Understanding first year university students’ passivity via their attitudes and language behaviors towards answering questions in class

84 Truong Thi Nhu Ngoc. Journal of Science Ho Chi Minh City Open University, 7(4), 84-93 
UNDERSTANDING FIRST YEAR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ 
PASSIVITY VIA THEIR ATTITUDES AND LANGUAGE 
BEHAVIORS TOWARDS ANSWERING QUESTIONS IN CLASS 
TRUONG THI NHU NGOC 
Van Lang University, Vietnam – truongthinhungoc2303@gmail.com 
(Received: March 17, 2017; Revised: April 17, 2017; Accepted: May 08, 2017) 
ABSTRACT 
Learning styles and learning strategies play a key role in learners’ success and autonomy in language learning. 
However, the majority of research in this area is carried out in foreign context rather than locally. Thus, many false 
assumptions have been made about Asian learning styles in general and Vietnamese learners in particular, i.e. they 
are passive and group-oriented learners, and they tend to learn by rote and memorize knowledge. In an attempt to 
find out if Vietnamese first year university non-English majored learners are passive or active, the study investigates 
their attitudes and language behaviors towards answering questions in class. The major findings from valid 
questionnaires responded by 90 students from five different technology-grouped departments reveal that Vietnamese 
students are not passive at all and the reasons why they appear passive are related to their shyness and face-saving 
attitudes. No statistically significant association was found between students’ personality and their passivity in the 
classroom. 
Keywords: Active learners; Learning styles; Passive learners. 
1. Introduction 
In the past fifty years, a considerable 
number of different methodologies have 
emerged and have been claimed to be effective 
practices to enhance students’ second language 
learning capabilities. These methods and 
approaches are mostly determined by 
educators and teachers, which can lead to the 
fact that how students are taught is a far cry 
from what they need. For that reason, a more 
learner-centered approach would probably 
bring in expected results. However, how can 
teachers acquire a genuine understanding of 
their students in addition to knowing their 
needs? In order to deploy suitable classroom 
activities effectively, it is vital to understand 
individual students’ learning styles and 
strategies. Unfortunately, teachers often have 
misconceptions or false overgeneralizations 
about their students’ styles and strategies, due 
to being influenced by what they read and 
misinterpreting what they see. Thus, a 
conscientious teacher should be not only 
sensitive to dissimilarities amongst their 
students, but should also be able to avoid 
stereotyping them. It is obvious that the 
majority of second language learning research 
about Asian learners is carried out in English-
speaking countries, and thus an inaccurate 
picture of Asian learners in general, and 
Vietnamese learners, in particular, can be 
generated. Since the introduction of 
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 
Method to Vietnam in 1990s, the learning and 
teaching practice has changed to a certain 
extent. Departing from the traditional way of 
learning, students are relatively more active 
thanks to classroom communicative activities. 
Nevertheless, teachers often complain that 
most of their students still remain quiet 
although they try to encourage them to talk 
and put them into groups so that they will feel 
more secure. This passivity can be attributed 
to the students’ individual personalities, or to 
the fact that they are still influenced by how 
they used to be taught. 
 Truong Thi Nhu Ngoc. Journal of Science Ho Chi Minh City Open University, 7(4), 84-93 85 
1.1. Purpose of the study 
Many passivity-related questions have 
been raised about Vietnamese learners in the 
new era of international economic integration: 
Are Vietnamese students passive in their 
thinking? Does their view about the suitability 
for speaking out in classroom make them 
appear passive in their classroom? This paper 
investigates the passivity of Vietnamese first 
year university non-English majored students 
with five major questions related to their 
attitudes and language behaviors towards 
answering questions in class. 
1. Do students self-assess themselves as 
passive or active students? 
2. If the teacher poses a question, when 
do students raise hands? 
3. If students remain reticent when their 
teacher asks questions, what will they do? 
4. Are students afraid of making mistakes 
in the classroom? If yes, what are the main 
reasons? 
5. Is students’ learning style dependent on 
their personality? 
1.2. Significance of the study 
In Vietnam, the issue of learning styles 
and strategies is not widely and duly 
understood. Many assumptions have been 
made about Vietnamese learners; most 
noticeably, they are passive learners. In fact, 
there has been little research on Vietnamese 
learning styles and, if any, there is no research 
carried out from students’ perspectives, asking 
students to reflect on their own learning style 
via their attitudes and language behaviors 
towards answering questions in class. If 
teachers know the answer to the afore-
mentioned questions, therefore, they will 
better be equipped to understand their 
students’ needs, and to know how to help 
them improve and tackle the problem of 
second language learning. They will also be 
able to adapt their teaching styles to match 
their students’ learning styles. For this myth 
to be unraveled, I have conducted this pilot 
research. 
2. Literature Review 
2.1. Definition of terms 
Before having a closer look at 
Vietnamese students’ language learning style, 
the following terms need to be clarified: style, 
learning style, active and passive. 
2.1.1. Style 
Style is a term referring to individual 
preferences or tendencies that are constant. In 
other words, styles are “those general 
characteristics of intellectual func ... .4 90.0 
Extremely not 
scared 
9 10.0 10.0 100.0 
Total 90 100.0 100.0 
N Valid 90 
Missing 0 
Mean 2.96 
Std. Deviation 1.038 
90 Truong Thi Nhu Ngoc. Journal of Science Ho Chi Minh City Open University, 7(4), 84-93 
The results show that students tend to be 
neutral towards the fright of making mistakes 
in class, with mean 2.96, Std, 1038. One third 
of students (32.2 %) said they were either 
scared or extremely scared of making 
incorrect answers in front of the class while 
nearly one fifth of them (24.4 %) reported that 
they were positive about making mistakes in 
class. 
Concerning main reasons for those who 
are fearful of giving incorrect answers, let’s 
look at the following table. 
Table 5 
Reasons for students’ fright of making mistakes in class 
 I am shy I am afraid of 
being laughed 
at by my 
friends 
I am afraid of 
being ridiculed 
by my friends 
I don't want to 
leave a bad 
impression on 
my teacher 
Others 
Frequency 32 27 18 25 0 
Percent 35.6 30 20 27.8 0 
As can be seen from the above table, the 
most popular reason for students’ reticence in 
class is related to face-saving attitudes (77.8 
%); particularly, being fearful of being 
laughed at or ridiculed at by friends takes up 
50 % and unwillingness to leave a bad 
impression on their teacher consists of 27.8 
%. Slightly more than one-third of the 
participants (35.6 %) attributed shyness to 
their quietness in class. 
4.5. Students’ learning style and their personality 
Table 6 
Personalities and learning styles cross tabulation 
Learning styles 
Total Active Passive Neutral 
Personalities Extrovert 19 14 2 35 
Introvert 26 15 7 48 
Neutral 2 5 0 7 
Total 47 34 9 90 
Table 7 
Results from Pearson Chi-Square test for students’ learning style and personality 
Chi-Square Test 
 Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) 
Pearson Chi-Square 5.850a 4 .211 
Likelihood Ratio 6.284 4 .179 
Linear-by-Linear 
Association 
.676 1 .411 
N of Valid Cases 90 
 Truong Thi Nhu Ngoc. Journal of Science Ho Chi Minh City Open University, 7(4), 84-93 91 
The Chi-Square tests show no dependent 
relationship between the personality and 
learning style with χ2(4) = 5.850, *p = .211. 
However, it is interesting to note that out of 
48 cases of introverted learners, slightly more 
than half of them (26 cases) rated themselves 
as active learners. 
5. Discussion 
5.1. Students are not passive learners. 
Students appear passive due to their shyness 
and their face-saving attitudes 
In the light of the discussion and 
comparison with the assumptions about 
Vietnamese learning style literature, some 
conclusions can be drawn as follows. 
Contrary to what is generally stated about 
Vietnamese learners in the literature, the 
participants’ responses reveal that they are not 
passive learners at all. Even when they do not 
raise their hands in class or think it out loud 
their ideas, their minds are active because they 
still think about the response to their teacher’s 
questions and try to figure out the answers, 
and when they do not comprehend something, 
they will ask their friends for help. This, in 
this vein, is similar to Littlewood’s research 
results in 2000, which conclude that Asian 
students do not want to be passive learners 
and obedient listeners. The fact that 
Vietnamese students do not appear to be 
active is partly due to their shyness, fear of 
being laughed at or ridiculed by their friends, 
or partly because of their face-saving 
attitudes. This finding also shows a sharp 
contrast to the widely held belief stated by 
Chalmers & Volet in 1997 about the reason 
why Asian learners are passive, i.e. they want 
to be polite to teachers and they see 
knowledge as something their teachers 
transfer to them. To help students overcome 
psychology-related hindrances above-
mentioned, a positive mental attitude should 
be created among students, which helps them 
realize that mistakes are their friends that 
enable them to learn and that making mistakes 
is an unavoidable part of learning languages. 
Whenever anyone makes mistakes in class, 
instead of responding to mistakes with 
habitual laughter, students should be 
encouraged to say “That’s ok. You are gonna 
better next time”. Furthermore, no matter 
what extroverted or introverted learners they 
are, most Vietnamese students can be shy in 
nature. Therefore, they should be encouraged 
to think it out loud and share their ideas with 
their classmates more even when they are not 
certain about their answers. Besides, students 
should always receive positive comments for 
even wrong answers, which can leave positive 
imprints on the students that no matter how 
wrong their answers can be, they are all 
appreciated for sharing their opinions and 
ideas. Also, it is highly expected that no 
student is underestimated or ridiculed because 
of their wrong answers. 
5.2. Students are very autonomous 
learners. Stereotyping should be avoided 
From the finding, it is clear that students 
do not always sit silently and wait for others 
to feed them with answers. They are very 
autonomous; they think about the answers or 
discuss with their friends when they do not 
raise hands in class. Besides, although 
students tend to turn to their friends for help, 
it is not clear that they tend to be more 
cooperative as stated by Scarcella in 1990. 
Therefore, further research is necessary. 
Though there is evidence suggesting that 
“culture, as learned by the child from family, 
community, and school, has a strong influence 
on learning style” (Hedge, 2000, p. 19) and 
that a child’s learning style depends on the 
“type of society and the way [he] is reared” 
(Brown, 2000, p. 115), stereotyping should 
always be avoided. In the same culture, there 
is still a wide variety of learning styles. It 
should be noted that there are serious and 
hidden dangers if students’ learning styles are 
misidentified and that teachers’ inappropriate 
instructional practices in response to any 
misidentified learning style can lead to 
students’ future academic failure. 
92 Truong Thi Nhu Ngoc. Journal of Science Ho Chi Minh City Open University, 7(4), 84-93 
5.3. Students are not afraid of making 
mistakes. They have different personal 
reasons for the suitability of speaking in the 
classroom 
Finally, concerning the matter of being 
fearful of making mistakes in class, from the 
findings, Vietnamese undergraduates are not 
totally afraid of giving incorrect answers in 
class because they have different personal 
reasons for suitability of speaking in the 
classroom. This is to say that they would raise 
hands when they are certain about their 
responses and that they do not want to waste 
time or win their friends’ turn with their 
guesses (findings from deep interviews). 
Reluctance to raise hands can also be due to 
face-saving attitudes, which means they do 
not want to be ridiculed or laughed at or leave 
a bad impression on their teacher. For that 
reason, at the beginning of the semester, 
students should be clearly informed of how 
they are expected to contribute to the lesson 
and to behave towards each other in order to 
avoid future mismatched conceptions about 
the suitability of sharing ideas in classroom 
environment between students and teachers. 
5.4. Students’ learning styles are 
changeable. They should be encouraged to 
experience different learning styles 
Moreover, though fairly stable learning 
styles appear, they are changeable. If not, 
students will not be able to surpass drawbacks 
or restrains of their own style. In fact, they 
will exert a certain style appropriate to the 
context. For example, when studying in 
Australia, “Asian international students [] 
are able to adapt to the new style of teaching 
and learning [] within two to three months 
(Woong, 2004), “have a positive attitude 
towards the Australian academic culture” 
(Ramsay, 2016) and can “adapt to deeper 
learning approaches” (Basthomi, 2016). 
However, not many learners can identify their 
own styles. Thus, they should be provided 
with the opportunities to discover their styles 
through facing certain challenging tasks and 
they should also be encouraged to experience 
themselves in different learning styles since 
students who employ multiple learning styles 
can enjoy “greater classroom success” (Reid, 
1987, p.101). 
5.5. Limitations and future directions 
Since the respondents do not represent a 
scientific sample of first year Vietnamese 
university non- English majored students, 
generations beyond the sample cannot be 
made. However, the study can provide depth 
of understanding the students’ beliefs about 
their learning style and conceptions about the 
suitability of speaking out loud in class as 
well as provide a guide towards future 
research and better practice at the institutional 
level. It is not in the scope of the research to 
find out whether external factors or internal 
factors have more impact on their passivity 
learning. Therefore, further research is 
necessary. 
5.6. Conclusion 
The present study shows that the majority 
of Vietnamese first year non-English majored 
students are not passive learners at all, which 
is consistent with prior research (e.g. 
Littlewood, 2000), and their learning style is 
not dependent on their personality. Those who 
consider themselves passive learners do not 
attribute their reticence in class to such 
attributes as obedience and politeness found in 
research done by Chalmers and Volet in 1997, 
but to shyness and face-saving attitudes. In the 
light of these findings, teachers should deploy 
suitable teaching strategies to help students 
develop a more positive and cooperative 
learning environment where students see 
mistakes as helpers rather than hindrances and 
have enough courage to make mistakes in 
learning. Also, it is necessary for teachers to 
explore their students’ learning styles and help 
them experiment with other learning 
styles since styles can be changeable and 
adaptable 
 Truong Thi Nhu Ngoc. Journal of Science Ho Chi Minh City Open University, 7(4), 84-93 93 
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