000029013 USING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE THE WRITING ABILITY OF NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT PRE-INTERMEDIATE LEVEL IN HANOI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SỬ DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG GIAO TIẾP ĐẾN NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG VIẾT CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG NGỮ TIẾNG ANH TRÌN

000029013 USING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE THE WRITING ABILITY OF NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT PRE-INTERMEDIATE LEVEL IN HANOI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SỬ DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG GIAO TIẾP ĐẾN NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG VIẾT CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG NGỮ TIẾNG ANH TRÌNH ĐỘ TIỀN TRUNG CẤP TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI

jáẵẾ-MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN STUDIES

NGUYEN MINH HANG

USING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE THE WRITING ABILITY OF NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT PRE-INTERMEDIATE LEVEL IN

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT

OF REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE

I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Le Thi Hong, M.A (TESOL), for her valuable guidance, critical comments, and constructive advice during the course o f writing this report Without her assistance, this report would have been made impossible

I also wish to acknowledge Dr Pham Kim Ninh, Mrs Nguyen Thai

Ha and all the staff o f the Post- Graduate Department at Hanoi University

o f Foreign Studies for their useful lectures and suggestions, which laid the foundation for this thesis

M any thanks are sent to my colleagues at Hanoi University o f Technology as well as my friends for their help and wonderful materials they provided me during the time I wrote this dissertation

Finally, I am grateful to my father and my family whose support has been equally important to my educational endeavors

Writing can be one o f the most enjoyable and satisfying activities'for tiachers and students to do together in a foreign language classroom Good vriting makes a special contribution to success in college and on the job

At Hanoi University o f Technology, most writing in classes are still based

cn mechanical exercises and traditional drills which have no communicative purpose In other words, the emphasis is on the form o f the language, not its content For these kinds o f activities, there is no desire to communicate on the part o f the learners When students are asked to do a

p e c e o f writing, they often find it difficult to express ideas in the new language

With an effort to tackle the problem, this paper reports on a study investigating into the use o f comm unicative activities to improve the writing ability for non- English major students at pre- intermediate level at Hanoi University o f Technology Its aim is to justify the fact that communicative activities are much necessary and useful for students who earn English as a second language The findings from the research reveal hat when the students are encouraged to write in real contexts, they become more motivated in their writing lessons, and consequently their vriting ability has been properly improved

From a detailed discussion o f the achievements that the teacher and

¡tudents have gained during the experiment, the work recommends some suitable communicative activities that can be used in writing lessons It is loped that they will be useful and enjoyable for both teachers and their audents at Hanoi University o f Technology

Statement of the Problem

Aims of the Study

Scope of the Study

2.2.2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Communicative Activities I 5

2.2.5 The Role o f the Teacher and Learners in a Writing Class 23

22

2

4

2.2.5.1 Teacher’s Role 23

Employed in the Experimental Group (Group B)

3.1.4 Comments on the Differences Between Two Types of Lessons 41

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

H U T Hanoi University o f Technology

T ESO L Teaching English to Speakers o f other Languages

12

21395152

84245494950505052

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

The Nature of Communication

The Communication Continuum

The Roles of Teachers and Learners

Illustrative Pictures

Pie Charts on Answers to Question 4

Pie Charts on Answers to Question 6

Staffs Qualifications and Experience

Results of the Class Observation in Group A

Results of the Class Observation in Group B

Average Score of the Pre-test

Average Score of the Post-test

Purposes of Communicative Activities

Reasons for Taking Part in CA

Advantages of Communicative Activities

Pupils’ Feeling and Attitudes Towards CA

In language teaching, the m ost favorable approach is supposed to be the comm unicative approach since this approach equips the learners with appropriate skills for using the language in a real world The learners are offered the opportunity to use the language for their own purpose, e.g to take part in communication W hen they are being adequately motivated, they are likely to put more effort into learning

In Vietnam, there has been an explosion in learning foreign languages, especially English Thus, English has become a compulsory subject in many colleges M any teachers feel they are on top o f com m unicative approach to listening, speaking, and to a considerable extent, reading as well; however, teaching writing com m unicatively has been a neglected area o f the English language teaching so far

At Hanoi University o f Technology (HUT), the same problem remains In spite o f the fact that many teachers admit the significant role

o f writing, only few them are interested in finding out effective ways o f teaching it During the lessons the students are often given exercises in order to reinforce new grammatical structures and new items o f language,

w hich are believed to be very important in language learning, but successful writing depends on more factors than merely the ability to produce clear and correct sentences Classroom writing tasks should reflect the ultimate goal o f enabling students to write contextualized pieces o f writing

• Aim s o f the Study

The study aims at investigating whether communicative activities can help non- English major students at pre-intermediate level improve their writing ability

Implications from the study are expected to give substantial assistance to the teachers at Hanoi University o f Technology so that they :an help the students learn writing in English more effectively

» Scope o f the Study

Communicative activities can be used to teach writing because they can improve students’ writing skills in three following main catergories:

(i) Communicative skills: making the writing functional, i.e iilfilling a specific purpose and suiting a specific subject-matter The areas that relate most easily to pre-intermediate grammar and vocabulary are placed much emphasis on Subject-matter is not too complex for the hnguage available and paragraphs are at simple level

(ii) Organizational skills: organising ideas

(iii) Stylistic skills: handling the four major styles (narrative, descriptive, expository, and argumentative) and achieving the right level o f formality and the appropriate tone

In this thesis, the author applies communicative activities in teaching

w itin g in order to develop writing ability for students at HUT However, tie author only focuses on developing communicative skills and organizational skills for the reason that the subjects are non- English major pie-intermediate students The stylistic skills are not dealt with in this paper fcr they are not suitable to these students In other words, only after reaching a high intermediate or advanced level o f proficiency are they

rq u ire d to delelop these challenging skills

• Research Methodology

The methodology the author uses in this study is control group design or in other words quasi- experiment ( Seliger and Shohamy ’

(1989)) The data collection instruments are pre- and post- tests, observation checklists and an end-of-course evaluation questionnaire.

According to Seliger and Shohamy (1989) language tests are used in classroom research in various o f way They may be formal language tests

or tests-like activities, such as a writing task or a communicative activity, which are normally carried out in a language class and which later become

a data source for research

Observation checklists and questionnaires come in many shapes and forms, and can be utilised to investigate practically any aspect o f the teaching and learning process Nunan (1989) states that questionnaires and checklists can provide information in an economic form However, in case the subjects are low- profficiency learners it is advisable to have one’s questionnaires translated, or obtain bilingual assistance during the data- collection phase

In order to achieve the aims o f the study, the author undertakes an experiment under the light o f Seliger’s , Shohamy’s( 1989) and N u n an ’s (1989) theory The subjects are the second -year students from two classes that have the same English level at HUT One class is the control class The other is the experimental class The experiment lasts for over three months The amount o f time for their writing lessons o f both groups are the same (two periods for writing skill per week)

The pre and post- tests are used to compare the results o f the students

in two classes on writing ability Apart from these, the students are given progress tests in the form o f revision every three weeks

The observation takes place at the same time with the experimental teaching which includes the description o f classroom activities, with focus

on the activities type, the teachers’ methods and techniques in teaching English writing Two other teachers from the English department are asked

to attend writing lessons in two classes They observe the class and fill in a checklist during each lesson They also give comments on the effectiveness

o f the communicative activities used in the experimental group

Conclusions about whether communicative activities can help improve students’ writing skills are drawn on the basis o f the empirical evidence

After the experiment process, the author carries out a survey All the students o f the experimental class are handed out an end-of-course evaluation questionnaire It includes some questions relating to the students’ attitudes and opinions about communicative activities employed

in their writing lesson All the data collection from the students’ answers is analyzed

• Outline o f the Study

Apart from introduction and conclusion sections, the study consists

o f four main chapters Chapter One is the general background to the study, which includes a report on the English language teaching in general and the teaching o f writing in particular at HUT Chapter Two deals with theoretical background which is relevant to the purpose o f the study: the teaching o f writing communicatively Chapter Three describes the experiment, including data analysis and comments on the achievements gained in the study There is also a part o f students’ feedback with the results o f the evaluation questionnaires to show the positive side o f the communicative activities to the teaching o f writing M ajor findings are also discussed in this chapter On the basis o f the previous chapters, in Chapter Four, the author makes some suggestions for suitable communicative activities which are considered to be useful in developing the students’ communicative skills at Hanoi University o f Technology

C H A PT ER 1

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

C U R R EN T SITUATION OF T EA C H IN G AND LEARNING

EN G LISH AT THE HANOI U N IV E R SITY OF TEC H N O LO G Y

Being founded in 1956, the main goal o f Hanoi University o f Technology was to train students to become engineers o f different branches

or every economic field in the North o f Vietnam Now HUT is one o f the biggest universities in Vietnam with fifteen different departments and more han ten scientific research centers It has played a great part in the levelopment o f the country M any o f the engineers and researchers vorking now in all fields o f Vietnam industry used to be students at HUT

A long with the rapid development o f science and technology in our country, it is necessary to have a great num ber o f engineers who are able to ise English In order to meet that demand, students at HUT after completing a five-year course are expected not only to obtain scientific Inowledge but also to write well in English, which is very necessary for tieir future work, especially when they have to work with foreigners and vrite reports as well as do scientific research

11 Teaching Materials

At HUT in the first two years the non- English major students learn Ceneral English for over 400 lesson periods At this stage the students are required to learn four English courses ranging from elementary to pre- irtermediate level Each course lasts for one semester (three and a half nonths) After the fourth semester the students are expected to have rrastered the most basic English structures and vocabulary related to cim mon topics

H eadw ay series by John and Liz Soars have been used as course b(oks for teaching course: Headway Elementary for the first year and

H a d w a y Pre-intermediate for the second-year students The textbooks

s e m useful because they have a good balance among the 4 language skills

F n m the very beginning, grammar is introduced clearly with simple and urierstandable explanations and a lot o f examples After every three units

there is a “stop and check” to check students’ understanding o f the new anguage items or grammatical structures.

Apart from these, “Tactics for Listening” by Deborah Gonjen,

\n d r e w Haiper, and Jack C Richards are also used for teaching listening

or the first- year students

Concerning the teaching o f writing which is the main aim o f this itudy, there are two writing books compiled and adapted by the teachers in tie English Department The Writing Book 1, which is used for the first-

^ear students, mainly deals with “ sentence level reinforcement exercises” (Ron White, 1990) and writing guided paragraph/ simple composition The Vriting Book 2, which is used as supplementary material for the second­

e r students, focuses on more difficult types o f writing such as factual cescription o f people and places, narration o f past events, writing formal aid informal letters, etc The time for writing skill is 2 periods per week (;ee Appendix 1).These kinds o f exercises are based on the contents o f the nain course books Headway series mentioned above The aim o f this vriting material is to help students write in English clearly and fluently at smple paragraph level In order to help the second-year students achieve tlis overall aim the topics o f the units have been chosen so that the students

cm relate to them easily The students are required to write about things wthin their own experience - for example, about themselves, their interests aid hobbies, about their own country and about events in which they have tacen part in

12 Teaching Methods

As far as the teaching o f writing is concerned, at Hanoi University ofTechnology, the teaching procedures consist o f two stages: presentation ard controlled practice Following is a brief description o f what the te;chers at H U T often do during a writing lesson:

At the first stage, the teachers work with controlled techniques,asking students to repeat, and perform in drills Although these inroduction stages (often called presentation) are often short, and the driling abandoned as soon as possible, they are nevertheless important in heping the students to assimilate facts about new language and in enabling

:hem to produce the new language for the first time.

At the second stage, the students are required to do a series o f ixercises such as vocabulary exercises, sentence building/transformation or guided paragraphs One example o f exercises o f this kind is Substitution in 7rames In this exercise interchangeable elements are grouped in columns, but whereas most substitution tables represent the structure o f a single :entence, his frames are arranged in a series, so that a succession o f choice

ro m left to right will result in a paragraph, letter or short composition

Another type o f exercise at this stage that the teachers often use is iuided paragraph building This exercise is done in two steps:

(i) The student examines various groups o f words and combines each g'oup into a sentence by following the clues provided

(ii) The student creates a coherent paragraph by rewriting the smtences in a logical order, adding various 'transitional' features where necessary

In short, at Hanoi University o f Technology, the teachers only follow tvo stages: presentation and controlled practice However, according to Harmer (1991), a well-organised lesson includes three major stages:

irtroducing new language (presentation), controlled practice, and ccmmunicative activities. Thus, in this paper the author applies the teaching piocedures in the light o f H arm er’s theory aiming at improving students’

w itin g ability

1.5 Students’ Needs

In recent years, learning the four language skills in general and lean in g writing in particular have changed a lot: the final goal o f language

le a n in g is to be able to communicate in the target language English

During the writing lessons, though the students are given a lot o f traditional drills mentioned above, they d o n ’t seem to be satisfied With these activities, teachers hardly enable the learners to use the foreign larguage as a means o f achieving communicative purpose in real life Moreover, this type o f class does not encourage creative thinking o f the

sudents properly The students not only need to learn grammatical rules lut also need to d evelop their communication skills as well It is probable tiat they prefer to have some kinds o f activities that not only help them inprove their ability o f expressing ideas in English but make writing lis o n s more enjoyable as well.

14 Teaching Staff:

It is clear that teaching staff are the force to decide learning

a hievement In the Foreign Language Department at HUT, there are about firty teachers o f English aged between twenty-three and fifty Ten percent

o the teachers have 3 years o f teaching experience The age o f the teaching stiff shows that they do not have much experience in teaching English Cily a few teachers have been to English speaking countries Eighty pircent o f the staff have never attended any workshops on communicative laiguage teaching

Table 1: S t a f f s Qualifications and Experience.

Having been to English-speaking countries 5/38

\tte n d in g workshops on language teaching 7/38

The data in the table clearly describe the limitation o f the teaching sta'fin terms o f their communicative competence in language teaching

Fortunately, most o f the staff have a great desire to acquire more kn<wledge to improve their communicative competence and then to apply

it ii English teaching to the non- major students at HUT

C H A PT ER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 C ommunication in English Language Teaching

So far a great deal o f attention has been paid to communicative approach The focus o f this approach is on teaching students how to comm unicate adequately or appropriately with others Allen and

W iddowson in D Byrne (1980) share the same view that language teaching and learning is not simply a mechanical process o f habit formation but is concerned with communication It is desirable that learners should be taught the rules o f language use and language features appropriate to the relevant social context In the light o f this theory, Littlewood ( 1981 :x-xi) also states:

"It is not enough to teach learners how to manipulate the structure

o f the language o f the foreign language They must also develop

strategies for relating these structures to their communicative

functions in real situations and real tim e.”

According to Littlewood (1991: 89), the goal o f foreign language teaching can be defined as:

"to extend the range o f communication situation in which the

learner can perform with focus on meaning without being hindered

by the attention he must pay to linguistic form"

This is the reason why the communicative approach has come into existence and so far has been widely considered an effective approach to adopt in various aspects o f language teaching However, when applying comm unicative approach in language teaching, teachers and students may come across some practical problems such as large classes, time and limit

o f a severe syllabus Only when teachers are fully aware o f these factors and find out ways to deal with them can communicative approach be used effectively In order to have a closer look at Communicative Language Teaching, it is necessary to explore the nature o f communication and its

■elevance to the teaching o f four language skills in general and writing

;kills in particular

U l The Nature o f C ommunication

According to Harmer (1991) communication between humans is an ixtremely complex and ever-changing phenomenon People get involved in iommunication because they have information, ideas, and feelings they vant to share This sharing, however, is not a one-way process, where one jerson sends ideas and the other receives them, and then the process is eversed

When tw o people are engaged in communication to each other we

a n be sure that they are doing so for these reasons:

1 They want to say something. 'Want' is used here in a general way t> suggest that people make definite decisions to address other people

2 They have some communicative purpose. They may want to give s>me information or express pleasure In each o f these cases they are iiterested in achieving this communicative purpose - what is important is tie message they wish to convey and the effect they want it to have

3 They select from their language store. Writers have an infinite opacity to create new sentences In order to achieve this communicative pirpose they will select the language they think is appropriate for this pirpose

4 They want to listen to 'something'.

5 They are interested in the communicative purpose o f what is being said.

6 They process a variety o f language.

Harmer (1991) also remarks that these generalisations do not only

a p ly to all the listeners but are equally true o f readers as well; in writing, th; writer is not in intermediate contact with the reader (whereas in a cciversation two or more people are together) By effective conmunication we mean that there is a desire for the communication to be efective both from the point o f view o f the writer and the reader (or th e'

speaker and the listener) He goes further by arguing that whenever com m unication takes place, o f course, there can be a writer and a reader This is the case the writer assumes reader will be performing a comm unicative act when reading his pieces o f writing.

In speaking and writing, the speaker or writer quickly becom es the listener or reader as the communication progresses The diagram o f the nature o f communication is presented as follows:

SPEAKER AVRTTER

LISTENER/READER

wants to say something has a communicative purpose selects from laneuase store

wants to listen to something interested in communicative purpose processes a variety of language

Figure 1: The nature of communication (Harmer, 1991: 48)

Howatt (1984: 279) draws a distinction between the strong amd the weak version o f communicative language teaching He states:

"The weak version, which has become more or less standard

practice in the last ten years, stresses the importance of providing

learners with opportunities to use their English for communicative

purposes and, characteristically, attempts to integrate such

activities into a wider programme of language teaching The

"strong' version of communicative language teaching, on the other

hand, advances the claim that language is acquired through

communication, so that it is not merely a question of activating an

existing but inert knowledge of the language, but of stimulating the

development of the language system itself If the former could be

described as “ learning to use' English, the latter entails 'usins

English to learn it’\

According to Harmer (1991), the teaching method by which students are taught must have some effect on their motivation If they find it deadly boring, they will probably become de - motivated, whereas if they have confidence in the method they will find it motivating So the teachers need

to find out the most suitable teaching method for their students The teaching method should be flexible and the teachers have to know how to com bine the traditional teaching method and communicative language teaching A variety o f classroom activities should be employed during the lesson

2.1.2 The Communication Continuum

Harm er (1991) observes that the six characteristics for comm unicative activities can be seen as forming one end o f a continuum o f classroom activity in language teaching, and they can be matched by opposite points at the other end o f the continuum In his opinion, without comm unicative activities in writing lessons the students will have no comm unicative purpose In other words, where students are involved in a drill or in a repetition,, the emphasis is on the form o f the language, not its content Therefore they cannot reach the communicative objective

He summarises his ideas as follows:

Figure 2: The communication continuum (Harmer, 1991:50)

This distinction is considered as a basis for assessing classroom activities in terms o f communication Clark and Hamilton (1984:5) also propose the following communicative criteria for classroom activities:

• The purpose transcends formal practice;

• There are participants involved and their relationships are clear;

• Texts are used for the purposes for which they were produced;

• There is an information gap, opinion or affect gap;

• There is a degree o f unpredictability between input and output;

• The communication conforms to real life norms o f discoursecoherence

2.2 C om m unicative Approach to the Teaching o f Writing

Writing in real life is usually undertaken in response to a demand o f some kind For learners, the demand may arise from academic studies, or from such social roles as friend, purchaser, enquirer, or complainant Students may have any o f these purposes for writing in English But in every case there is a real audience to whom a message must be communicated

The communicative approach stresses the purpose o f a piece o f writing and the audience for it Student writers are encouraged to behave like writers in real life and to ask themselves the crucial questions about purpose and audience

Discussing communicative approach to the teaching o f writing, Raims (1983) and Hedge (1988) report that writing in the English-language classroom can become unreal if it is only ever produced for one reader, the teacher, and if its purpose is limited to enabling the teacher to assess the :orrectness o f the linguistic forms used U nder these conditions students have to imagine contexts for their writing and motivate themselves to write ippropriately for the imaginary readers It is far more motivating for them

f their writing can become genuine pieces o f communication with real ludiences such as other students, visitors, the local newspaper, -

organizations, etc Then they can think carefully about the identifiable and particular context which will determine the exact message and style o f their written communication.

2.2.1 C om m unicative Activities in Teaching Writing

So far many researchers have placed much emphasis on studying methods o f teaching writing Byrne (1978) gives a clear description o f the three stages o f a well- organized lesson In presentation, the new structure

is demonstrated so as to make its form and meaning clear The teacher repeats it several times, either relating it to a picture, or miming an action,

or in another simple way that illustrates its use In practice, the class has an opportunity to get used to the new structure, repeating it after the teacher and gradually moving from pure drill to practice that allows some freedom Finally, the structure is made part o f an activity where it has a genuine function According to Pincas (1982) a writing lesson can fall into three similar stages: familiarization, controlled exercises, fre e writing.

B ased on the communication continuum (mentioned above), Harmer (1991) divides the process o f teaching writing communicatively into three major stages: Introducing new language, Practice, and Communicative- activities.

In general, the teaching procedures suggested by Byrne, Pincas and

H arm er are quite similar at the first two stages o f a writing lesson

H owever, at the third stage, there is some difference between H armer’s and the other two researchers’ points o f view about the activity types While Byrne and Pincas share the same view that at this stage, students should be given a task to write individually without the teacher’s guidance, Harmer stresses the importance o f comm unicative activities in the classroom:

"C om m unicative activities are those which exhibit the

characteristics at the com m unicative end o f the continuum

Students are som ehow involved in activities that give them both the

desire to com m unicate and a purpose which involves them in a

varied use o f the language Such activities are vital in the classroom

since here the students can do their best to use the language as

individuals, arriving at a degree o f language autonomy" (Harmer,

1991:50-51)

In comm unicative activities, the main criterion for success is whether the m eaning is conveyed effectively Here, the production o f linguistic forms becomes subordinate to higher-level decisions, related to the com m unication o f meanings Students are expected to increase their

w riting skills from an intended meaning, selecting suitable language forms and producing them fluently

In this paper, the author em ploys H arm er’s teaching procedures because communicative activities can match the growing ability o f the learners to express themselves through the written form o f the language

W ith this type o f writing activity, the students may, o f course, make mistakes, as with free oral expression, but the important thing from the point o f view o f motivation, is to demonstrate that writing is a purposeful activity

2.2.2 A dvantages and Disadvantages o f Using C ommunicative Activities

Generally, communicative activities are believed to play an

im portant role in the language teaching and learning process When thinking about the teaching o f writing, it is important to have a reason for writing, and we believe that comm unicative activities can provide us with a useful answ er to the question “w hy” ? As we all know that it is really difficult to write a letter when you have no reason to do so If, in the artificial world o f the classroom, we are to encourage our students to write, and expect them to be enthusiastic about this lengthy, tiresome business,

we must at the very least provide a motivating reason to start writing

C om m unicative activities provide a clear short-term achievable aim for students, and by incorporating communicative activities into the writing process we help them to overcome difficulties in learning writing

Litlewood (1981) argues that there are some contributions that '.ommunicative activities can make to language learning:

• They provide 'xvhole-task practice'

In foreign language learning, ‘whole-task practice’ in class means tiat the teacher gives students various kinds o f communicative activities vhich are structured in order to suit the learners' level o f ability Through -

the ‘whole- task practice’ activities, the students are not asked to practise some specific structures or sentences but to use these structures or sentences in the real context to carry out the communicative functions Besides, students do not only say what they want to say but they ought to

be aware o f the roles they are taking and use appropriate linguistic forms

• They improve motivation.

A communicative activity can be a source o f motivation, interest and

it helps draw pupils’ attention to an English as a Foreign Language environment Discussing this, Litlewood (1990) claims that the learners’ ihim ate objective is to take part in communication with others Their motivation to learn is more likely to be sustained if they can see how their classroom learning is related to this objective and helps them to achieve it with increasing success

Another point is that when learners are given a chance to take part in

a communicative activity, they are encouraged to choose their partner This cannot only create a friendly w orking atmosphere but also motivate them to help each other The weaker learners will be helped to gain confidence or

to express their ideas by being guided by the more capable ones Consequently, all learners will feel happier and more motivated in writing lessons

Motivation is an indispensable element in the process o f pupils' acquisition Byrne (1978) also shares the same view with Littlewood He asserts that motivation makes learning more meaningful and effective

Another advantage o f communicative activities is that they encourage group support Byrne (1978) remarks that co - operation and competition are essential motivation in learning English Students enjoy competitive activities and these can serve as a motivation for successful participation Communicative activities require students to interact in role - playing, arguing and debating, using language in a variety o f contexts depending on the type o f activities used This clearly increases student - student communication, which is the purpose o f teaching EFL and promotes co - operation and competition, which are essential motivation in leair.ing English

• They allow natural learning.

When taking part in the communicative activities, students are likely

to be carrying out a real-life interaction This kind o f interaction arouses students’ feeling that they are now not the students performing tasks in classroom but the persons who perform the social interaction

• They can create a context which supports learning.

To illustrate other advantages o f communicative activities, Lee (1979) and Rixon (1988) propose that communicative activities could banish boredom At the same time, they create an enjoyable atmosphere

Communicative activities provide opportunities for positive personal relationships to develop am ong learners and between learners and teacher These relationships can help to 'humanise' the classroom and to create an environment that supports the individual in his efforts to learn

Besides the advantages o f CA discussed above, during the process o f making CA work in class, there are practical problems that make teachers sometimes find it difficult to use CA in their English lessons Some o f them are large classes, money and time consuming:

• Large classes

This is a reality in Vietnam in general and at HUT in particular There are often 30 to 35 students in a class with mixed abilities, motivation For this reason, teachers often have difficulty in controlling, managing and deciding to provide games for large classes "Providing materials for pair games in a class of fifty is obviously beyond a hard - pressed teacher's capacity" (Rixon, 1988: 53) During the process o f making CA work, large classes

m ay have negative effect One o f the main reasons a teacher doubts the efficiency and quality o f using CA in her English lessons is that the students are likely to make noise This may influence the study o f next- door classes as well.Are there any CAs that can be used successfully with very large classes? According to Rixon (1981: 54), there are some types o f

CA and ways o f m anagem ent that may be used for such large classes:

* Games on answers given by a whole group or team at once,

that is using group work or team work

* Games using pencils and paper or games that can be responded

by signal answers

* Selecting and adapting suitable games

• M oney and time consuming

M ost games require the teacher to use game cards (picture or word or map cards); 30-35 cards for a class do not cost a little sum o f money

N ew spapers and magazines, especially foreign ones are rather expensive in Vietnam Therefore the teacher finds it difficult to spend money on teaching materials Another problem is the time To set up a CA, the teacher has to spend much time and effort However, CA should be used in EFL classes because in the au th o r’s opinion, a capable teacher is the teacher who can manage to overcom e this problem by her own ability Some hints are suggested as a reference:

* Exchanging of game materials among teachers who teach

the same age groups

* Asking pupils to collect colorful pictures from old

magazines, papers, etc

* Trying to make durable materials (cards of pictures, words,

maps ) in order to reuse in other times

* Suggesting educational authorities (headmasters, directors )

to supply materials difficult to make

2.2.3 T ypes o f C om m unicative Activity

W h en discussing the various examples o f communicative activities,

L ittlew ood (1981) argues that we should distinguish two main categories which lie calls "functional comm unication activities" and "social interaction activities" Functional communication activities include such tasks as learners comparing sets o f pictures and noting similarities and differences; working out a likely sequence o f events in a set o f pictures;

discovering missing features in a map or picture; one learner com m ua ¡rating behind a screen to another learner and giving instruction on how to draw a picture or shape, or how to complete a map; following directions; and solving problems from shared clues He states that w e'can devise communicative activities for the classroom which emphasise this functional aspect o f communication For example, there may be a problem

w hich learners must solve, or information which they must exchange with

w hatever language they have at their disposal That is, they are not required

to attempt to choose language w hich is appropriate to any particular situation It may not even m atter whether the language they use is gram matically accurate He remarks:

“The main purpose o f the activity is that learners should use the

language they know in order to get meanings across as effectively

as possible Success is m easured primarily according to whether

they can cope with the com m unicative demands o f the immediate

situation" (Littlewood 1981: 20)

Because o f this-emphasis on being functionally effective, activities

o f this type are here called 'functional communication activities'

Another important aspect o f comm unicative skill is the ability to take

a cco u n t o f the social meaning as well as the functional meaning o f different language forms The competent writer chooses language which is not only functionally effective, but is also appropriate to the social situation he is in

"■Learners m ust still aim to convey meanings effectively, but must

also pay greater attention to the social context in which the

interaction takes place Because o f the limitations o f the classroom,

simulation and role-playing are now important techniques for

creating a w ider variety o f social situations and relationships than

w ould otherwise occur” (Littlewood, 1981:21)

It is necessary to distinguish two subcategories o f communicative activities, depending on the degree o f importance related to social as well

as functional meanings In "functional communicative activities", students are placed in a situation where they perform a task by communicating as best as they can These may simply m ean greater grammatical accuracy The criterion for successful com m unication is practical: how effectively the

task is performed On the other hand, in what we call "social interaction activities", students are made to perform in the social context in which comm unication actually takes place.

H arm er (1991) divides communicative activities into five categories:

Relaying instructions, Writing reports and advertisements, Co-operative writing, Exchanging letters and Writing journals. Besides, Hedge (1988), Hadfield and Hadfield (1990), Lindstromberg (1997) also suggest a lot o f activities which they have used successfully over the last few years with classes o f different sizes and levels Most o f these activities have a clear purpose and a clear sense o f audience, which help the students to write complete pieces o f communication, to link and develop ideas for a particular reader or group o f readers

2.2.4 Organisation of Communicative Activities

In class students should be given some cooperative work Learners should be helped to relate the language to the social contexts in the classroom, to use the language for expressing their own personal needs Students should be given tasks or activities that require them to work comm unicatively and co-operatively such as problem solving, game or discussion The research o f many writers: Long et al (1976), Wheeler (1977), Wright (1987), Christison (1990) shows that co-operative work helps improve their self - esteem because it makes them feel that their contributions are valued by other group members

The following diagram from Wright (1987) illustrates the different ways in which learners might be grouped physically or arranged within the classroom (see the diagram on page 21)

Hadfield (1990) also shares the same view with Wright by asserting that communicative activities can be organized in different ways:

• Whole class activities, such as brainstorming associations, where everyone is thinking and providing ideas for one person to write up

on the board

• Individual activities where students are asked to write alone for a set time

• Pair work, where students write together, or to teach the other.

• Group work, where a group discusses what they are writing together, helping each other as they go To get away from the 'homework syndrome' with its possible negative effects, it's important to try to vary these ways o f organising the writing class as much as possible

“In subsequent lessons, language work can be discussed all

together with the mistakes which ar<j common ones, or

individualised in the form of grammar or writing workshops

Attention should he directed to relevant exercises for work by

individuals or by groups” (Hatfield, 1990: vii)

Figure 3: Roles of teachers and Learners (Wright, p 58)

In many activities, pair work, group work and the whole class work aim to give pupils the chance to work together Harmer (1990) proposes that pairwork and groupwork seem to be a good idea because they immediately increase the amount o f students’ practice and allow the

students to use the language At the same time, they are naturally motivated

to acquire previous or new knowledge with pleasure Furthermore, w hen students work in groups, they have to share their knowledge, ideas that are contributed by each partner They will be communicating with each other and more importantly co-operating among themselves Through communicative activities in classrooms, an enjoyable atmosphere has occurred without controlling

In short, co-operative work has two practical benefits in the teaching

o f writing Firstly, it overcomes the boredom and frequent frustration o f traditional methods where each student is sitting silently at his desk, racking his brains for something to write Secondly, it provides a situation

in w hich students have to communicate with each other in writing Students are then writing for a real reader, not just for the critical eyes o f the teacher Having a real reader will help them to see their writing from the point o f view o f the person who receives it -th e y will be forced to consider whether

it was successful or not for the purpose o f the activity

As regard to the issue o f organizing a communicative activity,

H armer (1991:239) also states:

“The success of many activities depends on good organization and on the students’ knowing exactly what they have to do A lot of time can be wasted if the teacher omits to give students vital information or issues conflicting and confusing instructions”

The main function o f the teacher when organising an activity is to tell the students what they are going to write about, give clear instructions about what exactly their task is, get the activity going, and then organise feedback when it is over The teacher should never assume that students have understood the instructions or issue unclear instructions Harmer (1991) also remarks that the organization o f an activity and the instructions the teacher gives are o f vital importance since if the students have not understood clearly what they are to do, they will not be able to perform their task satisfactorily

2.2.5 The Roles o f the Teacher and Learners in a Writing Class

2.2.5.1 T eacher’s Role

The teacher’s task is to continually develop the learners’ ability to take part in the process o f communication through language, rather than perfect mastery o f individual structures In his introduction to the Meaning

o f M ethod, M ackey (1965:138) points out:

"They (teachers) are also expected to re-examine their methods

from time to time in the light of new theories and new research."

Breen and Candlin (1980) claim that the teacher has three main roles: the first role is to facilitate the communication process among participants

in the classroom, and between these participants and the various activities and texts The second role is to act as an independent participant While the students are engaged in the communicative activity the teacher should not intervene By 'intervene' we mean telling students that they are making mistakes, insisting on accuracy and asking for repetition, etc This would underline the communicative purpose o f the activity The teacher may o f course be involved in the activity as a participant, and will also be watching very carefully in order to be able to conduct feedback The third role for the teacher is to act as an observer and learner, with much to contribute in terms o f appropriate knowledge and abilities, actual and observed experience o f the nature o f learning and organizational capacities

Rixon (1988) suggests that teachers should be there as "a source o f information" - perhaps on vocabulary or on new structure or with a suggestion about what they could rephrase something to make it clearer to other players In other words, communicative activities are part o f a general

m ovem ent away from a teacher - dominated classroom and promote active learner - centered learning If there is a clear aim in sight, students will find the writing process and they will then commence to find it more enjoyable

Hadfield (1990) asserts that the teacher's role is to supply the initial enthusiasm and input o f energy and ideas Once the activity has been set in motion, his jo b is simply to allow the students time to settle down and

write It is best not to interfere at this stage but the teacher may choose to help individuals by supplying vocabularies and phrases Sometimes, when students have written personal, creative work, correction can have destructive effect.

" I f you do take in written work for 'correction', use the following

code o f symbols, which can be adapted to suit your teaching needs;

the important thing is to encourage students to self-correct These

symbols show where the mistake is but not what it is exactly It is

then the students' responsibility to locate and correct the mistake”

(Hatfield 1990:vii)

Littlewood (1991) and Hatfield (1990) propose that unnecessary intervention on the teacher's part may prevent the learners from becoming genuinely involved in the activity and thus hinder the development o f their comm unicative skills However, this does not mean that once an activity is

in progress, the teacher should become a passive observer, his function becom es less dominant than before, but no less important For example:

• I f learners find themselves unable to cope with the demands o f a situation, the teacher can offer advice or provide necessary language items I f pupils cannot agree on any point, he can resolve their disagreement In other words, he is available as a source o f guidance and help His presence in this capacity may be an important psychological support for many learners, especially for those who are slow to develop independence

• While learners are performing, the teacher can monitor their strengths and weaknesses Even though he may not intervene at the time, he can use weaknesses as signs o f learning needs

In making the above points, Littlewood (1981) has assumed that the teacher has no direct role in the activity There will also be activities, o f course, in which the teacher can take part as a 'co-communicator' Provided

he can maintain this role without becoming dominant, it enables him to give guidance and stimuli from 'inside' the activity He remarks that it is important for the teacher to monitor the kind o f feedback that his learners

receive, from himself or from others, so that it supports the methodological purpose o f the activity.

Apart from the above mentioned roles o f teacher, Harmer (1991) suggests one more role: the teacher as an investigator In his opinion, the teacher should investigate and observe what works well in class and what does not, trying out new techniques and activities and evaluating their efficiency O f which the two most important ones are the roles o f organizer and investigator He remarks:

"Teachers who do not investigate the efficiency o f new methods

and w ho do not actively seek their own personal and professional

development may find the jo b o f teaching becoming increasingly

monotonous Teachers who constantly seek to enrich their

understanding o f what learning is all about and what works well, on

the other hand, will find the teaching o f English constantly

rewarding” (Harmer 1991:243)

2.2.5.2.L earner’s Roles

The emphasis in communicative language teaching on the processes

o f communication, rather than mastery o f language forms, leads to different roles for learners from those found in more traditional second language classrooms Rubin and Thompson (1982) require the learners to be adaptable, creative, inventive and most o f all, independent in the learning process Seliger (1983) studied the relationship between student participation in the classroom and learner proficiency in the target language He distinguishes between “ high - input generators ” i.e those who are active in classrooms and get more input from the teacher) and

“ low- input generators”, and looks at the role o f learners in generating their own input and learning experience

Richards and Rogers (1986) devote considerable attention to learners’ roles They point out that in communicative classroom, learner has an active, negotiative role The implication for the learner is that he should contribute as well as he gains They suggest that learners must take responsibility for their own learning, developing autonomy and skills in learning how to learn

Harmer (1991) recommends that in a writing class, the students should have some kind o f communicative puipose; in other words they should be using language in some way to achieve an objective, and this objective is the most important part o f the communication If students' do have a purpose o f this kind then their attention will be centered on the content o f what is being written and not the language form that is being used.

2.3 Experimental Research

Science, after all, is fundamentally about process: learning w hy and

how things happen is the soul o f our discipline You c a n ’t abandon

the search for cause in favor o f a dry documentation o f pattern

You must take risks o f uncertainty in order to probe the deeper

questions, rather than stopping with sterile security

(Stephen Jay Gould: "The difference between fa ct and theory" Discover January 1987)

In this part, the author deals with experimental research According

to Seliger and Shohamy (1989) research questions and hypotheses may emerge from different sources, such as observation A theory, which is a set

o f interrelated hypotheses, can then be drawn upon for research which tests these hypotheses in a controlled context such as an experiment It’s necessary to know how the basic elements o f an experiment can be arranged in order to give results which are both internally and externally valid

2.3.1 T he M ajor Components of Experimental Research

All experimental approaches involve the control or manipulation o f the three basic components o f the experiment: the population, the treatm ent, and the measurement o f the treatment.

2.3.1.1 The Type and Number of Groups

Seliger and Shohamy ( 1989) state that experimental research is concerned with studying the effects o f specified and controlled treatments given to subjects usually formed into groups Groups can be formed especially for the purposes o f the experiment or they can be ‘natural’ in the sense that

they already exist prior to the research The researcher has to decide

w hether to use pre-existing groups, as they occur in nature, or to construct them for the experiment This difference between natural groups and those formed specifically for an experiment is one o f the features that distinguishes true experimental designs from quasi-experimental designs

2.3.1.3 M easurem ent or Observation

M easurement or observation refers to how the effects o f the treatm ent will be evaluated or observed The effects o f a treatment might be evaluated by means o f a language test, a judgment, or a communicative task

According to Campbell and Stanley (1963), the components o f experimental research designs will be symbolized as follows:

X = An experimental treatment such as a teaching method, or

exposure to specially constructed materials, and so on

O = Observation or measurement of the effects of the treatment

R = Randomization, or the random assignment of subjects to

groups in order to control for extraneous variables

Experimental research design consists primarily o f various ways o f organizing a treatment (X) and an observation or measurement (O)

In the light o f Seliger’s and Shohamy’s theory experimental research designs may be grouped into several categories, all o f which have a number

o f variations, depending on the conditions under which the research is being conducted The discussion here will be limited to single group

design, in which research might be conducted with only one group; control group designs, in which one group receives a treatment while the other, representing the same population as the experimental subjects, does not receive a treatm ent\ factorial designs, which allow for the investigation o f a num ber o f independent variables at the same time; and quasi-experimental

designs, in which experimental research is conducted in situations which cannot be completely controlled or manipulated

It is important for teachers to understand the general principles o f experimental design in order to be able to carry out a successful experiment design

2.3.2 Experim ent Using Control Groups

According to Shohamy (1989) conducting an experiment means that

at least one independent variable is manipulated and its effect measured by some dependent variable while other factors are controlled in various ways

In the single group designs, the experimental group acts as its own control; the comparison is between its performance without treatment and its performance with treatment In the control group design, the comparison will be for the treatment effect between two or more groups An example o f control group design is static group design According to Seliger (1989):

This would seem to be an ‘economical' design because it allows us

to utilize groups which already exist, such as classes found in a

school In this design, a treatment is administered to one group and

its performance is compared with another, seemingly equivalent

group which has received no treatment (Seliger 1989: 142)

This design may also be considered ‘quasi-experimental’ It does not require the reassignment o f subjects to groups different from those in which they are already found and it requires no rearrangements o f schedules or reassignment o f teachers These apparent advantages, however, can also be sources o f invalidity if variables are not controlled For example, if the same instructor teaches both groups, teacher variables may be better controlled; or if the groups compared receive their instruction at about the same time o f day, fatigue may be discounted as having a variable effect

This kind o f experiment has also been termed ‘quasi-experimental1 because the research is conducted under conditions in which it is difficult

to control many o f the variables and in which subjects cannot be assigned

to special groups for the purposes o f the research Campbell and Stanley (1963) share the same view that quasi-experimental designs are constructed from situations which already exist in the real world, and are probably more representative o f the conditions found in educational contexts

In this paper, the author carries out the control group design discussed above with 2 classes o f pre-intermediate level at HUT The

independent variable o f the study is using communicative activities in teaching writing. The communicative activities are divided into various categories such as Relaying instructions, Writing advertisements, C o­operative writing, and Exchanging letters The dependent variable is the

students' writing ability. This variable can be measured through writing tests or tasks that tell us how well the students write

So far in this chapter relevant information concerning the teaching

o f writing and theory o f experiment research has been discussed thoroughly In order to write successfully, writers need to know the purpose, the form and the readership for a piece o f writing We also study the nature o f communication in order to have some knowledge about the type o f communicative activities the students should be involved in It is clear that teachers and learners play a very important role in writing tasks Teachers need to provide learners with the oppoitunities appropriate for them to create whole texts; learners, for their part, need to develop a range

o f skills related not to language, but to learning and learning how to learn

as well

THE STUDY: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1 Experimental Teaching

The experiment began in August 2002 and lasted for fifteen weeks Its purpose is to evaluate the impact o f communicative activities on the teaching/ learning writing Two classes participate in the experiment: one is called the control group, or group A; the other is the experimental group, or group B The numbers o f students taking part in the experiment o f each class are similar

Students’ Background Knowledge:

The students in both classes are at the same level o f English capacity; and the amount o f time they spent on writing lessons is the same

They have acquired knowledge o f basic grammar as well as that o f com m on relational words like prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, and pronouns Also, they have learned the most frequently used nouns and verbs Most o f the students are fully aware that writing in English is o f great importance for their future work Thus, they are eager to learn writing

so that they can express their ideas in English fluently and clearly

3.1.1.2 Time, Frequency of the Class

In the third semester, the students have 8 periods o f General English per week O f which two periods are for learning writing The lessonsbegins at 7.30 A.M and finishes at 9.00 A.M on every Thursday

3.1.2 Description i.f the Supplementary Materials Employed in the Experim ental Group (Group B).

The reality o f the English Teaching in many parts o f the world, however, has revealed the fact that structures and drills alone are not sufficient to make the task fruitful, especially when the goal o f language has become more and more practical

So far there have been many books concerning the use o f CA such as

Writing by Tricia Hedge (1988), Writing Games by Charles Hadfield and Jill Hadfield (1990), The Practice o f English Language Teaching by Jerem y Harmer (1991), The Standby Book- Activities fo r the Language Classroom by Seth Lindstromberg (1997)

These books have been developed and piloted during the previous years by many teachers o f English in different coimtries This bank o f activities, focusing on the application o f CA in the language classroom, has been designed for teaching the four language skills However, during the experiment, only CA which are used for teaching writing are compiled and adapted in the experimental class (Group B)

3.1.3 Sam ple Lessons in the Two Groups

SAMPLE LESSON IN GRO UP A

Aim o f the lesson: Students learn how to write a fa ctu a l description

• The teacher helps the students review the use o f There is/ There are

by giving examples on the board as follows

Singular count noun Plural nouns Non-count nouns

Avenue

many some few no

much some little no

• The teacher asks students to read a short paragraph and explain the use

o f relative pronouns in the following sample paragraph to the student

Mr Allen and Mr Foster want a good location, which should be safe and quiet for a new office building They have an offer which is very expensive from the Northeastern Bank Company Mr Allen likes cities because thereare a lot of parks, museums, restaurants, theatres, and stores