An investigation of classroom activites, motivation, and English language learning strategies of secondary school students in Kalasin primary educational service area office 2

Abstract

The purposes of this study were 1) to find what classroom activities were carried out by grade 9 students while learning English, 2) to investigate the level of motivation of grade 9 students while learning English, 3) to identify language learning strategies used by grade 9 students while learning English, and 4) to investigate the relationships between classroom activities, motivation, and language learning strategies. The total population was 1,020 grade 9 Thai EFL secondary school students in Kalasin Primary Educational Service Area, Office 2, in northeastern Thailand. Subjects were selected by using stratified random sampling and simple random sampling. The sample consisted of 458 grade 9 Thai EFL secondary school students. The Classroom Activities Questionnaire, Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB), and the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL version 7.0) were used to collect quantitative data. Reliability was established by Cronbach's alpha coefficient at .96, .94, and .96, respectively. The statistical devices used for quantitative data analysis were mean, standard deviation, and Pearson's correlation. The major results show that 1) grade 9 students preferred to participate in participation mode activities at a high level, 2) grade 9 students had high instrumental orientation to learn English, 3) grade 9 students used metacognitive strategies at a medium level, and 4) classroom activities were found to be positively correlated with motivation (r = .548, p < .01) and language learning strategies (r = .548, p < .01). The correlations were classified as substantial associations.;