english writing skills and critical thinking skills of freshman college students in the university of transport technology system in three provinces of vietnam basic for functional writing activity (sum)

Thai Nguyen University Batangas State University Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of Philippines NGUYEN THANH TU ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS AND CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS OF FRESHMAN CO

Thai Nguyen University Batangas State University

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of Philippines

NGUYEN THANH TU

ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS AND CRITICAL THINKING

SKILLS OF FRESHMAN COLLEGE STUDENTS IN THE

UNIVERSITY OFTRANSPORT TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM

IN THREE PROVINCES OF VIETNAM: BASIS FOR

FUNCTION AL WRITING ACTIVITY

Speciality: English language and literature

Ph.D DISSERTATION SUMMARY

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

THAI NGUYEN, 2014

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

Advisor: Matilda H.Dimaan.Ph.D

At: hour date month year 2014

Dissertation can be found at the libraries:

- National library of Vietnam;

- Learning Resource Center - Thai Nguyen University;

- Library of International Training and Development Center;

- Library of Batangas State University, Philippines

The study of the English language has taken a multifaceted dimension and has span from the knowledge-based format to the skill- based format It has also moved from theory to practice and much more as the business world has taken an aggressive position to demand the criteria for hiring their personnel to include certified demonstrable English language skill

Writing as an act is encoding an idea, a thought, a reflection; a process of putting one’s thought into words And this would require that the words are organized to convey the idea, the way the writer would want the reader to receive the message and experience the writer’s concept Thus the demand for writing is more rigorous than speaking In writing, one must have an extensive vocabulary at once disposal to be able to use the right words corresponding to the idea or message Thus the writer, must have a full grasp of the common meaning and special meaning and use of those words The writer must also know how sentences are constructed in the English language so that these sentences become coherent and cohesive Then comes the other fine details of grammar, syntax, morphology to further create a linguistic impact

The educational system with its language curricula considers this gradating degree of writing skills development where at the elementary levels, students are required to write formal themes compositions with a freedom of topic choice at the beginning and later a specific chosen topic given by the teacher as the basis In the secondary level, writing skills are developed through essays and reaction papers In the tertiary level, it is a blend of the secondary level materials as well as the writing of a thesis, a more extensive

type of writing piece that would cover an analytical step where an idea is expounded, from the information of previous literatures and moving forward to a proposed idea or concept and providing evidence for the new proposal The process goes on and on in the tertiary and higher levels of education Hence, cognitive skill is vital

in each step of the writing skills development

As college teacher teaching Basic English, the author observed students have difficulty in writing longer composition They tend to commit errors in the construction of sentences, failed to observed correct punctuations, and other aspects in mechanics of writing Their levels of critical thinking in terms of cognitive, affective, and their disposition are needed to determine as they also play significant role to their learning Thus, the theme of "English Writing Skills and Critical Thinking Skills of Freshman College Students in the University of Transport Technology System in Three Provinces of Vietnam: Basic for Functional Writing Activity" is choosen to study The structure of dissertation include of 5 chapters

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF STUDY:

Writing as an act is encoding an idea, a thought, a reflection; a process of putting one’s thought into words And this would require that the words are organized to convey the idea, the way the writer would want the reader to receive the message and experience the writer’s concept Thus the demand for writing is more rigorous than speaking In writing, one must have an extensive vocabulary at once disposal to be able to use the right words corresponding to the idea or message Thus the writer, must have a full grasp of the common meaning and special meaning and use of those words The writer must also know how sentences are constructed in the English language so that these sentences become coherent and cohesive Then comes the other fine details of grammar, syntax, morphology to further create a linguistic impact

The educational system with its language curricula considers this gradating degree of writing skills development where at the elementary levels, students are required to write formal themes compositions with a freedom of topic choice at the beginning and later a specific chosen topic given by the teacher as the basis In the secondary level, writing skills are developed through essays and reaction papers In the tertiary level, it is a blend of the secondary level materials as well as the writing of a thesis, a more extensive type of writing piece that would cover an analytical step where an idea is expounded, from the information of previous literatures and

moving forward to a proposed idea or concept and providing evidence for the new proposal The process goes on and on in the tertiary and higher levels of education Hence, cognitive skill is vital

in each step of the writing skills development

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDIES

This study addresed the following research questions:

1 What is the demographic profile of students in terms of

1.1 gender;

1.2 parent's educational attainment;

1.3 student's place of origin

1.4 type of school attended (high school); and

1.5 exposure to English media

2 What is the level of writing skills of students relative to:

2.1 discourse component (cohesion, coherence)

2.2 grammatical component;

2.3 mechanics;

2.4 morphology; and

2.5 syntax?

3 How do teachers assess the critical thinking skills of students?

4 How do students level of writing skills and teacher assessment of students’ critical thinking skills compare?

5 What functional writing activities may be proposed to enhance student's writing and critical thinking skills?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The results of the dissertation help students identify limitation in English writing skills and critical thinking skills in order to learn how to improve their language skills

Teachers of English are aware of the critical thinking skills and English writing skills students through the findings of the dissertation and their responsibility for designing a suitable activities

to improve students’ skills

Findings of the dissertation will improve relevant data for administrators at University of Transport Technology System to design an effective curriculum for the students

SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This study is focused on determining the level of students’ writing skills in terms of discourse components, grammatical components, mechanics, morphology and syntax as well as the level

of students’ critical thinking skills Responses of 306 first year students from University of Transport Technology system in three provinces in Vietnam and the respective English teachers of these students using the stratified random technique were analysed The students were made to answer to a validated teacher made questionnaire designed to assess their level of writing skills while the teachers were asked to answer a survey cognitive skill assessment questionnaire where they rated, based on their perception, the critical thinking skill level of their students

These two questionnaires were the source of quantitative data that were analysed statistically The study site were University of Transport Technology system in three provinces (Ha Noi, Thai Nguyen, Vinh Yen) in Vietnam and the study covered a period of six months from July to December 2013 Demographic information was gathered from the students and teachers through the questionnaires but their names were not revealed The respondents were those currently enrolled in an English course The teacher respondents were the respective teachers of the evaluated students as they were the ones assessed their students’ cognitive skills The students’ respondents were limited only to those who were enrolled in their Basic English course in the stated covered period

Descriptive method of research was used in the study to determine the levels of writing and critical thinking skills of students The study made used of teacher made test for student respondents and survey questionnaire for teacher respondents

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES 2.1 REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES

This section present of some literature and studies related to the topic 2.2 RESEARCH PARADIGM

Figure 1 The Reasearch Paradigm

Input Process Output

Figure 1 Conceptual Paradigm of the Study

sed Functional Writing Activities

Assessment made through:

Teacher-made Test Survey Questionnaire

thinking skills in terms of:

1 cognitive

skills

2 affective and

3 disposition

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH DESIGN

This study made used of descriptive research design to describe the data and characteristics of the study According to Arriola (2006) descriptive research aims to describe the present behaviour or characteristics of a particular population and the data are collected to describe persons, organizations, settings and phenomena The study utilized a combination type of questionnaire the survey and test questions The subjects’ answered to the questionnaire will constitute the data that will be analyzed statistically Sampling will be purposive to include the target population consisting of students who were currently enrolled in a first year Basic English course and their respective teachers for the cognitive assessment of their students RESPOND OF THE STUDY

The subjects of this study composed of 306 first year English students and at least 20 first year English teachers from the three campuses of the University of Transport Technology System in the three provinces of Vietnam In Hanoi Campus the total number of student population is 501 with seven English teachers and the student respondents of the study are 102, while in Thai Nguyen campus , the total student population is 499 with 6 English teachers and the student respondents used are 102 In Vinh Yen Campus the total student population is 500 with seven English teachers The number of student respondents utilized in the study is 102 All

student respondents were currently enrolled in a first year English course and were cooperative in sharing their demographic profiles RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

The study made used of the following date gathering instruments in the conduct of the study

Teacher –made Test This was used to determine the levels of student respondents performance in writing skills in terms of discourse components such as cohesion and coherence, grammatical component, mechanics, morphology and syntax

Survey Questionnaire This was used to determine the teacher respondents perceptions as to the level of students’ critical thinking skills in terms of cognitive, affective, and disposition skills

DATA GATHERING PROCEDURES

The questionnaires for both the teachers and students were conceptualized, designed for the purpose of the study As soon as the final draft of the questionnaires were one, the students’ questionnaires were subjected to pilot testing to thirty first year college students who were not the respondents of the study to determine the strength and weaknesses of the instrument Likewise the teacher questionnaires were given to twenty English teachers of Batangas State University with the adviser’s assistance for the comments and suggestions to further improve the instrument and or the degree of appropriateness of the items The questionnaires were revised based on suggestions of English teachers

As soon as this was done, letters of requests were then sent to the panel members and expert on the field for them to validate the contents of the data gathering instruments As soon as these

instruments were checked final copy of the questionnaires were then produced Another letter of requests were then written and forwarded

to the administrators of the universities for permission to administer the questionnaires to both teachers and students

With the approved letter of requests, test were administered to the 306 student respondents and 20 teacher respondents of the study

in three universities namely Hanoi, Thai Nguyen and Vinhyen, the research environment of the study The student respondents were given one hour to answer the test When all the students were done in answering the tests, test questionnaires were retrieved same also with that of the teachers’ survey questionnaires Students’ answers were checked per item so as with the responses of the teachers These were then tallied then analysed and interpreted

STATISTICAL TREATMENT DATA

For data analysis, SSPS software was used The following statistical tools were utilized in the study:

Cronbach alpha This was used to measure internal consistency

of the scores of the respondents

Correlation This was performed to determine the relationship of the teachers’ assessment scores and the students’ skills

Mean This was used to determine the average score of the students in the teacher -made- test

Percentage This was used to determine the magnitude of the frequency in relation to the whole responses

Ranking This was used to determine the positional importance

of responses

CHAPTER IV RESULT AND DISCUSSION

1 Demographic Profile of Students

The demographic profile of 306 student respondents in terms of gender, parents’ educational attainment, students’ place of origin, type of high school attended, and exposure to English media was determined using a survey questionnaire

As regard to the gender profile, majority of the respondents are males which comprise 98 percent or 300 of the 306 total population There were only six female respondents or 2 percent In their parents’ educational attainmentmajority of the students’ parent have educational attainment in the “other” level or education higher than the tertiary with 48.0 percent This is followed by tertiary with 41.5 percent and lastly by secondary 10.5 percent

For place of origin, the students come from at least 13 different places in Vietnam with majority or 20.3 percent coming from

“Others” or different places in Vietnam, followed by Ha Noi with 16 percent, then by Nam Dinh with 4.6 percent, then by Vinh Phuc with 14.1 percent, then by Thai Binh with 11.8 percent, and the rest from the remaining 8 different places which indicates that the three University campuses under study cater to students coming from different places in Vietnam

As to type of school, majority come from public high school which comprise 287 of 306 respondents or 93.8 percent Only 6.2