(SKKN 2022) Some techniques to help 11th-form students Better their essay writing skill ( new english textbook )

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGHOANG HOA 4 HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENTIAL INITIATIVE SOME TECHNIQUES TO HELP 11TH-FORM STUDENTS BETTER THEIR ESSAY WRITING SKILL NEW ENGLISH TE

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HOANG HOA 4 HIGH SCHOOL

EXPERIENTIAL INITIATIVE

SOME TECHNIQUES TO HELP 11TH-FORM STUDENTS

BETTER THEIR ESSAY WRITING SKILL

( NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK )

Executor: Lê Thị Hồng Minh

I INTRODUCTION

1 Reasons for choosing the topic………

2 Aims of the study

3 Scope of the study

4 Methods of the study

5 New things of the study ………

II DEVELOPMENT

1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 Definition of writing and the roles of writing in learning a language

1.2.Process of essay writing

2 FACTUAL BACKGROUND

2.1 Research setting

2.2 Major findings: Factors making 11th-form students at Hoang Hoa 4 high school have difficulties in writing essays

3 IMPLEMENTATION AND SOLUTIONS

3.1 Increasing students’ English proficiency

3.2 Using pictures to teach essay writing

3.3 Using models to teach essay writing

3.4 Using group-work activities

3.5 Showing and correcting errors in students’ writing

4 RESULTS AFTER APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING III CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

LIST OF RECOGNIZED EXPERENTIAL INITIATIVES

APPENDIX :

APPENDIX 1:

USEFUL EXPRESSIONS AND LINKING WORDS/ PHRASES

APPENDIX 2:

SYMBOLS USED IN CORRECTING STUDENTS’ WRITING

1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 5 5 6

7 7 11 14 17 18 20 21

I INTRODUCTION:

1.Reasons for choosing the topic:

It is undeniable that English is an international language and together with itsincreasing importance, the need of learning English is becoming more urgent thanever

Additionally, since the school year 2018-2019, many universities in Vietnamhave reduced the admission quota for the high school graduation exam scores, andincreased the quota by other methods such as Competency Assessment exams orInternational Language Certificates such as IELTS or TOEFL… 12th graders whoreceive an IELTS score of 4.0 to 6.5 and above will be exempted from the NationalHigh School Graduation Exams (English module) and admitted to top universitiesand education institutions in Vietnam Because the IELTS, TOEFL, SAT tests haverequired students to write an essay in English, it is essential for Vietnamese highschool students to be influent in English writing

However, Writing, which is a productive skill, is rather difficult not only for studentsbut for teachers to teach as well As we can see, the English proficiency of Vietnamhigh school students is often less than satisfactory Students often have littleexperience of writing and may be very anxious about having to write essays marked

by their teachers

This heightens the need for teachers to investigate alternative approaches to teachacademic writing that would lead to significant improvement in students’ writingability

To achieve a good result in taking international language test, since students are atgrade 10, teachers should start to equip students with a paragraph writing skill andwhen students reach 11th grade, teachers instruct them how to write an essay inEnglish

It is for such reasons that my experiential initiative attempts to explore someeffective techniques to help 11-form students better their essay writing skill

2 Aims of the study: The study is carried out to:

(1) find out the difficulties that 11th-form students have when learning how to writeEnglish essays

(2) suggest some solutions to stimulate students and help them find it easier whenwriting essays in English.

3 Scope of the study:

The subjects chosen for this study are 11th- form students at Hoang Hoa 4

high school, Thanh Hoa province where I have been teaching Moreover, because ofthe limited time and within an experiential initiative, only essay writing skill waschosen on the ground that writing seems to be the most challenging language skill toEnglish learners in Vietnam in general

4 Methods of the study:

To achieve the objectives of the study, several methods are used, but I usemainly quantitative and qualitative methods

The data serving the research analysis and discussions are collected by means of asurvey questionnaire for students and observation

5 New things of the study:

In this research, the scope of the study is the students who are learning New English

Textbook ( PEARSON)

II DEVELOPMENT:

1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND:

1.1 Definition of writing and the roles of writing in learning a language:

According to “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary” (1989), writing is to

“make letters or other symbols on a surface (usually paper), especially with a pen orpencil” Writing, in Davies’s point of view, involved two kinds of skills The firstones were low-level skills such as handwriting or typing, spelling, constructinggrammatical sentences, punctuating and the second ones were high-level cognitiveskills such as gathering ideas, organizing and sequencing, structuring, drafting, andediting Byrne (1988) gave a long and complex definition which might besummarized as follows: writing is the act of forming graphic symbols (letters orcombinations of letters) which were arranged according to certain conventions, toform words, and words which were arranged to form sentences, and we produced asequence of sentences arranged in a particular order and linked together in certainway, on a flat surface of some kind

In classrooms, the teaching and learning of writing plays an important role.Through writing we are able to share ideas, arouse feelings, persuade and convinceother people We are able to discover and articulate ideas in the ways that onlywriting makes possible Therefore, writing has always occupied a place in the

language syllabus Discussing this issue, White points out a number of reasons why

writing merits a place in the language syllabus

- Writing remains the most common way of examining student performance inEnglish Consequently, ability to write remains a key to examination success

- In the eyes of both parents and students, ability to write may be associated withevidence of having learnt the language Writing is tangible- parents and students cansee what has been done and what has been achieved So it has high ‘face validity’

- In the classrooms, writing may be used as one of a number of techniques to help addvariety and interest to lesson

- The teacher may use writing as a testing device to provide feedback on what thestudents have learnt Student writing can provide useful evidence of successes orfailures in learning, of confusions, and errors

- Writing requires thought, discipline and concentration It is relatively a permanentform and readers judge us by our style, content and logic So writing demands careand thought (White, 1981: 1)

With all the roles mentioned above, writing really becomes an integral part inalmost every language syllabus from elementary to tertiary level

1 2 Process of essay writing:

To perfectly complete an essay, the writer needs to conduct four main stages.The first is prewriting, the second is draft writing, the third is revising drafts andproof-reading is the last one

There are different tables, charts or articles showing the essay writing processlike Ann Raimes, Alice & H Ann But in general, when an essay is written, thewriter needs to concern about some main steps that cannot be lacked They are shown

by the following chart

Start Here X

The graph of essay writing process

In the pre-writing stage, writers need to choose and narrow a topic to a specificfocus then they generate ideas That is called brainstorming This process can getthem to start the writing more easily and quickly It means that if they conduct thestage, it helps them save time in later stages of the writing process

After brainstorming, listing step is conducted Students think about theirtopics and make a list of any words and phrases coming into their mind on a paper.They think of as many ideas as possible in a very short time “Don’t stop free flow ofideas by judging or editing them before you write them down” (Alice & H Ann.1996:5)

The next step is free writing Students can write any ideas about their topics tofind out a specific focus While students are writing, their minds will come out otherrelated ideas from the ones that they have Writers should write the ideas down asmany as possible without worrying about any mistakes When they run out of ideas,they need to reread their paper and underline the main ideas that they think will

Proofreadi

ng

develop All of these activities are to ensure that whether writers are looking for anarrow topic or not because to find out a narrow topic is very important It helps them

to choose an appropriate and adequate idea to develop

Draft writing stage is the actual writing stage It is just an extension of the

pre-writing stage The students transfer the information or issues they have gathered andorganized them into a simple paragraph Until this stage, they may not be exactlycertain which direction their ideas will go However, this stage allows them to settle

on the subject the paper will take

Revising or editing is usually the most difficult stage of the writing process,especially for beginning writers Revising can include adding, deleting, re-arrangingand substituting words, sentences, and even making transparency Even the mostexcellent authors also need to spend the majority of their time on this stage of thewriting process to read again and again in order to find out and edit their writingsbetter, that will be easy for them to remember the mistakes they make and avoid them

in the next writings

It is important to gain proof-reading skills for students as this improves a

student’s writing over time Proof-reading stage is a chance for the writer to scan his

or her paper for mistakes in grammar, punctuation, and spelling

in Vietnam, students in my school are complained a great deal for their inability touse English for communication after leaving school

The total number of English teachers at Hoang Hoa 4 high school is 8 All ofthem are female aged from 35 to 45 They were trained from training courses inEnglish language teaching at different universities in Vietnam All of them are youngteachers who are friendly, active, knowledgeable and full of inspiration for teaching

The main English textbooks used in teaching English at this school are TiengAnh 10, Tieng Anh 11, and Tieng Anh 12 ( PEARSON) From my personalobservation as a classroom teacher, students are unwilling to write English essays inthe writing lessons.

2.2 Major findings: Factors making 11 th - form students at Hoang Hoa 4 high school have difficulties in essay writing.

As mentioned above, writing is a very important skill However, it is also a verydifficult skill to master Following is some major difficulties that students at myschool often encounter during the process of learning writing

1.1 Students lack vocabulary and structures: As a matter of fact, vocabulary and

structures are among the most important factors that determine the effectiveness of awriting text Therefore, without enough sources of vocabulary and structures, it isreally difficult for students to express their ideas

1.2 Students lack background knowledge for ideas: their low background knowledge

prevents them from generating ideas In other words, they don’t know what to write.Their writings, therefore, are less interesting and vivid

1.3 Students have trouble organizing and using linking words: As we all know,

linking words play an essential part in writing because they are used to link the ideas

in essays to make the writing transparent and understandable Without linking words,the writing is confusing and illogical because the ideas in the essay are unconnected

together And without using linking words such as and, but, however, although, etc.,

the students cannot compose an essay logically and clearly

1.4 Students’ writings are influenced by their mother-tongue: During my reality of

teaching, I realize that students are greatly affected by their mother-tongue whilewriting When being required to produce a text with a given topic, it is common thatstudents first make an outline in Vietnamese, then try to translate their ideas intoEnglish This has been proved ineffective in developing students’ writing ability It ismuch better that students are guided to think in English in order to make their writingmore natural

1.5 Students do not write in a formal way: Last but not least, that is the problem of

using academic languages when writing This is the problem for even students ofintermediate level They are often in the habit of writing without considering whether

the words or expressions they use are suitable in the context of writing or not In fact,not many students are well aware of the differences between formality andinformality when writing.

1.6 Teachers’ assistance does not meet students’ needs:

Some students sometimes don’t know how to write an essay in English due to theirteacher’s unclear instructions or vague explanations, for example Besides, theinappropriate method of their teachers discourages them Consequently, the teachersworks as a controller while the students become passive

1.7 Time shortage: The shortage of time is apparently unavoidable Students hardly

complete the writing tasks at class Especially, it takes them much time to do suchtasks as writing about measures to protect endangered species and possible results ordescribing a sporting event

3 IMPLEMENTATION AND SOLUTIONS:

From the major findings of the study, in order to help students better theirwritten works, some suggestions have been made with the hope to improve thecurrent situation of teaching and learning the writing skill

3.1 Increasing students’ English proficiency:

As I observe, low English proficiency was the greatest contributor to thestudents’ inability to write an English essay Thus, it is very essential for teachers tofind solutions to enhance students’ English competence

Firstly, I provide students with the structure of an essay, which they can apply

to every essay writing

N ESSAY

• INTRODUCTION:

+ Introduce the topic in the essay

+ Contain controlling ideas that the

following sentences in the body will explain/ clarify

• THESIS STATEMENT:

+ states the main idea of an essay

+ sets limits on the topic

+ Signal the end of the essay

+ Restatement of the topic sentence/

Summary of

the main points

Secondly, if students lack words or structures to express themselves, what teachers should do is providing structures and related words when introducing topics through pre-writing activities Pre-writing is the preparative phase to equip students the

necessities for their writing such as: vocabulary, structures, form, style and ideas It issaid that the more careful the pre-writing is done the easier the writing is.Consequently, teachers should carry out suitable and effective activities in this stage

to motivate and facilitate students as well

For example, when teaching Writing- Unit 1- Tieng Anh 11: THE

+ Have to do sth : phải/ có nhiệm vụ làm gì đó

- T calls on students to make examples with these structures to help them get familiar with their use in full sentences.

- E.g: I’m not allowed to watch TV until after I have finished my homework.

His parents never let him go out late at night, etc.

- T hangs on the poster with given questions and ask Ss to study them carefully.

- T can also ask sts to work in pairs to make sentences about their families’ rules by answering the questions:

1 Do you have to do the house chores?

2 Are you allowed to come home late at night?

3 Do you have to prepare meals?

4 Do your parents allow you to talk on the phone?

5 Do your parents let you use the family motorbike?

6 Do your parents permit you to watch TV at night?

(The answers may be different up to each individual student)

Thirdly, if students have difficulties in finding ideas for the topics, teachers

can make use of and introduce various ideas for discussion to make these topicsinteresting and familiar enough to students This problem can also be solved bychoosing the topics which are more interesting and appropriate to the students’ age,level, and relating to the real life to create enjoyable class atmosphere that makereluctant students interested in speaking

For example, when teaching Writing- Unit 5- Tieng Anh 11: BEING PART OF

- T then gives some more useful expressions:

+ … covers a land area of……

An ASEAN

country

Cap ital city

Ec on om y

P o p u l a ti o n

+ Its population is about…… , most of whom speak……

+ The capital is…….

+ ……… play a big role in economy

+ Popular sports in…… are………

+ … has a diverse culture

+ … attracts millions of visitors from around the world Tourist attractions

include………

- Tense used: Present Simple

- Students may start with their writing with: ASEAN consists of more than ten member states Each member country has its own characteristics Today, I will introduce about ……

Fourthly, writing an essay is different from writing a series of sentences in an

exercise It is a piece of connected sentences, or in the other words, there are logicaland linguistic links between sentences So learning how to use these links is animportant part of learning how to write a language Therefore, I often providestudents with a list of linking works/ phrases, which are very necessary for them intheir writing process

( See APPENDIX 1)

3.2 Using pictures to teach essay writing:

Using pictures in teaching essay writing is very useful Firstly, it helps students

to enrich their vocabulary and sentence structures Secondly, it makes the lesson morevivid because pictures can bring the outside world into the classroom and everystudent likes looking at pictures, which stimulate students to pay more attention to thelesson As a result, students are more interested in essay writing

When teaching writing, I often use many types of pictures, such as textbookpictures, magazine pictures, posters and paste them around the wall or on the board.Students discuss the pictures in small groups of four or five and each one has to write

an essay about the chosen picture This strategy will help poor students learn ideageneration, vocabulary and sentence structures from the better students before theystart writing an essay Besides, sometimes I ask students themselves to prepare

pictures at home There are two advantages when applying this strategy: the teacher isrelieved of the task of finding a picture and the students have something that haspersonal meaning for them to answer questions and write about what in theclassroom

For example, one topic that students are keen on to write is “Describing your

dream city in the future” ( Topic of UNIT 9- TIẾNG ANH 11- CITIES OF THE FUTURE) To help students write well, I prepare a picture relating to a city of the future and ask students to discover the ideas as well as vocabulary for the writing.

Basing on the vivid picture, students can come up with some ideas for their writingsuch as:

- The city’s name

- Geographical features: location, area, population, weather conditions

- Infrastructure: means of transport, environmental conditions, energy souces,treatment of waster

- People’s life and work: education, health care, working hours…

Location

(pictures)

CITY (symbol/

name)

Weather condition (pictures)

Means of transport (pictures)