INTRODUCTION THERE ARE MANY FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS' LEARNING OU...

1. INTRODUCTION There are many factors affecting students' learning outcomes such as: Attitude of the Students, School Resources, Leadership Aspects, Skills and Abilities of the Teachers, Classroom Environment, Role of Parents, Motivating and Encouraging Students, Teaching-Learning Methods… [3]. Motivation is central to human activity and is related to satisfaction of needs and desire. Advanced Learners‘ Dictionary considers ―to motivate‖ as ―to be the reason for somebody‘s action, to cause someone to want to do something‖. Moreover, motivate means to provide with a motive, need or desire that cause a person to act (Webster‘s dictionary, 1993). Dornyei [4] also showed that motivation is being responsible for "why people decide to do something, how long they are willing to sustain the activity and how hard they are going to pursue it". Motivation is considered as ―one of the key factors that influence the rate and success of second/foreign language (L2) learning‖ [5]. Psychologists have divided motivation into two types: extrinsic and Intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation occurs when we are motivated to perform a behavior or engage in an activity to earn a reward or avoid punishment. Intrinsic motivation involves engaging in a behavior because it is personally rewarding; essentially, performing an activity for its own sake rather than the desire for some external reward. Ellis defines intrinsic motivation as self-respect of accomplishment and personal growth. That is, the emotional and personal benefits of the job itself are known as intrinsic rewards [6]. Latham emphasizes that intrinsic rewards take an important role in teachers‘ lives [7]. Seeing the growth and development of students makes a teacher more satisfied, regardless of extrinsic elements, when compared with a teacher who does not feel anything with the success of his students. The activities that satisfy curiosity or lead to enhance the effectiveness are regarded as intrinsically motivated behaviors [8]. Competence and autonomy are the important issues on intrinsic motivation. Social-contextual events, for instant feedback, communications, rewards which cause feelings of competence foster intrinsic motivation [9]. While positive performance feedback increases intrinsic motivation, negative performance feedback decreases it. Deci and Ryan also discuss that ―intrinsic motivation is in evidence whenever students‘ natural curiosity and interest energize their learning. When the education environment provides optimal challenges, rich sources of stimulation, and a context of autonomy, this motivational wellspring in learning is likely to flourish‖. It is considered as the central motivator of the process of education. In short, intrinsic motivation plays a very important part in most learners‘ second/foreign language learning success or failure. For many learners, learning English language because of interest in culture and the target language group while some the others are attracted by learning tasks. Ellis noted involve the arousal a maintenance of curiosity and can ebb and flow as a result of such factors as particular interest and the extent of learners to which they fell personality involved in learning activities. It can be seen that, motivation has been considered by psychologist and educators as an important factor that affect students learning and achievement. Resent research in motivation has focused on the nature of motivational constructs and the ways these constructs affecting learning and achievement. According to Pintrick and Schunk, the number of motivational constructs that have impacts on students‘ learning have been identified. Without appropriate motivation, it is impossible for students to succeed in learning an English language [10]. In general, students with high motivation make continuous efforts in learning and lead to better learning achievement. Whereas those with poor motivation in their classroom often try little to their homework and class activities, just sit and seldom take part in class seminars [11], then their final exams result is not good. Motivation and learning have a close relation. Glasser viewed that if a student feels no sense in belonging in school, there is nonsense of caring in caring and concern, that child will pay little attention to academic subjects [12]. Many Vietnamese teachers as researchers have encountered problems of how to motivate students to learn English. They tried to find ways to enhance and encourage students to express ideas in English and do well in the final exam tests. Therefore, students exhibit undesirable levels of motivation as evidenced by low effort and low achievement. Thus, language learning is a complex activity. There are many factors affecting the success an English language learner in teaching and learning English, such as: age, aptitude, motivation, characteristics, home address, etc. in which motivation plays an important role and impacts on the success and failure of an English language learner. Both intrinsic and extrinsic can work as driving force that student overall performance [13]. According to Harmer, J, intrinsic motivation is concerned with what takes place in the classroom and extrinsic motivation is concerned with factors outside the classroom [14]. In addition, intrinsic motivation is as ―motivation to engage in an activity because that activity is enjoyable and satisfying to do‖ [15]. In order to test students‘ intrinsic motivation and their final exam result; there are many psychometric tools applying to gather an accurate measurement for intrinsic motivation. Chalermporn Choosri, Usa Intharaksa [16] were (i) to find out the levels of motivation in students with high and low achievement, (ii) to investigate the differences and similarities in motivation of students with high and low achievement, (iii) to investigate the relationship between motivation and students‘ achievement. The subjects were 140 second-year vocational certificate students in electronics technology program and building construction program, Hatyai Technical College in the first semester of the Academic Year 2010. The data from the returned questionnaire were statistically analyzed by using the SPSS program. Nhung D.T.H. [17] Study the relationship of learning motivation with learning outcomes and compare the effects of learning motivation factors on student learning outcomes. Thu Huong Ngo [18] used self-determination theory to investigate students‘ motivation to learn English in Vietnamese higher education. It was made up of two studies utilizing mixed methods to address five key objectives: (1) identity the types of motivation to learn English; (2) explore whether English major and non-English major students differed in their motivation; (3) consider whether these two groups differed in their levels of motivational intensity (effort) expended on their English learning and self-perceptions of autonomy, competence and relatedness to significant others; (4) examine the relationships between motivation and motivational intensity, autonomy, competence and relatedness for both groups; (5) explore students‘ perceptions of how lecturers, peers and parents influence their motivation to learn English. Study findings revealed that the majority of both English major and nonEnglish major students exhibited three types of motivation: personal/professional development motivation (highest levels compared with remaining types of motivation), intrinsic motivation, obligation/avoidance motivation. More English major students felt intrinsically motivated than their non-English major peers, and fewer numbers of English major students felt obligated to learn English. This research has also contributed to self-determination theory regarding how this theory worked in investigating motivation to learn English in a collectivist culture of Vietnam. Nga H.T.M. [19] focused on university - related factors affecting learning motivation of economics students based on a survey of 495 students of College of Economics at Can Tho University. The results showed that their learning motivation was affected positively by main factors including extracurricular activities, quality of teachers, curricula, learning conditions and learning environment. There were many researchers have conducted several researches and studies. This paper focuses on studying the relationship between students‘ intrinsic motivation and the final exam results of a student on the English subject.