MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY LE THANH TRUNG 443009 LEGAL ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ SELF- ASSESSMENT OF ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS AND USE OF WRITING STRATEGIES AT HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY Hanoi — 2023 MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY LE THANH TRUNG 443009 LEGAL ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS' SELF- ASSESSMENT OF ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS AND USE OF WRITING STRATEGIES AT HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY Major: Legal English GRADUATION THESIS Supervisor Vu Van Tuan, Ph. Hanoi — 2023 il STUDENT DECLARATION I hereby state that I: Le Thanh Trung — ID 443009, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts accept the requirements of the University 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. April 21", 2023 Supervisor’s confirmation Researcher’s signature Vu Van Tuan, Ph.
Le Thanh Trung ill ACKNOWLEDGMENT A thesis is never successfully completed in isolation. I received help, encouragement, critique, consolation and from many people who deserve acknowledgement. The researcher is greatly indebted to the invaluable assistance and support of the following generous and talented people who have made an otherwise abstract, complex and random thoughts come into shape that this work is right now, wishes to express his sincere gratitude to all those who helped him in the completion of this humble research work which he hopes to give as his contribution to the efforts of teachers to provide excellence in the completion of his research. They are legion but because of limited space only few are named here while the most are treasured more in his memory and his heart.
I would like to heartily express my deepest appreciation and gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Vu Van Tuan, for his incomparable wisdom, willing and unparallel expertise giving the author the needed guidance in the completion of the study; I would love to thank all of the lecturers from the Faculty of Legal Foreign Languages, Hanoi Law University who have provided him with invaluable sources of knowledge and instructions during his study at this Institution; I also wish to thank the members of the thesis defence committees who were generous with their expertise and precious time. Their pieces of advice, insightful criticisms, and patient encouragement aided the writing of this dissertation in innumerable ways; IV I offer my sincerest thanks to student participants who have enthusiastically participated in the study. Their participation is greatly important to the completion of the research; Last but not least, I must express my sincere gratitude to my family and friends whose supports have been a great significance to the success of my thesis; And to all those who in one way or another made this work reach its fruition, the researcher is especially blessed to have had them all.
ABSTRACT English writing proficiency is a crucial aspect of academic and professional success, and understanding students' self-assessment and writing strategies can help instructors develop effective teaching practices. This study aimed to examine the self-assessment of English writing skills and use of English writing strategies by legal English major students at Hanoi Law University. The study employed a quantitative approach to gather data from 54 legal English major students who were in the course of 46 at Hanoi Law University in the second term of the academic year 2022- 2023 thanks to the utilization of Google form. The researcher-made instrument — 5-Likert scale survey questionnaire - was constructed based on the criteria set by Dornyei and Taguchi (2010) with the confidence level of Cronbach’s alpha (a = 0.95) of fairly high internal consistency.
The findings indicate that while students possess moderate confidence in their writing skills, they face challenges in writing with an academic style and tone, developing and supporting their thesis statement, and using citation format. Despite this, students perceive confidence in writing accurate summaries and paraphrases, choosing suitable academic research topics, revising their own writing, taking notes on readings, and brainstorming ideas. Students commonly rely on bilingual and English- English dictionaries, grammar books, and extensive preparation prior to writing. The findings would server as the useful reference for those who are concerned about how to benefit most English writing strategies.
vl TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Declaration by author ill Acknowledgements IV Abstract VI Table of contents vill List of tables List of abbreviations PART 1. Aims and Objectives of the Study 2. Aims of the study 2. Objectives of the study 3.
Scope of the Study 5. Significance of the Study 6. Structure of the Study PART IT. Assessment and forms of assessments 1.2 Self-assessment and its role in English teaching and learning 1.4 The relationship between self-assessment and writing strategies ¬ORNC 1.
Research design 18 vi 2. Research Question Restated 18 2. Procedures of data collection 20 2. Data collection and analysis 20 2.
Summary BÀI CHAPTER 3. RESULTS AND DICUSSION 22 3. Demographic information of the respondents %2) 3. The analysis of self-assessment of English writing skills and use of writing strategies 3.
The analysis of table writing strategies 28 3. The analysis of learning strategies 35 PART III. Summary of the main findings 40 4. Limitations and suggestions for further research 42 4.
Suggestions 42 REFERENCES 44 APPENDIX Questionnaire vill LIST OE TABLES Page Table 1. Demographic profile of the respondents 22 Table 2. Self-Assessment of English Writing Skills 25 Table 3. Use of Learning Strategies 30 Table 4.
General Learning Strategies 37 1X LIST OF ABREVIATIONS HLU : Hanoi Law University LLB : Language learning beliefs EFL : English as a foreign language DSA : Dynamic Self-Assessment SRQ : Self-Reporting Questionnaire MLA : Modern Language Association FL : Foreign Language SL : Second Language ELT : English Language Teaching PART I. Rationale for study Language testing and assessment play a crucial role in the development of learners acquiring foreign (FL) or second languages (SL). It is true to state that assessment is widely used but commonly confused with testing in current educational practice. It is important to have a glance at how assessment is remarked hence.
Assessment can be viewed as an ongoing process that encompasses all classroom activities learners are expected to take part in according to the teachers’ instruction inside or outside classrooms. Obviously, learning activities which can take place during a lesson are that students answer a question, offer a comment, read aloud a piece of writing or write a sentence, a short paragraph, and a short essay, their performance is assumed to evaluate by themselves or other people to elicit how successful students are able to perform in these activities (Mazloomi & Khabiri, 2016). Consequently, compared with testing, assessment has a feature of broader meaning in English language teaching and learning (ELT). On the other hand, testing is seen as a part of administrative procedures that take place at identifiable times in a curriculum when students have to demonstrate their best performance to pass certain forms of testing in which their responses are being measured and evaluate to acknowledge their achievements in a course.
In a broader sense, tests are viewed as a subset of assessment that students have to undergo during their learning process (e., Nalliveettil & Mahasneh, 2017; Fathi et al. Therefore, tests can be regarded as useful tools but they are not only one among many procedures and tasks that teachers can employ during the course of learning and teaching process. In other words, teaching is likened to an outer circle in which it contains an assessment circle inside, and the assessment circle | again encompasses the testing circle. As such, teaching triggers a series of instruction for students to respond, then assessment occurs and finally official tests can conduct to evaluate the learning outcomes.
Legal English major students’ self-assessment of their writing skills and use of writing strategies is crucial for their academic success and professional development. Self-assessment enables students to recognize their strengths and weaknesses and to take appropriate actions to improve their writing skills. According to a survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), students’ self-assessment of their writing skills has a significant impact on their academic performance, as those who rate their writing skills as high perform better academically than those who rate their writing skills as low (NCES, 2016). Furthermore, the use of writing strategies, such as planning, drafting, revising, and editing, can also enhance students’ writing skills.
A study by Deane et al. (2014) found that the use of writing strategies significantly improved students’ writing skills, with the most effective strategies being planning, revising, and editing. The study also revealed that students who used these strategies achieved higher scores on writing assignments than those who did not. Legal English major students can benefit greatly from self- assessment and the use of writing strategies, as they often have to produce high-quality written work in their academic and professional careers.
Therefore, it is essential that English majors develop a strong sense of self- awareness and continuously monitor and evaluate their writing skills. This can be achieved through regular reflection and feedback from peers, instructors, and writing centers. In addition to self-assessment and the use of writing strategies, the development of writing skills also requires exposure to a wide range of texts and genres. English majors should be encouraged to read extensively 2 and critically, as this can help them develop a deeper understanding of language, style, and structure.
Moreover, reading can also inspire students’ writing and enable them to experiment with different writing styles and techniques. Moreover, this assessment strategy would provide teachers, materials designers, and curriculum developers with useful information about learners’ language and learning needs (Blanche & Merino, 1989), without pressuring them to undertake tedious needs analysis projects (Oscarson, 1989). Self-assessment occurs when students judge their own work to improve performance as they identify discrepancies between current and desired performance. The use of self-assessment as a strategy of self- reflection on the mistakes and weaknesses that the language students conduct in using the language (linguistic), organization of discourse, and style of language use (non-linguistic), which they should improve in the process of their learning (Marhaeni & Artini, 2015).
It is considered as innovation on the nature of testing which moves from catching what the students do not know into what they do. It helps them to demonstrate that they are making progress on their writing development, which can encourage their motivation and identify their own strengths and weaknesses (Nedzinskaite et al. Overall, self-assessment and the use of writing strategies are crucial for legal English major students’ academic and professional success. These practices can help students identify their strengths and weaknesses, develop a sense of self-awareness, and continuously improve their writing skills.
Moreover, exposure to a wide range of texts and genres can also enhance students’ writing skills and enable them to produce high-quality written work. As such, English majors should be encouraged to engage in these practices and to take an active role in their own learning and development. In Vietnam, English writing is one of the most important skills which benefits students from domestic as well as international publications throughout their academic lives. In addition, graduates with satisfactory writing skills are essential in proving them to be qualified workforce.
In this sense, facilitating students with good writing techniques 1s a crucial job of writing teachers. One way to achieve it is enabling them to self-evaluate their own writing skills. Therefore, in this paper, the researcher decided to implement this study with K46 legal English major students at Faculty of Legal Foreign Languages at Hanoi Law University during the second term of the 2022-2023 academic year. Aims and Objectives of the study 2.