Chuyển di văn hoá trong bài thi viết 2 của IELTS tại viện đại học mở hà nội

AIMS OF THE STUDY As the certificates of IELTS and TOEFL are more widely recognized, Vietnamese students now find themselves facing up to the obstacle of cultural transfer mostly in wri

1 RATIONALE

The purpose of this study is to determine the context in which Vietnamese students attain target language literacy, and the cultural transfer in order to overcome the challenges of cultural interferences This study is conducted in an English class at CITC – Centre for International Training Cooperation at Hanoi Open University, where IELTS is a prerequisite for entrance and completion of the mainstream courses

For any Vietnamese learners striving to master English, writing is a demanding skill that requires the development of language proficiency, the development of cultural knowledge and cultural understanding, and the fostering of positive cross-cultural attitudes Therefore, students have much more than grammar and vocabulary to learn They should be underway of exploring and acquiring the target cultural values as well as the way of knowing and learning

2 AIMS OF THE STUDY

As the certificates of IELTS and TOEFL are more widely recognized, Vietnamese students now find themselves facing up to the obstacle of cultural transfer mostly in writing In IELTS writing task 2, students have to learn – in many cases for the first time – to write an essay arguing a position on a topic from their own point of view To better understand the problem that students have adjusted to a new way of thinking and learning in English classes, the researcher will look further into the socio-cultural and cultural pragmatics perspectives of this challenge Although there has been some research on the studying of Asian students, less is known about pedagogical practices in the teaching of literacy in the Vietnamese context, especially in mastering IELTS writing skills To achieve this overall purpose, the study aims

to

• Investigate and identify typical mistakes relating to cultural thought patterns that Vietnamese students tend to make

• Compare, contrast and clarify some similarities and differences in writing styles in Vietnamese and English culture

• Propose some suggestions and implications for teaching and learning IELTS writing task 2 for Vietnamese students

The focus of the investigation would be the prior knowledge the students had acquired about literacy that would be transferred to the second language classroom In order to achieve the above objectives, three following research questions will be addressed:

(1) What are the typical mistakes relating to culture of Vietnamese students

in writing IELTS task 2?

(2) Why do they make such mistakes?

(3) How can the mistakes be overcome?

3 METHODS OF STUDY

Research might benefit those who teach students, enabling them to better address educational difficulties related to the cultural transmission With these ideas in mind, the researcher studies a class at HOU with the purposes of observing an English class in the Vietnamese context

Multiple research methods of qualitative research design, including interviews, observation, and document analyses have been employed in this study The research questions that the study will answer relate to the following areas: the participants’ writing mistakes when completing IELTS task 2 of writing, how these mistakes relate to cultural elements, why students make those mistakes and how this problem can be solved

The utilization of qualitative methods was justified by the nature of the research questions mentioned earlier in Chapter One, Part 2 that required that the researcher approach human or

human-related resources to answer these questions Glossner (1990) believes that “[the] richness and complexity of students’ attitudes toward learning might be better understood through qualitative research techniques than quantitative research techniques” (p 16) Thus, the use of qualitative research in this study was appropriate since it took place in a natural setting and depended on data collection methods that were based on words rather than on numbers

The role of the researcher is that of participant observer, sharing class work and homework, collecting all writing done in class, interviewing students and lecturer before and after class

In other words, the researcher became both an insider and outsider in order to both understand the students’ experience and evaluate it objectively as an observer Being guided by the preceding research questions, all the data were carefully reviewed and analyzed for salient themes which would help create a finely grained description of the class in order to better understand the entering freshman’s perspectives on learning language, specifically writing skills

The main techniques of carryong out the research are:

Interviewing students and teachers

Taped transcripts

Collecting writing pieces of students

Document analyis

Observation

4 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Because of the limit of time, the research paper focus on the cultural aspects of Vietnamese students’ writing scripts of IELTS task 2 at CITC - HOU All the texts are marked, identified, and analyzed to find the common errors involved with the cultural elements In the future, if possible the researcher would like to develop the study to include the videotapes of teacher’s

manner of conducting the class that affects the way students complete their tasks The underlying reason is that cultural transfer partly stems from human interaction; in this area of study that is the interaction between lecturer and students, in the context of a classroom

5 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

The thesis begins with acknowledgements, table of contents

The main body is divided into 3 parts:

- The first part is Introduction to the study

- The second part, Development, consists of three chapters:

o Chapter I discusses the theoretical preliminaries in which the emphasis is laid

on the definition of Transfer, Writing, IELTS test and assessment criteria

o Chapter II, the main chapter of the research, describes the research procedure, data collection and techniques as well as data analysis

o Chapter III presents a variety of cultural transfer in completing IELTS writing task 2, including near and far transfer, positive and negative transfer

- The third part, conclusion is the review of the study

Bibliography puts the end to the study

I.1 Language, culture transfer, definition and categories

There have been lots of definitions and concepts about culture so far In this study, the term culture includes such aspects as attitudes and ways of thinking and writing, and the social knowledge that person uses to interpret experience In other words, culture should be seen as the framework of assumptions, ideas, and beliefs that are used to interpret other people's actions, words, and patterns of thinking However, it is crucial that foreign language learners should become aware of differing cultural frameworks, both their own and those of others; otherwise they will use their own cultural system to interpret target-language messages whose intended meaning may be well be predicated on quite different cultural assumptions

According to Martin (1993), in the fields of social psychology and studies of communication, cultural competence is seen in social effectiveness (i.e the ability to achieve instrumental and social goals) and appropriateness (i.e suitable communication in a given situation in a particular culture) The term has been defined in foreign language learning as "the ability of a person to behave adequately in a flexible manner when confronted with actions, attitudes and expectations of representatives of foreign cultures" (Meyer, 1991, p 137)

On one hand, human culture, social behaviour and thinking would not exist without language

as Edward Sapir (1985: 171) stated, “ Language actually shapes the way which we perceive, think, and therefore act” On the other hand, transfer means exchange procedure between two cultural areas (i.e between Germany and English or between France and Russia) Thus, culture transfer can be defined in the comparison with ordinary learning

I.1.1 Transfer versus ordinary learning

According to David N Perkins and Gavriel Salomon in their contribution to the International Encyclopaedia of Education in 1992, any learning in a sense requires a modicum of transfer

To say that learning has occurred means that the person can display that learning later Even if the later situation is very similar, there will be some contrasts perhaps time of day or the physical setting So no absolute line can be drawn between ordinary learning and transfer

However, transfer only becomes interesting as a psychological and educational phenomenon

in situations where the transfer would not be thought of as ordinary learning For example, a student may show certain grammar skills on the English test (ordinary learning) but not in everyday speech (the hoped-for transfer) The student may solve the problems at the end of the chapter (ordinary learning) but not similar problems when they occur mixed with others at the end of the course (the hoped-for transfer) In other words, talk of transfer is always at least implicitly contrastive: it assumes learning within a certain context and asks about impact beyond that context

I.1.2 Positive versus negative transfer

Positive transfer occurs when learning in one context improves performance in some other contexts For instance, speakers of one language find it easier to learn related than unrelated second languages Negative transfer occurs when learning in one context impacts negatively

on performance in another For example, despite the generally positive transfer among related languages, contrasts of pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax generate stumbling blocks Learners commonly assimilate a new language's phonetics to crude approximations in their native tongue and use word orders carried over from their native tongue

While negative transfer is a real and often problematic phenomenon of learning, it is of much less concern to education than positive transfer Negative transfer typically causes trouble only in the early stages of learning a new domain With experience, learners correct for the effects of negative transfer From the standpoint of education in general, the primary concern

is that desired positive transfers occur

I.1.3 Near versus far transfer

Near transfer refers to transfer between very similar contexts, for instance, when students taking an exam face a mixture of problems of the same kinds that they have practiced separately in their homework, or when a garage mechanic repairs an engine in a new model of car, but with a design much the same as in prior models Far transfer refers to transfer between contexts that, on appearance, seem remote and alien to one another For instance, a chess player might apply basic strategic principles such as “take control of the centre” to investment practices, politics, or military campaigns It should be noted that “near” and “far'' are intuitive notions that resist precise codification They are useful in broadly characterizing some aspects of transfer but do not imply any strictly defined metric of “closeness”

I.1.4 Prospects of transfer

As noted earlier, transfer is especially important to learning theory and educational practice because very often the kinds of transfer hoped for do not occur The renowned educational psychologist E L Thorndike conducted the classic investigation of this in the first decades of the 20th century Thorndike examined the proposition that studies of Latin disciplined the mind, preparing people for better performance in other subject matters Comparing the performance in other academic subjects of students who had taken Latin with those who had not, Thorndike (1923) found no advantage of Latin studies whatsoever In other experiments, Thorndike and Woodworth (1901) sought, and generally failed to find, positive impact of one sort of learning on another Thorndike concluded that transfer depended on “identical elements” in two performances and that most performances were simply too different from one another for much transfer to be expected In terms of the rough near-far distinction, near transfer is much more likely than far transfer

Thorndike's early and troubling findings have re-emerged again and again in other

investigations For instance, the advent of computer programming as a school subject matter stimulated the proposal that computer programming developed general problem solving skills, much as Latin was thought to cultivate mental discipline

Another learning experience that might impact broadly on cognition is literacy, the mastery of reading and writing Wide-ranging transfer might be expected from experience with the cognitive demands of reading and writing and the cognitive structures that text carries However, Scribner and Cole (1981) reported a study of an African tribe, the Vai, with an indigenous form of writing not accompanied by schooling Using a variety of general cognitive instruments, they found no differences between the Vai who had mastered this script and others who had not They argued that the impact of literacy depends on immersion

in diverse activities surrounding literacy, not on acquisition of reading and writing per se The Vai only employed their script in a very specific way, in contrast with the many uses of literacy apparent in many cultures

It is not clear whether one should consider study of problem isomorphs near or far transfer, because isomorphs are near identical structurally but very different in external trappings In any case, subjects usually do not recognize the connection between one isomorphs and the other and hence do not carry over strategies they have acquired while working with one to the other However, if the relationship is pointed out, then subjects can do so fruitfully (Simon and Hayes 1977)

I.2 What is writing?

I.2.1 What is writing?

The question has raised a variety of ways to answer according to the level of the learners At one level, writing can be said to be" the act of forming graphic symbols on a flat surface of

some kind" But for the learners of higher level, it is much more than the production of these symbols, just as speech is not simply the production of sounds, the symbols have to be arranged to form words, and words have to be arranged to form sentences However, they are not unrelated sentences, they must be joined together to form what is called 'a text' So to the learners at this level, writing means producing" a sequence of sentences arranged in a particular order and link together in a certain ways" (Byrne: 1991)

At a high level, in academic education, writing has been defined as a creative process, which requites some preparation, drafting and revising Oshima, A & Hogue, A (l999) and Brown,

K & Hood, S (l992) suggested a practical writing process as follows:

Figure 1: Process of writing (Source: Brown & Hood 1992: 6)

From another point of view on writing, language teachers consider it as a supportive skill and

as a communicative skill Students often use writing as a supportive skill when they try to learn a linguistic system For example, they copy down learned materials, paying attention to grammatical features, vocabulary and spelling, and they complete grammar practice exercises

to reinforce their knowledge of structures As a communicative skill, students can express their ideas and opinions They can write about what they are interested in and know about, what they want to communicate with someone else and what they want a reader to know

Greater emphasis on communication in the classroom has brought a realization that students may benefit from earlier exposure to personal and creative writing One more common view

Preparing

Preparing

that many language teachers share is that writing is the language skill which is difficult to acquire since in writing, compared with speech, much higher standard of language, more careful constructions, more precise and varied vocabulary, more correctness of expression are demanded

II.2.2 Why teach writing?

Resting on the view that writing is a skill, which is difficult to acquire, we should be very clear about the purposes in teaching it B Dann (1991) pointed out a variety of pedagogical purposes as follows:

(a) The introduction and practice of some form of writing enables us to provide for different learning styles and needs Some learners, especially those who do not learn easily through oral practice alone, feel more secure if they are allowed to read and write in the language For such students, writing IS likely to be an aid to retention, if only because they feel more at ease and relaxed

(b) Written work serves to provide the learners with some tangible evidence that they are making progress in the language It is not likely to be a true index of attainment, but once again it satisfies a psychological need

(c) Exposure to the foreign language through more than one medium, especially if skills are properly integrated, appears to be more effective than relying on a single medium alone (d) Writing provides variety in classroom activities For example, it serves as a break from oral work And at the same time, it increases the amount of language contact through work that can be set out of class

(e) Writing is often needed for formal and informal testing

I.2.3 What makes an effective writing?

According to Brown, K & Hood, S (1989), effective writings require a number of things, a high degree of organization in the development of ideas and information, a high degree of accuracy so that there is no ambiguity of meaning; the use of complex grammatical devices for focus and emphasis, and a careful choice of vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and sentence structures to create a style which is appropriate to the subject matter and the eventual readers

Nevertheless, producing a good writing remains a challenge for many students In order to achieve it, they should be proficient not only in grammar, socio-linguistic, discourse and strategic competences but also in cultural competences

I.3 Previous research on writing skills and cultural transfer

Among the four main skills to acquire and master a second language literacy, writing is conceded by many researchers as being extremely complex Unlike the receptive reading and listening tasks, writing requires both social and linguistic knowledge, and skills to be fulfilled Especially, writing conducted in a second language does need cultural understanding and practice

Interestingly, as it is shown in many existing researches, the concepts of teaching writing vary widely from culture to culture Purvis (1992) found through his study that involved students, teachers, and researchers in fourteen countries that the concept of writing could include a wide variety of tasks, including note taking, business writing, and summarizing From east to west, perceptions toward literacy tasks in the classroom may also vary According to Song (1995), East Asians’ need and tend to be submissive to the teachers This very attitude stemming from respect to the older people and teachers can hinder critical thinking Kang, Kuehn, and Herrell (1994), for example, in their study of Hmong literacy, found that Hmong students relied heavily on teacher directions and were hesitant to participate in front of peers This contrasts strongly with a common request in the required tests into university like IELTS

writing task 2, where candidates are assessed on their linguistic skills as well as critical thinking and problem-solving to argue the case

Researchers for a better understanding of bilingualism and the implications for education have investigated cultural transfer of skills Odlin (1989) has found out that transfer can be either positive or negative, relying on many factors like the distance or similarity between aspects of languages contrasted However, several studies by Cummins and Swain (1992) suggest that highly literate bilinguals can have an advantage not just in their linguistic skills but also in their problem solving skills A high degree of literacy can affect a positive transfer of both writing and reading skills Besides skills, prior knowledge and experience, including classroom experience, can also be transferred For example, if the two languages being compared have different writing systems, transfer would not be possible on the orthographic level of the languages involved In a like manner, if the two language literacy classes are different, the student will have some difficulty transferring what they have learned

Previous research has examined differences in written discourse across English and Spanish cultures as they affect transfer An important study by Montano-Harmon (1991) has described discourse features (enumeration, addition, summation, result, explication, illustration, contrast, and transitional words and phrases) in fifty expository essays by four groups of bilingual Mexican-American high school students Their texts were marked by repetition of the ideas several times, with each repetition more formal than the one before it This is a stylistic variation interpreted by some researchers as a result of the historic cultural tradition

of spoken poetry and epic literature (Ostler, 1981) The Mexican-American writers deliberately digressed from the topic, whereas, the Anglo-American writers relied more on linear rhetoric, using enumeration as a transitional device, such as first, next, then, and after that

More recent research has examined rhetorical strategies in student persuasive writing Ferris (1989) examined 60 persuasive writing samples, half of which were by native English

speakers and the other half by non-native speakers He found that the differences between the two populations might be due to lack of preparation for argument writing One of the results

of the study was the recommendation for more investigation into the educational background

of ESL students entering as college freshmen, especially with respect to learning to write persuasive discourse

Aside from differences in rhetorical styles, social construction of knowledge within discourse communities has become an important area of research (Leki, 1991) since these constructs can transfer to the second language literacy acquisition process Socialization styles in the classroom vary from culture to culture; students often come from classrooms in which interaction between peers and between students and teachers is nonexistent Instead, teacher-dominated environments tend to be the rule in some of the cultures studied (Ramirez, Yuen, Ramey, and Pasta, 1991)

I.4 Vietnamese traditional class and writing styles

Under the immense influence of Confucianism and especially Chinese literature for more than

a thousand years, Vietnamese literary development has gone through lots of transfer and assimilation In Vietnamese traditional idea three people that always deserve respect are the king, the father, and the teacher In that ideology, people must follow those people’s advice and even die for them if necessary Thus, the traditional class is a model of a teacher sitting in front of all students, talking and enjoying the supreme power in the setting Students were supposed to attentively listen and take notes, with very limited contribution to the whole process of teaching and learning In other words, students take passive role in the whole process of learning, as they are supposed to be inferior to the teachers and to follow the teacher’s model This somehow stems from the learning and teaching styles that have dominated Vietnamese classes for a considerable length of time The model of Vietnamese students learning English has a lot in common with Chinese one, as Byram.M and Fleming.M (1998):

Figure 2: A Chinese cultural model of learning English Another point to be considered is Vietnamese writing style, which was centred on epics and poems Argumentative writing was not encouraged until the development of modern Vietnamese literature in the beginning of the twentieth century, with some famous critics like Hoai Thanh, Hoai Chan… In the syllabus of literature for twelve years’ undergraduate, Vietnamese students are familiar with some kinds of argumentative writings for a poem, a story or a novel Sadly though, their ideas are under influence of so many previous critics or their own teachers that normally, they follow some fixed styles or opinions Any other ideas are regarded as strange and inappropriate This has many causes, though, partly from teachers’ teaching styles, and partly from students themselves But this controversial issue has attracted lots of attention recently when a girl student wrote in her exam that she couldn’t see any beauty in a famous poem by a Vietnamese patriot in the war against French colony This was a shocking idea, as generations of teachers and students have had to follow that model of thinking about the beauty of that poem!

mastery of knowledge

STUDENTS

transmission

Language learning focus

I.5 The relationship between writing and culture

The relationship between writing and culture can be described as that of a component and an assembly to which it belongs (“culture” hereby covers the way of life, including knowledge, arts, beliefs, social conventions, or customs…) Their relationship can also be envisioned as that of a component and the others in the assembly The nature of these relationships can be characterized as interactive and multi-dimensional

Language, writing and culture have been in a close relationship, as language is a means of writing to express oneself, his (her) own dreams and passions, his (her) surroundings and culture Writing, as one of the most fundamental means of communication of human beings,

is not merely a system of marks, which record spoken language It includes all recording systems, not just text, but also graphics, maps, numeracy, databases and represents the elements of the culture that it belongs to Chinese writing and literature, for instance, would differ from American one, in terms of tradition, customs, and festivals of each culture

Culture and communication are inseparable because culture not only shapes the ways of people talking to each other, talking to whom, about what, and how the communication proceeds, it also helps to determine how people encode messages, the meanings they have for messages, and the conditions and circumstances under which various messages may or may not be sent, noticed, or interpreted Culture is the foundation of communication, in which writing contributes an important part

The ability to write well is not a naturally acquired skill; it is usually learned or culturally transmitted as a set of practices in formal instructional settings or other environments Writing skills must be practiced and learned through experience

Writing, as a reflective and communicative activity, pursues a certain purpose or goal This purpose determines the writing styles, strategies and skills to be used in order to produce an adequate and appropriate writing Writing is a part of literacy that reflects the ways of thinking of a defined culture As it can be seen, while Vietnamese people tend to think in a spiral model, English ways of thinking is in the shape of a straight line

Anglo-European

Figure 3: Kaplan’s model of thinking

“Linearity” (Anglo-Saxon)

"Parallelconstruction" with the first idea completed in the second part (Semitic)

"Circularity" with the topic looked at from different tangents (Oriental)

"Freedom" to digress and introduce 'extraneous' material (Romance)

"Amplification” - similar to “Freedom” but with different lengths and parenthetical

amplifications of subordinate elements

In 1966, Robert Kaplan, in "Cultural Thought Patterns in Cultural Education," analyzed the organization of individual paragraphs in approximately six hundred compositions by ESL (English as Second Language) students and sought to identify rhetorical differences in their writings to contrast with rhetorical characteristics in English paragraph development His essay thus pioneered an area of study that is now known as "contrastive rhetoric." Altogether

he identified five types of paragraph development for five cultural groups, and each type reflects a corresponding culture's thought patterns For example, paragraph development in Anglo-European expository writing follows a linear path, whereas speakers of Semitic languages construct paragraphs based on a complex series of parallel constructions Oriental writing, on the other hand, can be characterized by an indirect approach as its paragraphs are

"turning and turning in a widening gyre" (10) In Romance languages and in Russian, paragraphs allow for a degree of digressiveness - one that could be overbearing to a writer of English

Contrastive rhetoric with its primary goal of studying ESL and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) writing across languages and cultures is a sub field of applied linguistics, contrastive rhetoric does not set out to study individual rhetorical traditions and their practices

in their own times and places

Moreover, writing IELTS task 2 takes place in concrete, definable situations, which are limited in time and space and involve members of different cultures These situations can be said to be embedded in given cultures, and include in themselves cultural elements

In a research carried out by Fox (1994), in which she explores the relationship between academic writing and culture Interestingly, one student named Carla, put it very clearly their resistance to academic writing in the U.S.:

“Learning to write in an American style, it is much more than learning a new

technique It is a way this culture "normalizes" you to the system, shaping on

you new values and new ways of looking at the world Therefore, the writing

style is not value free; it has ethical consequences depending on if it is

empowering or dis-empowering for you in this new culture or in your home

culture.” (p 77)

Writing, in other words, is inextricably bound to culture in the way that it partly expresses cultural elements like ways of thinking and values, such as traditions, customs and literary development The purpose of teaching a foreign language was to enable students to understand the mind-sets, attitudes, and beliefs of the targeted language, to manage conversations the way typical natives do, to use literary texts as an opportunity for students to express themselves and to respond as readers to the ideas contained in the texts

I.6 General Language Testing

I.6.1 What is a language test?

The first question to answer is then what is a language test A number of definitions may be provided that will explain the concept of a test One definition given by Carroll (1968) is:

“A psychological or educational test is a procedure designed to elicit cream behaviour from loch one can make inferences about certain characteristics of an individua1.” (Carroll 1968:46)

So a test may be defined as a measurement instrument that gives us a sample of an individual’s behaviour The language test may also be defined as a device that tries to estimate how much the students have learned in a language course; or as an attempt to produce, interpret or recall certain type of material that was taught by the teacher and learned

by students

I.6.2 Why do we test?

The second question to answer is why do we test The reasons for language testing are diverse The test is given to the students when there is a need to:

1) Find out about the progress the students have made in the language areas and skills, which have just been taught

2) Check the understanding of language; this is an indication for the teacher if he

has taught the students

3) Find out about the achievement, how much the students know, how much they

have learned of what should have been taught

4) Find out about difficulties, diaries the specific features of language that the students may have problem mastering;

5) Encourage the students and increase their motivation, show them the goals they

have already reached and indicate that they are constantly making progress, that they learn new things and become more fluent;

6) Check the systematicałity of the students and if they work regularly;

7) Find out about the proficiency, how suitable the students will be in performing

certain tasks, how successful they will be in doing their assignments;

8 Place the students according to their language abilities;

9 Grade the students in order to establish if they should be moved on to the next class or course, or if they should be retained

I.7 IELTS overview and writing test format

Nowadays, IELTS examination can be taken in over 100 different countries in the world It is primarily designed to assess the readiness of candidates to study or train in further or higher education courses held in English at college or university The examination takes 2 hours and

45 minutes to complete, and consists of four Sub-tests in the skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking There are two IELTS test modules available - the Academic Module and the General Training Module The results of the Academic Module may be used to

determine a candidate's suitability for study at undergraduate or postgraduate level The General Training Module is suitable for candidates wishing to continue their studies at diploma level only The General Training Module is also used for immigration purposes to Australia or New Zealand, and for students who wish to complete their secondary education

in an English-speaking country The General Training Reading and Writing Sub-tests are less demanding than the corresponding Academic Module Sub-tests, but the Listening and Speaking Sub-tests are the same for both modules IELTS bands range from 0 to 9, which an average of the 4 Sub-test Band Scores, with fractional scores rounding up or down to the nearest

The Writing Sub-test takes 60 minutes and there are two writing tasks

The first task will take approximately 20 minutes, and you are required to write a minimum of

150 words The second task will take approximately 40 minutes with a minimum of 250 words In both tasks you must write in the formal academic style appropriate to the question task You will also be marked on your ability to organise your writing, and on your choice of content within your answers The question tasks do not require you to have any specialised knowledge of a particular subject

For Task 1 you describe information that is presented to you in a graph, table, chart, diagram,

or short piece of text The description is usually given in the form of a report You might have

to compare sets of data, or use a set of data to support a given statement Alternatively, you might be required to describe the stages of a process, describe an object, or explain how something works, or how it is used

For Task 2 you are asked to write a formal essay or a report in which you might have to offer

a solution to a particular problem, present and justify an opinion, compare information given

in the question task, or evaluate and challenge a given argument, for example:

Present and justify an opinion

e.g Do you think trial by jury should be used in all criminal cases?

Compare and contrast evidence, opinions and implications

e.g How effective is it to teach and study with and without computers?

Evaluate and challenge ideas, evidence or an argument

e.g ‘Failure shows desire wasn’t strong enough’ To what extent do you agree?

I.8 IELTS writing task 2 - Assessment Criteria and Cultural elements

Each task is assessed independently, and the assessment of task 2 carries more weight than task1 Task 2 scripts are assessed on performance in the following areas: Arguments, Ideas and evidence, Communicative Quality and Vocabulary and Sentence Structure For IELTS writing task 2, candidates must respond appropriately in terms of:

• Register – formality and politeness; e.g no short forms

• Organisation – clear and logical

• Style – academic; e.g no rhetorical questions, no exclamations, no extreme opinions, use sensative expressions such as ‘this appears to be…’ ‘this is probably due to…’

• Content – relevant and complete

As mentioned before, this study focuses on the cultural differences that hindrance Vietnamese students from achieving good result of IELTS writing task 2, therefore the last three requirements: organisation, style and content will be discussed in details

I.9 Vietnamese students’ writing IELTS task 2

Even though IELTS has been introduced into Vietnam for about 10 years, it has attracted lots

of attention from students, for whom it is a requirement for overseas study or work For most Vietnamese students, writing is a real challenge and also a hindrance on the way to achieve a high band score There are, of course, many causes, one of which is the dealing with cultural thought patterns To put it simple, the ways of thinking, as can be seen in the section 4, between two cultures has contributed a great part in causing the breakdown in communication

Moreover, writing does require not only linguistic competence but also paralinguistic factors Mastering writing skills in general and IELTS writing skills in particular needs a combination

of the two elements: linguistic and culture For Vietnamese students, cultural factors haven’t been taken into consideration to a satisfactory extent

Although there are some studies on Asian populations, there is a specific scarcity of research

on Vietnamese students acquiring an argumentative writing in English, especially in completing IELTS writing task 2

II.1 Research procedure

II.1.1 Setting of the Study

This study was conducted at Hanoi Open University, specifically in the Center for International Training and Cooperation The center offers a number of IELTS preparation courses, for students who need to develop their writing ability in order to meet academic requirements

I first contacted the instructor of the class and asked her for permission to observe her class and ask the students to volunteer in this study The lecturer gave me her full permission to attend the class at any time She also provided me with the syllabus for the course The class met twice a week throughout a four-month semester The course was based on the thinking-writing process, which includes lots of writing skills needed for the IELTS pressure In this course, the instructor provided theory of essay writing as well as models of texts, and engaged students in analyzing and editing class papers, group discussion and peer review, and writing for specific audiences The course depended on giving students opportunities to practise writing task 1 and task 2 of IELTS

Students were required to complete assigned home writing before each class meets They were also required to write one paper and post them on the "WebCT" online bulletin board

II.1.2 Participants

The participants in this study were ESL undergraduate students who are enrolling in the foundation courses run by Hanoi Open University in cooperation with Box Hill Institute, Melbourne, Australia The ratio of male and female students was 1/2; all of them are Vietnamese students from different parts of the country In terms of competence, students are

mostly at intermediate level of English They all have studied English for at least 5 years in high schools and have attended a short course on Grammar and Vocabulary before the IELTS course, which last 12 weeks

The students enrolled in IELTS preparation course were asked to voluntarily participate in this study, which aims at analyzing the common mistakes in their writing course

II.1.3 Purposive Sampling

The number of students enrolled in each IELTS class usually ranges from 18 to 25 I asked all the students taking this class to voluntarily participate in this study This study mainly focuses

on their cultural transfer of writing skills throughout this writing course The study focuses on providing an appropriately thick description in the context described above

According to Erlandson, Harris, Skipper, and Allen (1993), the researcher’s main goal is to obtain purposive and directed sampling that renders a large amount of information They also mention two essential criteria for purposive sampling: selection of who and what to study, and choosing who and what not to study In my study, I have decided to select the participants taking this course, since they can best help answer my research questions I also decided not

to investigate the teachers’ views about the course, because the emphasis of the study is on the students’ transfer of skills

Due to the results of the participants’ writing placement tests, the participants were placed in different groups of the college writing course required for all students This course aims at developing their writing ability to meet the requirements of their academic course of study Although the participants came from different parts of the country, they shared similar background information about their L2 learning experiences, in general, and about their writing experiences, in particular This section highlights the participants' background information based on the first interview

The participants' ages ranged from 18 to 23 Their English learning experiences were limited

to school The English courses in intermediate and high school were confined to basic language skills, such as spelling and grammar They did not have any writing experiences except for school requirements, which were limited to completing exercises or doing homework, again largely focused on grammar This course, ESL College Writing, was their first and only language course Table one shows some background information about the participants:

Table 1- Background Information

Participants Age & Gender Major College Writing

Courses

Dang Hong Nhung 20/F Computer

II.1.4 Data Collection Methods

II.1.4.1 Research Tasks

The participants of this study performed the normal tasks required by the instructor of the class The students were not asked to perform any additional writing tasks for the study As a researcher, I took a passive role with regards to the planning and conduct of classroom activities My main concern was to collect data through observing the class, conducting interviews, and collecting writing samples from the regular assigned pieces for the course I did not observe any activity that was not related to the study’s purpose In other words, the main emphasis was on writing related activities

II.1.4.2 Research Methods

In this study, I used a number of qualitative research methods These methods included interviews, observations, and document analysis These multiple methods of data collection were interactively used to obtain an optimum amount of information local to the context of the study

Interviews

I chose interviews according to Dexter’s definition (1970) of the interviews as “a conversation with a purpose” (as cited in Lincoln and Guba, 1985, p 268) The purpose of the interview was to gather information from human sources Maxwell (1996) asserts the value of interviews as they allow the interviewer and the interviewees to work back and forth, reconstruct the past, analyze the present, and predict the future

Since this study was conducted to investigate the students’ transfer skills of writing IELTS, interviewing can be one of the best ways to know about the participant’s feelings and thoughts, as Patton (1990) puts it:

We interview people to find out from them those things we cannot directly observe

we cannot observe feelings, thoughts, and intentions We cannot observe behavior that took place at some previous point in time we have to ask people questions about these things The purpose of interviewing then is to allow us to enter into the other person’s perspective (p 195)

I used two types of interviews: individual interviews and focus group interviews On one hand, the purpose of the individual interviews was to gather the participants’ personal feelings and attitudes about the research questions of the study The purpose of the group interviews,

on the other hand, was to explore the participants’ general experience and feelings regarding the issues at hand, and to gather information and to stimulate discussion in ways that went beyond the individual interview I believe that the combination of two kinds of interviews allowed for more in-depth exploration of cultural transfer Also, I believe that the use of two methods is likely to avoid the problem of using a single method, and thus it is likely to strengthen the validity of the study

The interviews covered three areas These areas reflected the research questions of this study Each group contained a set of questions that aimed at providing in-depth information about the issue being discussed with the participants Students’ responses to these questions represented the data sought from the interviews The purpose of this technique was to make it insightful for the study to reasonably guide the interviews and arrange the questions under a specific topic Also, this technique helped me guide the data analysis The study is guided by the following questions evolved:

(1) What are the typical mistakes relating to culture of Vietnamese students

in writing IELTS task 2?

(2) Why do they make such mistakes?

(3) How can the mistakes be overcome?

Interview Techniques

Interviewing represented an important source of data collection in my study; therefore, I adopted any good technique that was legitimate to assist me in gaining the maximum information necessary to answer the research questions Thus, I used a number of techniques that were appropriate to my study

Most of the techniques that I used were highly recommended by Lincoln and Guba (1985); Erlandson, Harris, Skipper, and Allen (1993); and Merriam and Simpson (1984) One of these techniques refers to the preparation of the interview They assert that the preparation includes both the interviewer and the interviewees For example, I reviewed the questions ahead of time, practiced the interview to help me develop an appropriate role as an interviewer, confirmed the time and the place with the respondent, and the like As I was available on campus where the class was held, I let the respondents decide the time and the place that was convenient for them to conduct the interviews

Observation

Observation was the second source that I used for my data collection Schwandt (1997) defines observation as “directed firsthand eye-witness accounts of everyday social action” (p 106) Due to the nature of my study, observation was a powerful way to provide data relevant to my research questions According to Lincoln and Guba (1985):

Observation maximizes the inquirer’s ability to grasp motives, beliefs, concerns, interest, unconscious behavior, custom, and the like; observation allows the inquirer to see the world as his subjects see it, to live in their time frames, to capture the phenomenon in and on its own terms, and to grasp the culture in its own natural, ongoing environment (p 273)

Contemporary methods include two types of observations: participatory observation and nonparticipatory observation I took a nonparticipant role in this study In other words, I took

a passive role as I entered the class and observed the students My purpose in choosing this method was two-fold: (1) I wanted to collect data that cannot be gained except through

observation; and (2) I wanted to triangulate my findings with the other methods used in this study Lincoln and Guba prefer that observation be in “natural” settings as opposed to

“contrived” settings Therefore, I conducted my observations inside the classrooms The principle of purposive sampling of my study was applied to my observations as well as to the interviews In other words, in order to gain more in-depth information I observed only the participants of my study, those who were interviewed

Observation in the study took two forms: (1) observing individual students when engaging in reading-writing tasks; and (2) observing the class in general and any salient incidents that came up in the classroom Speculating that some students enrolled in the class might not participate in the study, I believe that videotaping might cause some ethical problems especially that the participants represent different cultural backgrounds Furthermore, videotaping is likely to affect the students’ behavior due to their sensitivity toward the camera; thus it may affect the natural setting of the study Lincoln and Guba (1985) assert that videotaping might minimize the observer’s chances to take notes, as he or she is busy with videotaping or with camera-related problems Therefore, they recommend other modes of recording other than videotaping, such as field notes Note taking will be discussed later in this section

I followed the checklist for observational elements that Erlandson, Harris, Skipper, and Allen (1993) have provided These elements are:

• The setting: This includes the physical environment of the ESL writing classroom, the context, and the behavior associated with writing tasks in the particular setting

• The participants: This includes a description of who is the contextual site of the study, how many people, and their roles

• Activities and interactions: This includes a description of what is going on in the writing classroom and how the activities are performed sequentially

• Frequency and duration: This refers to the frequency of the observed activities that seem to relate to the reading-to-write issue

• Subtle factors: These are less obvious but important to the observation They include: informal and unplanned activities, symbolic connotative meaning of words, nonverbal communication, and unobtrusive measures

Having the advantage of being present regularly, I utilized this advantage in any way that helped me observe naturalistic behaviors For instance, in my first observation, I just documented general information about the class, such as the setting, equipment, number of students, and so on At this stage, I was intending to establish trustworthiness with the class members Also, I took a passive role in the first classes I observed and made no attempt to gather data until several classes after the students and I became acquainted

Field notes

In addition to audiotaping, I utilized field notes as an instrument Note taking is a powerful technique that serves as an “information catcher.” Although the scene was audiotape, note taking was used to capture any idea that accounted for what was heard or what was seen Instant and simultaneous recording of the phenomenon occurring at the time of data collection helped me not to depend merely on inference when analyzing the data In other words, it is much easier and more accurate to account for any event at the time of its occurrence because the researcher can witness and document as many factors as possible Thus, any delay in taking such notes might lead to inferences, which are subject to bias As Rubin and Rubin (1995) observe, note-taking “[is] extremely helpful as a clue to what kind of material is likely

to be missing [and], as a warning of where bias may enter the analysis” (p 120)

Lincoln and Guba (1985) mention several advantages of using field notes Field notes:

• Are non-threatening to respondents

• Keep the investigator alert and responsive

• Avoid technical problems and provide easy access to data

• Allow the researcher to record his or her own thoughts

I used field notes during the interviews and the observation Although the purpose of this study was to investigate the participants’ transfer of writing skills, I jotted down any idea that came to mind as a result of comments by the participants This helped me find similarities and differences with data collected in the interviews and the observations

Document Analysis

Best and Kahn (1993) consider documents to be significant sources for data collection that yield insightful information, helping to explain educational practices Although I used interviews and observation as major sources for my data, document analysis, too, represented

an insightful source of data for this study My study partially, but crucially, relied on the participants’ pieces of writing that I collected at the onset of the course and at its conclusion

As I mentioned in connection with observation, my purposes in using documents were multiple I sought to gain more information that helped me establish my theory regarding the participants’ cultural transfer I also sought to triangulate my findings with those resulting from the interviews and the observations In other words, the samples that were collected served as backups for the interviews Specifically, I used the students’ written samples to determine if they paralleled or diverged from their interview responses Finally, the samples were compared to what the students read and discussed

All the writing samples that I used were limited to the site of the study This helped me gain more in-depth information about the local situation with regard to the shaping influences that existed during the study Particularly, the samples that I collected referred to the participants’ compositions that they wrote for the class Furthermore, I examined the texts that the participants were required to read for the class

I asked the participants to provide me with their documents when I saw them in the preliminary unstructured interviews I assured the participants that these documents would remain confidential and the purpose of having them was just to carry out this research

II.2 Data and analysis

II.2.1 Data collection

Each participant in the study was requested to write two compositions on two given topics of IELTS task 2 in separated time The time limitation for each task is 40 minutes, in which students did the task by themselves, like in a real IELTS exam, without the help of teachers, references or dictionaries

The compositions were collected and scored in accordance with the IELTS band 0 – 9, as follows:

Table 2: IELTS score bands

Very good user

Has fully operational command of the language with only occasional unsystematic inaccuracies and inappropriacies Misunderstandings may occur in unfamiliar situations Handles complex detailed argumentation well

7

Good user

Has operational command of the language, though with occasional inaccuracies, inappropriacies and misunderstandings in some situations Generally handles complex language well and understands detailed reasoning

6

Competent user

Has generally effective command of the language despite inaccuracies, inappropriacies and misunderstandings Can use and understand fairly complex language, particularly in familiar situations

5

Modest user

Has partial command of the language, coping with overall meaning in most situations, though is likely to make many mistakes Should be able to handle basic communication in own field

4

Limited user

Basic competence is limited to familiar situations Has frequent problems in understanding and expression Is not able to use complex language

Has great difficulty understanding spoken and written English

No assessable information provided

Task 2 scripts are assessed on performance in the following areas: Arguments, Ideas and Evidence, Communicative quality and Vocabulary and Sentence Structure Scripts under the minimum word limit were penalized

Students are assessed on their ability to

• communicate an idea to the reader in an appropriate style

• address the problem without straying from the topic

• use English grammar and syntax accurately

• use appropriate language in terms of register, style and content

All in all, 50 writing scripts have been collected, marked and analysed

II.2.2 Techniques of analysis

The analysis procedure employed a series of techniques including: identification, labialisation, classification, tabulation and interpretation During the analysis process, an