iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement Abstract PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Method of the study.
Design of the study. 2 PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter ONE: Literature Review 1. An overview of teaching writing. Writing and Teaching writing in a foreign language class.
Major approaches to teaching writing. The product approach ……………………………………. The process approach ……………………………………… 11 2. Adaptation the textbook.
The English textbook. The aims of the New textbook of English ……………………16 3. An overview of the Writing part of English 11 ……………. Challenges of teaching and learning writing of English 11…18 4.
Conclusion ……………………………………………………………19 Chapter TWO: DATA COLLECTION, FINDINGS, DISCUSSIONS 1. The context of the study .… 20 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Setting of the study. Subjects of the study .Methods and instruments.
Teachers’ perception and evaluation on adaptation of the Writing Part of English 11. Students’ ideas on how their teachers adapt the Writing Part of English 11. Conclusion of the major findings .27 Chapter THREE: AN EXAMPLE OF ADAPTATION OF THE WRITING PART OF ENGLISH 11 …………………………………………………………. Recommendations and suggestion.
Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further study.45 APPENDIXES LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale English, one of the most popular foreign languages in Vietnam, began to be used widely in education and in daily-life activities. As a matter of fact, the status of foreign languages, particularly English, was reconfirmed by the Order number 1400/QĐ-TTg, signed by the Prime Minister (September, 30th 2008).
It is suggested that English should be taught from grade 3th. It is obviously seen that the objectives of the new textbook provides adequate contribution to 4 language skills, but in fact, for many Vietnamese students, learning writing and having a good writing production are substantial challenges. They have difficulties in learning writing and may be anxious about having a writing lesson in class. To the best of my knowledge, if teachers of English only use what is presented in the textbook, students usually find it difficult to study and are not keen on writing tasks.
Most of the students of Nguyen Van Cu upper-secondary school are at average level and have little background knowledge. They don‟t pay much attention to writing in English, especially at grade 11th. To some extent, all writing topics in English 10 are more familiar to students than those in English 11. English 11 requires students to be more active and spend more time for free writing than English 10.
Students need to self-study more. In many writing lessons, students are not supported models, just some useful language which is newly presented or was in the previous lessons. That is the reason why this research “An adaptation of the Writing Part of the new textbook: English 11 at Nguyen Van Cu Upper-secondary school” is conducted. The researcher would like to study teaching and learning Writing of English 11 at Nguyen Van Cu upper-secondary school (NVC school) to find out students‟ and teachers‟ difficulties on teaching and learning writing as well as their practice on adapting this part of English 11.
The researcher will show the facts of learning and teaching Writing part of English 11 and an adaptation of this for other teachers of other schools to reference. Therefore, the intention in doing this research is that any textbook needs adapting to meet certain groups of students‟ needs and levels. Aims of the study This study is aimed to: LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 (1) Examine learning and teaching the Writing part of English 11 in NVC school. (2) Explore some ways of adapting the Writing part of English 11 used by teachers at Nguyen Van Cu upper-secondary school to help students study their writing skill better.
Research questions The study was carried out in order to find out the answers to 4 research questions: (1) Do teachers of English and students in Nguyen Van Cu upper-secondary school have difficulties in teaching and learning writing English 11? (2) Do teachers of English in the school often adapt the Writing part of English 11? (3) How do teachers in the school adapt the Writing part of English 11? (4) What are the benefits students can get when their teachers adapt the textbook? 4. Scope of the study The study is focused on only students from the 11th grade in Nguyen Van Cu upper- secondary school, their studying the Writing part of English 11 and the teachers‟ adaptation this part of the textbook. The adaptation of the Writing part of the new textbook: English 11 is helpful to the group of teachers of English and students of 11th grade in Nguyen Van Cu upper-secondary school. It would be able to be a reference to teachers of other schools.
Method of the study This study is conducted in the combination of quantitative and qualitative method. Data were collected by means of survey questionnaires, interviews and classroom observation. The combination of different methods to collect data could provide more reliable and valid information for analysis. Questionnaires of 180 students of English at grade 11 are used to discover the facts of teaching and learning writing with some adaptation.
Interviews and classroom observation of 5 teachers of English teaching writing English 11 are to find out their points of view on adaptation the textbook and to explore the ways to adapt this part so that they can help their students with better writing skill. Design of the study The research consists of three parts. The first part presents the rationale, the statement of the problem, the aims, research questions, the scope of the study, research methods as well as the design of the study. There are two chapters in the second part.
Chapter 1 presents some discussion the New Textbook, an overview of the Writing part in English 11, the need to adapt the textbook and some ways to do this. The readers also can find issues and ideas on approaches to teaching writing, challenges of teaching and LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 learning writing. Chapter 2 presents the context of the study and explains the methodology used in the study including population information, instrumentation, data collection, data procedures, data analysis and findings. The last part summarizes major findings and discussion, implications, limitations and provides recommendations for further study.
PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. An overview of teaching writing 1. Writing and teaching writing in a foreign language classroom LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 Man, in the form of letters, symbols, or words, write to express language. They write for the primary purpose that is communication.
“Good writing gets your ideas out of your head and into the reader's head without losing or distorting those ideas" (Leki 1976: 4); "Writing can be said to be the art of performing graphic symbols" (Byrne 1990: 1) or simply writing is like "making marks on a flat surface of some kind". However, writing is far more complicated process of transforming the material discovered by research inspiration, accident, trial, error or whatever into the message with a decision. Writing is also a difficult activity, both in the mother tongue and in a foreign language. Murray (1978:29) and Perl (1979:43) defined writing as “a creative discovery procedure characterized by the dynamic interplay of content and language: the use of language to explore beyond the known content.” Besides, according to Candlin and Hyland (1999: 107), writing is a social process, an engagement in a social process, where the production of texts “reflects methodologies, arguments and rhetorical strategies constructed to engage colleagues and persuade them of the claims that are made”.
In language teaching, writing along with speaking is defined as the two productive language skills. Penny Ur (1996) said that “most people acquire the spoken language (at least their own mother tongue) intuitively, whereas, the written form is in most cases deliberately taught and learned” (p.161) and “writing normally requires some forms of instruction. It is not a skill that is really picked up by exposure” (p. In short, through writing writers can communicate with some certain audiences.
Teaching students writing skill is not an easy task for all teachers of language in general and teachers of English in particular. Firstly, writing is not only an important form of communication in day-to-day life but also an essential skill for students preparing for further study. At higher levels of education, it is a key aspect of academic literacy that aspiring scholars pursue as part of socialization in their disciplines. Writing is usually a particularly challenging task for students studying English as a foreign language (EFL).
The skills involved are highly complex, while at the same time students‟ cultures have their own norms for structure and rhetoric which are not always compatible with their current English. From our personal experiences as classroom teachers in Vietnam, the author agrees with Hayashi‟s (2005) observation that EFL students‟ writings more often than not end up lacking a clear logical flow and unity, not to mention a persuasive linear argument. A particular classroom LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 writing task which is motivating and manageable to some can turn out to be daunting or impossible for others because students are linguistically of mixed abilities so that. It is understandable that teachers of high school often complain that “writing is the most problematic skill to teach in such classes” (Hess, 2001, p.
It is obvious that writing is a difficult skill because it requires many characteristics which are not necessary for speaking such as formality, well- planned, accuracy and time. Secondly, the nature of writing causes many strategies for writers. Candlin and Hyland (1999:2) pointed out that “every act of writing is thus linked in complex ways to a set of communicative purposes which occur in a context of social, interpersonal and occupational practice”. And “Each act of writing also constructs the reality that it describes, reproducing a particular mode of communication and maintaining the social relationship which it implies”.
Writing is not only a personal but also socio-cultural act of identity whereby writers both signal their membership in what maybe a range of communities of practices as well as express their own creative individuality. I absolutely agree with Raimes that “writing helps our students learn”(Raimes,1983:3). To her point of view, writing can help students reinforce the grammatical structures, idioms and vocabulary that we have been teaching our students. Students will have a chance to be adventurous with the language to go beyond what they have just learned to say, to take risks.
And writing can make students become very involved with the new language, the effort to express ideas and the constant use of eyes, hand and brain is unique way to reinforce learning. In a foreign language class, among the four skills, writing and speaking are productive skills. When we learn a language, we need four skills for to complete communication. The four language skills are related to each other in two ways: the direction of communication (in/out) and the method of communication (spoken or written) Input is sometimes called "reception" and output is sometimes LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 6 called "production".
The purpose of language learning is to improve the speakers' four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, with the base of large vocabulary and good grammar, but this is not the final purpose. The final purpose is to let speakers be able to use the language. For instance, why do people study English? If a man is only good at listening and speaking, can people say that he is good at English? No. If a woman is only good at reading and writing, can people say that she is good at the language? No.