VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ THUÝ ADAPTING WRITING ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH 11 TO MOTIVATE 11TH GRADERS AT DUONG AN HIGH SCHOOL TO LEARN ENGLISH WRITING SKILL (THIẾT CHỈNH MỘT SỐ HOẠT ĐỘNG VIẾT TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 11 ĐỂ KHUYẾN KHÍCH HỌC SINH TRƯỜNG THPT ĐƯỜNG AN HỌC KĨ NĂNG VIẾT) M.MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Hanoi, 2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ THUÝ ADAPTING WRITING ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH 11 TO MOTIVATE 11TH GRADERS AT DUONG AN HIGH SCHOOL TO LEARN ENGLISH WRITING SKILL (THIẾT CHỈNH MỘT SỐ HOẠT ĐỘNG VIẾT TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 11 ĐỂ KHUYẾN KHÍCH HỌC SINH TRƯỜNG THPT ĐƯỜNG AN HỌC KĨ NĂNG VIẾT) M.MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Thơm Thơm, MA Hanoi, 2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching MOET: The Ministry of Education and Training ESL/ EFL: English as a Second Language or a Foreign Language ELT (English Language Teaching) LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com v LIST OF TABLES and Figures Table 1: Differences between Process Approach and Product Approach……………….8 Table 2: Checklist of writing tasks in English textbook 11.………………………………22 Table 3: The average marks of the control and experimental group…………….………28 Table 4: The average marks of the control and experimental group before the experiment.……………………………………………………………………………30 Table 5: Students’ motivation in learning writing English ……………….………………31 Table 6: Students’ participation in writing lessons.……31 Table 7: Factors prevent students from participating in writing in the class.32 Table 8: Students’ opinions towards English writing skills in the textbook English 1….33 Table 9: Students’ opinion about the way their teachers teach writing…………….……33 Table 10: Students’ evaluation towards their current writing lessons………………….…34 Table 11: Results of experimental group’s participation………………………………….…42 Table 12: Students' range in the two classes before and at the end of experiment.………43 Figure 1: The material evaluation process……………………………………………………14 Figure 2: A preliminary framework for materials analysis and action……………………15 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION……………………………………………………………… …….iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ……………………………………………….iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ………………………………………………………v TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………………….vi PART A: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………. Rationale for the study……………………………………………………………. Aims of the study ……………………………………………………………………. Scope of the study…………………………………………………………………….
Methods of the study………………………… …………………………. Design of the study……………………………………………………………………. 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT………………………………………………………………4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………. An Overview of Writing…………………………………………………………….
Definitions of writing………………………………………………………………… 4 1. Roles of writing……………………………………………………………………… 4 1. Approaches to teaching writing……………………………………………………. Writing teaching procedure………………………………………………………… 9 2.
An Overview of Motivation ………………………………………………………… 9 2.1 Definitions of motivation…………………………………………………………….2 Roles of motivation…………………………………………………………………. Types of Motivation…………………………………………………………………. The concepts of materials evaluation……………………………………………. The reasons for materials evaluation……………………………………………….
Models for evaluation………………………………………………………………. Criteria for evaluation……………………………………………………………… 16 4. Definition of material adaptation……………………………………………………. The purpose of adaptation………………………………………………………… 17 4.
Techniques for adaptation………………………………………………………… 18 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Levels of adaptation…………………………………………………………. 19 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY……………………………………………………………. The setting of the study………………………………………………….
Data collection instruments………………………………………………………. The teacher interview……………………………………………………… 26 2. Follow-up student interview…………………………………………………. Data collection procedure…………………………………………………….27 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS………………………………….
The students' level and motivation before the experiment……………………. Results from questionnaire………………………………………………………. Results from teacher interview…………………………………………………. Results from the end of experiment observations……………………………….
Observations in control group……………………………………………. Observations in experimental group…………………………………………37 3. Students’ participation in experimental and control group in three lessons at the end of the intervention…………………………………………………………………42 3. Comparison of students’ participation in experimental and control group ….
Follow-up student interview……………………………………………………. Summary of the study………………………………………………………………. Limitations of the study ……………………………………………………………. Suggestions for further study ……………………………………………………….
APPENDICES LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 Part A: Introduction 1. Rationale of the study The introduction of new English 10, 11, 12 textbook to school curriculum in 2006, 2007 and 2008 has marked a dramatic change in the way English is taught. Along with three skills, namely, speaking, listening, reading, writing has been put in priority and integrated in the textbook. Although the books have shown a great deal of improvement as compared with the old series of grammar-based it seems that not all activities or tasks in the books, especially in writing part are suitable to the different teaching and learning contexts of different localities within Vietnam.
After 5 years teaching new English 11 at Duong An high school, I find out that in comparison with other three skills, writing is considered the most complicated to teach and still remains neglected due to students‟ low level proficiency, time constraints and low motivation. When students write, they find themselves confused with word choice, grammatical use, organization and generation of ideas. They tend to translate ideas from mother tongue into English, express ideas in long sentences, and are not aware of different kinds of writing, thus making them unable to write in real life. Because of limited background knowledge, they often feel bored and do not want to write.
Naturally, teaching English writing in upper-secondary schools is a challenging job for many English teachers because it requires not only high language competence among the teachers themselves, but also the application of appropriate writing instruction. Some teachers do not feel confident about their own English and shy away from designing writing tasks or getting students to write more than just grammatical exercises. Sometimes teachers do not have enough ideas to facilitate students. In reality, most teachers follow what the tasks in the textbook require, and do nothing more about it.
They may even let students copy the models from the guide books or sample collection. On realizing students‟ problems, I assume that what English writing teachers need to do is to improve the quality of students‟ pieces of writing, to give them a more cooperative learning environment, and to motivate them to participate in the writing lessons. I myself have been making an effort to seek pedagogical methods which could help deal with the mentioned problems. What is more, I suggest that adapting writing LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 activities in textbook could be a more effective strategy.
Many studies on the effectiveness of this have proved that it can be applied in ELF writing classes to solve the above problems. However, I have not found any research on this field in upper-secondary schools in Vietnam in general and in Hai Duong in particular so far. Related to my students‟ problems, I would like to conduct an experimental study titled “Adapting writing activities in English 11 to motivate 11th graders at Duong An high school to learn English writing skill” in order to inspire our students in writing lessons. Aims of the study The study aims at: - investigating teachers‟ and students' attitudes towards teaching and learning writing at Duong An high school.
- determining the effect of the adapted activities in motivating students at Duong An high school in writing lessons. Basing on the findings, some implications and suggestions will finally be proposed by the researcher. Research questions With the above aims, the research questions are: 1. What are teachers‟ and students' attitudes towards teaching and learning writing at Duong An high school? 2.
How do the adapted activities help motivate students at Duong An high school in writing lessons? 4. Scope of the study There is a variety of aspects affecting students‟ motivation in class activities so there exist numerous methods to improve students‟ involvement. However, it is not my attention to cover all of them because of time and length constraint of the study. Adaptation of several writing activities in English 11 is focused on and tested in class 11A at Duong An high school.
As the result, the samples of the study were restricted to 4 teachers and 40 students at 11th form at Duong An high school. Methods of the study The method employed in this study is a quasi- experimental research to identify the teachers' and students' attitude towards teaching and learning writing skill. After that found LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 out the reasons why teachers should adapt activities in English 11 to motivate students at Duong An high school in writing lesson. The study attempts to find out whether the adapted activities can motivate students or not.
Data were collected by means of textbook evaluation, interviews, questionnaires, and observations and experiment. Concerning interviews, 4 teachers who have ever taught English 11 were involved in the study. Survey questionnaires were conducted among 40 students from two classes at the school. Design of the study This minor thesis is divided into three main parts.
Part A, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, the aims, scope, methods, and design of the study. The research questions are also mentioned in this part. Part B, DEVELOPMENT, consists of three following chapters: Chapter one, Literature Review, presents various concepts most relevant to the research topic such as definitions of writing, roles of writing, approaches to writing teaching, writing teaching procedure; concepts of motivation in language teaching and learning; materials evaluation. Furthermore, the following are also included in this chapter: Definition of material adaptation, the purpose of adaptation, techniques for adaptation and levels of adaptation as well.
Chapter two, namely “THE STUDY” describes the overall picture of the research was carried out from the first step of determining the research design to the last step of gathering the results. Moreover, presentation of statistical results are describes in this chapter Chapter three, “DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS” analyses the collected data to answer the two research questions. Part C, CONCLUSION, addresses the key issues in the study, summaries some limitations revealed during the process of the completing this study. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.
An Overview of Writing 1. Definitions of writing Writing is one of the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) that a learner is expected to master. Writing has been defined in a variety of ways. Firstly, writing is the process in which the writer expresses his thoughts or ideas in the form of handwriting.
“Writing is communicating. Good writing gets your ideas out of your head and into the reader‟s head without losing or distorting those ideas” (Leki, 1976). As for Tribble, writing is “a language skills which is difficult to acquire” (1996, p. He also stressed that writing “normally requires some forms of instruction” and that “it is not a skills that is readily picked up by exposure” (1996, p.
From my personal experience as a classroom teacher, I share with Rivers‟ definition (1981) that “writing is not a skill that can be learned or developed in isolation but it should be taught and developed in cooperation with other skills and aspects of the language studied.” Furthermore, writing is a productive skill, so it is writing that provides students with chances to put the language itself and practice communicative skills at the same time. Through the act of writing students will realize what they are already good at and what they still need to learn to become better. Roles of writing Writing emerges with its own functions and brings along communicative code of the writers. When making a piece of writing, the writer implies a message or a certain purpose.
In the modern world, writing (written language) serves a range of functions in everyday life. As Nunan (1991:84) aptly points out, writing is: (i) Primarily for action: public signs (on roads and stations), product labels and instructions (on food, tools or toy purchased), recipes, maps, television and radio guides, bills, menus, telephone directories, etc. (ii) Primarily for social contact: personal correspondence, letters, postcards, greeting cards. (iii) Primarily for information: newspapers and magazines, non- fiction books (textbooks, public notices, advertisement, guidebooks and travel literature, etc.) LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 (iv) Primarily for entertainment: light magazines, comic strips, fiction books, poetry and drama, film subtitles, games including computer games.