University of languages & international studies – vnu, hanoi Faculty of POST-graduate studies ============= KIỀU THU HIỀN DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY GRADE-10 STUDENTS AT TRUONG DINH UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN LEARNING WRITING SKILL WITH THE NEW TEXTBOOK TIENG ANH 10 ( NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT TRƯƠNG ĐỊNH GẶP PHẢI KHI HỌC KỸ NĂNG VIẾT VỚI SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 10 MỚI ) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 601410 Supersivor : ĐỖ TUẤN MINH, Ph.D Hanoi - 2009 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of the authorship i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of tables and charts vi PART ONE : INTRODUCTION 1 1. Background to the study 1 2. Aims of the study 2 3. Methods of the study 2 5.
Scope of the study 2 2 6. Significance of the study 3 7. Organization of the study 3 PART TWO : DEVELOPMENT 4 CHAPTER ONE : LITERATURE REVIEW 4 1.1 Different views on what writing is 4 1.2 Distinguishing features of written language from spoken language 4 1.3 The roles of writing in second language learning 6 1.4 Approaches to the teaching of writing in ESL classes 7 1.5 What makes writing difficult to acquire ? 11 CHAPTER TWO : THE STUDY 12 2.1 Overview of the teaching and learning of the writing skill at Truong Dinh Upper secondary school 12 2.1 Teaching and learning context 12 2.2 The schedule of learning writing skill in the new textbook Tieng Anh 10 12 2.3 Procedures of data collection 15 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.3 Data analysis and discussion 16 2.1 Analysis of the questionnaire for students 17 2.2 Analysis of the questionnaire for teachers 24 2. Interview 36 CHAPTER THREE : SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF THE WRITING SKILL AT TRUONG DINH HIGH SCHOOL 3.1 Raising the students’ awareness of the importance of the writing skill 37 3.2 Restricting students’difficulties arising from poor linguistic competence 37 3.3 Implementing good preparations for students’ writing 38 3.4 Carrying out appropriate collaborative activities 40 3.5 Making writing lessons well-equipped with conformable teaching aids 40 3.6 Setting a suitable time limit for each classroom activity 41 3.7 Providing effective correction work 41 3.8 Assigning more practical writing tasks 42 3.9 Establishing a positive and supportive learning atmosphere 42 PART THREE : CONCLUSION 43 1.
Summary of the study 43 2. Limitations and suggestions for further study 44 References Appendices Appendix 1 : Survey Questionnaire for Students I Appendix 2 : Survey Questionnaire for Teachers IV Appendix 3 : Classroom Observations VII Appendix 4 : Interview Transcripts XIV Appendix 5 : A sample lesson plan XX LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Tables Table 1: Types of difficulties students coped with in learning 10 th form syllabus Table 2: Teachers’ writing stage application Table 4: Teachers’ usage of writing tasks Table 3: Teachers’ implementation of pre-writing activities Table 6: Teachers’ application of work arrangement Table 7: Types of written texts difficult for students to write Charts Chart 1: Students’ feelings of the writing skill Chart 2: Frequency of students’ writing practice at home Chart 3: Students’ general thoughts of the 10th form – writing syllabus Chart 4: Students’ frequency of getting a problem with vocabulary Chart 5: How often teachers suggest key words or phrases in pre-writing stage Chart 6: Students’ grammar mistakes in their writings Chart 7: The ways the teacher used to make writing lessons more interesting Chart 8: Students’ writing under time pressure Chart 9: Writing assignments Chart 10: Teachers’ attitudes towards the importance of teaching writing skill Chart 11: Teachers’ assessment of students’ vocabulary Chart 12: Teachers’ remarks on students’ grammatical mistakes Chart 13: Teachers’ use of visual aids to make suggestions LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART ONE : INTRODUCTION 1. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY: Currently, as learning a second or a foreign language is paid more and more special attention to, there has been a growing tendency towards the emphasis on improving communicative competence in language teaching and learning. Writing, therefore, is regarded as a productive skill which provides students with opportunities to put all the language elements they have learnt into practice and to show communicative competence effectively.
However, in fact writing is not often as important to many students as other skills such as reading and speaking and it tends to get rather neglected in many Vietnamese language classes. In addition, writing itself is a very complex and difficult skill to acquire. Thus teaching students to write well is one of the most challenging tasks in education. In order to resolve this situation little by little, the Ministry of Education and Training have carried out comprehensive reforms of teaching and learning English at Secondary Education level by updating new and appropriate curricula with clear objectives.
The syllabus for high school students has changed completely and focused on developing both students‟ linguistic competence and communicative competence. Accordingly writing is taught carefully in a separate class, which creates more chances for students to practise writing skills. Besides these favourable conditions, there are still challenges faced by teachers and students at high schools since students have not got accustomed to new learning methods in the innovated syllabus and teachers have not got much teaching experience with the new textbook. As a teacher of English at Truong Dinh Upper secondary school for 6 years, I have been deeply aware of my teaching context in which my students have coped with a lot of difficulties in learning English especially learning the writing skill.
Among four skills taught in English textbook 10, writing can be seen as the most boring and hardest one so many questions about teaching writing always concern me a lot : „What problems might my students face when learning writing ?‟ „What should be done to help my students overcome those problems?‟ „How should each form of written text be taught so that students can learn it effectively?‟ „How can I make the lesson fun, meaningful and memorable?‟. I, therefore, decided to do a research on “Difficulties encountered by grade-10 students at Truong Dinh upper secondary school in learning writing with the new textbook Tieng Anh 10” in the hope that the findings and solutions mentioned in this study will make a significant contribution to improving the teaching and learning of the writing skill at Truong Dinh high school as well as those at other high schools. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. AIMS OF THE STUDY The primary purpose of this study is to explore the learning of the writing skill by grade-10 students at Truong Dinh high school.
It focuses on identifying the major factors that badly affect students‟ writing learning. The secondary aim is to propose some suggestions to deal with students‟ difficulties and assist them to learn writing more effectively. RESEARCH QUESTIONS This study attempts to seek answers to the following research questions: 1) What are the major factors causing difficulties of the tenth grade students at Truong Dinh Upper secondary school in learning the writing skill in the new textbook Tieng Anh 10 ? 2) What should be done to help the tenth-grade students at Truong Dinh Upper secondary school overcome their difficulties and acquire the writing skill more effectively? 4. METHOD OF THE STUDY In order to guarantee the reliability of research results, my study was conducted in the form of a survey research using both quantitative and qualitative method.
Three main instruments of data collection are questionnaires, classroom observation and interview. Two forms of questionnaires (one for teachers and the other for students) are designed to collect information about grade-10 students‟ attitudes towards learning writing as well as difficulty perception of teachers and students. The questionnaires both consist of three types of questions: close-ended questions, open-ended questions and scaling. Observation and interview are used as other reliable sources of data collection.
Observation can help to get more insights into real situations of learning writing in some writing classes at Truong Dinh high school and interviews after observing probably provide more evidence for valid findings of the investigation. SCOPE OF THE STUDY Writing itself is a broad and complex area covering a variety of issues for research. Yet, this study mainly concentrates on analyzing difficulties faced by grade-10 students at Truong Dinh Upper secondary school in learning writing with the new textbook Tieng Anh 10. On the basis of the discussion and findings from collected data, some recommendations of solutions will be put forward.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Pedagogically, this study has brought lots of practical benefits in such a way that it may provide useful information about the source of problems that grade-10 students at Truong Dinh Upper secondary school encountered when learning writing. The information can probably help the researcher and teachers at Truong Dinh high school identify the limitations in the teachers‟ teaching approaches and major students‟difficulties in order to find out relevant solutions. Also, the results of this study may also be used as suggestions for teachers in other upper secondary schools as well as material developers.
ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY The study is divided into three parts: Part I ( Introduction ): includes the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the method, the significance and the design of the study. Part II ( Development ) : consists of three chapters as follows - Chapter I ( Literature review ): presents the theoretical background of the study, which summarizes some views on definitions of writing, differences between written language and spoken language, roles of writing in second language learning, approaches to the teaching of writing in ESL classes and what makes writing difficult to acquire. - Chapter II ( The study ) includes the context of the study, the research questions, the participants, data collection methods, procedures, analysis and discussion. The analysis and discussion part discusses and analyses difficulties encountered by grade-10 students at Truong Dinh Upper secondary school in learning writing skill with the new textbook Tieng Anh 10.
- Chapter III ( Solutions ) suggests some relevant measures to deal with students‟ problems and learn writing skill more effectively Part III ( Conclusions ): sums up the study and indicates the limitations of the study as well as suggestions for further research LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Different views on what writing is Up to now, quite a few researchers have taken interest in the teaching and learning of writing and defined writing in various ways. Generally looking into the nature of writing, Donn Byrne (1991:1) stated: “When we write, we use graphic symbols: that is, letters or combinations of letters which relate to the sounds we make when we speak. On one level, then, writing can be said to be the act of forming these symbols: making marks on flat surface of some kind.The symbols have to be arranged, according to certain conventions, to form words, and words have to be arranged to form sentences” With a more profound view on writing, White (1991:3) assumed “Writing is far from being a simple matter of transcribing language into written symbols: it is a thinking process in its own right”.
He also stresses that it is not a simple process but a complex one “writing is a form of problem-solving which involves such processes as generating ideas, discovering a „voice‟ with which to write, planning, goal-setting, monitoring and evaluating what is going to be written as well as what has been written and searching for language with which to express exact meanings” In language teaching, writing is considered as “a language skill which is difficult to acquire” (Tribble, 1996: 3).