VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---------- MẠC THỊ HUYỀN EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ON THE EFFECT OF SELF-MONITORING TECHNIQUE ON IMPROVING WRITING SKILL AMONG ENGLISH-MAJOR FRESHMEN AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI Nghiên cứu thực nghiệm về hiệu quả của kỹ thuật tự giám sát đối với việc cải thiện kỹ năng viết cho sinh viên năm nhất chuyên Anh tại một trường đại học tại Hà Nội M. MINOR PROGRAM THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 HANOI 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---------- MẠC THỊ HUYỀN EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ON THE EFFECT OF SELF-MONITORING TECHNIQUE ON IMPROVING WRITING SKILL AMONG ENGLISH-MAJOR FRESHMEN AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI Nghiên cứu thực nghiệm về hiệu quả của kỹ thuật tự giám sát đối với việc cải thiện kỹ năng viết cho sinh viên năm nhất chuyên Anh tại một trường đại học tại Hà Nội M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: Dr. TRẦN THỊ THU HIỀN HANOI 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby state that I, Mac Thi Huyen, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the university relating to the retention and use of Master Thesis deposited in the library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper.
Signature i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is my pleasure to thank those who made this thesis possible. Firstly, I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Tran Thi Thu Hien, whose encouragement, guidance and support from the initial to the final level enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject. Secondly, I would like to thank Ms.
Pham Thu Duong and Ms. Le Thi Thu Thuy, two teachers of English at the research site (English Department, a Hanoi- based university) for their invaluable assistance together with professional advice during the research time. Thirdly, this thesis would not have been possible without the enthusiastic participation of 58 English-major freshmen at English Department of the university where the research was carried out. Lastly, I offer my regards and blessings to all of those who supported me in any respect during the completion of the study.
Mac Thi Huyen ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION .v LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLE. vi PART I: INTRODUCTION. Aims and objectives. Scope of the study.
Method of the study .3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT .5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of writing. The roles of writing in a second language. Approaches to the teaching of writing in ESL classes.
The reasons that make writing difficult to master. Definition of self-monitoring. Self-monitoring technique: annotation. Drawbacks of self-monitoring technique.
Review of the previous studies. Rationale for using experimental method. Setting of the study .22 iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The pretest and posttest.
The four writing tasks. The semi-structured interview. Data collection procedures. Data analysis methods.27 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION.
Evaluation of the annotations made by the experimental group students in the four writing tasks. Comparison of the experimental and control groups’ writing performance. Comparison of the experimental and control groups’ writing performance in the pretest. Comparison of the experimental and control groups’ writing performance in the posttest.
The semi-structured interview .35 PART III: CONCLUSIONS. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further studies. IV APPENDIX 1: THE SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS.
IV APPENDIX 2: THE PRETEST. V APPENDIX 3: THE POSTTEST. VI APPENDIX 4: SOME TYPICAL SAMPLES OF STUDENTS’S ANNOTATIONS MADE IN THE FOUR WRITING TASKS.VII APPENDIX 5: A SAMPLE ANNOTATED TEXT. VIII iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This experimental research was conducted at a university in Hanoi within 5 months.
The participants consisted of 58 English-major freshmen. The research aims at investigating the efficiency of self-monitoring technique to student writing performance and explore the students‟ attitudes toward this technique. Self-monitoring in writing was understood as a new learning method in which students annotate their texts with any doubts they have during the writing process and the teacher can give feedback not only on the finished draft but also reply to the students‟ questions. Pretest, posttest, four writing tasks and semi- structured interview are all instruments employed by the researcher.
The findings reveal that the students can be trained to use self-monitoring effectively. The annotations they made in their compositions grew both in quantity and quality in terms of content, organization and language form. Self- monitoring was successful in improving student writing proficiency. Their writing scores significantly increased from pretest to posttest.
The majority of the students took a positive attitude toward self-monitoring. They believed in the efficacy of self-monitoring in spite of some difficulties at the beginning and recommended the continuation of self-monitoring for the next school year with more training time as well as more self-monitoring models. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for future studies are drawn out based on the research findings. v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLE Page Chart 1.1: Producing a Piece of Writing (Raimes, 1983: 6) .2: Stages of Writing in “The Process Approach” .1: Annotations made by the students during the four writing tasks .2: Descriptive statistics for the pretest score of the two groups .3: Independent samples t-test of the pretest score between the two groups .4: Descriptive statistics for the posttest score of the two groups .5: Independent samples t-test of the posttest score between the two groups.
33 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART I: INTRODUCTION This part is dedicated to introducing the rationale of the study, the problem to be addressed in the study, the aims and objectives of the study, and the research questions to be answered. It will also present the scope of the study, an overview of the employed methods and the design of the study. Rationale Writing is considered a complicated and multifaceted task. Good writing involves thinking that may lead the writer to express himself/herself in a more effective way.
For learners of English, writing is a vital skill, one of the main criteria to measure a learner‟s second language proficiency. Unfortunately, writing is a difficult skill which is not easy to be improved. Therefore, various approaches to teaching writing have been recommended to help cope with this problem. Of all, self-monitoring is a technique the effectiveness of which is a controversial issue among many researchers.
As a matter of fact, there exists some research on self-monitoring in teaching. However, little attention has been paid to self-monitoring in writing teaching. In Vietnam, self-monitoring remains a totally new concept which has not been researched in academic papers. Hopefully, this thesis will help shed light on the effect of self-monitoring in writing class in the specific context of a university in Vietnam.
The context chosen by the researcher to conduct this research is English Department of a Hanoi-based university. The participants all are first-year majors. Of the four language skills taught here, writing is regarded as not only challenging but also boring by the mainstream first-year major students. The students encounter numerous difficulties when being asked to produce in-class texts.
It is actually hard for them to produce a high quality text due to such reasons as language incompetence, lack of motivation and a traditionally passive way of learning. They tend to ignore writing and pay more attention to the three other language skills. As a result, the students have fewer opportunities of success at academic writing when they move to higher levels in the later years 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com despite adequate oral communication skills. This long term consequence is serious and worth being taken into consideration.
How to teach the first year English-major students to write well is a question posed in the many past years drawing a lot of attention from the teachers. With the desire for enhancing the quality of writings produced by major freshmen as well as developing learners‟ autonomy, the researcher decides to carry out the thesis “Experimental Research on the Effect of Self-Monitoring Technique on Improving Writing Skill among English-Major Freshmen at a University in Hanoi” by applying the self-monitoring technique in practice in two writing classes. This study is hoped to be successful and bring about feasible applications towards upgrading the learning and teaching writing for English-major freshmen at this university as well as at other universities. Aims and objectives The research aims at investigating the effect of self-monitoring technique on improving writing skill among English-major freshmen at a university in Hanoi.
This fundamental aim can be achieved when the two following objectives are met. The first objective of the study is to find out the effects of self-monitoring technique on the students‟ writing improvement. Next, the researcher wishes to explore the students‟ attitudes towards self-monitoring technique. Scope of the study The scope of the research has been made quite clear from the title: “Experimental research on the effect of self-monitoring technique on improving writing skill among English-major freshmen at a university in Hanoi.” Firstly, the research focuses on “self-monitoring technique in writing.” To be more specific, it refers to the process in which students write notes or annotations on their writings before handing it to the teacher.
This will help students place themselves in the position of readers, not only writers. As for teachers, self-monitoring technique gives them an opportunity to offer feedback 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com not only on the finished draft but also on the queries which emerge during the writing process. Secondly, it is noteworthy that the subjects of the study are restricted to first- year students at Faculty of English of a university in Hanoi. Therefore, all the generalizations just serve to apply to the direct context.
Research questions This research focuses on answering the following questions: 1. What are the effects of self-monitoring technique on English-major freshmen‟s writing performance? 2. What are these students‟ attitudes towards self-monitoring technique? 5. Method of the study As can be seen from the title, this research is an experimental one which is participated by 58 English-major freshmen equivalent to an experimental group and a control group at a university in Hanoi, Vietnam and implemented within five months.
The findings are reported based on the students‟ scores on pre-test, post-test, the number of annotations obtained from four writing tasks in combination with the students‟ responses in the semi-structured interview. Besides these main instruments, classroom observation is made use of to get further information. In the last place, constant discussions with the supervisor and colleagues are of great significance. Design of the study The study is divided into three main parts: Part I (Introduction) includes the rationale, the aims and objectives, the scope, the research questions, the method and the design of the study.
Part II (Development) consists of chapters as follows -Chapter 1 (Literature review) presents the theoretical background of the study and the review of the previous studies. - Chapter 2 (Methodology) describes in detail the research methodology which consists of the context of the study, the information of the subjects, 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com instruments of data collection, procedures of data collection and methods of data analysis. - Chapter 3 (Results and Discussion) reports the statistical results and the analysis of the data.