Những thách thức đối với giáo viên và học sinh lớp 10 trong việc dạy và học kỹ năng viết tiếng anh tại một trường THPT ở hà nội​

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** QUÁCH THỊ HẢI HẠNH CHALLENGES FACED BY TEACHERS AN

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE

STUDIES *****************

QUÁCH THỊ HẢI HẠNH

CHALLENGES FACED BY TEACHERS AND 10 TH GRADE STUDENTS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH WRITING

SKILLS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HANOI

(Những thách thức đối với giáo viên và học sinh lớp 10 trong việc dạy và

học kỹ năng viết tiếng Anh tại một trường THPT ở Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English teaching methodology Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi – 2020

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

QUÁCH THỊ HẢI HẠNH

CHALLENGES FACED BY TEACHERS AND 10 TH GRADE STUDENTS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH WRITING

SKILLS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HANOI

(Những thách thức đối với giáo viên và học sinh lớp 10 trong việc dạy và

học kỹ năng viết tiếng Anh tại một trường THPT ở Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor : Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa PhD

Hanoi – 2020

I hereby declare that the thesis entitled “Challenges faced by teachers and

10th graders in teaching and learning writing skills at a high school in Hanoi” is myentirely own work and effort in partial fulfillment of the requirements for theMaster’s degree at the Faculty of Post - Graduate Studies, University of Languagesand International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi The material in thisresearch has not been submitted to any other universities or institutions wholly andpartially

Quach Thi Hai Hanh

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to mysupervisor, Mrs Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, PhD for her insightful comments,criticism, wholehearted guidance and kind support that she gave me while I wascarrying out this research Undoubtedly, this thesis would hardly be accomplishedwithout her assistance

I also specially thank many teachers and staff of the Faculty of Postgraduatestudies, University of Languages and International Studies, for their valuableknowledge and guidance and assistance during my time of study at the Faculty

I am also grateful to my colleagues as well as my students at a high school inHanoi, who have helped me a lot in my data collection to fulfill this paper

Last but not least, my heartfelt thank was sent to my family for their supportand strong encouragement to me throughout the study

English writing skill can be seen as the most challenging among fourlanguage skills When teaching and learning writing skills, most teachers andstudents are confronted with a wide range of obstacles The presented study aims atidentifying teachers’ and students’ difficulties in teaching and learning Englishwriting skills at a high school in Hanoi Data of the research was gathered by means

of two major research tools a questionnaire for teacher and interviews for bothteachers and students The collected information revealed that the 10th graders hadlow motivation in learning writing, poor writing ideas, lack of frequent practice andthe teachers' teaching methods were seen as the most prevalent problematic factorshaving huge impact on and learning writings of the students Especially, timedistribution and ignorance about writing skills by both teachers and students werealso reported as predominant elements by the respondents Based on the majorfindings, a couple of suggestions and recommendations are proposed to improve thequality of teaching and learning English writing skills at the high school

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

Pie chart 4.1: Interest in learning writing skills 25

Bar chart 4.2.: Benefits of learning English writing skills 26

Table 4.1: Challenges when learning English writing skills 28

Table 4.2: Expectations and suggestions 30

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES v

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Objectives of the study 3

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Significance of the study 3

1.6 Methods of the study 4

1.7 Organization of the study 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Writing skills 5

2.1.1 Definition 5

2.1.2 The importance of writing 6

2.1.3 Approaches to second language writing instruction 7

2.2 Challenges in teaching and learning writing skills 9

2.2.1 Problems faced by students in learning writing skills 9

2.2.2 Problems faced by teachers in teaching writing skills 10

2.3 Strategies for improving the writing skills 12

2.4 Previous studies 13

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 16

3.1 Context of the study 16

3.1.1 The high school in Hanoi 16

3.1.2 English language training in the high school 17

3.2 Subjects of the study 18

3.3 Survey research design 19

3.3.1 Research methods 19

3.3.2 Data collection instruments 19

3.3.3 Procedure of the study 21

3.4 The data analysis 22

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 24

4.1 Findings 24

4.1.1 Findings from the students’ questionnaire survey and interview 24

4.1.2 Findings from the teachers’ interview 34

4.2 Discussion 37

4.2.1 Discussion of the students’ questionnaire survey and interview results 37

4.2.2 Discussion of the teachers’ interview results 40

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 42

5.1 Recapitulation 42

5.2 Implications 43

5.3 Limitations of the study 44

5.4 Suggestions for further study 45

REFERENCES 46

APPENDICES I

Appendix 1: Bảng câu hỏi khảo sát dành cho học sinh lớp 10 I Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for 10th graders IV Appendix 3: Results for the survey questionnaire for 10th graders VII Appendix 4: Câu hỏi phỏng vấn dành cho học sinh X Appendix 5: Interview questions for the students and their answers X Appendix 6: Câu hỏi phỏng vấn dành cho giáo viên XIII Appendix 7: Interview questions for the teachers and their answers XIII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the background of the study and the statement of theproblem, the objectives of the study, the research questions, the scope of the study,the significance of the study, the method of the study and the structure of the study

1.1 Rationale of the study

Among four language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing),writing is the one that a language learner expects to master Hyland (2003) arguesthat writing is an activity that must be learned so that students can effectivelycommunicate their ideas in writing It is therefore imperative that teachers helpstudents develop writing skill that allow them to express themselves properly andeffectively in L2 writing Sokolik (2003) states that writing is a mixture of processand product This process provides a collection of ideas or a stage of people whotalk when they make up a piece of writing, while the final product is considered apiece of writing Writing also brings learners the chance to find solutions to delivertheir ideas in foreign language (Setiawan et al, 2014)

Foreign language training requires sharing out four fundamental skills:listening, speaking, reading, and writing, which is a complicated process Whenteaching these skills, teachers frequently circulate a certain teaching sequence:beginning with listening, speaking, reading, and then writing (Hedge, 2000) Also,Hedge (2000) reports that learners dedicate 45% of their energies to listening, 30%

to speaking, 16% to reading, and 9% to writing There is no doubt that writing skill

is put at the end of the chain because it seems to be highly complex and difficult tomaster even for native people As stated by Grabe and Kaplan (1996, p.87),

“probably half of the world’s population does not know how to write adequately andeffectively" It was agreed that "it is easier to learn to speak than to write no matter

if it is a first or second language”(Nunan, 1989, p.12) Tangpermpoon (2008)assumes that compared to other language skills such as listening , speaking andreading, writing is the most difficult skill to acquire as it needs writers to have a lot

of lexical and syntactic information, as well as organizational concepts in L2 toproduce a successful written text.

However, unlike other skills, writing in English is not practiced outside theclass, so what is learned inside the class is practiced inside and has little opportunity

to be enhanced outside Moreover, writing is frequently seen as an element ofteaching and learning both grammar and syntax, which consequently underestimatesthe nature and significance of writing, and its acts of growth Therefore, theenhancement of this skill captures significant attention to learn and teach from thevery beginning stage of language training Both native and nonnative learners, seewriting as a remarkable difficulty, but it is much more challenging for learners ofEnglish as a second language (Hyland, 2003) These obstacles mainly occur fromincompetence in syntax, coherence, idea expansion, content selection, sentencesubject, rhetorical conventions, mechanics and organization, the absence ofvocabulary, and the improper use of vocabulary

From my personal experience as a teacher at a high school in Hanoi, whereEnglish writing skill is regarded as one of the most difficult language skills, studentsseem bored and unexcited to participate the writing lessons In those lectures, theyoften learn to camouflage their lack of reading and writing skills, so it is oftendifficult for teachers to identify their weaknesses until the graders hand in papers ortake exams In fact, many learners have believed that “English” as well as “writing”

is only about dictation and grammar For these learners, writing is an inevitablefailure Even a big number of students are confident that they will not be able toacquire good writing skills, because they cannot recognize good writing with correctspelling, grammar, and so on They seem not alert of the importance of writingskills during their learning phase Moreover, their English exams often mostlyrequires their grammatical range and lexical resource, but not much writing

Despite such issues which cause teachers and students a lot of difficulties,little research has been done on the challenges faced by teachers and students inteaching and learning English writing skills at a high school in Hanoi, especially the

teachers and 10th graders The reasons above bring the author a choice to do

research with the title " Challenges faced by teachers and 10 th grader students in

teaching and learning English writing skills at a high school in Hanoi" with an

expectation to pinpoint difficulties in teaching and learning English writing skills so

as to propose a number of possible suggestions to facilitate and better Englishwriting skills for the students

1.2 Objectives of the study

The study was carried out to detect the challenges faced by teachers and 10thgraders in teaching and learning English writing skills at a high school in Hanoi.Based on the findings, a number of feasible solutions were recommended in order toenhance the quality of English language writing skills at the high school

1.4 Scope of the study

The research goes insight the challenges in teaching and learning Englishskills of writing as perceived by the teachers and 10th graders at a high school inHanoi in the academic year of 2019-2020 The result of the study was used as thebasis for suggestions to eliminate the obstacles and to enhance the writing skills of

10th grade students at the high school

1.5 Significance of the study

The study was designed in the hope to develop insight into the reality of teachingand learning English writing skills to point out factors affecting teachers and 10thgraders when teaching and learning writing skills at a high school in Hanoi.Furthermore, the study was also expected to facilitate the English language writing

skills in this high school As a result, it will encourage both teachers and students to

be more active in writing lessons, and especially facilitate the teachers to draw their

10th graders' attention and promote their motivation and involvement in Englishwriting lessons Consequently, the lesson will become more attractive, beneficialand exciting with the active and enthusiastic participations of both teachers and theirstudents

1.6 Methods of the study

Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed to get reliableresults for the study The data were collected from a survey questionnaire andinterviews to investigate the problematic factors that are considered as hindrances

on the effectiveness of teaching and learning English writing skills at a high school

in Hanoi Based on those, implications for better quality of teaching and learningEnglish language, especially teaching and learning English writing skills at 10thgrade at a high school in Hanoi are also proposed

1.7 Organization of the study

The thesis consists of five main parts:

Chapter 1: Introduction: presents the background of the study and the

statement of the problem, the aims and the objectives of the study, the researchquestions, the scope of the study, the significance of the study, the method of thestudy and the structure of the study

Chapter 2: Literature reviews: reviews the writing skills; challenges in

teaching and learning writing skills; strategies for improving students’ writing skillsand an overview about the previous studies

Chapter 3: Methodology: provides a brief introduction about the setting of

the study and the methodology applied in the study

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion: demonstrates the findings of the study and discussions of the findings.

Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendations: summarizes what have been

addressed in the study; points out the limitations and suggestions for further study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter has introduced the theoretical background about writing skills,challenges faced by teacher and students when teaching and learning writing skills,strategies for improving students’ writing skills and previous studies Among these,the researcher has detailed the first, the second and the third sections with an aim toclarify and highlight the significances of writings, approaches and techniques forteaching and learning writing skills

2.1 Writing skills

2.1.1 Definition

It is said that it is challenging to give out an appropriate definition of writingbecause different groups of people with their different needs and purposes forwriting take on different definitions

According to Tribble (1996), writing is a difficult-to-acquire language skillwhich involves certain types of training The roles of writing are to document things,complete tasks, develop arguments and bring ideas together He also reports thatwriting “is not a skill that is readily picked up by exposure” but “normally requiressome forms of instruction” (Tribble, 1996, p.11) Ur (1996) endorses Tribble whensaying that most people intuitively develop the spoken language (at least their ownmother tongue), while the written form is in most cases intentionally taught and master.Harris (1993) assumes that writing is a process that takes place over a period of time,particularly if we consider the often prolonged period of thought that precedes thedevelopment an initial draft Byrne (1988) considers writing “the act of forming”

“graphic symbols: that is, letters or combinations of letters” He also adds that writing

is “a sequence of sentences arranged in a particular order and linked together in certainways” (Byrne, 1988, p.1) Wingersky (1999) argues that writing is a process of makingcommunication with others in which the writer delivers his ideas and thoughts inwritten forms to readers It is a process of thinking in which the writer discovers,organizes, and communicates his or her thoughts to the reader As stated

by Farbrain and Whinch (1996), moreover, it is about conveying meaning by usingwords that have been chosen and put together in written or printed form.Additionally, Boughey (1997) refers to the criteria of writing in socialcommunication when he claims that writing is a process that requires writers toexplore, challenge, and make associations for themselves between propositions.

All things considered, writing is a difficult but productive skill which givesstudents opportunities to simultaneously expose their language skills and practicecommunicative skills Therefore, it is necessary that writing skill need to be taughtand learned carefully

2.1.2 The importance of writing

Mc Arthur, et al (2008) indicate that writing provides an importance mean topersonal self-expression because it prioritizes language teaching and learning thatleads to the fact that teachers have raised more importance of writing skill for thepast few years so as to enhance their students' language level It is evident thatsocial relationships which exist thanks to the individuals’ creation via discourse, arenot only discourse Hyland (2003) states that writing is one of the key approacheswhich is used to create a coherent social relationship through interacting withothers As indicated by Alexander (2008), strong writing skills may improve thestudents' opportunities for success, because if their writing is not good, the readersmight misunderstand and misinterpret

In the school environment, Bello (1997, p.83) considers writing a powerfullanguage ability which plays an important role in fostering language acquisition aslearners experiment with terms, phrases, and large chunks of writing in order toeffectively express their ideas and to strengthen the grammar and vocabulary theylearn in class He also claims that "one of major failing in the traditional curriculumcould be attributed to lack of attention given to writing, which is an importantavenue for thinking." Bello (1997, p.83-85)

As aforementioned statements, writing is one of the ways to convey thoughts

or ideas to the others It is also the skill in studying English which requires the

students' great effort Good writing skill can facilitate the students to absorb otherskills in English better and more effectively and through writing, the learners canenrich lexical resource and consolidate grammatical structures which closely servereading and speaking purposes.

2.1.3 Approaches to second language writing instruction

Writing as a product

The product approach to writing focuses on the finished products of thewriting work rather than the process As stated by Nunan (1989), the productapproach to writing focuses on the end result of the act of composition, that is theletter, essay story and so on The writing teacher who uses the product approach will

be concerned to see that the end product is readable, grammatically correct andobeys discourse conventions relating to main points, supporting details and so on

Getnet (1994) shares a view that the product approach is an orientationwhose primary focus is the end result of what students produce Formal accuracyand correctness in grammar, spelling, use of vocabulary, convention of layout etc.are given the utmost priority The product approach of writing is an accuracy-oriented approach that focuses on the control of mistakes in order to eliminate themfrom written works (Byrne, 1988) Suggestions by Hedge (1988) include a couple ofpoints which students should bear in their mind in the product approach of writing

as the followings:

a Getting the grammar right

b Having a range of vocabulary

c Punctuating meaningfully

d Using the conventions of layout correctly

e Spelling accuracy

f Using a range of sentence structures

g Linking ideas and information across sentences to develop a topic

h Developing and organizing the content clearly and convincingly

Writing as a process

The process approach to writing focuses on the composing process of writinginstead of on the written final products Encouraging students to have a sense ofpurpose and audience, while writing about a certain topic, is the major task ofteachers who teach in line with the process approach Hedge (1988) states that goodwriters appear to go through certain processes which lead to successful pieces ofwritten work She has proposed the following steps that good writers follow in theprocess approach of writing.

a The writers start with an overall plan in their head

b They think about what they want to say and who are they writing for

c They then draft out sections of the writing and as they work on them, theyconstantly reviewing, revising and editing their work

The genre approach to writing

Genres are ways by which a text can be seen as belonging to specificdomains Dean (2008) argues that genre relates to spoken and written contexts forlanguage use in which our perceptions of the kinds of discourse occurring areinfluenced by our knowledge of conventions that are in place for that kind ofdiscourse, that is, genre conventions The fundamental foundation of genre is that

“we don’t just write, we write something to achieve some purpose: it is a way ofgetting something done” (Hyland, 2003, p.18) Martin (1992) defines genre as agoal focused because they focus on achieving specific purposes These moves andstages within a genre are communicated and unique to different cultures This is tohelp readers of that culture to relate and understand the message communicated inwriting

Reader-oriented approach to writing

Reader-oriented writing is considered as social communication between thewriter and reader Language, in this case, is viewed as a social process as Meyer et

al (1991) claims that language occurs in an individual’s life through an ongoingexchange of meanings with significant others This description concentrates on thewriter’s immediate setting, and how it has influence on the writer and as a result,

writing The means of communication is purposeful and according to its purpose,writing is composed in a particular way that it is familiar to the targeted reader Thereader expects in what s/he will read about and the writer has to meet theirrequirements Besides, the meaning between the writer and reader is negotiatedthrough a discourse that is familiar to both sides In this approach, the teachers maygive models of different genres applied in a specific theme to familiarize theirstudents with how the text follows its rhetorical moves The main objective of thisapproach is to communicate clearly with the reader, and this is ultimately achievedthrough the vision that writing is a social act.

Free writing approach

According to Hyland (2003), the focus in the free-writing approach is on thewriter Writing here is viewed as “a creative act of discovery”, and of “sharing personalmeanings” This approach is also called “expressivism” Under the concept of personalexpression, free writing teaching approach allows the student to explore their own ideasand find their own voices The free writing approach relies on quantity rather thanquality (Raimes, 1983).This approach stresses mainly on the student because the topicsand ideas originate from the students, when the teacher has the role to provide guidanceand facilitation for the students to find their opinions and self-expression Errorcorrection is kept to a minimum The teachers encourage their students to write freely

on any topic for a short duration because it is expected that the learners will step bystep write more fluently (Raimes, 1983) The teacher’s role is to comment on thecontent in the class and not correct them It is an indirect approach to teaching asgrammatical forms and genres are not taught to the learners

2.2 Challenges in teaching and learning writing skills

2.2.1 Problems faced by students in learning writing skills

According to Hyland (2002), students face a lot of writing difficulties atvarious levels of their learning Such problems can in general be categorized intolinguistic, psychological, cognitive, and pedagogical groups They address theconceptual components of English; since an incorrect structure complicates the

text’s context and interpretation, which a reader deciphers by requiring a mentalprocedure (Quintero, 2008).

Likewise, Rico (2014) suggests that an incoherent text does not conveyideas that cause learners to lose faith, even though they have mastered syntactic,lexical, grammatical control over the composition of text The loss of confidenceamong students is also due to a teaching approach that is not in conformity with thestudents’ learning styles and cultural contexts (Ahmad et al., 2013) In addition,social media, contradictory input, lack of analytical and evaluative approach forlearners and large and unmanageable class sizes can have a negative effect on thesystemic and communicative performance of the students’ texts (Pineteh, 2013)

The social factors affecting second language writing, according to Myles(2002), include motivation and attitudes Research focusing on motivation andattitude indicates that, unlike those with negative attitudes, learners with optimisticattitudes and encouragement for writing for academic purposes achieve progress(McGroarty, 1996) Butt and Rasul (2012) state that inadequate time for writing,inappropriate teaching aids, overcrowded classes, conventional pedagogy and pooracademic backgrounds for students are some of the factors affecting the writing skills

of the students Similarly, obsolete textbooks that fail to attract an audience eitherencourage the value of writing skills or provide opportunities (Heider, 2012)

Kalikokha, C (2008) assumes that collecting ample and valid information,paraphrasing of summarizing information, and using an acceptable academicwriting style, is very difficult for most students This is triggered by delayed essaywriting training, broad classes, L1 transition, and lack of communication betweenstudents and teachers about the positive measures needed to resolve these issues

It is clear that second language learners face various challenges in learningwriting skills as mentioned above This study investigated whether the samechallenges face students in learning writing skills at a high school in Hanoi andsuggest intervention measures to mitigate the problem

2.2.2 Problems faced by teachers in teaching writing skills

Teaching writing seems to be the difficult part for teachers Teaching English

at high school level is naturally much more different from teaching in other levels.The challenges may somehow make the teachers’ teaching ineffective Thefollowing can be seen as the hindrances confronted by teachers

Nowadays, teachers seem to have a hard time in motivating the students towrite This derives from the fact that the students are not interested in learningwriting (Asep, 2014) Undoubtedly, the young has the perception that they can dowhatever they please as their parents have given them much freedom Whenstudents feel reluctant in learning, it is a sign of lack of motivation (Abrar, 2016)

Another obstacle in teaching English writing skills at the high school is thatpupils have different levels of English language In fact, in many high schools,students with different levels are placed in the same class which can result inchallenges for teachers to make provision for all the students at the same time(Asep, 2014) Moreover, different levels of writing ability require teachers to applydifferent approaches As a result, the teachers feel challenging to plan their lessonsand prepare appropriate activities for the students

Another hindrance is from student’s parental indifference Lack of parents’support make teachers having a hard time to help the students Students who feellack of warmth and affection from their parents will draw them back fromsucceeding in their learning process (Gündoğmuş, 2018) This is due to littleguidance, motivation and support from their parents

Besides, lack of professional experience is another challenge faced by theteachers (Gündoğmuş, 2018) Having lack of professional experience might lead tostress and tension to teach high school students especially among novice teachers.The multiple roles of teacher are also a challenge Teachers’ experience depends onthe level of their previous experience and training It takes time for the noviceteachers to adapt themselves with their students very well Teachers can onlyprepare appropriate activities if they know well about their students’ proficiencylevel, and interests Not only that, longer time is needed for teachers to prepare new

teaching materials, appropriate lesson plans, suitable activities, and providecomments or reflections.

Finally, Anyiendah (2017) argues that lack of students’ interest is anotherchallenge Students feel lack of interest in writing because they need to know manyaspects in order to produce a good piece of work The students need to knowpunctuations, grammar, vocabulary, spelling and sentence structure in order to write

a good piece of writing

2.3 Strategies for improving the writing skills

The writing skill of students can be enhanced by encouraging their interest,motivation and enjoyment in learning, through technology (Graham & Perin, 2007).Likewise, certain metacognitive, cognitive, and socio - affective approaches may also

be used to allow student to know the writing process and to practice it (O’Malley &Chamot,1990) Hedge (2005) claims that good writing goes beyond creating simple andaccurate sentences, because learners need to be guided in the most effective andinnovative way to write and communicate their thoughts Furthermore, teachers shouldadapt their pedagogical methods and develop activities that could inspire and empowerstudents by allowing them the abilities to select topics of interest to each other(Quintero, 2008) It will probably reshape their writing habits through prolongedpractice, and physical and cognitive skills that offer the writer power over thepresentation of linguistic and domain specific information (Kellogg & Raulerson,2007) In addition, language and content teachers may find it easy to track theirstudents from a specific perspectives (Nik, et al., 2010) To encourage their expressiveability, teachers may use techniques to get feedback from students to be put down on apiece of paper Perhaps notably, attitudes towards writing and discussing the problemsneed to be improved In addition, immediate and critical feedback on their performance

is required to increase their confidence (Haider, 2012) Kroll (2003) indicates thatassessment is an important part of the instructional process in determining student’sprogress because it provides guidance for revision, feedback to both the students andteachers that they can use to improve their training quality of writing skills Also,according to Kroll (2003), feedback on

ESL students’ written assignments is necessary to boost learner’s ability in any L2writing course Thus, the goal of feedback is to teach skills that will assist thestudents to better their writing proficiency to the point where they recognize what isexpected of them as writers He further observes that learners should be encouraged

to analyze and evaluate feedback themselves in order for it to be more effective Asidentified by Williams (2005), there are two common categories of feedback thatteachers give on their students’ writings namely: feedback on form and content.Through the observation, he reveals that the most prevalent methods of feedback onform include all teachers' correction of surface errors, teacher's markings thatindicates the place and type of error but without correction, and underlining toindicate the presence of errors

2.4 Previous studies

There have been various researchers worldwide working on the aspect ofdiagnosing the challenges confronted by teachers and students when teaching andlearning English writing skills A variety of research studies inside and outsideVietnam have been conducted to find out difficulties in teaching and learningEnglish writing skills so as to figure out the problems

Hidayati (2018), in his study clarifies challenges faced by teachers whenteaching writing to English as a foreign language (EFL) in Indonesia, states that thereare internal and external factors leading to the challenges that the teachers face whenteaching writing skill The internal factors include the learners’ abilities, nativelanguage intervention, learners’ enthusiasm and reading habits while the externalfactors include the state of the class, the teaching aids, and the time available forwriting Moreover, Almubark (2016) pinpoints the higher number of students in eachclass, the lack of motivation among the students, the topics in the text books, lack ofvocabulary, mother tongue interference as problematic factors that hinder lecturersfrom teaching and students from learning English writing skill Likewise, Dwivedi andChakravarthy (2015) in their study share that teachers' roles, students' preparation,teacher and student involvement, working in group… are hindrances from betteringteaching and learning English writing skill As a result, all

researchers have pinpointed challenges in their studies and then propose solutions so

as to enhance teaching and learning quality of the English writing skill

In Vietnam, the concern about how to effectively teach and learn Englishwriting skill has been taken shaped for years Huy, N T (2015) - a lecturer of DongThap University, in a study about problems affecting learning writing skill of grade

11 students at Thong Linh high school, introduces the writing and types of writing,highlights the importance of writing and concurrently pinpointed challenges whenteaching and learning writing skill, especially problems hindering graders frombettering learning writing skill He clarifies the factors and concludes that learners'attitudes towards writing skill, lack of vocabulary and ideas, the correctionlimitation of students’ written works, the lack of material sources to improve theirwriting skill and the shortage of time for learning writing skill were the mostpredominant elements that had huge influence on 11th graders' learning Englishwriting skill As a result, he suggests solutions to limit the difficulties when teachingand learning writing skill so as to better the quality of English language outcomes ingeneral and writing skill in particular In addition, Thuy, N H H (2009), in herstudy conducted with the aim to clarify problems faced by teachers when teachingEFL writing in Vietnam, explores three main areas of problem: (i) How to raisestudents’ awareness of why they should write in English, (ii) How to teach students

to write in English and (iii) How to assess students’ writing skill The author alsoconcludes that the issues of teaching EFL writing can be solved thank to variousstrategies such as psycholinguistics, second language acquisition, syntax,sociolinguistics, and pragmatics, and that the solutions can help improve thestudents’ English writing skill in particular and communicate competence ingeneral Khang, N D, Van, P T T & Nguyet, L T A (2011) in a study about theeffectiveness of activities for teaching EFL writing in a context of Vietnam is with apurpose of clarifying the factors affecting the teaching and learning EFL writing.Among the elements, the authors pinpoint the effectiveness of activities as one ofthe major problematic hindrances on quality of teaching and learning Englishwriting skill

In fact, various studies about writing skills have been conducted worldwideand in Vietnam Significantly, all the scholars share a same view that there areseveral types of writing and writing is a really important and challenging skill toteach and learn Also, they have clarified a vast of problematic issues confronted byteachers and learners when teaching and learning writing skills, and accordinglythey have proposed a number of suggestions to address the problems However, as ateacher of English in a high school in Hanoi, the researcher finds that four mainEnglish language skills have been taught and learnt equally, but the outcomes ingeneral and writing skill in particular have not met the demand as expectation forvarious challenges Additionally, in spite of the growing concerns of teachers andresearchers about difficulties faced by teachers and pupils when teaching andlearning English writing skills, the number of studies on the field remains modest.This gives rise to my study to partly contribute to the body of research on theimportance of writing skill and also the hindrances confronted by teachers andstudents so as to suggest possible solutions to enhance the quality of teaching andlearning English writing skill at the 10th grade at a high school setting, especially at

a high school in Hanoi

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the main issues relating to methodology was carefullydiscussed First, an elaboration of the research context was presented, particularly,the English learning and teaching contexts at a high school in Hanoi Second, someimportant matters of methodology such as research tools, participants, and dataanalysis were also thoroughly mentioned Among these, the researcher paid closeattention on the research instruments with detailed description of the surveyquestionnaire, the interviews and the data analysis process which laid foundationsfor the research findings and discussion in the next chapter

3.1 Context of the study

3.1.1 The high school in Hanoi

The high school which was chosen to be studied has been acknowledged asone of the first “high school students training cradle” in former Ha Tay provincesince November 1959 with the purpose of teaching and providing basic knowledge

of foundation sciences for adults in districts of Ba Vi, Phuc Tho, Son Tay andneighboring areas

In 1994, the school was allowed to recruit and train specialized majors with 4original classes: Mathematics, Physics, Linguistics and English In 2008, at the timeHanoi was expanded geographically, the school became one of four educationalinstitutions at high school level the Hanoi Department of Education and Trainingwith the task of training specialized major students

From the school year 2017 - 2018, the school was moved to a new campuswith a clean and beautiful campus of over 4 hectares The school now has a modernwell-equipped facility for teaching and developing the comprehensive capacity ofthe students

The scale of this high school has been growing ever since The organizationalscale of the school is always maintained steadily in accordance with the Nationaleducational setting standard with 45 classes with the average of 35 students per class

The school is staffed with 6 main sections including Math, Physics Informatics Engineering, Chemistry - Biology, Literature, History - Geography - Moraleducation, Foreign language studies - Physical training - National defence training.

-It is worth mentioning that 10th grade at this school includes 15 classes withthe total number of 520 students classified into different majored classes namelymath, literature, chemistry, biology, physics, information technology, geography,history, French and English

Today the high school has become a reliable educational training institution torecruit students of the town and neighboring districts, and made great contributions

to discovering, fostering and training talents for the cause of construction,industrialization and modernization at the local and national level

3.1.2 English language training in the high school

As a result of the school's general training objectives and students' duties aftergraduation abovementioned, English is always appraised one of the most importantsubjects at this high school The ultimate outcome of English course is students'linguistic competence, communicative competence, and more important, theircommunicative performance which serve students' purposes or absorbing or readingdocuments written in English, and plus bring the students numerous opportunities tostudy abroad in future time That is to say, at the end of the general educationprogram, students with the ability to communicate reach Level 3 of the 6-levelForeign Language Proficiency Framework for Vietnam, creating a foundation forstudents to use English in learning, forming lifelong learning habits to becomeglobal citizens in the integration period

The English course, taught for 10th graders within the training curriculum,comprises two semesters The first one covers 5 units and lasts 57 periods Later, the

54 periods for the second phase covers 5 units The English training program in thishigh school is taught with the aims of providing students with a range of vocabularyand basic grammatical items, or in other words basic competence, and developinglearners' four language skills At the end of the phases, every student is

expected to be confident in communicating with others and sharing ideas about theirdaily lives, their work, their families, their hobbies, their future plans, etc in thetarget language More specifically, the students will be competent in their Englishlanguage skills equivalent to the standard of output of A2 level Thus, the teachersare required to improve their knowledge to approach the teaching of the new pilotEnglish textbook program.

Considering the course book, Tiếng Anh 10 (Volume 1+2) by the Ministry ofEducation and Training (2014) is used at the school The book is chosen because it

is expected to help to achieve the objectives of the school curriculum It consists of

10 units providing a comprehensive language teaching and learning Grammar andvocabulary are taught and explained thoroughly, and all four language skills aredeveloped systematically and similarly These text books are expected to facilitatethe students to gain training goals of the school because language knowledge andskills are equally instructed with meticulous explanations and developedsystematically

Writing is not treated as an independent subject in the English curriculum atthis high school, yet it is taught as an integrated skill in the procedure of languageskill development in this textbook Following the theme-based organization in TiếngAnh 10 (Volume 1+2), the procedure in which writing topics are first discussedthrough different language activities and skills before graders are required topractise writing with the aim at consolidating language knowledge provided in theclassroom, and then develop writing skills For 10th grade students, their writingskill is expected to gain improvement in terms of coherence and cohesion,vocabulary, grammar and accuracy in general, especially they are able to effectivelywrite familiar topics such as their friends, families, their holiday, their hobbies, etc

3.2 Subjects of the study

The research was conducted with the participation of teachers and students at ahigh school in Hanoi All students in this study were 10th graders with the totalnumber of 210 students aged from 15 to 16 from five non-gifted English classes

These 10th grade students are at different levels and background of English, and all

of them have to learn English as a compulsory subject in the training curriculum.Besides the 10th grader participants, the focus of the study was also on 05teachers of English who teach the respondents Their age ranges from 27 to 50 andtheir teaching experience varies from 5 to 20 years Among them, two got theMaster’s degree in English teaching methodology from the University of Languagesand International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

3.3 Survey research design

3.3.1 Research methods

This is a survey study to find out challenges faced by teachers and 10th gradestudents in teaching and learning English writing skills at a high school in Hanoi Inorder to get reliable results for the study, both qualitative and quantitative methodswere applied to collect the data

3.3.2 Data collection instruments

The first data collection instrument employed was a survey questionnaire forthe students The questionnaire was written in Vietnamese for students to be able tounderstand and then translated into English

The second tool applied was interviews Five 10th graders and five teachers ofEnglish were randomly chosen for the interviews

To gain in-depth and rich data, the instruments would be employed with acombination of survey questionnaire and interviews, which would be discussed indetail below

3.3.2.1.Questionnaire

Questionnaire is a tool in gathering information about the aspect of teachingand learning such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation, preferences, etc among a largenumber of respondents within a relatively short time Hence, this instrument waschosen to be utilized in this study

The survey questionnaire was designed to evaluate the 10th graders' reactionsand attitudes towards English language writing skills

The instrument used to collect data from the students was Likert - scalesurvey questionnaires Some open-ended questions were also provided so that therespondents could have opportunities to express their own opinions about the itemsraised in the questionnaires.

The questionnaire survey for the 10th graders including 33 items wascomposed of five parts: interests, benefits, challenges and expectations andsuggestions Each item was rated on a five-point Likert scale: 1 (strongly agree),2(agree), 3 (unsure), 4 (disagree) and 5 (strongly disagree)

3.3.2.2 Interview

A structured interview was a qualitative method of inquiry that combines apre-determined set of questions or topics which prompted discussion with theopportunity for the interviewer to explore particular themes or further responses.Respondents were not limited to a set of pre-determined answers, yet they wereallowed to discuss and raise issues involving the investigation theme Therefore,using semi-structured interviews was not only an insight of the research theme to beexplored but it also gave the researcher a great deal of flexibility and allowed adegree of freedom in getting information from interviewees The ideas aboveworked as the rationale for the choice of semi-structured interviews in this study

Two designs of interviews which were used in this research paper weredescribed as follows

Structured interview designed for teachers

The interview was conducted with the aim of primarily investigating thereality of teaching English writing at a high school in Hanoi, students’ level ofEnglish writing proficiency and the challenges they coped with when teachingwriting skills

The interview included 6 open-ended questions, and data withdrawn from theinterviews would facilitate the researcher to find out possible difficulties that theymay face when teaching English writing

The interviewees were five teachers of English at a high school in Hanoi

with at least five-year teaching experience The researcher contacted the chosenteachers of English and set up an appointment for the interview In order to getreliable information, the content and purpose of the interview were not informedbeforehand.

Structured interview designed for 10 th graders

The interview including 5 open-ended questions plus sub-questions fordiscussion was conducted in Vietnamese so that the students could understand thecontent of the questions and answer them clearly It was also fulfilled after theemployment of teachers' interview to gain in-depth information for the study

The interviewees were five students chosen randomly from 210 participants.The interviews were used to enrich the questionnaire data in order to supplementthe validity of the information obtained from the questionnaires and clarify theproblems confronted by 10th graders when learning English writing skills

3.3.3 Procedure of the study

3.3.3.1 Procedure of questionnaires

After considering the research questions and the literature review, particularlyprevious studies about hindrances faced by teachers and pupils when teaching andlearning English writing skill, the researcher embarked on designing question itemsfor the investigation The questions were carefully constructed in a logical andscientific way to achieve the most relevant, valid and reliable results The surveyquestionnaires was written in Vietnamese (Appendix 1) and then translated intoEnglish (Appendix 2)

To exclude any question items that would be vague or ambiguous toparticipants, the author consulted the supervisor and some lecturers at a high school

in Hanoi about the draft survey questionnaire before building the final version based

on comments and suggestions from the consultants

Administering the questionnaire

After the questionnaire was finalized, the researcher contacted the schoolleaders, administrators and teachers in charge for permission to conduct the data

gathering process Then, the researcher had a brief meeting with the studentrespondents from five non-major English classes to arrange the most convenienttime before carefully explaining the format and the way they would complete thequestions More importantly, the researcher raised questions to clear any possiblemisunderstandings and ambiguities of the learners about questions in the list Theinstruction was given out in the clearest and most comprehensible way Finally,time was set for completion.

3.3.3.2 Procedures for interviews

The interview questions were constructed after the questionnaire analysis hadfinished The questions were developed from the findings of the survey

After building questions for interviews, the researcher negotiated in advancewith the lecturers for the most convenience of time and location as well as comfortfor them

3.4 The data analysis

The data collected in this study was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively.Data would be collected and dissected to find out the common problems Then,based on the research results, the researcher would suggest a couple of effectivesolutions and recommendations

First of all, the collected data from the questionnaire respondents wereanalyzed and classified according to specific questions of the study Therefore, theanswers given to these questions helped the researcher find out the answers to themain research questions that had to do with challenges blocking the effectiveness ofteaching and learning writing skills at a high school in Hanoi

Secondly, the descriptive statistic method was used to process the informationtaken from the questionnaires The following step was that the researcher dissectedthe data and presented them in statistics according to each question made in thesurvey Then, the received statistics were put in tables to illustrate and explain betterthe results of the study

The questionnaire results collected from 10th graders in the tables wereshown in terms of numbers and percentages with 5 rating scale level based on five -point Likert scale including (1) Strongly agree, (2) Agree, (3) Unsure, (4) Disagree,(5) Strongly disagree.

The qualitative analysis was conducted with interview data The datacollected from the respondents would be processed and discussed thoroughly to findout extra challenges confronted by teachers and students when teaching and learningwriting skills These findings provided more evidence and helped the researcher tofinalize the study

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This study was conducted with the aim at examining the difficultiesconfronted by both teachers and 10th grade students when teaching and learningEnglish language writing skills at a school in Hanoi The questionnaire surveys andinterviews targeted to collect data related to finding out the challenges andsuggesting feasible solutions to limit hindrances and enhance the quality of teachingand learning English language writing skills at a school in Hanoi The resultsgathered from the questionnaires including 33 items for 10th graders were presented

in the sequence according to four components: interest in learning English writingskills, benefits of learning English writing skills, challenges when learning Englishwriting skills, expectations and suggestions Also, the interview results for theseparticipants would be clarified As mentioned in Chapter 3, the results gatheredfrom questionnaire survey and interviews were answers for the research questions ofthis study

4.1 Findings

4.1.1 Findings from the students’ questionnaire survey and interview

4.1.1.1 Findings from the students’ questionnaire survey

Interest in learning English writing skills

Pie chart 4.1 reports the numbers and percentages of students' ideas abouttheir interest in learning writing skills

Item 1

Strongly agree 6.60%

Agree 14.70%

Unsure 23.80%

23.80%

Disagree

30.90%

Strongly disagree

Item 2

3.80%

12.80%

Strongly Agree

Item 4

6.60% 3.80% Strongly

7.10%

Agree Agree

Unsure 45.70% 36.60%

Disa gree

Strongly Disagree

Pie chart 4.1: Interest in learning writing skills

As can be seen from the pie charts, the options of "(strongly) disagree" see thehighest percentage, followed by the option of "unsure", while the "(strongly) agree"take the lowest proportion as the respondents were asked about whether they likedwriting skill most among four language skills Specifically, the table reveals the figurefor informants' idea about item 1 “I like writing skill most among four language skill”made up 64, 65 and 51 for the selection of "(strongly) agree", "unsure" and "(strongly)disagree" in line with 31.4%, 30.9% and 38.5% respectively For item 2 “I am excited

disagree" in sequence When being asked whether the topics and contents of writing initem 3 were often interesting and real-

25

life like, up to 130 accounting for 61.8% of respondents (strongly) agreed with thisstatement, 63 informants making up 30.0% had no idea and only 17 participantstaking for 8.1% had a (strong) disagreement Furthermore, in item 4, only 23informants equivalent to 10.9% had a (strong) approval that they were muchsatisfied with their writing competence and performance, while 110 taking 52.3% ofothers(strongly) disagreed with this statement It was worth noticing that theparticipants having uncertainty or disagreement with the item were 77 equivalent to36.6%.

Generally, the table reveals a moderate proportion of informants makingreport that they were fond of writing skills most among four language skills andthey were also eager to take part in writing lessons This was because most ofrespondents stated that the topics and contents of writing were often interesting andreal-life like However, it was noticeable that the percentages of participants havinguncertainty or disagreement about their attitude towards writing skills, theireagerness for participation in writing lessons and their comments on the themes andcontents of writing in the textbook still remained quite high Significantly, a ratherlarge number of 10th graders had doubt or disapproved of being much satisfied withtheir writing competence and performance, especially 110 (accounting for 52.3%)

of them stated “(strongly) disagree" As a result, this concern should be catalogued

as an issue to be addressed

Benefits of learning English writing skills

In this research, 10th graders were also required to express their ideas aboutvalues they received when learning English writing skills The specific figures ofthe result were clarified in Bar chart 4.2

Bar chart 4.2.: Benefits of learning English writing skills

Bar chart 4.2.: Benefits of learning English writing skills

As specified in the bar chart, most students stated that they had obtained various

values from learning writing skills Specifically, up to 160 (76.2%) of the respondents

(strongly) approved that the writing skills facilitated them to have correct and effective

use of the language knowledge, while only 15.2% and 8.7% of the informants

expressing uncertainty or strong disapproval respectively Additionally, 149 informants

(71%) (strongly) approved that learning writing skills gave them deeper understanding

of the English language was, whereas the figure for the selection of the options

“unsure” and “(strongly disagree)” was 21.0% and 8.1% The table also clarifies

that136 respondents (64.9%) (strongly) agreed that good writing skill helped them to

learn other language skills better, whereas the number of participants selecting

“unsure” and “(strongly disagree)” was24.8% and 10.5%

In a nutshell, a large number of 10th graders received great benefits from

learning English writing skills The better and more efficient use of the language

knowledge, greater responsibility for writings and the facilitation to better other

language skills learning would be good examples of learning English language

writing skills as stated by the respondents On the contrary, there still remains a

number of informants having doubt or disapproval of the values brought by writing

skills, thus this can be listed as one of the obstacles confronted by 10th graders

when learning English writing skills which should be solved so as to better quality

of learning English in general and writing skills in particular

Challenges when learning English writing skills

Along with the interest and values of learning English, the participants werealso asked to report their ideas about challenges they had when learning Englishwriting skill Table 4.3 details the results

Table 4.1: Challenges when learning English writing skills

up to 110 informants (equivalent to 52.4%) (strongly) agreed that they found it hard

to get betterment in their writing skills, 148 partakers (accounting for 70.5%)showed they were not really motivated and interested in learning writing, and up to

192 students (making up for 91.4%) indicated that their class was too crowded tostudy language writing Additionally, 138 informants (taking up 65.7%) said theylacked exposure to books and reading materials, meanwhile the figure for theparticipants having poor academic backgrounds, limited lexical resources, and lessfrequent practice was 170, 172, and 169 which accounts for 80.9%, 81,9%, and80.5% respectively Moreover, the number of respondents having inefficientgrammar background knowledge and having stress when learning writing skill wassimilar with 100 people (accounting for 47.6%) Besides, the number of respondentshaving sense of losing face when making writing mistakes, the state of being at aloss of words or ideas for writing, poor language proficiency and influence bymother tongue when writing was 168, 166, 158 and 164 which equivalent to 80.0%,79.1%,75.2% and 78.1% respectively Plus, as the partakers being asked about theirattitude towards their teacher and topics in the textbook, their answers were various.Specifically, 77 students (equivalent to 36.7%) opined that their teachers did notspend much time teaching writing; 181 (accounting for 76.2%) 10th graders statedthat their teachers’ pedagogical approaches were sometimes inappropriate and 110respondents (making up for 52.4%) showed that their teachers did not frequentlygive feedback on their writing performance In addition, the figure for theinformants having strong approval of unclear teacher’s criteria for evaluatingstudents’ writing, uninteresting topics in the textbook in and the lack of materialsand references for consultation was 54.2%, 54.4% and 49.5% respectively

In short, a large number of 10th graders confronted with a wide range ofobstacles when learning English writing skills Among the aforementioned problematicfactors, the overloaded class, students’ poor academic backgrounds, limited lexicalresources, the lack of frequent practice, anxiety of making mistakes when writing, the