TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP CHUYÊN NGÀNH: SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC VIẾT TIẾNG ANH HỌC THUẬT CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ BA CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH, TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG Sinh viên thực hiện: Vũ Hương Vân Ngày sinh: 24/04/2002 Lớp: Sư phạm Tiếng Anh Khoá: 21 Giảng viên hướng dẫn: Ths. Đỗ Thị Mỹ Dung Hải Phòng, tháng 4 năm 2024 HAI PHONG UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES GRADUATION PAPER MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH ACADEMIC WRITING DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY THE THIRD-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS AT HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY Student’s name: Vu Huong Van Date of birth: 24/04/2002 Class: English Language Teacher Education Course: 21 Supervisor: Do Thi My Dung M.A Haiphong, April 2024 Acceptance page I hereby state that I: Vu Huong Van, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of the 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, 2024 Supervisor’s confirmation Author’s signature i Acknowledgments I am thankful to Haiphong University and especially the Foreign Language Department for equipping me with knowledge. I am also grateful to my instructor, Ms.
Do Thi My Dung for her amiable, instructive, and meticulous professional guidance. Without her considerable effort, this research work could not get its present shape. I am also indebted to the Foreign Language Department’s students at HPU who were cooperative and sincere in participating in the research. ii Abstract Writing is a difficult skill in English for learners, but it is not widely controlled, especially in the student learning process.
This research is a study about the problems made in writing skills, especially, among the 3rd year English majored at HPU. This research attempts to find out the difficulties in academic writing, and the factors leading to those problems, additionally to provide suggestions to overcome these problems based on the research results. To attain this goal, the researcher used quantitative methodology. Initially, the survey questionnaire was conducted online, which participants could easily complete.
The findings of this research revealed the most problematic areas faced by the students and the factors leading to difficulties that 3rd year English majored at HPU often face. Finally, the results of this research may help scholars to reflect on teaching practices and to help teachers attempt to enhance the academic writing skills of their students. iii Table of contents Acceptance page. iii Table of contents.
iv List of tables, charts, abbreviations, and figures. Rationale for the study. Aims of the study. Scope of the study.
The significance of the study. Methods of the study. Organization of the study. Theories of academic writing.
Research into English for Academic Purposes. Academic writing difficulties. Lack of coherence. Perception of cohesion.
Lack of critical thinking. Factors affecting the development of academic writing. Student-related factors. Low proficiency in L2.
Instructor-related factors. Writing strategies in second language. Supervisor’s feedback on students’ L2 writing. Design of the study.
Data collection instruments. Procedures of data collection. Procedures of data analysis. Results of the research question one.
Results of the research question two. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Findings and discussion. The main academic writing difficulties encountered by 3rd year English majored at HPU.
The factors leading to academic writing difficulties among 3rd year English majored at HPU. Student-related factors. Student-related factors. Recommendations for further studies.
a vi List of tables, charts, abbreviations, and figures List of tables and charts Table 1 Reliability Statistics p.28 Table 2 The frequency of respondents having difficulties in learning p.30 academic words and their meanings Table 3 The frequency of respondents having difficulties in remembering p.31 word spellings Table 4 The frequency of respondents having difficulties in distinguishing p.31 between spoken words and written ones Table 5 The frequency of respondents having difficulties in using correct p.32 tenses in academic writing Table 6 The frequency of respondents having difficulties in distinguishing p.33 between formal structures and informal ones Table 7 The frequency of respondents having difficulties in organizing the p.34 content of academic writing accordingly Table 8 The frequency of respondents having difficulties in clarifying p.34 thoughts or opinions in academic writing Table 9 The frequency of respondents having difficulties in providing p.35 sufficient supporting points in academic writing Table 10 The frequency of respondents having difficulties in finding relevant p.36 sources related to assigned written tasks Table 11 The frequency of respondents having difficulties in finding p.36 connections between ideas Table 12 The frequency of respondents having difficulties in finding suitable p.37 linking-words in academic writing Table 13 The frequency of respondents having difficulties in arranging p.38 paragraphs to clarify ideas Table 14 Results to factor “Abuse of google translate / or other translation p.39 tools in the process of writing academic documents” vii Table 15 Results to factor “Limited English proficiency” p.39 Table 16 Results to factor “Do not interact with academic documents p.40 actively” Table 17 Results to factor “Lack of motivation / passion” p.40 Table 18 Results to factor “Complexity of academic writing” p.41 Table 19 Results to factor “Homonyms cause mistakes in learning academic p.42 words” Table 20 Results to factor “Influenced by spoken language” p.43 Table 21 Results to factor “Learning process and knowledge transmission” p.43 Table 22 Descriptive statistics for students’ perceptions of the difficulties p.45 Table 23 Descriptive statistics for students’ perceptions of the factors p.46 viii List of abbreviations EAP English for Academic Purposes EFL/ ESL English as a Foreign Language /English as a Second Language HPU Haiphong University FLD Foreign Language Department L1 First Language L2 Second Language NNS Non-Native Speakers NS Native Speakers SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences IELTS International English Language Testing System TOEFL Test Of English as a Foreign Language ix List of figures Figure 1 ENGLISH WRITING 4 RESULTS p.26 Figure 2 FREQUENCY IN PRACTICING WRITING BEFORE TAKING p.52 ACADEMIC WRITING CLASSES OF 3RD YEAR ENGLISH MAJORED x A. INTRODUCTION This chapter aims to introduce the current study. An explanation of the research rationale and aims of the study are presented. This is followed by the research questions, the significance of the study, and finally, the structure of the study.
Rationale for the study English language is reckoned as one of the most common languages globally. When we learn our own (native) language, learning to speak comes before learning to write. In fact, we learn to speak almost automatically. It is natural.
But somebody must teach us to write. It is not natural. Writing in a foreign language is even more complicated as it takes a lot of time and effort to become a decent writer. As a senior student majoring in English at Haiphong University (HPU), I realized that some of my peers struggled to express themselves clearly in English academic writing, and this naturally had an impact on their ability to develop well- written pieces of academic research.
This is because “the purpose of the dissertation or thesis is to show the ability to effectively communicate the information on a given topic on a professional level. Unlike other forms of scholarly writing, the audience is that of a professor, department, or college” (Kemp, 2007, p. Specifically, students in the Foreign Language Department (FLD) at HPU must have a decent level of writing ability to handle the later writing workload in the 3rd and 4th years. Improving writing skills is a must, especially in academic writing.
Nevertheless, the most important thing to do first in order to improve writing skills in English is to find out the common difficulties that students often face in writing. With the acknowledgment above, an investigation was launched. This study examines HPU 3rd year English majored’ opinions about the difficulties that they often face in academic writing as well as the outstanding factors. Additionally, the author has received wholehearted support from the participants and instructor – Mrs.
Do Thi My Dung. Thus, this study is encouraged. Aims of the study First of all, this study focuses on the difficulties and the causes 3rd year English majored encountered in academic writing. Second, discovering reasonable solutions to improve students' writing scores.
Finally, the results of this study are expected to be useful for HPU English teachers in adapting teaching strategies for writing skills in HPU. In short, the study has three main purposes as follows: 1. To investigate some major difficulties in academic writing of 3rd year English majored at HPU. To survey common factors leading to the major difficulties students often face in academic writing.
To provide some suggestions to overcome these problems. Research questions In this study, I aim to find answers to these following questions: 1. What are the main academic writing difficulties encountered by 3rd year English majored at HPU? 2. What are the factors leading to these difficulties? 3.
What are some suggested solutions to overcome these difficulties? 4. Scope of the study The study generally investigates the 3rd-year English majored’ attitudes towards academic writing during the writing learning process at HPU. The scope of the study is limited to a survey of 100 students. Additionally, this study was carried out for 5 months, from December 28th to April 29th, 2024.
The significance of the study First and foremost, this study is significant because it has the potential to improve HPU 3rd year English majored’ awareness towards English academic writing. It also provides an understanding of the difficulties encountered by 3rd year English majored in the English academic writing context. When students understand their difficulties in the learning academic writing process, there will be a significant enhancement in the results of later writing exams. Additionally, the study results will 2 help teachers effectively support students when they meet difficulties in academic writing essays.
Methods of the study The author used quantitative methods to emphasize the numerical analysis of data collected through survey questionnaires. In particular, the survey questionnaire collects data from 100 students, which are from English classes 1, 2, and 3 (k22) using the Google Form tool. The detailed process of how the study is conducted is presented in Chapter 2. Organization of the study The study comprises the following parts: The first part, Introduction, consists of the research’s rationale, aims, research questions, scope, methodology, as well as the importance of the study are put forward.
The second part, Development, is subdivided into the following categories: Chapter 1. Literature Review provides background knowledge related to academic writing, an overview of research into EAP (English for Academic Purposes); in addition, with the difficulties and the factors leading to academic writing problems among 3rd year English majored. The Study presents the methodology of the study containing the participants of the survey, data collection instruments, the procedures of data collection and analysis, and the research results from the survey questionnaire; specifically, this part wishes to provide data to answer the research questions that have been aforementioned. Findings and Discussions reveal and discuss the most problematic areas faced by the students and the factors leading to difficulties that 3rd year English majored at HPU often face.
The last part, the Conclusion, summarizes the study’s results, the limitations and suggests recommendations for the research. LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter reviews the pertinent literature that delivers the research work and provides the background knowledge on the research questions; specifically, the literature pertaining to EFL academic writing with special reference to the 3rd year English majored at HPU. It will be divided into four sections. The first section will discuss theories of academic writing.
