(Đồ án hcmute) a research on students attitude towards brainstormings as pre writing activity and factors that affect interactive brainstorming groups

CAPSTONE PROJECT FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION Ho Chi Minh City, August 2017 A RESEARCH ON STU

CAPSTONE PROJECT FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION

Ho Chi Minh City, August 2017

A RESEARCH ON STUDENTS' ATTITUDE

TOWARDS BRAINSTORMING AS A PRE-WRITING

ACTIVITY AND FACTORS THAT AFFECT

INTERACTIVE BRAINSTORMING GROUPS

INSTRUCTOR: TRUONG THI HOA, M.A STUDENT: HUYNH THI HONG NHUNG

S K L 0 0 9 9 3 2

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

A RESEARCH ON STUDENTS' ATTITUDE TOWARDS BRAINSTORMING AS A PRE-WRITING ACTIVITY AND FACTORS THAT AFFECT INTERACTIVE BRAINSTORMING GROUPS

Instructor: Hoa T Truong, M.A

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my instructor Mrs Truong Thi Hoa for the continuous support of my study and related research, for her patience, motivation, and immense knowledge Her guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis I would like to show my gratitude to her useful comments for finalising my research

My sincere thanks also goes to Dr Dang Tan Tin, Dr Trinh Ngoc Thanh who provide me comprehensive knowledge related to completing a research and enlighten me the benefits of SPSS program Without their precious support it would not be possible to conduct this research

Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family: my parents and my sister for supporting me spiritually throughout writing this thesis

ABSTRACT

This research was conducted to investigate the students’ attitude towards brainstorming as a pre-writing activity in Writing 4 classes besides examining factors that affect the impacts of brainstorming on interactive brainstorming groups The participants are FFL learners at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education who are taking Writing 4 classes with instruction as well as exercises to practice and apply brainstorming activity in their writing The research uses the questionnaire which employs quantitative approach and interview session that makes use of qualitative approach as two main means for collecting the data The findings reveal that students possess positive perspective in terms of cognitive and emotional attitude, yet having an unclear attitude of behavioral aspect towards brainstorming Moreover, the factors which affect interactive brainstorming are the fear of negative feedback, unbalanced effort contribution, idea interference, and the self-deprecation of some members Due to the fact that the instrument derives from a new topic, the findings are not absolutely convincing

It is advisable for other researchers who are interested in brainstorming technique to use instrument with a higher level of reliability for their study Moreover, because of the research’s type which is a descriptive one, other aspects related to brainstorming have not been figured out like real methodology for doing brainstorming and its effectiveness; therefore, these issues need to be explained carefully in future research

Table of Contents

LIST OF TABLES

Chapter 1 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Rationale 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Organisation of the study 3

Chapter 2 4

Literature review 4

2.1 Definitions and constituents of attitude 4

2.2 An over view of brainstorming 6

2.3 Brainstorming’s variations 9

2.3.1 Nominal Group Technique 10

2.3.2 Team idea mapping method 11

2.3.3 Group passing technique 12

2.3.4 Electronic brainstorming 12

2.3.5 Directed brainstorming 13

2.3.6 Question brainstorming 14

2.3.7 Individual brainstorming 14

2.4 Impacts of brainstorming 15

2.4.1 Effects on Group vs Individual 15

2.4.2 Effects on teaching and learning context 17

2.5 Definitions of pre-writing stage 19

2.6 Pre-writing strategies 19

2.6.1 Graphical representations 19

2.6.2 Free writing 20

2.6.3 Clustering 20

2.6.4 Journalist questions 21

2.7 Evaluation tools for created ideas 21

2.7.1 Quality scale 21

2.7.1.1 Originality 22

2.7.1.2 Effectiveness 22

2.7.2 Counting approach 23

2.8 Conceptual framework 24

2.9 A summary of literature review 27

Chapter 3 29

Methodology 29

3.1 Research method 29

3.2 Respondents of the study 29

3.3 Sampling technique 30

3.4 Research design 30

3.4.1 Questionnaire 30

3.4.2 Interview questions 33

3.5 A summary of the chapter 33

3.5 Reliability 34

Chapter 4 36

4.1 Students’ attitude towards brainstorming 36

4.1.1 Behavioral aspects 36

4.1.2 Cognitive attitude 37

4.1.3 Emotional attitude 37

4.2 Factors that affect interactive brainstorming groups 38

4.3 Interview data 39

4.4 Discussion 41

4.5 A summary of data analysis and findings 42

Chapter 5 43

Conclusion 43

5.1 Summary of the study 43

5.2 Theoretical contribution 43

5.3 Methodological suggestion 44

5.4 Limitation 44

5.5 Implications for further research 45

REFERENCES 46

APPENDICE 49

Appendix 1 49

Appendix 2 52

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2.1 Evaluation scale: Originality 22

Table 2.2 Evaluation scale: Effectiveness 23

Figure 2.3 Conceptual framework 26

Table 2.4 A summary of Literature Review 28

Figure 3.1 The gender proportion of participants 29

Table 3.2 An over view of questionnaire 33

Table 3.3 A summary of research methodology 34

Table 3.4 Reliability of “Behavioral attitude” variable 34

Table 3.5 Reliability of “Cognitive attitude” variable 34

Table 3.6 Reliability of “Emotional attitude” variable 35

Table 3.7 Reliability of “Factors affect interactive brainstorming groups” variable 35

Table 4.1 Mean and standard deviation of Behavioral attitude 36

Table 4.2 Mean and standard deviation of Cognitive attitude 37

Table 4.3 Mean and standard deviation of Emotional attitude 38

Table 4.4 Factors affect interactive brainstorming groups 39

Table 4.5 A summary of data analysis and findings 42

However, after nearly 4 years studying with EFL (English as Foreign Language) students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, I realize the fact that despite receiving instruction about brainstorming, EFL (English as Foreign Language) students often ignore this important stage, regardless

of time when they are forced to do In fact, students do not brainstorm frequently prior to their writing Actually, they seem to ignore pre-writing step, including brainstorming which is consistent with the previous research that the most neglected step is pre-writing (Tompkins, 2001).Generally, students’ habits during this stage is different from one to another This is proved by another research that skillful writers often spend more time than inexperienced writers in prewriting stage (Kozma, 1991) or “Poorer writers tend to

1.2 Rationale

For the mentioned context on which students often ignore pre-writing activities in general and brainstorming in particular, the research aims at figuring out students’ attitude towards this stage, which later provides both learners and teachers practical insights regarding teaching and learning writing

On the other hand, the research is conducted to grasp a general view on the factors that affect interactive brainstorming groups which were found in the previous study These factors include the fear of negative feedback, the unbalanced effort contribution, idea interference, and the self-deprecation of some members Due to the fact that these previous studies were done in such a long time ago; moreover, they originated mostly in different countries leading to the fact that these results may be different from those of Vietnamese context For that reason, this study will investigate again these factors to find out specific results for students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education

1.3 Research questions

For the mentioned problem as well as purposes, the research aims at answering the following questions:

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1 What is the attitude of second-year English-majored students in Writing 4 classes

at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Eduation towards brainstorming as a pre-writing activity?

2 What are the factors that affect interactive brainstorming groups in Writing 4 classes at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Eduation towards brainstorming as a pre-writing activity?

1.4 Organisation of the study

The research consists of five main parts: Introduction, literature review, methodology, data report and conclusion To be more specific, in the introduction section, all of the problems that the research need to clarify are clearly stated Besides, the purposes as well as research questions are also presented Next, in the literature review, the theory about brainstorming will be reviewed including definitions, methods, variations and effects The literature review presents data about the problems related to brainstorming In the methodology, the information of research method, respondents of the study, sources of data and also the statements and questions used to provide input for the research are all clearly illustrated Last but not least, the process of reporting the data

to draw the conclusion is going to be showed in two final chapters of the research

of research scope, in the following review, the significant impacts of brainstorming technique will mostly be considered in light of writing area

2.1 Definitions and constituents of attitude

In fact, it is essential to recognise that attitude plays an important role in learning language, especially in learning English as a foreign language Actually, the ability of students to master a second language is not only influenced by the mental competence or language skills but also by the students’ attitude and perception towards the target language, which is found in the research of Abidin, Pourmohammadi, & Alzwari, H (as cited in Shahrzad Eshghinejad, 2016) It is undeniable that students’ attitude towards learning a second language in general and in practicing brainstorming for better writing results in particular is of extreme importance For that reason, the research is going to find out students’ attitude towards brainstorming to better understand their perspective, which later provides writing teachers profound insights into their students’ perception

In terms of definitions, attitude was defined as a favorable or unfavorable evaluative reaction towards something or someone, exhibited in one’s belief, feelings, or intended behavior (Myers, 1987) There were certain reasons why attitude was of great importance to language learners in general and to brainstormers in particular For instance, one research conducted in 1998 believed that attitudes towards learning influence behaviors such as selecting and reading books, speaking in a foreign language (Weinburgh, 1998) In general, students’ attitude towards language predicts whether or

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not they are likely to absorb the details of that language In other words, achievements did not reflect only intellectual capability of students, they also reveal students’ attitude towards a particular piece of language To be more specific, one student who could brainstorm well or not will depend greatly on his or her attitude towards brainstorming stage as well as the topic of one given task

In one great work called “Principles of Language Learning and Teaching”, (Brown, 1994) added “attitudes, like all aspects of the development of cognition and affect in human beings, develop early in childhood and are the result of parents’ and peers’ attitudes, of contact with people who are different in any number of ways, and of interacting affective factors in the human experience” It seems obvious that there are many stimulants that lead to a positive or negative attitude Attitude concept can be viewed from three dimensions regarding its aspects Each one of these dimensions has different features to bring out language attitude results, namely behavioral, cognitive, and affective These three attitudinal aspects are based on the three theoretical approaches of behaviorism, cognitivism, and humanism, respectively (Eshghinejad, 2016)

The research is going to use the questionnaires in one research of Shahrzad Eshghinejad named “EFL (English as Foreign Language) students’ attitudes towards learning English language: The case study of Kashan University students” as a model to adapt This is a synthesized questionnaire adapted already by various research with items presented carefully in methodology section Shahrzad Eshghinejad is a PhD candidate in TEFL She holds a Master of Arts in TEFL from the Department of English Language, Faculty of Literature and Foreign Languages, State University of Kashan, Iran She teaches and translates at different English Language Institutions Her research interests include TEFL/TESOL, ELL, genre studies, ESP, academic writing, teaching methods, and vocabulary Her research aims at investigating attitude of male and female students who are learners of Kashan University towards English language learning in terms of behavioral, cognitive and emotional aspects There are totally 30 selected samples in her

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research Subsequently, the results show that these students hold a positive attitude in three aspects; moreover, there is a significant difference between the groups of males and females regarding their attitude Her instrument to collect the data is synthesized from prior studies in the field; therefore, it is believed to reach the highest reliability

The behavioral aspect of attitude (BAA) deals with the way one behaves and reacts in particular situations Researcher Kara states that positive attitude leads to the exhibition of positive behavior toward studying, absorbing themselves in it, and striving

to learn more (Kara, 2009) Such students are also observed to show more enthusiasm to solve problems, to acquire what is useful for daily life, and to engage themselves emotionally (Eshghinejad, 2016)

Cognitive aspect of attitude (CAA) involves the beliefs of the language learners about the knowledge that they receive and their understanding of the process of language learning The cognitive attitude could be classified into four steps of connecting the previous knowledge and the new one, creating new knowledge, checking new knowledge, and applying new knowledge in many situations (Eshghinejad, 2016)

With regard to the emotional attitude, Feng and Chen stated that “Learning process is an emotional process It is affected by different emotional factors The teacher and his students engage in various emotional activities in it and varied results of emotions are yield” (Feng, 2009)

2.2 An over view of brainstorming

Generally, learners encounter various problems when learning a new language In English, although each of the four skills namely listening, speaking, reading and writing has their own difficulties, they seem to have one common problem called ideas To deal with this trouble, brainstorming has been invented Throughout the history, brainstorming was adapted by many experts with different meanings related to these specialists’ fields Some of them are recorded like below

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Brainstorming was first popularized in 1953 by Osborn in his book (Osborn, 1953) Although this technique might have existed before, brainstorming was known as a specific practice following a defined process that was promoted by Osborn, an advertising executive He claimed that learners could enhance their creative output by the help of brainstorming In his view, everyone had creative potentiality, and he believed that during the teaching and learning process, this creative ability could be nurtured Moreover, he also held an underlying belief that imagination and judgment need to be separated for better results of idea generation According to his consideration, when the judicial prudence decisively intervenes in the thinking process, it will inevitably affect the quantity of ideas created Therefore, only when the brain was allowed to work freely, without any judgment, it could reach the highest efficiacy in terms of provoking ideas In other words, his theory admited that “quantity will bread quality” Not only did he found out brainstorming technique, he also generated some specific rules for brainstorming perfomed in groups These rules instruct group members to base on the previous ideas to create new ones; moreover, they need to be combined and improved for the later process called association Next, learners are advised not to critize on any particular ideas due to the fact that it can limit their efficiacy Another rule is to generate a large number of ideas As what has been stated before, Osborn believes that quantity could generate quality, therefore, the more ideas that learners could reach, the more opportunities for them to make use of them Finally, wild ideas are always appreciated in this stage They can be created by considering the topic in different viewpoints or suspend old perspectives In such a challenging topic, wild ideas could give priority to learners by his creativity In simple terms, brainstorming is believed to help writers select a topic, develop a rational approach or deepen writers’ comprehension of the topic In both cases when writers encounter numerous information or otherwise have no idea, brainstorming always works well for better writing results In particular, writers need to bring for themselves a massive flow of ideas in order not to be overwhelmed with their work and

“defining a problem or ideas” In fact, this stage is obviously crucial for any task that needs numerous ideas Actually, without examining the topic, learners, especially writing learners are not be able to move on to idea generation phase Even more, clarifying the questioning issue might help individuals determine by themselves what is applicable knowledge and what needs to be added As a result, their ideas in the later stage will be able to find its appropriate ways to go The later stage in Mc Dowell definition is

“coming up with anything related to the topic” In other words, learners list ideas while they brainstorm Actually, learners should find out as many ideas as possible regardless

of their value Again, any judicial judgment in this stage is not appropriate Individuals might simply get things that are related to their topic without deciding which is proper or otherwise not This statement of opinion shows that the researcher’s view is partly the same as that of Osborn To be more specific, both Osborn and Mc Dowell believe that there are higher chances for getting valuable suggestions among numerous ideas created

In terms of brainstorming form, both two researchers Osborn and Al-maghawry are in the same opinion that this technique is mostly a group performance In his journal article, Al-maghawry believed that brainstoming can be considered as a group creativity forum for generating ideas Moreover, brainstorming technique involved oral and pre-writing exercises for helping the learner and for expressing ideas by the teacher It was a technique that was used under the discussion method (Al-maghawry, 2012) To put it another way, brainstorming in this researcher’s view needs certain group discussion to be completely finalised Additionally, by a group forum, creative ideas might be easily promoted For an interactive group, the posibilities for marvellous suggestions are

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believed to greatly increase A further commentary about brainstorming invloved oral and other pre-writing exercises which are used to help learners express their ideas thoroughly Certainly, in a context of many people, any individuals need to present their ideas so that others can record what they are doing

In terms of methodology to conduct brainstorming, the first, and probably most common, is a teacher-led technique The teacher introduces a topic and solicits ideas from students in a rather random fashion At the same time, the teacher writes all ideas and suggestions on the board so that students can see what has already been discussed (Tarricone, 1995) Actually, it is essential to see that this way for manipulating brainstorming is quite common in most Writing classes In these classes, students are asked to add some thoughts based on a given topic with the instructions from their own teachers It is evident to see that this methodology of conducting brainstorming is not creative; however, it offers teachers and learners certain effects in terms of collected ideas

In simple terms, brainstorming is developed throughout the history with a common view among specialists It can be said that brainstorming is one of the most important prewriting techniques which offers learners, especially writing learners with a massive flow of ideas Moreover, these ideas are not intended to be examined whether they are good or not, according to Tomlinson and Mc Dowell Due to the general principal that quantity will bread quality, the more ideas are generated, the more chances for useful thoughts are created In fact, brainstorming has undergone various periods of existance; however, the method for conducting this session is quite common among different Writing classes

2.3 Brainstorming’s variations

Throughout the history, many alternative forms of brainstorming have been recorded Although they may have different distinctions, the commonplace trait between them is brainstormers are divided into 2 main types, including individual and group

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brainstorming Regarding group brainstorming, there are some variations that are listed in the following section

2.3.1 Nominal Group Technique

According to one research conducted in 1980, Nominal Group Technique (NGT) was defined as “ a structured method of group decision-making which allows a rich generation of original ideas, balanced participation of all members of the group, and a rank-ordered set of decisions based on a mathematical voting method” (Horton, 1980) In this research, the conducting sequence of NGT was also specified In the initial stage, members of the group sit around a table so that they can get full view of each other After

a short introduction by the group leader, other members get a paper with a Nominal Question that is carefully stated in the question form about the issue to be discussed The vital point is that this Nominal Question needs to be clear enough for all group members

to understand easily After that, without discussion, they start to create speedily as many ideas as possible After a certain amount of time, the group leader will record the generated ideas in a place that all the members can see besides preventing any discussion from taking place Moreover, coincident ideas will be removed from the list Only after the final idea is noted down, the discussion phase can begin with a limited amount of time for each participant to present their ideas and clarifications and there are also chances for further idea generation Although this may be a time-consuming stage, it is believed to be a vital process due to the fact that the discussion on every item could help the group to find out similar ideas, thus shortening the list Then each member will be delivered a small blank card for selecting the most important ideas on their own The number of cards that will be delivered is approximately equivalent with one third of the created ideas Before group members individually score the items, they will have to note down the title of the ideas that they chose The scoring section also takes place separately

in group From each member’s collection, the item that is believed to be the most important one will have the highest score which equals with the number of the cards

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given while the least important will be ranked as one These two cards are then turned face-down The process will then be repeated with the remaining items After finishing the process, all of the cards will be collected for shuffling The score achieved by each card will be noted down in the main list, eventually the group leader will announce the ideas in the order of rank according to the total score of them It is evident to see that the NGT process is not simple Although it may take time, the effect of this technique in terms of valuable ideas generated is likely to be guaranteed if these processes including silent idea-generation, recording of ideas, free discussion, and scoring are strictly followed

2.3.2 Team idea mapping method

Another variation of brainstorming is also done in group called team idea mapping method According to David Bohm, the world-renowned scientist, everyone is creative (Bohm, 1998), thus every member of a team could contribute to creating creative results for their group This technique also requires some basic steps to be finalised Firstly, the common topic that needs examining is presented to all members of this group Like NGT, participants are encouraged to brainstorm individually Their mission is to create a pool

of ideas related to the topic After that, all of the ideas will be noted down on a large space such as a black board for all of the members to see On that common list of items, each member has a chance to present their ideas, and hence creates connections between the items; as a result, necessary items are likely to be added to the list to make it become

a complete map When all of the ideas are clearly understood, the group can easily prioritize them In terms of effectiveness, this technique is extremely beneficial for generating ideas Although this may take a lot of time to discuss the connections between items, mapping method can help learners greatly increase their creative outcomes One researcher recommended this technique due to its amazing output as “Mind map is a graphical way to represent ideas and concepts It is a visual thinking tool that helps structure information, and helps you to better analyze, comprehend, synthesize, recall and

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generate new ideas” (Passuello, 2007) Unlike NGT, almost no idea is rejected during the process of mind mapping If these items are logically presented, they are likely to be a part of the map, and thus this increases the chances for the later use

2.3.3 Group passing technique

According to the book called Project Management 2.0 (Kerzner,2004), group passing technique is another variation of brainstorming method which is done in group

By this brainstorming variation, each person in a circular group writes down one idea, and then passes the piece of paper to the next person, who adds some thoughts This continues until everybody gets his or her original piece of paper back By this time, it is likely that the group will have extensively elaborated on each idea The group may also create an Idea Book On the first page there is a description of the topic The first person

to receive the book lists his or her ideas and then routes the book to the next person on the distribution list The second person can log new ideas or add to the ideas of the previous person This continues until the distribution list is exhausted A follow-up "read out" meeting is then held to discuss the ideas logged in the book This technique takes longer, but it allows individuals sufficient time to think deeply about the problem (Kerzner, 2014)

2.3.4 Electronic brainstorming

It is a computerized version of the manual brainstorming technique typically supported by an Electronic Meeting System (EMS) but simpler forms can also be done via email and may be browser based, or use peer-to-peer software With an EMS, participants share a list of ideas on a network Ideas are entered independently Contributions become immediately visible to all and are typically anonymized to encourage openness and reduce personal prejudice Modern EMS also supports synchronous brainstorming sessions over extended periods of time as well as typical follow-up activities in the creative problem-solving process such as categorization of ideas, elimination of duplicates, assessment and discussion of prioritized or controversial

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ideas (Kerzner, 2014) In general, this technique outweights traditional brainstorming in terms of enabling larger groups of learners to brainstorm ideas On the other hand, it also provides brainstormers flexible time for generating their ideas for the given topic With the rapid development of social network, electronic brainstorming can enhance significantly the number of ideas created for group work in problem solving tasks in general and in writing tasks in particular Another advantage of this method is to avoid production blocking when brainstorm ideas It is evident to see that learners in groups easily encounter ‘block’ when other members present their ideas consecutively.In other words, with the help of the Internet, writers can have certain time for preparing ideas prior to typing and sending it to their friends Moreover, they are likely to receive sufficient comments for their ideas , thereby increasing chances for creating better things

2.3.5 Directed brainstorming

This technique is similar to brain writing and is also a variation of electronic brainstorming It can be done manually or with a computer Directed brainstorming works when the solution space (that is, the criteria for evaluating a good idea) is known prior to the session If known, those criteria can be used to intentionally constrain the idea creation process In directed brainstorming, each participant is given one sheet of paper (or electronic form) and told the brainstorming question They are asked to produce one response and stop, then all of the papers ( or forms ) are randomly swapped among the participants The participants are asked to look at the ideas they received and to create a new idea that improves on that idea based on initial criteria The forms are the swapped again and respondents are asked to improve upon the ideas, and the process is repeated three or more rounds In the laboratory, directed brainstorming has been found to almost triple the productivity of groups over electronic brainstorming (Kerzner, 2014) In fact, the technique is useful due to the fact that it provides writers criteria to self-evaluate their own ideas or even their friends’ ideas Generally, by revealing these principals, the ideas generated already meet the requirements of the writing tasks For that reason, this

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technique can be considered as one of the most effective ways for conducting brainstorming section during a writing class

2.3.6 Question brainstorming

This technique is also called “Questorming” (Roland, 1985) This process involves

brainstorming the questions, rather than trying to come up with immediate answers and

short-term solutions Theoretically, this technique should not inhibit participation as there

is no need to provide solutions The answers to the questions form the framework for constructing future action plans Once the list of questions is set, it is necessary to prioritize them reach to the best solution in an orderly way (Ludy, 2000) In simple terms, brainstorming the questions instead of directing solutions helps learners have other ways

to perceive their ways to address the given problem which appeared in the writing task What they need to do and how can they complete these mentioned goals are all presented

in the forms of concrete questions Actually, the questions are not clearly the ideas or detailed answers for a specific problem appearing in the writing tasks; however, they are vital tools for writers to find their own solutions via the created questions

is mindmapping When mind mapping in groups needs to be carefully presented so that every member can have a chance to draw the connection, mindmapping in this technique purely plays the role of visualize the ideas for further items generation or main subject

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examination Actually, the chances for examining the topic at different sides by mind mapping are likely to be relatively higher than others, including free writing or tradional brainstorming due to the map it can create In fact, there is not a small number of learners’ types, therefore, in any particular matter, learners always have different preferences As the below section, with one brainstorming technique, learners can be in favour of working in groups or otherwise on their own These two forms of brainstorming

as well as their effects have long been examined in a great deal of research throughout the history; however, the results still remain controversial The effectiveness of brainstorming will then be presented in the next section

2.4 Impacts of brainstorming

As what has been stated, brainstorming is not purely a single technique, it has other variations in which brainstormers are classified into a group or otherwise an individual Over the decades, there have been a large number of studies conducted to figure out the effects of both group and individual brainstorming Although these studies were done under different contexts as well as with dissimilar methods, the results have been nearly identical when researchers compare two mentioned forms of brainstorming

2.4.1 Effects on Group vs Individual

In the initial stage, approximately 30 years after Osborn presented brainstorming and its rules, there was a great deal of evidence illustrating that interactive brainstorming

in face-to-face groups leads to fewer ideas and fewer high quality ideas than nominal groups, which comprise of basically a comparable number of individual brainstormers (Diel & Stroebe, 1987; Mullen, Johnson, & Salas, 1991) There are several factors which may contribute to these effects; however,the examined causes are classified into social factors and task factors namely evaluation apprehension, social loafing, production blocking, or downward comparisons (Mullen et al., 1991; P B Paulus, Dzindolet, Coskun, & Putman, 2002) In simple terms, evaluation apprehension is the feeling of some members of a group when they are fear of being judged by others or they are scared

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of recieving negative feedback on their ideas Moreover, social loafing happens when individuals appear to contribute less than others compared with when they work alone Actually, this phenomenon happens in groups with a relatively high frequency when members let others take the responsibility for the whole group task

Actually, the effect of brainstorming in a group may decrease due to social anxiety (Camacho & Paulus, 1995) or due to the fact that they are likely to have difficulty in expressing their ideas when they have to wait for their turn while others are presenting theirs (Nijstad, Stroebe, & Lodewijkx, 2002) It is easy to see that not anyone in a group has confidence in showing their ideas Furthermore, due to the limited amount of time allowed during brainstorming stage, group members who are not ready for their turn will

be likely to encounter “blank”; in other words, “production blocking” Additionally, learners with high quality ideas yet having no convincing explanation certainly are going

to be lagged behind In terms of social loafing, in a study conducted in 1993, this phenomenon is described to occur in groups when individuals do not feel that they are as accountable or identifiable to external evaluators for their performance in groups as they would if they performed as individuals (Karau & Williams, 1993) Moreover, some studies also concluded that performance in groups may lead to low performing members (Camacho & Paulus, 1995; P B Paulus & Dzindolet, 1993) Among the evidence illustrating several factors which have been considered to be a part of poor group brainstorming performance, some studies suggested that production blocking or cognitive interference is the most important one (Diehl & Stroebe, 1991) To be more specific, this

is the tendency of individual brainstormers to “block” other members’ ideas during a discussion stage It is clear to see that whenever one memer of a group presents their ideas during brainstorming section, others could not think of their own ideas, thus decreasing the effect of ideas generated both in quantity and quality

On the other hand, these negative effects of group brainstorming have always sparked controversy among educators Several studies have been carried out to clarify

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these unfavourable conclusions For instance, research on groups exchanging ideas by means of computers or writing has found that these groups can perform as well as or better than nominal groups (Dennis & Williams, 2003; Dugosh, Paulus, Roland, & Yang, 2000; P.B Paulus & Yang, 2000) In these cases, positive effects of group brainstorming may occur when other members are a source of motivation (P B Paulus, Larey, Putman, Leggett, & Roland, 1996) or a source of cognitive stimulation (Dugosh & Paulus, 2005; Dugosh et al., 2000)

2.4.2 Effects on teaching and learning context

One of the most important effects of brainstorming was to help students use their prior knowledge in their writing activity and recognise what skills and information they have and what they need to know (Z Rao, 2007) Among them, using prior knowledge and recognizing necessary information were likely to influence directly on students’ ideas Another positive effect was developing students’ ideas before coming to the task which was showed on Harmer’s research This research illustrated that although the ideas created in this stage may or may not be directly related to the topic, brainstorming was a valuable technique in developing students’ ideas before they actually start their writing task (Harmer, 2001)

Researcher Ibnian examined a study on the effect of using brainstorming on essay writing in EFL (English as Foreign Language) classes Eighty-four secondary students from Amman public education schools participated in the study They were classified into control and experimental groups Instruments of the study were pre and post essay writing and a checklist Findings of the study indicated that brainstorming technique had

a positive effect on the writing skill of students in such aspects as content and organization, mechanics of writing, language use and skills which emerged from creative thinking abilities (fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration) (Ibnian, 2001)

In one research finalised by Zhenhui Rao, explicit instructions of brainstorming strategy had a strong influence on writing performance The attitudinal survey also

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indicated that the students felt positive about the brainstorming strategy It is suggested that teachers in universities or colleges should move from a product-based approach to a process-focused approach in their teaching of writing as the latter may contribute towards activating students' thinking and creating ideas for a writing task (Zhenhui Rao, 2007)

In one research conducted by one graduate student and one lecturer, it shows that using brainstorming teaching technique has certain effects on students’ achievement in terms of writing narrative paragraphs It is found that students’ performance in writing a narrative paragraph taught by using brainstorming teaching technique is higher than those taught by using lecturing technique (Gultom & Gurning, 2013)

In another research conducted in one university, the analysis showed that the scores of the students of the experimental group who use brainstorming technique were significantly higher than the scores of the students in the control group that were taught traditionally indicating the positive impact of employing brainstorming strategy on improving writing performance of English-majored students at Balqa Applied University

To sum up, these studies have proved the profound impacts of brainstorming stage In both teaching and learning context, it has demonstrated the irreplacable role in such a formal educational environment The effects are enhancing writing ability in terms

of organizing ideas and creative thoughts besides developing logical thinking skill in

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presentations These analysed effects have just been conducted in recent years, therefore,

it is believed to keep up with the abreast of modern teaching and writing context regarding sociocultural changes

2.5 Definitions of pre-writing stage

Pre-writing was the stage in which learners gathered information and played with ideas (Tompkins, 2001) Prewriting was the first phase of writing which was recognized as a source of composing (Huff & Kline, 1987) There were many possible strategies in pre-writing stage such as brainstorming, clustering, discussing, or outlining; however, as students write through the year, they would choose the strategies they want

to use (Caswell & Mahler, 2004) It is clear to see that pre-writing stage is the essential stage before students actually start their writing In this stage, students are likely to use different strategies to gather information and ideas for their writing In fact, this stage is

of great importance due to the fact that it provides learners vital information to meet the demands of their task requirements

2.6 Pre-writing strategies

Regardless of brainstorming which is clearly presented in this research, other useful strategies used in pre-writing stage are also illustrated The information about these strategies is extracted from the website of the University of Kansas, which is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities since 1909 KU steadily earns high rankings for its academic programs on an international scale

2.6.1 Graphical representations

Together with brainstorming, graphical representations help students plan their ideas in a logical way before starting their paper In simple terms, this technique is the visual representations of ideas in keyword format They can be categorized according to function (compare and contrast, problem and solution) or form (tree diagram or Venn diagram) Drawing graphical pictures helps students to plan their writing so that they will

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have a clear sense of direction when they write (Lee et al, 2007) Basically, this strategy

is extremely useful in case of group idea generation In many writing classes in Faculty of Foreign Languages, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, teachers often use some diagrams to present the ideas generated in the initial stage prior to class writing The table with ideas in contradict meanings or the ideas that are organised in problem and solution columns are likely to summarise the ideas logically for students to easily follow Moreover, tree or Venn diagram is used to capture essential ideas effectively There is a wide range of research that has been conducted to examine the effect of this strategy It is not surprising to conclude that this pre-writing strategy brings certain positive consequences in improving writing performance For instance, the results

of one research (Lorenz et al, 2009) show that using graphic organizers during the prewriting stage of the writing process is beneficial to the outcome of students in writing ability

2.6.3 Clustering

KU Writing Center defines “Clustering” as a stratergy that allows you to explore the relationship between ideas, just like “mind mapping” or “idea mapping” The

of ideas on the paper By this way, learners will find it easy to locate the cluster of ideas that interest them Additionally, they are likely to know exactly how one idea connects to the others in the map, thus boosting the chances for them to finalise their writing in such

a coherent way

2.6.4 Journalist questions

Writers can make use of some questions including Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How? to explore the given topic Basically, learners need to be flexible about the questions to obtain the requirements of the writing task Depending on the target of the task, some questions may be useful to others For the question Who, learners may ask

“Who are the participants?” “Who is the primary actor?” “Who is the secondary actor?”

In another case, the questions like “What is the topic?” “What is the significance of the topic?” might be useful for What questions Similarly, a wide range of Where questions could be made such as “Where does the activity take place?” “Where does the problem have its source?” Additionally, “When is the issue most apparent?” “When did the problem develop?”, “Why did the problem occur?” “Why did the problem hapen in such

a way?” and “How is the significance of the issue?” or “How can it be addressed?” are some typical examples of When, Why and How questions respectively

2.7 Evaluation tools for created ideas

2.7.1 Quality scale

The quality scale is sythesized by one research named “Identifying quality, novel, and creative ideas: Constructs and scales for idea evaluation” (Dean, Hender, Rodgers, &

creativeness, they will receive the lowest mark of this scale, which is 1 point

Not expressed before (rare, unusual) and

ingenious, imaginative or surprising; may

Table 2.1 Evaluation scale: Originality

2.7.1.2 Effectiveness

Effectiveness is the degree to which the idea will solve the problem In this scale, the ideas created are evaluated in terms of problem solving aspect The scores given will