English writing skills and critical thinking skills of freshman college students in the university of transport technology system basis for functional writing activity

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the PhilippinesENGLISH WRITING SKILLS AND CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS OF FRESHMAN COLLEGE STUDENTS

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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines

ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS AND CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS OF FRESHMAN COLLEGE STUDENTS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF TRANSPORT TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM: BASIS FOR

FUNCTIONAL WRITING ACTIVITY

A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School Batangas State University Batangas City, Philippines

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Degree

Of Doctor of Philosophy Major in English

By:

NGUYEN THANH TU

April 2015

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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines

APPROVAL SHEET

This dissertation entitled “ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS AND CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS OF FRESHMAN COLLEGE STUDENTS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF TRANSPORT TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM: BASIS FOR FUNCTIONAL WRITING ACTIVITY” prepared and submitted by NGUYEN THANH TU in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of

Philosophy major in English has been examined and is recommended for Oral Examination

College of Arts and Sciences

PASSED

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ABSTRACT

of Freshman College Students in The University of Transport Technology System:

Basis for Functional Writing Activities

306 students and 20 teachers who were the respondents of the study The data gathering instruments used were the teacher-made test for student respondents and survey questionnaire for teacher respondents The statistical

tools used were the mean, percentage, percentile rank, ranking, standard

deviation, t- test

Results of the study showed that majority of the respondents are

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males which comprise 98 percent or 300 of the 306 total populations This indicates that in the universities that were studied, they were gender-based either, they were all male school and have only started to accept female

students In their parents’ educational attainment majority of the students’

parents have educational attainment in the “other” level or education higher than the tertiary with 48.7 percent

For place of origin, the students come from at least 13 different places in Vietnam with majority or 21.0 percent coming from “Others” or different places

in Vietnam, which indicates that the three University campuses under study cater to students coming from different places in Vietnam As to type of school, majority come from public high school which comprise 287 of 306 respondents

or 93.8 percent which indicates that the public high schools are the main institutions catering to the students because public high school is free and subsidized by the Vietnamese government

Further, the level of writing skills of student in terms of the discourse component is average as indicated in their average score of 9.5 correct items with a mean score equivalent of 67.8 percent which is above 50 percent This value has a percentile rank of 34.3 percent In terms of grammatical components, the level of students’ writing skills is average based on the

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average score of 6.6 correct items with an equivalent mean correct score of 66.3 percent

The students have average level of skill performance in mechanics; component skill of morphology as well as in syntax As regards teachers’ assessment of the critical thinking skills of students, findings of the study showed that the critical thinking skill that most respondents agree garnering a score of 19 or 95 percent belongs to the cognitive skills classification This is followed by four skills that rank 2 position and all belong to the affective skill classification The evaluation of critical thinking skills of students according to their frequency of use as perceived by teacher respondents indicated that the skills ranged in frequency from 2.20 to 3.95 with equivalent rating of “Rarely” to

“Often” respectively The same critical thinking skills were evaluated by the teacher respondents according to their degree of importance of which result ranged from 2.45 to 4.25 with equivalent ratings of “Less Important” to

“Moderately Important” respectively

In terms of relationship of the ratings on level of writing skill to the teachers’ assessment of critical thinking skills of students, findings of the study showed that majority of the p-values of the different mean combinations were greater than or equal to 0.05 with 104 combinations out of 165, indicating

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these means as not significantly related This implies that these mean combinations that is critical thinking item skill x writing test component skill are statistically independent of each other

In relation to the output of the study in the form of functional activities, it

is designed to improve the students’ critical thinking especially for this population of Vietnamese students The study recommended that English teachers must engage students to varied writing activities; that the writing activities developed may be reviewed by language teachers prior to its utilization; and further studies may be conducted on other components of language to determine students’ English proficiency

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ACKNOWLEGMENT

The researcher wishes to express her sincerest thanks and appreciations to those who, in one way or another, have helped her make this dissertation a reality The author is most grateful to:

Prof Dr Dang Kim Vui, President of Thai Nguyen University, Socialist Republic of Vietnam for his contribution and support to the Doctor of Philosophy major in English Program in collaboration with Batangas State University, Republic of the Philippines;

Dr Matilda H Dimaano, Dissertation Adviser, for her guidance, suggestions, critical comments and tenacious effort to see through the completion of this work;

The Panel of Examiners: Dr Myrna G Sulit, Dr Amada Banaag, Dr Ma Luisa Valdez, Dr Corazon B Cabrera, Dr Felix Panopio for their invaluable insights, candid remarks and recommendations to enhance this study;

Dr Do Ngoc Vien, Rector of University of Transport Technology for the approval of the request to conduct the study;

The Respondents of the Study, for their active involvement and cooperation in making this study possible;

Her Classmates and Colleagues, for their support friendship and

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inspiration; and

Finally, to her Parents, Husband, Beloved Children, Relatives, and Friends for their whole-hearted encouragement, financial, moral and spiritual support

Nguyen Thanh Tu

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DEDICATION

This dissertation is dedicated to my loving and ever supportive husband,

Mr Nguyen Van Khanh and my loving sons, Khanh Nam, Duc Minh, to my family, and to my dear University of Transport and Technology (UTT) community

Nguyen Thanh Tu

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE i

APPROVAL SHEET ii

ABSTRACT iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT vii

DEDICATION ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS x

LIST OF TABLES xiii

LIST OF FIGURES xv

CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM Introduction 1

Statement of the Problem 7

Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study 8

Significance of the Study 9

II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Conceptual Literature 11

Research Literature 42

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Synthesis 49

Theoretical Framework 52

Conceptual Framework 54

Hypothesis 57

Definition of Terms 57

III RESEARCH METHOD AND PROCEDURE Research Environment 60

Research Design 61

Subjects of the Study 61

Data Gathering Instrument 63

Data Gathering Procedure 64

Statistical Treatment of Data 66

IV PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA 67

V SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION Summary of Findings 125

Conclusions 132

Recommendation 133

BIBLIOGRAPHY 135

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APPENDICES

A Questionnaires 142

B Questionnaire on Teacher’s Assessment of the Critical Thinking Skills of Students 153

C Validation Letters 162

D Request Letters 165

E Documentation 168

F Psychrometric Table 175

CURRICULUM VITAE

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LIST OF TABLES

1 Distribution of Sample Respondents 62

2 Gender of Student Respondents 68

3 Parent's Educational Attainment 69

4 Place of Origin of Student Respondents 71

5 High School Attended by the Student Respondents 72

6 Performance in the Different Components of the Writing Skills Test 73

7 Student Cognitive Skills Assessed by Teacher Respondents 84

8 Students’ Affective Disposition Skills Assessed by Teacher Respondents 85

9 Students’ Cognitive Skills According to the Frequency of Use 86

10 Students’ Affective Skills According to the Frequency of Use 88

11 Students’ Cognitive Skills According to the Degree of Importance 89

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12 Students’ Cognitive Skills According to the Degree of

Importance 91

13 Levels of Writing Skill and Critical Thinking Skills of

Students (Shown as p-values) 93

14 Bases for Functional Writing Activity 97

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LIST OF FIGURES

1 Conceptual Paradigm of the English Writing

Skills and Critical Thinking Skills of Freshman College Students 56

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While it is true that the skill components of the English language include macro and micro skills, it becomes a challenge to the various investigators, evaluators, learners and teachers where the focus of the skills acquisition should be Other linguistic experts advocate that the focus should be in speaking or oral communication and this should be developed to an advance level like a functional speaking skill If this direction is pursued, it will carry with

it the necessary pedagogical components from the theory to practice, that would best and effectively achieve the objective of becoming a functional speaker

In the same way that others would focus on writing or written communication as a skill requiring advanced level of competency, there are

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bandwagon of concepts and pedagogical practices gearing towards the effective development of writing skills Surprisingly, in the literatures and in practice, these two linguistic skills are biasedly given the priority focus, seldom can be heard of for functional listening or functional reading as if these skills are not equally important Apparently these skills are considered to be assumed skills at the back of speaking and writing skills

Moreover, the business sector, the sector that creates the demand for the commercial value of human skills would put a high tag price for highly competent speakers and writers rather than the highly competent listeners and readers Thus, the speaking and writing skills especially in the English language are valuable items, hot assets that can make or break one’s career

Between speaking and writing however, linguistic experts would consider writing as the more advanced skill for a number of reasons Speaking

is a skill that is easily learned first and one need not be an expert in grammar

to be able to speak English fluently A fluent speaker like a TV host or news commentator may be very eloquent but could be in fact, a lousy writer A good writer however, implies an expertise and skill in speaking One cannot be a good writer and yet become a poor speaker as the tools in writing are at the writer’s disposal and conveniently captured in concept and use during a

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speaking activity Thus writing is the most advance form of skill in the English language

Writing as an act is encoding an idea, a thought, a reflection; a process

of putting one’s thought into words And this would require that the words are organized to convey the idea, the way the writer would want the reader to receive the message and experience the writer’s concept Thus, the demand for writing is more rigorous than speaking

In writing, one must have an extensive vocabulary at once disposal to be able to use the right words corresponding to the idea or message Thus, the writer, must have a full grasp of the common meaning and special meaning and use of those words The writer must also know how sentences are constructed in the English language so that these sentences become coherent and cohesive and to create linguistic impact along these sentences these should be grammar, syntax, morphology,

Writing can be easy if the topic is of the interest to the writer and the writer has a choice of what to write about The writing becomes more difficult when it becomes purposive and the sentence construction would demand complex sentences, and ideas have to be captured in a very precise and few words Thus, both simple and purposive writing demand a strong cognitive

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skill to the writer The cognitive skills entail an implicit ability to the writer to shift through facts that are relevant to the topic of concern and be able to weigh them accordingly if they have substance that are relevant and can be incorporated in the developing concept

In the present language curricula in the educational system, writing skills development has gradating degree where students at the elementary levels are required to write formal themes compositions with a freedom of topic choice at the beginning and later a specific chosen topic given by the teacher

as the basis Writing skills in the secondary level are developed through essays and reaction papers

In the tertiary level, it is a blend of the secondary level materials as well

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

Critical thinking on the other hand as stated by Michael Scriven and Richard Paul in the Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and

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skilfully conceptualizing, applying, analysing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness It entails the examination of those structures of elements of thought implicit in all reasoning: purpose, problem, or question-at-issue: assumptions; concepts; empirical grounding; reasoning leading to conclusions; implications and consequences; objections from alternative viewpoints; and frame of reference

In critical thinking, motivation plays an important role It is often manifested in the skilful manipulation of ideas in service of one’s own or one’s groups’ vested interest when grounded in selfish motives It becomes a higher order intellectually when grounded in fair-mindedness and intellectual integrity Critical thinkers live rationally, reasonably and analyse, assess, and improve thinking In developing the intellectual virtues of intellectual integrity, humility, civility, empathy, sense of justice and confidence in reason critical thinkers work diligently

As in the case of students, critical thinking skills can be manifested on

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different levels They need first to recall by retrieving information from long term memory like recognizing differences or understanding meaning Students may also engage in summarizing the differences for them to understand meaning They may also analyse concept into its logical parts They can also make comparison and contrast and analyze similarities and differences

Students then may engage in evaluation using set of criteria and may identify references and construct their own meaning Rational thinking and finding solutions are clearly the focus of critical thinking Students must focus

on the quality of their thinking and explore whether or not their thinking is good

to their lives They must also think about their choices, engage in fair-minded questions formulation, avoiding simplistic thoughts, and show relationship

As college teacher teaching Basic English, the researcher observed that students have difficulty in writing longer composition They tend to commit errors in the construction of sentences, failed to observed correct punctuations, and other aspects in mechanics of writing Their levels of critical thinking in terms of cognitive, affective, and their disposition are needed to determine as they also play significant role to their learning With these contentions, the researcher is prompted to conduct the study

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Statement of the Problem

This study aimed to assess the English writing skills and critical thinking skills of Freshman College students in the University of Transport Technology System in the three provinces of Vietnam to be utilized as basis for functional writing activity

Specifically, the study sought answers to the following questions:

1 What is the demographic profile of students in terms of

1.1 gender;

1.2 parent's educational attainment;

1.3 student's place of origin; and

1.4 type of high school attended?

2 What are the levels of writing skills of students relative to:

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3.2 affective disposition skills?

4 Are there significant relationships between the levels of students’ writing skills and critical thinking skills?

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

Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study

This study is focused on determining the level of students’ writing skills

in terms of discourse component, grammatical component, mechanics, morphology and syntax as well as the level of students’ critical thinking skills relative to cognitive skill and affective disposition skill Demographic profiles of students were also determined with reference to age, parents’ educational attainment, students’ place of origin, and type of high school attended

Respondents of the study include the 306 first year English language students from University of Transport Technology system and twenty English teachers.The students were made to answer to a validated teacher made questionnaire designed to assess their level of writing skills while the teachers were asked to answer a survey cognitive skill assessment questionnaire where they rated, based on their perception, the critical thinking skill level of their students These two questionnaires were the source of quantitative data

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that were analysed statistically

The study sites were Hanoi campus, Thai Nguyen campus, Vinh Yen campus of University of Transport Technology system in the three provinces of Vietnam in an urbanized area Demographic information was gathered from the students and teachers through the questionnaires but their names were not revealed

The respondents were those currently enrolled in an English course while the teacher respondents were the respective teachers of the evaluated students as they were the ones assessed their students’ cognitive skills The students’ respondents were limited only to those who were enrolled in their Basic English course and teachers who were teaching other English courses were excluded in the study

Significance of the Study

This study is important to different individuals, organizations and policy

makers

Students This will be significant to the students as they will have a

chance to participate in a writing skills assessment study The results of this work will benefit the students in general because a remedial strategy in this case a functional writing activity will be designed catering to their specific

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needs

English Teachers This will benefit the teachers not only because the

will be involved in the study but they will also gain insights from the results and will have a chance to utilize the developed remedial activities for their future

students

Administrators Results of the study will benefit them as they will be

guided by the findings on what decisions they will make regarding the adequacy of the students’ writing skills and implement remedial measures that

will improve students’ English writing skills of their schools

Parents Findings of the study give them information as to the level of

writing skills of their children and may find ways of helping them improve these

skills through active participation in the learning process

Policy-makers The policymakers will be benefited from the insight that

will be gathered in this study They will be able to formulate specific and relevant laws that could influence the current educational system as they will

have a concrete basis for doing so

Current and Future Researchers The study may encourage other

researchers to engage in similar studies which will provide various ideas and

practical recommendations

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter presents the relevant conceptual and research literature which have bearing to the present study The literatures included are found substantial to the study and gives the necessary background to understand the present research It also presents the theoretical and conceptual frameworks

of the study, synthesis, hypothesis, and definition of terms

Conceptual Literature

The following concepts which focused on English language skills, writing skills, critical thinking skills, functional English writing activities were reviewed

to substantiate the study

English Language Skills The ability to comprehend receptive

language and use expressive language to communicate is referred to as language skills An individual who possesses good spoken language skills is presumed to easily master reading and writing skills The concept of skill presupposes the possession of specific knowledge and characteristics as well

as the capability to utilize the knowledge with a certain level of proficiency In the context of the English language skills, there are macro and micro skills that comprise the entire language skill spectrum (www.englishclub.com/learn-english/language-skills.htm), thus proficiency in the English language requires

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a demonstrable proficiency in the macro and the micro skills as well and these can be probed with a variety of tools or test instruments

The four component skills of language also referred to as the macro skills have been recognized as an established concept by language educators, these being the cornerstones for language learning to achieve complete communication In learning the native language, these macro skills develops in

a sequential manner where learning begins with listening followed by speaking, then by reading, and finally writing Thus, the four language skills

(www.englishclub.com/learn-english/language-skills.htm)

It is understood that these four language skills are related to each other

in two ways: the direction of communication whether in or out and the method

of communication that is whether spoken or written In the communication paradigm, the input process is sometimes called reception and output process

is called production The term spoken is referred to as oral and the term written

is sometimes referred to as textual While these four language skills are called the macro-skills, the term micro-skills is used to refer to the linguistic components such as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling (www.english club.com/ learn-english/language-skills.htm)

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Considered receptive skill in the oral mode is listening or listening comprehension Ur (1998) indicates that listening involves hearing the sounds, recognizing words, understanding variety of accents, understanding intonation, coping with noise both external influence and indistinct pronunciation, recognizing sentences, predicting the meaning and understanding the whole course Listening pertains to listening and understanding what is heared and not mere hearing of sounds without understanding When the first language is learned, the process was spontaneous and all the skills and background knowledge needed to understand what is heard, was complex but outside of one’s awareness The process becomes clear when what is involved in learning to understand what is heard in a second language is examined

Listening situations can either be interactive or non-interactive In interactive listening situations, a face-to-face encounter occurs like conversations and telephone calls, in which parties are alternately listening and speaking, and in which they have a chance to ask for clarification, repetition, or slower speech from each other Non-interactive listening situations would include listening to the radio, TV, films, lectures, or sermons

In these situations the person usually don't have the opportunity to ask for clarification, slower speech or repetition Roost (1994) stated that in a foreign

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and second language classroom, listening assumes more weight because the learners were provided input Any learning cannot start without understanding

of the input at the right level thus listening is fundamental to speaking

According to Richards (1983) there are micro-skills involved in understanding what someone is saying in an interactive listening situation These micro-skills involve the following: retention of chunks of language in short-term memory; ability to discriminate among the distinctive sounds in the new language; ability to recognize stress and rhythm patterns, tone patterns, intonational contours; ability to recognize reduced forms of words; ability to distinguish word boundaries; ability to recognize typical word-order patterns; ability to recognize vocabulary; ability to detect key words, such as those identifying topics and ideas; ability to guess meaning from context; ability to recognize grammatical word classes; ability to recognize basic syntactic patterns; ability to recognize cohesive devices; ability to detect sentence constituents, such as subject, verb, object, prepositions, and the like

Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode Like the other skills, it

is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just

otherresources/) Harmer (2000) emphasized that speaking has many different

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aspects including two major categories such as accuracy which involves the correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation practice through controlled and guided activities; and fluency which is considered to be the ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously Gower (1995) on the other hand pointed out that one of the main concerns of language learners is how to improve their speaking proficiency in general as well as on the different component of speaking proficiency such as fluency, accuracy, accent, vocabulary, comprehension and communication in particular

There are three kinds of speaking situations identified These include: interactive, partially interactive, and non-interactive Interactive speaking situations include face-to-face conversations and telephone calls, in which one alternately listens and speaks, as well as having a chance to ask for clarification, repetition, or slower speech from the conversation partner Some speaking situations are partially interactive, such as when giving a speech to a live audience, where the convention is that the audience does not interrupt the speech The speaker nevertheless can see the audience and judge from the expressions on their faces and body language whether the speaker is being understood Some few speaking situations may be totally non-interactive, such

as when recording a speech for a radio broadcast

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The following are the micro-skills involved in speaking The speaker has

to pronounce the distinctive sounds of a language clearly enough so that people can distinguish them This includes making tonal distinctions, use of stress and rhythmic patterns, and intonation patterns of the language clearly enough so that people can understand what is being said using the correct forms of words This may mean changes in the tense, case, or gender; put words together in correct word order; use vocabulary appropriately; use the register or language variety that is appropriate to the situation and the relationship to the conversation partner, making clear to the listener the main sentence constituents; such as subject, verb, object, by whatever means the language uses; making the main ideas stand out from supporting ideas or information; making the discourse hang together so that people can follow what one is saying

Reading on the other hand, is the receptive skill in the written mode It can develop independently of listening and speaking skills, but often develops along with them, especially in societies with a highly-developed literary tradition According to Biber (1989) reading as a process by which information

is extracted from within or printed text is extremely complex and dependent to two critical aspects namely; the written format of the word and the reader’s

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ability to decode the phonetic relationships between the letters on the page and the sounds of the spoken language and a semantic/syntactic process that has to do with the meaning of the words which are being pronounced

Reading can help build vocabulary that helps listening comprehension at the later stages The micro-skills involved in reading includes the reader has to decipher the script like in an alphabetic system or a syllabary which means establishing a relationship between sounds and symbols Libretto (1985) noted that reading brings contact with culture as well as values and principles adhered by the community People’s ideas about relationship can be developed as well as their world of thoughts and emotions through reading

In a pictograph system, it means associating the meaning of the words with written symbols, recognizing vocabulary, picking out key words, such as those identifying topics and main ideas, figuring out the meaning of the words, including unfamiliar vocabulary, from the written context, recognizing grammatical word classes such as noun or adjective, detect sentence constituents, such as subject, verb, object, prepositions; recognizing basic syntactic patterns and reconstructing and inferring situations, goals and participants

Other reading micro skills use both knowledge of the world and lexical

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and grammatical cohesive devices to make the foregoing inferences, predict outcomes, and infer links and connections among the parts of the text including getting the main point or the most important information, distinguishing the main idea from supporting details, adjusting reading strategies to different reading purposes such as skimming for main ideas or studying in-depth

Writing is the productive skill in the written mode It is both physical and mental activity that is aimed to express and impress and is categorized as the physical activity because the writer is required to do the act of committing words or ideas (Johnstone et al., (2002) It is more complicated than it seems

at first, and often seems to be the hardest of the skills, even for native speakers of a language, since it involves not just a graphic representation of speech, but the development and presentation of thoughts in a structured way The following are some of the micro-skills involved in writing The writer needs

to use the orthography correctly, including the script, spelling, punctuation conventions and the use of the correct forms of words

This may mean using forms that express the right tense, or case or gender; putting words together in correct word order; using vocabulary correctly; using the style appropriate to the genre and audience; making the

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main sentence constituents, such as subject, verb, and object, clear to the reader; making the main ideas distinct from supporting ideas or information, making the text coherent so that other people can follow the development of the ideas, judging how much background knowledge the audience has on the subject and making clear what it is assumed they don't know

Spratt et al., (2005) identified several sub skills involved in writing These include spelling correctly, forming letters correctly, writing legibly, punctuating correctly, using correct lay outs, choosing the right vocabulary, using correct grammar as well as using correct paragraphs

The English Language Skills Assessment (ELSA) is a group of tests designed to assess the English language proficiency of testers ELSA is intended for non-native speakers, and consists of different tests for different levels from beginners to advanced (Schmitt, 2000).These tests have been used for tracking the progress of learners studying English or to determine the English language proficiency for employment or education where English language skills are requiredThese tests are targeted to international audience and are available in British English or American English

To cater to different age groups focused mainly on speakers belonging

to the level A1 or A2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for

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Languages, the Foundational English Language Skills Assessment (FELSA), was developed and characterized by slight conversational English language familiarity but are likely not able to succeed in school, business or travel in English Apart from these skills assessment, language skill standards have been established Different organizations and state institutions have established their own language skill standards to be used as guide for their first language educational programs such as the compact Language Skills: Self Assessment Grid developed by the Council of Europe (See Appendix 1)

In the US, the language council of Washington formulated the Map of Skills and Concepts which shows what students should know and be able to

do when they exit Washington’s K12 system and claims that it is the destination for their literacy learning (See Appendix 2) This state standard also called the Common Core State Standards provide all students with an integrated approach to literacy, as opposed to discrete separations among the skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening in the current standards

This model, while beneficial in providing the link between skills, the concepts and how the concepts are to be treated in the different grade levels (K1-12), is not as comprehensive as the one formulated by the California State Board of Education (CDE, 2002) or the one adopted by the Colorado State

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Board of Education which is based on the World-Class Instruction Design and Assessment standards (WIDA) (www.wida.us.)

The Colorado English Language Proficiency Standards (CELP Standards)/ (WIDA) is organized in five grade‐level clusters and covers each of the five English language proficiency standards encompassing four language domains such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing The CELP/WIDA has six English language acquisition proficiency levels namely entering, beginning, developing, expanding, bridging and reaching

Meanwhile, the proficiency levels identification includes looking at linguistic complexity, the amount and quality of speech or writing for a given situation; forms and conventions, the types and variety of grammatical structures, conventions, mechanics and fluency; and vocabulary usage; the specificity of words or phrases for a given context

The CELP Standards (WIDA) English language proficiency standards document includes some examples of formative and summative model

performance indicators (MPIs) The MPIs are assessable tasks which students can be expected to do as they approach the transition to the next

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level of English language proficiency In addition Model Performance Indicators can be developed to differentiate instruction for ELLs

Writing Skills Critical writing skills are defined by the following

characteristics which include using the writing process to practice the habits and processes of successful writers; writing in various modes or genres, including some that are primarily imaginative and some that are primarily informational; achieving clarity and coherence by communicating the central idea and related supporting, details with clear use of elaboration and organizational structures; writing purposefully and for specific audiences; writing in response to higher level questions about the content they encounter

in textbooks, articles and literature in every discipline; applying standard English conventions of spelling, grammar, and usage; and producing presentable handwritten and word processed documents

Writing skills are necessary and important especially in the area of literacy that supports comprehension, critical and creative thinking across content areas Students’ writers would require a structured and supportive

environment to be able to practice and develop the habits and processes of successful writers They have to develop in themselves writer’s habits and

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processes, apprenticing themselves to writers’ routines and rituals Teachers

of writing can provide assistance to this process through establishment of workshop-styled classroom where learning how to write would be modelled

and taught in the context of ongoing and purposeful student work (Harvey & Lamb, 2002)

In an organized writing classroom, students would be able to read and study a variety of genres, examine the work of published authors, and would

be guided on use of the elements of the various genres in their own writing Students will be encouraged to create authentic products that reflect academic rigor for authentic purposes

The writing instructional strategies could be multifarious and provide all support to a quality-writing program Several teachers demonstrate, guide and teach using these strategies in order to provide varying amounts of support based on the instructional purpose and student needs The writing instructional strategies are classified into five levels of support and instruction and moves from the highest level of support or modelled writing to the lowest level of

support or independent writing as students assume more and more of the responsibility for themselves (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996) as writers

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The students are accepted as apprentice writers where they begin to build the necessary knowledge, beliefs, skills and dispositions needed to write effectively in a variety of genres and modes Using this approach, they become socialized as writers and able to manage their own learning Modelled writing

is a high-level support instructional strategy that allows the students to hear the thinking that accompanies the process of writing, such as topic choice, planning the piece, looking for a better word, revising and editing

The act of writing is purposefully made visible for students to enable them to see how writers think about their writing The teacher’s role in this situation is to demonstrate the habits of a writer through modelling and thinks aloud Different topics will be included like content choices, voice, conventions, structures, and language features of written text The students’ role would be

to listen to the language used to describe the thinking processes involved in writing, observes and uses metacognitive strategies specific to the types of writing taught (Key Components of Writing Instruction – Minneapolis Elementary Literacy Framework)

The students are made to contribute ideas while the teacher acts as scribes in the shared writing instructional strategy The teachers demonstrate

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how expert writers write while the students observe during the writing session

A written text is created for the classroom that students normally could not write independently through the shared writing process One type of shared writing approach is the language experience approach (LEA) Finished text is used for additional shared and independent reading in this setting

Discussion around a shared topic or concept and eliciting information from students is part of teacher roles as well as discussing the topic or concepts, sharing ideas with partners and in large group; serving as a scribe to record the text for students; contributing ideas to construct the content of the text; and demonstrating how to read the text aloud with appropriate intonation Joining in the reading of the text after the teacher demonstrates and students rereading the text with partners or individually are considered student roles

As regards to interactive writing, it is an instructional strategy where the teacher and children share the pen to write and create text used to provide instruction and assistance to children as they engage in writing Stimulating activity or setting the purpose prior to engaging students in the process of interactive writing is spearheaded by the teacher

Sharing the pen with students while guiding and focusing their attention

on concepts of print and sounds in words; taking turns writing the text

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Số trang	194
Dung lượng	5,86 MB