75
HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol. 37, No. 4 (2024): 75 - 85
*Email: huyenhvu@gmail.com
TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HÙNG VƯƠNG
Tập 37, Số 4 (2024): 75 - 85
HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Vol. 37, No. 4 (2024): 75 - 85
Email: tapchikhoahoc@hvu.edu.vn Website: www.hvu.edu.vnjst.hvu.vn
A STUDY ON EXTERNAL FACTORS MOTIVATING ENGLISH-MAJORED
STUDENTS IN LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS
AT HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY
Ngo Thi Thanh Huyen1*, Ngo Thi Hong Lien1
1Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung Vuong University, Phu Tho
Received: 17 November 2024; Revised: 03 December 2024; Accepted: 06 December 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59775/1859-3968.229
Abstract
Motivation has been proven to be an extremely important factor in inspiring learners of English as a foreign
language (EFL). This paper aims to investigate environmental factors that motivate English-majored
students to learn speaking skills. Data collected from questionnaires with 130 English majored-students and
focused-group interviews with eight participants were thoroughly analyzed with the descriptive analysis in
SPSS.26, and the thematic analysis method, respectively. The findings indicate that textbooks are the most
motivated factor for English-majored students to acquire English speaking skills. Therefore, it is suggested that
lecturers should integrate multimedia to make the learning experience more practical and enjoyable, provide
students with clear instructions to help them generate ideas for the speaking topics, and get them more engaged.
Moreover, the students are advised to develop self-learning skills, review course materials thoroughly, and use
additional resources to enhance their textbook understanding. Furthermore, it is proposed that other researchers
can use those findings as a basis to carry out research on motivation factors in different research contexts with
larger populations.
Keywords: English speaking skills, learning motivators, English learning, environmental motivation factors.
1. Introduction
In the process of assisting Vietnam on
the integration journey, English learning-
teaching has become one of the priorities
of the Ministry of Education. In this case,
Hung Vuong University, in common and
Foreign Language Department, in particular,
are not excluded. The University and
Department’s efforts in constantly enhancing
English teaching-learning qualification
have been witnessed through activities to
improve teaching methodology and learning
autonomy, and research conducted by teachers
and students. Those endeavors cannot be
denied, but in fact, there are some problems
such as students’ autonomy, students’ prior
knowledge that need to be concerned for the
teachers and students to get insights into their
76
HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Ngo Thi Thanh Huyen and Ngo Thi Hong Lien
teaching and learning situations. Motivation
for learning English speaking skills is one
of the most essential factors that have been
under careful consideration because the
English majors’ engagement in English-
speaking classes is assessed at a low level by
most of the lecturers.
The situation is that the English
competence of English-majored students at
Hung Vuong University is uneven in terms of
speaking skills which has been indicated in
speaking skills transcripts, research carried
out on English speaking skills at Hung
Vuong University, and English teachers’
assessment. That leads to factors influencing
students’ English speaking at Hung Vuong
University recently are worth to concern
about. Therefore, this study was carried out
to investigate environmental factors that
are motivating them in speaking class time
in order to support and encourage them to
speak English fluently.
2. Methods
2.1. Literature review
According to Pourhosein Gilakjani,
Leong, and Saburi (2012), the success of any
action is dependent on the extent to which
people try to achieve their goal, along with
their desire to do so. Only when they are
eager to gain something, they attempt to
achieve it no matter how hard the process is.
That refers to their motivation [1].
Gardner (2010) identified the basic
characteristics that a motivated person
displays. According to him, reaching a goal
motivates individuals to put in effort and
persistence, engage in goal-related activities,
have an intense desire to succeed and enjoy the
process. The motivation plays an important
role for students to walk toward their goals.
Regarding motivation, it was classified into
extrinsic and intrinsic motivation [2].
William and Burden (1997), as cited in
Dornyei (2001), provide a classification of
motivation that includes both internal and
external factors [3].
Internal factors encompass various aspects
of an individual’s intrinsic motivation. The
intrinsic interest in an activity stems from the
arousal of curiosity and an optimal degree of
challenge. The perceived value of an activity
is influenced by its personal relevance, the
anticipated value of its outcome, and the
intrinsic value attributed to it. A sense of
agency plays a crucial role, including factors
such as the locus of causality, locus of control
concerning processes and outcomes, and
the ability to set appropriate goals. Mastery
contributes significantly through feelings of
competence, awareness of skill development,
and self-efficacy. Self-concept is shaped by
realistic awareness of personal strengths
and weaknesses, definitions and judgments
of success or failure, concerns related to
self-worth, and the experience of learned
helplessness. Additionally, attitudes towards
language learning, the target language, and
the associated community and culture further
influence motivation. Other affective states,
such as confidence, anxiety, and fear, also
play a role.
External factors focus on influences from
the surrounding environment. Significant
others, such as parents, teachers, and
peers, have a notable impact. The nature
of interaction with these significant others
includes mediated learning experiences,
the type and amount of feedback, rewards,
appropriate praise, punishments, and
sanctions. The learning environment also
matters, including factors such as comfort,
available resources, timing, class size, and
77
HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol. 37, No. 4 (2024): 75 - 85
the ethos of the school or class. The broader
context extends to family networks, the
local education system, conflicting interests,
cultural norms, and societal expectations and
attitudes.
This classification highlights the interplay
between internal motivations and external
influences in shaping a learner’s engagement
and success.
In terms of the importance of motivation
to language learning, Gardner (2010) [2]
listed the essential characteristics of a driven
person. He maintained that a motivated
individual actively participates in activities
meant to accomplish their goals, shows a
strong desire to succeed, and pursues goals
with effort and tenacity. Such a person also
has expectations for both success and failure
and likes the actions required to achieve their
goals. Additionally, those who are working
toward their objectives exhibit self-efficacy
and confidence in their skills.
In line with that, Seven (2020) [4]
supported the idea that a student’s desire
to learn is crucial for their receptiveness to
new knowledge. When being motivated,
students are more engaged, curious, and
willing to overcome challenges, which leads
to effective learning. However, if a student
lacks the motivation to learn, they are likely
to disengage and have the feeling of boredom
that makes the learning process inefficient.
According to Trang & Baldouf (2007)
[5], environmental factors that can boost
students’ motivation consist of the classroom
atmosphere, opportunities to use English,
learning conditions, textbooks, and class time
as shown in Table 1. Although these factors do
not entirely determine motivation, they do have
a considerable impact on students’ motivation.
Table 1. Conceptual framework of learning environmental factors in learning speaking skills
(adapted from Trang & Baldauf (2007))
Learning
environmental
factors
Class atmosphere
- Class atmosphere
- Feeling of students)
- Behaviors of classmates
Opportunities to use English - Opportunities to use English in class
- Opportunities to use English outside class
Learning conditions
- Number of students
- Teaching and learning facilities
- Level of proficiency between classmates
- Extra-curricular activities
Class time - Quality of class time
- Class time duration
Textbook - Textbooks’ content
- Textbooks’ level compare to students’
This taxonomy was adapted and employed
as the conceptual framework for the current
study that helped shape the research direction,
design data collection tools, identify specific
factors in the data analysis process, and
compare and contrast the findings with those
identified in other previous studies.
Phung (2017) examined task engagement
in relation to learners’ task preferences.
He reported significant effects of learner
preference on engagement, that is to say,
learners were cognitively, socially and
behaviorally engaged in the tasks they
preferred. It indicates that textbooks need to
78
HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Ngo Thi Thanh Huyen and Ngo Thi Hong Lien
be related to students’ interest and get along
with their level in order to match with student
preference [7].
Learning conditions can have impacts on
opportunities to use language in class. Jones
et al. (2020) compared the final course grades
of students in intensive English language
classrooms of varying sizes using statistical
analysis to see whether the academic course
outcomes were better in either environment.
They discovered that both students and
tutors strongly favored lower class sizes.
Additionally, students might have profited
from the benefits of smaller classes, such as
increased chances for one-on-one time and
tutor input [8].
2.2. Methodology
2.2.1. Research question
The study was carried out with the
purpose of investigating environmental
motivation factors at the research site of
Hung Vuong university among English-
majored students. The research attempted to
address the following question: “What are
learning environmental factors that motivate
English-majored students in learning English
speaking skills?”
2.2.2. Participants of the study
The participants of the study were
130 second-year and third-year English-
majored students at Hung Vuong University.
There are 72 third-year and 58 second-
year students, which include 22 males and
108 females. Students majoring in English
volunteered to participate in the research.
At the time of the survey, all of the students
had already spent 10 years or more learning
English at schools and had been taking
speaking courses at HVU for at least 3
semesters. In high school, students did not
focus too much on developing their speaking
skills due the tests they had to take did not
include speaking skills. However, since
they entered the university, the participants
have experienced practicing speaking skills
in English speaking courses at HVU. At the
time of the research implementation, they had
learnt at least three speaking courses, making
up a total of 8 credits over three semesters.
So, the students have had 160 class hours of
speaking practice with their lecturers. Apart
from this, according to the curricula proposed
by the university, the students had to spend at
least 240 hours for self-study activities after
the class time.
Regarding the speaking skills curricula
in the university, there are five speaking
courses, making up a total of 12 speaking
credits over five semesters. The speaking
curricula are based on the series of Inside
listening and speaking [6]. The speaking
lecturers are members from the Department
of foreign languages, all of whom hold a
master degree or higher and have at least 10
years of teaching experience.
2.2.3. Data collection instruments
In order to collect data to answer the
research question, the two data collection
tools named questionnaire of environmental
motivators and focused-group interviews
were employed in the chronological order.
The questionnaire was delivered to 130
participants via Google forms first. The
questionnaire with 30 items was given to
the participants to mark from 1 (I absolutely
agree) to 4 (I definitely do not agree) with
the aim of collecting students’ perspectives
on environmental factors affecting their
learning English speaking. The questionnaire
received 130 answers with 100 percent
of qualified feedback. The questions in
the questionnaire were in Vietnamese, the
mother language of the participants, to
avoid any misunderstandings. The summary
of the questionnaire structure is presented
in Table 2.
79
HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol. 37, No. 4 (2024): 75 - 85
Table 2. Description of questionnaire on learning environmental factors in learning speaking skills
Learning
environmental
factors
Class atmosphere
- Class atmosphere (quiet and boring/active and dynamic): Item 1, 9, 14
- Feeling of students (stressful/comfortable): Item 17, 18, 21
- Behaviors of classmates: Item 8, 12
Opportunities to use
English
- Opportunities to use English in class: Item 4, 5
- Opportunities to use English outside class: Item 7, 30
Learning conditions
- Number of students: Item 3, 15,
- Teaching and learning facilities: Item 13, 16, 20, 23
- Level of proficiency between classmates: Item 24, 29
- Extra-curricular activities: Item 22, 28
Class Time - Quality of class time: Item 11, 19
- Class time dimension: Item 2, 26
Textbook - Textbooks’ content: Item 6, 27
- Textbooks’ level compare to students’: Item 10, 25
After collecting data from the questionnaire,
the in-depth interview was conducted with
eight participants in order to confirm the
results in the questionnaire. The findings from
the questionnaire were then used to design
interview questions in order to get deeper
insights into the participants’ responses.
The interview was conducted among eight
participants by the two researchers themselves.
The participants were chosen on the basis of
participants’ voluntariness and questionnaire
response variety. Like the questionnaire, the
questions in the interview were also presented in
Vietnamese to avoid any misunderstandings for
the participants. The interviewees gave answers
in Vietnamese; however, only some references
used to cite in the paper were translated into
English. The data of the two instruments were
also triangulated to help researchers obtain
deeper insights into the research problem. The
study employed the form of a focused-group
interview that was composed of 8 questions
which is shown in Table 3 as follows:
Table 3. Structure of the interview questions
Interview questions Research questions to answer
After completing the survey, the results suggest that the textbook factor significantly
boosts motivation during the process of learning spoken English. How much do you
agree with this result?
Research Question 1
How does the factor that increases motivation encourage students in learning to speak? Research Question 1
What changes would you like the university and department to make? Implications for stakeholders
What changes would you like the teacher to make? Implications for stakeholders
What changes would you like to make themselves? Implications for stakeholders
2.2.4. Data analysis
The quantitative information gathered
from the questionnaires was examined
using SPSS version 26. After the details
of environmental factors were collected
completely, the results were extracted
into excel file and then imported in SPSS
software. The statistical methods were
used to find out the learning environmental
motivating factors which mostly influence
the English-majored students’ learning
English speaking skills at Hung Vuong
University is descriptive analysis.
The information collected by the interview
in the form of recorded conversations were
analyzed by using a method called Thematic
Analysis which is a methodology in the
social sciences for studying the content of
communication. The results came out in a
total of 22 codes and 4 subthemes.