Luận văn developing autonomy for first year english major students at a university in vinh through writing portfolio

Realizing that writing a portfolio can be one of the most effective ways to help students enhance their autonomous learning urged and inspired the researcher to implement the action rese

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

000 -

ĐOÀN THỊ NGỌC MAI

DEVELOPING AUTONOMY FOR FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT A UNIVERSITY IN VINH

TITROUGII WRITING PORTFOLIO

(Phát triển tính tự học của sinh viên năm thứ nhất chuyên ngành tiéng anh lại

một trường đại học ở Vinh thông qua hoạt động viết Portfolio)

M.A MINOR TIIESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi - 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-000 -

BOAN THỊ NGỌC MAI

DEVELOPING AUTONOMY FOR FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT A UNIVERSITY IN VINH

THROUGH WRITING PORTFOLIO

(Phát triển tính tự học của sinh viên năm thứ nhất chuyên nganh tiếng anh tại

một trường đại học & Vinh thông qua hoạt động viét Portfolio)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Ficld: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Dr Nguyen Thi Huong

Hanoi - 2019

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To begin with, T would like to send my profound gralitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Thi Huong for her detailed and precise guidance and tremendous support

Secondly, T would also like to thank my beloved students for their participation

in my action research, Without their enthusiasm, the research could not be completed,

Additionally, T wart lo send my sincere thanks lo Ihe university stecnng committee and my colleagues They are such a great help to me during the process of research implementation They not only give me useful advice bur also encourage me

to complete the research

Finally, T must express my very profound gratilude to my husband and my

family for their wholehearted support

ABSTRACT

Developing and fostering students’ learning autonomy is placed importance for

college students since learning autonomy not only helps them to be more independent

and effective in their studying but also partly lay some bricks on the path of life-long learning for students This research is implemented with the purpose of investigating

the use of portfolio writing to enhance the first-year students’ learnmg antememy in

writing in particular and in their studying in general The research is undertaken as an

action research which employs the qualitative method including surveys, interviews

and (caching journals

The outcome of the research indicates that most of the students find the use of

portfolio writing useful for their learning autonomy A majority of them has learnt how

to stick on the requirements of the assignments during their writing and be more

responsible for them study Furthermore, they have become more critical on the

knowledge and information they encountered and started to understand their strengths and weaknesses to find out their own suitable leaming style However they are still struggling with some essential skills such as time management skills Therefore, most

of them want a better schedule for the writmg course Even though students favor and find the use of portfolio writing effective, there is a call for further studies to have a

bigger and more detailed picture of the usefulness of portfolio writing before it is

implemented officially in colleges

iti

1.2 Aims of the study

1.3 Scope of the study

1.4, Significance of the study

1.4 Methads of the sindy

1.6 Structure of the thests

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1, Learner autonomy

2.1.1 Definitions of learner antonomy

2.1.2 The importance of learner antonomy in language learning,

2.1.3 Components of leamer autonomy

2.1.4 Some ways to enhance leamer autonomy - - - seed 2.2 Portfolio writing

2.2.1 Definilion of portfolio and portfolio wriling

2.2.2 The role of portfolio writing

3.3 cllings und par lid pants

3.4 Data collection instruments

iv

Error! Bookmark nol defined,

-Frror! Bookmark not defined

Effects of portfolio wriling om (he students’ learning nuagement

Effects of portfolio writing om the students’ learning strategies

5.2 Reflection

3.3 Pedugogical suggestions

5.4, Suggestions fur further studies

5.5, Limitations of the sludy

Table 3: Students" opinions on the effect of portTolio writing on evaluating their

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents a general overview on the rationale, aims and objectives,

research questions, significance of the studv In addition, the chosen research methods and the structure of the study are also provided

1.1 Rationale of the sLudy

In the past few decades, learners’ autonomy has become a highly — concerned

issue that generated heated dehates in the educational forums In a context where the

necessity of leaming and knowledge has beon widely acknowledged and lifelong learning is a global imperative, it is understandable why the importance of leamers’ autonomy is gaiting oven more significance Aveording to Benson and Voller (1997 56), “learning is more effective when leamers are active in the learning process, assuming responsibility for their learning and participating in the decisions which affoct it” Furthermore, autonomous leaming becomes inercasingly necessary to university students as Malcolm and Rindfleisch (2003:2) pointed out in their study

“students arrive at university with the potential to be autonomous in their learning” Enhancing students’ autonomous learning is also a matter of concern to not only the researcher in particular but also a university in Vinh in general since from my

researcher’s observation, in (he (radilional teaching conlext of Vietnam, Vietnamese

students tend to be passive in their leaming Realizing that writing a portfolio can be one of the most effective ways to help students enhance their autonomous learning urged and inspired the researcher to implement the action research “Developing autonomy for first- year English major students at a university in Vinh through

Portfolio Wriling Activity” For the purpose of research ethics, the university would be

named “

1.2 Aims of the study

The main aim of the study is investigating the extent to which portfolio writing

implementation helps students raise their learning autonomy not only in writing but also in their leaming

1.3 Scope of the study

The study focuses on three dimensions of leamer autonomy, including learning

management, learning siralegies and content The sluly was cared oul as an action

research in an undergraduate writing class at a university in Vietnam where the

researcher was the teacher

The objective of the paper can be summarized into a research question as below:

To what extent does the use of portfolio writing enhance the first-year students’ learning autonomy at Foreign Language Department, in University X?

1.4 Significance of the study

‘As one of the pioneering studies on developing leamers’ autonomy via portfolio writing in thal university, the paper would benefit related populations including English teachers and policymakers there ‘This study would provide useful information for policymakers and Leachers to consider applying portfolio writing in the curriculum

for the first-ycar students

Furthermore, the study would be a reliable reference to other researchers who share the same interest in developing leamers’ autonomy Further research would be

carried out after limitations of this study are considered

1.5 Methods of the study

The paper is an action research which employs both qualitative and quantitative

methods, Specifivally, the first-year class which the researcher is teaching currenlly

would join the implementation of portfolio writing which would be integrated as

home-assigned task in the current curriculum of the class Bach week, the students would

while a reflection about portfolio implementation and their learmng aulonomy The

students’ reflections would be cellected at the end of the semester A survey and interviews would be made to collect the students’ opinions toward the influence of

portfolio writing on their learnmg autonomy

1.6 Structure of the thesis

The study includes five chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 sketches the overall picture of the whole study The rationale, aims and

abjectives, significance and methods of the research are presentod

Chapter 2 serves as the theoretical frame for the study Key terms such as portfolio and leamers’ autonomy would be explained Furthermore, the critical reviews of the related

studies are conducted

Chapter 3 provides the methodology to carry out the paper Specifically, the research method, the participants and instruments, data collection procedure are put forward

Chapter 4 consists of findings and discussion of the paper which provides the detailed outcome of the data analysis procedure

Chapter 5 provides the summary of the research outcome, the pedagogical suggestions,

the limitation of the study.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides background for the study Key terms such as “learning autonomy”, “portfolio writing” and so on are adequately explained Also, the research gives the brief review of related studies

2.1 Learner antunomy

2.1.1 Definitions of learncr autonomy

The concept of autonomy bas been mentioned a lot over the past few years and has

become a heated topic for discussion recently in Vietnam Many theorists and scholars define autonomy in many different ways, which makes the results in this field quite immense This study, howover, only reviews he Hleralure concerning autonomy in studying Hnglish as the second language

One of the earliest advocates of autonomy in language teaching, Iolec (1981:7),

defines aulonomy as “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning” According Lo

this author, autonomous learners understand the purpose of their learning, share in the setting of leaming goals, take initiatives in planning and executing learning activities, and regularly review heir learning and evaluate ils cllectiveness From this point of

view, autonomy is understood to involve activities and attitudes that students possess,

and then develop to various degrees, among which are earning stralegies There is also

a broad agreement among many other scholars to Holeo’s ideas Nunan (1997:193) and Benson (2001:56) share the same idea that autonomy implies a capacity to exercise aver one’s own learmng

Dickinson (1987) states that autonomy is a “situation in which the leamer is totally responsible for all of the devisions concemed with his or her learning, and implementation of those decisions.” From this perspective, being an autonomous

learner requires responsibility for planning and organizing his/her leaming and being able to evaluate his/her learning process and adapting modification if needed Also, the

role of language teacher would change from a teacher to an information provider, counselor or assessor According to Richards and Schmidt (2010:297), this term is defined as “the principle thal Ioartiers should be encouraged to assume a maximum amount of responsibility for what they learn and how they learn it.”

According to Freire (1997: 23), autonomy enables leamers to get faculty and freedom to choose the more fitting skills and knowledge taught to him or her

Nonetheless, Freire also mentions that teachers’ role should not be taken for granted

since they not only provide knowledge bul also give chances to learners lo build their own knowledge

According to Leni Dam (1990, cited in Gathercole, 1990:16) a learner can only

be defined as an autonomous leamer when they independently set goals and aims, scloct materials, organize uscful tasks and be able to cvaluate one's their own progress

Boud (1988:16) stales thal when leaners become autonomous, they will have an

achve role in their own development They can collect ideas and participate in various

learning opportunities

Nunan(l997:193) states that “the fully autonomous learner operates

independently of classroom, (cacher, or textbooks.” In contrast, Pallreyman (2003: 28}

asserts, “leamer autonomy dogs nol mean avoiding any reliance on sources of help around you" but “means being aware of these sources and what they have to offer in different situations.” For example, if students rely on their teachers for explaining of new words, it is teacher dependence llowever, if a student asks his/ her teacher to validate his/her own distinction of several synonyms after he/ she already looks up the

dictionary and other sources of reference, it is a sign of leamer autonomy In this case, the student has drawn his! her teacher into his’ her own learning agenda, effectively using the teacher as a source of help.

Notably, autonomy also can be though as a social process and a learning process

regarding knowledge construction and power redistribuion as well as participants’

roles A numerous synonyms of autonomy from this viewpoint are given by scholars

such as “independence” (Sheerin, 1991:6), “language awareness” (Lier, 1996:38),

“gel{-direction” (Candy, 1991-54), and “andragogy” (Knowles, 1980:68)

Furthermore, there have been a considerable number of debates between

linguists and educationalists over what autonomy is According to Little (1991: 17), Jearmmg autonomy is “essentially a matter of the leamer’s psychological relation to the process and content of leaming a capacity for detachment, critical reflection, decision-making, and independent action” This viewpoint is also favored by Holec (1981:7) sine he also sees thal aulonomy come regarding learners’ willmgness and ability to control their own learning

Furthermore, Boud (1988), Kehonen (1992) and Knowles (1975) share the same

opinion that an autonomous learner will be active in the leammg process and creatmg learning opportunities for themselves They will not act only upon the stimuli of their teachers According to McDevitt (1997:27), “the end product of educalion is an

independent learner” He also emphasizes that the ultimate goal of education is that learners’ independence should be cultivated Litdewood (1996), Numan (1997) and

Breen (1984) state that leamers should acquire autonomy to some extent to become

effective language users

In short, the study adopts the definition of autonomy set forth by Holec (1981:7)

in which autonomy is viewed as “the ability to take charge of one’s own leaming” ‘The characteristics of autonomous leamers include: understanding the purpose of their leamnng, sharing in the selling of learmmg goals, taking initiatives m plammng and executing leaming activities, and regularly reviewing their learning and evaluating its

effectiveness.

2.1.2 The importance of Icarner autonomy in language learning

According lo Scharle and Svabo (2000-4), “success in learning very much depends on learners having a responsible attitude” Responsibility for self-leaming and development is considered as the key for studying well Liven though teachers try to provide knowledge and are willing lo help students to gain essential skills, students will not learn if they themselves do not want to leam Futhermore, in the language learning context, lessons in schools are not enough to equip students to communicate cffoctively in all daily life and work situation Therefore, students must be autonomous

in their study and self-taught in their lives

2.1.3 Components of learner autonomy

According to Benson (2011:56), leamer autonomy composes of three dimensions, namely controlling over leaming management, learning strategies and lcammg content Specifically, learmng management 1s obsorvable behaviors involved

in planning, organization and evaluation of leaming Learning strategies comprises of cognitive and metacognilive processes Tearmmg content is the what and why of language learning ‘he dimensions are considered interdependent

2.1.3.1 Controlling over learning management

This dimension of learner autonomy refers to the cognitive and attitudinal

factors mvolyed in the process of planning, organization and assessing Studenls are oriented to involve directly in the planning of strategies and sources to assist them to get their goals Also, students should assure thal they will sncet the deadline of schedule Afterall, they are required to self-assess their processes to withdraw

experience At the planning stage, also known as pre-planning (Wenden, 1998:27),

learners identify their objectives and determine how they will achieve thom Planning,

however, may also go on while a task is being performed ‘This is called

planning-in-action Ilere, learners may change their objectives and reconsider the ways in which

they will go about achieving them At the monitoring stage, language learners acl as

participant observers or overscers of their language learning and asking themselves,

"Low am 1 doing? Am | having difficulties with this task’?", and so on Finally, when

learners evaluate, they do so in terms of the eulcome of their altempt to use a certain

strategy According to Wenden (1998.28), evaluating involves three steps: 1) leamers

examine the outcame of their attempts to learn; 2) they access the criteria they will use

to judge il; and 3) they apply it

2.1.3.2 Controlling over learning strategies

2.1.3.2.1 Copnitive Strategies

According to O'Malley and Chamot (1990:4/), cognitive strategies ‘operate

dirsetly on incoming imformation, manipulating ik im ways thal enhance learning!

Learners may use any or all of the following cognitive strategies (Cook, 1993:114-

115):

® repelition, when imitating others' speecly,

» resourcing, i.e., having recourse to dictionaries and other materials;

* translation, that is, using their mother tongue as a basis for understanding and/or producing the target language;

» note-taking:

* deduction, ie, conscious application of 1.2 rules;

* contextualization, when embedding a word or phrase in a meaningful sequence, + transfer that is, using knowledge acquired in the Ll to remember and

understand facts and sequences im Lhe 1.2;

» inferencing when matching an unfamiliar word against available information (a

new word etc.);

* question for clarification, when asking the teacher to explain, ets

Moreover, as defined by Oxford (1990:39), cognitive strategies can be

diagramed as below:

Figure 1: The classification of cognitive strategies from Oxford (1990:39)

1 Repeating

2 Formally practicing with sounds and writing eystoms

8 Reccgnizing anc: using formulas and! patterns

reasoning

4, Translating

5, Transterting

1 Taking notes 1D Creating structure for

Input and output & San So

8: Highlighting

Original source from Oxford, (1990)

Both the definitions share some same features of cognitive strategies However, this

study adopts the second definition given by Oxford as the compass for the study

because it offers more detailed features To make the definition more fit into the study,

some subcategories of cognitive related to writing would be removed For example,

“formally practicing with sounds” does not suit the scope of the study because this

research does not focus on students’ speaking skills Furthermore, some advanced

skills such as “taking note” or “highlighting” would not be focused much since those

skulls are way above the students’ levels

2.1.3.2.2 Melacognitive Strategies

According to Wenden (1998:34), “metacognitive knowledge includes all facts

learners acquire about their own cognitive processes as they are applied and used Lo

gain knowledge and acquire skills in varied situations” Metacognitive strategies are

skills used for planning, monitoring, and evaluating the leaming, activity, “they are strategies about learning rathor than learning strategics themselves” (Cook, 1993: 114)

Lere are some of these strategies:

« directed attention, when deciding in advance to cancentrate on general aspects of a

task;

+ selective attention, paying attention to specific aspects of a task,

« selfanonitoring,i.c., checking one's performance as one speaks;

« self-evaluation, ie, appraising one's performance in relation to one's own

standards

«self - reinforcement, rewarding onesell lor success,

‘The definition given by Cook would be adopted in this study

2.1.3.3 Controlling over learning content

‘The last dimension of learner autonomy is controlling over leaning content, which refers to the “what” and “why” of leaming According to Benson (2001:99), controlling

over the language content has strong social and political accent He states that:

Control over the content requires, more than any other aspect of autonomy that

teachers and education authorities create situational contexts in which freedom of learning ix encouraged and rewarded I also requires thal learners develop their

capacity to participate in social in social interactions concerning their learning, to

negotiate for the right to self-determine us broad direction and ultimately to

participate in the transformation of educational structures,

10

Control over the content requires, more than any other aspect of autonomy that

teachers and education authorities creale situational contexts im which freedom of

students to choose learning content would be sct Specifically, it refers to who decides what to leam and how to leam Llowever, in the school setting, the person who makes a

decision on what lo learn is the school policy makers and tcachers Suidents have hitle

right on “control over methodological aspect of learning” (Ikonen, 2013) So, Benson (2011) states that in this dimension, autonomy is reduced to choosing a methodology for the particular goals and contents This is called reactive autonomy according to

Littlewood (quoted in Benson, 2001:99)

This kind which does not create its own directions but, once a direction has

heen initiated, enables learners ta organize their resources autonomously in order to reach their goal It is the kind of autonomy that causes learners to learn vocabulary

without being pushed, to take the initiative io do past examination papers or to

organize study groups to complete an assignment

Notably, many authors only accept the outcome which is called proactive autonomy by Litllewood (quoted in Benson, 2001-99) This type of autonomy

determines objectives, selects methods and evaluates what has been leamed Also, it

sets directions Nevertheless, Benson (2001:100) states that reactive autonomy is a step

“toward proactive autonomy” or “as a goal on its own”

2.1.4, Some ways to enhance learner autonomy

According to Dickinson (1992: 2), teachers should equip their leamers with appropriate knowledge and tools in order Lo reach autonomy Tn olhier words, teachers should help the leamers to expose to chances to be independent in their learnings

Some methods are listed as follows:

} Encouraging dependence in learning by the teacher displaying full approval and encouragement towards leamers becoming more responsible of their

learning

11

Providing leamers opportunities to practice independent learning,

>

> Helping learners to perceive the language as a system

v Helping leamers to develop their learning strategies so that they can practice their independence

> Teachers can share knowledge they already pos about the language in order

to make students more aware of what to anticipate from language leaming

Therefore, it can be inferred that in order to successfully encourage leamers to become more independent in their Icarning, teachers should redefine thew role within language education (Llill, 1994:214) Llowever, on the other hand, it may be difficult for teachers to be able to achieve mainly because they themselves lack the knowledge

of making the transition ol’ being the purveyor of knowledge to a manager of learning

resources (Sheerin, 1997, cited in Benson & Voller, 1997:63)

2.2 Portfolio writing

2.2.1 Definition of portfolio and portfolio writing

Learning portfolio is a compile of students’ work or producls i a critically reflective process ‘Ihe concept of the student portfolio has been widely known and implemented for some time in academic fields such as writing, communications, and

the fine arts Another popular application has been to provide a device for

demonstrating the value of experiential learning or assessing credit for prior learning, Yome portfolios are shared by students and faculty advisors for the purpose of academic and carcer advising Furthermore, portioie can be used in business and teacher education to supply a mechanism to present the skills achieved

O'Malley and Pierce (1996: 34) stated the basic elements of a portfolio despite the fact that they support the argument that there is hardly a detinition of portfolio for every context According to them, the essential elements of a portfolio comprise of

samples of learner work, leaner self-assessment and evaluation eniena The sample

12

could be a variety of work such as writing, audio, video, experiments and so on However, all the collections should be organized systematically and goal-oriented Furthermore, the process of portfolio making should include evaluating, of Icancrs’ progress More importantly, it is emphasized that leaners should understand thoroughly

the assessinenl criteria Also, il is neled thal, leaners can also be engaged m discussing

criteria and in goal setting

In this paper, the scape of the study is only portfolio used for the writing course

for the first-year students The writing portfolio would be a collection of the students’

topic-based compositions which each includes two versions ‘Ihe second version is the modified one of the first one after the students got peers’ comments on the first one

2.2.2, The role of portfolio writing

Most commonly, students’ writing portfolios have been used to collect and

evaluate students’ work at key points in their progress, usually at the end of an

academic endeavor, Campbell, Melenyzer, Nettles, and Wyman (2000:14)—writing about portfolios with “a focus on product” for the purpose of certification in teacher edueation—make the strong point that in a wellananaged portfolio students should realize that their effort is not simply to construct “a scrapbook of college course assignments and memorabilia” (p 2) Instead, a learning portfolio in general and a writing portfolio in particular should stress that the product is also a process, an

“organized documentation of growth and achievement that provides tangible evidence

of the attainment of professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions Each portfolio is goal-driven, original, and reflective” (p 13) Portfolio writing cnables sludents to Wave

a critical thinking about their leaning and making sense of their learning as the whole process This leads students lo explore and understand whal, how and why they should

leam

13

2.3 Related studies

Numerous studies have been carried out to find out the effects of portfolio on

Icammmg autonomy in teaching and learning languages In their oxperimental rescareh, Khodadady and Khodabakhshzade (2012: 518) evaluated the effect of portfolio and all* assessmenl ơn wriing abilly and autonomy According to them, portfolio assessment and self-assessment improve not only the students’ writing ability but also autonomy in writing Moreover, they found that the regular implementation of the self- assessment checklist in and out class influences the students positively Specifically, it helps to raise the students’ “sense of independency” Also, Suwaed (2018) investigated the perception of EFL second-year students of using portfolio assessments in the

wriling classroom His research pointed out thal the sludents have a posilive attitude to

the portfolio writing as it helps them to “improve writing skills”, “have a sense of achievement” and “foster learning aulonomy” Besides, he mentioned some difficulties the students had during the portfolio writing Most of the second year students in that studies faced work overloading as well as vocabulary and content insufficiency during writing porllolio Notably, in his research, he found out that the students “prefer portfolio assessment rather pen-and-paper tests,

Furthermore, Khoosf & Khoosravami (2014:36) investigated the use of email

portfolio to enhance BIL leamner’s autonomy The outcome of their research proves

that electronic portfolio largely encourages the students to participate more in the

evaluation process Electronic portfolios also help te “connect learning, assessment and instruction in a new way” Thanks to electronic portfolios, students are able to be aware of (he whole picture of their leaning which includes “learning strategies”,

“learning process” and “self-directed learning”

In Vietnam’s ESL context, there have becn some pioneering studies investigating into the use of portfolios to promote learners’ autonomy For example, in

14

their studies, Duong and Seepho (2017) tried to construct a partfolio-based model for developing leamer aulonomy for RFT learners However, this model uses a general portfolio, not a writing portfolie specifically Furthermore, Phung and Dang (2016) explored the use of e-portfolio on leaner autonomy but in terms of speaking class Thorefore, there have been a lack of investigating of exploiling a writing porlloho for promoting leamer autonomy in Vietuam [t is hoped that this action research would be one of the first studies to explore the use of writing portfolio for helping higher

education students to achieve leaner autonomy

15

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter puts forward the description of the methods used in the paper to examine

the effects of portfolio writing on the first-year students at Foreign Language Department

3.1 Research method

The paper is carried out as an action research Specifically, portfolio writing is

imposed to the first-year writing cumiculum to observe the impact of the portfolio on

students’ leaming autonomy Ihe independent factor is portfolio writing ‘I'he dependent factor is students’ learning autonomy According to Kemmis and Metaggert (1988), action research is the path thal offers the best solution m the professional

context since it provides the essential steps to take actions regarding helping students to

become autonomous tearners through “observing, reflecting, pkaming and applying in

a spiral action of permanent reflection to improve practice” (p.23) This helps the

researcher to observe the changes of the students, the benefits of the portfolio to

students Also, tl exposes the real problems both the researcher and students crcounter

during the implementation of portfolio writing in the class In this research, portfolio writing is applied in the existing writing class taught by the researcher The class includes 40 firsl- year studenls who major in English The portfolio is considered as the

home-assigned task in the writing couse

The rescarch uscs both quantitative and qualitative methods, including questionnaire, interview, and teaching journal During the implementation of portfolio writing, the rescarcher noted down the journal aller carrying out, the porlolio activity However, the teaching journal is considered as the reference to compare and contrast with the results from the questionnaire and interviews The questionnaire and interviews wore delivered after the completion of the writing course, The Likert-scale questionnaire which includes 19 questions were given to the students to investigate their opinions on how portfolio writing helped them to enhance their leamser autonomy

The questionnaire (see Appendix III) was designed based on three dimensions of

learner autonomy mentioned in Literature review The three dimensions are controlling

over the learmmg management, learning strategies and leaming content The interviews

were coded and categorized to compare and contrast with the data collected from the

questionnaire and the teaching journal

3.2 Research design

The chosen research approach for this paper was action research, As aforementioned in the research methodology, action research is the most suitable for the paper since it provides the essential steps to take actions through “observing, rellecting, planning and applying in a spral action of permanent reflection to improve practice"(Kemmis, McTaggart and Retallic, 2004:2) According to Maclsaac (1995-15), there are four steps in a typical action research: plan, acl, observe and reflect This paper followed these four steps and took place in the wntmg class at University X, Vinh from September to December 2018

Step 1: Planning (Before the semester)

@ Identify a problem: Witnessing the low level of learning autonomy of the students in university, especially the first-year students, the researcher made a

decision Lo inlegrale the portfoho writing as a (rial activity in the curenl writing

program to cuhance the students’ leaming autonomy The effects of portfolio

writing would be evaluated to see if it benefits students and help them to improve their learning autonomy er nol

@ Develop a plan of action: Portfolio objectives, requirements, instructions,

checklist and theme-based topic lists are made to implement the portfolio

writing in the class The general objectives and imstruclions were succinct so

that the students would easily grasp the whole process of portfolio writing ‘I'he theme-based topics were prepared Most of the topics are chosen from the

suggested topics in the textbook Some were modified ta suit Vietnam context

and be ieresting enough to stimulate the students Furthermore, the checkhal

for writing was also copied from the textbook The questions for the students’

reflection were also prepared

Also, the timeline for the portfolio writing was drawn up ‘lhe portfolio writing, would be an integrated task into the current curriculum It would be considered

as a home-assigned task (see Appendix T for Curther details)

Table 1: The topic of each week in the writing course

Week 1 Tntraduction Portfolio writing: Free writing

to the course

Requirement

-Assignment

- Scoring Week 2 ‘Trends Write a paragraph describing a current trend and why it

Week 3 Color ~ Tagine that you are designing a now reslauranil

Unit 2 Decide what kind of restaurant it is What colors for the

restaurant, the sign, the walls, the plates, the napkins? Why?

-Imagine you are going to design a library for children What colors would you use [or the tables and shelves, for the walls, and for a reading area?

= Think about the color of your bedroom or living room ow dees the color make you feel? Would you like to change the color’? Why?

= Think of a company or service thai you are familiar with What color does it use for its product and

advertising? Do you think the company is using color psychology? Low?

+ Think of a well-known restaurant, clothing store,

department store or a company such as an airline How

does the company use color in their advertising or

inside their place of business? How do the colors make you feel?

Week 4

Unit 3

Courtesy - /’m traveling to the United States for the first tune

What do you know about manners in the U.S.? What

tips do you have about being polite?

- Pm traveling to Vietnam for the first time What do

you know about manners in Vietnam? What tips do you have about being polile there?

- I think that people today are very rude I'm the father

of two young boys, ages five and ten How can | teach

my sons Lo be polite?

- What have you learned abou etiquette in different cultures? Did you learn this from traveling or living in another country, or by meeting people from other

cultures? Give oxamples

- Do you think that peaple are naturally polite? Or do they learn to be polite? Explain

Week 5-6

Limit 4

Games - Professional athletes earn very high salaries Do you

think their salasies are too high? Why or why not?

- Coaches and sports officials inchiding referees and judges are responsible for making sure that athletes play by the rules Tn informal games, there is ne referee, judge or coach Ilow do players decide what is far?

- In professional sports, when a player does something that makes the competition unfair, officials often make the player pay a large amount of money, called a fine

Do you think that a large fine is a good way to help

make sporls fair? Why or why not?

- What makes a competition unfair?

Week 7

Unit 5 Family tes - What qualities do you have thal can help you when

working with a group of people?

- What kind of people do you think can build a

successful family business?

- What advice would you give to someone who was

thinking of starting a business?

- Write a personal letter to a friend about a new family

business you creale Your letler will inelude

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Describe what happened

- Do you prefer to interact with people or with self- service machines? Why?

- Think of a new type of self-service technology What are the benefits of this technology? What are the

-Do vou think recycling is important? What kinds of things do you recycle?

- ‘Think of something that is still useful, but that you no longer want What car you do wilh that ilem insiead of throwing it away?

-What are some of the advantages of buying new things instead of fixing old things? Discuss different items and

the advantages of buying the items new

- Bo you think it is betler to save and wear old clothing

or to buy new, trendy clothes? Why

- What kinds of things de you throw away? What habits could you change to throw away less? Can you think of now ways to usc these thmgs?

Write a short story that includes a main character, selling, conllict and resolution

- What was your experience of mathematics in school? Was it positive or nogalive? Explain

- Do people leave tips in restaurant in your country?

How tnuch do they lip? Whal other services do people give tips for?

-What kinds of things that involve math do you think every adull should know how lo do? For example, figuring out the correct tip in a restaurant

- Some people have a natural ability im math, while other people struggle with it Why do you think some people are better at math than others?

- Write about your personal experience learnirys math

Week 13 | Globalhealth - Imagine that an epidemic spread quickly and becomes Unit 10 a global pandemic What kinds of problems do you

think there might be for government and doctors?

= The flu can spread rapidly in schools and cause teachers and children to become sick, What can a school do to prevent the spread of the flu?

- Do you think that experts can learn useful information about human behavior by studying how people behave when they play simulation games? Why or why nol?

- Write a definition paragraph about an illness

Step 2: Action (During the semester)

In this step, portfolio writing was carried out in the class ‘lhe writing couse

lasls 15 weeks, Fach weck, a theme and one type of writmg/wriling skills are covered

Hach week the students would be required to choose a topic from the theme-based

topic lists of that week and write about it For example, on week 2, the big theme is

“Trends” and the small topies for wrtmg arc “Describe a trend that imerests you and

explain why it is popular” and “Write about a popular social networking site’ popular trend in technology/ music/ book/ movie in your country” The students could choose

one of those Lopics and write about il Notably, the students were reminded and handed

out the learning outcomes and the checklists at the beginning of each lesson so that

they would focus beller and know what they have to avhisve im thal lesson The

textbook is also leamer-centered when the checklist of what students can do 1s put at

the end of the lesson After completing the first version of their weekly writing in the

portfolio, the students were required to swap ther writing wilh one peer in the class,

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then read and give comments to their peer’s writing Based on their peers’ comments,

the students were required to write the secoud version of their piece of writing

Afterwards, they had to submit their second version to the researcher The researcher would comment on the students’ second version and give it back to them ‘The third

version is optional Afier all, the students were required to write a telection based on the questions prepared by the teacher ‘he list of the questions can be seen in Appendix

week 5, week 8 and 15), the researcher wrote a leaching journal to reflect upon

carrying out portfoho writing m the course The researcher would jot down the common problems that majority of the students often have and the whole progress of ouhaneing learning aulonomy of (he students in the class The teaching journal would

be used as a useful source for the researcher to look into the process of what and how

students enhance their learnitig autonomy Afier the final term: test, the survey was

delivered to the students after the final term test To avoid ary misunderstanding, the

research topic and the instruction were adequately explained to the students

Noticeably, the researcher emphasized that the students’ personal information was

guaranteed to be confidential herefore, the students could express their opinions freely Three days after the questionnaire were collected: the interviews were carried

oul in Vietnamese, which enables the students to easily express Khemselves and whal

they concern about Also, the researcher confirmed again the confidentiality of the interviewees’ personal information, Nolably, during the interviews, additional questions were asked to gather more information

Step 4: Reflection

In this last step, the collected data were processed Ihe interviews were transcribed and translated into English to serve as a source of reference for the outcome collected from the survey The dala would be analyzed according lo the twee dimensions of leamer autonomy, i.e, controlling over the learning management, learning strategies and learning content Additionally, the implementation of portfolio writing would be assessed Shorleornings would be poimted ouL and recommendations would be made to make portfolio writing more effective in enhancing the students’

learner autonomy

3.3 Settings and participants

The research is conducted in university X in Vinh, one of the most prestigious

universities nol only in the central regions bul also nationwide To get admission to the

Foreign Language Department of the university, the students need to take an entrance exam which includes math, linglish and literature Normally, the admission Lnglish score is quite high in the range of intermediate level The first-year writing program

ils The official

focuses on developing general language skills and critical thinking s

lexibook curently used an the writin, chiss is “Q: skills for suc

Writing 2”

Reading and

40 first-year students participated in the study Specifically, they are all the students in the class the rescarcher 1s teaching The selection of the first-year students was on purpose, Fust of all, the first-year students just finished high school where leaming autonomy is not placed high ‘lraditionally, high school students are supervised carefully by both their teachers and parents to assure that they focus on their

studies and understand the lessons However, universily etvironment allows them to be

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free from the supervision of their parents Also, their lecturers will not supervise them

as much as their high school teachers They are required to start managing their own learning schedule and their performance Also, they need to read/ investigate more about what they learn beyond the svope of their textbook From my observation during, some years teaching in universities, the first-year students seem to have no or little learning autonomy in comparison to the senior ones Therefore, it seems that the first- year students are the most suitable participants for this study

3.4 Data collection instruments

A questionnaire and interviews are fully employed for both quantitative and qualitative data collection so that the sufficient and valid data would be obtained for the paper Besides, the researcher’s teaching journal would be used as the useful

reference to compare with the survey and interviews

3.4.1 Questionnaire

‘A questionnaire was designed to collect the opinions of the participants toward portfolio writing (see Appendix 111) Based on the measurements presented in David

Dixon’s research (2011: 315), the survey was adapted and redesigned by the researcher

to suit the context of the study Specifically, the questionnaire was divided into three main parts to investigate the students’ opinions regarding the three components of

leamnng autonomy, namely Isarong management, learong stralegies and learning

content

> Loarmng managoments: Question 1 - 7

> Learning strategies: Question8 17

> Leaming conlenk Question 18-19

The questionnaire was written in Vietnamese to avoid any possibility of the students’ misunderstanding Some first lines served as the introduction about the purpose of the paper, the confirmation of personal information confidentiality and the

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instruction to do the survey The next section of the questionnaire is a set of 19 close-

ended questions 1o investigate the students’ optmons about portfolio writing’s effect on

their learning autonomy Each question offored five options: strongly agree, agree, no opinion, disagree and strongly disagree ‘Ihe questionnaire was chosen to collect data for the research thanks 1o ils advantages First, it helped the resgarcher to collect a large

amount of information in a short duration of time Furthermore, the outcome collected

from the questionnaire can be processed rather fast and conveniently (Gillham, 2000, cited in Hoang & Nguyen, 2007.18) Also, the multiple-choice questions made the unmotivated students to be more willing to answer ‘I'he questionnaire was handed over

to the students in the class im the last week of the course To avoid any

unsundersiandmg shoul (he quesliormaire, the rescarcher spent [ew minutes to explain the purpose of the questionnaire, the confidemtiality of the participants in the survey

and the tenninologies which could be confusing to the students Afler the students had

completed the survey, their answers were collected in the class,

increase the validity and certainty of the outcomes and conclusion, the researcher used

ong more instrument, ie interviews Six students were randomly chosen Lo parlicipate

in the interviews

Unlike the survey, open-ended questions were chosen for the interviews and all the interviews are semi-constructed since it enables the interviewees “power and control” and the interviewer “a greal deal of flexibility” (Hoang & Nguyen, 2007:52)

The data from the survey and interviews would be compared to give a detailed answer

for the research question As aforementioned, the qualitative method would be utilized

to analyze the dala

The imerviews were conducted in the week after the final week of the course Six randomly-chosen students were asked to join in the interviews The interviews were carried out in Vietnamese to avoid the students” misunderstanding, the questions: Also, answering the questions in their mother tongue enables them to fully express their opinions

3.8 Data analysis

As mentioned above, both qualitative and quantilalive methods were utilized to analyze the collected data

© Questionnaire

The researcher would he use descriptive statistics to analyze the questionnaire

The data would be categorized regarding the three dimensions of leamer autonomy Then, the number of students who choose the options “strongly disagree”! “disagree"s

my oy 46

“no opinions” “agree”! “strongly sgro would be calculated The dala would be illustrated in percentages ‘Lhe frequency distributions of the percentages would be graphed

Wurthermore, the average mean of each question would be calculated live options in

each item in the questionnaire are converted to the points as follows:

- Strongly agree: 5

- Agree: 4

-No opinions: 3

- Disagree

- Strongly disagree: 1

The mean of cach item will be the quotient of the sum of all options divided by 5

© Interviews

The interviews would be also inductively coded and categorized in term of the

three cimensions of learner autonomy The detailed answers of the students im the

interviews would be compared with the outcome from the questionnaire,

rey 3

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSLONS

This chapter presents the detailed results obtained from the data collected in the students’ weekly reflections, the self-assessment checklist, the self-reported questionnaire and the semi-structured interviews Additionally, the in-depth discussion

on the results would be brought up

To answer the research question “To what extent does the use of portfolio writing cnhanee the firsl-year sludents’ learning aulonomy al Foreign Language Department in university X?”, the researcher categorized the collected data into the dimensions of learner antonomy which are mentioned in Chapter 2

4.1 Effects of portfolio writing on the students’ learning management

‘As mentioned in the Literature review, the learning management in leamer

autonomy includes observable behaviors involved in the planning, organization and

evaluation of learning,

4.1.4, Elfects of portfalio writing on students’ planning and organizing

To begin with, al the beginning of the semester, the rescarcher presented clearly the general objectives of the course, the requirements and the skills/knowledge that students need to achieve after the writing course Afterwards, the students were required to list down their own goals in the couse and reminded to stick to them Furthermore, students were asked to make their own timetable and reminded that they

would have to submit their portfolio writing on time

The post-course questionnaire reveals the changes of the students’ habits and awareness in solimg goals and planning As menhoned in the chapler 3, the

questionnaire is a Likert-scale designed

Table 2: Students’ opinions on the effect of portfolio writing on planning and

organizing their learrinyy

4 Aller portfolio wnting, T can 15% 35% SM 22.5% | 22.5% | 3.35

create a more practical studying

As can be scon in the above table, most of the means are quite high It shows that most of students choose the answers in the side “agreement” of the question scale Item 1: Goal setting

As can be soon i the table, most of the participants find that wriling # portfolio during

the couse helped them a lot in enhancing their planning and organizing skills

The percentage of students who agree that they arc able to establish their own goals from the course requirements nearly doubles the percentage of who disagree In the interviews, Student A revealed that “I have never participated in discussing or making goals in my study with peers or teachers in my high school or lower level ones I jusi did what my teacher told me But since I studied here, after making goals, I felt I better

29

control my study and clearly know what I need to da to get the targets I really become

more goal-oriented.” Olher studenls in the imlerviews also shared the same idea with

the student A to some extent From the researcher's observation, the students were still

inactive in making their goals Or they often set too broad targets such as “learning Rnglish well”, “write well” and “gel good scores” In the rose cher’s opinion, they need to have specific goals which comply with the curriculum’s goals The researcher found out that the participants who set specific goals alongside the whole goals often Knew how to achieve and better focused on what they do Besides, they were more active in their study plan and got better scores Another reason for the improvement in setting goals is the students learning why they need to stick to the goals and then

understand thal pre-set goals are important lo guide them to achteve the requirements

in the course Student B mentions a situation when he did not know the writing skills/kniowledge for thal lesson and wrote his essay in a wrong way and aNerward, he made a habit of identifying goals and following them in his leaming He stated,

In week 9, we learnt about using ume order words But in my writing, I did not use any of those words So, 1 was quite upset when I received your strict and brutal comments in front of our class, But it becomes something unforgettable to me 1 always check the section “What! can do ” at the end of the lesson in the textbook to see whether [follow and get the goals in writing or not

Notably, in the students’ weekly reflections, they also mentioned the importance

of setting goals for each lesson in particular and their study in general A lot of the students pointed oul he benefits of goal-oriented studying habil First, it helps them to better focus on what they need to do to achieve the required skills/knowledge in the

writng class Secondly, they found thal i helps them in other subjects, too The

researcher observed that the goal box at the beginning and the check box at the end off

the lesson in the textbook, the peer and teacher comments are useful in reminding the

30

students of understanding and following the goals Last but not least, a lot of students

in their reflections admitted that thanks to Lhe goal-oriented mind, they slick more to

the topics in the ossays when thoy write The students often automatically check back

to the goal lists are making sure they achieved and wrote enough to get good scores in portfolio writings They found that afler checking thal, they got “more positive comments, especially from the teacher”, “better score in their writing particularly and

in other subjects in general”

Item 2, 3 and 4; Scheduling

In ten of scheduling (Item 3), the collected dala represent a surpnsing onteome As can be seen in the table, the number of students chose options “Strongly agree” aul “Agree” cqmls to the ones who svlecled “Strongly disagree” and

“Disagree”, However, in the next question (Item 4), when being asked whether they strictly follow their timetable, a majority of the students failed to manage that Only approximately 30% of the students stated that they could keep up with their mitial plan All of the interview participants revealed that they had difficulties in managing time to some extent Three of them could keep up with the predetermined plan until the around the midterm ‘wo of them always struggled to finish the process of portfolio writing, which inchides writing the first version, commenting on their peers’ writing, receiving

peers’ comment and writing the second version, submilling the second version and

full of energy and excited Lo leam Also, they did not have many assignments al that

time Therefore, they could focus more on portfolio writing or still had enough time

Nonetheless, from the midterm, with the coming exams and the increasing load of

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assignments, the students had to reschedule their amount of time for studying and exam, Therefore, they were distracted and failed to keep up with their initial plans

Furthermore, the interviewees pointed out that since most of them now live on thew

own in rented rooms or university campus, they have to take care of their daily lives,

which they had never done before when they were still high school students At that

time, they had lived with their parents So technically, their parents took eare of their

food and the housework Therefore, time management for their daily life stuffs also

affocts their study plan Also, mm the interviews, student F revealed that after submittmg

a lot of essays late, she found out that her procrastination/ delaying caused her a lot of troubles when she started to write She said “I sit down at my laptop early in the evening, thinking thai 1 would finish my writing that night Then, I opened the internet browser in my laptop and as a habit; I opened some familiar news, forum and social

networking websites and just told myself that I would just read a Tilile bit and then start

to write Uhm you know, and then one thing leads to another Finally, around midnight, I ended up doing nothing for my essay That's the reason why I couldn't keep

up with my plan” Nolably, the result from the interviews and questionnaire complies

with what the researcher observed and read in the students’ weekly reflection In the

reflection, a majority of the students often complained about how hard it is to submit the portfolio writing on time Obviously, they also pointed out the way they overcame

it such as rearranging their lives, better study plans, and better time management skills

Thorefore, in the question about their planning skills (Item 4), more than half of the students thought that they could make a more practical plan now The rest of the questionnaire participants were still uncontident in developing a good plan In the students’ reflection, most of them admitted that they were trying to adapt to university environment, and the amount of workload in higher education Ta the weekly reflections, most of the students thought that they should better plan their study and use time more logically to complete all the tasks on time In the interview, student I’ said

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