Writing is a significantly productive skill that requires students to perform their language knowledge and ideas in different types of writing.Throughout the curriculum of English 10, so
Trang 1CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale
In the globalization era, cooperation among countries has promoted thedevelopment of economy, culture, and society The largest language which has beenspreading around the globe is English It helps people connect, have betterunderstandings of the world, its challenges through information booming that satisfiesadvantageous access to travel, education, and cultures
In Vietnam, English is a compulsory subject in the national curriculum fromgrade 3 to grade 12 It helps students improve English communication and contribute
to developing other skills for work and study more effectively Besides, this subjectprovides students with an essential international communication tool to update newknowledge about cutting-edge science and technology, cultural discovery LearningEnglish raises their insights into people of other countries and makes them aware ofglobal citizens
The English subject's primary focus aims to develop the fluency andproficiency of language skills for students in listening, speaking, reading, writing, andlinguistic knowledge Writing is a significantly productive skill that requires students
to perform their language knowledge and ideas in different types of writing.Throughout the curriculum of English 10, some types of letters cover most of writinglessons Although many students excel in writing skill, the number of students facingchallenges in writing has gone up steadily This evidence can be seen in at most highschools in Vietnam that they do not have enough input knowledge to produce writtenproducts The importance of letter writing is to teach students about the needs topresent their problems and information exchange between the senders and thereceivers in different fields Today, the international cooperation has contributed tothe letter exchange through emails or express mail services That students masterletter writing is a success for their future development
The study "A study on collaborative writing model to enhance writing skill forthe 10th graders" is selected to solve the challenges in letter writing skill students face.Collaborative writing is regarded as a correlation to one of the 21st century skills thatallows students to communicate, discuss, draft, and revise their writing paperseffectively Apart from the teacher’s instruction, students have many opportunities toshare knowledge and support the completion together The more collaborativelearning they have, the more insights into the lesson they will gain
Trang 21.2 Aims of the study
The purposes of the study are aimed at:
- illustrating students’ attitudes toward writing skill
- determining the implementation of collaborative writing model on teachingletter writing
- validating how effectively collaborative writing helps students enhancestudents’ letter writing
- devising learning and teaching methods to support students with theimprovement of letter writing
1.3 Research methods
This paper employs action research with three cycles to investigate theeffectiveness of applying collaborative writing The first cycle deals with introducingcollaborative model to students with tasks they will implement Turning to the secondcycle, the survey will be given to students with the aims of eliciting the problems theyface while collaborating with other peers, navigating their attitudes toward the writingtasks they have done All the collected data will focus on orientating appropriatemethods for students to improve better learning outcomes In the third cycle, studentswill have to focus on completing their writing products in groups and individually.Then, the evaluation and correction will be conducted by groups under theconsultation of the teacher The author also allows students to provides feedbacks andrecommendations to improve their performance
Furthermore, students are encouraged to share their voices regarding what theylearned, how they learned, and what they wish to further English skills via theinterviews and the reflection form The recorded information will be evidence for theefforts and expectations they make Finally, the research covers the efficiency ofcollaborative writing model to promote students' progress in learning English
1.4 Scope of the study
In this study, there are 90 participants who are the 10th graders at Que Phonghigh school Que Phong is a mountainous district located in the west of Nghe Anprovince It is 173 kilometers away from Vinh city and shares a border with Laos.Que Phong has many people from the Thai, Mong, and Kho Mu ethnic groups Moststudents at this school come from remote communes of Que Phong districts and haddisadvantaged backgrounds
Due to the influence of impoverished life and other factors, they have manydifficulties in learning English Besides learning English at school, they have very
Trang 3little guidance to improve their English listening and speaking skills for themselves.Despite having internet connections, very few students explore English materialsonline for their study
According to the new general education program requirements, theempowerment of students’ behaviour and capability is the focus of qualityenhancement of teaching and learning Recognizing the challenges in writing skill thestudents face, the collaborative writing model is used to help students practicelanguage skills and collaboration, a crucial skill of the 21st century skill Thanks tothe empowerment of collaborative writing, students are expected to be motivated andinspired to fulfil their English learning outcomes and better autonomy in self-study
1.5 Design of the study
Chapter 1: Introduction This part introduces the rationale, the purposes, themethods of the study, the research questions, the research methodology, the scope ofthe study, and the design of the study
Chapter 2: theoretical background The former provides the literature reviewillustrating the summary information of the previous research papers The lattermentions the fundamental elements of key term concepts relating to the study andsynthesizes the brief view of some researchers
Chapter 3: Methodology This section describes the research methods
Chapter 4: Findings and discussions This part shows the analysis of data anddiscusses the results of the study
Chapter 5: Conclusion This part summarizes the main points and contentsbased on the results of the study The implication of the study and therecommendation for further research will be presented
Trang 4CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDS
2 Theoretical backgrounds
2.1.1 Collaborative writing
Collaborative writing is a type of group work taking place in the workplace andthe classroom The target of collaborative writing is the accomplishment of writingtasks conducted by individuals working together to discuss orally or in written form,
to plan, draft, and revise a document (Wiki, n d)
The foundation for collaborative writing derives from the definition ofcollaboration that Storch addressed based on the study by Ede and Lunsford (1990).They claimed that collaborative writing was of the benefit of purposeful interactionand responsibility to plan, generate, and deliberate ideas According to this point ofview, collaborative writing serves as a cooperative process and a unique product Flower and Hayes (1981) presented three main stages: the planning stage,interpretation or translation stage, and reviewing stage In the planning stage, learnerswork tother to organize information, set goals and generate the information necessaryfor the writing assignment Interpretation allows students to interpret plans andresearch notes into a written document Finally, the reviewing stage involves revisingthe original ideas and goals, evaluating the written draft, and editing the text Thus,Flower and Hayes (1981) propose that collaborative writing is a cognitive process or agroup effort toward text performance
A collaborative context is a community for learners and teachers to interactsocially Furthermore, other members can exchange and share their experiences.Foote (2009) considered collaborative writing played a significant role in students’acquisition as it fosters learning and group dynamic Thanks to active participation,they are capable of managing all related materials and exploring the answers to theissues they work with other peers The additional exposure to decision making,conflict management, communication, and other social skills helps them be moresuccessful
Arndt (1993) stated that writing is not regarded as a de-contextualized performance, but a person-to-person process of meaning construction between writer and reader
solo-2.1.1 Collaborative writing model
Pre-writing process:
In this process, the team gets together, shares ideas and brainstorm together Theyalso formulate an argument or draft thesis The final outcome, the way it should look,its purpose and intended audience should be planned
Trang 5Planning and logistics:
The project is divided into sections and assigning the project to writers isaccomplished
They should think about the final outcome of the project, arrange for meetings andschedules too
Research data/collection:
The required sources and way to gather the sources are to be found out
The writers are to be assigned for reading and processing of information Finally,there should be an analysis of the data
Drafting/ writing:
Every group member is assigned a particular section of the project The text iscomposed where the team meets for collaboration
Revising/ editing/ proofreading:
When sections of the document are drafted in a separate way They are then merged
in order to get a single document They need to revise the structure and ideas of thepaper
Proofreading is also done to check for punctual errors, typo mistakes, formatting
issues, spelling errors, and grammatical mistakes
There are few techniques or strategies which need to be followed in a collaborativewriting process When any writing plan is considered, they need to follow the below-mentioned process
Description of the writing project
Outline of the content
Strategy for success
For each section, content responsibilities must be assigned
Schedule for completed parts
Editing as well as revising the process
Production data
There are other aspects too which the collaborative team should discuss and resolve
Meeting plan and plans if someone is away from the project
Sending and receiving of the project in an effective manner
Trang 6 In case if any writer has dropped out, then drafting a plan
Evaluation of one another and their expected grade
Resolving differences of opinion
Roles for all the group members
The collaborative writers should make sure to exchange their contact details and alsomake a discussion about technical considerations
They should make plans about merging projects to make it a single project They need
to discuss the software graphics and word processing to be used and the specific styleguide to be followed
An invitation Letter is a document that presents a formal request for thepresence of an individual, a group of people or an organization at an event Aninvitation letter may be formal or informal It could be used for a variety of eventssuch as weddings, graduation ceremonies, annual dinners, anniversary parties andbirthday parties
Letters of confirmation are used by individuals, organizations and businessesevery day, for a number of different purposes Broadly speaking they are used torecognize a previous agreement or to verify certain information upon request
Letter of acceptance or refusal refers to the way whether the receivers want toapprove of the request from sender or not
Trang 7CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Participants
The main participants of this study involve the 90 10th graders at Que Phonghigh school Que Phong high school, which is located in the Northern West of Nghe
An province, has 43 classes with approximately 1,800 students On account of themountainous topography sharing a border with Laos, Que Phong high school hasfaced low results in high school entrance examinations from students living here English is a mandatory subject across Vietnam, but students in remote areashave come under various drawbacks of English learning at different levels Eventhough they have had access to English since primary school, they seem to be weak atbasic English knowledge Turning to the English curriculum at the high school level,the target requires students to be familiar with different types of communication in theEnglish context Although there have been loads of papers dealing with oralcommunication, this study tackles the written communication relating to letterwriting Today, information exchange takes place virtually and via letters It isintriguing that all the English textbooks for class 10 to class 12 integrate letter writinginto the writing sections of some units Not only do these tasks widen students’insight into the real-world context, but they also provide several orientations toapproach the task completion relating to the topic’s units
According to the challenges that the 10th graders endure, the collaborativewriting model is an indispensable measure which is designed to redeem the step-by-step instruction of collaborative writing for students and enrich their knowledge ofletter writing by inspiring them to discuss with peers, discover new real-worldcontext, and gradually shape their mindset on producing authentic products meetingthe lesson’s objectives By dint of the merits from which students can benefit, thedifference in English levels among students can be supported by the interaction andpractical development of skills that will be useful in their future learning Moreover, ifthey pass the inception of something new, they will be more confident enough tocomplete other learning tasks better and better
Trang 8Brown (2001) states that “Questionnaires are certain written instruments thatshow responses to a set of questions or sentences, either by writing down theiranswers or sorting out from existing answers.
Markey & Gass (2005) claims that using questionnaires in language researches avaluable instrument that lets researchers investigate and gather information onparticipants‟ beliefs and motivations in such a short time with comparableinformation elicited from several correspondents For the outstanding advantage ofquestionnaires mentioned above, the author decided to use questionnaires in thispaper to investigate students‟ attitudes and motivations towards communicationacquisition
Munandar (2009) claims verbal communication and creativity stimulate thefluency, flexibility, and production of output knowledge
Trang 9CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 The initial students’ writing results
Prior to the access to collaborative writing, the 50 students were encouraged tocomplete a task on letter writing It is significant to emphasize the integration of letterwriting into writing sections of some units in the textbooks After completing the firstthree units, they started to approach the letter writing lesson The content of thislesson requires students to write a complaint letter based on the given context
The chart 1 describes the number of students’ abilities to complete the task
As soon as having been instructed to complete the writing task in the textbook,they could not perform the task well; however, as can be seen from the bar chart,nearly 9 percent of students completed the task well, which shows that they fullyunderstand and identify the problems so as to write the description of the information
in the paper Next, the rate of students partially completing the task constitutes 22.2percent with 20 students This group partially understood the form of letter writingand missed some parts of the information needed to fill in the letter Finally, thehighest number of students who could not do this task accounts for 69 percent, whichreveals that they do not have a good understanding of the content and basicinformation about letter writing despite being given instruction
Compared to the above description of the students’ circumstances at Que Phonghigh school, they faced various challenges in learning English language skills,including writing, one of the most difficult output sections The main reasons for thisproblem relate to the acquisition of topic-based vocabulary, the ability to identifycontext, the expression of grammatical structures, the support of peers and teachers,and the shortage of time for self-studying Apart from learning time at school, they do
the results of students' abilities to comple te the task
number of students percentage
Trang 10not concentrate on investing more time in revising the knowledge and practicing theassignment Therefore, it is high time the author handled this problem with theincentive of using collaborative writing to increase students' engagement andenjoyment to gain better outcomes.
4.2 The application of collaborative writing model into letter writing lessons
The four types of letters, which are extracted from the textbook “Tieng Anh10” to implement the collaborative writing instruction to students, contain a letter ofcomplaint, a confirmation letter, a letter of invitation, and a letter of acceptance orrefusal
The focus of collaborative writing model zeros in on the planning, leadership,division of labour, effective communication, sharing of responsibilities for results andevaluation The following lesson plan is based on the document 5513 issued by theMinistry of Education and Training There are some changes in the sections inequivalence to the collaborative writing criteria
4.2.1 The implementation of letter of complaint
UNIT 4: SPECIAL EDUCATION
I OBJECTIVES
1 Language Knowledge:
- Pronunciation: the sound /ɔ / and /ɔ: /
- vocabulary and expressions related to education
- The + adjectives
- Used to + infinitive
- Which as a connector
2 Skills:
- Vocabulary comprehension: matching
- Extensive reading: multiple-choice questions
- Intensive reading: gap-fill
- Making an interview: matching
- Making an interview and reporting on results
- monologue: Deciding on True or False statements
- Gap-filling
- Writing a letter of complaint
Trang 113 Soft skills expected:
Communication skills: interviewing, negotiating, agreeing, disagreeing
Teamwork: deciding/ assigning tasks & roles, leadership skills
Time management
Responsibility
Researching skills
4 Attributes
Kindness: cooperate with groups’ member to complete the writing’s task
Diligence: share the letter writing with the whole class and integrate further necessarydetails
Honesty: discuss and reflect the problems of complaint about an English centre
Responsibility: raise the community’s awareness to selection of English centre
Love for the country: develop the effectiveness of English Language education inVietnam
II Teaching aids
Projector, board, laptops, handouts
III Teaching procedure
1 Activity 1: Warm-up
a) Objectives:
- Identify the type of letter
- Recognize problems related to the letter
b) Procedure:
Teacher’s activities Students’ activities
- Set the questions:
- Have you ever written a letter?
- Who did you write?
- How did you feel when you wrote a
letter? happy or sad?
- What kind of letter do you write if you
feel angry about something or unhappy
- Give the answers and share their ideas
- A letter of complaint
Trang 12with something? A letter of complaint or
- Discuss the content about letter of complaint
- Differentiate the problems and propose structures to complete the letter
b) Procedure:
Teacher’s activities Students’ activities
- Divide students into different groups
based on the mixture of levels
- Control the number of members in
groups (The number, levels)
- Introduce the lesson and ask students
to discuss
* What is a complaint letter?
* Have you ever written a complaint
letter?
* Do you know how to write it?
- Provide feedback
- Select their partners for groups
- Appoint a group leader
- Assign tasks to members
- Listen to the teacher
A complaint letter is written when someone is unhappy with something, such as: a story, a service, a course ect.
- Listen to the teacher and take notequickly
c) Product:
- Groups will share answer with the whole class
- Groups will complete teamwork plan
Teamwork plan Group number: _
Leader Manage members’ discussionMember Write drafting
Trang 13Member revisingMember Discover and organize ideasmember Discover and organize ideas
3 Activity 3: Group communication
a) Objectives
- Discuss the complaint content in the conversation related to the advertisement
- Differentiate the problems and propose structures to express the problems
b) Procedure:
Teacher’s activities Students’ activities
- Ask students to work in groups, using
the information in the advertisement to
complete the dialogue
- Call on some pairs to read aloud the
completed dialogue
- Check and give correct answers
- Look at the advertisement to completethe dialogue
- Read the conversation
c) Product:
Students complete the dialogue to identify the problems
4 Activity 4: Research and information gathering
a) Objectives
- Identify the problems and expressions to write the letter
- Complete the missing information of the given sample letter in the textbooks
b) Procedure:
Teacher’s activities Students’ activities
- Ask students to identify the form of the
letter in the given sample
- Provide some explanation to each
section of the letter and set some
questions to check their understanding
- Require all groups to discuss and
complete the form
- Share the answers
- Work together and discuss
- Complete the letter by implementingwriting draft, revising/ proof-reading
Trang 14- Provide help for some groups about
ways to discover the expression and
vocabulary for sentence building
4 Activity 4: Presentation
a) Objectives:
- Presenting their final product with the whole class
- Negotiating the reflections, they have learned from other groups and proposefeedback to other groups
- Commenting the form of letter and the use of language
b) Procedure
Teacher’s activities Students’ activities
- Let students play lucky draw to present
their writing products in order
- Let groups observe and assess writing
papers
- Ask students to comment, mark
rubrics, and reflect
- Ask each group to submit teamwork
plan and rubrics
- Scoring: Progress & Products
Average of: final product (50%) +
Teamwork plan (15%) + Teamwork
reports & progress (25%) + Self & Peer
c) Project display after presentation:
- Students will use technological devices to save letters
- Create a form for students to share their reflection on the project by using Padlet,Google forms, or delivering hard copies for students to share their ideas
4.2.2 The implementation of confirmation letter
UNIT 6: AN EXCURSION
Trang 15I OBJECTIVES
1 Language Knowledge:
- Pronunciation: / ∂ / and / З:/
- vocabulary and expressions related to excursion
- The present progressive (with future meaning)
- Be going to
2 Skills:
- Extensive reading: multiple-choice questions
- Intensive reading: gap-fill
- Passage comprehension
- Expressing agreements and disagreements
- Giving opinions
- Monologue: listening and numbering pictures, gap-filling, comprehension questions
- Writing a confirmation letter
3 Soft skills expected:
Communication skills: interviewing, negotiating, agreeing, disagreeing
Teamwork: deciding/ assigning tasks & roles, leadership skills
Time management
Responsibility
Researching skills
4 Attributes
Kindness: cooperate with groups’ member to complete the writing’s task
Diligence: share the letter writing with the whole class and integrate further necessarydetails
Honesty: discuss and reflect the response of confirmation to the letter senders
Responsibility: raise the community’s awareness of whether our confirmation should
be accepted or not
Love for the country: develop the introduction of Vietnam’s landscape to foreigners
II Teaching aids
Projector, board, laptops, handouts
Trang 16III Teaching procedure
1 Activity 1: Warm-up
a) Objectives:
- Identify the type of letter
- Recognize problems related to the letter
b) Procedure:
Teacher’s activities Students’ activities
- Set the questions:
1 What sort of letters did you study?
2 Did you study how to write a
confirmation letter?
- Say “Ok, today we will study how to
write a confirmation letter”
- Provide feedback
- Give the answers and share their ideas
c) Product: Students discuss the questions and share the answer
2 Activity 2: Pre-writing
a) Objectives
- Discuss the content about letter of complaint
- Differentiate the problems and propose structures to complete the letter
b) Procedure:
Teacher’s activities Students’ activities
- Divide students into different groups
based on the mixture of levels
- Control the number of members in
groups (The number, levels)
- Introduce the lesson and ask students to
discuss
* Explain the definition of request and
confirmation letters
- Request is the letter that ask for
- Select their partners for groups
- Appoint a group leader
- Assign tasks to members
- Listen to the teacher
- Listen to the teacher and take notequickly
Trang 17information or help
- Confirmation is the letter that responds
to the request It confirms whether the
help is provided or the information is
available or not
c) Product:
- Groups will share answer with the whole class
- Groups will complete teamwork plan
Teamwork plan Group number: _
Leader Manage members’ discussionMember Write drafting
Member revisingMember Discover and organize ideasmember Discover and organize ideas
3 Activity 3: Group communication
a) Objectives
- Discuss the complaint content in the conversation related to the advertisement
- Differentiate the problems and propose structures to express the problems
b) Procedure:
Teacher’s activities Students’ activities
- Ask groups to work and read two
letters and find the requests in Nga’s
letter and confirmation in Hoa’s
- Look at the two sample letters
- Share the request and confirmation
Trang 18- Give the meanings of some words
- Tell students to underline the structure
showing requests and confirmation
- Call on some students to explain their
answers in front of the class
- Give suggested answers
- Call on two students to read the letters
aloud in front of the class
structureGive answers:
+ Request: Can you go shopping with
me to buy the things we need for thetrip?
+ Confirmation: certainly, I will helpyou to prepare everything you need forthe trip
c) Product:
Students shows the structure of request and confirmation letter
4 Activity 4: Research and information gathering
a) Objectives
- Identify the situation from the given context and organize ideas to put in the letter
- Complete the confirmation letter responding to one of the given situation
b) Procedure:
Teacher’s activities Students’ activities
- Ask students to read the situations
carefully and find the requests in both of
them
- Provide some explanation to each
section of the letter and set some
questions to check their understanding
- Require all groups to discuss and
complete the form
- Provide help for some groups about
ways to discover the expression and
vocabulary for sentence building
- Share the answers
- Work together and discuss
- Complete the letter by implementingwriting draft, revising/ proof-reading
4 Activity 4: Presentation
a) Objectives:
- Presenting their final product with the whole class
Trang 19- Negotiating the reflections, they have learned from other groups and proposefeedback to other groups
- Commenting the form of letter and the use of language
b) Procedure
Teacher’s activities Students’ activities
- Let students play lucky draw to present
their writing products in order
- Let groups observe and assess writing
papers
- Ask students to comment, mark
rubrics, and reflect
- Ask each group to submit teamwork
plan and rubrics
- Scoring: Progress & Products
Average of: final product (50%) +
Teamwork plan (15%) + Teamwork
reports & progress (25%) + Self & Peer
c) Project display after presentation:
- Students will use technological devices to save letters
- Create a form for students to share their reflection on the project by using Padlet,Google forms, or delivering hard copies for students to share their ideas
4.2.3 The implementation of invitation letter
UNIT 10: CONSERVATION
I OBJECTIVES
1 Language Knowledge:
- Pronunciation: the sound /b / and /p/
- vocabulary and expressions related to conservation
- The passive voice
2 Skills:
- Vocabulary comprehension: matching