1 Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES 2 Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale The booming development of technology and the rapid growth of economy open up many opportunities for international cooperation in the fields of economics, politics and society between Vietnam and other countries in the world Therefore, learning one or some foreign languages has become an essential need of many people, from children, students to workers The ability to speak a foreign language not only allows people to have more opportunities to find better jobs but also helps to understand various cultures, making an important contribution to integration and cooperation with the world The current context of globalization also creates a term called "global citizens" These are individuals with a global mindset, a global vision, who jobs for the common good of the world, can work in many parts of the world In order to become such a global citizen, they have to master at least two important support tools, foreign languages and information technology Once people become proficient at these two tools, together with their expertise, they can integrate easily into the wider world and capture more valuable opportunities by the massive information source For students, foreign language is an indispensable factor if they intend to find scholarships to study abroad It is also an important part of "soft knowledge" their future careers, along with university degrees Many government agencies, private companies and businesses want to recruit people with foreign language using skills Foreign languages can be English, Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean, etc in which English is the most commonly taught one, which is included in the curriculum of the Ministry of Education and Training right from the elementary school level Ho Chi Minh City is the economic center of Vietnam and accounts for a large proportion of the economy of Vietnam Although the city takes up just 0.6% of the country's land area, it contains 8.34% of the population of Vietnam, 20.2% of its 3 GDP, 27.9% of industrial output and 34.9% of the FDI projects in the country in 2005 In addition, higher education in Ho Chi Minh City is a burgeoning industry; the city boasts over 80 universities and colleges with a total of over 400,000 students Due to such a large demand, supply must also grow, especially in areas near universities and colleges According to the announcement of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City on the list of licensed foreign language and informatics centers as of April 12, 2017, there were about 422 establishments and 355 centers (some centers have many branches), not to mention private teaching places In particular, there are dozens of centers with very eyecatching forms of advertising that make learners confused not know how to choose the most suitable place to study So what are the factors that the students in Ho Chi Minh City have based on which to choose a suitable and effective language learning place? In order to answer this question, I decided to choose the research topic “Factors affecting decisions on choosing English centers of students in Ho Chi Minh City” Hopefully, this study will identify and evaluate the influence of the factors affecting the decision of choosing a foreign language center for students in Ho Chi Minh City, in order to find solutions to contribute to improving training effectiveness at foreign language centers, helping foreign language centers build training programs in accordance with the practical needs of learners, create reputation, and increase competitiveness 1.2 Research background The closest study to the author's study is the study on English Language Center Selection Factors at Nha Trang University by Doan Thi Hue (2016) This author thinks that there are main factors affecting students' decisions at Nha Trang University, namely: Facilities (regression coefficient of 0.408), Training program (0.362), Trademark (0.3333), Teachers (0.332), Tuition fee (0.244), Quality of training (0.154) 4 1.3 Aims and Objectives 1.3.1 Aims The objective of the thesis is to study the factors affecting the decision of choosing a language center for students in Ho Chi Minh City On that basis, there are implications for the renovation and improving training quality to create a competitive position of foreign language centers in the city 1.3.2 Objectives - Identify the factors that affect the choice of a language center by students in - Ho Chi Minh City; Assess the influence of each factor on the choice of a language center by - students in Ho Chi Minh City; Analyze the differences in students' decision to choose foreign language learning facilities, thereby offering implications for the innovation and improvement of training quality, perfecting the learning and training environment of Students at foreign language training centers in Ho Chi Minh City 1.4 Scope of the research - Students of many different universities in Ho Chi Minh City 1.5 Research questions - Factors affecting the choice of foreign language centers of students in Ho Chi Minh City 1.6 Research methods - Preliminary research using qualitative methods and formal studies using quantitative methods 1.7 Contribution and significance of the research 1.7.1 New contributions In previous studies, the authors focused on analyzing the factors of choosing a university, rather than choosing a foreign language center and a soft skills training center In the study of Doan Thi Hue, the study subject is Nha Trang University 5 student, so there will be many differences with students in Ho Chi Minh City where there are countless English centers 1.7.2 Scientific and practical significance of the research - In terms of theory: The topic serves as a theoretical reference for students' choice of a foreign language center for researchers, educational field administrators and strategic planners in Vietnam for further research in this - area In practical terms: o Providing a comprehensive, reliable and comprehensive source of information for educational management activities of foreign language centers o Research results help foreign language centers identify the factors that influence students' choice of foreign language centers, and see the low to high importance levels of factors to make strategic decisions, tailor training programs to suit the needs of students, thereby improving the competitive advantage of the language center o In addition, the experiences drawn in the research process are the basis for the completion and implementation of research activities on the motivation of choosing learners' foreign language training in later studies 1.8 Structure of the research In addition to the pledge, thank-you, the annexes, the thesis includes chapters with the following specific structure and contents: Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION Introduce the rationale of the topic, aims, subjects and scope of research, research methods and contributions of the topic Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW The content of this chapter provides a theoretical basis for students 'motivations, learning needs and summarizes models studying the factors related to students' school choices On the basis of theory and research works, the author will propose a model to study the factors influencing students' decision to choose a foreign language center 6 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY This chapter focuses on the research methods that will be used in the topic to test scales and models along with the research hypotheses that underpin Chapter Chapter 4: RESEARCH RESULTS The main content of the chapter is to conduct research, analyse and give specific results related to students' decision to select a foreign language center Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Based on the results achieved in chapter 4, this final chapter will summarize the overall results achieved, the shortcomings and limitations of the topic At the same time, there are some implications for improving the quality of educational services at the foreigner market in Ho Chi Minh City Summary of Chapter 1: Chapter deals with the most basic information about a research paper, from the rationale, the research objectives to the layout of the paper 7 Chapter 2: : LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Some primary definitions 2.1.1 Definition of decision According to Cambridge English Dictionary, decision is a choice that you make about something after thinking about several possibilities In other words, the term "decision" is used to emphasize the need to consider and calculate to decide whether to use the optimal type or method of the existing conditions or ways to achieve the goal under the conditions of scarce resources 2.1.2 Definition of motivation Also according to Cambridge English Dictionary, motivation means enthusiasm for doing something, or the need or reason for doing something 2.1.3 Definition of learning motivation Motivation is a condition that activates and sustains behavior toward a goal It is critical to learning and achievement across the life span in both informal settings and formal learning environments For example, children who are motivated tend to be engaged, persist longer, have better learning outcomes, and perform better than other children on standardized achievement tests (Pintrich, 2003) Motivation is distinguishable from general cognitive functioning and helps to explain gains in achievement independent of scores on intelligence tests (Murayama et al., 2013) It is also distinguishable from states related to it, such as engagement, interest, goal orientation, grit, and tenacity, all of which have different antecedents and different implications for learning and achievement (Järvelä and Renninger, 2014) 2.1.4 Types of learning motivation 2.1.4.1 Motivation is meant to be instrumental and integrative These two concepts of learning motivation were introduced by Gardner and Lambert in their research work in 1970 The motivation for integrative learning is understood as the learner wants to become a member of that linguistic community, for example learning a foreign language so that it can easily fit into an open world 8 Instrumental motivation is understood as the learner uses the learned language into his or her job and purpose 2.1.4.2 Internal (intrinsic) and external (extrinsic) learning motivation in learners Learners who are motivated by internal learning, such as learning foreign languages, must come from passion, love, joy and real need to learn even when learners not need to use the language for work or any other purposes In contrast to the internal learning motive is the external learning motive People who are motivated by external learning are influenced by the environment, for example, the reward from teachers or parents, learning to receive gifts or study for good grades, certificates, etc (Schiefele, 1996) argued that internal learning motivation is crucial for foreign language learning On the basis of passion, a real interest in learning will enable the learner to achieve high academic results That is also the goal achieved by teachers in general and foreign language teachers in particular 2.2 Theoretical background 2.2.1 Theories about foreign language learning motivation 2.2.1.1 Robert Gardner's Theory Robert Gardner's theory of foreign language mechanics is considered to be the most successful and the most influential theory for teaching and learning foreign languages today From the early 1970s, Gardner and his colleagues studied a formula for measuring foreign language mechanics, the Attitude / Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) Initially, Gardner conducted a study in a group of students learning French from grades to 11 in Canada (the first language of these students was English), to measure the mechanical dynamics of foreign languages, attitudes, and factors of fear of learning foreign languages Later, he conducted research in other places such as in London, Orantio and in seven other regions of Canada In measuring AMTB, Gardner and his colleagues studied the following five areas: o Attitudes toward learning: including students' attitudes / attitudes towards teachers and peer groups 9 o Integrativität: AMTB studies the following three main factors: orientation to become a member of a group or an organization, an interest in learning a foreign language and attitude towards target language user group o Learning motivation is assessed through the following factors: • Increasing motivation for learning motivation; • Desire to learn foreign languages; • Opinions / attitudes towards the process of learning a foreign language o Media orientation; o Fear of learning a foreign language is expressed through the following cases: • Fear of using foreign languages in the classroom; • Fear of using foreign languages in daily life 2.2.1.2 Crookes and Schmidt 's Theory Crookes and Schmidt drafted a study on learning motivation in 1991 This research opened a new era in the study of motivational learning in the field of foreign language teaching and learning The two authors also pointed out that research studies have so far ignored the role of the classroom environment in foreign language learning The correlation between learning motivation and foreign language learning is analyzed through the following four aspects: o Schmidt said that the focus of the learner on the learning content is the main condition for learning a foreign language; o Scope of the teaching situation during the lesson includes techniques and activities performed by teachers and students during the teacher's class to enhance the quality of teaching content; o Scope of the curriculum: Teachers draft the curriculum based on the needs of learners, discuss with colleagues about the selection of teaching materials and about the strengths and weaknesses of materials have been put into use during class hours; o Outside school hours refers to the outside environment where students can use well the language knowledge they have acquired 10 10 2.2.1.3 Williams and Burden 's Theory According to Williams and Burden (1997), each individual has a different motive for learning Therefore, it is completely different for each individual to be motivated to learn a foreign language and persevere in order to achieve academic results in each individual According to the two authors, learning motivation consists of the following three main factors: o Reason for learning: Here the reason for learning is influenced by internal and external factors of each individual; o Decision to learn; o Maintain the effort as well as endurance to successfully complete the learning Also according to Williams and Burden, learning motivation is the result of a combination of external and internal factors of each individual Internal factors in each individual include mainly the causes leading to learning behavior, the ability to control changes in learning process and the ability to realize the set goals In the external factors, what should be mentioned are parents, teachers and friends They not directly impact but are able to support and accelerate the learning process of learners In the current market mechanism, people have boldly changed their views on education, treating students as well as "customers", and the school is like a "business" that provides "educational services" For businesses to exist and develop, they have to appreciate customers and their needs From that point of view, we must consider consumer behavior as a theoretical basis for this topic 2.2.2 Theories about consumer behavior From the early twentieth century, the theory of human behavior was formed Authors Ivan P Pavlow (1923), Edward L Thorndike (1925) and BFSkinner (1930) are the founders of behavioral science with the study of Conditioned Reflexes and Law of Effect based on Thorndike's impact law development with research on rewards and punishment So far, behavioral theory has developed and is used as the main methodology for many different sciences .665 Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean Scale Corrected if Item Variance if Item-Total Cronbach's Alpha if Deleted Item Deleted Correlation Item Deleted Fee1 10.3648 4.058 347 663 Fee2 10.8958 4.079 491 578 Fee3 10.1166 3.471 573 508 Fee4 11.2556 3.619 403 634 2.7 Scale: Fac Case Processing Summary N % Valid 403 99.8 Excluded Cases a Total Cronbach's 404 100.0 Reliability Statistics N of Items Alpha 657 Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean Scale Corrected if Item Variance if Item-Total Cronbach's Alpha if Deleted Item Deleted Correlation Item Deleted Fac1 12.1216 2.923 353 646 Fac2 11.8536 2.901 388 622 Fac3 11.4491 2.532 591 482 Fac4 11.5931 2.739 430 594 2.8 Scale: Rec Case Processing Summary N % Valid 403 99.8 Excluded Cases a Total 404 100.0 Cronbach's Reliability Statistics N of Items Alpha 810 Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean Scale Corrected if Item Variance if Item-Total Cronbach's Alpha if Deleted Item Deleted Correlation Item Deleted Rec1 8.0744 1.790 666 736 Rec2 7.7643 2.036 718 692 Rec3 7.7891 1.973 609 793 2.9 Scale: Brand Case Processing Summary N % Valid 403 99.8 Excluded Cases a Total Cronbach's 404 100.0 Reliability Statistics N of Items Alpha 646 Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean Scale Corrected if Item Variance if Item-Total Cronbach's Alpha if Deleted Item Deleted Correlation Item Deleted Brand1 10.2605 4.472 478 539 Brand2 10.2630 5.145 357 622 Brand3 10.2779 4.664 458 555 Brand4 10.1787 4.635 411 588 2.10 Scale: Con Case Processing Summary N % Cases Valid 403 99.8 Excluded a Total Cronbach's 404 100.0 Reliability Statistics N of Items Alpha 787 Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean Scale Corrected if Item Variance if Item-Total Cronbach's Alpha if Deleted Item Deleted Correlation Item Deleted Con1 12.4218 3.717 660 705 Con2 12.5012 3.340 611 731 Con3 12.1489 4.102 552 757 Con4 12.2233 3.686 576 745 2.11 Scale: Dec Case Processing Summary N % Valid 406 100.0 Excluded Cases a 0 Total Cronbach's 406 100.0 Reliability Statistics N of Items Alpha 854 Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean Scale Corrected if Item Dec1 Dec2 Dec3 Dec4 Dec5 Dec6 Variance if Item-Total Cronbach's Alpha if Deleted Item Deleted Correlation Item Deleted 18.20 4.511 640 829 18.15 4.545 657 826 18.22 4.496 642 829 18.17 4.578 635 830 18.15 4.441 664 825 18.18 4.620 601 837 APPENDIX 3: ANALYTICAL RESULTS OF EXPLORATORY FACTOR EFA 3.1 Analytical results of independent variables Factor Analysis KMO and Bartlett's Test Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy Bartlett's Test of Approx Chi-Square Sphericity df Sig Loca1 Loca2 Loca3 Mkt1 Mkt2 Mkt3 Mkt4 Pro1 Pro2 Pro3 Pro4 Pro5 Qua1 Qua2 Qua3 Tea1 Tea2 Tea3 Fee1 Fee2 Fee3 Fee4 Fac1 Fac2 Fac3 Fac4 Rec1 Rec2 710 5120.52 666 000 Communalities Initial 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 Extraction 755 778 662 762 732 709 748 638 525 595 698 557 638 608 704 614 729 607 734 668 660 667 688 576 774 670 750 801 Rec3 Brand1 Brand2 Brand3 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 704 617 630 648 Communalities Initial Extractio Brand4 Con1 Con2 Con3 Con4 n 572 690 700 657 631 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis Total Variance Explained Initial Eigenvalues Extraction Sums of Squared Componen t Total 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 5.480 3.062 2.267 2.119 1.964 1.797 1.711 1.669 1.324 1.275 1.172 1.052 965 857 810 753 690 682 % of Variance 14.810 8.277 6.127 5.726 5.309 4.857 4.624 4.511 3.579 3.445 3.169 2.844 2.607 2.315 2.188 2.035 1.865 1.843 Cumulative % 14.810 23.087 29.214 34.940 40.249 45.106 49.730 54.241 57.820 61.265 64.433 67.277 69.884 72.200 74.388 76.423 78.289 80.131 Total 5.480 3.062 2.267 2.119 1.964 1.797 1.711 1.669 1.324 1.275 1.172 1.052 Loadings % of Cumulative Variance 14.810 8.277 6.127 5.726 5.309 4.857 4.624 4.511 3.579 3.445 3.169 2.844 % 14.810 23.087 29.214 34.940 40.249 45.106 49.730 54.241 57.820 61.265 64.433 67.277 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Component 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 651 565 559 493 488 481 464 438 391 371 346 341 330 1.760 1.527 1.511 1.333 1.320 1.301 1.253 1.183 1.056 1.003 934 921 891 81.891 83.418 84.928 86.262 87.582 88.882 90.135 91.319 92.375 93.377 94.312 95.233 96.124 Total Variance Explained Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings Total % of Variance Cumulative % 2.772 7.491 7.491 2.727 7.371 14.863 2.519 6.807 21.670 2.320 6.271 27.941 2.294 6.199 34.140 2.042 5.520 39.660 2.028 5.480 45.141 1.982 5.356 50.497 1.876 5.071 55.568 1.801 4.867 60.436 1.278 3.454 63.889 1.254 3.388 67.277 27 28 29 30 31 Total Variance Explained Initial Eigenvalues Extraction Sums of Squared Componen t Total 32 33 34 35 36 37 Mkt2 Mkt4 Mkt3 Mkt1 Con1 Con4 Con2 Con3 Pro4 Pro3 Pro5 Pro2 Pro1 Loca2 Loca1 Loca3 Rec2 Rec1 Rec3 % of Variance 744 736 698 629 585 484 275 272 258 233 217 179 804 798 767 748 Cumulative Loadings % of Cumulative Total % 96.868 97.604 98.302 98.930 99.516 100.000 Variance Rotated Component Matrixa Component 785 760 751 711 816 720 647 609 591 846 827 767 866 835 821 % Fee2 Fee3 Fee4 Brand 751 728 721 725 Brand 714 Brand 604 Brand 583 Fac3 Fac1 Fac4 Fac2 Qua3 763 719 625 559 Mkt2 Mkt4 Mkt3 Mkt1 Con1 Con4 Con2 Con3 Pro4 Pro3 Pro5 Pro2 Pro1 Loca2 Loca1 Loca3 Rec2 Rec1 Rec3 Fee2 Fee3 Rotated Component Matrixa Component 10 11 12 Fee4 Brand1 Brand3 Brand2 Brand4 Fac3 Fac1 Fac4 Fac2 Qua3 795 Rotated Component Matrixa Component Qua1 Qua2 Tea2 Tea3 Tea1 Fee1 Qua1 Qua2 Tea2 Tea3 Tea1 Fee1 Rotated Component Matrixa Component 10 11 729 562 757 717 618 12 709 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.a 3.2 Analytical results of dependent variables KMO and Bartlett's Test Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Dec5 Dec2 Dec3 Dec1 Dec4 Dec6 878 a Component Approx Chi-SquareMatrix 899.562 Component df 15 Sig .000 782 775 762 760 755 726 Total Variance Explained Extraction Sums of Squared Componen Initial Eigenvalues % of Cumulative t Total Variance % Total 3.468 57.796 57.796 3.468 637 10.617 68.413 564 9.401 77.814 513 8.555 86.369 424 7.075 93.444 393 6.556 100.000 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis Loadings % of Cumulative Variance 57.796 % 57.796 APPENDIX 4: NALYTICAL RESULTS ON CORRELATION AND LINEAR REGRESSION 4.1 Analytical results on correlation Correlations Decision Program Fee Location Brand Facility Connection Recommendation Teacher Quality Marketing ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N 4.2 Analytical results on regression ANOVAa Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig Regression 46.213 10 4.621 76.592 000b Residual 23.652 392 060 Total 69.865 402 a Dependent Variable: Decision b Predictors: (Constant), Marketing, Program, Fee, Recommendation, Location, Facility, Connection, Brand, Quality, Teacher Model Summaryb Adjusted R Std Error of the Durbin- Model R R Square Square Estimate Watson a 813 661 653 24564 1.954 a Predictors: (Constant), Marketing, Program, Fee, Recommendation, Location, Facility, Connection, Brand, Quality, Teacher b Dependent Variable: Decision Coefficientsa Model (Constant) Program Fee Location Brand Facility Connection Recommendation Teacher Quality Marketing a Dependent Variable: Decision APPENDIX 5: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS UNIVERSITIES Valid Foreign Trade University, Ho Chi Minh City Campus Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics Banking Universities Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City Other universities, colleges, institutes Total GRADES Cumulative Frequency Percent Valid Percent 63 15.6 Percent 15.6 Sophomores 114 28.3 28.3 43.9 Third-year students 128 31.7 31.7 75.6 Final-year students 59 14.6 14.6 90.2 Freshly graduated 39 9.8 9.8 100.0 403 100.0 100.0 Valid Freshmen students Total 15.6 GENDERS Cumulative Percent Frequency Valid Nam Nu Not mention Percent Valid Percent 98 24.3 24.3 24.3 298 74.0 74.0 98.3 1.7 1.7 100.0 Total 340 100.0 100.0 ... ? ?Factors affecting decisions on choosing English centers of students in Ho Chi Minh City? ?? Hopefully, this study will identify and evaluate the influence of the factors affecting the decision of. .. include University of Economics, Banking Universities, Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City Open University, Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture, Ho Chi Minh. .. Minh City University of Arts, Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology, Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, Ho Chi Minh City University of Information Technology,