VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES DO THI AN THE USE OF PORTFOLIOS TO DEVELOP FIRST YEAR STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL AT FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY “VIỆC SỬ DỤNG HỒ SƠ TẬP BÀI ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN KĨ NĂNG VIẾT CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI THƯƠNG” M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HA NOI – 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ AN THE USE OF PORTFOLIOS TO DEVELOP FIRST YEAR STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL AT FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY “VIỆC SỬ DỤNG HỒ SƠ TẬP BÀI ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN KĨ NĂNG VIẾT CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI THƯƠNG” M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. Nguyễn Đức Hoạt HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACCEPTANCE I hereby state that I, Do Thi An, CH22A, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Master’s Graduation Paper 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 purpose of the study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper. Signature Hanoi - October, 2015 i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This study could not have been completed without the help, encouragement and support from the people who play indispensable roles and have a great influence on the research. First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr.Nguyen Duc Hoat – a sincere and enthusiastic supervisor, for his careful reading, critical comments and useful guidance during my research. His contribution played an integral part in the completion of my study.
Thank to his help and his enthusiasm, I have more inspiration to conquer challenges and complete this research on time. I wish to thank 40 students from two classes – TAN.33 at Foreign Trade University, Hanoi for their cooperation and willing participation in finishing my writing course as well as completing my questionnaire. Last but not least, I am truly grateful to my friends, my colleagues and my family for their continual encouragements during the time I carried out the research. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This study was carried out for two aims – first, to find out the roles of portfolio in teaching and learning EFL writing and its theoretical bases; second, to evaluate the effectiveness of portfolio on developing EFL students’ writing skill and increasing their motivation.
To fulfill the objectives, quasi experimental research was utilized. 40 first- year students were chosen to take part in the experiment – a writing course. They also answered questionnaire and completed self assessment. The collected data then were cautiously analyzed.
The results of this research are, in summary, quite positive. Using portfolio, as a complementary to traditional tests, in teaching and assessing EFL writing was recommended and that assessment should be an integral part of the teaching process. The study concluded that writing portfolio is found to be an effective instructional strategy to improve students’ writing skill and enhances their English writing motivation. In addition, portfolio assessment strategy allows students to create a bridge between their teacher and themselves when students get feedback from their peer and teacher.
Based on the findings of the study, one extremely important recommendation is that portfolio should be planned and implemented by EFL teachers in writing classes at Foreign Trade University. Though the limitations have been unavoidable, the study is expected to be beneficial to teachers, students and researchers of the related studies. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS ACCEPTANCE. III TABLE OF CONTENTS.
IV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. V LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES. VI PART A: INTRODUCTION. RATIONALE - STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM.
AIMS OF THE STUDY. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH. SCOPE OF THE STUDY. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY.
4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Writing as aprocess and writing as a product. RESEARCH DESIGN: QUASI - EXPERIMENTAL .4 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS .5 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES. 28 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .30 PART C: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. I APPENDIX 1: SELF-REPORTING QUESTIONNAIRE.
I APENDIX 2: SELF-ASSESSMENT. III APPENDIX 3: PORTFOLIO HOLISTIC SCORING RUBRIC ( PHSR). III APPENDIX 4: SAMPLES OF STUDENTS’ WRITING DRAFTS. VI iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ELT: English language teaching EFL: English as foreign language L2: Second language ESP: English for special purpose v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Tables/Figures Page Table 1.1 Traditional assessment vs Portfolio assessment 9 Figure 2.1 Pre-post tests design 24 Figure 2.2 The process of the portfolio-based writing 27 Figure 3.1 Comparison between scores of both group in pre-test 30 Figure 3.2 Comparison between scores of both group in post-test 31 Table 3.1 The average mark of students 31 Figure 3.3 The percentage of students having planning step 34 Figure 3.4 The percentage of students having planning step 34 Figure 3.5 The percentage of students having revising step 34 Figure 3.6 The percentage of students having editing step 34 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale - Statement of the Problem Recently, the use of portfolio has been a topic commonly mentioned in methodologies which are especially suggested for English writing classes; since portfolio is not only to document students’ achievements, but also to demonstrate how their skills have developed over the years as a consequence of their learning background. According to Yang (2003),“Portfolio is considered as a compilation of students’ work, which documents their effort, progress and achievement in their learning, and their reflection on the materials negotiated for the portfolio”. Obviously, portfolio is considered as an effective method used in language learning classroom and plays an indispensable part in leading to the success of a lesson. Nonetheless, they often receive less attention than they should.
To save time, teachers always choose the quickest way to give students tasks and assess their performance through these single tasks only. This can causes the ineffectiveness in students’ carrying task process as well as their final result. In the light of process-based approach, students’ work is evaluated through a whole process of effort. They step by step improve their writing skill and enhance the written work quality day after day.
Using portfolio is the way fully expressing the effectiveness of this approach. With portfolio method applied in class, traditional teaching style in which teachers give one writing task, students make one daft no longer takes its dominant place in classroom. Instead, students have more opportunities to complete their writing in a series of many writing versions. They keep making improvements from their first draft until they satisfy with their final product.
Once they have done their work, they must be more confident with the significant progress they have made. Hence, they will have a reason for trying next time and raise more motivation to do their writing task. From this point of view, besides helping students increase writing ability, using portfolio to motivate students in writing is essential as well. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Turning back to the studying context at Foreign Trade University, in the writing course, a process-oriented approach to writing instruction is not effectively supported, and students are usually expected to write their essays in the traditional one-draft, one-reader context where instructors simply judge students' final products.
Students did not receive any timely or quality feedback throughout the semester as students' essays were simply scored against the holistic rubrics and returned. That is the reason why the quality of students’ writing cannot be guaranteed. Teachers, thus, must think about applying portfolio to increase their students’ ability and inspire them more in writing activities. Considering all the ideas above and with the hope to get a profound insight into the roles of writing portfolio method perceived by first-year students and to find out the ways this method increase students’ writing ability and motivation, the researcher has decided to choose the topic “The Use of Portfolios to Develop First- Year Students’ Writing Skill at Foreign Trade University” 2.
Aims of the study This study aims to: - describe portfolio method, its roles in teaching and learning EFL writing and its theoretical bases; - evaluate the effectiveness of portfolio on developing EFL students’ writing skill and performance and increasing their motivation. Research questions The study aims at answering the following questions: To what extent does portfolio improve EFL students’ writing skill and performance? How does writing portfolio increase their writing motivation? 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Significance of the research This study is conducted with the hope that its findings will be beneficial for teachers of English and for the teaching English process as well. The results of this study may help teachers aware of the indispensable importance and necessity of using portfolios.
Moreover, this study would be a reliable source of information for researchers who wish to carry out studies on similar issues in the future. Scope of the study This study is carried out with the participation of 40 first-year students at Foreign Trade University. These students, aged 18 to 20, are non-English majors who are required to take a core foundation writing course as one of compulsory subject. It will focus on the use of portfolio in writing class to develop students’ writing skill, writing performace and enhance their writing motivation.
Organization of the study This study consists of three main parts: Part A: Introduction: provides the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the significance and the scope of the study. Part B: Development: comprises three chapters: Chapter 1, which is named “Literature review”, presents some main terminologies in the research. Chapter 2 entitled “ Methodology” presents the methodology used in the study. It includes the description of the participants, the data collection instrument, the data collection procedures and the data analysis procedures.
Chapter 3, namely “Findings and Discussion”, describes the results of the study and discussions based on them. Part C: Conclusion: summaries the findings and give limitations and suggestions. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This part sheds light on the background and relevant contents of the study. In the first place, it is necessary to give definition of two concepts – writing process and writing product.
After that, three key concepts including portfolio, writing skill and students’ motivation, are presented in this section as theoretical fundamentals to frame the study. Finally, the last content of the literature review concentrates on the related studies.1 Writing as a process and writing as a product Writing as a process: Crowhurst (1988) defined the writing process as "the thinking processes that go on during writing" (cited in Saskatchewan Education, 1998, p. Kirby (2002) wrote that "the creative writing process permits the author to construct through a series well planned out stages, a thorough piece of writing that is both organized in its presentation and thorough in its development " (p. Seow (2005) sees writing process as "a private activity which comprises four main stages: planning, drafting, revising, and editing" (p.
In the present study, writing process refers to the four writing stages the students pass through to produce a text which are planning, drafting, revising, and editing. Writing as a product: In the current study, this term refers to the final writing product.