Teaching and Learning English Writing Skills at Chu Van An High School for the Gifted, Lang Son Province: Difficulties and Solutions . M.A Thesis Linguis

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ************************* DƯ ÁI HUỆ CHI TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGL

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

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

DƯ ÁI HUỆ CHI

TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS

AT CHU VAN AN HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE GIFTED, LANG SON

PROVINCE: DIFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS

(VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG VIẾT TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN CHU VĂN AN, LẠNG SƠN: NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN VÀ GIẢI PHÁP)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111

Hanoi, 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

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

DƯ ÁI HUỆ CHI

TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS

AT CHU VAN AN HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE GIFTED, LANG SON

PROVINCE: DIFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS

(VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG VIẾT TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN CHU VĂN AN, LẠNG SƠN: NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN VÀ GIẢI PHÁP)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111

Supervisor : Assoc Prof Dr Kiều Thị Thu Hương

Hanoi, 2015

STATEMENT OF THE AUTHORSHIP

I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “Teaching and Learning English Writing Skills at Chu Van An High School for the Gifted, Lang Son Province: Difficulties and Solutions” is the result of my own study to fulfill the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University, and that this minor thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution

Hanoi, September 2015

Du Ai Hue Chi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am indebted to many people without whose help the present thesis could not have been completed First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr Kieu Thi Thu Huong, my research supervisor, for her invaluable guidance, insightful comments and endless support

I am deeply thankful to Dr Le Hung Tien and all the staff members of the Post graduate Department, College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University for their interesting and informative lectures, which have provided me with useful knowledge of teaching methodology

My thanks are also extended to all the teachers and students at Chu Van An High School for the Gifted, Lang Son province for their enthusiastic assistance during the process of collecting data and information for my study

My special thanks are due to the library staff at ULIS for their tremendous efforts in finding books and journal articles for me

Finally, I owe the completion of this research to my parents and my siblings, my husband and my child, who have always given me their love, understanding and encouragement throughout my study

To all mentioned, and to many more, my heart extends the warmest thanks

ABSTRACT This study is an attempt to explore the reality of the teaching and learning English writing skills at Chu Van An High School for the Gifted in Lang Son Province It aims at affording deep insights into the difficulties encountered by the tenth graders

in their learning of writing Such issues as the teachers' and students' attitudes towards writing, the students' writing strategies and the students' writing training are carefully examined on the basis of the data obtained from elicited written questionnaires and class observation The findings exhibit that students have to face many difficulties in three writing stages: Pre-writing, While-writing and Post-writing These difficulties are not only due to the teachers' and students' negative attitudes towards writing but also the shortcomings in the students' writing strategies and training Based on those findings, the study provides some pedagogical suggestions to overcome the difficulties

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1 EFL: English as a foreign language

2 ESL: English as a second language

3 CVA: Chu Van An High School for the Gifted, Lang Son Province

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Tables

Table 1: Differences between the process writing and the product writing Table 2 Topics and text types in each unit of English 10

Table 3 Students' writing strategies

Table 4 The number of drafts

Table 5 Students' rewriting strategies

Table 6 Students' judgment of their Pre-writing difficulties

Table 7 Students' judgment of their While-writing difficulties

Table 8 Students' judgment of their Post-writing difficulties

Table 9 Frequency of activities used by teachers in Pre-writing

Table 10 Frequency of activities used by teachers in While-writing Table 11 Frequency of activities used by teachers in Post-writing

Charts

Chart 1 The most difficult skills to learn

Chart 2 How much the students like learning writing

Chart 3 The most difficult skill to teach

Chart 4 How much the teachers like teaching writing

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Statement of the authorship i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of abbreviations iv

List of tables and charts v

Table of contents vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Methods of the study 2

5 Scope of the study 2

6 Significance of the study 2

7 Organization of the study 3

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of writing 4

1.2 Fundamental components of writing 5

1.3 Problems caused by writing 5

1.4 Differences between skilled and unskilled writers 7

1.5 Approaches to teaching writing

1.5.1 Controlled-to-free approach 8

1.5.2 Free writing approach 8

1.5.3 Paragraph-pattern approach 9

1.5.4 Grammar-syntax-organization approach 9

1.5.5 Communicative approach 10

1.5.6 Process approach 11

1.5.7 Product-oriented approach 12

1.5.8 Summary of the differences between product and process pproaches 13

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 Context of the study 16

2.1.1 The school 16

2.1.2 English 10 Textbook 16

2.1.3 The writing section in English 10 textbook 16

2.2 Research questions 18

2.3 Research methods 18

2.3.1 Participants .19

2.3.2 Instruments and procedure 19

CHAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Analysis of the questionnaire for students 21

3.1.1 Students' attitude towards writing 21

3.1.2 Students' writing strategies 22

3.1.2.1 Students' writing strategies 22

3.1.2.2 Students' rewriting strategies 22

3.1.3 Students' judgment of their writing difficulties 23

3.1.3.1 Students' difficulties in Pre-writing stage 23

3.1.3.2 Students' difficulties in While-writing stage 24

3.1.3 3 Students' difficulties in Post-writing stage 25

3.2 Analysis of the questionnaire for teachers 25

3.2.1 Teachers' attitude towards teaching writing 25

3.2.2 Learners' training in writing 26

3.2.2.1 Frequency of activities used by teachers in Pre-writing 26

3.2.2.2 Frequency of activities used by teachers in While-writing 28

3.2.2.3 Frequency of activities used by teachers in Post-writing 29

3.3 Class Observation 30

PART C CONCLUSION 4.1 Study findings 32

4.1.1 Students' difficulties in learning writing 32

4.1.2 Reasons for the difficulties 32

4.1.2.1 Negative attitude towards writing 32

4.1.2.2 Shortcomings in the students' strategies and training 32

4.2 Suggestions for the solution 34

4.2.1 Create and maintain a positive atmosphere for learning 34

4.2.2 Take advantage of the 'out-of-book' lessons 34

4.2.3 Give students ownership and publishing 35

4.2.4 Engage students in writing regularly 35

4.2.5 Provide students with constructive response and guide them how to offer response to other writes 36

4.2.6 Provide opportunities for students to collaborate as writers 36

4.3 Limitations 37

4.4 Suggestions for further study 37

REFERENCES 38 APPENDIX

Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaire for Students I Appendix 2: Survey Questionnaire for Teachers V Appendix 3: Observation Description .VII

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Nowadays, communication across languages and cultures has become more important than ever before The ability to speak, listen, read and write in a foreign language is widely recognized as a vital skill for professional and educational purposes This results in an increasing demand for teaching and learning foreign languages, among which teaching and learning English holds a dominant position

at all levels of education in Vietnam

Although English language teaching and learning in Vietnam has taken its own priority, the education quality has not met expectations of Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training and the local people This is certainly due to many reasons but it is, to some extent, due to the ways of teaching and learning that are said evidently to focus on theory rather than real practice This results in the reality that

a large majority of high-school students lack communicative competence They can not communicate in English successfully and effectively in both oral and written forms, in which the written form is considered to be the bigger challenge For many Vietnamese students, writing is the most intricate and complex skill that challenges their ability It is not uncommon to see that Vietnamese high-school learners with at least four-year experience of learning English in secondary school have considerable difficulty when they have to write communicatively in the target language Even the students who go to English speaking countries for advanced study and have scored high in TOFEL initially cope with difficulties in writing The question raised here is what teachers should do to help students overcome their problems in writing

As a teacher of English, I am full aware of difficulties facing teachers and learners when teaching and learning writing skills and wish to make a contribution to improve the teaching and learning of writing skills at the school, which I have been

working for, as well as at other high schools in my local area

2 Aims of the study

The main purpose of the study is to research the reality of teaching and learning English writing skills to the tenth graders at Chu Van An High School for the Gifted, Lang Son Province (henceforth CVA) on the basis of finding out the difficulties encountered by the learners in three writing stages: Pre-writing, While-writing and Post-writing The other purpose of the study is to propose some suggestions to deal with the difficulties

3 Research questions

1) What difficulties do the tenth graders at CVA encounter when learning English writing skills?

2) What are the reasons for the difficulties?

3) What are the possible solutions to overcome the difficulties?

4 Methods of the study

This is a survey study in which both quantitative and qualitative methods have been employed To collect information and data, two instruments: questionnaires and class observation have been used In addition, reviewing related documents is

a method to establish the theoretical background for the study

5 Scope of the study

This minor thesis has been conducted at CVA in order to recognize difficulties encountered by the tenth graders in three writing stages Explanations for the difficulties have been presented Also, the thesis has given some suggestions to better the teaching and learning writing skills at the school

6 Significance of the study

This study has been conducted to provide useful information about the source of difficulties facing the tenth graders at CVA when learning writing skills Results of

the study have pointed out the limitations in the teaching and learning practice Therefore, the teachers and learners can find out relevant approaches to teaching and learning writing skills Furthermore, the study has given some pedagogical suggestions to solve the difficulties in the teaching and learning of writing skills

7 Organization of the study

The study consists of three parts:

Part A is the introduction to the study It presents the rationale, aims, methods, research questions, scope, significance and organization of the study

Part B, development, includes chapter 1 with a review of literature on writing in general, chapter 2 with a detailed description of the context, the textbook and the methodology, chapter 3 with the collection, analysis and discussion of the data

Part C, conclusion, gives a summary of the main findings, pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of writing

Basically and simply, Byrne (1988:1) defines writing as "the act of making marks

on flat surface of some kind." When writing, people form "graphic symbols (letters

or combinations of letters)" to make visual meaningful utterances Writing, therefore, can be understood as a simple matter of transcribing language into written symbols

However, many researchers do not think so They consider writing as "a thinking process" (White, 1991:3), "a problem solving activity" (Hyland, 2008:2) or "an extremely complex cognitive activity" (Bell and Burnaby, cited in Nunan 1989:7)

in which the writer is required to process various complex things Nunan (1989:7) states that:

" the writer is required to demonstrate control of a number of variables simultaneously At the sentence level these include control of content, format, sentence structure, vocabulary, punctuation, spelling and letter formation Beyond the sentence, the writer must be able to structure and integrate information into cohesive and coherent paragraphs and texts."

The idea that writing is a great challenge whether writing in the mother tongue or the foreign language is not overstated Tribble (1996:3) says that writing is "a language skill which is difficult to acquire" This point of view is agreed upon by Byrne (1991:6) when he points out writing is the skill in which the majority of students are least proficient even after considerable practice Nunan (1999:103) also states that the most difficult task to do in language learning is to produce a coherent, fluent, extended piece of writing, which is more challenging for second language learners This idea can also be found in the latest researches conducted by teachers in Vietnam, which reveal that many students with years of English language-learning experience in Vietnamese high schools have considerable

difficulty when writing for communication in the target language (Kieu, 2009), (Pham, 2009), (Hoang, 2013)

1.2 Fundamental components of writing

To produce clear, fluent and effective communication of ideas when writing, learners have to deal with a lot of things Raimes (1983:6) stresses the elements that make up a piece of writing as the following

Diagram 1 Producing a piece of writing

1.3 Problems caused by writing

Widdowson (1983:36) describes the learning of writing in a second language as problematic because "learning to write in English when it is not your first, but a second or a third language poses its own problems"

Byrne (1988:4) gives three problems which are caused by writing under three headings: psychological problems, linguistics problems and cognitive ones

SYNTAX sentence structure, sentence boundaries stylistic choices, etc

ORGANIZATION

paragraphs, topic and

support cohesion and

unity

CONTENT relevance, clarity, originality, logics, etc THE

WRITER’S PROCESS getting ideas, getting started, writing drafts, revising

AUDIENCE the reader(s)

PURPOSE the reason for writing WORD CHOICE

vocabulary, idiom, tone

of ideas

+) Psychological problems: Unlike speech that takes place with the physical

presence of someone and the feedback from the speaker and the listener, writing is

a solitary activity and the writer is required to write on his own without the possibility of interaction or the benefit of feedback This makes the act of writing difficult

+) Linguistic problems: When speaking, people pay little attention either to

sentence structure or to sentence connection because the oral communication is maintained through the process of interaction People repeat, backtrack, expand, etc depending on how people react to what are being said When speaking, incomplete and even ungrammatical utterances usually pass unnoticed When writing, on the other hand, people have to keep the channel of communication open through their own efforts and to ensure that their choice of sentence structures and their way of linking sentences can produce a text that can be interpreted on its own

+) Cognitive problems:

People appear to speak without much conscious effort or thought and generally they talk because they want to, about matters which are of interest or relevant to them socially or professionally Writing, on the other hand, is learned through a process of instruction: people have to master the written form of the language and

to learn certain structures which are less used in speech, or perhaps not used at all, but which are important for effective communication in writing People also have

to learn how to organize their ideas in such a way that they can be understood by a reader who is not present and perhaps by a reader who is not known to them Besides, writing is a task which is often imposed on people, perhaps by circumstances This not only has a psychological effect but also causes a problem

in terms of when content-what to say Being at a loss for ideas is a familiar experience to most of people who are obliged to write

In discussions of the teaching of writing, Vietnamese researchers give various reasons for the difficulty in writing They are challenges of poor facilities, large size classes, unsuitable tasks in the textbook, students’ poor linguistic competence, passive learning style (Hoang, 2013:42), students’ negative attitudes towards the writing skill, careless preparation of the early stages before writing (Kieu, 2009:43), teachers’ poor experience in teaching theme-based writing (Pham, 2009:1)

1.4 Differences between skilled and unskilled writers

There are significant differences in writing behaviors of skilled and unskilled writers Perl (1979) found that unskilled writers are primarily concerned with the superficial elements or problems at sentence level They pay less attention to the readership, the plan and organization of their writing They rarely modify or rewrite what they have written down, either Whereas, the skilled writers focus on the problems beyond the sentence and pay much attention to the organization of the whole writing

Pianko (1979:13) also stressed that unskilled or weak writers "hesitated while writing, they did not pause," and "they were worried about their spelling." The skilled writers, on the other hand, paused to plan and prepare what to write next, and to check if their plans fulfilled the purpose of the task, whereas the weak writers paused merely to revise grammar and mechanics

Sommers (1980) found that weak writers revise in a very limited way, i.e they were mainly interested in lexicon and teacher-generated rules but rarely modified the ideas already written down These writers consider the revision process as preparing what they have written for typing On the other hand, the fluent writers viewed revision from a global perspective Such writers revise the whole text, to find and create chunks, to discover meaning and to contribute to the development

of the whole essay

Calkins (1983) found that weak writers eloborated what they had written by making minor changes to spelling, punctuation, and vocabulary items Calkins attributed these shortcomings in terms of revision to their lack of knowledge how

to revise

1.5 Approaches to teaching writing

To solve the problems caused by writing, a variety of approaches to the teaching of writing have been developed and applied to the writing classes However, it is necessary to note from the beginning that there is not any ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to teach writing skills The application of any approach will depend on a specific context of teaching and learning EFL Raimes’s (1983) and Steele’s (2004) terminology has been adopted for the purpose of this paper

1.5.1 Controlled-to-free approach

In the 1950s and early 1960s, speech was the main concern in language leaning and teaching Writing then was used as a sub-skill for reinforcing speech in which teachers tried to lead students to the mastery of grammatical and syntactic forms Hyland (2009:3), therefore, labels this approach as "structure orientation" and describes it as a four-stage process of writing Students firstly learn certain grammar and vocabulary They secondly practice fixed patterns Then, they copy model text Finally, they write essays using the patterns they have learned In short, this approach emphasizes accuracy over fluency and classroom activities are designed to develop reproduction skills in fixed patterns and the ability to identify and correct problems from linguistic knowledge Due to the emphasis on syntax, grammar and mechanics instead of content, process, audience and purpose of writing, this approach makes it difficult for students to develop their writing skills beyond sentence level

1.5.2 Free writing approach

According to Raimes (1983), the free writing approach emphasizes quantity and fluency over quality and accuracy That is, students can write freely on the topic

given as much and quickly as possible without worrying about correct forms Students may at first feel challenged to pour out their ideas much and quickly, but frequent practice will help them write comfortably and fluently It is also important

in this approach that teachers do not correct their students’ free-writing but only comment on the content

However, the free writing approach does have some drawbacks Hyland (2008) points out the inappropriateness of applying this approach in academic contexts In academic writing, students have to write about certain topics with the aim of researching deeply and carefully instead of writing down freely what they want to say Besides, the errors in the final product do affect students’ grade for their paper 1.5.3 Paragraph-pattern approach

According to Raimes (1983), the organization of writing is the most significant concern Students copy paragraphs, analyze the form and imitate model passages They put scrambled sentences into paragraph order, they identify general and specific statements, they choose or invent an appropriate topic sentence, and they insert or delete sentences This approach is based on the principle that the organization of writing varies depends on different patterns of written discourse Kaplan (1966:75) indicates that different languages have different patterns of written discourse He describes English discourse patterns in straight line, Semitic

in zigzag, Oriental in spiraling, Romance and Russian in digressive Therefore, English learners should learn English writing patterns to write properly in English Also, this kind of contrastive rhetoric is very difficult to apply to a real writing classroom because students’ ages and language proficiency levels are not sufficiently considered

1.5.4 Grammar-syntax-organization approach

The grammar-syntax-organization requires students to focus on several features of writing at once Writing, therefore, cannot be seen as composed of separate skills which are learned one by one Teachers therefore devise writing tasks which draw

their students’ attention to organization while working on grammar and syntax For example, to write a clear set of instructions on how to operate a calculator, the writer needs more than the appropriate vocabulary He needs the simple forms of verbs, an organizational plan based on chronology, sequence words like first, then, etc During discussion and preparation of the task, all these are reviewed and taught for the first time Students see the connection between what they are trying

to write and what they need to write it

In short, the main focus in this approach is using forms, often at the sentence level

to achieve the clearest and most appropriate meaning possible Students practice by linking specific vocabulary words, structural elements, and organizational features

to specific writing tasks Trying to get students to internalize the necessary forms for writing is an important aspect of this approach This approach, however, goes against Kroll’s (1990) philosophy since the researcher expresses that writing skills are best taught through meaningful communication and best learned in meaningful contexts

1.5.5 Communicative approach

Communicative approach emphasizes the purpose of a piece of writing and the audience It also encourages students to act like a writer in real-life situations and

to ask themselves two crucial questions about audience and purpose such as "why

am I writing this?", "who will read it" As a result, real-world types of writing tasks are devised The writing exercises in this approach are created so that the teacher, other students, or people from out of the class can be the audience Context has a central role in communicative writing exercises These exercises give the students chance to level the formality and content appropriately according

to whom they are writing for and what type of writing they are doing However, this method does not emphasize the rhetorical conventions of English texts Leaners’ attention is not called upon the structure, style and the organization of their writing

1.5.6 Process approach

According to Raimes (1983), the main concern of this approach is the process of writing, such as how writers get started or how they develop their ideas Student writers must need to realize that what they first put down on paper is not necessarily their finished product but just a beginning, a setting out of first ideas, a draft Their first draft might be unorganized and full of grammatical errors Then, with the appropriate time given to go through the process of writing and the feedback from both their teachers and peers, the student writers will discover new ideas, new sentences and new words to develop their final drafts which are better organized with fewer grammatical errors The process writing, therefore, becomes

"a process of discovery for the students" (Ibid 11) They discover new ideas, new language forms to express their ideas

Teachers who use this approach are expected to give two crucial supports to their

students The first one is time for their students to try out ideas and the second is

feedback on the content of what they write in their drafts However, they should be

careful when adapting this approach to ESL/EFL classrooms ESL/EFL students expect more explicit and strict direction from their teachers In addition, some students do not trust peers’ feedback, and at the same time, they are reluctant to criticize others’ writing Furthermore, ESL/EFL students have limited language knowledge, so teacher should take roles of both language teacher and writing teacher

According to Steele (2004), this approach has a number of stages, though a typical sequence of activities could proceed as follows:

Stage 1: Generating ideas by brainstorming and discussion Students could be discussing qualities needed to do a certain job, or giving reasons as to why people take drugs or gamble The teacher remains in the background during this phase, only providing language support

if required, so as not to inhibit students in the production of ideas

Stage 2: Students extend ideas into note form, and judge quality and usefulness of ideas

Stage 3: Students organize ideas into a mind map, spider gram, or linear form This stage helps to make the (hierarchical) relationship of ideas more immediately obvious, which helps students

with the structure of their texts

Stage 4: Students write the first draft This is done in class and frequently in pairs or groups

Stage 5: Drafts are exchanged, so that students become the readers of each other's work By responding as readers, students develop an awareness of the fact that a writer is producing something to be read by someone else, and thus can improve their own drafts

Stage 6: Drafts are returned and improvements are made based upon peer feedback Stage 7: A final draft is written

Stage 8: Students once again exchange and read each other's work and perhaps even write a response or reply (Ibid 4)

1.5.7 Product-oriented approach

Product-oriented approach focuses on the text, the final output of the writing process, and on the superficial elements of language: grammar and mechanics In a typical product approach-oriented classroom, "students are supplied with a standard sample of text and they are expected to follow the standard to construct a new piece of writing" (Hasan & Akhand, 2010:2) Product Approach Model comprises of four stages (Steele, 2004)

Stage 1: Students study model texts and then the features of the genre are highlighted For example, if studying a formal letter, students’ attention may be drawn to the importance of paragraphing and the language used to make formal requests If a student reads a story, the focus may be on the techniques used to make the story interesting and students focus on where and how the writer employs these techniques

Stage 2: This stage consists of controlled practice of the highlighted features, usually in isolation So if students are studying a formal letter, they may be asked to practice the language used to make formal requests, for example, practicing the "I would be grateful if you would…" structure

Stage 3: This is the most important stage where the ideas are organized Those who favor this approach believe that the organization of ideas is more important than the ideas themselves and as important as the control of language

Stage 4: This is the end product of the learning process Students choose from the choice of comparable writing tasks To show what they can be as fluent and competent users of the language, students individually use the skills, structures and vocabulary they have been taught to produce the product

1.5.8 Summary of differences between product and process approaches Process approach gives students considerable freedom within the task They are not tied with pre-emptive teaching of lexical or grammatical items However, process approaches do not repudiate all interest in the product, (i.e the final draft) The aim is to achieve the best product possible What differentiates a process-focused approach from a product-centered one is that the outcome of the writing, the product, is not preconceived

Steele (2004:3) differentiates Product-oriented approach from Process-oriented approach in the following table:

Table 1: Differences between the process writing and the product writing

 text as a resource for comparison

 ideas as starting point

 more than one draft

 more global, focus on purpose,

theme, text type, i.e., reader is

emphasized

 collaborative

 emphasis on creative process

 imitate model text

 organization of ideas more important than ideas themselves

 one draft

 features highlighted including controlled practice of those features

 individual

 emphasis on end product

These two approaches actually represent two different perspectives for looking at writing Each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages To enhance EFL writing curriculum, teachers are recommended to merge both of the approaches so that both the "finished product" and "the psychological and

cognitive processes" can be developed

The process approach can be regarded as "formative feedback" aimed at refining students’ written work The main purpose of this type of feedback would be to provide an opportunity for continuous interaction between the teacher and writing learners During the process, the teacher can adjust his or her instruction methods and/or materials to facilitate better learning As a mentor, the teacher can establish

a better relationship with his or her student while enhancing the students’ progress and learning process

Conversely, the product approach should be viewed as a way to provide

"summative feedback" to students Rather than overemphasize grammatical and mechanical accuracy in final products, the teacher should determine how much the students have achieved after a particular unit of instruction and should ensure that they have mastered the intended learning outcomes In this way, the teacher would

be able to assess the effectiveness of his or her instruction and revise his or her teaching strategies in subsequent lessons

Both types of feedback are inseparable and complementary to each other Obviously, these two major approaches, when adopted into the writing classroom

as a collaborative effort, can become a unified pedagogical EFL writing approach, incorporating the advantages of both orientations into a new paradigm

Hoang (2013:12) gives a suggested outline for this combination:

Stage 1: A model is given

Stage 2: Students work on the model, analyze its typical features, and pay attention to the language and structure of the model

Stage 3: Students work in groups/pairs to find out the ideas for the writing topic/task and produce an outline

Stage 4: Students write the first draft individually/ in pairs/ in groups The model is used for comparison

Stage 5: Drafts are exchanged Students give comments on each other’s work

Stage 6: Drafts are returned and changes or improvements are made based on peer feedback

Stage 7: Students write final drafts

Stage 8: Final drafts are exchanged once more; students give response or reply to each other

Stage 9: Teacher gives feedback

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 Context of the study

2.1.1 The school

The study has been carried out at CVA, which is located in the centre of Lang Son Province, a mountainous area in the north-east of Vietnam This school is more famed than the others in the local for its academic success which, to some extent, owns its debt to the application of teaching innovations in classroom practice

However, the learners and teachers in the school are still facing some challenges The first challenge comes from the school’s facilities for English teaching and learning The class size of 35 to 40 students is too big to be a standard one This does have effect on student-to-teacher and student-to-student interaction, monitored practice, and individual feedback during instructional time The lack of teaching-aided facilities is another obstacle to the teachers, who have to consume much of their time and energy to create the visual aids by themselves without any help from the school The second challenge is the students’ low level of English proficiency in speaking and writing This problem is not only due to their little exposure to English in their daily life but also the way of teaching and learning 2.1.2 English 10 Textbook

English 10 has been in use since 2006 as the official textbook in Vietnamese high schools The book is set up on a theme-based foundation with the aim of developing students’ linguistic and communicative competence It consists of 16 units with different topics Each unit has five parts represented through five forty-five-minute lessons: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Language Focus respectively

2.1.3 The writing section in English 10 textbook

Unlike the other sections, the writing does not conclude three parts: Pre-, While-,

Post- It may begin with a model, followed by the activities that guide students through the writing process such as model analysis, language work, and guided writing The text types students are required to produce vary from personal and formal letters to narratives, chart, graph and table description and expository essays

The general objective of writing section is stated clearly in the teacher book that students should be able to write a form of written texts of 100-120 words on the topics studied based on the provided models or prompts for personal or basic communicative purposes The topics and text types in each unit are detailed in the following table:

1 A Day in the Life of… A narrative

3 People’s Background People’s backgrounds

4 Special Education A letter of complaint

5 Technology and You A set of instructions

6 An Excursion A confirmation letter

7 The Mass Media Advantages and disadvantages of TV

8 The Story of My Village Informal letters to give directions

9 Undersea World Interpreting facts and figures from a table

10 Conservation A letter of invitation

11 National Parks A letter of acceptance or refusal

12 Music A profile

13 Films and Cinemas Describing a film

14 The World Cup Writing an announcement

16 Historical Places Describing a chart

Table 2 Topics and text types in each unit of English 10

Nguyen (2007:43) judges the writing approach adopted in the books to be product-oriented because of its emphasis on the end-result of writing What students often do in their writing lessons are imitating, copying and transforming the model texts to their writing without any attention to the process of planning, drafting, revision, and editing She also finds that not all the writing activities provide adequate and effective scaffolding for students Therefore, some writing tasks in the textbook become too challenging and perhaps even go beyond students’ ability She finally points out that many writing tasks in the textbook are rather unrealistic This can be traced back to the neglect of the readership and the purpose for writing

2.2 Research questions

This study seeks to answer the following research questions:

1) What difficulties do the tenth graders at CVA encounter when learning English writing skills?

2) What are the reasons for the difficulties?

3) What are the possible solutions to overcome the difficulties?

2.3 Research methods

Firstly, the subjects of the study, which conclude 12 teachers of English and 95 tenth graders in CVA, will be described in details, and then the data collection

instruments and the procedure of the study will be presented Lastly, the results of the study will be reported and interpreted

Three tenth-grade classes have been chosen for the study The students are both male and female at the age of 15 or 17 and have seven-year experience of learning English at school They are supposed to best represent the average level of English among the tenth graders in the whole school The total number of students from these classes is 95

2.3.2 Instruments and procedure

Two instruments, questionnaire and class observation, have been used to collect information and data

The procedure has been conducted in the following steps Firstly, the questionnaires have been delivered to 95 tenth graders and 12 teachers of English

in CVA

The student questionnaire (see appendix 1) concludes 8 items The first 2 items aim at exploring the students’ attitudes towards writing skill and writing lessons with their English 10 textbook The next 3 items are to question the students’ writing strategies The items numbered 6 to 8 is to find out what difficulties the students encounter in three writing stages: Pre-writing, While-writing and Post-writing stage

The teacher questionnaire (see appendix 2) consists of 6 items The first 2 items ask for the teachers’ attitudes towards writing skills The last 3 items aim at seeking information about the ways they train their students

In order to collect reliable data and information from the subjects, the questionnaire for the students has been designed in English and translated into Vietnamese as they were thought to be easier for the students to complete Both the teachers and students have been given unlimited time to complete the questionnaires, which have been collected after that by the author

Secondly, with a view to testing the validity of the information obtained from the questionnaires, data on teachers’ classroom practices have been collected via classroom observation Because the information obtained from the questionnaire might be subjective and biased, the classroom observation has been conducted in order that the author can witness the real teaching situation The observation of five writing lessons has been conducted for three among twelve teachers During observation, the author has acted as a non-participant observer and taken notes of the classroom procedure After that, the results of the observation have been compared with the results of the questionnaire

CHAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Student questionnaire analysis

3.1.1 Students' attitude towards writing

Chart 1 The most difficult skills to learn

As can be seen from chart 1, many students (37.9%) admitted that writing is the most difficult among the four language skills This is easy to understand because many people find it difficult to write, even in their mother tongue

The fact that many students find writing most difficult results in a large number (81%) of students having negative attitude towards writing, in which 57.9% of students do not like it much and 23.1% do not like it at all This means the number

of students who like writing (17.9% of students like writing much; 1.1% like it very much) accounts for less than one fifth of the total (see chart 2)

Chart 2 How much students like learning writing

57.9

23.1

Very much Much Not much Not at all