VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
-----  -----

NGUYỄN THỊ BƯỞI
DEMOTIVATING FACTORS IN LISTENING LESSONS
OF THE SECOND YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS
AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY
(Nghiên cứu về các yếu tố gây mất hứng thú trong các bài học nghe
của sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ hai trường đại học Công Nghiệp Hà Nội )

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field:

English Language Teaching Methodology

Code:

60140111

HA NOI – 2015


.

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
-----  -----

NGUYỄN THỊ BƯỞI
DEMOTIVATING FACTORS IN LISTENING LESSONS
OF THE SECOND YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS
AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY
(Nghiên cứu về các yếu tố gây mất hứng thú trong các bài học nghe
của sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ hai trường đại học Công Nghiệp Hà Nội )

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field:

English Language Teaching Methodology

Code:

60140111

Supervisor: Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Ha

HA NOI – 2015


DECLARATION
I, hereby, certify the thesis entitled “Demotivating factors in listening lessons of
the second year non-English major students at Hanoi University of Industry” is the
result of my own research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of PostGraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam
National University, Hanoi, and that this thesis has not, wholly or partially, been
submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions.


Hanoi, October 2nd, 2015

Nguyen Thi Buoi

1


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Nguyen Thi
Thu Ha for her inspiring me to do this research. If it had not been for her invaluable
guidance, insightful comments and kind support, my thesis would not have been
accomplished.

My special thanks also go to all the professors and lecturers of the Faculty of
Postgraduate Studies at the University of Languages and International Studies –
Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable lectures, which have laid the
foundation for this thesis.

I am indebted to my friends and my colleagues for their suggestions and
encouragement to fulfill the study. Finally, I owe the completion of this study to my
family, especially my husband who gave me encouragement throughout the study.

Hanoi, October 2015

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ABSTRACT
This study is an attempt to investigate factors demotivating the second year non
English major students in listening lessons at Hanoi university of Industry. The main

purposes of the study are to find out: the main demotivating factor affecting students’
motivation in listening lessons and some suggested solutions by teachers to stimulate
students to arouse their interest in listening lessons. The study data were collected by
means of questionnaire for students and teachers, informal interviews with
teachers and class observation. The results indicated that four demotivating factors
were found in this study: (1) unfavorable teaching and learning condition, (2) the
difficulty of listening section in the coursebook,(3) learner’s lack of background
knowledge and reduced interest, and (4) teachers’ teaching styles. However, there still
existed the gap between teachers’ perception and students’ perception as a source of
demotivation. The students mostly blamed on unfavorable teaching and learning
condition; whereas, teachers thought that it was the students’ low English proficiency
and laziness in learning. Some suggestions were provided by the teachers to motivate
students in listening lessons.

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PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale.
It goes without saying that English is an international language and has become
an useful tool for people in many fields of life. There is an increasing number of
learners trying to master English which is necessary for their jobs later. In Vietnam,
English is a foreign language that has been compulsory in schools and universities.
Learners are being trained to master the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and
writing. Learners are expected to use English successfully. However, there is a large
number of students who fail to fulfill that purpose.
As a teacher of English at Hanoi University of Industry, I found that my learners
have faced many problems in their learning process. Although the course’s objective is
designed with a communicative orientation, non- English major students find it hard to
use English for daily communication. At Hanoi University of Industry, the secondyear non major English students are required to learn the course book “New Headwaypre intermediate”; however, many students feel bored and uninterested in listening

lessons because of some underlying reasons that need to be investigated.
A large amount of research on second language learning has mainly concentrated
on motivating factors with the aim of developing a positive attitude toward English
language learning. On the contrary, demotivation is considered to be a relatively new
term in this field. There have been so few studies conducted on demotivating factors in
learning second language in general, and in listening in particular. That is one of the
reasons why we carry out more research on this problem.

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All the aforementioned reasons have encouraged me to carry out a study entitled
“Demotivating factors in listening lessons of the second year non- English major
students at Hanoi University of Industry”. I do this study with the hope that it will be a
useful reference for teachers and learners at HAUI to find a better way to teach and
learn listening skills.
2. Aims and Objectives of the Study
The study aims at exploring factors of demotivation in listening lessons of the
second year non- English major at Hanoi University of Industry.
The paper is intended to aim at the following objectives:
(+) To investigate main demotivating factors that reduce students’ interest in listening
lessons.
(+)To suggest some solutions to eliminate these factors in order to help students
recover their interest in listening lesson.
3. Research questions
This study aims to answer the following question:
What are the dominant demotivating factors affecting students’ listening lessons from
students’ perception and from teachers’ perception?
4. Scope of the study
The study only focuses on the demotivation that the second year non-English

major students at HaUI have in their listening lessons. Then, the study is carried out to
investigate main demotivating factors in listening lessons, and to suggest some
solutions to help students overcome the current situation.
5. Research methodology
The study was a quantitative study, in which I used mainly quantifying
techniques. A little amount of qualitative analysis is added to offer deeper insight to the
quantifying results. Survey questionnaires were used to collect the data that show the
students' opinions and attitudes on the factors that demotivate them in listening lessons.

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Informal interviews were applied to teachers to get information on their opinions and
their solutions to recover students’ interest in listening lesson. Lastly, data from
observation in some listening classes were used for further analysis.

6 Significance of the study
Theoretical significance: As I have mentioned above, most of earlier studies in
second language acquisition mainly focused on motivation rather than on demotivation.
Moreover, there have been few studies on demotivating factors that prevent students
from learning English in a particular skill, especially listening skill. Therefore, this
study is hoped to offer new insight in this research area.
Practical significance: Findings of this study will provide information that can
help teachers and learners at HaUI find a better way to teach and learn listening skills.
In detail, the teachers are able to find appropriate teaching methods to motivate
students learning listening skill and students are aware of the factors that can help them
revive their interest in learning lessons.
7. Organization of the study
The study consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and
Conclusion. The first part presents rationale, aims, scope, method, and design of the

study. The second part is the main content including 3 chapters. Chapter one is the
literature review which deals with the concepts of listening, listening comprehension,
demotivation and reviewing studies of demotivation in second language acquisition as
well as demotivating factors. Chapter two is about the methodology of the study which
presents research questions, participants, methods of the study, instruments, data
collection. Chapter three is about the data analysis, discussion and major findings. The
last part is conclusion which presents the summary of the study, limitations and the
suggestions for further study.

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Although the LC part is assessed to be appropriate and useful for skill development
objective, it is not completely suitable for Vietnamese learners as it is written for
English learners all over the world. Thus, to minimize its disadvantages, the LC in the
material should be adapted to be more appropriate to our students’ levels and needs.
3. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study
Due to various constraints and scope of the study, the present research displays
certain limitations. First, this study investigated the demotivating factors for the second
year non-English major students at HaUI. However, with the limited number of
participants, the results of the study may not reliably reflect the teaching context.
Second, if time was available an interview with student subjects would be conducted to
add more validity to the research. Third, due to the small scope and limited time, the
research only focused on listening skill. Therefore, the coming research can focus on
the other skills in particular or foreign language learning in general. Furthermore, other
researcher can focus on more learners at different levels and more teachers to
participate in the studies to have more reliable findings and perceptions of the issue.

REFERENCES
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Foreign Language Annals 17:317-29.

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Oxford, R. (1993). Research Update on L2 Listening. System 21: 205-11
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Trang.T&Baldaulf.R (2007).Understanding resistance to English language learning
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