Peer collaboration” in developing writing skills among grade 10 students in an upper secondary school in hung yen

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ******************* CHU THỊ THÙY CHI “PEER COLLABORATION” IN DEV

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

*******************

CHU THỊ THÙY CHI

“PEER COLLABORATION” IN DEVELOPING WRITING SKILLS AMONG GRADE 10 STUDENTS IN AN UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL IN HUNG YEN

(“Hợp tác đồng cấp” nhằm phát triển kĩ năng viết của học sinh khối 10 tại một

trường THPT tại Hưng Yên)

Field : English Teaching Methodology (applied program) Code : 8140231.01

HANOI – 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

*******************

CHU THỊ THÙY CHI

“PEER COLLABORATION” IN DEVELOPING WRITING SKILLS AMONG GRADE 10 STUDENTS IN AN UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL IN HUNG YEN

(“Hợp tác đồng cấp” nhằm phát triển kĩ năng viết của học sinh khối 10 tại một

trường THPT tại Hưng Yên)

Field : English Teaching Methodology (applied program) Code : 8140231.01

Supervisor : Dr Vu Hai Ha

HANOI – 2019

my study and has taught me precious lessons in life

I would like to acknowledge my colleagues and friends who are always willing to support me

I also give special thank to my parents, my younger sister and my younger brother who have always been by my side and helped me overcome difficulties

From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank my husband who has always motivated me and filled me with love, warmness, and hope

DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY

I declare that the thesis entitled “Peer collaboration in developing writing skills among grade 10 students in an upper-secondary school in Hung Yen” is my own work in the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master at Faculty

of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University Except for quotations and citations which have been acknowledged, this thesis does not contain published materials and credited thesis

CHU THỊ THÙY CHI

ABSTRACT

Although collaboration in writing has been used in foreign language classrooms because of its effectiveness, very few studies have been carried out to examine learners‟ perception of this process The aims of the study are to investigate the performances of peer collaboration and how it affects developing writing skills through the students‟ perspective This case study was conducted in an upper secondary school in Hung Yen with 45 grade 10 students in a class The data

of the research was collected by means of observations and interviews The results illustrated a lot of ways in which peer collaboration was applied in writing lessons Besides, this study also revealed the students‟ perspective about the benefits they enjoyed as well as the difficulties they encountered Most students agreed that peer collaboration had positive impacts on expanding knowledge and improving skills for students However, it was unavoidable that there were still some drawbacks, especially in terms of personal and interpersonal ones

Keywords: writing, peer collaboration

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the study 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Research methodology 3

1.4 Significance of the study 3

1.5 Structure 4

1.6 Summary 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Theoretical background 5

2.1.1 Writing and teaching writing in ELF 5

2.1.2 Peer collaboration in EFL 9

2.1.3 The way(s) peer collaboration can be carried out in writing lessons 10

2.1.4 The benefits of peer collaboration in writing 13

2.1.5 The drawbacks of peer collaboration in writing 14

2.2 Writing skills for Grade 10 students in Vietnam 15

2.3 Review of previous related studies and gap for research 16

2.4 Summary 19

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 20

3.1 Research paradigm and research design 20

3.1.1 Research paradigm 20

3.1.2 Research design 20

3.2 Research setting and participants 21

3.2.1 Research setting 21

3.2.2 Participants 22

3.3 Data collection 23

3.3.1 Instruments 23

3.3.2 Data collection procedure 25

3.4 Data analysis 26

3.5 Methodological limitations 26

3.6 Summary 26

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 28

4.1 Response to Research question 1 28

4.1.1 Observation results 28

4.1.2 Interview results 28

4.2 Response to Research question 2 32

4.2.1 Observation results 32

4.2.2 Interview results 32

4.3 Response to Research question 3 35

4.3.1 Observation results 35

4.3.2 Interview results 36

4.4 Discussions 39

4.5 Summary 43

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 44

5.1 Recapitulations of main findings 44

5.2 Practical implications 45

5.3 Research limitations and future research 47

5.4 Summary 48

REFERENCES 49 APPENDICES I

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The comparison between process writing and product writing 8

Table 2: The summary of the previous studies 17

Table 3: The summarized findings of Research question 1 40

Table 4: The summarized findings of Research question 2 41

Table 5: The summarized findings of Research question 3 43

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This introductory chapter presents the rationale for the study, the scope and the significance of the study Besides, the researcher demonstrates three questions

as well as indicates the aims and objectives of the study

1.1 Rationale for the study

Nowadays, English is becoming more and more popular in international communication It is not only expressed in speaking but also performed in writing Obviously, writing plays a very important role in many aspects of life However, writing skill is primarily taught by applying some certain forms based on the teacher‟s instructions Apparently, the traditional approach has not fully encouraged and developed students‟ creativity yet because most of their writings depended on available and similar ideas in an outline Therefore, it is necessary to find a beneficial approach through which both teachers and students care to promote the quality of writing lessons

According to Nunan (1992), educators tended to change from the traditional teacher-centered approach to a learner-centered one and they hoped to create an equal environment for teachers as well as students to work In addition, integrated skills were considered a noticeable trend which was expected to bring innovation in English learning and teaching Students not only created writing products but also improved their language competence through peer collaboration Indeed, collaborative learning has existed for a long time in new education in the world Shehadeh (2011) indicated that collaborative work was internationally popular in teaching and learning the second language The writer also assumed that learning in collaboration could help students develop writing skill, gain more experience as well as improve other skills Moreover, Storch (2005) pointed out that cooperation

in writing could support students to promote social interaction, especially in communication Writing was no longer an individual process because it could be carried out by teammates As a consequence, writing lesson could be more active

and interactive through collaborative activities because students had more opportunities to express their opinions as well as exchange their ideas to make their products better

Collaboration was believed to become advantageous in the development of teaching and learning a foreign language Actually, the positive impacts of collaborative writing were investigated by a lot of researchers For example, teachers found an effective technique to apply in writing classes (Al-Nafiseh, 2013)

On the other hand, students expanded their knowledge by learning from others and they supported each other to finish the tasks (Dobao, 2013) Peer collaboration created a beneficial opportunity for all members of the group to improve important skills such as problem-solving, motivation and self-study In short, collaborative writing, especially peer collaboration was used as an effective supporting tool in teaching and learning English

Although the application of peer collaboration has been explored in some studies, it was not common to apply this process to real lessons Apparently, teachers still preferred traditional teaching approaches because teaching writing based on tasks in the textbook was more popular However, learner-centered approach is becoming more and more attractive since students want to improve their skills and enhance their knowledge through peer interaction in classes Students are expected to develop their integrated skills instead of the only one As a result, teachers need to change to make learning environment more active and interactive One of the most appreciated suggestions was designing writing activities through peer collaboration This study was supposed to investigate some real experiences of applying collaboration in teaching and learning English writing

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

With the expectation that students‟ writing skill could be improved by using peer collaboration, this study was carried out to explore how collaborative writing activities have impacts on writing teaching and learning process In addition, it also explored the students‟ perspective on the application of writing collaboration To

achieve these goals, the researcher had to study grade 10 students in an secondary school in Hung Yen based on three main points: (1) to look for the ways

upper-in which peer collaboration is performed upper-in writupper-ing classes; (2) to examupper-ine students‟ perspective on collaborative writing and (3) to search for the disadvantages and drawbacks of this collaborative process in writing lessons Consequently, a case study was conducted among grade 10 students in an upper-secondary school in Hung Yen to achieve the purposes mentioned above

1.3 Research methodology

Focusing on one case targeting students of grade 10 in a upper-secondary school in Hung Yen, this research aims to examine students‟ perception of peer collaboration To achieve the objectives, this investigation determines the answers

to the three following questions:

1) In what way(s) is peer collaboration carried out to develop writing skills for grade 10 students in an upper-secondary school in Hung Yen?

2) What benefits do students gain from this process as perceived by them? 3) What are the drawbacks of this process as perceived by the students?

1.4 Significance of the study

This research is expected to be beneficial to both teachers and students Firstly, students can experience and identify the advantages and disadvantages of learning writing collaboratively In other words, they can develop their writing skill based on the effect of this process Secondly, they can solve common problems and avoid mistakes in cooperative learning Additionally, this study is regarded as a reference for teachers who want to adjust their teaching style They can find a better ways of teaching from the benefits and drawbacks of peer collaboration Moreover, the reflections of students‟ perspectives are also necessary for teachers to make the lesson more accomplished Last but not least, the research‟s result can be helpful and beneficial in teaching and learning a foreign language as well

Chapter 2: Literature Review

This chapter supplies the background knowledge of the writing theories including the definition, the importance and some techniques of writing teaching The overview of peer collaboration is illustrated through the definitions, the types and the impacts on writing teaching and learning Besides, the relevant previous studies are mentioned to indicate the approach of the study

Chapter 3: Methodology

The chapter describes the strategy and methodology used in the study It also concludes the method of data collection and the information related to the analysis

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion

This chapter presents and analyzes the data collected from the interviews of teachers and students as well as students‟ writings After that, the information is evaluated to lead the discussion

Chapter 5: Conclusions

All the main issues are summarized to give conclusions In addition, some certain limitations of this study are pointed out Last but not least, the recommendations are provided for further research

1.6 Summary

The first chapter was the introduction of the study In this chapter, the rationale for the research was described Besides, the author presented main objectives and three research questions The study was expected to be helpful for both teachers and students, so the significance of the study was mentioned clearly Finally, the structure part provided the design of the study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter consists of four main parts Firstly, it provides reviews of the theories related to writing in general and collaborative writing in specific Besides, the overview of peer collaboration is illustrated through the definitions from various researchers Secondly, based on the previous studies, this chapter also highlights the patterns of carrying out collaborative writing as well as mentions several advantages and drawbacks of collaborative writing Thirdly, the research gaps are provided in this chapter Finally, the last part is summary

2.1 Theoretical background

2.1.1 Writing and teaching writing in ELF

2.1.1.1 The definition of writing

Biria, R., & Jafari, S., in their paper “The Impact of Collaborative Writing on the Writing Fluency of Iranian EFL Learners” (Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 4(1), 164-175, 2013), argued that writing can be understood to be the process of creating symbols: making marks on a flat surface of some kind The arrangement of the symbols based on certain rules is then requested to form words, and words have to be arranged to make up sentences A series of sentences are then put in a specific order and connected together in certain ways

The concept of writing was developed by various authors According to Hyland (2003), writing as the visual channel and the productive mode of language was an indispensable skill which allowed L2 learners to improve their perspective towards the language and the teaching of this skill was taken into second language classes as a central part In another point of view, writing, as a tool for representing thought, ideas and studying contents (Foster, 2008), had to be considered as a vital method of communicating and studying language (Tynjala, Mason, & Lonka, 2001; Weigle, 2002) Moreover, (Byrne, 1988) claimed that unlike speech, the act of writing would not receive instantaneous response or feedback, so writing had to be conducted carefully from the foundation of sentences to the whole adherence

In general, writing is the process through which the writer expresses his/her ideas, opinions and feelings through the letters or the symbols Writing is divided into different genres and purposes, so there are diverse ways of writing The writers could conduct their writings based on available models or they could create them in their own ways

2.1.1.2 Teaching writing in ELF

Teaching writing in EFL was conducted using different approaches, including typical ones:

 The product approach

Writing could be classified into different genres and are written for different social purposes Hyland (2003) assumed that this approach was not only concerned about normal writing but also related to achievement of a specific purpose In fact, students could practice different types of writing such as narrative, report, informal letter and article in various situations Teaching the genre approach followed three steps: presentation, practice and production The teacher provided necessary information and gave some typical models of the genre to students Moreover, the teacher could suggest some available structures, useful language as well as effective writing tips After that, students had time to do the tasks and complete their writing Indeed, each genre had its conventional features and the teacher‟s duty was to supply essential knowledge for students and helped them learn how to produce texts with the same features It was helpful for the learners who wanted to have the fastest and the most efficient writing for the target of examination Nevertheless, product writing lesson could become boring and stereotyped if it was applied inflexibly in class because the teacher and students had their own work and they were less interactive in class

In short, the product writing mainly focused on the result which learners achieved Therefore, learners could achieve the expected objective as long as they followed the instructions, techniques and tips of writing They were also provided typical models to learn how to write effectively in a short time This approach could support learners beneficially if they wanted to get immediate products or they needed to take part in some contests

 The process approach

Process writing was an approach in which learners focused on the process to produce their written products rather than on the products themselves Brown (2001) stated that writing was a thinking process; the writer produced final writing after thinking process In the process approach, learners became central in learning,

so learners needed to make the most of their abilities to cooperate with the teacher and the other classmates Besides, Badger & White (2000) indicated that the writing process focused more on writing skills (planning, revising and drafting) than on linguistic knowledge (spelling, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary) Additionally, learners were taught writing through some stages such as planning, drafting, revising, editing and publishing in order to create completed written products (Belinda, 2006)

The writing process could include several steps, but a typical arrangement consisted of three steps: prewriting, drafting, and, revising Undoubtedly, there were different arrangements such as pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and evaluating Each writer had a unique way of applying the writing process depending on the level of the course as well as the writing target Hence, learners could achieve their purposes through the writing process in different procedures

 Pre-writing

Williams (2003) stated that it was necessary to make an outline before writing down because of coherence and cohesion Starting from the main points to supporting ideas as well as examples could help the writer write effectively In the same year, Curry illustrated that brainstorming was a key term of the pre-writing process because students could freely discover and exchange ideas for their specific topic or task In addition, planning ideas and making an outline were pivotal strategies that helped learners to write successfully The main points were organized

in order of the note, so it might be more convenient for learners to write In other words, the writer could save time during writing and avoid missing points In the pre-writing stage, collaboration was appreciated since it was suitable for discussing and collecting the information to support their final products Learners could do the task effectively if they took part in cooperative activities

 Drafting

Drafting was the stage in which learners started writing after collecting information and making an outline (Williams, 2003) During this stage, learners conducted their writing under time limit After that, they could check their errors and mistakes to correct them In other words, drafting could be the chance for learners to practice and present their ideas on paper directly

 Revising

While drafting carried out the writer‟s ideas, revising played an important role in completing the writing‟s content Williams (2003) mentioned that after the first draft, the writer should rearrange sentences as well as replace vocabulary and structures with more appropriate ones It was suitable for learners to add more supporting ideas or examples and eliminate worthless sentences

 Editing

Last but not least, the final stage focused on linguistic accuracy such as grammar, spelling and punctuation Editing should be conducted after the content was completed Writers could edit independently or work in peer editing The effectiveness of editing might be based on the carefulness of the writers or their partners After editing, the writing was considered as the final version to publish Both product and process writing were typical in teaching and learning a foreign language However, each of them had special features which are summarized in the following table:

Table 1: The comparison between process writing and product writing

 text as a resource for comparison

For this study, the process approach was more suitable to conduct collaborative activities in writing stages The process of writing concentrated on practicing writing skills through certain stages The learners might have opportunities to discover and explore their ability of writing Moreover, they not only had more opportunities to exchange and interact with others but also had more time to work together Besides, it could be more convenient for the teacher to design and arrange suitable activities in each stage

2.1.2 Peer collaboration in EFL

Collaboration was defined as a kind of cooperative group activity in which different individuals coordinated with others to do the tasks or complete some work (Patel, Cytryn, Shortlife, & Safran, 2000, p 118) Collaboration could be carried out

by group members who had different areas of knowledge, capacity as well as competence In 2002, Liu & Hansen mentioned the term of peer feedback in which students took charge of editing to check and give comments to their classmates Later on, Bartels (2003) presented that peer response was also known as peer feedback or peer editing Learners were responsible for interacting with their partners by checking as well as giving feedback

Peer collaboration was described as the activity in which learners worked in pairs or groups to discuss, exchange information and support others because of the common goal (Richards & Schmidt, 2010) In general, all the above terms referred

to the cooperative learning process

Collaborative writing could be described as tasks that require learners to work in pairs or small groups and produce one jointly written text Learners worked together throughout the entire writing process, sharing authorship and responsibility for the final product (Dobao, A F and Blum, A (2013) Collaborative writing gave each member of the collaboration access to others‟ mind and knowledge, and

it imbued the task with a sense of shared goals which can be motivating Whatever collaborators share was better than keeping it for themselves individually

Peer collaboration in writing was described as the joint production of two or more writers (Storch, 2011).) In another study, Storch confirmed that students might have difficulties in writing stages and they needed to help from the others Collaborative activity was a suitable chance for students to exchange opinions and viewpoints Besides, if they worked together, they could save time and have more interesting ideas

All in all, collaborative writing was the writing cooperation of different writers who had different ages, levels, positions and background knowledge However, peer collaboration mainly focused on the coordination of companions who had some similarities and less disparity Peer collaboration could consist of various activities and tasks including peer feedback or peer editing Therefore, peer collaboration in writing could be described as a co-equal association to accomplish the writing task(s) instead of doing them individually

2.1.3 The way(s) peer collaboration can be carried out in writing lessons

Discussing the application of peer collaboration in writing, Al-Nafiseh (2013) summarized different points of view from a lot of researchers Some of them believed that collaboration was more suitable for revising and editing in writing process, whereas other authors assumed that collaborative can bring benefits in stages from the beginning to the end Moreover, collaboration could be conducted

in brainstorming, collecting data, making outline, reviewing and editing In term of reviewing, Al-Nafiseh interpreted that this stage was the time for students to exchange their writings as well as give and receive feedback from the others Peer review was also called peer editing, peer feedback, peer evaluation or peer response Despite the different names, this process generally concentrated on checking and correcting personal writing through peer interaction In reviewing stage, students not only revised their knowledge but also gained experience from their friends Students usually discovered the mistakes of grammar, spelling and punctuation in the partner‟s writing Checking the errors from different products was a beneficial way to avoid repeating similar mistakes

Kagan (1994) presented the background knowledge of collaborative ways in writing lessons:

 „Think – Pair – Share‟ was explained as the teacher raising the question and students working in pairs to discuss and exchange information After that, they could switch the pairs to continue sharing ideas

 „Numbered heads together‟ was a good chance for students to work in a group of four Each student had their own number from one to four and their duty was answering the teacher‟s questions

 „Rally Table‟ was another form of four-member group In this activity, students took turn to write on a paper after the first sentences of a topic They also did the task again and again under time limitation to check and finish their product

 „Team – Pair – Solo‟ was considered as one of the most common techniques in writing class Students could do the first task in a group, and then conducted the next task in a pair, but they completed their writing individually

 „Showdown‟ was the keyword in a cooperative activity Students wrote personal answer on paper After finishing, the leader said “showdown” and members shared and discussed the answers together

 „Teammates Consult‟ was a work group in which all members had the same paper of questions For each question, students had time to discuss together, but they wrote down their personal answers

 4S Brainstorming was the continuous process of four steps 4S was represented by Speed Captain (prompts more ideas), Super Supporter (encourages/recognizes all ideas), Synergy Guru (encourages members to build upon one another's ideas), and Secretary (writes ideas)

According to Jeremy Hammer in his book How to Teach Writing (Published

by Pearson- Longman), there were several ways that peer collaboration could be carried out

 Using the board: Ask students to write on the board Two activities can take place:

- Sentence by sentence: When a student wrote on a board, the rest of the class supported his/her by giving hints, suggestions, corrections or alternatives

- Dictogloss: based on the idea of Scott Thornbury in his book How to Teach Grammar, dictogloss was the activity in which students re-created the story told by their teachers The teacher told the story once or twice, the students listened and tried to memorize while taking as little note as possible After discussing in group, students wrote the content of the story again in their own words

 Writing in groups and pairs

- Rewriting: The students were divided into groups, their teacher gave them the stereotypical statements and were required to amend it to express the opinion of their groups

- First line, last line: The students were given either the first line or the last line of the story They worked in pairs or groups, using their imagination to create the story linked with the available line

- Directions, rules, instructions: This activity was appropriate for students of intermediate level Each group wrote down the details of the instructions or game with rules for other groups to strictly follow

- Story reconstruction: Groups of students were given a set of pictures in jigsaw form They tried to memorize as much as possible before the pictures were taken away The groups then wrote texts to tell a story that ordered the jigsaw pieces in a coherent way

 Writing to each other

- Pen pals, letters, e-mails, and live chat: Several ways to create collaborative writing were becoming pen pals (teacher-student, student-student), letter backward and forwards, or writing through emails and live chat

Harmer (2004) indicated that there were three main stages: pre-writing, while writing, and post-writing:

 Pre-writing: planning (for and against, board fill, main ideas magnets, papers in a hat); brainstorming (students in pairs or groups come up with as many

ideas as they can through discussion); generating ideas (the buzz groups, pairs, groups, the whole discussion, note making, for and against); making outline (list main points and supporting ideas)

 While writing: drafting (students work together to distribute to a piece

2.1.4 The benefits of peer collaboration in writing

Collaboration was proved to be useful in language learning and teaching Nafiseh, 2013; Biria & Jafari, 2013; Shehadeh, 2010) Shehadeh‟s research (2011) revealed that the majority of EFL teachers and students supported the use of collaborative writing in class Although students in this study did not get used to writing collaboratively, they found this process helpful and effective Indeed, they reported that collaboration not only developed their writing skill but also improved their communicative skills Moreover, Storch (2005) indicated that collaboration in writing provided an opportunity for learners to share their ideas and give feedback

(Al-He also pointed out that collaborative work was better than individuals‟ ones Students had a chance to take part in pair work or group work and finished the tasks together Besides, in the study in 2010, Hillyard pointed out that using group work could motivate students and improve their skills such as self-study, teamwork and presentation It was believed that sharing ideas and exchanging information with other teammates was an effective way to enhance students‟ knowledge Last but not

least, Al-Nafiseh (2013) agreed with the benefits of collaboration in writing, but he added more information about teacher‟s perception Coordinated activities could encourage students and create a friendly environment for them to express personal characteristics In general, both teachers and students found written collaboration beneficial, especially in terms of communicative skill, language proficiency, construction of knowledge, or assessment of written work

From my perspective, the advantages of peer collaboration were presented clearly in some previous studies Firstly, collaborative writing played an important role in improving communicative skills In the same lesson, students learned how to write and practiced speaking and critical thinking Secondly, peer collaborative was

a beneficial opportunity for students to enhance their knowledge as well as promote their skills Last but not least, collaboration created a friendlier environment for students to learn and develop their ability Therefore, peer collaboration was appreciated in teaching and learning writing

2.1.5 The drawbacks of peer collaboration in writing

Anything has two sides, so peer collaboration has certain drawbacks Storch (2005) mentioned advantages of collaborative writing; however, he did not avoid its disadvantages Apparently, some students expressed their reservations due to a lack

of confidence in language skills as well as criticizing others Some students did not take interest in collaboration because they were afraid of losing face, embarrassing and hurting others‟ feeling Similarly, in a study in 2013, Al-Nafiseh revealed that the majority of students found collaboration effective while the rest did not gain benefits from this process They also claimed that collaboration could be useless because their classmates were under qualified to critique their writings Additionally, both teachers and students had the same comment that peer editing (peer checking) was time-consuming since the lesson was always under time limitations Another study indicated that the teacher worked as an organizer to manage collaborative activities However, it was a challenge for teacher to group students appropriately because they could work uncomfortably and negatively with unsuitable peers

As we can see, the students in a class did not have the same abilities or levels

of languages Therefore, they might be shy or unconfident to express themselves In addition, some students were not interested in cooperation because they preferred to work individually Furthermore, peer editing could waste time while they had time limitation in a lesson Drawbacks of peer collaboration were unavoidable, but it was possible to find out applicable solutions

2.2 Writing skills for Grade 10 students in Vietnam

Education always plays an essential role in the development of the country With the aim of becoming an industrial country, the government recognized the importance of foreign language in international integration Unavoidably, English was still one of the most common international languages all over the world In Vietnam, English proved its important roles in most aspects of life Consequently, English was not only taught as a compulsory subject at school in the 1990s but also appeared in pivotal examinations in Vietnam (Van et al, 2011) Although English teaching and learning process achieved appreciable improvements, there were still challenges and difficulties (Tien, 2013) Therefore, educators and teachers were willing to renovate teaching methods and adapt curriculum to the current circumstances One of the most remarkable points of the renovation was the creation of the new English textbook Its objective is to develop students‟ communicative ability through speaking, listening, writing, reading and integrated skills In addition, this subject also provides the general knowledge of the country, people and cultures of some English-speaking countries and around the world for students English is expected to become useful and helpful for students‟ daily life and their future jobs

With these certain aims, the new textbooks for upper-secondary schools brought about notable changes Typically in grade 10, students focus on 10 units including topics on our life, society, environment and future Each unit has 8 periods consisting of: getting started, language, reading, speaking, listening, writing, communication and culture and looking back and project In term of writing,

students have opportunities to practice vocabulary and grammar to create a text of 120-150 words about personal opinions There are different tasks of writing in a lesson, so the teacher can arrange activities flexibly to make the lesson more interesting and beneficial Students can work individually or cooperate with others

to finish their tasks No matter how students‟ learning styles are, they need to have good orientation to develop their abilities by themselves in the next years

2.3 Review of previous related studies and gap for research

In the 21st century, collaboration in writing has become more and more common in English classes because of its advantages Therefore, a lot of researchers studied the impact of collaborative writing on teaching and learning English

Typically, Storch (2005) examined the benefits of using pair work or group work in improving English writing skills by making a comparison between texts written in groups with others written individually The study was conducted in an ESL classroom at an Australian university The participants of the study could choose to complete their work either individually or collaboratively They were interviewed individually to get more information about their experience in the collaborative writing process In conclusion, Storch indicated that students who worked together had shorter but better texts in grammatical accuracy and complexity Besides, collaboration was really a good opportunity for students to express ideas as well as exchange comments Certainly, there were still some limitations, but most students had positive feedbacks about collaborative writing Furthermore, Storch continued conducting another study related to collaborative writing In this research, twenty students were asked to write individually while eighteen students wrote in pairs Most of the students who worked in pairs expressed positive attitude toward this process although they were novices at such

an experience Significantly, it was reported that students had certain improvements

in self-confidence and speaking ability Both of Storch‟s studies illustrated that collaboration in writing was effective because it provided opportunities for students

in discussion, production and fulfillment

Shehadeh (2011) had a study about the efficiency of collaboration in writing and students‟ attitude at this process In the research, two classes of English as foreign language learners completed the same writing assignments during an entire semester, but one class worked individually while the other worked in pairs Most

of the students reacted positively although collaborative writing was quite new to them Moreover, some students felt satisfied with writing collaboration because they enhanced not only their writing skills but also their self-confidence and speaking abilities

In 2015, Khanh carried out the study to investigate the impacts of collaborative writing on students‟ writing quality and their perception of using this process It was conducted with sixty-two 2nd year students at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Ho Chi Minh City Open University They were divided into two groups, namely Experimental group (35 participants) and Control group (27 participants) Pre-tests and post-tests, and semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data from two groups Finally, the study‟s results indicated that most of the students had positive reflections on collaborative writing because this process was helpful for them to improve their writing‟s quality

The main points of some previous studies were summarized in the table below:

Table 2: The summary of the previous studies Author Research settings Methodology Conclusion

- Interviews

- Quantitative approach

- Pairs produced shorter but better texts in terms of task fulfillment,

grammatical accuracy, and complexity

- Collaboration afforded students the opportunity to pool ideas and provide each other with feedback

- Most students were positive about the experience, although some did express some

reservations about collaborative writing

- Collaborative writing had

an overall significant effect

on students‟ L2 writing

- The effect was significant for content, organization, and vocabulary

- Most students in the CW condition found the

experience enjoyable and felt that it contributed to their L2 learning

- Subjects‟ essay scores, Interview, Questionnaire,

- Students who wrote their essays in collaboration with each other produce better written texts than those who wrote their essays by themselves

- Collaborative learning had a positive effect on the students‟ attitudes towards writing in English

- Pre-tests and tests, and semi-structured interviews

post Quantitative approach

- The students had positive attitudes towards

collaborative writing

- Collaborative writing not only improved students‟ writing skills of

collaborative, but also enhanced individual writing skills

In general, most studies related to writing collaboration brought about beneficial improvements in students‟ writing Students found their writing more grammatically accurate, more linguistically complex (Storch, 2005; Jafari and Ansari, 2012) They also had more opportunities to give and receive information as well as discuss plans (Storch, 2011; Dobao and Blum, 2013; Farrah, 2011) Undoubtedly, collaboration supported students writing in content, organization and vocabulary (Shehadeh, 2011) Furthermore, other researchers (Al-Nafiseh, 2013; Albesher, 2014; Al Ajmi and Ali, 2014) found some similar experiences which was relevant to collaborative writing in ELF/ESL classroom In brief, previous studies found that collaborative writing brought more effective results than writing individually Additionally, researchers revealed that students react positively to collaboration in writing because of its advantages

Nevertheless, the above studies mainly mentioned the positive points of collaborative writing Indeed, peer collaboration also had certain drawbacks, so teachers and students could get into trouble or difficulties from this process Although Vietnamese researchers studied about collaborative writing, they mainly focused on students in colleges and universities They did not investigate peer collaboration in upper secondary school Moreover, in the context of Vietnam, little research was conducted to find effective ways for teaching English writing for students of grade 10 Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether peer collaboration can affect students Alongside, it will give some discussion about benefits and drawbacks which the teacher and students face

2.4 Summary

On the whole, this chapter reviewed the theories related to collaborative writing as well as peer collaboration in teaching and learning writing English Besides, it also provided general information about learning writing skills of students in grade 10 in Vietnam Subsequently, previous related studies were revised and compared with each other in table 2 to emphasize and recognize the gap research

3.1 Research paradigm and research design

3.1.1 Research paradigm

Research can be conducted through a qualitative approach and a quantitative

one Although they were considered to differ fundamentally, their applications sometimes overlap The qualitative research was based on verbal narrative like spoken or written data while the quantitative one used statistical observations to make conclusions (Lyon et al., 2015) It is difficult to argue which research method

is better However, nobody can deny that both are efficient and helpful to carry out the research

The research is carried out through qualitative approach Its data are based on human experiences and observations It may be more flexible because it can adapt

to the quality of gathered information If the saved data have not provided any results, the researcher can rely on other ways to collect new data

3.1.2 Research design

The case study method is selected as the main research design for this thesis

Case study is an in-depth research method of a particular situation and often used for narrowing a very broad field of research into one easily researchable topic (Bryman, 2017) It is often used to narrow down a very broad field of research into one or a few easily researchable examples The reason for the author to choose this method is that the study encloses the restricted subjects and samples in a strait range

of locations The case study enables the researcher to observe and collect data in an upper-secondary school in Hung Yen Therefore, this method not only is suitable for the author‟s situation but also helps to save a lot of time What is more, the study taking place in a small class creates an opportunity to stimulate the real circumstances

in general classes, to observe the effectiveness as well as the drawbacks of the collaborative writing process As a consequence, it not only brings English writing teachers more information to improve the advantages but also suggests the optimal modifications to apply collaborative writing on a widespread scale

3.2 Research setting and participants

3.2.1 Research setting

The study was conducted among students of grade 10 in an upper secondary school in Hung Yen with the purpose of investigating how peer collaboration affects students‟ writing Particularly, the study‟s target is to investigate the ways of peer collaboration in writing and the perspectives of students towards this process However, the research can be limited because the participants are in only one class

in an upper-secondary school in Hung Yen

Hung Yen is located in the center of Red River Delta and it is about 30km from Hanoi It is quite flat and has convenient road systems connecting to other provinces Hung Yen is considered one of the most important economic zones invested by a lot of foreign companies Therefore, English becomes more and more important and necessary in life Although English is a compulsory subject in most schools, educators still have difficulty in improving English competence, especially

in upper-secondary ones Many students are afraid of learning English because they

do not know how to write and express their ideas in English Others want to improve writing skills but they have not found more effective ways yet At an upper-secondary school, students have certain background knowledge, so developing writing skills is necessary The study was carried out at the school which was famous for its teaching and learning tradition and the good performance

of students on various subjects, including English The participants are forty-five

students who study the new English textbook for grade 10 designed by the Ministry

of Education and Training (MET) Most of the students have good results in English; their average marks in writing are from 7.5 to 8.5 Absolutely, some students who are not good at English have marks under 7 and the best students have the highest marks The new textbook has considerable and remarkable innovation Although it has fewer units, it provides more tasks Each period includes integrated skills and relevant activities so that students have more opportunities to practice and develop foreign language ability Particularly, writing lessons not only provide typical examples but also tend to instruct students through tasks related to the topic Therefore, students can feel free to develop ideas and create their writings The new lesson plan is not only a good way for teachers to change teaching methods but also a challenge for them to find more efficient ways to teaching Peer collaboration

is suggested as a good way to develop integrated skills in writing lessons because students not only work individually but also cooperate with their partners Therefore, this study is carried out to illustrate how peer collaboration affects teaching and learning writing process in grade 10 of an upper- secondary school

3.2.2 Participants

Among ten classes of grade 10, 10A1 is the only class which uses the new edition of the English textbook distributed by the MET as their main course book This class has forty-five students with twenty-five girls and twenty boys They studied writing skills through traditional way by which students are provided the examples or available outline to write They were chosen to learn new English textbook because most of them are eager to study and have a good knowledge of English The English teacher tended to encourage her students to take part in writing lesson positively, so she applied different methods and techniques to choose the most suitable ones She assumed that it was necessary to integrate skills in teaching and learning a foreign language For example, writing lesson not only focuses on developing writing skills but it also improves other skills as well Students can communicate, exchange and work together to collect data for their own

writing When the study was conducted, all the students took part in the lesson normally After that, they were explained about the research and the researcher persuaded them to participate in an interview Fortunately, thirty students were willing

to become interviewees, but actually twenty-eight students took part in the interview

3.3 Data collection

3.3.1 Instruments

To bolster the objectives of the study, a number of data gathering methods have been applied The data collection process follows the procedure including observation and interview

 Observation

To find out the ways peer collaboration was conducted in writing lessons, the author took part in the lessons and observed The observation sheet (Appendix A) was designed for the observer to take notes The main contents were the preparation

of the teacher and her students as well as the procedures of activities in each stage (pre-writing, while writing and post writing) Through observation, the author wrote down the main points of advantages and disadvantages in the class The sheet was written in both English and Vietnamese to be convenient for the observer

The aim of observation was focusing on collaborative activities and students‟ reflections in writing class Therefore, the observation criteria mainly concentrated

on the following points:

- Classroom management strategies

- Students‟ use of language

• Use of language in group work

• Use of mother tongue during class

• Problems with grammar

• Problems with pronunciation

on the study objects Indeed, based on applying various devices, the observer was able to review the precision from the observed straightforwardly Consequently, observation usually brought out greater accuracy and helped the researcher accumulate more trustworthy data than those received from indirect methods Another benefit taken into consideration was the independence of people‟s willingness to report The observation process though required less willingness and active contribution from observed students For the above reasons, observation would be a persuasive choice to achieve data in this study

 Interview

In order to explore the students‟ perception of using peer collaboration in writing lessons, a list of questions (Appendix B) was made for them After the writing lessons, the researcher met students directly to explain the research and persuaded them to take part in the face-to-face interview The model of the

interview was semi-structured, which was a spontaneous conversation with some

questions asked in a predetermined order and other flexible questions in different situations The participants were interviewed one by one to ensure individuality and privacy Students used Vietnamese to answer the questions because they felt more confident to express enough their opinions and ideas

The most important advantage of this method was the flexibility The interviewer could control, reorder, add and mix-up the questions depending on the realistic situation It was also possible to paraphrase or simplify the questions to give interviewees the most appropriate ones Furthermore, it was also obvious that the interview could be clearly recorded with high quality at low cost Totally, there were twenty-eight students who actually participated in the interview The detailed results of the interviews were reported in chapter 4

3.3.2 Data collection procedure

The data collection procedure was conducted after the teacher and students had agreed The detailed process included two main stages:

- The researcher met the teacher to describe the study and ask for her permission to observe the writing class After obtaining the support, the researcher took notes of the time table and then arranged to observe lessons Therefore, the first step for gaining data was approached through observing these activities during class time The researcher worked as an observer to take notes of the points

- The second stage was to collect data from students participating in collaborative writing lessons through interview The researcher also met all members of the class to introduce the research and asked them to support Two third

of the class (thirty students) agreed to answer the questions, but finally, there were twenty-eight students participating in the interviews After each lesson, the researcher chose a group of students and asked each of them some questions Each student could be interviewed the same questions once or many times to find out enough information as well as illustrate the findings in chapter 4 The researcher listened to their answers, adopted the opinions and took notes of all things in the

interviews Both researcher‟s laptop and mobile phone were utilized to reproduce and archive all the data The answers of students were collected in Appendix C

3.4 Data analysis

The data from the teacher‟s observation and the interview were documented

to answer the first research question Besides, the results from students were the data to investigate the findings of all three research questions The data were classified and sifted to explore the connection among them to analyze qualitatively The researcher used thematic analysis by which the collected data were compared with some hypothesis To analyze systematically, color-coding could be effective to identify ideas and group them suitably

3.5 Methodological limitations

Data collection methods had their own drawbacks The researcher might face some possible problems when observing It was necessary to spend time observing several lessons because the data were not enough in only one lesson From a circumstance, one person could discover some meaningful information while another might find nothing helpful In certain cases, the observer had to deal with the expenditures for transportation, purchase sophisticated equipment and take time for traveling between places Besides, although the interview was a good way to collect data, it was possible to get into trouble The interviewees could be enthusiastic and helpful, but they could be uncoordinated Therefore, the interviewer should be patient and well-prepared The interview could be time-consuming, so it was necessary to manage time appropriately

Beside convenience, the case study method had its own limitations The standard linguistic class for a teacher to control and manage collaborative writing efficiently should have had about twenty students However, the real upper secondary class of this study consisted of forty-five students The teacher obviously encountered difficulty controlling such a big class Hence, the researcher also had difficulty in collecting data

3.6 Summary

In general, this chapter presented the research methodology including research paradigm, research design and procedures or techniques used to identify

and analyze information applied to understanding the problem The study was a case study which was conducted through qualitative approach Data was collected

by observation and interview and they were analyzed to answer the three research questions Certainly, the research had methodological limitations which were mentioned in the final part

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The target of the study is to find out whether applying peer collaboration in a particular class can improve and develop the students‟ writing skills After collecting data, the results and findings are presented and explained in this chapter The results mainly focused on the following answers: (1) the ways by which peer collaboration is performed in writing classes: (2) the students‟ perspective towards collaborative writing and (3) the drawbacks of this collaborative process in writing lessons

4.1 Response to Research question 1

The results of observation indicated that students mainly participated in collaborative writing through pair work and group work Both the teacher and students used the new textbook and they also used other necessary materials Most

of students expressed their interaction during cooperative time Some students could show their opinions in English while the other used Vietnamese due to lack of language competence

4.1.2 Interview results

There were more than ninety percent of students (92%) confirmed that they have taken part in peer collaboration in writing This process was conducted in many

ways in the classroom Practically, peer collaboration could involve discussing, writing texts together or separately, editing another‟s work and peer reviewing (peer feedback) While individual writing emerged from several repetitions of brainstorming, organizing, writing, and revising, group writing multiplies these efforts In this study, the researcher mainly focused on the process writing, so the ways of peer collaboration were arranged to follow the stages of this approach

 Pre-writing:

Peer collaboration was an effective tool for the teacher to warm up and lead to the topic of the writing To make a comfortable atmosphere for students to start the lesson, the teacher organized a game for the whole class to encourage students Certainly, the game might be designed flexibly for pairs, small groups or big groups

For example, Unit 6 in new English 10 textbook had the writing topic:

“Working Mothers” The teacher divided the class into two big groups and asked the first one to point out the advantages and the other to find out the disadvantages

of “Working Mothers” Two teams took turn to give the answers and who had more answers would become the winner The game not only led to the topic but also discovered the main points of the writing (Student Y)

Collaborative activities were used beneficially in writing class to encourage students to brainstorm, plan and generate ideas as well as make an outline together Students were divided into pairs or groups or the whole class to share ideas and brainstorm together Appointing students in pairs or groups depended on the

number of students, sitting positions and types of activities Probably, some

students working at the same time could generate more ideas faster They also planned and formulated a simple or detailed outline to use in writing individually After that, they listed some appropriate sources (textbook, reference books, and Internet) To gain well-done writing, students had to set the time or deadlines for each section

We can work in flexible groups to have conditions of interaction with a lot of different classmates The most common ways are working in pairs and in groups of four because all members have to contribute to the main target

Sometimes, the teacher asks us to do the tasks in bigger groups (ten students, twenty students or the whole class) The board is divided into two or four parts with each group’s name Each group has time to discuss and notes down the agreement on the board In other words, the teacher suggests that the main parts of an outline and the whole class should fill in the blanks

(Student A1)

 Drafting

It was inconvenient for some students to create a product together because they believed that the writing was a personal property as well as expressed individuality and they did not want to share with anyone else Besides, writing together could be unfeasible because each person has different writing styles For above reasons, students preferred to conduct drafting individually

However, to change the way of writing, students worked in groups to create a completed product A group usually has from four to six members; each of them took charge of a writing part

Sometimes, the leader of my group divides the writing task into smaller parts

or main points to accomplish For example, student A takes charge of the introduction/ opening, student B has duty of writing conclusion and the others develop the central ideas We work under time limitation and then we gather the product to finish our task We also work in a group of four to write on an A0 paper and stick it on our assigned corner (Student N)

 Revising and editing

Giving and receiving peer feedback and comment were the typical and common ways of collaborative writing This process could be carried out in pairs

or in groups

If the writing was collected from separated works, it was essential for students to change and correct to achieve their coherent, cohesive and logical products To have unified text, all members of the group must read it again and note necessary comments Nevertheless, making unification of writing pieces was not simple Besides, groups could exchange their writings so as to give and receive feedback

There are six groups, each of them has its own corner to exhibit the students’ products (written on the A0 paper) The other groups’ members can go around and note the comments on the paper in crayons We correct our writing based on the previous feedback if we have enough time, or we can complete it after school as homework (Student N)

If students wrote individually, it would be probable to exchange their products

in different pairs and receive as many responses as possible The editor could check for spelling errors, punctuation problems, formatting issues, grammatical mistakes and so on As we can see, reviewing and reflecting by themselves could save time because many people worked at the same time

Waiting for the teacher’s comments may be time-consuming because there are

so many students who need support Therefore, we can interact with others by giving feedback, discussing and finding better solutions Sometimes, it is quite embarrassing to ask the teacher for help, but it is more comfortable to argue with close friends I admit that learning from my companions is a good way to improve my writing skills and my English competence as well (Student B)

Besides checking and giving judgment, peer collaboration was also presented through reading and learning from the remarkable products Some typical texts should be exhibited as the models and the others can compare and find the most suitable way to improve their products

The teacher asks students to work individually After that, she chooses a writing randomly and asks students to point out its strengths and weaknesses From this process, we can learn the advantages and avoid the disadvantages

in writing Hence, we can improve our self-study (Student H1)

From the results of observation and interview, peer collaboration was performed in many ways in three stages in writing class Each stage had typical activities, but they were mainly conducted in pairs or groups In pre-writing section, beside brainstorming and making an outline, peer collaboration was considered as

an effective way to warm up and lead to the topic Drafting seemed to be the most common way of writing collaboration while writing In post-writing, students had

opportunities to give and receive comments and feedbacks from their peers Moreover, they were fond of learning from the writing as a model because of its benefits Last but not least, peer collaboration was usually used more in pre and post writing

4.2 Response to Research question 2

4.2.1 Observation results

Peer collaboration was applied in the class for months, so it was not strange to the students Gradually, most of students could keep up with the tasks that the teacher required Two third of students were interested in working with their partners and teammates That was one of the reasons why the class‟s atmosphere became more stimulating Cooperation in writing activities could make a friendly environment, so students can feel more relaxed to distribute their ideas They also felt more confident

to exchange their viewpoints as well as present their opinions in a group Therefore, the lesson not only focused on developing writing skills but also created an opportunity for students to improve their communication and integrated skills

Working in a pair or a group was an opportunity for all members to express themselves There are some students who were more talkative, enthusiastic and were willing to ask the teacher if they needed In a group, the more active students tended to work more positively, so they could become the leaders of the groups The leader divided the task into smaller parts for the members and supported them while working However, it was normal that students could have their arguments or conflicts because of personal clashes Hence, students needed to deal with the problems by themselves

4.2.2 Interview results

The participants agreed to work as interviewees after having experience in collaborative writing The results of interview were collected, summarized and classified In general, students‟ responses to the interview indicated that they achieved benefits of expending knowledge, developing skills and expressing personality

Firstly, more than a half of the students assumed that peer collaboration in