11th Form Students' Motivation for Doing English Homework at Nguyen Gia Thieu High School.pham Th

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

***********************

PHẠM THU HÀ

11th FORM STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION

FOR DOING ENGLISH HOMEWORK AT

NGUYEN GIA THIEU HIGH SCHOOL

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF THE BACHELOR OF ARTS (TELF)

Hanoi, May 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

***********************

PHẠM THU HÀ

11th FORM STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION

FOR DOING ENGLISH HOMEWORK AT

NGUYEN GIA THIEU HIGH SCHOOL

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF THE BACHELOR OF ARTS (TELF)

SUPERVISOR: PHAM MINH TAM, M.Ed.

Hanoi, May 2011

ACCEPTANCE

I hereby state that I: Pham Thu Ha, from 07.1.E1, being a candidate

for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the

College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper

deposited in the library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper

deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and

research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the

librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper.

Signature

May 23rd, 2011

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To complete this graduation paper, I owe profound indebtedness to

many people, without whose enthusiastic support I would not have

accomplished it.

First of all, I would love to express my deepest gratitude to my

supervisor Ms. Pham Minh Tam, M.Ed. who has guided and encouraged me

during the conduct of my research. Not only has she been my academic

supervisor providing professional guidance for this graduation paper, but she

has also been a friend and a mentor sharing with me her valuable experience

in doing research.

Besides, I would like to send my heartfelt thanks to Mr. Le Van Canh,

Ph.D. for his generous help with my thesis. Thanks to his critical comments,

I was sufficiently orientated towards both the methodology and the

substance of this study.

Next, I would love to give my sincere thanks to the school board and

teachers of English at Nguyen Gia Thieu High School for their assistance so

that the data collection procedure of my research was facilitated. Moreover,

my words of thanks are also sent to the 11th form students at Nguyen Gia

Thieu High School for their participation in the surveys. Without their

cooperation, I would not have been able to complete this thesis.

I also own a great debt of gratitude to my beloved parents and friends,

who have constantly encouraged me during the time I carried out this

research.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my readers for their interests

and comments on this thesis.

ABSTRACT

In the light of the 11th

form students‟ motivation for doing English

homework at Nguyen Gia Thieu High School, this study investigates the

extent to which the students are intrinsically and extrinsically motivated and

also examines the demotivating factors to the students‟ homework

completion. One hundred and thirty six students of grade 11 participated in

completing a questionnaire reflecting their motives for doing English

homework and what negatively affected their motivation. Follow-up

interviews with two students were also conducted to deepen understanding

and interpretation of the study. Results showed that the 11th form students in

the three surveyed classes had a higher degree of intrinsic motivation than

extrinsic one. Contrary to the findings of other related studies, it was the

nature of homework but not the teacher that was in the first place in terms of

affective factors to the students‟ motivation. On the basis of the findings,

some pedagogical implications and recommendations which are of

significance to educators, policy makers, researchers as well as teachers and

parents were provided. Most broadly, the study suggests that it is necessary

that homework tasks be not only relevant to what students have learned in

class but also be various and suitable with students‟ levels. Besides,

teachers‟ instructions, feedback and grading as well as parents‟ involvement

are also important for an effective approach to homework. At last, the results

of this study could be hopefully of great benefits for developing teaching

and learning English at Nguyen Gia Thieu High Schools as well as other

ones in Vietnam.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................... i

ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... ii

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS .............................. vi

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION

1.1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study ..................................... 1

1.2. Aims and objectives of the study .................................................................... 3

1.3. Significance of the study................................................................................. 3

1.4. Scope of the study ........................................................................................... 4

1.5. Organization of the study ................................................................................ 5

CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Learner‟s Motivation in Language Learning ................................................ 7

2.1.1. Definitions of Learner‟s Motivation .................................................. 7

2.1.2. Classification of Learner‟s Motivation .............................................. 8

2.1.3. Roles of Learner‟s Motivation in Language Learning ..................... 11

2.1.4. Factors Demotivating Language Learning ....................................... 13

2.2. Homework in Language Learning ............................................................... 15

2.2.1. Definitions of Homework ................................................................. 15

2.2.2. Classification of Homework ............................................................. 16

2.2.3. Roles of Homework .......................................................................... 20

2.3. Motivating Students to Do Homework ........................................................ 23

2.3.1. Characteristics of Motivating Homework ........................................ 23

2.3.2. Factors Affecting Student‟s Motivation for Doing Homework ....... 26

2.4. Related Studies ............................................................................................. 29

2.5. Conclusive Remarks .................................................................................... 32

CHAPTER 3 - METHODOLOGY

3.1. Research Context .......................................................................................... 34

3.2. Research Questions ....................................................................................... 37

3.3. Research Approach ....................................................................................... 37

3.4. Participants .................................................................................................... 38

3.4.1. Population .......................................................................................... 38

3.4.2. Sampling Strategy .............................................................................. 38

3.4.3. Detailed Descriptions of the Participants ........................................... 39

3.5. Research Instruments .................................................................................... 40

3.5.1. Questionnaire ..................................................................................... 40

3.5.1.1. Reasons for Choosing Questionnaire .................................. 40

3.5.1.2. Instrumental Development ................................................... 40

3.5.1.3. Questionnaire Content and Format ....................................... 41

3.5.2. Interviews ........................................................................................... 42

3.5.2.1. Reasons for Choosing Interview........................................... 42

3.5.2.2. Instrumental Development ................................................... 43

3.5.2.3. Interview Content and Format .............................................. 43

3.6. Data Collection Procedure ............................................................................ 44

3.7. Data Analysis Procedure ............................................................................... 46

3.8. Conclusive Remarks ..................................................................................... 47

CHAPTER 4 – RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1. Research Question 1 .................................................................................... 49

4.2. Research Question 2 .................................................................................... 57


CHAPTER 5 – PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

5.1. Well-designed English Homework ............................................................... 63

5.2. Teachers‟ Motivating Approach ................................................................... 65

5.3. Parents‟ Appropriate Involvement ................................................................ 66


CHAPTER 6 – CONCLUSION

6.1. Summary ....................................................................................................... 70

6.1.1. Summary of the Findings ................................................................... 70

6.1.2. Summary of the Implications ............................................................. 72

6.2. Limitations of the Study ............................................................................... 73

6.3. Suggestions for Further Studies .................................................................... 74

REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 76

APPENDICES

Appendix 1A: Survey Questionnaire – Vietnamese Version .............................. 81

Appendix 1B: Survey Questionnaire – English Version ..................................... 85

Appendix 2A: Interview Schedule – Vietnamese Version .................................. 89

Appendix 2B: Interview Schedule – English Version ......................................... 90

Appendix 3: Transcriptions of the Interviews ..................................................... 91

LISTS OF TABLES, FIGURES AND

ABBREVIATIONS

Tables Page

Table 1. Homework Classification (Adapted from

PVNCCDSB, 2005)

18

Table 2. Importance of homework (Cowan and Hallam,

1999, cited in Hallam, 2004, p.10)

21

Table 3. Importance of homework (Cooper, 1989, p.86) 22

Table 4. Characteristics of a motivating task (To and

Nguyen, 2010, p.29)

24

Table 5. A model of factors influencing the effectiveness

of homework (Cooper, 1989, p.87)

27

Table 6. Re-established model of factors affecting

motivation for doing homework.

29

Table 7. Detailed Description of Participants 39

Table 8. Data collection Procedures 44

Table 9. The frequency distribution and mean scores of the

10 items on intrinsic motivation (n=136)

50

Table 10. The frequency distribution and mean scores of the

10 items on extrinsic motivation (n=136)

53

Table 11. The mean scores of demotivating factors 60

Figures Page

Figure 1. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation (Harter (1982,

cited in Spolsky, 1989, p.124)

10

Figure 2. Burden & Byrd's Classification of Homework

(2007, adapted from Hunt & Touzel, 2009, p.141)

17

Figure 3. The overall means of students' intrinsic and

extrinsic motivation

56

Figure 4. Factors Affecting the Students' Motivation 57

Abbreviations

ELT English Language Teaching

L2 Second Language

MoET Ministry of Educational and Training of Vietnam

PVNCCDSB Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington

Catholic District School Board

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION

1.1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study

In language teaching and learning, there is no doubt that in-class

activities play an essential role in facilitating learner‟s language acquisition

through teachers‟ instructions to the target knowledge. However, teacher‟s

guidance on learning strategies would not be sufficient for learners to

achieve both academic and social skills as long as their self-study outside

classroom environment was not guaranteed. It is, therefore, crucial for

students to integrate self-study into their learning process. Described as “the

intersection between home and school” by Goldstein (2001), it is homework

that contributes to establish the significant connection between students‟

self-study and in-class learning.

However, homework would not be likely to fulfill any purposes if

students did not complete their assignments. In other words, “nothing great

was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” This famous saying of the

American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) leads teachers as

well as students to one of the most appealing and complex issues in

education, namely motivation. As a basic ingredient of second language

(L2) acquisition, motivation has been considered significant since Gardner

and Lambert (1972, cited in Gardner, 2010) release a comprehensive

summary of the results of a more than ten-year long program. The results of

the program show that success in language acquisition depends largely

upon the learner‟s affective orientation toward the target culture (Gardner,

1976, cited in Gardner, 2010).

Due to its fundamental roles, motivation has been a central area for

empirical research and theoretical work within the context of language

learning for decades. Nevertheless, when it particularly comes to the issue

of students‟ motivation for doing English homework, few studies are

available to address its notion. While the great importance of homework to

students‟ achievement has been recognized, students “often exhibit poor

motivation and avoidance of academic tasks outside of the school setting”

(Anesko & O‟Leary, 1982, as cited in Olympia et al., 1994). In order for

homework to “fulfill its place in the learning cycle” (Painter, 2003, p. 11),

the need to foster student‟s motivation for doing homework becomes

particularly important.

In Vietnam, the society has witnessed a heated discussion of the

homework issues, however heavily focused on the homework of the

elementary education. Many criticisms have been leveled at the homework

policy for elementary students while the same issue in the upper secondary

education has appeared to be surrounded by silence. In 2008, the Ministry

of Educational and Training of Vietnam (MoET) issued the guideline No.

7720/BGDĐT-GDTH indicating that elementary students who were

attending the full-day curriculum were not required to do homework. This

is the only document regarding homework policy for Vietnamese

elementary schools, and no official document of this aspect for high schools

can be found in Vietnam. Having said that, the potential benefits of

homework remain clearly recognizable to schools, teachers, students and

parents in achieving educational goals at the high school level.

All the conditions, henceforth, have stimulated the researcher to

conduct a study on “11th

Form Students’ Motivation for Doing English

Homework at Nguyen Gia Thieu High School”. First of all, this study is a

serious attempt to carry out an investigation into the 11th form students‟

motivation for doing English homework designed by the teachers in a

specific high school in Vietnam. In addition, this study also aims at seeking

a better orientation for high school teachers and parents to strengthen the

students‟ motivation for doing homework. If these principal aims could be

achieved, the findings from this research would hopefully facilitate further

studies into this relatively unexplored topic in Vietnam.

1.2. Aims and objectives of the study

First, this research paper is expected to find out to what extent

different patterns of the students‟ motivation are expressed when they do

their English homework assignments. Next, a closer look will be taken at

the demotivating factors to the students‟ homework completion. Finally, the

researcher would like to pave the way for several pedagogical implications

for a more effective exploitation of homework at Nguyen Gia Thieu High

School. In brief, these objectives could be summarized into two research

questions as follows:

1. To what extent are the students intrinsically and extrinsically

motivated to do their English homework?

2. What are the factors demotivating the students to do their English

homework?

1.3. Significance of the study

Once completed, this research would serve as one of the initial

studies on the 11th form students‟ motivation for doing English homework

at Nguyen Gia Thieu High School. Therefore, it might be particularly useful

for students, parents, teachers, school administrators as well as researchers

who develop an interest in the topic.

To be more specific, since the study delves into homework as a vital

part of self-study, its findings hopefully would contribute to build up better

strategies of independent learning for 11th graders. As parents play

important role in their children‟s learning process, particularly their self-

study at home, the research is expected to bring parents a general view of

homework and their children‟s motivation, so that a complete support for

their learning will be offered in appropriate time. Regarding teachers, the

study would raise their awareness of designing effective homework and

provide them with useful pedagogical suggestions to enhance the students‟

motivation in dealing with homework. As for school administrators, the

study would reveal to them major obstacles to a motivating approach to

homework and thus, could suggest ways to make full use of homework in

language teaching and learning. Finally, with regard to researchers, those

who happen to share the same interest in the topic could find reliable and

useful information in this study for their related ones in the future.

1.4. Scope of the study

First, since “students’ motivation for doing English homework” has

been generally set as the title of the whole study, this research places a

strong focus on the patterns of student motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic)

and suggests some strategies to arouse students‟ motivation to do their

homework. Consequently, the overall strategies to motivate students to

engage in various activities in a language classroom, which might require

more in-depth and systematic studies, are not discussed in detail in this

research. Furthermore, this study is not to evaluate which pattern of

motivation is more important, but to point out the extent to which each

pattern is displayed.

Second, the matter of homework amount which is normally measured

by time spent on doing homework is also not thoroughly mentioned in this

research. Since the amount of time spent on doing homework varies from

student to student and depends on the length of homework assignments at

different times, to study how much time is suitable and motivating enough

for high school students to do homework needs a widespread agreement

among educational administrators, teachers, parents, psychologists, students

and other related-individuals and groups in a certain country. As a result, a

framework of homework amount should be discussed in more systematic

studies about homework and educational policies.

Finally, it is noteworthy that the samples of the study is restricted to

136 students of grade 11 at Nguyen Gia Thieu High School. The results,

therefore, is not highly representative for the whole population of 11th

graders at this school.

1.5. Organization of the Study

This paper consists of six chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction to the subject and an overview

of the paper.

Chapter 2 presents the background of the study, including definitions

of key concepts, descriptions of a motivating homework task and

demotivating factors, and discussions of related studies.

Chapter 3 describes the research context, research questions, research

approach, participants, instruments of the study as well as the procedure

employed to carry out this study.

Chapter 4 analyzes and discusses the findings revealed from the data

collected according to the four research questions.

Chapter 5 offers some implications for better homework practice.

Chapter 6 summarizes the main issues discussed in the paper, presents

the limitations of the research and suggests ideas for future studies.

Following this chapter are the Reference and Appendices.

CHAPTER 2 – LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, definitions of key terms and some theoretical

frameworks are provided to pave the way for better understanding of the

whole paper. Moreover, with a view to seeking for consensus and finding

out gaps to fill, related studies are introduced and compared to each other.

2.1. Learner’s Motivation in Language Learning

2.1.1. Definitions of Learner’s Motivation

To ensure the consistency of this research which is put in the context

of language teaching and learning, the term “motivation” is considered as it

pertains to learners in particular, not to human being in general.

Motivation is not only one of the key issues in language teaching but

also “the most complex and challenging issue facing teachers today”

(Scheidecker and Freeman 1999, cited in Dornyei, 2001, p. 1). Gardner, a

specialist in the psychology of foreign language learning, defines motivation

as the learner‟s orientation with regard to the goal of learning a second

language. Specifically, he looks at motivation from a broad psychological

perspective which includes four elements – “goal, willing behaviour, desire

to reach the goal and positive approach towards the activity” (Gardner, 1985,

cited in Dornyei, 2003, p. 11) As a result, it can be understood that when an

individual is motivated, he or she does something with a certain goal and

puts a lot of effort into it. The effort is associated with a desire and

willingness to reach the goal and also with a positive attitude towards the

activity the individual intends to do.

Skinner and Belmont (1991) share the same opinion with Gardner

that, student motivation “refers to a student‟s willingness, need, desire and

compulsion to participate in, and be successful in the learning process”

(cited in Brewster and Fager, 2000, p. 4). Besides, Bomia et al., (1997)

develops the definition further, noting that students who are motivated to

engage in school “select tasks at the border of their competencies, initiate

action when given the opportunity, and exert intense effort and concentration

in the implementation of learning tasks” (p.1). Besides, Skinner and Belmont

also indicate students‟ positive emotions expressed when they are motivated,

including “enthusiasm, optimism, curiosity, and interest” (cited in Brewster

and Fager, 2000, p. 4).

To clarify the definition of student motivation, Skinner and Belmont

(1991) even describe less motivated or disengaged students, on the other

hand, as “passive, do not try hard, and give up easily in the face of

challenges” (cited in Brewster and Fager, 2000, p. 4).

Also based on the principles of attitude and emotion, Ellis (2000)

gives a general definition of motivation as “the attitudes and affective states

that influence the degree of effort that learners make to learn an L2” (cited

in To et al., 2010, p. 28).

No matter what explanation is given to the term, the researcher

perceives that student motivation is responsible for determining student

behavior by energizing it and giving it direction to help students achieve

their goals in language learning.

2.1.2. Classification of Learner’s Motivation

In 1959, Gardner and Lambert introduce a classical distinction of two

types of students‟ motivation: integrative and instrumental motivation.

Here, on the one hand, motivation is built by the students‟ desire to identify

with or to integrate with the target culture, and on the other hand, it is

connected to the prospects of their school or career growth (Gardner, 2010)

To be more specific, Gardner defines integrative motivation as “a

high level of drive on the part of the individual to acquire the

language of a valued second-language community in order to facilitate

communication with that group” (Gardner, 2010, p. 6). In other words,

students‟ integrative motivation refers to a desire to learn the language in

order to relate to and even become part of the target language culture. For

the second type of motivation, Garner (2010) describes instrumental

motivation as the learner‟s interest in learning a language when this

interest reflects pragmatic benefits such as a better job or a higher

salary. In this way, L2 acquisition is associated with some “economic reward

or functional goals” (Gardner, 2010, p. 13) or literally, the language is used

as an instrument by the users.

Another division of motivation patterns is suggested by cognitive

psychologists who distinguish intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. According

to them, intrinsic motivation stems from factors such as interest or curiosity.

It is the natural tendency for students to seek out and conquer challenges as

they pursue personal interests and desires (Deci & Ryan, 1985). On the

contrary, extrinsic motivation comes from the desire to get a reward or avoid

punishment; the focus is therefore on external to the learning activity itself.

A student can be described as extrinsically motivated when he or she

engages in learning “purely for the sake of attaining a reward or avoiding

some punishment” (Dev, 1997, cited in Brewster, C., Fager, J. 2000, p. 4),

whereas an intrinsically motivated student actively engage themselves in

learning out of curiosity, interest, or enjoyment, or in order to achieve their

own intellectual and personal goals. Dev (1997) also emphasizes that a

student who is intrinsically motivated “will not need any type of reward or

incentive to initiate or complete a task.” (cited in Brewster, C., Fager, J.

2000, p. 4). As a result, this type of student is more likely to complete the

chosen task and be excited by the challenging nature of an activity.

In order to offer a clear image of the intrinsic-extrinsic dichotomy,

Spolsky (1989) borrows Harter‟s model (1982) and represents it in the

following way:

Intrinsic Extrinsic

Preference for challenge

Curiosity/interest

Independent mastery

Independent judgment

Internal criteria for success

vs.

vs.

vs.

vs.

vs.

Preference for easy work

Pleasing a teacher/getting grades

Dependence on teacher in figuring out problems

Reliance on teacher‟s judgment about what to do

External criteria for success

Figure 1. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation (Harter, 1982, cited in Spolsky, 1989, p. 124)

Following this model, it comes out clearly that the greater the value

the individuals attach to the accomplishment of an activity, the more highly

motivated they will be to engage in it and later to put sustained effort until

they achieve their goal. This distinction also tells us that both internal and

external factors have an important role to play in motivating learners.

It should be noted here that some researchers even object to

describing students; motivation as either intrinsic or extrinsic. Sternberg and

Lubart (as cited in Brewster & Fager, 2000) for example, argue that this

division is too simple to reflect the many complex and interrelated factors

that influence students‟ motivation to succeed in school. They point out that

most successful people are motivated by both internal and external factors,

and suggest that educators build on both types when working to engage

students more fully in school.

Generally, in the light of the views from different branches of

psychology, student motivation is classified into two types: integrative and

instrumental motivation, initiated by Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert

(1959); or intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, proposed by cognitive

psychologists. Despite the comprehensive explanation of each school of

educational psychology, there are few differences between the two ways of

motivation classification. Intrinsic motivation or integrative one refers to the

inner factors which stimulate students to learn an L2 and likewise, both

extrinsic and instrumental motivation involve the outer factors. In the

attempt to study the students‟ motivation for doing their homework, the

researcher based on the cognitive psychologists‟ views of two types of

motivation in order to establish a theoretical framework for this study.

Correspondingly, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic one are deeply reflected

in the investigation and analysis afterwards.

2.1.3. Roles of Learner’s Motivation in Language Learning

For the individual learners, “given motivation, anyone can learn a

language” (Meara, P. & Skehan, P., 1989, p. 19) and for the teachers,

“without student motivation, there is no pulse, there is no life in the class”

(Rost, M. 2006, p. 1). These sayings demonstrate how powerful student

motivation is in language acquisition. It is motivation that produces effective

second-language communicators by planting in them the seeds of self-

confidence. It also successfully creates learners who continuously engage

themselves in learning even after they complete a targeted goal.

Motivation is considered as one of the major determinants of L2

learning achievement since it “provides the primary impetus to initiate

learning foreign language and later the driving force to sustain the long and

often tedious learning process” (Dornyei, 2003, p. 117). Dornyei also

believes that without sufficient motivation no other factor on its own can

ensure student achievement (Dornyei, 2001). In accordance with Dornyei‟s

strong belief, it is plausible to understand that whether the learners are early

language learners or adult learners, whether learning takes place in a formal

or informal environment, motivation for language learning will boost

interest while creating an enjoyable learning atmosphere for both the

teachers and the learners.

To draw a detailed picture of the role of motivation in language

learning, looking at each type of motivation provides the researcher with a

more comprehensible approach. It has been found intrinsic motivation and

extrinsic one are not opposite ends of a continuum. Instead, they are

positively related and both are affectively loaded goals that can sustain

learning. They both may be in return enhanced by better proficiency and

higher achievement in the target language (Dornyei, 2001).

As clarified in the previous part, extrinsic motivation refers to the

desire to learn a second/foreign language because of some pressure or

reward from the social environment (such as career advancement or a course

credit), internalized reasons for learning an L2 (such as guilt or shame),

and/or personal decisions to do so and its value for the chosen goals,

whereas intrinsically motivated students learn an L2 because of the inherent

pleasure in doing so; they are expected to maintain their effort and

engagement in the L2 learning process, even when no external rewards are

provided. With such significant influences of these two motivation types, it

is clear that if a learner has no extrinsic or intrinsic goals for learning a

language, de-motivation will arise. Consequently, the learner may quit

learning the target language at the earliest convenience.

In conclusion, both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations contribute to

the learning of L2. Nevertheless, students in different contexts may be

motivated to learn an L2 by different orientations. This is why the issue is

still worth further exploration in situations with different groups of learners.

2.1.4. Factors Demotivating Language Learning

In addition to motivation, the problem of demotivation is also a

feature shared in most language classroom where the language in question is

a required school subject. The following behaviors of a demotivated student,

described by Chambers (1993), will be familiar to many foreign language

teachers: “poor concentration, lack of belief in own capabilities, no effort

made to learn; lack of cooperation; disruptive; distracted, distracts other

pupils, produces little or no homework; fails to bring materials to lessons”

(cited in Hui, 2009, p. 2).

However, the weakness of English language learners in general has

been attributed to various factors such as teaching methodology, lack of the

target language environment and the learners‟ demotivation. Therefore, it is

important for the teachers at least to be aware of the possible factors that

may be affecting their students‟ motivation. With those factors in mind, they

may be able to develop strategies to help solve the problems related to

students‟ motivation for learning English as a foreign language.

Numerous studies have been conducted on language learning

motivation but fewer on the demotivating factors in learning the second

language. Dornyei (2001) does not perceive motivation and demotivation as

static phenomena. On the contrary, they are considered as dynamic,

increasing and declining, affecting language achievement and being affected

because of negative external factors. From the results of a study conducted

on secondary students in Budapest who were identified as demotivated,

Dornyei (2001) categorizes nine demotivating factors in order of most

common to least:

i. The teacher: personality, commitment, competence,

teaching method;

ii. Inadequate school facilities: group is too big or not the right

level; frequently change of teachers‟

iii. Reduced self-confidence: experience or failure of lack of

success;

iv. Negative attitude towards the L2;

v. Compulsory nature of L2 study;

vi. Interference of another foreign language being studied;

vii. Negative attitude towards L2 community;

viii. Attitude of group members;

ix. Course book.

(Dornyei, 2001)

Gorham & Christophel (1992) investigate the factors that students

perceive as motivators/demotivators in college classes in West Virginia

University. The study compared students‟ perception of the demotivating

and motivating factors. As to demotivating factors, the factors related to

teacher‟s behavior were the most frequent - 43% those under partial control

of the teacher were second in frequency (e.g. assessment and choice of text

books) - 36%, and only 21% related to contextual factors over which the

teacher has little control. In terms of data as a whole, the teacher behavior

contributed equally to both motivation and demotivation. However, the

researchers conclude that motivation is perceived as a student-owned state,

while lack of motivation is perceived as a teacher-owned problem.

Chambers (1993, in Dornyei, 2001), investigates demotivation in

language learning in four schools in the United Kingdom. The study was

conducted on the school students and their teachers. Students placed most

blame on teachers and learning materials. While the teachers claimed that

the students‟ motivation caused by psychological, social and attitudinal

reasons.

Generally, most studies conducted in the field of motivation and

demotivation as its flip side found out that the personality of the teacher,

teaching methods, learning context in addition to the learners‟ attitude

toward L2 could play a vital role in the students‟ motivation or demotivation

toward learning languages.

2.2. Homework in English Language Teaching

For the sake of clarity and consistency, the concept of homework

used in this research is adhered to the context of only English language

teaching. In other words, although homework of other subjects shares certain

similarities to that of English, the former is excluded from the perception of

homework in this study.

2.2.1. Definitions of Homework

„Homework‟, as its name suggests, is “works that teachers give

students to do at home” (Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, 7th

edition,

p. 716). This brief definition shows that „homework‟ is not supposed to be

completed at anywhere else but at home. However, „homework‟ is

understood in a broader sense by Cooper (1989), as he defines „homework‟

as "tasks assigned to students by school teachers that are meant to be carried

out during non-school hours" (cited in Jha, 2006, p. 33). The phrase “non-

school hours”, as specified by Cooper, means that students may complete

their homework assignments during “study hall, library time, or even during

subsequent classes” (Cooper, 2006, p. 1). In addition, Cooper clarifies his

definition by indicating three principles explicitly excluded from this

definition, which are: “(1) in-school guided study, (2) home study courses

delivered through the mail, television, audio or video cassette, or the

Internet, and (3) extra-curricular activities such as sports and participation in

clubs” (Cooper, 2006, p. 1).

Cooper‟s viewpoint of homework is also supported by Kidwell

(2004); however, she adds to the definition of „homework‟ that it is “any

work or activities which pupils are asked to do outside school time, either on

their own or with parents or carers” (p. 6). Kidwell, in her definition, refers

to the responsibility taken by learners when they do homework. Specifically,

it is learners‟ autonomy to deal with homework by themselves or with the

support of their parents or those who concern that homework.

To approach homework as a major focus in this research, this

researcher will refer to Cooper‟s definition combined with Kidwell‟s. This

means that whenever the term „homework‟ is mentioned in this paper, it is

recognized as school-related tasks which are assigned by teachers for

students to complete in their own time.

2.2.2. Classification of Homework

In order to motivate students to complete their homework, it is

important for teachers to fully understand different types of homework

before assigning to their students. Although assigning different types of

homework may vary from teacher to teacher, there are common frameworks

to recognize the basic categories of homework.

According to Burden and Byrd (2007), there are four types of

homework assignments, as shown in the following chart:

Figure 2. Burden & Byrd's Classification of Homework (2007, adapted from

Hunt & Touzel, 2009, p. 141)

Regarding this classification, Burden and Byrd indicate four different

purposes of homework which teachers want to focus on when they assign

homework to their students. This classification is then totally supported by

Whitney (2009); however she gives a different name for the type of creative

homework, that is “integration homework” (p. 4). According to Whitney, in

the integration homework which “requires students to apply many different

skills to a single task” (p. 4), students‟ creative and critical thinking are also

expected.

Another classification which is ratified in the homework guidelines by

the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District

School Board (PVNCCDSB) (Canada) also offers four main types of

homework as follows:

TYPE REASON EXAMPLES

Completion - Anything not completed in class

- To keep up-to-date with

classroom work

- Completing classroom assignments

such as responses, notes, exercises,

pieces of writing

Preparation - Home preparation for the next

day‟s class work

- Collecting information, reading

background materials, or studying for

quizzes, tests, and exams.

Practice and

Application

- To develop, review and

reinforce specific skills

presented in class

- To transfer skills or concepts

into new situations

- Completing extra questions in a

textbook

- Writing a letter after being taught the

components of a thank-you letter

- Reviewing and drilling of sentence

structures or troublesome spelling

words.

Extension

and Creative

- To enrich classroom

experiences and enhance

students‟ understanding

- To provide opportunities for

problem-solving and critical

thinking

- To integrate skills

- Working on projects and research

- Creating designs, stories, drama

Table 1. Homework Classification according to PVNCCDSB (2005)

On reflection, this viewpoint of classification largely resembles

Burden & Byrd‟s (2007) and Whitney‟s (2009) in the sense that homework

reflects four most common purposes which are to complete class work, to

prepare for the next lesson, to practice skills and materials presented in class,

end to extend the skills into new or creative situations. It could be seen that

the purposes of homework serve as a clear principle to classify various

homework tasks.

Most recently, Darn (2010), in the noted website

„www.teachingenglish.org.uk‟ contributes a more specific classification of

homework tasks with six different categories.

i. Workbook-based tasks: students are assigned to do exercises in the

workbook or practice books in order to achieve a separation of what is

done in class at home.

ii. Preparation tasks: students are asked to find and bring materials

which are relevant to the next lesson.

iii. Extensive tasks: students are encouraged to read, listen and watch in

various sources such as audio materials, radio and TV broadcasts,

podcasts, songs, newspapers or magazines and then share their useful

experiences in class.

iv. Guided discovery: students are asked to notice language and make

deductions for themselves at home and then share knowledge and

even peer-teach in the classroom.

v. Real-world tasks: involves seeing, hearing and putting language to use

in realistic contexts. After that, students may be required to collect

their experiences in a formal or informal portfolio.

vi. Project work: based on topics from a course book, the locality,

interests and hobbies or selected individually. Students are often

required to submit their projects at the end of course or term.

(Adapted from Darn, 2010)

With those six categories, Darn describes different types of homework

specifically. However, there is a considerable overlap among those types.

For example, extensive, guide discovery and real-world tasks share two

common characteristics which are the authentic materials that teachers

expect students to work on and the sharing section in class after homework

is complete. Besides, those three types of homework as well as project work

can be described as creative tasks since they expect great effort and various

skills from students.

In general, different researchers or educators share the same view that

homework is not limited to the academic knowledge related to in-class

lessons; on the contrary, it is as diverse as social skills and background

knowledge which require students to put more effort on to acquire.

Accordingly, a variety of homework tasks can be seen in the descriptions

above.

2.2.3. Roles of Homework

Homework has been a heated topic for many researchers, teachers and

school administrators. Despite different opinions towards the role of

homework, homework is widely recognized as “an important part of most

school-aged children‟s daily routine” (Cooper, Robinson, Patall, 2006, p. 2).

Therefore, the importance of homework should be placed into a great

emphasis. Since homework is considered “the intersection between home

and school” by Goldstein (2001), its importance should be targeted to three

involved subjects: students, schools and parents.

First of all, homework assignments are most beneficial to students as

both their academic achievements and generic skills can be improved thanks

to homework. To be specific, Cowan and Hallam (1999) show the

significant importance of homework to students Table 2 on the following

page.

Homework can promote

academic learning by

Homework can assist the development

of generic skills by

increasing the amount of time

students spend studying

providing opportunities for

practice, preparation and extension

work

assisting in the development of a

range of intellectual skills

providing opportunities for individualized work

fostering initiative and independence

developing skills in using libraries and other

learning resources

training pupils in planning and organizing time

developing good habits and self-discipline

encouraging ownership and responsibility for

learning

Table 2. Roles of Homework (Cowan and Hallam, 1999, cited in Hallam, 2004, p. 10)

As for schools, Cowan and Hallam (1999) also appreciate homework

through:

Easing time constraints on the curriculum and allowing examination

demands to be met

Allowing assessment of pupil‟s progress and mastery of work

Exploiting resources available in school

Fulfilling the expectations of parents, pupils, politicians and the public

Enabling accountability to external inspection agencies

(Cowan and Hallam 1999, cited in Hallam, 2004, p. 10)

Regarding parents, Kidwell (2004) claims that homework “promotes

family communication” (p. 24) because it “encourages parents and children

work together” and consequently, “promotes joint family activity” and

creates “a learning ethos in the home” (p. 24)

Moreover, as homework is assigned by teachers, they are also one of

the targets involved in the importance of homework. According to Darn

(2010), homework may be used to help teachers “shift repetitive,

mechanical, time-consuming tasks out of the classroom” and guarantee the

“continuity between lessons”.

In addition of this way of recognizing the importance of homework,

which is targeted at students, teachers, schools and parents, Cooper (1989)

suggests four noticeable advantages of homework as follows:

(1) Immediate achievement and learning

Better retention of factual knowledge

Increase understanding

Better critical thinking, concept formation, information process

Curriculum enrichment

(2) Long-term academic

Learning encouraged during leisure time

Improved attitude toward school

Better study habits and skills

(3) Non-academic

Greater self-direction

Greater self-discipline

Better time organization

More inquisitiveness

More independent problem-solving

(4) Greater parental appreciation of and involvement in schooling

Table 3. Roles of Homework (Cooper, 1989, p. 86)

Among the suggested advantages of homework, the most obvious is

that it will have immediate impact on the retention and understanding of the

material it covers. Less directly, homework can improve students‟ study

skills and their attitudes toward school. In Cooper‟s viewpoint, there are

many potential non-academic benefits as well, most of which relate to

fostering independent learning and self-discipline. Finally, homework can

involve parents in the school routines by enhancing their appreciation of

education and allowing them to control their children‟s performance at

school.

In sum, the important role of homework can be summarized in the

following five points. Firstly, homework is good for students to enhance

their awareness of discipline, irrespective of any learning that may result

from it. This view holds that the sense of students‟ responsibility engendered

by homework assignments is a valuable end in itself. Secondly, homework

can ease time constraints on the curriculum which is often so demanding that

without substantial home study, it would be impossible to cover meaningful

amounts of materials. Thirdly, homework fosters student‟s initiative and

independence. As they learn how to budget time to fit homework in among

their other activities, students learn valuable lessons that will serve them for

the rest of their lives. Fourthly, homework reinforces and supplements

school learning experiences. By providing the necessary integration, practice

and application, homework facilitates and improves learning. Finally,

homework brings the school and the home closer together. If parents

effectively engage in the educational process by helping their children with

their homework assignments, the link between school and home can be even

strengthened.

2.3. Motivating Students to Do Homework

2.3.1. Characteristics of Motivating Homework

Since homework, which is defined as "tasks assigned to students by

school teachers" (Cooper 1989, cited in Jha, 2006, p. 33) is the major subject

of this study, it is necessary that the researcher should first review the

literature of the features of a „motivating task‟.

To and Nguyen (2010) suggest some characteristics of a motivating

task as presented in the table below.

Characteristics Descriptions

Clear goal Explaining exactly what is expected on tasks.

Varied topics and

tasks Using a variety of tasks to keep students involved

Making learning

visual

Using drawings, diagrams, pictures, charts or even three-

dimensional objects to help students anchor the idea to an image

Tension and

challenge

Using games or activities in form of competition to arouse

students‟ interest

Do not use tasks which are too difficult to avoid adverse effects.

Making learning

Fun

Learning should not always be serious.

Games, competitions, acting, etc. can be helpful.

Information gap

activities

One side has a certain thing that must be shared with the other to

solve a problem, gather information or make decisions.

Students are more likely to produce in target language and a

more natural way.

Personalization Tasks or activities should be relevant to students‟ interest and

needs.

Table 4. Characteristics of a motivating task (To and Nguyen, 2010, p. 29)

As „homework‟ is basically understood as a „task‟, the characteristics

of motivating homework should be considered in the light of a motivating

task at first. Accordingly, Painter (2003) finds that homework tasks need to

meet the criteria below in order for students to do and benefit most from the

work.

- Make it fun:

Think about what students are interested in, what they do outside

class.

Then think about how their activities can be turned into homework

tasks.

- Make it relevant:

Need to communicate the aims behind homework

Convince students of the necessity and importance of the work

- Match students’ learning preferences

Assign homework which promotes students‟ preferred ways of

learning

Encourage students to do activities which are successful for them

(Adapted from Painter, 2003, p. 8-9)

Recently, Darn (2010) describes more characteristics of effective

homework which can motivate students to do. In his opinion, the following

principles should be observed in order for homework to be motivating tasks.

- The purpose of both of homework in general and of individual tasks

must be clearly explained so that students could see their usefulness.

- Tasks should be relevant, interesting and varied.

- Different tasks may be assigned to different ability groups. Individual

learning styles should be taken into account.

- Homework should be manageable in terms of time as well as level of

difficulty. Teachers should remember that students are often given

homework in other subjects and that there is a need for coordination to

avoid overload.

- Homework should be incorporated into an overall scheme of work and

be considered in lesson planning.

- Homework tends to focus on a written product to serve as a visible

evidence that the task has been done.

- Learner involvement and motivation may be increased by encouraging

students to contribute ideas for homework and possibly design their

own tasks.

- While homework should consolidate class work, it should not replicate

it. Home is the outside world and tasks which are nearer to real-life use

of language are appropriate.

- If homework is set, it must be assessed in some way, and feedback

given by the teacher. Also, peer and self-assessment can help encourage

learner independence as well as reduce the teacher‟s workload.

(Adapted from Darn, 2010)

On reflection, Darn‟s description of motivating homework task shares

the common features of a motivating task with To and Nguyen‟s (2010) in

terms of aims and variety of homework as well as interest and learning styles

of students. However, he adds two principles to make homework motivating,

which are students‟ contribution to homework design as well as teachers and

peers‟ feedback.

In order to make pedagogical recommendations for a motivating

approach to English homework, this study will base on the criteria and

principles which are combined from To and Nguyen‟s (2010) and Darn‟s

(2010).

2.3.2. Factors Affecting Students’ Motivation for Doing Homework

Before homework assignments are given to students, it is important

for teachers to consider not only the quality of the homework itself but also

the other factors which can affect students‟ motivation in doing homework.

Cooper (1989), in his synthesis of research on homework, concludes that

homework involves “the complex interaction of more influences than any

other instructional device” (p. 87). He also provides a thorough model of

factors affecting the utility of homework. His model is depicted in Table 5

below.

Exogenous

Factors

Assignment

Characteristics

Initial Classroom

Factors

Out-of-school

Factors

Classroom

Follow-up

Student

characteristics

Ability

Motivation

Study habits

Subject matter

Grade level

Amount

Purpose

Skill area utilized

Degree of

individualization

Degree of student

choice

Completion

deadlines

Social context

Provision of

materials

Facilitators

Suggested

approaches

Link to

curriculum

Other rationales

Competitors for

student time

Home environment

Space

Light

Quiet

Materials

Others‟

involvements

Parents

Siblings

Other students

Feedback

Written

comments

Grading

Incentives

Testing of related

content

Use in class

discussion

Table 5. A model of factors influencing the effectiveness of homework (Cooper, 1989, p. 87)

Cooper starts the model by acknowledging that students‟

characteristics, subject matter and especially grade level will influence the

homework value. Regarding the grade level, it is elaborated in his synthesis

of research on homework that “the more homework high school students do,

the better their achievement” (p. 88). For other grade level, “junior high

school students also benefit from homework, but only about half as much”

and “the effect of homework on achievement is negligible” for elementary

school students (p. 88). In Cooper‟s opinion, homework does have positive

effects on students‟ achievement, but the effects vary dramatically with

grade level.

In addition to homework characteristics and classroom factors which

play explicitly important roles in determining the homework value, Cooper

suggests out-of-school environment as one factor. Specifically, when

assignments go home, students‟ time commitment, home environment and

other involvement will affect how those assignments are carried out. Finally,

how teachers treat homework assignments when they are returned also

affects homework‟s utility. For example, some teachers may simply collect

assignments while others go over them in class and provide written

feedback, evaluative comments or grades. Other teachers even permit

students to correct homework as a way to review lessons.

To set a theoretical framework for investigating the factors which

affect student‟s motivation for doing homework, the researcher bases on

Cooper‟s model of factors affecting the effectiveness of homework

combined with Chambers‟s views on demotivating factors as mentioned in

Part 2.1.4 of this chapter (p. 12). Accordingly, a re-establishment of the

factors affecting students‟ motivation for doing homework is presented in

Table 6 on the following page.

Nature of

Homework

Teacher Student’s

Attitude

Student’s

Psychology

Society

Relevance

Variety

Difficulty

level

Material

provision

Feedback

Grade

Subject

interest

Homework

interest

Pressure from

Parents

Teachers

Competition

among students

Self-confidence

Ability

Subject matters

Workload of

other subjects

Enticement

Friends

Extra classes

TV, Internet,

games

Home

environment

Space

Light

Quietness

Table 6. Re-established model of factors affecting motivation for doing homework.

2.4. Related Studies

As motivation represents one of the most complex variables

associated with individual differences in language learning and homework

occupies a large part of teachers‟ and students‟ routines, these two aspects

have been appealing topics of a number of educational and psychological

studies. However, numerous studies have been carried out on the issues of

homework and motivation separately while others concerning the correlation

between students‟ motivation and homework completion were heavily

outnumbered. Having said that, the researcher finds meaningful studies

which discuss the significant benefits of homework and the factors affecting

student motivation for doing their homework assignments.

In 2002, Kelly and Mainard reported their study on the motivational

correlation between school and homework at the annual meeting of the

American Educational Research Association. First, this study confirms the

previous work showing that high school students have various reasons for

attending school and doing homework. Second, findings of the study

indicate that “achievement motivation across both school work and

homework appears consistent” (Kelly & Mainard, 2002, p. 41), which is

more intrinsic than extrinsic. Third, a number of factors such as grades,

rewards or students‟ self-determination that influence student motivation for

going to school and doing their homework are also described in this study.

In sum, this study can be effectively used to inform future research on the

same topic, especially the parallels between motivation for school and

homework in adolescents.

There is a general consensus in educational literature that homework

does have a positive effect on students‟ learning. In “Synthesis of Research

on Homework”, Cooper (1989, p. 86) indicates various benefits of

homework, including improvements in factual knowledge, understanding,

concept formation, attitudes, study skills, self-discipline and problem-

solving. The research findings, he concludes, provide clear evidence that

homework improves academic achievement for high school students, though

the effects are reduced at lower levels. He comments, however, that research

has focused almost entirely on academic achievement, and has largely

ignored other suggested benefits, such as improved attitudes and study skills.

Although the great value of homework is clearly seen, students

themselves often fail to appreciate the fundamental role that homework can

play in their education; consequently, their motivation for doing homework

is weakened. Sarah North and Hannah Pillay (2002), in their ELT Journal

article “Homework: Re-examining the routine”, report findings from a

survey of Malaysian teachers of English. The teachers were asked about the

efficacy of homework, both in terms of how they dealt with homework and

about the performance of their students. The results show an interesting

discrepancy, with many teachers reporting satisfaction with their own

performance, but not with their students‟. North and Pillay quote the

following comments from one of the teachers: “Students don‟t want to do

their homework. They would rather copy, or get scolded by me.”

The results found out in North and Pillay‟s survey lead to a widely

concerned issue: how to motivate students to do homework. In search of a

rational answer to this question, Painter (2003) suggests a communicative

approach for teachers in her book “Homework: Resource Books for

Teachers” (p. 8). According to her, in order to motivate students to do and

benefit from homework, it needs to meet three criteria: being fun, being

relevant and matching students‟ learning preferences. Painter also gives

specific examples for teachers to design effective homework. For instance,

to make homework fun, teachers need to think about what their students are

interested in or what they often do outside class. If students enjoy watching

movies or going out with friends, then teachers can consider how these

activities can be turned into homework tasks.

Another argument by Painter (2003, p. 11) is that homework set by

teachers needs to be not only motivating, worthwhile and enjoyable but also

manageable in terms of time. Accordingly, if too much or too often

homework is assigned after a class, even a motivating task can become “a

lengthy chore” (p. 11). In her book, Painter (2003) makes a convincing

conclusion that “if homework is to fulfill its place in the learning cycle, we

first and foremost have to make sure our students do it, by making it reflect

their interest and preferences, and fit with their time constraints” (p. 11).

Regarding the criterion of matching students‟ learning preferences,

two scholars Eunsook Hong and Roberta Milgram (2004) not only agree

with Painter (2003, p.8) but also elaborate on this aspect as main subject in

their book “Homework: Motivation and Learning Preference”. Unlike many

researchers of the same topic, who have focused on homework as viewed

from the nature of homework itself, Hong and Milgram study homework as

viewed from students who do it. In order to help students become

autonomous learners through homework practices, teachers need to

understand their students‟ learning styles. Hong and Milgram also argue that

it is even more important for teachers to make students aware of which types

of activities they prefer and encourage them to do what works for them. “If

students can find out their preferences, they should be better able to facilitate

their own learning outside class” (p. 26). Painter (2003) clarifies this point

by providing tips for different learning styles. For example, if students enjoy

reading, teacher can ask them to bring in some books they have read and

describe the contents in English. In a way, students can learn English

through “preparing projects on their favorite authors and presenting

information in class” (p. 9).

Briefly, a look at these related studies brings to light the fact that

student motivation for doing homework, either intrinsic or extrinsic, may

vary from student to student but generally be influenced by major factors

involving homework materials, teaching method and especially students‟

autonomy. It is, therefore, essential for any language teacher to consider

these factors when assigning homework to their students.

2.5. Conclusive Remarks

In this chapter, key terms including motivation, homework,

characteristics of motivating homework and factors affecting student

motivation for doing homework have been clarified. After that, a review of

several studies related to the current research is described. Generally, the

theoretical framework presented in this study manifests the importance of

student motivation and homework in language learning and it is also

apparent that student motivation for doing English homework is a significant

part of student motivation in L2 acquisition.

CHAPTER 3 - METHODOLOGY

In the preceding chapter, the literature on the research topic was

briefly reviewed for the theoretical basis of the whole study. Turning to the

practical side, this research was carried out with strict adherence to

justified methods of data collection and analysis in order to maximize its

validity and reliability. This claim would be substantiated in this chapter as

the research context, the research questions, the research approach, the

participants, the instruments as well as the procedure of data collection and

analysis are discussed in detail.

3.1. Research Context

In this part, the contexts which led the researcher to conduct this

study are clarified from different perspectives.

In the world, homework, with both its advantages and

disadvantages, has been a highly controversial topic in education since the

mid-19th century, capturing special attention of researchers, educators,

school administrators as well as parents. In some countries such as the

United States, Britain, Japan or Australia, not only is there a national

guideline of homework policy but each school also owns ones for teachers

and students to follow. However, the situation is different in Vietnam.

Specifically, only one guideline on homework policy for primary schools

could be found in the document No. 7720/BGDĐT-GDTH issued by

Ministry of Education and Training in 2008, whereas the same guideline

for secondary and high schools were not mentioned. This gap acts as one

of the stimuli for the researcher to conduct this study on homework in a

high school in Vietnam.

Next, looking at the context of language teaching and learning, it has

been proved that learners‟ motivation has a profound impact on their

language acquisition. Nevertheless, when it comes to learners‟ motivation

for doing English homework, few studies are available to address its

notion. As the benefits of homework are widely recognized, the need to

foster learners‟ motivation for doing homework becomes particularly

important. Consequently, the impetus for the researcher to carry out this

study arose.

Last but not least, considering the context of assigning English

homework to 11th graders at Nguyen Gia Thieu High School would offer the

researcher an exhaustive understanding on the students‟ English homework

practices and their motivation for dong the assignments. According to the

MoEt in 2009, the majority of high school students in Vietnam choose

English as their foreign language. At Nguyen Gia Thieu High School,

English is a compulsory subject for all students and it is also the only foreign

language to be taught in the curriculum. Strictly adhered to the MoEt‟s

requirements, English teaching for 11th graders at Nguyen Gia Thieu High

School has several basic characteristics as follows:

For the mainstream classes and the ones specializing in Natural

Sciences (i.e. Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology), English is

taught in 3 periods per week (45 minutes for each period).

For the classes specializing in Social & Humanitarian Sciences (i.e.

Literature, English, History, Geography), there are basically 3 periods

per week for English subject, plus one optional period. It means that in

this optional period, the teachers of English are supposed to provide

the students with both intensive and extensive practice instead of

giving textbook-based lectures as what they do in the other 3 periods.

As a result of such differences in the number of period for English, the

assigning with English homework may vary from class to class. Moreover,

as the MoEt has not issued any document or guideline for homework policy

used in high schools in Vietnam, it is the teachers of English who decide the

issues of what and how much homework should be assigned to their

students. This leads to the situation in which different teachers have different

ways to give homework to their students. To be more specific, the teachers

design the homework assignments or choose the materials as homework by

themselves and then, they have their own rights to decide whether to assess

the students‟ works or just to have them complete the tasks. However, the

teachers of English at Nguyen Gia Thieu High School share some same

approaches when they assign homework to 11th form students. As the

researcher was provided with some background information, the assigning

with English homework in this school has been integrated in the daily

routines of almost every class although there is no fixed framework for

homework policy here. For the teachers, 5 to 10 minutes is the average

amount of time they spend on assigning or checking homework in a 45-

minute period. In addition, the textbook and the workbook of English subject

are the most common sources of homework materials that the teachers want

their students to work with.

In sum, all the aforementioned conditions (regarding homework

policy in Vietnam, learner‟s motivation in language learning and the

assigning with homework at Nguyen Gia Thieu High School) have urged

the researcher to conduct this study in order to investigate the 11th form

students‟ motivation for doing English homework at Nguyen Gia Thieu

High School and also to seek better orientation for teachers and parents to

maximize the benefits of homework for their students and children.

3.2. Research Questions

As the objectives of this study are to identify the extent to which

different patterns of the students‟ motivation are expressed when they do

English homework and to examine the factors that demotivate their

homework completion, the research questions which “operationalize the

objectives” (Merterns, 2010, p. 115) are formed as follows:

1. To what extent are the students intrinsically and extrinsically

motivated to do their English homework?

2. What are the factors demotivating the students to do their English

homework?

3.3. Research Approach

In accordance with the research objectives mentioned earlier, a

survey design with questionnaires and follow-up interviews was identified

as the approach of this research in order to present a picture of the

students‟ motivation for doing English homework at Nguyen Gia Thieu

High School.

According to Brown (2001), language surveys are any studies that

“gather data on the characteristics and views of informants about the nature

of language or language learning through the use of oral interviews or

written questionnaires” (p. 2). In other words, the researcher believed that a

survey was a desirable approach to conduct this study as it can provide

factual, behavioral and attitudinal information (Dornyei, 2003), which

were effective means for the researcher to achieve the objectives of this

study.

3.4. Participants

3.4.1. Population

The target population of this study involved the 11th graders at

Nguyen Gia Thieu High School. The students‟ participation played a

fundamental role in this study by providing the information related to

motivation for doing English homework.

In addition, the selection of students in grade 11 had certain reasons.

In comparison with 10th graders, 11

th graders were expected to be more

familiar with homework practices in English class routines and more

highly aware of the important role of self-study so that they hopefully

could give relatively exact reflection on their motivation for doing

homework. For 12th

graders , as most of them were likely to have a busy

schedule for extra classes of various subjects due to the preparation for the

Graduation Exam and the National Entrance Exam, their homework

practices for English might not be sufficient for them to give an overall

reflection on the motivation for doing English homework. Hence, surveys

into the 11th form students would provide the best picture of students‟

motivation for doing English homework assigned by their teachers.

3.4.2 Sampling Strategy

In the light of the convenience sampling which means “the selection

of individuals who happen to be available for study” (Mackey & Gass,

2005, p. 122), the process of selecting students to take part in this minor

study was divided into two steps.

Firstly, the researcher went to Nguyen Gia Thieu High School and

studied the timetable of all the classes in grade 11. Since the researcher

used to be a student at Nguyen Gia Thieu High School, it was a great

convenience to have such relationship with the school. As a result, the

research had been equipped with certain understanding on the class

divisions at Nguyen Gia Thieu High School, which facilitated the

researcher‟s plan.

Secondly, the researcher chose the classes, the timetable of which

matched the researcher‟s own schedules.

Despite its disadvantage in generalizing the findings, this way of

sampling guaranteed that the classes were accessible and the students were

willing to take part in the survey.

After one week of questionnaires delivery, two students were

deliberately chosen from three classes to participate in the interviews.

3.4.3. Detailed Descriptions of the Participants

The participants were 136 eleventh graders, who came from three

different classes at Nguyen Gia Thieu High School. Although these classes

belonged to different departments divided on the basis of their focused

subjects, they shared the same number of periods for English per week.

Table 7 below presents the more detailed information about the

participants of this study.

Class Department Class

Size

Gender Number of

periods for

English Male Female

A1 Natural Sciences 48 21 27 3

D Social & Humanitarian

Sciences 45 4 41 3

B1 Mainstream 43 20 23 3

Table 7. Detailed Description of Participants

3.5. Research Instruments

For a collection of sufficient, reliable and valid data for the study,

questionnaires and interviews as methods of the qualitative approach were

fully employed.

3.5.1. Survey Questionnaire

3.5.1.1. Reasons for Choosing Survey Questionnaire

To collect the data for this study, one survey questionnaire for the

students was utilized. The researcher believed that the questionnaire was

the desirable instrument for this research because of the following reasons.

First of all, since every respondent saw exactly the same wording, the

researcher could collect the data which were “more likely to be

standardized, uniform and consistent across subjects” (Brown, 2001, p.

77). This advantage of questionnaires would contribute to facilitate the

data analyzing process at the later stages. Second, using the questionnaire

was a quick and efficient way for the researcher to conduct a survey with

over 130 participants. In brief, due to its great effectiveness, the researcher

decided to choose questionnaire as a major instrument for collecting data

in this study.

3.5.1.2. Instrumental Development

The questionnaire was developed in four steps namely

brainstorming, drafting, piloting and final editing.

The first step, brainstorming, was carried out based on a careful

consideration of the research questions and the literature review to find out

what issues needed to be covered in the questionnaires. Then, this first step

was ended by identifying what types of questions would be suitable to

provide the data.

In the second step, preliminary versions of the questionnaire were

drafted. Specific items were written down and grouped according to the

focused contents. After that, the researcher proceeded to revise, format,

proofread these drafts before printing and making some photocopies for the

piloting.

The third step was to get the supervisor‟s feedback on the draft

questionnaire and to see if the respondents had any “ambiguities,

confusion, or other problems in the questionnaire content.” (Brown, 2001,

p. 62). Two students were chosen to take part in the piloting.

The last step involved analyzing the pilot results carefully and

incorporating what learned from the supervisor and the pilot respondents

into a final, polished version of the questionnaire. For final editing,

checking for spelling, grammatical, typographical, punctuation and other

mechanical errors was paid great attention to since if any of these errors

was made, it might affect the validity of the questionnaire.

For a full version of the questionnaire, see Appendix 1A (p. 81) and

Appendix 1B (p. 85)

3.5.1.3. Questionnaire Content and Format

The questionnaire for students consisted of two main parts. The first

part including 20 items was to ask the students to select the given

descriptions that best matched their views on the motivation for doing

English homework. The second part was tailored by the researcher to

explore the demotivating factors to students‟ doing English homework.

The researcher generated 10 possible factors based on the literature review

of this issue.

Regarding the format, all the questions were closed-response ones in

order to provide more uniformity “in terms of the types and specificity of

data that are obtained” (Brown, 2001, p. 37). In addition, it would be

convenient for the researcher to code, analyze and interpret the data

collected from the closed-response questions since they were expressed

numerically. To be specific, these closed-response questions were designed

according to the format of Likert-scale questions which “are effective for

gathering respondents‟ views, opinions about various language-related

issues” (Brown, 2001, p. 41). The scale ranged on the basis of the level of

agreement or disagreement to measure to what extent students were

motivated intrinsically and extrinsically and investigate the factors which

demotivate students to do homework. Each value (i.e. strongly disagree,

disagree, neutral, agree and strongly agree) was assigned a number from 1-

5 so that the respondents could circle the one that best described their

views.

In order to avoid possible misunderstandings and thus, the

inaccuracy of the outcomes, the questionnaires were all written in

Vietnamese. Moreover, the researcher‟s contact information were included

so that the respondents would be able to get in touch when needed.

3.5.2. Interviews

3.5.2.1. Reasons for Choosing Interviews

In addition to the questionnaires, the follow-up interviews were

employed as the second instrument of this research since the data obtained

in an interview is “relatively rich and spontaneous” (Brown, 2001, p. 76).

Accordingly, two students were deliberately chosen for the interviews in

order to provide the researcher with an in-depth picture of homework

practice at their classes, which they had not had a chance to mention in the

questionnaires.

3.5.2.2. Instrumental Development

Before the interviews were administered, the interview instruments

had been developed in three main steps: preparing the interview schedule,

piloting and adapting.

For the first step, once the research objectives had been established,

the researcher translated these into interview questions. However, the

issues covered in the questions were taken into careful consideration so

that the researcher could collect richer data instead of duplicating what

were mentioned in the questionnaires. In this step, the researcher also

identified the type of questions to be used and in what form to be collected

and analyzed.

The second step, piloting, was carried out with the help of one

volunteer students. As a result, it gave the researcher the opportunity to

find out if the questions were yielding the kind of data required and to

eliminate any questions which might be ambiguous or confusing to the

interviewees.

After the piloting was conducted, the final adjustments to the

interview questions were made so that they could get ready for the

administration. The detailed schedules of the interview can be found in

Appendix 2A (p. 89) and Appendix 2B (p. 90) at the end of this paper.

3.5.2.3. Interview Content and Format

The interviews were conducted with two students to know more

about their motivation for doing English homework. In addition, their

sharing about the demotivating factors to their homework completion

could help answer the second research questions and contribute to the

pedagogical implications intensively.

Related to the format of the interviews, all of them were

standardized open-ended, which meant that the same open-ended questions

were asked to all interviewees. Besides, the interviews were semi-

structured so that the interviewer was provided with a great deal of

flexibility while the interviewees were offered “adequate power and

control” throughout the interview. (Nguyen, Pham and Luong, 2007, p.

52). It should also be noted that all the interviews were done in Vietnamese

to avoid potential misunderstandings.

3.6. Data Collection Procedure

Broadly speaking, the process of data collection was put into three

major phases as follow:

Phase Activities Time Place

1

Approaching

the

participants

Asking for the school‟s

permission to conduct the

survey 1 day

Nguyen Gia

Thieu High

School Informing the participants

of the survey

2 Administering

the surveys

Delivering questionnaires

2 weeks

Nguyen Gia

Thieu High

School Conducting interviews

3 Gathering the

data

Counting the results of

questionnaires

Half a

week The researcher‟s

house Transcribing the interviews

Half a

week

Table 8. Data Collection Procedure

Phase 1: Approaching the participants

In order to have the students participate in the survey, the researcher

first asked for the school‟s permission by clearly presenting the aims of the

study and ensuring the participants‟ confidentiality in any circumstances.

After that, the researcher went to the chosen classes to inform them

of the survey in which they would take part. A very brief introduction of

the researcher and the study was given.

Phase 2: Administering the surveys

After the final version of the interview schedule and the

questionnaire were finished, the real surveys were conducted on 136

students of grade 11 within two weeks.

First, the researcher went to each of the classroom and asked the

teachers to spend the 10 – 15 minutes necessary for all the students to fill

out the questionnaires together. To conduct the surveys effectively, the

researcher also guaranteed to clarify the format, content and any point that

the students found unclear in the questionnaires. The confidentiality was

also reconfirmed orally to boost the participants‟ belief. With the

researcher‟s presence while the respondents were filling out the

questionnaires, the return rate of the questionnaires were at maximum of

136 students.

Follow-up interviews were conducted on a one-to-one basis soon

after the basic results from the questionnaire had been obtained. Such

individual interviews with three students allowed the researcher to “collect

the data privately” and helped “lead to the true views of the respondents”

(Brown, 2001, p. 5). Before starting the interviews, the researcher spent

some time getting to know more about the interviewees as well as to create

a friendly and comfortable atmosphere for the interviews. During the

interviews, the researcher managed to apply the appropriate interview

technique so that the interviewees were oriented to give necessary

information and reduce the amount of irrelevant details. By the end of the

interview, the researcher could collect quite a rich amount of information

and also asked for post-interview contact when necessary.

In addition, to facilitate the data analysis afterwards, the researcher

recorded the contents of the interviews. Note taking was also exploited to

note down any facial expressions or body gestures of the interviewees so

that a more detailed and precise interpretation would be ensured in the data

analysis procedure. As tape-recorder and notes might cause the

interviewees to feel less comfortable, confidentiality and anonymity were

re-emphasized to reassure them.

Phase 3: Gathering the data

Having administered the questionnaires and interviews, the

researcher spent one week to count the results of the questionnaires and

transcribe the interviews to make them convenient for the analysis and

quoting afterwards.

3.7. Data Analysis Procedure

After the data had been collected, they were processed in three steps:

classifying, coding and decoding.

Classifying data

Initially, the collected data were classified according to the two

research questions. The quantitative data collected from the questionnaire

were put in tables and graphs for better illustration and explanation. This

step also made the study more concise and scientific.

Coding and decoding data

All the data from the questionnaire were related to ranking scales;

thus, with the values assigned to the items, the researcher calculated the

mean of the values, which is believed by Allison (2002) to be “a good

measure of central tendency” (p. 230). By using this statistical device, the

researcher aims at exploring the extent to which the items are expressed.

To answer the first research question, the data collected from the first part

of the questionnaire was analyzed in separate groups of intrinsic and

extrinsic motivation. Then, the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were

compared to each other. Similarly, for the data collected from the second

part of the questionnaire regarding the demotivating factors, the items were

put into five categories of the factors namely the nature of homework, the

teacher, the students‟ psychology, the students‟ attitude and the society.

After that, these five factors were also compared to each other to decode

which types of factor most demotivated the students.

Meanwhile, the data from the interviews was mostly short answers,

which were almost impossible to put into charts or graphs; hence, the

researcher often quoted the interviewees‟ ideas to support the points when

necessary. The respondents‟ facial expressions were read and the

languages they used were taken into consideration too.

After the results were summarized, interpretations of the results

were made and some conclusions were drawn accordingly.


So far, the research methodology with all related elements has been

justified in this chapter. Questionnaires and interviews were flexibly

combined to elicit data from 136 students of grade 11. Table and graphs

were fully exploited to demonstrate trends, proportion, comparison and

contrast if necessary. Also, quotations of the students‟ ideas significantly

contributed to the data analysis procedure.

CHAPTER 4 – RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The previous chapter shed light on the methodology that the

researcher employed to explore the insights of the issues. Next, it is this

chapter that the data collected from surveys are delineated and

interpretations to the data are also presented based on the data. It should be

noted that the information from questionnaire and interviews are analyzed at

the same time to support each other in answering the research questions.

Furthermore, based on the research questions, this chapter is divided into

two parts providing answers to each of the research question.

4.1. Research Question 1: To what extent are the students intrinsically

and extrinsically motivated to do their English homework?

4.1.2. Intrinsic Motivation

A close examination of the frequency distribution and mean scores of

the responses to the 10 intrinsic items indicated that students had a positive

and high degree of intrinsic orientations for doing their English homework.

Table 9 presented on page 50 shows the ranking of the items on the basis of

the mean scores.

As clearly presented in the table, two thirds of the items had their

mean scores which were higher than 4 and the rest was also relatively high

with the lowest mean of 3.27 (item 10). Among various reasons for doing

English homework, most students agreed that the two most important

reasons were to reinforce the basic knowledge of English (item 2, M=4.86)

and to enhance the English skills (item 3, M=4.63). The high rates of these

items were likely to result from the students‟ awareness of the roles of

homework in promoting their academic learning. Like homework of other

subjects, English homework were

Rank Item

No. I do the English homework because S.D D N A S.A Mean

1 2 I want to reinforce the basic knowledge of English. 0 0 4 11 121 4.86

2 3 I want to enhance my English skills 0 1 5 36 94 4.63

3 1 I enjoy learning English. 1 4 6 56 69 4.38

4 7 I want to learn how to manage time effectively. 0 3 21 42 70 4.31

5 6 I want to develop the skill of independent learning. 2 2 18 47 67 4.28

6 9 I want to make full use of reference materials. (e.g.

dictionaries, grammar books, handouts, etc.) 0 4 32 66 34 4.24

7 4 I want to know more about the culture of English-

speaking nations. 0 9 19 97 11 3.81

8 8 I want to strengthen the learning discipline and

responsibility. 0 7 49 69 11 3.62

9 5 I want to broaden social knowledge introduced in

those tasks. 0 6 89 32 9 3.32

10 10 I want to develop the skill of using library,

computer, Internet or other learning resources. 0 7 88 38 3 3.27

Overall mean score 4.07

Table 9. The frequency distribution and mean scores of the 10 items on intrinsic

motivation (n=136)

first given for students to practice what they have just learned in class, then

an extension of activities or materials could also be provided by the teachers

for students to do outside the class time so that they could develop their

English skills. In this sense, most of the respondents realized homework as

an effective tool to help them to acquire a good knowledge of English at

their current level; and thus, they might “actively engaged themselves in

learning […] in order to achieve their person goals” (Brewster &Fager,

2000, p. 2).

The third place in the rank of the items is item 1 (I enjoy learning

English, M=4.38). None of the students disagreed that the high interest in

English motivated them do the homework assignment of the subject. It was

clear that those who enjoyed learning English would take a positive attitude

toward doing English homework. In fact, one interviewee said that “I like

English and I intend to take an exam of Group D1 in the Entrance Exam next

year, so I learn English very hard and take any chance to do more English

exercises both in class and at home” (line 20-23, p. 92 ). In such a way, this

student as well as the others who shared the same interest in and goals for

English were intrinsically motivated to persist in and complete the assigned

homework tasks.

Taking the fourth and fifth ranks among the items, the strong desire

for learning how to organize time effectively (item 7, M=4.31) and develop

independent learning (item 6, M=4.28) also acted as the major intrinsic

factors to motivate students to do homework. As indicated by Cowan and

Hallam (1999, in Hallam, 2004), homework helps not only to promote

academic learning but also to develop students‟ generic skills such as

working independently, managing time, or fostering self-discipline. It was

even more specific when an interviewee reported that “I try to complete all

the homework assignments so that I can test myself how effectively I handle

both classwork and homework” (line 107-109, p. 95). It could be interpreted

that the students were intrinsically motivated to do English homework in the

way that they wanted to train themselves to become “lifelong learners,

continuing to educate themselves outside the formal school setting long after

external motivators such as grades and diplomas are removed” (Kohn, 1993,

cited in Brewster & Fager, 2000, p. 5).

1 Group D – the group involving Literature, Mathematics and a Foreign

Language as three targeted subjects in the Entrance Exam. (There are also

Group A, Group B, Group C, etc. with different sets of targeted subjects.)

The two items standing at the back of the table referred to the least

affective factors to students‟ motivation for homework completion. With the

lowest mean, item 10 (M=3.27) explained that the students‟ intrinsic

motivation for doing homework was not closely related to their desire for

developing the skills of using computer, library, Internet and other learning

resources. In fact, only 30% of the respondents agreed that they did

homework in order to develop the skills mentioned earlier. There might be

several reasons for this situation. For example, the homework tasks were

simple enough for the students to do on their own without a need to seek

further information in the library or on the Internet. It was also likely that the

students did not have time to go to the library for borrowing reference books

or they were not provided with computer and Internet access at their houses.

Whatever the reasons were, the students did not evaluate this orientation as

highly as the others, whereas developing the aforementioned skills is also

one of the significant purposes of homework (Cowan and Hallam, 1999, in

Hallam, 2004)

Similarly, the item 5 with the mean score 3.32 showed most of the

students kept the neutral opinion towards the desire for broadening social

knowledge through doing homework. This was not a high internal

motivating factors for students since their homework tasks mainly covered

the academic knowledge such as English grammar, pronunciation or

vocabulary; as a consequence, the students did not have chances to be

exposed to various aspects of social knowledge when doing their homework.

To justify this issue, the real classroom context should be taken into

consideration. With a limited amount of time in class, the teachers found it

hard to give the students the homework assignments that required them to

spend much time on finding the related social knowledge. The teachers‟

main approach, meanwhile, was to help the students revise the knowledge

which they had just been taught in class. That was the reason why one

interviewee said that “For most of the time, we just do the multiple choice

exercises on grammar and pronunciation. If sometimes we had a project in

English, for example, preparing for a role-play, making presentation, etc.,

we would be much more excited to complete the tasks.” (line 64-67, p.93)

In general, with the overall mean score of 4.07, it could be concluded

that most of the surveyed students had relatively high intrinsic motivation

for doing their English homework assignments since they might be fully

aware of the benefits that homework could bring about.

4.1.2. Extrinsic Motivation

The students‟ responses toward the first 10 items measuring the

extrinsic motivation for doing English homework are shown Table 10.

Rank Item

No. I do the English homework because: S.D D N A S.A Mean

1 13 I want to get a mark for the English subject. 0 0 11 85 40 4.21

2 19 I want to receive teacher’s feedback on my work. 0 2 13 97 24 4.05

3 15 I want to avoid being punished by my teacher 0 9 25 84 19 3.83

4 11 Those tasks are interesting to me. 0 0 40 89 7 3.75

5 16 I want to show my teacher that I am a hard-

working student. 0 12 35 80 9 3.63

6 17 I want to show my friends that I am a hard-

working student. 0 7 98 31 0 3.17

7 20 I want to have further discussion on those tasks

with my friends. 0 20 93 20 3 3.04

8 12 Those tasks are easy for me. 2 19 102 12 1 2.93

9 18 I want to show my parents that I am a good child. 15 27 79 11 4 2.72

10 14 My parents ask me to do those tasks. 17 91 23 5 0 2.11


Table 10. The frequency distribution and mean scores of the 10 items on extrinsic motivation

(n=136)

With the overall mean score of 3.34, we can see that the students in

the surveyed classes had an average level of extrinsic motivation for doing

English homework. As seen from the table above, most of the extrinsic items

had the mean scores which were below 3. The lowest mean in this category

was 2.11 concerning the parents‟ request for their children to do English

homework (item 14). It can be understood from this figure that the students‟

completion of homework did not depend much on their parents‟ compulsion.

Conversely, it might negatively affect the children‟s motivation if their

parents forced them to do what they might not want to or be interested in.

Even though the students‟ extrinsic motivation for doing English

homework was indicated at an average level (M=3.34), the figures still saw

some factors which highly motivated the students. The highest mean scores

fell into the three items mentioning the students‟ desire for a mark for the

English subject (item 13), the one for teachers‟ feedback on their work (item

19) and the avoidance of teacher‟s punishment for not doing homework

(item 15). Among these three items, the first (M=4.21) and the third one

(M=3.83) reflected exactly the distinctive characteristics of an extrinsically

motivated student who “engages in learning purely for the sake of attaining a

reward or for avoiding some punishment” (Dev, 1997, cited in Brewster &

Fager, 2000, p. 4). For most of the students, encouraging marks given to

their homework completion were perhaps the most fitting and expected

reward. Besides, in regards to the interview, one student suggested that it

would be much more interesting and motivating if the teacher sometimes

gave the students some gifts for their homework completion. According to

this student, “the gifts are not necessarily of big value. For example, they

can be some pens, notebooks or even a box of candy” (line 71-72, p. 94)

With a relatively high mean score (4.05), the item numbered 19

relating to the students‟ desire for the teacher‟s feedback on their work also

proved to be a strong motivating factor to students‟ homework completion.

Nearly 90% of the students showed their agreement on this factor as one of

the external stimuli for them to do homework. In this case, whether the

students completed their homework assignment sufficiently or not, they

somehow expected to hear their teacher‟s comments on what was displayed

in their work; otherwise, the homework completion would not be hardly

taken serious.

In addition, it was also noteworthy that the item 11 (Those homework

tasks are interesting to me, M=3.74) which ranked the fourth among the

extrinsic motivating factors made a positive contribution to stimulate

students to do English homework. An interesting homework task could be

the one that was designed with new contents and in an attractive format so

that the students might be excited to do these tasks even if they were a bit

challenging. It could be inferred that the nature of homework played a very

important role to motivate students to do.

As presented in Table 9, there was a significant difference between

the mean of item 16 (M=3.63) and item 17 (M=3.17). These results showed

that students‟ motivation generating from their teacher‟s evaluation was

stronger than that from their peers‟. Specifically, in doing English

homework, the students would like to show their efforts to their teachers

rather than to their peers so that they could strengthen the positive

relationship with their teachers. Once again, the factor associated with the

teachers had a profound impact on students‟ motivation for learning

language in general and doing homework in particular.

In brief, from the results of this part, not only were the extent to which

the students‟ extrinsic motivation depicted but also the most and least

affective factors to the students‟ motivation were revealed. Accordingly, the

teachers’ involvement (included mark/rewards, feedback and punishment)

and the nature of homework were the strongest external motivating factors,

whereas the parents’ compulsion and the showing off to their peers were the

weaker ones.

4.1.3. Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Motivation

Comparing the overall mean scores of the items in intrinsic motivation

(M=4.07) to that in extrinsic one (M=3.34), it was seen that the respondents

had a higher intrinsic motivation for doing English homework. The chart

below describes these overall results.

Figure 3. The overall means of students' extrinsic and intrinsic motivation

As mentioned earlier, one of the aims of this study is to explore to

what extent the students are motivated to do English homework extrinsically

or intrinsically, but not to evaluate which pattern of motivation was more

effective than the other. However, the collected data appeared to be in

accordance with the previous studies. While any kind of motivation seems

preferable to none, there is compelling evidence that “students who are more

intrinsically than extrinsically motivated fare better”. (Brooks et al., 1998,

cited in Brewster & Fager, 2000, p. 4). In fact, some research demonstrates

that using extrinsic motivators to engage students in learning can “both

lower achievement and negatively affect students‟ motivation” (Lumsen,

1994, cited in Brewster & Fager, 2000, p. 4) because the external factors like

grades or rewards cannot maintain students‟ productivity for a long term.

As the role of each pattern of motivation is conditioned by various

personal and social factors, it should be reclaimed that the findings of this

research were not to evaluate the effectiveness of each pattern.

4.2. Research Question 2: What are the factors demotivating the students

to do their English homework?

According to the responses collected from the questionnaire, the five

categories of factors had different levels in affecting the students‟

motivation. The overall mean scores of each type of factor are presented in

Figure 4 below.

Figure 4. Factors Affecting Students' Motivation

It was revealed that demotivating factors related to the nature of

homework was the most dominant. Its mean score is valued at 4.32, showing

a general agreement that the factors involving the relevance, the variety and

the difficulty level of the homework tasks, if not properly approached,

would strongly demotivate students to do English homework.

Taking the second place among the affective factors was the teacher

with the overall mean of 3.84. This finding was different from that in

Dornyei‟s study since he ranked the teacher factors to be the most dominant

one to students‟ motivation. It was likely that the nature of homework had

more direct influence on the students‟ success than the teachers had.

Following the teacher factors, the attitudinal and social ones had the

overall mean scores of 3.60 and 3.56 respectively. There was no big

difference in the mean scores of these two categories since the students‟

attitude towards the English subject and the social factors were both in a

close relationship with students‟ motivation. In doing homework, the

students‟ attitude involved their interest in doing homework in particular and

learning English in general. For the social factors, the physical environment

at students‟ houses together with the attraction of entertainment, extra

classes and friends‟ invitation were recognized as the specific factors

affecting students‟ motivation.

The lowest mean score fell into the factors of psychology (M=2.99).

This figure implied that most students did not see clearly the relationship

between some expressions of their psychology and motivation for doing

homework. As a result, the respondents reflected a neutral opinion (value =

3) to the psychological factors.

In order to provide a detailed picture of the demotivating factors to

student‟s doing English homework, the researcher delineates the mean

scores of all items in Table 11 which is presented on page 60.

In respect of the „nature of homework‟ factor which was the most

dominant to affect students‟ motivation, the respondents agreed that if the

homework tasks were not relevant to what the students had learned in class

(item 4) and the types of the tasks were repeated (item 3), the students

would be strongly demotivated to do those tasks. It could be implied that the

content and the patterns of homework tasks most affected the students’

motivation. Since the students expected that the homework given by their

teachers would help them reinforce what they had been taught in class, the

contents of homework needed to be closely related to the lessons. Having

said that, it was still possible for the teachers to expand the knowledge

Table 11. The mean scores of the demotivating factors (n=136)

included in the homework tasks as long as it did not go beyond the students‟

ability. For the types of homework, a lack of a variety of homework tasks

I think the factors demotivating me to do homework are: Mean

‘Nature of Homework’ Factors

1. Homework tasks are too difficult for me. 4.29

2. Homework tasks are too easy for me. 3.47

3. Types of homework tasks are repeated. 4.73

4. Homework tasks are not relevant to what I have been taught in class. 4.78


Teacher Factors

5. I do not have enough reference materials to do homework. 3.47

6. I am not instructed by the teacher to do homework. 3.62

7. I am not given feedback to their homework completion. 4.48

8. I am not given a mark for their homework completion. 3.82


Attitudinal Factors

9. I do not enjoy doing homework. 3.47

10. I do not enjoy learning English. 3.74


Psychological Factors

11. My parents do not force me to do homework. 2.27

12. My parents put high pressure on my performance at school. 2.53

13. I am afraid that my weaknesses in learning English will be recognized by my

teachers through my homework completion. 3.07

14. I am afraid that their weaknesses in learning English will be recognized by my

classmates through my homework completion. 2.72

15. My competence in English is limited. 3.75


Social Factors

16. Physical environment in my house is limited. (e.g. small room, noises, lack of

light, etc.) 2.05

17. I am busy going to extra classes. 4.17

18. I am busy doing exercises of other subjects. 4.37

19. I am attracted by computer games, TV programs or the Internet. 3.99

20. My friends invite me to go out with them. 3.24


might bore the students and thus, their motivation for doing the tasks would

be decreased. That was the reason why the item related to the types of

homework tasks was rated as highly as 4.73 for its mean score.

Next, the teacher factors involving teachers‟ instruction (item 6),

feedback (item 7) and grade (item 8) had relatively high mean scores

ranging from 3.62 to 4.48. Since it was the teachers who assigned homework

to the students, their involvement in the students‟ homework completion

played a crucial role.

Regarding the attitudinal factors, it was clarified in Table 11 that an

interest in the subject (item 10) also determined the positive or negative

attitude towards the homework tasks of that subject.

With the mean score of 3.74, the respondents agreed that if they found

uninterested in learning English, they would also found less motivated to do

homework of the subject.

Next, the category of the social factors had the overall mean of 3.56,

the highest of which belonged to item 17 (I am busy going to extra classes,

M=4.17) and the lowest of which fell into item 16 (Physical environment in

my house is limited, M=2.05). One possible explanation was referred to the

students‟ busy schedules for extra classes of Mathematics, Physics,

Chemistry or Literature. Consequently, the students had fewer chances to

access English and even made little effort to do English homework. Besides,

not only were the students busy going to extra classes, but they were also

required to do many compulsory exercises of other subjects. The mean score

of the item about this issue (item 18) was as high as 4.37, showing that the

heavy workload of other subjects might discourage the students to spend

time on English homework. Other social factors such as TV, Internet (item

19) as well as the plans of going out with friends (item 20) were also

potential de-motivating factors while the limited physical environment at

home (item 16) was not considered as a strong demotivating factor. Perhaps,

in order to complete the homework assignments, the students did not have to

depend much on how small their rooms were or whether there was a lack of

light or not since it could be flexible for the students to choose the place and

time to finish their English homework.

Finally, as clearly seen in Table 11, 2.99 was the overall mean score

of the 5 items displaying the psychological factors. Although this was the

lowest overall mean, the item 15 (The students’ English competence is

limited.) still saw a quite high mean of 3.75. It was apparent that when the

students regarded themselves as not good learners of English, their

confidence in the ability would be affected and hence, the motivation for

doing English homework would be too. Also recognized as a psychological

factor, the parents’ compulsion on their children to do English homework,

however, was not as a strong demotivating factor as the others. It was

possible that completing homework depended mainly on the students‟

independence and self-discipline; therefore, whether their parents forced

them to do homework or not, their motivation was not much affected. On the

contrary, the students could decide themselves what, when and how to cope

with those assigned tasks.


In this chapter, the findings of the study were revealed and some

related discussions were made after the findings presented. Two most

important points to remember are that:

(1) The surveyed students were more intrinsically than extrinsically

motivated to do their homework and;

(2) The most dominant demotivating factors to students‟ homework

completion was associated with the nature of homework and the teacher.

Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that the collected data about demotivating

factors in this study was different from that in Dornyei‟s (2001) as he ranked

the teacher as the most dominant factor while it was the nature of homework

in the present study.

CHAPTER 5 – PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

As revealed in the previous chapter, the findings of the study showed

that when doing English homework, the surveyed students were more

intrinsically than extrinsically motivated. It was also found that the factors

associated with the teachers‟ involvement and the nature of homework tasks

could have great impacts on the students‟ motivation while the factors

concerning the parental involvement in the students‟ homework practice was

not appreciated as highly as the others. On the basis of these findings, the

researcher would like to make some pedagogical suggestions for a more

motivating approach to homework practice. Accordingly, this chapter is

divided into three parts making recommendations about the following issues:

well-designed English homework (including relevance, variety and

difficulty), teacher‟s effective approach (including instruction, feedback and

grade) and the parents‟ appropriate involvement.

5.1. Well-designed English Homework

There are three distinct characteristics that any teacher should pay

great attention to when they design the English homework tasks for their

students, namely the relevance, the variety and the level of difficulty.

First, it is necessary for the teachers to guarantee the relevance of

English homework because the findings of this research indicated that most

students evaluated the relevance of homework to what they had learned in

class was one of the most affective factors to their motivation. It was not

until the teachers had taken this into full consideration when designing

homework tasks, their students could realize the value of what they were

asked to do. In other words, if homework can help the students reinforce the

knowledge and the skills what they have just learned, it will undoubtedly

become an effective tool for students‟ learning. Otherwise, demotivation for

doing homework may arise.

Second, the variety of the tasks also needs considering. As a matter of

fact, the very nature of most homework policies is that homework will be set

regularly. This is beneficial in that the students will find it easier to organize

their time; however, unless homework tasks are varied, they will quickly

become drudgery – for teachers as well as students. Therefore, it would be

better if the students could be assigned with various tasks instead of doing

one type of task for a long period. For instance, teachers can sometimes ask

their students to work in groups to prepare for a role play or doing small

projects with the topic mentioned in their books. Another example can be the

task in which the students are encouraged to integrate modern technology

(i.e. computer, camera, Internet) into their homework performances. If such

homework tasks can be carried out and presented in class, they will

definitely bring a lot of funs to students and then motivate them to spend

time and effort on those tasks.

Third, it is advisable for the teachers not to assign homework that is

beyond the students’ current abilities. Theoretically, teachers expect their

students to learn something when they complete challenging tasks but

practically, if the learners are presented with a task that is too hard to

complete, they will either complete the assignments incorrectly, cheat by

having their friends help them or totally ignore the assignments. Although

the teachers‟ intentions are good, they should take the students‟ English

level under consideration so that the level of difficulty of the assigned tasks

are appropriate.

In short, in order to design good English homework, the

characteristics of the homework task including the relevance, the variety and

the level of difficulty should be the first to be carefully considered by the

teachers.

5.2. Teacher’s Motivating Approach

Closely related to the student‟ motivation for doing English

homework is the teacher‟s approach to student‟s homework practice since

the importance of teachers‟ providing both instruction and feedback for all

homework efforts has been verified.

First of all, it would be much beneficial to the students if the teachers

could make every effort to explain how the assigned homework will be

useful for the students‟ learning. If the students know exactly how the

homework will help them, it may become more motivating for them.

Without understanding how homework relates to in-class work, homework

could become frustrating for both students and parents. Hence, it is strongly

recommended that the teachers should state the objectives of the homework

before having their students do the assignments. For example, to ask

students to memorize the new words, teachers may signpost the work by

saying: “At home, you are going to learn these words by heart because they

will help you when you need to write a letter”, or to ask students to watch a

movie at home, a teacher may say “I‟d like you to do this because it‟s fun,

and because the lexis is up-to-date and useful.” Also, it would be a good

idea for teachers to take the time to post the goals and objectives for each

homework assignment somewhere in the room for the students to see them

more often.

Second, once the teachers assign any task as homework to the

students, it is important for them to clarify what the students have to do.

Specifically, the teachers should take time to provide clear instructions for

the students and give them an opportunity to ask questions by the end of

class. Besides, in case the teachers can manage in-class time well, it is

possible to give the students a certain amount of time to get started on

homework assignments in class so that the teachers can ensure their students

understand what they are being asked to do.

Third, an evaluative feedback on the students’ effort can increase their

motivation for complete homework. When the assignments are just checked

off as completed, the students will perceive them as unimportant, which

leads to frustration and low-quality work. As for the effects of feedback, it is

suggested that a combination of oral and written comments on homework

papers can positively affect students‟ motivation. It needs to be guaranteed

that the comments should be encouraging and informative rather than

controlling; otherwise, students may lose their motivation. Another form of

feedback is giving grades, which can strongly encourage students to do

homework. However, to avoid the problem that the students get satisfied

only in the desire for obtaining the rewards rather than in learning itself, it is

the teachers‟ responsibility to motivate the students by emphasizing mastery

of specific goals whether the grades are good or not.

Generally speaking, in the variety of teachers‟ motivating strategies

for language learners, a rational approach to giving instructions, feedback

and grades to the students‟ homework completion would be of great help to

enhance the students‟ motivation for doing their English homework.

5.3. Parents’ Appropriate Involvement

Although the findings of this study revealed that the parent factor did

not much affect the students‟ motivation for doing English homework, it

would be of valuable experience for both teachers and students if parents

were appropriately involved in their children’s homework practice. By that

way, they would become a part of the formal education process.

When it comes to homework, the parents‟ involvement can take many

different shapes. First, it is vital the parents understand what role teachers

expect them to play. What parents views as helping out, a teacher might

perceive as interference or cheating. And for what a teacher might take for

granted that parents can do such as signing off on homework or checking

spelling words, a parent may not have the skills or the time to follow through

on. Clearly, parents need to communicate with teachers to find out the most

effective ways to help the children learn.

In addition, it is equally important to be clear with parents about what

kinds of involvement are actually beneficial to students. Studies have shown

that parents who offer rewards for grades, or who punish students for poor

performance, may actually decrease students‟ motivation to do well

(Brewsters & Fager, 2000). Fear of punishment, anxiety about meeting

parents‟ expectations and worry about being compared with siblings not

only cause stress for students, but also detract from their intrinsic motivation

and interest in learning. This is not to say that parents should not be involved

in how their children are doing at school; nonetheless, it suggests that there

are more productive ways for them to show their interest in students‟

progress.

To assist children to succeed at home and at school, Brewster and

Fager (2000) suggest some more ways for parents to follow in their

children‟s homework practices. To be more specific, it would be effective if

the parents could:

Create a place at home that is conducive to studying. A well-lit and

quiet room will be a good study environment which keeps students

away from distractions.

Show positive attitude towards homework. Parents are role models,

therefore, if their attitude to homework is negative, so will the child‟s.

It is only through a positive attitude, by the part of parents, that the

child‟s attitude will change

Find out ahead of time what kinds of resources – such as tutors or

services for second language students – are available to students if

they need help.

Set aside a specific time for homework each day. This might involve

limiting television-watching or phone calls until homework is

finished. Parents should be careful, though, not to pit homework

against activities students enjoy, or to create situations in which

students rush through their work in order to get back to other

activities.

Be available if students have questions. Parents can support their

children by looking over their homework, signing completed tasks,

but should not do the homework for them.

Minimize the connection between rewards or punishment and school

performance. While it is important for parents to recognize students‟

achievements, they should avoid external motivators for performance.

Like teachers, parents should put an emphasis on the value of learning

and show they appreciate their child‟s hard work.

(Adapted from Brewster & Fager, 2001)


In this chapter, specific pedagogical suggestions for a more

motivating approach to homework have been made. Well-designed

homework, teachers and parents‟ involvement are proved to have great

impact on students‟ motivation. Therefore, in consideration of these

important factors, homework, if properly exploited, will be most effective

and motivating to students.

CHAPTER 6 – CONCLUSION

With a view to drawing a conclusion for this study, this chapter

includes a brief summary of the findings and the implications, the limitations

of the research as well as some suggestions for further studies on related

fields.

6.1. Summary

6.1.1. Summary of the findings

Supported by the data collected from the survey questionnaire and the

interviews, the study has thoroughly answered two questions.

In response to the first research question which focuses on the extent

to which the students‟ motivation patterns for doing English homework were

expressed, the findings confirmed that the students were more intrinsically

than extrinsically motivated to do their English homework. For the intrinsic

motivation, the students did their English homework mostly due to its

importance in reinforcing their basic knowledge of English and enhancing

the English skills. Besides, the interest in learning English, the benefits of

the English homework in developing the students‟ time management skills

and independent learning were also the powerful motivators for the students

to do their homework. Meanwhile, the desires for strengthening the learning

discipline and responsibility, broadening social knowledge and developing

the skill of using library, computer or the Internet did not act as the high

motives for doing the English homework.

Regarding the extrinsic motivation, the results of the study indicated

that the respondents did their homework mainly for the motives of getting a

mark for the English subject and receiving the teacher’s feedback on their

work. Also, the students‟ extrinsic motivation came from the interesting

content of the homework tasks and their desire for not being punished by

their teachers. It should be noted that the easy level of the homework tasks

was not considered as a strong motive behind the students‟ homework

completion.

Next, major factors that demotivated the respondents to do the English

homework were detected with reference to the second research question.

Among five categories of the demotiving factors, the ones concerning the

nature of English homework and the teachers’ approach were the most

affective. Specifically, the students‟ motivation for doing homework would

decrease if their assigned tasks were not suitable for their level or the tasks

lacked a variety or relevance to what the students had been taught. The

teachers would also negatively affected the students‟ motivation for doing

homework if they did not give sufficient feedback or encouraging marks for

the students‟ performances.

Other factors related to the students’ attitude and psychology as well

as the social factors were also revealed in the study. Regarding the

attitudinal factors, that the students did not enjoy learning English would

lead to more decreased motivation than that the students did not enjoy doing

homework. Next, the students’ awareness of their limited competence in

English was the strongest demotivator among the psychological factors,

whereas the parents‟ involvement again did not have much impact on the

students‟ motivation for doing English homework. Finally, the most

influential social factor was associated with the busy schedules for extra

classes and homework of other subjects. It was also interesting to find out

that the limited physical environment at the students‟ houses such as small

room, noises or lack of light were not the reasons for the students‟

demotivation.

6.1.2. Summary of the implications

First of all, to make homework practice more motivating to students,

homework itself should be effectively designed in regard to the relevance,

the variety and the level of difficulty. It is most effective for the homework

tasks to be closely related to what students have been taught in class so that

they can benefit from their homework completion. Besides, instead of giving

the same types of homework tasks all the time, teachers need to vary the

tasks to arouse students‟ interest in doing homework. In addition to the

relevance and the variety of the homework tasks, it is necessary for teachers

to carefully consider their students‟ level before designing homework in

order to avoid the too challenging assignments.

Secondly, after designing and assigning homework to students,

teachers need to adopt a motivating approach to giving instructions,

feedback and even marks for students‟ work. Therefore, a thorough

explanation of what students have to do, evaluative comments and sufficient

grading given to students‟ completion are not redundant if teachers want to

increase their student‟s motivation for doing the English homework they

assign.

Finally, it is believed by the researcher that if the parents can closely

collaborate with teachers and school, the involvement will make the

students‟ homework practice more effective and motivating. Some suggested

ways for parents to consider could be: create a supportive physical

environment at home, show positive attitude towards homework, set a

specific time for homework every day, minimize the connection between

rewards or punishment and school performance, etc.

6.2. Limitations of the study

Despite considerable efforts of the researcher, this study has some

limitations that should be acknowledged in terms of methodology and

content.

The first limitation relates to the convenience sampling method which

was not to choose the participants as highly representative as possible. As

the findings revealed in the study were valid for only the three surveyed

classes, the generalizability of the statistics for all of 11th form students at

Nguyen Gia Thieu High School was unachievable.

Another limitation in the methodology lies in the use of survey

questionnaire. With a limited number of the items describing the intrinsic

and extrinsic motivation as well as the different demotivating factors, the

questionnaire for the students could not describe an exhaustive expression of

the motivation patterns and factors.

Regarding the investigation of the factors demotivating the students to

do their English homework, although the researcher attempted to combine

the different ways of classifying the factors, it was still difficult and

confusing sometimes to put the factors into five basic groups (i.e. nature of

homework, teacher, students‟ attitude, students‟ psychology and society).

As few related studies on this issue were reviewed, the classification

received less thorough theoretical backup than expected.

Next, due to the researcher‟s limited time and experience, the

pedagogical implications for the current study just focused on three aspects

involving the well-designed homework tasks, the teachers‟ motivating

approach and the appropriate involvement of parents. The reliability of these

implications could be maximized if the researcher could cover more

strategies. Furthermore, it could be better if the research could specify the

students‟ views on which types of homework were motivating to them and

which way of teachers‟ feedback they preferred. If such goals could be

achieved, this research would really serve as a proposal for setting the

homework policy not only at Nguyen Gia Thieu High School but also the

others in Vietnam.

6.3. Suggestions for further studies

The future researchers who are interested in motivation and

homework may want to conduct further studies on a large scale. For

instance, it is highly recommended that the future researchers expand the

population to both the elementary and secondary school students and even

university ones. Then, differences in the motivation patterns of students at

different levels can also be detected. In this direction, the random sampling

method would be applicable to bring a high representativeness of the

participants. In order to collect data for such studies, in-depth interviews can

be used together with survey questionnaires to bring a more detailed picture

of the students‟ motivation for doing English homework.

Besides, future researchers also can develop systematic studies to

evaluate the motivational level of English homework tasks assigned to the

students at high schools or universities. Accordingly, not only are the

questionnaires and interviews basic instruments but the classroom

observation, students‟ documentations related to their homework

completion are also necessary to make an evaluation on homework as one of

the teaching and learning materials. Such a study is hoped to explore how

much homework is enough, what specific types of homework are preferred

by the students or what types of teachers‟ feedback are most beneficial.

Another line of research which should be further explored is the

relationship between students‟ English homework completion and their

achievements in studying. However, it will be hard to make a thorough

evaluation of the impact of homework completion on the students‟

achievements if a large population take part in this study; therefore, a case

study will be an appropriate approach to be employed in this research. To be

more specific, it is most effective for the future researchers to make a

systematic observation on their own children or relatives before, while and

after they do homework. Then, a qualitative analysis is carried out to check

whether homework completion helps to enhance the students‟ achievement

or not.

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APPENDIX 1A – SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

(Vietnamese Version)

C U H I H O S T

ĐỘNG LỰC CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TRONG VIỆC LÀM BÀI TẬP VỀ NHÀ

MÔN TIẾNG ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT NGUYỄN GIA THIỀU

Ch o c c em học sinh!

Tôi t n l Ph m Thu H – sinh vi n năm th hoa Sư ph m Ti ng Anh – Trư ng

Đ i học Ngo i ng – Đ i học Quốc gia H N i. Tôi đang thực hiện kh a lu n tốt nghiệp với

đ t i “Động lực của h c sinh l p t i tr ng H gu n Gia hi u trong việc làm

bài tập v nhà môn tiếng Anh”. Tôi r t mong c c em gi p đ b ng c ch tr l i c c c u h i

ph a dưới. C c ki n c nh n c a c c em đ u đư c đ nh gi cao v mọi thông tin c nh n

s đư c đ m b o gi b m t trong b t k ho n c nh n o. Mong c c em đưa ra c c c u tr

l i m t c ch ch n th t v đi u đ s đ ng g p to lớn v o th nh công c a nghi n c u n y.

C m n sự gi p đ c a c c em.

PHẦN I – ĐỘNG LỰC CỦA HỌC SINH KHI LÀM BÀI TẬP VỀ NHÀ MÔN

TIẾNG ANH

Để ho n th nh ph n n y, c c em h y ch ra ki n c a m nh đối với m i c u n i

dưới đ y b ng c ch khoanh tr n số ô th ch h p nh t với m c đ ng ho c h ng ng

c a c c em, dựa theo thang đo dưới đ y. R t c m n sự c ng t c c a c c em

1 2 3 4 5

Hoàn toàn không đồng ý

Không đồng ý Trung lập Đồng ý Hoàn toàn đồng ý

Động lực bên trong

Em làm các BTVN môn tiếng Anh ợc giao bởi vì:

1. Em thích học tiếng Anh. 1 2 3 4 5

2. Em muốn củng cố kiến thức cơ bản của môn tiếng Anh. 1 2 3 4 5

3. Em muốn nâng cao các kỹ năng tiếng Anh. 1 2 3 4 5

4. Em muốn tìm hiểu thêm về văn hóa của các nước nói

tiếng Anh. 1 2 3 4 5

5. Em muốn mở rộng kiến thức xã hội được để cập trong

các bài đó. 1 2 3 4 5

6. Em muốn phát triển kỹ năng học độc lập. 1 2 3 4 5

7. Em muốn học cách quản lý thời gian hiệu quả. 1 2 3 4 5

8. Em muốn nâng cao kỷ luật và trách nhiệm học tập. 1 2 3 4 5

9. Em muốn tận dụng tối đa các tài liệu tham khảo (từ điển,

sách ngữ pháp, phiếu bài tập, v.v.) 1 2 3 4 5

10. Em muốn phát triển kỹ năng sử dụng thư viện, máy tính,

Internet và các nguồn tài nguyên học tập khác. 1 2 3 4 5

Động lực bên ngoài

Em làm các BTVN môn tiếng Anh ợc giao bởi vì:

11. Các BTVN đó thú vị đối với em. 1 2 3 4 5

12. Các BTVN đó d đối với em. 1 2 3 4 5

13. Em muốn lấy điểm cho môn tiếng Anh. 1 2 3 4 5

14. Bố mẹ em bắt em làm. 1 2 3 4 5

15. Em không muốn bị phạt bởi giáo viên. 1 2 3 4 5

16. Em muốn thể hiện với giáo viên rằng em là học sinh

chăm chỉ. 1 2 3 4 5

17. Em muốn thể hiện với các bạn rằng em chăm chỉ 1 2 3 4 5

18. Em muốn thể hiện với bố mẹ rằng em là một người con

ngoan. 1 2 3 4 5

19. Em muốn nhận được các ý kiến nhận xét của giáo viên. 1 2 3 4 5

20. Em muốn có cơ hội thảo luận thêm với các bạn về các

bài tập đó. 1 2 3 4 5

PHẦN II – C C ẾU T C N TRỞ ĐỘNG LỰC CỦ HỌC SINH HI L M BTVN

Dưới đ y l c c c u mi u t nh ng y u tố đư c coi l cản trở ến ộng lực của h c

sinh trong việc l m BTVN môn tiếng Anh. C c em h y ch ra ki n c a m nh đối với m i

c u n i đ b ng c ch khoanh tr n số ô th ch h p nh t với m c đ ng ho c h ng

ng c a c c em dựa theo thang đo dưới đ y. R t c m n sự c ng t c c a c c em.

1 2 3 4 5

Hoàn toàn Không đồng ý Trung lập Đồng ý Hoàn toàn

không đồng ý đồng ý

Em nghĩ các ếu tố cản trở ộng lực của em khi làm BTVN là:

1. BTVN quá khó với em. 1 2 3 4 5

2. BTVN quá d với em. 1 2 3 4 5

3. Các dạng BTVN l p đi l p lại. 1 2 3 4 5

4. BTVN kh ng li n quan đến những g em được dạy tr n lớp. 1 2 3 4 5

5. Em kh ng có đủ tài liệu tham khảo để làm được các BTVN. 1 2 3 4 5

6. Em kh ng được hướng d n để làm BTVN. 1 2 3 4 5

7. Em kh ng được nhận x t những BTVN đ làm. 1 2 3 4 5

8. Em kh ng được chấm điểm cho các BTVN đ làm 1 2 3 4 5

9. Em kh ng th ch làm BTVN. 1 2 3 4 5

10. Em không thích học tiếng Anh. 1 2 3 4 5

11. Cha mẹ em kh ng y u cầu em làm BTVN. 1 2 3 4 5

12. Cha mẹ em đ t áp l c cao l n em về kết quả học tập ở trường. 1 2 3 4 5

13. Em cảm thấy ngại nếu s yếu kém về môn TA của em bị thầy

cô phát hiện th ng qua việc làm BTVN. 1 2 3 4 5

14. Em cảm thấy ngại nếu s yếu kém về môn TA của em bị bạn

bè phát hiện th ng qua việc làm BTVN. 1 2 3 4 5

15. Khả năng TA của em còn hạn chế. 1 2 3 4 5

16. M i trường học ở nhà em bị hạn chế (v dụ: ph ng học nh ,

tiếng ồn ào xung quanh, thiếu ánh sáng, v.v.) 1 2 3 4 5

17. Em bận làm bài tập của các m n học khác. 1 2 3 4 5

18. Em bận đi học thêm các môn khác. 1 2 3 4 5

19. Em bị l i cuốn bởi tr chơi điện tử, phim ảnh, Internet, v.v. 1 2 3 4 5

20. Em được bạn bè rủ đi chơi. 1 2 3 4 5

PHẦN III – THÔNG TIN THÊM

1. Mong các em ho n th nh th ng tin d i â bằng cách ánh dấu X vào ô thích

hợp

Giới tính:

Nam Nữ

Ban mà các em đang theo học:

Khoa học T nhiên Khoa học Xã hội & Nhân văn Cơ bản

2. Nếu các em quan tâm ến kết quả của nghiên cứu này và mong muốn nhận ợc

nó, các em có thể cung cấp tên v ịa chỉ ể tôi có thể liên l c v i các em v sau.

Tên:

Địa chỉ:

Email (nếu có):

3. Nếu các em có bất kỳ câu hỏi nào v nghiên cứu này, các em có thể liên l c v i tôi

qua số iện tho i 0978 357 389 ho c ịa chỉ email: [email protected]. M i

câu hỏi của các em u ợc hoan nghênh.

Cảm ơn sự giúp ỡ của các em

mailto:[email protected]

APPENDIX 1B – SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

(English Version)

11TH

FORM STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION FOR DOING ENGLISH HOMEWORK

AT NGUYEN GIA THIEU HIGH SCHOOL

Hello everyone!

My name is Pham Thu Ha, a fourth-year student at Vietnam National University, Hanoi -

University of Languages and International Studies – Faculty of English Language Teacher

Education. I am conducting a graduation paper titled “Student Motivation for Doing English

Homework at Nguyen Gia Thieu High School”.

I would like to ask you to help me by answering the following questions concerning your

motivation for doing English homework. This is not a test, thus there are no “right” or

“wrong” answers. Your personal opinions are highly appreciated and your confidentiality is

assured in any circumstances. Please give your answers sincerely as only this will guarantee

the success of the investigation.

Thank you very much for your help.

PART I – STUDENTS’ MOTIV TION FOR DOING ENGLISH HOMEWORK

To complete this part, please indicate your opinion about each statement by circling a

number in the box that best describes the extent to which you agree or disagree with that

statement, based the scale below. Thank you.

1 2 3 4 5

Strongly

disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

agree

Intrinsic Motivation

I do the English homework tasks given by my teacher because:

1. I enjoy learning English. 1 2 3 4 5

2. I want to reinforce the basic knowledge of English. 1 2 3 4 5

3. I want to enhance my English skills 1 2 3 4 5

4. I want to know more about the culture of English-speaking

nations. 1 2 3 4 5

5. I want to broaden social knowledge introduced in those tasks. 1 2 3 4 5

6. I want to develop the skill of independent learning. 1 2 3 4 5

7. I want to learn how to manage time effectively. 1 2 3 4 5

8. I want to strengthen the learning discipline and responsibility. 1 2 3 4 5

9. I want to make full use of reference materials. (e.g. dictionaries,

grammar books, handouts, etc.) 1 2 3 4 5

10. I want to develop the skill of using library, computer, Internet or

other learning resources. 1 2 3 4 5

Extrinsic Motivation

I do the English homework tasks because:

11. Those tasks are interesting to me. 1 2 3 4 5

12. Those tasks are easy for me. 1 2 3 4 5

13. I want to get a mark for the English subject. 1 2 3 4 5

14. My parents ask me to do those tasks. 1 2 3 4 5

15. I want to avoid being punished by my teacher 1 2 3 4 5

16. I want to show my teacher that I am a hard-working student. 1 2 3 4 5

17. I want to show my friends that I am a hard-working student. 1 2 3 4 5

18. I want to show my parents that I am a good child. 1 2 3 4 5

19. I want to receive teacher‟s feedback on my work. 1 2 3 4 5

20. I want to have further discussion on those tasks with my friends. 1 2 3 4 5

PART II – DEMOTIV TING F CTORS TO STUDENTS’ HOMEWORK COMPLETION

Following are a number of statements which describe the demotivating factors to

students’ homework completion. Please indicate your opinion after each statement by circling

a number in the box that best describes the extent to which you agree or disagree with the

statement, based on the scale below. Thank you.

1 2 3 4 5

Strongly

Disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

agree

I think the factors demotivating me to do homework are:

1. Homework tasks are too difficult for me. 1 2 3 4 5

2. Homework tasks are too easy for me. 1 2 3 4 5

3. Types of homework tasks are repeated. 1 2 3 4 5

4. Homework tasks are not relevant to what I have been taught

in class. 1 2 3 4 5

5. I do not have enough reference materials to do homework. 1 2 3 4 5

6. I am not instructed by the teacher to do homework. 1 2 3 4 5

7. I am not given feedback to their homework completion. 1 2 3 4 5

8. I am not given a mark for their homework completion. 1 2 3 4 5

9. I do not enjoy doing homework. 1 2 3 4 5

10. I do not enjoy learning English. 1 2 3 4 5

11. My parents do not force me to do homework. 1 2 3 4 5

12. My parents put high pressure on my performance at school. 1 2 3 4 5

13. I am afraid that my weaknesses in learning English will be

recognized by my teachers through homework completion. 1 2 3 4 5

14. I am afraid that their weaknesses in learning English will be

recognized by my classmates through homework completion. 1 2 3 4 5

15. My competence in English is limited. 1 2 3 4 5

16. Physical environment in my house is limited. (e.g. small

room, noises, lack of light, etc.) 1 2 3 4 5

17. I am busy going to extra classes of other subjects. 1 2 3 4 5

18. I am busy doing exercises of other subjects. 1 2 3 4 5

19. I am attracted by computer games, TV programs or the

Internet. 1 2 3 4 5

20. My friends invite me to go out with them. 1 2 3 4 5

PART III – ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

1. Please fill in the information by putting a tick in the appropriate box

Your gender:

Male Female

The department you belong to:

Natural Sciences Social & Humanitarian Sciences Mainstream

2. If you are interested in the report of this research and would like to receive it,

would you please provide your address so that I can contact you later.

Your name:

Your address:

Your email address (if any)

3. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me via phone number

0978 357 389 or email address: [email protected]

Thank you very much for your help!

mailto:[email protected]

APPENDIX 2A – INTERVIEW SCHEDULE

(Vietnamese Version)

1. Động lực l m của h c sinh

- Khi được giao các BTVN m n tiếng Anh, những động l c nào khiến

em thấy cần phải làm những bài tập đó

..........................................................................................................................

- Động l c nào có tác động lớn nhất đối với em Tại sao

..........................................................................................................................

2. ác ếu tố l m giảm ộng lực l m của h c sinh:

- Nếu em kh ng muốn làm ho c kh ng làm đầy đủ các BTVN được

giao, l do là g

..........................................................................................................................

- L do nào có ảnh hưởng lớn nhất Tại sao

..........................................................................................................................

3. Gợi ể t ng c ng ộng lực của h c sinh hi l m :

- Theo em, BTVN của m n Tiếng Anh có cần thiết cho việc dạy và học

m n tiếng Anh hay kh ng

..........................................................................................................................

- Liệu có bất k s điều chỉnh nào li n quan đến chất lượng BTVN,

hoạt động của giáo vi n ho c s tham gia của cha mẹ mà cần được

th c hiện nhằm nâng cao động l c của học sinh trong việc làm

BTVN?

..........................................................................................................................

APPENDIX 2B – INTERVIEW SCHEDULE

(English Version)

1. Student’s Motivation for Doing English Homewor :

- Once being assigned the English homework, what motivates you to do

those homework assignments?

..........................................................................................................................

- Among those motives, what is the strongest one? Why?

..........................................................................................................................

2. Demotivating Factors to Students’ Homewor ompletion

- If you do not do any homework assignments or complete them

insufficiently, what are the factors that demotivate you?

..........................................................................................................................

- Which factor is the most affective? Why?

..........................................................................................................................

3. Suggestions to Increase Student’s Motivation for Doing English

Homework

- Do you think that English homework is necessary for English

language teaching and learning?

..........................................................................................................................

- In your opinion, what can be done to increase students‟ motivation for

doing English homework, in terms of the nature of homework,

teachers‟ activities or parents‟ involvement

..........................................................................................................................

APPENDIX 3 – TRANSCRIPTIONS OF THE INTERVIEWS

In the interviews, each interviewee was asked the same set of

questions given in Appendix 2 and other related ones to gain a complete

understanding of the students‟ views. It is notable that:

All the interviews were originally in Vietnamese. Provided

below are the English translation.

I is abbreviated for Interviewer; S is for Student

INTERVIEW 1: With student 1 (S1)

I: Hello! Thank you for joining this interview. Can you introduce

yourself?

S1: […] .....................................................................................................

I: Thank you. Well, in this interview, I‟m going to ask you some

questions related to what have been mentioned in the questionnaire to 5

have more in-depth information. The interview will last about 20

minutes. If there is anything that you find unclear, feel free to ask me.

Also, I will a recorder to record the whole content of this interview, so I

hope that you won‟t feel being disturbed. Last but not least, you can be

sure that your identity will be kept confidential in any circumstances. 10

S1: Alright, I‟m ready now.

I: Thanks. First of all, can you tell me what motivates you to do the

English homework assigned by your teacher?

S1: Well, it depends. I will definitely do the compulsory assignments,

otherwise I may get a bad mark or be punished by my teacher. In case the 15

homework assignments are just optional…uhm… I mean the completion

of those assignments will not be checked by my teacher, I still manage to

finish it.

I: So can you tell me why?

S1: Ah it is because I myself enjoy learning English very much. I intend 20

to take an exam of Group D in the Entrance Exam next year, so I learn

English very hard and take any chance to do more English exercises both

in class and at home. That‟s why I am not afraid of doing English

homework.

I: Oh, I‟m very glad to hear that. Is there any other reasons for your 25

homework completion?

S1: Uhm… sometimes I want to receive my teacher‟s feedback on what I

have completed so that I can recognize if I make any mistake.

I: I see your point. In your opinion, which motive is the strongest one for

you to do homework? 30

S1: I think my self-awareness of the importance of homework is the

strongest motive for me to do homework.

I: Now, in case you do not do any homework assignments or complete

them insufficiently, what can be the factors that demotivate you?

S1: Oh I think it can be resulted from the teacher first. 35

I: Can you specify this factor?

S1: Yes, if a teacher assigns homework to students but won‟t check the

students‟ completion, the students won‟t take homework serious.

I: How about the nature of homework. Is there anything you want to say

about it? 40

S1: Yeah. The quality of homework itself is also worth considering. For

me, if the tasks are not closely relevant to what we have been taught in

class. Having said that, an expansion is still possible sometimes to

interest the students.

I: Among the factors that you‟ve just mentioned, what is the most 45

affective one?

S1: It should be the teacher factor. It is the teacher who assigns the

homework therefore, if he/she doesn‟t care about the students‟ homework

completion, the students‟ attitude will easily affected in a negative way.

I: Ok. Generally speaking, do you think that English homework is 50

necessary for English language teaching and learning?

S1: Absolutely. I strongly believe that doing homework often will help

students strengthen the basic knowledge of English and then enhance the

English skills.

I: In order for the students to most benefit from homework, what can be 55

done to increase students’ motivation for doing homework? Can you

make some suggestions related to the teacher‟s activities, the nature of

homework and even the parents‟ involvement

S1: Well, firstly, I think that a teacher should design the homework

assignments which are relevant to what has been taught in class. Besides, 60

the types of the tasks need to be varied so that students won‟t find boring

and discouraged to do homework?

I: What kind of homework task do you find interested in and want to do?

S: For most of the time, we just do the multiple choice exercises about

grammar and pronunciation. If sometimes we had a project in English, 65

for example, preparing for a role-play, making presentation, etc., we

would be much more excited to complete the tasks.

I: Regarding the teacher‟s activities, what do you think

S1: There is a very practical and simple way that many teacher can do, I

think. That is to give us some small gifts as a stimulus for completing 70

homework. The gifts are not necessarily of big value. For example, they

can be some pens, notebooks or even a box of candy. [Smiling]

I: How do you think about the parent factor even though you have not

mentioned the parents‟ involvement as one of the affective factors to

students‟ doing homework 75

S2: For the parents, I just think that it‟s better if the parents also show

positive attitudes towards homework so that their children can learn from

them

I: Yes, I see. Is there anything you want to add?

S1: Nope. Just want to wish you great success and good luck with your 80

research.

I: Thank you very much. If you are interested in the results of this study,

you can contact me via my email or phone number….. Once again,

thanks a lot.

S1:You‟re welcome. Good bye. See you again. 85

I: Ok. Good bye. Take care.

INTERVIEW 2: With student 2 (S2)

I: Hello! Thank you for joining this interview. Can you introduce

yourself?

S2: […] ................................................................................................................. 90

I: Thank you. Well, in this interview, I‟m going to ask you some

questions related to what have been mentioned in the questionnaire to

have more in-depth information. The interview will last about 20

minutes. If there is anything that you find unclear, feel free to ask me.

Also, I will a recorder to record the whole content of this interview, so I 95

hope that you won‟t feel being disturbed. Last but not least, you can be

sure that your identity will be kept confidential in any circumstances.

S2: Yes. We can start now.

I: Alright. First, I would like to ask you a question that once being

assigned the English homework, what motivates you to do those 100

homework assignments?

S2: Well, my teacher often assigns homework as a way to giving on-

going assessment. Specifically, my teacher calls some students randomly

and asks them to submit the homework so that she can mark them. As a

result, I do the English homework in the hope that I will get a good mark. 105

I: How about other reasons? Is there any?

S2: Uhm…I think…yes. I also try to complete the homework

assignments so that I can test myself how effectively I handle both

classwork and homework. In my opinion, homework can help students to

learn time management skills. Ah, more important, I do homework 110

because I want to practice the lessons I have just learned in class. I think

that‟s also the teacher‟s major aim of giving homework.

I: So you mean that your desire to reinforce the basic knowledge of

English acts as the strongest motive to do English homework, doesn‟t it

S2: You‟re right. That‟s exactly what I mean. 115

I: Uh huh, I see your point. But now, if you do not do any homework

assignments or complete them insufficiently, what can be the factors that

demotivate you?

S2: Well, sometimes I feel demotivated to do the homework assignments

which are too challenging for me. I think such assignments will 120

especially demotivate the students whose competence of English is

somehow limited.

I: Do you want to add some more factors?

S2: Yes, actually, I think one of the most common problems among

students is the workload of other subjects. We have to do many exercises 125

required by the teachers of other subjects, so it is difficult for us to spend

much time on English homework. Moreover, nowadays, students are

often busy going to extra classes of some subjects such as Math, Physics,

Chemistry or Literature to prepare for their Entrance exam to university.

This issue also contributes to the students‟ demotivation for completing 130

English homework.

I: Well, I can see those factors are justifiable in the current context. So

among the factors you‟ve just talked about, which one do you consider to

be the most affective? And please tell me why?

S2: Ah before discussing the most affective factor, I have one more idea 135

to add. That is about the external attractions that can demotivate students

to spend time on homework. Specifically, many students, especially

boys, are often attracted by computer games or friends‟ invitations to go

out, etc. Such factors certainly takes away the students‟ time spent on

self-study at home. 140

I: Oh, you are right. That‟s called social factors.

S2: Yep, the social factors. However, I think the most affective factor to

students‟ motivation for doing English homework should be the quality

of homework tasks and the teacher‟s approach because these have more

direct impacts on the students‟ homework practice. 145

I: Uhm I agree with you. Another question for you is that do you think

that English homework is necessary for English language teaching and

learning?

S2: Oh yes, of course. Sometimes I may be a bit lazy to do English

homework; nevertheless, I never underestimate its importance in the 150

teaching and learning process.

I: In your opinion, what can be done to increase students‟ motivation for

doing English homework, in terms of the nature of homework, teachers‟

activities or even parents‟ involvement

S2: I think that it would be most effective if the homework task could be 155

not too difficult or too easy. Otherwise, the students don‟t want to do it.

About parents, I think the spiritual and even material support that parents

give their children in their homework practice would be the most

effective involvement. Regular encouragement and the timely presents

sometimes would be very practical. 160

I: Do you want to make some recommendations about the teacher‟s

activities when they assign homework?

S2: Well, I would appreciate if the teacher could clarify the aims of the

homework they are assigning and then give us some instructions to deal

with the tasks. Such approach will make us feel that the teacher really 165

cares about the students. Accordingly, the students‟ motivation for doing

English homework will arise.

I: Allright. Thank you very much for your sharing today. Wish you good

results this semester.

S2: thanks. Good luck to you. Hope to see you again. 170

I: Yeah, me too. If you want to know more about this study, don‟t

hesitate to contact me via my email or phone number…

Documents

11th Form Students' Motivation for Doing English Homework at Nguyen Gia Thieu High School.pham Th