A survey of the 11th graders english writing skills at le hong phong high school in lam dong province m a 60 14 10

Although the focus of the thesis is on the students, it also examines the teachers at this school in terms of attitudes and practical techniques in teaching L2 writing skills in Tieng An

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

ENGLISH FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS &LITERATURE

*****

WRITING SKILLS AT LE HONG PHONG HIGH

SCHOOL IN LAM DONG PROVINCE

A thesis submitted to English Faculty of Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfillment of the master’s degree in TESOL

By TRAN THI MAI THOM

Supervised by:

PHAN THI KIM LOAN, M.A., Senior lecturer

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled

WRITING SKILLS AT LE HONG PHONG SCHOOL

IN LAM DONG PROVINCE

In terms of the statement of the Requirements of Theses in Master’s

Program issued by the Higher Degree Committee

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in

any other institution

Ho Chi Minh City, July 25th, 2013

TRAN THI MAI THOM

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, TRAN THI MAI THOM, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s theses deposited in the Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purpose of the study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan or reproduction of theses

Ho Chi Minh City, July 25th, 2013

TRAN THI MAI THOM

Another special thank goes to all lecturers who have taught me during the Master Course in TESOL I also thank members of TESOL 2008 for their help and encouragement during the course

Very special thanks are due to my colleagues and students at Le Hong Phong High School in Lam Dong province for their support and cooperation

in answering the questionnaires

Last but not least, my heartleft thanks go to my family: my loving mother Hoang Thi Thin, my wonderful husband Luu Van Hanh, my lovely children Ngoc Tien and Tuan Phong Without their unfailing love, understanding, support and sacrifice, I could not have got this far

ABSTRACT

This study investigates possible factors which prevent the 11th graders at LHPHS from learning L2 writing skills well Although the focus of the thesis is on the students, it also examines the teachers at this school in terms of attitudes and

practical techniques in teaching L2 writing skills in Tieng Anh 11 This helps the

researcher see the whole picture of learning and teaching L2 writing in the context

In order to achieve the goal of the study, questionnaires, the main instruments, are delivered to both the 11th graders and the teachers who have been

teaching Tieng Anh 11 to elicit data about the students’ difficulties in learning L2

writing and suggestions of what should be done to better the situation Besides, the students’ written pieces in the first term test of the school year 2011-2012 were examined and analyzed to bring practical evidences of their weaknesses in L2 writing

The results of the study show that the students’ main problems in learning L2 writing are from (1) their wrong attitudes to L2 writing; (2) their low English competence, especially in terms of grammar and vocabulary; (3) their inappropriate habits and strategies when writing in English i.e thinking and translating ideas from their mother tongue to English, not making outlines, not drafting and revising their written pieces frequently; and (4) their infrequent practice toward writing skills

On the base of the findings, the study suggests that (1) the students should see the importance of writing to invest more time and energy in it; (2) they should grasp more English grammar and broaden their word stock; (3) they should be equipped with writing strategies so as to employ them in their lifelong learning; and (4) they should be encouraged and forced to write in English more frequently

In addition, the study also suggests methods and techniques which may be suitable for teaching L2 writing in high school context

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality i

Retention and the use of the thesis ii

Acknowledgments iii

Abstract iv

Table of contents v

List of figures viii

List of tables viii

List of charts x

Abbreviations x

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 THE PROBLEM STATEMENT 1

1.2 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 3

1.2.1 Writing learning and teaching 3

1.2.2 The setting 5

1.2.3 The textbook 6

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 7

1.4 RESEARCH AIMS AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS 8

1.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY 8

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS 9

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 10

2.1 NATURE OF WRITING 10

2.1.1 The definition of writing 10

2.1.2 Writing vs Speaking 11

2.1.3 Significance of writing learning and teaching 14

2.2 APPROACHES TO TEACHING WRITING 16

2.2.1 The product approach 16

2.2.1.1 The controlled-to-free writing approach 16

2.2.1.2 The paragraph-pattern approach 17

2.2.1.3 The grammar-syntax-organization approach 17

2.2.2 The process approach 18

2.2.3 Genre-based approach 20

2.3 RESPONSES TO WRITING 22

2.3.1 Teacher’s correction 23

2.3.2 Peer correction 24

2.3.3 Self-correction 25

2.4 FACTORS AFFECTING L2 WRITING SKILLS 26

2.4.1 Linguistic knowledge 27

2.4.1.1 Grammar 28

2.4.1.2 Vocabulary 28

2.4.1.3 Causes of linguistic errors 30

2.4.2 Discourse knowledge 32

2.4.2.1 Cohesion 32

2.4.2.2 Coherence 33

2.4.2.3 Rhetoric 34

2.4.3 Motivation 35

2.4.4 Writing strategies 36

2.5 PRIOR RESEARCH CONCERNING L2 WRITING SKILLS 39

2.6 SUMMARY 42

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 43

3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 43

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN 43

3.2.1 Subjects 44

3.2.1.1 Student respondents 44

3.2.1.2 Teacher respondents 45

3.2.2 Research instruments 46

3.2.2.1 Questionnaire 46

3.2.2.2 The students’ first term test 48

3.3 DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS PROCEDURE 49

3.4 SUMMARY 50

CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS 51

4.1 RESULTS FROM QUESTIONNAIRES 51

4.1.1 Students’ responses 51

4.1.1.1 Students’ attitudes and perceptions towards L2 writing skills 52

4.1.1.2 Students’ difficult factors in learning L2 writing 54

4.1.1.3 Students’ perceptions about well-written texts 56

4.1.1.4 Students’ thoughts about L2 writing activities 58

4.1.1.5 Students’ learning writing strategies 59

4.1.1.6 Students’ correcting strategies 62

4.1.1.7 Factors affecting students’ motivation in learning writing skills 63

4.1.1.8 Students’ thoughts about improving L2 writing 65

4.1.2 Teachers’ responses 67

4.1.2.1 Teachers’ attitudes and perceptions on L2 writing skills 67

4.1.2.2 Teachers’ ideas about difficulties in teaching writing 69

4.1.2.3 Teachers’ writing teaching activities 70

4.1.2.4 Teachers’ correcting activities 73

4.1.2.5 Teachers’ ideas about motivating factors in learning writing 76

4.1.2.6 Teachers’ thoughts about improving factors 77

4.2 STUDENTS’ WORK ANALYSIS 78

4.2.1 Total results of the students’ tests 78

4.2.2 Common mistakes in the students’ written work 79

4.3 DISCUSSIONS 82

4.3.1 Problems from the 11th graders' L2 learning writing 82

4.3.2 Problems from the teachers' L2 teaching writing 84

4.3.3 Major findings 86

4.4 SUMMARY 88

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 90

5.1 CONCLUSION 90

5.2 IMPLICATIONS 91

5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS 92

5.3.1 For students 93

5.3.2 For teachers 95

5.3.3 For the methods and the roles of teachers 96

5.3.3.1 The teacher as a researcher and a facilitator 96

5.3.3.2 The teacher as an organizer and a counselor 98

5.3.3.3 The teacher as a guide and an audience 100

5.3.4 Summary 102

5.4 CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE STUDY 102

5.5 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 102

BIBLIOGRAPHY 104

APPENDICES 110

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for teachers (Vietnamese version) 110

Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students (English version) 114

Appendix 3: Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese version) 118

Appendix 4: Questionnaire for teachers (English version) 123

Appendix 5: The first term test for 11th graders at LHPHS 126

Appendix 6a: Paragraph structure in English 132

Appendix 6b: General formats of a letter in English 133

Appendix 7: Common connectors in English 134

Appendix 8: Common symbols of errors used in correcting writing 135

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: The writing process 19

Figure 2.2: Knowing a word 29

Figure 2.3: Summary of major categories in Halliday and Hassan’s cohesion

in English 33

Figure 2.4: Procedures involved in producing a written text by White 37

LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Writing tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 11 7

Table 2.1: Differences between spoken and written language 14

Table 3.1: Student subjects’ information 44

Table 3.2: Teacher subjects’ information 45

Table 4.1: Students’ perceptions on the importance of parts in Tieng Anh 11 52

Table 4.2: Students’ perceptions on the most difficult parts in Tieng Anh 11 53

Table 4.3: Students’ ideas about learning L2 writing 53

Table 4.4: Students’ self-assessment on their L2 writing ability 54

Table 4.5: Students’ difficult factors in L2 writing 55

Table 4.6: Students’ thoughts about a well-written text 56

Table 4.7: Student’s understandings about paragraph structure in Vietnamese and in English………… 57

Table 4.8: Student’s thoughts about useful activities in L2 writing lessons 58

Table 4.9: Students’ preferable activities in L2 writing classes 59

Table 4.10: Students’ frequency in making outlines when writing 60

Table 4.11: Students’ habits when writing a required text in English 62

Table 4.12: Students’ choices of the person to correct their written work 62

Table 4.13: Students’ ideas about important factors to improve L2 writing 64

Table 4.14: Students’ L2 writing practice at home 65

Table 4.15: Students’ liking for L2 writing homework 65

Table 4.16: Students’ prospects about their L2 writing’s improvement 66

Table 4.17: Students’ suggested ways to improve L2 writing skills 66

Table 4.18: Teachers’ favoured teaching parts in Tieng Anh 11 67

Table 4.19: Teachers’ difficult parts to teach in Tieng Anh 11 68

Table 4.20: Teachers’ ideas about students’ attitudes in L2 writing classes 68

Table 4.21: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching L2 writing 70

Table 4.22: Teachers’ frequent activities in pre-writing stage 72

Table 4.23: Teachers’ frequent activities in while writing stage 73

Table 4.24: Teachers’ ideas about the importance of correction 73

Table 4.25: Teachers’ frequent activities in correcting students’ work 74

Table 4.26: Teachers’ frequent points in correcting students’ work 74

Table 4.27: Teachers’ ideas about a well written text 75

Table 4.28: Teachers’ frequent emphasis points in teaching L2 writing 75

Table 4.29: Teachers’ thoughts about motivating factors to learn L2 writing 76 Table 4.30: Teachers’ thoughts about essential factors to learn L2 writing well 77

Table 4.31: Teachers’ frequent writing homework assignment 78

Table 4.32: Teachers’ thoughts about student’s improvement in L2 writing 78

Table 4.33 a: Students’ writing work in the first term test 79

Table 4.33 b: Students’ results of writing part in the first term test 79

Table 4.34: Common mistakes in the students’ writing pieces 80

LIST OF CHARTS Chart 3.1: Students’ learning materials beside the textbook 45

Chart 4.1: Students’ liking for learning L2 writing 53

Chart 4.2: Students’ understandings about spoken and written English 57

Chart 4.3: Students’ frequency in making drafts when writing 60

Chart 4.4: Student’s frequency in revising when writing 61

Chart 4.5: Students’ ideas about aspects of their written work to correct 63

Chart 4.6: Students’ ideas about motivating factors to learn L2 writing 64

Chart 4.7: Teachers’ assessment on their students’ L2 writing ability 69

Chart 4.8: Teachers’ thoughts about most useful stages in L2 writing lessons 71

Chart 4.9: Teachers’ ideas about most successful stages in L2 writing lessons 71

ABBREVIATIONS

C.A: Communicative approach

CUP: Cambridge University Press

EF: English Faculty

EFL: English as Foreign Language

ERC: English Resource Centre

ESL: English as second language

HCMC: Ho Chi Minh City

L1: Mother tongue (Vietnamese)

L2: English

LHPHS: Le Hong Phong High School in Lam Dong province

OUP: Oxford University Press

USSH: The University of Social Sciences and Humanities

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 THE PROBLEM STATEMENT

English has now gained dominance in global communication and is considered a world language Every year thousands of international conferences of

all fields held all over the world use English as the main language Therefore, it

has become the favored foreign language to be learned worldwide, including Vietnam Indeed, in our country English has been the compulsory subject in almost every educational institution from lower secondary schools to universities In high school curriculum, English has been one of some subjects taught three periods per week and it has always been one of the three main subjects chosen in high school graduation examination together with literature and mathematics

It can be said that teaching and learning English at high schools is crucially significant in order to help students at this level prepare well for their future jobs

or higher studies The final aim is likely that with English knowledge and skills they will be able to contribute to the goals of industrialization and modernization

of our country in this integration era Thus, to achieve this, students are supposed

to be good at all language skills namely listening, speaking, reading and writing Students, therefore, are taught all language skills in most curricula As a matter of fact, each skill has its own significance and can make it distinctive from others However, the trend of learning and teaching a language today is to use it in communication Therefore, writing together with speaking is paid much consideration as it is a means of communication Writing, in fact, is indispensable

in learning a language because it is a means of communication (Arapoff, 1969; Tribble, 1996; Hyland, 2003), it helps students learn the language (Raimes, 1983; Bello, 1999) and it is considered a way of improving thinking (Murray, 1993; Kroll, 1996; Brown, 2001; Harmer, 2007b).1

Learning writing thus is necessary for all students, including students at high schools because “being able to write is a vital skill for ‘speakers’ of a foreign language as much as for everyone using their own first language” (Harmer, 2007a, p.3) However, most students at high schools in general and at Le Hong Phong high school in Lam Dong province (henceforth LHPHS) in particular neglect English writing When being asked for the reason they say that writing is hard and boring More convincingly, having a close look through the writing paper assignments that the students write at home as well as through the writing parts from the term test, we can see a lot of problems There are plenty of errors in grammar, word order, sentence structure, word choice, etc Some students even leave English writing parts blank Hence, it is necessary to examine difficulties in learning English writing skills at this school

This study confines itself in investigating problems on learning L2 (that is, English in this study) writing skills of the 11th graders for two reasons First, the

11th graders all have learned L2 writing skills for two semesters in grade ten with the same textbooks and at the same school They know a little about L2 writing skills In addition, they are at the same age so they may share similar thoughts about learning L2 writing Second, English learning writing at high schools seems

to be only the first step for a long process of writing learning In high school

curriculum, writing in Tieng Anh 11 is seen as a transferring step of a continuum from more controlled writing in Tieng Anh 10 to much freer writing in Tieng Anh

12 (Hoang et al., 2004) In Tieng Anh 10, most writing tasks seem to be too much

controlled Students compose letters or paragraphs which are very similar to the

models given in the textbook In Tieng Anh 12, on the other hand, writing tasks are

freely composed (without cues or prompts given) by students to suggested topics

Writing tasks in Tieng Anh 11 are less controlled than those of Tieng Anh 10 and less free than those of Tieng Anh 12 They are designed in topics with cues and/or

models on which 11th graders base to write letters or paragraphs This is to say that once 11th graders know how to learn L2 writing skills, they are likely to be able to handle with writing tasks thereafter In other words, 11th graders should be guided

1.2 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

1.2.1 English writing teaching and learning

Traditionally, teaching and learning L2 writing skills for students is ignored When students write in a second or foreign language, the purpose of writing is to catch grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors (Leki, 2004, p.170) However, teaching and learning English in general and teaching and learning writing in particular has been changed positively Leki (ibid., p.171) states that instead of being the last skills taught and instead of being a servant to grammar, writing now has become much more important in language curriculum

That is true in Viet Nam In recent years, the new curriculum of the subject English in high school educational programme has created a great change in learning and teaching this subject in our country In this curriculum, all language skills have been included Although teaching and learning any skills can cause specific difficulties, teaching and learning L2 writing at high schools may be the most challenging one because writing is the most difficult skill for L2 students to master (Richards & Renendya, 2002) In other words, it is likely that teaching and learning L2 writing skills at high schools have not met the objectives of the curriculum yet. 2 High school students still neglect to learn L2 writing skills

As mentioned above, the new textbooks for high school education have brought positive changes in teaching and learning English in general, English writing in particular In these textbooks, writing is taught one period each unit as other language skills During a writing lesson, the teacher often goes through three stages: pre-writing, while writing and post-writing In the first stage, the teacher often spends a few minutes raising questions and asking students to discuss in groups or pairs in order to find out ideas relating to the given writing topics in the textbook If there is a model text in the textbook, the teacher often guides students

to read and analyze it in term of tenses and structures used

In the second stage, students are usually asked to work in groups to finish the writing task while the teacher may walk around to give help Students often write their work on large sheets of paper The teacher, in the last stage, collects some groups’ written texts to show on the board then corrects them in every error together with the whole class At the end of the lesson, the teacher may ask students to rewrite the task at home; and most students try to copy one of the corrected written works on the board in order that they would not have to do it at home anymore One problem to point out here is that most groups’ writings appear very similar They are likely to be copied from reference books Therefore, correction part seems to be the time for checking spelling and punctuation After such lessons, students cannot make much progress, and they find that writing means exactly copying Few students attempt to rewrite a piece of their own They ignore L2 writing exercises Consequently, they can hardly improve L2 writing Students at LHPHS also find themselves in such a case They state that English writing lessons are tedious, boring and difficult When they have to write a piece of writing on their own, most of them feel stuck and mind-blocked They cannot discover ideas and/or organize them in a reasonable order By looking through exercises or tests which include writing parts, we can find plenty of lexical, grammatical, organizational problems To make it worse, some students do not write anything at all

So, as teachers at this school, what should we do to improve the situation? It

is true that in order to help the students improve L2 writing skills we have to investigate various facets One of the most important facets may be the understanding of the students’ L2 writing learning With this in mind, the researcher of this study tries to find out factors affecting the way students at LHPHS learn L2 writing skills We, then have a base to suggest solutions for both teachers and students with the aim to better the situation

In summary, this part points out background knowledge and the rationale on which the researcher of this study bases to conduct a survey to investigate the factors that affect the students’ L2 writing in this school In order to understand

more about learning conditions of the students and the textbook, descriptions of the setting of the study and the textbook are mentioned in the following parts

1.2.2 The setting

LHPHS is one of six state-own high schools of Di Linh district in Lam Dong province The school is situated on the 20th National Road and about 18 kilometers far from the centre of Di Linh townlet In the school year 2011-2012, the school had 35 classes, including twelve classes of grade 10, twelve classes of grade 11 and eleven classes of grade 12 Each class included from 35 to 40 students and the number of students in the school comprised 1378 in total All of them learned English as an obligatory subject

Like students of other rural and mountainous areas in Vietnam, students at LHPHS are at a low proficiency level of English Moreover, they are not very interested in learning this subject One of the reasons is due to their learning conditions Most students here are from farmer families whose life is busy and hard so they do not have enough materials for learning English Many of them do not have any kind of dictionaries, i.e English-Vietnamese or Vietnamese-English dictionary, or any other English materials except the required textbook This causes difficulties to their learning English in general and L2 writing skills in particular Another reason seems that they do not see the importance of English They have a common sense of leaving learning English until becoming students at colleges or universities They pay much attention to subjects which help them enter universities i.e., mathematics, chemistry, physics, and biology They pay less attention to learning English and they gradually find English a hard burden

Briefly, it can be said that teaching and learning English at this school is difficult, especially teaching and learning English writing skills, which requires minimal conditions such as reference materials, dictionaries, time for practising and motivation

English is taught three periods per week at high schools Thus, from the curriculum, English writing is taught in each unit for about two writing periods in three weeks The topics of writing lessons are related to the content of each unit and writing skill is taught after three other language skills have been taught Among 16 units, writing lessons are divided into different types of writing: writing letters (unit 2, 3, 4, 6, 9), describing people, an event or a place (unit 1, 5, 8, 10,

11, 12, 14), writing report (unit 16), writing biography (unit 15), writing about collection (unit 13), and interpreting statistics (unit 7) as seen in table 1.1 The objectives of the writing skills in this textbook are to consolidate students’ capacity

on writing letters and paragraphs

1: FRIENDSHIP Writing about a friend

2: PERSONAL

EXPERIENCE

Writing a personal letter to describe a past experience

3: A PARTY Writing an informal letter of invitation

TEST YOURSELF A In 120 words, write about your birthday party (or one of

your friends’)

4: VOLUNTEER WORK Writing a formal letter expressing gratitude

5: ILLITERACY Describing information in a table

6: COMPETITIONS Writing a letter of reply

TEST YOURSELF B Write about one of the competitions for secondary school

UNIT TITLE WRITING TASK

7: WORLD

POPULATION

Interpreting statistics on population from a chart

8: CELEBRATIONS Describing a celebration’s activities

9: THE POST OFFICE Writing a formal letter to express satisfaction or

dissatisfaction

TEST YOURSELF C In 120 words, write a paragraph on what you like and don’t

like about our Tet holidays Your writing should include the activities people often do before and during Tet, the food and the weather at Tet

Describing information from a chart

12: THE ASIAN GAMES Describing the preparations for the coming Asian Games

TEST YOURSELF D Write a paragraph of 120 words about the measures to

protect the environment

13: HOBBIES Writing about a collection

14: RECREATION Describing a camping holiday

TEST YOURSELF E Write a paragraph of 120 words about one of your hobbies

15: SPACE CONQUEST Writing a biography

16: THE WONDERS OF

THE WORLD

Writing a report on a man-made place

Table 1.1: Writing tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 11

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

As mentioned above, writing is considered an important skill in learning a language as it is a means of communication Scholars have paid much attention to how to teach the skill more effectively so far Lots of research and books have been written on L2 writing However, most of them concern teaching L2 writing to students at colleges and universities Moreover, most research and books focus on

the techniques and principles which help teachers conduct L2 writing lessons more effectively This study may be one of the few studies investigating the problems in learning L2 writing skills of high school students Therefore, the study may contribute to the understanding of factors affecting learning L2 writing at LHPHS

in particular and other high schools which share the same conditions as ours in general Once difficulties relating to learning L2 writing have been examined, solutions will be suggested, and then the situation will hopefully be improved

1.4 RESEARCH AIMS AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This study focuses on the 11th graders’ writing skills at LHPHS Thus, the aims

of the study are:

(1) to investigate the current practice of learning L2 writing skills of the 11thgraders at LHPHS;

(2) to find out factors which affect the students in learning L2 writing;

(3) to give some suggestions towards bettering learning L2 writing skills for the students

In order to achieve the above aims, this study tries to answer the questions:

(1) What are the possible factors that prevent the 11 th graders at LHPHS from learning L2 writing skills well?

(2) What are the attitudes of the students towards L2 writing skills?

(3) What are the difficulties facing the students in learning L2 writing skills?

(4) What are the L2 writing strategies employed by the students?

1.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Due to the time limit and the scope of a thesis master, this study confines itself to the problems in learning L2 writing skills at LHPHS, and focuses on the

11th graders only That is to say, the findings and the recommendations of this study may not be able to generalize to the teaching and learning L2 writing skills

of other high schools whose population and learning conditions are different from ours However, with the findings of the study, both teachers and students at high

schools may find it useful if they are in the same situations In other words, this study is worth concerning for those who involve in helping the 11th graders, especially those in rural and mountainous areas, improve L2 writing skills

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

This thesis of master consists of five main chapters

Chapter 1 provides the statement problem, the background on L2 writing skills

as well as information about the learners at HLPHS and the textbook Tieng Anh

11 This chapter also discusses the significance, the aims, and the questions of the

research Discussions of significance and limitation of the research are also included in this chapter

Chapter 2 reviews the literature which are relevant to the study in five major sections: (1) nature of writing; (2) significance of L2 writing learning; (3) approaches to L2 writing teaching; (4) responding to L2 writing; and (5) factors affecting L2 writing The last section is divided into four categories i.e linguistic knowledge, discourse knowledge, motivation, and L2 writing learning strategies

Chapter 3 focuses on the methodology employed in the study and the research

design which describes the subjects, instruments and procedure of data collection and data analysis

Chapter 4 presents in details the data analysis, discussion of results and the findings The data analysis is intended to identify (1) the attitudes and perceptions

of the participants towards L2 writing skills, (2) the difficulties they are facing in learning and teaching L2 writing, (3) the students’ inappropriateness in learning L2 writing and (4) their opinions on the ways to better learning L2 writing Once the data are analyzed, findings will be withdrawn

Chapter 5 offers conclusion of the research, pedagogical implications and recommendations for teachers and students as well as teaching methods and classroom activities that can be applied at LHPHS in order to improve L2 writing skills for the 11th graders

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 1 has presented the rationale and the background of the study This chapter will review literature which is relevant to the study as a basis to formulate the research questions and a standpoint to withdraw comments, recommendations and suggestions of the study As mentioned, we have to investigate several facets

of learning and teaching writing in order to better the situation This chapter will include five main parts: (1) nature of writing; (2) significance of writing learning; (3) approaches to writing teaching; (4) responding to writing; and (5) factors affecting L2 writing

2.1 THE NATURE OF WRITING

2.1.1 Definition of writing

The answer for the question ‘what is writing?’ has been in debate In one side, writing is nothing else but simply speech written down In other words, writing is seen just some graphic representation of language or the nature of language is speech For this point of view, Lado (1964, p.3) stated “Language consists of oral-aural symbols of communication, arbitrary in their association to particular meanings and units and arbitrary in their particular shape for a given language” In the same vein, Morris (1966, p 24) assumed:

It is speech, not writing, which serves as natural means of communication between members of a settled community, both for the expression of thought and as a form of social behavior Writing is primarily a means of recording of speech, even though it must be acknowledged as a secondary medium of communication in its own right

On the contrary, writing, stated by Arapoff (1969, p.33) is “much more than

an orthographic symbolization of speech; it is, most importantly, a purposeful

selection and organization of experience” (the emphasis is original) Murray

(1978) claims that the act of writing turns out to be a complex process wherein writers use language as a tool to discover and clarify meaning in experience in order to say exactly what they want In other words, writing is a means of

communication which involves “a deeper thinking than is possible when reflecting and talking” (Walshe, 1986, p 174) He emphasizes that writing is not just “talk written down” but a process of refining speech before making it visible on paper

According to Byrne (1988, p 1), writing is a process of encoding one’s thought into language by forming graphic symbols and the arrangement of which

is based on certain rules to form individual words; then the words are in turn arranged according to the conventions to form sentences However, we do not normally write just one sentence or a number of unrelated sentences; instead, “we produce a sequence of sentences arranged in a particular order and link together in certain way” (ibid, p.1) in order to form a coherent text

That is to say, in order to write a coherent text, the writer has to go through different stages i.e., gathering ideas, drafting, revising, and editing This proves that writing is not simply a means of recording speech It is a complex, cognitive process that requires sustained effort over a considerable period of time (Nunan,

1999, p 273) Writing then is a creative discovery procedure characterized by the dynamic interplay of content and language: the use of language to explore beyond the known content (Murray, 1978)

In summary, this research adopts the latter view; that is, writing is a means

of communication Whenever students are asked to write a piece of writing, they are asked to communicate something with readers That means they are asked to think about the purpose and the reader(s) of their writing

2.1.2 Writing vs speaking

In order to help students improve writing, it seems to be necessary to help them understand the differences between speaking and writing Tribble (1996) gives the reason for investigating these differences: “Once students have a better understanding of how spoken and written texts can differ they are much better placed to become confident writer” (p.16) She emphasizes that students need not only to have knowledge of the different social rules they adopt when writing or speaking but also to see how different types of language constructed and to

understand that written texts are not just spoken texts written down (p.16) She concludes that “an awareness of the differences between the typically written and typically spoken is essential to writers” (ibid., p 22)

Although speaking and writing share a similar range of broad functions: to get things done, to provide information and to entertain (Nunan, 1999, p 275), they distinguish from each other in different ways First of all, writing is obviously different from speaking in its nature of the activity because all physically and mentally normal people can learn to speak through the exposure of the language, but all people have to be taught how to write, or writing must be taught and learned with teachers available (Harmer, 2007b) To make this point clear, Brown (2001) compares speaking with walking, but writing with swimming That means talking like walking is “species specific” human behavior, but writing like swimming is culturally specific, learner behaviors: “we learn to swim if there is a body of water available and only if someone teaches us We learn to write if we are members of a literate society and usually only if someone teaches us” (ibid p.334)

Another feature that makes writing different from speaking lies on the modes of communication itself Speaking is most often a dialogue, a conversation with a cooperative partner whose feedback is immediate and whose responses we can predict (Reid, 1993) Similarly, Hyland (2002) states speech is more highly contextualized, depends far more on shared situation, allows less planning, involves real-time monitoring, and relies to a greater extent on immediate feedback In other words, speakers have a great range of expressive possibilities at their command such as by varying stress and intonation to show which part of what they are saying is most important In addition, they can rephrase what they are saying at any point in a speech event In face to face interaction, they can also use whole range of facial expressions, gestures and general body language to convey their message (Harmer, 1991, p.53) On the contrary, writing more often seems to be monolog in which the writer attempts to identify or create an audience and then she herself provides feedback (Reid, 1993) The writer seems to be

separated from the audience Therefore, they must use other means to express their ideas such as by using logical punctuation, choosing suitable word, structures and genres

Permanence is another distinctive feature of written language because once something is written down and delivered in its final form to its intended audience, the writer abdicates a certain power; the power to amend, to clarify, to withdraw (Nunan, 2000) Harmer (2007 b) states that speaking is often transient, whereas writing tends to be more permanent Spoken words fly away on the wind; written words stay around Because of this, according to Harmer (1991, p 53), perhaps the single most important difference between writing and speaking concerns the need for accuracy Therefore, accuracy and explicitness are posed greater pressure on writing than on speaking

Finally, written language is linguistically different from spoken language Written language tends to consist of clauses that are complex internally, whereas with spoken language the complexity exists in the ways in which clauses are joined together (Nunan, 1999, p.277) Most linguists agree that in written language

we tend to use more content words in comparison to function words than in spoken language For this point, Arapoff (1969, p 35) puts it “one of the first things they [students] will have to learn is that writing has certain structural differences from speech” He states:

One difference is that writing generally has longer sentences—what might be

two or three sentences in speech is often only one sentence in writing So the

students should learn how to combine the short sentences of spoken English

by modification, or by using sentence connectors of various kinds

(conjunctions, words like however, therefore, phrases like in the first place, etc.)

In the same vein, Davies (1999, pp 88, 89) states that because a written text has to create context and make references and connections of the message clear through the language itself, it requires more grammatically completed, often longer sentences and also a greater range of vocabulary and the use of grammatical structures than that of speech

In sum, having a look at table 2.1 we can see that there are some significant

Spoken language Written language

Context dependent

- generally used to communicate with people in the

same time and place relies on shared knowledge

between the interactants and often makes reference

to the shared context

- generally accompanies action

Dialogue in nature

- usually involves two or more speakers creating

spoken texts together

Unrehearsaled and spontaneous but not

unpredictable

- interactants build spoken, unrehearsed texts

spontaneously within social and linguistic

parameters

Records the world as happenings

- relies more on verbs to carry meanings

Grammatically intricate

- tends to contains more grammatical words such

as pronouns and conjunctions, etc

- develops through intricate networks of clauses

rather than complete sentences as it is jointly

constructed and relies more heavily on verbs

Edited and redrafted

- written language can be edited and redrafted any number of times

Records the world as things

- relies more on nouns and noun groups to carry meaning

Lexically dense

- tends to contain more lexical or content words as meaning is carried by noun and noun group

- relies on the process of nominalization whereby things that are not nouns can be turned into nouns

Table 2.1: Differences between spoken and written language of Burns and Joyce (cited in

Nunan, 1999, p 279)

2.1.3 Significance of writing learning and teaching

Learning writing is crucially significant for both L1 and L2 students Writing, firstly, helps students learn the target language as Raimes (1983, p.3) puts

First, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary that

we have to teach our students Second, when our students write, they also have

a chance to be adventurous with the language, to beyond what they have just learned to say, to take risks Third, when they write, they necessarily become very involved with the new language; the effort to express ideas and the constant use of eye, hand, and brain is unique way to reinforce learning

From Raime’s viewpoint, we can see that writing helps students learn more effectively because they are exposed to language through more than one medium When students write, they not also retrieve structures and vocabulary they have learned but also try to take risks beyond what they have learned

Secondly, writing is a means of communication that is required by almost all people who are involved in the social roles for their individual purposes (Tribble, 1996) For instance, some people need to write letters, essays, theses, etc Others like to write poems, postcards and stories or novels Similarly, Arapoff (1969) considers writing an important skill for all students For an academic student, he needs to write reports, term papers and theses Even the nonacademic student, who has no need to write reports and term papers, may have the need to write letters, messages, memos, notes, telegrams, invitations, directions, and to fill

in forms In brief, students must know how to express themselves through writing because “writing is the central to our personal experience and social identities, and

we are often evaluated by our control of it” (Hyland, 2003, p 1)

Finally, in the field of language pedagogy, writing is a cognitive activity which can stimulate mental development and help promote learning because

“writing and the process of struggling with language to get ideas down on paper is valuable aid to the whole learning process” (Raimes, 1983, p 12) When students write they use their brains to think and express ideas For this point, Murray (1993) claims that “writing is thinking” He emphasizes that “writing is not superficial to the intellectual life but central to it; writing is one of the most disciplined ways of making meaning and one of the most effective methods we can use to monitor our own thinking” (ibid p.337)

In sum, writing is indispensable in learning a language because it is a “basic skill, just as important as speaking, listening and reading” (Harmer, 1998, p.79)

reinforces what they have learned; it is a means of communication that most people need; and it helps students stimulate mental development because writing is

a thinking process Writing, hence, needs to be taught and learned, and training students to write “demands the care and attention of language teachers” (ibid p 4)

We, as L2 writing teachers, need to understand all complex facets of writing and then filter our understanding through a prism that can reflect how the factor of using a nonnative code effecting second language performance (Kroll, 1996, p 2)

2.2 APPROACHES TO WRITING TEACHING

Teaching and learning are considered the two sides of a coin – “two things are intertwined” (Scrivener, 2005, p.109) Although this study focuses on students writing learning, it should consider how writing is taught It is obvious that students’ ways of learning are strongly influenced by the ways they are taught or guided This part, hence, reviews approaches in teaching writing

2.2.1 The product approach

2.2.1.1 The controlled-to-free writing approach

In the earliest stage of the L2 teaching of writing, it was based on the notion

of controlled or guided composition This was the predominant approach from the 1950s to the mid 1960s and was the product of Audio-lingual approach In this approach the “speech was primary and writing served to reinforce speech in that it stressed mastery of grammatical and syntactic forms” (Raimes, 1983, p 6) This approach stressed practice with previous learned discrete units of language to talk

of ideas, organization, and style, and its methodology involved the imitation and manipulation of model passages carefully constructed and graded for vocabulary and sentence patterns (Silva, 1996, p.12)

In essence, this approach considered writing the handmaid of other skills (i.e., listening, reading and speaking), which must not take precedence as a major skill to be developed (Rivers, 1968) Learning L2 writing was seen as an exercise

in habit formation The writer was simply a manipulator of previously learned language structures; the reader was the ESL teacher in the role of editor or

proofreader; the text was a collection of sentence patterns and vocabulary items; the writing context was ESL classroom; audience or purpose of the written work was not of its concern (Silva, 1996, p.13)

2.2.1.2 The paragraph-pattern approach

In the mid 1960s, teachers began to feel that controlled composition was not enough; that there was more writing than building grammatical function (Silva,

1996, p.13) This led to a focus on ‘rhetorical functions’ which took textual manipulation beyond the sentence level to the discourse level, and focused on teaching types of texts such as descriptions, narratives, definitions, exemplification, classification, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, and generalizations

This approach stresses on organization of texts In classroom, students copy paragraphs, analyze the form of model paragraph, and imitate model passages (Raimes, 1983), reorder ‘scrambled’ paragraphs, identify ‘irrelevant sentences’, identify ‘suitable topic sentence for a specific paragraph, etc., (Reid, 1993) This approach is based on the principle that in different cultures people construct and organize their communication with each other different ways Using paragraph pattern approach, teachers focus on the concept of the thesis statement and the topic sentence, paragraph unity, organization strategies and development of paragraphs by ‘patterns’ or modes In general, this approach is still applied widely

in writing classes today, especially for students at low level of proficiency like those at high schools

2.2.1.3 The grammar-syntax-organization approach

In this approach, “they [writing teachers] devise writing tasks that lead students to pay attention to organization while they also work on necessary grammar and syntax” (Raimes, 1983, p.8) For example, to write a clear set of instructions on how to send an e-mail, the writer needs more than the appropriate vocabulary He/ she needs the simple form of verbs, an organization plan based on chronology, sequence of words like first, then, after that, finally; and perhaps even

sentence structures like “When, then” This approach requires the writers to know not only the purpose of piece of writing but also the forms to convey the message Generally, the product-oriented approaches, as it is named, focus on the well-organized and error-free products Brown (2001, p.335) claims product-oriented approaches:

A good deal of attention was placed on a ‘model’ compositions that students would emulate and on how well a student’s final product measured up against a list of criteria that included content, organization, vocabulary use, grammatical use, and mechanical considerations such as spelling and punctuation

Similarly, Nunan (1999) states that product-oriented approaches focus on tasks in which the learners copy and transform models of correct language Writing classes, thus, involve in the sentence level and grammar exercises only Though controlled writing may help students, particularly who are at the lower level of language proficiency, enhance grammar awareness of a language, it seems

to be insufficient for writing communication Reid (1993) claims writing classes that stress repetition and accuracy while severely restrict composing and original thought serve more as grammar classes Moreover, following the product-oriented approaches students often conduct writing without a sense of audience and purpose, the two crucial components for writing Another trend of teaching writing, then, comes into being; that is process-oriented approach

2.2.2 The process approach

The process approach was initiated in the 1970s and formed from the assumption that “ESL writers who are ready to compose and express their ideas use strategies similar to those of native speakers of English” (Zamel, 1982, p 204)

In other words, it focuses on the writer Applebee (1986, p.96) notes that the process approach provides “a way to think about writing in terms of what the writer does (planning, revising, and the like) instead of in terms of what the final product look like (pattern of organization, spelling, grammar)” Using this approach, the writer asks himself not only on purpose and audience but also on the

way of composing: ‘How do I write this? How do I start?

The composing process is seen as a “non-linear, exploratory, and generative process whereby writers discover and reformulate their ideas as they attempt to approximate meaning” (Zamel, 1983, p.165) For this point, Murray claims that

“the process of writing is not linear, but recursive” (1993, p 337) That means the writer passes through the process once or many times, emphasizing different stages during each passage The stages of the writing process are generally described as: prewriting, writing (drafting) and rewriting (revising and editing)

In the classroom context, this approach calls for providing a positive, encouraging, and collaborative workshop environment within which students, with ample time and minimal interference, can work through their composing process The teacher’s role is to help students develop viable strategies for getting start, for drafting, for revising, and for editing (Silva, 1996) Shih (1986) states that the process approach helps students writers to understand their own composing process and to build their repertoires of strategies for prewriting (gathering, exploring, and organizing raw materials), drafting (structuring ideas into a piece of linear discourse), and rewriting (revising, editing, and proofreading) Similarly, Seow (2002) shows the writing process in a figure:

Figure 2.1: The writing process (Seow, 2002, p 315)

In summary, the process approach, generally, is supported more widely in the field of writing teaching by most scholars and educators than the product approach because of its advantage: helping student writers understand that writing

is not a linear but a recursive process; that means they have to go back and forth writing stages i.e., prewriting, writing and rewriting before they can have the final draft

PROCESS ACTIVATED

PROCESS TERMINATED

planning drafting

revising editing

However, some scholars point out that the process approach has its own drawbacks Reid (1984) argues that it does not address issues such as the requirements of particular writing tasks, the development of schemata for producing written discourse, and variation in individual writing situations Reppen (2002, p 321) claims that “An emphasis on a process approach often disregard the importance of written form and, in effect, takes power away from learners, particularly those from different language or cultural backgrounds” For L2 students, many writing conventions will remain a mystery unless teachers are able

to bring these forms and patterns of language use to conscious awareness Similarly, Badger & White (2000) suppose that process approach cannot provide students, especially those who lack both knowledge and experience, with sufficient input, particularly, in terms of linguistic knowledge to write successfully

Raimes (1985) recommends that we should consider the need to attend to product as well as process Our students should be taught not only heuristic devices to focus on meaning, but also heuristic devices to focus on rhetorical and linguistic features after the ideas have found some forms (pp 247, 248) Sharing this point Brown (2001, p 336) puts it:

The current emphasis on process writing must of course be seen in the perspective of a balance between process and product […] The product is, after all, the ultimate goal; it is the reason that we go through the process of pre-writing, drafting, revising, and editing […] without that final product firmly

in view, we could quite simply drown ourselves in a sea of revisions Process is not the end; it is the means to the end

Nunan (1999) proposes that what we need in the writing classroom are both models and appropriate procedures In other words, we need both process and product

2.2.3 Genre-based approach

Swales (1990) identified a genre as “a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes” (p.58) The genre approach to teaching writing focuses, as the terms suggests, on teaching particular genres that students need control of in order to succeed in particular settings This might include a focus on language and discourse features of the texts, as well as

language in genre based approach is both functional; that is, it is through language that we 'get things done' and we achieve certain goals, and context dependent (language occurs in particular cultural and social contexts and can only be understood in relation to these contexts) Therefore, speakers and writers use particular genres in order to fulfill certain social functions and to achieve certain

goals within particular social and cultural contexts

According to Kim (2006), most genres use conventions related to communicative purposes He gives examples, a personal letter starts with a cordial question in a friendly mood because its purpose is to maintain good relationships with friends, and an argument essay emphasizes its thesis since it aims at making

an argument In the genre approach, samples of a specific genre are introduced, and some distinctive characteristics of the given genre are pointed out so that students can notice specific forms Kim (ibid.) has discussed advantages of this approach Firstly, students generally appreciate the models or examples showing specifically what they have to do linguistically This provides them with an understanding of why a communication style is the way it is through a reflection of its social context and its purpose Secondly, the genre approach encourages students to participate in the world around them, to comprehend writing as a tool that they can utilize, and to realize how writers manage content to promote logical organization It also allows students to become more flexible in their thinking and eventually to realize how authors organize their writings

However, similar to other approaches, genre-based approach has its own weaknesses One is that it underestimates the skills required to produce content, and the other is that it neglects learners’ self-sufficiency (Byram, 2004) The genre approach not only places too much emphasis on conventions and genre features but also is less helpful for students in discovering the texts’ true messages due to the targeted aspects of the specified genre (Kim, 2006)

In conclusion, this part summarizes approaches to teaching writing as well

as synthesizes strengths and drawbacks of each approach according to scholars’

objectives of the curriculum that teachers should choose approaches or select methods which bring most effectiveness to their students In high school

curriculum in general and in Tieng Anh 11 in particular, both product and process

approaches are needed to be considered Students should know that writing is a process of discovering, organizing and revising continuously However, they need

to finish their writing in a certain period of time They also need to know writing conventions of certain genres i.e., formal or informal letters, a chart description, a biography, etc

2.3 RESPONSES TO WRITING

It can be said that the way the teacher responds to students’ writings is one

of the important facets which helps students learn and improve writing skills In other words, students can learn and make progress from what they have written if they receive suitable responses for their work However, how to respond to written work effectively is still in debate Many scholars state that we should treat students’ writings as final products Others, on the contrary, emphasize that students’ written work should be considered as a work in progress rather than as a final product (Zamel, 1982) In his study, Freeman (1987) concludes that the teachers’ expectations of and assumptions about student’s writings determine their responses to students' pieces According to Kroll (2001, p 226), responding to students writing – once seen as the main task of the writing teacher and certainly the most time-consuming one – is a complex process which also requires the teacher to make a number of critical decisions She emphasizes that the best approach to feedback on errors derives from considering the circumstances of the individual student coupled with the goals of the course and the stage of the composing process particular draft reflects (ibid, p 230)

Students, teachers and peers play important roles in the response process: student writers are continuously writing, reading, and revising their prose; peers offer the social context within which response occurs, teachers identify certain competencies on the part of the learners and intervene appropriately in the process

responding students’ written work: the teacher’ correction, peer-correction and self- correction

2.3.1 Teacher’s correction

The teachers’ response to students’ writing is an essential part of the teaching process However, how to response to students’ work respectively is not easy Generally, “teachers are still by and large concerned with the accuracy and correctness of surface-level features of writing” (Zamel, 1985) Teachers at high schools are likely to be in the same situation They seem to pay more attention to linguistic accuracy than ideas or fluency They often try to correct all errors related

to spelling, grammar, punctuation and structures but seldom focus on the content

or interesting ideas of students’ pieces

Ton (2001) draws some conclusions after observing three case studies about correcting compositions made by three students Firstly, errors which are crossed out and corrected by the teacher do not attract students’ attention or make them avoid making the same errors again Secondly, students sometimes accept the teacher’s corrections without understanding the reason This may form a bad habit

on them that error correction is the teacher’s duty Finally, when the teacher focuses on linguistic accuracy, students will tend to write short and simple sentences, and even sacrifice ideas because they worry about grammatical correctness as their first priority (ibid., p 23)

Similarly, Hu Meizhu (2002, p 24) states that responding to writing is both a difficult and time consuming task However, the time investment seems to be profitless because students only take a brief look at the red remarks, put the paper aside and never look at it again He claims that the reasons for this abnormal situation originate from the ways teachers usually respond to students’ writings

He states:

(1) writing teachers pay too much attention to language – specific errors, accuracy and correctness They correct errors in grammar or mechanics by providing the correct lexical or grammatical items

(2) they respond to most of writing as if they were the students' final products (3) some teachers apply absolute standard rather than flexible standards and as a

(4) when responding to students' writing, some teachers locate more the weakness in

a paper than the strengths Instead of doing justice to the students by noting both the

pro and the cons, they only seek out never-do-wells

He also claims that most teachers do not treat students as readers but as

language teachers He says that teachers need to change their responding behaviour

if they want their comments to be useful for students (p 24) He (ibid p 26) then

suggests proper responding behavior:

(1) focusing on the content: “by worrying about mistakes in writing before we have

helped students with the more important problems adequately representing meaning,

we may teaching students to do the same” (Zamel, 1985)

(2) making specific comments

(3) adopting a flexible standard

(4) peer or group reading: peer reading is an effective way for students to learn from

each other Helping peer with correction or edition encourages co-operative learning

among students themselves and can avoid the deficiency that the teacher is the only

reader and the only authority

Many researchers point out that teacher’s red ink corrections have no effect

on students’ improvements This, in fact, leads students to focus more on linguistic

accuracy than on how to discover ideas Researchers, therefore, propose another

way to respond to students’ writing; that is peer-correction

2.3.2 Peer correction

In order to avoid teachers’ overwhelming red ink on students’ work,

teachers should let students read and correct their friends’ work In fact, research

on ESL writing has shown that students’ feedback on peer writing can be more

valuable than teachers’ feedback (Cumming, 1985) Witbek (1976, p.45) assumes

reasonable advantages of peer correction:

(1) The basic advantage of peer correction is that it will give students extensive

practice in developing skills necessary for editing and revising their papers before

they reach their final destination

(2) Composition correction can and should be another opportunity for

student-student and student-student-teacher oral communication

(3) One student's correction of another student's error will reinforce and sometimes

expand the former's understanding of the nature of the rule in question

(4) Peer correction will help students see that errors in composition are in the nature

of problems to be solved by all learners of the language rather than individual

weaknesses or, more simply, that errors are probably a necessary part of the process

of learning rather than merely indications of failure to learn

Peer response workshops, moreover, reinforce a system of values central to the classroom community: respect for negotiation and cooperation, a spirit of mutual responsibility, and a setting for respect and trust (Freeman, 1987) Furthermore, students in peer response groups learn and practice a ‘language of response” that they can then use to articulate ideas about their own writing Most importantly, working in peer review group students gets the presence of real-world readers (Reid, 1993, p 206) She states:

If students are to master writing as a communicative process, they must not only write regularly but also regularly try on their drafts and get feedback from

a variety of readers Texts do not evolve in vacuum; peer review groups enable students to realize that social, political and personal contexts influence writing

In summary, students can get benefits from peer correction Among them are: they have an idea of real audience besides the teacher; they become more able

to identify strengths and weaknesses in their own writing; and they can learn from other students’ writing in terms of organization weaknesses, unclear writing and illogical ideas Besides, the teacher also benefits from peer response by cutting down on the number of papers he/ she must collect to correct

2.3.3 Self correction

Another way of responding to student’s piece of writing is guiding students

to correct their own work In other words, students should know how to revise and edit their written pieces Self-editing is what students need to develop the ability to read their own writing and to examine it critically, to learn how to improve it, and

to learn how to express their meaning fluently, logically and accurately (Raimes, 1983) Thus, enabling students to find and correct their own mistakes is significant Furthermore, when students edit their work they must use dictionary and/or grammar reference books This will help develop their language knowledge

In conclusion, response or feedback to students’ writing is important but difficult and time consuming Writing teachers, thus, depending on the type and purpose of assignments can vary the ways of responses in order to bring most effectiveness to their students

2.4 FACTORS AFFECTING L2 WRITING LEARNING

Writing, for its own nature, is not an easy skill for most people to acquire both in their native language and in a foreign language, as Tribble (1996) claims writing is the language skill used least by most people It is also a skill usually learned formally at schools, and nor handled well by many people, even in their L1 She states that writing involves lower-level skills (hand writing or typing, spelling, constructing grammatical sentences, punctuating) and high-level cognitive skills (gathering ideas, organizing and sequencing, structuring, drafting and editing) Sharing this point, Richards and Renendya (2002, p 303) state, “the skills involved in writing are highly complex L2 writers have to pay attention to higher skills of planning and organizing as well as lower level skills of spelling, punctuation, word choice and so on.”

Byrne (1991, p.4) discusses the problems which are caused by writing under the three headings namely psychological problems, linguistic problems and cognitive problems He makes a comparison between speech and writing and concludes that, for psychological problems, writing is “essentially a solitary activity and the fact that we are acquired to write on our own, without the responsibility of interaction or the benefit of feedback, it itself makes the act of writing difficult” For linguistic problems, in writing, we have to keep the channel

of communication open to ensure that “the text we produce can be interpreted in its own” through our choice of sentence structure and by the way our sentences are linked together and sequenced For cognitive problems, writing “is learned through

a process of instruction” This means we have to master the written form of the language and to learn certain structures which are not usually the same in speech;

we also have to organize our ideas in such a way that they can be understood by a reader who may be not known to us

Harmer (1991) makes a comparison between spoken and written English and concludes that teaching writing is much more difficult than teaching speaking for the need for accuracy in written form Oshima and Hogue (1992) also agree

that writing is not easy and learners have to take study and practice to develop this skill They emphasize writing is a ‘process’, not a ‘product’

As far as what we have discussed, there is no doubt that writing in both L1 and L2 is a difficult or even threatening activity to most people Furthermore, in many aspects, written forms in Vietnamese and English are not the same by seeing through sentence structures, word order, lexical and grammatical means, linguistic conventions, and discourse rules, etc In other words, writing effectively in English requires the Vietnamese learners to acquire thoroughly all written forms’ aspects that may help them produce pieces of writing which are possibly accepted by the native speakers of the target language Consequently, most L2 learners find that learning writing skills is over their heads

Students at high schools are really in such a case Writing seems to be tedious and hard to learn They are involved in not only problems concerning features of written texts (morpho-syntactic problems, discoursal problems and mechanical problems) but also problems concerning composing process (psychological problems, idea-forming problems and cognitive problems) (Le Nguyen Minh Tho, 2000) as other EFL learners

The current study discusses common factors which are assumed to affect high school students learning writing in general terms: linguistic knowledge which includes grammar and vocabulary; discourse knowledge which consists of cohesion, coherence and rhetoric; motivation; and writing learning strategies

2.4.1 Linguistic knowledge

Linguistic knowledge i.e., grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation is crucially important in learning a language and using that language in communication both in speaking and writing Writing in the target language, however, needs the correct grammar and vocabulary Therefore, this part summarizes the role of grammar and vocabulary in learning writing and discusses the common causes of errors in students’ written text

2.4.1.1 Grammar

According to Ur (1996, p 75) grammar is sometimes defined as ‘the way words are put together to make correct sentences’ Brown (2001, p.362) states that grammar is “a system of rules governing the conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a sentence” It cannot be denied that grammar plays an important role in learning writing as Hamp-Lyons and Heasley (2001, p.1) put it

“without a solid basis of grammatical control, the students cannot hope to develop into an effective writer”

Bowen and Mark (1994, p 83) remark the role of grammar in second language acquisition:

 grammar plays a significant role in language since every change in any grammatical structure causes a change in meaning

 grammar organizes language structures and makes a language understandable for a learner

 grammar is the most important thing in learning a foreign language If you don’t know grammar you wouldn't be able to speak or write in that language

That is to say, in order to write in English students must have a basis of English grammar as Vo Thi Nu Anh (2004) states“grammar and writing have been

so intractably linked as to be virtually synonymous To study one is to study the other” (p.14) However, most students at high school are not good at grammar and structure in terms of using tenses, word order, subject and verb agreement, inflectional morphemes, etc For example, they often write ‘We learned English for seven year’ instead of ‘We have learned English for seven years’ or ‘When we arrived the station, the train leaved’ instead of “When we arrived at the station, the train had already left.”

to express, and we need to have a store of words that we can select from when

we wish to express these meanings (p 153)

Students usually think that knowing a word means knowing its meaning However, according to Harmer (ibid.), knowing a word requires many other aspects, i.e meaning, word use, word formation and word grammar He summarizes those aspects in figure 2.2 below

Students at high schools not only lack of word stock but also are weak at word meaning, word use, word formation and word grammar That shows the reason why they use words which are incompatible in some contexts or wrong in word form, part of speech, etc

MEANING

Metaphor and idiom

Sense relation Meaning in context

Nouns: countable and uncountable, etc

WORDS

Adjectives and adverbs: position, etc

Verb complementation, phrasal verbs, etc

Figure 2.2: Knowing a word (Harmer, 1991, p 158)