Using Short Stories to Motivate Intermediate EFL Learners in Essay Writing at Vietnam Centre Point

Abstract

The study aims to investigate using short stories to motivate intermediate EFL learners in essay writing at Vietnam Centre Point. This study concerned in 45 intermediate leaners who were studying at Vietnam Centre Point, the researcher’s workplace. This study adopted a sequential mixed method approach to data collection and analysis. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from the questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings expressed that attitudes of the learners (containing affective, behavioral and cognitive components) and factors motivating them (consisting of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) in their essay writing through using short stories mostly had positive outcomes. In terms of attitudes, the most major impact was affective attitudes which had the highest mean score among the components while behavioral and cognitive components were considered to be less influential on the learners. Whilst, concerning motivation towards the learners, the dominant factor belonged to extrinsic motivation whereas intrinsic motivation had less effective influence. Depending on the findings of the study, recommendations for the learners, teachers, and administrators are also suggested.