1. INTRODUCTION

As a part of Vietnam higher education, vocational training is critical to improve the quality of labour force. The primary objective of vocational colleges is to meet the labor market’s demands in terms of quantity, quality, occupation structure and training level, reaching that of developed countries in the ASEAN region and the world. As a result, a contingent of skilled laborers will be formed to contribute to increasing national competitiveness. Vocational training will also be universalized among employees. That aims at labor restructuring, income generation, sustainable poverty reduction and social security (Tien, et al., 2012) As can be seen from the common goals of vocational education and training in Vietnam, vocational students now are trained to be highly skilled ones not only for domestic industries but also for labor export. Knowledge, professional skills and language skills become the keys for their success. Therefore, foreign language in general and English in particular is the compulsory subject in all vocational colleges, aiming to help learners achieve level two in the six-level English competencies framework for Vietnam. However, students’ English competency is relatively low (Tien, et al., 2012). The reasons for this situation vary. Arguably, students may lack  learning motivation ( Lai, 2013).

Motivation is simply identified as a factor that stimulates a person to act or to do something. In teaching and learning foreign language process, Gardner (2001) defined   motivation as a combination of effort, desire and positive effects or enjoyment to achieve the goal of language learning. Therefore, without motivation, it seems impossible for an English learner to achieve his language learning outcomes.

Motivation is a complex phenomenon, so different researchers have different ways to classify it. For example, according to Brown (2000) and Gardner (2001), there are two basic types of motivation: integrative and instrumental. In his study, Harmer (2001) mentioned and defined the terms intrinsic and extrinsic which were then frequently used in various studies. Extrinsic motivation in English learning is caused by outside factors including goals, the society students live in, and people around them. Language learners’ extrinsic motivation is sometimes  obtaining several rewards or avoiding some punishment. Intrinsic motivation, in contrast, comes from personal desire and curiosity to learn this language for challenge, interest, and enjoyment. Then, this learner might be motivated by the enjoyment of the process of learning itself or by a desire to make themselves feel better (Harmer, 2001).

Based on the abovementioned contextual and theoretical background, this study aims at investigating the students’ motivation to learn English in Vietnamese vocational schools to answer a research question: