An investigation into writing difficulties of the first year english majors at ha noi university of industry

In order to do this, questionnaires were delivered to the first-year English majors in course 2007-2011 and writing teachers of the subjects concerned to elicit data about 1 students’ En

M IN IST R Y OF E D U C A T IO N AND TRAINING

HANOI UNIVERSITY

K IE U N G U Y E T N G A

AN INVESTIGATION INTO WRITING DIFFICULTIES

OF THE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

S U D M IT T E D IN P A R T IA L F U L F IL L M E N T

OF REQUIREM ENTS FOR THE DEGREE

OF M ASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL

SUPERVISOR’S NAME: DOAN THI MINH NGUYET, MA

Hanoi

August 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S I

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S I ll

A B S T R A C T IV

L IST S O F FIG U R ES AND T A B L E S V

L IST O F A B B R E V IA T IO N S A N D S Y M B O L S VI

C H A P T E R 1: IN T R O D U C T IO N 1

1.1 B ackground to the st u d y 1

1.1.1 Writing syllabus 1

1.1.2 The writing course book 2

1.2 A ims of the s t u d y 3

1.3 S cope of the s t u d y 3

1.4 S ignificance of the s t u d y 3

1.5 O utline of the t h e sis 3

C H A PT E R 2: L IT E R A T U R E R E V I E W 5

2.1 A pproaches to teaching writing in EFL/ESL programs 5

2.1.1 Focus on syntactic accuracy approach 5

2.1.2 Focus on text approach (the pattern approach) 6

2.1.3 Focus on the writers approach (the process approach) 7

2.1.4 Focus on fluency/content approach 8

2.1.5 Focus on purpose approach (focus on the reader approach) 8

2.2 EFL/ESL learner - writing difficulties 9

2.2.1 Difficulties related to features o f writing texts 12

2.2.1.1 Difficulties in morphosyntactic- using 12

2.2.1.1.1 Difficulties in inflection- using 12

2.2.1.1.2 Difficulties in structure-using 14

2.2.1.2 Difficulties in organization 14

2.2.1.2.1 Difficulties in support - w ritin g 15

2.2.1.2.2 Difficulties in rhetoric - using 15

2.2.1.2.3 Difficulties in mechanic- u sin g 18

2.2.2 Difficulties related to composing processes 18

2.2.2.1 Difficulties related to idea-form ing 19

2.2.2.1.1 Lacking id ea s 19

2.2.2.2 Difficulties related to cogn ition 23

2.2.2.2.I Difficulties in culture-understanding 23

2.2.22.2 Difficulties in concept-using 24

2.3 S um m a r y 24

C H A PT E R 3: M E T H O D O L O G Y 26

3.1 R esearch q u e st io n s 26

3.2 S ubjects of the s t u d y 26

3.2.1 The students 26

3.2.2 The teachers o f writing 27

3.3 D ata collection instrum ents 27

3.3.1 Questionnaire 1 28

3.3.2 Questionnaire 2 29

3.4 S um m a r y 31

C H A PT E R 4: R E SU L T S A N D D IS C U S S IO N 32

4.1 R e s u l t s 32

4.1.1 First- year students ’ previous learning experience 32

4.1.2 First-year students ’ attitude towards learning writing 33

4.1.3 First - year students ’ current learning experience 34

4.1.3.1 Students’ resp on se 34

4.1.3.2 Teachers’ responses 39

4.2 D is c u s sio n 44

4.2.1 Regarding students ’ writing difficulties 46

4.2.2 Regarding students ’ writing activities 46

4.3 S um m a r y 47

C H A PT E R 5: SU G G E ST IO N S A N D C O N C L U S IO N S 48

5.1 S uggestions 48

5.1.1 To the teachers 49

5.1.2 To the students 50

5.1.3 To the course book 53

5.2 C o nclu sio n s 55

R E F E R E N C E S 58

A PPE N D IX 1 63

ST U D E N T ’S Q U E S T IO N N A IR E 63

A PPE N D IX 2 68

T E A C H E R ’S Q U E S T IO N N A IR E 68

ACKNOW LEDGEM ENTS

First, I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Mrs Doan Thi Minh Nguyet, who read my manuscript with great care, gave thoughtful and meaningful comments and provided valuable support in the preparation and completion of this thesis

I am also grateful to the organizers of this master course, Mr Vu Van Dai, Head of the Department o f Post Graduate Studies of Hanoi University and Mrs Nguyen Thai Ha who had given many useful comments on my thesis and also the teachers of the Department

My special thanks go to the teachers and students who were very responsive to the survey questionnaires, without whom the thesis could not have been possible

Addition, who was particularly of great help in my preparing and fulfilling o f the thesis

is my brother My heartfelt appreciation is expressed to him

Last, like many other acknowledgements, mine end with references to my family I

am greatly indebted to my parents who, as always, have been wholeheartedly supportive

This thesis examines the EFL writing difficulties of the first-year students majoring in English at HaUI, Hanoi University of Industry

In order to do this, questionnaires were delivered to the first-year English majors

in course 2007-2011 and writing teachers of the subjects concerned to elicit data about (1) students’ English writing activities; (2) the difficulties they were faced with; and (3) their suggestions of what should be done to better the situation The responses from the teachers and students were the bases to decide what to do to facilitate students’ EFL writing and improve the quality of their writing

The results of the study show that (1) the students did not employ necessary composing processes, they spent very little time on outlining, used translation (from their mother tongue) quite often in the process of writing, and revised drafts mainly for mechanical mistakes; (2) they still had difficulty in writing sentences and in knowing what particularly to do to produce a certain type of text

The thesis suggests that (1) students’ composing processes should be rectified in several ways: essential composing processes should not be skipped, more time

must he devoted to outlining, the use o f translation m ust be elim inated, and

revising o f drafts should place more emphasis on ideas and organizational aspects, rather than on mechanical mistakes alone; (2) explicit and concrete instructions on writing a particular type o f text should be given Obviously, not only students and the syllabus are responsible for carrying out those changes but teachers, as facilitators to students’ writing, should play an active part in the works as well

IV

taught to first-year students 39

Table 4.6 T eachers’ opinions about the levels o f difficulty o f writing task to first-

year student writers 40Table 4.7 Effects o f negative transfer (from students’ mother tongue) on their

English writing 41Table 4.8 Teachers’ opinions about the appropriate writing task for first-year

students 42Table 4.9 Teachers’ opinions about the most appropriate writing approach for

first-year students 43

LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

EFL: English as Foreign Language

ESL: English as Second Language

CUP: Cambridge University Press

OUP: Oxford University Press

LI: first language

L2: second language

HaUI: Hanoi University of Industry

TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language

TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers o f Other Language

* : the absence of a compulsory element, which makes the expression

inappropriate or incorrect

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides readers with detailed information on background to the study, the aims, the scope of the study, the significance, and the outline of the thesis

1.1 Background to the study

The students o f this study had Effective Writing (by J Withrow 1987, CPU, New

York) as their writing course book There are eight units altogether in the book but

the first-year English majors covered only the first five units, including: Formal and

informal letters; Writing a story; Reports; Articles; Instructions in 45, 45- minute

periods There is one class contact per week and each class is three periods long, the total length of the course is accordingly 15 weeks

While effective writing skills are so important to the first-year students, at present as well as in the future, as a teacher of writing to these first-year English majors, I have noticed that these freshmen have many difficulties in writing and there are accordingly quite a number o f errors in their written works Although these first- year students have made considerable efforts to improve their writing skills, many of them are soon disappointed because there are difficulties in writing that they do not

know h ow to deal with or that they cannot deal with on their own A s a result, they

are discouraged practicing the skill They feel bored with learning writing

On that account, some thing must be done to facilitate first-year students’ writing and improve the quality o f their writing The first step to solve this problem is to find out the causes that hinder the students from English writing effectively Having identified these causes, feasible solutions will be worked out

1.1.1 Writing syllabus

The English Department of Hanoi University of Industry was founded in 2005 There are 152 teachers of English 52 of them are official members and the rest 100 are invited teachers They are divided into four groups Three groups are non- English specialized and only one group is English - specialized

In English specialized group, the writing teachers have designed a writing syllabus

There are three courses in English writing that the students majoring in English at the Department of English, Hanoi University of Industry have to take The first course is for first-year students Since it is the formal course in writing, the aims of the syllabus are to equip the first-year students with the necessary basic skills to write well, to form the habits of writing paragraphs and compositions or letters with correct grammar and correct language and become more confident in writing English.

By the end o f the first year, the English o f the first-year students is of intermediate level, they are able to write well in English and also they have English good enough

to communicate with the native speakers of English about everyday life activities.The writing syllabus for the English first-year students at HaUI consists of the following:Theory accounts for 14 periods, practice and discussion 29 periods, and examination

2 periods

1.1.2 The writing course book

Effective writing is a book that helps you gain some of the skills you need

when you write in English The aim o f the book is to help you recognize

what good w riting is and to g iv e you practice writing com plete, coh esive

paragraphs and compositions The purpose, in short, is to help you make what you write more effective

(Withrow 1987a:v)

In general, the current course book is good for the first-year students Many of the exercises in the book are very helpful The book has been highly valued by teachers and students who have used it With this book, the students were exposed to such practical types of writing as: letter writing, report writing, which were necessary not only for their immediate needs in the academic context but also for their later purposes when

they might be working in offices With the exercises in Organizing ideas, for instance,

the students could probably be very alert gradually to an essential feature of

composition: Coherence, they might have learned a lot about organizational skills, but

in fact, they are bad at organizing ideas With Comparing texts, writers could learn a

multitude of practical things about what to do in particular to improve their texts In

addition, Text based on a conversation and Text based on a visual got students ready for

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what they would actually have to do in life, for writing is more a knowledge- transforming process than a knowledge-telling process Therefore, the book seems to fit the aims of the syllabus.

1.2 Aims of the study

The aims o f this thesis are to investigate the writing difficulties of the first-year English majors at Hanoi University of Industry and give some suggestions to improve their writing efficiency To achieve these aims, the following research question was sought:

What writing difficulties do the first-year English majors meet in their writing in English?

1.3 Scope of the study

This study is limited to the first - year students at the English Department, Hanoi University of Industry and the teachers who are currently teaching or have taught writing skill to the first - year students at the English Department, Hanoi University of Industry

1.4 Significance of the study

This study is cxpcctcd to help the first — year students improve themselves by using necessary basic writing skills and avoiding the difficulties that the students might meet during writing in English

And this study is also expected to make a guidance for teachers-themselves know the way how to teach students with the appropriate writing approaches, and teachers also can understand their students’ difficulties from the survey results and they would have a better teaching method With the English Department, this study is expected that the leader of the Department can know the strength and the weakness of the syllabus as well

as the importance of the course book for the students

1.5 Outline of the thesis

Chapter 1, Introduction, provides readers with detailed information on background

to the study, the aims, the significance, the scope of the study and the outline of the thesis

Chapter 2, Literature Review, reviews relevant literature about the thesis The chapter serves as an overview of relevant research history and a guide to the position

of the present study in the research community

Chapter 3, Methodology, contains the description of the method together with the information on the subjects of the study, and the description of data collection instrument.Chapter 4, Results and D iscussion, displays the initial results and gives discussion on the results

Chapter 5, Suggestions and Conclusions, closes by giving some suggestions for the study and indicating some limitations o f the study

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 2 is a review of issues relevant to ESL writing: (1) approaches to the teaching of writing in ESL/EFL programs and (2) common writing problems (difficulties) of English learners The discussion is intended to give a theoretical sketch of what should be provided to first-year students and what the students themselves should do to improve the quality of their writing

2.1 Approaches to teaching writing in EFL/ESL programs

In this section, approaches to teaching writing in EFL/ESL programs will be considered to identify the important features (e.g., organizational knowledge, writing approaches, content) that ESL/EFL writing instruction should focus on

2.1.1 Focus on syntactic accuracy approach

One o f the earliest and popular approaches to writing is the approach that focuses on syntactic accuracy According to the syntactic accuracy approach, special emphasis

is placed on syntactic mistakes in students’ written work Those who follow this

approach stress the importance of control in order to eliminate mistakes from written

work Firstly, its major teaching principle is that:

Students are taught how to write and combine various sentence types and manipulation exercises [ ] are used to give them the experience of writing connected sentences [ ] Gradually the amount o f control is reduced and the students are asked to exercise meaningful choice [ ] At a still later stage, they may be given a good deal o f guidance with language and content, but allowed some opportunities for shelf-expression

(Byrne 1991:21-22)The focus-on-syntactic-accuracy approach was highly appreciated in the early stages

of writing in the 1960s and early 1970s

However, to be fair, this approach does not restrict its writing tasks to sentences drills alone: fill-in, substitutions, transformations, and completions In the early 1970s, learners began to be exposed to controlled composition tasks, which provide the lext and ask the learners to manipulate linguistic forms within that text

This approach is suitable for elementary, pre-intermediate, and intermediate classrooms where students need to practice and master a number of sentence structures Practice exercises in sentence skills are an indispensable preparation for paragraph development and essay writing However, if this approach is focused, the students will be in short of other skills in writing such as: brainstorming, narrowing down the topic, outlining

2.1.2 Focus on text approach (the pattern approach)

The Pattern/Product Approach resulted from the recognition of the needs o f ESL

students in the academic environment Teachers began to try to bridge the gap between language-based classes, which focused on creating compositions instead of sentence writing (Reid 1993:29) In the early 1980s, a lot of writing books written in the light o f the pattern - product approach were published with the focus on the concepts of the thesis statement and the topic sentence, paragraph unity, organizational strategies, and development of paragraphs by patterns of models: process, comparison/contrast, cause and effect, classification/partition definition, argumentation and so on

Under the influence o f text linguistics, writing teachers and theorists emphasized the problems o f “expressing effectively at a level beyond the sentence” in writing activities Like the syntactic - accuracy - focused - approach, however, the focus-on- text approach concern itself with the unit at a higher discourse Therefore, we cannot simply teach students with individual sentences and then expect them automatically

to write unified and coherent paragraphs or essays

If the students are concentrating on a grammatical transformations, such as changing verbs from present to past, they “need pay no attention whatever to what the sentences mean or the manner in which they relate to each other”

(Raimes 1991:407)What is important then is the question of teaching students how to construct and organize paragraphs since paragraph, in the students’ eyes, is the basic unit of written expression Sample exercises are: students are asked to form paragraphs

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from jumbled sentences; writing parallel paragraphs; developing paragraphs from topic sentences.

This is an approach, which is useful for academic writing where students generally need to make clear what they want to say (with the topic sentence) and what their evidence is (with supporting sentences) Once students already know what they are going to say with the topic/introductory sentence, they will not apt to “go astray”, that is writing irrelevant sentences Without the topic/introductory sentence, students would find it difficult to make a good paragraph This approach is suitable for first- year majors in this study

2.1.3 Focus on the writers approach (the process approach)

The process approach is currently warmly welcomed in the TESOL world This movement, in Richards et a l.’s definition (1993:290), emphasizes the composing processes writers make use in writing (such as planning, drafting and revising) and

which seeks to improve students’ writing skills through developing their use of effective composing processes

The process-centered paradigm, [ ], focuses on writing processes; teaches strategies for invention and discovery, considers audience, purpose, and context o f writing; emphasizes recursiveness in the writing process; and distinguishes between aims and modes of discourse

(Connor 1987:677)

The Process Movement did not succeed to the throne though initiated as early as the

late 1960s and the early 1970s, until the middle of 1980s This approach came into being between the middle and the late 1970s under the influence of LI writing research on composing processes Unlike the two approaches above, which are fom-dominated, this approach places emphasis on what L2 writers actually do as

the} write (ibid).

Riciards (1987: 268) agues for its virtues: “rather than being the development of soire preconceived and well-formed idea, writing is ‘the record an idea developing"

It is a process whereby an initial idea gets extended and refined” This is a feature

that makes this approach different from the product approach which lays its

emphasis on producing different kinds of written products and imitation of different kinds of model paragraphs or essays Nowadays, the movement is in fashion and highly praised by many TESOL teachers as well as researchers However, warnings have been made against the studies of the approach Raimes (1991:409) points out: “ the lack of comparability across studies impedes the growth of knowledge in that field"

2.1.4 Focus on fluency/content approach

This approach, which focuses on content/fluency, encourages students to write as much as possible-without worrying about mistakes to be possibly made The top importance is that students put their ideas on paper without caring whether the ideas are semantically and/or grammatically correct With this approach, “students - in the words of Byrne (1991:22)- feel that they are actually writing, not merely doing

‘exercises’ o f some kind; they write what they want to write and consequently writing is an enjoyable experience”

There is some difference between focus on fluency and focus on content With

a con tcn t fo cu s, learners are said lo get help with “the language o f thinking processes and the structure or shape o f content (Mohan 1986 in Raimes

1991:411) The main emphasis, still according to Raimes (o p c i t p 4 10), is on

the instructor’s determination o f what academic content is the most appropriate Noticeably, such content specific to English courses as language, culture, and literature is largely rejected

However, this approach does not suit with the first-year English majors at Hanoi University o f Industry, because focus on fluency/content approach is extremely useful for advanced students With this approach, what the teacher needs to do is to lift the psychological barriers to the flow of ideas being blocked Once students have been able to start, ideas will be pouring onto paper

2.1.5 Focus on purpose approach (focus on the reader approach)

This approach raises the question of devising “situations which allow students to

write purposefully” because “in real life [ ] we normally have a reason for writing

and we write to or for s o m e b o d y (Byrne 1991:23) Among the prominent authors

in this period was Sandra McKay who had a revolutionary contention that grammatical accuracy in writing classes was a secondary concern and stressed the importance of audience-specific assignments The focus of this approach is on the audience and their expectations outside the language classroom; language teaching

is considered “as socialization into the academic community- not as humanistic therapy”, (Horwits 1986 in Raimes 1991:411)

Therefore, the categorization above is certainly not definitive Admittedly, there has not been clear-cut borderlines between numerous approaches to writing that have been built up, extended and employed so far Different authors have different classifications with different labels For example, according to Silva (1990 in Santos 1991:712), there has been four major approaches to ESL writing since 1945:

controlled composition, current-traditional rhetoric, process, and English fo r academic purposes, with the last two currently competing for dominance in

universities From a slightly different perspective, Shi (1986) maintains that: patient-

cer.tered approaches, functional approaches, process-centered approaches, and content-based approaches.

In brief, there have been different approaches to ESL/EFL writing focusing on various features: morpho-syntactic accuracy, discourse (text pattern), writing processes (the writer), content (ideas, vocabulary) purpose of writing (the reader) The differences in focuses reveal that there are a great number of difficulties that ESL/EFL writers may face with The following section considers the difficulties facing ESL/EFL writers

2.2 EFL/ESL learner - writing difficulties

This section reviews literature of the difficulties coming from the students - learning, the teachers - teaching method and also the text book - syllabus They are interrelated diff.culties that can not be presented individually For example, with difficulties related

to features of writing text, we can see that these difficulties not only resulted from the text book itself - because of “features of writing text” but also students themselves becaise of morpho-syntactic, of organization using of the students the their writing It is the reason why these difficulties came from both students and textbook With

difficulties related to composing processes, we can see that these difficulties not only resulted from the students but also the teachers themselves - because what the teachers taught would be presented by students in the students' writing - but it also would be by students themselves who did not know how to write or how to employ appropriate composing processes in their writing.

There are many difficulties involved in writing in English that may prevent second language (L2) writers from performing the skill satisfactorily According to Byrne (1991:04), three categories of problems that make writing

“a difficult activity for most people” are: psychological problems, linguistic

problems, and cognitive problems.

In more detail, Raimes (1983:06) draws a diagram showing “what writers have to

deal with as they produce a piece of writing” as follows:

SYNTAX

Sentence structure Sentence boundaries’

Stylistic choices, etc.

CONTENT Relevance, clarity, originality,

W O RD C H O IC E Vocabulary, idiom, tone.

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Writing composition, McKay (1979: 73) has defined in a variety of ways, which include recurring phrases such as thinking process, stylistic choice, grammar correctness, rhetorical development, and creatively [ ] Central to writing are the classical rhetorical concerns o f Invention (topic), Arrangement (organization), and Style (grammatical correctness and stylistic effectiveness.”

Those are certainly not everything that an L2 writer may encounter (S)he is to faced with many other difficulties as well: cultural differences, for instance Izzo (1999:117) remarks: “Differences in the language structures, the manner of expressing thoughts, writing style, and other culturally varying factors greatly affect the writings o f a foreign (second) language learner.”

As for our practical purpose, the question will be addressed under two overriding

headings: (1) Difficulties related to features of writing texts: which include morpho-

syntactic difficulties, organizational difficulties', (2) Difficulties related to

composing processes: which include idea-forming difficulties, and cognitive

difficulties The logic for this division is; the difficulties of the first type are

objective difficulties resulting from linguistic differences These difficulties exist for all L2 writers, though the degree may vary from the individual to individual The general solution is that the writer should learn to improve himself/herself, step by step correcting them As he is becoming increasingly proficient in English, errors of this type will automatically diminish

On the other hand, while difficulties o f the first type have something to do with textual features, those of the second type concern themselves mainly with the writing processes They are somewhat more subjective: originating in the writer himself/herself, his/her writing steps, his/her knowledge, his/her writing learning, writing instruction, or the setting where the objectives o f writing take place In order

to deal with these difficulties, it is essential that measures should be taken to create radical changes in the philosophies, practices and conditions o f the teaching and learning writing

It should be noted that those are certainly not all the difficulties that L2 writers may

be faced with; rather, EFL writers may encounter stylistic and lexico-semantic

difficulties as well However, stylistics is not included in this discussion because it is

so difficult for the subjects o f this study - first-year students As for lexico-semantic difficulties, it is more associated with reading than writing

2.2.1 Difficulties related to features of writing texts

2.2.1.1 Difficulties in morphosyntactic- using

Since Vietnamese and English are so typological different, there are considerable dissimilarities between the two languages that give rise to innumerable difficulties to Vietnamese writers o f English (as well as English writers of Vietnamese) The grammaticalization of one language differs significantly from that o f the other In a study o f English writing by Vietnamese immigrants to the United States, Byleen (1986:02) writes: “Their first language may have predisposed them to certain interference errors in English”

English has a more clearly defined distinction between nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs As we saw with Vietnamese, the same words can function both as adverbs and adjectives adverbs can function as noun and adjectives, all without change in form Word order within the sentence indicates the relationship between words.

(B yleen, o p c i tp 05)

2.2.1.1.1 Difficulties in inflection- using

Inflection, in the words o f Richards et al (1992:179), is the process of adding affix

to a word or changing it in some other way according to the rules of grammar o f a language Inflectional morphemes are problematic to Vietnamese writers o f English because the writers’ mother tongue has no inflectional morphemes:

The English morpheme is totally foreign to the Vietnamese learners English morphemes, such as, the plural morpheme, the possessive morpheme and so on present serious problems for the Vietnamese learners of English, because they are non-existent in the structure of Vietnamese words

As a matter of fact, it is quite understandable that it is not easy for those with a non­inflecting language background like Vietnamese writers to deal with those inflectional affixes Since the two most variable categories of English words are verbs and nouns, Vietnamese students are liable to make inflection - related errors

concerning these two most important parts of speech The Vietnamese language has

no varying verb forms for different actions/states happening at different times Time differences are expressed by adverbial phrases or understood in the context being considered Meanwhile, English verbs will normally not remain constant if the time

o f the verb changes Byleen (1986:06) remarks that when Vietnamese students use a past time expression, they seem to feel that indicating tense is redundant

As compared with Vietnamese verbs-which never change no matter what grammatical function they play, English verbs are so confusingly variable The simple but essential reason for such confusion is that “the language-Vietnamese (notes mine) - is without the often complex structure of tenses and moods”, and

“nothing in the Vietnamese language corresponds directly to the system of tense” Byleen has a further comment on the absence of tense in Vietnamese:

The complex interactions o f the auxiliaries and suffixes, which comprise these tense, are extremely difficult to master for students whose native language does not have an even vaguely related system In most Vietnamese sentences, it is not necessary to indicate tense You can understand by the context whether you are referring to an event in the present, past or future When it is necessary to indicate tense, the form o f the verbs stays

constant and expression meaning yesterday, last night, tomorrow, etc are used.

(Byleen 1986:05)

As far as nouns are concerned, Vietnamese writers tend to miss the plural morpheme

in plural nouns, which can be accounted by the fact that in Vietnamese

Number is not expressed in the noun but by other words in the sentence From this perspective, Vietnamese writers may see the plural ending as a redundant form.

(Byleen 1986: 02)

However, as is alerted by Byleen (op.cit., p.03), making a noun plural in English is not as easy as just adding -5 or -es The question will become more complicated when the writer is faced with irregularities like man-men; foot-feet; mouse-mice.

In addition such complication is the countability of English nouns can be either countable or uncountable, depending on each particular case:

I ’d like some beer, please (Beer as a kind o f drink, uncountable).

I ’d like three beers, please ( - Three glasses of beer, countable).

2.2.1.1.2 Difficulties in structure-using

Besides difficulties in using inflection, there is still a big difficulty: structure using difficulty, which is quite obvious Vietnamese students writing in English might be confused with sentence patterns, word order, and the information structure of English sentences, which differ from those in their mother tongue Notably, the last thing is quite problematic because, according to (Dyvik 1984), while Vietnamese is topic-prominent, English is a subject-prominent language

Since pre-modification is not common in Vietnamese, Vietnamese writers are usually confused with the order of pre-modifiers in heavy noun phrase They might write a phrase like this:

* five these charming country cottages (writer’s example)

(CORRECT: these five charming country cottages)

Concerning sentence patterns, one large problem for students is the choice o f the correct kind of structure (a phrase or a clause) to follow a certain verb:

* He wanted that I should stary with him (writer’s example)

(CORRECT: He wanted me to stay with him).

On the other hand, the writer may make such mistakes as:

* The boss said me to go and see him in his office, (writer’s example)

(CORRECT: The boss told/asked me to go and see him in his office/The boss said I

would have to come and see him in his office).

2.2.1.2 Difficulties in organization

Writing teachers take interest not only in students’ grammatical errors but also in their discoursal weaknesses, because organizational skills are indispensable for good writing Halliday & Hasan (1976-in Carpenter & Hunter 1981:426) have point out:

“In researches regarding organization, an analysis suggests that the processes of composing a text are more complex than just adding one-well performed sentence to another.” With rhetorical structures, information can be conveyed not only verbally

but also para-verbally (Pearson 1983:46)

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However, it is not easy to master organizational skills Greany, (1990:01) points out that “it is easier to see what is wrong with one sentence than to see what is wrong with one group of sentences”

2.2.1.2.1 Difficulties in support - writing

Support, unity and coherence are the essentials of textual development in any language There are observable differences between cultures in the amount of organization of the support needed As a result, papers written by Asian writers like Vietnamese students might be considered “weak” from the point of view of the Western style Non-native writers attempting to write in a second language

m ay wrongly assume that the social conventions that exist in their native language are also operative in their second language so that, for example, structuring an argument

or supporting a main point are the same in both cultures Making these assumptions can result in their being misunderstood and less effective writers.

(McKay in Brock & Walters 1993:01)

For example, studying the narratives o f Vietnamese students writing in English in Australia, A Soter points out that “Vietnamese students focused less effort on the plot development and more effort on the attritional features of the character”

the Vietnamese stories appear to be less goal-oriented and hence less focused on the plot than the typical English stories A greater emphasis appears to be placed on relationships among the participants in the telling o f the story situation and on the inner states o f characters within the story The Vietnamese students in particular also drew more heavily on dialogue in their stories and the dialogue information did not include information that, in general, forwarded the action o f the story but was reflective or attributive in nature.

(Grabe & Kaplan 1997:191-192)

2.2.1.2.2 Difficulties in rhetoric - using

Rhetorical difficulties are problems relating to rhetoric Maintaining that the different languages (and their cultures) have different patterns of written discourse, R.B.Kaplan (1996 in H.D Brown 1994b: 322), describes patterns of written discourse in languages as follows:

Figure 2.2 R.P Kaplan rhetoric pattern o f written discourse in different cultures

English discourse, according to the American professor, proceeds in a straight line, while those o f “Oriental” languages in a spiraling line Since Vietnam, needless to say, is an oriental country, Kaplan’s remark is probably applicable to our case

Kaplan (1987 in Andrade 1990:726) reaffirms this in his “ Writing across

languages ” (co-author: U Connor), “that texts have schematic structures which are

culturally variable” Kaplan argues that “although various rhetorical modes are

possible in any language, each language has certain clear preferences” {ibid.) Some

other authors, e.g., Carrell (1984:464), has gone further to claim that even the ESL readers “may be encountering interference from the preferred native rhetoric patterns”

Many people do not agree with Kaplan, saying there are overgeneralizations in his diagram They have proved convincingly, for example, that paragraph patterns, though significant, are not so culture-specific or language-specific as suggested by relevant discussions Citing Rodgers (1966) in Weissberg (1984:485) points out:

“ the kinds o f traditional rhetorical categories (such as definition, cause/effect, and comparison/contrast) commonly presented in ESL composition textbooks do not in fact accurately describe the majority o f paragraphs actually written and published in English.” Such disagreement, however, is on the question how much, not whether or not; cross-cultural differences can affect L2 writing TOEFL researchers themselves admit that:

cross-cultural differences suggest that expectations for writing competent narrations and descriptions vary considerably from culture to culture and may be in contrast to the expectations o f American thought.

(Greg 1986:537)

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However, it is obvious that delayed introduction of topic, for instance, is generally common in Vietnamese writing As a matter of fact, Vietnamese and English differ

in placement of topic in news items Two local researchers Due and Hoa (1999: 30- 32) draw two different most - commonly - used patterns of political and social news writing in English and Vietnamese as follows:

Figure:-2.3 English vs Vietnamese news item in patterns

The main topic is presented right from the beginning in English while it is usually not given until the background information has been given in Vietnamese

Good writing in Vietnamese “is demonstrated by slowly approaching the main point Vietnamese rarely use a direct approach in their communication, as it is regarded as

blunt and rude” Greg (1986, ibid.) observes: “The directness o f Western discourse

styles might be viewed by the Vietnamese as rude and uncouth”

Therefore, though there can be overgeneralization or even problems with the schema, clearly enough, it is not uncommon that Vietnamese writers have certain predisposition about how to organize their ideas in writing which are dissimilar with those o f a student whose native or first language is English, because:

No one can deny the effect o f one’s native culture, or one’s predisposition that is the product o f perhaps years o f schooling, reading, writing, thinking, asserting, arguing, and defending In our current paradigm o f attending carefully to schemata and scripts, native language patterns o f thinking and writing simply cannot be ruled out.

(Brown 1994: 323)

2.2.1.2.3 Difficulties in mechanic- using

Mechanics, in the definition of Richards et al (1993:224), are those aspects of

writing such as spelling, use of apostrophes, hyphens, capitals, abbreviations, and numbers, which are often dealt with in the revision or editing stages of writing

According to Raimes (1983: 05), while speakers pronounce and deal with sounds, writers spell and struggle with orthographic forms of words, especially long polysyllabic ones If speakers use pauses and intonation then writers use punctuation Just as mispronunciation or improper intonation is embarrassing and misleading, any mistakes in spelling and punctuation may be confusing and harmful

to one’s written work Take Glazier’s (1994: 02) example:

*Let 's eat grandfather before we go.

Such a sentence would imply the writer is a cannibal (!) Failing to capitalize and use commas has greatly damaged the expression The sentence should have read like this:

*Let’s eat, Grandfather, before we go.

Rather common among ESL Vietnamese writing writers: comma splices, punctuating two sentences, or omitting punctuation between two sentences This may due to limited language ability or simply fatigue in the writing process

*As we got ready to leave, when we went out to the cars, all o f the tires were latten i t ’s because my friends lived in a bad neighborhood.

2.2.2 Difficulties related to composing processes

In the light of process writing, more and more people are admitting the fact that

writing process is not linear at all; instead, it involves very complex composing sub­processes Factors, besides linguistic elements, there are a lot o f other involved in the writing process Noticeably, planning, the writer’s knowledge of the topic, goal setting, editing, translating, etc was also listed as components of writing

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2.2.2.1 Difficulties related to idea-forming

2.2.2.1.1 Lacking ideas

English writers may not have enough ideas to write down or, even worse, they have nothing to say The student writer is thrown into the task of writing on a topic that (s)he has very little or no idea about The topic may be one that (s)he might never have heard of and (s)he takes no interest in Writing involves not only how to say

but also what to say Taylor (1991:06) has suggested that essay writing may be

viewed as “a simultaneous two-way street, - a dynamic, creative process of give and

take between content and written form” Writing then, still in his words, is a

creative discovery procedure characterized by the dynamic interplay o f content and language Given an unfamiliar topic, it is not easy for non-native writers to write acceptably well even in their first language, much less in a foreign language

When writing, students are in short of ideas; therefore, students often work out sentence

in their own language and then try to translate by a one word to one word matching process Consequently, theừ texts contain odd expressions, ungrammatical phrases, and nonsensical sentences It could be claimed that errors in non-native writers’ papers might have resulted from their use of translation Translation damaged not only grammar but also vocabulary, for students force themselves to encounter sophisticated vocabulary and get it wrong For example, starting with the Vietnamese sentence;

“Cuốn sách này là không thể thiếu được với những người học Tiếng Anh", students

might end up with this sentence:

*This book cannot lack fo r English learners (Ithesis writer)

while the correct expression should be : “This book is indispensable fo r English

learners ”

Since errors will be inevitable if translation used, writing researchers and instructors all advise not using translation Composing what you want to say in your own language first and then translate it, but trains them to think in English “to activate

the English they already know” More emphatic, James et al (1991: 113) say that

writers “should aim to cut out translation altogether”

Many L2 writers still to think that there is always a one-to-one relationship between Vietnamese and English terms In fact, a single word in one language has to be glossed by a phrase in the other (Nilsen 1976:103) Writing be translating from the mother tongue would sooner or later end with lengthy and incorrect expressions.This question of content -w hat to say - may become more serious and is more likely

to occur with the L2 writer who is forced to write rather than he himself volunteers

to write A writing task may be imposed on him and he has no other choice than that

o f doing it Byrne (1991:05) remarks: “being at a loss for ideas is a familiar experience to most of us when we are obliged to write”

2.2.2.1.2 Lacking writing steps

Nowadays, more and more teachers and researchers (e.g., Raimes 1985 & Zamel 1982) maintain that attention should be paid to the process o f writing as well

According to this so-called process writing, writing is a process whereby the writers

‘discover meaning’, instead of merely finding appropriate structures in which to package developed ideas (Chaudron 1987: 673-674)

Many Vietnamese teachers and most Vietnamese writers seem to view writing, as

observed by Forseth et al (1995: 91) in a handbook on TESOL methodology for

teachers in Vietnam, quite a simple process:

1 Teacher gives topic

2 Student writes a composition

3 Student turns in the composition

4 Teacher grades and returns the composition

without being aware that “ actually, language teaching methodologists have

discovered that good writers use a much more complex process”, (ibid).

Poor writing may be traced not only to weakness in grammar or vocabulary but lack

o f an outline as well Having an outline is very helpful, especially for limited English students who would usually get stuck in the middle of the writing process Ironically, these writers, just as Bermudez & Prater (1990: 523) point out, are not systematically using strong strategies such as planning, brainstorming, and

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considering the audience Many writers begin to write two or three minutes right after being given the topic Very few of them spend some time making an outline which would function as a road map for their journey of writing They do not seem

to recognize the importance of outlining

Another “bad'’ practice of non-native writers is that they do not revise their papers intensively and extensively enough A lot of them never revise at all Since students spend very little time for the revising step and they revise mainly for mechanical mistakes, there are still many errors in their written works, the text may not be unified or coherent

Unlike in speech, people do not have a direct “hearer” in writing and it is the reason why writing is not an easy skill Byrne (1991:04) gives an analysis of this:

Writing [ ] is essentially a solitary activity and the fact that we are required to write

on our own, without the possibility o f interaction or the benefit o f feedback, in itself makes the act o f writing difficult.

Next, one o f the original causes that hinder students ‘writing efficiency’ is time limit Greg (1986:539) questions, “whether functional writing proficiency can be

elicited or measured by tasks that do not ask for and allow time for prewriting and revising” Usually, the essay or paragraph to be written is the last part of the writing

test Students may have been absorbed in doing the other tasks that they haven’t had enough time for this last part Or it could be simply that they are too tired to do it Weir (1990:61) gives a noteworthy remark on this question:

Time pressure is often an unrealistic constraint for extended writing and writing timed essays is not normally done outside o f academic life For most people the writing process is lengthier and may involve several tasks before finished a version is produced.

The difficulty increases as it is announced to writers that the time allowed is to be

up, say, in 10 minutes The difficulty can now be doubled under the pressure of time and many student writers might get stuck when they are told that they are about to hand in the papers soon This is a question that needs considering in more detail in the teaching and learning o f communicative writing

One more reason is fatigue, which may cause increased confusion and checkmate of

likely it is for writers to commit slips of the pen There are many causes for this: time (e.g., afternoon), temperature (e.g., hot weather), classroom (e.g., stuffy), the

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writers physiological conditions

Last but not least are, put in the words of Eric et al (1989: 104) “perceptual blocks to

writing” Psychologically, the writer himself/herself may be one of the disadvantages to his writing According to the Bulgarian psychiatrist and education researcher Georgi Lozanov, “we create self-protective barriers that prevent us from being bombarded by too many stimuli We restrict ours and beliefs and admit only stimuli and ideas that

seem logical and compatible with our values, perceptions, and self-confidence” {ibid)

As a consequence, writing cannot be so creative as it should be As a matter of fact, Jenkins & Hinds (1987: 328) has stated: “ creative thinking runs the risk of blocking”

It should be noted that it is not easy for L2 writers to take all those factors into consideration during their revision Understandably, their limited English does not permit them to do so Silva (1993:662), has found this result: that revision in L2 writing is more difficult and more of a preoccupation than it is in L2 writing; Silva (1993) has pointed out that there is less “revising by ear”, that is, making changes on the basis o f what “sound” good

2.2.2.1.3 Lacking motivation

Writers can hardly write well because there is lack of real motivation- both internal and external First, they are forced to write rather than they want to do it themselves Without inspiration, writing becomes a harder struggle One would find it hard to perform a task well if (s)he is not doing it out o f will

Second, the student writer generally does not have a concrete reason or purpose of writing for a real audience According to Bachman & Palmer (1997: 68), areas or

language knowledge consists of not only organizational but also pragmatic and

socio-linguistic knowledge Without a real audience is rather difficult - the writer

cannot identify what the communicative goals and the features o f the language use setting are For example, the scholarship application letter students write when they kno'v that their teacher will be the reader and the one they would actually write to be read by, say, the scholarship board of the university offering the grant will certainly

be different from one another

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Purposeful writing of real readers is now stressed in many writing instruction programs Japanese program developers have stressed that good writing skills are best achieved when students are given sufficient opportunities to use them with real audiences for genuine purposes (see Izzo 1999).

2.2.2.2 Difficulties related to cognition

The next difficulty area in English writing for non-native writers is due to cognitive differences The problems of this kind are at the deepest level, coming from the differences in culture and cognition across the two cultures There are differences across languages, regarding grammaticalization, lexicalization discourse structuring, stylistic expectation, etc., Whorf, B.L (in Ellis 1996:68-69) affirms that there language, culture, and thought are indivisible

2.2.2.2.I Difficulties in culture-understanding

Language is essentially rooted in the reality o f culture.

(Brock & Walters 1993:01)

Culture undoubtedly plays an important part in language teaching programs And it seems to be more even more significant as for writing in particular The

m ost o b v io u s reason is llmt w hen a p erson w rites, he has inore tim e to think

about what to write than the speaker who would have to react to the other almost immediately The more he spends time thinking, the more likely he is to

be affected by the native culture

A lot o f non-native writers difficulties in writing in English are therefore deep- rooted in differences between the Vietnamese culture and the Western culture It is

an inevitable reality that non-native writers writing may not stand up to the English style, containing quite an amount o f Vietnamese English “Language in the whole multiplicity o f its forms - says Kaplan (1967:10) - both shapes and is shaped by the experience o f the society o f speakers” In fact, it is certainly not a newborn truth.Culture differences entail linguistic differences, causing obstacles to the writer Them (1995: 232-232) points out that being the language of a dynamic culture, Vietnamese favors structures with verbs, whereas English is rich in nominal structures For example,

Example 1: Thank you fo r your coming

—>* Cảm 077 về sự đến chơi của anh.

—> Cảm ơn anh đã tới chơi.

Example 2: Never forgetting these small details made him a good secret agent.

—>* Việc không bao giờ quên những chi tiết nhỏ nhặt đã làm cho anh ẩy trở

thành một điệp viên giỏi.

—>Anh ta không bao giờ quên những chi tiết nhỏ nên đã trở thành một điệp viên tài giỏi.

Not only syntactic properties being affected by culture are rhetoric patterns culturally bound as well Kaplan (1967: 15) has observed: “ rhetoric, the method of organizing syntactic units into larger patterns is as much a culturally coded phenomenon as the syntactic themselves are”

2.2.2.2.2 Difficulties in concept-using

One last major type of difficulties to non-native writers is the conceptual differences between two nations Ways of thinking in different languages are not the same

across languages In particular, diffcrcnccs betw een the English language and

Vietnamese language in grammaticalization, lexicalization and organization result from cognitive differences across cultures Wholf, B.L (1956: 134) points out that:

“What we see, hear, feel, depends heavily on the mother tongue; our expressions are partly determined by the language o f the community we are living in” “Speakers of different languages view the world in different ways” Ellis (1996:69)

2.3 Summary

This chapter has reviewed different approaches to ESL writing and EFL writing difficulties to Vietnamese learners In spite of differences among approaches, it is admitted that organizational knowledge is at indispensable part due to emphasis should be placed on students’ composing processes As for first-year students majoring in English in particular, it has been revealed that: (l)before knowing how

to organize sentences into coherent texts, it is necessary, first of all, to know how to write grammatical and effective sentences; (2) there are important steps involved in

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writing processes that, if neglected or ignored, would probably cause harmful or even damage to the written product It has been stressed that more attention must be paid to outlining, drafing and revising; the use of the mother tongue should be diminished or eliminated Those are guided discussions for the next chapter.

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

In chapter 2, the literature on major issues relating to ESL writing has been reviewed

in order to fully understand what is necessary to teach to EFL writers, what their writing difficulties are and what is necessary for them to do to improve their writing skills This chapter describes the methodology employed in two sections The first section identifies the research question underlying in the study The second section presents the research design with the description of the subjects, i.e., first-year students and teachers participating in the survey, and the instruments, i.e., the questionnaires to those subjects

3.1 Research questions

In order to understand the actual difficulties facing first-year students at the English Department o f the HaUI, Hanoi University of Industry, and what should be done practically to improve the EFL writing efficiency o f those subjects The survey takes interest in the question as follows:

What writing difficulties do the first-year English majors meet in their writing in English?

DH A4K2, DH A5K2, and DH A6K2 in the academic year: 2007-2008 The majority o f them were 18 years of age (bom in 1989), there are 120 female students and the rest are male students

Though the total number of the students of those classes was about 158, the collected responses were 150, since there was absentees on the day questionnaire was handed out

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3.2.2 The teachers of writing

There were 9 teachers responding to the Questionnaire 2 with 13 questions delivered All of the surveyed teachers were working at the English Department, HaUI, Hanoi University of Industry They all had some experience ( 3 - 1 0 years in the teaching career) in teaching writing to first-year students In term of degrees, one teacher had a Ph.D, one teacher had a PG Diploma, 4 of them had MAs, and the remaining 3 had BAs O f these respondents, 66,7 % (6/9) were females and 33,3% were males (3/9)

3.3 Data collection instruments

The data collection was done by means o f survey questionnaires, the thesis writer decided to use questionnaire for its advantages over other tools For example, it is low cost in time an money, it is to get easily and quickly information from a lot of people, respondents can complete the questionnaire when it suits them, analysis of answers to closed questions is straightforward, less pressure for an immediate response, respondents’ abnormity, standardization o f questions, can provide suggestive data for testing a hypothesis However, questionnaire has it disadvantages, but in this thesis, to limit the disadvantages, the author o f the thesis did some tasks For example, when handing out the questionnaire, the author of the thesis will be at the class to explain what the students do not understand about the questions In addition, one by one of the questions, the author will make it clear for the students to easy understanding Lastly, the author will not only ask the survey questions with the students but also the same questions with the teachers to determine whether the students’ answers are appropriate or inappropriate

The questionnaires which were delivered to teachers and students to collect data about first-year English students’ previous learning experience, their attitude towards learning writing and their current learning experience to find out what their writing difficulties are, and what should be done to improve the situation

The thesis writer has developed the questionnaires The questions in the questionnaires were made basing on the teaching situation and opinions about teaching writing experience of writing teachers

It has been expected that the questionnaire responses from the students (Questionnaire 1) and the teachers (Questionnaire 2) will be the basis for the understanding o f the students’ attitude towards learning, of why the students had not been writing effectively, what was improper in their writing practices and writing learning, what they wanted to focus on in the EFL writing program This section describes the questionnaires in detail.

3.3.1 Questionnaire 1

There are 19 questions in the questionnaire for students These questions are divided into three parts The first part includes questions 1-3; these questions want to know about first - year English students’ previous learning experience The aim o f the second part (questions 4-5) is to elicit the first - year English students’ attitude towards learning writing Asking about first - year English students’ current learning experience is the third part, with the questions 6- 15 are served to answer the aim o f the this part With this part, respondents were expected to tick the option(s) They were asked to rank their choices 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in an order of importance or difficulty Assessing the difficulty and the appropriateness of the course book are questions 17-18 The last question (19) wants to know about the

students' suggestions to im prove the current learning and teaching situation.

The first three questions question 1 - 3 want to know the students’ previous learning experience before they went to university

Question 4 is to elicit the information about their assessment o f the four skills With the question 5, the first - year students are asked to specify the reason why they think that skill is important Questions 6 - 8 ask about the students’ pre - writing activities What they will do before they write a paragraph These questions are for the students’ planning and drafting when writing in English We need to know whether the students spend time on outlining what they were going to write and if yes, how long; number o f the drafts These questions are made to get evidence for

my argument that student writers generally did not have proper outlining and drafting techniques Asking about the numbers of the drafts that the students make before handing the final version is the question number 9 Questions 10-12 want to know about the students’ attention to the drafts when they revise the drafts The

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frequency that the teachers correct the students’ drafts and the mistakes that the teachers focusing on when they correct the drafts Asking about the difficulties that the students might meet in their writing is question number 13, with this question; the first-year English majors can express all difficulties that they may face with when they are writing in English.

The questionnaire then goes on with students’ composing process in focus Question

14 wants to know whether the students translate from their mother tongue into English when they were in short o f words and expressions The aim o f the question

15 is to ask about the students’ post-writing activities When the first-year English majors finish the final version, what they usually do before handing in the final version for their teachers Question 16 wants to know about students’ revising It

is necessary to know what aspects the students were interested in this post-writing stage The question is intended to yield data supporting the observation that the only thing they focused on when revising their drafts were grammatical, spelling mistakes

3.3.2 Questionnaire 2

Questionnaire was also given to writing teachers Undoubtedly, the responses from teachers were indispensable Because, it is necessary to understand students’ EFL writing difficulties as well as their activities from another point of view There should have a second voice about the questions concerned The teachers were expected to give their opinions about students’ writing practices and difficulties, their suggestions to improve students’ writing efficiency Since the thesis has not planned for investigating the teaching of writing, the questionnaire for teachers is shorter than those for the students

There are 13 questions in the questionnaire for teachers Like the questionnaire for

number of questions, they were asked to rank their choices 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in a certain order.

s

The questionnaire sent to the teachers was expected to understand their attention about the writing instruction to the students, students’ writing difficulties, students’ writing practices and learning of the skill, and teachers’ suggestions

The teachers’ responses were analyzed with attention paid to the teachers’ opinions about the students’ difficulties in writing, their current practices in the teaching of writing, their recommendations to the teaching and learning of writing, etc (For the questionnaire in detail, refer to Appendix 2) It is with the teachers’ responses that the writer could know more about the student writers and their difficulties In fact, their various opinions about the question what to do to promote the students’ writing competence (as for the teachers as well as the students) have been very helpful in my giving suggestions to the teaching and learning of writing

The questionnaire begins with the teachers’ attention when they teach these freshmen (Question 1)

Questions 2 concentrates on the students’ difficulties in writing The teachers were asked about the students’ difficulties Asking about the differences of writing style between English and Vietnamese is the question 3 With this question the thesis writer wants to know about the teachers’ opinions of writing style The next three questions 4 - 6 want to know about students’ pre-writing activities, exactly, making drafts, and also, the aim of these questions is to elicit the information from another point o f view about number o f the drafts the teachers require their students

to make, the mistakes that the teachers pay attention to when they correct the students’ mistakes

The questionnaire goes on with question 7 asking about the activities that the first- year English majors do when they are in the writing progress With this question, the thesis writer wants to know about teachers’ opinions Similar question was already raised in the questionnaire for the students, but this time, as was said earlier, we need information from a different point of view The responses have been very helpful in understanding the students’ obstacles

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Question 8 has been designed to elicit information on the effect of Vietnamese transference in the students’ writing at different levels When asking about the language that the teachers use in explaining the difficult issues in writing to such non-native writers as the first-year students is question number 9 Question 10 requests the teachers to rate the appropriateness of various writing task; Questions

11 asks about their agreement for approaches to teaching writing method to the first-year students

Question 15 is interested in the students’ non-linguistic difficulties such as: the relevance o f the topic to write on; time limit; psychological constraints Though there is not much that we-teachers can do for these, this information is beneficial in the way it can help to understand our students better

The questionnaire ends with the questions about the teachers’ suggestions on the students’ writing learning strategies to improve students’ writing competence

3.4 Summary

Chapter 3 has presented the methodology employed in the study involving first-year students writing difficulties by delivering questionnaires to students and teachers With the underlying research questions to collect data about the students’ composing processes, their writing difficulties and suggestions to facilitate their EFL writing and improve the quality o f their written works, questionnaires have been designed and delivered to the subjects concerned to get necessary empirical information The questionnaires’ responses from the student and teacher respondents are analyzed and discussed in the next chapter