1 PART A INTRODUCTION Rationale Nowadays, in the era of the globalization and international exchange, English has become a ‘lingua franca’ which according to Jeremy Harmer (2001:1), can be defined as a language widely adopted for communication between two speakers whose native languages are different from each other’s and where one or both speakers are using it as a ‘second’ language It has been used almost all over the world in many different areas such as diplomacy, science, technology, business, culture, tourism, etc There is no doubt that English is one of the most important means of communication and access to information In this context, the teaching and learning of English is more and more necessary In Vietnam, in recent years, English as a foreign language has gained considerable attention It has become a compulsory subject in the syllabus of many schools, colleges and universities It has been taught and learnt throughout the country, both urban areas and rural (or remote) ones Even in the countryside, children now start learning English when they are in grade or However, the fact is that the teaching and learning of English has not been effective yet, especially that in rural areas There are still many people who cannot use English well after finishing English courses As a teacher of English at a rural upper secondary school, the researcher is concerned about her students’ English learning She has been teaching classes of grade 11 Although her students have learnt English since they were in grade under the new syllabus and new methods based on the communicative approach, their English is still not very good Of course, they can hardly use English to communicate Also their marks in tests and examinations are rather low Additionally, many of the students seem not to be interested in learning English According to them, English is difficult and not very necessary for their future, because after school most of them will be farmers or workers only In other words, they not have much motivation for learning it The practical goal for most of the students is just to pass tests and examinations to graduate from the upper secondary school Moreover, the grade 11 students are the ones who are going to leave school in over one year, so it is rather difficult to change their goal and motivation The question is what teachers should to help their students learn English better in this environment, where the English language input is limited and non-conducive to learning the target language The researcher has thought a lot about this fact, about the students’ goal and motivation Wondering if examination-taking strategy training can help to motivate the students, she decided to conduct the study on “Motivating grade 11 students to learn English through examination-taking strategy training at Yen Thanh upper secondary school” to find out the answer, and further, to help improve the teaching and learning of English at her school Research hypothesis This study was designed to test the following hypothesis: Examination-taking strategy training can help to motivate grade 11 students to learn English Aims of the study The purpose of the study is to investigate the possibility of using examination-taking strategy training to motivate grade 11 students to learn English at Yen Thanh upper secondary school It aims specifically at: - considering the student motivation and the reality of training and application of examination-taking strategies in the context of grade 11 students at Yen Thanh upper secondary school - investigating changes in student motivation after applying examination-taking strategy training in lessons - examining student attitude towards the examination-taking strategy training - giving some recommendations for motivating students to learn English through examination-taking strategy training Significance of the study The study is expected to make a better understanding of motivation to second language learning In addition, it offers the theoretical basis for language learning strategies, examination-taking strategies, and the motivational roles of strategy training in general and examination-taking strategy training in particular Practically and pedagogically, the findings of the study are believed to be useful for teachers of English to be aware of the essential role of examination-taking strategy training to students’ motivation in English learning Besides, the recommendations for using examination-taking strategy training to enhance students’ motivation, which are based on the theoretical background and the current situation of learning English at Yen Thanh upper secondary school, hopefully can help the teachers motivate their students to learn English Scope of the study Although there are many different ways to motivate students to learn English, all these issues cannot be fully covered in this paper Due to the limited time and the length of a minor thesis, the researcher only focuses on exploiting examination-taking strategy training as a way of motivating grade 11 students at Yen Thanh upper secondary school Besides, the target that the study investigates and serves is just 115 students from classes of grade 11 at this school Methods of the study This study was intended to conduct as a piece of action research According to Gina Wisker (2001), action research is research that we carry out with our students in order to try out an idea or innovation, test a hypothesis about their learning and see ‘what would happen if ’ Michael J Wallace (1998) also points out that action research involves the collection and analysis of data related to some aspects of our professional practice With this action research, the researcher used some different methods based on both quantitative and qualitative approaches: survey questionnaires for students, consisting of one pretreatment questionnaire and one post-treatment questionnaire; follow-up interviews; classroom observations The steps of the study are as follows: (1) Spend one month collecting baseline data through classroom observations These were carried out by the researchers herself and some of her colleagues Besides, get the students to answer the pre-questionnaire to find out the reality of student motivation and their knowledge of examination-taking strategies (2) Form the hypothesis that examination-taking strategy training can help to motivate grade 11 students to learn English (3) Provide the students with the examination-taking strategy training whenever possible in the regular lessons for one month and half a month The classroom observations were also carried out by the researcher and her colleagues in this period (4) After one month and half a month, the students were invited to answer the postquestionnaire to find out the changes in their motivation as well as their attitude toward the examination-taking strategy training The follow-up interviews were also employed to gather indepth information (5) Analyze the collected data and discuss the findings (6) Disseminate the outcomes Design of the study The study is divided into three parts: the introduction, the development, and the conclusion Part A: Introduction – presents the basic information including rationale, research hypothesis, aims, significance, research methods, scope, and design of the study Part B: Development – consists of three chapters Chapter 1: Literature Review – provides the literature concerning motivation in second language learning, learning strategy training, and examination-taking strategy training as a motivating factor Chapter 2: The study – reports the setting, research hypothesis, participants, instruments, data collection procedure and analysis The detailed results of the surveys and a critical comprehensive analysis on the data collected are presented Chapter 3: Major findings, discussions and recommendations for motivating students to learn English through examination-taking strategy training – shows major findings and discussions and offers recommendations for motivating students to learn English through examination-taking strategy training Part C: Conclusion – is a summary of the study in which limitations of the study and suggestions for further research are presented PART B DEVLOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Overview of motivation in language learning 1.1.1 Definitions of motivation Motivation is accepted for most fields of learning to be essential to success Without motivation we will almost certainly fail to make the necessary effort Therefore, it makes sense to try and develop our understanding of it Motivation is defined in different ways by different researchers According to Marion Williams and Richard Burden (1997:120), motivation is a ‘state of cognitive arouse’ which provokes a ‘decision to act’ as a result of which there is ‘sustained intellectual and/or physical effort’ so that the person can achieve some ‘previously set goal’ Sharing the same view, Jeremy Harmer (2001:51) states that ‘at its most basic level, motivation is some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to things in order to achieve something Additionally, Woolfolk (2001:366) defines motivation as ‘an internal state that arouses, directs and maintains behavior’ Briefly, motivation is something involving the attitudes and affective states that influence the degree of effort that one makes to achieve some certain goal It is not only arousing interest but also sustaining interest and investing time and energy into putting the effort to achieve those goals 1.1.2 Importance of motivation in language learning Learner motivation has become more commonly recognized as perhaps the major determining factor for successful learning in general, whether one is an adult learner taking distance education courses, or an upper secondary school student pushing one’s way through the battery of required courses needed to graduate It has been found in various studies that motivation is very strongly related to achievement in language learning As William T Littlewood puts it (1984:53), ‘in second language learning as well 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 perseveres’ Besides, Tricia Hedge (2000:23) affirms: ‘motivation is of crucial importance in the classroom, whether learners arrive with it or whether they acquire it through classroom experiences’ About this issue, Oxford and Shearin (1996:121-122) also argue: ‘Motivation is important because it directly influences how often students use L2 learning strategies, how much students interact with native speakers, how much input they receive in the language being learned (the target language), how well they on curriculumrelated achievement tests, how high their general proficiency level becomes, and how long they persevere and maintain L2 skills after language study is over Therefore, motivation is crucial for L2 learning, and it is essential to understand what our students’ motivation are’ As a result, motivation should be paid attention in teaching and learning second languages 1.1.3 Common factors affecting learners’ motivation in language learning There is a variety of factors affecting learners’ motivation such as parents, community, learning context, teacher, subject, etc However, in this paper, the researcher only focuses on some common and important factors, namely, learner’s factors, teacher’s factors, learning materials and learner’s success in second language learning 1.1.3.1 Learner’ factors Among these factors, the first and most important factor is their background knowledge Background knowledge refers to the existing information on a specific topic in each language lesson Therefore, if students lack background knowledge, it is difficult for them to get involved in learning activities They will be unable to comprehend new materials and more importantly, they will lose their interest in learning lessons Realizing the influence of this factor, the teacher needs to provide the amount of background information available and to see that they are able to use them Besides, language items such as vocabulary and grammatical structures can be considered to have an impact on the students’ feelings This causes difficulties in getting meaning as well as practicing language skills The student’ aptitude is also an important factor that influences his motivation If one finds he is able to something well, surely he feels self-confident and likes it very much The other factor is learners’ language learning strategies Learners’ strategies can affect their mood to participate actively in learning activities Strategies are helpful to students because they enable them to improve their learning proficiency as well as efficiency in learning Moreover importantly, strategies help learners to process the lessons actively and to connect what they are learning to their own knowledge However, learners must be flexible in employing strategies; otherwise, their expectations to the learning are not met In addition, it is true that more highly motivated learners use a significantly greater range of appropriate strategies than less ones It is advisable for teachers to teach learners strategies in lessons and let them practice frequently 1.1.3.2 Teacher’ factors Teachers are considered to have very important responsibilities in making sure the learners remain happy and interested in learning The first factor is the teacher’s attitudes and behaviors towards students The way the teacher feels, thinks and behaves while teaching can have a profound effect on learners’ motivation and learning atmosphere When the teacher has personal and interpersonal variables such as good mood, warmth, respect, empathy, understanding, sensitivity, enthusiasm and good sense of humor, the learning atmosphere is likely to be relaxing, enjoyable, and conducive to language learning It is suggested that when learners see an instructor who is excited about his/ her subject or who simply loves teaching, inevitably they are affected by this energy and will engage themselves actively in the learning process Moreover, when teachers have expectations in their students’ ability, the learners are likely to reach high level of achievement and feel more confident Learners tend to perform at a level that is consistent with the teacher’s belief and expectations Besides, the teacher’s techniques and activities are of great impact on learners’ motivation Without good techniques and interesting activities, learners may be left in confusion and boredom while dealing with learning tasks Therefore, teacher should invest more effort and thoughts in the materials, the ways, and the time to use techniques and activities carefully for a specific stage of teaching and assessing the learning performance Lastly, the teacher should be aware of learners’ learning needs, consisting of their motivation for learning and the purposes that language learning has in their lives A good teacher should be the person who can find ways to pull the students and the lesson together 1.1.3.3 Learning materials One of the most important factors which influence the learners’ motivation is learning materials The materials which are interesting and relevant to the learners will motivate them to learn more For example, when learners have to face a text or a task beyond their language proficiency with many unknown words and complex sentences, they become overwhelmed, frustrated and tired Besides, if the topic or content of the text is not interesting, familiar and relevant to their experience and interests, they may stop learning What’s more, the lack of variety in task types also makes learners reluctant to engage fully with the activity 1.1.3.4 Learner’s success in language learning It is realized that motivation for language learning could be much enhanced with success According to Ur (1996:278), “learners who have succeeded in past tasks will be more willing to engage with the next one, more confident in their chances of succeeding, and more likely to preserve in their efforts” Jeremy Harmer (2001:52) also affirms that ‘nothing succeeds like success’ so ‘if the teacher can help students in the achievement of short-term goal, this will have a significant effect on their motivation’ Obviously, it is better for the teacher to appreciate students’ success 1.2 Overview of examination-taking strategy training 1.2.1 Language learning strategy training 1.2.1.1 Definitions of language learning strategies A lot of research into language learning strategies has been done since 1960s Up to now the term ‘language learning strategy’ has been defined by many researchers In Wenden and Rubin’s words (1987:19), language learning strategies are defined as “…any sets of operations, steps, plans, routines used by the learner to facilitate the obtaining, storage, retrieval, and use of information.” Stern (1992:261) states that “the concept of learning strategy is dependent on the assumption that learners consciously engage in activities to achieve certain goals and learning strategies can be regarded as broadly conceived intentional directions and learning techniques.” According to Chamot (2004:14-26), “learning strategies are the conscious thoughts and actions that learners take in order to achieve a learning goal” Oxford (1990:17) divides strategies into major types, direct and indirect She defines direct strategies as those requiring mental processing of the language However, the three groups that compose direct strategies this processing differently and for different purposes For example, memory strategies, such as grouping or using imagery, have a highly specific function, which is to help students store and retrieve new information Cognitive strategies, on the other hand, such as summarizing or reasoning deductively, enable learners to understand and produce new language by many different means Finally, compensation strategies like guessing or using synonyms, allow learners to use the language despite their often-large gaps in knowledge The second group of strategies discussed by Oxford is indirect strategies These are called “indirect” because they support and manage language learning without directly involving the target language They are divided into metacognitive, affective, and social strategies Metacognitive strategies, like centering your learning and evaluating and monitoring, are “actions which go beyond purely cognitive devices, and which provide a way for learners to coordinate their own learning process” (1990:136) Affective strategies, however, such as lowering your anxiety, encouraging yourself, and taking your emotional temperature, deal with emotion, attitudes, motivations, and values Finally, the third indirect strategy group defined by Oxford involves social strategies, like asking questions, cooperating peers and proficient users of the target language, and empathizing with others It is accepted that providing learners with learning strategies is very important Language learning strategies are good indicators of how learners approach tasks or problems encountered during the process of language learning Developing skills in these areas, such as metacognitive, cognitive, social and affective can help the language learner build up learner independence and autonomy whereby he can take control of his own learning 1.2.1.2 Strategy training as a motivating factor Since learning strategies in general and language learning strategies in particular are very important, it makes sense to help learners know and use them well In other words, providing learners with learning strategies are necessary Research indicates that language learners at all levels use strategies, but that some or most learners are not fully aware of the strategies they use or the strategies that might be most beneficial to employ When learners become aware of the range of strategies from which they can choose during language learning and use, they will have many opportunities to succeed Success will help enhance learners’ motivation On the other hand, when learners know how to use strategies, they will become more self-confident One of the strategies to boost learners’ motivation suggested by Woolfolk (2001:421) is building learners’ confidence and positive expectation With success, the confidence will certainly help improve students’ motivation Therefore, it can be said that learning strategy training is a motivating factor 1.2.2 Examination-taking strategy training 1.2.2.1 Definitions of examination-taking strategies 10 Although the term “examination” and “test” are distinguished as different terms in many cases, in this paper “examination-taking strategies” and “test-taking strategies” are considered the same They are used to refer to strategies exploited in test situations According to Andrew D Cohen (1998:219), “test-taking strategies consist of both language use strategies and test-wiseness strategies” He points out that language use strategies are steps or tasks that learners consciously select in order to accomplish language tasks, and include retrieval strategies, rehearsal strategies, cover strategies, and communication strategies All four types of strategies are used in test taking, since respondents need to retrieve material for use on the test, may need to rehearse it before using it (such as in speaking or writing tasks), are likely to use some cover strategies in order to look good, and may well to engage in genuine communication if the tests or quizzes call for it In Cohen’s view, these various language use strategies constitute testtaking strategies when they are used to help produce responses to testing tasks The second group of test-taking strategies is test-wiseness These strategies are not necessarily determined by proficiency in the language being assessed, but rather may be dependent on the respondents’ knowledge of how to take tests One such test-wiseness strategy consists of opting out of the language task at hand (e.g through a surface matching of some information in the passage with the identical information in one of the response choices) A second strategy would be to make use of material from a previous item when it ‘gives away’ the answer to a subsequent one This is also a form of matching, but across items rather than within them, and, as in the previous case, the respondent may make the match without understanding the material very well or at all Another test-wiseness strategy consists of taking shortcuts to arrive at answers (e.g not reading the text as instructed but simply looking immediately for the answers to the given reading comprehension questions) In Mc Donough’s words (1995:105), these strategies are called test-wise, i.e “having some ingenuity, knowledge, or strategy to outwit the tester and find the right answer from the clues in the test format rather than from actual knowledge of the language or skill in language use In short, examination-taking strategies or test-taking strategies are the strategies the testtaker uses to take the test, including language use strategies and test-wiseness ones Language use strategies are considered close to the learner’ competence while test- 32 The activities are classified into groups: guiding activities and practicing activities The results collected would be practical background for applying some effective activities into the future teaching • Guiding activities Activities a only guiding in words, then students notice themselves b guiding in words, and delivering handouts if necessary c guiding through the lessons of correcting tests d guiding through sample tests e guiding through tasks in the textbook f guiding through stories about the teacher’s experiences Respondents 26 82 81 81 73 88 % 23 71 70 70 63 77 related to examination-taking strategies g guiding through discussions h guiding through brainstorming or activating students’ 76 78 Rank 3 66 68 background knowledge Table Student’s preferences of examination-taking strategy guiding activities As can be seen from the table, the most favorite activity is guiding through stories about the teacher’s experiences related to exam-taking strategies (77%) 100% of respondents in the interview also took this as their most interested guiding activity Their reasons were that the activity made the relationship among the teacher and students more intimate and made the theories easier to remember Many students also liked the activity “guiding in words and delivering handouts if necessary” These students made up 71% Meanwhile, only 23% said they liked the teacher to guide in words and let them notice themselves In the interview, one student argued: “if the teacher let students notice themselves, they would pay more attention to the teacher’s explaining, avoiding laziness” Ranking third are “guiding through the lessons of correcting tests” and “guiding through sample tests” with 70% of the students choosing for each According to some students in the interview, the lessons of correcting tests are the very suitable time for teachers to train students examination-taking strategies whereas sample tests helped students know more formats of tests and task types Next are the activities “guiding through brainstorming or activating students’ background knowledge” and “guiding through discussions” with 68% and 66% of the respondents, respectively In the interview, one student who chose the activity of 33 guiding brainstorming or activating students’ background knowledge said: “with this activity, students feel very comfortable and better aware of their often used strategies” • Practicing activities Activities Respondent % Rank 61 39 68 s i practicing in groups or pairs j practicing individually k practicing through homework exercises related to the 70 45 78 guided strategies l practicing through taking small tests 77 67 m practicing through language games 89 77 Table Students’ preferences of examination-taking strategy practicing activities The table shows that the activity of practicing through language games attracted the most students, 77% According to most of the students in the interview, they were always interested in games because games helped them both feel relaxed and learn better The number of the students who enjoyed “practicing through homework exercises related to the guided strategies” accounted for 68%, ranking second In response to the prequestionnaire, some students said the amount of time they spent on home study depended on teachers’ required homework Therefore, it is understandable when most of the students in the interview affirmed that homework exercises might help students practice more and harder The activity “practicing through taking small tests” was also enjoyed by more than half the total respondents (67%) While some students appeared to like this activity very much, some weaker students were afraid of it Only 39% enjoyed practicing individually whereas 61% showed that they liked to work in pairs or groups One student said in the interview : “Because my English is bad, I like to work in pairs or groups to get the help from my friends But good students at English usually like to work individually because they have enough self-confidence” The second chapter has presented the methodology, the data from the questionnaires and the data analysis The next chapter will mention to major findings and recommendations CHAPTER MAJOR FINDINGS, DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MOTIVATING STUDENTS TO LEARN ENGLISH THROUGH EXAMINATION-TAKING STRATEGY TRAINING 34 3.1 Major Findings and Discussion 3.1.1 Reality of student motivation at Yen Thanh upper secondary school The results from the pre-questionnaire revealed that the motivation of grade 11 students was rather low at Yen Thanh upper secondary school These findings were drawn from some facts follows Firstly, most of the sample (89%) were urged to learn English just because it was a compulsory subject in the syllabus and the final examination Especially, only 37% affirmed English was necessary for their future career It is clear that most of students were not full aware of the importance of English and learning English In fact, there are more important values of learning English such as understanding more English people and culture, communicating, getting much information about the world and life, improving English, listening and singing English songs, etc Secondly, as we found out from the result, student desire to learn English was rather high, but effort and interest in learning as well as attitude towards the English lessons were adversely low Since successful outcome often requires strong desire, effort and attitude, such model of student motivation could hardly automatically lead to achievement Unless students try harder both at home and in class, success seems impossible to a lot of students, as it was revealed in the questionnaire data analysis Thirdly, with regard to self-efficacy, only about one fifth of students believed in their ability to use English in the future This figure correlates with student low perceived ability and effort to learn English The data of the students’ learning results showed that they had few chances to get high marks The frequent failure in learning could also made students bored and not believe in their ability As low self-efficacy indicates low self-confidence, it is necessary for the teachers to enhance student motivation by helping them believe that they can be successful as long as they try their best to learn it 3.1.2 Feasibility of motivating students to learn English through examination-taking strategy training Considering the research literature and the results taken from the questionnaires, the follow-up interviews and class observations, it is possible to insert examination-taking strategy training into lessons to motivate students These are some reasons for the feasibility of training examination-taking strategies in classes 35 In the first place, the data gathered in the study showed that learning English to pass the final examination is the certain and important goal most of the students wanted to achieve Clearly, examination-taking strategy training can meet the students’ needs and make their goal achievable Research literature suggests when learners’ needs and interest are satisfied, motivation for learning will increase Secondly, the students’ performance in the previous tests and examinations were rather low More than half the students got the average marks under in English in the first term of grade 11 In the survey, only 2% (2 students) affirmed that they often got high marks, the rest 98% admitted they either sometimes or rarely, or even never got high marks in English Students’ perceived knowledge and application of examination-taking strategies were also low Asked if teachers should train students examination-taking strategies, most of the students said “yes” with the common reason – they wanted to improve their English as well as their performance in English tests Thirdly, qualitative and quantitative data analysis after the application of the examinationtaking strategy training revealed that students’ attitude and motivation to learn English had changed positively Highly interested students increased by 6% while the number of students with low interest reduced by 7% Some students reported that they had found the lost interest in learning Motivation intensity also saw changes in terms of student effort, desire and attitude The number of students with high effort increased by 5% while the number of students with low effort reduced by 14% Moreover, the number of the students who spent enough time or more on home study increased considerably by 16% With regard to desire, the figure increased by 6%, corresponding to the increase in the number of highly interested students The data analysis also showed that 9% more students had positive attitude towards the English course In addition, student self-confidence increased when 5% more students believed they could use English in the future Generally, although the change was not really big, it means that to some extent examination-taking strategy training could bring some improvement to student motivation Finally, this is likely to be considered the most important reason – the examination-taking strategy training brought great benefits to the students It is easy to find in the data analysis that the examination-taking strategy training not only gave students many useful learning strategies and improved their learning but also helped them become more self-confident 36 Almost all of the students in the study appeared to like it Undoubtedly, this satisfies both extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation 3.1.3 Students’ preferences of the examination-taking strategy training activities The data analysis showed that most of the students have positive attitude towards the examination-taking strategy training Moreover, most of students liked being trained examination-taking strategies during the school year, that is, whenever possible the teacher should introduce, guide and give students opportunities to practice and perform This is also the way many researchers in literature suggested (Cohen, 2003; Chamot, 2004:14-26) The data analysis also revealed students’ good reaction to the teacher’ examination-taking strategy training activities Especially, most of students enjoyed being guided through the teacher’ stories about her experiences related to examination-taking strategies According to the students, this activity could make the relationship among the teacher and students more intimate, at the same time it makes students master the lessons easier Delivering handouts, guiding through the lessons of correcting tests and through sample tests were students’ favorite guiding activities, too For students, through these activities, they could learn more With regard to the practicing activities, most of the students enjoyed practicing through language games because they could help the students both learn and relax Homework exercises and small tests were also in many students’ favor because they gave them a lot of opportunities to practice Besides, practicing in groups or pairs could made students more self-confident and courageous In contrast, many students appeared not to like their teacher guiding only in words without handouts For them, this sometimes made them difficult to learn and took too much time However, some students liked this activity because, according to them, it could make students more active and pay more attention to the teacher’s explaining Noticeably, the weak students usually wanted to work in pairs or groups but not individually because they felt safer when staying along with their fellows while some good students had enough self-confidence to work individually and also liked to show their self-image through individual work In fact, the cooperation is considered very good because the students might help each other as well as learn much from their friends 3.1.4 Challenges As can be known, nothing in the world is proper Each method or technique has it strengths and weaknesses Examination-taking strategy training is not an exception Through the 37 data analysis above, it is possible to realize this technique yields a lot of good points to the students However, some difficulties go along with them The first one is that examination-taking strategy training is rather time-consuming It takes a lot of time to equip students with a good knowledge of examination-taking strategies Really, this training is a long and continuous process, not one or two days After the teacher guides and does some examples, students have to spend much time practicing Secondly, examination-taking strategy training requires a lot of effort, experience, patience and belief from the teacher He/ she has to investigate students’ needs, interests, the strategies they usually use to deal with tasks, choose the suitable materials and activities as well as instructional language to insert into lessons The other challenge is that if the teacher does not control his/ her examination-taking strategy training carefully, the class might become an examination one In an examination class where learning is for examinations, the focus is mainly on some certain test formats, language knowledge and language skills Considering the current assessment approach which adopted a multiple-choice testing technique, the test format only requires the students to answer multiple-choice questions on vocabulary, pronunciation, reading comprehension and some controlled writing Neither speaking skills nor listening skills are tested For this fact, many students only want to learn the things needed for the examinations and not pay attention to the rest Even some students said: “ I only need teachers to teach me test-wiseness so that I will be able to pass the examination without English knowledge” On the other hand, the aims of the new curriculum are to equip students with communicative ability and competence to perform basic language functions receptively and productively, using correct language forms and structures Apart from developing the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing as well as the accompanying grammar, sound system and vocabulary, it also adopts an intercultural communication perspective in an attempt to educate students into both national and international citizens who are knowledgeable about the target culture as well as their own national culture (MOET, 2006) Obviously, the requirement of examinations in general and the final examinations in particular is too limited as compared to the requirement of the new curriculum This is really a challenging problem for language teachers 3.2 Recommendations for motivating students to learn English through examinationtaking strategy training 38 3.2.1 Providing students with a full awareness of the rationale, aims and values of examination-taking strategy training First of all, it is necessary for teachers to help students understand well the rationale, aims and values of the examination-taking strategy training Teachers should make it clear that the technique is used mainly with the aim of providing students with language learning strategies, although it serves the preparation for tests and examinations to some extent Students should know some examination-taking strategies are language learning ones by nature, but in test or examination situations they become test-taking or examination-taking ones In addition, there are two kinds of examination-taking strategies They are language use strategies and test-wiseness ones To apply test-wiseness strategies well, students need have a relatively good language knowledge, that is, their language use strategies also need to be good Therefore, teachers should equip students with an adequate English knowledge 3.2.2 Conducting examination-taking strategy training step by step The examination-taking strategy training should be conducted with the following steps: • Investigating the strategies to deal with the task students have already known • Introducing the new examination-taking strategy or strategies • Guiding the students how to use the new examination-taking strategies through doing some tasks as examples The teacher can use both English and mothertongue to explain if necessary • Giving the students as much practice as possible in various topics and test formats during the course • Giving students opportunities to transfer the new strategies into new contexts and get some achievements themselves 3.2.3 Integrating examination-taking strategy training into regular language learning activities over a long period of time The examination-taking strategy training is really a long and continuous process along with the general education process Teachers should find many ways to train students examination-taking strategies in lessons when possible and suitable during the course Also it can take place in every stage of the lesson: warm-up, pre- stage, while- stage or poststage This helps students understand that their teachers are equipping them with necessary strategies for their self-study but not only for their preparation to take tests or 39 examinations Lessons in reference with the new textbook under the new syllabus also have a lot of improvement and usefulness so it is a good idea to integrate examinationtaking strategy training into regular language learning activities For example, in the lessons of language skills teachers can train students the examination-taking strategies related to these skills In the lessons of language knowledge, teachers can guide students examination-taking strategies to deal with vocabulary, grammar or pronunciation tasks This helps students learn both the required lessons and examination-taking strategies 3.2.4 Varying the examination-taking strategy training As mentioned above, because students’ levels, background knowledge, learning styles and preferences are different from one to one, teachers should choose many different materials and activities to meet these For instance, some students want teachers to guide them through tasks in the textbook while some students want teachers to guide them through the lessons of correcting tests because at that time they can learn more Weak students tend to like practicing in groups or pair for safety whereas good students might want to practice individually because of their self-confidence and desire to show the self-image 3.2.5 Examination-taking strategy training activities 3.2.5.1 Examination-taking strategy guiding activities a Combining guiding explicitly in words with delivering handouts if necessary The explicit guiding in words is very necessary because it helps students to be well aware of the strategies related to the task and always conscious to use the strategies when opportunities come However, because the examination-taking strategy training is timeconsuming, sometimes teachers might use handouts to supplement their training in class b Guiding through the lessons of correcting tests Guiding through the lessons of correcting tests usually gives students a lot of opportunities and time to master as well as practice examination-taking strategies Moreover, it is usually motivating for students because it is directly related to their concern Students want to know why their answers are not correct and what’s wrong with their examination-taking strategies Through their failure and the awareness of their failure due to teachers’ guidance they will learn examination-taking strategies better c Guiding through sample tests Sometimes in the lessons of review, teachers can guide students examination-taking strategies with sample tests However, these tests should be related to the lessons students 40 need to review This can help students get used to different task types as well as the ways to deal with them so that they not find unfamiliar task types in every situations, especially in test ones d Guiding through tasks in the textbook It is a good way for the teacher to combine the required lessons with examination-taking strategy training With this, the teacher does not have to spend much time preparing because of the availability of tasks in the textbook However, to avoid the boredom due to the lack of a variety of task types and the abuse of the reference books, the teachers might redesign the tasks For example, some tasks of answering the reading comprehension questions might be adapted to multiple -choice or True/ False statement tasks In this way, the students can know more task types and be more motivated in learning English lessons e Guiding through stories of teachers’ experiences related to examination-taking strategies This activity might help the relationship among the teacher and students become more intimate and the theories of examination-taking strategies become easier to master This might be carried out in the warm-up stage to motivate the students f Guiding through discussions Because the level of strategy knowledge is different from one to one, it is useful to ask the students discuss about some certain strategies It also helps students to remember well Firstly, the teacher gives students one task and ask them to discuss on the way to deal with it The most suitable strategies will be chosen with the teacher’s remarks and supplement g Guiding through brainstorming This activity also attracts the students because it encourages them to show all the strategies they know and think After students’ ideas, the teacher helps them to choose the most suitable strategies 3.2.5.2 Examination-taking strategy practicing activities a Practicing in groups or pairs The teacher might ask the students to use the strategies they have learnt to deal with some tasks in pairs or groups However, with pair work or group work, the teacher should be careful because in addition to its advantages, it has some bad points if it is not well controlled One of its realizable difficulties is that some weak students might become lazy 41 and not involved in the task Therefore, the teacher should give some rules or rewards to encourage the students’ involvement b Practicing individually Some good students at English might want to work individually to show their self-image Moreover, sometimes students also need to be independent in thinking and performing Thus, the teacher should give students some opportunities to work individually To this activity, the teacher might ask the students to use their learnt strategies to deal with one task individually After that, he /she might call on some students to give their answers and think aloud their strategies used to the task, and then the teacher gives feedback c Assigning homework exercises related to the just guided strategies This activity gives students more time and opportunities to practice the examination-taking strategies After introducing and guiding students one strategy, the teacher asks students to some exercises at home These exercises need to be corrected in the next lesson d Taking some small tests Sometimes, the teacher should ask students to take some small tests These tests might last to 15 minutes These are the opportunities for students to use their learnt strategies to perform the real-like tests After a given amount of time, the teacher collects the papers The correction might be conducted immediately if the time is available or in the next lesson The aim of this activity is mainly to help students evaluate their knowledge and application of examination-taking strategies on their own and get opportunities and feelings to gain success This will motivate the students in learning e Practicing through language games Games are usually interesting for students They can help students both learn and relax This activity might be carried out for to 10 minutes at any stage of the lesson This chapter has made major findings and recommendations for motivating grade 11 students to learn English through examination-taking strategy training Examinationtaking strategy training can be considered a possible technique to motivate students in learning English However, it should be conducted carefully and continuously along with general education process In addition, it needs teachers’ patience, experience, effort and belief 42 PART C CONCLUSION I Summary of the study In the literature, motivation has been proved to play an important role in sustaining learning and success Whether a person will continue to spend time and effort to learn a language depends on the benefits, joy and commitment in doing it On the other hand, English as a second or foreign language is becoming more and more important The teaching and learning of English is really the researcher’s big concern when her students’ English knowledge and language skills are rather poor For the grade 11 students, the goal of learning English is mainly to pass the final examination Clearly, their goal and motivation in learning English is very difficult to change if there is no effort from themselves and their teachers After initial observations of their English learning reality as well as their goal and needs, the researcher decided to conduct this study with the hope that examination-taking strategy training can help to motivate these students to learn English Research literature shows that language learning strategy training in general and examination-taking strategy training in particular is considered as a motivating factor It can give students both success and motivation in learning a language Along with the research literature, the data collection and analysis in this study shows that the application of the examination-taking strategy training in English lessons to motivate students is possible Moreover, the researcher has offered some recommendations for motivating students to learn English through examination-taking strategy training These recommendations are based on the theoretical background of motivation and examinationtaking strategy training In addition, the knowledge of teaching that the researcher had gained from the M.A thesis course, experiences from her real teaching as well as the results collected from the survey questionnaires, follow-up interviews and class observations are very good practical background In order to use the technique efficiently, it is advisable for teachers to strictly follow the principles of using examination-taking strategy training in language classes Noticeably, it should be kept in mind that this training is not a separate and short intervention but a long and continuous process which is integrated into regular lessons in class Also, it is better to vary interesting learning activities and use them appropriately and flexibly 43 In summary, the researcher strongly hopes that this technique – examination-taking strategy training introduced in this study is of great value, making a significant contribution to the better teaching and learning quality as well as the improvement of grade 11 students at Yen Thanh upper secondary school Because of the limited time and knowledge, there must be some defects and mistakes in this paper, thus remarks and suggestions from everybody, especially lectures and colleagues are highly appreciated II Limitations and suggestions for further study Within the limitation of time and this paper, the study can only assure the role of the examination-taking strategy training as a motivating factor in learning English and stops at providing the ability of this technique in improving motivation for grade 11 students in the researcher’s context Another limitation is that the study was mainly related to students’ perception only, not other experienced people Lastly, the examination-taking strategy training is suggested to insert into the lessons over a long period of time to gain its benefits but in this study the training lasted only one month and half a month If possible, further research on the topic would be as follows: With the above limitations, it is a good idea to carry out the research among students of other classes or other grades such as grade 10 and 12 Also the researcher would like to recommend further study on potential difficulties of applying several examination-taking strategy training activities in English lessons Finally, finding out other useful techniques to motivate students to learn English and improve the quality of teaching and learning English in rural areas is also another direction for further study 44 REFERENCES Brown, H.D (1990), Principles of Teaching and Learning, Prentice Hall Regents, New Jersey 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Palgrave 11 Harmer, J (20 01), The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman 12 Hedge, T (20 00), Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom, OUP 13 Hoàng Văn Vân (20 07), Tiếng Anh 11, Nhà... students at Yen Thanh upper secondary school Besides, the target that the study investigates and serves is just 115 students from classes of grade 11 at this school Methods of the study This study was... other schools in Vietnam, there exists two kinds of syllabus here: the old one for the current grade 12 students and the new one for the current grade 10 and 11 students The school year 20 07 -20 08