BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES GRADUATION THESIS: Academic writing problems encountered by English-major seniors of Banking Academy Student: Đào Hoàng Quân Student ID: 22A7510066 Class: K22ATCC Supervisor: Bùi Thị Minh Thu PhD Hanoi, May, 2023 Acknowledgement Acknowledgement Writing this has been quite a strenuous mental activity. It had literally taken a toll on me mentally and physically. However, I had seen it through, though not without the help of other people. For that I would like to extend, in no particular order, my thanks to Ms.
Bùi Thị Minh Thu for her exceptional guidance that has helped me through all of this ordeal, Ms. Trần Thị Thu Thủy and Ms. Trần Thị Thanh Giang for giving me advice and input to help me better my thesis. I would like to give my thanks to my friends: Hoàng Linh for providing me with the expertise in statistics and probability to make this happen, and Hà Phương for sharing her experience in writing her own thesis.
Lastly, I want to thank my family, for without them, I would not have been here today, and would not make the choices that define who I am. For that, I am grateful. i Acknowledgement Statement I hereby certify that this thesis is the product of my own work. It has not been used for any other degrees or purposes.
All resources used have been properly cited down below. Đào Hoàng Quân II Table of Contents Table of Contents Acknowledgement. ii Table of Contents. iii Table of Figures.
The rationale of the Research. Scope and Scale. The Nature of Writing. Writing as a Form of Communication.
Problems in Writing. The Nature of Academic Writing. Types of Academic Writing. Academic Writing Problems.
Banking Academy’s English major. 18 iii Table of Contents 1. Banking Academy’s English language seniors. Writing Information of the Students.
Academic writing difficulties. Possible outside-of-class causes. Suggestion for later studies. 70 IV Table of Figures Table of Figures Graph 1: The framework for academic writing difficulties visualized.
17 Graph 2: Respondents’ experience with English. 24 Graph 3: Students' weekly average of time spent practicing academic writing. 25 Graph 4: Students' confidence in their academic writing. 26 Graph 5: Students' difficulty in writing thesis statements (scale 1-5).
32 Graph 6: Outside-of-class causes for academic writing difficulties. 36 Graph 7: In-class causes for academic writing difficulties. 39 Table 1: Reliability analysis of items 5 to 7. 28 Table 2: Means and medians of students' academic writing difficulties in content.
29 Table 3: Means and medians of students' academic writing difficulties in structure. 31 Table 4: Means and medians of students' academic writing difficulties in language. 33 Table 5: Students' opinion on the causes for their writing difficulties. 36 v Abstract Abstract This thesis aims to investigate the difficulties faced by fourth-year English language students when writing academically.
English is a global language, used by many countries in the world and is the de facto language of the scientific community. Writing is arguably the hardest of the four skills to master and academic writing is required for Banking Academy English major students to graduate. The two main questions of this research inquire about the specific difficulties faced by seniors in academic writing and the causes surrounding the above difficulties. Previous research studies have been conducted with first- and second- year students and even postgraduates; however, little work has been done in the context of senior Vietnamese university students, wherein they must write either a thesis or a report in order to graduate.
This study used a mixed-method approach for gathering data including a questionnaire for student self-assessment and interviews to gain additional insight on the volunteered students. The results found were that the students mostly have trouble with ideas, including coming up with ideas and writing about new and unfamiliar topics. This is reflective in both the questionnaire results and the interviews. Students also have problems with their vocabulary and sentence structuring.
Most of the seniors seemed to have an idea of their own shortcomings, but did not do anything to fix these problems. The cause of students not correcting these problems can be attributed to the time-consuming nature of writing itself, which can take up a lot of time and concentration of the students out of class. This research also found that generally, the seniors prefer being given a predetermined writing structure or form by their lecturers to follow. Keywords: academic writing, difficulties, vocabulary, ideas VI I.
The rationale of the Research English is currently the most popular language in the world with more than 1.5 billion speakers worldwide (Breene, 2019). Unsurprisingly, English is usually one of the default languages for international communication; for example, English is one of the official languages of the United Nations, the International Red Cross, and the World Economic Forum. English is often used as a common language for people of different countries, cultures, and languages. This is English as a Lingua Franca (ELF).
Knowing English is considered a key to success in the age of globalization. English is also the most common language used to write scientific articles. Three-fourths of all scientific articles are estimated to be written in English, and for many fields, this number could go up to ninety percent (Montgomery, 2013). This thesis is also written in English.
In Vietnam, English is one of the mandatory second languages and the most common one taught in primary and secondary educational institutions. To graduate, Vietnamese university students are also required to achieve at least an intermediate level in English (or any other secondary language available to their school). Government positions and other public sector jobs also require proof of English proficiency. Thus, English plays a pivotal role in various aspects of life.
This is then further exemplified by the increasing globalization happening all over the world. It is hence knowing English is extremely important, and knowing English well is even more so. Writing as a skill is very important. As a form of communication, it is special, in certain ways that would be discussed further in Chapter 2.
Furthermore, due to some unique quirks, such as detachment from space and time, writing is irreplaceable as a form of communication. It is therefore all the more imperative that English users hone their writing skills. Introduction There has been international research on this subject before. But little work has been done in the context of Vietnamese students.
And fewer in the context of Banking Academy’s English students. This is a problem because, in addition to learning English, they must also learn finance and banking. Thus, less time can be spent on refining their English skills. Furthermore, in order to graduate, these seniors must write a report or a thesis, which is English academic writing.
Thus it is crucial for them to know how to write academically and properly. Given these specific reasons, I decide to conduct this study 2. Research Aim This research was ultimately conducted to contribute to the body of knowledge on the problems faced by English as a Second Language students in academic writing. Furthermore, this thesis would hopefully provide both students and teachers with the other parties’ insight into the difficulties.
Research Questions This study aims to address two research questions: What are some academic writing difficulties faced by Banking Academy’s English-major students? What are the causes to have prevented the above-mentioned students from correcting these difficulties? 4. Scope and Scale The targets for this research are senior (fourth year) students of the Banking Academy of Vietnam’s Bachelor of Banking and Finance English program. The population size is about 150 students. The reason is that they are in a period where most of them would be close to graduating.
For the students to graduate, they must write either a thesis or a report on their internship. Both require an extensive grasp of academic writing in English. Literature Review II. The Nature of Writing Writing, in its most fundamental way, is the inscribing of graphical symbols.
Writing, at a certain level, is just the act of recording these marks. Writing words, and scribing letters can technically be called “writing”. However, writing, like speaking to the utterance of sounds, is much more than just symbols (Byrne, 1993). The definition of “writing” in the Oxford English Dictionary is “The action of one who writes, in various senses; the penning or forming of letters or words; the using of written characters for purposes of record, transmission of ideas, etc.
Also with out.” Looking at the dictionary definition, writing can be seen solely as inscribing characters (the “… Also with out” part), but it can also be used for recording, transmitting ideas, and for other purposes. Rees-Miller and Aronoff (2001) stated that writing is “… a system of more or less permanent marks used to represent an utterance in such a way that the utterance can be recovered more or less exactly without the intervention of the utterer”. Again, writing fundamentally is considered a system of symbols; and again, these symbols are to be representing the utterances that the writer wants to convey. Furthermore, this definition also added that this purpose of conveyance happens and resolves itself successfully irregardless of the presence of the writer.
Farooq et al., (2012) defined writing as a literacy skill. He also defined it as a complex form of self-expression. Kassem (2017) further asserted that the meanings conveyed by writing can include the writer’s feelings, dreams, achievements, and opinions. Many of humanity’s greatest scientific achievements can be found in the form of writings.
Take for example, Albert Einstein’s general relativity theory was described in his 1916 paper “Die Grundlage der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie”, or Isaac Newton’s discovery of gravity can be found in the 3 II. Literature Review 1687 “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica”. The thoughts of great thinkers were written down, passed on, and persisted beyond their demise. Writing has preserved that culture, knowledge, and ideas from people since antiquity.
An early example of this is the Epic of Gilgamesh, dating back to around 2100 B. This Epic was inscribed onto stone tablets and was preserved to this very day. Many civilizations collapsed during human history, and even the most advanced, or the very cradle of civilization itself, were gone (Motesharrei et al. It is because of writings that parts of their lives, and their culture are preserved and is accessible thousands of years after they are gone.
Writing as a Form of Communication As stated earlier, writing itself is used primarily to convey meanings and ideas. This is supported by even the definitions of writing. Due to its nature, scholars tend to compare writing with another form of information transmission between humans: speaking. Writing and speaking are both used to communicate.
However, writing is fundamentally and even biologically different from speaking. The biological difference between writing and speaking is that speaking comes naturally. Humans evolved to be able to speak, whereas writing came relatively early. No one could learn reading and writing by simply watching others; instead, they require explicit instructions (Aronoff & Rees-Miller, 2001).
Aronoff and Rees-Miller also claimed that writing is different from language itself. Linguistically speaking, writing differs from speaking in that writing is independent of space and time (Farooq et al. The recipient of the writing can read at any time and anywhere, notwithstanding where and when the writing took place. For speech, the speakers are usually in contact with each other.
They interact with each other immediately and give each other feedback. For writing, sometimes, even the readers are unknown to the writer (Byrne, 1993). Writing itself is more dependent on the linguistic resources of the language. Farooq et al., (2012) stated that the writer has to depend upon formal features to convey the 4 II.
Literature Review intended meaning.