THE USE OF RUBRICS TO SELFREGULATE STUDENTS’ WRITING PROCESS PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICE = sử DỤNG BẢNG TIÊU CHÍ CHẤM TRONG VIỆC tự điều CHỈNH QUÁ TRÌNH VIẾT của SINH VIÊN NHẬN THỨC và THỰC HÀNH

Research question 1: The way the rubric in the Course Guide is used by students at different stages of the writing process 26 4.2.. Research question 3: Students’ perceptions of the bene

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

THE USE OF RUBRICS TO REGULATE STUDENTS’ WRITING

SELF-PROCESS: PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICE

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thu Hang, Ph.D Student: Do Hai Yen

Course: QH2017.E3

HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2021

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

SỬ DỤNG BẢNG TIÊU CHÍ CHẤM TRONG VIỆC TỰ ĐIỀU CHỈNH QUÁ TRÌNH VIẾT CỦA SINH VIÊN: NHẬN THỨC VÀ

ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I, Do Hai Yen, QH2017.E3, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use

of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

May 4th, 2021

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This graduation paper would not have been possible without the guidance and the help

of several individuals who in one way or another extended their valuable assistance in the preparation and completion of this study

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor - Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Hang - for her constant support and encouragement It was her expertise and research experience that guided me from the initial to the end of this graduation paper

Also, I am immensely indebted to 368 first-year Fast track students and three lecturers

of the 2B Writing Division Their participation and cooperation throughout the data collection process has been the deciding factor to the completion of this study

It is also a pleasure to thank Ms Le Thuy Duong - my academic consultant - for showing kind concern and consideration to me, as well as providing me with critical comments and suggestions for the improvement of my research paper

In addition, I owe my beloved family a big thanks for their unconditional love, patience and care when I hurdled all the obstacles in the completion of this thesis I sincerely thank my grandparents for cooking me tasty and nutritious lunch every day, thank my parents for having confidence in me, and thank my little sister for shouldering the burden

of housework Words cannot express how grateful I am to all of them and for their sacrifices that were made on my behalf

Last but not least, my gratitude is extended to my close friends - Nguyen Thanh Mai, Nguyen Viet Hoang - for standing by me and being sleepless together when I am down and stressed Thank my soulmate - Cao Thi Sao Mai and my deskmates - Pham Khanh Duyen and Duong Kim Dung for having supported me mentally, physically and academically

ABSTRACT

Rubrics are increasingly acknowledged for their potential in facilitating and promoting students’ learning autonomy Research on the instructional benefits of rubrics, nonetheless, centers primarily on content subjects rather than foreign language contexts such as EFL writing classes This paper investigated the relationship between students’ use of rubrics and their writing self-regulation, as perceived by both the students and their instructors Data were collected through questionnaires and follow-up interviews with 368 first-year English-majored students and three university lecturers respectively The findings indicate that in general the rubric was considered useful for fostering the writers’ self-regulation by directing them through the stages of goal-setting, planning, revising and editing Nevertheless, most students favored the use of rubric in setting goals, planning and revising their work rather than in editing, demonstrated by the frequency and rated effectiveness of rubric use in each stage The use of rubric was also associated with other benefits such as clarifying teachers’ expectations or indicating writers’ strengths and weaknesses, though there still existed obstacles mainly related to the language used in rubrics and the kind of support provided to students It is possible that those shortcomings will be remedied by the changes in teachers’ instructions and the creation of more generic versions of the rubric - checklists

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1.4 Roles of rubrics 10 2.1.5 Effects of instructional rubrics on students’ writing 10

2.2.4 Effects of rubrics on writing self-regulation 15

3.4.3.1 Interviews with students

3.4.3.2 Interviews with lecturers

24

3.5 Data analysis 25

4.1 Research question 1: The way the rubric in the Course Guide is used by

students at different stages of the writing process

26

4.2 Research question 2: Student’s perception of the effectiveness of rubric

use for writing self-regulation

34

4.3 Research question 3: Students’ perceptions of the benefits and obstacles

of using rubrics to self-regulate their writing process

38

4.4 Research question 4: Students’ suggestions to improve the effectiveness

of rubric use in writing self-regulation

ABBREVIATIONS

ELT English language teaching

L1 First language learner

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2 Teacher’s support with regard to the use of rubric 27 Table 3 Frequency of rubric use at three writing stages 30 Table 4 The level of rubric’s effectiveness at three writing stages 34 Table 5 The level of rubric’s effectiveness to aspects of writing in Revising

Figure 2 Frequency of rubric use for writing self-regulation 28

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The first chapter illuminates the driving force behind the researcher’s decision

to investigate the relevance between student’s use of rubric and their writing regulation skills, by presenting a statement of the problem, the general aims, and the significance together with the scope of this study It is also in this chapter that four research questions as regards how students use rubrics, the effectiveness, the benefits and obstacles, as well as the recommendations for that practice, will be identified as general guidance for the whole study

self-1.1 Statement of the problem

The past several decades have witnessed a significant transition in the roles that teachers and students play in educational settings, with student-centered pedagogy emerging and being extensively prioritized over the traditional classes that commonly position teachers as the master who pass on knowledge to his or her students through lectures or direct instruction (Joseph, 2019; Muganga & Senkuru, 2019) Embracing the philosophy that for deep learning to occur, students must be actively involved in the process (Joseph, 2019), student-centered approach shifts the focus of instruction from teachers to learners English as a foreign language (EFL) classes are not an exception to this transition in that Grammar translation and Audio-lingual techniques have been increasingly overtaken by more communicative-oriented methods, which remove the control of instructors, emphasize interpersonal interaction and most importantly, empower students to be active participants of the learning process Winne and Nesbit (2010) posit that the product of student-centered approach - these active and autonomous learners - should possess the ability to monitor their actions, thoughts and feelings to meet the established objectives; or put it differently, they must self-regulate their own learning (Zimmerman & Schunk, 2011)

Among the four macro skills of English language, the necessity of learner’s regulation is most accentuated in writing that requires high levels of internal motivation and self-efficacy for the accomplishment of such a cognitively demanding task (Perry, 1988) Being a recursive and non-linear process itself, writing involves several stages such as goal setting, planning, drafting and revising, therefore, the writer’s capability to regulate is deemed vital throughout the whole complex composing process for the ultimate success (Andrade and Saddler, 2004) Given its importance, the acquisition and practice of writing self-regulation still features a challenge to most students at college level in Vietnam, including those whose major is closely linked to English language In

self-an effort to tackle this conundrum, at a Faculty of Lself-anguage Teacher Education in a university in Hanoi, rubrics have been introduced as a strategy to stimulate autonomous writing regulation among student writers It is found out by multiple previous studies that rubrics not only demonstrate expected characteristics of the product, but also allow for students’ reflection on the quality of their work when comparing with sets of predetermined criteria (Reddy & Andrade, 2010) These virtues of rubrics indicate that they can provide “the scaffolding that students need to become self-regulated writers” (Andrade and Saddler, 2004, p 2)

To date, the use of rubric integrated with metacognitive activities, such as assessment or self-efficacy, is not a newly researched topic on the international scale Nevertheless, the majority of those studies are conducted among first language learners (L1) and primarily in subject content courses rather than second language learners (L2)

self-in foreign language learnself-ing (e.g Knight, 2006; Andrade and Saddler, 2004) Accordself-ing

to Turner and Purpura (2015, cited in Wang, 2016), learning writing in foreign language contexts involves “more linear progression” than writing in subject content courses (p 3) Thus, it remains to explore whether findings obtained from subject content contexts are relevant to that from second-language learning contexts Furthermore, the fact that L1 and L2 are exposed to different educational theories and approaches also necessitates cross-cultural studies in order to probe the effectiveness of rubric reference and writing

self-regulation in a variety of contexts To the best knowledge of the researcher, there are not many studies on this matter at the level of higher education in Vietnam, especially in the context where the study is being conducted A study by Vu (2010) has highlighted certain positive features of rubric use in facilitating students’ self-regulation throughout the writing process; however, with the recent changes in curriculum design and in students’ entrance quality, further research is necessary to confirm whether the results are valid as well as to contribute new knowledge to existing studies This justifies

my research on the effectiveness of rubric use among first-year fast-track students to self-regulate their writing process

1.2 Research aims and Research questions

This study primarily aims to investigate the use of rubrics for the writing regulation among first-year Fast-track students at a university in Vietnam (hereby referred to as the University) From the perspective of students themselves and their instructors, the research probes the frequency, the functions as well as the effectiveness

self-of rubric use at different stages self-of students’ writing process In addition, the advantages and obstacles facing those rubric users are also worked on, serving as a basis for the generation of solutions by both the lecturers and the students afterwards Briefly, the objectives of the study can be summarized into four research questions as follows:

1 How are rubrics used by students at different stages of the writing process?

2 To what extent is the use of rubrics effective in helping students' writing regulation, as perceived by the students?

3 What are students’ perceptions of the benefits and obstacles of using rubrics to regulate their writing process?

self-4 What are the students’ suggestions to improve the effectiveness of rubric use in writing self-regulation?

1.3 Significance of the study

The researcher hopes that, once completed, this study would benefit the students and teachers of Fast-track division at the University as well as those who share an interest in the topic

As for the students who have employed the writing rubric for self-regulating purposes, this study offers an opportunity for them to voice their thoughts on the effectiveness, the benefits and obstacles of that practice, and to propose solutions for those existing problems Also through this research, students without past experience with rubrics can be informed about the instructional aspect of the assessment tool and offered clear guidance on how to utilize rubrics effectively in their writing process

As for the lecturers, the research may help gain insights into their students’ perceptions of rubric use for writing self-regulation, specifically the benefits and the difficulties facing them and potential solutions Based on the findings and implications, teachers can subsequently make adjustments to the rubric design and provide training

on rubric use so that that instructional tool can be better tailored to students’ needs

Finally, it is expected that this project would become a reliable and updated source for other fellow researchers who have an interest in the application of rubrics in writing self-regulation

1.4 Scope of the study

The study is carried out to investigate how students of the Fast-track division at the University perceive the role of rubrics in writing self-regulation at different writing stages Besides, the effectiveness and obstacles in the use of rubrics were also examined

With a view to elucidating the research topic, 525 first-year students of the track division at a university in Vietnam were requested to become the participants of this study To begin with, all 525 students from 25 classes were invited to complete a questionnaire Then, five out of them were selected for one-on-one interviews, which acts as a validation tool for the information gained from the questionnaire In addition,

Fast-to triangulate the data, three lecturers were also invited Fast-to join in-depth interviews Fast-to explore their philosophy behind the design and construction of the writing rubric, as well as their perspectives on how students are using and should use the rubric to benefit their writing performance

1.5 Organization

In the rest of this study, the following chapters are included:

Chapter 2: Literature Review – forms a theoretical background for the whole

study by providing the definitions of the key concepts and an analytical overview of the relevant literature

Chapter 3: Methodology – demonstrates how the research was processed by

presenting information about method design, sampling and participants The justification for the choice of data collection instruments is also provided, followed by the administering procedure of those instruments and the measures for data analysis

Chapter 4: Results and Discussion – presents data analysis to give comprehensive

answers to the four research questions

Chapter 5: Conclusion – summaries all the major findings, presents research

limitations and pedagogical implications as well as gives suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter lays out a theoretical background for the whole study by providing the definitions of the key concepts such as “rubric”, “self-regulation” and “self- regulation in writing”, together with an analytical overview of the relevant literature that has shed light on the research topic

2.1 Rubric

2.1.1 Definition of rubric

Originating from the Latin word rubica, which denotes the color red or the red

ink written on paper, rubrics in the academic sense are closely linked to assessment and commonly recognized as “a scoring guide used to evaluate the quality of students’ constructed responses” (Popham, 1997, p 72) From the similar perspective of Wolfs and Stevens (2007), rubrics in their very basic form are a set of criteria that characterize students’ work at different degrees of achievement By extension, in the review of rubric use at higher education level, Reddy and Andrade delineate the terminology by referring

to it as “a document that articulates the expectations for an assignment by listing the criteria or “what counts”, and describing levels of quality from excellent to poor” (p 435) In light of this definition, rubrics can be available to teachers as a marking scheme and to students as a translator of the evaluating objectives and desirable outcomes Despite those differences in researchers’ responses to the definition and usages of rubrics, some shared points on the matter of rubrics’ content are discovered by Morgan (1999) with three components in essence - assessment criteria, indicators for those criteria, also known as quality definitions, and a scoring strategy (Popham 1997; Goodrich 1997; Andrade 2000) Assessment criteria refer to different aspects of writing performance that are carefully looked at by the markers when determining the quality

of a written product These criteria should reflect not only the content but also the construct of the writing Another crucial part of rubrics is indicators, or quality

definitions, which explain in detail how the performance features of each level are contrast with those of others, and thus, addressing the need to distinguish among responses, for example, the excellent, the good or the poor one Lastly, scoring strategy for rubrics is “the use of a scale for interpreting judgments of a product or process” (Reddy & Andrade, 2010, p 437)

2.1.2 Rubrics for writing

While the legitimacy of answers to reading or listening tasks can be checked at ease, judging a written or spoken product presents more challenges in light of the inter-rater objectiveness and uniformity Rubrics for productive skills have been brought into being with the original view to helping reduce the inconsistency in evaluation and score generation A writing rubric is basically constructed upon the same structure with three components as described in the previous part, but typically oriented towards different dimensions of the composition, ranging from idea development, language accuracy and complexity, organization to more mechanical factors such as format and conventions (Turgut, 2015) Nevertheless, the content of writing rubrics is not fixed but can be customized to fit in with the requirement of each writing genre such as descriptive, discursive, narrative, expository, etc To elaborate on the application of rubrics into writing over years, Andrade (2000) opined that “they are usually used with a relatively complex assignment, such as a long-term project, an essay, or a research paper Their purposes are to give students informative feedback about their works in progress and to give detailed evaluations of their final products” (p 13) This proposition by Andrade (2000) suggests a recognition for the feedback-providing function of writing rubrics in comparison with the sole initial one about marking

2.1.3 Types of writing rubrics

2.1.3.1 Holistic and Analytic rubrics

Among several types of writing rubrics that have been invented and developed, holistic and analytic rubrics are the most popular Following the idea “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”, holistic rubrics, also called single-criterion rubrics, provide a score for the overall achievement of a composition or a writing process without judging individual dimensions As a result, this type of rubrics does not allow for explicit feedback for each criterion of the writing performance (Sundeen, 2014) and is suitable for situations when errors can be tolerated as long as they do not affect the general quality of the work (Chase, 1999) Conversely, an analytic rubric delineates the assessment criteria for different aspects of writing, with each of them being separately weighed before the resulting score is calculated on average (Jonsson & Svingby, 2007,

p 131-132) Analytic rubrics make it possible for the realization of writing strengths and weaknesses, and thus are usually applied when there is a demand for evaluation in detail and specific feedback

2.1.3.2 General and Task-specific rubrics

General rubrics contain assessment criteria that are applicable not only to a particular task but across different ones Brookhart (2001) suggests that this feature makes general rubrics good for continued reuse and progress check, while their downside is unspecific feedback to students By contrast, task-specific rubrics, as the name implies, are uniquely designed for an instance, and merely available for that task

or assignment Although this kind of rubric is difficult to construct, the advantages of task-specific over general rubrics are the reliability and consistency of scoring by teachers, as well as informative feedback to learners In most cases, however, the formative value of task-specific rubrics is precluded since they are inaccessible to students prior to receiving grades

Regardless of the format that rubrics are designed upon, six essential attributes

of a good rubric that supports learning are summarized by Star (2000) as follows:

(1) describe all assessment criteria;

(2) define quality works;

(3) help students to monitor their work in progress and guide revision;

(4) be written in understandable language;

(5) be usable for a diversity of tasks; and (6) maintain high consistency despite being administered by different raters

This summary shares many commonalities with the criteria identified by Goodrich (2000), which encompass the clear and generic articulation of criteria, the description of good writing and the guidance for self-improvement as essential characteristics of a rubric useful for writers to scaffold their work Of the elements above, researchers generally concur that the biggest challenge of rubric design lies in the way language is utilized (Moni, Beswick, & Moni, 2005; Tierney & Simon, 2004)

It is vital that rubric language be clear and accurate since any ambiguity can be the root

of confusion and even misinterpretations across different users (Payne, 2003) The studies by Knoch (2009) and Weigle (2002) also reveal that rubrics containing vague or ambiguous terms can hardly support scorers, and in such cases, grades are likely decided based on the scorer's subjective overall impression as an alternative

2.1.4 Roles of rubrics

Rubrics can be employed for both summative and formative purposes (Andrade, 2005) For the summative purpose, the essence of rubrics is particularly proven in evaluating writing and speaking performances, such as written papers, oral presentation, group discussions, etc in which the answers are not fixed but vary wildly from one person to another A marking guideline rubric elaborates on a list of criteria and different levels’ indicators that efficiently eases raters’ workload in scoringe assignment and generating feedback generation (Andrade, 2000) Other than the evaluative value, a rubric can also serve as an instructional tool which facilitates self-study and -assessment Not simply being a checklist (Andrade, 2005; Petkov & Petkov, 2006), “a well-defined-designed rubric that covers all the elements contributes to students’ better learning” (Dunbar et al, 2006; Truemper, 2004, cited in Vipin, 2019, p.18) Such instructional rubrics can describe a quality product in an understandable language for learners (Andrade, 2000), draw their attention to specific criteria and to desired features of a particular assignment, as well as spur a critical review of their own work before revising and editing (Reddy & Andrade, 2010) Also, Sadler (1989) advocates that on being used

to scaffold self-regulation, rubrics support student’s learning by creating three favorable conditions for students - “the student comes to hold a concept of quality roughly similar

to that held by the teacher, is able to monitor continuously the quality of what is being produced during the act of production itself, and has a repertoire of alternative moves or strategies from which to draw at any given point” (p 121) The focus of this study is on this instructional aspect of rubrics

2.1.5 Effects of instructional rubrics on students’ writing

To date, a large body of research on the use of instructional rubrics have found positive effects that practice yields on students’ writing performance in secondary, postsecondary and high-school settings Andrade (2001) examines the impact of

instructional rubrics on the writing quality of 241 grade 8th students belonging to an experimental group and a control group For three essays, the treatment group was introduced by the teacher to the structure and the use of the rubric, whereas the other merely received a list of criteria without any further explanation, and in accordance to this, improvements were recorded in the first essays of both groups with the treatment making more evident progress Likewise, Perchemlides and Coutant (2004) find that the common understanding of terms provided by the Six Traits Model, considered as a type

of rubric with 6 elements (ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions), allows students to self-evaluate their own writing and to “build on strengths and learn from shortcomings more than a straight letter grade” (p 56) This is further supported by the finding of Andrade, Du, and Mycek (2010), who claim that studying model essays, self-crafting the criteria and using them to review the first drafts lead to certain enhancements in the writing score of third and fourth graders As for high-school students, Sundeen (2014) looks into the linkage between rubrics use and the performance of 89 American participants in 3 different conditions: (a) being instructed

to use rubrics; (b) being given a copy of rubrics; and (c) receiving the prompt only Sundeen finds that, regardless of whether instruction is given to these students beforehand or not, access to the scoring criteria is associated with better writing performances Still, at college level, it is inconclusive on whether rubric users produce higher-quality writing than non-rubric ones Randomly assigning 60 undergraduate students of a psychology course to three groups, Covill (2012) compares the effects of instructional rubrics on writing quality under the conditions of using a long rubric, using

a short rubric and using an open-ended assessment tool The outcomes for each condition were not significantly different Covill (2012) posits this finding is influenced

by the fact that these college students have had prior experience with rubrics and a decent knowledge of academic writing in general

On the other hand, there exists opposing views against the use of rubrics for the concern that it would both standardize teacher’s judgement and limit the way students

respond to a task (Turley & Gallagher, 2008; Wolf & Stevens, 2007) Fang and Wang (2011) claim that essay marking with reference to rubrics impels teachers to “pigeonhole individual students into a certain proficiency level” (p 149), while according to Wolf and Stevens (2007), students as regular rubric-users may form a perception that creativity which is not covered by rubrics is not an important part to be assessed Chapman and Inman (2009) further criticise that “students’ problem solving, decision-making, and creativity – traits needed in a democratic society for governance” are impeded when teachers strictly adhere to the rubric criteria (p 199) In contrast, only when students internalize the expectations for each writing assignment can they actually make use of their imaginations and creativity, otherwise, confusion may arise and push student’s focus only on the final score (Young, 2009) Another problem stems from teacher’s instruction on rubric use in that rubric elements are not articulated on a frequent and direct basis to students along with the provision of the writing prompt while teaching the rubric is not merely “a quick overview of the writing expectations”; rather, each criterion and scale need to be enunciated by teachers, which “affording students an opportunity to address any question or misconception” regard the writing task (Sundeen,

2014, p.78)

2.2 Self-regulation

2.2.1 Definition of self-regulation

According to psychologist Bandura (1991), humans’ behaviors are able to be

“extensively motivated and regulated by the ongoing exercise of self-influence” and in short, that process is known as self-regulation (p 248) In other words, the social cognitive theory proposes that self-regulation is the ability for one to exert control over his/ her cognition, behavior, emotions and motivation, as well as to use personal strategies for the attainment of established goals (Brown, 1999; Zimmerman & Moylan, 2009) The operation of self-regulatory mechanisms is based on the harmonious

cooperation among three major sub-functions namely “self-monitoring of one’s behaviors”, “judgement of one’s behavior in relation to personal standards and environmental circumstances” and “affective self-reaction” (Bandura, 1991, p 248 - 251) Self-monitoring plays dividends in the success of self-regulation since, as Bandura finds out, people cannot influence the source of motivation and direct the course of actions unless they themselves pay adequate attention to their performances Meanwhile, judgmental sub-function refers to the formation of internal standards in line with social expectations, against which a given performance could be evaluated positively or critically In other words, only when a person is aware of others’ achievement can he/she be able to praise his/ her own feat According to Bandura (1991),

it is also this performance-judgment sub-function that lays the foundation for the rise of self-reactive influence, which suggests that people tend to carry out the actions that can yield social approval rather than behaviors which cause unfavorable reactions Having said that, self-regulation, rather than a gift or natural ability, is a learnable skill that can

be nurtured and developed through regular practice (Hamman, 2005) Within the academic context, a self-regulated learner is the one who understands his/ her educational environment, and metacognitively, behaviorally and motivationally participates in the learning process Zimmerman and Risemberg (1997) specify that self-regulation in learning necessitates “planning and managing time; attending to and concentrating on instruction; organizing, rehearsing and coding information strategically; establishing a productive work environment; and using social resources effectively” (p 195) In many other studies by Efklides (2011), Winne (2011) and Zimmerman (2008), self-regulation has been widely recognized as a crucial competence for academic success In a contribution to the field, Goodrich (1996) also identifies factors constructing a fertile ground for self-regulation to occur, which includes learner’s awareness of self-regulation merits, access to assessment criteria, receipt of guidance and models, and opportunities for revision and improvement on the performance (Deakin-Crick, Sebba, Harlen, Guoxing, & Lawson, 2005) Among these,

one requisite condition – students being informed of assessment criteria - can be met by introducing a rubric With a rubric given to students before the learning process, students can actively plan and conduct their work accordingly (Andrade, 2010; Panadero & Jonsson, 2013)

2.2.2 Self-regulation in writing

Among the four communicative skills, writing is the most intricate, yet important

skill to be mastered (Tillema, 1981; National Center for Education Statistics, 2012) The

complexity of proficiency in this skill is manifested through the integration of cognitive, metacognitive and linguistic processes in all stages of the writing process from idea formulation, composition to revision (Mac Arthur, Graham & Fitzgerald, 2006) Thus,

in order to manage through that complex process and produce high-quality work, it becomes a must for writers from the novice to the experienced ones to execute extensive and personal regulation As Zimmerman and Risemberg (1997) point out, the self-regulatory strategies in writing refers to “self-initiated thoughts, feelings and actions that writers use to attain various literary goals, which include improving their writing skills and enhance the quality of the texts they create” (cited in Hammann, 2005, p.17) In other simple words, a writer with certain regulating skills would have the capacity not only to establish the personal goals but also to adjust him/her to “manage the complexity” of writing and ultimately to fulfil those goals

2.2.3 Effects of self-regulation on writing

Data from a relatively large number of studies present compelling evidence that self-regulation comes in a close connection with the writing performance of writers across a range of competence For example, Perry (1998) put forwards that the self-regulation strategies that students adopt may influence their writing intentions in terms

of the content to generate, the sources to exploit, and even the plan as a whole In another approach to the matter, Zimmerman and Bandura (1994) investigate the relationship

between self-regulation and success prediction, and come to the conclusion that the way learners self-regulate and perceive of their self-efficacy can generally signal positive or negative tendencies of the writing outcomes and even affect their “effort and intrinsic motivation” (Hamman, 2005, p 17) Meanwhile, the study by Harris, Graham and Mason (2003) identifies a wider range of meaningful improvements in the way young writers brainstorm, monitor, generate, organize as well as revise the compositions for both substance and mechanics as a result of self-regulation application and development Across various grades and writing genres, with more than a hundred studies in over ten countries, five areas that have seen the most apparent improvements are awareness of genres, understanding of writing, writing quality, writing approach and motivation These improvements are consistently documented for most students, with some of whom needing extra self-regulation instruction and practice for long-term maintenance (Harris, Graham & Mason, 2003)

2.2.4 Effects of rubrics on writing self-regulation

The literature on the relation between rubrics and writing self-regulation reveals that instructional rubrics provide guidance to learners throughout the whole composing process which entails the steps of planning, revising and editing the work and thereby fostering their self-regulation (Backer, 2001; Sundeen, 2014; Zimmerman & Schunk, 2011) It is also proposed by Clark (2012), and Panadero and Jonsson (2013) that sharing with students the criteria and goals of a test engages them in metacognitive activities such as self or peer assessment, and grants them better chances to internalize the concepts of a strong composition and subsequently raise their written product’s condition Andrade (2000) comes to the similar conclusion on the use of instructional rubrics and its effects on students’ acquisition of skilled writing after completing her investigation on 13 classes of students in grade seven and eight Specifically, student participants are assigned to two groups to write essays, with only the experimental one receiving rubrics and instruction of rubric use That group, as a result, demonstrates

significant improvements in criteria interpretation, essay organization and idea development in their writing pieces, creating an obvious gap in scores in comparison to the other intact one (Andrade, 2000) Taken all together, it is more likely for students who can capitalize on the use of rubric for refining their writing skill and process to become self-directed planner, goal-setter, reviser and editor of their written work through the whole process (Saddler and Andrade, 2004)

● Planning and goal setting

In this stage, students visualize the representations of their thoughts that are aligned with the requirements, or the objectives, of the assignment (First & MacMillan, 1995) Students need to compare the current level with the desired outcome of the task, thereby determining personal goals and strategies to achieve them Not only setting a goal is pivotal to the subsequent progress of writing, but it needs to be made clear and relevant to keep the writers motivated

The use of rubrics in this planning and goal setting stage act as a translator of teacher’s expectations for a task into what students can access and comprehend With the properly well-informed rubrics in hand, students can generate “a sense of undertaking, a plan for a paper or even a complete outline” (Sadder and Andrade, 2004,

p 50) Reynolds-Keefer (2010) also finds that within the assignment approaching period, students can embrace rubrics for the strategic allocation of time and resources they would need

● Revising

One factor to distinguish proficient writers from less skilled ones is the effort they direct to revising, or rewriting, instead of drafting a piece of writing (Hayes and Flower, 1986) In the revising process, students mostly work on the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the work that are often identified by information from self- or peer-

assessment process (Andrade, 2008) For revising purposes, writers refer to rubrics as

a reliable source of standards that, when compared to their texts, may shed light on areas needing improvement This is not only useful for writers to judge their work themselves, but also facilitate the cross-check between peers

● Editing

The editing stage involves the correction of spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors (Saddler, 2003) “Rubrics can guide this process by promoting students to sift through their work to detect all varieties of problems or errors, not just the typically noticed ones”, particularly for unskilled writers to check for the neatness

of their papers (Saddler & Andrade, 2005, p 51)

However, rubrics alone cannot guarantee all these above-mentioned merits are brought to students’ writing self-regulation Andrade, (2001) reveals that the distribution

of rubrics, though increasing the possibility of self-regulation occurrence (Jonsson & Svingby, 2007; Lan, 1998), might not be sufficient for a production of high-quality work Investigating undergraduates’ experiences with rubric-referenced self-regulation, Andrade and Du (2007) arrives at the conclusion that almost all learners find the use of rubrics valuable, but in order to reap its full benefits, the provision of support and exercise is vital

2.3 Related studies

In the context of higher education in Vietnam, there has been a modest number

of studies about the formative use of rubrics in teaching and learning writing skill, not

to mention the combination of rubric use with writing metacognitive abilities such as self-regulation

Ton (2008) investigates his students’ application of rubrics into performance assessment and finds out that rubrics create opportunities for learners to be aware of

what and how they need to do for an assignment, which are not documented with other traditional evaluation methods Taking a closer look to the linkage between rubrics and writing, Trinh (2018) constructs rubrics in assessing the quality of writing demonstrative text and reports that both teachers and students benefit from the clear and detailed description of each level in rubrics While the scoring process of teachers becomes accurate and reliable, students can base on rubrics to self-assess/ peer-assess written works and monitor their own progress

In a more specific context of EFL classes at college level, Nguyen’s (2008) study touches upon the issue of students’ self-regulation in writing Through observations in many classrooms at a university in Hanoi, Nguyen (2008) proposes that most students lack a sense of ownership of their writing process, largely relying on the instructors for the process of assessment and score determination Though self-check and -assessment are reminded to students in some cases, no explicit instructions are given These self-check activities usually happen at the surface level with spelling and grammatical errors rather than the global one To tackle this problem, Nguyen supports the integration of self-regulated strategy development of six stages into the syllabus

More relevant to the present study, research by Vu (2011) examines the use of rubrics for writing self-regulation among mainstream English-majored sophomores at a university in Hanoi Through the instruments of questionnaires and interviews, it is concluded that rubrics are not introduced to students as an aid to navigate their writing process: “To many students rubrics are still a completely foreign concept or merely an assessment tool that is exclusively designed for teachers” (Vu, 2011, p 60), not to mention that the information presented in the rubric are deemed as unclear and insufficient by the students Vu posits that the two factors come together as the reasonable explanations for the infrequent and hesitating use of rubrics among student participants

Whereas Nguyen’s study is more concerned with the variety of self-regulated strategies in writing, the present research primarily the present research focuses merely

on one strategy of using rubrics Likewise, while Vu (2011) lays the primary the frequency of rubric use, this paper aims to investigate both the frequency and the way rubrics are employed at different stages of the writing process Moreover, this paper also differs from the above-mentioned studies in terms of participants who are from the QH.2020 Fast-track program at a university in Vietnam, following newly established curriculum and learning programs The findings derived from the paper possibly make contribution to fine-tuning the design of rubrics used in a writing course of Fast-track program so that rubrics can become not only an instructional tool of teachers but also a facilitator to students’ activeness in writing for particular and learning in general

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

The third chapter demonstrates how the research was processed by presenting information about its mixed-methods design, sampling and participants The justification for making questionnaire and interview as two data collection instruments

of choice is also provided, followed by the administering procedure of those instruments and the measures for data analysis

3.1 Research design

The study was conducted through a mixed-methods design with the integration

of both quantitative and qualitative data A qualitative approach allows for the exploration of participants’ attitudes, beliefs and practices in a particular situation (Denzin & Lincoln, 1998), which goes in hand with the research’s aims to gain an in-depth understanding of students’ and lecturers’ perceptions of rubric use in relation to writing self-regulation On the other hand, the incorporation of the quantitative method along the qualitative one is also necessary and useful to make comparisons and ensure the findings’ validity

3.2 Sampling and participants

Out of the total 525, 368 freshmen who are following the 2B writing course at a university in Vietnam participated in this study, majoring in either English language teaching or English interpretation Since the writing rubric has been readily available in the Course Guide, chances to access this rubric were supposed to be equal for each of every participant The process began with an online questionnaire being sent to students via their email addresses, and after data analysis, five students were purposely picked out for one-on-one interviews, together with three of the current lecturers at their university All the personal information of the participants would be kept confidential and solely used for the research purpose

3.3 Instruments

3.3.1 Questionnaire

In this study, questionnaire was the main tool of data collection for “they are easy

to construct, extremely versatile, and uniquely capable of gathering a large amount of information quickly in a form that is readily processable” (Dornyei, 2003, p 1) A link

of the online questionnaire was sent to all 525 First-year Fast-track students via the email addresses with the aims to explore their perspectives of the way to use rubrics for self-regulation, the effectiveness, the benefits as well as the obstacles of that practice The researcher received 368 responses in return, meaning that the response rate is approximately 70,3%

In part I – Questions (See Appendix 1), multiple-choice format with spaces still provided for participants’ additional answers was preferably employed to “create a friendly feeling and helpful guidance” (Phan, 2011, p 41) In addition, Likert rating scales which “require the respondents to make an evaluative judgment of the target by making one of a series of categories organized into a scale” (Dornei, 2003, p 36) were also used for the fact that they can be helpful for quantitative data to be presented in form of graphs and generalize a picture of certain issues The questionnaire comprised both closed and open-ended questions, seeking to collect both behavioral and attitudinal data of the respondents Behavioral questions are to provide factual information about the respondent’s background information, as well as about the frequency and functions

of rubric at different stages of writing Meanwhile, attitudinal questions help to uncover respondents’ ratings and opinions of rubrics’ impacts on their writing self-regulation All sets of questions are written in English with the researcher’s supposition that English language majored freshmen have sufficient language proficiency to grasp their meanings

3.3.2 Interview

As a follow-up to the questionnaire, interviews were utilized in this study to touch

on matters that had yet been clarified in the previous step Learner’s self-reported perceptions and attitudes, as well as additional data would be elicited in a more interactive mode, which helped informants who are not comfortable with other written formats express their ideas more easily (Le, 2012) Moreover, to uncover the self-regulation strategies that students embraced when they conducted specific tasks such as writing an essay, it was recommendable to employ think-aloud protocols (Corno, 2011)

or deep interviews with a view to “micro-analyzing the self-regulation process”, since these methods share things in common with the nature of the tasks (Cleary, 2011, cited

in Alonso and Panadero, 2014, p 2) On the other hand, validity remains a critical issue

if information gained subjectively from the student party alone It is difficult to eliminate the possibility that student’s answers included inaccurate details from their recall and could be deviated from the truth under the influence of social desirability and response bias Therefore, to triangulate the data, three lecturers who are currently teaching the Writing course at the same university were also invited to join in other subsequent interviews to voice their opinions

All the interviews were semi-structured For the interviews with students, the questions that were used to initiate discussion can be found in Appendix 2 Specifically, five out of 368 questionnaire’s respondents whose answers needed confirmation or were possibly dug deeper would be engaged in one-on-one interviews These face-to-face meetings were expected to provide in-depth input for questions about the way of use, the benefits, obstacles and suggestions for improvement For the three teachers, the main content for each question was quite similar to that of students, while some parts are modified to better target this group of informants Table 1 presents the six students’

profile, with pseudonyms used for anonymity purposes

Table 1 Overview of Interviewees’ profile

Student A Non-rubric user Teacher X Curriculum designer and

rubric user

Student B Non-rubric user Teacher Y Curriculum designer and

rubric user

Student D Rubric user

Student E Ex-rubric user

To address the concern that the language proficiency of informants could impact the quality and quantity of their responses, and to create a congenial atmosphere, Vietnamese was used for both student and teacher interviews Afterwards, transcripts of the interviews were translated into English and sent to all participants for confirmation and clarification

3.4 Data collection procedure

3.4.1 Piloting

Piloting was undertaken before the main study The sample questionnaire and the set of interview questions were sent to a lecturer at a university in Vietnam for feedback about the appropriateness of language use and content of each item In addition to this,

copies of the survey were also handed out to five volunteer students to check their understanding of terminology and instructions, suitability of questions as well as the time frame The responses from the piloting process acted as a foundation for adjustments to be made, which included the simplification of language used, the explanation of key terms and the replacement/ removal of some items

3.4.2 Administration of questionnaire

Invitations to participate in the study and to complete the questionnaire were sent

to 525 Fast-track freshmen through emails The questionnaire was made available online

on Google form On the first page of the questionnaire, respondents were introduced to the research topic and purpose, confirming the confidentiality and participation consent The respondents also received polite requests to provide their contact information if they were willing for interview engagement afterwards During the questionnaire’s data collection process which lasted two and a half week long, the researcher was available

to answer any question and assist the informants

3.4.3 Administration of interviews

3.4.3.1 Interviews with students

Five student interviewees were chosen based on their previous questionnaire answers The interviews were conducted either face-to-face or via telephone calls, and started with a short explanation of the format, main content and expected length Permission for recording the interviews was also requested for transcription and further analysis Each interview lasted from 30-35 minutes long

3.4.3.2 Interviews with lecturers

The procedure of interviews with three lecturers afterwards was similar to that with students

3.5 Data analysis

The analysis step was conducted following the completion of data collection In the first place, to process the information obtained from questionnaires, descriptive statistics were utilized for closed-ended questions whose response options had been coded previously Their findings about the frequency use of rubrics for each stage, its perceived effectiveness, benefits and obstacles were then represented in the form of charts and diagrams for more convenient denotation and interpretation On the other hand, answers to the open-ended questions and to the interviews were processed using content analysis methods including summary and transcriptions to be referred to while the findings being explained Along all the way, inferential statistics were also employed

to draw inferences and conclusions that extend beyond the data alone

The findings of the study were presented in the same order as the research questions Primarily, this approach could enable relevant data from various streams including questionnaires and interviews to be collated in the formation of a collective answer to each research question and contribute to the coherence preservation of the material in general (Le, 2012) The responses from students and teachers were put in one after another before being compared and contrasted in the part of discussion

CHAPTER 4: FINDING AND DISCUSSION

This chapter will present and discuss the findings about perceived frequency and effectiveness of rubric use for writing self-regulation, as well as the benefits and obstacles associated with this practice from the angles of both students and lecturers; based on which, recommendations are also given accordingly

4.1 Research question 1: The way the rubric in the Course Guide is used by students at different stages of the writing process

4.1.1 Finding

4.1.1.1 Student’s perceptions

The first research question explores how the freshman writers have been utilizing the rubric in the Course Guide As mentioned in the previous chapter, the responses to the questionnaire and interviews with students were analyzed to answer this question The researcher begins by exploring the students’ general perceptions of the roles of rubrics in a writing assignment

Figure 1 indicates that the evaluative function of rubrics was widely acknowledged by students with 88,31%, equal to 325 out of 368 respondents, whereas the other roles such as an instructional tool and a source of feedback were less popular, with 73.2% and 56.5% respectively In an explanation for this imbalance, interviewees

A and C admitted that rubrics used to be foreign concept to them during their school years, and it was this lack of experience that prevented them from being self-conscious

of the additional benefits such as instructing and/ or feedback-giving At the first encounter with the Course Guide rubric, both of the interviewees had thought of it as no more than a framework for scoring purposes until the teachers added further instructions The kinds of support with regard to the use of rubrics, nevertheless, were not homogenous among writing classes, with 16.8% of students reporting that they only accessed copies of rubrics without any further instruction, 67.39% confirming receiving guidance, 36.68 % being offered chances for practice and 39.6% being provided with samples marked and commented with the rubric

Table 2 Teacher’s support with regard to the use of rubric

Interview B was one of 62 respondents who were given copies of rubric only while Interview A, C and D belonged to the group that got both guidance and writing samples, in which, the guidance focused on the indicators of the target band scores (above 7) and the samples were actually their own papers after having been evaluated

by their instructors Interviewee E, on the other hand, learned by interacting with rubrics during in-class peer-check activities This interviewee acknowledged the efficacy of immediate practice following guidance particularly in the company of teachers, adding that he would be “not motivated enough” to work on the rubric himself at home

Despite those supports, there still existed a mismatch between students’ awareness of different roles that rubrics play and their actions Results from Figure 2 suggest nearly half of the respondents never or seldom referred to the Course Guide rubric throughout their composing process Specifically, 29.9%, equal to 110 out of 368 respondents, had been writing without the help of the rubric at any point and 11.4% seldom conducted that kind of criteria reference It is also notable that students who merely received copies of the rubric made up for nearly half of the non-rubric users

Always 9.2%

Usually 18.2%

Sometimes 31.3%

Rarely 11.4%

Never 29.9%

Figure 2 Frequency of rubric use for writing

The rationale behind this fact was mainly the student's confusion with the language of the rubric (63.2%) Almost every word and term used were categorized as common and easy to understand considering their literal meanings, however, as Interviewee B commented, it was the “too general” language that baffled her most when attempting to distinguish indicators of different band scores She took “a wide/ sufficient range of”, “a good control of”, “effectively communicate” from the rubric to exemplify some unmeasurable terms that were found hard to grasp Another reason why not many students opted for rubric to regulate their writing was their unawareness of the rubric as well as the using strategies Accounting for this, one of the non-rubric writers put the blame on the late instruction: “The presence of the rubric and specific guidance on how

it worked were not made known to my class until the last lesson in preparation for the final exam Even though I found it really useful, it was hard to use the rubric for any writing self-regulation because all the assignments of the term were over” (Interviewee A) Meanwhile, some other students even claimed that they did not find out the existence

of a rubric in the Course Guide, or refrained from for the fear of the negative effects that rubric possibly exerted on their creativity

On the other hand, for the students who employed rubrics for the writing regulation purpose, statistics (Figure 2) show that slightly more than 30% conducted this activity on a frequent basis, followed by 18.2% of usual users, while only 9.2% claimed always doing it Of these users, around 70% referred to the rubric through at least two out of three stages - Goal setting and planning, Revising and Editing, though the rubric played different roles in each stage of the process

self-Table 3 The frequency of rubric use at three writing stages

Stages

Number of students (people)

Never Rarely Sometime

Besides, the revising stage was when students wrote with the help of the rubric most, with 175 out of 216 users relying on it to reflect their papers It was indicated that putting the product in comparison with the predetermined standards allowed for the consciousness of both good (50.4%) and weak points (74.4%), guided improvements (81.6%) as well as score prediction (36.8%) Also at this stage, the aspect of writing that