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1 Vietnam national university, Hanoi Department of postgraduate studies -*** -` Đỗ Thị Anh Th How to motivate in - service Students of English at Haiphong Foreign Language Center, Haiphong University to learn Reading (C¸ch động viên sinh viên không chuyên tiếng Anh Trung tâm Ngoại Ngũ, Trờng Đại học Hải Phòng học đọc hiÓu tiÕng Anh) Field : English Methodology Code : 60.14.10 Course : K13 M.A Minor Thesis Supervisor : Dr Ph¹m Đăng Bình Hai phong, 20o7 Abstract In an attempt to investigate the interests of the in - service students of English at Haiphong Foreign Language Center, Haiphong University in reading materials and to give some suggestions for meeting these needs to increase the students’ motivation, the main purposes of the research were to find out : (1) kinds of motivation possessed by the in – service students of English at HFLC, HPU in learning reading , (2) an examination of the teaching methods used by the teachers of reading to motivate their learners in reading activities, (3) giving some recommendations to improve the reading materials for the in – service students of English at HFLC The subjects of the study were 101 in - service students from six classes of K21 (A, B, C, D, E, G) and teachers of reading These teachers and students were invited to answer a survey questionnaire The result of the research shows that while among the in - service students in HFLC, HPU, integrative motivation is less important than instrumental motivation Besides, the search reveals that the teachers take very important role in motivating students They can motivate learners by giving more chance to work in pairs or groups, and use teaching aids Finally, besides the tasks and activities from the textbooks, the teachers should supply the students with other suitable ones so that the students will not feel boring Furthermore, the teachers should find supplementary materials about topics which are interested by the learners Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest thanks to Dr Pham Dang Binh, my supervisor for his invaluable advice, generous assistance and continual encouragement in the completion of this study I would avail myself of this opportunity to express my thankfulness to my friends, my colleagues for their material support, encouragement as well as their constructive comments and criticism I also wish to thank the in – service students of K21 and especially a group of eight teachers of English from Haiphong Foreign Language Center, Haiphong University for their wholehearted cooperation with and suggestion for completion of the survey questionnaires in particular and the thesis in general Last but not least, my sincere thanks would go to my family who have constantly supported, inspired and encouraged me during the time I carried out this study Table of content Abstract Acknowledgements Table of contents Page Chapter I : Introduction Rationale Aims of the study The research questions Methods of the study Scope of the study Design of the study Chapter Ii: Literature review 2.1 An overview of motivation 2.1.1 Definitions of motivation 2.1.2 Classification of motivation in second language learning 2.1.3 Characteristics of a motivated learners 2.1.4 Strategies to encourage students’ motivation 2.2 An overview on the nature of reading 11 2.2.1 Definitions of reading 11 2.2.2 Types of reading 12 2.2.2.1 According to manner 12 2.2.2.2 According to purposes 12 2.3 Motivation in learning reading 13 2.3.1 The roles of motivation in reading 14 2.3.2 Factors affecting students’ motivation in reading 14 2.3.2.1 The teachers 15 2.3.2.2 The reading materials 16 Chapter IIi: The study 3.1 The context 3.2 The informants 3.2 Instruments 3.4 Data analysis and findings Chapter IV: Conclusion 4.1 Summary of the findings and discussion 4.2 Implications 4.3 Recommendations and suggestions References Appendices A questionnaire completed by the students A questionnaire completed by the teachers 17 18 19 20 27 29 30 33 35 38 Chapter one : Introduction I Rationale The English language has gained significance since Vietnam started its open – door policy Especially, Vietnam has joined World Trade Organization in November 2006 so the demand for learning English even gets stronger More and more big companies from many countries in the world and large multinational corporations are seeking chance to business in Vietnam The Vietnamese will go abroad more often with different purposes As a result, having a good command of English has become necessity of all learners of English in Vietnam and teaching and learning English is getting popular day by day across the country to meet the growing demands In teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam nowadays, besides grammar, the requirement of four practical language skills: reading, speaking, reading, writing has been concerned In the context of Vietnam, reading is perhaps the most important skill, which Vietnamese learners of English will be working with after leaving their colleges or universities It is said that for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language” This also true to the in - service students at Haiphong Foreign Language Center (HFLC), Haiphong University (HPU) It is necessary for them to read effectively and efficiently in English because they will be offered a lot of interesting information as well as a variety of language expressions and structures which are very useful for developing other skills However, most of the students experience the lack of motivation for English reading lessons and therefore their reading is inefficient In fact, it is said that one of the key factors to the success (or not) of learning English in general and learning reading is motivation, but it is a challenging task to motivate students in a reading lesson With this in mind, the researcher hopes to give a hand to get students motivated in reading, therefore the writer has chosen the research topic : “How to motivate the in - service students of English at Haiphong Foreign Language Center, Haiphong University to learn Reading” II Aims of the study The purposes of the study are to investigate students’ interests in reading materials and to give some suggestions for meeting these needs to increase the students’ motivation The specific aims are : (1) To have better insight into motivation and the kinds of motivation possessed by the in – service students of English at HFLC, HPU in learning reading (2) To examine the teaching methods used by the teachers of reading to motivate their learners in reading activities (3) To give some recommendations to improve the reading materials for the in – service students of English at HFLC III The research questions The study was intended to answer the following questions : (1) What is the motivation of the in - service students of English at HFLC, HPU when they learn reading ? (2) What have the teachers done to motivate their students to learn reading? In seeking answers to these research questions, I look into the following issues : What is the attitude of the in - service students towards reading ? What are the students’ opinions ? What activities, teaching aids and techniques teachers use to stimulate learners ? IV Methods of the study In the study, the quantitative research method is used with the aim of obtaining information on student’s motivation when they learn reading In addition to, the activities, teaching aids and techniques which teachers have used to stimulate students to learn reading will be found V Scope of the study To enhance the students’ motivation in reading, the teachers have to take into consideration several factors such as learners, reading materials and teaching and learning environment However, due to the limit of time, the researcher will pay more attention to the teachers’ role in making full use of the reading materials and designing reading text - based activities VI Design of the study This minor thesis is divided into four chapters: Apart from the first chapter, ‘Introduction’, the research includes three other chapters : - Chapter two reviews some linguistic concepts most relevant to the research topic such as definitions of motivation, types of motivation, characteristics of a motivated learners, strategies to encourage the students’ motivation, and definitions of reading, types of reading, motivation in learning reading - Chapter three presents the context, description of instruments, data collected and analyses of the results - Chapter four shows major findings, gives implications and offers recommendations on teaching reading Chapter Two : Literature Review In this chapter, some of the most important issues in the theories of motivation for teaching language in general and teaching reading in particular will be taken into consideration Two main features will be discussed namely, an overview of motivation and an overview of nature of reading 2.1 An overview of motivation 2.1.1 Definitions of motivation Motivation is the energy that catalyzes behavior So far, many researchers have given definitions of motivation and most of them agree that motivation is the extent to which people make choices about goals to pursue and the effort they will devote to that pursuit Zoltan Dornyei (2001: 7) stated “ Motivation explains why people decide to something, how hard they are going to pursue it and how long they are willing to sustain the activities” Gardner (1985) remarks : “ motivation involves four aspects, a goal, effortful behaviour, a desire to attain the goal and favourable attitudes towards the activity in question” Motivation in second language learning is a complex phenomenon which can be defined in terms of two factors : Learners’ communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language community If the learners need to speak the second languages in a wide range of social situations or to fulfill professional ambitions, they will perceive the communicative value of the second language and will therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it Likewise, if learners have favourable attitudes towards the speakers of the languages, they will desire more contact with them 2.1.2 Classification of motivation in second language learning - “Intergrative motivation” : According to Gardner, R and Lambert, W (1972), intergrative motivation refers to language learning for personal growth and cultural enrichment Besides, Finegan (1999 : 568) stated “intergrative motivation typically underlines successful acquisition of a wide range of registers and a native – like pronunciation” - “ Instrumental motivation ” : Gardner, R and Lambert, W (1972) also pointed that instrumental motivation refers language learning for more immediate or practical goal That means learners study to pass an examination, to get a better job, or to get a place at university or some other reasons Besides, the mentioned basic types of motivation, there are some others kinds such as global, situational, task, resultative, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation From Brown’s point of view (1981): - Global motivation consists of general orientation to the global of an L2 learning - Situational motivation is different according to the situation in which learning takes place Thus the motivation in classroom setting differs from that in naturalistic learning - Task motivation is the motivation learners get when they are performing some particular tasks in learning performance - Resultative motivation : Ellis (1994 ) pointed out : “It is likely that the relationship between motivation and achievement is an interactive one 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 types” When learners succeed in learning, they may be more or sometimes less motivated to learn - Intrinsic motivation : According to Edward Deci (1975 : 23), intrinsically motivated activities are ones for which there is no apparent reward except the activity itself People seem to engage in the activities for their own sake and 10 not because they lead to an extrinsic reward …Intrinsically rewarding consequences, namely, feelings of competence and self – determination - Extrinsic motivation: extrinsically motivated behaviors, on the other hand, are carried out in anticipation of a reward from outside and beyond the self Typical extrinsic rewards are money, prizes, grades, and even certain types of positive feedback Among these types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations have an important part to play in classroom motivation and many researchers have proved that intrinsic is superior to extrinsic 2.1.3 Characteristics of a motivated learners A motivated learner here means the one who participates willingly and actively in learning activities in class According to Naiman et al (1978), the most successful students are not necessarily those from whom a language comes easily In contrast, they are simply the ones showing certain typical characteristics associated clearly with motivation Here are the following features : - Positive task orientation : the learner is ready to deal with tasks and challenges, and has confidence in his or her success - Ego - involvement : the learner has a need to achieve, to overcome difficulties and succeed in what he or she sets out to - High aspirations : the learner goes for demanding challenges and high proficiency - Goal orientation : the learner is very aware of the goals of learning, and directs his or her effort towards achieving them - Perseverance : the learner consistently invests a high level of effort in learning, and is not discouraged by setbacks or apparently lack of progress - Tolerance of ambiguity : the learner is not frustrated by a temporary lack of understanding, he or she thinks it will come later 2.1.4 General strategies to motivate students in language teaching ... research topic : ? ?How to motivate the in - service students of English at Haiphong Foreign Language Center, Haiphong University to learn Reading? ?? II Aims of the study The purposes of the study are to. .. insight into motivation and the kinds of motivation possessed by the in – service students of English at HFLC, HPU in learning reading (2) To examine the teaching methods used by the teachers of reading. .. motivate their students to learn reading? In seeking answers to these research questions, I look into the following issues : What is the attitude of the in - service students towards reading ? What