STATE BANK OF VIETNAM BANKING ACADEMY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ---------- GRADUATION THESIS TOPIC AN INVESTIGATION INTO ACADEMIC WRITING (WRITING III MODULE) CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED BY ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM Student : LE THI THUY DUNG Student Code : 19A7510042 Class : K19ATCB Course : 2016 - 2020 Instructor : MS NGUYEN THI THU TRANG (MA) Hanoi, June 2020 DECLARATIONS I declare now that this study is entirely my own, and this work has not been submitted for a degree in any other institution of higher education. No part of this thesis may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (e. electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior permission of the author, or Banking Academy in that behalf. All sources and citations were referenced in the bibliography.
Hanoi, 5th June 2020 Signature Le Thi Thuy Dung i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have many people to thank for the successful completion of this graduation thesis. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Thi Thu Trang (MA) – a lecturer in Faculty of Foreign Languages, Banking Academy, for her support throughout this study. She was very supportive in the general encouragement she gave, the guidance she offered on the progress and direction of the research, as well as the prompt commentary she provided on drafts of my writing. This intensive support has contributed to my having completed the study.
She has also been an inspirational and excellent mentor for developing my thinking and writing. Without her encouragement and guidance, I could not have completed this thesis. Secondly, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to 122 ATC students who participated in this research study by doing an online survey. They were willing to help me in the process of conducting the research.
Their responses contributed significantly to the completion of my dissertation. Besides, I am so grateful to all lecturers of the Faculty of Foreign Languages who provided me with essential information related to the regulations. Finally, I would like to thank my family, who has always been there to support me. They always encouraged me to overcome the difficulties and brought me much joy and motivation needed to finish my studies.
Without all these bits of help, I would not have completed the dissertation. From the bottom of my heart, I would like to express my gratitude to everyone for their support and instruction. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATIONS. ii LIST OF TABLES.
vi LIST OF FIGURES. vii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION .1 Background of the study .2 Objectives of the study .3 Significance of the study.4 Scope and limitation of the study .5 Definition of Key terms. 4 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 A critical assessment of literature on English academic writing in the context of EFL setting .1 What is the academic writing in English? .2 The importance of Academic writing .3 Characteristics of academic writing .4 Stages of academic writing .5 Academic writing challenges .6 Causes of academic writing challenges .7 Suggested strategies to address the academic writing challenges of students .2 Review of previous studies. 18 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY .1 Locale of the study .4 Data gathering procedure.
22 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .1 Academic writing challenges that ATC students encountered.2 Students’ perceptions on the causes of academic writing challenges .3 Students’ perceptions on suggested strategies to address academic writing challenges .4 The relationship between ATC students’ grades on Writing III course and the academic writing challenges .1 The frequency of the academic writing challenges faced by ATC students .2 ATC students’ perceptions on the causes of academic writing challenges .3 ATC students’ perceptions on the suggested strategies to address the academic writing challenges.4 The relationship between ATC students’ grades one Writing III course and their academic writing challenges. 43 CHAPTER V: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATION .1 Summary of findings .3 Recommendations for further studies. 50 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Sample of the study.
Summary Table of Reliability Analysis. Students’ responses to the academic writing challenges which they faced 25 Table 4. Students’ responses to the causes of academic writing challenges. Students’ responses to the suggested strategies to address academic writing challenges.
Post Hoc Tests Multiple Comparisons table. 37 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Data Process Framework. Summary of students’ responses from Table 4 (in percentage).
Summary of students’ responses from Table 5 (in percentage). ATC students’ grades on Writing III. 32 vi ABSTRACT This study investigated the academic writing challenges experienced by English- major students (ATC students) at the Banking Academy of Vietnam. To obtain the research goal, four facets of the research question were examined: 1, how often ATC students coped with academic writing challenges; 2, how ATC students perceived causes of existing problems; 3, how useful ATC students rated the suggested strategies which can address academic writing difficulties; 4, the relationship between students’ grades of the Writing III course and frequency of facing academic writing challenges.
The study used an online questionnaire sent to 122 third-year and fourth-year ATC students. The data for reliability, descriptive analysis and One-Way Annova were analyzed by SPSS. The findings of this study showed that ATC students faced various academic writing challenges at medium levels, of which time restriction was the most challenging while cohesive devices and punctuation marks were the least problematic. The data revealed that the academic writing challenges of students in the study mainly resulted from students’ under-preparedness at high school, their low language proficiency, and the differences in writing styles between Vietnamese and English.
In terms of strategies, more self-practice in writing and improvement in linguistics proficiency were rated important (or more) by the majority of participants. Finally, there was a statistically significant difference in mean scores of academic writing challenges among student grade groups Key words: academic writing, challenges, ATC students vii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION The first chapter provides an overview of the study. First, this chapter describes the background of the study to get readers involved in the topic. Next, the main objectives and the significance of the study are stated respectively.
Then, this chapter points out what is the scope and limitation of the research. Some key terms are also defined very clearly. Finally, the research structure is shown to allow readers to follow the content of this study easily.1 Background of the study In the twenty-first century, English is generally recognized as an international language of communication around the world. In the context of EFL (English as a foreign language) countries, the English language is one of the educational tool requirements in almost levels of education, especially at the tertiary level.
Of all main English macro-skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing which are taught and practiced in most English classes, the last one is considered the most challenging skill to acquire (Negari, 2011; Salma, 2015). Many studies conducted in EFL setting usually point to the learners who fail to attain a proper level of L2 (second language) writing proficiency (e., Cai, 2013; Ergür & Saraçbaşı, 2009; Tahaineh, 2010) and a considerable number of learners face challenges in English in general and writing skills in particular (Alharbi, 2019). In the academic arena, writing plays an indispensable part in meeting academic requirements. For most English majors at Vietnamese universities and colleges, a majority of course assignments and theses are required to be in English in the form of essays and academic written reports, weekly journals, and rehashes.
Students’ written assignments are also a critical kind of criteria to evaluate their academic performance at the tertiary level. Because English-major students have consistently written essays or research papers in English, they have faced a large number of challenges in academic writing practices. In recent years, academia has shown an increasing interest in investigating the writing difficulties that students have to cope with in the EFL setting (Ioanna, 2013). However, there is little information on academic writing challenges faced by 1 Vietnamese students because limited studies have been largely carried out in Vietnam on this topic.
According to Nguyen’s research (2009), over a half of English-major students who had completed 120 periods of writing at their university and covered the writing skills at the sentence level and functional writing did know clearly what Academic English was. Most of them were unable to differentiate the features between spoken and academic written styles. The question is, what were the academic writing challenges that these students were facing? This phenomenon arises in most Vietnamese universities and colleges. Take English-major students at the Banking Academy of Vietnam as a subject of this study.
Banking Academy of Vietnam is one of universities training foreign languages. Students in the Faculty of Foreign languages here are instructed many writing courses, one of which is Writing III or academic writing at the essay level. Therefore, this study investigated the academic writing challenges encountered by English-major students at the Banking Academy of Vietnam.2 Objectives of the study The primary research was to shed a light on academic writing challenges that English major students at Banking Academy encountered. To obtain this research goal, the study was first designed to investigate how often English-major students at Banking Academy coped with the given academic writing challenges.
Secondly, the study was intended to provide insight into students’ perception on the causes of existing problems and the suggested strategies which can address them. Finally, the relationship between students’ grades on the Writing III course and their frequency of facing academic writing challenges was examined.3 Significance of the study This study will be deemed to be of significance to many stakeholders. First and foremost, the findings of the study may contribute to the research on students’ writing skills and provide a deeper understanding of factors related to academic writing at tertiary level in Vietnam. Second, the findings can give English-major students in the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Banking Academy with vital information as well as provide them with an insight into the writing challenges that 2 they may be facing, hence, they can adapt writing solutions to address these problems successfully.
Furthermore, the results of the study can be helpful to lecturers and tutors within the context of EFL settings in general and Foreign Language Faculty at Banking Academy in particular because they can realize their students’ difficulties and aspects of writing that students require support. Finally, the findings of this research may add insights to other researchers who desire to examine the same topic. The study may also be served as a reference for further studies.4 Scope and limitation of the study The study was conducted in the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Banking Academy of Vietnam. It investigated the academic writing challenges faced by English major students when they took the Writing III course.
Third-year and final-year English major students who had completed the Writing III course were selected and surveyed to gain data for the study. The research was carried out within three months, finishing on 6th June, 2020.5 Definition of Key terms The key terms of this study are defined below: - Academia refers to the world of learning, teaching, research, etc. at universities, and the people involved in it. In the context of this study, English major students and their lecturers are referred to as the academia.
- Academic Writing course at Banking Academy refers to Writing III Module that is taught to English-major students of Foreign Language Department. - English as Foreign Language refers to the teaching of English to people whose main language is not English and who live in a country where English is not the official or main language (dictionary. - Faculty of Foreign Language is a department concerning an advanced training program which focuses on linguistic knowledge and the application of foreign languages in various fields. The term “ATC” refers to the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Banking Academy.