VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI University of languages and international studies Department of post- graduate studies *************** PHẠM THUÝ TRINH THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH WRITING SKILL AT TRAN NGUYEN HAN HIGH SCHOOL IN HAI PHONG AND RECOMMENDATIONS (Thực trạng của việc dạy và học kỹ năng viết tại trường THPT Trần Nguyên Hãn - Hải Phòng và một số giải pháp) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60. 10 Cohort: MA 15 HANOI-2009 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI University of languages and international studies Department of post- graduate studies *************** PHẠM THUÝ TRINH THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING WRITING SKILL AT TRAN NGUYEN HAN HIGH SCHOOL IN HAI PHONG AND RECOMMENDATIONS (Thực trạng của việc dạy và học kỹ năng viết tại trường THPT Trần Nguyên Hãn - Hải Phòng và một số giải pháp) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60. 10 Cohort: MA 15 Supervisor Khoa Anh Viet, M. HANOI-2009 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION.
iii TABLE OF CONTENT. iv LIST OF TABLES. Rationale of the study. Objective of the study.
The significance of the study. Scope of the study. Methodology of the study. Design of the study .Definition of writing.
Writing versus speaking. Approaches to writing. The controlled to free approach. Free writing approach.
The paragraph-pattern approach. The grammar syntax organization approach. The communicative approach. The process approach.9 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Writing in the communicative classes. The importance of audience in writing. Audience diversity in writing class. Responding to students’ writing.
Talking about the paper. Students’ responses to student writing (peer feedback, peer correction, or peer review) .The context at Tran Nguyen Han high school .The new “ Tieng Anh 11” textbook. Grade 11 writing objectives .18 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 3.
Data analysis from teachers’ survey questionnaire. Data analysis from students’ survey questionnaire. Techniques in pre-writing stage. Identifying the purpose and audience.
Asking journalists’ question. Techniques in while- writing stage. Techniques in post- writing stage .4 Techniques for motivating students. Using oral presentation.
Providing an appropriate tone of feedback. X vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES I. LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Checklist of writing tasks in English 11 textbook. 18 Table 2: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards appropriate time for teaching and learning English writing skill.
21 Table 3: Teachers’ opinions on the writing lessons. 22 Table 4: Difficulties encountered by the teachers. 23 Table 5: Teachers’ expectation for better teaching and learning situations. 25 Table 6: Difficulties encountered by the students……………….
26 Table 7: Students’ personal views of causes of difficulties. 27 Table 8: Students’ expectations for better teaching and learning situations. LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The importance of writing as perceived by 11th form students .20 Figure 2: The importance of writing as perceived by the teachers .20 Figure 3: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards students’ writing competence .21 Figure 4 : Teachers’ pre-writing techniques. 28 Figure 5: Work arrangement in the while- writing stage .29 Figure 6: Teacher’s activities during the while- writing stage .29 Figure 7: The main source of feedback on students’ writing .30 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Rationale In the process of globalization, English plays an important role in enhancing economy, politics, culture and international relations between many countries. Therefore, there is a great demand for teaching and learning English in the world as well as in Viet Nam. English users today focus more on the ability to communicate in spoken and written languages. However, according to Trang and Baldoff (2007), the education quality has not met the society’s expectation because mostly high-school graduates cannot communicate in English effectively in both oral and written forms.
Under the urgent demand of improving the quality, Vietnam’s English language teaching has recently undergone a comprehensive reform. Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training has issued a new set of textbook for high school students in order to develop students’ communicative competence. The new textbook displays two new teaching approaches. They are learner- centered and communicative approaches.
However, regarding Vietnam’s context, the change will create a lot of difficulties to teachers of English who are too familiar to the old teaching methods, especially in teaching writing skill, which seems to be the most difficult work in teaching English. In Tran Nguyen Han high school, teaching writing skills is really a big challenge. For the teachers, they used to teach the old textbooks in which writing has no place. Therefore, they have no experiences in teaching theme-based writing.
Another problem is the students’ low level of English proficiency. That’s why they find it difficult to write. Moreover, lack of motivation also faces the students. They often get bored and indifferent in the writing lessons.
In my opinion, the current problem must be worked out and appropriate teaching techniques should be made. Up to present, a few researches have been carried out on the teaching of writing for students in Hai Phong. Most of the researchers have studied others problems concerning teaching other skills in Hai Phong. As a teacher of English, who is aware of the fact and wishes to contribute some suggestions for possible improvements in the teaching and learning of writing skill, I 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com decided to do the research entitled “ The reality of teaching and learning English writing skill at Tran Nguyen Han high school in Hai Phong and recommendations.
Aims of the study The main purpose of this study is to research the current reality of teaching and learning writing skill to 11th form students at Tran Nguyen Han high school on the basic of finding out the difficulties experienced by the teachers and the students. Furthermore, some suggestions are made to stimulate the students and some recommendations are made to improve teaching methodology for the teachers at Tran Nguyen Han high school. The significance of the study Pedagogically, the findings and comments of the study are believed to be relevant to improving the teaching of writing to the students. The study may help teachers to make their writing lessons more effective so that they can help their students develop writing skill as well as other language skills.
Scope of the study The study focuses on the reality of teaching and learning English writing skill to 11 grade students at Tran Nguyen Han high school. In addition, some recommendations for a better writing teaching and learning situation are presented. Although the author is well aware that the survey statistics are not fully representative of all high school students studying English in Hai Phong, she hopes to propose some of the most popular facts that occurring in this study. Methods of the study Both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed to carry out the study.
With the aim of increasing validity and reliability of the data collected, the survey questionnaires will be delivered. The purpose of the survey is to collect data about the current situation of teaching and learning writing at Tran Nguyen Han high school. Informal interviews with the colleagues and the students are also conducted. Besides, reviewing the related documents is also a method to establish the theoretical background for the study.
2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Design of the study The study is expected to consist of three main parts: Part A includes the rationales, aims, significance, scope, and methods of the study. Part B includes 3 chapters Chapter 1 deals with definitions of writing, the differences between writing and speaking, writing difficulties, approaches to writing and writing in the communicative classes. Chapter 2 discusses the methodology of the study, i.
describes the study context, participants, and instruments. Besides, the introduction of the new “Tieng Anh 11” textbook is elaborated. Chapter3 is about the data analysis and findings. It describes how collected data is analyzed and presented.
Chapter 4 provides recommendations for better teaching and learning English writing skill. Part C is the conclusion which summarizes the thesis and offers some suggestions for further research. Besides, the limitations of the thesis are also pointed out. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Definitions of writing There are a lot of definitions of writing. According to Byrne (1991), writing can be defined as the act of forming graphic symbols. When we write, we use graphic symbol (alphabet, grammar, and structures) to make visual meaningful utterances. Therefore, on one level, writing can be said to be the act of making marks on flat surface of some kinds.
However, writing is not just simply putting words, sentences together. Many researchers tended to focus on the nature of writing as an entity of linguistic creation. For example, Brannon, Knight and Neverow-Turk (1982, p. 2) pointed out “ writing is a creative art, not as assembly line operation of locking words together into sentence and bolting sentences together into paragraphs in accordance with a predefined plan.” Other researchers considered writing as a communicative process with purposeful interaction between the participants.
For example, NuNan (1999, p. 100) stated, “Writing is not a solitary act, rather, it is the result of the interaction among people, contexts, and texts.” Oluwadiya (1990) considered the nature of writing as “a process” of “via-text communication” between an addresser and an addressee. However, writing, in language teachers’ opinions, is “a language skill which is difficult to acquire” (Tribble, 1996, p. It is “a process that occurs over a period of time, particularly if we take into account the sometimes extended periods of thinking that precede creating an initial draft.
In short, the definitions of writing are various. However, writing is characterized with some basic features, i. being linguistics, creative, progressive and interactive. Besides, 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. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Writing versus Speaking Both writing and speaking are productive skills. However, according to some researchers, writing is different from speaking in terms of three criteria, i.
linguistics, creating process and interaction. In terms of linguistics, Ur (1996) distinguished writing from speaking based on “its explicitness, density and standard language” (p. He asserted that the distance between the reader and the writer deprived the writer of speech-related advantages like the real context, paralinguistic feature etc. The writing content, thus, was expected to be more explicitly, densely and universally comprehensibly presented than that of speech.
In terms of producing process, these two productive skills are also different. Raimes (1983) found out that while “speaking is usually spontaneous and unplanned,” writing process is “recursive, planned” and “time consuming” (p. Harmer (2004) concluded that writing process with “its recursiveness and multiple drafting” , (p. 8) is more complex than speaking process.
In terms of interaction, according to Ur (1996), due to the “detachment” of space and time in writing, the writer tend to be cut short of “immediate feedback and interaction” with “known” audience, which are supposedly available to the speaker (p. Harmer (2004) also point out the two features of face-to-face interaction which writing is devoid of, i. immediate verbal or non-verbal reactions and frequent role swapping between the addresser and the addressee (p. Consequently, the writers tend to encounter common difficulties in defining audience (Brown, 1994, p.
326) and receiving feedback from readers (White, 1981). To conclude, regarding the three criteria investigated in previous studies, i. linguistic feature, producing process and interaction, writing and speaking, by nature, are two different stories. This sheds more light on the characteristics of writing.