Some suggested activities for teaching and learning the writing sections in the textbook english 10

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGVINH UNIVERSITY VO THI THUY LINH SOME SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING THE WRITING SECTIONS IN THE MỘT SỐ HOẠT ĐỘNG GỢI Ý CHO VIỆC DẠY VÀ

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

VO THI THUY LINH

SOME SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING THE WRITING SECTIONS IN THE

maSTER thesis in education

Vinh - 2011

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

VO THI THUY LINH

SOME SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING THE WRITING SECTIONS IN THE

(MỘT SỐ HOẠT ĐỘNG GỢI Ý CHO VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG

VIẾT TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA “TIẾNG ANH 10”)

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

SUPERVISOR: ASSOC PROF DR LE HUNG TIEN

VINH - 2011

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I, the undersigned, hereby confirm that I am the sole author of this study.The study is submitted in partial fulfilment for the Master degree of Theory andMethodology of English Language Teaching at Vinh University and has not beensubmitted elsewhere in any other form for the fulfilment of any other degree orqualification.

Firstly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Le Hung Tien, who has supported me throughout my thesis with his enthusiasm and knowledge I attribute the level of my Master degree to his encouragement and advice and without him this thesis, too, would not have been completed

Secondly, I am grateful to all lecturers at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Vinh University, College of Foreign Languages, University of Danang and University of Languages and International Studies, VNU for their endless enthusiasm, valuable teaching and assistance that have enlightened my research path.

I also wish to express my sincere gratitude to all colleagues and students at Nguyen Truong To upper-secondary school who willingly participated in my study.

Finally, many thanks are for my family, whose support has been very important to me This thesis would not have been successfully conducted without their support and encouragement.

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how the writing sections in the textbook “English 10”are taught at some upper-secondary schools in Nghe An with reference to designingand utilizing activities The study addresses issues of teachers’ and students’attitudes towards teaching and learning writing skill, difficulties confronting bothstudents and teachers, teachers’ adaptation and use of activities in their writingclasses, the influences of adaptive activities on teaching and learning writing fromteachers’ and students’ perspectives, together with useful implications to theteaching of writing at upper-secondary schools, and some suggested activities foreach stage in teaching writing, which are illustrated by particular writing tasks inthe textbook.

To achieve the aims of the study, two questionnaires for 100 students and 20teachers were designed and used as the data collection tools Both qualitative andquantitative methods were employed to analyze collected results and create adetailed description of the real teaching context

The findings of the research indicate that most of the teachers and studentsappreciate the role of activities in teaching and learning writing However, the scope

is still limited, and there exist certain difficulties that hinder the teachers andstudents in exploiting writing activities Such reasons as class size, students’different levels of proficiency, curriculums, the textbook, time limit, and lack ofteaching facilities have negative influences on adapting and using activities inteaching writing

From the outcome of the research, other studies on issues related to teachingand learning writing as well as other skills can be carried out Such researches canimprove material adaptation, curriculum design, and classroom activities in the realcontexts of teaching Hopefully, this study has made a small contribution to thesefields

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SUB COVER PAGE i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

ABSTRACT iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS 4

LIST OF TABLES 5

LIST OF FIGURES 6

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 7

1.1 Rationale 7

1.2 Purposes of the Study 8

1.3 Research Questions 8

1.4 Scope of the Study 8

1.5 Organization of the Study 8

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 10

2.1 Teaching Writing 10

2.1.1 Writing and the Roles of Writing 10

2.1.2 Approaches to Teaching Writing 12

2.1.3 The Stages of Teaching Writing 16

2.1.4 Principles for Teaching Writing 17

2.1.5 Microskills for Writing 18

2.1.6 Writing Activities 19

2.2 Material Adaptation 20

2.2.1 Adapting Techniques 20

CHAPTER III: THE STUDY 25

3.1 An Overview of the Textbook “English 10” 25

3.2 Methodology 27

3.2.1 Participants 27

3.2.2 Instrumentation 27

3.2.3 Data Collection Procedures 28

3.2.4 Data Analysis 28

3.2.5 Summary 28

3.3 Findings 29

3.3.1 Students’ Attitudes towards ESP and ESP Writing 29

3.3.2 Students’ Problems in Writing Classes 31

3.3.3 Students’ Favorite Activities in Writing Lessons 33

3.3.4 Students’ Attitudes towards Classroom Interaction 39

3.3.5 Students’ Feedback on the Implementation of Activities in Writing Classes 41

3.3.6 Teachers’ Evaluation on Writing Sections in the Textbook “English 10” .43

3.3.7 Teachers’ Conduct of Three Stages in Teaching Writing 44

3.3.8 Teachers’ Implementation of Writing Activities 45

3.3.9 Types of Adaptive Activities Commonly Used in Writing Classes 48

3.3.10 Kinds of Interaction Used in Writing Classes 54

3.3.11 Teachers’ Assessments on Benefits of Adapting Activities to Writing Classes 55

3.3.12 Problems the Teachers Encounter When Designing and Conducting Activities in Teaching Writing 57

3.4 Discussion 59

3.5 Summary 65

CHAPTER IV: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING 66

4.1 Implications for Writing Classrooms 66

4.2 Suggested Activities for Teaching Writing 68

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS 83

5.1 Conclusion of the Study 83

5.2 Limitations of the Study 84

5.3 Suggestions for Further Research 85

REFERENCES 86

APPENDICES 88

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

ESL : English as a Second Language

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: Checklist of Writing Tasks in the Textbook “English 10”

Table 3.2: Students’ Favorite Post-writing Activities

Table 3.3: Frequency of Classroom Interaction that Students Favor

Table 3.4: Benefits That Writing Activities Bring to Students

Table 3.5: The Content of Adaptive Activities

Table 3.6: Frequency of Using Adaptive Activities at Writing Teaching StagesTable 3.7: Teachers’ Frequently Used Activities at Post-writing Stage

Table 3.8: Kinds of Interaction Used in Writing Classes

Table 3.9: The Outcomes of Writing Classes without Adaptation of Given Tasks

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1: Students’ Opinions on the Four Skills in Learning English

Figure 3.2: Students’ Opinions on Writing Sections in the Textbook “English 10”Figure 3.3: Students’ Problems in Writing Classes

Figure 3.4: Students’ Favorite Activities at Pre-writing Stage

Figure 3.5: Students’ Favorite Activities at While-writing Stage

Figure 3.6: Frequency of Favorite Activities at Post-writing Stage

Figure 3.7: Students’ Attitudes towards Carrying out Writing Activities

Figure 3.8: Teachers’ Assessment towards Writing Sections in the Textbook “English 10”

Figure 3.9: Teachers’ Conduct of Three Stages in Teaching Writing

Figure 3.10: Teachers’ Sources of Material Used for Designing Activities

Figure 3.11: Teachers’ Frequently Used Activities in Teaching Writing

Figure 3.12: Teachers’ Frequently Used Activities at Pre-writing Stage

Figure 3.13: Teachers’ Frequently Used Activities at While-writing Stage

Figure 3.14: Teachers’ Opinions about the Benefits of Using Writing ActivitiesFigure 3.15: Teachers’ Difficulties in Adapting Activities in Writing Classes

an attempt to innovate Vietnamese education to meet the demand of the society inthe process of integration and development, the Vietnamese Ministry of Educationand Training has reformed English textbooks concentrating on the four skills:speaking, listening, reading and writing for secondary school students since theschool year 2006-2007 With this reform, both teachers and students have certainadvantages and disadvantages in mastering the four skills in the process of teachingand learning English.

Of the four skills, writing, in general, is considered the most difficult one fornot only students but teachers to master In writing section in the textbook “English10”, students are asked to perform tasks of various kinds such as descriptions,narratives, letters, etc However, it seems that some of the writing tasks in the newtextbooks have not supported students’ language acquisition appropriately Besides,teachers also face certain difficulties in teaching writing skills

Being a teacher of English at upper-secondary school for six years, theresearcher has understood the reality of teaching writing in English The researcherrealizes that the upper-secondary school students in general and 10th form students

in particular do not acquire writing skill efficiently They seem to follow therequirements of writing tasks in each lesson in order without achieving theobjectives of the lesson through completing the main tasks with appropriate skills.Because of the practicality in teaching English writing, this study was carried out,

in the textbook “English 10””. The study is intended to investigate types ofactivities teachers use in their writing classes and the efficiency of these activities aswell In addition, it also seeks to find out to what certain extent these activities haveinfluence on students’ study achievements Finally, through the study, somesuggestions are offered so that teachers can adapt the writing tasks in the textbookappropriately to improve students’ writing skill.

1.2 Purposes of the Study

The purposes of the study are:

- to find out the challenges that teachers and 10th form students face with in teachingand learning writing skill

- to investigate how the writing sections in the textbook “English 10” have beentaught at upper-secondary schools with particular reference to task adaptation

- to suggest some activities for the adaptation of the tasks in the writing sections

1.3 Research Questions

For the above purposes, the following research questions are posed:

1 What common activities do teachers apply in teaching writing?

2 How useful are these activities to teaching and learning writing skill?

1.4 Scope of the Study

The study only focuses on investigating common activities used in writingteaching and their benefits to 10th form students at some some upper-secondaryschools in rural areas of Nghe An province From the findings of the research,suggested activities will be given to improve teaching English writing to 10th formstudents

1.5 Organization of the Study

Beside the abstract, bibliography and appendices, the study is organized into

5 chapters as follows

Chapter 1, “The Introduction”, presents the rationales for the research,

defines the purposes, research questions, scope and organization of the study

Chapter 2, “Literature Review”, attempts to present the theoretical

background related to the study It consists of two main sections: teaching writingand material adaptation The theoretical background of teaching writing deals withthe nature of teaching writing in foreign language such as writing and the roles ofwriting, approaches to teaching writing, stages of teaching writing, principles forteaching writing, microskills for writing and writing activities Besides, in the part

of material adaptation, adapting techniques and instructions for adapting textbooksare presented

Chapter 3, “The Study”, presents the research methodology including the

participants, methods and procedures used to collect and analyze the data.Preliminary survey results, data analysis, research findings and discussion on thefindings are also presented in this chapter

Chapter 4, “Implications for Teaching”, presents some suggestions for

writing classrooms and provides suggested activities for teaching writing sections of

particular units in the textbook “English 10”

Chapter 5, “Conclusions”, presents an overall conclusion of the study.

Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research are also included inthis chapter

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Teaching Writing

2.1.1 Writing and the Roles of Writing

Writing has been defined in a variety of ways, which shows differentviewpoints by authors Traditionally, researchers focused mainly on form and thefinal product of writing while current researches stress on the writing process andstrategies employed to attain the final product

According to “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary” (1989), writing is to

“make letters or other symbols on a surface (usually paper), especially with a pen orpencil”

Byrne (1988: 1) considers writing as the act of “forming graphic symbols”,that is, letters or combination of letters He also discusses the importance ofproducing a coherent ‘text’ by arranging the graphic symbols to form words, which

in turn are arranged to form sentences, which are then arranged in an appropriatesequence and linked to form a coherent whole

Tribble (1996: 3) considers writing as language skill which involves not just

a graphic representation of speech, but the development and presentation of though

in a structured way and is difficult to acquire He also emphasizes that writing

“normally requires some forms of instruction” and that “it is not a skills that isreadily picked up by exposure” (1996: 11)

In Ur’s point of view, “most people acquire the spoken language (at leasttheir own mother tongue) intuitively, whereas the written form is in most casesdeliberately taught and learned” (1996: 161)

In one word, writing involves many different aspects and “writing” itselfmay imply an act, a process or a skill, which needs practice and study to develop

It can also be understood as a way of presenting writers’ thoughts and ideas the

form of sentences in a cohesive text where there is successful communication withthe readers.

In the classroom, teaching and learning writing skill play an important role inthe process of language teaching and learning White (1981) points out a number ofreasons why writing occupies a place in the language syllabus First of all, writing isthe commonest way of examining student performance in English Therefore,students’ writing ability is a key to examination success Second, from both parentsand students’ views, ability to write may be associated with “evidence of havinglearnt the language” In other words, parents and students can see what has beendone and what has been achieved during the learning process Moreover, in theclassroom, writing may be used as a helpful technique to help add variety andinterest to lesson Another important thing is that in the classroom, the teacher mayuse writing as a testing device to provide feedback on what the students have learnt.Students’ writing can provide useful evidence to prove for success or failure inlearning Finally, writing requires thoughts, discipline and concentration Ourwriting will be judged by the readers in terms of style, content and logic So writingdemands a great deal of care and thought from the writers

According to Raimes (1983), writing also helps students learn She shows threeways in which students can learn through writing:

- First, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms and vocabularythat we have been teaching our students

- Second, when our students write, they also have a chance to be adventurouswith the language, to go beyond that they have just learned to say, to takerisks

- Thirdly, when they write, they necessarily become very involved with thenew language, the effort to express ideas and the constant use of eye, handand brain is a unique way to reinforce learning

Thus, through the act of writing, students will realize what they are alreadygood at and what they still need to learn to become a better writer

With all the roles mentioned above, writing really becomes an integral part inteaching and learning language skills at any levels.

2.1.2 Approaches to Teaching Writing

In terms of language teaching, writing seems to be a challenging skill toteachers because it is supposed to require a higher level of language skill than theothers In addition, there are many ways of teaching writing due to various teachingand learning styles Therefore, it is necessary to identify approaches adapted inteaching writing so that teachers can find out effective techniques to overcomedifficulties and apply them successfully in their teaching

Raimes (1983) presents six approaches to teaching writing, namely TheControlled to Free Approach, The Free-Writing Approach, The Paragraph-PatternApproach, The Grammar-Syntax Organization Approach, The CommunicativeApproach, and The Process Approach

1) The Controlled to Free Approach

In this approach, writing is considered as a reinforcement means of speechand is used to master grammatical or syntactic rules The Controlled to FreeApproach is sequential: first, at low level, the students are given sentence exercises,then paragraphs to copy or manipulate grammatically by, for instance, changingquestions to statements, present to past or plural to singular With these controlledcompositions, students make few mistakes, and therefore the teacher’s job ofmarking papers is quick and easier Only at advanced level, students are allowed totry some free composition, in which they can express their own ideas Overall, thisapproach focuses on accuracy rather than fluency, and grammar, syntax andmechanics are stressed

2) The Free-Writing Approach

Contrast to the control to free approach, the free-writing approach focusesmore on fluency This approach stresses writing quantity rather than quality It isbased on the principle that if once ideas are there, the organisation follows

3) The Paragraph Pattern Approach

Different from the two approaches above, this approach stresses onorganization by copying the paragraphs or model passages Students copy a modelparagraph, analyze its form and then write a parallel one Here, students areprovided such kinds of exercises as sentence ordering, sentence inserting orsentence deleting, etc It is based on the principle that in different culture orsituations, people construct and organise communication with each other indifferent ways

4) The Grammar-Syntax Organization Approach

This approach stresses on simultaneous work on more than one compositionfeature Writing cannot be seen as composed of separate skills which are learnedsequentially So, students must be trained to pay attention to organization while theyalso work on the necessary grammar and syntax

5) The Communicative Approach

This approach focuses on the purpose of writing and the audience for it.They are given some tasks where they have to behave as writers so that they canlearn by doing it And it is necessary for students to ask themselves the mainquestions about purpose and audience: Why am I writing this? and Who willread it?

Normally, the teacher acts as the audience for students’ writing However,some feel that writers do their best writing when writing is a communicativeactivity Therefore, students become readers for each other is a good way oforganizing communicative writing act Students read each other’s writings, respond,rewrite in another forms, summarize, or make comments, but not correct Or theteacher can create a context in which students are real readers by providing themsuitable content, language and level of formality

6) The Process Approach

In the process approach, the teaching of writing has begun to move awayfrom a concentration on the written product to an emphasis on the process of

writing All writers make decisions on how to begin and how to organize thetask Students are given time to set out ideas, make plan, write a first draft,revise what has been written after a peer feedback, then they can edit theirwriting or write other drafts before producing the final version In this approach,particular stress is paid on a cycle of writing activities which move learners fromthe generation of ideas and the collection of data through to the “publication” of

a finished text as follow:

7) The Product Approach

For a long time, product approach has been considered as a main approach tothe teaching of English as second language in general and the teaching of writing inparticular According to Brown (2001: 335), this approach greatly focuses on thelinguistic knowledge such as the appropriate use of vocabulary, syntax, andcohesive devices Four stages in teaching and learning writing included in product

approach are familiarization, controlled writing, guided writing, and free writing.Robinson (1991) claims that the product approach to writing usually involves thepresentation of a model text which is analyzed and the basis of a task that leads tothe writing of an exactly similar text and this approach can be summarized in thefollowing figure:

Model text comprehension/analysis/ manipulation NEW INPUTPARALLEL TEXT

8) Process Approach versus Product Approach

Although there are various approaches to teaching writing, the product andthe process approaches are two most popular ones used in “English as a SecondLanguage” (ESL) classroom

Product approach is a traditional approach which pays much attention to thefinal outcome of a writing process In this approach, model texts play importantparts; the ideas of the writing are not as much highly appreciated as the languageand the organization of these ideas The result of the learning process depends onthe final product

By contrast, in the process approach the focus of teaching and learning isplaced on the process of writing rather than the final product “Process writing is away of bringing about improvement in learners’ writing by providing help at thevarious stages of the process instead of focusing only on the finished product”(Nation, 1990: 84) In the process approach, students do not have to write on agiven topic in a restricted time and hand in the composition for the teacher tocorrect, but they have chances to generate their own ideas and put the ideas in anoutline The, the first draft is written and exchanged among students for peercorrection After peer correction, the first draft is improved and the final draft iswritten Finally, students exchange their writings once more before handing in thewritings for teacher’s final feedback

By comparing the two approaches, Steele (2004) summarizes the differences between them in the table below:

● text as resource for comparison

● ideas as starting point

● more than one draft

● more global, focus on purpose, theme,

text type, i.e., reader is emphasized

● collaborative

● emphasis on creative process

● model text for imitation

● organization of the ideas is more important than the ideas themselves

● one draft

● features highlighted including controlled practice of those features

● individual

● emphasis on final product

As can be seen from the table, each approach has its own strength andweakness However, in the process of teaching and learning writing, we can reach aconclusion from Brown (2001: 337) that the current emphasis on process writingmust of course be seen in the perspective of a balance between process and productbecause according to him, after all, the final product is the ultimate goal and it is thereason that we go through the process of prewriting, drafting, revising and editing

2.1.3 The Stages of Teaching Writing

Based on the process of writing, teaching writing includes three stages, namelypre-writing, while-writing, and post-writing

a Pre-writing

This stage is aimed at preparing students with everything necessary for writing.Some activities are:

• introducing the writing topic to stimulate interest

• doing the pre-writing stage of the process of writing

• working with the model

• presenting key words related to the topic

• outlining

b While-writing

This stage consists of three steps: drafting, revising, and rewriting

The students write the first draft from their notes or plan They can refer todictionaries, grammar reference books and model texts for some conventions; forexample, the salutations and standard phrases used in formal letters When thestudents finish their first drafts, they can correct and improve the drafts Then thestudents can work in pairs or groups to get peer evaluation in terms of content,language accuracy, organization, style, etc the teacher can participate in students’discussion After receiving comments from their peers and the teacher, they writeout the final version

In one word, at this stage, students start their writing after having ideas,necessary vocabulary and structures from the previous stage

c Post-writing

At this stage, students’ writings are given feedback in different ways withdifferent techniques Feedback plays an important role in learning process since itcan help students identify what their strengths and weakness are

2.1.4 Principles for Teaching Writing

According to Forseth et al (cited in Khuong, 2006), there are 10 principlesfor teaching writing:

1 Writing should be considered as a means to communicate meaning aboutoneself and the real world, not just as a process of using grammatical structurescorrectly or writing with clear penmanship

2 Start with controlled activities and later with freer communication

3 Have students start writing about concrete subjects early in the course

4 Also have students practice the use of basic action words (eat study…) andthe language functions (introducing, describing…) early in the course As thestudent’s ability of writing progresses, give them writing practice of more abstractthings like ideas, opinions and feelings

5 Whenever possible, relate the writing assignments to the speaking topics

6 Expect the level of writing to be higher than the level of speaking,especially the standard of correctness.

7 Provide an audience broader than just the teacher

8 State a purpose for the assignment

9 Provide several kinds of feedback which should not be overly negative,but specific and related to what has been taught

10 As in speaking, provide topics of interest for the students to write about

2.1.5 Microskills for Writing

According to Brown (2001: 343), writing involves the microskills aspresented in the list below:

1 Produce graphemes and orthographic patterns of English

2 Produce writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose

3 Produce an acceptable core of words and use appropriate word order patterns

4 Use acceptable grammatical systems (e.g tense, agreement, pluralization),pattern, and rules

5 Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms

6 Use cohesive devices in written discourse

7 Use the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse

8 Appropriately accomplish the communicative functions of written textsaccording to forms and purpose

9 Convey links and connections between events and communicate suchrelations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information,generalization, and exemplification

10 Distinguish between literal and implied meanings when writing

11 Correctly convey culturally specific references in the context of thewritten text

12 Develop and use a battery of writing strategies, such as accuratelyassessing the audience’s interpretation, using prewriting devices, writing with

fluency in the first drafts, using paraphrases and synonyms, soliciting peer andinstructor feedback, and using feedback for revising and editing.

Brown’s list of micro skills for writing includes sufficient aspects required

by a writer, yet, it does not have a clear balance for application Ur (1996: 163)emphasizes on the balance between the importance of expressing the ideas and that

of formal aspects Accordingly, the content, or the ideas should be of fair balancewith the form, i.e the correct spelling and punctuation, acceptable grammar andcareful selection of vocabulary Ur (1996) also stresses the importance of this fairbalance in defining and assessing requirements in teaching writing

2.1.6 Writing Activities

According to Khuong, Luu Quy (2006), writing activities are classified underthe headings of controlled writing, guided writing (directed writing) and freewriting

Controlled writing involves activity like copying, which is completelymechanical and does not require the learners to understand the meaning of thesentence or to use their imagination That is why this activity is uninteresting forlearners and is only useful for beginners Other controlled writing activities includegap-filling, re-ordering word, substitution and correcting the facts These activitieshelp learners practice and give correct sentences Another form is dictation, which

is more challenging to learners Dictation includes normal dictation and alternativedictation This inceptive activity helps develop both listening and spelling but doesnot develop writing skill as learners do not have to express ideas or find ways toconstructing sentences

Guided writing stage is considered a transitional stage between controlledwriting and free writing Guided writing can be carried out in two main ways,namely, writing based on a text and oral presentation for the writing In the formerway, learners are provided a short text and asked to study particular features of thetext (e.g: ways of joining sentences, uses of verb tenses, of the passive) Then, theyhave to write a similar text or paragraph containing some changes by giving their

is given, learners make suggestions by speaking From learners’ suggestions, theteacher builds up an outline or a list of key expressions which are used as a basis forlearners’ writing Guided writing activities are considered to be interesting becauselearners themselves can suggest ideas to build up the outline.

Unlike controlled and guided writing, in free writing learners have choices towrite what they want without the teacher’s controlling or guiding Free writingactivity can be done by giving learners a full assignment to write about with theirchoices on the ideas

2.2 Material Adaptation

When discussing the materials in ESL, McDonough and Shaw (1993)classify the factors related to materials which affect teaching and learning processunder the headings of “external” and “internal” External factors include both theovert claims about materials and the characteristics of particular teaching situations.Internal factors deal with content, organization and consistency And adaptingmaterials is “to try to bring together the individual elements under each heading, orcombinations of them, so that they match each other as closely as possible.”(McDonough and Shaw, 1993: 83) In other words, adaptation is essentially aprocess of “matching” whose purpose is “to maximize the appropriacy of teachingmaterials in context, by changing some of the internal characteristics of acoursebook to better suit our particular circumstances” (McDonough and Shaw,1993: 85)

within the framework of the existing materials, that is, the model itself is notchanged Unlike extending, expanding adds to materials by moving outside themand developing them in new directions In other words, this change can be created

in the overall system

2) Deleting or Omitting

Contrary to the process of addition, deletion means materials are taken out.Deletion can be done through the techniques of subtracting and abridging Deletion

by subtracting implies the act of reducing the length of material and does not impact

on the overall methodology However, the changes are greater if deletion byabridging is used This is applied in such situations as materials are inappropriatefor learners’ levels

3) Modifying

Modification is a general term that can be applied to any kind of change Itcan be sub-divided under two headings The first one is re-writing, which is usedwhen some of the linguistic content needs modification The second is re-structuring, which applies to classroom management Re-writing involvesactivities related to learners’ background and interests and introduces models ofauthentic language, or set more purposeful, problem-solving tasks Re-structuringdeals with the rearrangement of the class to make it suitable for particularactivities, for example, dividing the class into groups of a certain size for role-playactivities In short, modifying materials is a technique that has a wide range ofapplications It may refer to a change in the nature of an exercise, or text, or evenclassroom activity

4) Simplifying

It can be said that simplification is the most favorite technique by teachers inadaptation because of its effectiveness It can be done at many elements of alanguage course, i.e the instructions and explanations of exercises or activities, thecontent, or the form in which the content is presented, etc to match them with theproficiency level of a particular group of learners

5) Re-ordering

This procedure refers to the possibility of changing the sequence ofactivities, exercises or the presentation within a unit from original ones to create amore appropriate order for the understanding of learners

(Adapted from McDonough and Shaw, 1993:

88-95)

Briefly, adaptation, which implies changes and supplementation, is anintegral part in the process of language teaching and learning Although adaptationcan be done by using one technique separately or combining different techniques atthe same time, its ultimate goal is to make the activities suitable with learners’levels and better their results However, in order to have effective adaptation, it isnecessary for teachers to pay attention to certain instructions

2.2.2 Instructions for Adapting Textbooks

Followings are some suggestions for teachers when adapting the textbooks:

1 Decide what content or which topics need adapting in light of the readingtexts and activities Activities can relate to any one of the four basic skills:reading, writing, writing and speaking Can the text be exploited because of

it thematic, lexical and structural elements in order to appeal and engage allthree levels of students? If not, you will need to adapt your textbookactivities to suit the levels This may appear as a ton of work, but the key is

to think better, not to work harder

2 Before you go ahead and change some of the activities particularly thereading activities, consider rewriting parts or all of the texts The reason fordoing this is to simplify some of the vocabulary items and other concepts thatmight be difficult for some of your low-performing ESL students tounderstand You might also consider glossing the difficult vocabulary items

or writing the meanings in another language if you are teaching in a bilingualcontext

3 Take a look at those textbook activities in your textbooks and redesign them

in light of the amount of the activity itself Redesigning the activity in light

of "amount" is about the obligatory and optional tasks ESL students can berequired to complete a specific amount of questions For example, low-performing ESL students can list four answers, while the stronger studentscan list more than four answers

4 Cater to the level of difficulty of the task The teacher can adapt the task tosuit all three levels: lower, middle and stronger This gives the student achoice of activities Most ESL students will want to choose first the activitythat they feel they can comfortably do before deciding if the topic ismotivating enough Again, adapt the language of the activity and theinstructions of the activity itself to suit the level of the student's linguisticability

5 Decide how you want to engage your students If you are working withgroups, then maybe you should adapt a few textbook activities to engagestudents in group or pair work Once you've decided how you want toactively engage your students, you'll need to make sure students understandthe procedures of group and pair work you intend to use Leave enough time

in the lesson to do both or you'll find yourself struggling with time

(Retrieved from ESL-class.html)

http://www.ehow.com/how_4481192_adapt-textbook-activities-Summary

This chapter has so far presented theoretical issues relating to the topic of thestudy It has discussed issues concerning writing: writing and the roles of writing,approaches to teaching writing, stages of teaching writing, principles for teachingwriting, microskills for writing, and writing activities Although writing in terms ofdefinition can be seen differently, its roles cannot be denied Because of itsnecessity, teaching and learning writing skills at schools is obvious However, inorder to have a successful process of teaching writing, such related issues to writing

as approaches to teaching writing, stages of teaching writing, principles for teachingwriting, and its microskills should be taken into consideration by teachers Choosingsuitable writing activities plays an important part in a writing lesson; therefore,theories on writing activities are also mentioned Beside issues related to writing,theories on textbook adaptation are presented Adapting techniques and instructionsfor adapting textbook are discussed because of their importance in designingactivities for teaching writing from the textbook, which will be discussed in the nextchapter.

CHAPTER III

THE STUDY

3.1 An Overview of the Textbook “English 10”

The new textbook “English 10” composed by Van, H.V et al (2006) has beenused at upper-secondary schools since 2006 as the official textbook to learn generalEnglish for 10th form students The book consists of 16 studying units and 6 revisionunits The content of the book is designed under theme-based approach; thereforeeach unit is relevant to a specific theme and includes five sections corresponding tofive lessons: A Reading, B Speaking, C Listening, D Writing and E Languagefocus Six revision units are designed in the form of “test yourself” to help studentstest their ability and knowledge after the completion of every two or three units(relevant to 10-15 in-class periods) In addition to this, the glossary at the end of thebook is a useful list of vocabulary categorized according to themes in unitsincluding phonetic symbols and meanings

Writing is the last and the most challenging skill in each unit It is presentedafter three other skills because it is a productive skill and bases on three other skillsinput In other words, although it is a separate part in each unit, writing is closelyintegrated with other skills such as reading, speaking and listening The writingsection in the textbook “English 10” includes various tasks that are aimed atdeveloping writing skill of students on different topics such as: writing a letter,writing a description of a city, etc Although each lesson is not clearly divided intostages: Pre- writing, While- writing and Post- writing, it can be easily noticed thatthe initial tasks are a preparation for the final one There are totally 16 units, so 16writing lessons are designed with a view to making students familiar with real- lifesituations on text The required competences and objectives of the writing section ineach unit are shown in the following table:

Table 3.1: Checklist of Writing Tasks in the Textbook “English 10”

1 A Day in the Life of… Writing a narrative

3 People’s Background Writing about people’s background

4 Special Education Writing a letter of complaint

5 Technology and You Writing a set of instructions

7 The Mass Media Writing about advantages and disadvantages of the

mass media

8 The Story of My Village Giving directions

11 National Parks Writing a letter of acceptance or refusal

16 Historical Places Describing a chart

3.2 Methodology

3.2.1 Participants

The participants of the research consist of two groups of respondents:teachers of English at some upper-secondary schools in Nghe An and 10th form

students at Nguyen Truong To upper-secondary school In this study, no teacherswere identified by their names.

The first group comprises 20 teachers coming from some upper-secondaryschools in rural areas of Nghe An such as Nguyen Truong To upper-secondaryschool, Nam Dan II upper-secondary school, Cua Lo upper-secondary school andNghi Loc IV upper-secondary school All of these teachers used to teach or areteaching English to 10 graders with the textbook “English 10” Their teachingexperience ranges from 3 years to 10 years Some of the teachers are pursuing theM.A degree courses Finally, all of the respondents have attended workshops onteaching English organized by Nghe An Department of Education and Trainingevery year

The second group includes 100 students of 10th form chosen randomly fromthree classes at Nguyen Truong To upper-secondary school All of the informantshave the same time of learning English of five years; and they have alreadycompleted the syllabus of English with the new series of English textbook from

grade 6 to grade 9 at lower-secondary schools

3.2.2 Instrumentation

In order to get information to fulfill the aims of the study, 2 surveyquestionnaires were designed Questionnaire number 1 (Q1) was delivered to theteacher respondents and Questionnaire number 2 (Q2) to the student respondents.Each survey questionnaire included two parts: Part 1 was some personalinformation and Part 2 comprised questions relating to researched issue Q1consisted of 15 questions and Q2 comprised 13 questions Q1 and Q2 containedboth closed-ended questions and opened-ended questions However, closed-endedquestions were of majority because they gave time flexibility to the respondents.The questionnaires were constructed within Vietnamese contexts, aiming to provide

a general picture of background to each situation, and to capture the participants’ideas and attitudes to the issue The questionnaires were written in a logical order so

that they could gradually lead the respondents into the theme of the study andstimulate the respondents to the questions

The survey questionnaire for teachers was designed with an attempt to findout common activities used by teachers in teaching writing section and their ideasabout the effectiveness as well as the difficulties in applying the activities

The survey questionnaire for students was conducted in order to learn abouttheir preferences on activities provided by teachers and their opinions on benefits ofthese activities and effectiveness of their teachers’ methods in teaching writing skill.Moreover, the Vietnamese version of questionnaires for students was used to collectinformation so that the students can understand the questions easily and answerthem the most exactly

3.2.3 Data Collection Procedures

25 copies of Q1 were delivered to the teachers of English who have used thetextbook “English 10” to teach 10th form students at upper-secondary schools Thereturn rate of Q1 was 80 percent (%) (20/25) Q2 was issued to the students of threeclasses, totaling 130 students, with the return rate of 77 % (100/130)

3.2.4 Data Analysis

After having been collected and categorized for the purpose of the research,the data were analyzed by employing the method of quantitative In addition,frequencies were also measured, calculated and assessed From the data analysisand the Literature Review in Chapter 2, all the comments and evaluations weregiven Thus, this process was carried through inductive methods

3.2.5 Summary

In brief, the procedures of the research include the following steps:

1 Distributing questionnaires to the participants

2 Collecting data through questionnaires

3 Classifying the data into intended groups

4 Doing statistical calculation

5 Describing the collected data presented in tables and figures

6 Generalizing and giving comments and evaluations

3.3 Findings

Following is the analysis of the results received from the teachers’ andstudents’ questionnaires Based on the analyzed results, research questions arediscussed in detail to discover what common activities have been applied inteaching writing and how they are useful to students Thenceforward, manysuggestions and implications can be drawn for the success and effectiveness ofwriting teaching activities

3.3.1 Students’ Attitudes towards Writing Skill

Students’ attitudes play an important role in the teaching and learningprocess Learners show their attitudes towards both the subject and teachers’teaching methods The success of the teaching process is affected by the learnersthemselves Therefore, students’ attitudes should be taken into consideration so thatteachers can adapt teaching methods adequately and appropriately In order to havegood understanding of students’ feedbacks on writing, the first two questions weregiven The survey results of these questions are shown in Figures 3.1 and 3.2

Figure 3.1: Students’ Opinions on the Four Skills in Learning English

It can be seen from Figure 3.1 that a majority of the respondents (43%) ranklistening skill in the first place of difficulty in learning English The second position

is speaking skill, which accounts for 30% of the informants Writing skill holds the

Reading Speaking Listening Writing

43%

5%

30%

22%

third most difficult place with 22% Meanwhile, only 5% of students evaluatereading difficult This result is due to the fact that students seem to be moreaccustomed to reading and writing skills which are more popular than other skills intheir tests Although they have followed new series of textbook, students still havefew opportunities to practice skills of speaking and listening Thus, it can beinferred from the result that most of the students find it easier to learn receptiveskills, reading and writing (73% in total) Therefore, teaching writing should be paidmore attention to, and writing should be taught in a communicative way so as todevelop students’ English language proficiency since the teaching of writing has agreat influence on students’ awareness of productive skills.

Students' preferences and opinions on the writing sections in the textbook arerevealed through the result of question 2 (shown in Figure 3.2)

Figure 3.2: Students’ Opinions on Writing Sections in the Textbook “English 10”

Figure 3.2 shows that among 100 students, only 15 students are interested

in writing tasks, other 32 have a positive attitude towards these writing tasks whenconsidering them as suitable ones However, the number of students finding thewriting tasks in the textbook boring and unsuitable reaches 53% Since this result

is not relevant with the assessment of students on the difficulty of writing skill incomparison with other ones in question 1, it can be assumed that the writing tasks

in the textbook are too difficult and the topics given are not familiar and

Interesting Boring Suitable Unsuitable

33%

32%

15%

20%

uninteresting to students In other words, these tasks are not suitable enough tostudents’ levels, and therefore, they feel bored when studying this skill Actually,these reasons are understandable since the students are in rural area, mostly fromfarmer family Consequently, they do not have chance to experience such writingissues as writing about advantages and disadvantages of the mass media, orwriting different kinds of letters Moreover, they also lack knowledge aboutwriting topics that they are asked to write about Thus, the tasks set up to teachersare providing students with information and knowledge about the issues that seem

to be strange to them and carrying out activities to make them feel easier and morecomfortable when learning writing

3.3.2 Students’ Problems in Writing Classes

There are many factors demotivating students in learning writing skill, and inorder to learn about these factors, question 3 was designed The finding of thequestion (shown in Figure 3.3) indicates that students are under the influence ofmany things than expected

The biggest obstacle to students is their insufficient English knowledge, such

as vocabulary, grammar, structure, etc Nearly all of the students (98%) claim thisproblem in learning writing Another factor confronting the majority of theinformants (78%) is that the requirements of the tasks are difficult, whichdemotivate them Besides, 54% of the students have trouble in finding the ideas forthe writing 28% of the students think that the content of given tasks are unfamiliar,which prevents them from thinking of suitable vocabulary and ideas

finding the ideas

teachers’

methods

insufficient English knowledge

others

Figure 3.3: Students’ Problems in Writing Classes

In addition, the result also shows that problems encountered by students areoriginated from teachers 17% of the informants do not find it easy to learn writingbecause activities given by teachers are not interesting and unsuitable with theirlevels and teachers’ instructions are not clear and motivating enough In otherwords, teachers’ teaching methods affect the success of the teaching and learningprocess directly To some extent, they can cause negative influence on students’attitudes to learning

The last but not least important factor that 7% of the students have toovercome in learning writing is their personal characteristics These students admitthat they are not self-confident enough to take part in the activities They are shyand afraid of using English in class Consequently, they acquire the lessonspassively

In conclusion, it can be seen that both subjective and objective problemscause difficulties to students in learning writing skill

3.3.3 Students’ Favorite Activities in Writing Lessons

Along with finding out students’ attitudes towards learning writing as well asproblems they encounter in learning process, students’ favorite activities in threestages of teaching a writing lesson are also discovered The results collected forthese points are presented in Figures 3.4, 3.5, and 3.6 respectively

There are many kinds of activities used to teach writing skill; however, inreality, due to different conditions, it is out of the question for teachers to carry outall of the activities Hence, in this thesis, only the most common kinds of them areselected to investigate

According to the results, there are various responses involving categories ofactivities for different writing stages; however generally speaking, the students havecertain agreement on their favorite activities at each stage

The investigation discovers that most of the activities given for pre-writingstage are carried out by teachers in writing lessons; yet when being asked abouttheir favorite activities, the students focus on the most common ones The detailsare shown in Figure 3.4 below

90% 52%

Figure 3.4: Students’ Favorite Activities at Pre-writing Stage

Among proposed activities, warm-up activities are most preferred with 90%

of the informants The result is not surprising since these activities are ofteninteresting to students and create a good class atmosphere from the beginning of thewriting period Some common games are employed in writing classes are guessinggames, lucky numbers, quiz/puzzles, etc

Secondly, giving questions related to the topic of the lesson is chosen by52% as their most favorite activity This is a direct way so that students can identifyand understand what they are going to learn about Moreover, it is also a basic but asimple activity to most students

Next position is oral picture description and brainstorming, which attracts37% of the informants of each The students feel comfortable with these activitiesbecause their most remarkable advantage is to give opportunities for students’ freeuse of language Students are encouraged to speak or discuss freely with their ownthinking and creativeness without being afraid of making mistakes Accordingly,teachers can manage the activities in such a way that helps their students behaveimaginatively and creatively

Although ordering and matching are easy activities for students to follow andfound in many writing lessons, they fascinate only 25% of the informants Besides,grids (Information Gap), and gap-fill do not attract a great number of students (only20% and 17% respectively) This result is surprising since these are two of the mostcommon and scientific activities in English language teaching but are not approved

by many students

Finally, the activity of providing a model which is then analyzed in terms ofvocabulary, structures and form is the least liked type It is chosen by only 14% ofthe learners In my opinion, this activity is the best way to help students start theirown writing because they are provided nearly every necessary element for writing.However, it is not preferred by students Therefore, in order to get a better result,teachers should design and conduct the activity by combining different techniques

to present such essential items as vocabulary, structures or grammar in interestingways.

Unlike the activities at pre-writing stage, most of while-writing activities arewelcome by students with more equal rate The following analysis is based onstudents’ answers for the questions 6 and 7 of the survey whose results arepresented in Figure 3.5

following the given tasks

Figure 3.5: Students’ Favorite Activities at While-writing Stage

Contrary to students’ disapproval of ordering at pre-writing stage, at writing stage this is the most preferred activity, which was chosen by 89% of thestudents In their opinion, ordering is the most interesting and easiest way to carryout a writing activity Also according to students, this activity is often used byteachers; as a result they participate in the activity actively and easily

while-Another students’ favorite activity is transformation writing with 81% Thiskind of activity asks students to perform a writing task based on a model or samplewriting with some changes of information and it is suitable for students at averagelevel Although the activity is approved by many students, it is sometimes used by