The reality of teaching and learning english writing skill at tran nguyen han high school in hai phong and recommendations

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI University of languages and international studies Department of post- graduate studies*************** PHẠM THUÝ TRINH THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNI

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI University of languages and international studies Department of post- graduate studies

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

PHẠM THUÝ TRINH

THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH WRITING SKILL AT

TRAN NGUYEN HAN HIGH SCHOOL IN HAI PHONG AND

RECOMMENDATIONS

(Thực trạng của việc dạy và học kỹ năng viết tại trường THPT Trần Nguyên Hãn - Hải Phòng và một số giải pháp)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code:

Cohort:

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI University of languages and international studies Department of post- graduate studies

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code:

Cohort:

Supervisor

HANOI-2009

TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLWDGEMENTS ii

ABTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENT iv

LIST OF TABLES vi

PART 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Objective of the study 1

1.3 The significance of the study 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 Methodology of the study 2

1.6 Design of the study 2

PART 2 DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1.Definition of writing 4

1.2 Writing versus speaking 4

1.3.Writing Difficulties 5

1.4 Approaches to writing 6

1.4.1 The controlled to free approach 6

1.4.2 Free writing approach 6

1.4.3 The paragraph-pattern approach 7

1.4.4 The grammar syntax organization approach 7

1.4.5 The communicative approach 7

1.4.6 The process approach 8

1.4.6.1 Pre- writing 9

1.4.6.1.1 Brainstorming 9

1.4.6.1.2 Planning 9

1.4.6.1.3 Debating 10

1.4.6.1.4 Interviewing 10

1.4.6.1.5 While- writing 10

1.4.6.1.6 Post- writing 10

1.5 Writing in the communicative classes 11

1.5.1 Purpose 11

1.5.2 Audience 12

1.5.2.1 The importance of audience in writing 12

1.5.2.2 Audience diversity in writing class 12

1.5.2.3 Readership 13

1.5.4 Forms 14

1.5.5 Responding to students’ writing 14

1.5.5.1.Written comments 15

1.5.5.2 Talking about the paper 15

1.5.5.3 Students’ responses to student writing (peer feedback, peer correction, or peer review) 15

1.6 Summary 15

CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY 17

2.1.The context at Tran Nguyen Han high school 17

2.1.1 The teachers 17

2.1.2 The students 17

2.2.The new “ Tieng Anh 11” textbook 17

2.2.1 Grade 11 writing objectives 17

2.2.2 Writing lessons 17

2.3 Research questions 18

2.4 The participants 18

2.5 Instruments 19

2.6 Summary 18

CHAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

3.1 Data analysis 20

3.1.1 Data analysis from teachers’ survey questionnaire 20

3.1.2 Data analysis from students’ survey questionnaire 25

3.2 Findings 32

3.3 Summary 34

CHAPTER 4 RECOMMENDATIONS 4.1 Techniques in pre-writing stage 35

4.1.1 Identifying the purpose and audience 35

4.1.2 Analyzing models 36

4.1.3 Brainstorming 36

4.1.4 Interview 37

4.1.5 Asking journalists’ question 38

4.2 Techniques in while- writing stage 38

4.3 Techniques in post- writing stage 38

4.4 Techniques for motivating students 39

4.4.1 Using oral presentation 39

4.4.2 Using games 39

4.4.3 Providing an appropriate tone of feedback 39

4.5 Summary 40

PART C.CONCLUSION 41 REFERENCE I APPENDIX IV APPENDIX1 VI APPENDIX VI APPENDIX IX APPENDIX X

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

I LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Checklist of writing tasks in English 11 textbook 18

Table 2: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards appropriate time for teaching and learning English writing skill 21

Table 3: Teachers’ opinions on the writing lessons 22

Table 4: Difficulties encountered by the teachers 23

Table 5: Teachers’ expectation for better teaching and learning situations 25

Table 6: Difficulties encountered by the students……… 26

Table 7: Students’ personal views of causes of difficulties 27

Table 8: Students’ expectations for better teaching and learning situations 31

II LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The importance of writing as perceived by 11th form students 20

Figure 2: The importance of writing as perceived by the teachers 20

Figure 3: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards students’ writing competence 21

Figure 4 : Teachers’ pre-writing techniques 28

Figure 5: Work arrangement in the while- writing stage 29

Figure 6: Teacher’s activities during the while- writing stage 29

Figure 7: The main source of feedback on students’ writing 30

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In the process of globalization, English plays an important role in enhancing economy,politics, culture and international relations between many countries Therefore, there is agreat demand for teaching and learning English in the world as well as in Viet Nam.English users today focus more on the ability to communicate in spoken and writtenlanguages However, according to Trang and Baldoff (2007), the education quality has notmet the society’s expectation because mostly high-school graduates cannot communicate inEnglish effectively in both oral and written forms Under the urgent demand of improvingthe quality, Vietnam’s English language teaching has recently undergone a comprehensivereform Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training has issued a new set of textbookfor high school students in order to develop students’ communicative competence The newtextbook displays two new teaching approaches They are learner-centered andcommunicative approaches However, regarding Vietnam’s context, the change will create

a lot of difficulties to teachers of English who are too familiar to the old teaching methods,especially in teaching writing skill, which seems to be the most difficult work in teachingEnglish

In Tran Nguyen Han high school, teaching writing skills is really a big challenge For theteachers, they used to teach the old textbooks in which writing has no place Therefore,they have no experiences in teaching theme-based writing Another problem is the students’low level of English proficiency That’s why they find it difficult to write Moreover, lack

of motivation also faces the students They often get bored and indifferent in the writinglessons In my opinion, the current problem must be worked out and appropriate teachingtechniques should be made Up to present, a few researches have been carried out on theteaching of writing for students in Hai Phong Most of the researchers have studied othersproblems concerning teaching other skills in Hai Phong

As a teacher of English, who is aware of the fact and wishes to contribute somesuggestions for possible improvements in the teaching and learning of writing skill, I

decided to do the research entitled “ The reality of teaching and learning English writingskill at Tran Nguyen Han high school in Hai Phong and recommendations.”

2 Aims of the study

The main purpose of this study is to research the current reality of teaching and learningwriting skill to 11th form students at Tran Nguyen Han high school on the basic of findingout the difficulties experienced by the teachers and the students Furthermore, somesuggestions are made to stimulate the students and some recommendations are made toimprove teaching methodology for the teachers at Tran Nguyen Han high school

3 The significance of the study

Pedagogically, the findings and comments of the study are believed to be relevant toimproving the teaching of writing to the students The study may help teachers to maketheir writing lessons more effective so that they can help their students develop writingskill as well as other language skills

4 Scope of the study

The study focuses on the reality of teaching and learning English writing skill to 11 gradestudents at Tran Nguyen Han high school In addition, some recommendations for a betterwriting teaching and learning situation are presented Although the author is well awarethat the survey statistics are not fully representative of all high school students studyingEnglish in Hai Phong, she hopes to propose some of the most popular facts that occurring

in this study

5 Methods of the study

Both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed to carry out the study With theaim of increasing validity and reliability of the data collected, the survey questionnaireswill be delivered The purpose of the survey is to collect data about the current situation ofteaching and learning writing at Tran Nguyen Han high school Informal interviews withthe colleagues and the students are also conducted Besides, reviewing the relateddocuments is also a method to establish the theoretical background for the study

6 Design of the study

The study is expected to consist of three main parts:

Part A includes the rationales, aims, significance, scope, and methods of the study

Part B includes 3 chapters

Chapter 1 deals with definitions of writing, the differences between writing and speaking, writing difficulties, approaches to writing and writing in the communicative classes Chapter 2 discusses the methodology of the study, i.e describes the study context,

participants, and instruments Besides, the introduction of the new “Tieng Anh 11”

textbook is elaborated

Chapter3 is about the data analysis and findings It describes how collected data is

analyzed and presented

Chapter 4 provides recommendations for better teaching and learning English writing skill.Part C is the conclusion which summarizes the thesis and offers some suggestions for further research Besides, the limitations of the thesis are also pointed out

PART B DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1 Literature Review

1.1 Definitions of writing

There are a lot of definitions of writing According to Byrne (1991), writing can be defined

as the act of forming graphic symbols When we write, we use graphic symbol (alphabet,grammar, and structures) to make visual meaningful utterances Therefore, on one level,writing can be said to be the act of making marks on flat surface of some kinds However,writing is not just simply putting words, sentences together Many researchers tended tofocus on the nature of writing as an entity of linguistic creation For example, Brannon,Knight and Neverow-Turk (1982, p 2) pointed out “ writing is a creative art, not asassembly line operation of locking words together into sentence and bolting sentencestogether into paragraphs in accordance with a predefined plan.”

Other researchers considered writing as a communicative process with purposefulinteraction between the participants For example, NuNan (1999, p 100) stated, “Writing isnot a solitary act, rather, it is the result of the interaction among people, contexts, andtexts.” Oluwadiya (1990) considered the nature of writing as “a process” of “via-textcommunication” between an addresser and an addressee

However, writing, in language teachers’ opinions, is “a language skill which is difficult toacquire” (Tribble, 1996, p 3) It is “a process that occurs over a period of time, particularly

if we take into account the sometimes extended periods of thinking that precede creating aninitial draft.” ( Harris, 1993, p 10)

In short, the definitions of writing are various However, writing is characterized with somebasic features, i.e being linguistics, creative, progressive and interactive Besides, the word

“writing” itself may imply an act, a process, or a skill, which needs practice and study todevelop It requires both physical and mental powers from the writers

1.2 Writing versus Speaking

Both writing and speaking are productive skills However, according to some researchers,writing is different from speaking in terms of three criteria, i.e linguistics, creating processand interaction

In terms of linguistics, Ur (1996) distinguished writing from speaking based on “itsexplicitness, density and standard language” (p 160) He asserted that the distance betweenthe reader and the writer deprived the writer of speech-related advantages like the realcontext, paralinguistic feature etc The writing content, thus, was expected to be moreexplicitly, densely and universally comprehensibly presented than that of speech

In terms of producing process, these two productive skills are also different Raimes (1983)found out that while “speaking is usually spontaneous and unplanned,” writing process is

“recursive, planned” and “time consuming” (p 5) Harmer (2004) concluded that writingprocess with “its recursiveness and multiple drafting” , (p 8) is more complex thanspeaking process

In terms of interaction, according to Ur (1996), due to the “detachment” of space and time

in writing, the writer tend to be cut short of “immediate feedback and interaction” with

“known” audience, which are supposedly available to the speaker (p 161) Harmer (2004)also point out the two features of face-to-face interaction which writing is devoid of, i.e.immediate verbal or non-verbal reactions and frequent role swapping between theaddresser and the addressee (p 8) Consequently, the writers tend to encounter commondifficulties in defining audience (Brown, 1994, p 326) and receiving feedback fromreaders (White, 1981)

To conclude, regarding the three criteria investigated in previous studies, i.e linguisticfeature, producing process and interaction, writing and speaking, by nature, are twodifferent stories This sheds more light on the characteristics of writing

With regard to linguistics problems, writers encounter the restricted use of means ofexpression Speech is spontaneous We have little time to pay attention either to organizingour sentence structure or to connecting our sentences We repeat, backtrack, expand and so

on, depending on how people react to what we say, while incomplete and evenungrammatical utterances are tolerated Speakers have a considerable range of devices tohelp get their meaning across, while writers can only resorts to their own efforts and theirchoice of sentence structures as well as sentence linking to ensure that their text can beinterpreted on it owns

Furthermore, writing also requires us to master the written form of the language foreffective communication in writing and the methods of organizing ideas in a logical andcomprehensible way that can be understood by not present readers or unknown ones

In conclusion, writing not only imposes on us a psychological effect but also causes usproblem regarding its content both linguistically and cognitively

1.4 Approaches to teaching writing

Raimes (1983, pp 5- 10) presents 6 approaches to writing, namely: The Controlled-to-FreeApproach, The Free-Writing Approach, The Paragraph-Pattern Approach, The Grammar-Syntax-Organization Approach, The Communicative Approach, and The Process Approach

1.4.1 The Controlled to Free Approach

The Control-to-Free Approach in writing is sequential At lower level, students are oftengiven sentence-level exercise or controlled compositions to imitate, copy and manipulate.Students therefore make few mistakes Only at advanced level are students allowed to trysome free compositions, in which they can express their own ideas

In short, this approach stress upon three features: grammar, syntax and mechanics and onaccuracy rather than fluency Thus, students are likely to have good grammaticalcompetence and low communication skills.

1.4.2 The Free-Writing Approach

Unlike the Controlled Approach, this approach emphasizes content and fluency Studentsare often given the topics and write with little correction from teacher Teachers may begintheir classes by asking students to write freely on any topic without worrying aboutgrammar and spelling Frequent practice helps them write fluently with confidence.Teacher does not correct these short pieces of free writing They simply read them and maycomment on the ideas the writer expressed Moreover, the emphasis in this approach is onaudience, content and fluency However, concern for accuracy and form is seen as of littleimportance in this approach This shortcoming has very likely negative effect on learner’sgrammar competence in writing

1.4.3 The Paragraph-Pattern Approach

The Paragraph-Pattern approach stresses on organization They copy paragraphs andimitate model passages They put scrambles sentences into paragraph order They identifygeneral and specific statements and choose to invent an appropriate topic sentence or insert

or delete sentences This approach is based on the principle that in different cultures peopleconstruct and organize communication with each other in different ways Therefore,students should invest time in learning to organize their ideas well in the target language

1.4.4 The Grammar- Syntax-Organization Approach

Adding some improvements to the Paragraph-Pattern Approach, this approach stresses onsimultaneous work more than only on organization of an essay

Teacher adopting this approach often devises writing tasks which draw their students’attention to organization while working on grammar and syntax For example, to write aclear set of instructions on how to operate a calculator, the writer needs more than theappropriate vocabulary He needs the simple forms of verbs, an organizational plan based

on chronology; sequence words like first, then, next, etc In the preparatory stage, thesevocabulary and structures are reviewed and taught In short, this approach is thecombination of the purpose and the form of the writing

1.4.5 The Communicative Approach

The communicative approach emphasizes the audience and purpose of a piece of writing

In writing class adopting this approach, students are encouraged to ask two questions as ifthey wrote in real life:

- Why am I writing this?

- Who will read it?

The traditional audience for student writing is the teacher, but since some methodologists arguethat that writers do their best when they write for a real audience, teacher have extended thereadership to other students in the class, who will do the work of responding and commenting,not correcting their classmate’s work Therefore, one topic like “describe your dearest friend”can take on new dimensions when the teacher sets a new audience to it:

You are writing to a pen pal in London telling him or her about your dearestfriend You love your friend very much, so what you want to make the description

as beautiful as possible

You are writing to your pen pal’s mother in London, telling her about your dearestfriend Your friend wants to change her style (hair style, dressing style, etc.) but youcannot offer any suggestion, so you need your pen pal’s mother to give some advice

to your friend

Your dearest friend and your pen pal are both attending a summer camp in Londonnext month, and you want them to meet each other Write to your pen pal, describingyour friend in detail so that he or she can recognize your friend when they are there

Providing a reason and an audience for students may well provide motivation for them towrite Therefore, this approach should be exploited to teach writing to secondary students

as it can vary the situation and context of students’ writing

1.4.6 The Process Approach

The teaching of writing has recently moved away from a concentration on the written product

to an emphasis on the process of writing, which leads to the emergence of Process Approach.Process Approach to writing came to play in the 1970s This approach encourages students’communication of ideas, feelings, and experiences It is more global and focuses on purpose,

theme, text type, i.e the reader is emphasized Thus, writers not only concern aboutpurpose and audience but also have to make decision on how to begin and how to organize

a piece of writing Writing is a process, so students are given time to set out ideas, makeplan, write a first draft, revise what has been written after a peer feedback, then they canedit their writing or write other drafts before the final version is produced

There are different points of views on the number of stages comprising the writing process According to Oshima and Hogue (1991), writing process has four stages: pre-writing, planning, writing and revising draft and writing the final copy to hand in Tribble (1996) identified four stages in writing process: pre-writing, drafting, revising and editing The author of this study takes the views that are close to the ways Tribble , Oshima and Houge defined writing process-that is, the writing process comprises three stages: pre- writing, while- writing, and post- writing.

1.4.6.1 Pre-writing

Pre-writing can be defined as any structural experience that influence active students’participation in thinking, talking, writing and working on the topic under the focus in awriting lesson (Tribble, 1996) For other words, pre-writing stage is the “information-gathering phase in the process of writing” ( Scarcella & Ofxord ,1992, p 125 )

According to Gu Yue Gou (1990, p 170), pre-writing is a very important stage of thewhole writing process, and the task at this stage may include deciding on the purpose, theaudience, the content, and the general outline

White and Adrnt (1991) briefly categorized prewriting activities into three types:generating, focusing and structuring activities

In the view of Bryne (1988), students generate ideas and also develop fluency in this stage.Pre-writing involves activities like brainstorming, outlining, debating, interviewing, etc

1.4.6.1.1 Brainstorming

According to Raimes (1983), brainstorming is a technique whose purpose is to initiatesome sort of thinking process Whatever the writing assignment is based on- a reading,picture, textbook topic, personal experience…- it can be preceded by student talk,especially by a brainstorming activity, with students producing relevant vocabulary,making comments, asking questions and making associations as freely as they can in a

short time After brainstorming orally together, students can then do the same on paper,writing down as many ideas as they can without worrying about grammar, spelling,organization, or the quality of the ideas.

1.4.6.1.2 Planning

In this stage, groups of students spend time organizing and focusing ideas and outliningtheir writings (Coffin et al., 2003) Planning is an orientation for students to have logicalsets of ideas that would be later employed in their pieces of writing

1.4.6.1.3 Debating

This is an activity in which groups students orally present two sides of an argument Oraldebates provide the opportunity to develop some writing skills such as planning, selecting,marshalling, and organizing ideas Debating helps students make judgments about therelevance and logicality of their ideas and make wise choice of which ideas to be used tocompose a text

1.4.6.1.4 Interviewing

In this activity, students are asked to interview other group members for writing ideas.When the students write the record of an interview, they convey to other genuineinformation transmitted to them by other students The interview is an useful techniquebecause it creates a relaxed atmosphere in which students have chance to get to know eachother and writing could be more enjoyable and interesting to students

Besides individual work in this stage, group work and pair work can be used

1.4.6.3 Post-writing stage:

Hedge (1988) asserted revising and editing after composing was an integral part of the writingprocess There are two main post-writing activities The first, mentioned by Harmer (2003) areself-revision and self-editing The second type of post-writing activity is rewriting based on thefeed back or comments from the teachers or their peers (Harmer, 2004)

1.5 Writing in the communicative classes

If one writes to communicate, he or she must have in mind an intended reader and a reasonfor writing beforehand In other words, the communicative approach stresses the purpose

of a piece of writing and the audience for it Students are encouraged to behave like writers

in real life and to ask themselves the crucial questions about purpose and audience:

- Why am I writing this?

- Who will read it?

Or:

- What is the purpose of this piece of writing?

- Who am I writing this for?

Some consider the purpose of the text as its communicative function Therefore, texts can

be grouped, for example, according to whether they are intended to entertain, inform,instruct, persuade, explain, argue a case, present argument, and so on

Feist thinks that defining your purpose helps you choose the information you need before startwriting: “…what you say about topic largely depends upon your purpose for writing” (1996, p.24) He also states that one’s specific purpose is likely to fall into one of five categories:

To explain something: you might write a paragraph to explain why certain dressesare in fashion this spring

To persuade your reader to do or think something: you might write a paragraph to persuade your customers to purchase new dresses in a fashion line

 To compare two things: you might compare this spring’s fashion with last spring’s fashion.

To describe something: you might simply want to describe what this spring’s fashion look like

To give your opinion about something: you might write about why you like or dislike this spring’s fashion

Other authors believe that most good writing fulfills one of the four purposes: i to express oneself, ii to inform, iii to persuade, iv to entertain (Troyka & Nudelmen, 1994, p 22).

They state that once writers have a specific purpose for a piece of writing, it will help them

to select the most appropriate ideas for their topics and to determine the most effective way

to express those ideas to the reader

Thus, before any piece of writing is produced, the first and foremost question to be raised

is “Why am I writing this?” The answer to this question will help the writer in deciding thecontents as well as the form of the product

1.5.2 Audience

1.5.2.1 The importance of audience in writing

According to Troyka & Nudelman (1994), the goal of any pieces of writing is tocommunicate effectively with the people who are going to read them, or the audience.Audience can be as specific as your classmates, your instructor, your friends, your family,

or your boss Sometimes, the general public who read your local newspaper is youraudience Different audience will differently affect your writing’s content, vocabulary, andtone Therefore, as you write, ask yourself:

Who is going to read this?

How much do they already know about my topic”

What are their attitudes about my topic?

1.5.2.2 Audience diversity in writing class

For a long time, writing by pupils was almost always addressed to the teacher seen either

as an assessor or examiner – the person who told them whether it was a good or bad piece

of work In an attempt to provide more flexibility and a greater sense of reality in thewriting curriculum, a greater diversity of audiences was proposed One of such attempt isthe classification formulated by the writing research team at the Institute of Education atLondon University (Britton et al., 1975) This identifies the following categories ofaudience:

(i) Self

Child or adolescent to self

(ii) Teacher

Child to trusted adult

Pupil to teacher, general (teacher- learner dialogue)

Pupil to teacher, particular relationship

Pupil to examiner

(iii) Wider audience (known)

Expert to known laymen

Child to peer group

Group member to working group (known audience which may include teacher)

(iv) Unknown audience

Writer to his readers (or his public)

In order for communication to be successful, writers need to know as much as possible about a target audience Harris (1993, p 23) thinks that four factors need to be taken into account:

- The formality or informality of the relationship between reader and writer

- The expertise of the readership – what degree of prior knowledge and

understanding can be assumed?

- Cultural assumption – how far is it likely that the readers will share a common cultural background with each other and with the writer?

- Attitudinal assumptions – are the readers likely to hold attitudes in common with the writer or does the writer have to explain and justify his or her attitudes?

The writer’s awareness of each of these factors will influence a whole range of decisions thathave to be made when writing In terms of classroom practice, Harris believes that it seems to

be more immediately realistic and helpful to build up pupils’ awareness of such factors ratherthan to strive to create genuine “known” audiences or to postulate pseudo-audiences

1.5.4 Forms

Many attempts have been made to classify writing According to Harris (1993, p 16), “…the most long-established is the fourfold division of classical rhetoric – exposition,argument, description and narration” In the system, pieces of writing are classified inrelation to writer’s intentions: is he or she wishing to make a point, to report on something,

to relate events and so on? This classification has determined the writing curriculum inschools with the focus on such text types as essays, compositions and reports

However, these types of writing, unfortunately, do not have any real place in society at large.For example, for the same intended purpose to persuade, writers can rely on many differenttext types Harris continues: “At one extreme, there are complex and lengthy reports aboutpolicy issues or such things as tenders for civil engineering projects These are full of technicaldetails but are intended to persuade people to a course of action At the other extreme, there aresimple texts such as health warnings or posters supporting anti-litter campaigns that are alsointended to persuade people to a course of action” (1993, pp 16-17) Thus, the essays andcomposition, while highly valued in the world of education, play little or no part in the worldout side Obviously, the traditional classification does not thoroughly cover all types of texts.Nowadays, a more satisfactory and relevant way of looking at types of writing has been

devised By forms of writing, such things as poster, brochures, pamphlets, letters, recipes, sets

of instructions, lists, labels, stories, reports, poems, essays, play scrip, and so on are meant

1.5.5 Responding to students’ writing

Responding to student’s writing, if limited to only teacher’s correcting students’ mistakes,loses a lot of its communicative nature To make this step more meaningful andcommunicative, Raims (1983) introduced three useful techniques as follows:

1.5.5.2 Talking about the paper

One of the best ways to help a student revise a paper is to discuss it with the student, inperson One-to-one conferences are extremely time-consuming and, in some teachingsituations, just not practical Often, however, a conference of just a few minutes can be soproductive that some teachers hold very conferences before and after and even during classwhile other students are writing or working together in groups The virtue of the individualconference, however short it is, is that a real discussion takes place

1.5.5.3 Students’ responses to student writing (peer feedback, peer correction, or peer review)

To reduce teachers’ work load, students should be given the chance to give feedback totheir peers In this way, they exchange papers and give written comments or evenindividual talk to one another about the writings as the teacher does Through thisprocedure, students learn a lot from each other and at the same time to get to know eachother better Ur stated “Peer correction can be a time-saving and useful technique; also,critical reading for style, content and language accuracy is a valuable exercise in itself.This can be a substitute for first-draft reading Student can work together on their firstdrafts, giving each other feedback on content, language, and organization, they then rewriteand give in the final version to the teacher” (1996, pp 171-172)

By doing this, peer feedback also helps students gain awareness of audience However,teachers should give them the framework to keep the activity under control.

1.6 Summary

In short, this chapter conceptualizes the discussion of issues and aspects concerning topic

of the study First, it concerns the concepts and ideas of teaching writing, the differencesbetween speaking and writing and the differences approaches used in teaching writing.Secondly, it focuses on theoretical background of communicative writing classes with anemphasis on context and audience The practical contents of the research, i.e researchmethodology, discussion of the results and recommendations concerning the specificresearch context, are to be described in details in the following sections

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 The context at Tran Nguyen Han high school

2.1.1 The teachers

The English language group consists of 10 teachers aged from 24 to 46 Three teachersgraduated from English Department, University of Languages and International Studies.Four graduated from English Department, Haiphong University The others graduated fromthe in-service center in Haiphong city Half of the teachers were trained under the stronginfluence of the traditional teaching methods The rest - the younger ones - were trained toteach English based on communicative approach Their interests in teaching are different,not all of them are really motivated to their teaching job

2.1.2 The students

The 11th form students at Tran Nguyen Han high school are seventeen years old Although theyhave been learning English for four years at lower-secondary schools, their English knowledge

is still limited Besides, they have no clear determination on English learning goal

2.2 The new “ Tieng Anh 11” textbook.

The new “ Tieng Anh 11” textbook composed by Van, H V et al., (2006) has been in usesince 2006 as the official textbook to learn general English at grade 11.The textbookconsists of 16 units in terms of 16 topics There are five parts in each unit representedthrough 5 lessons: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Language Focusrespectively The book adopts two new approaches: learner–centered and communicative,aiming at students’ better use of English “as a tool of communication at basic level in terms

of listening, speaking, reading and writing” (Van, H.V et al., 2006, p 33)

2.2.1 Grade 11 writing objectives

The aim of the course is to equip students with English writing skill for basiccommunication For grade 11 students, the objective is to develop students’ abilities toprovide 100 - 130 word paragraphs on familiar topics

2.2.2 Writing lessons

In the textbook, reading, speaking and listening lesson are divided into three parts: task, while-task, post-task In contrast, 30% of the writing units consist of one topic andsome prompts

pre-In order to realize the course objective, the writing section focuses on daily and populartopics The required competences and objectives of the writing lesson in each unit aredetailed in the following table:

16 The Wonders of the world

Table 1: Checklist of writing tasks in English 11 textbook 2.3 Research questions

The thesis is designed to seek answers to the following questions:

-What is the present situation of teaching and learning English writing skill at Tran

Nguyen Han high school?

- What difficulties do the teachers and the 11th form students encounter in teaching and

2.5 Instruments

To reach the primary purposes of the study, two main instruments were used and described

as follows

(i) Instrument one: Questionnaires

The questionnaire for the students was written in Vietnamese so that they would notmisunderstand the questions The questionnaire was designed to investigate the students’attitudes toward the learning of writing, the difficulties they encounter in learning writing,and the students’ expectations for better teaching and learning writing skill

The questionnaire delivered to the teachers was strictly conducted in English It aimed to find out the teachers’ attitudes toward the teaching of writing, the difficulties they

encounter in teaching writing, the teachers’ knowledge of process writing, and the teachers’expectations for better teaching and learning writing skill (ii) Instrument two: InterviewsThe interviews help to get better insights into the research questions The interviewquestions, including 10 items, were sorted out based on the survey questionnaires to getmore information in details Ten teachers and 25 students were invited to discuss for furtherinformation about the items raised in the questionnaires

2.6 Summary

To conclude, this chapter presents the methodology of the study In other words, itdescribes the aims, context, participants, instruments of the study and introduces the new “Tieng Anh 11” textbook Given the collected data, Chapter 3 will depict the data analysisand the study results

CHAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 3.1 Data analysis

This part of the thesis is the treatment of all the data collected from the survey

questionnaires conducted on 10 teachers and 100 students

3.1.1 Data analysis from teachers’ survey questionnaire

• Teachers’ personal information

Among the ten teachers taking part in the study, there are 1 male and nine females Theteachers’ ages ranges from 24 to 46 There are 4 young teachers teaching English at highschool for fewer than 5 years, 4 teachers with 5 - 10 years of experiences, 2 teachers with

10 - 20 years experiences, no teacher who has more than 20 years of English teachingexperiences

They have spent from one to three years teaching writing skill to high school students

• The importance of writing as perceived by 11 th form students and the

20

The low level of agreement about the importance of writing can be explained through myinterviews with the teachers and the students The teachers and the students pay much moreattention to the results of the final exam and university entrance examination which focus

on grammar, structures and reading skill That’s why both the teachers and students neglectimproving other skills such as speaking, listening and writing

• Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards students’ writing competence

Figure 3: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards students’ writing competence

From the figure, it can be seen clearly that the majority of the teachers assessed their students’ real ability still bad 55% of the students agreed with their teachers’ ideas 20% of the teachers and 12% of the students responded that the students’ writing competence was really bad 28 % of the students thought their writing competence was quite good while only 10% of the teachers agreed with that Only 5% of the students thought their writing competence was good and no teachers agreed with the idea.

• Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards appropriate time for teaching and learning

English writing skill

What are the appropriate periods (45 minutes/ period) for teaching and learning English writing to 11th form students?

c more than 2 periods/week

1 period/ week1- 2 periods/ weekMore than 2 periods/week

Table 2: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards appropriate time for teaching and

learning English writing skill

As can be seen from the table, most of the teachers thought that the time for teaching andlearning writing one period a week at Tran Nguyen Han high school was not enough In myinterview, most of the teachers said that getting their students to make an outline and correctingtheir students’ errors were time-consuming Due to the students’ low level of Englishproficiency, the teachers spend a lot of time explaining new words and new expressions as well

as instructing how to make an outline The students also commit a lot of errors in their writings

so it takes the teachers much time to correct their students’ errors in class Some students withlow level of English proficiency cannot recognize the errors and cannot correct them Thus,they often write these errors on the board and correct them to save time

• Teachers’ opinions on the writing lessons

Type of tasks are various

Topics are interesting but the knowledge relating to the topics is not

adequate

Tasks are beyond students’ ability

Writing section lacks particular context (purpose, audience)

Table 3: Teachers’ opinions on the writing lessons

As can be seen, the majority of the surveyed teachers thought that the writing lessons weregood with interesting writing topics but the knowledge relating to the topics was not adequate.Most of the teachers disagreed with the idea that tasks were beyond students’ ability Besides,most of the teachers thought types of tasks were not various Many of them said in many units,students just went through only one task which was based on given prompts This causedstudents to get more difficulties in writing Furthermore, many of them reported that writingsection lacked particular context That means lack of purpose and audience

• Difficulties encountered by the teachers

Statements

I have the most difficulties in teaching:

Pre-writing stage

While-writing stage

Post- writing stage

Table 4: Difficulties encountered by the teachers

As can be seen from the table, seven teachers stated they had difficulties in teaching thepre-writing stage In my interview, they said they found it hard to get their students toexperience the stage due to their low level of English proficiency and their low backgroundknowledge 5 teachers reported they met difficulties in teaching the while-writing stage.They said they had difficulty in managing time in the while-writing stage Most of theteachers find it difficult to present the post-writing stage effectively In my interview, theysaid correcting their students’ errors was a big concern It took them much time to correcttheir students’ errors as their students committed a lot of errors in their writings Some ofthem added they sometimes missed the post-writing stage because of limited time

• Teachers’ personal views of causes of difficulties

What are your current problems with teaching writing skill? ( Rank them in order of priority: 1- 7)

1 Students’ low motivation

2 Students’ low background knowledge

3 Students’ low level of English proficiency

4 Large and multilevel classes

5 Teachers’ inexperience in teaching the new textbook

6 Lack of necessary facilities

7 Time limitation

According to the data collected, the teachers’ most problematic point is their students’ lowlevel of English proficiency In my interview, most of the teachers agreed grammar mistakeswere the most common mistakes in their students’ writings They also said that when writing,their students often lacked vocabulary or had difficulties in word choice They ranked theirstudents’ low background knowledge in the second position The students’ low motivationranked third They put time limitation, large and multilevel classes, lack of