MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ TRAN THI TO A STUDY ON 11TH GRADERS’ REFLECTIONS ON THE PROCESS OF EMAIL WRITING IN ENGLISH AT GIO LINH HIGH SCHOOL IN QUANG TRI PROVINCE MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ TRAN THI TO A STUDY ON 11TH GRADERS’ REFLECTIONS ON THE PROCESS OF EMAIL WRITING IN ENGLISH AT GIO LINH HIGH SCHOOL IN QUANG TRI PROVINCE MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60. LE PHAM HOAI HUONG HUE, 2018 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ -------- TRẦN THỊ TƠ NGHIÊN CỨU PHẢN ÁNH CHIÊM NGHIỆM VỀ QUÁ TRÌNH HỌC VIẾT EMAIL BẰNG TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH KHỐI 11 TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG GIO LINH, TỈNH QUẢNG TRỊ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS. LÊ PHẠM HOÀI HƯƠNG HUE, 2018 ii STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Hue, 24/ 11 / 2018 Trần Thị Tơ iii ABSTRACT This study aims to explore how students learnt to write emails in English, their reflections on the process of learning to write emails in English and the difficulties that they faced during their learning to write emails. Questionnaire, reflective journal and interview were employed to collect data. The questionnaire was delivered to 100 students. After this, 20 of these students were invited to write reflective journals and then ten of them were invited to participate in the interviews.
The data from the questionnaire were analyzed quantitatively and presented in tables and charts, while information from the reflective journals and interviews was quoted and analyzed qualitatively. The study found that students had good awareness about email writing skills in the classroom. They shared their viewpoints on the process of learning to write emails in English both negatively and positively, with positive opinions outweighing negative ones. The students always tried their best to cooperate with their teacher in email writing activities and participated in the lessons with high enthusiasm.
Mostly, they showed their satisfaction on the process of how they were taught to write email in English and stated that they felt comfortable with learning environment at school. The findings also indicated that students at this high school had positive attitudes toward email writing skills and tended to accept their difficulties as a motivation in their language classes. Based on the findings of the study, implications were put forward to how to teach and learn to write emails in English effectively. iv This study would not be done without the encouragement and assistance of many people.
I wish to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to people who have advised and supported me, and made constructive criticism during the research. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Le Pham Hoai Huong for her insightful advice, professional guidance and warm encouragement. She has always been tolerant providing me with helpful suggestions, feedback, and directing me to resolve all the problems.
Without her assistance and constant support, this thesis could never have been accomplished. I sincerely thank the students at Gio Linh high school for completing the questionnaires, reflective journals and interviews with valuable information for this research. Also, I am very grateful to the teachers at this high school who spent their time listening to and supporting me during the time of data delivery and collection. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Board of Director, the Library Staff, and my appreciation goes to all my coursework instructors at Hue University of Foreign Languages, who generously contributed to my academic experiences and demonstrated to me how to be a good teacher.
I would like them to know how their concern and involvement were valued and appreciated. This thesis project would not be also completed without the warm support from my dear family and friends. My parents’ support has provided me with the strength to deal with the challenges of being an undergraduate, a full-time teacher, a wife and a mother all at the same time. Finally, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my kind husband for all his understanding, faith, and sacrifice during the time I was conducting this research.
Thank you all: my beloved supervisor, my parents, my friends, my husband and my son. Without their support, all of this work could not have been completed. v TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP. v TABLE OF CONTENTS.
vi LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS. ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. Organization of the thesis. What is writing?.
English writing teaching in the Vietnamese context. Email writing teaching in the context of Gio Linh high school. What is Email?. The importance of emails.
The practice of teaching email writing at Gio Linh high school. Difficulties of teaching and learning email writing in English at Gio Linh high school. Learning how to write emails in English. Characteristics of emails.
Structure of an email. Issues in learning to write emails in English. Factors influencing email writing in EFL classes. Teaching techniques of Email writing.
Definition of reflection. The process of reflection. Review of related studies .2 Students’ reflective journals. Procedures of the study.
Research reliability and validity. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Analysis of data from the questionnaire. How students learn to write emails in English.
Students’ perceptions of teacher’s efforts in encouraging students to learn email writing in English. Students’ perceptions of teacher’s methods in teaching students how to write emails in English. Students’ ways of learning to write emails in English in their writing classes. Students’ perceptions of teacher’s feedback on students’ email writings 47 4.
Students’ reflections on learning to write emails in English. Students’ difficulties in learning to write emails in English. Students’ perceptions of teacher’s methods in the email writing classes 56 4. Students’ perceptions of their language knowledge in learning email writing.
Students’ worries when receiving feedback. CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES. Summary of the key findings. Implications for teaching practice.
Implications for student learning. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further studies. 83 viii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table Table 4.1: The reliability of the questionnaire .2 Mean score of questionnaire for students .3: Teacher’s efforts in encouraging students to learn email writing in English.4: One-Sample Test.
Teacher’s effort in encouraging students to learn email writing in English.6: Teacher’s methods in instructing students how to write emails in English .7: Students’ ways of learning to write emails in English. Teacher’s feedback on students’ email writings. Teacher’s methods in the email writing classes:. Students’ worries when receiving feedback.
Teacher’s methods in teaching students how to write emails in English 38 Chart 4. Students’ ways of learning to write emails in English. Teacher’s feedback for students’ email writings. Teachers’ methods in the email writing classes .5: Students’ language proficiency in learning email writing.
Students’ worries when receiving feedback .64 ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English as a Foreign Language ESL : English as a second language L2 : Second Language x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Globalization has considerably influenced the use of English throughout the world (Crystal, 2003). Undoubtedly, it has become a language of global communication. For many decades, English is the dominant international language in science, entertainment, communication, diplomacy, etc.
Therefore, studying English has become an essential demand for everybody and it is also a compulsory subject in the curriculum in most countries. In the context of teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL), writing skill is important. Brown (2001) considered writing in L2 one of the most essential skills. Writing provides a relatively permanent record of information, opinions, beliefs, feelings, arguments, explanations, theories because it is the most important invention in human history (Carroll, 1990).
Writing allows us to share our communication not only with our contemporaries, but also with future generations. Hence, it can be seen as an integral part to save cultural and human’s spiritual values. In addition, writing skill can stimulate thinking, compel students to concentrate and organize their ideas, and cultivate their ability to summarize, analyze, and criticize. Consequently, they can develop their critical thinking and contribute to the development of printed document, book and internet, which help people to connect together.
Along with many other kinds of writing such as essays, reports, letters, descriptions, etc., email writing can be seen as a necessary writing skill for students at high school. It has been so far the most popular and useful tool for foreign language teaching and learning (Chaffee-Sorace, 1999; Levy, 1997). In the light of educational context and the integral role of emails in the real life, my assumption is that emails can be a necessary mean to support learners due to its potential benefits and demanding. First, email writing is one of the compulsory parts in writing skills in current text book Tieng Anh 11 (new version).
These English textbooks with three sets 10, 1 11 and 12 have been piloted in my school and some other upper-secondary schools in Quang Tri Province. Like English 10 and 12, English 11 is divided into two volumes with five units in each one. In comparison with the textbook old version, there are four same sections Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing and Language with four new ones Getting started, Communication and Culture, Looking back and Project (see Appendix 1). Most of the topics seem to be familiar with students such as family, the environment, education, volunteer, etc, which are useful for the students and make them interested in.
For writing section, the main topics focus on how to write essays, stories, letters, posting, articles and emails. Obviously, email writing is a demanding skill for all upper- secondary students in their current curriculum (see Appendix 2). Second, the development of information and communication technology along with the widespread use of the internet has rapidly promoted email writing as a common interpersonal communication medium. With its high transmission speed, email has been widely used for both personal communication and institutional communication (Baron, 2000; Crystal, 2001).
However, teaching and learning effective email writing remains challenging for both teachers and students because 45 minutes in a writing class seems to be limited for teacher and students to go through stages of writing process as planning, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. In addition, constraints of time prevent students from using the target language to discuss in class. Thirdly, students’ learning to write emails in English has been explored in a number of the previous studies (see chapter 2). However, most studies have focused on the importance of emails in learning and working while the studies involving high school students’ email writing and their reflections have been minimal.
It cannot be denied the necessary role of email writing at schools, but students’ reflection on the process of learning this type of writing should be also paid attention to. Basing on what students’ reflections, both learners and teachers could find out the more effective ways of teaching and learning.