make to learn an L2.” (p 75) Meanwhile, Littlewood (1998), sees the complex combination of motivation from many different components: In second language learning as in every other field of human learning, motivation is the crucial force which determines whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he devotes to it, and how long he perceives. It is a complex phenomenon and includes many components: the individual’s drive, need for achievement and success, curiosity, desire for stimulation and new experience , and so on. ( 1998: 53 ) In addition, it is the need and drive to communicate with others in a new language that provide strong motivation for most learners (McKay and Tom, 1999:2) However, Gardner and Lambert (1972), two dominant researchers of the social psychological approach, propose that the broad concept of the “integrative motie” consists of three main components: attitude, integrativeness and motivation. There are some other new approaches the researchers of which wish to make close the gap between theories of motivation in educational psychology and in the L2 field. The researchers of this period added some new elements to the concept of L2 motivation. In his framework of motivation, Dornyei (1994) classifies three levels: language level, learner level and learning situational level, and in each level there are some different elements (Adapted from Dornyei, 2001). Moreover, Marion Williams and Bob Burden (1997), propose a detailed framework of L2 motivation with the Internal and External motivational influence. They analyse nine internal factors as follow: intrinsic interest of activity, perceived value of activity, sense of agency, mastery, self-concept, attitudes, affective states such as confidence, anxiety and fear, developmental age and gender. The external factors consist of human factors such as parents, teachers, peers, feedback, rewards or punishments, the learning environment and the boarder context(Adapted from Dornyei, 2001) 2.1.3. Types of motivation in second language learning Gardner and Lambert (1985:10) distinguished integrative and instrumental as two types of motivation. Besides, researchers have added some other kinds such as resultative, intrinsic, extrinsic, global, situational and task motivation. * Integrative motivation . This type of motivation occurs when learners wish to identify with the culture of the L2 group. When speaking the target language, learners admire the culture and have a desire to become familiar with the society in which the language is used (Falk, 1978). It is, therefore, the interest in the people and culture of the language that create student motivation in L2 learning and this type of motivation lies in the realm of intrinsic need. * Instrumental motivation. This is characterised by the desire to obtain something practical from the study of L2 (Hudson, 2000). Ellis (1994) states "Some functional reasons such as to pass an examination, to get a better job or to get a university place motivate learners to learn an L2 because it opens up educational and economic opportunities for them." (1994:75) Instrumental motivation, therefore, occurs when learners need the target language as an instrumental to get a particular goal such as getting good marks in the tests or exams, a university place or a reward, a job or a pay rise, and it is the reflection of an external need. * Resultative motivation. Motivation is not only the cause of achievement, it is also the result of learning. Learning success may encourage learners to learn better. Ellis (1994) points out that the relationship between motivation and achievement is an interactive one and "A high level of motivation does stimulate learning, but perceived success in achieving l2 goals can help to maintain existing motivation and even create new ones." (1994: 515) *Intrinsic motivation. This type of motivation plays a vital role in most learners' L2 learning success or failure. For many learners, the reason for learning an L2 is the "interest in the culture and the target language group" or the "positive attitudes towards the target language group" while for some others it is the interest in learning tasks. Teaching methods and learning activities may attract them, arouse and maintain their interest in doing the tasks. In short, intrinsic motivation "Involves the arousal and maintenance of curiosity and can ebb and flow as a result of such factors as learners' particular interests and the extent to which they fell personality involved in learning activities." (Ellis, 1994:76) *Extrinsic motivation derives from the influence of some kinds of external incentives, including the influence of the teacher, the learner's desire to please significant people or their wish to succeed in an external exam, or peer group influence, which are different from the wish to learn for its own sake or interest in learning tasks. * Global motivation. Brown (1994) defines global motivation as a general orientation to the goal of an L2 learning which may be affected by such factors as previous education, social factors as well as the teacher's attitudes. * Situational motivation refers to the learning context: classroom, total environment assumed to be influenced by teacher action. Brown (1994) distinguishes the difference in situational motivation according to the situation in which learning takes place. Thus the motivation in the classroom setting differs from that in natural setting. * Task motivation. This motivation occurs when learners are performing some particular tasks in learning performance. An attractive task designed by the teacher in class may encourage learners to invest their effort and energy in. 2.1.4. The importance of motivation in second language learning The overall findings of the researches on motivation are that positive attitude and motivation are closely related to success in L2 learning (Gardner, 1985) . According to Caroll (1962) , motivation decides the amount of time a learner will spend on the task of language learning. She claims: “ The more motivation a learner has, the more time he or she will spend learning an aspect of a second language” (Carol, 1962). Labonde (1982) also makes a conclusion that motivation is an important factor that helps to determines the level of proficiency achieved by a learner. Finegan (1999:568) sees the vital role of integrative motivation in L2 learning "Integrative motivation typically underlines successful acquisition of a wide range of registers and a native-like pronunciation." Besides, Ellis (1994:513) finds that learners with Integrative motivation were more active in class and were less likely to drop out. Motivation not only plays an important role in learning, it helps the teaching as well. Lite, (2002) confirms "Motivation is the backbone of any classroom. When the students are motivated, the teacher can perform his/her job the best." (2002, Jan.) Norris-Holt (2001) also points out "Motivation is an important factor in L2 achievement." (2001, Jun.) 2.1.5. Factors affecting motivation in second language learning 2.1.5.1. Learners' factors * Intelligence: refers to performance on certain kinds of tests (Lightbown & Spada, 1999:52) *Aptitude: According to Lightbown and Spada (1999:53) aptitude consists of: (1) the ability to identify and memorize new sounds (2) the ability to understand the function of particular words in sentences. (3) the ability to figure out grammatical rules from language samples. (4) the ability to memorize new words. * Personality: Lightbown and Spada (1999) list a number of personality characteristics: extroversion, inhibition, self-esteem, empathy, dominance, talkativeness and responsiveness. In general, researchers have drawn a conclusion that personality has a great influence on the success of second language learners. * Learners' preferences refer to learning style describing "an individual's natural, habitual, and preferred way of absorbing, processing, and retaining new information and skill"(Reid, 1995) (cited in Lightbown and Spada, 1999). Learners have their own preferences in acquiring new knowledge and can fall into the following groups: visual learners, aural learners and kinaesthetic learners or field independent and field dependent learners. * Learners' beliefs: Learners have their own strong beliefs in the way to learn the language and how their instruction should be