Sử dụng các phương pháp tạo động lực trong lớp học tiếng Anh xã hội dạy kết hợp 4 kĩ năng nghe, nói, đọc, viết

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SỬ DỤNG CÁC PHƯƠNG PHÁP TẠO ĐỘNG LỰC 
TRONG LỚP HỌC TIẾNG ANH XÃ HỘI 
DẠY KẾT HỢP 4 KĨ NĂNG NGHE, NÓI, ĐỌC, VIẾT 
Lu Ngc Lan 
Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ - ĐHQG Hà Nội 
Tóm t
t: Chiến lược tạo động lực đóng vai trò quan 
trọng đối với các lớp học ngoại ngữ cũng như thực tế 
đã cho thấy rằng cách tiếp cận mới trong giảng dạy 
tếng Anh tại các trường FELTE, HULIS và VNU đã tạo 
thêm nhiều thách thức mới cho cả giảng viên và sinh 
viên năm nhất. Điều này chính là động lực để tác giả 
thực hiện nghiên cứu về vấn đề này. Bài viết này nhắm 
phân tích những chiến lược tạo động lực được sử dụng 
nhiều nhất từ góc nhìn của cả giáo viên và sinh viên 
năm thứ nhất chính quy trong các lớp tiếng Anh giao 
tiếp ở Khoa Sư phạm tiếng Anh, Trường Đại học Ngoại 
Ngữ, Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội. 
Để đạt được mục đích trên, chúng tôi đã đề nghị 09 
giáo viên và 223 sinh viên của 09 lớp học hoàn thành 
một bảng câu hỏi. Bên cạnh đó, chúng tôi còn tiến 
hành quan sát lớp và phỏng vấn nhằm kiểm tra chéo 
dữ liệu từ những khía cạnh khác nhau nên đảm bảo độ 
tin cậy và giá trị của kết quả nghiên cứu. 
Dựa trên dữ liệu thu thập được, kích thích khả năng 
tự sửa lỗi, thiết lập sự liên quan, sự hỗ trợ mang tính 
hướng dẫn của giáo viên, cá nhân hoá, thúc đẩy việc 
hợp tác, làm việc trong những nhóm/cặp khác nhau là 
những chiến lược tạo động lực được sử dụng nhiều 
nhất. Thêm vào đó, theo ý kiến của giáo viên, cạnh 
tranh theo nhóm, thiết lập sự liên quan, kích thích tự 
sửa lỗi hoặc sửa lỗi theo cặp, sự hỗ trợ mang tính 
hướng dẫn của giáo viên, sự tán dương hiệu quả và cá 
nhân hóa là những kĩ thuật hiệu quả nhất. Mặt khác, từ 
quan điểm của sinh viên, kích thích sửa lỗi của cá nhân 
và cặp, thiết lập sự liên quan, tán dương hiệu quả và 
làm việc trong các nhóm/cặp khác nhau là những 
phương pháp hiệu quả nhất. 
Abstract: Motivational strategies are important to 
apply in foreign language classes as well as the fact 
that new approach of teaching English in Faculty of 
English Language Teaching Education (FELTE), 
University of language and international study (ULIS), 
Vietnam National University (VNU) has raised new 
challenge for both teachers and first-year students, 
have become a great drive for the researcher to 
conduct this research. The study aims at investigating 
into the most frequently and most effective strategies 
used in social English class of first- year mainstream 
students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU, as perceived by both 
students and teachers. 
In order to achieve these aims, 9 teachers and 223 
students from 9 classes were involved in completing 
the questionnaires. Besides observations, interviews 
were employed to triangulate the data from various 
aspects and hence ensure the validity as well as 
reliability of the research. 
Based on the data collected, Elicitation of self and 
or peer correction, Establishing relevance, Scaffolding, 
Personalization, Promoting cooperation 
andInconsistent group/pair work are considered the 
most frequently motivational strategies. Additionally, 
according to the teachers, Team competition, 
Establishing relevance, Elicitation of self or peer 
correction, Scaffolding, Effective praise and 
Personalization are the most effective techniques. On 
the other hands, from the students’ perception, 
Elicitation of self or peer correction, Establishing 
relevance, Effective praise, Inconsistent group/ pair 
work are the most effective strategies. 
THE USE OF MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES 
IN SOCIAL INTEGRATED-SKILLED ENGLISH CLASS 
1. Statement of research problem and 
rationale for the study 
According to Dörnyei (1998), researchers and 
teachers from all other the world have agreed that 
motivation is one of the determinants for the 
success of second language (L2) studying process. 
Therefore, motivational strategies should be seen 
as the key for successful L2 classes. In the world, 
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motivational strategies have been applied 
successfully in many English as second language 
(ESL) classes, which have brought about many 
advantages. For example, the study The Use of 
Motivational Strategies in Language Instruction: 
The Case of EFL Teaching in Taiwan (Dörnyei& 
Cheng 2007) has shown advantages of using 
motivational strategies in ESL classes: 
“Promoting leaner autonomy, creating interesting 
classes, and recognizing students’ effort and hard 
work”. However, motivational strategies have not 
been widely applied in Vietnam, especially at high 
school. Grammar- Translation is still the most 
popular method used in classes at high school in 
Vietnam due to the pressure of the university 
entrance exam containing no communicative skill. 
Therefore, students in high school study English 
by learning by heart the rules and few 
motivational strategies have been used in high 
school context. This fact leads to the passive and 
ineffective way of learning of most students in L2 
classes in Vietnam. 
In ULIS context, the students have chance to 
approach totally different method of teaching, 
which is Communicative Language Teaching 
(CLT). This method requires them to be more 
active, to be the class center. Unfortunately, most 
of the students, especially the first- year ones have 
the habit of passive learning for too long period of 
time and find it extremely hard to get 
acquaintance to the new method. In this situation, 
the duties of the teachers are emphasized. 
Motivational strategies should be applied 
successfully by the teachers to help students 
change their learning method as soon as possible 
to adapt with the curriculum. 
On the other hand, it is not an easy task for 
teachers to apply successfully motivational 
strategies because “often a complex and difficult 
task that involves a multiplicity of psycho- 
sociological and linguistic factors” (Dörnyei 1998, 
2010a, cited in Bahous 2011). In addition, 
“Motivation is, without question, the most 
complex and challenging issue facing teachers 
today” (Scheidecker& Freeman 1999, p.116, cited 
in Dörnyei 2001, p.1). 
Recently, there have been some research 
papers studying about the effects of motivational 
strategies during the teaching practicum, for 
example Nguyen (2011) and Tran (2012). 
However, because 2012-2013 schoolyear is the 
first time the course outline for first-year students 
has a big change. While all the previous research 
papers focused on separated skill, the new 
program this year focuses on intergrated-skill 
lessons. Therefore, none of those studies 
investigated into the use of motivational strategies 
in social English class in which integrated skills 
are taught. 
The above facts have raised the need of the 
researcher to conduct a study investigating into 
the frequency and the effectiveness when using 
motivational strategies in social class of first-year 
mainstream students, from the perception of both 
students and teachers. The study is entitled: The 
use of motivational strategies in social 
integrated-skilled English class. 
2. Development 
2.1. Literature review 
Framework of motivational strategies in this 
study 
As a matter of fact, Dörnyei (2001) asserts that 
motivational strategies refer to “instructional 
interventions” that the teachers can use to 
motivate their students and “self-regulating 
strategies” that each student can apply 
purposefully to control the degree of their 
motivation. 
The frameworks discussed in the previous part 
concern much about “self-regulating strategies”, 
however, the motivational strategies discussed in 
this research belong to “instructional interventions 
applied by the teacher”. Fortunately, there is a 
framework which can suit the situation of this 
research. In the recent research outlined by 
Guilloteaux (2007), he points out that there are 
many researchers studied on this field with the 
lack of a “theory- based framework”, except for 
the situation of Dörnyei (2001). 
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Dörnyei (2001)’s motivational teaching practice 
In conclusion, as an exceptional theory-based 
framework discussing instructional strategies used 
by the teachers, Dörnyei (2001)’s framework of a 
motivational teaching practice is the most suitable 
one to serve as the theoretical background for the 
designed questionnaires and classroom 
observation instruments in this research. 
2.2. Methodology 
2.2.1. Research design 
The design of this research is a survey, which 
possesses numerous benefits. The combination of 
interviews, questionnaires and observation was 
employed during the process of data collection 
because of the following reasons. Firstly, the size 
of the population in the study was not small so it 
was difficult to choose the case study to be the 
research design. Besides, survey allows the 
collection of data from a larger number of people 
and it could help the researchers to save time and 
energy. Secondly, the first two instruments 
enabled the researchers to collect students’ self-
report on their own opinions of motivation 
strategies. Thirdly, the researcher wanted to 
interview the teachers to get their report. Last but 
not least, to help enhance the validity and 
reliability of the information, to make 
methodological triangulation for the data, and to 
avoid biased information of self-reports, the 
researcher decided to use observation as the third 
instrument for the research design. 
2.2.2. Participants and settings 
2.2.2.1. Participants 
The process of data collection involved the 
participants of both first-year students and teachers 
from mainstream group, FELTE, ULIS, VNU. 
2.2.2.1.1. Teachers 
The population of the research was 18 teachers 
who are teaching social English for first-year 
mainstream students at FELTE, HULIS, VNU in 
the second semester of 2012-2013 school year. 
Due to the time limit of both the researchers and 
the teachers, only half of the population was asked 
to join in the research. Additionally, simple random 
sampling was employed. A questionnaire was 
given to these 9 teachers to measure their self-
report of motivational strategies. After that, all of 
the teachers were interviewed to evaluate the 
frequency and effectiveness of the motivational 
strategies and express their own opinions about the 
effective and most frequently used strategies. 
Additionally, they were also observed in class to figure 
out the motivational strategies they used in class. 
2.2.2.1.2. Students 
A set of questionnaires was given to 223 
students from 9 classes of the 9 selected teachers 
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110 
to measure their self-reported course-related 
motivation. Those students are the first-year ones, 
who have experienced one semester in FELTE, 
HULIS, VNU. Some of them are studying English 
Teaching major, some are studying interpreting 
major and the rest are studying economic English. 
However, in first-year, they have the same 
studying program with social English. The level of 
their English proficiency is around Pre-
intermediate since there are some students whose 
level are above and some students whose level are 
below this range. Those students were observed in 
class to evaluate their motivational state and 
actual classroom behaviors. Moreover, due to the 
time limit of both the researchers and the first- 
year students, in each class, the researcher chose 
one student randomly to take part in the interview 
session. Therefore, 9 students out of the sample 
were interviewed to provide deeper information 
for the research. 
2.2.2.2. Research settings 
The study was conducted at FELTE, HULIS, 
VNU, with the first-year mainstream classes. In 
the previous years, students at FELTE, HULIS, 
VNU used to learn separated skills, which were 
listening, speaking, reading and writing ones. 
They used to study English for 6 semesters. 
However, starting from school year 2012-2013, 
the students have intensive proficiency course for 
only 4 semesters, expecting the same results with 
the previous generations. Moreover, they are 
learning Social and Academic English or 
Economic English, and in each lesson, 4 skills are 
integrated. These changes have brought many 
challenges for both students and teachers. 
Students can find it difficult to reach with the 
proficiency level of the skills required by the 
program after each semester and teachers can find 
it challenging to motivate their students to learn 
more. Therefore, the use of motivational strategies 
by the teachers is unquestionably needed. 
2.2.3. Data collection instruments 
2.2.3.1. Observation 
The observation scheme of this study was 
adapted from two components in the motivation 
orientation of language teaching (MOLT) 
proposed by Guilloteaux and Dörnyei (2008). The 
MOLT classroom observation scheme combines 
two established schemes or frameworks: 
Dörnyei’s (2001) system of motivational teaching 
practice and Spada and Fröhlich’s (1995) class-
room observation scheme, the communication 
orientation of language teaching (COLT). The 
content categories included in the MOLT 
concerned features of the learners’ motivated 
behavior and the teacher’s motivational teaching 
practice. The learners’ motivated behavior involved 
the observer’s assessment of the learners’ level of 
motivated behavior in terms of the proportion of 
students who paid attention or actively 
participated during the class and who eagerly 
volunteered during the activities. Table 1 presents 
the description of the three variables. A three 
level- scale was used: very low= a few students, 
low= one third to two thirds of the students, and 
high= more than two thirds of the students. 
Table 1: Observational variables measuring 
learner’s motivated behavior 
Variable Description 
Attention Students appear to be paying: 
They are not displaying any 
inattentive or disruptive 
behavior: they are looking at the 
teacher and following his or her 
movements, looking at visual 
stimuli, turning to watch another 
student who is contributing to 
the task, following the text 
being read or making 
appropriate nonverbal 
responses. 
Participation Students are actively taking part 
in classroom interaction or 
working on assigned activity. 
They are also volunteering 
without the teacher having to 
coax them in any way. 
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The aspects of the teacher’s motivated teaching 
practice included in the MOLT were based on the 
Dörnyei’s (2001) model of motivational teaching 
practice. Twenty five clearly definable and 
observable motivational variables were select and 
presented in Appendix 1. 
The observation coding scheme consisted of 
two main parts: the class profile involving general 
information about the teacher, date and the class 
and a checklist of different motivational 
strategies that are proposed by Guilloteaux and 
Dörnyei (2008). The two items to check these 
strategies are frequency of use and student’s 
motivated behavior. 
The data collected from observations is used to 
answer the all the three research questions. 
2.2.3.2. Questionnaires 
The questionnaires were also adapted from 
Dörnyei’s (2001) model of motivational teaching 
practice with the twenty five items of motivational 
strategies. 
There are two sets of questionnaires, one for 
students and one for the teachers. Both of the sets 
of questionnaire began with a brief overview of 
the research title, the purpose of carrying out the 
questionnaire survey and a desire for cooperation 
from respondents. Confidentiality of shared 
information was also emphasized. 
2.2.3.3. Interviews 
Semi-structured interview was utilized to yield 
the wanted data since it is widely known that 
semi-constructed interviews offer interviewers 
plenty of flexibility while providing interviewees 
with adequate power and control over the course 
of the interview (Mackey &Gass, 2005, p.173). 
Two different sets of guided questions to elicit 
answers and further explanations from interviewees 
were carefully prepared in advance. The questions 
for teachers and students were mainly based on 
the research questions with reference to specific 
aspects of the use of motivational strategies in 
social English classes. 
2.3. Finding and discussion 
2.3.1. Research question 1: What motivational 
strategies are most frequently used by teachers at 
FELTE, HULIS, VNU in social English lessons 
of first-year mainstream students from the 
perception of both the students and the teachers? 
In order to collect the data for this first question, 
respondents including both the teachers and the 
first-year students were required to mark the level 
of frequency of each motivational strategy in the 
range from 1 to 5 in which the numbers 
respectively mean never, seldom, sometimes, often 
and always. 
The bar chart below shows the result of the 
first-year students’ questionnaires and the 
teachers’questionnaires with the mean score 
indicating the frequency of motivational strategies 
used in social English class: 
Figure 5: Frequency of using motivational strategies, 
perceived by first-year students and teachers 

	

	











	


	



	

















	





	

















 















 

 

 


	



	



	









	
   
 
 

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Tiu ban 1: Đào to chuyên ng 
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It can be clearly seen in the chart that the most 
frequently used motivational strategies evaluated 
by the teachers were Elicitation of self and or peer 
correction (4.45), Establishing relevance (4.45), 
Scaffolding (4.18), Personalization (4.18), 
Promoting cooperation (4.09), Arousing curiosity 
and attention (4), Stating the communicative 
purpose of utility of the activity (3.82), 
Inconsistent group/pair work (3.73), Team 
competition (3.73). On the other hand, the choices 
of the students were quite different, according to 
them, most frequently used strategies were 
Inconsistent group/pair work (4.26), Elicitation of 
self or peer correction (4.17), Establishing 
relevance (4.01), Personalization (3.97), 
Promoting cooperation (3.91), Signposting 1 
(3.91), Process feedback (3.89), Scaffolding (3.86), 
Class applause (3.78), Stating the communicative 
purpose of utility of the activity (3.76). 
The dissimilarity was that the teachers chose 
Arousing curiosity and attention and Team 
competition as the most frequently used 
motivational strategies but the students did not. At 
this point, from the observation of 9 sessions in 
English social class, the researcher agrees with the 
students. These two strategies were rarely applied 
by the teachers. Particularly, Arousing curiosity 
and attention strategy was applied in only one 
class (in Video 1) when the T1 asked the students 
to look at the book and guess the situation. About 
Team competition, it was applied in one class (in 
Video 4) when T4 divided the class into 5 groups 
and designed an activity. Each group could gain 
stars when they had correct answer for the activity. 
Groups gained largest number of stars would be 
the winner. It seems that Team competition is fun 
but it