1. RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Causes of failure in the English
language courses (AG) from the
student’s perspective
RESEARCHER’S NAME: MARIA ALEJANDRA AKÉ ANTONIO
STUDENT’S REGISTRATION NUMBER: 08-09253

2. Introduction

Since 2007, in the University of Quintana Roo the subject of English is
compulsory. All the students who are enrolled in any major at the
University of Quintana Roo have to pass the four levels of English,
which are introductory, basic, pre-intermediate and intermediate.

There has been a critical percent of failure in English as a general
subject or AG, since it was approved as compulsory; this
phenomenon appears in all the different majors in the University of
Quintana Roo.

3. Rationale

There has not been any research at the University of Quintana Roo
(UQROO) that has attempted to study the causes of failure of
English as a general subject Some quantitative studies only show the
average of failure but it is not show the factors that affect it.

This research will offer important results since it is mainly a
quantitative-descriotive study which allows a deeper analysis of the
problem. Firstly, this will help the teacher to realize why there were a
lot of students who failed the courses. Thence, they could take
advantage of the results and make something to prevent this
problem.

4. Objectives

The aim of this project is to find the main causes of failure of English
subject as AG, from the perspective of the students. Due to the fact
that there is a critical percent of failure in English subjects that are
taken for the students of the University of Quintana Roo.

The main factors to look for are motivation and teaching strategies
in order to obtain result that help teachers to solve this problem or
decrease it.

5. Research questions

What are the main causes of failure in English courses from student’s
perspectives?

How dos teaching strategies affect the student’s performance in the
English courses?

Do learning styles are taking into consideration by teachers while
teaching?

6. Literature review

In terms of motivation Yamili Abash (2010) and Lorena Gudiño (2010) carried out
a research at the University of Quintana Roo about the causes of failure in the
English courses from the student’s perspective: the case of the 2004 generation
of English Language major at Uqroo.

The study goal was to investigate the reason of failure among 2004-2009
generation in the BA English language program at University of Quintana Roo,
the factors that were considered are motivation and assessment.

They delimited their population by applying the surveys to English language
major from 2004 generations. The results were that the main factors that cause
failure of English subject were firstly, “ motivation because students were
interested in the economic benefit, as a result, were not academically
interested in their learning thus and did not show enough effort during the
courses. Besides that, assessment was also seen as a factor of failure…the
students were affected because they were left behind and the extreme some
dropped out” (Abash and Gudiño, 20010)

7. 
A study accomplished at Universidad de los Andes, by Perez Cevila
(2005) called Motivation and Academic Performance of the English
Language Students from the ULA Táchira, showed the interest that the
students had in language learning and pleasure for studying English as
the most representative attitudes as motivational behavior of the
students.

The study was achieved by applying a survey to 169 English language
students as a foreign language (EFL students) the objective of this
research was to determinate the relationship between internal
motivation and the academic performance as well as the student’s
motivational attitudes and their demographic characteristics.

Not only in college but also in low levels of education it is show the
decrease in learning a second language, mostly English language in
countries where Spanish is spoken as a mother tongue.

8. 
More recently, Carmona, Ana (2011) conducted a research about failure in learning English in
secondary school. Carmona, Ana (2011) had as a hypothesis that the more importance the
students grant when performing an activity that they make, the more motivated they feel to
pursue it and keep the effort required to do it properly

The research was reached by applying a survey to a group of 26 students from second grade of
secondary school (ESO) and another group of 27 students (ESO) from fourth grade in the same
school, in total were fifty-three students of secondary school.

According to what Gardner says about motivation:

Motivation: effort + wish to achieve goals + attitude (Gardner, 1985)

The result demonstrated that there is not an empirical evidence that the students who get a high
performance in learning are more motivated that the ones who show a lower performance.

It is important to mention that the theory below shows an important characteristic in the
performance in a classroom, principally in language classes because not all the students learn in
the same way. Many students can be motivated by playing games while other students prefer
not to interact with their classmates.

In other words, a language class is very different from the other ones that students use to take in
college, because of this there is a huge change in the way they learn. In addition, should be to
taken into account that not all the students are interested to learn a new language.

9. 
Additionally, Ceballos, Griselda (2008) and Bravo, Omar (2008) conducted a
research about Performance Indicators from a real perspective according to
the context of foreign language students. In this research the factors to be
considered were school attention, dropping out and repetition, which appear in
educational level and global.

The results of this study indicated that the higher rates of failure were showed in
the following subjects: English and French. Those results are highlighted in the
students who accept that their linguistic skills are very low, even in Spanish.
Other students related with this results are the ones who think that do not have
vocation to study any language, they are marriage, live far away from the
school, or have health problems.

Although, this study is very general it is important to take advantage of it
because the causes of dropping out, repetition and school attention problems
are almost the same around the world. Not all the students that start a career, in
all the educational levels, mainly from secondary to college school, did not
finish it.

10. Method
Participants
Instruments
Procedure
Students from 4th semester,
and from all the majors. (spring
2014)
Surveys
* The surveys will be applyied to
all the majors, to the students
from 4th semester and in their
profesional subjects. (no English
subject)
(15 mintues long)

11. References

Habash, &., Gudiño, L. (2010) Causes of failure in the English
Courses from the

Studen’s Perspective: The case of the 2004 generation
of the English

Language major at UQROO. Universidad de Quintana
Roo.

Martinez, M. M., Pérez, A., Garduño, M. (2005). Los Estudiantes
de Nuevo Ingreso

en los Programas Educativos de Idiomas en la Unidad
Académica



Navarro, R.E. (2003). Factores Asociados al Rendimiento
Académico. Universidad

Cristoba Colón, México.


Cozumel. Universidad de Quintana Roo.
Pérez, J. (2005). Motivación Interna y Rendimiento Académico
de los Estudiantes
de Inglés de la ULA, Táchira. Universidad de Táchira.
Carmona, A.B. (2008). El Fracaso en el aprendizaje de inglés
en secundaria.

Rrevista Digital para Profesionales de la Enseñanza.

Ceballo, G.P. (2008). Indicadores de Rendimiento desde una
Perspectiva Real

Acorde al Contexto de Alumnos de Lenguas
Extranjeras. Universidad de Colima.

Montero, E., Villalobos, J., Balverde, A.(2007). Factores
Institucionales,

Pedagógicas, Psicosociales y Sociodemográficas
Asociados al

Rendimiento Académico en la Universidad de Costa
Rica: un análisis

multinivel. Universidad de Costa Rica.