Exploring Efl Students’ Motivations for Participating in Esp Clubs: A Case Study at a Vietnamese University

The English Club is an extracurricular activity that brings many benefits to participating members. However, previous studies have shown that a lack of motivation to participate in the English Club will lead to negative consequences, such as failure to achieve results or leaving the club. In Vietnam, there are not many studies on students’ motivation to participate in the English Club, and they are mainly about English majors. Thus, there is a gap in the investigation on EFL students’ motivation to participate in the English Club of many different majors. This study aims to fill this gap as a case study involving 35 different majors at Nam Can Tho University, Vietnam. This study uses a mixed research method, quantitative through the Likert-Scale questionnaire designed based on Self-Determination Theory with 491 EFL students and qualitative through semi-structured interviews with 12 students from 12 faculties. The results show that there is a positive correlation between the frequency of club participation and the level of satisfaction with the motivations of students to participate in the ESP club. The findings on specific student motivations propose important recommended strategies to help clubs operate more effectively. The results offer insights for educators and researchers on the role of ESP clubs, promoting extracurricular activities effectively to improve students’ English skills. Article visualizations: