MOTIVATING STUDENTS TO LEARN EFL WRITING BY USING PEER RESPONSE

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

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

TRÇN KIM NG¢N

AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY:

MOTIVATING STUDENTS TO LEARN EFL

(T¹O HøNG THó HäC VIÕT CHO SINH VI£N TH¤NG QUA NHËN XÐT CñA B¹N HäC)

Code: 601410

M.A MINOR THESIS

HANOI 2007

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

M.A MINOR THESIS

Supervisor: Dr TrÇn Xu©n §iÖp

HANOI 2007

Further more, due to the application of communicative language teaching method (CLT), it

is clear that students should be well-motivated and activated in learning a foreign language.Therefore, in learning writing, it is suggested that activities which have been neglected nowshould be taken into consideration since it is believed to make the lesson more motivating

There is no doubt that writing provides students chances to express themselves correctlyand communicatively But the standard of writing of Vietnamese students is of low qualificationdue to the fact that both teachers and students are not very keen on writing practice since almostEnglish tests focus on grammar and reading comprehension in stead of writing skill

In order to motivate learners to write as well as improve their writing skill, this study aims

to investigate peer response method in teaching students’ EFL writing Subjects for the study are

56 second-year students from English department of Hanoi University of Education divided intotwo groups, control and experiment groups An experiment on the use of peer response approach

to writing is designed and conducted for 16 weeks of the second semester of 2006-2007 schoolyear The outcomes show that (1) the new method improves students’ writing skill; (2) it haspositive effects on students’ attitude and motivation Other results from data collected willprovide teachers information on the technique for implementing peer response approach inteaching writing

I certify that this minor thesis entitled “Using peer response to motivate students’ learningEFL writing” is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master ofArts is the results of my own work, except where otherwise acknowledge and that this minorthesis or any part of the same has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other university

or institution

To complete my thesis, I have received generous advice and assistance from many lecturers

in the Post Graduate Department of College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National Universitywhose lectures are very practical and useful

First and foremost, my deepest gratefulness is due to Dr Tran Xuan Diep, my supervisor,for his valuable advice, close guidance, constructive criticism and continual encouragementfrom the preparation to completion of this M.A thesis Without his help, this study could nothave possibly been accomplished

My earnest appreciation goes to teachers and second-year English major students at HUEfor their enthusiastic cooperation during my experimental research

Last but not least, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my dear family andfriends who have constantly supported and inspired me during the time I carried out this study

List of tables, figures and appendices

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

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2 Teaching English writing

2.1 Written versus spoken language 2.2 Approaches in teaching English writing 2.3 Microskills of writing

2.4 Writing activities

Overview of peer response

1 Definition

2 Advantages of peer response

3 Guiding principles for effective peer response

Overview of motivation

1 Definition and types of motivation

2 Characteristics of motivated learners

3 Strategies to boost students’ motivation

4 Roles of motivation in foreign language learning

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Data collection procedures

1 Data collection instruments

1.1 Questionnaires1.2 Pre- and post-experimental test

2 Data collection procedures

2.1 Before experiment period2.2 During experiment period2.3 After experiment period

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I.

II.

Analysis of questionnaires

1 Students’ general information

2 Students’ attitudes towards peer response method

3 Comparison of students’ attitudes before and after theexperiment

4 Students’ opinions after peer response treatment

Analysis of tests

1 Analysis of pre-test

1.1 Frequency distribution1.2 Measures of central tendency1.3 Measures of dispersion

2 Analysis of post-test

2.1 Frequency distribution2.2 Measures of central tendency2.3 Measures of dispersion 2.4 T-test for independent means

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1 Summary and discussion

2 Recommendations

3 Limitations

4 Suggestions for further studies

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References

Appendices

- Dispersion: The tendency for a set of scores to spread out or depart from the average or

‘typical’ values in the set of scores Dispersion is usually measured through the range, themean deviation, the variance, and the standard deviation of the scores

- Experiment group: The group under experimental conditions (with innovativeteaching/learning approach)

- Experiment: A procedure for testing a hypothesis by setting up a situation in which thestrength of the relationship between variables can be tested In an experiment, theresearcher’s goal is to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between two phenomena

The researcher aims to establish that one variable, the independent variable, causes changes

in another variable, the dependent variable.

- A true experiment consists of control and experiment groups to which subjectshave been randomly assigned and tested before and after the interventionadministered to the experiment group

- A quasi-experiment has both pre- and posttest, and experiment and controlgroups, gut no random assignment of subjects

- Hypothesis: A formal statement about an expected relationship between two or more variableswhich can be tested through an experiment

- Interview: The elicitation of data by one person from another through person-to-personencounters

- Mean (Symbolized by X):

- The average of a set of scores, obtained by adding the scores together and dividing

by the total number of scores

- The central tendency of the scores

- Mode: The value which occurs most frequently in a set of scores

- Median: The middle point in a distribution

- Population: All cases, situations, or individuals who share one or more characteristics

- Qualitative data: Data which are recorded in non-numerical form, such as transcripts ofclassroom interactions

- Quantitative data: Data which are recorded in numerical form

- Questionnaire: An instrument for the collection of data, usually in written form, consisting ofopen and/or closed questions and other probes requesting a response from subjects

- Range: Difference between the highest and lowest values in a set of scores

- Raw score: The actual scores obtained on tests

- Sample: A subset of individuals or cases from within a population

- Standard deviation (SD): is the degree to which the group of the scores deviates from themean The standard deviation is a very powerful measure of ‘dispersion’ Large SD shows:(a) the score distribution is wide; (b) the test has spread the students out; (c) there is a widerange of ability.

- T-test: A statistic procedure for testing the difference between two or more means The t test for independent means is used for differences between means of two groups The paired t test or the t test for correlated data is used for differences between means of the same group

(that is, the experimental group) at two different points in time

- Variable: A property or characteristic which may differ from individual to individual or fromgroup to group (anything which does not remain constant) A great deal of research iscarried out in order to identify or test the strength of relationships between variables Whenone variable influences or affects a second variable, the first variable is called an

independent variable, and the second is called a dependent variable.

- Variance: The variance is a direct measure of the dispersion , calculated for a set of scores bysubtracting each score from the mean, squaring the resulting values, adding these together,and dividing by the remainder of the number of the scores minus 1

null hypothesis = X E - X C = 0

positive hypothesis = X E - X C > 0Hanoi University of Education

number of scoresprobabilitystandard deviation observed statisticcritical statisticraw scorethe meanthe mean of experiment groupthe mean of control groupthe total amount (the sum)

List of tables

Table 1: Comparing spoken language & written language

Table 2: Approaches to teaching writing skill

Table 3: Criteria for testing writing

Table 4: The number of students in the two groups

Table 5: Procedures of data collection

Table 6: Scoring scale for writing test

Table 7: Results of questionnaire A

Table 8: Results of questionnaire B, part I

Table 9: Results of questionnaire B, part II

Table 10: Comparison of pre-test performances of the two groups

Table 11: Comparison of post-test performances of the two groups

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List of figures

Figure 1: Gender of the control and experimental groups

Figure 2: Students’ experiences of studying English

Figure 3: Students’ attitudes to the English language learning

Figure 4: The necessity of studying writing

Figure 5: Students’ expectation on the usefulness of the writing course

Figure 6: “Peer response stimulates students’ creativeness and activeness”

Figure 7: “It’s interesting and useful to read and give comment on others’ writings.”

Figure 8: “Giving peer response helps to develop critical reading skill”

Figure 9: “Peer response activities help learners to enhance communicative competence,

promotes second language development”

Figure 10: “Peer response increases negotiation of meaning so as to generate more

information for content and rhetorical issues”

Figure 11: “Peer response provides chances to build strong classmate relationship and

gives students a sense of group cohesion”

Figure 12: Pre-test score distribution

Figure 13: Post-test score distribution

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List of appendices

Appendix 1: Questionnaire A

Appendix 2: Questionnaire B

Appendix 3: Criteria for effective questioning

Appendix 4: Common topics for students to practice writing

Appendix 5: Grading rubric for writing test

CHAPTER ONE

I IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEM

English has experienced its popularity in teaching and learning in Vietnam over the lastdecades It is taught in almost all educational institutions: universities, colleges, training centers,etc The demand for learning English even gets stronger when Vietnam fosters its internationalrelations English, in parallel with the knowledge of some other fields, turns out to be a key toopen the door into the bustling world As a result, learning English now is not only an interestbut also a practical need for many people

This demand in language learning has brought about a great amount of positive changes inlanguage teaching in Vietnam Language teachers have looked for and tried different methodsand techniques in teaching and learning in order to find the effective ones The effectiveness of

a teaching method or technique is reflected in the learners’ language competence that is theirabilities to perform the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, among which,writing seems to be the most difficult one It is the fact that the question of teaching writing welland effectively has been the concern of many people

Being a teacher of English at HUE, I realize that most of the students face many problems

in learning writing This is due to the fact that writing lessons are so boring that students oftenfeel tired and stressed Therefore, it is essential for the teacher to find out effective teachingapproaches to make the lessons more interesting so that s/he can attract students’ attention andhelp improve their writing proficiency as well

Traditionally, students are the passive knowledge receivers who have to do what theirteachers ask them to do There is a fact that in most language classes, especially large classes,most learners only passively sit and take notes , rarely contribute in the lesson and even do notask the teacher questions when they have problems But we all know that students’ interactionand their autonomy in learning foreign languages play an important part in the success ofteaching and learning process That means teachers cannot teach effectively without students’participation In light of communication approach in language teaching which emerges as thelatest development, we are now paying more attention to the role of students in classes Studentare considered the centre of the learning process and teachers serve as facilitators allowingstudents to be in charge of their own learning

With active, independent participation from one another, peer response is considered aslearner-center approach with which students can assess one another’s task to help correct andimprove language skills under the supervision from teachers This is especially helpful if wehave mixed ability group where weaker students can learn a lot from stronger ones Peer work is

a valuable addition to a variety of learning activities which encourages and promotes foreignlanguage skill development

Although peer response is important in effective language teaching, there is inadequateresearch on this issue As far as this matter is concerned, there has been almost no researchwork touching upon the issue of motivating students’ writing skill through peer activities Forthis reasons, I decided on choosing “Using peer response to motivate students’ writing skill” astopic of my M.A research

II PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH

The major purposes of the research are:

1 This research, based on an experiment, tries to explore the effect of peer response method onstudents’ writing motivation and proficiency

2 To find students’ attitudes towards peer response

3 To suggest implications for teachers in order to raise their awareness of students’ active role

in writing lessons

In order to implement the research, a research question is raised: “To what extent does themethod of peer response help to motivate students’ writing?”

III SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH

The results of the study will bring in practical benefits to teaching English, especiallyteaching writing If peer response method helps motivate students’ writing skills, it will beapplied at different scales At small scales, the study provides practical lessons and principles ofpeer response as one of the innovative methods available for the choices of language teachers atHUE At larger scales, the writing materials might be revised to incorporate the peer responsemethod into the present writing program

IV SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH

The study is concerned with finding the effects of using peer response approach inmotivating students to learn EFL writing for the students at HUE in comparison with thetraditional one (teachers’ response only) Other approaches to teaching writing intended forstudents would be beyond the scope

V RESEARCH METHODS

In order to achieve the above mentioned aims to make the study more practical, data werecollected by means of tests and questionnaires and analysis is also used to process the materials.The primary data analysis is of quantitative method with close questions and scale questions inthe questionnaire designed for the needs analysis, and students’ attitude analysis

A need analysis was conducted among the existing students of English major in order tofind out whether the students at HUE consider learning writing useful and find out theirattitudes to peer response approach Lastly, statistic analysis of students’ test scores is used toidentify any improvement made by the students in writing after the experiment The analysisalso helps find out the strengths and drawbacks of peer response, which may result inappropriate adjustments in the teaching method of the instructor

The books, articles and internet sources on peer response method for teaching writing arecollected to examine the history of the fields and available suggestions in the practice ofteaching writing

VI CONTENTS OF THE STUDY

The study comprises four chapters:

- Chapter one is the introduction stating the problem identification, objectives,significance and research method It also narrows the scope of the study andbriefly presents an overall out-line of the research study

- Chapter two reviews the theoretical background of the study It presentsoverview of teaching writing, peer response and motivation in foreign languageteaching

- Chapter three describes in details the research methodology which comprises theinformation of the research subjects, instruments for data collection andprocedure for data collection.

- Chapter four presents statistical results and the analysis of the collected data Thestatistical results are the basement to determine the effects of peer responsemethod on teaching writing

- Chapter five is the conclusion which closes the study by summarizing the maincontents and providing suggestions for further study

CHAPTER TWO

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter consists of three sections Section one deals with general ideas about writing.Section two mentions some concepts related to the activity of peer response in writing andguiding principles for effective peer response The last section deals with motivation inlanguage learning

I OVERVIEW OF WRITING

1 General concept

In language teaching, writing is defined as a productive and taught language skill

According to Ur (1996) “most people acquire the spoken language (at least their own mother

tongue) intuitively, whereas the written form is in most cases deliberately taught and learned”

(p.161) He added that “writing normally requires some form of instruction It is not a skill that

is readily picked up by exposure” (p11).

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

2 Teaching English writing

In this part of the study, what have been previously published about the teachingmethodology of English writing will be examined First a distinction between the characteristics

of written and spoken texts will be presented Secondly, traditional and modern approaches inteaching writing will be discussed Lastly, the study will provide microskills in writing andtasks and activities in writing classes

2.1 Written versus spoken language

Brown & Yule (1983) propose that information is packed very much more densely in thewritten language than in the spoken form with a more complicated set of vocabulary andgrammar rules It is generally believed that the nature of written language will be most clearlyseen when being contrasted with that of the spoken language Written language is formal andstable while spoken language is informal and variable Therefore, it appears much easier toprovide a model of written language than of spoken one

Ur (1996: 159-161) suggests nine characteristics that distinguish written from spokenlanguage His analysis is summarized in Table 1:

Written language Spoken language

Detachment detached in time and

place from readership

takes place with intermediate interactionand feedback

Organization well organized, edited improvising

Slowness of production,

speed of reception

slower to produce, but quicker to read

quicker to produce but listening speed

is decided by the speed of speaker

Standard language standard may be in regional, or limited-context

dialect

A learnt skill must be taught and learnt mother tongue is acquired

Sheer amount and

(Source: Adapted from Ur, 1996: 159-161)

Table 1: Comparing Spoken language and Written language.

According to the data, the different features between spoken and written language suggest some cautions in teaching writing Because written texts are permanent and can be referred many times, they must be written with careful choice of vocabulary and structures

2.2 Approaches in teaching English writing

There are various ways to teach writing but the two most common are the product approachand the process approach Nunan (1991) introduced the two approaches in teaching writing and the differences between them clearly as follows:

-In favour of classroom activities in which

the learners individually imitate copy and

transform model of correct language,

usually at sentence level

Organization of ideas is more important

than ideas themselves

Emphasize grammar exercises and

correctness

-

-Favour of collaborative group work and conferencing to enhance motivation and positive attitude toward writing Model texts are only for comparison

Ideas are important

The learners are encouraged to get their ideas on paper without worrying too much about correctness

-Focus on the end result of the writing

process: the writing paper of the learners

Learners only produce one final draft

Table 2: Approaches to teaching writing skill

a The Product Approach

To be more specific, the product approach concentrates on the end product that writer has

to produce Teachers following the product approach often begin the lessons with presenting amodel text, which is then analyzed on the purpose, language, the organization, and the style.The aim is to enable the learners to produce similar texts Learning is evaluated through textanalysis of learner’s work according to some criteria such as the standard of rhetorical style,accurate grammar, and conventional organization (Brown 1994: 320) The value of thisapproach is the use of models for text analysis and as a basis for thinking about the purposesand readership of a text

b The Process Approach

Unlike the product approach, the process approach focuses on thinking and writingprocesses The product approach sees the language learners as creators of language, decisionmakers of the message and content (Brown 1994: 320) It is argued by Nunan (1991: 87) thatwhile the product-oriented approach aims at developing the learner’s writing skill mainly atsentence-level, the process-oriented approach aims at language at discourse-level

In the view of Hedge (1990), the process contains a lot of stages which can be illustrated as

follows: “being motivated to write – getting ideas together – planning and outlining – making

notes – making a first draft – revising, replanning, redrafting – editing and getting ready for publication.” Meanwhile, according to Oshima and Hogue (1991), the writing process

embraces essentially three steps: pre-writing, planning (outlining), writing, and revising drafts.Each step involves certain kinds of task that the writers have to fulfill in order to construct agood piece of work

* Pre-writing

Pre-writing is any classroom activity that encourages the learners to write It stimulates thoughtsfor getting started It may include understanding the purpose of writing, discovering the topic,thinking about the audience, gathering information or inventing possible content Once the

possible content for writing has been explored, the writers will feel more confident to moveforward to the next stage.

* Planning

In this stage, the learners organize the ideas they have generated The most efficient way to dothis is to make an outline - a plan in which the learners write down the main points and sub-points in the intended order

* Drafting

Once sufficient ideas have been gathered and plan already drawn, the first attempt at writing –drafting can proceed quickly At this stage, the writers are focused on the fluency of writing andare not preoccupied with grammatical accuracy or the neatness of the draft

* Responding

Responding to student writing has a central role to play in the successful implementation ofprocess writing It is a kind of oral or written intervention by teachers or peers or other possiblereaders after the writers have finished drafting This activity is intended to provide the studentsuseful information to improve their writing

* Revising

Revising is done on the basis of the feedback given in the responding stage The studentsreexamine what was written to see how effectively they have communicated their meanings tothe readers Revising is not just checking for language errors; it is done to improve the globalcontent and the organization of ideas so that the writer’s intention is made clearer to the readers

* Editing

At editing stage, the students are engaged in tidying up their texts as they prepare the final draftfor evaluation by the teachers Editing is vital as it is not done for its own sake but as a part ofthe process of making communication as clear and unambiguous as possible to the reader

* Evaluating

In evaluating the student writing, teachers normally assign scores which may be analytical(based on specific aspects of writing ability), or holistic (based on a global interpretation of theeffectiveness of that writing) In order to be effective, the criteria for evaluation need to bemade known to the students in advance

2.3 Microskills of writing

According to Brown (1994: 327), writing involves the microskills as presented in the list below:

1 Produce graphemes and orthographic patterns of English

2 Produce writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose.

3 Produce an acceptable core of words and use appropriate word order patterns

4 Use acceptable grammatical systems (e.g tense, agreement, pluralization), pattern rules

5 Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms

6 Use cohesive devices in written discourse

7 Use the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse

8 Appropriately accomplish the communicative functions of written texts according to forms and purposes.

9 Convey links and connections between events and communicate such regulations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information, generalization, and exemplification

10 Distinguish between literal and implied meanings when writing.

11 Correctly convey culturally specific references in the context of the written text.

(Brown, 1994: 327)

Brown’s list of micro skills for writing includes sufficient aspects required by a writer, yet,

it does not have a clear balance for application Ur (1996: 163) emphasizes on the balancebetween the importance of expressing the ideas and that of formal aspects Accordingly, thecontent or the message should be of fair balance with the form, i.e the correct spelling andpunctuation, acceptable grammar and careful selection of vocabulary

In order to evaluate students’ ability in writing skill accurately, raters have to pay muchattention to some micro skills involving in the writing process that students need to acquire.Some useful information, which is taken from the website http://www.sil.org/linguallinks/,describes the micro skills as follows:

The writer needs to:

1 use the orthography correctly, including the script, spelling, and punctuation conventions.

2 use the correct forms of words: right tense, or case, or gender.

3 put words together in correct word order.

4 use vocabulary correctly.

5 use the style appropriately to the genre and audience.

6 make the main sentence constituents such as subjects, verbs, objects, etc clear to reader.

7 make the ideas distinct from supporting ideas or information.

8 make the text coherent so that other people can follow the development of the ideas.

9 judge how much background knowledge the audience has on the subject and make clear what

it is assumed that they do not know.

Additionally, Heaton (1988) sets some criteria of testing writing which students need toobtain based on different levels This can be demonstrated in the following table:

Basic level Intermediate level Advanced level

 generally legible handwritings

 clear and appropriate expressions

 using a fair range of language

 ability to link themes and points coherently

 extremely high standards

of grammar, vocabulary, and spelling

 easily legible handwriting

 ability to use language accurately and

Imitative writing involves activity like copying, which is somewhat mechanical and doesnot require the learners to understand the meaning That is why this activity is uninteresting forlearners and is only useful for beginners Another form is dictation, which is more challenging

to learners This inceptive activity helps develop both listening and spelling but does notdevelop writing skill in that learners do not have to express ideas or find ways to constructingsentences

Controlled writing activities provide more challenges for learners but still limit theircreation Examples of controlled writing are changing a text from present tense to past tense,completing a sentence by filling the blanks, writing sentences from clues, writing from pictures.Another form is dicto-comp, in which the teacher read the whole paragraph at normal speed,then puts key words from the paragraph on the board, and learners are required to rewrite theparagraph from their recollection and the key words Freer activities include writing based on atext or on oral presentation In the former, learners are provided with a paragraph as a model,then are required to base on the paragraph and write a similar one giving their own information

or information provided by the teacher

Unlike imitative and control writings, in free writing, or self-writing, learners have a certainamount of choice on the ideas even though there may be some limitations like the length of thecomposition, or the topic area.

II OVERVIEW OF PEER RESPONSE

1 Definition

‘Peer response can be defined as the use of learners as sources of information, andinteractants for each other in such a way that learners assume roles and responsibilities normallytaken on by teachers in commenting and critiquing each other’s performances in both writtenand oral formats’ (Hansen and Liu, 2005:1)

Peer response was considered a necessary component in the process writing It is alsosupported by collaborative learning theory which holds that learning is a socially constructedactivity that takes place through communication with peers

2 Advantages of peer response

Teachers are normally the ones who respond to students’ performance; however, studentsthemselves can give comments to one another’s writings Peer response involves students’responding to and revising their papers based on their peers’ comments This is a kind of pair orgroup work which helps to provide students with more opportunities to work with each otherand exchange their ideas This helps them a lot in getting to know each other, in learning fromeach other and creating authentic “audience” or readership Emma Pathare in her article

“Encouraging peer response” affirms that “Likes, dislikes, opinions, dream, goals, creativethoughts all these can be expressed in writing tasks, and through reading each other’s work,students can build stronger relationship”

Peer activity gives students status of who they are and makes them more confident andcreative in learning Peer activities give chances for weak students to be exposed to other’sstrong pieces of writing with interesting ideas and clear organization which can serve as goodmodels for them to apply to their own learning Besides, knowing that their classmates willread the work also encourages them to put more time to their task A supportive peer reader canalso help his or her writing classmate learn which parts of her paper are working and whichparts need further work according to peer comment and suggestion Having the students readeach other’s work provides a wide readership who will respond to the writing in a variety ofways, giving richer response than just a single person (the teacher)

Peer response in writing practice is one kind of task-based learning which is not only amotivating tool but also an effective method of consciousness rising In task-based learning,students are motivated because there are specific tasks’ outcomes for them to fulfill; therefore,they know for sure when they have reached an achievement and they can enjoy the satisfaction.Also, in order to fulfill the task, students have to find appropriate language to negotiate and tosolve problems

Peer response is considered a good peer teaching in the world of EFL Peers are equals, so astudent peer is a student’s fellow classmate Working together and checking work together is aform of peer teaching It’s a good idea to let the students check their writings together beforefeeding back to the teacher because it gives them the chance to rub out or cross out any glaringerrors before the teacher sees Peer response usually goes beyond giving feedback of grammar

or stylistic concern When properly implemented, peer response can generate a rich source ofinformation for content and rhetorical issues, enhance intercultural communication and givestudents a sense of group cohesion (Hansen and Liu, 2005:3)

Peer-correction has been proved to reduce the load of work that the teacher of writing skillshas to do with The pre-writing, during writing and the post-writing can be completed by thestudents before handing to the teacher Peer-correction serves several purposes at a time: Besidemanaging the paper load for the teacher as mentioned above, it provides students with a chance

to improve their language in developing their ability to create coordinative working amongstudents so that stronger students can help the weaker ones

Peer response, a kind of peer work – collaborative learning between small groups pupils –encourages students to be more responsible for their own learning by taking attention awayfrom the teacher and focusing it instead on a task in which they must take some directresponsibility Peer work results in a greater quantity of output and negotiation of meaning thanthat found in teacher fronted classes In addition, the negotiation of meaning, accomplishedthrough such interactional moves as clarification requests and confirmation checks have beenshown to result in better output

3 Guiding principles for effective peer response

In order to involve all learners in class activities, it is the teachers’ business to design andapply techniques to increase students’ peer activities and make them active learners

First, a comfortable environment should be created for students to establish peer trust andmutual understanding from which to enhance peer support

Second, in order for peer work to be successful, students need to understand clearly whatand why they are asked to do This will keep the writing and responding activity focused andforward-moving Students need a reason for reading that they value so that they can make peerfeedback in an enthusiastic and comfortable way To achieve this, peer response should be done

in a non-competitive and non-threatening atmosphere and feedback should be constructive in amanner that might make the writer want to continue working on the paper

According to Pathara (29 Mar.2005), teachers should consider the following ideas whensetting tasks which involve students reading and responding each other’s work:

 Clear and achievable task – there should be clear guidelines as to how to respond.

 Non-competitive and non-threatening – students need to feel comfortable doing the activity.

 Positive and constructive feedback – students are encouraged to share ideas and opinions in

a positive and constructive ways.

 Fun and motivation – let students choose subjects that interest them so that they can really

get involved in.

III OVERVIEW OF MOTIVATION

1 Definitions and types of motivation

Motivation is essential to success in learning in general and in language learning inparticular In other words, success in learning is due to the fact that learners are motivated.Various definitions of motivations have been proposed by different researchers as follows:Motivation is an internal state or condition that serves to activate or energize behavior (orcan be described as a need, desire, or want) and gives it direction Kleinginna (1981:6) definesmotivation as “a desire or want that energizes and directs goal-oriented behavior” Sharing thesame point, Brown (2000:160) suggests that “motivation is some kinds of internal drive whichpushes someone to do things in order to achieve something” Additionally, Woolfolk(2001:366) points out that “motivation is an internal state that arouses directs and maintainsbehavior”

There are different kinds of motivation such as:

- “Integrative”: the desire to identify with and integrate into the target-language culture

- “Instrumental”: the wish to learn the language for purposes of study or careerpromotion

- “Intrinsic”: the urge to engage in the learning activity for its own sake It has beentermed “cognitive drive”, very typical of young children and tends to deteriorate with age.

- “Extrinsic”: motivation that is derived from external incentives

- “Global”: the overall orientation of the learner towards the learning of the foreignlanguage

- “Situational”: it has to do with the context of learning (classroom, learningenvironment)

- “Task”: the way the learner approaches the specific task in hand

Among them, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations have an important part to play in classroommotivation, distinction between these two kinds of motivation seems to be necessary:

 Intrinsic motivation:

Intrinsic motivation refers to “motivation to engage in an activity for its own sake”(Woldkowski, 1991) He means that activity itself is our benefit, so we do not need any otherkinds of rewards or punishment He states that intrinsic motivation “is the natural tendency toseek out and conquer challenges as we pursue personal interests and exercise capabilities” Thefactors of support of intrinsic motivation are: competence (feeling that you know how to dothings), autonomy (being able to perform an activity by yourself without external help) andrelatedness (connection with your social environment like helping the others)

 Extrinsic motivation:

Harmer (2001:51) gives easily understandable definition that extrinsic motivation “is caused

by any number of outside factors such as: the need to pass an exam, the hope of financialreward or the possibility of future travel”

Most writers agree that intrinsic and extrinsic interact with each other and play an importantrole in language learning As a result, learners can be either motivated by internal or externalfactors depending on the circumstances and conditions under which the activity is performed

2 Characteristics of motivated learners

Naiman et al (1978:18) points out: “the most successful learners are not necessarilythose to whom a language comes very easily; they are those who display typical characteristics,most of them clearly associated with motivation” Below is the list:

- Positive task orientation: the learner has confidence in his or her success

- Ego involvement: the learner finds it important to succeed in learning

- Need for achievement: to overcome difficulties and succeed in what s/he sets out to do

- High inspirations: the learner goes for demanding challenges and high proficiency

- Goal orientation: the learner is very aware of the goals of learning

- Perseverance: the learner is not discouraged by setbacks or apparent lack of progress

- Tolerance of ambiguity: the learner is not frustrated by a temporary lack of understanding,

he or she thinks it will come later

3 Strategies to boost students’ motivation

The strategies to boost students’ motivation are stated clearly in the book “Educationpsychology” (2001:421) by Woolfolk She suggests five strategies as follows: fulfill necessaryconditions in the classroom, building confidence and positive expectations, seeing the value oflearning, instrumental value, staying focused on the task

- The first strategy is fulfilling necessary conditions in the classroom These necessaryconditions consist of an organized classroom environment, a patient and supportive teacher,challenging but reasonable work, worthwhile learning tasks

- The second one is to build students’ confidence and positive expectations by askingstudents to make their learning goals clear, specific and attainable Teachers should begin work

at the students’ levels, moving in small steps to assure that academic is improvable

- The third strategy is to show the value of learning to the students In order to do this, theteacher should know how to connect the learning task to the students’ need, make the learningtask fun, tie class activities to the students’ interests in order to arouse their curiosity, make use

of novelty and familiarity and provide incentives and rewards if needed Therefore, the studentswill be aware of the value of learning

- The fourth strategy is making students stay focused on the task by giving them frequentopportunities to demonstrate skills, providing them chances to create a finished product Theteacher should teach them appropriate learning tactics for different kinds of exercises

- Finally, for instrumental value, it is essential to explain to students the connectionsbetween school and life outside of school Besides, teachers should provide them incentives forlearning when needed and for doing authentic tasks.

4 Roles of motivation in foreign language learning

Most motivation theorists assume that motivation is related with the performance of alllearned responses; that is, a learned behavior will not occur unless it is energized Therefore,motivation affects the extent of active, personal involvement in second language learning.Obviously, unmotivated students are insufficiently involved and therefore unable to developtheir potential foreign language skills

Motivation is one of the main determining factors in success in foreign or second languagelearning Oxford and Shearin (1996:121-122) state that: “Motivation is important because itdirectly influences how often students use second language learning strategies, how muchstudents interact with native speakers, how much input they receive in the language beinglearned (the target language), how well they do on curriculum-related achievement tests, howhigh their general proficiency level becomes, and how long they preserve and maintain secondlanguage skills after language study is over Therefore, motivation is crucial for secondlanguage learning”

To conclude, as motivation plays an important role in teaching and learning a foreignlanguage, the teacher should know strategies to boost students’ motivation and to obtain success

in teaching As a general rule, teachers are advised to use as much of the intrinsic suggestions aspossible while recognizing that not all students will be appropriately motivated by them.However, both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation should be paid attention in foreign languageteaching and learning

CHAPTER THREE

METHOD AND PROCEDURES

In this chapter, method of the study will be described clearly including the important stepsthe researcher follows in conducting the study:

I Determining on the research hypothesis

II Determining on the research design

III Participants

IV Collecting data

V Processing and analyzing data

In order to get more information about peer response and to find out the fact whether peerresponse motivates students to learn EFL writing, the researcher intends to find the answers tothe following questions:

1 What are the students’ attitudes towards peer response?

2 To what extent does the method of peer response help to improve students’ writingmotivation and proficiency?

These questions are formulated as one research hypothesis:

- Students’ writing motivation and proficiencies become better improved after utilizing peer response method.

II DETERMINING ON THE RESEARCH DESIGN

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of peer response method (independentvariable) on the motivation of students’ EFL writing (dependent variable), so the research

design chosen for this study is an experimental research being conducted to find out the

difference between the proficiencies and motivations of students before and after the

experiment This research design enables us to measure changes and assess impact of peerresponse technique on students’ writing skill.

The new teaching/learning approach we develop is the experiment treatment, and theexisting teaching is the control treatment A classroom experiment of this type involvesselecting a sample of students randomly assigning them to experiment and control groups,providing the experimental group with a carefully planned instructional treatment whileproviding the control group with an alternative treatment, and, finally assessing how well eachgroup performs on the dependent variable (independent variables affect dependent variables)

In this study, peer response activity is considered the independent variable (a variable is a

characteristic that can vary) The independent variable is the characteristic that is hypothesized

to have an effect on EFL writing proficiency The dependent variable is the variable that is

affected by the independent variable In this study, the dependent variable is students’ writing

proficiency

The most essential characteristic of an experiment is that the researcher manipulates theindependent variable; that is the researcher designs and sets up the experimental and controltreatments In addition, the essential characteristic of a true experiment is that the students in thetreatment (experiment) group are as similar as possible to those in the control group so that ifthe results differ, these differences can be attributed to the different treatments rather than todifferences between the two groups of students

In the following sections, the setting of the research as well as the subjects, tools ofgathering data and technique of processing data will be thoroughly described

1 The Subjects

The subjects involved in this study were 56 second-year students majoring in English coming from two classes at Hanoi University of Education (HUE) (Subjects are the persons selected for study in experiments) Both classes had equal number of students, 28 students per each These students are young, aged from 19-25, most of them are female There is always an imbalance ratio between male and female students in all English major classes, and in these groups, it is approximately 1/7 which can well be a representative ratio of the population

FIGURE 1: Gender of the control and experimental groups

13%

87%

Male Female

Students vary a lot as they are from different places Generally, students coming from bigcities like Hanoi are better than those who come from other provinces like Hai Duong, NamDinh, Ha Tay, etc These students are more active and confident in participating in classactivities This fact has already been taken into consideration when teacher arranged groupwork in experiment class

Students’ durations of learning English are also different Many of them have learnt Englishsince they were 10-grade pupils, others have learnt since they were 6-grade pupils They allfinished upper secondary school and passed university entrance exams before entering HUE.Most of them are good at grammar; however, they are not used to learning writing skill

Before the experiment, the students finished two terms of English at pre-intermediate level

In term three, they continued with four basic language skills: listening, reading, speaking andwriting Based on the results of their term-end test, the two classes were found to be at almostthe same level of English

This study involves the use of two groups: control and experiment or treatment group asdescribed in the following table:

Control group Experiment or treatment group

Table 4: The number of students in the two groups

- Control group: (group without treatment of peer response method) we choose class A

- Experiment group: (group receiving treatment of peer response method) we choose class B

In all, two groups selected for the research as the control and experiment group are based

on the following criteria:

1 These two groups (each with two classes) are almost equally distributed in terms ofnumber and gender.

2 As regards of age, they appear to be mostly in the same age group, ranging from 19 to 25years old

3 They have covered the same English syllabuses

4 They have almost the same average results of previous terms

To sum up, the two groups are found to be compatible with 56 students in all officiallybecome the subjects of the research and all information about them will be gathered andanalyzed in the next section

2 The Researcher

The researcher and her collaborator are teachers of these two groups They are qualified toteach with B.A in English and have been teaching English at HUE for more than 3 years Theresearcher sets up and controls the situations, monitors the treatments, manages instruments Before the experiment period, the researcher and her collaborator arranged to meet anddiscuss about methods, contents, and time allocation for the research to make sure that teachingand learning condition was likely the same in two groups Teachers developed plans for almostall aspects of implementing a project such as the purposes, the topic questions, assessment, andmanagement before, during and after the project

IV DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES

1 Data collection instruments

1.1 Questionnaires

This familiar form of collecting information has some advantages: It is less time consumingthan interviewing the same number of students It can also be easily quantified becausemultiple-choice questions are used in questionnaires However, it also has some disadvantages:

It is not easy to construct a reliable questionnaire because students may copy others’ answerwhich results in invalidate data Responses may not always be true because students aresometimes reluctant to give truly negative answers about their teachers To solve this problem,students are assured that all their answers will be anonymous and confidential They are also