On applying process approach in teaching writing skill for grade 10 non major students at dong da high school

thạc sỹ, luận văn, ngoại ngữ, tiếng anh, khóa luận, chuyên đề

Working as a teacher of English, I am particularly interested in teaching writing skill

Therefore, I am concerned with approaches and methods which can help to enhance the learners’ writing proficiency as well as facilitate their learning English as a second language

As I observed, learners, especially students at high school, are often afraid of writing which, as claimed by them, makes them anxious and unconfident when dealing with

Moreover, the teaching and learning writing skill in many schools mostly involves the using ofthe textbooks, many of which have, so far, been opened to considerable debate To make the matter worse, writing, which has been considered one of the most difficult skills among reading, speaking, listening and writing, is not paid sufficient attention as it deserves

The ideas of investigating deeply into the case intrigued me when I accidentally had a chance

to attend a seminar on process approach at Dong Da high school, which was carried out to helpteachers’ understanding of the process approach and suggest on how to apply it with the new textbook “English 10”

Although the process approach has had a widespread influence on the teaching of writing throughout the English speaking world, its beneficial impact on learners in Viet Nam context is still questionable In other words, whether teachers and students in Viet Nam have any difficulties with the applicability of such an approach in teaching and learning writing? If

so, what are the main constraints in applying the approach with the available new textbook

“English 10”? The thought motivated me to conduct a study to gain better understanding of themain constraints, if there are any, in applying process approach in particular a context of Viet Nam

1.2 Objectives of the Study

First, the research concentrates on investigating the current situation of teaching writing skill at Dong Da high school with grade 10, non-major students Secondly, the thesis will make an attempt to find out the main constraints in applying process approach to the

teaching and learning of writing skill in the given context Finally, the study is aimed at

suggesting some feasible solutions to help teachers and students at the school improve the quality of teaching and learning writing skill

1.3 Research Questions and Research Methods

In order to achieve the research objectives, the study was designed to find out the answers to the following questions:

1 What are the teachers’ methods and strategies in teaching writing skill?

2 What would be done to improve the teaching of writing skill?

A combination of methods was chosen to achieve the research aim and objectives, including qualitative research and survey research An extensive review of literature is made first to examine approaches in teaching writing skill, critically focusing on relevant literature

on the process approach in teaching the writing skill Besides, survey questionnaires were delivered to both the samples of teachers and students to obtain their teaching and learning methods and strategies of writing skill Semi- structure interviews for both selected teachers and students in the samples are followed to clarify participants’ ideas

1.4 Scope of the Study

Because of the time constraint, the study was conducted on the teachers and students ofgrade 10 with the new textbook “English 10” at Dong Da high school only Especially, the study deals with the current situations of English teaching at Dong Da high school, focusing onthe teachers’ methods and strategies in teaching writing in order to find out the constraints remained in applying the process approach so that some feasible solutions would be drown

1.5 Design of the Study

The study is divided into 5 chapters:

Chapter 1 presents an overview of the study including the rationale, the objectives, the scope, the research questions and research methods as well as the design of the whole study Chapter 2 reviews the literature relevant to the study Chapter 3 is a detailed description of current situation of teaching and learning writing skill of the grade 10 students with the

textbook “English 10” at Dong Da School In this chapter, the textbook “English 10” is

introduced first, followed by the discussion of the teachers’ methods and strategies in teaching writing skill as well as students’ methods and strategies in learning the skill Chapter 4, which

is the most important part of the study, presents data collection methods and significant

findings It, then, draws out suggestions for feasible application of the process approach in

teaching and learning writing skill in a given setting Chapter 5, the last chapter of the thesis, includes a brief review of the study and some pedagogical implications It also points out the limitations of the study.

1.6 Summary

In this chapter, a brief overview of the study is presented The next chapter will review the literature that is relevant to the study

Chapter 2: Literature Review

This chapter gives an overview of relevant literature and researches that deal with approaches in teaching writing skill.

Nowadays, the teaching of writing has long been a central element in all educational system and there are many, often conflicting, views of teaching writing (Tribble, 1996:37) Astrends in the teaching of writing have coincided with those of other skills, especially listening and speaking (Brown, 2000: 334), teachers who are willing to adopt new approaches as well as new methods on how to teach fluency not just accuracy Additionally, authentic texts and context in the classroom are used creatively shifting the focus on the language itself to the focus on the purposes of linguistic communication

Up to dates, there are several ways to approach writing in the classroom It should be said at the beginning that there is not necessarily any 'right' or 'best' way to teach writing skill The best practice in any situation will depend on the type of student, the text type being

studied, the school system and many other factors (Steele, 2007: 43) Different ways in

approaching the tasks inform major movement in the teaching of writing (Raimes, 1983: 60) According to Raimes, there are 3 principal ways of approaching the task: focusing on form, focusing on the writer and focusing on the reader The first perspective can be found in traditional, text-based approach Teachers who adopt this approach often present authoritative

237-text for students to imitate or adapt and they may see errors as something they have a

professional obligation to correct and eliminate (Tribble, 1996: 37) The second approach which is called “process approach” emerges in part as a reaction against the tradition of form- focus It particularly stresses on the writers as an independent producers of text The third approach called “genre approach” is considered to be more socially oriented with the

assumption that if the reader cannot recognize the purpose of a text, communication can not besuccessful

For a long time, product approach has been claimed to dominate much of the teaching

of English as second language in general and the teaching of writing in particular According

to Brown (1994: 320), this approach greatly focuses on the linguistic knowledge such as the appropriate use of vocabulary, syntax, and cohesive devices In product approaches, there are 4stages in teaching and learning writing: familiarization, controlled writing, guided writing, andfree writing Such an approach places the focus on how to enable students to produce similar texts Robinson (1991, cited in Chinh, 2007:12) claims that the product approach to writing usually involves the presentation of a model text which is analyzed and the basis of a task that leads to the writing of an exactly similar text And according to Robinson (1991), product approach can be summarized in the following figure:

Model text comprehension/analysis/ manipulation NEW INPUT

PARALLEL TEXT

Figure 1: Model of Product Approach

Although there have been some modern approaches in teaching writing, advantages of the product approach can not be denied since this approach stresses the need for learners to have linguistic knowledge about texts In addition, it is a fact that imitation is one way of learning The approach, therefore, has contributed considerably to the developments of

learners’ linguistic knowledge and it is very useful in practical teaching

However, the traditional product approach is also claimed to be totally teacher-centered and product-focused One of the most prominent weaknesses of the product approach is that the process skills of learners are given a relatively small role or even undervalued

During the seventies of the 20th century, while the product approach received a lot of criticism, many teachers at the forefront of the development of the process approach have proposed methodologies emphasizing the creatively and unpredictability of writing (Tribble,

1996:37) In the process approach, the teaching of writing has begun to move away from a concentration on the written product to an emphasis on the process of writing All writers makedecisions on how to begin and how to organize the task Therefore, they do not write on a given topic in a restricted time and hand in the composition for the teacher to correct The role

of teachers, therefore, is as education facilitators

As described in Zamel (1983: 147) and Raimes (1985: 231), in the process approach, the process of writing is seen as a recursive and complex process In other words, although there are identifiable stages in the process of writing, writers can still revisit any of these stagesmany times before a text is completed

Figure 2: Model of process approach.

Since it lays the emphasis on the writers’ writing process, the process approach has been widely accepted The focus on the writer inherent in the development of process approachhas brought a range of benefits to teachers and students (Tribble, 1996: 40)

According to Graham Stanley (2007:16), although there are many ways of approaching processwriting, it can be broken down into three stages:

 Pre-writing

The teacher needs to be stimulate students' creativity, to get them thinking how to approach a writing topic In this stage, the most important thing is the flow of ideas, and it is not always necessary that students actually produce much (if any) written work If they do, then the teacher can contribute with advice on how to improve their initial ideas

 Focusing ideas

During this stage, students write without much attention to the accuracy of their work

or the organization The most important feature is meaning Here, the teacher (or other

PUBLISHING

students) should concentrate on the content of the writing He or she can raise the questions “Is it coherent? Is there anything missing? Anything extra?”

 Evaluating, structuring and editing

now the writing is adapted to a readership Students should focus more on form and on producing a finished piece of work The teacher can help with error correction and giveorganizational advice

Obviously, the process approach has made great improvement in practical teaching in comparison with the product approach A teacher who adopts the approach will try to respect the learners’ cultural background and avoid the imposition of ideas or language behavior The teaching and learning materials which make use of these approaches typically attempt to encourage creativity in very practical ways

However, writing is a complex process and can lead to learner frustration As with speaking, it is necessary to provide a supportive environment for the students and be patient This approach also states that more time be spent on writing in class, but not all classroom time

is spent actually writing Students may also react negatively to reworking the same material, but as long as the activities are varied and the objectives clear, then they will usually accept doing so In the long term, teachers and students will start to recognize the value of a process writing approach as their written work improves (Stanley, 2007: 9)

2.1.3Genre Approach

According to Lin (2002: 18), the teaching and learning around text genres has become increasingly influential in mainstream ELT in countries However, their influence in EFL in East Asian countries still appears limited

A genre comprises a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes These purposes are recognizes by the experts members of the parent discourse community and there by constitute the rationales for the genre (Swales, 1990:58)

Genre-based approaches begin with the whole text as the unit in focus rather than the sentence (Derewianka, 2003a: 120-22) In addition, genre-based approaches are concerned with the social macro-purposes of language, and not just the semantic micro-functions of individual words and sentences The genres in focus are generally defined according to the broad social purposes of communication Finally, the focus on whole texts implies recognition

that there is a higher level of order and patterning in language than just the sentence -

grammar Genre-based approaches emphasize that this higher order must be attended to for effective language use: "all texts conform to certain conventions, and that if a student is to be successful in joining a particular English-language discourse community, the student will need

to be able to produce texts which fulfill the expectations of its readers in regards to grammar, organization, and context" (Kim & Kim, 2005, citing Lin, 2002: 11)

Genre-based teaching helps students participate effectively not only in the school curriculum but also in the broader community This approach holds the view that learning language is a social activity and the process of learning language is a series of “scaffolded developmental steps” that address different aspects of language Dudley- Evans (1997)

identifies three stages in genre approach to writing First of all, a model of a particular genre is introduced and analyzed, students then carry out exercises which manipulate relevant languageforms and finally, students create texts To write in a particular genre, students must be aware

of the formal patterns that shape a text Genre analysis, therefore, can provide the vocabulary and concepts to explicitly teach the text structures teachers would like their students to

produce The approach also offers students a relatively fixed discourse model that they can use for reference, thus students will gain confidence in producing texts that serve their intended purposes

According to Tribble (1996:60), it is necessary to extend the model of writing in process approach so as to show how contents, context, process and language knowledge interrelate with each other and can be realized in practical classroom procedures

Teacher research into genre

Select genre for classroom study

Collect corpus data

Student research into genre

However, the genre approach, as to negative side, is claimed to be prescriptive rather than descriptive, therefore, adopting such an approach will lead to the lack of creativity in the learners In addition to this, students may feel this teaching approach is rather boring and their final products sometimes may be found stereotyped.

2.2.1 Process Approach versus Product Approach

Up to dates, the conclusion can be made by Raimes (1983: 96) is that, in the process approach, students do not have to write on a given topic in a restricted time and hand in the composition for the teacher to correct In other words, in the process approach the focus of teaching and learning is placed on the process of writing rather than the final product In product approach, the process skills and the knowledge that students bring to the classroom areundervalued while in process approach, there is a great emphasis on activities such as

collaborative group work and peer evaluation As a result, product-based approaches see writing as mainly concerned with knowledge about the structure of language and writing development as mainly the result of the imitation of input in the form of texts provided by the teachers By contrast, in process approach, students can explore a topic through writing, showing the teachers and each other drafts and using what they write to read over, think about and move them onto new ideas (Raimes, 1983:96)

However, according to Brown (1994:337) the current emphasis on process writing must

of course be seen in the perspective of a balance between process and product Brown points out that after all, the final product is the ultimate goal and it is the reason that we go through the process of prewriting, drafting, revising and editing In short, process is the means to the end not the end

2.2.2 Process Approach versus Genre Approach

Despite the fact that the process approach has made a great improvement in practical teaching in comparison with the product approach, the process approach also came under attack from various genre theorists One of its limitations claimed is that it does not address theneeds of learners who have to write for readers unknown to them Another limitation pointed out by Martin is that the approach doesn’t take into account the vast differences between speaking and writing (1985, cited in Anh, 2001) However, limitations of the genre approach are also recognized by many theorists First of all, the genre approach may prove to be text- centered approach rather than a student – centered one (Chinh, 2007: 12) Another weakness

of the approach arises from the fact that, in practical teaching, it is unable for teachers to teach all the genres to the students in the classroom.

In spite of the tension between the two trends, many theorists (Bam forth 1993: 97; Candery 1997, cited in Tribble 1996: 61) claimed that there is a relation between them It is possible to see the emergence of effective solution to teaching and learning problems which draw on the strengths of both process and genre approaches and they should not be seen as incompatible

Hereafter are some cases concerning the teaching and learning of writing skill These studies can be roughly divided into two groups The first one will include the studies dealing with approaches in teaching writing skill The later will cover some researches about aspects inteaching writing as a language skill

 Studies concerning approaches in teaching writing

The first research mentioned focuses on the teaching and learning correspondence writing at Hai Phong University by Chinh (2007) As stated in the research, the researcher tried to look into “some pending matters of theory and practice” with the hope to contribute to the

improvement of ESP teaching- learning in general and business correspondence writing in particular (Chinh 2007:2) Although a combined product- process approach was suggested, no teaching application had been carried out in side the classroom to assess whether it really worked

Another research involves “the applying of a genre-based approach in teaching writing

of the English discussion genre to Vietnamese EFL students at tertiary level” (Anh, 2000: 4).The participants of the study were a group of Vietnamese second - year university students, who were invited to participate in four-week program During the program, a systemic

functional linguistic genre-based approach was used to teach how to write discussions in English The study resulted in students’ successful control of the genre in focus and significantimprovement in various areas of linguistic knowledge taught in the program

Next study is “a paper documents an initiative in introducing a genre-based approach to EFL teaching in the Japanese university context, in a third-year writing program” conducted by Benedict Lin (2007) Its aim is to illustrate how and why such an approach may be extended toEFL teaching The results of the study are that the students, in their assignments and

examinations, produce good coherent writing in the genres taught “The writing of the best students even under examination conditions is impressive, showing ability to adapt the featureslearnt for their own communicative purposes” (Lin, 2007: 19)

The last study reviewed in this part is the study by Fei-Wen Cheng (2008) It addressed the need by evaluating the functional approach to genre in an EFL composition course in Taiwan

as college freshmen learned how to write a narrative text Results indicated that students’ essays exhibited large pre- to posttest gains in specific rhetorical moves (i.e character’s problem illustration and struggle identification), in content development, in textual coherence and in language usage

 Studies on aspects in teaching writing as a language skill

The first study mentioned in this part is a research on how to bring some energy and

excitement to the process of writing on first year students in advanced programmed at NationalEconomics University by Pham Thi Mai Thanh (2007) Data was collected and analyzed through questionnaires and class observation after 10 weeks of teaching The results revealed that creative writing not only brought in fun and pleasure into the writing lessons but also helped to enhance students’ writing ability

Within the topic of motivational factors for students in writing, Nhung (2005) had carried out a research on first year English major students at College of Foreign Languages, Viet Nam National University, Ha Noi The study arrived at some conclusion and suggestions

to improve the teaching and learning writing skill for the context of the study and other

contexts

In series of studies concerning error analysis in writing, Nguyen Van Loi (1999) had conducted a research on “the causes of Errors in Written English of Full-Time Vietnamese Students of English at the Intermediate Level” The study defined some common mistakes of the students in the study context and gave some suggestions to improve the teaching and learning the skill at the level of the study

The last research of this part involves the EFL writing strategy conducted in Dali an University of Technology in China by Liu Wenyu & Lu Yang The study aims at analyzing therelations among writing proficiency, writing strategy and writing scores It is found that there exist significant differences in strategy use between English major and non-English major writers; English major students hold a more positive attitude towards English writing; both English major students and non-English major students cannot handle the strategy of

“coherence” well and English major students pay more attention to “global” strategies while non-English major students pay more attention to “local” strategies (Wenyu & Yang, 2006)

 How may this study fit in with previous studies in its area of research?

As stated previously in this part, there have been so many researches on the teaching and learning of writing skill conducted in Viet Nam as well as in other countries Although those

studies’ findings have contributed considerably to the improvement of the teaching and

learning English in general and the teaching and learning writing skill in particular, there has been a gap that needs to be filled in

Firstly, up to dates, there have been a lot of studies on approaches in teaching writing skill in Viet Nam but none on process approach with the learners at elementary level

Secondly, the teaching and learning English in general and teaching and learning of writing skill particularly in Viet Nam still reveals some weaknesses Among the solutions suggested

by most of the studies in Viet Nam to improve the quality of teaching and learning English, Further discussion on approaches, methods and techniques in teaching and learning EFL in thecontext of Viet Nam is needed Finally, most of the studies on approaches in teaching writing skill in Viet Nam focused their researches on the teaching and learning English at universities

It can be hardly found any at high school or lower level of educations

The present study, therefore, was designed to address some aspects that are hopefully

to fill some of the existing gaps in a number of studies reviewed above

The following chapter, named chapter 3, will be devoted to the discussion of the methods of the study in the light of the above-mentioned theories

Chapter 3: Current Teaching and Learning Writing Skill for Grade 10 Students at Dong Da School

It is commonly believed that teachers’ and learners’ methods and strategies in teaching and learning play a significant role in language learning particularly in writing After a

description of the textbook “English 10” is made, this chapter will address a brief overview on teachers ’and learners ’profile, their language proficiency as well as their teaching and learningmethods and strategies in teaching and learning writing skill

3.1 The Textbook English 10 “ ”

The new textbook “English 10” composed by Van, H.V et al (2006) has been in use since 2006 as the official textbook to learn general English at grade 10 The book consists of

22 units in which there are 16 studying units and 6 revision units As the book is theme-based, each unit is relevant to a specific theme and has the following consistent parts: A Reading, B Speaking, C Listening, D Writing and E Language focus Six revision units were designed in the form of test yourself so that students can test their ability and knowledge after the

completion of every two or three units (relevant to 10-15 in-class periods) Revision units are also valuable references for teachers who have to design 45-minute tests for students In addition to this, the glossary at the end of the book is a useful list of vocabulary categorized according to themes including phonetic symbols and meanings

The writing part includes various tasks that are aimed at developing writing skill of students on different topics such as: writing a letter, writing a description of a city etc… Even though, there is a separate part of writing, the skill is still presented integrating with otherskills such as reading and speaking There are 10 types of exercises that help students to develop their writing skill

1 Reading the passages for specific words

2 Reading the passages and answering the questions

3 Matching words and phrases

4 Asking and answering questions

5 Completing a dialogue

6 Group or pair discussion

7 Completing a table

8 Gap-filling

9 Re arranging jumped sentences

10 Completing the sentences using the prompt words

Tasks covered in the book include:

1 Writing a narrative

2 Writing about people’s background

3 Writing a letter of complaint

4 Writing a set of instructions

5 Writing a confirmation letter

6 Writing about advantages and disadvantages of the mass media

7 Writing an informal letter of giving directions

8 Describing information from a table

9 Write a letter of invitation

10 Writing a letter of acceptance or refusal

The textbook “English 10” is considered to be learner-friendly and has much

improvement in terms of linkage (among units and tasks) and appropriacy and so on in

comparison with the previous ones However, Sheldon (1988) claims that textbook appraisal is

not a once- only activity, a textbook can only be meaningfully determined during and after its period of classroom use.

In this study, we will have a chance to explore teachers and students’ attitudes of the textbook “English 10” The research findings are hoped to be used as one of the effective feedback channels of the applicability of process approach in a specific context with the new textbook “English 10”

3.2 Teachers Methods and Strategies in Teaching Writing ’

80% of the teachers of English at Dong Da high school obtained Bachelors of Arts and

20 % are Masters Their methods and strategies in teaching writing are quite different from one another Some teachers who are young and active are willing to adopt new approaches and explore new methods in teaching while some teachers prefer traditional methods in teaching writing skill As a result, for those teachers teaching writing means giving sample, getting the class to write about a given topic and collecting the writing for marking The learning of writing skill, therefore, is not interesting to students and the teaching and learning are not as effective as expected

On the whole, the teaching of the skill just involves the use of the textbook and

teachers rarely look for additional material from other sources

3.3 Students Language Proficiency, learning methods and strategies of ’

addition, though they may be good at grammar and other skills, many of them can not write well at high school This is mainly because their written English is lower than expected Finally, at lower levels of education, students are rarely given a chance to obtain feedback from peers and their teachers Their writing process is seldom paid as much attention as it deserved

3.4 Summary

The chapter has presented the description of the text book, the teachers and learners’ profile and their methods and strategies in teaching and learning writing skill On the whole, the teaching and writing at non- major class is not as effective and interesting as expected Due

to a lot of reasons, the teaching of writing skill stays at using the text book Consequently, the students face with many difficulties in learning the skill

The next chapter will address the data collection methods and findings of the study

Chapter 4: Data Collection Methods and Findings

In this chapter, the first part is a detailed description of the methods used in the study

It also addresses the justification of the choice of data collection instruments: questionnaire survey and interviews as well as the participants of the study Later on in the chapter are the findings of the research and the discussion of the data collected through the study

4.1 The Research Questions

In order to achieve the above-mentioned aim and objectives, the study was designed to find out the answers to the following questions: