Introduction This chapter presents the introduction to the research which comprises (1) background to the study, (2) rationale for the study, (3) aims and objectives of the study, (4) research questions, (5)scope of the study, (6) significance of the study, (7) definition of the key terms, and (8) organization of the thesis. Background to the study In the modern society nowadays, it is unsurprising to see that English has been very necessary in important fields of the society. As a matter of fact, English has been widely used in the world (Medgyes,2001). However, in learning the English language, writing in English which is a form of written communication, is a very significant skill for language production.
Hyland (2006) emphasizes that writing plays an important role in the success or failure of the students and it is a complex demand of studying the language. How successful learners are at the study of the language largely depends on their improvement of the writing competence. However, most of the learners on the path of mastering a language frequently encounter troubles with writing skill. According to Grabe and Kaplan (1996), it is so difficult for people to know how to express their own ideas in the writing form effectively.
It is undeniable that writing and learning how to write are considered the most difficult and complicated skills for learners to master. Hedge (2000) states that in teaching four skills of the English language, teachers frequently follow a certain order: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Writing is placed at the final order since it is thought to be the most difficult for learners. Writing is the most complicated skill for both EFL and ESL learners to master because it demands hard work, knowledge of the language, topical or social knowledge, lengthy steps and more practice (Harmer 2007, Nunan 1989).
The difficulty of writing lays not only on generating, organizing ideas but also on putting the ideas into meaningful and understandable text (Tribble 1997, Richards & Renandya 2003). It is agreed that writing is an extremely difficult cognitive activity which requires the learners a lot of training (Harmer 2007, NuNan 1989, Tribble 1997, Richards & Renandya, 2003). How to be good at the task of writing is always the question posed for both teachers and students. These 1 problems generally come from learners’ incompetence in structures, lack of the knowledge of the language, lack of ideas, lack of idea organization, coherence, and rhetorical conventions.
Pineteh (2012) asserts that L2 learners’ sentences are often ineffective since learners not only lack of ideas but also struggle with grammatical aspects such as the agreement between the subject and the verb, tenses, spelling, how to combine sentences to make a coherent paragraph and how to organize paragraphs to make a coherent essay. According to Tangpermpoon (2008), lack of vocabulary and syntax knowledge as well as organizational principles in L2 also impacts writers on producing a good text. Factors affecting learners’ writing skill are from the teachers’ incompetence as well (Haider 2012, Mansoor 2005, Harmer, 2008). Harmer (2008) mentions that students’ motivation causes them to face problems in writing and inappropriate methodology which arise the troubles for students in writing.
In addition, Hyland (2002) argues that writing is a skill which learners must master so that they are able to present their ideas successfully in written form. According to Leki (1997), the majority of English learners often confuse between Grammar and Written Expression. Many learners think that mastering the rules of grammar can help them create good pieces of writing. In this respect, learners tend to focus more on grammatical practice but they forget to practice the specific rules of writing such as planning, drafting, editing and final draft.
According to Al Fadda (2012), learners’ weaknesses in writing recur when learners misconstrue their writing as not a process, it means that learners do not have the plan for their writing and they do not revise or edit their texts after composing. Nunan (2000) also asserts that learners’ poor performance in writing is caused by their ways of organizing the information to create well-structured pieces of writing, coherent paragraphs or essays. He also adds that giving coherent, fluent, extend pieces of EFL writing is a really big challenge for learners. Therefore, it is very urgent for teachers to help their students perform appropriately and effectively in writing the foreign language.
In Vietnam, English is used as a foreign language and writing is recorgnized as the productive skill which creates big challenges for learners as well. Writing requires learners to have to kow the way to organize the ideas and it also involves in logical and creavite thinking. In addition, among a wide range of writing types, essay writing is the most difficult for learners, however, it is considered as important for students among universities. Vienamese EFL learners usually encounter difficulties in writing due to numbers of factors or causes.3 Rationale for the study Writing is an important but difficult skill in language learning.
However, students at HaNoi University of Home Affairs need to obtain the English certificate of B1 or B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) of which writing an academic essay is a compulsory part. It is no doubt that the learners must overcome the difficulties if they want to master the language. Being an English teacher at Ha Noi University of Home Affairs with several years of experience in teaching English, the reseacher has the opportunity to observe closely learners’ performance on writing. The researcher recognizes that students at Ha Noi University of Home Affairs are afraid of doing the writing task.
They find themselves limited, difficult and less confident in performing the writing assignments. They can complete the sentence rewriting task, the ordering task, the gap – filling task or they can write short sentences about something but they are still struggling to produce a composition or an academic essay effectively. Additionally, unlike speaking, listening and reading, students do not have opportunities to practice outside the class. Besides, in this context at Hanoi University of Home Affairs, time for learners to practice writing in class is also limited during the course while the complexity of writing made EFL learners face a lot of challenges in writing.
There are several negative causes or factors which learners encounter when performing the writing skill and these negative factors result in learners’ poor writing. Frequently, learners do not have the ideas or the knowledge relating to the writing topic and they are not good at English grammar to put their ideas in written form. Besides, lecturers also play an important role in motivating learners in learning the writing skill. Students also need to avoid the influence of the culture of L1or the learning situation at the university to study writing better, ect.
What is mentioned above increased the interest in exploring all the factors hindering learners behind their writing difficulties or discovering the origin of learners’ problems in writing in order to help learners better improve their writing skill. This is the reason why the researcher decided to conduct a case study to cast a light into factors hampering learners’ writing competence.4 Aims and objectives of the study In the hope of helping students improve their writing competence, this study was conducted with the aims of investigating factors affecting the writing skill of the first year non- English major students at Ha Noi University of Home Affairs. The objectives of this study are as follows: To identify factors which affect English writing skill of the first year non-English major learners at Ha Noi University of Home Affairs. To find out if there are any differences in teachers and students’ perceptions of factors affecting learners’ writing skill at Ha Noi University of Home Affairs.5 Research questions Despite being well-recognized as an important skill in language learning, writing is still troublesome to EFL learners in general and to students at HaNoi Unversity of Home Affairs in particular.
A lot of efforts have been poured into the teaching and learning of writing skill, but the expected outcomes are still far to be reached. This has led the researcher to generate the following research questions to successfully accomplish the above stated aims. What are the factors which affect the first year non-English major learhners’ writing skill at Hanoi University of Home Affairs? 2. Are there any differences in learners and teachers’ perceptions of factors affecting learners’ writing skill at Hanoi University of Home Affairs? 1.6 Scope of the study As having been presented, the research was conducted at Ha Noi University of Home Affairs and non-English major students at the school were chosen to participate in the research.
In order to offer more meaningful and practical implications for teachers and learners, the study focused only on the first year non- English major studentswhoare not used to the way of teaching agnd learning English at tertiarylevel. All the second, third and last year non-English major students were not invited to participate in the research since they might get used to the way of studying the English language at this level. 4 This research focused on the issue of writing with the data collected from 80 first year non- English major learners and five English lecturers from the campus. Writing is a very important but difficult skill in learning the English language.
At the campus, students must study four skills of the English language consisting of listening, speaking, reading and writing. They must take the final tests including the writing part which accounts for 50 % of grades. However, there is a wide range of challenges that students faced in English writing skill, they were not interested in learning writing and they had a lot of difficulties when performing the writing ability. Therefore, this study only focuses on factors that affect students’ writing skill with the hope to help students improve their writing competence.7 Significance of the study The outcome of this research may contribute two aspects of theory and practice on student writing in Vietnam, as well as provide a deeper understanding of factors that affect first year non English major learners’ writing at HaNoi University of Home Affairs.
Many researchers (Harmer 2007, Nunan 1989, Tribble 1997, Richards & Renandya 2003) agree that writing is the most challenging skill for both ESL and EFL learners. According to Margolis &McCabe (2006), learners with poor self-efficacy may result in ineffective writing skill. Theoretically, discovering factors leading students to problems in writing helps both teachers and learners in many ways. Hence, the results of this study determined the factors affecting students’ writing performance of HaNoi University of Home Affairs in Ho Chi Minh city.
Practically, the findings of the research might also provide important information and develop viable solutions for supporting not only English teachers’ teaching strategies but learners who have challenges in the process of mastering the writing skill. Furthermore, the research also gave learners an insight into their study attitude of the English language.8 Definition of the key terms To make this research easier to understand, the researcher would like to explain key terms as follows: Factor: refers to a negative fact or situation which causes learners’ difficulties in English writing. 5 Writing skill: refers to the ways for learners to put their thoughts, ideas and views into words to communicate with each other. EFL learners: learners study English as a foreign language First year non-English major learners: freshmen who are not specialized in English language.9 Organization of the thesis This study is composed of five chapters.
The study begins with chapter 1 which introduces the background to the study, the rationale for the study, the aims and objectives of the study, the research questions, the scope of the study, the significance of the study, the definition of the key terms and the organization of the thesis.