THE FIRST YEAR – LANGUAGE STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN PARAGRAPH WRITING AND SOME APPROPRIATE STRATEGIES TO SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS AT THE NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

Hanoi National University-College of Foreign Languages Post- graduate studies department Bùi Thị Phơng Lan The first year language students difficulties in paragraph Writing and some appropriate strategies to solve these problems at the National Economics University M.A minor Thesis Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Course: 13 Supervisor: Lª ThÕ NghiÖp, MA Hanoi, 2007 Abstract Writing is a very important skill in teaching and learning English especially paragraph writing But for the first – year language students at National Economics University (NEU), they still get many difficulties in paragraph writing Understanding their problems, I decided to a research on teaching paragraph writing with the hope that I can provide the teachers of English at NEW with the real situation about their students’ difficulties In the study, I try to find out the students’ common errors in language, idea organization, and content With these findings, I will recommend the best teaching methodology to help teachers of English deal with their students’ problems like using pictures and using readings with various activities such as working with the text using copying, working with the text to examine cohesive links, working with the text to combine sentence, etc Moreover, I will mentions to teachers’ correction How to deal with students’ errors? Which errors teachers should correct? When to correct? I myself also will design a check - list of paragraph writing for students can check by themselves or check for their partners With my findings and my suggestions for teaching paragraph writing for the first year language students at NEW, I hope that the teachers of English at NEW will have a basic background of students to apply a suitable way of teaching in order help them to overcome their problems Table of contents Introduction Rational (Introduction, NEU students’ difficulties, and Conclusion) Objectives of the study Scope of study Method of the study Contents of study Page 9 10 10 The Body Chapter I: Literature review I.1 Teaching writing I.1.1 Definitions of writing 12 I.1.2 The reasons for teaching writing 13 I.1.3 Approaches to writing teaching 13 I.1.4 Principles of teaching writing 15 I.2 Teaching paragraph writing I.2.1 Definition of Paragraph 17 I.2.2 Classifications of paragraph 18 I.2.3 Writing Process of paragraph Chapter II: Methodology 20 II.1 Subjects 23 II.2 Description of the course of English for writing paragraph at NEU 23 II.3 Data collection 24 Chapter III: Data analysis and discussions III.1 Questionnaire Survey Analysis III.1.1 Students’ background and attitude 27 III.1.2 General Expectation of the course 29 III.1.3 The Choice on teaching methodology 32 III.2 Errors analysis of writing samples III.2.1 Errors in the paragraph content 38 III.2.2 Errors in ideas organization 40 III.2.3 Errors in language 41 Chapter IV: Implications for teaching strategies and some suggested activities and exercises IV.1 Using pictures to teach paragraph writing 45 (Reasons, strategies for using pictures, suggested activities and exercises) IV.2 Using readings to teach paragraph writing 53 (Reasons, strategies for using pictures, suggested activities and exercises) IV.3 Correcting errors 57 Conclusions Summary of the study 62 Recommendations for further research 63 Bibliography 64 Appendices Appendix1: Questionnaires for students 66 Appendix 2: Error analysis in students’ writing papers 69 Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor Mr Le The Nghiep who has enthusiastically helped and encouraged me during the period of writing this research paper Without his experienced guidance, valuable comments and tireless help, I cannot complete the study on time My gratitude also go to all of the instructors in my MA course at the Post-Graduate Studies, College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University With their precious and professional lectures and tutoring, I can understand difficult basic concepts related to English teaching methodology, I am also grateful to all my friends and colleagues and my beloved family, who gave me useful advice on writing process Finally, I wish to acknowledge the kind help of the first year language students at NEU who helped me to collect data, and their valuable support for finishing the study Hanoi December, 2007 Bui Thi Phuong Lan List of Abbreviations NEU: National Economics University ESP: English Specific Purpose M.A: Master of Arts Introduction RATIONALE 1.1 Introduction The goal of teaching and learning foreign languages is providing the learners with a means of communication or in other words, improving the communicative competence for learners To acquire the communicative competence, four language skills (reading, speaking, listening and writing) are taught regularly at schools and universities, among which writing skill is very important because it is a productive skill It is also because of the fact that besides speaking, people frequently have to communicate with each other in writing Moreover, writing helps learners learn other skills better “First, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary that we have been teaching our students Second, when they write, they have a chance to be adventurous with the language, to go beyond what they have just learned to say, to take risks Third, when students write, they necessarily become very involved with the new language; the effort to express ideas and constant use of eye, hand and brain is the unique way of expressing their idea They discover a real need for finding the right word and the right sentence The close relationship between writing and thinking makes writing a valuable part of any language courses” (Raimes, 1938: 3) Due to the importance of productive skills, the course for the students at NEU pays much attention to writing At NEU, paragraph writing is conducted for the first-year language students because it is one of the fundamental and basic writing skills Paragraph writing is the background for students to learn other writing skills in the next terms For example, they will learn to write business letters, business e-mails, and contracts 1.2 NEU students’ difficulties in paragraph writing It is the fact that students at NEU in general and the first-year language students in particular are very weak at paragraph writing There are some reasons why English major students face a number of problems when studying paragraph writing First, most students were not familiar with paragraph writing When they were at high school, they only practiced writing at a very low level like sentence-building, sentence-rewriting Second, they just got acquainted with very informal writing styles like close-letters and close-e-mails, in the first semester So when they write a paragraph, they make many mistakes of vocabulary, grammar, organization as well as the way of idea expression As revealed in the questionnaire, each student has his own difficulties But the most serious ones are limitations of English vocabulary and grammar, weakness in expressing ideas and using linking words The students’ paragraph writing revealed that students always make vocabulary and grammatical mistakes They use the wrong words when they write a paragraph because of their misunderstanding the meaning of words so they face a lot of confusion in vocabulary use A student wrote: “My most difficulty in paragraph writing is to choose the right words” Obviously, mastering the usage of English vocabulary and structures is very difficult for every student, so a new and appropriate teaching strategy needs applying soon in order to help students enhance their knowledge of language Weakness in expressing ideas is also a big problem for the students Students get accustomed to the way of Vietnamese thought, so their ideas come out indirectly and lengthily They not focus on the main point of the problem, they write a lot but the sentences are not connected, so their writings are vague and illogical The students themselves feel very difficult to write a good paragraph in English Moreover, linking words cause some difficulties for students As we all know, linking words play an essential part in writing because they are used to link the ideas in paragraph to make the writing transparent and understandable Without linking words, the writing is confusing and illogical because the ideas in the paragraph are unconnected together And without using linking words such as and, but, however, although, etc., the students cannot compose a paragraph logically and clearly Last but not least, there are students who feel it very difficult to make a good topic sentence They cannot write a sentence which includes all the ideas they want to mention later So showing them the best way to write a topic sentence is also important element in teaching paragraph writing because the writing is good or bad depends a lot on the topic sentence 1.3 Conclusion Because of those difficulties, teaching paragraph writing is really a challenge What the teacher should now is to develop effective teaching strategies that help students work out the way of writing a paragraph and help them avoid mistakes It is a big problem for teachers of English at NEU To find the best answer, I would like to search for the common errors and the causes of those errors that the students are likely to make After that I recommend some appropriate teaching strategies and useful exercises in my study with the hope that students at NEU can only avoid their errors in writing paragraph but also improve their paragraph writing skill Objectives of the study To be aware of the importance of paragraph writing and the weakness of students at NEU in paragraph writing, I myself, a teacher of English at NEU want to contribute a little part to improving students’ writing skill by studying the issues related to the ineffectiveness in teaching paragraph writing at NEU The following questions are given to find out the students’ difficulties in paragraph writing Firstly, the study will find out the common errors that students are used to make, students’ background and students’ recommendations though the students’ compositions and the questionnaires Secondly, based on data analysis and the students’ background some appropriate strategies in teaching paragraph writing and some kinds of exercises are recommended in order to help the students overcome their difficulties in paragraph writing And research questions of the study are: - How important is the paragraph writing for students at NEU? - What are common errors made by students in writing English paragraphs? - What are the causes of the common errors? - What are effective strategies for teaching writing English paragraphs? Scope of The study The study is about teaching paragraph writing for students at NEU, but due to the limited scope and time, it is confined to finding out the students’ errors in paragraph writing and suggesting some new teaching strategies to solve the students’ problems In the study, the author tries to find out the errors derived from writing tasks of the first year language students at NEU From these errors, the writer investigates the causes of those problems before giving solutions to them as well The focus will be placed on the form of English such as grammatical, lexical errors and other errors related to paragraph writing in order to help students learn how to write a paragraph well Method of the study In this study, the writer chooses the quantitative research by using the students’ compositions as a technique of eliciting data for the analysis and statistical counting The writer will collect the students’ writing tasks to analyze the most typical errors that students make And the analysis of questionnaires information is also conducted to seek students’ background information, their difficulties, and their evaluation of effectiveness when the teacher applies different teaching methods On the basis of the data analysis, the writer will has the right view on the students’ difficulties in writing paragraph and basing on their difficulties provide some appropriate teaching strategies and exercises Contents of the study There are three main parts in the study The first one is introduction, the second is the body and the last one is conclusion And in each part, the issues related to the study are included The study starts with an introduction that gives an overview of teaching paragraph writing, the reason why the issue is chosen for research and the way to conduct the research After introduction, there are three chapters presenting the study in detail as the main part of the research In chapter one, literature review related to teaching paragraph writing is conducted in order to help students avoid errors of style in their writing; the difference between written and spoken texts and approaches in teaching English writing are presented Besides, writing paragraph is carefully analyzed based on some theories to help students understand more about the classifications of paragraph, the process of paragraph writing In chapter two, the method of the study is presented It includes the careful descriptions of subjects, sampling, and instrument and data collection The last chapter presents data analysis and discussions In this part, questionnaires and writing samples collected from students are analyzed to find out students’ typical errors and their causes in order to recommend effective strategies for teaching paragraph writing at NEU Finally, the study closes with a conclusion, which summarizes the whole study issue, and provides suggestions for further study Chapter I 10 With a typical error, the teacher should copy whole the sentence on the board, ask them to make comments and correct it, which is very good to the writer because he can realize his mistakes and how to correct it IV.3.1.2 Teacher’s responding to students’ writing • Responding to content and organization: It is necessary for the teacher to give students clear and direct feedback and instructions about how to correct and improve their writing by way of writing comments in the margins of papers or at the end of the writing Ferris et al (1997) provide several forms those the teacher’s responses to students’ idea and organization should take: (1) Asking for further information (2) Giving directions, suggestions, or requests for revision (3) Giving the student new information that will help him or her revise (4) Giving positive feedback about what the student has done well These feedback types can be presented by questions, statements, imperatives, or exclamations and can be softened by hedges such as “please”, “may be”, “ could”, might”… (Adapted from Huong, T.T, Minh, NTT.etal, 2007: 78) • Responding to students’ grammatical and lexical errors As being mentioned above, the teacher should choose one type of error to correct The teacher can write some comments on the grammar, vocabulary, spelling, etc in students’ early drafts before giving comments on content and organization Furthermore, the teacher should give students clear and direct instructions and comments for this kind of errors, too IV.3.2 Self - correction and peer – correction Sometimes, teachers need to give students chances for self - correction and peercorrection because using self-correction or peer-correction can reduce the load of teacher’s work of dealing with errors It also provides students with a chance to improve their language, their ability of analysis and their habits of coordinative-working, so the better students can help the weaker ones Some researchers like Bate, Lane, and Lange, 1993; Ferris (1995), Fathman & Whalley (1990) suggested a variety of indirect, self-discovery techniques which can help students learn to monitor and self-correct their own errors This 47 method can be applied with errors caused by carelessness of accuracy and orthography due to their limited knowledge of English Self-correction and peer-correction should be guided by a checklist that aims at checking overall correctness of the paragraph writing exercises One strong point of using checklist is capacity of finding out a variety of errors at a time, so it can save time for revising and give students a view on the requirements of a well-written paragraph The checklist must include items that are easy to be judged Teachers can provide each student with a checklist for each paragraph writing exercise so that students can use it to check their partner’s paragraph writings’ errors Here is a sample checklist that I myself designed for my students: Name: Topics Issues Paragraph Main issue is identified at the beginning Adequate paragraph format (indentation, line run continuously Ideas in supporting sentence: - Relevant - Consistent, easy to understand - Clear presented, sufficiently developed - Give adequate attention to all aspects of topic Conclusion Summarizes the main point Message Ideas relevant to the topic Clarity Text: - Easy to understand - Logically organized - Contains appropriate cohesive devices Errors have minimal effects on message Syntax Varied and accurate set of vocabulary Varied and accurate set of grammar structure Spelling Good Bad In general, there are different methods of correcting students’ errors But with different levels of students and time allowance in class, the teacher should choose the most suitable method to help students recognize and correct errors effectively 48 Conclusions Summary of the study The study aims at finding out the more effective strategies to help students at NEU overcome their difficulties in paragraph writing First of all, the study provides an overview of writing and paragraph writing In this part, readers will see different opinions about writing skill of well-known researchers Then the questionnaire survey for students is analyzed to find out the students’ background and attitude toward their English study, their expectations of the course, and their evaluation on the current teaching methodology Finally, students’ sample paragraph writings are also analyzed to discover their common errors of language, content, and idea organization After analyzing the questionnaire and students’ sample paragraph writings several conclusions have been made Firstly, students have highly positive attitude to paragraph writing during the course because most of them consider English as a key to find a good job Secondly, students have far more difficulties in paragraph content, idea organization, and language than I expected A lot of errors of grammatical structures, vocabulary appeared in their writings Lastly, the students’ answer of their preference for the way of the teacher’s presentation and writing exercises are very useful for me to suggest or design the suitable class activities and exercises to improve students’ paragraph writing skills better The study focuses on finding practical strategies based on students’ common difficulties There are different strategies of paragraph teaching for the students But it seems that using pictures and texts leads to writing seems the most effective strategies for them because various exercises can be designed from pictures and readings Besides suggestions of teaching strategies and various exercises, the checklists to aid peer-correction and selfcorrection are provided to deal with the common errors In conclusion, the study partly dealt with students’ difficulties in paragraph writing Recommendations for further research With a view to coping students’ difficulties of paragraph content, idea-organization and language elements, in the study I recommended some appropriate strategies and exercises that can deal with students’ difficulties in writing paragraph I hope that the 49 findings might bring about certain changes in the teachers’ strategies of teaching paragraph writing at NEU in order to help students overcome their difficulties The result of the study is also useful for any researches on the field of teaching writing to language students at NEU and for language students at other Universities With the findings of the study, I hope that I will continue to study new methods of teaching business report-writing for students in the near future and help them avoid difficulties when they learn business-report writing 50 Bibliography Alice, O & H Ann Writing Academic English Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1996 Brown, H D Priciples of Language Learning and Teaching San Fransico State University, 2000 Byrne, D Teaching Writing Skill London: Longman, 1988 Dana, F & John, S.H Teaching ESL Composition Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, publishers, 1998 Feist, B Applied Communication Skills: Writing Paragraphs Cambridge Adult Education, 1996 Fowler, W.S Progressive Writing Skills Nelson, 1988 Harmer, J How to Teach English Malaysia: Longman, 1998 Hornby, A S Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary of Current English Oxford University Press, 2002 Huong, T.T, Minh,N.T.T etal ELT Methodology II-Course book VNU: CFL, 2007 10 Lane, J & Lange, E Writing Clearly Boston: Heinle & Heinl, 1993 11 National Economics University-Faculty of Foreign Languages Writing a Paragraph Hanoi, 2007 12 Nunan, D Designing Task for the Communicative Classroom Cambridge University Press, 1989 13 Nunan D Language teaching Methodology GB: Prentice Hall, 1991 14 Patsy, M L & Nina, S How Languages are Learned Oxford University Press, 1999 15 Penny, Ur A Course in Language Teaching Cambridge University Press, 1996 16 Raimes, A Techniques in Teaching Writing Oxford University Press, 1938 17 Robert F Sommer Teaching Writing to Adults Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1989 18 Roger, G., D Phillips, and S Walters Teaching Practice Handbook China: Macmillan Heinesnann, 1995 19 Sokolik, M Writing In D Nunan (Ed) Practical English Language Teaching China: McGraw-hill Companies, Inc and Higher Education Press, 2003 51 20 Steele, V (2002) Product and Process Writing Retrieved from the World Wide Web 30 December 2007 at: www.teachingenglish.org.uk/thinking/writing/approach.shtml 21 Stephen W Wilhoit A Brief Guide to Writing from Readings Allyn and Bacon, 2002 22 Tomlinson, B Materials Development in Language Teaching Cambridge University Press, 1998 23 Tripple, C Writing Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996 24 Walker, M A Norton Guide: Writing Research Paper W.W Norton Company, 1993 25 Wasyl, C & Ron, A The Practice of Foreign Language Teaching David Fulton Publisher, 2000 52 Appendices Appendix1 Questionnaire for students The students’ needs when they have a paragraph writing course Introduction: - You are major language students at NEU, you are learning paragraph writing as scheduled - I want to know your needs when you write a paragraph So with your honest answers, we can enhance the quality of the course of teaching paragraph Thank you very much Circle the best answer or fill words in the blanks to answer the following questions: Sex: Male/ Female The General information Choose the best answer: a I would not have learned English as a major subject b I learn English to get a good job in the future c I like English very much d Other reasons (give the details)……………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… How long have you been learning English? ……………………………………………… Which skills have you ever learned before? a Sentence building b Letter c e-mail d Paragraph - finished a course of paragraph writing - to be guided to write a paragraph in some periods Others: ………………………………………………………………………… About paragraph writing skill Do you think it necessary to learn paragraph writing course in the BA program at NEU? Why? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………… What you expect after the course? Point out the necessity for the following items not necessary low necessary very extremely necessary necessary necessary - Vocabulary, sentence structures using in paragraph writing - Visual aids 53 5 - Paragraph writing process - Idea organization - Social information to write a paragraph 1 3 4 5 What are your difficulties in paragraph writing? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… What are your recommendations? …… …………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… Teaching method Point out the effectiveness of given methods of teaching by circling the numbers not effective low effective very effective extremely effective effective The way of teacher’s presenting: - While teachers are presenting, he provides students with some questions to brainstorm - Read materials and books of reference and discuss problems with classmates or the teacher - Discuss questions given by teachers - Teachers use visual aids in teaching 10 Method of content analyzing: - Read materials yourself and make conclusion - Discuss with partners in pairs or in small groups - Teachers’ explanation - Translate the paragraph model into Vietnamese 11 Practicing and exercises - Work with a text (gap filling, word or sentence order….) - Provide familiar issues or problems with students to think of the ideas and write a paragraph 12 The teacher’s method of correcting errors - Correct some remarkable errors only - Ignore all errors but the errors of language and content - Give a comment at the end of the paragraph only - Correct all errors - Others: ………………… ……………………………… 54 5 End of the questionnaire Appendix Error analysis in students’ writing papers Students choose one of three following topics to write a paragraph: a Why many people go to Australia to study? b The best place to visit in Vietnam c A good or bad city or country to visit d A famous person e Eagle animal Type 1: Errors in content or meaning Subtype 1: topic sentence 01: vague topic: “Why many people go to Australia to study? Because of learning style, finding job easily and the people” (Paper 01) 02: broad topic: “Why they choose Australia as their overseas study destination? Indeed, Australia is one of the best place for students from all over the world” (Paper 02) 55 03: too long topic sentence: “Nowadays, many Vietnamese people go to abroad to study So they must choose carefully which country they’ll go Beside America UK, Japan, …Australia is one of the bes choice for Vietnamese students because of fours main reasons” (Paper 38) 04: too long topic sentence: “Over five million people go to study eacher The most importance is that they have chance of reaching a good condition for study and opportunity to tavel in such a beautiful country” (Paper 42) Subtype 2: Supporting sentence 01: unclear sentence: “You study valuable skill to give you an advantage academically, personally and professionally” (Paper 01) 02: irrelevant supporting sentence: “Multicultural Australia is a safe, friendly and harmonious society in which students can learn and travel in an English speaking country” (Paper 01) 03: unnecessary sentence: “Secondly, you needn’t worry too much about studying and living costs because they sound cheaper than other countries which are popular with international students, such as UK or US Therefore, this makes Australia a very economic choice, for instance, study abroad programs’ costs you around ” (Paper 02) 04: unclear sentence: “Visitors to Hanoi can find any weather they like For example, in the summer, the hottest month, averages 36C; the coldest month, averages 20C So, they can find the cool temperature or warm weather in the winter” (Paper 03) 05: no explanation: “First of all, Australia has a wonderful weather and cheap livingcost” (Paper 04) 06: bad supporting sentence: “Thirdly, the population in Australia is very small” (Paper 04) 07: unclear expression: “So it’s very easy to find good jobs and help professional positions worldwide after graduating” (Paper 05) 08: unclear expression: “Living expenses and tuition cost in Australia are value for money” (Paper 05) 56 09: no comparison: “… living cost in Australia are considerably less expensive than UK and USA (The average international student in this country spends about $335 per week on…)” (Paper 06) 10: unclear sentence: “… Australia offers an education experience that makes a real a difference” (Paper 06) 11: irrelevant supporting sentence for the topic sentence: “Australia provides a unique kind of education and a learning style” (Paper 06) 12: unclear sentence: “most Australian institutions have ties with international universities, sharing research and staff” (Paper 10) 13: Vietnamese expression: “California has any weather you like”(Paper 11) 14: unsuitable supporting sentence: “ And the lake of the Restored Sword is also a popular place Its old temple and red bridge is worth visiting and if you get there early enough you can see people doing Tai Chi as the sun-rises” (Paper 12) 15: No explanation: “It was occupied briefly by the French in 1873 and passed to them 10 years later In 1940 it occupied by Japanese and was liberated in 1945 A proud history makes Hanoi…” (Paper 12) 16: wrong expression: “One story said” (Paper 13) 17: bad expression: “eagle is always the symbol of strength and independence for me to become” (Paper 13) 18: unclear sentence: “Vietnamese wedding has picking bride festival, after this event the bride will become a main member of the groom’s family” (Paper 14) 19: unclear sentence: “Vietnamese wedding has picking bride festival, after this event the bride will become a main member of the groom’s family” (Paper 14) 20: unclear and too long expression: “this isn’t the only reason that many people choose to study here is that the standard of living of Australian is very stable Their income is about 6000 USD for a year This number is not high but…” (Paper 15) 21: supporting sentence is off the topic: “you can find that Australia is not only a wonderful place for studying but also for travel” (Paper 17) 22: not support to the point he made before: “He was very honest and generous He refused to work for people who were very powerful at his time” (Paper 19) 57 23: incomprehensible sentence: “He gives up a humane reason: It’s love Because of love, the couple in “The afterlife” can realize each other” (Paper 20) 24: supporting sentence give a new idea that did not mention in topic sentence: “Besides, Australia is famous for beauties and peace” (Paper 21) 25: unclear supporting sentence: “Australia forward-looking education impresses people who want to research into their faculties” (Paper 21) 26: poor expression: “It was year of her 18 years old, she left her countryside” (Paper 22) 27: incomprehensible sentence: “everything seemed very mood and she seemed to be the luckiest single in the world” (Paper 22) 28: Vietnamese expression: “In the end, her attempt has had the result” (Paper 22) 29: unclear sentence: “Her name is told as well as her songs like ‘I still believe’” (Paper 22) 30: unnecessary sentence: “Nhat ky tu is renowned with Vietnamese and foreigners as well His political discussions were powerful weapons to enemies” (Paper 24) 31: poor expression: “There will never have enough words to talk about…” (Paper 24) 32: unclear expression: “There are many well-known universities and colleges with hundreds of professors, master and vice master” (Paper 26) 33: No comparison of two parts (North and South) before giving the details: “The North and Middle of Vietnam has four seasons a year: spring, summer, autumn and winter Whereas the South just has only one season: it is hot…” (Paper 28) 34: poor expression: “Beside the peace, clean air is an important element helping tourists want to visit Hanoi” (Paper 29) 35: unclear sentence: “…especially, “Nhat ky tu”, a famous collection of poems His works had not only humani culture but also dramatiacl education” (Paper 32) 58 36: bad expression: “He played an important role in helping the Vietnamese get freedom from the war with the French and American” (Paper 32) 37: incomprehensible sentence: “His first Paris choice was Jacques Fats” (Paper 33) 38: incomprehensible sentence: “When he has been offered the French equivalent and after discuss with his parents, he decided to…” (Paper 33) 39: vague sentence: “ Cheachu’s known for its romantic scenery, especially suitable for honeymoon” (Paper 36) 40: irrelevant sentence: “Beside that, he is also famous for his private life He looks handsome and manly so a lot of girls liked him” (Paper 40) 41: irrelevant sentence: “He was the captain of English football team for years and has played for national team for over 300 times He is one of the footballer who are admired most in English and all over the world” (Paper 40) 42: vague sentence: “Nhat ky tu was one of the most writing His arguments were powerful weapons” (Paper 40) 43: unclear expression: “It is usually said that when an enterprise is opened, it must accept that the first one or two years will bring a loss” (Paper 41) 44: unclear expression: “The way he did things was to prepare every thing for VietComs carefully and professionally-human sources seeking and training, market surveys, seeking partners and so on” (Paper 41) 45: unclear sentence: “There are also fewer periods on class which contain less theory and makes learner be active in their subject” (Paper 42) Subtype 3: Concluding sentence 01: Not a good concluding sentence: “It is not surprising that so many people go to Australia to study” (Paper 01) 02: Not restate the main idea of the paragraph: “In general, studying in Australia will provide you with now and wonderful opportunities and experience, not to mention exiting and progressive globally education program” (Paper 02) 03: Not a real concluding sentence: “You’ll be a lucky person if you have a opportunity to go to Australia to study” (Paper 04) 59 04: “So in some countries, Australia is the first choice, attractive destination of many people” (Paper 05) 05: “It is true to say that Australia is the best place to study” (Paper 21) 06: No concluding sentence (Paper 38) Type 2: Errors in idea organization Subtype 1: Errors in logical order 01: There is no logical order among ideas (02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 11, 12, 13, 15, 21, and 38) Subtype 2: Errors in coherence (18) 01: There is no any coherence among parts of the paragraph, sentences or ideas (02, 03, 04, 05, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 24, 25, 27, 38, 39, 41, and 42) 02: wrong use of relative clause: “that” instead of “which” (20) Subtype 3: Errors in format 01: No conclusion is given at the end of paragraph, (21) Type 3: Errors in language Subtype 1: Errors in grammar 01: articles (03*3, 04, 07*3, 09*3, 11, 13*2, 14*6, 18, 20, 24, 25*3, 27*2, 28, 29*3, 32, 35*4, 36*2, and 37) 02: Preposition (05, 09, 22, 12*3, 14, 15, 19, 23, 25*2, 28, 34, 37, 39, 40 03: Singular and plural Nouns (02, 03*2, 07*2, 10, 11, 13*4, 14, 15*2, 16*3, 17*2, 18, 19, 25, 28, 36, and 42*4) 04: Adjective possessive pronoun (13*3) 05: Verbs (04, 07*3, 10*4, 11*2, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20*4, 21*2, 22*4, 28*2, 29*4, 25*2, 31, 35*2, 36, 38, 39*2, 40*4, and 41) Subtype 2: Errors in vocabulary Here are the number of writings remaining vocabulary errors: (05*6, 08*5, 09*2, 10*3, 11, 12, 13, 14*5, 14*4, 15*6, 16*2, 17, 18*4, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26*2, 27*2, 29*3, 33, 35*2, 36*2, 37, 38, 39*2, and 40) Subtype 3: Errors in orthography 01: Spelling (02, 08, 14, 17, 22, 29, 30, 41*2, 40, and 42) 60 02: Punctuation & Capitalization (12*2, 14, 16, 17, 20*2, 22*2, 27*3, 31, 36*2, 37*2, 39*3, 40*2, and 42) 61 ... students at NEU, but due to the limited scope and time, it is confined to finding out the students’ errors in paragraph writing and suggesting some new teaching strategies to solve the students’ problems. .. improving students’ writing skill by studying the issues related to the ineffectiveness in teaching paragraph writing at NEU The following questions are given to find out the students’ difficulties in. .. part in writing because they are used to link the ideas in paragraph to make the writing transparent and understandable Without linking words, the writing is confusing and illogical because the