VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ************************* DƯ ÁI HUỆ CHI TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS AT CHU VAN AN HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE GIFTED, LANG SON PROVINCE: DIFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS (VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG VIẾT TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN CHU VĂN AN, LẠNG SƠN: NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN VÀ GIẢI PHÁP) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 Hanoi, 2015 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ************************* DƯ ÁI HUỆ CHI TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS AT CHU VAN AN HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE GIFTED, LANG SON PROVINCE: DIFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS (VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG VIẾT TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN CHU VĂN AN, LẠNG SƠN: NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN VÀ GIẢI PHÁP) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 Supervisor : Assoc. Kiều Thị Thu Hương Hanoi, 2015 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com STATEMENT OF THE AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “Teaching and Learning English Writing Skills at Chu Van An High School for the Gifted, Lang Son Province: Difficulties and Solutions” is the result of my own study to fulfill the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University, and that this minor thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution.
Hanoi, September 2015 Du Ai Hue Chi i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to many people without whose help the present thesis could not have been completed. First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Kieu Thi Thu Huong, my research supervisor, for her invaluable guidance, insightful comments and endless support. I am deeply thankful to Dr.
Le Hung Tien and all the staff members of the Post graduate Department, College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University for their interesting and informative lectures, which have provided me with useful knowledge of teaching methodology. My thanks are also extended to all the teachers and students at Chu Van An High School for the Gifted, Lang Son province for their enthusiastic assistance during the process of collecting data and information for my study. My special thanks are due to the library staff at ULIS for their tremendous efforts in finding books and journal articles for me. Finally, I owe the completion of this research to my parents and my siblings, my husband and my child, who have always given me their love, understanding and encouragement throughout my study.
To all mentioned, and to many more, my heart extends the warmest thanks. ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.linguis ABSTRACT This study is an attempt to explore the reality of the teaching and learning English writing skills at Chu Van An High School for the Gifted in Lang Son Province. It aims at affording deep insights into the difficulties encountered by the tenth graders in their learning of writing. Such issues as the teachers' and students' attitudes towards writing, the students' writing strategies and the students' writing training are carefully examined on the basis of the data obtained from elicited written questionnaires and class observation.
The findings exhibit that students have to face many difficulties in three writing stages: Pre-writing, While-writing and Post- writing. These difficulties are not only due to the teachers' and students' negative attitudes towards writing but also the shortcomings in the students' writing strategies and training. Based on those findings, the study provides some pedagogical suggestions to overcome the difficulties. iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.linguis LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1.
EFL: English as a foreign language 2. ESL: English as a second language 3. CVA: Chu Van An High School for the Gifted, Lang Son Province iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.linguis LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Tables Table 1: Differences between the process writing and the product writing Table 2. Topics and text types in each unit of English 10 Table 3.
Students' writing strategies Table 4. The number of drafts Table 5. Students' rewriting strategies Table 6. Students' judgment of their Pre-writing difficulties Table 7.
Students' judgment of their While-writing difficulties Table 8. Students' judgment of their Post-writing difficulties Table 9. Frequency of activities used by teachers in Pre-writing Table 10. Frequency of activities used by teachers in While-writing Table 11.
Frequency of activities used by teachers in Post-writing Charts Chart 1. The most difficult skills to learn Chart 2. How much the students like learning writing Chart 3. The most difficult skill to teach Chart 4.
How much the teachers like teaching writing v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.linguis TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of the authorship .iii List of abbreviations.iv List of tables and charts.v Table of contents.vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study. Aims of the study. Methods of the study.
Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Organization of the study. Definition of writing.
Fundamental components of writing. Problems caused by writing. Differences between skilled and unskilled writers. Approaches to teaching writing.
Controlled-to-free approach .8 vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Free writing approach. Paragraph-pattern approach. Grammar-syntax-organization approach.
Product-oriented approach. Summary of the differences between product and process pproaches. Context of the study. The writing section in English 10 textbook.2 Instruments and procedure.
DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 3. Analysis of the questionnaire for students. Students' attitude towards writing. Students' writing strategies.
Students' writing strategies. Students' rewriting strategies.22 vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Students' judgment of their writing difficulties. Students' difficulties in Pre-writing stage.
Students' difficulties in While-writing stage. Students' difficulties in Post-writing stage. Analysis of the questionnaire for teachers. Teachers' attitude towards teaching writing.
Learners' training in writing.1 Frequency of activities used by teachers in Pre-writing. Frequency of activities used by teachers in While-writing. Frequency of activities used by teachers in Post-writing. Students' difficulties in learning writing.
Reasons for the difficulties. Negative attitude towards writing. Shortcomings in the students' strategies and training. Suggestions for the solution.1 Create and maintain a positive atmosphere for learning.
Take advantage of the 'out-of-book' lessons. Give students ownership and publishing. Engage students in writing regularly. Provide students with constructive response and guide them how to offer response to other writes.36 viii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Provide opportunities for students to collaborate as writers. Suggestions for further study.38 APPENDIX Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaire for Students .I Appendix 2: Survey Questionnaire for Teachers .V Appendix 3: Observation Description .VII ix TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Rationale of the study Nowadays, communication across languages and cultures has become more important than ever before. The ability to speak, listen, read and write in a foreign language is widely recognized as a vital skill for professional and educational purposes.
This results in an increasing demand for teaching and learning foreign languages, among which teaching and learning English holds a dominant position at all levels of education in Vietnam. Although English language teaching and learning in Vietnam has taken its own priority, the education quality has not met expectations of Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training and the local people. This is certainly due to many reasons but it is, to some extent, due to the ways of teaching and learning that are said evidently to focus on theory rather than real practice. This results in the reality that a large majority of high-school students lack communicative competence.
They can not communicate in English successfully and effectively in both oral and written forms, in which the written form is considered to be the bigger challenge. For many Vietnamese students, writing is the most intricate and complex skill that challenges their ability. It is not uncommon to see that Vietnamese high-school learners with at least four-year experience of learning English in secondary school have considerable difficulty when they have to write communicatively in the target language. Even the students who go to English speaking countries for advanced study and have scored high in TOFEL initially cope with difficulties in writing.
The question raised here is what teachers should do to help students overcome their problems in writing. As a teacher of English, I am full aware of difficulties facing teachers and learners when teaching and learning writing skills and wish to make a contribution to improve the teaching and learning of writing skills at the school, which I have been 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.linguis working for, as well as at other high schools in my local area. Aims of the study The main purpose of the study is to research the reality of teaching and learning English writing skills to the tenth graders at Chu Van An High School for the Gifted, Lang Son Province (henceforth CVA) on the basis of finding out the difficulties encountered by the learners in three writing stages: Pre-writing, While- writing and Post-writing. The other purpose of the study is to propose some suggestions to deal with the difficulties.
Research questions 1) What difficulties do the tenth graders at CVA encounter when learning English writing skills? 2) What are the reasons for the difficulties? 3) What are the possible solutions to overcome the difficulties? 4. Methods of the study This is a survey study in which both quantitative and qualitative methods have been employed. To collect information and data, two instruments: questionnaires and class observation have been used. In addition, reviewing related documents is a method to establish the theoretical background for the study.
Scope of the study This minor thesis has been conducted at CVA in order to recognize difficulties encountered by the tenth graders in three writing stages. Explanations for the difficulties have been presented. Also, the thesis has given some suggestions to better the teaching and learning writing skills at the school. Significance of the study This study has been conducted to provide useful information about the source of difficulties facing the tenth graders at CVA when learning writing skills.
Results of 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.linguis the study have pointed out the limitations in the teaching and learning practice. Therefore, the teachers and learners can find out relevant approaches to teaching and learning writing skills. Furthermore, the study has given some pedagogical suggestions to solve the difficulties in the teaching and learning of writing skills. Organization of the study The study consists of three parts: Part A is the introduction to the study.
It presents the rationale, aims, methods, research questions, scope, significance and organization of the study. Part B, development, includes chapter 1 with a review of literature on writing in general, chapter 2 with a detailed description of the context, the textbook and the methodology, chapter 3 with the collection, analysis and discussion of the data. Part C, conclusion, gives a summary of the main findings, pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research. 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Definition of writing Basically and simply, Byrne (1988:1) defines writing as "the act of making marks on flat surface of some kind." When writing, people form "graphic symbols (letters or combinations of letters)" to make visual meaningful utterances. Writing, therefore, can be understood as a simple matter of transcribing language into written symbols. However, many researchers do not think so. They consider writing as "a thinking process" (White, 1991:3), "a problem solving activity" (Hyland, 2008:2) or "an extremely complex cognitive activity" (Bell and Burnaby, cited in Nunan 1989:7) in which the writer is required to process various complex things.
Nunan (1989:7) states that: ". the writer is required to demonstrate control of a number of variables simultaneously. At the sentence level these include control of content, format, sentence structure, vocabulary, punctuation, spelling and letter formation. Beyond the sentence, the writer must be able to structure and integrate information into cohesive and coherent paragraphs and texts.