VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -  - NGUYỄN THỊ BƯỞI DEMOTIVATING FACTORS IN LISTENING LESSONS OF THE SECOND YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY (Nghiên cứu yếu tố gây hứng thú học nghe sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ hai trường đại học Công Nghiệp Hà Nội ) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HA NOI – 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -  - NGUYỄN THỊ BƯỞI DEMOTIVATING FACTORS IN LISTENING LESSONS OF THE SECOND YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY (Nghiên cứu yếu tố gây hứng thú học nghe sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ hai trường đại học Công Nghiệp Hà Nội ) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Ha HA NOI – 2015 DECLARATION I, hereby, certify the thesis entitled “Demotivating factors in listening lessons of the second year non-English major students at Hanoi University of Industry” is the result of my own research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of PostGraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and that this thesis has not, wholly or partially, been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions Hanoi, October 2nd, 2015 Nguyen Thi Buoi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Ha for her inspiring me to this research If it had not been for her invaluable guidance, insightful comments and kind support, my thesis would not have been accomplished My special thanks also go to all the professors and lecturers of the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies at the University of Languages and International Studies – Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable lectures, which have laid the foundation for this thesis I am indebted to my friends and my colleagues for their suggestions and encouragement to fulfill the study Finally, I owe the completion of this study to my family, especially my husband who gave me encouragement throughout the study Hanoi, October 2015 ABSTRACT This study is an attempt to investigate factors demotivating the second year non English major students in listening lessons at Hanoi university of Industry The main purposes of the study are to find out: the main demotivating factor affecting students’ motivation in listening lessons and some suggested solutions by teachers to stimulate students to arouse their interest in listening lessons The study data were collected by means of questionnaire for students and teachers, informal interviews with teachers and class observation The results indicated that four demotivating factors were found in this study: (1) unfavorable teaching and learning condition, (2) the difficulty of listening section in the coursebook,(3) learner’s lack of background knowledge and reduced interest, and (4) teachers’ teaching styles However, there still existed the gap between teachers’ perception and students’ perception as a source of demotivation The students mostly blamed on unfavorable teaching and learning condition; whereas, teachers thought that it was the students’ low English proficiency and laziness in learning Some suggestions were provided by the teachers to motivate students in listening lessons PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Rationale It goes without saying that English is an international language and has become an useful tool for people in many fields of life There is an increasing number of learners trying to master English which is necessary for their jobs later In Vietnam, English is a foreign language that has been compulsory in schools and universities Learners are being trained to master the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing Learners are expected to use English successfully However, there is a large number of students who fail to fulfill that purpose As a teacher of English at Hanoi University of Industry, I found that my learners have faced many problems in their learning process Although the course’s objective is designed with a communicative orientation, non- English major students find it hard to use English for daily communication At Hanoi University of Industry, the secondyear non major English students are required to learn the course book “New Headwaypre intermediate”; however, many students feel bored and uninterested in listening lessons because of some underlying reasons that need to be investigated A large amount of research on second language learning has mainly concentrated on motivating factors with the aim of developing a positive attitude toward English language learning On the contrary, demotivation is considered to be a relatively new term in this field There have been so few studies conducted on demotivating factors in learning second language in general, and in listening in particular That is one of the reasons why we carry out more research on this problem All the aforementioned reasons have encouraged me to carry out a study entitled “Demotivating factors in listening lessons of the second year non- English major students at Hanoi University of Industry” I this study with the hope that it will be a useful reference for teachers and learners at HAUI to find a better way to teach and learn listening skills Aims and Objectives of the Study The study aims at exploring factors of demotivation in listening lessons of the second year non- English major at Hanoi University of Industry The paper is intended to aim at the following objectives: (+) To investigate main demotivating factors that reduce students’ interest in listening lessons (+)To suggest some solutions to eliminate these factors in order to help students recover their interest in listening lesson Research questions This study aims to answer the following question: What are the dominant demotivating factors affecting students’ listening lessons from students’ perception and from teachers’ perception? Scope of the study The study only focuses on the demotivation that the second year non-English major students at HaUI have in their listening lessons Then, the study is carried out to investigate main demotivating factors in listening lessons, and to suggest some solutions to help students overcome the current situation Research methodology The study was a quantitative study, in which I used mainly quantifying techniques A little amount of qualitative analysis is added to offer deeper insight to the quantifying results Survey questionnaires were used to collect the data that show the students' opinions and attitudes on the factors that demotivate them in listening lessons Informal interviews were applied to teachers to get information on their opinions and their solutions to recover students’ interest in listening lesson Lastly, data from observation in some listening classes were used for further analysis Significance of the study Theoretical significance: As I have mentioned above, most of earlier studies in second language acquisition mainly focused on motivation rather than on demotivation Moreover, there have been few studies on demotivating factors that prevent students from learning English in a particular skill, especially listening skill Therefore, this study is hoped to offer new insight in this research area Practical significance: Findings of this study will provide information that can help teachers and learners at HaUI find a better way to teach and learn listening skills In detail, the teachers are able to find appropriate teaching methods to motivate students learning listening skill and students are aware of the factors that can help them revive their interest in learning lessons Organization of the study The study consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion The first part presents rationale, aims, scope, method, and design of the study The second part is the main content including chapters Chapter one is the literature review which deals with the concepts of listening, listening comprehension, demotivation and reviewing studies of demotivation in second language acquisition as well as demotivating factors Chapter two is about the methodology of the study which presents research questions, participants, methods of the study, instruments, data collection Chapter three is about the data analysis, discussion and major findings The last part is conclusion which presents the summary of the study, limitations and the suggestions for further study Although the LC part is assessed to be appropriate and useful for skill development objective, it is not completely suitable for Vietnamese learners as it is written for English learners all over the world Thus, to minimize its disadvantages, the LC in the material should be adapted to be more appropriate to our students’ levels and needs Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study Due to various constraints and scope of the study, the present research displays certain limitations First, this study investigated the demotivating factors for the second year non-English major students at HaUI However, with the limited number of participants, the results of the study may not reliably reflect the teaching context Second, if time was available an interview with student subjects would be conducted to add more validity to the research Third, due to the small scope and limited time, the research only focused on listening skill Therefore, the coming research can focus on the other skills in particular or foreign language learning in general Furthermore, other researcher can focus on more learners at different levels and more teachers to participate in the studies to have more reliable findings and perceptions of the issue REFERENCES Byrnars, H (1984) The Role of Listening Comprehension: A Theoretical Base Foreign Language Annals 17:317-29 Chamber, D N (1993).Taking the “de” out of Demotivation Language learning Journal,7, 13-16 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