VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES LE QUANG DUNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES USED BY ETHNIC NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT A UNIVERSITY IN THE NORTH OF VIETNAM A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY HANOI - 2018 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ LÊ QUANG DŨNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES USED BY ETHNIC NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT A UNIVERSITY IN THE NORTH OF VIETNAM Chuyên ngành: Lý luận Phương pháp giảng dạy môn tiếng Anh Mã số: 62140111 Cán hướng dẫn: PGS TS Nguyễn Văn Trào TS Dương Thị Nụ HANOI - 2018 Statement of Authorship The thesis entitled “An Investigation into Language Learning Strategies Used by Ethnic Non-English Major Students at a University in the North of Vietnam” has been submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy I, the undersigned, hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis I have fully acknowledged and referenced the ideas and work of others, whether published or unpublished, in my thesis My thesis does not contain work extracted from a thesis, dissertation or research paper previously presented for another degree or diploma at this or any other universities Signed Le Quang Dung January, 2018 i Acknowledgements I am deeply indebted to the individuals that provided support for the completion of this study Associate Professor Dr Nguyen Van Trao and Dr Duong Thi Nu supervised the entire study and, most importantly, read and discussed every aspect and section of this dissertation with assiduity Their recommendations also helped to shape the form and contents of the final version I am equally indebted to them for the exceptional friendliness, kindness, and patience that they demonstrated during my study at ULIS-VNU and my research My sincere thanks also go to the former Dean Assoc Prof Dr Le Hung Tien and the current Dean - Dr Huynh Anh Tuan as well as the staff members at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, The University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University (VNU), who are always so kind and supportive during my study time In addition, I would like to express my thankfulness to all the participating teachers at the universities within Thai Nguyen University who helped me in my preliminary research, especially the teachers who accompanied me during a long time of my data collection time The results I have achieved today partially belong to them I also thank all my informants for giving me the responses I needed to illustrate the views expressed in this study Last but not least, I would like to thank my fellows at Thai Nguyen University for their dedication and support, my family members for their motivation for me to overcome all the difficulties and to become a better me now Thanking you all Le Quang Dung January, 2018 ii Abstract The present research focused on identifying the types and frequency of language learning strategies used by a group of 527 ethnic students studying English at Thai Nguyen University, and then determined whether there is a relationship between language learning strategies and factors affecting the choices of LLS by ethnic TNU EFL learners In other words, the purpose is to examine whether the factors such as; (i) gender, (ii) English language proficiency, (iii) major fields of study, and (iv) learning styles have any influence on their use of language learning strategies The researcher employed a mixed-method design, involving both quantitative and qualitative approaches The quantitative part was two questionnaire surveys (LLSQ and PLPQ) and the qualitative component was a semi-structured interview The mixed-method study conducted demonstrated that students used all the learning strategies, but at different frequency rates This result allowed the researcher to reach the conclusion that there are no particular preferences in students‟ utilization of LLSs, since they drew on the entire set of strategy types which were medium use The overall analysis of the participants‟ LLSQ scores and through the semistructured interview did not take into consideration student‟s factors which are language proficiency, major field of study, gender or learning styles impact iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of Authorship i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii List of Abbreviations vii List of Tables viii List of Figures ix INTRODUCTION .1 Background to the Study Scope of the study Aims of the study Research questions 5 Definitions of terms .5 Significance of the study 7 Structure of the study 8 Summary .10 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 11 1.1 Introduction 11 1.2 Language Learning Strategies Definitions 13 1.3 Language Learning Strategy Classifications 16 1.4 Factors Influencing Language Learning Strategy Choice 19 1.4.1 Language Learning Strategies and Gender .21 1.4.2 Language Learning Strategies and English Language Proficiency 22 1.4.3 Language Learning Strategies and Major Field of Study .24 1.4.4 Language Learning Strategies and Learning Styles 26 1.5 Language Learning Strategy Research in Vietnam 30 1.6 Theoretical Framework of the Present Study .33 1.7 Conclusion 36 iv CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 37 2.1 Context of the study 37 2.2 Qualitative Research 38 2.3 Quantitative Research 39 2.4 Research Design for the Present Study 40 2.5 Mixed-Methods Research 46 2.6 Data Collection Methods 50 2.7 Research Questions 52 2.8 Data Collection Instruments .53 2.8.1 Language Learning Strategy Questionnaire 53 2.8.2 Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire 56 2.8.3 Semi-structured Interview .60 2.8.4 Students‟ level of Proficiency 62 2.9 Data Collection Procedures 63 2.9.1 Participants 63 2.9.2 Characteristics of Participants in the Quantitative Phase .64 2.9.3 Characteristics of the participants in the Qualitative Phase 66 2.9.4 Data Collection 68 2.10 Data Analysis 75 2.11 Synthesizing Quantitative and Qualitative Data 77 2.12 Conclusion 78 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 79 3.1 Operational and Measurement Levels of the Variables .79 3.2 Results and Discussions of the Quantitative Phase 81 3.2.1 Research question 1: What English language learning strategies TNU ethnic students employ for their EFL learning? 81 3.2.2 Research Question 2: What English language learning strategies are frequently used by the TNU ethnic students? 86 3.2.3 Research Question 3: To what extent, the students‟ choices of language learning strategies vary significantly with their gender, major fields of study, levels v of proficiency and learning styles? If so, what are the main patterns of variation? 97 3.3 Results and Discussions of the Qualitative Phase 115 3.3.1 Data Analysis and Results of the Interviews 115 3.3.2 Level of Language Proficiency .125 3.3.3 Loosing Faces 127 3.3.4 Learning Environment and Learning Opportunities .128 3.3.5 Learning Styles from Secondary Teachers‟ Teaching Styles .130 3.3.6 Language Learning Strategies Training Necessity .132 3.3.7 Cultural Boundary 133 3.3.8 Conclusion .135 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 137 Summary of Research Findings 137 Limitations of the Study 141 Implications and Recommendations of the Study .142 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS 147 REFERENCES 148 APPENDICES .166 vi List of Abbreviations LLS: Language Learning Strategy LLSs: Language Learning Strategies EFL: English as a Foreign Language TNU: Thai Nguyen University TNUS: Thai Nguyen University of Sciences TUAF: Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry TNUT: Thai Nguyen University of Technology TNUE: Thai Nguyen University of Education SILL: Strategy Inventory for Language Learning LLSQ: Language Learning Strategy Questionnaire L2: Second Language M: Mean score PLPQ: Perceptual Learning Styles Preference Questionnaire S.D.: Standard Deviation SLA: Second Language Acquisition vii List of Tables Table 2.1: The Reliability of the Vietnamese/English Version of the LLSQ 55 Table 2.2 The Reliability of the Vietnamese/English Version of the PLPQ 59 Table 2.3 Details of the participants‟ background 64 Table 2.4: Characteristics of the interviewees .66 Table 3.1: Dependent Variables 79 Table 3.2: Independent Variables .80 Table 3.3: Descriptive Language Learning Strategies 81 Table 3.4: Frequency of Students‟ Overall Strategy Use 87 Table 3.5: Frequency of Use of Strategies in the Six Main Categories 87 Table 3.6 Compare Means of six Main Categories 90 Table 3.7: Reported Strategies Use by High Usage 92 Table 3.8: Gender Difference in Language Learning Strategy Use .100 Table 3.9: Strategy use in Categories by Major Fields of Study 101 Table 3.10: Strategy use in Categories by levels of proficiency 104 Table 3.11: Overall Students Learning Style Preferences 110 viii RES Very difficult I can not speak English because it is very much different from my language Dung What language you speak everyday? RES Here, at the university I speak Viet language, but when I am with other students I speak Tay language At home, I never speak Viet language Dung Do you ask your friends to help you learning English? RES My friends sometimes help me and my teachers try to help me too but I can not learn English I don‟t know how to say a word correctly I Dung What strategies have you found most useful for learning English? RES I read again and again the grammar rules but I not know what is correct I never use the correct verb tense Dung What have you found most difficult about learning English? RES I think grammar is the most difficult for me Also, the pronunciation is as difficult Dung Which strategies have you used to overcome those difficulties? RES My friends show me that I should think of a Vietnamese word when I speak English but my teachers don‟t agree She asked me to say a word again and again but I can not pronounce correctly In the class, I rarely say something I like doing written activities Dung What class activities you prefer? RES I like working in groups with better students I think I can learn more from groups Dung Do you think the ways you learn English have been affected ethnic group? RES Yes, I think so My friends of the same minority group found that English is the most difficult subject 194 Dung What are you going to to learn English better? RES I don‟t know But I think I will read easy, bilingual books in grammar Dung Do you think English ability will help your future career? RES I think it is good if I can use English because it is an international language I don‟t think English will help me in the future Currently, I am studying Chinese It is difficult to write but easier to read Dung Thank you very much for your participation in the interview RES Thank you! 195 Interview Transcription: RES Interviewer: Le Quang Dung Interviewees: RES – Class: K8 IT Time: 16h00, 12th April, 2015 Venue: Meeting room, College of Information Technology, TNU Dung Hello, my name is Dung and I am doing a research about how ethnic nonEnglish students learn English Thank you for your time to participate in the interview Can you introduce something about yourself? RES My name is Tuan Dung Where are you from? RES I am from Bao Thang District, Lao Cai Province Dung You look older than other students How old are you? RES Yes, I went to University after year in the army I am 24 years old Dung What ethnic minority group you belong to? RES I belong to H‟mong ethnic minority group Dung What is your major field of study? RES I am studying Network Management at the college of Technology Dung Is it difficult for you to study because your friends are younger than you? RES It is fine, I think I can study well at most subjects But English is difficult for me Dung Are you good at English? 196 RES No, I am poor at English Dung When did you start learning English? RES At grade 10 Dung What have you found most difficult about English? RES Listening and speaking are most difficult for me My friends are better than me because they have studied English for long time Dung Do you think your age affect your English learning? RES Yes, my friends are younger than me and they react faster when teacher asks them Dung Do you ask your friends to help you learning English? RES Yes, my roommate explains grammar for me and help me understand difficult words Dung What strategies have you found most useful for learning English? RES I read grammar books I write all the new words and try to read them again and again Dung What have you found most difficult about learning English? RES Listening to the audio is very difficult because they speak so fast and there are so many words I don‟t know Dung Which strategies have you used to overcome those difficulties? RES I listen and read the transcription When I can not follow the speakers, I stop the file to read again Dung Do you think the ways you learn English have been affected ethnic group? RES Yes, I think so By nature, H‟mong people are quite closed, especially with strangers I not speak English with my friends in class I only 197 speak English when I am with my classmate Dung Do you prefer working on your own or work in group? RES I prefer working on my own Group works not help because other students not work Sometimes, I have to all the job of the group Dung Do you think that your teacher take good care of you? RES Yes, my teachers are very nice and helpful, they encourage me a lot because of my age and my ethnicity Sometimes, I try hard because I think of their help I spent long hours in the library to learn grammar and read simple stories in English to raise my vocabulary Dung Do you think your English is getting better? RES Yes, I My English is not so good but I can answer some simple questions from my teacher and I am happy about my progress Dung Thank you very much for your participation in the interview RES Thank you! 198 Interview Transcription: RES Interviewer: Le Quang Dung Interviewees: RES – Class: K43TY Time: 16h00, 12th April, 2015 Venue: Meeting room, College of Agriculture and Forestry, TNU Dung Hello, my name is Dung and I am doing a research about how ethnic non-English students learn English Thank you for your time to participate in the interview Can you introduce something about yourself? RES My name is Thuan I am a student at the College of Agriculture and Forestry Dung Where are you from? RES I am from Ba Be District, Bac Kan Province Dung What ethnic minority group you belong to? RES I belong to Thai ethnic minority group Dung What is your major field of study? RES I am studying Veterinary medicine at the College of Agriculture and Forestry TNU Dung When did you start learning English? RES I started studying English at grade 10 Dung What have you found the most difficult about learning English? RES I think listening and speaking in English are the most difficult skills 199 Dung Why is that? RES I think I have a problem with saying English words I can not pronounce sounds in English because it is very difficult and different from my language Dung Do you speak Viet language or Thai Language at home? RES Most of the time I speak my Thai language I only speak Viet language at university Even when I was at high school I speak Thai language Dung How many English class you have a week? RES I have English classes a week Dung How many students are there in your class? RES There are 47 students Dung Do you think that is too many for learning English? RES I think it is too crowded and it is very noisy The teacher just gives lecture and rarely ask a student a question She just asks some good students Dung What strategies have you found most useful for learning English? RES I just read grammar rules and find an example to explain the rule But in other sentences I not know why they use the verb form or preposition I can not work out when to use „in‟ „at‟ „to‟ „for‟ … I don‟t even know „subject‟ or „object‟ It is a chaos for me My teacher asked me to grammar exercises in the workbook but they are just the same to example so I can them but little understanding Dung Do you ask your friends to help you learning English? RES I think my friends are same to me There are some good students but they did little help for me 200 Dung What you to improve your English learning? RES I read grammar books I write all the new words and try to read them again and again Where I live, there are some international students They come from Timor Leste Sometimes I speak with them and I think my speaking is getting better I think the grammar knowledge is not so important when I am speaking Dung Do you think your ethnicity affect your English learning? RES I think it doesn‟t affect much When I was at school, I was quite closed and quiet But since I went to university I am more open I can make friends with many others students, even international students Dung Do you prefer a course that teaches you English learning strategies? RES I think it is a god idea because I can learn better ways to learn English Especially, the lessons are less boring Dung Do you think English will help your future career? RES Yes, if I can use English well it will be better for my studying and my job Dung Thank you very much for your participation in the interview RES Thank you! 201 Interview Transcription: RES Interviewer: Le Quang Dung Interviewees: RES – Class: K43G Time: 14h00, 14th April, 2015 Venue: Meeting room, College of Agriculture and Forestry, TNU Dung Hello, my name is Dung and I am doing a research about how ethnic nonEnglish students learn English Thank you for your time to participate in the interview Can you introduce something about yourself? RES My name is Thuy I am a student at the College of Agriculture and Forestry Dung Where are you from? RES I am from Mai Chau District, Hoa Binh Province Dung What ethnic minority group you belong to? RES I belong to Nung ethnic minority group Dung What is your major field of study? RES I am studying Geology at the College of Agriculture and Forestry TNU Dung When did you start learning English? RES I started studying English at grade 10 Dung Are you good at English? RES I think I am quite good I can all the exercises in the book and I can answer most of the questions from my teachers Dung What strategies have you found useful about learning English? RES I think speaking and listening are the most important skill when learning English I am lucky to study English with many international students Their English is not so good but I speak English with them all the time and 202 I can understand them well Having wide vocabulary is also very good because you can communicate better Dung What have you found the most difficult when learning English? RES English grammar is very difficult for me I can hardly understand the tense and preposition in English Besides, the meaning is difficult too There are so many words with more than one meaning, such as „get‟ take‟ „make‟ When these verbs go with other words they have quite different meaning It is very difficult to learn all of them Dung What have you done to overcome the difficulty? RES I learn from listening to other students and copy that The next time I use them in the similar situations I also learn the multi-word verbs from stories and documents of my subject I think English is not so difficult if you really want to learn it One of the very important thing when learning English is that you learn the ways English speakers speak and then copy them What is that? Uh uh “patterns” Dung What language activities you in your class? RES I love working in groupd I think that many people have better ideas I can learn a lot from group members, especially the international students Dung Do you think your teacher take good care of the students? RES Generally, they are nice and helpful However, some of them are boring and they talk too much I think that teachers should give instructions and let students the practice They can give some comments and correction to some mistakes It is better for us to use English Dung Do you think your ethnicity affect your English learning? RES It did when I was as school and the very first days when I went to university But now, I am like other students I don‟t see much different with other people Dung Thank you very much for your participation in the interview RES Thank you! 203 Interview Transcription: RES Interviewer: Le Quang Dung Interviewees: RES – Class: K46 M Time: 14h00, 15th April, 2015 Venue: Meeting room, College of Education, TNU Dung Hello, my name is Dung and I am doing a research about how ethnic nonEnglish students learn English Thank you for your time to participate in the interview Can you introduce something about yourself? RES My name is Thuong I am a student at the College of Education TNU Dung Where are you from? RES I am from Luc Yen District, Yen Bai Province Dung What ethnic minority group you belong to? RES I belong to Tay ethnic minority group Dung What is your major field of study? RES I am studying Mathematics at the College of Education TNU Dung When did you start learning English? RES I started studying English at grade 10 Dung Are you good at English? RES I think I am not so good but not so bad I am going to take an English examination in order for graduation Dung What is your expected level? RES I need an A2 but I hope I can reach B1 It will be better for job application Dung What strategies have you found useful about learning English? 204 RES I spend most of my time studying English in the library I read books about grammar and try to exercises to remember the rules But there are so many exceptions However, grammar is not a big problem for me I think communication is more important so I spend much time listening to recording Also, I try to listen to news programmes in English, and watch movies in English, especially movies with English sub-title It is interesting to understand movies Dung What have you found the most difficult when learning English? RES I find writing is my limitation I can not develop my ideas logically in the right format So I think I need some extra lessons in writing Dung What have you done to overcome the difficulty? RES I have a mini-dictionary with me, whenever I see a new word I look for the meaning and try to memorise the way it is used Dung What language activities you in your class? RES I all the tasks that teacher assign me such as pair work, group work, role-play … Dung Do you think your teacher take good care of the students? RES Yes, my teacher is very helpful She takes good care of students and encourage us to communicate in English Dung Do you think a course on language learning strategies is important? RES Yes, of course But I think that using those strategies in reality is more important A good learner should know about strategies and use them in his/her learning Dung Do you think your ethnicity affect your English learning? RES Not so much Whatever ethnicity can learn if they really want to learn Dung Thank you very much for your participation in the interview RES Thank you! 205 Interview Transcription: RES 10 Interviewer: Le Quang Dung Interviewees: RES 10– Class: K46 M Time: 14h00, 15th April, 2015 Venue: Meeting room, College of Education, TNU Dung Hello, my name is Dung and I am doing a research about how ethnic nonEnglish students learn English Thank you for your time to participate in the interview Can you introduce something about yourself? RES 10 Dung RES 10 Dung RES 10 Dung RES 10 My name is Thien I am a student at the College of Science TNU Where are you from? I am from Chien Hoa District, Tuyen Quang Province What ethnic minority group you belong to? I belong to Dao ethnic minority group What is your major field of study? I am studying Mathematics at the College of Science TNU Dung When did you start learning English? RES 10 I started studying English at grade 10 Dung RES 10 Are you good at English? I studied English at school but my English is very bad I don‟t remember anything except for some greetings Dung What have you found most difficult about learning English? 206 RES 10 I think English is very difficult I don‟t know how to make a correct sentence Grammar is very complicated I don‟t even know what is the different between tenses It is very difficult to remember the forms of the verbs Dung RES 10 How did you learn English at school? The teacher read the text in the textbook, then she translated into Vietnamese language so we could understand the text She explained some grammar then we did exercises in the workbook I did not understand much but my friends helped me when there was a test Dung RES 10 What have you found most difficult in learning English at University? At university, everything is quite different Teachers speak English all the time They rarely explain some grammar in Vietnamese Even the meaning of words also in English I understand very little in class Dung What strategies have you found most useful for you to study English? RES 10 I tried listen to the short conversations in some books while look at the script I keep a notebook to write all the new words I sometimes speak English with my roommates and my friends in English Some of my friends correct me when I make mistakes I really want to speak English so that I can go abroad where some of my friends are studying Dung RES 10 Do you ask you teachers to help you? I rarely ask my teacher because I am afraid to ask silly questions and other students will laugh at me Most of my time, I go to websites where I can find easy English lesson to practice listening and speaking Dung RES 10 What are some of the websites you often visit? There are many websites such as; VOA special English, English Language Laboratory Online I see that in those websites they speak slowly and easy to understand However, there are so many new words that took me hours to translate a short piece of information Besides, I 207 have done online grammar exercises It is very good because I can see how many correct answers right after I did the exercise Dung RES 10 Do you think your ethnicity affect your English learning? Yes, I think so Like some of my Dao friends, we are not good at asking questions because of shyness When I did something wrong, I don‟t know why it is wrong Dung Do you think a course on language learning strategies is useful for you? RES 10 It is a very good idea I strongly believe that if someone show me a good way of studying English, I will learn better And I think it will be true for other students like me Dung RES 10 Do you want to be a good English user? Yes, of course I really want to study English to be able to communicate with English speakers Dung RES 10 Thank you very much for your participation in the interview Good luck! Thank you! 208 ... 1.4.2 Language Learning Strategies and English Language Proficiency 22 1.4.3 Language Learning Strategies and Major Field of Study .24 1.4.4 Language Learning Strategies and Learning Styles... examines whether or not the TNU ethnic students majoring in Social Sciences and Natural Sciences are related to the use of language learning strategies in learning the English language 1.4.4 Language. .. preferred learning styles and their use of language learning strategies 1.5 Language Learning Strategy Research in Vietnam Research works in the field of LLSs in Vietnam mainly focus on investigating