Luận văn improving english paragraph writing performance by the second year students at thai nguyen medical coll

IMPROVING ENGLISH PARAGRAPH- WRITING PERFORMANCE BY THE SECOND- YEAR STUDENTS AT THAINCUYEN MEDICAL COLLEGE TUROUGH COLLABORATIVE WRITING ACTIVITIES Nghién ciru vige sir dung cic hoat do

IMPROVING ENGLISH PARAGRAPH- WRITING PERFORMANCE BY THE

SECOND- YEAR STUDENTS AT THAINCUYEN MEDICAL COLLEGE

TUROUGH COLLABORATIVE WRITING ACTIVITIES

Nghién ciru vige sir dung cic hoat dong nhom dé nâng cao kỹ năng viết đoạn văn

tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm thir hai truéng Cao dang Y tế Thai Neuyén

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHONOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

TMPROYTNG ENGLISII PARAGRAPIIL- WRITING PERFORMANCE BY TIE

SECOND- YEAR STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN MEDICAL COLLEGE

THROUGH COLLABORATIVE WRITING ACTIVITIES

Nghién ciru vige sir dung cic hoat dong nhom dé nâng cao kỹ năng viết đoạn văn

tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm thứ bai trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: PROF NGUYEN HOA

Hanoi, 2014

My thanks are also offered to all my respected Ieclurers in the Faculty of Post Gradualz Studies, ULIS, VNU, Hanoi for their informative, valuable lectures and suggestions that have enlightened my research path of the study

I am also grateful to all my colleagues and students at TMC for their enthusiastic

participants in my research

Last but not least, I would like to show my big gratitude to my family, my relatives, especially my husband who encourage and help me to cary out the study

Hanoi, August 2014

ABSTRACT

The study has been conducted for the purpose of enhancing the offeetivencss through the application of collaborative writing activities to amprove the second- year students at TMC

in writing skills Participants are 40 second- year- students ftom the Department of

Midwifery and Nursing at TMC divided into two groups: cxpcrimental group and control group, The experimental group is taught in collaborative lsarning for eight weeks The control group is taught in the traditional method of the teacher- centered approach Findings from pre- and posl tests, pre ard-post- questionnaires reveals that: i) Collaborative writing activities have improved students’ proficiency in writing skills; ii) the method has positive effects on student's attitudes and opinions toward writing, iii) the study provides more information concerning the impler ation of collaborative writing

It is hope that the thesis will make same contribution to the improvement of learning and isaching writing skill based on collaborative activities These activities help students feel

confident lo wrile paragraph writings, Morcover, they have more opporlunilics, are mors comfortable and more interested in collaborative activities.

iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CWA: Collaborative Writing Activilics

‘TMC: Thai Nguyen Medical College

CL: Collaborative Leaming

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Checklists of writing tasks im Lifelines- Elementary

‘Table 2: Students’ view on writing lesson before and after the experiment

Table 3: The ditticulties of’ students on writing lesson before and after the experiment

Table 4: Students’ opinions about the way they like to do writing in class Table 5: Students’ opinions of writing in English

‘Table 6: Students’ opinions on collaborative writing activities

Figure 1: Stages of the process approach to writing

Figure 2: Pre: lest-results of both groups

Higure 3: Post- test results of both groups

Figure 4: Pre and post lest results of the experimental group

1, Rationale of the study .sosesencistumensisininsnisinstenititsnsiinneientnenenesnl

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Theoretical Backgrounds of paragraph wriling performance A

1.1.1 What is paragraph writing performance - eee cee

1.1.2 Approaches to teaching paragraph waiting skills in foreign language

1.2 Theoretical backgrounds of Collaboralive writing activities 7

1.2.1 Deñnition of Collaborative Wnting - - - 7

1.2.2 Roles of collaborative activiias In wIifing, -

vi

1.2.3 Collaborative writing activities

1.2.4, Using collaborative writing in the classrom

1.2.5 Elamculs of collaborative writing,

1.3 Previous studies of collaborative writing

1.4 Concluding ramarks

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Restatement of Research question

2.2 Setting of the study and Participanls eo nese

2.2.1 Solting of the study

2.2.2 Participants

2.2.3 The studiy à ìserroee

2.2.4 The experimental program

" Đa Data collection

2.3.1, Data collection instrumenifts neo

2.3.2 Dala collection procedures

2.3.3 Dala analysis procadures

2.3.4, Coneluding remarks

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCTISSION

3.1 Findings and discussions

3.1.1 From the wniting tests

3.1.2 From the questionnalres urmmennenenenenesnenen

3.2 Correlation between questionnaire and test scores - -.- 53L

Moreover, teaching methods in writing are not suitable Students often work individually

‘This leads to bad results ‘here are some methods have applied in teaching writing at

TMC However, CWA de not scom Lo be appliod hare Meanwhile, CWA are calching on

CWA seem to attract a lot of attention and become more popular Students who work m

collaborative work also appear more satisfied with the classes In writing, collaborative activities can involve not only brainstorming, but writing together and correcting one

another’s writing as well Thus, I want to investigate whether the use of CWA can be

effective in developing their English paragraph writing ‘Ihis is the main reason that

encourage me lo choose the thesis: “Improving English Paragraph writing performance

hy the second- year students af Thai Nguyen Medical College through collaborative

writing activities”

2.Aims! Objectives of the stuily

‘The study is aimed at:

+ Investigating whether the usc of CWA cam be offective in developing their FE:

paragraph writing skills

- Providing some suggestions and implications for the improvement of wrung teaching at

‘TMC through CWA,

3, Rescarch Questions

Thủ stutly is implemenled to find answers to the following research question

“How collaborative learning contribute to improving paragraph- writing performance by

the second- year- students at thai Nguyen Medical College?”

4 Scope of the study

‘The author only carries out this study involving 40 second- year- students at TMC The sludy also mainly focuses on the effectiveness in using collaboralive writing and the activities used in helping students work well in writing lessons to the second year students

6 Design of the study

The study consists of the following thrce main parts:

Part A, the introduction: the presenting the rationale, aims, research question, scope, methods and design of the stuf

Part B, the development is organized into three chapters

Clapler | presents the basic theoretical background of paragraph writing performance, collaborative writing activities, using collaborative activities in teaching and learning writing and previous studies of collaborative writing,

Chapter Tl presents the methodology, selling of the study, participants, provides an overview of the cwrent situation of teaching and learning paragraph writing at TMC and data collection

Chapter LU presents some findings and recommendations, discusses the finding of the research and suggests practical recommendations for improvement af using collaborative writing activites in the writing class of the second year students at TMC

Part C is the conclusion which includes the recapitulation, conclusions of the study, limitations of the study, pedagogical implication and sug:

also included in this part

tions for firther studies are

The thesis has heen done firsity lo take sore contribution lo the improvement of teaching paragraph writing at TMC The other aim of the study is that it suggests some suitable collaborative writing activities to improve writing skills for students, ‘The thasis also gives us more opportunities to study and research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapler presents the basic thearctical background of paragraph writing performance, collaborative writing activities, using collaborative activities in teaching and learning writing and previous studies of collaborative writing,

1.1 Theoretical backgrounds of paragraph writing performance

1.1.1 What is paragraph writing performance?

There arc numerous definitions of paragraph writing performance by different

methodologists Each definition 1s a reflection of the underlying theories or perspective

that the authors assume According to Scott ( 2008), « paragraph is an element that allows

to develop a single idea and that it is a group of sentences that are related among them, in which a though com be expressed, defined und developed in a coherent way In addition,

Scott and Demy (1909), paragraph writing can be regarded as the “unit

af discourse developing a single idea It consists of a group or series af sentences closely

related tv one another and to the thought expressed by the whole group or series” and”

Devoted, like the sentence, to the development of one topic, a good paragraph is also, like

a good essay, a complete treatment in itself" In language teaching, Tribble (1996: 3)

considered paragraph writing as “ a language shill which is difficult to qcgute”,

‘The above definitions different views of different authors on paragraph writing [ subscribe to the views thal a paragraph is a basic unil of organization in wriling in which a

group of related sentences develops one main idea, the topic of the paragraph, paragraph

writing performance itself may imply an act, a process or a skill, which needs practice and

sludy to develop

“Structure of a Paragraph: Walter (2000) mentions that the sructure of a paragraph must contain three parts : topic sentence, hody sentences, and concluding sentence The

lopie senlence is one sentenee thal introduces the lopic and expresses the main idea of a

paragraph Supportive sentences support topic sentence The writing should be precise,

correct purposeful, clear, concise and meaningful ‘The concluding sentence: ‘I'he last

sentence of your paragraph is important and il offen restates the idea expressed in the Lopic

sentence ‘There are variouz characteristios of good paragraph: unity, coherence, length, and

1.1.2 Approaches to teaching paragraph writing skills in foreign language

Am Raimes (1983, pp 5- 10) prescnis following approaches to leaching writing

4) The Control - to- Free Approach

‘The Control- to- Free Approach in writing emphasized speech and writing served to achieve mastery of grammatical or syntactic rules, Tleve, the studsnts are given senlence exercises, then paragraphs to copy or manipulate gramamatueally, These contrelled compositions then followed by correction of errors, so that it can lead to the free composition Overall, this approach focuses on accuracy rather than fluency,

(ii) The Free- Writing Approach

The Free- Writing Approach focuses more on fueney, and quantity of writing than qualily

The emphasis in this approach is on content and fluency rather than on accuracy and form

‘This approach encouraged students to write as much and qnickly as possible without worrying about grammar and spelling It is based on the principle that if once ideas are

there, the organization follows

(ii) The Grammar- Syntax- Organization Approach

This approach focuses on simultancous work on more than one compesition feature It

means that writing cannot be seen as composed of separate skills which are learned one by

one Sludents need to pay allentian to organization while they also work on the necessary

grammar and syntax In general, this approach is the combination of the purpose and the

form of the writing

iv) The Communicative Approach

‘The Communicative Approach aims at communicative competence, so it stresses the purpose of the writing and the andicuce for il, Students should have # reason for writing

ssful

and think aboul whom they wrol lơ or for Helping students camprehend thal a suce

piece of writing must attain its commumeative purposes in the advantage of the

communicative approach ‘Thus this approach is quite fimotional in nature, which can

provide the actual experiences to the Icamners.

himsctf on a model or an cxampls of a text that he intends to write and then adapts it

for their specitic purpose

(vi} The Process Approach

Unlike the product approach, the process approach focuses an thinking and writing

processes, The product approach sees the languaye learners as creators of language, decision makers of the message and content (Brown 1994: 320) It is argued by Nunan

(1991 : 87) that while the product-orientsd approach aims at developing the leamers

writing skill mainly at sentencc-level, the process-oriented approach aims at language at

discourse- level In the view of Hedge (1990), the process contains a lot of stages which

can) be illustrated as follows: “being motivated to write - getting ideas together - planning and outlining — making notes - making a first draft revising replanning redrafting - editing and getting ready for publication"

‡

Raiting { checking grammar’ lexis/ surface features: tor example, punctuanon, spelling,

layont, quotation conventions, references)

Figure 1: Stages of the process approuch ta writing

Basically, there are some approaches mentioned above Llowever I decide to use the

Process approaches in the experiment aims to improve students" abilities in paragraph

writing based on the processing of paragraph writing

1.2 Theoretical backgrounds ef collaborative writing activities

1.2.1 Definition of collaborative writing

According to Nunan (1991) collaborative writing can be defined that is a term referring to the way the teacher divides the students into groups to accomplish a writing task together

In addition, Karell (2002) also stated that “ collaborative writing is a form of ‘writing together’ or ‘nudtiple authorship' and refers to acts of writing in which two or mare individuals consetously work together to produce a coninon text”

Additionally, Greenall (1984) suggests that collaborative writing means a “kind of cooperation among members of the class, who are divided into convenient: 5 es groups Jor the purpose of completing « writing task” In genetal, collcborative waiting is the way that a group of people working together

1.2.2 Roles af collaborative activities in writing

According lo Brookes and Gundy (1990: 69), the reasons for employing group writing arc that it encourages collaborative writing, enables group to compare their work with that of other groups, In addition, Harmer (1991; 245) states that working in collaborative writings students have a greater possibility of discussion in which students really use language to

communicate with cach other

In writing skill, collaborative activities help students: “exehange information in an open- ended, real life context to fulfil personal goals” (Savova and Donato, 1991, cited in Reid, 1993: 156) Moreover, collaborative activities are said to help shy or weak students (Cottrel, 2001) When working in group, they feel secure The felling of security that helps them write more confidently

Last Init riot Least, in the view of Reid (1993), when siudonts wrile or corroet logethier, thers

is both cooperation and competition, additional psychological motivations

1.2.3 Collaborative writing activities

Kagan’s (1994) pre

“Think- Pair- Share: A question posted by the teacher Individuals pair up during the

nls following collaborative writing activities

second step and discuss their thoughts, In the third step, the pairs share their responses with

other pairs, other Leas, or the enlire group,

“Numbered Heads Together: A team of fouris established, Each member is given numbers

of 1, 2, 3, and 4, There are questions for the group Groups work logethsr io answer the question so that each member has the answer Teacher calls out a number (two) and each number two is asked to give the answer

* Whtearound: For creative writing or summarization, give a sentence starter, Ask all students in each team to finish that sentence

* Team: Pair- Solo: Students work as a team to solve a problem or accomplish a task Next, the teams break into pairs and students work on either the same problem, ar a related ong, Finally, the pairs broak up and the sindents work individually to complete the same or

a related task

“Partners: The class is divided into teams of four, The teams arc divided in half! One half

of the class will study one topi¢ while the other studies something else Students can make

a quiz about what they are studying, The group are rejoined and the students teach and quiz each other about what they leamed

“48 Brainstorming: Students in the group have roles: Speed Captain (prompts more ideas), Supper Supporter (encourages! recognizes all ideas), Synergy Guru (encourages members

to build upon one another’s idea}, and Scoretary (writes ideas) Members cary out their respective roles while the team generates a variety of possible responses

“Circle the Sage: Find the “ sages” on a topic in your class, These can be students that did well on difficult homework problem or have special experience ‘Then, break class into long and sơnd sách loam member lo a differen sage to learn about the lopie Students retum to their teams and discuss what they have learned.

‘There are seven collaborative activities listed above ‘These activities are used appropriately

in the experimen! for cach different lesson Hope that these activities can be motivatcd,

encouraged and improved students’ writing skalls

1.2.4 Using collaborative work in the classroom

Writing 1s seen as a process that comprises 3 stages: pre - writing, while - writing and post

- writing

1.24.1 Collaborative work in Pre - writing stage

Pre-writmg activities are necessary for students because these help students prepare ideas, materials and helps them explore many things on the given topic In this stage students are oflen asked to brainstorm, outline, debuts and interview, these require studenis take parl in either oral or witten activities By domg those, students can develop linguistic skills Group work in this stage is an effective way to assist students in generating, sharing and

focusing ideas, planning the content and organizing the text

1.2.4.2 Collaborative work in While - writing stage

Itis common that students often perform this stage individually However, group work can

be useful in which cach member is responsible for a certain part in the writing picecs

4.2.43, Collaborative work in Post - writing stage

This stage involves the procedures of giving feedbacks for the waitten version Feedbacks

may be given by peers which can be done in groups ot by teacher Peer correction is very imporlant because it can help sludents devslop their critical ability and understand how

other readers respond to their writing

1.2.5, Elements of collaborative writing

According to Johnson and Johnson (1989), there are five clements of collaboralive learning that help students to increase their acuevement and to iruprove, as follows,

12.5.1 Positive interdependence

Positive wterdependence helps students to nprove thew wdividuality and their social

identity (Johnson & Johnson, 1987) Therefore, positive mterdependence establishes

mutual benefits for leamers, a sense of joint responsibility that means they care

about the success not only of themsclyes but also of other members in the group, it

makes their social environment more supportive and thus helps them to be more

ment (Nunan, 1992; Kohomer,

molivaled, confident, and cxecllent in academic achie

1992)

1.2.5.2, Individual Accountability

The individual accountability technique is important and usefill because it helps the

group to know which students need more support, encouragement and assistance One

of the main purposes of the students cooperating together is therefore to strengthen

every member of the group (Graham, 2005) According to Johnson (1991), there are

some good ways to structure individual accountability, such as giving every member of the group a les! to amwer individually, choosing one of the group’s members 10

represent the whole group, and asking some members to teach what they have learned

to others

1.2.5.3 Face to- Face Interaction

Face-to-face interaction is fostered by the positive interdependence element It can be defined as facilitating, supporting and encouraging individuals to assist each other's cfforts Johnson & Johnson, 1987) Facc-to-face interaction has scveral cffzcts on individual members of the learning group (Johmson & Johnson, 1987)

other, conmmunicate accurately, support and help each other, resolve any conflicts and

solve problems successfully Johnson & Johnson, 1991)

5.9 Group processing

‘This element is a reflection on sessions of collaborative learning in order to determine whether the ations of Ihe group’s members are helpfal or if there is a need lo make some changes Group processing is thersfore important, because il gives the students the opportunity to evaluate and maintain their social skills and receive some feedback on their practice during the sessions, Moreover, in this stage teachers have an essential role

to play in order to help students achieve successful collaborative groups For cxample, observations of the students are a good way to find out whether the students understand

all the structures, information, strategies and the elements of collaborative learning (Graham, 2003)

1.3 Previous studies of collaborative writing

During the last three decades, Ihe positive advantages of collaborative teaming and its effective role in improving students’ skills have become clear in many fields of learning, such as writing, second language acquisition, natural and social studies (Slavin & Madden, 1999; Shachar & Sharan, 1994, Foley & O°Donnell, 2002)

Gooden-Jones (1996), he examined how the students developed their writing proficiency through a collaborative learning strategy The students were taught the collaborative leaming strategy for six weeks They were also asked to keep a journal about their Ieamning experiences ‘I'he researcher found that 80% of the students had passed the

effectiveness of using groups in improving English writing skills by making a comparison

between texts wiittcn in groups with others written individually Researchers found that

writing has a strong social dimension and that when students work together and

are accountable to one another, their work is betler.the stndsnts who worked

collaboratively spent a great deal of time writing their compositions but produced short

texts compared to the students who wrote individually Another finding was that writing

collaboratively helped students to produce belier grammatical and complex written texts,

Shull (2001) examined the effectiveness of the collaborative learning strategy He thus

used a quasi srimnontal approach thal inchuded teaching expository composi ons to the experimental and contral groups Afler conducting qnatitalive tests, Shull found thal the writing of students taught using a collaborative leaming strategy had improved more than that of the control group

Another study, In Viet Nam,Vu Thi Viet luong ( 2008), study aimed at finding out how

far group writing can make a significant difference in leaching writing skill al, Vinh

University After the study , this course has demonstrated that supportive leaming environment in the classroom context with the help of peer and teacher could stimulate learners’ motivation and develop their confidence in Isarning Moreover, teamwork wriling has proved to be exploited the talent of each individual student, stimulating collaboration among leamers and promoting creative thinking, which tends to be the determinant factors for them to becorne academically and socially successful adults,

1.4, Concluding remarks

The purpose of this chapter is to review the literature related to the collaborative learning strategy ‘he discussion of the theoretical framework of writing and WA reveal that, CL should be regerded as a potoniial solution for leaching writing skilts Though CWA, students become more effective writer The findings of previous studies have shown that

CL has a positive influence at some stages of the writing process

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is devoted to a brief presentation of the research, It consists of the description

of the participants and setting of the study, the tool for data collection, and the second year writing program used in this study

2.1, Restatement of Research questions

In order to investigate the effectiveness of CWA on the sccond year students in theis English paragraph writing performances at TMC, the researcher attempted to find out the

answers to the following question:

“Tow collaborative learning contribute to anproving paragraph- writing performanme hy

the second- year- students at Thai Neuyen Medical College? “

2.2 Setting of the study and Pai

2.2.1 Setting of the study

2.2.11 Overview of the current teaching and learning English writing at TUC

TMC is found in 1966 in Tan Thinh ward, Thai Nguyen city- 2 mountainous province it

ipants

the northeast of Viet Nam, So far, the college has already educated and trained thousands

of health workers in three disciplines: nursing, pharmacy and midwifery

Most of the students at TMC come from the rural or mountainous aieas, where the living, standard is low and the condition to study English is very poor

At TMC, English is not majors but a compulsory subject in the courses The subject is graded into two major stages: the Basic English and English for specitic purposes

2.2.1.2 The second year writing program

Writing program for the second year English classes at'T MC mainly supplies students with knowledge and skills of English paragraph writing The lext books used for the second

‘year writing program are Lafelines Elementary by Tom Hutchinson which include student’s book and workbook ‘The structure of each unit focuses on four skills: reading, spouking, Hisloning and writing, In the book, writing activities always follow the reading text, which function as a model for writing activities Some guidelines and prompts are also provided below that writing task

No Tints, ‘Required English paragraph wrlting tasks

Getting started ‘Write a paragraph of personal information

2 People ‘Write a paragraph about yourself

3 Descriptions Wille 2 description of your family

4 Work end play While 2 paragraph sboul your abiliies

5 Likes and dislikes Wrile # pamgraph about your meals,

6 Daily ie Wrile a inagazine ailicle sboul a muember of your Family or a Giend

7 Places Write a description of your home (or your ideal home)

8 Enlerlasunent ‘Wrile a descoplion of your week

9 Survivors “Wiite a paragraph about something that happened in the past

TẾ Travel Wale about somelhing Uhal happened lo you on @ joumey or a

holiday

11 Fashion ‘Write a paragraph compare what you normally do with what you're

doing Loday

12 health ‘Write the story from the creatures’ point of view,

lả Wimien Wrile @ paragraph about a famous person Ut you admire ( use

3.3.3 Participants

The parlicipants in this study are 40 second- year students tiom classes CD3H4 and CU7A3 at TMC in Tan ‘Thinh ward, ‘Thai Nguyen city They are aged from 19 to 21, in which there are 32 femalz und 8 mule students They sll have been Iarning English for three years at high school and one year of General English at TMC They are divided into two groups: the Experimental group and the Control group The distibution of these sludents in each group is nearly equal Thalis the studenls in each group are similar in their background The experimental group (group E) has 20 students and the control group (group C) also includes 20 students ‘To those students, English is not their majors but a compulsory subjeet in the courses

‘TMC is a public school with an enrollment of over 6000 students The students taking part

in this stuty come from different arcas in Vietnam, They aro mainly from villages im the countryside; even came from mountainous provinces such as Yen Bai, Lao Cai, Lai Chau, Cao Bang, Bac Kan etc Therefore, it 1s not difficult to realize that most students are not

so good at English in general and at language skills in particular, they have difficulties in mastering four skills, especially writing skills which students find most challenging and boring All of students have learnt English for at least seven years at secondary and high schools, especially some of them have lesmi Inglish for nine years The levels of participation of the two groups in leaming English in gencral and in learning writing in particular are relatively equal,

To get the aims of the study, an English teacher is asked to take part in the study She is well- trained and quite experienced in teaching English She helps me to teach students in Cơnhrl group im the traditional msthod

2.2.3, The study

As mentioned above, sthough paragraph writing plays an important role in the prograrn However, sindonts find it difficult aru boring So, to develop their motivation is nol an easy task To tum the situation around, the other teachers and 1 at TMC have tried to adopt the method of using collaboration in writing lessons

‘The study is aimed at helping the students to develop writing proficiency so that they can produce a good Frglish paragraph writing al the end of the experiment, Tn addition, this method is expected to increase interest in students in leaming English, especially writing

The experiment lasts for vight wocks in the scoond yoar progam During this tine, the students leam how to write good paragraphs though different given topics The students in the control group are taught as usual, ie, in individually, and the students in the experitmental group are-involved in variety of collaborative writing activities

2.2.4, The experimental program

During the eight weeks of the study ae assigned for Leaching experimental graup how ta write paragraph through practicmg the process approach, based on the stages of writing and the associated collaborative writing activities in each stage, while the traditional

in order to produce and complete the work successfully

*In Pre- writing stage: CWA are used mainly in this stage to brainstorm, discuss, collect

and contribute their idcas together for purposes of improving students writing skills in all

items: organization, development, cohesion, structure, vocabulary and mechanics

“Number Heads Together",“Think- Puir- Share”,“4s Brainstorming”,"Parters” arc used in pre- stage to improve students’ vocabulary To help them enrich their vocabulary from groupmates ta Take serlences and alse make up paragraphs easily

On the other hand," WWritearound” helps students to develop the writing cohesion Students have to brainstorm to find oul ideas and make ideas im the complet: sentences This

activity is a good way to help students wiite a good paragraph

Others, “Writearound”,"Number Heads Together”, “Team- Pair- Solo “help lo improve students’ paragraph organization and developments to orgamzed their ideas and produce outlines for the paragraph

“While- writing: non collaborative activities here In this stage, students write individually Siudenis use the ideas and vocabulary they hav: collected tagether during the pro- writing stage in their writing without asking the other members for help

“Poste writing: “Peer response” is uscd in this stage lo tovising the consistency of sentences, make sure they have used appropriate vocabulary and reorganize and rearrange any unclear sentences and paragraphs [hen edit their writing tasks collaboratively in

editing stage

In the experimental program, teacher plays an important role he teacher organizes groups, encourage students and develop the lesson involvement in aclivities, On the contrary, students are much more active in leaning

2.3 Data collection

The study is aimed at investigating the effectiveness of using CWA in helping the second

‘year students at TMC develop their English paragraph writing skills and the changes of students’ perceptions aboul paragraph writing aflor the experiment based on the dala collection from pre- and- post tasts, pre- and- post questionnaires,

The dala collcetion includes: data collection instruments, dala collection procedures, and data analysis procedures

2.3.1, Data collection instruments

23.14, Pre- test and post- test

In the pre-test and post- test, all students in both two groups are asked to write a paragraph about the topic: “Write a paragraph about your mother” (see Appendix 1,2) The students are given 45 minutes to complete their paragraphs There is no guidance or help given during the test ‘The pre- test and post- test are conducted to assess the improvements in their writing: ability

The same topic is used in both pre- test and post- test so that the later test is not easier or more difficult than the first one

2 Pre questionnuire and post questionnaire

Questionnaires are used in this study to collect data on the students” attitudes towards and perceptions of collaborative writing activities Pre and post questionnaires are delivered to

only the experimental group at the beginning and also at the end of ths study to investigate the

students’ change 17 altilude towards writing

‘The questionnaires are translated from Lnglish into Vietnamese in order to make sure that they understood it cloaly,

‘The pre- questionnaire (see Appendix 7) contains 10 items which related to the attitudes

and perceptions of students regarding writing skills

After the program, the students are asked to complete a post- questionnaire ( see Appendix 8) The post- test is the same to the pre- test in the first part, Another part is added to the

questionnaize that concerned with collaborative writing activities

2.3.2 Data Collection Procedures

'There are 40 copies of pre- test, 40 copies of post- test are sent to the students in both two groups and 20 copies of pre- questionnaire, 20 copies of post- questiannaire ars sent to the students m the experimental group The data are sent back an the same to the term of quantity to the data are sent before

At the beginning of the study, 40 copies of pre-test and 20 copies of pre- questionnaire are given to students in the experimental group to investigate the students’ attitudes and abilities in paragraph writing bofors the experimental treatment

During the experiment treatment, the control group and experimental group are applied different teaching methods, Control group is organived in the Iraditional methods (working individually), Experimental group is organized in the way of collaborative learning

Al the end of the study, the posl- wsl and post- questionnaire are distributed Io the

experimental groups This test is the same topic as the pre- test and it is also scored by the teacher- researcher Results of the pre and post tests, pre- questionnaire and post-

questionnaire are compared and analyzed lo see how Ihe students’ attiludes and their

‘writing proficiency changed

2.3.3 Data analysis procedures

The analysis procedures includes the following steps:

21) Collecting the results and information

The entire answers to pre- and post te

enable closer, full inveshgation of the results and the information provides by the

s, pro and posi- questionnaires arc coll

respondents This makes the examination of the data more convenient and the researcher easier lo find out ths theory generated from the data

(2) Classifying the data

The data are classified lo seek answer for the study Rased on the results of the tests and

the information expressing students’ attitudes and opinions on the CWA, the researcher

can confirm the effectiveness of the CWA

3) Interpreting the data

In this step, comparison and contrast are made for greater understanding to find emergent concepts or theory gencraled from answer

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION This chapter presents the results of the study from quantitative data analysis The first

section presents the results of data analysis from the students’ scores of the paragraph

writing test, and the second section presents the students’ attitudes and opinion toward the

collaborative writing activities

3.1 Findings and discussion

3.1.1 From the writing tests

3.1.1.1 Pre- and- Post- Tests scores

The pre and post test paragraph writings in both the experimental group before and after

involvement in collaborative writing settings and the control group before and after

involvement in a traditional leaming method are rated and marked by two different teachers (my colleague and I) The rating of the essays is based on six categories or aspects

of writing: organization, development, cohesion, vocabulary, structure, and mechanics The paragraph writings are marked 10 in total

3.1.1.2 The two groups’ writing performance before the experiment

Figure 2: Pre- test results of both groups

5%

0%

‘The results present in figure 2 above show that there is no significant difference between

English paragraph wriling in the experimental group and those of slulerts in the control group, As show m figure 2, both groups are equal numbers of students of the lowest and the highest scores

‘Thus their writing proficiency is very similar for both expenment and control groups before the experimental treatment At the beginning of the experiment, students in both groups made my of mistakes in paragraph slrclure They fail Lo express their an overall idea that they want to discuss later in the paragraph, for example, in the pre- test teacher asks students to “write a paragraph about your mother”, means that in the topic sentences

students should be only aboul their mothers

However, a student in the experimental writes in her topic sentences such as:

"My family live in a country of Lang Son city in Viet Nam, there are four people father, mother, brother and me”

Clearly that there are not only no topie sentence here but also get mistakes of vocabulary

students in both group are nol good al cohesion, for cxample, the

and grammar Boside:

writing of a student in control group:

“My mother 1s 40 vears old Her name is Anh She is famer, She is

tall My mother is very like watching the program “we are soldiers”

Cooking for my family Sometimes I with my aunt go te shopping

Every morning she wake up very early make breads for us”,

So, we can see that, there are a lot of mistakes in students’ paragraph writing in both two groups in all six calcgories or aspeels of writing: organization, development, cohesion, vocabulary, structure, and mechanies in the beginning of the experiment

The results from the pre- test thus shows thal, at the bagiming of the instruction period, both two groups do not differ in paragraph writing scores, and that any differcnecs between the groups at later stages can only be ascribed to the differential treatments they received,

of a student in the experimental group:

“Hello, I'm Cham I'm a students at Thai Nguyen Medical College.In

my life, [have a wonderful mother, who I love best and my mother love

me, too

My mother's full name is Dam Thi Van Huyen She is 38 years old She

is a beautiful woman She has got a short brown hair and black eves

My mother is worker, everyday, she is hard workers My mother can

sing and cook very well When she has a free time, she often make food

and drink She teaches my brother and me to do our homework She

likes a friend, who I can believe and share all my feeling She is a

perfect woman in my eves

Llove my mother so much, and she loves me too.”

Her wniting is very good at organization, cohesion, the ideas development, mechanics, the use of vocabulary and paragraph writing structure This is a great effort She deserves mark

9 There are some factors that affect her results such as the atmosphere of the class,

teacher's attitudes, ability or level of interest in learning English, especially, the

effectiveness of collaborative writing activities On the other hand, the appendix 4,5,6,

show the post test scores for the experimental group and control group We can see that the

structure, mechanics, development and cohesion of the paragraphs written by students in

the experimental group have improved more than those of students in the control group

Nevertheless, the students who are involved in collaborative learning do better in all

aspects of their writing than those in the control group Scores of the both groups are increased after experimental process However, more high scores are gained by the

experimental group than the control one Specifically, there are not any students in the

experimental group achieving the scores under 5 Conversely, in the control group, there is

10% students under 5 Even some students in the control group has lower scores in the post

test, as follows: a student goes from 5 in the pre- test to 4 in the post- test, and | student get

7 in the pre test and 6 in the post- test Besides, the results shown in the table above

indicates that the numbers of students achieved the “ good” and “ very good” level in the

experimental group are higher than that of the control group There is a significant difference in writing proficiency between the two groups of students after the experiment

3.1.1.4 The experimental group's improvement in writing proficiency

Figure 4: Pre- and- post tests results of the Experimental Group

‘The results present in the figure above show that there is a significant difference in the

experimental group between the pre- test and the post- test 20 students from the