VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ GIANG DESIGNING A TASK-BASED WRITING SKILL SYLLABUS FOR THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS OF PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH DẠY KỸ NĂNG VIẾT THEO NHIỆM VỤ CHO SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ NHẤT CỦA TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC PHƯƠNG ĐÔNG M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Major: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.10 HANOI, 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ GIANG DESIGNING A TASK-BASED WRITING SKILL SYLLABUS FOR THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS OF PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH DẠY KỸ NĂNG VIẾT THEO NHIỆM VỤ CHO SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ NHẤT CỦA TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC PHƯƠNG ĐÔNG M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Major: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.10 Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Ph. HANOI, 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iii PART 1: INTRODUCTION. Aims and Objectives of the study. Scope of the study. Design of the study.
4 Chapter 1: Literature Review. Approaches to Teaching Writing. Product Oriented Approaches. Process Oriented Approaches.
Task-Based Approaches. Tasks and types of tasks. The framework of TBLT applied in teaching writing. Syllabus Design in Language Teaching.
Approaches to Language Syllabus Design ( LSD). Different Types of Syllabus. Product Based Syllabus. Notional/Functional syllabus.
Process Based Syllabus. Content based syllabus. Task-Based syllabus (TBS). Steps in Task –Based Syllabus Design.
Needs Analysis (NA) in TBS Design. Target Need Analysis. Learning Need Analysis. Aims and objectives setting.
Task Selecting and Sequencing. 19 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Setting of the study. Data collection instruments.
Data collection and data analysis procedure. 22 Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion. The situational analysis of the teaching and learning context in PDU. Motivation in learning writing skills.
The shortcoming of the current syllabus. Target Needs Analysis. Target tasks and target language focus perceived by the university based on the CEFR. Target tasks and learning tasks perceived by teachers and learners.
Learning needs analysis. 32 Chapter 4: The Proposed task based Writing Syllabus. Justifications for the choice of task based approach to designing the syllabus. Aims and Objectives.
Tasks Selecting and Grading. Summary of the study. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further studies.
I Appendix 1: NEEDS ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987). I Appendix 2: THE STUDENTS’ QUESTIONNAIRES. II Appendix 3: THE TEACHERS’ QUESTIONNAIRES. IV Appendix 4: The Current Syllabus.
VI Appendix 5: Written test evaluation criteria (Adapted from CEFR (2001)). VIII Appendix 6: sample lesson procedures. X v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1: Framework for task based writing teaching. 8 Figure 2:Product based vs.
Process based syllabus (adapted from White (1988: 44)). 12 Figure 3: Types of Language Syllabus. 12 Figure 4 Framework for task based syllabus design (Ellis. 15 Figure 5 Framework for task based syllabus design (Nunan, 2004:25).
16 Figure 6 The subject Writing Skills for English majors in PDU. 19 Figure 7 Students‟ length of time of learning English. 24 Figure 8: Table of the university entrance exam score. 25 Figure 9 the estimated writing competence of the students.
25 Figure 10: Students‟ attitudes toward Writing Skills. 27 Figure 12 The target level for the writing skills after the first semester as required by PDU ( Based on CEFR( 2001:61,62, 82). 30 Figure 13 Teachers' and students' preference for the specific writing tasks. 32 Figure 14 the familiar vs.
the expected teaching and learning styles. 33 Figure 15 Target Tasks for the syllabus. 37 Figure 16 Task sequencing. 38 Figure 17 Language focus.
40 Figure 18 Writing Skills 1 Syllabus. 42 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Writing is one of the four major language skills that foreign language students have to master. It is a common knowledge that writing is very important in language learning as, according to Rames (1983), writing helps learners not only in the ways it reinforces learners to practice certain grammar and vocabulary structures and reflect on why those are used and not others but also in the way it improves the learners‟ thinking skills as when students write, they make effort to express ideas with constant use of eyes, hands and brain and discover a real need for finding the right word and the right sentence.
As writing is of such great importance for language learners, teaching how to write well is the inevitable aim of almost all language courses. Yet, teaching writing is challenging for language teachers as „writing fluently and expressively is a tough task for all language users regardless of whether the language in use is first, second or foreign language‟ (Nunan,1988:3). Whether the journey writing teachers and learners have to go on under their writing course is smooth and whether the learners can reach the destination of the journey depend on a wide variety of factors such as the course syllabus, the teaching methodology, the available resources and the motivation of the students. From all these influential factors, the course syllabus is extremely important because if appropriately designed with careful need analysis, the syllabus can act as the guidance for both teachers and learners in terms of aims, the objectives, teaching methodology, material suggestions, time allocation, assessments, and almost all the matters of learning and teaching.
In fact, a course syllabus can be compared with a helpful travel guidebook or a compass for teachers and learners in their journey to knowledge. Despite the importance of syllabus in teaching writing -one of the most difficult language skills, it is not always given adequate attention to. This is exemplified by the context of teaching writing in Phuong Dong University (PDU) where the current used syllabus is available but developed out of the syllabus writers‟ personal experience and intuition without referring to the situation analysis and learner needs analysis. Consequently, when the syllabus was operated, it showed a lot of pitfalls, the greatest of 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com which being the students‟ disinterest in learning writing, the irrelevance of the writing tasks and the teaching methodology.
This fact gives rise to the need to design a new writing syllabus for a particular group of students, i., beginner students, low-intermediate, intermediate, etc. That syllabus should be based on careful analyses of contextual factors and learner needs as well as educational needs, i., the objectives of the foreign language program. The ideas above motivate me to design a new writing skills syllabus for the elementary students at PDU. Aims and Objectives of the study The study aims at designing a new appropriate writing skills syllabus for the elementary English majors at PDU.
To achieve this aim, the following objectives are established: (1) To develop a theoretical framework related to writing syllabus design (2) To identify the needs perceived by the university, the teachers, the first year English majors toward an appropriate writing syllabus for the target students. (3) To propose a writing syllabus based on the relevant theories and the needs analysis 3. Scope of the study The syllabus limits itself to the design of new writing skills syllabus for the Elementary English majors in PDU. Thus, it is not intended for other groups of the students at the University or students from other universities.
However, once the syllabus has been implemented, and evaluated by the university teachers who implement the syllabus, it can serve as a reference for those who are interested in designing a similar syllabus for similar groups of students. What are the students‟ learning needs and target needs from the perspective of the students, the teachers and the university? 2. What aims and objectives should be included in the writing skills syllabus for the elementary English majors? 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. What contents and teaching methodology should be included and organized in the writing skills syllabus for the elementary English majors? 4.
Research methods In order to design an appropriate syllabus of writing skills, the following research instruments were employed: 1. Current syllabus analysis. Learners‟ writing paper analysis 3. Design of the study The thesis will be comprised of three parts Part 1 is the introduction, which presents the rationales, the aims, the objectives, the scope, the methods and the design of the study.
Part 2 is the development which consists of four chapters: o Chapter 1 reviews the literature related to the syllabus design and the theoretical issues on the definition and features of task based language teaching in relation to the teaching of writing skills in EFL context. o Chapter 2 reports the research methodology the setting, the informants, the instruments and the data collection and analysis procedure. o Chapter 3 presents and discuss the findings from need analysis in light of teaching problems with the current syllabus, the insiders‟ attitudes towards writing skills and the current syllabus as well as their expectations of the changes in teaching and learning writing skills. o Chapter 4 is the main part of the study.
Based on the situational analysis and need analysis, a suitable syllabus framework will be developed. Decisions regarding the objectives, the content and the structure of the course are justified. Part 3 is the conclusion that provides a summary, state the limitations of the study and give some suggestions for further research on the topic. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART 2: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review 1.
Approaches to Teaching Writing This part endeavors to review major movements in the teaching of writing. According to Raimes (1983), there are 3 principal ways of approaching the writing task: focusing on form, focusing on the writer, focusing on the reader. The first perspective can be found in traditional, text-based approach or product oriented approach in other words. Teachers who adopt this approach often present authoritative text for students to imitate or adapt and they may see errors as something they have a professional obligation to correct and eliminate (Tribble, 1996: 37).
The second approach which is called “process approach” emerges in part as a reaction against the tradition of form- focus. It particularly stresses on the writers as an independent producers of text. The third approach called “genre approach” is considered to be more socially oriented with the assumption that if the reader cannot recognize the purpose of a text, communication can not be successful. Product Oriented Approaches According to Brown (2000), product-oriented approaches to writing largely concern the forms of the written products that students compose.
The writing exercises applied in this approach typically deal with sentence-level writing and paragraph-level organization. Students are often given a framework which illustrates a pattern of rhetorical organization; then, they are asked to fit their ideas into this framework. Both the content and the form which the students deal with are largely controlled by the teacher. Since the main focus of these approaches is on written form, grammar is emphasized and a particular effort is made to avoid errors.
Process Oriented Approaches Dissatisfaction with controlled composition approach paved the way for the process approach, an „expressive approach‟ which became prominent in English-speaking composition classrooms during the 1980s. Process approach encourages students‟ communication of ideas, feeling and experiences (Steele, 2002). Process approach focuses 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com more on the various class activities which are believed to promote the development of skilled language use.