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 OFLANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ************************* DƯ ÁI HUỆ CHI TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLIS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OFLANGUAGES 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

CHU VĂN AN, LẠNG SƠN: NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN VÀ GIẢI PHÁP)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Hanoi, 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OFLANGUAGES 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 CHUYÊNCHU VĂN AN, LẠNG SƠN: NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN VÀ GIẢI PHÁP)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Hanoi, 2015

STATEMENT OF THE AUTHORSHIP

I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “Teaching and Learning EnglishWriting 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 requirementsfor the Degree of Master of Arts at College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi NationalUniversity, and that this minor thesis has not been submitted for any degree at anyother university or tertiary institution

Hanoi, September 2015

Du Ai Hue Chi

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

I am deeply thankful to Dr Le Hung Tien and all the staff members of the Postgraduate Department, College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University fortheir interesting and informative lectures, which have provided me with usefulknowledge of teaching methodology

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

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

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

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

ABSTRACTThis study is an attempt to explore the reality of the teaching and learning Englishwriting skills at Chu Van An High School for the Gifted in Lang Son Province Itaims 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 towardswriting, the students' writing strategies and the students' writing training are carefullyexamined on the basis of the data obtained from elicited written questionnaires andclass observation The findings exhibit that students have to face many difficulties inthree writing stages: Pre-writing, While-writing and Post-writing These difficultiesare not only due to the teachers' and students' negative attitudes towards writing butalso the shortcomings in the students' writing strategies and training Based on thosefindings, the study provides some pedagogical suggestions to overcome thedifficulties

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Tables

Table 1: Differences between the process writing and the product writingTable 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-writingTable 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 moreimportant than ever before The ability to speak, listen, read and write in a foreignlanguage is widely recognized as a vital skill for professional and educationalpurposes This results in an increasing demand for teaching and learning foreignlanguages, among which teaching and learning English holds a dominant position atall levels of education in Vietnam

Although English language teaching and learning in Vietnam has taken its ownpriority, the education quality has not met expectations of Vietnamese Ministry ofEducation and Training and the local people This is certainly due to many reasonsbut it is, to some extent, due to the ways of teaching and learning that are saidevidently to focus on theory rather than real practice This results in the reality that alarge majority of high-school students lack communicative competence They cannot communicate in English successfully and effectively in both oral and writtenforms, in which the written form is considered to be the bigger challenge

For many Vietnamese students, writing is the most intricate and complex skill thatchallenges their ability It is not uncommon to see that Vietnamese high-schoollearners with at least four-year experience of learning English in secondary schoolhave considerable difficulty when they have to write communicatively in the targetlanguage Even the students who go to English speaking countries for advancedstudy and have scored high in TOFEL initially cope with difficulties in writing Thequestion raised here is what teachers should do to help students overcome theirproblems in writing

As a teacher of English, I am full aware of difficulties facing teachers and learnerswhen teaching and learning writing skills and wish to make a contribution toimprove 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 learningEnglish 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 difficultiesencountered by the learners in three writing stages: Pre-writing, While-writing andPost-writing The other purpose of the study is to propose some suggestions to dealwith the difficulties

English writing skills?

This is a survey study in which both quantitative and qualitative methods have beenemployed To collect information and data, two instruments: questionnaires andclass observation have been used In addition, reviewing related documents is amethod 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 difficultiesencountered by the tenth graders in three writing stages Explanations for thedifficulties have been presented Also, the thesis has given some suggestions tobetter 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 ofdifficulties 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 andlearning writing skills Furthermore, the study has given some pedagogicalsuggestions 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 implicationsand suggestions for further research

PART B DEVELOPMENTCHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW1.1 Definition of writing

Basically and simply, Byrne (1988:1) defines writing as "the act of making marks onflat surface of some kind." When writing, people form "graphic symbols (letters orcombinations 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 thinkingprocess" (White, 1991:3), "a problem solving activity" (Hyland, 2008:2) or "anextremely complex cognitive activity" (Bell and Burnaby, cited in Nunan 1989:7) inwhich 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 orthe foreign language is not overstated Tribble (1996:3) says that writing is "alanguage skill which is difficult to acquire" This point of view is agreed upon byByrne (1991:6) when he points out writing is the skill in which the majority ofstudents are least proficient even after considerable practice Nunan (1999:103) alsostates 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 languagelearners This idea can also be found in the latest researches conducted by teachers

in Vietnam, which reveal that many students with years of English learning experience in Vietnamese high schools have considerable

language-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

SYNTAXsentence structure,sentence boundariesstylistic choices, etc

CONTENTrelevance,clarity,originality,

THE

PROCESSrules for verbs,

getting ideas,agreement, articles,

getting started,pronouns, etc

and effective

of ideashandwriting, spelling,

AUDIENCEpunctuation

the reader(s)ORGANIZATION

paragraphs, topic and

PURPOSE

unity

vocabulary, idiom, tone

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"

headings: psychological problems, linguistics problems and cognitive ones.

5

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

presence of someone and the feedback from the speaker and the listener, writing is asolitary 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 maintainedthrough the process of interaction People repeat, backtrack, expand, etc depending

on how people react to what are being said When speaking, incomplete and evenungrammatical utterances usually pass unnoticed When writing, on the other hand,people have to keep the channel of communication open through their own effortsand to ensure that their choice of sentence structures and their way of linkingsentences 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 theytalk because they want to, about matters which are of interest or relevant to themsocially or professionally Writing, on the other hand, is learned through a process ofinstruction: people have to master the written form of the language and to learncertain structures which are less used in speech, or perhaps not used at all, but whichare 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 isnot present and perhaps by a reader who is not known to them

Besides, writing is a task which is often imposed on people, perhaps bycircumstances This not only has a psychological effect but also causes a problem interms 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 variousreasons for the difficulty in writing They are challenges of poor facilities, largesize classes, unsuitable tasks in the textbook, students’ poor linguistic competence,passive learning style (Hoang, 2013:42), students’ negative attitudes towards thewriting 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 unskilledwriters Perl (1979) found that unskilled writers are primarily concerned with thesuperficial elements or problems at sentence level They pay less attention to thereadership, the plan and organization of their writing They rarely modify or rewritewhat they have written down, either Whereas, the skilled writers focus on theproblems beyond the sentence and pay much attention to the organization of thewhole writing

Pianko (1979:13) also stressed that unskilled or weak writers "hesitated whilewriting, they did not pause," and "they were worried about their spelling." Theskilled 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 writerspaused merely to revise grammar and mechanics

Sommers (1980) found that weak writers revise in a very limited way, i.e they weremainly interested in lexicon and teacher-generated rules but rarely modified theideas already written down These writers consider the revision process as preparingwhat they have written for typing On the other hand, the fluent writers viewedrevision from a global perspective Such writers revise the whole text, to find andcreate chunks, to discover meaning and to contribute to the development of thewhole essay

Calkins (1983) found that weak writers eloborated what they had written by makingminor changes to spelling, punctuation, and vocabulary items Calkins attributedthese 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 ofwriting have been developed and applied to the writing classes However, it isnecessary to note from the beginning that there is not any ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way toteach writing skills The application of any approach will depend on a specificcontext 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 andteaching Writing then was used as a sub-skill for reinforcing speech in whichteachers tried to lead students to the mastery of grammatical and syntactic forms.Hyland (2009:3), therefore, labels this approach as "structure orientation" anddescribes it as a four-stage process of writing Students firstly learn certain grammarand vocabulary They secondly practice fixed patterns Then, they copy model text.Finally, they write essays using the patterns they have learned In short, thisapproach emphasizes accuracy over fluency and classroom activities are designed todevelop reproduction skills in fixed patterns and the ability to identify and correctproblems from linguistic knowledge Due to the emphasis on syntax, grammar andmechanics instead of content, process, audience and purpose of writing, thisapproach makes it difficult for students to develop their writing skills beyondsentence level

1.5.2 Free writing approach

According to Raimes (1983), the free writing approach emphasizes quantity andfluency 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, butfrequent 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 onlycomment 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 Inacademic writing, students have to write about certain topics with the aim ofresearching deeply and carefully instead of writing down freely what they want tosay 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 significantconcern Students copy paragraphs, analyze the form and imitate model passages.They put scrambled sentences into paragraph order, they identify general andspecific statements, they choose or invent an appropriate topic sentence, and theyinsert or delete sentences This approach is based on the principle that theorganization of writing varies depends on different patterns of written discourse.Kaplan (1966:75) indicates that different languages have different patterns of writtendiscourse He describes English discourse patterns in straight line, Semitic in zigzag,Oriental in spiraling, Romance and Russian in digressive Therefore, Englishlearners should learn English writing patterns to write properly in English Also, thiskind of contrastive rhetoric is very difficult to apply to a real writing classroombecause students’ ages and language proficiency levels are not sufficientlyconsidered

1.5.4 Grammar-syntax-organization approach

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

their students’ attention to organization while working on grammar and syntax Forexample, to write a clear set of instructions on how to operate a calculator, the writerneeds more than the appropriate vocabulary He needs the simple forms of verbs, anorganizational plan based on chronology, sequence words like first, then, etc Duringdiscussion and preparation of the task, all these are reviewed and taught for the firsttime Students see the connection between what they are trying to write and whatthey need to write it.

In short, the main focus in this approach is using forms, often at the sentence level toachieve the clearest and most appropriate meaning possible Students practice bylinking specific vocabulary words, structural elements, and organizational features

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

1.5.5 Communicative approach

Communicative approach emphasizes the purpose of a piece of writing and theaudience It also encourages students to act like a writer in real-life situations and toask themselves two crucial questions about audience and purpose such as "why am Iwriting this?", "who will read it" As a result, real-world types of writing tasks aredevised The writing exercises in this approach are created so that the teacher, otherstudents, or people from out of the class can be the audience Context has a centralrole in communicative writing exercises These exercises give the students chance tolevel the formality and content appropriately according to whom they are writing forand what type of writing they are doing However, this method does not emphasizethe rhetorical conventions of English texts Leaners’ attention is not called upon thestructure, 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 ofwriting, such as how writers get started or how they develop their ideas Studentwriters must need to realize that what they first put down on paper is not necessarilytheir finished product but just a beginning, a setting out of first ideas, a draft Theirfirst draft might be unorganized and full of grammatical errors Then, with theappropriate time given to go through the process of writing and the feedback fromboth their teachers and peers, the student writers will discover new ideas, newsentences and new words to develop their final drafts which are better organizedwith fewer grammatical errors The process writing, therefore, becomes "a process

of discovery for the students" (Ibid 11) They discover new ideas, new languageforms 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 studentsexpect more explicit and strict direction from their teachers In addition, somestudents do not trust peers’ feedback, and at the same time, they are reluctant tocriticize others’ writing Furthermore, ESL/EFL students have limited languageknowledge, so teacher should take roles of both language teacher and writingteacher

According to Steele (2004), this approach has a number of stages, though a typicalsequence 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 writingprocess, and on the superficial elements of language: grammar and mechanics In atypical product approach-oriented classroom, "students are supplied with a standardsample 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 fourstages (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:

important than ideas themselvesmore than one draft

one draft

emphasized

featurescollaborative

individualemphasis on creative process

emphasis on end product

13

These two approaches actually represent two different perspectives for looking atwriting Each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages To enhance EFLwriting curriculum, teachers are recommended to merge both of the approaches sothat both the "finished product" and "the psychological and cognitive processes" can

be developed

The process approach can be regarded as "formative feedback" aimed at refiningstudents’ written work The main purpose of this type of feedback would be toprovide an opportunity for continuous interaction between the teacher and writinglearners During the process, the teacher can adjust his or her instruction methodsand/or materials to facilitate better learning As a mentor, the teacher can establish abetter relationship with his or her student while enhancing the students’ progress andlearning process

Conversely, the product approach should be viewed as a way to provide "summativefeedback" to students Rather than overemphasize grammatical and mechanicalaccuracy in final products, the teacher should determine how much the students haveachieved after a particular unit of instruction and should ensure that they havemastered the intended learning outcomes In this way, the teacher would be able toassess the effectiveness of his or her instruction and revise his or her teachingstrategies 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 METHODOLOGY2.1 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 SonProvince, a mountainous area in the north-east of Vietnam This school is morefamed 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 andlearning The class size of 35 to 40 students is too big to be a standard one Thisdoes have effect on student-to-teacher and student-to-student interaction, monitoredpractice, and individual feedback during instructional time The lack of teaching-aided facilities is another obstacle to the teachers, who have to consume much oftheir time and energy to create the visual aids by themselves without any help fromthe school The second challenge is the students’ low level of English proficiency inspeaking 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 highschools The book is set up on a theme-based foundation with the aim of developingstudents’ linguistic and communicative competence It consists of 16 units withdifferent topics Each unit has five parts represented through five forty-five-minutelessons: 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 studentsthrough the writing process such as model analysis, language work, and guidedwriting The text types students are required to produce vary from personal andformal letters to narratives, chart, graph and table description and expository essays.

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

Unit Themes/Topics Text Type

1 A Day in the Life of… A narrative

2 School Talk Filling in a form

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

15 Cities Describing a city

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 beproduct-oriented because of its emphasis on the end-result of writing What studentsoften do in their writing lessons are imitating, copying and transforming the modeltexts to their writing without any attention to the process of planning, drafting,revision, and editing She also finds that not all the writing activities provideadequate and effective scaffolding for students Therefore, some writing tasks in thetextbook become too challenging and perhaps even go beyond students’ ability Shefinally points out that many writing tasks in the textbook are rather unrealistic Thiscan 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:

English writing skills?

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 tenthgraders 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 ofthe study will be reported and interpreted.

2.3.1 Participants

All the teachers of English at CVA have been chosen for the research The youngest

is 26 and the oldest 43 years old This means they have from 4 years to 21 years ofexperience in teaching English All of them graduated in full-time program fromHanoi University of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi National Universityand have taught English 10 textbook for at least one year The total number of theteachers is 12

Three tenth-grade classes have been chosen for the study The students are bothmale and female at the age of 15 or 17 and have seven-year experience of learningEnglish at school They are supposed to best represent the average level of Englishamong the tenth graders in the whole school The total number of students fromthese classes is 95

2.3.2 Instruments and procedure

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

The procedure has been conducted in the following steps Firstly, the questionnaireshave 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 withtheir English 10 textbook The next 3 items are to question the students’ writingstrategies The items numbered 6 to 8 is to find out what difficulties the studentsencounter 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 askfor the teachers’ attitudes towards writing skills The last 3 items aim at seekinginformation about the ways they train their students.

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

Secondly, with a view to testing the validity of the information obtained from thequestionnaires, data on teachers’ classroom practices have been collected viaclassroom observation Because the information obtained from the questionnairemight be subjective and biased, the classroom observation has been conducted inorder that the author can witness the real teaching situation The observation of fivewriting lessons has been conducted for three among twelve teachers Duringobservation, the author has acted as a non-participant observer and taken notes of theclassroom procedure After that, the results of the observation have been comparedwith the results of the questionnaire

CHAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Student questionnaire analysis

3.1.1 Students' attitude towards writing

ReadingListening

Speaking

0

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

23.1

1.1

17.9

Very much Much

Not much Not at all

57.9

21