VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** PHẠM THỊ LAN HƢƠNG USING PEER FEEDBACK ON ENHANCING WRITING PARAGRAPH SKILLS FOR STUDENTS AT GRADE 12 IN LUONG THE VINH HIGH SCHOOL, HANOI: ACTION RESEARCH Sử dụng hình thức “sửa lỗi đồng đẳng” nhằm nâng cao kĩ năng viết đoạn cho học sinh lớp 12 trƣờng THPT Lƣơng Thế Vinh, Hà Nội: Nghiên cứu hành động M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hà Nội - 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** PHẠM THỊ LAN HƢƠNG USING PEER FEEDBACK ON ENHANCING WRITING PARAGRAPH SKILLS FOR STUDENTS AT GRADE 12 IN LUONG THE VINH HIGH SCHOOL, HANOI: ACTION RESEARCH Sử dụng hình thức “sửa lỗi đồng đẳng” nhằm nâng cao kĩ năng viết đoạn cho học sinh lớp 12 trƣờng THPT Lƣơng Thế Vinh, Hà Nội: Nghiên cứu hành động M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. ĐỖ MINH HOÀNG Hà Nội - 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I, hereby certify that the thesis entitled “Using peer feedback on enhancing writing paragraph skills for students at grade 12 in Luong The Vinh high school, Ha Noi - Action research” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master at the University of Languages and International Studies, Viet Nam National University, and this thesis has not been submitted for any other degrees.
Ha Noi, 2017 Phạm Thị Lan Hương i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like primarily to thank Dr. Đỗ Minh Hoàng for helping me complete this study. This paper would not have been possible without his constant support and encouragement. His patience and helpful criticism helped me confidently express my ideas into this paper.
I regard myself extremely fortunate in having him as my dissertation supervisor. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to all my lecturers at the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies for their valuable lectures which have helped me a great deal in gaining a lot of theoretical as well as practical knowledge. My special thanks go to my dear students at grade 12V3, Luong The Vinh high school, Hanoi who has helped me enthusiastically in writing lessons by applying the new technique and doing questionnaire carefully. Finally, I would also like to express my deep gratitude and love to my devoted parents, my brother, my husband and my friends who gave me time and encouraged me to complete this study.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of peer feedback in writing lessons of the grade 12 students at Luong The Vinh high school and the student‟s attitudes towards using this new technique. The participants included one English teacher who is also the researcher and 10 non-major English students from the class 12V3. The participants took part in the intervention stage in an action research which the new technique was applied in the first semester of grade 12. The data were collected through the student‟s feedback form in 7 weeks and survey questionnaire for students.
The results showed that peer feedback improved considerably students‟ writing skills in the frequency of making mistakes. In addition, the study also indicated that most of the students had positive attitudes toward this new technique. Some pedagogical implications, limitations and suggestions for further studies were included in this study. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iii LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS. vii LISTS OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS. viii PART I: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the study.
Aims of the study. The scope of the study. The method of the study. Significance of the study.
The structure of the thesis. 5 PART II: DEVELOPMENT. 6 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. The nature of writing .1 The product approach.2 The process approach .3 The genre approach.
12 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.2 Advantages of using peer feedback .3 Disadvantages of using peer feedback .4 Related studies on using peer feedback in writing lesson .2 Nunan‟s action research model.3 Action research procedure for this study. Data collection instruments .2 Student‟s feedback form.2 The teacher – the researcher. The procedure of data collection. 30 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION.
The effectiveness of peer feedback in writing skill .1 The result of pre-test and post - test .2 Frequency of making mistakes. Attitudes of students towards using peer feedback in writing lessons .1 Student‟s general attitude towards using peer feedback in the writing lessons .2 Student‟s attitude towards the benefits of using peer feedback in writing lessons .3 The student‟s view on the use of peer feedback in the future. 37 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. 38 PART III: CONCLUSION.
Summary of the study. Limitations and suggestions for further research. I APPENDIX 1: PRE- QUESTIONNAIRE. I APPENDIX 2: POST- QUESTIONNAIRE.
III APPENDIX 3: DATA ON PRE-QUESTIONNAIRE. V APPENDIX 4: DATA ON POST – QUESTIONNAIRE. VII APPENDIX 5: STUDENT FEEDBACK FORM. IX APPENDIX 6: DETAILED ACTION PLAN.
X vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS ELT: English Language Teaching ESL: English Second Language L2: Second language vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LISTS OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS Figure 1: Action research cycle. 20 Table 1: Schedule of data collecting procedure. 29 Chart 1: Total number of mistakes in pre-test and post- test. 31 Table 2: Total number of mistakes identified by teacher and students.
32 Chart 2: Student‟s interest in peer feedback. 35 Table 3: Student‟s attitude towards the benefits of peer feedback. 36 Chart 3: Student‟s attitudes towards benefits of peer feedback. 36 Chart 4: Student‟s view on using peer feedback in the future.
37 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART I: INTRODUCTION In this part, the researcher will present the rationale of the study, the aims and objectives, the research questions, the scope, the significance, the method and the structure of the thesis. Rationale of the study Today, the importance of English is undeniable since English is used as an effective medium of international communication in the global context. With the help of technology, English has been playing a major role in many fields covering education, trade, science, technology, tourism, sport, entertainment and many other sectors of life. Besides, the need of learning the language has increased markedly with various purposes including business, foreign travel or academic study.
In order to meet this demand, teaching and learning English clearly becomes a key factor. In process of learning English, writing is obviously one of the most important skills. According to Nunan (1999), writing is “an extremely complex cognitive activity in which the writer is required to demonstrate controls of variables simultaneously”. White and Arndt (1991) state that “Writing is far from being a simple matter of transcribing language into written symbols: it is thinking process in its own right.
It is a permanent record, as a form of expression and as a means of communication”. The conclusion drawn out from the ideas above that writing is a really complex process involving different skills such as mental, rhetorical, psychological and critical aspects. From 1945 onwards, English has been taught and used in Vietnam as a foreign language. However, since the early 1990s when English was taught formally as a compulsory subject in Vietnamese educational system, it has gradually gained its popularity among the foreign languages used in Vietnam.
1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com For English learners especially those who are studying in high schools, it is necessary for them to build up a positive attitude in allowing meaningful learning to take place. Nonetheless, productive skills, especially writing is considered to be the “nightmare” for most students at high school. Obviously, writing is predominantly product – oriented, and it requires a huge amount of individual work. In Vietnamese high schools, there seems to be a little or no interaction among students in classroom activities, especially in writing lessons.
For most of time, the teacher gives the instructions, and then provides structures and vocabulary. After that, students practice by doing exercises or writing essays by themselves. Besides, only the teacher gives comments and does the correcting work. However, with a really big size of a class (range from 40 to more than 50 students), the teacher has to make enormous effort to complete the marking and correcting task.
In reality, it is a time – consuming and stressful job. Thus, it is important to identify a class activity that not only could partly reduce the pressure and stress for the teacher, but also could open up the golden opportunities for students to enhance the skill of recognizing and correcting the mistakes simultaneously. Using peer feedback has been proved to be effective in learning and teaching English, but has attracted little attention in writing lessons at high schools. From my point of view, students read and comment on each other‟s writing, to some extent, increases their chances for interacting and improving their social relations and boosting their self-confidence and motivation as well.
After that, students could learn a lot through their peer‟s errors. Therefore, using peer feedback may make the writing lessons more interesting and effective. Since 2014, the National high school graduation examination for students at grade 12 in early July includes the writing section in the English test. This, 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com without doubt, becomes a challenge for majority of students since writing is a complex and difficult skill.
In addition, very few students in class V3 of Luong The Vinh high school are interested in writing lesson. Most of students in this class prefer scientific subjects and tend to use the result of Math, Physics and Chemistry for university examination. Consequently, they ignore or underestimate English. They are usually fed up with English lessons and are often under high pressure of writing.
Consequently, it is essential to find an effective way to improve the students‟ writing skill as well as gain student‟s interest and vary writing class activities. That is the reason why I decided to work on “Using peer feedback on enhancing writing paragraph skills for students at grade 12, Luong The Vinh high school, Hanoi: Action research” for my thesis. Aims of the study The researcher carries out this study with two purposes. Firstly, the study aims at investigating the student‟s attitudes towards using peer feedback in their writing lessons.
Secondly, the study explores the effectiveness of using peer feedback in writing lessons in the process of enhancing the student‟s improvement in writing. Research questions The study seeks to answer the following two questions: 1. To what extent does peer feedback improve student‟s writing ability? 2. What are student‟s attitudes towards using peer feedback in their writing lesson? 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
The scope of the study The study was conducted at Luong The Vinh high school, Hanoi. Because of limited time, it only focused on examining the effectiveness of using peer feedback in enhancing writing skill and the attitudes of the students towards using peer feedback. This technique is applied for a group of 10 students, in the form of a private tutor group. In terms of samples, the participants were 10 students from class 12V3 in the total of 40 students at Luong The Vinh high school, who were non-English major class and a teacher of English.