AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE 12th FORM STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS THROUGH SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIESFACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---TRẦN THỊ CẨM VÂN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE 12t

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-TRẦN THỊ CẨM VÂN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE

12th FORM STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS THROUGH SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS AT

LÝ THƯỜNG KIỆT HIGH SCHOOL, HÀ NAM

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC CẢI THIỆN KỸ NĂNG VIẾT THÔNG QUA CÁC TÀI LIỆU ĐỌC BỔ TRỢ CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 12 TRƯỜNG

THPT LÝ THƯỜNG KIỆT, HÀ NAM)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-TRẦN THỊ CẨM VÂN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE 12th FORM STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS THROUGH

SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS AT

LÝ THƯỜNG KIỆT HIGH SCHOOL, HÀ NAM

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC CẢI THIỆN KỸ NĂNG VIẾT THÔNG QUA CÁC TÀI LIỆU ĐỌC BỔ TRỢ CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 12 TRƯỜNG

THPT LÝ THƯỜNG KIỆT, HÀ NAM)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr Phạm Đăng Bình

Hanoi, 2015

Hanoi, April, 2015

Trần Thị Cẩm Vân

First, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Dr.Phạm Đăng Bình for his generous assistance and guidance, especially for hissympathy throughout the research process

My special thanks go to all the teachers in the faculty of Post GraduateStudies, University of Languages and International Studies for their usefullectures, materials, guidance and enthusiasm during my course

I also highly appreciate the cooperation of my colleagues and Class12A1 and Class 12D1 students at Lý Thường Kiệt High School in Ha Nam

Last, I would like to express my gratitude to my family and my friends,who have always encouraged me and supported me to fulfill this study

The study revolves an experimental research with the participation of 5teachers and 90 students of 12th form at Lý Thường Kiệt High School, HaNam province To collect data for this study, two pre-task questionnaires, twopost-task questionnaires, a pre-test and a post-test were employed Afterexamining the responses from the pre-task questionnaires, the author designedand integrated a set of nine supplementary reading texts and respectivereading and writing exercises into writing lessons of 45 experimental students

in 9 weeks of the first semester of the school year 2014-2015 During thesame time, 45 students of the control group only received writing exercises.The results from the post-task questionnaires, the pre-test and post-testshowed that there had been a significant improvement in the students’ writingskill in terms of vocabulary, ideas and organization after they took part in thesupplementary reading integration programme in comparison with thestudents of control group Moreover, most of students of the experimentalgroup acknowledged the benefits of the supplementary reading integrationprogramme and expected that such programme would be applied in the future

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Students' Writing Proficiency 22

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Class 12A1 and Class 12D1 Pre-test Score 25

Figure 2: Class 12A1 and Class 12D1 Post-test Score 26

Figure 3: Opinions on role of writings skill in learning English 27

Figure 4: Opinions on time spent for writing skill at school 28

Figure 5: Students' Writing Practice Frequency 28

Figure 6: Difficulties that students encounter when writing 29

Figure 7: Methods Teachers use to instruct students to develop their writing skill 29

Figure 8: Opinion on effect of the supplementary reading integration programme 30

Figure 9: Benefits that students could gain from the supplementary reading integration programme 31

Figure 10: Continue designing supplementary reading materials to develop students' writing skill or not 32

Figure 11: Tasks students should do 32

Figure 12: Tasks teachers should do 33

TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of Abbreviations iv

List of Tables iv

List of Figures TABLE OF CONTENTS

iv v PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Statement of the Problem 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Research questions 1

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Significance of the study 3

6 Method of the study 3

7 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Definitions of Writing 4

1.1.1 What is Writing? 4

1.1.2 Rationale behind teaching Writing 5

1.1.3 Approaches to Writing Instruction 6

1.1.3.1 Text-Centred Approach 6

1.1.3.2 Writer-Centred Approach 8

1.1.3.3 Reader-Centred Approach 9

1.2 Definitions of Supplementary Reading Materials 9

1.2.1 What is Supplementary Reading Materials? 9

1.2.2 Suitable Supplementary Reading Materials for EFL Teaching and Learning Process 11

1.2.3 The Influence of Reading on Writing 12

1.2.4 Researches on Adopting Reading Materials to Enhance Writing 13

1.3 Conclusion 14

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16

2.1 Investigation Context 16

2.2 Participants 16

2.3 Data Collection Instruments 17

2.3.1 Questionnaires 17

2.3.1.1.Student Questionnaires 17

2.3.1.2.Teacher Questionnaires 17

2.3.2 Pre-Test and Post-Tests 18

2.4 Scoring Rubric for Writing ……… 18

2.5 Experimental Intervention: Supplementary Reading Material

Integration

21 2.5.1 The Supplementary Reading Materials 21

2.5.2 Supplementary Reading Material Integration Procedure 21

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 22

3.1 Analysing Writing Test Results 22

3.1.1 Analysis of Writing Proficiency 22

3.1.1.1 Analysis of Word Choice 22

3.1.1.2 Analysis of Convention 23

3.1.1.3 Analysis of Coherence 23

3.1.1.4 Analysis of Ideas 23

3.1.1.5 Analysis of Organization 24

3.1.1.6 Analysis of Writing Test Scores 25

3.2 Evaluating Responses from Questionnaires 27

3.2.1 Evaluation of Responses from Pre-task Questionnaires 27

3.2.2 Evaluation of Responses from Post-task Questionnaires 30

3.3 Summary 35

PART C: CONCLUSION 34

1 Conclusion on Major Findings 35

2 Pedagogical Implications 36

3 Limitations of the Study 36

4 Suggestions for Further Studies 37

REFERENCES 38 APPENDICES I

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Although writing is an important skill in teaching and learning English,

it seems to be undervalued inside the classroom The neglect of this skillcauses the 12th graders at Ly Thuong Kiet (LTK) high school to be weak andpoor writers though writing is a compulsory part in the national GCSEexamination It is noticed that English teachers in LTK high school often use

a methodology based on teacher-talk and note-taking practices, mainlyexplaining some new words and structures before asking students to write.Therefore, the 12th students could not express well in English due to the lack

of format instruction, useful language, topic background, idea organization,etc

Among many methods of improving students’ writing skill, integratingtwo language skills, reading and writing has been proved to have positiveeffects on students’ writing skills in many researches Brown (1987) statedthat “by reading and studying a variety of relevant types of text, students cangain important insights both about how they should write and about subjectmatter that may become the topic of their writing” Reading inspires students,helps them to think critically and analytically Reading also provides studentswith ideas for their essays because they often lack the experience for complexsubjects Moreover, reading supplies grammar, syntax, language ororganization for students as a model Despite many advantages, this methodhasn’t been deployed in the context of high school in Vietnam

All these mentioned reasons above have inspired the researcher to carry

out the study titled “An investigation into the improvements of the 12 th form students’ writing skills through supplementary reading materials at Lý

Thường Kiệt High School, Hà Nam” as an attempt to help improve writing

skills of students

2 Aims of the Study

This study aims to evaluate the effects of integrating supplementaryreading materials in writing lessons of the 12th form students at LTK highschool Therefore, the researcher’s first objectives are to find out thedifficulties the students are facing, and how much the new method helpsimprove their writing A number of lessons which are planned based on thismethod will be applied in classroom for a period of time to answer thatquestion In addition, some practical suggestions and strategies will berecommended to teachers at LTK high school with a view of making full use

of reading supplementary materials in writing lessons

3 Research Questions

In short, the study is designed to answer the following questions:

1 What possible problems are the 12th form students at Ly Thuong KietHigh School faced with in writing?

2 To some extent can the application of reading supplementarymaterials have effects on students’ writing proficiency?

3 What are the possible suggestions to enhance students’ writing skills

at Ly Thuong Kiet high school?

4 Scope of the study

Due to the time constraints and content of a minor thesis, the researchattempts to investigate the effects of supplementary reading materials onwriting proficiency of two 12th form classes at LTK high school in 9 weeks.The researcher will employ 90 students and 5 teachers of English forcollecting data

5 Significance of the study

This study could be some help to teachers and students at LTK highschool For teachers, they can improve their understanding of the relationshipbetween reading and writing From this, they can find more suitable andeffective teaching methods to help students better their writing For students,they can get access to a new teaching method which encourages theirinvolvement and participation in writing process

6 Method of the study

This study is an experimental research conducted by using quantitativemethods Two classes are randomly selected as control group andexperimental group Questionnaires are also employed for both students andteachers to elicit the information on students’ perceptions and attitudes towardwriting lessons, difficulties encountered in writing and suggestions toimprove the teaching and learning writing skills

7 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts:

- The Introduction: presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the

significance, the methods and the design of the study

- The Development: consists three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature Review

Chapter 2: The Methodology

Chapter 3: Results and Discussions

- The Conclusion: summarises the major findings, pedagogical

implications, limitations of the study and recommendations for further

research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of Writing

1.1.1 What is Writing?

In various studies, the nature of writing has been defined as a cognitiveprocess: Nunan (1999:273) asserted that "Writing is a complex, cognitiveprocess that requires sustained intellectual effort over a considerable period oftime." In line with Nunan, Kate and Guy (2003:1480) stated that “writing is aprocess of exploring one’s thoughts and learning from the act of writing itselffrom what thoughts are” These interpretations confirmed the definition ofwriting as a complex process of exploring one’s thought, discovering ideasand generating meaning (Flower and Hayes, 1980)

However, for pedagogical purpose in English as a foreign language(EFL) class, writing is considered as “a language skill which is difficult toacquire” (Tribble, 1996:3) O'Maggio (1986) contended that writing in asecond language is not simply a matter of how to write new things down in anew code Similarly, Silva (1993) insisted that "Writing is considered

a productive skill because the writer creates new language and does not onlyinterpret existing information."

When engaged in writing activities, learners are expected todemonstrate: “a high degree of organization in the development ofinformation, ideas, arguments, a high degree of accuracy so that there is noambiguity of meaning; the use of complex grammatical patterns and sentencestructures to create a style which is appropriate to the subject matter andeventual readers”.(Hedge, 2005:7)

In short, Mochamad Lainuddin (2009) analysed that writing skill “is theability to use the structures, lexical items, and their conventionalrepresentation in ordinary matter of fact of writing.”

To clarify skills needed in writing, Heaton (1975:138) suggested four

factors: (1) Grammatical skill: The ability to write correct sentences (2)

Stylistic skill: The ability to manipulate sentence and use language effectively (3) Mechanical skill: The ability to use correctly those conversations peculiar

to the written language e.g punctuation and spelling (4) Judgment skill: The

ability to write in an appropriate manner for a particular purpose with anability to select, organize and relevant information

In conclusion, to teachers and learners in language classes, the mostappropriate concept of writing is that writing is regarded as a productive skillwhich is difficult to acquire but fundamental in English learning process

1.1.2 Rationale behind Teaching Writing

Raimes (1983:3) listed three main reasons for teaching writing inlanguage class as followed:

"Writing helps our students learn How? First, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary that we have been teaching our students Second, when our students write, they also have

a chance to be adventurous with the language, to go beyond what they have just learned to say, to take risks Third, when they write, they necessarily become very involved with the new language; the effort to express ideas and the constant use of eye, hand and brain is a unique way to reinforce learning."

Tribble (1996:11) emphasised that writing “normally requires someform of instruction” and that “it is not a skill that is readily picked up byexposure” Harmer (2004) had the same point of view as Tribble and addedthat: “being able to write is a vital skill for 'speakers' of a foreign language as

much as for everyone using their own first language Training students towrite thus demands the care and attention of language teachers” (Harmer2004: 3-4).

In summary, the reasons for teaching writing skill in language classes isthe essential role of writing in the process of learning English as a foreignlanguage Writing helps to enhance vocabulary and grammar while it enablesthe students to create their own products and practice using language.Teachers should play the role of helping students to master writing skill andstudents should appreciate the importance of writing in learning English

1.1.3 Approaches to Teaching Writing

Methods of teaching writing usually concentrate on some particularaspects of the writing contexts Hyland (2002) classified three mainapproaches to the task of teaching writing, including: approaches focusing ontexts; those focusing on the processes and those focusing on the readers Inother words, they are known as Text-Centred Approach, Writer-CentredApproach and Reader-Centred Approach respectively

1.1.3.1 Text-Centred Approach

Text-centred approaches consider writing as a product, viewing writing

as the words on a page or screen, and seeing texts either as objects or as

discourse.

Texts as Objects

First of all, seeing texts as objects means understanding writing as theapplication of rules This view sees texts as arrangements of words, clauses,and sentences, and those who use it in the classroom believe that students can

be taught to express exactly what they mean by learning how to put thesefactors together effectively In the writing classroom, teachers emphasiselanguage structures, in these four stages (Hyland, 2003):

• Familiarisation: learners study a text to understand its grammar and

vocabulary

• Controlled writing: then they manipulate fixed patterns, often from

substitution tables

• Guided writing: then they imitate model texts – usually filling in

gaps, completing texts, creating topic sentences, or writing paralleltexts

• Free writing: learners use the patterns they have developed to write

an essay, letter, etc

Texts as Discourse

The second perspective sees texts as discourse – the way we uselanguage to communicate, to achieve purposes in particular situations Thisapproach has been criticised for stifling creativity by imposing models onstudents but it is also praised as learners' understanding of both the rhetoricalstructure and the linguistic features was increased by the genre-basedinstructions (Henry & Roseberry, 1998, pp 154-155)

Here the writer is seen as having certain goals and intentions and theways we write are resources to accomplish these Teachers working withwriting in this way seek to identify the how texts actually work ascommunication, regarding forms of language as located in social action.Genre theories suggest that a teacher who understands how texts are typicallystructured, understood, and used is in a better position to intervenesuccessfully in the writing development of his or her students

1.1.3.2 Writer-Centred Approach

The second broad approach focuses on the writer, rather than the text.There are two broad classroom approaches here as well: Creative Expressionand Writing Process

Creative Expression Approach

This approach leans heavily on an asocial view of the writer and on anideology of individualism which may disadvantage second language studentsfrom cultures that place a different value on ‘self expression’ In addition, it

is difficult to extract from the approach any clear principles from which toteach and evaluate ‘good writing’ It simply assumes that all writers have asimilar innate creative potential and can learn to express themselves throughwriting if their originality and spontaneity are allowed to flourish Writing isseen as springing from self-discovery guided by writing on topics of potentialinterest to writers and, as a result, the approach is likely to be most successful

in the hands of teachers who themselves write creatively

Writing Process Approach

Writing is seen as a process through which writers discover andreformulate their ideas as they attempt to create meaning It is more of aproblem solving activity than an act of communication - how people approach

a writing task as the solution to a series of problems

Researches on process approach tells us that writing is aboutdiscovering and formulating ideas as we create personal meanings Thisapproach pursues the goals that:

• writers have extensive goals and plans

• writing is constantly revised, often even before any text has beenproduced

• planning, drafting, revising, and editing are recursive and potentiallysimultaneous.

• plans and texts are constantly evaluated by the writer in a feedbackloop

Teachers may need to help learners acquire the appropriate cognitiveschema or knowledge of topics and vocabulary they will need to create aneffective text Schema development exercises usually include reading forideas in parallel texts, reacting to photographs, and various brainstormingtasks to generate ideas for writing and organising texts

1.1.3.3 Reader-Centred Approach

A reader-centred view of writing emphasizes the interaction betweenwriters and readers: The process of writing involves creating a text that thewriter assumes the reader will recognise and expect And the process ofreading involves drawing on assumptions about what the writer is trying to

do Hoey (2001) says this is like dancers following each other’s steps, eachbuilding sense from a text by anticipating what the other is likely to do This

is one of the reasons why writing in English so difficult for speakers of otherlanguages because what is seen as logical, engaging, relevant or well-organised in writing, and what counts as evidence, irony, conciseness andcoherence, are likely to differ across cultures

1.2 Definition of Supplementary Reading Materials

1.2.1 What is Supplementary Reading Materials?

According to McGrath (2013:2), materials include textbooks,commercial materials that are not provided as part of the textbook package,teacher-prepared materials In the context of this investigation, materials will

be referred as materials that can be either designed and exploited for

particular language learning purposes and as authentic or real-life materialsthat can be used in teaching and learning process.

In the teaching and learning process, besides mainstream materials (in

Vietnam, usually prescribed by Minister of Education and Training), there are

supplementary materials Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary 7th Editiondefines "supplementary" as "provided in addition to something else in order toimprove or complete it"

According to McGrath (2002:80), supplementary materials refer tomaterials taken from another source or any other material that is designed forlearning purpose in an attempt to provide additional materials in order tosupplement the textbooks For the purpose of this investigation,supplementary reading materials will be regarded as extra texts, worksheets,books etc from any reading materials other than textbooks that teachers canuse for pedagogical purposes in addition to the official textbooks of the sametheme or skill set to complement the textbooks

While textbooks are written to support a specific course and relatedirectly to the syllabus of that course, reference and general books supplementcourse textbooks by offering alternative approaches, provide additionalinformation and knowledge of subjects not directly covered by the schoolcurriculum (Rosenburg 1998) Indeed, encouraging and respecting readingchoices are important steps towards helping children, young people and adultsdevelop a sense of ownership and self-determination (Sanacore, 1999)

On discussing the role of supplementary reading materials, Rosenburg(1998) argued that:

“The importance to the educational process of access to a wide variety

of reading materials is widely recognized Without it, what is taught in

the classroom is not reinforced and the quality and permanence of the benefits of education are endangered Such access:

• develops the ability to read and extends the vocabulary;

• develops a teaching force which is capable of moving beyond the confines of set books and textbooks;

• supplements and enriches work done by pupils in the classroom;

• encourages independent access to information and arouses the interest of pupils in matters outside the curriculum;

• provides training in the use and retrieval of information, a skill which is essential for higher education and lifelong learning."

1.2.2 Suitable Supplementary Reading Materials for EFL Teaching and Learning Process

Hetherington (1985) concluded that the following set of questions canserve as guidelines when assessing the suitability of reading materials forparticular learners:

1 Will this text interest students?

2 Is there a meaningful purpose for reading this text?

3 Do students have or can teachers provide them with appropriate background knowledge for understanding the content?

4 Is the level of abstractness appropriate?

5 Is the passage complete in itself or has author assumed a lot of other information and inference skills?

6 What kind of extra-textual support is available?

7 Is the text clearly organized with a beginning or introduction and clear sequence signals?

8 Is there sufficient redundancy of ideas?

9 Will the number of difficult vocabulary items interfere with the task which has been set?

10 Does the author use a lot of structures which are vague or which are difficulty to process, given the students' experience with English?

11 Are syntactic relationships within sentences and between sentences clear?

12 Have teachers set an appropriate task for the type of text, the level of difficulty and the need of their students, and have teachers taught them the necessary skills to cope with the task?

Although Hetherington solely offered recommendations on evaluatingreading materials for ESL students, the researcher upholds the opinion thatthis method of assessment can be correspondingly applied to evaluation ofsupplementary reading materials for EFL students as well

1.2.3 The Influence of Reading on Writing

Researchers and practitioners in the field of ESL/EFL teaching andlearning have lately acknowledged the important role of reading in promotinglanguage skills including writing skills Krashen (1989:109) claimed that

“Reading exposure is the primary means of developing language skills."

Then, Carson and Leki (1993:1) affirmatively contended that “reading can be,and in academic settings nearly always is, the basis for writing”

On discussing the relationship between reading and writing, Kennedy

& Bolitho (1985:85) and Brown (1987:331) held the same view that can besummarized as followed: Through reading, students have the opportunity ofbeing exposed to well-organized and well-written pieces of writing whichhelp them to improve their language abilities and to build writing schemata.Through writing they acquire the habit of expressing our ideas in a clear,correct and coherent way, fulfilling a double purpose: to be a medium ofcommunication with others and a means of personal intellectual growth

Later researchers have acknowledged that reading has actually becomethe basis of writing because the information acquired through reading

contains print-encoded messages as well as clues about how the the messagesare composed grammatically, lexically, semantically, pragmatically andrhetorically to make the message meaningful Namely, Hirvela (2004:115)contended that reading and writing abilities share various constructs such asrhetorical structure, linguistic features of writing, and examining lexical aswell as stylistic characteristics of writing In more details, Hirvela (2004)argued that reading supports writing through “meaningful input” In thisregard, meaningful input constitutes not only facts, but specific componentsthat build up the writing ability and metacognitive skills associated with it,such as thinking through and seeking to resolve the problems embedded in thewriting process.

1.2.4 Studies on Adopting Reading Materials to Enhance Writing Skills

Pilar Durán Escribano (1999) at Universidad Politécnica de Madridcontended that "Text analysis is an important means for building schemafor writing." Therefore, students are expected to examine the content,structure, development and graphic appearance of diverse types ofwritten texts

In 2011, Yutthasak Chuenchaichon investigated the development ofparagraph-writing skills in EFL writers through the use of a reading-into-writing method The results suggested that the reading-into-writing methodhad a positive impact on the paragraph-level writing development of lower-intermediate EFL undergraduates

While researching the effects of lexical input in second languagewriting at Chinese University of Hong Kong, Huang Zeping (2012) alsoconcluded that "corpora can be a useful resource for writing teachers to

help students improve their lexico-grammatical use of vocabulary in

their writing".

In the context of Vietnamese education and training system, there hasbeen a recent study on the effects of applying reading materials on writingskill enhancement named "Teaching Writing through Reading Integration" byLuu Trong Tuan in 2012 His study focused on the possible problems facingstudents at Ho Chi Minh City University of Finance-Marketing in writingessays and effects of read-like-a-writer approach on the students’ writingcompetence The results of this study showed that "the read-like-a-writerapproach does not benefit students of higher level as much as it does withstudents of lower level."

Not only in Viet Nam but also in other countries, there have been fewstudies on the effects of promoting writing skills of high school studentsthrough supplementary reading materials Therefore, the researcher decided toconduct an investigation into the impact of applying supplementary readingmaterials to improve writing skill among high school students

1.3 Conclusion

This chapter has firstly examined the definition of writing, rationalebehind teaching writing and approaches to teaching writing Then, itillustrates the definition of supplementary reading materials, the method ofassessing suitable supplementary reading materials in foreign languageteaching and learning, the relationship between reading and writing Studies

on adopting reading materials to enhance writing skill are presented atlast

After having investigated the above theoretical issues, theresearcher comes to conclusion that writing is a fundamental languageskill However, teaching and learning writing are difficult and often

neglected Applying supplementary reading materials to improve writingskills in a foreign language class is a promising method of teaching Interms of classification, this method is an implementation of text-centredapproach in teaching writing In spite of its proved positive effects, thisapproach still draws little attention in our English teaching and learningprocess Thus, the impact of applying supplementary reading materials toimprove writing skill among high school students will be investigated in thenext chapters

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Investigation Context

The investigation was conducted at Lý Thường Kiệt High School,which is located in the centre of Kim Bảng District, Ha Nam Province Theschool, founded in 2010, presently has 1216 students, divided in 27 classes ofthree grades, and a staff of 56 teachers

English is a compulsory subject for the whole three grades All studentsare EFL learners The task of teaching English is assigned to 6 teachers All

of the teachers of English graduated from the University of Languages andInternational Studies, Vietnam National University, Ha Noi In terms ofstudents, they get 03 periods per week and their learning materials are themainstream textbooks prescribed by MOET

The author is working as a full-time English teacher at this school.However, the author did not play the role of a participant teacher in thisinvestigation

2.2 Participants

Student sample

Both of the randomly selected classes of 12th form named 12A1 and12D1 consist of 45 students at the age of 17 The overwhelming gender of thechosen students (60%) was female Neither of these two classes is major inEnglish All of the students have learned English since they were in juniorsecondary school or earlier Students of both classes were taught basicknowledge of writing in the academic year of 10th form

Class 12A1 was arbitrarily chosen as experimental group and Class12D1 was selected as control group These two classes were taught by oneteacher in charge

Teacher sample

All of the five English teachers are female with the average age of 32

In respect to teaching experience, 60% out of them had more than 9 years asEnglish teachers They have certain knowledge and considerable experience

in teaching English as a foreign language, which is precious in conductingthis investigation

2.3 Data Collection Instruments

intervention (Enclosed student pre-task questionnaire is presented at

Appendix 1)

● Post-task questionnaire

The post-task questionnaires were composed to elicit the attitude ofstudents to integrating supplementary reading materials into writinginstruction and suggestions to improve the process of teaching and learningwriting These questionnaires were distributed to the experimental group after

the experimental stage (Enclosed student post-task questionnaire is

presented at Appendix 3)

2.3.1.2 Teacher questionnaires

● Pre-task questionnaire

The pre-task questionnaires were employed to get the teachers’perception of the importance of writing skills and their strategies of writinginstruction These questionnaires were given to 5 teachers before the

intervention was implemented (Enclosed teacher pre-task questionnaire is

presented at Appendix 5)

● Post-task questionnaire

The post-task questionnaires were contrived to find out students’problems in writing in the viewpoint of the instructors, their opinions of theimpact of supplementary reading materials during teaching writing as well astheir suggestions to have a successful writing lesson These questionnaireswere delivered to 5 teachers after 9 weeks of applying supplementary

materials for the experimental group (Enclosed teacher post-task

questionnaire is presented at Appendix 7)

2.3.2 Pre-test and Post-tests

Pretest

The students of two groups were asked to write on the same topic in 45minutes in the class The purpose was that the result of the pretest might showwhether the two groups’ English level was the same or not If the level of thestudents is a great variance, it would cause the difficulty in performing theexperiment and in the interpretation of the result

Post-test

The students of these two groups were asked to write on a specific topic

in the classroom after nine weeks for the purpose of observing whether theapplication of this approach could help to improve English writingperformance and to what extent the use of this application was helpful in theirwriting

2.4 Scoring Rubric for Writing

The students’ writing pieces were marked based on Hacourtassessment rubric There would be 6 elements from this approach:conventions, organizations, ideas, voice, word choice and fluency.However, the voice was omitted in the researcher’s scoring rubric becauserecognizing the voice is extremely hard for foreign language learners as itreveals the authors’ personality Therefore, the study only takes intoconsideration five criteria:

Conventions There are few

or no errors in punctuation, capitalization, grammar &

spelling.

There are a few errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and

capitalization.

Errors in grammar, capitalization, punctuation &

spelling are more frequent.

There are many errors in grammar, spelling, capitalization, and

punctuation.

The errors in grammar, capitalization, spelling punctuation & interfere with understanding.

Organization An original

title is present.

The paper has

a clear beginning, middle &

ending Idea &

details are presented in logical order.

Transitions such as Finally or The next day are used to show the

relationships among ideas.

An appropriate title is present.

The ideas and details are mostly

presented in logical order.

The writer uses some transitions to show the relationships among ideas.

The paper seems

complete.

A title is present The paper is somewhat organized, but seems

unfinished.

Sometimes it

is not clear how the details used connect to the main idea or story Some of the details are not in the right spot.

There is little organization

to the paper A lot of the writing does not connect to the main idea

or story The ending is missing or does not connect to the story or main idea.

There is little

no organization

to the paper There is no beginning or end to the paper Ideas seem

scrambled, jumbled, and disconnected The paper is confusing The details do not fit with the main idea.

Ideas/Focus Paper is

focused, clear

& specific.

The writing is generally focused on the

The writing is somewhat focused on the

The writing is related to the topic, but does

The writing is not focused on the topic and

Writing is full

of details for support and shows what is important about the topic.

Keeps reader’s attention.

topic &

purpose.

Writing tells a story or makes

a point Details are present but not developed.

topic and purpose.

Details are general and not specific Topic may be too big

not have a clear focus Details are not clear.

Reader is uncertain of the focus.

purpose Reader will have difficulty identifying the main idea or purpose of the paper.

Word Choice The writer uses

precise, fresh, original words and phrases.

The writing is interesting to read.

The word choices are clear The writer uses some

interesting words and phrases.

The word choices get the message across, but don’t capture anyone’s attention.

The writer does not use words

or phrases that make the writing clear to the reader.

Writer uses word choices that are confusing, unclear, or inappropriate.

Sentence/

Fluency

The writer consistently uses a variety

of sentences.

The writing is natural and flows

smoothly.

Sentences begin with a variety of words.

The writer uses some variety in sentences.

Paper flows smoothly, but has some rough spots Not all sentences begin the same.

Writer uses simple

sentences.

Some sentences are choppy or awkward, but most are smooth and clear.

Sentences tend

to begin the same.

The writer doesn't use much variety in his or her sentences.

Little to no use

of linking words to connect

sentences The writer uses short, repetitive sentence patterns.

There is little or

no variety in sentences Some of the sentences are unclear Paper

is difficult to read Difficult time identifying where one sentence ends and the next begins.

According to the rubric, the maximum score that students could get is 25.However, to make it more suitable for students and easier for theresearcher, all the marks would be transferred under the scale of 10

2.5 Experimental Intervention: Integrating Supplementary Reading Materials

2.5.1 The Supplementary Reading Materials

With regard to recommendation of Hetherington (1985) on assessingthe supplementary reading materials for EFL students, the author chose to usenine reading texts and accompanied exercises, retrieved from websitehttp://www.tienganh123.com/tieng-anh-pho-thong-lop-12, which are in linewith the themes of the first nine units in the textbook called “Tiếng Anh 12

Cơ bản” by MOET All of supplementary reading texts were evaluated by theresearcher and five teachers involved in the investigation to be suitable for thestudents’ English proficiency

2.5.2 Integrating Supplementary Reading Materials Procedures

The supplementary reading integration programme was implementedwithin 18 optional periods during 09 weeks in the experimental group Eachweek a supplementary reading text accompanied with writing practiceexercises on respective topics was handed out and corrected at the otheroptional period of the same week

During those nine weeks, students of the control group only receivedthe same writing practice exercises without supplementary reading materials

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 3.1 Analysing Writing Test Results

3.1.1 Analysis of Writing Proficiency

Table 1 Students' Writing Proficiency

Criteria

Control Group 12D1 (45 students)

Experimental Group 12A1(45 students)

Pre-test Post-test Pre-test Post-test

Word Choice Translate word-by-word 5(11.1%) 5(11.1%) 8(17.7%) 6(13.3%)

Convention

Misspelling and

Coherence Unnatural linking 10(22.2%) 9(20%) 16(35.5%) 11(24.4%)

Ideas No logical ideas 6(13.3%) 4(8.8%) 8(17.7%) 4(8.8%)

Organization Cannot state the problem 7(15.5%) 6(13.3%) 12(26.6%) 7(15.5%)

3.1.1.1 Analysis of Word Choice

The ability of 12A1 students when choosing appropriate words for theirwriting in the pretest also indicates that they were not as good as those of12D1 17.7% (8 students) of 12A1 translate word-by-word from Vietnameseand they really did not care about which appropriate words could be used insuch situations While 12D1 also has the same phenomenon but with asmaller number, only 5 students (11.1%) chose to translate directly theirwriting from Vietnamese However, the supplementary reading integrationmight have taken effects In the post-test, the percentage of studentstranslating word-by-word in experimental group fell to 13.3% while that inclass 12D1 remained the same

Moreover, the number of student in class 12D1 who could usevocabulary efficiently rose sharply from 6 (13.3%) in the pre-test to 12(26.6%) in the post-test The upward trend was also recognized in class 12A1,

but the rate of increase is minor: from 13 students (28.8%) in the pre-test to

14 students (31.1%) in the post-test

3.1.1.2 Analysis of Convention

In experimental group, the numbers of the students who had errors ingrammar in the pretest rose from 15(33.3%) in the pre-test to 17(37.7%) inthe post-test At the same rate but in the opposite trend, that of class 12D1 fell

by 2.2% from 22.2% (10 students) in the pre-test to 20% (9 students) in thepost-test

However, in both classes, the number of the students who misspelledand had inappropriate punctuation increased slightly by 2.2% from 26.6% to28.8% and from 31.1% to 33.3% for class 12D1 and 12A1 respectively

3.1.1.3 Analysis of Coherence

Students of the two classes achieved progress at different rate inconjunction usage While the number of students in control group hadunnatural linking decreased by 2.2% from 10 (22.2%) to 9 (20%), that ofexperimental group fell rapidly from 16 (36.5%) to 11 (24.4%)

The percentage of 12D1 students who could use a wide variety ofconjunctions in their writing rose only from 24.4% (11 students) to 26.6% (12students) Similarly but much better, that percentage of 12A1 studentsincreases rapidly from 8.8 % (4 students) to 22.2% (10 students)

Some students of class 12A1 used common conjunction words forexample "and, but" in the pre-test Surprisingly, in the post-test, a widevariety of conjunctions were presented in their writing

3.1.1.4 Analysis of Ideas

In the pretest, there are 6 students (13.3%) could not have logical ideasfor their writing and 4 students (8.8%) had creative ideas in class 12D1 Andclass 12A1 has 8 students (17.7%) without logical ideas in their writing and

only 2 students (4.4%) had creative ideas in 12D1 It shows that 12D1studentsare also a little bit better than 12A1 students in identifying the ideas for theirwriting.

Nevertheless, 12A1 can create a dramatically change in the posttest:there are only 4 students (8.8%) that did not have logical ideas, which was atthe same proportion as the students of 12D1 Moreover, the numbers ofstudents in experimental group who had creative ideas in the post-test tripled

in comparison with in the pre-test

3.1.1.5 Analysis of Organization

In the pretest, Class 12D1 has 7 students (15.5%) who could notstate the problems and 8 students (17.7%) who had convincing performancefor the assigned requirement Meanwhile, 12 students (26.6%) of Class 12A1could not state the problems and only 5 students (11.1%) had convincingpresentation It seemed that 12D1 students were better than 12A1students inthe pretest

In the post test, whereas the number of students of 12D1 and 12A1 hadconvincing presentation risen by 3 students to 11 (24.4%) and 8 (17.7%)respectively, the percentage of students in class 12A1 who could not state theproblem declined by 11.1% from 26.6% (15 students) to 15.5 % (7 students)while this percentage in class 12D1 only fell by 2.2% (equal to 1 student)

It means that the students in 12A1 gained much more remarkableimprovements in organizing their writing than students of 12D1

3.1.1.6 Analysis of Writing Test Scores

Although all students of both classes scored at least point 4 in thepretest, the majority of class 12A1 (60%) scored from 4 to below 6, whereasthe majority of class 12D1 (51.11%) scored above 6

In particular, 33.33% of 12A1 students scored from 4 to below 5,whereas only 22.2% of 12D1 students did While the proportion of 12A1students who had results in the 5-to-below-6 range was the same that of 12D1students (26.67% respectively), more students of class 12D1 than those ofclass 12A1 scored from 6 to below 7 (28.89% and 24.44% respectively).Moreover, the gap between the two classes in terms of the percentage ofstudents who scored above 7 in the pre-test in both classes was remarkablywide (15.56% of Class 12A1 in comparison with 22.22% of Class 12D1)

In sum, the general results showed that 12A1 students on averagescored lower than those of class 12D1 in the pre-test This result is in linewith writing proficiency among the two classes in the pre-test, which wasanalysed above

However, the results of post-test reveal a considerable improvement inthe experimental class after nine weeks of the supplementary readingintegration programme

While the percentage of 12A1 students who scored below 5 fell sharplyfrom 33.33% in the pre-test to 13.33% in the post-test, this percentage of12D1 decreased at a slower rate (from 22.2% in the pre-test to 15.56% in thepost-test) With the same percentage (26.67%) of students who scored from 5

to below 6 in the pre-test, the two classes had contrary changes in this range

in the post-test The percentage of 12A1 students who scored from 5 to below

6 in the post-test rose to 31.11% and this percentage of 12D1 fell to 24.44%

The percentage of students in both classes who got into the

6-to-below-7 range rose slightly from 24.4% in the pre-test to 26.66-to-below-7% in the post-test forclass 12A1 and from 28.9% in the pre-test to 33.33% in the post-test for class12D1

Surprisingly, the percentage of 12A1 students who scored above 7almost doubled (from 15.56% in the pre-test to 28.89% in the post-test) whilethis percentage of 12D1 also increased but only by 4.45% from 22.22% in the

pre-test to 26.67% in the post-test, which implies that more students of class12A1 scored above 7 in the post-test than class 12D1.

It can be concluded that after nine weeks of continuous practice, bothclass gained improvement in developing writing skills The extent ofimprovement can be relatively measured through the post-test results Whilethe average score of Class 12D1 – the control group increased moderately,significant improvements can be observed in class 12A1 - the experimentalgroup The percentage of 12A1 students who scored below 5 fell dramaticallyand those whose scored above 7 in class 12A1 outnumbered in class 12D1.This overall result clearly proved the significant improvements gained fromthe supplementary reading integration programme

3.2 Evaluating Responses from Questionnaires

3.2.1 Evaluation of Responses from Pre-task Questionnaire

When asked about the role of writing task in learning English, 40% ofteachers regarded it as “very important”, 40% considered it as “ratherimportant” and only 20% supposed it “not very important” On the contrary,only 17.78% of students thought that wring skill was “very important”,26.67% considered it as “rather important”, 33.33% and 22.22% regarded it

as “not very important” and “not important at all” respectively On the whole,

most of teachers appreciated the role of writing skill, whereas studentsunderestimated this important skill.

The statistics of opinions on time spent for writing skill at school alsoillustrated the contrary views between students and teachers While 60% ofteachers thought there was not enough of time for writing and 40% leftsupposed time for writing was sufficient, only 20% and 31.11% of studentsregarded time for writing as “not enough” and “sufficient” respectively,48.89% left urged to reduce time for writing

As can be seen from the figure 5 that 68.89% of students surveyedwrote as required, 26.67% of them even never practiced writing, only 4.44%

of them deliberately practiced writing at least twice a week Generally, moststudents seldom practice writing without being required

Figure 6 illustrates the difficulties that the students faced with whenwriting: “identifying appropriate vocabulary related to the selected topic” isthe most popular difficulty as 86.67% of students encountered this problem.

To a lower extent, 73.3% found “brainstorming logical ideas for writing”difficult, 60% thought “using correct sentence structure” was difficult About

a half of students (51.11%) had difficulty in identifying appropriate type ofwriting Last and least, only 33.33% found “organizing sentences, paragraphs

Introduce type, format and requirement

Provide sample writings Provide reading materials

Guide to brainstorm ideas and build …

Correct mistakes Assign writing homework

Figure 7 Methods Teachers use to instruct students

to develop their writing skill

When asked about methods used to instruct students to develop theirwriting skill, teachers answered as followed: Only 01 out of 05 teachers(20%) only assigned topics and asked students to practice writing on theirown without instructions; 04 out of 05 teachers (80%) introduced types,formats and requirements of the writing; 60% of them guided students tobrainstorm ideas, build outline and corrected mistakes in students’ writings.Possibly, teachers did not fully understand students’ difficulties in writing.While 86.67% of students had difficulty in identifying appropriate vocabularyrelated to the selected topic, 40% of teachers instructed students to chooseappropriate words for the writing, provided sample writings, reading materialsand assigned writing homework

3.2.2 Evaluation of Responses from Post-task Questionnaires

Data collected from responses to the post-task questionnaires revealedthat 84.44% of students and 80% of teachers regarded the supplementaryreading texts in the programme as appropriate in terms of length, content,difficulty level and layout Remarkably, most of responses from students andteachers stated that texts illustrated with pictures were more attractive thanthose without pictures

After nine weeks of taking part in the supplementary reading integrationprogramme, 60% of teachers commented that the programme was veryeffective, 40% left regarded the programme as quite effective In terms of

students, 42.22% considered it as very effective, 46.67% found it quiteeffective, only 11.11% claimed that the programme had no positive effect.

When asked in details about benefits that students could gain from theprogramme, teachers and students shared the same point of view About 80%

of teachers and students supposed that it helped to identify appropriate type ofwriting and appropriate vocabulary related to the topic 60% of teachers andabout 65% of students affirmed that it improved the ability to brainstormlogical ideas for writing and organise sentences, paragraphs in writing.However, only 40% of students and teachers agreed that it helped students touse correct grammar