VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Lê Khánh Linh USING PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING TO IMPROVE THE WRITING SKILLS OF THIRD YEAR NON-MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF HOME AFFAIRS MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE HANOI, 2021 VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Lê Khánh Linh USING PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING TO IMPROVE THE WRITING SKILLS OF THIRD YEAR NON-MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF HOME AFFAIRS Field: English Language Code: 8 22 02 01 Supervisor: Đỗ Thị Thúy Vân, Ph. HANOI, 2021 DECLARATION BY AUTHOR I hereby sincerely state that the thesis titled “Using Problem- Based Learning to improve the writing skills of third year non-major students at Hanoi University of Home Affairs” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts in English Language. The things out of my masterpiece in this thesis are signed by citation and referred in the references. Except where reference has been made in the text, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person.The study reported in this thesis was approved by Graduate Academy of Social Sciences.
Author’s Signature Lê Khánh Linh i ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS Although only one name appears as the author of this work, writing a thesis is indeed a collaborative effort. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the many people who made it possible. First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my M.A thesis’s supervisor,Đỗ Thị Thúy Vân, Ph. for her kind consultation, invaluable encouragement as well as thorough correction in the process of completion.
But for her helpful guidance, this study would not have been achieved. Next, I would like to convey my sincere appreciation and thanks to Mr. Đặng Nguyên Giang, Ph.D - Dean of the Department of Foreign Languages and the other staff at Graduate Academy of Social Sciences the Department of Foreign Languages, Graduate Academy of Social Sciences for granting me the honor of writing this thesis as well as their assistance and most valuable comments. Especially, millions of my special thanks go to the lecturers and students at Hanoi University of Home Affairs who participated in this study for their kind and patient co-operation and encouragement.
They helped provide me with valuable data for the study so that I could have a better view of activities in English classes at Hanoi University of Home Affairs. Last but not least, I am deeply indebted to my family for their sympathy and support during all the time I was studying for M.A degree at Graduate Academy of Social Sciences. Without their unconditional love and sincere contribution, I could not have overcome my difficulties and concentrated on my studies. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION BY AUTHOR.
ii TABLE OF CONTENTS. vi LIST OF TABLES. vii LIST OF FIGURES & CHARTS. viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Aims of the Study. Scope of the Study. Significane of the Study.
Structure of the Study. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. The Concept of Writing. The definition of Writing.
The Process of Writing .Characteristics of successful writing. Assessing Writing Skills. Strategy in teaching writing .2 Problem – Based Learning. Concept of Problem - Based Learning.
Correlation between problem based learning and discussion text. Identifying the problem. Implementing the action research. Data collection instruments.
29 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Analysis of Writing tests. Data Analysis from Questionnaires. Data Analysis from Interviews.
Analysis of classroom observation. The first cycle – Week 1 – Module 1 and 2 .2 The second cycle – Week 2 – Module 3 and 4. Class motivation assesssment. Limitations and Suggestions for Further Studies.
Suggestions for Further Studies. 60 APPENDIX 1: SCORING RUBRIC FOR WRITING TEST. I APPENDIX 2: PRE-TEST FOR STUDENTS. III APPENDIX 3: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE.
V APPENDIX 4: POST-TEST FOR STUDENTS. VII APPENDIX 5: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS. IX APPENDIX 6: A SAMPLE OF LESSON PLAN. XI APPENDIX 7: POST- TRYING OUT QUESTIONNAIRE.
XIII APPENDIX 8 - OBSERVATION SHEET. XV OVERALL CLASS MOTIVATION. XV APPENDIX 9: ENGLISH WRITING ABILITY EVALUATION .XVII v ABSTRACT Nowadays, English is becoming more and more important in almost every area of life. English is a global language, and thus a compulsory subject in schools and universities.
Writing is one of the most critical skills of research and practice. Being a university lecturer, I understand that we can help our students find a better way to develop their writing skills and feel confident when writing a paragraph or an essay. After learning certain approaches to help students develop their writing skills. We chose to apply Problem-Based Learning for our experimental writing courses.
After this experiment, two issues were identified: (1) student’s attitudes towards writing classes; (2) the effectiveness of using Problem-Based Learning in teaching and writing lessons. In order to conduct my action research with the participants, I randomly selected an English class: 45 third year non-major students at Hanoi University of Home Affairs. In 8 weeks, we carried out this analysis and used questionnaires, pre-test, post-test and interviews to gather data resources. The study shows that students have a positive attitude about using Problem-Based Learning in writing classes, and this method was a good way to help students develop their writing skills.
Both lecturers and students should find their own way of teaching and learning to achieve the best result in writing skills in writing classes with the result we got in the findings. vi LIST OF TABLES Table 4. Mean scores of pre-test and post-test. The scores of pre-test and post-test.
The changes after taking part in the lessons using Problem- Based Learning of students. The observation of teacher’s and students’ activities in Week 1. The observation of teacher’s and students’ activities in Week 2. Overall class motivation scores for all students.
53 vii LIST OF FIGURES & CHARTS Chart 1: Students’ opinion of being afraid of writing a paragragh in English. 36 Chart 2: Students’ frequency of writing English. 37 Chart 3: Students’s problem with writing skills. 38 Chart 4: Student’s frequency of practicing writing English.
39 Chart 5: Students’ participation in writing activities. 40 Chart 6: Students’ opinions of using Problem Based Learning in writing lessons. 41 Chart 7: Students’ opinions about their effectiveness of Problem-Based Learning in improving writing skills. 43 Chart 8: Students’ improvement for criteria after applying Problem- Based Learning in improve writing skills.
44 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as Foreign Language PBL: Problem-Based Learning HUHA: Hanoi University of Home Affairs T: Teacher Ss: Students ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter introduces the rationale of the study, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the methods, the significance, and the structure of the study. Rationale Writing is the ability to express ideas that are organized on paper. It is used to share information about everything to the reader in written form. It is frequently useful as preparation for some other activity.
It is a process of discovering and organizing ideas, putting them on paper, and revising them. By writing, we can express our ideas well. However, to get our meaning strong, interesting, and clear for the reader, this skill must be improved by practicing a lot. Because writing has many contributions to our life, we can make a habit of writing to develop this skill.
Writing skills are considered the most difficult skill of language because it involves mastering grammar, vocabulary, and spelling. In addition to that, writing skills need thinking ability and logical skills to compose words into meaningful sentences. Moreover, making organized text coherently is not an easy part. The writer should make the composition as logical as possible.
It is started from the introductory paragraph to the conclusion. All of the compositions should have logical ideas. Writing activity can be ready from simple and then continue with comprehensive writing according to student’s competencies and skills. Then, looking at the point of writing skills at Hanoi University of Home Affairs, a large number of the students in the classroom at Hanoi University of Home Affairs take higher attention to reach success in the learning.
In a large number of the students occurs unconducive condition. The condition 1 occurs in the learning process such as the students do not take attention to the learning activities. They change their focus by talking with their friends, some of them are passive in the class, and they are careless with the material. This condition makes it the teacher feeling hard to handle all of the students.
From that condition, a teacher should have a strategy to motivate the students to participate actively in the experience of learning. One of the learning strategies is to develop the skill of student’s thought (reasoning, communicating, and connecting). A strategy of learning is Problem-Based Learning. It is the educational strategy that helps students build the reasoning and communication skills necessary for developing successful creativity.
Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is related to using intelligence from their inner man in a community, or an environment to solve meaningful, relevant, and contextual problems. Boud and Feletti (1997) stated that learning through PBL is the most significant innovation in education. PBL curriculum helps to increase the development of the study skills in a long life for open mindset, reflection, critics, and active study. PBL curriculum is better to facilitate students to solve problems, communication, well-cooperation, and interpersonal skill than other strategies.
By using strategy, hopefully, can make the students more attractive in the teaching-learning process to make them easier to understand and compose text. With the above reasons, the researcher aspires to conduct a study on “Using Problem-Based Learning to improve the writing skills of third year non-major students at Hanoi University of Home Affairs” to find a better way for the teaching and learning English writing skills and apply suitable techniques and activities in English class. Aims of the Study This study aims to enhance the quality of teaching and learning writing skill at HUHA. In order to reach the aim, the study is expected to fulfil the following objectives: - Investigating the third year students’s attitude towards the Problem-Based Learning techniques used in writing lessons.
- Evaluating the effectiveness of applying Problem-Based Learning in teaching and learning writing skills. Research questions For the objectives of the study, the following research questions are addressed: (1) What is the third year students’ attitude towards the use of Problem-Based Learning of at Hanoi University of Home Affairs in writing lessons? (2) To what extent can the Problem-Based Learning improve writing skills of the third year students at HUHA? 1. Scope of the Study The scope of English study is so broad. We may not be able to reach all aspects to be studied as a whole.
Particularly in the English learning context, there are so many components that may become the concern of the study such as students, the textbook used, the materials, the process of teaching-learning, etc. In this study, the researcher focuses on the effectiveness of using Problem-Based Learning to improve third year non-major students' writing skills as well as their attitudes towards writing tasks. There will be forty-five students participating in this action research. The average age of the students 3 is around 20.
They are going to be the main subject to participate in and respond to the survey questionnaires, the trial lessons, and the tests. Significane of the Study This research has some significances as following: Theoretically, this study is expected to make a contribution to development in teaching writing at HUHA to get more achievement not just in methodology but in further development of as well. In addition, the research findings will partly enrich the previous theories and research on EFL teaching and learning, especially in teaching English writing skills.