VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES BÙI BÍCH NGỌC APPLYING PORTFOLIO TO IMPROVE WRITING SKILLS OF 11TH-GRADE STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN LANG SON PROVINCE (Áp dụng portfolio để cải thiện kĩ năng viết cho học sinh lớp 11 tại một trường trung học phổ thông tỉnh Lạng Sơn) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi – 2019 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES BÙI BÍCH NGỌC APPLYING PORTFOLIO TO IMPROVE WRITING SKILLS OF 11TH-GRADE STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN LANG SON PROVINCE (Áp dụng portfolio để cải thiện kĩ năng viết cho học sinh lớp 11 tại một trường trung học phổ thông tỉnh Lạng Sơn) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Hương, PhD. Hanoi - 2019 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I certify that the work presented in this research report has been performed and interpreted solely by myself. I confirm that this paper is submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the M. Degree and has not been submitted elsewhere in any other form for the fulfillment of any other degree or qualification.
Hanoi, 2019 Bùi Bích Ngọc i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It was a long journey with many challenges and difficulties but fascinating to work on this dissertation. The dissertation required more efforts so it would never have been completed without the supports and assistances of many people. First and foremost, I would like to send a special thanks to my academic super- visor Dr. Nguyen Thi Huong for her effortful support, prompt guidance and detailed feedbacks and especially, her helpful suggestions and encouragement which assists me to find out the right direction and complete this dissertation.
I also would like to ex- press my appreciation to the lecturers of the University of Languages and International Studies for providing me with comprehensive knowledge and supporting me in my master course. Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my family who always encourages and unfailingly supports me throughout my year of study and the period of doing my dissertation. Also, I am thankful to all my colleagues (Nguyen Bich Hien, Phan Thu Huong, Du Ai Hue Chi, Nguyen Phuong Thuy, Nong Thi Hao and the oth- ers), especially thanks to my beloved husband, Nguyen Huu Duyet who continuously encourages and helps me cope with the difficulties at University as well as in my per- sonal life. Without their enthusiastic assistances and strong supports, I definitely can- not accomplish my dissertation and finish my master course at University of Lan- guages and International Studies.
30th September 2019 Ha Noi, Viet Nam Bui Bich Ngoc ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT One of the effective approaches helping students to sharpen their writing skills, which is currently being overshadowed by other skills in teaching and learning Eng- lish, is Writing Portfolio. However, this method has not been applied widely at high schools in Vietnam in general and Lang Son in particular. Thus, this study is conducted to examine how Writing Portfolio influences students’ writing skills as well as how students think about its implementation. The study adopts action research with the use of both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods, including writing assign- ment evaluation, questionnaire, and interviews.
The research’s findings reveal some significant improvements in participants’ overall writing scores, as well as in each of the criterion, namely task achievement, co- herence and cohesion, grammar and vocabulary. By being given the marking rubrics, the educator’s regular feedback and chances to revise and rewrite the writings, the lan- guage learners can better monitor their progress in writing. Apart from that, though most of the students think this activity has positive in- fluences on their writing skills, they still fail to see the advantages of this improvement to their language acquisition process as writing skill has not been included properly in testing. Therefore, they do not think it’s necessary to apply Writing Portfolios in the next academic year.
Despite the positive outcome of the research, there is still a need for further studies to assess more Writing Portfolio’s effects and the best way to apply Writing Portfolio in official school curricular. iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION .iii LIST OF TABLES .vii LIST OF FIGURES .viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the study. Aims and objectives of the study.
Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Methods of the study. Structure of the thesis.
4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Definition of writing skills. Approaches to teaching writing. The role of teachers in teaching writing. Assessment of writing.
Types of writing assessment. Scoring method for paragraph writing. Definitions of Portfolio. Types of portfolio.
12 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. The advantages of portfolio. Portfolio writing assessment procedure. 14 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
Setting of the study. Data collection procedure. 23 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Effects of writing portfolios on students’ task-fulfillment.
Effects of writing portfolios on students’ coherence and cohesion. Effects of writing portfolios on students’ vocabulary. Effects of writing portfolios on students’ grammar. Effects of writing portfolios on students’ overall writing skill.
Students’ opinions about the benefits of the writing portfolios in general, marking criteria and teacher’s feedback in particular. Students’ opinions about teacher’s instructions. 36 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Students’ opinions about the application of Writing Portfolios in the next academic year.
Major findings of the study. The effects of Writing Portfolios on students’ writing skills. Students’ opinions about Writing Portfolio implementation in class. Limitations of the study.
Suggestions for further studies. Marking rubrics for writing assignments. Samples of student’s writing and teacher’s feedback. IX vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 1.
The percentage of students arranged by results of task fulfillment criterion. The percentage of students arranged by results of coherence and cohesion criterion. The percentage of students arranged by results of vocabulary criterion. The percentage of students arranged by results of grammar criterion.
The percentage of students arranged by results of writing assignments. 33 vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. The percentage of students arranged by results of vocabulary criterion for the 1st assignment. The percentage of students arranged by results of grammar criterion.
Students' opinions on their involvement in Writing. Students’ degree of agreement in their improvement in all aspects. Students' opinions on the appropriateness of the teacher's instruction. Students' opinions on carrying out Writing Portfolios in the future.
38 viii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the rationale, aims and objectives, significance of the study are presented. Also, the research questions, chosen research methods and structure of the researcher are put forward. Rationale of the study Learning English as a foreign language has been made compulsory in the major- ity of high schools in Vietnam. Based on the current curriculum, it is evident that the teaching of English at this level places equal emphasis on all four skills, namely read- ing, speaking, listening and writing.
As a teacher of English, I come to realize that many high school students, including mine, find writing skills a hard one to master. In fact, even though it is more challenging to acquire writing skills than others, both teachers and students seem not to pay enough attention to it. To be more specific, after having spent a long time agonizing over the reasons for the issue, as I am aware, part of this may lie in the fact that high school students are not provided with adequate comments and chances to revise their writings after receiv- ing comments from their teachers or peers. According to Oshima and Hogue (1997), there are four steps in the process of writing, consisting of prewriting, planning, writing and revising drafts, and writing the final copy.
However, in my teaching context, the majority of the writing lessons in class normally lack the final step of the process, which is revising drafts and writing the final copy. To be more specific, in the first sec- tion, the teacher leads in the lesson and gives students a writing sample to analyze, and then, some necessary words, structures, and expressions are supplied. In the next stage, students have approximately 15 to 20 minutes to start writing based on what they have learned from the previous stage. Normally, one or two learners will be called on to write their writings on the board.
Lastly, it is time for the teacher to correct the writing on the board, give feedback and score. The problem is, as the educator’s comments and 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com feedback put an end to the writing process, students will not have the opportunity to revise as well as rewrite their writing. Of course, they can do this step at home and ask for teacher’s help to comment on their writings the second time. However, this can hardly happen in real life as Vietnam still follows the exam-driven curriculum, which is believed to make a large proportion of students learn English to pass the national ex- am solely and in most of the tests, students’ writing skills are only measured by multi- ple choice questions.
Le (2000) revealed that Vietnamese learners have the extrinsic motivation as a result of the pressure to pass exams. As a result, they cannot see the benefits of the rewriting step in a writing lesson and often ignore it. Besides, due to the large number of students in one class and the time limit, some teachers cannot evaluate the writing abilities of all students in the classroom. In fact, she/he even gives scores to the writing of some students only, without giving feedback.
Consequently, students rarely realize their mistakes and errors in writing. Therefore, their progress in writing skills can hardly be observed. In conclusion, I regard the lack of the rewriting step and teachers’ remarks a significant contribution to the deficiency in students’ writing skills. Looking for a solution to the issue, I have read a number of studies examining methods to improve students’ writing skills at different levels.
I come to realize that writing portfolios are being used at a wide range of universities in Vietnam. Besides, in one of those studies, E-portfolios at high school level proposed by Nhi and Mai (2018) have shown considerable potentials. Therefore, I suggest that improving my high school students’ writing abilities may be achieved by using portfolios in teaching and learning English as a foreign language. Aims and objectives of the study The study is conducted to investigate the efficiency of adopting portfolio in im- proving the writing skills of 11th students at a high school in Lang Son province.
The progress that students make can be observed in their own portfolios after a semester. 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Additionally, the paper aims to find out students’ viewpoints on the use of portfolios in class in term of the effectiveness of portfolios and the obstacles that they encounter while applying portfolios. In short, the objectives of the study could be summarized into research ques- tions as followed: 1. To what extent does portfolio help to improve writing skills for 11th grade students at a high school in Lang Son city? 2.
What are students’ opinions about applying portfolio in writing skills? 1. Scope of the study The intent of this study is to investigate the impact of Writing Portfolios on non- English major 11th-grade students at a high school in Lang Son city.