-1- VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HUYỀN TRANG USING PORTFOLIOS TO IMPROVE THE TENTH GRADERS’ WRITING SKILLS AT DIEN CHAU 4 HIGH SCHOOL: A QUASI – EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH (Nghiên cứu thử nghiệm về việc sử dụng hồ sơ bài tập để nâng cao kĩ năng viết cho học sinh lớp 10 – Trường THPT Diễn Châu 4) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi, September, 2010 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -5- CONTENTS PAGES Declaration. iii Table of contents. iv List of tables. viii List of abbreviations.
ix PART A: INTRODUCTION. Rationales for choosing the topic. Objectives of the study. Scope of the study.
Methods of the study. Significance of the study. Design of the study. 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW.
What is writing?. The Importance of writing. Approaches to teaching writing. The Product Approach.
The Process Approach. 7 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Product approach or Process approach?. Portfolios in Writing.
Definition of portfolios:. Types and Contents of portfolios. Why do we use portfolio assessment?. Stages of portfolio Implementation.
The Benefits of Using Portfolios. 17 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY. Background to the study. An overlook on the teaching writing at Dien Chau 4 high school.
Teaching writing to the 10 graders. The quasi-experimental research. Procedures for carrying out the research. Instruments for Data Collection.
Pre – test and Post – test. Students‟ reflective writing. 26 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. 26 CHAPTER 3: MAJOR FINDINGS, DISCUSSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
Results from pre-test and post-test. Results from the students‟ reflection. The improvement in writing skills. Changes in emotional states.
The fostering of cooperative learning. Discussion of findings. Giving clear instructions of portfolios. Using a variety of assessment tools.
Creating a friendly learning environment. Finding out each individual student‟s differences and needs. Being active in learning activities. Being cooperative in peer work.
Summary of the study. 40 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further studies.
43 Appendix 1: The Pre-test and Post-test. I Appendix 2: Students’ Pre-test and Post-test Scores. II Appendix 3: Map of 8 Units in Semester Two of English 10. III Appendix 4: Handout for the Correction Symbols.
IV Appendix 5: Students’ Portfolio Scores. V TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -9- LIST OF TABLES NAMES OF TABLES Table 1: Paired Samples Statistics Table 2: Paired Differences Statistics Table 3: T – test Result TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - 10 - LIST OF ABBREVIATION (in alphabetical order) Df: Degree of Freedom EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESL: English as a Second Language N: Number P – value: Probability value Std. Deviation: Standard Deviation Std. Error Mean : Standard Error of the Mean TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - 11 - PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationales for choosing the topic Language is important in communication, because it is a means of transferring ideas in communication activities. English as an international language also has that function. It is not only considered as the first foreign language but it is taught as a compulsory subject from elementary school up to high school. Although English has been taught for a long time, the results of teaching English are considered unsatisfactory (Ramelan, 1992: 3).
Since the new textbooks for seven-year educational system were applied in educational curriculum, English is divided into four separate skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing. Of which, writing is considered one of the most difficult skills for students to perceive because of some basic reasons as follows. Firstly, students‟ background knowledge about the writing topics is limited although they have got the information relating to the topics in the previous lessons as reading, speaking or listening. Secondly, the students usually lack vocabulary to express their thinking.
This is a common imperfection of many students in high schools as well as in colleges. Thirdly, due to the limited class time, the students may find it difficult to learn and to master because they have little time to practice and do not receive peer correction and the teacher‟s feedback. Thus, they can not realize their mistakes and correct them. Another reason may lie in the way of assessing students‟ attainment.
In fact, the only way to assess the students‟ writings is a mini-test in the middle and a 45-minute test near the end of the term. Therefore, the students‟ underdeveloped writing skills have been of major concern to educators. Teachers are becoming more creative in the classroom in finding ways to encourage students to want to write and to do their best when they write. An innovative and effective method for restructuring traditional composition courses is using portfolios as a method of learning and assessing students‟ writing skills.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - 12 - Since many previous researches on writing portfolios indicate that they enhance students‟ motivation and consequently learning, we used them in our teaching context though with some adaptations to suit our specific needs. We assumed that if our students found these activities helpful and enjoyable, they would be more motivated to learn and become better writers. For the above reasons, the following experimental study was conducted in response to such problems: “Using portfolios to improve the tenth graders’ writing skills at Dien Chau 4 high school: A quasi – experimental research”, which can be translated into Vietnamese as stated in the thesis title. Objectives of the study This quasi – experimental research was conducted with an intention of evaluating the effectiveness of adopting portfolios in teaching writing to improve the tenth graders‟ writing skills.
Especially, this study aims at examining the level of impact that portfolio has on students‟ writing performance and investigating the writing progress perceived by the students themselves after the experiment. Research questions This study aims at answering the following questions: - Does the writing performance included in the portfolio of this study indicate a significant growth in English writing ability? - What is the progress, if any, as perceived by the students in developing their writing skills? 4. Scope of the study As its title suggests, the focus of this study was to investigate the effects of using portfolios in teaching writing to the tenth graders at Dien Chau 4 high school. Particularly, the subjects were 35 students from class 10C5.
Methods of the study This study was realized with regard to both quantitative and qualitative analysis. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - 13 - On the one hand, quantitative analysis is involved through the process of data collection and analysis, which are carried out at class 10C5 – Dien Chau 4 high school. The students‟ scores gained from pre-test and post-test will be quantitatively compared. On the other hand, qualitative analysis is also applied in achieving the second purpose of the study, that is to investigate students‟ learning progress as perceived by themselves.
With this objective, the researcher would study carefully students‟ report from their reflections. Significance of the study This study may be significant in some ways: First, it introduces some necessary theoretical knowledge about portfolios, their definition, advantages, some ways to prepare them that may help teachers prepare their own portfolios, or at least get acquainted with them. Second, this study may be useful in introducing some emphasis on the fact that writing consists of many components that should receive enough attention in order to develop portfolios and how to score them. So that the teacher can make a final judgment about his / her student‟s over all performances considering the fact that any pieces of writing should represent students‟ knowledge in grammar, vocabulary, skills of organizing and outlining and their ability to write independently.
Third, the outcome of this study shows the effectiveness of portfolios on students‟ writing performances so that teacher could make decisions whether portfolios should be used in the future or not and how to use them most effectively. Design of the study The study is divided into three main parts, which are presented as follows. Part A is the Introduction, which states the rationales, the objectives, the scope, research questions, the methodology applied in the realization of the research as well as its significance. Part B, the Development, consists of three chapters.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - 14 - Chapter I is the literature review which is relevant to teaching writing, portfolios and portfolio assessment. Specifically, it deals with a definition of writing, the importance of writing, approaches to teaching writing. This chapter ends with a theoretical background on portfolio including definition of portfolio, the contents of portfolio, principles in using portfolio, portfolio assessment, stages in implementing portfolio and its effects on students writing performance. Chapter II is the study.
This chapter describes some background to the study and procedures for carrying out the quasi – experimental research including the data collection method, the context, participants, sampling, instruments, procedures of data collection and data analysis. Chapter III discusses the major findings and discussions of findings, recommendations to teaching writing to the tenth graders at Dien Chau 4 high school. Part C, the last part of the study, is the conclusion where all the main contents of the study are summarized and limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies are presented. Besides, there are also 5 appendixes where supplemental materials and the list of references are provided.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - 15 - PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Introduction This chapter is concerned with some of the most important issues in the theories of teaching writing skills. Two main features will be taken into consideration, namely theoretical background of writing approaches and using portfolios in teaching writing skills. What is writing? There are various definitions of writing in the literature of research into writing.
Each definition is a reflection of the underlying theories or perspective that the authors assume.1) defined writing in a board sense. Accordingly, writing was considered as “act of forming graphic symbols” or simply “making marks on the flat surface of some kinds”. Another researcher, Lannon (1989), looked at writing in a more complicated process relating to research. It is “a process of transforming the material discovered by research inspiration, accidents, trial and error, or whatever a message with a definite meaning…writing is a process of deliberate decision” (p.
In language teaching, writing is defined as a productive and taught language skill.3) wrote “it takes study and practice to develop this skill…writing is a process, not a product”.3) considered writing as “a language skill which is difficult to acquire”. He added that “writing normally requires some form of instructions. It is not a skill that is readily picked up by exposure” (p.11) In short, the word “writing” itself may imply an act, a process or a skill, which needs practice and study to develop. It requires both physical and mental powers from the writers.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. The importance of writing Ur (1996) categorized writing purposes into three sub-categories. Firstly, writing is used as “a convenient means for engaging with aspects of language other than the writing itself” (p. Through writing activities, students attend to and practice a “particular language point”.
Secondly, writing is considered “as an end”. Accordingly, various writing activities, including „micro‟ and „macro‟ activities, invite students to develop their writing skills. The third kind of writing combines “as both means and end” (p162). It is a mixture of “purposeful and original writing and learning or practice of some other skills or content” (p162).148) provided a detailed comment on the importance of writing at lower levels of learning English as a foreign language “students’ need for writing is most likely to be for study purposes and also as an examination skill.
The main importance of writing at this level is that it helps students to learn”.