VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* VŨ THỊ HÒA IMPROVING ENGLISH PARAGRAPH- WRITING PERFORMANCE BY THE SECOND- YEAR STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN MEDICAL COLLEGE THROUGH COLLABORATIVE WRITING ACTIVITIES Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng các hoạt động nhóm để nâng cao kỹ năng viết đoạn văn tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* VŨ THỊ HÒA IMPROVING ENGLISH PARAGRAPH- WRITING PERFORMANCE BY THE SECOND- YEAR STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN MEDICAL COLLEGE THROUGH COLLABORATIVE WRITING ACTIVITIES Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng các hoạt động nhóm để nâng cao kỹ năng viết đoạn văn tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: PROF. NGUYỄN HÒA Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com i DECLARATION I certify that this thesis is the result of my own research and that this thesis has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution wholly or partially. Signature Vu Thi Hoa LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have given me great assistance, encouragement and support in the completion of my research work. First and foremost, I would like to express my profound gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor, Prof.
Nguyen Hoa for his invaluable and insightful comments, his deliberate guidance and wholehearted supervision during the study. My thanks are also offered to all my respected lecturers in the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, ULIS, VNU, Hanoi for their informative, valuable lectures and suggestions that have enlightened my research path of the study. I am also grateful to all my colleagues and students at TMC for their enthusiastic participants in my research. Last but not least, I would like to show my big gratitude to my family, my relatives, especially my husband who encourage and help me to carry out the study.
Hanoi, August 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iii ABSTRACT The study has been conducted for the purpose of enhancing the effectiveness through the application of collaborative writing activities to improve the second- year students at TMC in writing skills. Participants are 40 second- year- students from the Department of Midwifery and Nursing at TMC divided into two groups: experimental group and control group. The experimental group is taught in collaborative learning for eight weeks. The control group is taught in the traditional method of the teacher- centered approach.
Findings from pre- and post tests, pre and post- questionnaires reveals that: i) Collaborative writing activities have improved students’ proficiency in writing skills; ii) the method has positive effects on student’s attitudes and opinions toward writing; iii) the study provides more information concerning the implementation of collaborative writing. It is hope that the thesis will make some contribution to the improvement of learning and teaching writing skill based on collaborative activities. These activities help students feel confident to write paragraph writings. Moreover, they have more opportunities, are more comfortable and more interested in collaborative activities.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CWA: Collaborative Writing Activities TMC: Thai Nguyen Medical College CL: Collaborative Learning LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Checklists of writing tasks in Lifelines- Elementary Table 2: Students’ view on writing lesson before and after the experiment Table 3: The difficulties of students on writing lesson before and after the experiment Table 4: Students’ opinions about the way they like to do writing in class Table 5: Students’ opinions of writing in English Table 6: Students’ opinions on collaborative writing activities Figure 1: Stages of the process approach to writing Figure 2: Pre- test results of both groups Figure 3: Post- test results of both groups Figure 4: Pre and post test results of the experimental group LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements. iii Table of contents. iv List of abbreviations .vi List of tables and figures.vii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study.
Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Methods of the study. Design of the study .2 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.
Theoretical Backgrounds of paragraph writing performance. What is paragraph writing performance. Approaches to teaching paragraph writing skills in foreign language…. Theoretical backgrounds of Collaborative writing activities.
Definition of Collaborative Writing. Roles of collaborative activities in writing .7 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Collaborative writing activities. Using collaborative writing in the classroom.
Elements of collaborative writing. Previous studies of collaborative writing. Restatement of Research question. Setting of the study and Participants.
Setting of the study. The experimental program…………. Data collection instruments. Data collection procedures.
Data analysis procedures .19 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3. Findings and discussions. From the writing tests. From the questionnaires.25 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Correlation between questionnaire and test scores…………. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further study .XVII LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION This part presents: rationale, aims, research questions, scope, methods and design of the study.Rationale Among the four basic language skills for learners: listening, speaking, reading and writing, writing skills has been currently paid much attention to because writing is regarded as highly significant in civilized societies. Writing does not only help learners to convey or express their own ideas but also makes learners become good thinkers.
However, it is difficult to achieve. Most students at TMC are from mountainous provinces. So, they are less exposed to English. Their ability to use English writing is limited.
In addition, their learning condition is not adequate. Moreover, teaching methods in writing are not suitable. Students often work individually. This leads to bad results.
There are some methods have applied in teaching writing at TMC. However, CWA do not seem to be applied here. Meanwhile, CWA are catching on. CWA seem to attract a lot of attention and become more popular.
Students who work in collaborative work also appear more satisfied with the classes. In writing, collaborative activities can involve not only brainstorming, but writing together and correcting one another’s writing as well. Thus, I want to investigate whether the use of CWA can be effective in developing their English paragraph writing. This is the main reason that encourage me to choose the thesis: “Improving English Paragraph writing performance by the second- year students at Thai Nguyen Medical College through collaborative writing activities” 2.Aims/ Objectives of the study The study is aimed at: - Investigating whether the use of CWA can be effective in developing their English paragraph writing skills.
- Providing some suggestions and implications for the improvement of writing teaching at TMC through CWA. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Research Questions This study is implemented to find answers to the following research question: “How collaborative learning contribute to improving paragraph- writing performance by the second- year- students at Thai Nguyen Medical College?” 4. Scope of the study The author only carries out this study involving 40 second- year- students at TMC.
The study also mainly focuses on the effectiveness in using collaborative writing and the activities used in helping students work well in writing lessons to the second year students at TMC. Methodology The method applied in this study is an experimental research. Pre- test and post- test are delivered to students to obtain their changes in English paragraph writing level. In addition, two survey questionnaires are used to collect information and evidence for the study.
Design of the study The study consists of the following three main parts: Part A, the introduction: the presenting the rationale, aims, research question, scope, methods and design of the study. Part B, the development is organized into three chapters. Chapter I presents the basic theoretical background of paragraph writing performance, collaborative writing activities, using collaborative activities in teaching and learning writing and previous studies of collaborative writing. Chapter II presents the methodology, setting of the study, participants, provides an overview of the current situation of teaching and learning paragraph writing at TMC and data collection.
Chapter III presents some findings and recommendations, discusses the finding of the research and suggests practical recommendations for improvement of using collaborative writing activities in the writing class of the second year students at TMC. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 Part C is the conclusion which includes the recapitulation, conclusions of the study, limitations of the study, pedagogical implication and suggestions for further studies are also included in this part. The thesis has been done firstly to make some contribution to the improvement of teaching paragraph writing at TMC. The other aim of the study is that it suggests some suitable collaborative writing activities to improve writing skills for students.
The thesis also gives us more opportunities to study and research. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presents the basic theoretical background of paragraph writing performance, collaborative writing activities, using collaborative activities in teaching and learning writing and previous studies of collaborative writing. Theoretical backgrounds of paragraph writing performance 1. What is paragraph writing performance? There are numerous definitions of paragraph writing performance by different methodologists.
Each definition is a reflection of the underlying theories or perspective that the authors assume. According to Scott ( 2008), a paragraph is an element that allows to develop a single idea and that it is a group of sentences that are related among them, in which a though can be expressed, defined and developed in a coherent way. In addition, Scott and Denny (1909), paragraph writing can be regarded as the “unit of discourse developing a single idea. It consists of a group or series of sentences closely related to one another and to the thought expressed by the whole group or series” and” Devoted, like the sentence, to the development of one topic, a good paragraph is also, like a good essay, a complete treatment in itself.
In language teaching, Tribble (1996: 3) considered paragraph writing as “ a language skill which is difficult to acquire”. The above definitions different views of different authors on paragraph writing. I subscribe to the views that a paragraph is a basic unit of organization in writing in which a group of related sentences develops one main idea, the topic of the paragraph, paragraph writing performance itself may imply an act, a process or a skill, which needs practice and study to develop. *Structure of a Paragraph: Walter (2000) mentions that the structure of a paragraph must contain three parts : topic sentence, body sentences, and concluding sentence.
The topic sentence is one sentence that introduces the topic and expresses the main idea of a paragraph. Supportive sentences support topic sentence. The writing should be precise, correct purposeful, clear, concise and meaningful. The concluding sentence: The last sentence of your paragraph is important and it often restates the idea expressed in the topic LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
There are various characteristics of good paragraph: unity, coherence, length, and adequate development 1. Approaches to teaching paragraph writing skills in foreign language Ann Raimes (1983, pp. 5- 10) presents following approaches to teaching writing: (i) The Control - to- Free Approach The Control- to- Free Approach in writing emphasized speech and writing served to achieve mastery of grammatical or syntactic rules. Here, the students are given sentence exercises, then paragraphs to copy or manipulate grammatically.