Students' perception and attitudes towards pre-writing activities at Ngo Quyen High school = Nhận thức và thái độ của học sinh trường THPT Ngô Quyền đối với các

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ HƯƠNG HOA STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS PRE-WRITING ACTIVITIES AT NGÔ QUYỀN HI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐỖ THỊ HƯƠNG HOA

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS PRE-WRITING ACTIVITIES AT

NGÔ QUYỀN HIGH SCHOOL

NHẬN THỨC VÀ THÁI ĐỘ CỦA HỌC SINH TRƯỜNG THPT NGÔ

QUYỀN ĐỐI VỚI CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG TRƯỚC KHI VIẾT

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Hanoi, 2011 Code: 60 14 10

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐỖ THỊ HƯƠNG HOA

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS PRE-WRITING ACTIVITIES AT

NGÔ QUYỀN HIGH SCHOOL

NHẬN THỨC VÀ THÁI ĐỘ CỦA HỌC SINH TRƯỜNG THPT NGÔ

QUYỀN ĐỐI VỚI CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG TRƯỚC KHI VIẾT

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor: Dr NGUYỄN HUY KỶ

Hanoi, 2011 Code: 60 14 10

2.2 The “ Tiếng Anh 11” textbook 17

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Page

Table 1: Students’ assessments of some common pre-writing provided by their

teacher

26

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESL: English as a Second Language

ELT: English Language Teaching

IT : Information Technology

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

PART 1 INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

Writing is an essential skill in both the first language and second language It is a means of expressing thoughts in a planned and organized way However, due to its complexity and high requirement of linguistic means, it is considered the most difficult language skill to master

Regarding the context of Ngô Quyền High School in Hoa Binh, it is a noticeable that the writing lesson is the most challenging one to both the teachers and the students Rarely

do the teachers choose the writing lessons to perform their teaching practice for colleagues‟ evaluation due to the high risk of failure The students suffer from a certain amount of anxiety when they have to deal with a writing task In writing lessons, they usually complain that they have nothing to write, the writing tasks are too difficult for them, they have too little time to complete their writings but do not recognize the problem is a lack of preparation This is one reason why the discussion section of a pre-writing activity is so important for ESL students Do the students perform pre-writing in reality? Normally, when doing a writing task, they often think in Vietnamese then translate into English, they ignore pre-writing stage and begin writing immediately, and employ pre-writing strategies only when being asked by the teacher Why so? Why they are not enthusiastic about these activities?

Pre-writing activities are essential if the teachers want to help their students become better writers, help them feel more motivated and self-confident in writing lessons However whether these activities effective or not depends much on students themselves Research into students' perception and attitudes towards pre-writing activities can add to the growing body of knowledge about teaching writing skill and contribute valuable data that can be used to inform decisions regarding the implementation and exploitation of these activities What do the students at Ngô Quyền High School perceive the pre-writing activities provided by their teacher, how do they response with these? What are the implications for the teachers in teaching writing skill? These questions have drawn my interest in carrying out the current research which focuses on the investigation of the students‟ perception and attitudes towards pre-writing activities at Ngô Quyền High School

2 Objectives of the study

This study aims at exploring Ngô Quyền High School students‟ perception and attitudes towards pre-writing activities Some pre-writing activities are proposed and evaluated by students with a view to giving some recommendations on how to design effective pre-writing activities The specific objectives of the research are as follows:

 Investigating what the students at Ngô Quyền High School perceive of writing activities in writing lessons

pre- Exploring their attitudes towards pre-writing activities

 Giving some suggestions to increase the effectiveness of pre-writing activities to the students at Ngô Quyền High School

3 Research questions of the study

To achieve the objectives of the study, the thesis is designed to answer the following questions:

1 How do the students at Ngô Quyền High School perceive pre-writing activities provided by the teachers?

2 What attitudes towards pre-writing activities do they hold?

3 What are the students’ preferences for pre-writing activities?

4 Methods of the study

This is a survey research To seek answers to the above research questions, a survey questionnaire was used Mile and Huberman (1994: 253) state three good reasons for resorting to numbers: “to see rapidly what you have in a large batch of data; to verify a hunch or hypothesis; to keep yourself analytically honest, protecting against bias” Moreover, using questionnaires in research may help participants approach the problem more easily For the reasons mentioned above, the survey research seems to be the most suitable for the scope and objectives of my study

However, this method has its own limitation, that is, the results collected may not reflect the matter proposed precisely In order to reduce the invalidity and unreliability, the author will give clear instructions to the students; observe the class to make sure that the students answer each question themselves; or ask students to check their answers

5 Scope of the study

Due to the time and length constraint of the study, the author only focuses on surveying 11th form students at Ngô Quyền high school to find out their perception of pre-writing activities in terms of the importance and benefits, their preferences and attitudes towards these activities in writing lessons Although the author is well aware that the survey statistics are not fully representative of all high school students studying English in Hoa Binh, she hopes to propose some of the most popular facts that occur in this study

6 Significance of the study

Pedagogically, the findings and comments of the study are believed to be relevant to improving the teaching of writing to the students The study may help teachers make their writing lessons more effective so that they can help their students develop writing skill as well as other language skills

7 Design of the study

The study consists of three main parts:

Part One - Introduction- provides the overview of the study with the rationale, the

objectives, the research questions, the methods, the scope, the significance and the design of the study

Part Two- Development- includes 3 chapters in which chapter 1 deals with the

literature review relevant to the study; Chapter 2 describes the setting of the study and how the study is carried out, and Chapter 3 presents the data analysis and discussion

Part Three- Conclusion- reviews what has been presented in the study and suggests

some implications for improving the effectiveness of pre-writing activities

PART 2 DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter reviews theories related to writing skill and pre-writing activities, students‟ perception and attitudes towards language learning which can be applied in the teaching of writing It also reviews current researches on students‟ perception and attitudes in this issue and summarizes some related studies that have been conducted so far All of these serve as a basis for seeking insight into students‟ perception and attitudes about writing lessons employing pre-writing activities and their reflected effectiveness

1.1 Learner beliefs, perception and attitudes towards language learning

Learners‟ success in language learning depends much on their perception and attitudes towards learning a foreign language Perception and attitudes shape beliefs and are influenced by beliefs To understand more about this, an overview of learner beliefs, perception and attitudes is necessary

1.1.1 Definition of beliefs, perception and attitudes

There are many definitions of beliefs, perception and attitudes Most often, researchers adopt definitions that suit the purposes of their own empirical frameworks and reflect personal ideological viewpoints In this thesis, the author will quote the following ones because they are simple but comprehensive and she will conduct the study on this theoretical background

 Belief: According to Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, belief is defined as a

thing that one accepts as true or real Another definition of belief provided by Horwitz (1987) is a statement that is held to be true, that affects language learning practices

 Perception: According to Lindsay & Norman (1997) perception is the process by which organisms interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of` the world Sensation usually refers to the immediate, relatively unprocessed result of stimulation of sensory receptors in the eyes, ears, nose, tongue,

or skin Perception, on the other hand, better describes one‟s ultimate experience of the world and typically involves further processing of sensory input In practice, sensation and perception are virtually impossible to separate, because they are part

of one continuous process Thus, perception in humans describes the process whereby sensory stimulation is translated into organized experience

 Attitude: Bem (1970) simply defines that "attitudes are likes and dislikes"

According to Eagly & Chaiken (1993), "Attitude is a psychological tendency that is

expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor."

For recent years, foreign language teaching and learning have shifted from teacher directed instruction to student- centred learning Therefore many researchers have raised their interest in learners‟ perspectives Numerous studies related to teaching methodology have been carried out from learners‟ perspective because learners are the key figures in teaching and learning process Leaner perception and attitudes not only influence their approaches to language learning but also affect the way they respond to the teaching activities If learners feel dissatisfied with the teaching method, they will lose their motivation in learning language According to Horwitz (1987), some students prefer having more free conversations rather than pattern drills while some other students insist on their teacher‟s correction If the teacher cannot meet learners‟ need, they will soon become bored and frustrated with learning and this may affect learners‟ motivation in language learning Hence, it is necessary for teachers to have better understandings of their learners‟ needs as well as their expectations in order to help them acquire a new language more easily

1.1.2 Studies on learners’ beliefs, perception and attitudes

Perception and beliefs play a significant role in directing human behavior Research and scholarship on perception and beliefs in the area of language learning has been growing and gaining prominence in the last two decades

Previous psychological studies into learners‟ perception and beliefs about learning

“opened a whole new Aladdin‟s cave of personal beliefs, myths, understandings, and superstitions as they were revealed by the persons‟ thoughts and feelings about their learning” (Thomas & Harri-Augstein, 1983, p 338) These studies concluded that beliefs about learners‟ own capacity and personal models of their own processes were much more central to understanding the individuals‟ learning performances than more universally accepted theories of learning, and that these personal „myths‟ explained much more about individual differences in learning than such psychometric measures as intelligence or aptitude

According to Arnold (1999) learners‟ epistemological beliefs act as very strong filters of reality They play a central role in learning experience and achievements Interdisciplinary research shows that learners may be directly influenced by their perception

of success in learning and levels of expectancy (Yang, 1999; Bernat, 2004) It has been argued, that while some beliefs may have a facilitative effect on learning, others can hinder

it Supportive and positive beliefs help to overcome problems and thus sustain motivation, while negative or unrealistic beliefs can lead to decreased motivation, frustration, and even anxiety

In the classroom context, the perception, beliefs, attitudes, and metacognitive knowledge that students bring with them to the learning situation have been recognized as a significant contributory factor in the learning process and ultimate success (Breen, 2001) For example, second or foreign language students may hold strong beliefs about the nature

of the language under study, its difficulty, the process of its acquisition, the success of certain learning strategies, the existence of aptitude, their own expectations about achievement and teaching methodologies Identification of these beliefs and reflection on their potential impact on language learning and teaching in general, as well as in more specific areas such as the learners' expectations and strategies used, can inform future syllabus design and teacher practice in the course Pedagogy has the capacity to provide the opportunities and conditions within which these learner contributions are found to have a positive effect upon learning and may be more fully engaged (Breen, 2001; Arnold, 1999)

In summary, studying on learners‟ beliefs, perception and attitudes seems to appeal

to researchers Great deals of researchers are interested in this field Most of their studies paid much attention on the importance and the influence of learners‟ beliefs, perception and attitudes on their language learning So far, there has been no study on high school students‟ perception and attitudes towards pre-writing activities Thus, this study is an attempt to explore high school students‟ perception and attitudes towards pre-writing activities The author hopes that it will be useful for those who care about this field

1.2 Writing

1.2.1 What is writing?

There are a lot of definitions of writing "Writing can be said to be the art of performing graphic symbols" (Byrne 1990: 1) or simply writing is like "making marks on a

flat surface of some kind" From another view of writing, Murray (1978:29) and Perl (1979:43) defined writing as “a creative discovery procedure characterized by the dynamic interplay of content and language: the use of language to explore beyond the known

content.”

In language teaching, writing is defined as one of the two productive language skills including speaking and writing skill According to Ur (1996), “most people acquire the spoken language (at least their own mother tongue) intuitively, whereas, the written form is

in most cases deliberately taught and learned” (p.161) He added, “Writing normally requires some form of instruction It is not a skill that is really picked up by exposure‟‟

Writing, in language teachers‟ opinions, is “a language skill which is difficult to acquire” (Tribble, 1996, p 3) It is “a process that occurs over a period of time, particularly

if we take into account the sometimes extended periods of thinking that precede creating an initial draft.” ( Harris, 1993, p 10)

The definitions of writing are various However, it is characterized with some basic features, i.e being linguistics, creative, progressive and interactive Besides, the word

“writing” itself may imply an act, a process, or a skill, which needs practice and study to develop It requires both physical and mental powers from the writers

1.2.2 Writing approaches

There are several ways to approach writing in the classroom It should be noted that there is not necessarily any 'right' or 'best' way to teach writing skills The best practice in any situation will depend on the type of student, the text type being studied, the school system and many other factors The two approaches to writing which have predominated in English Language Teaching (ELT) context are the product approach and the process approach

1.2.2.1 Product approach to teaching writing

Originally, the product approach to writing was rooted in Behaviourist Theory: The learner is not allowed to 'create' in the target language at all…The use of language is the manipulation of fixed patterns;…these patterns are learned by imitation; and…not until they have been learned can originality occur… (Pincas 1962: 185-6)

For the past decade or so, writing research has emphasized the composed product rather than the process of writing itself Much attention was given to the mechanics of

writing the correct form; the correct usage of words or the correct format It was generally believed that writers knew and preplanned what they wanted to write (Shaughnessy, 1977) Correctness of mechanics and form influenced writing pedagogy which concentrated on preliminary outlining and orderly writing Learners in the writing class analyzed and imitated the works of professional writers Creativity and the exploration of thoughts on paper were less encouraged

The drawbacks of the product approach were soon noticed by many researchers As Escholz (1980) argues, in adopting such an approach, not only does the very nature of this sequence provide little or no insight into the actual processes involved in managing to arrive

at the final product, but the students are also being restricted in what they can write The approach merely resulted in 'mindless copies of a particular organizational plan or style' (Eschholz 1980: 24) In other words, the product approach encourages students to use the same plan in a multitude of settings, applying the same form regardless of content, thereby

„stultifying and inhibiting writers rather than empowering them or liberating them.‟ In addition, the entire activity of writing was seen as “an exercise in habit formation” (Silva 1990: 13)

1.2.2.2 Process approach to teaching writing

The teaching of writing has recently moved away from a concentration on the written product to an emphasis on the process of writing, which leads to the emergence of Process Approach Process Approach to writing came to play in the 1970s This approach encourages students‟ communication of ideas, feelings, and experiences It is more global and focuses on purpose, theme, text type, i.e the reader is emphasized Thus, writers not only concern about purpose and audience but also have to make decision on how to begin and how to organize a piece of writing

Writing is a process, so students are given time to set out ideas, make plan, write a first draft, revise what has been written after a peer feedback, then they can edit their writing or write other drafts before the final version is produced

There are different points of views on the number of stages comprising the writing process According to Oshima and Hogue (1991), writing process has four stages: pre-writing, planning, writing and revising draft and writing the final copy to hand in Tribble (1996) identified four stages in writing process: pre-writing, drafting, revising and editing The author of this study takes the view that is close to the ways Tribble, Oshima and Houge

defined writing process − that is, the writing process comprises three stages: pre- writing, while- writing, and post- writing

In the view of Byrne (1988), students generate ideas and also develop fluency in this stage Pre-writing involves activities like brainstorming, outlining, debating, interviewing, etc

Besides individual work in this stage, group work and pair work can be used

 Post-writing

Hedge (1988) asserted revising and editing after composing was an integral part of the writing process There are two main post-writing activities The first, mentioned by Harmer (2004) are self-revision and self-editing The second type of post-writing activity is rewriting based on the feed back or comments from the teachers or their peers

1.3 Pre-writing stage and pre-writing activities

According to Oshima and Hogue (1991:2), when we are faced with writing assignment, we may sometimes suffer from “writer block”, that is, ideas will not easily come to in our head, and we sit staring at our blank paper “Writer block” can happen to anyone , even professional writers, pre-writing activities help to generate ideas for the writing assignments, writers can easily overcome this difficulty ( writer‟s block) and getting

started quickly

In “The practice of writing”, Robert Scholes and Nancey R Comley (1989) highlight the importance of pre-writing: collecting the thoughts on paper without the pressure of structuring expression into its final form is the most productive way of beginning almost any writing task

White and Adrnt (1991) briefly categorized pre-writing activities into three types: generating which includes the activities: brainstorming, making note, role-play, using questions and visuals), focusing (discovering main ideas; considering purpose, audience and form of the writing) and structuring activities (ordering information, experimenting with arrangement and relating structure to focal ideas)

According to Raimes (1983), pre-writing process involves 'getting ideas',

"expressing ideas' and 'conveying meaning”

In short, pre-writing is an important stage in writing process, it refers to any activity

in the classroom that encourages the generation and organization of ideas Teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL) can use pre-writing activities at the earliest stages of instruction to help their students acquire good language skills Pre-writing involves energizing students participation in thinking, talking, group interaction, and skeletal writing activities that become components of a writing task It helps students stimulate thoughts for getting started In fact, it moves students from having to face a blank page to generating tentative ideas and gathering information for writing

1.3.1 Some common pre-writing activities used at high school

 Brainstorming

According to Raimes (1983), brainstorming is a technique whose purpose is to initiate some sort of thinking process Whatever the writing assignment is based on − a reading, picture, textbook topic, personal experience…− it can be preceded by student talk, especially by a brainstorming activity, with students producing relevant vocabulary, making comments, asking questions and making associations as freely as they can in a short time After brainstorming orally together, students can then do the same on paper, writing down

as many ideas as they can without worrying about grammar, spelling, organization, or the quality of the ideas

 Listing and grouping

This method requires students to list all words or phrases related to the topic Students do not stop until they have written a large quantity and completely run out of ideas They will not be in a hurry to cross out the seemingly unimportant, repetitive or even unrelated ones as soon as they put them on paper

After listing all the items they can think of, students can begin to check the list, and together to decide to cross out the ones which do not fit, and ones which are repetitive and may put the list into subgroups

 Picture using

Teacher use a set of pictures corresponding to the content of the writing text and ask students to work in pairs or in groups pooling ideas and vocabulary By describing, reordering or connecting pictures students can generating ideas for their writing This activity is suitable when teaching writing narrative or descriptive text and is a powerful learning device

 Rapid free writing

Free writing helps you identify subjects in which you are interested It assumes that you know your interests subconsciously but may not be able to identify them consciously, and it assumes that you can bring your interests into consciousness by writing about them (as writing equals thinking) Free writing is like stream-of-consciousness writing in which you write down whatever happens to be in your thoughts at the moment After you do a number of free writings, you may find that you have come back to certain subjects again and again Repeated subjects are good for further development through writing, as they obviously are important in your thoughts

 Clustering

Clustering or mapping can help you become aware of different ways to think about a subject To do a cluster or "mind map," write your general subject down in the middle of a piece of paper Then, using the whole sheet of paper, rapidly jot down ideas related to that subject If an idea spawns other ideas, link them together using lines and circles to form a cluster of ideas The whole purpose here is to use lines and circles to show visually how your ideas relate to one another and to the main subject

A cluster or map combines the two stages of brainstorming (recording ideas and then grouping them) into one It also allows you to see, at a glance, the aspects of the subject about which you have the most to say, so it can help you choose how to focus a broad subject for writing For example, the writer of the map above his or her writing on time devices, leisure time, warps in which time passes, child vs adult time or time in sports, any of which would provide a logical focus for an essay or paragraph

 Making wh-questions

Asking questions is a versatile form of pre-writing You can ask questions to develop a perspective on a subject that you think you want to write about, to narrow a subject that you have already chosen, and to determine whether it's feasible to pursue your chosen subject Ask Questions to Develop a Perspective on a Subject: Ask the journalist

"who," "what," "when," "where," "why," and "how" in order to get a sense of the subject's scope and of the way in which you may want to approach the subject ─ the angle that makes sense for you to take when thinking about the subject Ask Questions to Narrow a Subject: Ask questions about your subject and use the answer to activate another question until you come to a question that is a good stopping place (a focused question that you can answer on your own with examples and details)

For example:

Subject: Education

As you develop a "chain" using each answer to generate another question, your subject both narrows in scope and becomes more complex, more appropriate

 Simple outlining

Simple outlining is an effective way to help students to write more quickly If students want to have a good idea in their mind of how they will begin and what major points they plan to discuss, they need to write a simple outline to check their ideas , to make sure that their points are well organized, and to use as a guideline to refer to as they write Once they have worked out a good outline for a paragraph or short essay, they have complete 50 percent of the work With an outline, the actual writing becomes easier because students do not have to worry about what they are going to say Hence, they can write more quickly

 Discussing: Talk to other students, with varying levels of knowledge on the topic, about the piece

1.3.2 Benefits of pre-writing activities

Pre-writing is a vital part of the writing process and activities for this stage offer several benefits to the writer:

Firstly, they can bring a lot of fun Anything is possible at this point Students may have many ideas and the ideas can be freewheeling, even idiotic It does not matter They Just keep brainstorming, playing with ideas, collecting resources and notes, doing all the other activities needed to finish this stage of the writing process At this point, students‟ writings may go in many directions However, they need to explore all the ideas until they hit upon the one that feels right “Oh! That's what I'm going to write."

Secondly, students can easily evaluate new ideas that come flooding into their mind Does the idea fit their present writing or not? Is it worth to use in the writing work?

Thirdly, pre-writing allows students to write the first draft more easily because they know what they want to write at each writing session it really is a useful tool that usually ends up saving the writer from having unorganized thoughts, confusing structure, and the dreaded writer's block

Next, pre-writing increases students‟ confidence in themselves as writers They will

be able to determine if the project has merit, and if they will be able to finish the topic and actually write that topic

Finally, by the end of the pre-writing process, the students will have a full outline of the topic With that outline, students will be able to see the whole project at a glance When looking at this outline, they will be able to detect: Inadequate organization of the ideas; Gaps in ideas and content; Whether the writing has one paragraph or more; Where the writing need cutting down in size

In brief, the main benefits of pre-writing activities are: (1) They help students stimulate thoughts for getting started and making writing easier; (2) They help students remove the “writer‟s block” and distraction that prevent ideas coming out; (3) They help students write in a more motivating and stimulating way; (4) They help create a cooperative and enjoyable atmosphere in the writing class

Pre-writing is a crucial stage of writing any nonfiction work It allows the writer to

be prepared, rather than stumbling around in the dark, wondering what to write next When pre-writing is properly done it can be a real benefit to the writer it provides a backbone for the paper to be written offering a logical and coherent train of thought for the paper to follow Therefore a writer need not worry about any sort of issues with the structure of the paper and instead can concentrate his thoughts completely on the content of the paper Even

if the writer does not end up looking back at the actual pre-writing itself, the amount of thought that went into forming his pre-writing will help give the writer a better understanding of what he is writing Prewriting activities not only help students acquire the target language more effectively, but they build interpersonal, thinking, and planning skills that can be utilized in other fields

1.3.3 A warning about implementing pre-writing activities

Though, the benefits of pre-writing activities are undeniable, there is a warning when implementing these activities in class That is teacher and students may become so fascinated by this stage that they do not actually move past it to create the first draft, and then on to revision Like research, writers have a tendency to spend too much time planning and never get to implementation (drafting) Consequently, teachers may run out of time in writing lessons if they do not prepare carefully and students will have not enough time to complete their writing assignment Teachers should concentrate on the individual components of a writing task ensures that students actually begin writing early but are not overwhelmed with tasks that they cannot handle

1.4 Previous researches on pre-writing activities

Pre-writing stage and pre-writing activities play an important part in writing process That is the reason why many researches relating this field have been carried out

Baba, Suria and Aziz, Zahara Abdul (2009) unveils the implementation of smart teaching and learning strategies in pre-writing activities in Bahasa Melayu (Malay Language) This is a qualitative case study of four smart schools‟ teachers using purposive sampling The result from interview, non participant observation and documents analysis showed as follows: First, pre-writing activities include brainstorming activities and mind mapping, reading and interpreting data from print and electronic media The ability to convey information helps to develop critical thinking Second, the efforts of smart teachers strengthen learning and teaching which inculcate analytical and critical skills to solve problems Third, a cyclical model is created from the interviews and observations made during the pre-writing activities Efforts to make smart teaching and learning a success require teachers as well as students to think creatively Fourth, smart characteristics are related to the integration of brain-based learning theory

Another study related to this field was carried out by Zhang, Liru, Vukelich, Carol (1998) on pre-writing activities and gender explored the influence of pre-writing activities

on the writing quality of male and female students with varying academic achievement across four grade levels Participants were public school students in grades 4, 6, 9, 11 The results indicated that on average, students who wrote with pre-writing activities performed better than students who wrote without pre-writing activities Students‟ gender and academic achievement level has strong influence on the effectiveness of pre-writing, with females consistently scoring higher than males

Koh Soo Ling (1993) described what goes on during pre-writing time in a Foundation II writing class and analyzed the pre-writing process in terms of pre-writing strategies and pre-writing activities in an ESL composition class at Mara Institute of Technology The participants were 6 learners and their instructor in a composition class at Institution Teknologi Mara The results from classroom observation and interviews with the instructor led the author to conclusions that (1)Learners engaged in pre-writing strategies: namely global order-related and language-related strategies before the actual writing task;(2)Learners found certain pre-writing strategies more useful than others due to their abilities and what they deem important for writing compositions; (3)Learners would prefer the class instructor to carry out certain pre-writing activities according to their abilities and

what they deem important for writing compositions; (4)The pre-writing activities carried out by the instructor met the needs of the learners

There have been some studies related to this field of pre-writing activities in Vietnam

Ngoc (2008) pointed out the effects of pre-writing factors on the motivation in learning writing of the grade 11 non-major English students at Nguyen Binh Khiem High School, Hanoi The participants of his study were 80 grade 11th non-major English students and 15 teachers of English at the school Finding from questionnaire for the teachers, questionnaire for students in pre-writing and post-writing stage and a collection of students‟ writing papers in both pre-improvement stage and post-improvement one revealed that pre-writing activities conducted by the teachers didn‟t work perfectly, they met many difficulties when implementing these activities and when the teachers changed their method or activities to motivate students in the writing lessons, students write better, they also feel more confident when writing

Loi (2009) claimed the implementation of pre-writing activities in writing lesson, their effects on the students‟ writing at high school 50 students of 11th grade at her own high school participated in her study The results of the study showed that students‟ writing have improves a lot Their attitudes towards writing change positively Students feel more confident and more interested in the writing lessons

In short, writing is a difficult skill both to teachers and students Pre- writing activity

is one of the key factors that facilitates the writing tasks, but the more important one is how students perceive these and how they response to them If their attitudes towards these activities are negative, these activities offer no help Most of the mentioned studies dealt with the application of pre-writing activities in improving writing skill However, none considers high school students‟ perception and attitudes towards these activities As far as I know, the issue of students‟ perception and attitudes towards pre-writing activities remains under-researched in the context of High Schools in Vietnam, and this study is an attempt to occupy this research gap

1.5 Summary

In this chapter, the author has reviewed issues, and aspects concerning the topic of the study The knowledge of belief, perception and attitudes in language teaching writing, writing teaching approaches, pre-writing stage and pre-writing activities, previous researches which related to the topic of the study In the following chapter, the context of the study, the methodology, data collection procedures and data collection and data analysis will be proposed

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 The context of the study

Ngô Quyền High School is one of 5 High Schools in Hoa Binh city The school has

12 classes in which there are 4 classes 10, 4 classes 11 and 4 classes 12 The number of students in each class ranges from 35 to 45 students The total number of English teachers is four (1 male and 3 females), in which 1 teacher has Master‟s Degree, the rest all graduated from Vietnamese National University, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies, regular training The average age of English teachers is 38

The school shares common features with classrooms elsewhere in Vietnam: large size, poorly equipped, students sitting in rows of four each, unmemorable furniture In recent years, the school has been equipped with many modern facilities for English teaching and learning like computers, videos, projectors, etc However, the use of these modern facilities in teaching is not frequent due to the limited basic IT ability of some teachers Students‟ learning and their real English ability should be taken into account Facts have shown that the majority of students have not high results in English because their level of English is still low In addition, the students themselves do not consider English to be as important as other subjects like Math, Physics or Chemistry, etc Therefore, they do not spend much time in English learning

As in many other high schools, English is a compulsory subject The text books used for students are English 10, 11, 12 (new series of text books − Basic programme) Students have three English lessons every week with 45 minutes per period With the limited time in each period and the high number of the students in each class, it is difficult for English teaching and learning to be effective

2.2 The “Tiếng Anh 11” textbook

2.2.1 Grade 11 writing objectives

The textbook used to teach writing skills to the grade 11th non- English major students at Ngô Quyền high school is English 11 by MOET

In the textbook, reading, speaking and listening lessons are divided into three parts: pre-task, while-task, post-task In contrast, 30% of the writing units consist of one topic and some prompts On this textbook, there are a wide range of types to practice writing with

narrative, writing letters, describing statistics from a chart or a table or writing a report or a biography

The objectives of the course is to equip students with English writing skill for basic communication For grade 11 students, the objective is to develop students‟ abilities to provide 100 - 130 word paragraphs on familiar topics

2.2.2 The writing lessons in the “ Tiếng Anh 11” textbook

In order to realize the course objective, the writing section focuses on daily and popular topics The required competences and objectives of the writing lesson in each unit are detailed in the following table:

2.3 The reality of teaching and learning writing skill at Ngô Quyền high school

ESL learners face difficulties writing and expressing themselves in a different language Learners at Ngô Quyền high school are no exception While teaching writing at Ngô Quyền high school, I realized that majority of students dislike writing Writing in

English is mainly done within the classroom as a must When faced with a writing task, most students will react with comments like, "oh no not again" or "this is so boring", “I have nothing to write” What do students actually mean when they say "boring"? The possibility is that students are actually expressing their insecurity and lack of confidence in completing the task Writing is a skill that has not been accorded the attention it deserves in high school education Students have not been taught to make their ideas flow on paper properly Many of them don't know how to write, feel stupid when they can't find the right words, fear criticism and want to avoid the emotional turmoil experienced when faced with

a topic and a blank piece of paper Teachers do not understand much about process approach of writing, however, they are trying their best to follow this approach in teaching writing By observing the writing lessons and having informal talks with the teachers and students the researcher finds that the pre-writing activities the teachers often give their students are: generating ideas through brainstorming, asking students to make outline, using

a model essay and analyzing it, questioning and answering; listing, rapid free writing, describing pictures, using other aids (maps, music, reading texts) Studying the reality of teaching and learning writing at the school provides information on the relevant points and issues for the questionnaire of the study

Though, the teachers have used a lot of pre-writing activities that takes the student from insecurity to success It seems that this stage hasn‟t conducted effectively Students are very passive in writing lessons Their writing competence has not improved much In order

to create an atmosphere that encourages students to write, the students‟ perception and attitudes towards teacher's use of pre-writing time and also the pre-writing activities needs

to be looked into

2.4 Methodology

The methodology conducted in the research including the participants, instrumentation, data procedures, data collection and data analysis will be presented in the part

2.4.1 The participants

The subject of this study was drawn from two sources divided into two groups: The first group includes 80 11th form students randomly selected among 165 11thform students at Ngô Quyền High School in Hoa Binh The proportion of schools girls to

boys was 34/80 (the number of female students accounted for 42,5% of the student population).They were supposed to be at a pre-intermediate level of proficiency in English These students have learnt English for at least 5 years

The reason for selecting eleventh students but 10th or 12th grade was that these students have had one year‟s experience of learning English at the school and they are, therefore, believed to have more to say about pre-writing activities Grade 10 students have limited experience whereas, grade 12 are more preoccupied with examination preparation so their response to the research questions may be influenced by their examination-biased perspectives

The second group is composed of four teachers of English teaching writing skills for students at least for 3 years These teachers, whose ages ranged from mid-twenties to over forties, were invited to join in this study The proportion of female teachers to male teacher

is prominent, that is, one male, 3 females Their experience in teaching English language varied from 5 to 20 years

2.4.2 Instruments

To reach the primary objectives of the study, two main instruments of the survey research were used: Questionnaire (for students) and interview (for both students and teachers)

In order to collect reliable data and information from the subjects, the questionnaire for the students was designed in English and then translated into Vietnamese as they were thought to be easier for the students to complete It was piloted with 5 students of another class before being used officially in the study to avoid students‟ misunderstanding of the questions, the words or the terms in the questionnaire

The questionnaire consisted of 10 closed and open-ended questions Its purpose was

to investigate:

- the students‟ general attitudes towards writing skill

- the students‟ difficulties in writing stages

- the students‟ perceptions of the importance and usefulness of pre-writing activities towards their writing

- the students‟ perceptions of the benefits and limitations of implementing pre-writing activities in writing lessons

- the students‟ attitudes towards pre-writing activities

- the students‟ preferences for types of pre-writing activities

To get better insights into the research questions and to increase the validity and reliability of the information obtained from the questionnaire for students, the interviews with the teachers and students were conducted The interview questions were sorted out based on the survey questionnaires to get more information in details All the questions and answers in the interview were performed in Vietnamese

2.4.3 Data collection procedure

The copies of the questionnaire were delivered to 80 students from two different classes selected among 11 grade 4 classes at Ngô Quyền High School during their last English classes of the second term And the researcher herself delivered the copies to the participants The students were given unlimited time to complete the questionnaire, which was then collected by the writer herself The researcher observed the class when students did the questionnaire to ensure that they did not copy their friends‟ answers

4 teachers of English and 10 students were randomly chosen from 80 questionnaire respondents to discuss for further information about the items raised in the questionnaires All the interviews were informal and were conducted face to face, one participant at a time,

in quiet and isolated rooms between 8 am and 5pm within a week‟s time Each one-on one interview lasted about 10 minutes A high quality digital audio recorder was used during all

of the interviews

Before the interview started, the researcher explained the nature of the research, the purpose of the interview and the amount of time to complete the conversation The researcher was ready to answer any questions that the students had The interviewees were also informed that the data were to be recorded and how the data were to be used later on The participants were explained that their responses to the questionnaire or interview were anonymous This was to secure the most honest and accurate responses from the participants

2.4.4 Data analysis procedure

Data collected from different sources were put into the categories namely Students‟ perception and their attitudes towards pre-writing activities at Ngô Quyền High School and students‟ preferences for pre-writing activities in writing lessons The data were categorized

in such a way that the writer could easily find the answer to the research questions The quantitative data from the survey questionnaire were presented in the form of tables or charts while qualitative data from open-ended questions in the questionnaire and the interview were presented by analyzing and discussing the relevant responses from the participants In such a way, the data were analyzed both descriptively and interpretively

2.5 Summary

This chapter presented the overview of the situation of teaching and learning writing skill at Ngô Quyền high school, the instruments of data collection and the research procedure The purpose of using two different research instruments namely, survey questionnaire and interview is to achieve more reliable and valid data In the next chapter, the author will present the data analysis and discussions of findings obtained from the data

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Data analysis

All collected data were read through to obtain a sense of the overall information The interview transcriptions were jotted down; the results were then shown in tables, figures and charts The following part will deal with the data analysis and findings on the obtained results

3.1.1 Data analysis from students’ questionnaire

3.1.1.1 Students’ attitudes towards writing skill

Do you like English w riting at school?

Figure 1: Students’ attitudes towards writing skill

Looking at Figure 1, one can easily see the students‟ attitudes towards writing skill The number of students who did not like writing took up to 39%, the students who liked writing just a little was 41% , the students who liked writing a lot was 20% , no one liked writing a whole lot It is a fact that many students are afraid of the writing lesson In general, most of the students had negative attitudes towards writing skill Here are what

they said: “I haven’t got any ideas in mind when being requested to write about a topic in class”; “I don’t understand why I can write only a few lines in writing lessons though my grammar and my vocabulary are good, I have no ideas or motivation to write”; “I only write when the teacher said she or he would collect our writings to give mark, if there is no teacher’s grading or assessment, I will do nothing” Some students admitted that “Even when the teacher said he would give mark for our writings, I still didn’t want to write at all, some times I had nothing to write and I accepted to be given bad mark for the writing”; “I