Towards teaching adults an analysis of the writing problems facing efl learners of mixed levels in long an teachers tranining college

The purpose of this study is to search for 1 potential factors that hinder the learners from writing well-formed English sentences, 2 acute problems facing the teachers of the standardiz

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNNIVERSITY – HO CHI MING CITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

TOWARDS TEACHING ADULTS:

AN ANALYSIS OF THE WRITING PROBLEMS FACING EFL LEARNERS OF MIXED LEVELS IN LONG AN

TEACHER’S TRAINING COLLEGE

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of

Submitted by NGUYỄN HỮU LƯỢM

Supervisor

TÔ MINH THANH, Ph.D

Long An, September 2005

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled

TOWARDS TEACHING ADULTS:

AN ANALYSIS OF THE WRITING PROBLEMS FACING EFL LEARNERS OF MIXED LEVELS IN LONG AN

TEACHER’S TRAINING COLLEGE

in terms of the statements of requirements for Theses in Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee

Long An, September 2005

NGUYEN HUU LUOM

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, NGUYEN HUU LUOM, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL), accept the requirements of the university relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the University Library

I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the University Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan and reproduction for theses

Long An, September 2005

Signature ………

NGUYEN HUU LUOM

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, To Minh Thanh, Ph.D., who read my manuscript with great care and devotion, gave thoughtful and insightful comments and provided one with valuable support and relevant materials in the preparation and completion of this thesis, asserting her indispensable role as a wholehearted supervisor I would not have finished my thesis without her enthusiastic guidance and constructive critical questions to help me think over the problems

I am also grateful to Dr Le Huu Phuoc, Head of the Department of Post Graduate Studies of Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities and Nguyen Huynh Dat, M.A., Dean of the Department of English Linguistics and Literature, who have created favorable conditions for my fulfillment of the thesis I am as well greatly indebted to their staff members and all my instructors who have assisted me during the postgraduate courses

The thesis would have never been possible without the help of the teaching staff of English of Long An TTC and the learners of the standardizing program for primary school teachers from the two localities, Moc Hoa district and Tan An town My heartfelt gratitude is expressed to all of them for their responsiveness to the survey questionnaires I also wish to thank Mr Tran Quang Hien, Head of the Department of Foreign Languages of Long An TTC, who provided me with continual encouragement and eased my office workload so that I would be able to finish my thesis, and all my colleagues, who helped me with the distribution and collection of the questionnaires

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my family and my best friends for their help and support while I was doing this thesis

ABSTRACT

This thesis investigates the current practices in teaching EFL, especially writing skills, to the learners of the standardizing program for primary school teachers at Long An TTC Its study is mainly based on the questionnaires delivered to 114 standardized learners of Tan An Town and Moc Hoa District, and 12 teachers of English at Long An TTC, who are experienced in teaching EFL to the learners in question The thesis also bases its study on the results of the writing tests recently held at Long An TTC for the learners of the standardizing program The purpose of this study is to search for (1) potential factors that hinder the learners from writing well-formed English sentences, (2) acute problems facing the teachers of the standardizing program, (3) possible effective measures that may be taken to better the teaching and learning EFL at Long An TTC in general and L2 writing in the standardizing program in particular

The significant results found from the data analysis of the thesis show that the learners’ poor quality in their learning L2 writing result from their problems of age and motivation, their low frequency of practice and the tense and poorly motivating classroom atmosphere Basing on these findings, the thesis makes some recommendations to (1) the teachers, (2) the learners and (3) the administrators of the standardizing program in the hope that some strategic changes should be made to better the current EFL teaching and learning to adult-age learners at Long An TTC The thesis also suggests that the three should cooperate in carrying out those changes Both the teachers’ and the learners’ active roles are indispensable to the real success in EFL teaching and learning

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

CUP Cambridge University Press

EFL English as a Foreign Language

HCMC Ho Chi Minh City

L 1 First language/Mother tongue

L 2 Second language

0UP Oxford University Press

TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages TTC Teacher’s Training College

USSH University of Social Sciences and Humanities

LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES

List of figures

Figure 3.1 The learners’ age 31

Figure 3.2 The learners’ gender 31

List of Tables

Table 4.1 Learners’ views on their learning L2 writing 40

Table 4.2 Learners’ views on their difficulties in writing L2

sentences 41

Table 4.3 What the learners usually do when they start to write 42

Table 4.4 Learners’ views on the influence of L 1 proficiency

Table 4.11 Teachers’ guidance for the learners’ L2 writing practice 51

Table 4.12 Teachers’ views on elements of an L2 well-formed

sentence 52

Table 4.13 Teachers’ views on their explicit teaching elements of

an L2 well-formed sentence 53

Table 4.14 Teachers’ views on the learners’ self-discovery and

self-correction of mistakes/errors in their L2 writing 54

Table 4.15 Teachers’ mistake/error correction in teaching

L2 writing 55

Table 4.16 Teachers’ views on the learners’ other problems in L2

writing 56

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality

Retention and use of the thesis

Acknowledgements

Abstract

Lists of abbreviations

Lists of figures & tables

INTRODUCTION 1

0.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 1

0.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 3

0.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 3

0.4 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY 4

Chapter 1 BACKGROUND INFORMATION 5

1.1 SYLLABUS FOR ADULT NON-MAJORED LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AT LONG AN TTC 5

1.1.1 Aims of the syllabus 5

1.1.2 Course books 6

1.2 LEARNERS’ AND TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TO TEACHING AND LEARNING L2 WRITING 7

1.2.1 Learners’ attitudes 7

1.2.2 Teachers’ attitudes 8

1.3 EFL TEACHING AND LEARNING AT LONG AN TTC 9

1.4 SOME THOUGHTS ON THE PHASED PROGRESS TESTS RECENTLY HELD AT LONG AN TTC 10

1.5 SUMMARY 11

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 12

2.1 TEACHING ADULT EFL 12

2.1.1 How different is teaching adults from teaching younger learners 12

2.1.2 Some approaches to teaching adults 13

2.1.3 Problems of teaching adult EFL 14

2.1.3.1 What do adult learners bring to a language class? 14

2.1.3.2 Why is teaching adults a problem? 16

2.2 TEACHING L 2 WRITING 17

2.2.1 Nature of writing 2.2.1.1 What is writing? 17

2.2.1.2 Why is writing in general and L 2 writing in particular difficult? 17

2.2.1.3 What is the role of grammar in L 2 writing? 18

2.2.2 Teaching L 2 writing 19

2.2.3 Previous research on teaching L 2 writing 21

2.3 MISTAKES AND ERRORS 22

2.3.1 Mistake-error distinction 22

2.3.2 Error analysis 23

2.3.3 Mistake/Error correction 24

2.3.3.1 Traditional attitude to mistake/error correction 24

2.3.3.2 Communicative approach to mistake/error correction 25

2.3.3.3 Universal view on mistake/error correction 25

2.4 SUMMARY 26

Chapter 3 METHODOLGY 27

3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 27

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN 28

3.2.1 Subjects 29

3.2.1.1 Learners 29

3.2.1.2 Teachers 32

3.2.2 Instruments: Questionnaires 33

3.2.2.1 Learners’ questionnaire 33

3.2.2.2 Teachers’ questionnaire 34

3.2.3 Data collection procedure 35

3.3 SUMMARY 36

Chapter 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 37

4.1 DATA ANALISIS 37

4.1.1 Learners’ responses 38

4.1.1.1 Learners’ views on writing skills 38

4.1.1.2 Learners’ views on their learning L 2 writing 40

4.1.1.3 Learners’ difficulties in writing L 2 sentences 41

4.1.1.4 Learners’ actual writing practice 42

4.1.1.5 Learners’ views on the influence of L1 proficiency on L 2 writing 42

4.1.1.6 Learners’ views on elements of an

L2 well-formed sentence 43

4.1.1.7 Learners’ views on the role of grammar in L 2 writing 44

4.1.1.8 Learners’ self-discovery and self-correction of mistakes/errors in their L2 writing 45

4.1.1.9 Learners’ views on their teachers’ correction of their mistakes/errors in L2 writing 46

4.1.1.10 Learners’ views on their other problems

4.1.2 Teachers’ responses 48

4.1.2.1 Teachers’ views on writing skills 48

4.1.2.2 Teachers’ views on their teaching L 2 writing 49

4.1.2.3 Teachers’ views on the role of grammar in L 2 writing 50

4.1.2.4 Teachers’ views on the learners’ difficulties in writing L2 sentences 50

4.1.2.5 Teachers’ guidance for the learners’ L 2 writing practice 51

4.1.2.6 Teachers’ views on elements of an

L2 well-formed sentence 52

4.1.2.7 Teachers’ views on their explicit teaching elements of an L2 well-formed sentence 53

4.1.2.8 Teachers’ views on the learners’ self-discovery and self-correction of mistakes/errors in their L2 writing 54

4.1.2.9 Teachers’ mistake/error correction in teaching L 2 writing 55

4.1.2.10Teachers’ views on the learners’ other problems in L2 writing 55

4.1.3 Summary 56

4.2 EVALUATION ON WRITING TESTS 57

4.2.1 Some comments on current tests 57

4.2.2 Some comments on the learners’ mistakes/errors 57

4.2.3 Causes 59

4.3 FINDINGS 60

4.3.1 Learners’ low ability to study a new language 61

4.3.2 Learners’ low frequency of writing practice 61

4.3.3 Poorly motivated classroom writing practice 61

4.3.4 L 1 negative transfer 62

4.3.5 Learners’ inability to self-correct their mistakes/errors in L2 writing 62

4.4 SUMMARY 63

Chapter 5 IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATION 64

5.1 IMPLICATIONS 64

5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS 65

5.2.1 To the teachers 65

5.2.2 To the learners 69

5.2.3 To the syllabus and the course books 71

5.3 SUMMARY 73

CONCLUSION 74

Bibliography 77

Appendix 1 Learners’ questionnaire 81 Appendix 2 Teachers’ questionnaire 86 Appendix 3 Some techniques in teaching L2 writing 92 Appendix 4 Recent testsfor the standardizing program

at Long An TTC 100

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

The study reported in this thesis attempts to find out the problems facing adult EFL learners at Long An Teacher's Training College (abbreviated

to TTC) in learning English in general and in learning L2 writing in particular,

in the light of which appropriate approaches should be introduced to improve their writing products and better the language learning and teaching at Long

An TTC

0.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Nowadays, there is an urgent need for any school in Vietnam to standardize its teaching staff Such a need is undoubtedly real at any primary and junior secondary school in Long An Province Long An TTC is the institution carefully selected by the Board of Education and Training of Long

An Province to carry out a standardizing program In this program, all the teachers of the primary schools in Long An Province are required to take an English course which is supposed to provide them with some knowledge of the international language — an access to the world’s scientific progress later

There is no doubt that learners of no age limit always expect to get their best results at any school The Vietnamese adult learners of English at Long

An TTC are not an exception In spite of their familiarity with pedagogy as life-long teachers of a primary school, the learners encounter big problems in learning English The problems are serious if they have never studied a foreign language before Consequently, these adult learners of English often

make a considerable number of mistakes/errors when they write in English at

elementary level Under such a circumstance there arises a great need, first of

The current gloomy reality of teaching and learning English at Long An TTC has raised some issues that can also be regarded as the very research questions of this M.A thesis:

1 What are the factors hindering the learners from mastering L2 writing

Introduction

0.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

As one of the four basic language skills, writing plays an essential part in language teaching and learning at Long An TTC, for writing provides the learners with some physical evidence of their achievements and simultaneously a trust-worthy means to evaluate their improvement in learning English as a foreign language Therefore, an investigation into the issue of how to teach and acquire writing skills is not only a must but also a matter of great urgency in this institution The study may also be of some help

to both the teacher and his/her learners of any other language classroom with

its adult learners of mixed levels By this way, the study does contribute something to current research on adult EFL teaching and learning in Vietnam

0.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study aims at (1) finding out the learners' problems and the teaching staff’s difficulties in EFL learning and teaching at Long An TTC and (2) looking for the possible ways to solve the learners' problems and lessen

their teachers’ difficulties An analysis of common mistakes/errors made by

the learners in their phased progress tests of English recently held at Long An TTC and the data collected from the teachers’ and the learners’ questionnaires with reference to their current teaching and learning L2 writing both help to explain why L2 writing is really problematic in this institution

It is obvious that the study would not be satisfactorily accomplished without prior researches and pedagogical considerations on how to deal with EFL teaching and learning in general and teaching and learning L2 writing at the elementary level in particular

Introduction

0.4 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

In addition to the introduction which identifies the problems giving rise

to the thesis and which provides an overview of the significance of the study, and the conclusion which restates the problems and then finds out their possible solutions, the thesis consists of five main chapters:

Chapter 1 provides background information about the EFL syllabus for the adult learners of the standardizing program at Long An TTC, the learners’ and teachers' attitudes to EFL teaching and learning, and their actual teaching and learning English as a non-majored subject at Long An TTC

Chapter 2 reviews the literature relevant to the study in two separate sections: theoretical background and previous related studies

Chapter 3 focuses on the methodology employed in the study It includes a list of the research questions, a discussion of research design and a description of the study’s subjects as well as its instruments and data collection procedures

Chapter 4 with its two main sections respectively discusses the data collected and the study’s findings This chapter analyzes the responses to survey questionnaires which show the learners' problems and the teachers’ difficulties in EFL teaching and learning at Long An TTC An analysis of the standardizing program’s phased progress tests also reveals various causes of

the mistakes/errors the learners have made in their L2 writing

Chapter 5 presents pedagogical implications and recommendations for teaching methods and classroom activities efficiently applied in teaching

Chapter 1: Background Information

1.1 SYLLABUS FOR ADULT NON-MAJORED LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

AT LONG AN TTC

The four sections of this chapter present the background information essential for an understanding of the issues discussed in the thesis The first section is a brief description of the syllabus for the adult non-majored learners

of English of the standardizing program The second section defines the learners’ and the teachers’ attitudes to EFL acquisition as well as teaching and learning L2 writing The third and fourth sections respectively present some thoughts on the actual EFL teaching and learning at Long An TTC and on the results of the phased progress tests officially held in some adult classes of the standardizing program at this institution

1.1.1 Aims of the syllabus

As a required subject of the standardizing program, English is supposed

to supply the learners, who are the teachers of the primary schools in Long An Province, with some knowledge of this international language The learners’ knowledge of English, in its turn, gives them access to the scientific and technological progress served in the field of education This sounds reasonable once English has widely been an additionally vocational subject to the pupils of the primary schools in Long An Province

The learners of the standardizing program at Long An TTC have to take

a succession of five English courses the syllabus of which has theoretically been designed to equip the learners with the four basic language skills namely listening, speaking, reading and writing The time for each of the five English courses depends on the number of units it covers (approximately 20 units of the selected course books); accordingly, each course lasts four or five weeks and will be completed by a phased progress test of English

Chapter 1: Background Information

The focus of this study was on teaching and learning L2 writing, which

is often considered the most difficult of the four language skills As the learners are mostly at the elementary level, what the syllabus puts emphasis

on is writing English sentences only It is expected to provide the learners with ample practice in using English through their guided writing exercises

1.1.2 Course books

Covered in the five successive courses are 100 units including the whole units of Streamline English Departures and the first twenty units of Streamline English Connections, both being written by Bernard Hartley & Peter Viney and published in 1970 by Oxford University Press Such a selection is strongly supported by the following statement from the textbooks’ authors:

Streamline English Departures has been especially designed for students who are beginning to learn English as a foreign language The approach is also suitable for “false beginners” The course covers the elementary structures and

vocabulary of English with emphasis on developing oral/aural skills

(Hartley & Viney, 1978: back cover)

The aim of Streamline English Departures, in the light of its authors’

above-mentioned statement, is "to give a practical command of simple spoken English " (Hartley & Viney, 1978: back cover) It is thus difficult for the teachers of the standardizing program to use this textbook in teaching L2

writing In other words, the book has been designed basically for oral/aural

practice, not for teaching and learning L2 writing This incompatibility between the syllabus, as illustrated by its selected course books, and what the standardizing program aims to test in its phased progress tests officially held

at the end of each of the five English courses will be discussed in detail in the following chapters of this thesis

Chapter 1: Background Information

1.2 LEARNERS’ AND TEACHERS' ATTITUDES TO TEACHING AND

LEARNING L2 WRITING

1.2.1 Learners' attitudes

A survey was conducted by handing out questionnaires to 114 adult learners of the standardizing program at Long An TTC When asked to number the four basic language skills, 57.8% (66 learners) thought that listening was the most important, 19.2% (22 learners) were in favor of speaking, and only 16.6% (19 learners) highly valued writing The learners paid little attention to writing because they were more concerned with speaking and listening They, more often than not, assumed that writing caused less trouble than listening and speaking: while they could either take time to choose appropriate words and structures to express themselves or write at their own pace, they could hardly do that when listening or speaking

in English The learners also took it for granted that model sentence patterns previously studied in class and the experience in their L1 writing practice

could be of great assistance in their learning to write in English Some learners, on the other hand, believed that a good knowledge of the English grammar could also help write well They did not know that writing in English, which is to some extent different from writing in their mother tongue, was a complex process of various steps and components and that their limited knowledge of the English grammar and their accumulated experience in L1 writing failed to guarantee well-formed L2 pieces of writing Thus, part of the

problems facing these EFL adult learners comes from their own attitudes towards writing and learning how to write well in a foreign language: very few learners at the elementary level pay a proper attention to L2 writing skills

in general and writing English sentences in particular

Chapter 1: Background Information

1.2.2 Teachers’ attitudes

Another survey was also conducted for the purpose of getting a clear picture of what the teachers really thought about teaching and learning L2 writing A questionnaire was given to the twelve Vietnamese teachers of English of the standardizing program at Long An TTC According to the

results of the survey, one of the three equal parts of the teachers (4/12)

thought that due to the currently applied test system as well as the learners' expected output it was not important to teach L2 writing Instead, the learners would rather be provided with the so-called “testing skills” because most of the tests were carried out in the form of multiple choices Consequently, less attention was paid to writing while most of the in-class activities were mainly related to accomplishing the required textbook work and of course to talking about the previous exam paper exercises

The teachers also believed that it was not necessary to teach L2 writing because the adult learners would not have many opportunities to use English when graduating and coming back to their primary school where English is not what they are supposed to teach

The remaining two-thirds of the teachers (8/12), who believed in the

significance of L2 writing, assumed that mastering its grammar would naturally lead to a good ability to write in the target language Thus, they focused on teaching the English grammar and correcting grammar exercises, which was very popular in almost all the adult EFL classes at Long An TTC Although no explicit assertion was made that the learners' failure in L2 writing originated from their teachers' misconception of how to teach L2 writing skills, the teachers could hardly escape being made partially responsible for their learners' unsatisfactory performance in L2 writing

Chapter 1: Background Information

1.3 EFL TEACHING AND LEARNING AT LONG AN TTC

The learners of the standardizing program at Long An TTC are required

by the syllabus to study English up to the elementary level only, but the standards applied to test their reading and writing skills are often quite high That is why grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure, and some other aspects

of language learning like reading comprehension and translation are taught to

be tested thoroughly and almost by rote, which at least helps the learners pass the phased progress tests Oral skills and other communicative aspects of the target language, however, are hardly ever assessed Although some energetic learners earnestly asked to be challenged and inspired in their English class, language skills, especially productive ones, always play a second fiddle to grammatical rules and textbook work

Teaching classes of up to 50 or even 60 learners of mixed levels and ages for up to 10 or even 15 forty five-minute periods a week, any teacher of

the standardizing program works extremely hard to present his/her learners with as much of English as he/she can — grammatical structures, new words,

reading comprehension questions, and previous exam paper exercises As a result, the learners are unavoidably overloaded Comprehendingly, almost all the teachers of the standardizing program complain about their learners' poor acquisition of the target language Even worse, a short time after the English final test, the learners appear to forget almost all what they have learned

Chapter 1: Background Information

1.4 SOME THOUGHTS ON THE PHASED PROGRESS TESTS

RECENTLY HELD AT LONG AN TTC

Though writing is just part of the phased progress tests officially held at

the end of each of the five English courses, it is the writing task that most prevents the learners from passing the tests In other words, those who have

to take the make-up exam often get almost nothing from the writing section,

which is usually in form of sentence building or transforming as well as making questions or giving answers to questions The results show that the learners’ performance in L2 writing does not seem to be satisfactory despite the syllabus’ accepted theoretical view of skill integration in language teaching which pays proportional attention to all the four basic language skills

A close study of the phased progress tests reveals that the learners’

mistakes/errors generally come from two main sources:

(1) Language transfer (Richards et al, 1993: 205): Sentence patterns are borrowed from the learners’ mother tongue In other words, there exist the negative effects of Vietnamese on learning the English language Quite often, when asked to express their ideas, the learners have a tendency to translate their sentences exactly from their mother tongue into English and might

produce an incorrect sentence like ‘She left school for 15 years old’ instead of

‘She left school 15 years ago.’

(2) Overgeneralization (Richards et all, 1993: 260): Sentence patterns are wrongly extended from those acquired from the target language

Overgeneralization is a process common in both first- and second- language learning, in which a learner extends the use of a grammatical rule of linguistic item beyond its accepted uses, generally by making words or structures follow a more regular pattern

Chapter 1: Background Information

In the phased progress tests appear such sentences like ‘Mary is more tall than you’ instead of ‘Mary is taller than you’, or ‘She usually sings very good, but yesterday she singed bad’ instead of ‘She usually sings very well, but yesterday she sang badly.’

1.5 SUMMARY

The chapter describes the EFL syllabus and its significance in the standardizing program at Long An TTC as well as the actual teaching EFL to the adult non-majored learners of English there It has also highlighted the learners’ and the teachers’ attitudes towards second language acquisition as well as teaching and learning L2 writing Last but not least, some thoughts on the results of the phased progress tests recently held at Long An TTC are raised The author of the thesis hopes to find out the actual problems that hint the learners and teachers from getting success in teaching and learning English as a foreign language in general and L2 writing in particular

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Background to the study has been presented in Chapter 1 In this chapter, the literature relevant to the study is reviewed in three separate sections: (1) teaching adult EFL, (2) teaching L2 writing and (3) the role of

mistake/error correction in L2 writing The first section not only highlights the

differences between teaching adults from teaching younger learners but also discusses various approaches in teaching adults The second section defines the nature of teaching L2 writing and its influence on teaching EFL in general

It also reviews some previous studies of L2 writing issues The third section,

in combination with the first two, is concerned for the role of mistake/error

correction in second language acquisition These reviews will set up the theoretical basis for the subsequent arguments presented in the discussion of the study’s findings

2.1 TEACHING ADULT EFL

2.1.1 How different is teaching adults from teaching younger learners?

Teaching foreign languages to adults, according to Ur (1991: 294), is arguably less important, worldwide, than teaching the younger learners because most language teaching takes place in school and most basic knowledge of a foreign language is acquired there Ur (1991: 294) also believes that teaching adults is on the whole easier and less stressful The difference between adults and younger learners lies in the greater capacity for understanding and logical thinking of the former Adults are more likely to have developed a number of learning skills and strategies and they usually have acquired a self-confidence rarely found in children

Ur (1991: 287) claims that adult classes tend on the whole to be more disciplined and cooperative while teachers commonly notice that they cannot

Chapter 2: Literature Review

get children to concentrate on a certain learning activity as long as they can get adults to do so

There is no doubt that different subjects require different ways to approach In the same vein, the strategies applied in teaching adults are by no means similar to those used to teach younger learners “Adults have superior cognitive abilities that can render them more successful in certain classroom

significant features makes adult language teaching part of the methodology of

language teaching

2.1.2 Some approaches to teaching adults

Studies have shown that adult learners, in fact, can be superior in a number of ways: they can learn and retain a larger vocabulary, utilizing

various deductive and abstract processes to sort out grammatical and/or

linguistic concepts (Brown, 2001: 87) To teach to adults a foreign language requires specific skills and intuitions that differ from those appropriate for younger learners The following five considerations suggested by Brown (2001: 90) may give some practical approaches to teaching adults:

1 Adults are more able to handle abstract rules and concepts But beware! As you know, too much abstract generation about usage and not enough real-life language use can be deadly for adults, too

2 Adults have longer attention spans for material that may not be intrinsically interesting to them But again, the rule of keeping your activities short and sweet applies also to adult-age teaching

3 Sensory input need not always be quite as varied with adults, but one of the secrets of lively adult classes is their appeal to multiple senses

4 Adults often bring a modicum of general self-confidence (global self-esteem) into a classroom: the fragility of egos may therefore not be quite as critical as those of children Yet, we should never underestimate the emotional factors that may be attendant to adult second language learning

5 Adults, with their more abstract thinking ability, are better able to understand a context-reduced segment of language Authenticity and meaningfulness are of course still highly important, but in adult language teaching, a teacher can take temporary digressions to dissect and examine isolated linguistic properties, as long as students are returned to the original context

Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1.3 Problems of teaching adult EFL

2.1.3.1 What do adult learners bring to a language class?

Adults learning a foreign language often bring to their class a mature personality, many years of educational training, developed intelligence, determination to get what they want, fairly clear aims, and above all strong motivation to make as rapid progress as possible Thus, it is important to consider the following dimensions of adult classes (Abigail Tom, 1999: 2-3):

Language: Before coming to a language class, adults already know

their native language well and they are quite aware of the importance of language as part of their identity and as a means through which they relate to others The sound and structure systems of their mother tongue both help and hinder learning a new language

Background knowledge: Perhaps the greatest difference between adults

and younger learners is that the former come to class with a long history of learning experience (Harmer, 1998: 10) In addition to language, adult learners bring to class general knowledge and experience of their own life as well as professional knowledge and experience gained through previous

training and/or accumulated from work This knowledge and experience of

the world is a rich resource for the teacher who chooses to exploit it

Expectation: As mentioned above, adult learners certainly bring something to class Those who have had little experience in schooling and/or

who lack literacy skills in their first language may find language classes frightening and boring unless a special effort is made to welcome and include them, whereas learners with prior language learning experiences are likely to bring with them expectations of how language classes should be organized and taught

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Learning style: Like other types of learners, adults have different

learning styles Some feel comfortable learning by watching and listening, whereas others feel that they cannot learn anything unless they take down notes and analyze rules

Confidence: Adult learners also bring to their class many other

personal characteristics, the most important of which is confidence or the lack

of it Many learners with little initial proficiency leap ahead of their classmates because they are confident that they can and will learn the target language, whereas others of comparable ability and background may languish

at a low level of proficiency because of their lack of confidence to use the language

Motivation: Adult learners also differ considerably in their motivation

Some may want desperately to obtain the target language for certain clear purposes in the future; others may perceive little use for the language once his basic needs are met

Personal circumstances: Age, health and other personal circumstances

also have some influence on adult learners Adult classes often include learners of widely different ages who may feel that they share little common ground Younger learners may perceive who are older as slow and rigid, while older adults may feel that younger ones are frivolous and irresponsible Difficulties with hearing, eyesight and memory need to be taken into account, too Moreover, personal circumstances ranging from difficulties with childcare or transportation to concerns about the acute problems at home all make attendance, concentration and punctuality difficult for a considerable number of learners

Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1.3.2 Why is teaching adults a problem?

Unlike other learners of younger ages, adults are frequently more nervous of learning Their process of acquiring a foreign language is sometimes hindered by their worry of losing face; and the older the learners get, the greater the potential becomes Coming back to class after a really long pause may cause in them a high degree of anxiety for the learning process itself

Adults can be disruptive and exhausting, too Teacher of this age group may face the learners who disagree vocally with almost anything the teacher is saying or who spend the lesson talking to their neighbors despite the teacher’s

efforts to draw their attention to his/her lesson They may arrive in class late

and fail to do any required homework And, whatever causes of this behavior are, a problem does exist, as Harmer (1998: 11) confirms

It is, of course, quite probable for adults to suffer from the boredom in class, especially when they are attending the same class for a long time As a result, many of them fail to attend their classes regularly; this negatively affects their results of learning

The mammoth problem of the learners’ absenteeism can easily be found

in any academic setting where English is not a major subject University students whose major is English usually come to class with strong motivation

to do a good job and to master the target language as quickly as possible On the other hand, non-majored learners find themselves interested in English only as a tool that might better their current or future job Teaching EFL to such adult learners is not easy because some just need certain knowledge of English to pass their exams They do not need anything else They have no real need to write in English or speak it, Broughton (1990: 190) believes

Chapter 2: Literature Review

in his “Teaching writing skills”, writing is a process of encoding (putting your

message into words carried out with a reader in mind)

2.2.1.2 Why is writing in general and L 2 writing in particular difficult?

Naturally, writing is not an easy task for most people both in the mother tongue and in a foreign language Firstly, writing is a solitary activity in which

“we are required to write on our own without the possibilities of interaction or the benefit of feedback, which in itself makes the act of writing difficult.”

(Byrne 1988: 4) Then it must be ensured that the communication is effective

through our choice of sentence structure and through the way the sentences are linked and sequenced so that the text produced can be interpreted

As far as its nature is concerned, writing in one’s mother tongue (i.e L1writing) or writing in a foreign language (i.e L2 writing) is no doubt a difficult

or even a threatening activity to most people In L1 writing the written form of one’s mother tongue has to be mastered and certain structures essential for effective communication are to be learned to make the ideas verbalized in the written forms understood by the readers Unfortunately, writing well in one’s mother tongue does not necessarily lead to successful L2 writing

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Furthermore, to write effectively in both L1 and L2, one has to learn a large number of structures and expressions which are not always common in speech but which are important for effective communication in written form

According to Byrne (1988: 5), “writing is a creative process which is learned through a process of instruction.”

Last but not least, Vietnamese learners and native speakers of English may not share their habits of expressing themselves and of selecting discourse rules, linguistic conventions, lexical and grammatical means, etc to describe reality Therefore, writing effectively in English requires the Vietnamese learners more efforts in verbalizing their thoughts in such a way that no discourse rule, linguistic convention or textual organization is violated and that their pieces of writing are possibly accepted by native speakers of the target language

2.2.1.3 What is the role of grammar in L 2 writing?

When asked to comment on the significance of grammar in second

language acquisition, some of the teachers involved in this study agree with

the following remarks by Bowen and Marks (1994: 83):

- Grammar plays a significant role in language since every single change in any grammatical structure causes a change in meaning

- Grammar organizes language structures and makes a language understandable for a learner

- Grammar is the most important thing in learning a foreign language If you don’t know grammar you wouldn’t be able to speak or write in that language.

For these Vietnamese teachers of English, grammar is clearly a vital

component of EFL teaching and learning in general and teaching and learning

L2 writing in particular Actually, “grammar and writing have been so

inextricably linked as to be virtually synonymous To study one is to study the

Chapter 2: Literature Review

other.” (Võ Thị Nữ Anh, 2004: 14) In L2 writing, once a language learner can

manage to cope with the new alphabet, he/she has to confront grammatical

and syntactical rules of the target language before coming up with its various lexical quirks In order to verify whether or not an intended meaning is properly expressed, whether or not the relation between different parts of a

sentence is clear enough, the learner must be able to analyze what he/she has

just written The ability to analyze an L2 sentence, to understand how its parts work together to convey the intended meaning is thus essential for the writing process, as Sam (2003: 57) puts it in this way:

The fact that much grammar instruction is apart and unrelated to writing does

no lead logically, however, to the conclusion that grammar itself is not related

to writing

2.2.2 Teaching L 2 writing

People may not agree upon the main purposes of teaching L2writing Generally speaking, however, L2 writing may constitute useful follow-up activities which help (1) to consolidate what has just been taught explicitly in class and (2) to turn conscious language learners into creative and independent language users In other words, thanks to its meaningful practice, L2 writing may empower the learners with accurate use of the target language,

especially of its grammatical structures

Willis (1981: 156) proposes the following purposes of teaching L2 writing:

• To learn the motor skills of handwriting; to develop neatness, clarity and speed

• To learn spelling and punctuation, etc

• To reinforce vocabulary and structures already mastered orally

• To keep a written record of what has been learnt and achieved

• To practise for end-of-term achievement tests

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Harmer (1998: 79) discusses the following reasons for teaching L2 writing:

• Reinforcement: Some students find writing an aid to both memory

and understanding

• Language development: To others, writing is part of an ongoing

learning experience

• Learning styles: Some students find writing an effective way of

language learning Writing gives them more time to become accustomed to a new language because it is less stressful than

face-to-face communication

• Writing as a skill: Students need the important skills of writing for

the daily demands of their future working lives

Parrott (1993: 94) lists the following as significant reasons for writing:

• To meet diagnostic purposes

• To develop linguistic competence by

-

-

• To encourage the development of fluency

• To train/provide practice in aspects of writing skills per se by

- Selecting characteristic features of particular text types according to the purpose in writing

- Including appropriate stages in the process of composition

- Assessing the knowledge, assumptions, attitudes and interest of the intended audience and addressing them accordingly

Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.2.3 Previous research on teaching L 2 writing

The problems of teaching L2 writing presented by Lê Nguyễn Minh Thọ (2000) and Bùi Yến Ngọc (2000) do contribute something to the mainstream EFL teaching theories in Vietnam; however, the subjects of their researches are either full-time university students whose major is English or volunteer learners of language centers, those who bring to any class meeting they attend their clear aims and strong motivation to master English as

quickly as possible for their current job and/or life-long career The problems

Lê Nguyễn Minh Thọ examined, for example, were those of first-year students majoring in English at USSH, Vietnam National University-HCMC

He was successful in pointing out the changes to be made in the students’ composing processes involving sentence building, paragraph developing and essay writing Unlike Lê Nguyễn Minh Thọ, Bùi Yến Ngọc directed her major concern towards teaching and learning EFL at the Foreign Language Center of College of Education-HCMC She focused on the types and causes

of mistakes committed by the learners of English at the elementary level; she then gave some recommendations and presented a number of activities and techniques that should be applied to stimulate the learners’ writing

Also great contributors to the research on L2 writing were Võ Thị Nữ Anh (2004) and Lê Hoàng Dũng(2004), who both successfully pointed out the reciprocal relationship between reading and writing Their works mostly aimed at clarifying the indispensable assistance of reading skills, either in L1 and L2, to the improvement of teaching and learning L2 writing, suggesting the application of the reading-based approach to teaching L2 writing In addition, the teachers’ and the learners’ shared roles as well as their cooperation were always necessary in any L2 writing class, as proved by Lê Hoàng Dũng The two researchers’ findings and recommendations all served

Chapter 2: Literature Review

as a good basis for the author of this thesis pursue his further study in L2 writing However, the subjects observed by Võ Thị Nữ Anh and Lê Hoàng Dũng were again the full-time freshmen and sophomores of the Department

of English Linguistics and Literature at USSH, Vietnam National University HCMC, whose proficiency in English was quite high in comparison to the real level the adult learners of the standardizing program at Long An TTC might have reached The problems facing adult EFL learners of mixed levels, especially those who do not determine to learn English by themselves, have never been discussed before and thus deserve serious consideration in this thesis

2.3 MISTAKES AND ERRORS

2.3.1 Mistake-error distinction

Because of the differences across languages, mistakes are unavoidable in second language acquisition As Brown (1980: 164) remarked, human learning is fundamentally a process that involves the making of mistakes in which success comes (1) by using mistakes to obtain feedback from the environment and (2) by making successive attempts which more closely approximate desired goals, thus profiting from mistakes Language learning, in this sense, is not an exception

Applied linguistics theory commonly distinguishes between an error

“which is consistent and based on a mis-learned generalization” (Ur, 1991:

85) and a mistake which is caused by a lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness,

or some other aspect of performance (Richards et al, 1993: 127)

In this view, “a mistake refers to a performance error that is either a

random guess or a ‘slip,’ in that it is a failure to utilize a known system

Chapter 2: Literature Review

correctly All people make mistakes, in both native and second language situations (Brown, 1980: 165)

Distinguishing a mistake from an error, Dulay and Burt (1972), as quoted in Brown (1980: 165), believe that, “an error is a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of the learner.”

Ellis (1997: 17) also clarifies mistake-error distinction: “Errors reflect gaps in a learner’s knowledge; they occur because the learner does not know what is correct Mistakes reflect occasional lapses in performance; they occur because, in a particular instance, the learner is unable what he or she knows.”

Unfortunately, the mistake-error distinction is not simple and

straightforward, as explicitly warned by Ur (1991: 85): “When you come across instances during a lesson it is usually difficult to tell the difference with any degree of certainty; I have, therefore, not insisted on rigorous distinction between the two terms.” Following Ur (1991), the author of this

thesis believe that there is no real need to distinguish by all means mistakes from errors in second language acquisition

2.3.2 Error analysis

Error analysis is the procedure of describing and explaining errors systematically for both pedagogical and psycholinguistic aims Pedagogically, error analysis provides feedback concerning teaching methods and materials; psycho-linguistically, it throws light on how languages are learned and produced (Asher et al, 1994: 740)

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Error analysis, however, has its disadvantages The most obvious one is that the focus on errors provides a one-side and incomplete approach to the learner’s interlanguage In fact, mere description and analysis of errors may also give a distorted picture of the first language influence, since this influence does not manifest itself exclusively or primarily in errors made in the L2 learner’s production Nevertheless, error analysis has played an important role, especially for its reinterpretation of the role of the L2 learner, who is no longer seen as a mere passive recipient in second language acquisition but as the one who plays an active role in the learning process,

where he/she generates tests and modifies hypotheses about second language

acquisition

2.3.3 Mistake/Error correction

2.3.3.1 Traditional attitude to mistake/error correction

Many teachers used to think that it was really bad if their students made

mistakes/errors To them, the mistakes/errors showed that the students were neither intelligent nor hard-working: mistakes/errors were made just

because the students neither paid adequate attention to nor learned the lessons

with enough care Instead of correcting mistakes/errors, the teachers would

order the students to sit down in a disciplinary way and walk away from “the wrongdoers.” If the teachers gave some correction, it would be mere repetition or imitation, either orally or in written form To these teachers, a perfect piece of writing, for example, was one where no mistakes could ever

been found Last but not least, some teachers would say that “it is not necessary to correct at all: as the learner advances mistakes will disappear

on their own.” (Ur, 1991: 85)

Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.3.3.2 Communicative approach to mistake/error correction

In the communicative approach, mistakes/errors are seen as possible steps towards learning If learners make mistakes/errors, it shows they are

trying to formulate sentences and expressing their ideas — not simply copying their teacher’s model They are taking the model, and then adapting it

to make it into something they really want to produce The learners are learning by doing; and since this is a process, the learners can hardly come up with on their first attempt the so-called perfect product— an essay, or a

paragraph or even a sentence that are free from any mistake/error To the

teachers who strongly support the communicative approach, no mistake/error found in a lesson means no real learning has taken place Correction is seen as

a technique to get students to refine what they would like to produce Since correction is an integral part of the lesson, the teachers’ attitude towards correction is positive; therefore, various correction techniques are used to encourage the learners, not to put them down or make them feel disappointed

To these teachers, a piece of writing may consist of a number of unavoidable

mistakes/errors, and the correction of these mistakes/errors could be done by

and among the learners themselves In this view, Hedge (2000: 15) believes that adult learners should be encouraged to process error/mistake correction in useful ways; and the role of the teacher is to provide feedback which learners can work on in order to refine their understanding and move to the next stage

of interlanguage

2.3.3.3 Universal view on mistake/error correction

Nunan (1991: 169) highlights the fact that “there were certain learning activities which were almost universally popular In several instances, these were activities which did not enjoy similar popularity amongst teachers For

example, error correction by the teacher was highly valued by all learners,

Chapter 2: Literature Review

while student self-discovery of error was given a low rating For teachers, the reverse was true.”

2.4 SUMMARY

This chapter has provided both the literature related to the issues raised

in the research questions and the essential theoretical preliminaries for the next chapters of the thesis Then the current issues concerning teaching adult EFL have been discussed Teaching adults proves to be different from teaching younger learners; accordingly, the problems facing adult learners and their possible solutions are undoubtedly different from those characteristic of younger learners The problems may get worse where English is not a major subject in a training program Also, the nature of L2 writing and its purposes

together with the role of grammar in teaching L2 writing have been reviewed

as the theoretical background for the following chapters The revision of previous research on teaching L2 writing suggests that of a great urgency is a further research on appropriate teaching methods and procedures that permit a more thorough investigation into the problems facing adult learners in second language acquisition, especially those from non-majored English classes at

the elementary level The chapter has ended with the role of mistake/error

correction in teaching L2 writing in the hope of finding out more important

applications to be implemented to improve the quality of EFL teaching and learning

Chapter 3: Methodology

To listen closely to both the learners’ and the teachers’ voices, two sets

of survey questionnaires have been carefully designed: the first aims at drawing relevant information from the teaching staff of the standardizing program at Long An TTC and the second serves to collect necessary pieces of news from a large number of the adult learners who are the subjects of this program

In addition to the data collected from the two sets of survey questionnaires, the learners’ phased progress tests and their official results have been considered with great care in order to identify the problems of teaching and learning L2 writing at the elementary level in this institution These problems, in their turn, serve as the solid foundation on which insights into subsequent potential solutions to the problems will be created and shown

Included in the two-section chapter is the methodology employed in this study The first section of Chapter 3 presents the research questions underlying the study, while its second section discusses the research design together with a description of the study’s subjects and instruments as well as its data collection procedures

3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

In order to understand the actual difficulties facing the adult learners at Long An TTC and what should be done practically to improve their EFL writing efficiency, questionnaires were formulated and delivered to the adult learners of the 2002-2003 English courses and the teachers who have taken part in the standardizing program Within its limited scope of research, the

study was designed to highlight the two following main problems:

Chapter 3: Methodology

1 What are the factors that badly influence the teaching and learning L2writing at Long An TTC, hindering the learners from mastering writing skills?

2 What steps should be taken by the teachers, the learners and the administrators of the standardizing program to better the EFL teaching and learning in this institution?

Also addressed are the two following sub-questions to keep the study

on the right tract to the achievement of the general goals:

3 Do the differences between L1 and L2 writing lead to the learners'

According to Brown (1997), and Cohen and Manion (1985), as quoted

in Nunan (1992: 140), surveys are the most commonly used descriptive method in educational research, especially in any kind of curriculum development projects Surveys can also be used to answer any research questions that require exploration, description, or explanation of people's characteristics, attitudes, viewpoints, etc This method of data collection was selected for this study because of its efficiency, taking into account a considerable number of subjects involved in the study The survey for the study served two purposes First of all, it helped to obtain the background information about the subjects The main purpose of the survey, however, was

to make a close investigation into the possible difficulties and/or challenges