Difficulties in writing skills of english majored freshmen at tay do university

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LINGUISTIC AND LITERATURE RESEARCH PROPOSAL DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING SKILLS OF ENGLISH- MAJORED FRESHMEN AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY Supervisor: Ly Thi Tra My,

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LINGUISTIC AND LITERATURE

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING SKILLS

OF ENGLISH- MAJORED FRESHMEN

AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY

Supervisor: Ly Thi Tra My, M.A Student’s name: Nguyen Thanh Danh

Student’s code: 1652220201007 Class: English 11A

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS i

CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Research aim and research question 1

1.2.1 Research aim 1

1.2.2 Research question 1

1.3 Significance of this study 2

1.4 Organization of this study 2

CHAPTER 2LITERATURE REVIEW 3

2.1 Definition of writing 3

2.2 Importance of writing 4

2.3 Difficulties in writing 4

2.3.1 Vocabulary 5

2.3.2 Grammar structure 6

2.3.3 Orthography 6

CHAPTER 3RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 8

3.1 Design 8

3.2 Participants 8

3.3 Instruments 8

3.3.1 Questionnaire 8

3.3.2 Interview 9

3.3.3 Observation 9

3.4 Data analysis 9

3.5 Procedures 10

CHAPTER 4EXPECTED OUTCOMES 11

4.1 Vocabulary 11

4.2 Grammar structure 11

4.3 Orthography 11

REFERENCES ii

APPENDIX v

INTERVIEW QUESTION vi

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

In English study program of Tay Do University, Writing I is given at the second semester In Writing I, students will write a paragraph to increase students’ skill in writing and to develop ideas into written form English-majored freshmen have still faced to a lot of difficulties in writing because of the differences between writing in high-school and writing in university

Among the four language skills, writing is considered as the most challenging and difficult skill for most of foreign language learners (Reid, 1993b) The development of students’ second language writing can be influenced by multiple factors such as first language writing ability, second language proficiency, and writing experiences in both languages (Kobayashi & Rinnert, 2001; Kubota, 1998) Consequently, the main aim of this study is to find out students’ difficulties during their writing process

1.2 Research aim and research question

1.2.1 Research aim

The aim of this study is to find out the difficulties of English-majored freshmen at Tay Do University facing in writing

1.2.2 Research question

This study aims to answer the following research question:

“What difficulties do English-majored freshmen at Tay Do University face in writing?”

1.3 Significance of this study

This study helps the English-majored freshmen at Tay Do University identify the difficulties, as well as helps professors know what problems their students are facing and guide them to better writing skills

1.4 Organization of this study

The research consists of four chapters including:

Chapter I: Introduction

Chapter II: Literature review

Chapter III: Research methodology

Chapter IV: Expected outcomes

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the definition of writing skills and the importance of writing skills It also points out difficulties in writing skills of English-majored freshmen at Tay Do University

2.1 Definition of writing

Writing, speaking and body language are basic communication facilities Writing is a communication facility by alphabet and symbols While not all languages utilize a writing system, those with systems of inscriptions can complement and extend capacities of spoken language by enabling the creation of durable forms of speech that can be transmitted across space and stored over time (Nusan, 2003)

Writing is a method of representing language in visual form Writing systems use sets of symbols to represent the sounds of speech, and may also have symbols for such things as punctuation and numerals According to Lado (1996), writing is a partial representation of units of language expression

Besides, writing can be good if we master vocabulary, grammar, punctuation and spelling According to Zulfani (2001), writing can help students to make stronger

by adding more grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary, as the important thing in learning a language According to Asmuti (2002), by mastering writing skills, the writers can elaborate their ideas in a systematic arrangement When writing, the students need to understand the content and impart it clearly so the readers can understand the content of the article

There is another definition for writing, “writing is the creative process because

it is a process of reaching out for one’s thoughts and discovering them Writing, as such is a process of meaning-making” (Cumming, 2006)

2.2 Importance of writing

The ability to write well can have a profound impact on our lives The good articles can be an art but if the writers do not impart content of the articles, without the competency and practice of basic writing skills, neither proficient works of written art can be fictional nor can any lives be influenced (Currier, 2008) Besides,

in discussing the importance of writing, Suleiman (2000) points out that “writing is a central element of language, any reading, and language arts program must consider the multidimensional nature of writing in instructional practices, assessment procedures, and language development.” This multidimensional aspects of writing helps in comprehending of writing fundamentals

Strong writing skills may enhance students' chances for success (Alexander, 2008) In discussing the significance of writing to learning, Suleiman (2000) also stresses that writing is an essential factor of language Any studying curriculum must think about the multidimensional nature of writing in instructional practices, evaluation procedures, and language development

In the school setting, writing plays two distinct but complementary roles First,

it is a skill that draws on the use of strategies to accomplish a variety of goals, such

as writing a report or expressing an opinion with the support of evidence Second, writing is a means of extending and deepening student’s knowledge; and it acts as a tool for learning subject matters (Elbow 1973)

Nowadays, writing English is more and more important In many colleges and universities, students need English certificates to complete studying program including writing skills Moreover, many foreign companies need employees who have a good writing skills to help them to make the contracts and document

2.3 Difficulties in writing

According to Nusan (2003), and Al-Gharabally (2015), students often face three difficult factors including vocabulary, grammar and orthography

2.3.1 Vocabulary

Vocabulary is one of the most popular factors affecting writing skills The good writing or composition should consist of an appropriate and varied range of vocabulary used along with proper grammar and varied range of sentence structures (Norrish, 1983; Alamirew, 2005) According to Reid (1989), Johnson and Roen (1989) when the writer practices the choice of vocabulary that would reflect a concern for the readers and the purposes of writing, the composition was written by the student would become sensitive to his/her readers However, using appropriate vocabulary to write the articles in a second language can be a big challenge that students face Moreover, Ariyanti, Rinda Fitriana & Widya Gama (2011) states that usually students use ‘big words’ in their essays to impress the readers, their teachers The effort to impress the reader leads to a problem of diction

In fact, a lack of vocabulary is a reason why the students cannot show their ideas They cannot write a good article because they do not have enough vocabulary

to clearly explain ideas, feelings and thoughts (Kristy, 2012) According to Thornbury (2002) “without grammar, very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed” If the students do not have a rich vocabulary, they will be confused when they want to express thoughts in writing

Moreover, choosing appropriate words in particular contexts is also the proplem students encounter Word choices are also huge obstacles for students Harmer (1991) explains that the first to realize about vocabulary items is that they frequently have more than one meaning

In addition, most vocabulary items often have synonyms and polymorphic words, so choosing words to use is also difficult for students Besides, students' limited vocabulary is often due to forgetting old words and not updating new words

So, vocabulary is the main cause that students feel difficult in English writing

2.3.2 Grammar structure

Grammar is one of the important elements of writing It directly affects the structure and meaning of sentences However, students often make grammatical errors in their writing such as tenses, part of speech, word order and preposition Choosing suitable tenses makes their writing clear and coherent When they use the wrong tense, the meaning of sentences may be wrong, too (Ibrahim, 2015)

Besides, functions of word can also confuse students, it is important to remember that discriminating parts of speech in English mainly based on functions

of the words in sentences It is very hard for the learners when encountering multiple function words in sentences, which could have more than two functions, it could be

a noun, a verb, an adjective or a pronoun (Nusan, 2003)

In addition, prepositions are words that show the relationship between a noun

or pronoun and other words in a sentence If the students do not master the functions and principles of prepositions in use They often meet the mistakes in the selection and use of prepositions The same word can combine with many prepositions to create many different meanings So if we want to have a good writing, we need to master grammar and enhance knowledge of preposition (Sajid & Siddiqui, 2015)

2.3.3 Orthography

Orthography including punctuation and spelling is the difficulties that the students face According to Am (2015) “punctuation is the pragmatics of written language” Punctuation is one of the most important things in written English Punctuation is used to create sense and clarity in sentences Without any punctuation,

it will make the readers unclear Students often use the wrong punctuation in their writing, which changes the meaning of the sentence According to Byrne (1988), the fact that punctuation has never been standard to the extent as spelling, makes it problematic Likewise, Croll and Wilson (1995) state “students' writing encounters punctuation problems as there are no universal rules of punctuation”

Besides, spelling also affects writing Spelling is a unified order of letters and diacritics According to Applebee (1986), it is “the conventions which determine how the graphemes of a writing system are used to write a language” Due to the influence

of other languages, variant pronunciations and other historical reasons, the English spelling system has become inconsistent and complex for students (Graham and Mason, 2005) If the students want to write good writing, it is important to have the correct spelling English spelling is indispensable in writing and this makes it really hard for the students

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Design

This study is conducted by a combination of qualitative and quantitative This research will be analyzed to investigate the difficulties in writing skills of English majored freshmen

3.2 Participants

The participants in this research were 100 English majored freshmen studying first year at Tay Do University Most students were at the age 18 to 20 The reasons for choosing these participants were based on the subject they were learning, the length of their English learning, their competence in English as a foreign language, and their age Their ages and learning process were nearly the same, so they might have the same ways of thinking and might face some similar difficulties

3.3 Instruments

To answer the research question in the present study, the researcher measured the participants' difficulties in writing skills of English-majored freshmen The instruments used in this research were the questionnaire, interview and observation

3.3.1 Questionnaire

Questionnaire was chosen as an instrument because it provides an easy and practical way for collecting data from the quantity of people in a short time The questionaire has 15 statements:

Question/Statement Summary of the question’s/statement’s

content

Part 2: Difficulties in writing skills

Questions 1 - 3 The importance of writing skills

Questions 4 - 7 The difficulties of vocabulary

Questions 8 - 11 The difficulties of grammar structure

Questions 12 - 15 The difficulties of orthography

3.3.2 Interview

To understand clearly the difficulties in writing skills of freshmen; As well as

to validate the answers in the questionnaire Researcher invited randomly 10 students studying first year at Tay Do university to interview face to face 4 questions about difficulties in writing skills

3.3.3 Observation

The observation was used to directly know the difficulties in writing skills Researcher came to class during class writing correction and observed how professors corrected students’ mistakes

3.4 Data analysis

The data taken from the main instrument were checked and analyzed so that the researcher can find the difficulties in writing skills of freshmen students

In order to analyze the difficulties in writing, the researcher collected students’ opinion about the difficulty level, the scale of survey was divided into five levels: strongly agree, agree, normal, disagree, strongly disagree

After the data were collected, the data from questionnaire would be analysed using SPSS software (Descriptive test, One-sample T-test, Reliability test) The data from the interview and observation were mainly interpreted by qualitative analysis

3.5 Procedures

Step 1: From the 1st to 3rd week

- Correcting the research topic

- Designing questionnaire

- Finding document for chapter 2 –Literature review

Step 2: From the 4th to 6th week

- Asking the teacher for permission of delivering questionnaire

- Meeting participants and delivering the questionnaire to collect the data

- Interviewing participants

- Observing in the class

Step 3: From the 7th to 8th week - Analyzing the collected data

- Completing the research