Level of Motivation and Strategies in Learning English of Undergraduate Students: A Case Study of a Public University in Chiang Mai

Abstract

         This research aims to find the level of motivation and strategies in the English language preparation before starting co-operative education practice in workplaces of 134 third-year students, majoring in management, Faculty of Business Administration, Maejo University. It also investigates the opinions of 5 undergraduate English instructors in their teaching and learning approaches, which enhances and creates motivation for the students.

          The researchers implemented the level of motivation questionnaire, which was adapted from the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) by Pintrich (1991). Yamane’s (1967) calculation formula was used to determine the sample size and the in-depth interviews to ask the English instructors for (1) the teaching approaches to create motivation and (2) the student’s obstacles in learning English.

          According to the results from the 7-levels MSQL questionnaire, most students knew that English was beneficial (x = 5.48), and important (x = 5.16), but they were worried when taking tests (x = 5.01) respectively. For the learning strategies, it was found that the students tried to memorize the contents for tests (x = 4.98), tried to learn from mistakes when receiving low scores (x = 3.79), and repeated the words to memorize the information (x = 3.72). The English instructors suggested that the use of games, media, topics of their interests, the application of current affairs, co-operative learning, and cultural background-based learning help enhance the students’ learning. The teaching approaches which created the student’s motivation the most were the use of online and authentic media, co-operative learning activities, the design thinking process, English teaching based on learners’ cultural and community backgrounds. The approaches; however, should be student-centered. The obstacles to the motivation in learning English were the lack of basic knowledge, the environment and classroom management, teaching techniques, and ignorance to the importance of English for the future, negative attitude, and power-relation in a classroom.

          It is suggested that worry-free teaching and learning activities should be conducted for an English preparation course before a co-operative education practice. Authentic assessment should be used instead of tests and the students’ cultural and community backgrounds should be integrated in the teaching and learning process.