Nghiên cứu những khó khăn của giáo viên trong việc dạy kĩ năng viết cho học sinh lớp 11 tại một trường THPT ở bắc giang

Với nỗ lực tìm ra những khó khăn của giáo viên khi dạy kĩ năng viết cho học sinh lớp 11 tại một trường THPT, mục đích của nghiên cứu là để tìm ra (1) những khó khăn giáo viên thường gặp và (2) những nguyên nhân gây ra những khó khăn đó. Nghiên cứu được thực hiện dưới dạng nghiên cứu khảo sát với chủ thể là 6 giáo viên dạy Tiếng anh. Dự giờ và phỏng vấn là hai phương tiện chính để thu thập và xử lý thông tin. Kết quả của nghiên cứu cho thấy cách phân bố thời gian và phương pháp của giáo viên là hai yếu tố cần được xem xét. Bên cạnh đó, thái độ của học sinh đối với kĩ năng viết và thực trạng học sinh lười học cũng làm cho giáo viên gặp khó khăn khi giảng dạy. Ngoài ra, lớp học quá đông cũng khiến cho việc dạy của giáo viên gặp khó khăn hơn. Từ những phát hiện trên, nghiên cứu đưa ra một số đề nghị gợi ý nhằm cải thiện thực trạng dạy và học kĩ năng này.

On the completion of this work, first of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to allthose who gave me the possibility and encouragement without which my research would befar from finished

I would like to acknowledge with great gratitude the precious advice, enlighteningguidance and especially invaluable critical feedback which I have received from mysupervisor, Dr Hà Cẩm Tâm

I would also like to send my sincere thanks to the principal, the teachers of English groups

at Ly Thuong Kiet high school , who have helped me in providing the teaching materials,giving me chance to attend their lessons, willing to take part in the interviews and makingconstructive and insightful comments for this study

My special thanks also go to Mrs Lê Thu Hà, the librarian at the Resource center, whointroduced and lent me a numerous of interesting books and valuable materials for mythesis

Last but not least, I would like to express my heart-felt thanks to my beloved people, myparents, my husband whose support and continual encouragement have been indispensablefor the fulfillment of this challenging work

Hanoi, September, 2013

Lê Thị Thái

ABSTRACT

In an attempt to investigate teachers’ problems in teaching writing skills to 11graders at ahigh school in Bac Giang, the study was aimed at finding out: (1) the problems theteachers might encounter in the teaching process of the skills; (2) factors causing theirdifficulties.

The study has been conducted in the form of a survey research, with the subjects were 6English teachers The classroom observation was the main instruments employed for thedata collection These teachers were also invited to join interviews The research revealsthat teachers’ time management and teaching methods should really be taken intoconsideration Besides, the data from the study confirm the fact that the students’ lazinessand negative attitudes towards writing lessons all made it difficult for the teachers inteaching process In addition, large size classes with multi-level students are also made thesituation worse

For those reasons, the study finally recommends some implications to help improve thequality of teaching and learning writing

TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENT iv

PART ONE INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Scope of the study 2

1.4 Methods of the study 2

1.5 Organization of the study 3

PART TWO DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 An Overview on Writing 4

1.1.1 Roles of writing in teaching and learning foreign language 4

1.1.2 Approaches to teaching writing 5

1.1.2.1 The controlled to free approach 5

1.1.2.2 Free writing approach 6

1.1.2.3 The paragraph-pattern approach 6

1.1.2.4 The grammar syntax organization approach 6

1.1.2.5 The communicative approach 7

1.1.2.6 The process approach ……… 7

1.1.3 Writing teaching procedures 8

1.1.3.1 Activities in teaching writing……… 8

1.1.3.2 Stages in teaching writing……… 9

1.1.3.2.1 Pre- writing 10

Brainstorming 10

Planning 10

Debating 10

Interviewing 11

1.1.3.2.2 While- writing 11

1.1.3.2.3 Post- writing 11

1.1.4 Principles for teaching writing 11

1.1.5 Review of previous studies on teaching writing 14

CHAPTER 2 THE STUDY 18

2.1 Research question 18

2.2 Research design 18

2.2.1 Participants 18

2.2.2 Data collection instruments 19

2.2.3 Data collection procedures 22

2.3 Data analysis and discussion 22

2.3.1 Classroom observation 22

2.3.2 Interviews 29

2.3.3 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching writing to the 11th grade students 34

PART C.CONCLUSION 37

1 Major findings 37

2 Implications 37

3 Suggestions for further study .39

REFERENCE 40 APPENDIX I APPENDIX1 I

APPENDIX2 X

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Writing has always been regarded as an important skill in the teaching and learning English

as a Foreign Language (EFL) On the one hand, it stimulates thinking, compels students toconcentrate and organize their ideas, and cultivates their ability to summarize, analyze, andcriticize On the other hand, it reinforces learning in, thinking in, and reflecting on theEnglish language However, writing is considered a difficult skill as students findcomposing in English not easy, many students complain that they lack ideas and cannotthink of anything interesting or significant enough to write While most English teachersare often perplexed by these problems in their writing classes, they have to face manychallenges and cannot find an efficient way to teach effectively

English is a compulsory subject and it is one of six subjects in the national examinationthat students have to take to get General Certificate of Secondary Education (G.C.S.E) atsecondary school Since the New English Textbook Tieng Anh 10, 11 and 12 were in use,besides teaching grammar and vocabulary, four skills such as reading, speaking, listeningand writing have been focused Among these, writing seems to be a rather difficult andboring skill as students do not find the lessons given by teachers interesting and attractiveenough to take part in and therefore, students do not work with high motivation, they are

in class but their mind are absent

Being an English teacher at a high school for over ten years, I have been deeply aware ofchallenges in dealing with the interest but demanding subject of English, especially withwriting skill, it has urged me to seek for a suitable teaching writing method to help mystudents overcome the problem of lacking “inspiration” in learning writing and createsomething for them to write Besides, not many researchers have been studied thedifficulties of teachers in teaching writing at high schools Hence, it is an urgent need for

me to take a serious look at such issue and find a place for writing skills in teaching andlearning among teachers and students

For all the above-mentioned reasons, I would like to devote my time researching the topic

in my thesis: “ A study on teacher’s difficulties in teaching writing skill to the 11 th grade at

a school in Bac Giang” I hope that my work can help teachers of English have a better

look on teaching writing skills and consult some recommendations in order to improve thequality of teaching and learning writing skills at my school and elsewhere

2 Aims of the study

This research is designed to have an insight into the English writing lessons for the 11thform students at a high school in Bac Giang province for continual improvement Withinthis purpose, the specific objectives of the study are:

 To identify the teachers’ major difficulties in teaching writing skills

 To examine the causes of their difficulties

3 Scope of the study

The study is mainly focus on the difficulties that teachers confronted in teaching writingskills to 11 grade students in the classroom setting at a high school The study ofdifficulties of other skills thus would be beyond of the scope The study involves theparticipants of 6 teachers of English and 270 students in 11th forms The findings andsuggested implications most appropriately applied to English teachers at a high school, theteachers will be able to find ways to improve their process of teaching English

4 Methods of the study

The study was designed to use a combination of a variety of methods to achieve its objectives.Firstly, classroom observation with 270 students from 6 classes was carried out to investigatethe reality of the teachers’ difficulties confronting in their teaching writing skills In addition toclassroom observation, informal interviews with the informants of 6 English teachers were alsoemployed The purpose of the survey is to collect data about the teachers’ difficulties inteaching writing to the 11th grade at a high school Besides, reviewing the related documents isalso a method in order to establish the theoretical background for the study

5 Organization of the study

The study consists of three main parts:

Part one includes the rationales, aims, scope, and methods of the study

Part two includes 2 chapters

Chapter 1 deals with the roles of writing in language programme, approaches to teachingwriting, writing teaching procedures, principles for teaching writing and review of PreviousStudies on Teaching Writing

Chapter 2 discusses the method of the study, the research questions, the research design,the data analysis and discussion

Part three concludes the major findings of the thesis, offers some implications for betterteaching writing skill and suggestions for further study are also pointed out

PART TWO : DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 Literature Review

1.1 An Overview on Writing

1.1.1 Roles of writing in language program

Writing, like speaking, is the productive skill in the written mode and it is morecomplicated than it seems at first and involves more than just using words

In the process of learning a foreign language, writing is considered an integrated skillapproaching to language learning, especially, writing serves a variety of pedagogicalpurposes in the early stages towards oral proficiency, Byrne (1979:7) points out that:

(i) Some learners, especially those who do not learn easily through oral

practice alone, feel more secure if they are allowed to read and write in the

language.

(ii)Written work serves to provide the learners with some tangible evidence

that they are making progress in the language.

(iii) Writing also provides variety in classroom activities, serving as a break

from oral work, and increases the amount of language contact through work

that can be set out of class.

(iv) Writing is often needed for formal and informal testing

Teaching and learning writing is of great importance in classroom, White (1981, p.1) statesthat learners expose their success in examination through their ability to write Moreover,writing has high “face validity” because it is tangible so parents and learners can see whathas been done

In second language learning, the teaching of writing also aims at correctness of form overfunction According to Nunan (2003:89), “writing was used to show that students hadmastered a particular grammatical rule, rather than had a good idea about the subjectmatter In fact, correct spelling, grammar, and overall organization were the most important

evidence of second language proficiency A student’s ability to form and write the futureperfect tense correctly was seen as evidence of a student’s ability to write, and moreover,

of the student’s overall English ability”

In CLT, besides communication is the purposes of the teaching of writing, writingsupports students to learn Raimes (1983:3) assumes that the grammatical rules, idioms andvocabulary will be reinforces through practising writing, in addition, students will get thechance to go beyond what they have just learnt to say, they are aware of using newlanguage, show their effort to express ideas, therefore, their language learning isimproving

With all the roles mentioned above, writing is no double an integral part in almost everylanguage programs from elementary to tertiary level

1.1.2 Approaches to teaching writing

There have been several approaches of teaching ESL/EFL writing, they all have advantagesand disadvantages Ann Raimes (1983,pp.5-10) refers to six approaches to teachingwriting: (i) The Control-to-Free Approach, (ii) The Free-Writing Approach, (iii) TheParagraph-Pattern Approach, (iv) The Grammar-Syntax-Organization Approach, (v) TheCommunitive Approach, (vi) The Process Approach

1.1.2.1 The Control-to-Free Approach

This approach emphasizes 3 features: grammar, syntax, and mechanics, writing isconsidered as a reinforcement for speech The Control-to-Free Approach in writing issequential, students at lower level are first given sentence exercises, then paragraph to copy

or manipulate Sequentially, students have little chance to make mistakes and the teacher’sjob is quick and easy Only at high or advanced level are students allowed to try some freecompositions, in which they express their own ideas In short, accuracy is emphasized inthis approach rather than fluency, thus students are likely to have good grammaticalcompetence and low communication skills

1.1.2.2 The Free-Writing Approach

Concern for “audience” and “content” are seen as important in this approach, students areencouraged to write without worrying about grammar and spelling This approachemphasizes more on content and fluency than accuracy, the teachers do not correct theseshort pieces of free writing; they simply read them and perhaps comment on the ideas thewriter express Writing a journal or a diary might be useful in this approach

1.1.2.3 The Paragraph-Pattern Approach

The Paragraph-Pattern approach stresses on paragraph organization Students copy a modelparagraph, analyze its form and imitate model passages Students need to invest time toorganize their ideas such as scrambles sentences are put into a paragraph, general andspecific statements are identified, topic sentence is invented or sentences inserting ordeleting

1.1.2.4 The Grammar-Syntax-Organization Approach

Unlike the Paragraph-Pattern Approach focusing mainly on organization, the Syntax-Organization Approach stresses on both simultaneous work and on organization of

Grammar-an essay Students learn writing which cGrammar-an not be seen as composed of separate skills,therefore, the teachers have to devise writing tasks that lead students to take notice oforganization while they also work on the necessary grammar and syntax For instance, towrite a clear set of instructions on how to operate a TV set by a remote control, what thewriter needs is not just appropriate vocabulary but the simple forms of verbs, an

organizational plan based on chronology, sequence words like first, second, next, then,

etc The teachers review and teach these vocabulary and structures in the preparatory stagesand in short, this approach is the connection between the purpose and the form of thewriting

1.1.2.5 The Communicative Approach

This approach emphasizes the communicative role of writing, students have to focus on thepurpose of a piece of writing (Why am I writing this?) and the audience for it (Who willread it?) They are also encouraged to write through real life situation and to make the

writers do their best, the audience is not only the teachers but the students also become thereaders for each other They can respond, rewrite, summarize and make comments.Sometimes, to provide student with a text in which appropriate content, language and level

of formality are selected, teachers specify readers outside the classroom

1.1.2.6 The Process Approach

The Process Approach emerges when there has a movement in teaching writing from theconcentration on the written product to an emphasis on the process of writing Studentwriters are encouraged to give out their communication of ideas, feelings and experiences.They not only focus on purpose and audience but also concern how to begin and how toorganize a piece of writing Writing is a process, so students need to realize what first putdown on paper is not necessarily their product but just a beginning of the first ideas, draftthen revise what has been written after a peer feedback and write other drafts before thefinal version is produced

Writing activities of this approach is paid on a cycle from the generation of ideas and thecollection of data to the “publication” of a finished text:

PRE- WRITING(Specify the task/ planning and outlining/ collecting data/ making notes)

COMPOSING

REVISING(Reorganizing/ shifting emphasis/ focusing information and style for yourreadership)

EDITING(Checking grammar/ lexis/ surface features)There exist several points of views on the number of stages comprising the writing process.Both Oshima and Hogue (1991) and Tribble (1996) identified four stages in writingprocess, however, they are different in activities For Oshima and Hogue, they are pre-

writing, planning, writing and revising draft and writing the final copy to hand in Fourstages for Tribble are pre-writing, drafting, revising and editing

In a word, there are various approaches to teach writing skill as mentioned and there is nosingle best way to teach writing skill Thus teachers have to take into consideration manyfactors before deciding which approach can be used to suit teaching setting best

1.1.3 Writing teaching procedures

1.1.3.1 Activities in teaching writing

Generally, we conduct three practical writing activities in teaching a foreign language:Controlled writing, Guided writing and Free writing

(i) Controlled writing teaching

According to Byrn D (1979), controlled writing activities, at one end of the scale, arewhere the learners are given all or most of the language which they have to use Forexample, they may be asked to arrange sentences to form a text or to complete sentences.Further along the scale, they may be asked to do activities for which they are given help inthe form of “ideas”, for example, through oral discussion, through reading or throughvisual materials

With this type of writing it focuses on practising precisely a certain vocabulary andstructures The learners are expected to learn how to write correctly by being obliged to

write correctly Activities can be supported are transformation, filling in the gaps or sentence completing…etc

(ii) Guided writing teaching

Guided writing activities are made by the teacher’s attempt to isolate the variousdifficulties involved in the production of a text and to present these gradually to thelearners in a systematic way They do not place so much stress on the production of correctsentences Many approaches attempt to phase out or at least reduce the amount of control,either by forcing the learners to exercise some sort of meaningful choice or by allowingthem to contribute to the text in some way

Students do the writing tasks under the guidance of teachers, they cannot use language to

communicate freely with the readers because this is not a communicative writing type.Two main exercises teachers can give students are answering the questions to form aparagraph or making paragraph using given words.

(iii) Free Writing teaching

Students write about any topics by using language to express their ideas, there is no need togive them the outline or given words However, the teachers have to conduct three stagessuch as: Pre-writing; While-writing and Post-writing if they wish their students to obtainnecessary skills in writing

1.1.3.2 Stages in teaching writing

According to Brown (1994), there are two main stages in writing teaching: Pre-writing andWhile-writing These stages are a combination of different approaches, especially thecommunicative approach and the process approach

According to Hoang Van Van (2006), there are three stages in teaching writing skill: writing, While-writing and Post-writing

Pre-1.1.3.2.1 Pre-writing

In this stage, teachers have to do some following tasks:

+ Exploiting model text by asking students to read the text in order to analyze type

of text to find out vocabulary, structures and tenses which are used to support the purposes

of the writing

+ Providing necessary words and structures relating to topic by using open-guidedtechniques to remind what students have learned and teach how to use what words orstructures they haven’t known

+ Conducting brainstorming activity in groups or whole class which helps students

to exchange, share their ideas among them The purpose of this activity is to providestudents something to write

Tribble (1996) states that pre-writing can be defined as any structural experience thatinfluence active students’ participation in thinking, talking and working on the topic underthe focus in a writing lesson In other words, it is the “information-gathering phase in the

process of writing” ( Scarcella & Oxford, 1992, p.125).

Pre-writing is a very important stage of the whole writing process, and the task at this stagemay include deciding on the purpose, the audience, the content and the general outline (GuYue Gou, 1990, p.170)

White and Adrnt (1991) briefly categorized pre-writing activities into three types:generating, focusing and structuring activities

In the view of Bryne (1988), pre-writing activities like brainstorming, outlining, debating,interviewing, etc help students generate ideas and develop fluency

 Brainstorming

Raimes (1983) states that brainstorming, a technique with its purpose is to initiate somesort of thinking process The writing assignment is mainly based on – a reading, picture,textbook topic, personal experience…- it can be preceded by student talk, especially bybrainstorming activity which produces vocabulary, structures and gives chance for students

to ask questions, make associations freely in a short time

 Planning

According to Coffin et al (2003), planning is an orientation for students to have logicalsets of ideas that would be later employed in their pieces of writing Students spend timeorganizing, focusing ideas and outlining their writings in groups in this stage

 Debating

This activity involves oral debates where students discuss in groups and argue in two sides

of topic In this stage, oral debates not only provide the opportunity to improve somewriting skills such as planning, selecting, marshalling and organizing ideas but also helpthem make judgments about the relevance and logicality of their ideas in order to makewise choice of which ideas to be used to compose a text

 Interviewing

Ideas are found out through interviewing among students, this is an useful techniquebecause it creates a relaxed atmosphere when students write the record of interviews Italso makes writing more enjoyable and interesting.

1.1.3.2.2 While-writing

Hedge (1988) considers the while-writing stage as “composing”, after specifying the task,planning and outlining, collecting data, students begin to compose; White and Arnt (1991)sees it as “drafting”- the first version Tribble (1996: p.14) takes during while-writingstage as “writers are in dynamic interaction with” (1) “the idea for their writing” (2) “theirprobable readers’ expectations”, and (3) “ the model of the genre they are currentlycomposing”

After having outline for the task, students start writing individually or in pairs and groups

1.1.3.2.3 Post-writing

Revising and editing after composing is an integral part of the writing process (Hedge,1988) There are two main post-writing activities: the first are self-revision and self-editing(Harmer, 2003), the second is rewriting based on the feedback or comment from theteachers or their peers (Harmer,2004)

In this stage, teachers can get feedback from students’ writing by collecting their works,however, teachers should help students find mistakes and correct by themselves and shouldnot focus much on students’ error

1.1.4 Principles for teaching writing

Any teachers teaching English in general and teaching writing skill in particular have toconsider principles while giving a lesson According to Nunan D (2003), there are fourprinciples for teaching writing First, teachers should understand their students’ reasons forwriting because when the teacher’s goals do not match the students’, which will cause thegreat dissatisfaction Second, teachers should provide opportunities for students to writesince writing is in part a physical activities and it requires lots of practice to improve.Third, teachers have to make feedback helpful and meaningful, this means that teachersshould be cautious about the tone of their comments and make sure they understand the

vocabulary or symbols Last, teachers should show how students’ writings will beevaluated.

Byrne D (1979) mentions some principles for teaching writing and the author focuses onthe needs of the learners:

(1) The learners have to be taught how to write, the ability to write is all too often assumed, especially if the learners are mature.

(2) The learners have to be exposed to the written form of the language and to appropriate varieties Writing has to be preceded and accompanied by wide exposure to appropriate models of written language

(3)The learners have to be shown how writing functions as a system of communication They need to be shown that any piece of writing, whether or not it is addressed to a specific reader, has a communicative purpose.

(4)The learners have to be taught how to write texts because writing involves the ability to organize sentences into a coherent whole or text.

(5)The learners have to be taught how to write different kinds of texts

(6)The learners have to be set realistic writing tasks

(7)The learners have to be supported in their writing tasks

(8)The learners’ efforts need to be viewed sympathetically

Various approaches to teaching writing have been mentioned and no single method is thebest way to teach writing skills It depends on many factors such as the school system, thetext or the students’ types Here are the two most popular approaches used in ESL/EFLclassroom, namely Product Approach and Process Approach

(i) Product Approach

Product Approach is considered a largely “prescriptive and product-centered” way ofteaching writing This approach focuses on the final outcome and only needs students toproduce one writing version of the task It is summarized as follow steps:

← - Imitate model text

← - Organization of ideas

← - Produce the product individually

(ii) Process Approach

On the contrary, Process Approach focuses on the process rather than the final product.This approach encourages students’ communication of ideas, feelings and experiences Italso focuses more on purpose, theme, text type, the reader is emphasized, thus, writers notonly concern about purpose and audience but also have to make decision on how to beginand how to organize a piece of writing Writing is the process, student are given time to setout ideas, make plan, write a first draft, revise what has been written after a peer feedback.Brown (1994, pp 335 – 336) points out some features of Process Approach as follow:

(1) focus on the process of writing that leads to the final written product

(2) help students understand their own composing process

(3) help them to build repertoires of strategies for prewriting, drafting, and rewriting

(4) give students time to write and rewrite

(5) place central importance on the process of revision

(6) let students discover what they want to say as they write

(7) give students feedback throughout the composing process as they attempt

to bring their expression closer to attention

(8) encourage feedback from both the instructor and peers

(9) include individual conferences between teacher and students during the process of composition

When teaching, teachers normally use techniques drawn from other approaches as thosetechniques are useful in the context of the class The writing lessons in new English 11textbook were combined both Product Approach and Process Approach This CombinedProduct Process Approach is found to be more popular, appropriate and effective Theoutline suggestions for a writing lesson of this approach may be :

Stage 1: Teacher gives a model

Stage 2: The model is exploited through its typical features, language and structures

Stage 5: Students exchange and read and comment on each other’s work

Stage 6: Drafts are returned and improvement are made based upon peer feedbackStage 7: A final draft is written

Stage 8: Final draft are exchanged once more; students give responses or reply toeach other

Stage 9: Teacher gives feedback

1.1.5 Review of Previous Studies on Teaching Writing

Many teachers take the view that teaching writing skill is often fraught with difficulties.Writing, in fact, can be time-consuming, difficult to teach and a great number of Englishteachers feel themselves not qualified to teach writing as they have not received enoughspecific training in the teaching of writing The problem is compounded by the fact that somany prospective teachers lack confidence in their own writings, they often avoid teachingwriting skills and because they do not feel comfortable with writing Therefore, howteachers can take actions in order to overcome these problems, researchers and teacherswithin the language learning field have been paying considerable attention to thedevelopment of learning strategies Much research has been conducted to investigate theeffects of strategy training on improving productive skills such as writing Of the studies,articles create ideas which are crucial to foreign language teaching and learning

Brainstorming is a useful technique in the first stage of writing lessons Mentioning theeffects of training in brainstorming strategy on learners’ performance and perceptionsabout writing, Zhenhui Rao , argues that EFL teachers should move from a product-basedapproach to a process-focused approach in the teaching of writing as the latter maycontribute towards activating students’ thinking and creating ideas for a writing task and

organize raw materials in a logical order The findings of the study imply that thebrainstorming strategy instruction is effective in improving students’ writing performancewith its three advantages First of all, the brainstorming strategy prompts students to thinkaloud and call out what they have read and heard in English while the teacher works as afacilitator or guide, hence students become confident and productive in their Englishwriting practice In addition, the brainstorming technique encourages students’ activeinvolvement in the classroom activity and offers the opportunity for students not only tointeract with each other but also to share others’ opinion, as a result, students can cultivatetheir linguistic and communicative competence and develop their ability to expressthemselves in English Finally, the brainstorming strategy makes students aware of theirintellectual strengths and limitations as it can keep students mentally alert, put them tolearn from each other, overcome weakness and think about how to improve their writingability in future practice.

Like brainstorming activity in the first stage of writing lessons, feedback is also essential tothe writing process and is of great importance in the third stage – post-writing, and a largequantity of research has been carried out to investigate the effects of feedback, especiallyteacher feedback which is helpful to students in improving their composition However,traditional way in which teachers make comments on the students’ drafts is not effective inimproving students’ writing Paul Rollinson has taken this problem into consideration.According to the author, teachers should choose to use peer feedback in the ESL writingclassroom because peer readers can provide useful feedback and revise effectively on thebasis of comments It also “fosters a myriad of communicative behaviors” (Villamil and deGuerrero 1996) Peer response operates on a more informal level than teacher response,this may encourage or motivate writers and the writer receiving comments from peersretains the right to reject comments However, using peer feed back which gets timeconstraints as the peer response itself is a lengthy one due to reading a draft, making notesetc will consume a significant amount of time With the same concern, Wang Xiang findsthat the technique of self-monitoring, by giving students control over the feedback they

receive, enables teachers to provide effective feedback The results show that students can

be trained to use self-monitoring in their writing, which is an effective way for students toimprove the organization of their compositions and is especially helpful to higher-proficiency learners as students annotate their texts with any doubts they have during thewriting process so that the teacher can give feedback not only on the finished draft but also

on the queries which emerged during the writing process In addition, it encouragesstudents to look critically and analytically at their writing and to place themselves in theposition of readers

Among difficulties EFL teachers usually put up with, the problem of providing adequateresources to simulate students in learning writing skill cannot be out of intention Withmuch concern about enhancing students’ enjoyment of the writing tasks, while Taylor M.E

in the article titled “ Using collateral material to improve writing performance” proves thatthe provision of selected collateral material can improve students’ writing performance.The enrichment material may be books, magazines, newspapers, or materials created by theteacher for the purpose of enriching the main materials of instruction Shin, S.J finds theuse of journals will improve not only teachers’ work but also students’ writing Taylor,M.E assumes that students can be encouraged to write better if easily accessible resourcesare provided However, the author states that mere provision of collateral material does notguarantee improvement Students need to be taught how to work independently to balancethe demands of those competing interests which affect the quality of their writing

In language teaching, teachers have to think much of students’ English competence todesign a suitable lesson and teaching low proficiency EFL students to write whole text isoften fraught with difficulties In order to provide students with the ability to recognizetextual and linguistic features that are used to construct and shape whole texts, groups ofauthors including Firkins,A; Forey,G; Sengupta,S state that the genre approach can be aneffective way to teach writing to students who have difficulty organizing texts, generatingideas, and applying meta-cognitive skills The genre-based approach is based on ateaching-learning cycle where strategies such as modeling texts, joint construction and

independent construction are promoted, which is realized to be suitable to deal with lowEnglish proficiency that is typically found The authors also demonstrate how theycombined, modified, and applied a positive learning environment for students who aregenerally stereotyped as underachievers.

In conclusion, numerous aspects are taken into consideration when teaching writing skills,they are students’ English competence, approaches and activities teachers use asbrainstorming, peer feedback, materials, etc, All of which are of great importance inimproving the teaching and learning writing

CHAPTER TWO: THE STUDY

This chapter discusses the design of the study line with its research questions Researchdesign consisting of participants, data collection instruments with classroom observationform and interview questionnaire is also included Research design also touches with datacollection procedures which introduce how the data collection has been carried out Thedata are analyzed and discussed thoroughly from classroom observation and the questions

for interview in order to find out the difficulties teachers encounter in teaching writing skill

to support research questions

Both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed to carry out the study With theaims of increasing validity and reliability of the data collected, the teachers’ lessons areobserved to help researcher have real insight into the current situation of teaching writingskill Informal interviews with teachers are also conducted to confirm the data collection

There are 6 teachers of English, four of them are teaching grade 11 at present All of themhave been teaching English at least 6 years, one has got M.A degree, five have gotBachelor Degree Two are following M.A courses They are all female, their ages rangefrom 28 to 36

2.2.2 Data collection instruments

Data for this dissertation were collected through classroom observation, interview anddescribed in the following section:

Classroom observations

Classroom observations were strictly conducted with two different lessons, each lessonlasted forty-five minutes The first lesson was Unit 1 with the writing topic “Write about afriend” The aims of the lesson were to help students know how to write a description Inthis writing task, students were requested to describe the characteristics and personalities ofone of their friends, students revised vocabulary relating to the topic to describe one’sappearance and personalities This is not difficult task for students to write because manywords relating to the topic had been taught in speaking lesson The second lesson wasobserved with the writing topic “Writing a personal letter about a past experience” in Unit

2 The aims of the lesson were to revise the past tenses, to help students know how to write

a letter and describe what they experienced, where, when, how and who involved in Thewriting task is considered more difficult task as students had to use their own words toshow their expressions, they not only had to learn the form of a personal letter but alsodescribed what had happened, which was really a challenging task because of theirlimitation in vocabulary The two different lessons were attended with different types ofwriting topic in order to clarify and test techniques the teachers used in three stages inteaching writing: pre-writing; while-writing and post-writing and to find out whether theaims of the lessons were achieved, which bring about a better look at the reality of teachingwriting skill and the challenges the teachers encounter in class

Classroom observation form

Date:

Class attended:

Length of period:

List of the questionsQuestion 1: Do you think eliciting is a good technique to revise necessary words for the

writing topic? And do you conduct the techniques properly?

Question 2: Did you provide enough vocabulary and structures for students to write?

Question 3: Do you know the reason why many students were not engaged in the lesson? Question 4: Do you think time was well-divided among stages in your lesson?

Question 5: Do you find your students having difficulties in writing? And what are thecauses?

Question 6: Why wasn’t peer-correction used in your lesson?

Question 7: Why didn’t you give chance for your students to rewrite their drafts whichmust be done in a writing lesson?

Question 8: Are your students in the same or different level? How difficult is it whenyou teach multi-level students in a class ?

Question 9: Why were there only pre-writing and while-writing stages in your lesson?Question 10: Do you think you achieved the aims of your lesson? Are you satisfied withyour lesson? Why? / Why not?

2.2.3 Data collection procedures

The study was conducted through classroom observation on the first three weeks Thepermissions to attend teachers’ writing lessons given to the eleven grade groups in differentclasses were made Each teacher was attended two lessons with two different writing topicsamong the classes they are teaching While observing, the procedures and the techniquescarried out by teachers were noted down carefully and how long these activities conductedwas included, too The classroom observation was reported in the four stages of a writing

lesson: warming-up, pre-writing stage, while-writing stage and post-writing stage In eachstage of the lessons, the problems or difficulties emerged were jotted down Before theinterviews with teachers were conducted, the nature of the research and the purpose of theinterview which aims at confirming the information while observing were explained andhow the data used were also informed to the interviewees

2.3 Data analysis and discussion

In this part, the research results will be presented on the basis of the information which wascollected from classroom observation and interview First, it will consider how teachersconducted steps in their lessons, what techniques they used, the ways they carried outactivities in the classroom observation and next is interview discussion which will confirmwhat found in classroom observation

2.3.1 Classroom observation

The classroom observation was carried out and carefully analyzed through procedures ofthe two different lessons that given by teachers The total of the observed lessons were 12and coded with 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A, 7A, 8A, 9A, 10A, 11A, 12A , each teacher wasattended two writing lessons The study went through how often the activities or techniques

of the warming-up, pre-writing stage, while-writing stage and post-writing stage were used

so that it could support for the analysis and discussion later on The time spending for eachstage was fulfilled, too All the results of the observation will be valuable information forthe study

Give situation 2 3Pre-writing

As can be seen from the table, the teachers used various activities in this stage, five kinds

of activities were chosen to use and giving questions and answers was in favor of, with fourtimes used (found in observation forms 2A, 7A, 8A, 12A) while giving a song seemed to

be used the least, only one time (found in observation form 3A) The aims of the activitieswere not only to create motivation and led students to writing topics but also to reviserelating vocabulary Most activities helped to provide a certain vocabulary and it seemsthat showing pictures and give situations could revise more words than others, 7 wordswere taught in observation form 4A, 6 words were provided in observation form 5A and 5words were revised in observation form 9A Using a song was the only activity could nothelp to reteach any words (found in observation form 3A) Using a video-clip and giving