VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HẰNG AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY ON KEEPING A WRITING JOURNAL TO IMPROVE ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS' WRITING AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN YENBAI PROVINCE (NGHIÊN CỨU CẢI TIẾN SƯ PHẠM VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG NHẬT KÝ GHI CHÉP ĐỂ NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG VIẾT CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 11 Ở MỘT TRƯỜNG THPT TỈNH YÊN BÁI) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 HÀ NỘI- 2018 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HẰNG AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY ON KEEPING A WRITING JOURNAL TO IMPROVE ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS' WRITING AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN YENBAI PROVINCE (NGHIÊN CỨU CẢI TIẾN SƯ PHẠM VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG NHẬT KÝ GHI CHÉP ĐỂ NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG VIẾT CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 11 Ở MỘT TRƯỜNG THPT TỈNH YÊN BÁI) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: EnglishTeaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Supervisor: Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã, PhD. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com HÀ NỘI - NĂM 2018 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled " An action research study on keeping a writing journal to improve 11th grade students’ writing at a high school in Yen Bai province" submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Teaching Methodology.
Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis. Hanoi, 2018 Nguyen Thi Hang Approved by SUPERVISOR. i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people. First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Vu Thi Thanh Nha, PhD, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher.
Next, a special word of thanks goes to Mrs Phan Thi Kim Phuong- my collaborator and many others, without whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished. Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my husband and my children for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This research is the investigation of the predominant problems in learning writing at a high school in Yenbai province and the implementation of new technique to deal with situation, which, in this case, is journal writing. The primary purpose of the study is an attempt to find out how to apply journal writing in teaching writing to the 11th grade students and to what extent the journal writing impacted on the students‟ attitudes and their writing performances.
Action research was adopted in research and conducted in two cycles: cycle 1 and cycle 2. The study data were collected by means of informal interviews, observation checklists and field notes. The result indicated that the problems in students were the lack of practice, low writing attitudes, ideas limitation, lexico- grammar mistakes. After implementing the journal writing, analysing the collected data, it finds that (1) there were positive changes in students‟ attitudes toward writing (2) there was an improvement of the time to generate ideas in students.
Two weaknesses were found out at the first cycle: first, some students were demotivated and reluctant to write. Second, many students found difficulties in vocabulary mastery and grammar structures. Dealing with those weaknesses, the researchers used grammar review strategy. The findings showed that the students were motivated in writing and writing journals, they also got progress of the students‟ writing performances.
Moreover, students built themselves their own writing habits as well as created an intimate study environment in class. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L1: First language L2: Second language CEFR: Common European Framework for Reference M.A : Master of Arts VNU: Vietnam National University GCSE: General Certificate of Secondary Education LIST OF TABLES Table 3.Number of students with scores below average. Time to think about the ideas in students. Students' positive attitudes and negative attitudes toward journal .45 LIST OF CHARTS Chart 3.
Manifestation of students‟ attention to the teacher‟s lecture. Manifestation of the students‟ positive response to journal writing. Time to think about the ideas in students .40 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages DECLARATION. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
iv LIST OF TABLES. iv LIST OF CHARTS. iv PART A: INTRODUCTION. Aims of the study.
Methods of the study. Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Design of the study .6 CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Approaches of teaching writing. The controlled writing approach. The freewriting approach. The paragraph-pattern approach .The process approach.
The communicative approach .11 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Definitions of journal. Benefits of Journal writing. Overview of previous studies related to journal in teaching writing.
Social functions of Recount texts. Generic structures of Recount texts. The language features of Recount texts .19 CHAPTER TWO : METHODOLOGY .1 Description of school and facilities.2 Description of the students. Description of English teachers.
Description of textbook, curriculum, testing and assessment. Semi structured interview. Pre -test and students' journals. Techniques of analyzing the data.
Time of the research .28 CHAPTER THREE : RESEARCH FINDINGS.29 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Identifying the problem. Suggested solutions for problems of research. Overview and summary of the thesis.
Limitations of study. IX vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale English plays an important role in most of the world‟s entire population‟s lives. It can be used to develop a relationship in international forums and to strengthen the link between the nations in the world.
It is also used for job prospect, promotions, academic function, and business interactions. Consequently, many people tend to master English to be more competitive in globalization. With the goal of using English as a second language, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education approved a 10-year National Plan for “Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the National Formal Educational System in the Period of 2008-2020” (Decision N˚1400, 2008) shown ". By the year 2020 most Vietnamese youth who ever graduate from vocational schools, colleges and universities gain the capacity to use a foreign language independently.
Obviously, to be acknowledged as having mastery in English, the language learners should master the four language skills including receptive skills, such as listening and reading, and productive skills, such as speaking and writing. It means that students should be able to use English either receptively or productively and writing as one of the four language skills is a part of syllabus in English teaching. However, Harmer (2004) states that making good writing is more complex than producing speaking. Different from speaking, writing is more difficult to acquire because there are many aspects related to writing which need to be mastered, such as organization, mechanics, and grammar.
In fact, being able to speak in English is not enough, people sometimes need written form. In the globalization era, many aspects of life need writing skill as a part of the requirements. However, based on the observations conducted by the researcher while doing the research in a high school in Yen Bai province, the researcher found out that there were some problems appeared in the English teaching and learning. Among the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, the writing skills should be given more attention.
1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Firstly, the students' motivation to write was low. Some students were unconfident and reluctant to write. They found writing boring, difficult to learn and hard to write well with a specific topicor task. They had little experience of writing and might be very anxious about having to write marked by a tutor.
Most students even judged themselves that they were not good at writing. They thought that they did not have talents in writing. Actually, those kinds of thoughts often burdened themselves and influenced their attitudes towards writing. So, the result was that they tried to avoid writing, and when they did the writing, they did not give their best effort.
Secondly, students' writing ability was not good which can be seen from the process of generating ideas, grammatical features, and organization and vocabulary. Predominantly, high school students had difficulties in generating ideas mostly. The students did not know what they to do and what to write. When starting to write, the students often ran out of the ideas and they took a plenty of time to think it out and they even did not remember how to write some common words and when they had already got the ideas of what to write about, the limit of vocabulary, grammar, and sentence organization made them dificult to convey their ideas properly.
In addition, the lack of practice was the problem. The teacher did not give enough writing practices both in the classroom and outside the classroom. Teacher rarely gave the students opportunities to experience the process of writing and merely explained the theories of making good pieces of writing without actual practices. Based on the phenomena above, the teacher needs to find alternative teaching techniques which can encourage and motivate the students in the writing class, and also can improve their writing skills.
Langan (2008 & 2011) states that writing is a skill, it makes sense that the more they practice to write, the better their writing will be. He also proposes that keeping a journal can be an excellent way to 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com get practice in writing. Since the main problems, in this case, are the students' lack of practices, their low writing attitudes, limitation of vocabulary and grammar knowledge, this urges the researcher to conduct the minor research. “An action research study on keeping a writing journal to improve 11th grade students’ writing at a high school in Yen Bai province” 2.
Aims of the study With the above rationale, the main aim of this research is to change in students' attitudes toward writing and their writing performances. To achieve this aim, some specific objectives are defined as follows: (1) To identify the problems rising before and during research (2) To find out how to implement journal writing (3) To show how students‟ attitudes and their performances are improved after being taught to write journals 3. Research questions The study is carried out in order to find the answers for one research question: How effective is journal writing in improving students' attitudes and their writing performances? 4. Methods of the study In order to achieve these objectives, this research adapts an action research which is conducted in two cycles.
The qualitative data is collected through observations and fieldnotes to measure students' attitudes and their performances in writing lessons. Besides, informal interviews with students are carried out to collect more information and to reinforce the findings from observations. Scope of the study This study aims at implementing journal writing and the effects of journal writing on 11th grade students‟ writing in a class at a high school in Yen Bai province. However, because of time and my knowledge, I could not cover all 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com aspects of this theme.