A study on using games in writing lessons of grade 10th students at Yen Khe high school – Phu Tho province

This is the reason why I decided to choose the title for my thesis: “A study on using games in writing lessons of grade 10 th students at Yen Khe high school – Phu Tho province”.. This i

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In the early 1990s, due to the impact of English as a globe language, morepeople around the world than ever before are studying and learning English Itwas introduced in Vietnam as a compulsory subject at both lower and uppersecondary levels and as selective subject at primary level in Vietnamese generalcurriculum

However, of four language skills, writing is one of the most challengingones for learners It’s an extension of human language across time and space.Writing most likely began because of political expansion in ancient cultures,which needed reliable means for transmitting information, maintaining financialaccounts, keeping historical records Writing allows us to share ourcommunication not only with our contemporaries, but also with futuregeneration It permits people from the near and far distance past to speak to us

Although writing is an essential skill, many students at high school havetrouble with it They were not required to learn proper spelling or grammar.They believe that they can not achieve, they are even not aware of theimportance of writing skill in their learning They often get low marks whendoing the tests on writing skill and it affects their learning’s result In the fourskills in one unit, the researcher finds that writing skill is the most difficult andstudents always find it boring and difficult to learn and hard to write well aspecific topic or task The researcher finds out that most of the students havefaced many problems in learning writing They often feel tired and stressedduring the writing lesson

In addition, with the introduction of communicative language teaching,English language teaching and learning has become much more demanding forteachers and learners just like any other innovation poses challenges for itsusers Thus, games have become crucially important for English languagelearners and teachers not only because they provide enjoyment and relaxation,but also as they encourage students to use their language in a creative and

communicative manner Games encourage learners to direct their energytowards language learning by providing them with meaningful contexts.Besides, games provide language teachers with many advantages when they areused in classroom Because of this fact it is vitally important for teachers tocreate a positive learning environment, and to try to spark interest amongst theirstudents both in the foreign language and culture because that is important to asuccessful language learning process Games help achieve these goals as theyhelp satisfy the requirement of the national curriculum that language learningshould be enjoyable for students Because of these advantages, it is useful forteachers to apply games in teaching writing skill.

In language teaching, language games have proved themselves not merely

as “time filler activities” but as an important factor which can create morechances and interest to motivate students to write This is the reason why I

decided to choose the title for my thesis: “A study on using games in writing lessons of grade 10 th students at Yen Khe high school – Phu Tho province”.

2 Previous studies

2.1 In the world

There are several researches in using games to teach English language

Mania Moayad Mubaslat (2011) studied The Effect of Using Educational Games

on the Students’ Achievement in English Language for the Primary Stage She

attempts to determine the role of educational games on learning a foreignlanguage, and to compare games with more traditional practices as effectivelearning tools on the basic educational stage students at governmental schools inJordan, an experimental research is conducted using three groups out of six

randomly Ying-Jian Wang (2011) wrote Investigating the Impact of Using Games in Teaching Children English This study examines the overall effects of

using games on the improvement of young children‟s English proficiency inrelation to the following criteria: motivation; vocabulary acquisition; andanxiety due to peer pressure The overarching aim of the research is to

investigate the relationship between the usage of games and students‟ English

proficiency.

2.2 In Vietnam

In Vietnam, there are many studies on using games in teaching English orteaching other aspects of language like speaking, vocabulary or grammar

Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen and Khuat Thi Thu Nga (2003) studied

“Learning vocabulary through games” The study found that learning

vocabulary through games is one effectiveness and interesting way that can beapplied in any classrooms The results of this research suggest that games areused not only for mere fun, but more importantly, for the useful practice andreview of language lessons, thus leading toward the goal of improving learners’communicative competence

Luu Trong Tuan and Nguyen Minh Doan (2010) wrote Teaching English grammar through games This study focuses on a review and analysis of the

literature on teaching English grammar encompassing an overview of grammardefinitions and teaching grammar approaches, as well as definitions of games,classifications of games, the influence of using games on the language learners’performance Prior researches on teaching English grammar through games havebeen included as well

This is the first time “A study on using games in writing lessons of grade 10 th students at Yen Khe high school – Phu Tho province” was carried

out in Phu Tho province Different from other studies, it focuses on the using ofgames in writing lessons

3 Research purpose

The study aims at:

1 Investigating the current situation in using games in writing lessons of grade

10th students at Yen Khe high school by:

- Finding out the students’ attitudes towards using games in their writing class

- Finding out their understanding about the benefits and difficulties when usinggames in writing lessons

2 Suggesting some writing games to improve the writing skill of grade 10th

students at Yen Khe high school and carrying out the experiment to assess theireffectiveness and then drawing conclusions

3 Research questions

The research will find the answers for the following questions:

1 What is the current situation in using games in writing lessons at Yen Khehigh school?

2 What solutions can be recommended to use games more effectively in thewriting class and improve the writing skill of grade 10th students at Yen Khehigh school?

3 Are the suggested writing games effective?

- Qualitative method: An interview was carried out with English teachers

to get information about some benefits and difficulties she or he may meet inusing games in writing lesson

4.2 Research Procedure

The research has been done by the following steps:

• Firstly, identify the related documents to give background of writing,writing games and other related aspects

• Secondly, study about the current situation in using games in teachingand learning writing at Yen Khe high school

• Thirdly, from collected data analyze to get the final results

5 The significance of the research

The findings of study are believed to be useful to help teachers who teachforeign language, especially writing, improve the knowledge about games Inaddition, it helps them widen knowledge about some benefits and difficulties inusing games when teaching writing class

This research is carried out with the hope that it can suggest goodmethods on using games in writing lessons and also provide for pedagogicalstudents to improve their knowledge about using games in writing lessons ofgrade 10th students at Yen Khe high school

6 Scope of the research

The study cannot cover the all activities for high school students withinthe framework of a minor study Therefore it only puts emphasis on some gameswhich are instructed to use while doing writing tasks designed in the textbook

The subjects of the study are 40 students in class 10A4 of grade 10th

students at Yen Khe High School - Phu Tho province

7 Design of the research

The study consists of three main parts, references and appendices

Part 1: Introduction

This part introduces an overall view of the research

Part 2: Content

This part consists of 4 chapters:

Chapter 1: Theoretical background

In this part, the study presents definition of major terms used in this study,including overview of writing skill, teaching writing, overview of games…Chapter 2: Methodology

This chapter provides the detailed information about participants of thestudy and details the tools for data collection, data analysis and the procedure ofconducting

Chapter 3: Current situation of using games in writing lessons of grade 10th

students at Yen Khe high school

Chapter 3 focuses on investigating the current situation on using games inwriting lessons of grade 10th students at Yen Khe high school – Phu Thoprovince.

This chapter will consist of:

Findings: From the data analysis, the researcher finds out the currentsituation on using games in writing lessons of grade 10th students at Yen Khehigh school and notes some benefits and difficulties in using games whenteaching writing class

Chapter 4: Experiment and the results

In this chapter, the researcher will analyze the collected data from survey questionnaire and interview Then, the researcher recommends somesolutions to use games more effectively in the writing class and improve thewriting skill of grade 10th students at Yen Khe high school

post-Part 3: Conclusion

This part includes the summary of the major findings of the study, givesimplications of study for teachers of English, for students, for researcher, listslimitation of the study recommendations for further studies and presentsconclusion

References

Appendices

PART B: CONTENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In this chapter, the researcher reviews the background of the writing skilland games Those are important factors which help the researcher resolveproblem in this research

1.1 An overview of writing skill

1.1.1 Definition of writing skill

Writing is one of the important skills in teaching English It has alwaysoccupied place in most English language course Meyers (2005) says that

“Writing is a way to product language, which you do naturally when you speak Writing is communication with other in a verbal way Writing is also an action

a process of discovering and organizing your idea, putting them on paper and reshaping and revising them.”

According to Klein (1985), “Writing is the ability to put pen and paper to express ideas through symbols, this way, representations on the paper will have meaning and content that could be communicated to other people by the writer.”

He refers writing skills are specific abilities which help writers put theirthoughts into words in a meaningful form and to mentally interact with themessage He also states that writing is not just about conveying content but alsoabout the representation of self

Michael (1981) studied that “Writing could be a semantically visible and permanent representation of the auditory and transient phenomena of speech.

He stated that writing is a primary means of recording speech, even though it must be acknowledged as a secondary medium of communication.” According to

him, writing is about more than making our thoughts and idea visible andconcrete He said that writing is a form of thinking; it is thing king for particularaudience, and for particular occasion He considers that writing is also theimportant expression language activity

Pretty and Jensen (1980) have an opinion that writing is process ofexpression thought of thinking and feeling and of shaping experiences, and it is

an important medium for self expression, for communication, and forthe discovery of meaning.

From definitions above, it can be concluded that writing is a way toproduct language that comes from our thought By using writing, we can shareour idea, feeling or anything that exist in our mind It is written on paper or acomputer screen It is influenced both by personal attitudes and socialexperiences that the writer bring to writing and the impact of the particularpolitical and institutional context It is also a process that we write is influenced

by constraints of genre and has to be present in learning activities

So far we have looked at some definitions of writing which have beendrawn from different writing theories and models by various researchers Now,it’s useful to have closer look at writing

1.1.2 The importance of writing skill

Writing is one of language skill which has given an importantcontribution to human work There are so many records of recent activities that

we can read today, which can also be read in the future Some important features

of writing activities that are usually done by people such as teachers write someimportant things on blackboard, or students may write some notes that aredictated by the teachers, lots of people who are going to apply for job in offices

write English In academic, Galah (2008) stated “English department students, especially, need to learn writing and prepare for the final academic assignment, thesis writing.” This, in terms of student’s needs, integrated in writing is

necessary

1.2 Teaching writing

1.2.1 Approaches to teach writing

Looking from the viewpoint of the product approach, White (1991)

thought of writing as “a permanent record, a form of expression, and a means of communication” The provision of a model was indeed seen as being very

important The teacher or the textbook was the source of language, and a goodmodel was crucial

In view of the process approach, White saw writing as “an act of discovery and a potentially powerful educational tool It is with these thoughts

in mind that both of us, reader and writer, may know embark upon our journey

of discovery” By engaging in the process of writing itself writers ultimately

discover what it is that they want to say

In short, each approach has its own view of writing, which has reflectedthat approaches to teaching writing have been improved and gradually metwriters’ preferences and purposes Below is a brief description of commonapproaches to teaching writing among which the product and process approachare applied in this study

Table 1.1 Common approaches to teaching writing

(Synthesized from Richards & Rodgers, 2001 and Canh, 2004)

structural functional structural

encourage students to reinforce structures, vocabulary learned orally

help students write purposefully, meaningfully, communicatively

Enhance student’s grammar and vocabulary fluency

enhance students purposeful interaction and

communication in writing

Writing Skill Development

Accurate control of basic sentences patterns and combination

copy out sentences, write out variations of structural sentences.

develop fluency accuracy, awareness of sentences patterns, sentence combination in paragraphs or essays

Sentence patterns and sentence combination in paragraphs or essays

accurate and fluent sentence patterns and sentence combination in grammar

Teaching Techniques tasks given in

use of various tasks tasks emphasize

communication and meaning

Assessment Method Analytic and Holistic analytic and holistic analytic and holistic analytic and holistic analytic and holistic

1.2.2 Product approach

Hedge (2000) studied that product approach or “text-based approach”encourages students to mimic a model text, which is usually presented andanalyzed at an early stage

This approach focuses the students’ attention on the form and content ofthe finished product like an essay or composition, involves formal practice, andrequires writers to create an excellent text A model suggested by Steele (2005)for such an approach is summarized in the table below:

Table 1.2 Product approach

1 Model text Formal letter-paragraph-formal request

2 Controlled practice Formal structure “I would be grateful if you

1.2.3 Process approach

Basing on the communicative approach was studied by Hedge(2000), theprocess viewed writing as “thinking” and “discovery” Thus, this approach tends

to focus more on the varied classroom activities which promote the development

of language use like brainstorming, class discussion, rewriting, etc

White (1991) said that many researchers have agreed that writing is aprocess and consists of some stages and activities such as generating, focusing,structuring, drafting, evaluating, and reviewing and Hedge (2000) statedcomposing, communicating, crafting, improving, and evaluating The author ofthis study tends to follow Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Ngoc’s view towardsthe writing process which is shortened as follows:

Table 1.3 Process approach

(Bang, Nguyen & Ngoc, Nguyen Ba, 2001)

Pre-writing

Reading (extensively) a passage Skimming or scanning a passage Brainstorming

Discussing a topic or questions Model analysis

Clustering with a key word, free association

While - writing

Controlled writing:

Gap-filling sentences/paragraphs Sequencing jumbled words Transformation writing Completing sentences Parallel sentences Guided writing:

Questions & answers Writing based on cued words Writing based on provided information Free writing:

Writing about pictures Writing in response to a situation

Post-writing

Feedback & correction Revising

Editing Evaluating

1.2.4 Product vs process approach

Steele (2005) shortened differences of the two approaches in the following table

Table 1.4.The differences between product and process approach

Product writing Process writing

Imitate model text Text as a resource for comparison

Organization of ideas more

important than ideas themselves

Ideas as starting point

Features highlighted including

controlled practice of those features

More global, focus on purpose, theme, text type, i.e., reader is emphasized.

Individual Collaborative

Emphasis on end-product Emphasis on creative process

Obviously, the two approaches are not necessarily “incompatible” Thetwo approaches can be integrated with each other in the classroom To put itanother way, teacher intervention through the model text can aid the learningprocess Thanks to this, students can be aware of producing something to beread by someone else

1.2.5 Principles to teach writing skill

Brown (1994) pointed out some principles of language teaching and learning:

- Emphasize that writing is a means to communicative meaning, aboutoneself and the real world It not just using a grammatical structure correctly orwriting with clear penmanship

- Start with controlled activities and later ask the students to communicatefreely

- Early in the course, have the students write about concrete subjects Theseinclude physical descriptions of people and places and tangibles topics like food,animals, school and home

- Practice the use of basic action words and language functions early in thecourse These include words like eat, sleep, study, walk, run and drive andfunctions like introducing, describing, giving information, and asking questions.Later add more difficult verbs and functions As the students writing abilityprogresses they can practice writing about more abstract things like ideas,opinions and feelings

- When ever possible, relate the writing assignments to the speaking topicsfrom class This will help to integrate the skill areas and give the studentsadditional practice with the same functions, vocabulary, and structures

- Expect the level of writing to be higher than the level of speaking.Because students have more time to communicate clearly when writing and

when speaking, the standard of correct use of grammar This does not mean thestudents should write perfectly, but it does mean they should be more careful.

- Provide an audience broader than just the teacher Whenever writing, thewriters should be aware of who the reader is The teacher should always specifywho the “audience” of reader is

- State a purpose for the assignment Your writing assignment shouldanswer the question: “Why am I writing this?”

- Provide several kinds of feedback The feedback should be direct orindirect, specific and related to what has been taught Also, the feedback shouldnot be overly negative Always try to balance the corrections and criticisms

1.3 Overview of game

1.3.1 Definition

According to Haldfield (1999) “A game is an activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun Games should be regarded as an integral part of the language syllabus, not as an amusing activity for Friday afternoon or for the end of the term”.

This definition highly evaluates the importance of games in teaching Itadds to teachers’ techniques in teaching that games serve not only as an

‘amusing activity’, but as a technique to carry out tasks to learners amusingly as

well Haldfield (1999) adds “Games can be used at all stages of the progression from controlled to free practice, serving at one end of the range as a memory aid and repetition drill, at the other as a chance to used the language freely and

as a means to an end rather than an end in itself They can also serve as a diagnostic tool for teacher, who can note areas of difficulty and take appropriate remedial action.” Haldfield further emphasizes the effective use of

games Students are always lazy to do the tasks Therefore, games are usedsuitably in the way in which learners are led to participate in the games so thatlearners can have a chance to practice or use the new language items they havejust learnt eagerly and willingly instead of forcing them to do the tasks

unwillingly It is more effective in a way that students can play and learn at thesame time.

Lee (1991) defined: “Games in the stick sense, which have a definite beginning and end, are governed by rules…” Similarly, Hadfield (1990) defined games as "an activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun." Games are not

carried in chaos Games have the rules, and for it is necessary players to digestthese rules before the start so that they can play the games smoothly withoutcommitting them

According to Greenall (1990), “The term ‘game’ is used whenever there

is an element of competition between individual students or teams in a language activity.”

From definitions above, it can be concluded that a game is an activitywith rules, a goal and an element of fun Games should be regarded as anintegral part of the language syllabus, not as an amusing activity for Fridayafternoon or for the end of the term

1.3.2 Characteristics

When appears ‘an element of competition’, all above rules are mostneeded Besides, games are, in this case, emphasized to encourage students’solidarity in teamwork in which they have to try their best to do the tasks ormaybe to code any requirements given in the games for their team spirit.Therefore, games comprise many factors such as rules, competition, relaxation,and learning The main focus of using game in class is not only to help students

to learn more effectively but also to have fun However, to use games inclassrooms, it is equally important that before playing, the rules of the games areclearly explained and well understood by the students There should be only afew, well-explained rules Demonstrations also can be very helpful because itcan help students understand the game and help them follow the rules In anutshell, as mentioned by Caillois (1957) “A game is as activity that must havethe following characteristics:

- fun: the activity is chosen for its light-hearted character

- separate: it is circumscribed in time and place

- uncertain: the outcome of the activity is unforeseeable

- non-productive: participation is not productive

- governed by rules: the activity has rules that are different from everydaylife

- fictitious: it is accompanied by the awareness of a different reality”

1.3.3 The importance of games in writing skill

According to Wright, Betteridge and Buckby (1984) language learning ishard work Effort is required at every moment and be maintained over a longperiod of time Games help and encourage many learners to sustain their interestand work Games help the teacher to create contexts in which the language isuseful and meaningful We should not lose sight of their pedagogical values,particularly in foreign language teaching and learning Games are effective asthey create motivation, lower students' stress, and give language learners theopportunity for real communication

One of the best ways of writing this is through games Though different inthe viewpoints, the linguists want to emphasize the ultimate aim of using games

in teaching writing is that teachers want a better lesson in which their studentsbenefit much

1.3.3.1 Games motivate learners writing

Harmer (1998) asserts that motivation students bring to class is thebiggest factor affecting their success Finding an effective way to motivatelearners writing is always the interest of teachers, researchers and linguists Hestated, games are highly motivating and entertaining, and they can give shylearners more opportunity to express their opinions and feelings in writinglesson At that time, students who are shy also attend the activities with fun,forgetting their shyness and feeling of fear Further, games add interest to whatstudents might not find interesting Sustaining interest can mean sustainingeffort If the teacher just follows the tasks given in the textbook, students have to

do the tasks in writing and reading, then the teacher herself will lead a grammar

lesson to a boring, hard-digesting experience to their students and surely, do notmeet the need for a more interesting and effective grammar class At that time,game is the most useful Games employ meaningful and useful language in realcontexts They can be used to give practice in all language skills and grammarpoints in this case, and be used to practice many types of communication Ifthese games are good then learners will be learning while they are playing.

Avedon & Sutton-Smith (1971) believe the main reason why games areconsidered effective learning aids is that they spur motivation and students getvery absorbed in the competitive aspects of the games; moreover, they try harder

at games than in other courses It can be clearly seen that games can capturestudents' attention and participation Moreover, they can transform a boringclass into a challenging and interesting one They hold, games also help theteacher to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful Thelearners want to take part and in order to do so must understand what others aresaying or have written, and they must speak or write in order to express theirown point of view or give information Thanks to games, shy language learnerswill have more chances to write and speak, show their feeling and opinions inEnglish as much as they can

1.3.3.2 Games promote learners’ interaction.

Interaction comprises the nature of classroom pedagogy and classroombehavior Pair or group work is one of the main ways to promote interaction AsJacobs & Kline Liu (1996) expresses, many games can be played in pairs or insmall groups, thereby providing a venue for students to develop their skills inworking with others such as the skill of disagreeing politely and the skill ofasking for help

In most games, learners have to play in groups in which everyone has aturn, encouraging everyone to take a turn, rather than letting others do all thewriting or talking and other actions, and discouraging one or two people fromshutting out others Naturally when playing games, students are trying to win or

to beat other teams for themselves or on the behalf of their team They are so

competitive while playing since they want to have a turn to play, to score pointsand to win In the class, learners will definitely participate in the activities.Therefore, in groups or in pairs, they are more willing to ask questions,communicate and discuss with their partners and think creatively about how touse English to achieve the goal The competition in the games gives students anatural opportunity to work together and communicate in English with eachother a lot.

1.3.3.3 Games improve learners’ language acquisition

Avedon & Sutton-Smith(1971) said, thanks to the motivation andinteraction created by games, students can acquire their lessons better and moreinterestedly than other ways Games can stimulate and encourage students toparticipate in the activity since naturally they want to beat the other teams…Apart from having fun, students learn at the same time They acquire newlanguage They studied students begin to realize that they have to use thelanguage if they want others to understand what they are saying Furthermore,they emphasized, games can lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of inputmore likely It is clear that in the easy, relaxed atmosphere which is created byusing games, students remember things faster and

The meaning of the language students listen to, read, speak and write will

be more vividly experienced in a game and, therefore, then they will betterremember the language they learnt

1.3.4.4 Games increase learners’ achievement

As far as we know, games can involve all the basic language skills, i.e.,listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and a number of skills are ofteninvolved in the same game Further support comes from Zdybiewska (1994):

“…games are a good way of practicing language, for they provide a model of what learners will use the language for in real life in the future exercises that practice and utilize the new language have been completed, games can then be introduced as yet another means for enabling greater comprehension.”

As strongly emphasized above, games can motivate learners, promotelearners’ interaction, and improve learners’ acquisition As a result, games canincrease learners’ achievement, which means that learners’ test scores, ability ofcommunication, some skills, knowledge of vocabulary, or other language skillscan improve We are teaching a new generation of students, which requiresunconventional teaching strategies be put into practice in the classroom Andwhen schools use the games, the student benefits speak for themselves a greaterdesire to learn and higher test scores.

In brief, games prove to be a useful tool employed regularly in languageteaching Games not only offer learners a highly motivating, relaxing class, butmost importantly meaningful practice to all language skills Consequently,games can motivate learners, promote learners’ interaction, improve theiracquisition and increase their achievement

1.3.4 Some games used in the writing lessons

There are many games used in teaching writing skill Each of them hasparticular benefits According to Alexis Ludwig and Amy Swan (2007), theyprovided some classroom games to improve writing skill in “101 greatclassroom games” Some popular games are:

 Jumbled paragraph

Purpose: Through this game, teacher asks students to rearrange a number of

sentences into the correct order and complete the paragraph

Materials: Student: Piece of paper and pen/chalk and board.

Teacher: a handout with a number of sentences which are mixed from aparagraph

Procedure

- Divide the classroom into two or three groups Each group chooses their

“captain”

- Teacher gives each group a hand out

- Teacher asks them to rearrange these sentences into the correct order andcomplete the paragraph

- Which group finishes first will be the winner.

- Put a picture or a first sentence as writing prompt

- Divide student into small groups and have them create a story from thatprompt

- Each student takes a turn writing one sentence to add to the story and passes it

to the next student

- Keep it going around in the group until they have finished

 The odd one out

Purpose: Pick out one sentence which is off topic from others.

Materials : Teacher: several packs of four sentences.

Procedure

- Teacher divides class into small groups

- Give each group a handout which includes some packs of sentences Each packhas a sentence which is off topic

- Each group has to pick out the sentence which is off topic

- Which group finishes first will be winner

 The missing sentence

Purpose: Complete the given paragraph with a list of missing sentences from

many different paragraphs

Materials: Teacher: Some paragraphs with a missing sentence.

Procedure:

- Divide class into some small groups

- Give each group a handout

- Ask them to put the missing sentence into the suitable paragraph

- Which group fishes first will be the winner.

 Fishy facts

Purpose: Choosing the correct sentence from four options.

Materials: Teacher: some fish cash (the cash has shape like a fish), a big box Procedure

- Teacher divides class into some groups Each group chooses their “captain”

- Groups take turns choosing a fish by catching it from the box

- The captain of each group read the prompt in the body of the fish and wholegroup, then, choosing the correct sentence in the tail of fish

- The game ends when all of the fish are caught or at the end of the set time

- The player with the most fish is the winner

In conclusion, this chapter shows the back ground of writing and theoverview of games Especially, the researcher lists some writing games whichwill be applied in the experiment

CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the researcher tends to study about participants, data collected instruments and the procedure which the researcher will follow to carry out the experiment.

2.1 Participants

2.1.1 An introduction of students and teachers at Yen Khe high school

The study was conducted at Yen Khe high school, a rural school of PhuTho province The school has 16 classes with over 50 teachers of differentsubjects Currently, there are 6 teachers of English and near 600 students rangesfrom grade 10 to grade 12 Most of students come from villages and town in thedistrict

- Grade 10 th students

Grade 10 students, both male and female, had similar backgrounds, that

is, all of them come from village or town in the district, finished secondaryschool with 4 years of learning English The research studied 40 students ofgrade 10 chosen from class 10A4 at Yen Khe high school All of the informantshave the same time of learning English of five years and they have alreadycompleted the syllabus of English with the new series of English textbook fromgrade 6 to grade 9 at lower-secondary schools

The students under investigation have just finished the first term of grade

10th school year It can not deny that most students want to learn English well,but their condition, learning environment and their capacity do not allow them to

do so Most of them are from farmer families so that their lives are rather poor.Their learning condition, thus, is not equipped enough Moreover, outside classtime, they often help their families with farming and housework Some of themoften have little time for extra-learning and doing homework Besides, learningenvironment is very important, too When being asked why students at Yen Khehigh school are not good at English, most of the teachers agree that they do nothave good environment English seems never to be used outside class

- Teachers

Yen Khe high school consists of 6 teachers of English aged from 24 to 40.All of them have been teaching at school for at least two years The researcherinterviews 2 English trainee teachers at Yen Khe high school

They are English trainee teachers so they do not have so much experience

in teaching, especially, in using games when teaching writing skill They also donot have a lot of teaching facilities and materials to help their work Despite allthese advantages, they are helpful and dedicated Most of them want to devotetheir whole lives for teaching They all have a great desire to acquire knowledge

of how to teach English well as well as how to widen their English background.Also, they are always willing to help their students tackle with difficulties inlearning

2.1.2 The current textbook “English 10”

The main material for English in grade 10 is a set of English Tieng Anh 10 It consists of 16 units and the other 6 lessons are for revision.Each unit has five parts: Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing and LanguageFocus, and each of them has been taught in a period (45 minutes)

textbook Reading is the beginning of each unit, includes one or more passagesfrom 180-220 words in length Through reading, it helps students to familiarizethe topic of each that unit, provides information and materials for the wholelesson as well as develops their reading comprehension skill

- Speaking includes activities to practice speaking skill They canunderstand the form of communication of group or individual to improve theirpronunciation to get the target language

- Listening contains paragraphs or dialogues related to the topic of eachunit which aims at helping students practice their listening comprehension skill.Besides, listening also helps to consolidate and correct such mistakes inpronunciation or in using structures of students

- Writing consists of exercises which help students develop their writingskill on kinds of compositions such as writing letter, narrative, description,giving instruction, etc.

- Language focus provides the pronunciation and grammar structures.Pronunciation consolidates some sounds, practicing in words and sentences.Grammar and vocabulary presents main points of grammar and vocabulary ineach unit

In the current text book “English 10”, Writing is the last and the mostchallenging skill in each unit Because each lesson is not clearly divided into 3stages: Pre-writing, While-writing and Post-writing Task 1 is the one whichgets students to be familiar with the model of a writing composition of each unit.The teacher guides students to do this task as the preparation for the writing task

2 Task 2 requires students to write about a topic following the model in task 1.Therefore, the teachers who are teaching the current text book “English 10”,have to design suitable games for each lesson to make the writing tasksinteresting for their students

There are totally 16 units, so 16 writing lessons are designed with a view

to making students familiar with real-life situation on text The requiredcompetences and objectives of the writing section in each unit are shown in thefollowing table

Table 2.1: Checklist of Writing Tasks in current Textbook “English 10”

1 A day in the life of… Writing a narrative

3 People’s Background Writing about people’s background

4 Special Education Writing a letter of complaint

5 Technology and you Writing a set of instructions

disadvantages of the mass media

8 The Story of My Village Giving directions

9 Undersea World Describing information from a table.

10 Conservation Writing a letter of invitation

11 National Parks Writing a letter of acceptance or refusal

16 Historical Places Describing a chart

2.2 Data collection instruments

In order to get the most exact information for the research, the researcherused questionnaires for students and interview teachers in using games inwriting lesson of grade 10th students at Yen Khe high school

2.2.1 Questionnaires for students.

2.2.1.1 Causes of choosing questionnaires

This research instrument was used because it helps to obtain the generalinformation “quick and relatively cheap” Bell (1993) It servers four basicpurposes: to (1) collect the appropriate data, (2) make data comparable andamendable to analysis, (3) minimize in formulating and asking question, and (4)

to make questions engaging and varied These are also four main purposes of thequestionnaires in this study because the researcher intends to collect the chiefdata for the thesis from this instrument Besides, according to Wilson andMcLean (1994) “the questionnaire is a widely and useful instrument forcollecting survey information, providing structured, often numeral data, beingable to be administered without the presence of the researcher, and often beingcomparatively straight-forward to analyze” This research instrument is a helpful

tool because participants can have enough time to think and write downthoughtful and reliable answers.

2.2.1.2 Questionnaires description

In order to get information to fulfill the aims of the study, a surveyquestionnaire was designed Questionnaire was delivered to the studentsrespondents This survey questionnaire was delivered twice to find out thechange in students’ attitude before and after experiment The first was carriedout before experiment and the second was delivered to the students afterexperiment There is a statement of purpose at the beginning of thequestionnaire so as to make it clear to the respondents that they have relativeadvantage of filling the questionnaires, which is one of the attributes promotingadoption The first questionnaire consists of 10 questions (Appendix 1)

The questionnaire was constructed within Vietnamese contexts and wasvaried in four main categories

The first category dealt with The students’ feelings and attitudes towards writingskill(question 1, 2) The second investigated the current situation of using games

in writing lessons(question 3, 4, 5) The last aimed to find out The effectiveness

of using games in writing lessons (question 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)

Table 2.2: Summary of the students’ questionnaire

1 The students’ feelings and attitudes towards writing skill 1, 2

2 The current situation of using games in writing lessons 3, 4, 5,6

3 The effectiveness of using games in writing lessons 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

2.2.2 Interviews for teachers

2.2.2.1 Causes of choosing interview

As Nunan has claimed that “…the interviews can follow up a respondent’s answer to obtain more information and clarify vague statement…”(1991) According to Kvale (1996), the major task in interviewing

is to understand the meaning of what the interviewees say This method allowsthe participants to explain what is important and necessary Moreover, it notonly brings flexibility to the researcher but also helps him or her to ensurequestions are understood and explored However, the interviewees don’t alwaystalk truthfully and this method is quite timeconsuming in doing and analysis Inaddition, this method aids the survey questionnaires in exact and direct way.Moreover, it is more dependent on attitudes and personality of interviewer As aresult, the collected data could be clear and more specific

2.2.2.2 Interview description

The interview includes 5 questions It was conducted among 3 Englishteachers who are teaching grade 10th students at Yen Khe high school with theaims at assessing the effectiveness of using games in writing lesson These threeinterviews can make great contributions to support the result got from thestudents’ survey questionnaires

- Question 1, 2, 3 are used to find out the assessment of teachers about usinggames in writing lessons

- Question 4 is used to find out the teacher’s difficulties when organizing games

The following steps were carried out to collect the results from the surveyquestionnaires and interview:

Step 1: The researcher carries out survey questionnaire The survey questionnaire took place on February 22nd

pre-Step 2: The researcher analyzes the results from the pre-surveyquestionnaire

Step 3: The researcher adapted writing activities given in the textbook bysupplementing them some games for four weeks

Step 4: Then the post-survey questionnaire was distributed to the same 40students to find out the changes in their attitude towards the use of games inwriting lesson The post-survey questionnaire took place on March 20th.

At the same time, the researcher interviewed 3 English teachers of grade

10th students to get more detailed information about the effectiveness of usinggames in teaching writing lessons

Step 5: Analyze the collected data to assess the effectiveness of theexperiment

Data collected from the questionnaires was analyzed statistically In otherwords, mechanical counting had to be performed to render specific statistics.These numbers were then arranged according to different categories anddisplayed in a flow of tables for better illustration and explanations This stepalso made the research more concise and scientific

The survey questionnaires were administered during the class time.Before the questionnaires were given to the informants, the researcher took time

to explain the purpose and the requirements of the informants The informantswere also encouraged to raise any questions if there was anything unclear in thesurvey questionnaires Then they were instructed to complete the questionnaires

The interview was carried out after experiment The researcher invitedthree English teachers to the waiting room, gave questions and recorded theiranswers to analysis

In short, chapter 2 gave the information of participants in the experimentand pointed out the data collection instruments and the data collectionprocedure.

CHAPTER 3 CURRENT SITUATION OF USING GAMES IN WRITING LESSONS

OF GRADE 10 TH STUDENTS AT YEN KHE HIGH SCHOOL

In this chapter, the researcher will survey the current situation of using games in writing lessons by analyzing the data collected from pre-survey questionnaire

3.1 Data analysis

3.1.1 Data collected from pre-task survey questionnaire

After delivering and collecting the pre-task survey questionnaire forstudents, the following results of students’ response was analyzed In thisresearch paper, the data collected from the pre-task survey questionnaire wasmainly analyzed quantitatively

3.1.1.1 Students’ opinion about learning English writing skill.(Question 1, 2)

We know that students’ attitudes play an important role in the teachingand learning process The success of the teaching process is affected by thelearners themselves That is why students’ attitudes should be taken intoconsideration The survey results about the students’ opinion about Englishwriting skill are shown in Table 3.1

Table 3.1: The students’ attitudes towards English writing skill

The first question focuses on the students’ attitudes towards Englishwriting skill (table 3.1) In response to this question, students showed differentideas There is no student who think that writing skill is easy 7,5% of thestudents feel writing skill is rather difficult while most of them feel it is reallydifficult

In question 2, when being asked how much they like learning writing,almost participants choose the answer “Not much” (65%) and 17,5% of them donot like writing skill at all Only 5% of the participants like writing very muchand 12,5% of them like writing much The particular data was given in table 3.2:

Table 3.2: Students’ interest towards learning writing skill

In question 4, the researcher studies the students’ attitude towards games inwriting lessons of grade 10th at Yen Khe high school.

Never Rarely Sometimes Often 75%

18%

Figure 1 The students’ attitudes towards games using in writing lessons

When being asked “How often do you participate in the games in the writing lessons?”, 93% of students say that they never or rarely take part in

games in writing lessons There is only 7% of them thought sometimes they join

in games in writing lessons Especially, there is no student who oftenparticipates in games using in writing lessons The statistic points out thestudents’ attitude towards games that is they are not willing to play or the gameswhich are not attractive enough

In question 5, the researcher tends to investigate the students’ interesttowards games in writing lessons of grade 10th at Yen Khe high school In otherwords, the researcher studies whether students like playing games or not

Figure 2 The students’ interest in games using in writing lessons

The figure points out that there is no student who feels very interested ingames using in writing lessons Most of students (87,5%) have no idea towardsgames in writing lessons The number of students who think that games using inwriting lessons are interesting is low (5%) 7,5% of the participants show theirlow interest in these games, they feel games boring when taking part in

In question 6, the researcher names some games which could be used inteaching writing lessons Students can choose more than one option When

being asked “Which games have you ever joined in/ heard about?”, all of the

students said that they have never heard about these games before Somestudents choose D and list some other games like: hang man, bingo, flash cashand crossword However, they are only some typical games using in teaching

English, not for writing lessons This shows that students do not pay yourattention to games using in writing lessons or they have not taken part in gameswhen learning writing lesson yet.

3.1.1.3 The effectiveness of using games in writing lessons (Question 7,8, 9, 10)

Question 7 asked students about their opinions towards the purposes ofusing games in writing lessons A haft of students thought that games makestudents more interested in the writing lessons 23 students (57,5%) choose B,that games make the writing lesson more effective and 25 students (62,5%) saidthat games foster the whole class’s participation The data is given in the table3.4:

Table 3.4 The students’ opinion towards the purpose of using games in writing

B Make the writing lesson more effective

C Poster the whole class’s participation

D Other opinion