Evaluating the designed authentic tasks to help students get interested in learning English writing at Thanh Do University nhiệm vụ thực tế được thiết kế nhằm

v LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: The usefulness of the tasks Chart 2: Students’ feelings when doing the tasks Chart 3: Benefits from doing the tasks Chart 4: Difficulty level of the tasks C

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

MA Minor PROGRAMME Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60.14.10

Hanoi – 2011

Hanoi - 2011

iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

FLT: Foreign Language Teaching

HULIS: Hanoi University of Languages and International Study

TDU: Thanh Do University

VNU, CFL: Vietnam National University, College of Foreign Languages

v

LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: The usefulness of the tasks

Chart 2: Students’ feelings when doing the tasks

Chart 3: Benefits from doing the tasks

Chart 4: Difficulty level of the tasks

Chart 5: Students’ difficulties in doing the tasks

Chart 6: Students’ preferences of writing lesson activities Chart 7: Students’ activities after class

Chart 8: Sources of information students used for writing

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION … ……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ……….……….……… ii

ABSTRACT ………….………iii

LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS….……… …iv

LIST OF CHARTS……….v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION……… …… ……… …1

1 Rationale…… ……….………1

2 Aims of the study….….……… 2

3 Research questions… ……….…2

4 Scope of the study…….……… ……2

5 Methodology…… ….………3

6 Organization of the thesis….………3

PART B: THE STUDY…… …… ……… 4

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW ……….4

1 Writing……… …… ……… 4

1.1 Definition of writing and writing skill……….……4

1.2 Why do we teach writing? ……….…………5

1.3 Some theoretical approaches to teaching writing………6

1.4 Principles of teaching writing……… 8

1.5 Suggested activities and tasks to teach writing.……… ………9

2 Authentic tasks… ……….……… 10

2.1 Definition ………10

2.2 Characteristics ……… ………11

2.3 Classification of authentic tasks ……….……… 11

vii

2.4 Why should we use authentic tasks? ……….………12

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY……… ……….………14

1 Setting of the study……… ……….………14

1.1 The university and students……….……….14

1.2 The writing program for first-year English-majored students……….…….…14

2 Methodology……… ……… ……….……… 15

2.1 Participants……….……… …15

2.2 Instrumentations ……….………15

2.3 Data collection ……….………16

CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSES….……….……….17

1 Analysis of class observation results…….…….……… 17

2 Analysis of survey questionnaires…….……….……… 19

3 Analysis of students’ diary writings…….………26

CHAPTER FOUR: DISCUSSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS……….29

1 The authentic tasks designed………….……….……… ………29

2 Group work……… ……….………30

3 The teacher……….……… …….………….…………… …32

PART C: CONCLUSION……… ……….……… 33

1 Summary of the study………… …… ……….……….………33

2 Summary of the findings……… … ……….……….33

3 Summary of the implications……… … ………….……….………….……….34

4 Limitations and suggestions for further research……… ……….……….35

5 Summary……… ………37

REFERENCES……… ……….……….………38

APPENDICES……….……….……… ………I

However, it is not easy for students to be good at English since it needs different strategies, techniques and different things from learners such as their aptitude, patience, and so on In addition to this, teachers are also of great importance to their learners’ success There is one fact that many students are very good at school with high results but they do not know how to use their language knowledge that has been achieved at school in their real life One of the reasons is that at school, they only learn how to use the target language accurately for pedagogical purposes in the required curriculum and learn only for high results through tests When they are in the real life, the language used may be different and not as perfect as the language they have learnt in terms of form, grammar, etc Therefore, it

is essential for students to get access to language in the real life through authentic tasks with authentic materials To do this, the role of the teacher is crucial However, the teacher should know whether the tasks designed are suitable to the students or not so that modifications can be applied to help students get the best benefits in their learning

In terms of English learning, writing skill is one of the two productive skills together with speaking skill which are of great significance in language teaching and learning Nevertheless, teaching and learning writing have posed a lot of problems to both teachers and students Writing is also a difficult skill since we have to write “for a reader” on our own without interaction and feedback from readers (Byrne, D., 1988, p4)

However, writing is important in the real life since it helps to transfer the information and

is used for many other purposes As mentioned above, students need to get acquainted with written products applicable in the real life Through authentic tasks with authentic materials, they can be well prepared in class There are various types of authentic materials, so for students of different levels, different tasks should be applied

2

In this paper, the researcher tries to evaluate the authentic tasks designed by the teacher as

an adaptation for teaching writing skill to English majored students at low intermediate level with a specific textbook of a specific curriculum Through the results, she can have modifications to better benefit students in the future

2 Aims of the study

In general, the research has three aims

 First, the study is designed to investigate the effectiveness of the designed tasks based on the textbook with the topics required in an EFL language curriculum

 Second, the researcher attempts to find students’ difficulties in doing these tasks

 Finally, the study aims to explore students’ purposes and expectations of students

in writing lessons

3 Research questions

The research aims to answer the following questions:

 What are students’ attitudes towards authentic tasks?

 What are students’ difficulties in doing the tasks

 Do authentic tasks satisfy the needs and expectations of learners?

4 Scope of the study

Authentic tasks is a broad and interesting theme that has attracted a lot of researchers to study how to apply to language teaching so as to make language learning become more purposeful and meaningful Authentic tasks are also divided into different types; therefore, within the framework of this paper, the researcher does not have ambition to find how effective authentic tasks are in a large scale The researcher only attempts to have an evaluation on several authentic tasks that have already been designed by the teacher in one specific curriculum for one specific textbook for students of a specific level: Evaluating the

designed authentic tasks to help students get interested in learning English writing at TDU

Hopefully, with the findings on the designed tasks from the study and suggestions implied from the finding results, the study will be helpful in teaching writing skill based on this book as well as being adapted to other books

It is hoped that the finding results will be reliable and useful for teaching majored first-year students at TDU in particular and applicable to teaching other students in general

6 Organization of the thesis

The thesis is composed of three parts: introduction, the study and conclusion

PART A introduces some basic knowledge of rationale, aims of the study, research

questions, scope of the study, methodology and the organization of the study

PART B consists of four chapters:

 Chapter one provides the literature review of writing as a language skill and

authentic tasks

 Chapter two presents the knowledge of methodology such as the setting of the

study (the university, students, the program, etc) and the methodology including participants, instrumentation and data collection

 Chapter three contains the analyses of the data collected through the three

instruments, namely class observation, questionnaire and diary writing

 Chapter four analyze the discussions, followed by implications

PART C summarizes the study, main findings, implications, commenting on the

limitations and suggesting several directions for future research

4

PART B: THE STUDY CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Writing

1.1 Definition of writing and writing skill

The act of writing is so familiar with everyone that even a child can know how to write just when he is asked However, to give the definition of writing in general and writing as a skill in language learning and teaching is another issue which has attracted a lot of researchers with different points of view

Writing is defined by Byrne, D (1988, p1), on one level, as the act of forming symbols: making marks on a flat surface of some kind However, he added, “writing is clearly much more than the production of graphic symbols, just as speech is more than the production of sounds The symbols have to be arranged, according to certain conventions, to form words, and words have to be arranged to form sentences” According to this definition, any act that results in the forming of words or sentences can be defined as writing In addition to this, Lannon (2003, p9) views writing as “process of transforming the material discovered

by research inspiration, accident, trial and error, or whatever into a message with a definite meaning – writing is a process of deliberate decision”

In terms of writing skill, Huong, T.T.T et al (2006, p.185) cites a few researchers’ views on

it such as Tribble, Gudschinsky Tribble (1996) views writing skill as “not just a graphic representation of speech, but the development and presentation of thoughts in a structured way” Writing skill is also defined to be specific abilities which help writers put their thoughts into words in a meaningful form and to mentally interact with the message (Gudschinsky, 1973) Besides, as cited in http://www.tameri.com/workshop/natureof writing.html “Writing is intellectual and emotional exhibitionism Regardless the form of a work, it reveals thoughts and values of its creator”

In general, writing in real life is the production of graphic symbols or letters into words, sentences or a sequence of sentences to transfer messages or with deliberate purposes Writing skill is somewhat academic, which refers to the writer’s ability to put graphic symbols into a meaningful form in a structured way to express the writer’s thoughts or to interact with other people

5

1.2 Why do we teach writing?

Writing has been considered an integral part of FLT since it serves learners with a lot of purposes

First, it helps learners communicate with other people in the target language when the other person is not right in front of them Linh (2007, p52) shows the result in her M.A thesis that 97 out of 98 participants agreed that “writing is to communicate” Byrne, D (1988, p1) adds that “we are writing for a reader” since we have to “encode” or interpret our thoughts into language for others to understand without any further help from us From the website http://writing-program.uchicago.edu/resources/collegewriting/wic1.pdf , Lázaro, L A (p89) also affirms that writing was a channel through which students’ knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, idioms, structures and so on are consolidated to be orally presented to readers Besides, he emphasizes that writing should be seen as a goal of learning a foreign language since it is needed to develop students’ communication skills which will be useful for their future social, educational, personal, or professional lives Second, writing also helps to enhance students’ learning Raims (1983, p3) proves this by showing three benefits students can get from learning writing: reinforcing learners’ grammatical structures, idioms and vocabulary; providing learners with chances to be adventurous or take risks with the language and helping learners express ideas in the new language Hampton (1989, p1) adds that writing fosters learners’ comprehensibility when they can write so that it can be read and understood by themselves and others, their fluency when they are able to write smoothly and easily as well as understandably and their creativity when they can write their own ideas

Third, writer’s critical thinking improves through writing practice Harmer, J (1998, p.79) indicates three major reasons for teaching writing: its benefits for comprehending new knowledge more easily, for language development and because of the fact that it is a basic productive language skill Risinger & Frederick (1987, p1-2) also says that writing requires knowledge for content like facts, generalizations and some other skills If learners have mastered these skills, they will be able to write not only for themselves but for other audiences as well

6

Finally, through writing, students can form good characteristics Risinger & Frederick (1987, p1-2) claims that the ability to write “empowers students with a sense of efficacy and achievement”, therefore, they will become more responsible Hampton (1989, p1) adds that students will also be independent when they try to write without much assistance

In short, writing is essential in language teaching and learning since it help learners to communicate, improve their critical thinking to express their thoughts, enhance their learning with chances to explore the new language and form good characteristics such as creativity, independence and so on

1.3 Some theoretical approaches to teaching writing

How to teach writing effectively is difficult to answer and each teacher has a different point of view with various teaching styles even in the same level Therefore, each teacher and researcher has his or her own way to classify approaches to writing The following approaches are amongst the most popular ones

1.3.1 Product approach

As cited by Huong, T T et al (2006, p186-187), the approach is viewed as a largely

“prescriptive and product-centered” (Applebee, 1986) way of teaching writing Also in the book, the author cites several famous authors’ views on this approach such as Cheung, Pennington and Steele This approach pays much attention to the final outcome and focuses on “one-shot correct writing for the purpose of language practice” (Cheung, 1999) and a “one-shot effort by the teacher to evaluate the students’ attempts” (Pennington and Cheung 1995: 20) Steele (2002) provides four steps as a model for this approach

 Step 1: students study a model text and mimic its special features

 Step 2: students do controlled practice often in isolation

 Step 3: students organize ideas

 Step 4: students choose a task, then using their knowledge and skill to produce the product to assess their English progress

7

1.3.2 Process approach

Process approach places more emphasis on the stages of the writing process than on the final product (Huong et al, 2006, p.187) In the approach, attention is paid first to the content and meaning and then to the form The approach encourages students’ communication of feelings, ideas and experiences (Stanley, 2002 as cited by Huong et al,

2006, p.187) Writing is evaluated according to how well it fulfills the writer’s intentions (Reid, 1993 as cited by Huong et al, 2006, p.187) Roger, G., Phillips, D and Walters, S (1995, p115) point out a clear outline of activities for this approach

 Introduction: students are warmed up with different activities Then, teacher and

students will discuss a text in terms of the text type, definite readers, etc

 Working with ideas: students brainstorm and arrange their ideas logically

 Planning: students plan their writing based on the text provided

 Drafting: students write the first draft freely with their ideas planned

 Editing: students improve their first writing with teachers and peers’ comments

 Rewriting: students write the final writing paper based on the corrected one

In other words, in this approach, the concentration is not on specific topics or forms but on the way or common steps in different writings

1.3.3 Accuracy – oriented approach

In the “accuracy-oriented” approach introduced by Byrne, D (1988, p21), mistakes are shown up in students’ written work but not regarded as a major problem and teachers can give some guidance with language and content with emphasis on step-by-step learning and formal correctness At first, students have to write under control At the later stage, they are given meaningful exercises with opportunities for self-expression This approach is

called “controlled-to-free approach”

1.3.4 Fluency – oriented approach

In the second approach suggested by Byrne, D (1988, p22 ), students are encouraged to write as much and quickly as possible to get students’ ideas written down on paper and students have the feeling of actual writing, not merely doing exercises

In brief, there are different approaches to teaching writing, in which teacher focuses on accuracy and the process to be good at writing; the fluency or purposes of the writer to have a good final outcome The choice of the approach depends on each teacher and students’ levels

1.4 Principles of teaching writing

Teaching writing, like teaching any other subjects, has to follow several principles Nevertheless, the principles of teaching writing depend a lot on the approach followed by each teacher Therefore, there are different ways to set principles for teaching writing Byrne, D (1988, p23-29 ) puts forth three general principals for teaching writing

 First, we need to take some approaches into consideration and have an “art” to combine and modify the approaches to suit students’ needs, teaching them how to write different kinds of texts

 Second, teachers need to be aware of students’ difficulties in order to have the role

of guidance, providing adequate and relevant experience, techniques and strategies

of the written language in order to create a good learning atmosphere

 Finally, teachers should also motivate their students, be supportive and sympathetic

to enhance their confidence, make writing tasks more realistic and natural and get students to be aware of the written language functions as a system of communication

In ELT Methodology II course book by Huong, T T et al, three principles are given on teaching writing

9

 Firstly, teachers should provide as many opportunities and varied types of writing

as possible for students to write

 Secondly, teachers should make their feedback helpful and meaningful in order to help them correct their mistakes

 Thirdly, teachers should make the criteria to evaluate students’ writings clear (2006, p 190-191)

To sum up, in order to teach writing skill well, the teacher should know how to combine different approaches to suit students’ needs and make writing lessons become natural, realistic and meaningful In class, teachers should also show their helpfulness and sympathy to motivate students as well as help them with kind guidance so that their students can get the best benefits from the lessons

1.5 Suggested activities and tasks to teach writing

Many attempts by researchers have been made on how to teach writing well Thanks to these efforts, we now can apply their suggested activities beside our own methods to make writing lessons useful for our students and satisfying to teachers

Byrne, D (1988, p31-142 ) suggests several activities and tasks in different stages

 In the early stages, students’ writing is still under control, simple, communicative and orally learned (Byrne, D (1988, p7) Students can copy from the teacher to learn something new, link sentences with connectors or transition words write dialogues or reproduce a similar text with the help of cues Activities can be completing questionnaires, puzzles, dialogues, parallel writing, writing about pictures, programs, writing to ask for information and so on

 In the next stage, they can write about posing problems, clues for crosswords, instructions for a game, role descriptions, jumbled stories, jigsaw writing, headlines and graffiti, etc After students have perfected their skill, they can be asked to do some more difficult activities like note-taking and summarizing, writing words for cartoons, writing book reports and so on

 In the post-intermediate stages, some activities can be employed to teach, namely comparison and contrast, free and creative writing Several communicative

10

activities are also suggested, for example, exchanging letters, sharing journals, making a class magazine, giving directions, matching descriptions to pictures, etc All in all, teachers should design different activities in class to motivate and help learners get the best benefits of their learning The chosen activities depend on different stages, their approach to writing as well as the form of writing they intend to teach their students

Oura also differs authentic or target tasks from pedagogical ones Authentic tasks are the ones “the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play, and in-between." As a result, these tasks enable learners to accomplish these activities successfully in the real world using the target language while pedagogical tasks are

“classroom work that involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is focused on mobilizing their grammatical knowledge in order to express meaning." (Nunan, 1999, p.25 cited by Oura from website: http://www.jrc.sophia.ac.jp/kiyou/ki21/gaio.pdf, p.72-74)

To summarize, authentic tasks are the tasks teachers use in their teaching so that their students can be brought into the real world with the use of materials and production of writings applicable in the real world

 Second, students should know as soon as possible about the knowledge expectations, criteria and standards in advance Students should be set to high criteria and standards in order to enlarge their knowledge and “as a vehicle” to students’ learning

 Finally, students’ product is assessed based on how well they express their knowledge of the subject or the real world and their performance or “their ability to apply, analyze, synthesize or evaluate those concepts and skills”

In short, authentic tasks give students more freedom to use their creativity and existing knowledge of solve a real world problem

2.3 Classification of authentic tasks

Authentic tasks can be understood as the tasks that bring students into the real world and can be classified into three major types as in the website http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/ toolbox/tasks.htm: constructed-response, performances and products items

 Authentic tasks on constructed-response are the tasks designed in which students construct an answer out of old and new knowledge Some examples are brief summaries, peer editing, journal response, reflections on literary journals, homework, article , self-assessment, self and group evaluation, explaining your solution

 Authentic tasks on performances are those requiring students’ response to a prompt assignment or series of prompts to construct a performance revealing their understanding of certain concepts and skills and/or their ability to apply, analyze, synthesize or evaluate those concepts and skills like conducting an experiment, book talks, interviews, self-introduction and so on

12

 Authentic tasks on product are similar to a constructed-response item in that students are required to construct new knowledge and not just select a response However, product assessments typically are more substantial in depth and length, more broadly conceived, and allow more time between the presentation of the prompt and the student response than constructed-response items Examples include essays, stories, or poems, advertisement, book reviews, designing an advertisement or an experiment, real-world problem solutions; logical sequences, letter writing: persuasive letters, complaint letter, advice letter; letter to Congress and so on

To sum up, authentic tasks are classified into different types based on the levels and the requirements of students The threefold classification is popular including narrow answers (constructed response), tasks revealing their understanding and the ability to apply, evaluate, synthesize certain concepts and skills (performances) and more broadly conceived and substantial in depth and length (product)

2.4 Why should we use authentic tasks?

Authentic tasks have been mentioned a lot in language teaching, especially in teaching writing Why are they so important? Oura (2001, p68-69) cites a few benefits that have been studied by famous researchers like Brinton, Gebhard, Melvin and Stout, Nunan and other researchers as follows

 First, learning will be practical to students’ needs and demands since authentic materials and media can bring about the direct relationship between the language classroom and the outside world (Brinton, 1991) Nunan (1999) adds that authentic tasks enable students to “make the important connections between the classroom world and the world beyond it” Oura (2001, p70) concludes that using authentic tasks in classroom will help students develop their real-world ability, especially when they have to deal with real problems in the real world later

 Second, students can get access to valuable source of real knowledge (not only from the text and teacher beside language input) Gebhard (1996) sees authentic materials as a way to contextualize language learning, helping them focus more on content and meaning rather than the language itself

13

 In addition, students have a chance to get access to various knowledge and make use of different materials and multimedia to understand the real world Authentic tasks provide students with the opportunity to make use of non-linguistic clues (layout, pictures, colors, symbols, the physical setting in which it occurs) to help them discover the meaning more easily (Brosnan et al., 1984)

 Finally, lessons will be more interesting and necessary to students Melvin and Stout (1987) say that students are increasingly motivated and interested to learn Brosnan et al (1984) mention that authentic language offers students the chance to deal with a small amount of materials with complete and meaningful messages Lombardi (2007, p2) concludes that students prefer “learning by doing” – (she adds that it is the most effective way to learn) to “by listening to just what teachers said” Besides, they are more motivated when they have a chance to solve real world problems where they have responsibility and power

In short, learners can get a lot of benefits through authentic tasks such as enhancing their interest and motivation, exposing themselves to the valuable knowledge of the real world with the help of modern multimedia and being able to use it in the real life later resulting in more meaningful lessons in class

14

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

1 Setting of the study

1.1 The university and students

The study was conducted on first-year university students at Thanh Do University which is

a private and newly founded one However, the facilities here are quite good Classrooms are well equipped with a 42-inch screen, a computer, a cassette There is also a library full

of various books and computers connected to the Internet, which are available to students

at any office hours Therefore, it is very convenient for any students who want to search the information and self – study outside classes

Students majoring in English had at least three years of English at their high school Therefore, they are considered to have been taught basic grammar and vocabulary as they had passed the entrance exam into university designed to test mainly students’ knowledge

of grammar and vocabulary However, this is a private university and has been run for only seven years so it can only attract several good students Most of them are assumed at pre-intermediate level of English proficiency In addition, at high school, they were controlled

by teachers on their study As a result, students are not very good at self-study

In short, students here are equipped with good facilities in their learning The textbook is the only teaching material use The writing lessons are based on the topics from the reading ones Therefore, the teacher has to use other materials and adapt the textbook so that students can get the best benefit from the program Therefore, the teacher can apply different methods so as to help them get the best results in study

1.2 The writing program for first-year English-majored students

1.2.1 The objectives of the program

After the first term of the first year, students have to master basic knowledge and skills such as writing simple and complex sentences, making use of knowledge to construct different types of sentences, etc

In the second term, students are of low/ basic intermediate level including mastering paragraph writing and getting to know forms of different writings such as letters, emails, reports and so on

15

1.2.2 The schedule of the course

The course is designed for first-year students in their second term based on the textbook

“NorthStar - Reading and Writing”, basic/ low intermediate level by Natasha Haughnes, Longman Press It focuses on paragraph writing In addition, students can get to know several types of writing such as letters, reports, researches and advertisements The course book is designed to focus on reading and writing skill based on different topics In general, the topics include jobs, countryside and city life, counterfeit money, endangered animals, network etiquette, organic produces, the environment, health and illnesses and endangered cultures After learning reading skill, students have some knowledge on the topic to write paragraphs and other types of writing

2 Methodology

2.1 Participants

In group DHTA K1, there were twenty first – year students with the ages ranging from 19

to 23 (three male and seventeen female ones) The lessons were designed and carried out

by the researcher who was also the teacher of the class After each lesson, students also had

to write a diary At the end of the term, students completed the questionnaires delivered by the teacher

2.2 Instrumentations

 Instrument 1: Class observation

When teaching in class, the teacher had to observe students’ attitudes, interests and abilities to the knowledge and activities designed Besides, the teacher had to decide how much they had learned and whether they had got progress from each lesson and the whole term In order to observe well, a note-taking paper is designed with 7 criteria

to take records of students’ ability to do tasks, attentiveness, participation and so on

 Instrument 2: Questionnaire

The questionnaires were designed with 8 questions to elicit from students the information about the benefits, suitability and difficulties of using the designed authentic tasks The questions are of two kinds: scaling and multiple choices

16

 Instrument 3: Diary writing

Students were instructed to take notes of (writing freely) their thoughts, attitudes, feelings and perceptions as well as difficulties on the tasks designed, group work and the teacher’s performance in class following a format given by the teacher Moreover, the teacher also explained to them that their suggestions on activities on each topic instead of the teacher’s would be highly appreciated The teacher also added that their information was valuable to improve the teacher’s methods in teaching only and the teacher was the only one to read their diary By doing so, students would feel secure and enthusiastic to speak their mind

2.3 Data collection

 Class observation

Each lesson consisted of two periods with a five-minute short break After each period, the teacher filled in the paper prepared for class observation with what she could observe in class with the scale from 5 to 0 The elements in the paper for class observation helped to have a view on students’ attitudes and interests in the lessons

 Questionnaire

The questionnaires were delivered to university students of K1 group at the end of the second term on the seventeenth of June, 2010 (together with the summary of all the tasks applied during the term as in the appendices) There were twenty questionnaires delivered but only seventeen were taken back

 Diary writing

The teacher/ researcher explained how and what students had to write in their diaries

on the first day of the term on March, the eleventh Students’ diaries and their general assessment were collected at the end of the course on the seventeenth of June, 2010 Only fifteen out of twenty students wrote their diaries However, only ten wrote their diaries about the ten lessons and five of them only wrote about some lessons and five did not write diaries

17

CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSES

All the data collected will be carefully analyzed in this part After that, findings will be reported and implications will be generated from the finding results

1 Analysis of class observation results

Through the results from the papers noted after each lesson, most students had good attitudes towards the tasks required, especially in the tasks that are close to their life or need their critical thinking, for example, writing advertisements about their hometown to attract tourists, writing a poem, writing a letter to persuade people to use organic produces However, there still remain several problems as follows:

In terms of students’ ability to do the tasks, for the topics that are familiar with students such as jobs, country life and city life, endangered animals, environmentally – friendly means of transportation, the results were satisfactory In fact, (sometimes in Vietnamese when they were not able to understand in English well) and their classmates’ consultancy (when they did not want to ask the teacher) For students of low level, they were passive and unconfident at first; however, after some lessons, they started to write without too much help from the teacher and at the end of the term, they could write on their own With regard to students’ attentiveness, all the students were attentive when the teacher gave instructions and when their classmates discussed to give their ideas for each topic They seemed to be more attentive in difficult topics like counterfeit money, endangered cultures, and organic produces However, in the topic of depression, most of the students did not seem to be interested so they appeared to be tired of learning that lesson Some students even spoke to the teacher that this topic was too boring to write

From the notes of students’ readiness and willingness to the task, about 85% were ready to write immediately what the teacher asked them to and only 15% (3 students) were not willing to write any topics They seemed to be forced to learn or learning was not their needs It was noticeable that these students were the students of low level in the class At first, they often sat in the same desk and did not try to get progress in learning However, with teacher’s guide and encouragement, they were better and readier in the later lessons

On the subject of students’ participation, about 35% students participated well in group work or the whole class discussion in almost all the lessons 25% participated in both

18

group work and whole class discussion of interesting topics like advertisements for their hometown, endangered animals, poems and so on However, the rest seemed not to participate in discussion Amongst these students, some of them participated well in whole class discussion for interesting topics but appeared to be passive in group work Several of them did not have any ideas to discuss They sometimes gave their ideas when the teacher asked but it took time to get their responses These were students of low level in the class The teacher tried to have different ways to divide group, for example, grouping active students with active students, passive students with passive students, then students of low level with those of high level and so on in order to motivate passive students to participate

in the lessons However, they only got little progress or improvement

Concerning students’ interestedness, almost the whole class were really interested in the tasks designed for such topics as country life and city life, endangered animals, organic produces, poems For difficult topics like counterfeit money, endangered cultures, they seemed to be discouraged because of their little knowledge on the topics For the topics like depression, most of the students were uninterested The atmosphere was boring The last things noted in the papers of class observation were students’ difficulties In general, students had a lot of difficulties and the difficulties also depended on their levels For good students (about 35%), they only got difficulties of the information or knowledge

on difficult topics like counterfeit money, endangered cultures, etc or just some problems with expressions in English Normal students got difficulties with difficult topics Besides, they had problems with expressions in English They sometimes also had problems with the use of words, prepositions and so on For students of low level (about 20%) got a lot of problems The problems include the information, knowledge on the topics, expressions in English, sentence writing, use of words and so on They seemed not to be confident to show their products to the teacher and their classmates

In brief, through teacher’s class observations, there were two biggest matters First, students’ attitudes, interest, participation and difficulties depended a lot on the topic of the lesson For that reason, designing and choosing a textbook to teach should be carefully taken into account so that the topics in the book are interesting and suitable to students’ age, needs, preferences, etc Teachers should also spend time designing tasks suitable to their students The other matter was students’ levels Students of low level were not

19

confident enough to express their ideas and participate in discussion with their peers As a result, they seemed to be passive in almost all the lessons Accordingly, the teacher also should learn how to motivate, guide and facilitate students to help them to be confident and active so as to get progress in learning writing skill

2 Analysis of survey questionnaires

Question 1: What is your assessment of these tasks in general?

The first question in the survey aimed to find out students’ opinions about the usefulness of the designed tasks that had been applied Through their opinions, the teacher could know whether the tasks were suitable and beneficial to students or not According to the information from the survey, all the students agreed that in general, the tasks applied were really useful, which is a positive sign To be more specific, 70.59 % said that the tasks applied were useful and 29.41% emphasized that they were very useful Therefore, it can

be concluded that the teacher had designed appropriate tasks for students The results were really surprising Before the study, the researcher only hoped that the majority of the students would find the tasks useful However, to the researcher’s surprise, all agreed that the tasks were useful to them Moreover, it is more important that students recognized the significance of writing tasks as well

very useful useful neutral not very

useful useless very

20

Question 2: What is your general feeling when doing these tasks?

The purpose of this question is to discover students’ feelings or interest in doing the tasks The interest level falls into five scales from “very interested” to “not interested at all” Through the results, the teacher could see whether the tasks were interesting to their students in order to have modifications in their lesson plans and apply the tasks in class to attract students’ interest The results revealed that a majority of the students were interested

in the tasks designed In fact, 35.29% of the students were interested in the tasks 29.41% emphasized that they were very interested 29.41% had neutral feelings and only one student (5.88%) was not very interested The results showed that the tasks were satisfying

to students on average and the tasks designed were suitable to students

interested neutral not very

21

Question 3: In general, what benefits can you get for your writing from these tasks?

The most important thing the teacher should pay attention to when applying different tasks

is to help students get the best benefits from the lesson they have learned This question is designed to get the information of the benefits they can get The results indicated that most students got a lot of benefits from the tasks The majority of the students agreed or totally agreed that they got the benefits written in the survey To be specific, 17.65% totally agreed and 76.47% agreed that the tasks helped to promote their presentation skill through discussion in class, which is important to enhance their confidence and language competence

in general 58.82% agreed and 11.76% totally agreed that the tasks provided more chances for them to work cooperatively More than 80% said that the tasks enhanced their creativity to write Reinforcing critical thinking was one of the benefits that 52.94% of the students could get from the tasks Nearly 80% said that the tasks helped them share their ideas Above all, more than 90% claimed that the tasks would be useful to their future With this result, the teacher could be confident that the authentic tasks she applied were suitable to one of the most important requirements of an authentic task which is its

5.88% 11.76%

5.88% 0%

0% 0% 0%

0% 11.76%

good for my future increasing my motivation

exciting classroom atmosphere

enhancing my creativity to write

reinforcing my critical thinking

more chances for peer cooperation

sharing my ideas

promoting my presentation skill

through discussion before writing

Totally agree Agree Neutral Disagree Totally disagree

Chart 3: Benefits from doing the tasks

0%

0%

0% 0%

22

applicability to the real world However, a number of the students were neutral It is noticeable that 52.94% were neutral to the idea that the tasks helped to excite the classroom atmosphere When they are excited, they will study more effectively The results implicated that the teacher should pay more attention to making the lessons more exciting Moreover, only some of them disagreed with certain benefits in the survey, namely exciting classroom atmosphere (one student), reinforcing their critical thinking (one student), more chances for peer cooperation among classmates (two students) and sharing their ideas (one student) In addition, no one totally disagreed that they did not get any benefits from the tasks It can be concluded that the tasks given are more or less beneficial

to students and the benefits listed in the question are essential to their general development

Question 4: How do you rate these tasks?

One of the things the teacher has to put in their mind when asking their students to do different tasks is whether the tasks are suitable to their level or not In this question, it is noticeable that more than half of the students (52.94%) responded that the tasks were difficult and one student (5.88%) said the tasks were very difficult In addition, no one found the tasks easy or very easy However, 41.18% found the tasks not very difficult Through the results, the teacher should found out which specific tasks were above their level to have adaptations, modifications or find different ways to make the tasks more accessible and easier to their students

very easy

0%

Chart 4: Difficulty level of the tasks

23

Question 5: What are the difficulties that you have when doing these tasks?

The results in question 4 shows that most students found the tasks difficult Therefore, the teacher should know what their difficulties were in order to have different ways to modify the tasks Though the tasks were beneficial (according to the results in question one), students had several difficulties in doing these tasks It is noticeable that 47.06% claimed that they had difficulties with the topics and 35.29% had difficulty in getting information

to write Therefore, the teacher should have more adaptations with the textbook and the topics in each unit Besides, 35.29% found the tasks difficult because of their studying styles (they explained that they did not practice writing often and some were still familiar with passive style at high school) so the teacher should create more activities in class so that everyone can join and get used to active learning style at university In addition, 17.65% had difficulties with the teacher’s instructions Besides, there were other difficulties that several students encountered For instance, 5.88% found it difficult to learn

in a large class and 5.88% had another idea which is difficult writing forms of some tasks like writing a report, brochure, article In general, students had many difficulties in doing the tasks However, the teacher should find different ways to help them have an active learning style, choose the most suitable topics or the most interesting point of each topic to ask them to write, guide them how to search the information needed for the topic and give them clearer instructions These were the difficulties that the majority of students had

Chart 5: Students' difficulties in doing the tasks

5.88%

0.00%

5.88%

47.06% 35.29%

17.65%

35.29%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Others Learning setting Large class Topic Information The teacher (instructions, help, etc)

Studying style