Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using 4 criteria instructed by british council

Nevertheless, learning writing skill is an important aspect of learningEnglish and improving writing skills of high school students is extremely crucialbecause being able to write a para

I INTRODUCTION

REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC

In the integration era, English has become an indispensable part of life andwork as well Therefore, the importance of studying English is undeniable Thereare various reasons why a student needs to study this language However, overmany researched practices, most students want to learn English to be able to speak,not to write Nevertheless, learning writing skill is an important aspect of learningEnglish and improving writing skills of high school students is extremely crucialbecause being able to write a paragraph effectively provides them with high score

in writing section which is one of the most important parts in high schoolgraduation examination Therefore, teaching them how to write a good paragraphaccelerates their English studies for the exam, and they are more likely to gethigher scores as well Besides, some examinations taken by education and trainingdepartments for English talented students also require some extents of being fluent

in writing Having good writing skills helps those pupils to be able to writeeffectively in a specific time limit Another important reason is that in the farfuture when young students become potential candidates in job market, employersdefinitely need them be able to write an English document such as sending anemail to foreign partners Such highly competitive markets force graduates to havehigh level of English competence to communicate efficiently with foreignerswhilst working The last but not least is that improving writing skills is veryimportant for students who want to study aboard According to IIE (InternationalInstitute education) in 2015, the number of Vietnamese student coming to theUnited States increased significantly to about 20,000 students, a rise of about 12%

in comparison with the last year, 2014 [1].This means, the demand to study abroad

in such educationally potential markets such as United States or United Kingdom.However, such English native countries like those have accepted IELTs resultswhich demonstrates the learners’ English ability

I have been teaching English at Bim Son High School for more than tenyears Through teaching experience, I realize that many students face up with anumber of challenging factors despite full guiding steps for writing, and most ofthem are unable to write a paragraph effectively They have responded in anegative attitude towards writing, and many of them have said to their teacher thatthey would bypass the skills in almost examinations As a teacher of English, Ihave been trying hard to an effective way to tackle it For the apparent reasons

expressed above, I decided to choose ‘Teaching high school students to write a

paragraph by using 4 criteria instructed by British Council’ as a topic for my

study in high school program

II CONTENT.

PART 1: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 What are meant by the 4 criteria of British Council

British Council has extremely clear instruction by which a piece of writingcan be evaluated correctly Particularly, British Council has been the organization

to hold IELTS test which represents for International English Language Test

‘Lexical Resource’; ‘Grammatical Range and Accuracy’ There are over 40countries around the world where IELTS test is received an official approval as anEnglish standard for people who want to study or work in English native countries.These criteria are used to evaluate IELTS test takers’ performances in two tasks Inthe writing task 2, candidates need to write at least 250 words about a specifictopic which might be an argumentative or discursive Although in the real IELTStest, all candidates must write a 250-word essay, the criteria used to evaluate thequality of an essay are definitely the same to that for a paragraph Using thesecriteria to apply for Vietnamese English national high school graduationexamination not only helps teacher to assess exam takers’ competency but alsosupports pupils to study more effectively According to British Council, all criteriaare meant as follow: [3]

Task Achievement: this is the criterion used to evaluate how well a writing

respond to the task This criterion also includes how sufficient the length of awriting to the requirement Generally speaking, the length of a writing task 2 inIELTS for an essay is at least 250 words Therefore, the score of a candidate willincrease if she or he:

+ Pay attention to answer ALL issues in the task question

+ Write about the issues rather than just the general topic

+ Answer the question with relevant main points

+ Plan the supporting points so they do not go off the topic

+ Write over 250 words for an essay

Coherence and Cohesion: This criterion contains of two smaller criteria

which are coherence and cohesion The coherence evaluates how the paragraphlinks with the topic That means all the sentences and words are required to betopic-related However, cohesion needs a candidate to write sentences and ideasvery logically By following the cohesion criterion, all sentences need to beconnected together and be supportive each other to make high understanding forreaders Therefore, the score for this criterion will increase if a candidate could:

+ Have appropriate structure: In IELTS tests, whole essay should beexplained into 4 to 5 small paragraph However, applying this into the Vietnamesenational high school graduation examination means that a paragraph should bepresented appropriately by starting a topic sentence to fold the whole meaning ofparagraph about what the candidate is going to write This sentence should befollowed by supporting sentences, and the paragraphs should end with aconcluding sentence.

+ Organizing ideas logically: for readers to easily understand

+ Use a range of linking words to connect sentences ideas

+ Avoid errors in linking words

 Lexical Resource: This is criterion used to assess the ability of using wide

range of vocabulary Candidate is required to not only use less common and related words (at academic and formal level) in correct contexts but also use manysynonyms to demonstrate the paraphrasing ability Therefore, the score for thiscriterion will increase if a candidate could:

topic-+ Pay attention to collocations (which verb matches which nouns)

+ Paraphrase carefully to avoid errors

+ Use a range of words appropriate for the topic

+ Spell words correctly and avoid making errors

+ Avoid using informal and spoken language

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: the ability of use various complex

grammar and structures of candidates The more complicated but accurate structure

a candidate can use, the higher score she or he can get Therefore, the score for thiscriterion will increase if a candidate could:

+ Use different grammar tenses (conditionals, perfect tenses, passive voice,past tenses, future tenses, etc.)

+ Pay attention to word order in the sentences correctly

+ Use a range of sentence structures

+ Use the correct punctuation (full stops and commas)

+ Avoid errors in grammar (errors will lower the score – see the descriptorbelow)

+ Correct using of articles, plural nouns, uncountable nouns and so on

+ Using complex sentences such as ‘while’, ‘because’, ‘although’, and so on

IELTS band writing descriptors [4]

Band Task Achievement Coherence and Cohesion Lexical Resource Grammatical Range and accuracy

9

- fully addresses all parts of the

task

- presents a fully developed

position in answer to the question

with relevant, fully extended and

well supported ideas

- uses cohesion in such a way that it attracts no attention

- skillfully manages paragraphing

- uses a wide range of vocabulary with very natural and sophisticated control of lexical features; rare minor errors occur only as ‘slips’

- uses a wide range of structures with full flexibility and accuracy; rare minor errors occur only as ‘slips’

8

- sufficiently addresses all parts

of the task

- presents a well-developed

response to the question with

relevant, extended and supported

ideas

- sequences information and ideas

- logically

- manages all aspects of cohesion well

- uses paragraphing sufficiently and appropriately

- uses a wide range of vocabulary

- fluently and flexibly to convey precise meanings

- skillfully uses uncommon lexical items but there may be occasional inaccuracies in word choice and collocation

- produces rare errors in spelling and/or word formation

- uses a wide range of structures

- the majority of sentences are error-free

- makes only very occasional errors or inappropriateness

- presents a clear position

throughout the response

- logically organizes information and ideas;

there is clear progression

- uses a sufficient range of vocabulary to allow some flexibility and precision

- uses a variety of complex structures

- produces frequent

- presents, extends and supports

main ideas, but there may be a

tendency to over generalize and/or

supporting ideas may lack focus

throughout

- uses a range of cohesive devices appropriately although there may be some under-/over-use

- presents a clear central topic within each

paragraph

- uses less common lexical items with some awareness of style and collocation

- may produce occasional errors in word choice, spellingand/or word formation

error-free sentences

- has good control of grammar and punctuationbut may make a few errors

6

- addresses all parts of the task

although some parts may be more

fully covered than others

- presents a relevant position

although the conclusions may

become unclear or repetitive

- presents relevant main ideas but

some may be inadequately

developed/unclear

- arranges information andideas coherently and there

is a clear overall progression

- uses cohesive devices effectively, but cohesion within and/or between sentences may be faulty or mechanical

- may not always use referencing clearly or appropriately

- uses paragraphing, but not always logically

- uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task

- attempts to use less common vocabulary but with some inaccuracy

- makes some errors in spelling and/or word formation, but they do not impede communication

- uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms

- makes some errors in grammar and punctuationbut they rarely reduce communication

partially; the format may be

- presents information with some organization but

- uses a limited range of vocabulary, but this is

- uses only a limited range of structures

inappropriate in places

- expresses a position but the

development is not always clear

and there may be no conclusions

drawn

- presents some main ideas but

these are limited and not

sufficiently developed; there may

be irrelevant detail

there may be a lack of overall progression

- makes inadequate, inaccurate or over use of cohesive devices

- may be repetitive because of lack of referencing and substitution

- may not write in paragraphs, or paragraphing may be inadequate

minimally adequate for the task

- may make noticeable errors

in spelling and/or word formation that may cause some difficulty for the reader

attempts complex sentences but these tend

to be less accurate than simple sentences

- may make frequent grammatical errors and punctuation may be faulty; errors can cause some difficulty for the reader

minimal way or the answer is

tangential; the format may be

inappropriate

- presents a position but this is

unclear

- presents some main ideas but

these are difficult to identify and

may be repetitive, irrelevant or not

well supported

- presents information andideas but these are not arranged coherently and there is no clear

progression in the response

- uses some basic cohesive devices but these may be inaccurate or repetitive

- may not write in paragraphs or their use

- uses only basic vocabulary which may be used

repetitively or which may be inappropriate for the task

- has limited control of word formation and/or spelling;

errors may cause strain for thereader

- uses only a very limited range of structures with only rare use of subordinate

clauses

- some structures are accurate but errors predominate, and punctuation is often faulty

may be confusing

1.2 Factual situation

Statistics have proved that the students in high school program do not havehigh level of English ability In the 2015 national high school graduationexamination, the result for English subject was shocked when the number of pupilswho had the mark below the average was significantly high, shown in followinggraph. [5]

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10 0

47518

31415 21584 15744 1222810000

8218 6713 5646 4730

3630 2577 988 59

Number of pupils

Column1

Figure 1 English marks in the 2015 National high school graduation exam

Source: The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) 2015

The most important factual situation that hastens me to choose this topic veryurgently is that the English writing ability of pupils in Bim Son high school isextremely limited In the school year 2018-2019 I was in charge of classes: 12A1,12A5, 11B1, 11B3 in academic year 2018-2019 Because writing a paragraph isnot included in the paper of GCSE examination , most students do not like writingskills It can be seen through the results of the surveys I conducted about thestudent’s attitude toward the writing lesson before the study:

School year 2017-2018

students

Number ofstudents like

been coached to write effectively by their teachers, and they find it absolutelydifficult to organize their writing They lack of general knowledge, which leads tothe inability to figure out the ideas for specific topic They lack of both grammarand vocabulary to convey their thoughts into paragraphs Therefore, each writinglesson of teachers and pupils are usually stressful because it is inefficiently taughtwhen pupils just feel very disappointed about their writing skills, and they seem to

be indifferent to writing skills

PART 2: SOLUTION

It is very important to understand that in order to improve writing skills, bothteachers and pupils have to cooperate closely and continuously On the scale of thisresearch, I have been taking more than 2 months constantly coaching learners intwo classes: 11B1, 11B5 (2018) and 12A1, 12A5 (2019) These classes are theones whose students particularly focus on English, so writing class activities seem

to be carried out quite propitiously I have been implementing a close process inwhich pupils are trained continuously and intensively, especially when the nationalhigh school graduation examination is coming soon I found that the traditionalapproaches usually teaching students to write a sentence and then build up to afinished paragraph However, in this study, I have a quite reverse process in which

I initially teach students by giving them a sample to follow and then I analyze it indetails very clearly so that they are able to understand thoroughly the structure andthe criteria required of an excellent paragraph As a result, after at least fourrepeated process, especially being stressed on analyzing in detail the given sample,students will gradually find it easier and more enthusiastic to write a paragraph.The process includes five main steps as follow:

- Step 1: The step is giving students a writing sample which is written by thecoach as a very good example to answer the writing task In this step, I always givethem some minutes to read the sample given.

- Step 2: This step provides them with clear analysis on the paragraph.Followed by the four criteria, pupils are all coached to understand each criterionand showed why and how the sample meets all the criteria to get a high score Bydoing this, they are able to understand immediately and constantly absorb theseimportant factors

- Step 3: After being educated to understand the writing sample given theteacher, all students are required to re-write the task so that they show how manypercent that they could understand the teacher’s analysis This step helps them tomemorize what have they been taught to write, and they are more likely togradually imitate the way to write an academic writing with high competence

- Step 4: although they are given a clear analysis on the sample paragraph,their writing might contain various mistakes, including spelling mistakes,grammatical mistakes, and styling mistakes However, with the step of correction,all these kinds of mistakes are corrected just-in-time precisely Therefore, pupilswould definitely improve their writing ability

- Step 5: After all pupils’ paragraphs are corrected, they are given moreconsulting samples from the teachers so that they could have rich and prestigiouswriting materials They may keep these materials as an important resource to readafter to absorb the grammar and vocabulary as well as they way to organize aparagraph

Accordingly, there are various class activities which can be used to supportwriting skills, especially writing an excellent paragraph as the initiatives throughteaching experience as follow:

2.1 Activity 1: Analysis excellent paragraph samples given by the teacher with the four criteria. [6]

The aim of this activity is to show students the way how to analyze a goodparagraph Therefore, all students in the class are given a topic to write a paragraph

so that the teacher will be able to investigate their improvement processaccompanied by schoolbook

Orde

r

Lesson’s name Activities given – write a paragraph about

The importance of studying English?

- Which job would you like to do in the future?

as good examples to analyzing a high score paragraph so that students are coached

to build their own ones which can meet the marking criteria used by ministry ofeducation and training

SAMPLE 1 : THEME 1: YOU AND ME