(SKKN 2022) Some techniques to help 11th-form students Better their essay writing skill ( new english textbook )

1 THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HOANG HOA HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENTIAL INITIATIVE SOME TECHNIQUES TO HELP 11TH-FORM STUDENTS BETTER THEIR ESSAY WRITING SKILL ( NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK ) Executor: Lê Thị Hồng Minh Position: Teacher Field: English teaching methodology THANH HÓA- 2022 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I INTRODUCTION 1 Reasons for choosing the topic…………… Aims of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study New things of the study ………………………………………………… II DEVELOPMENT THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Definition of writing and the roles of writing in learning a language 1.2.Process of essay writing FACTUAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Research setting 2.2 Major findings: Factors making 11th-form students at Hoang Hoa high school have difficulties in writing essays IMPLEMENTATION AND SOLUTIONS 3.1 Increasing students’ English proficiency 3.2 Using pictures to teach essay writing 11 3.3 Using models to teach essay writing 14 3.4 Using group-work activities 17 3.5 Showing and correcting errors in students’ writing 18 RESULTS AFTER APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING 20 III CONCLUSION 21 REFERENCES LIST OF RECOGNIZED EXPERENTIAL INITIATIVES APPENDIX : APPENDIX 1: USEFUL EXPRESSIONS AND LINKING WORDS/ PHRASES APPENDIX 2: SYMBOLS USED IN CORRECTING STUDENTS’ WRITING I INTRODUCTION: 1.Reasons for choosing the topic: It is undeniable that English is an international language and together with its increasing importance, the need of learning English is becoming more urgent than ever Additionally, since the school year 2018-2019, many universities in Vietnam have reduced the admission quota for the high school graduation exam scores, and increased the quota by other methods such as Competency Assessment exams or International Language Certificates such as IELTS or TOEFL… 12th graders who receive an IELTS score of 4.0 to 6.5 and above will be exempted from the National High School Graduation Exams (English module) and admitted to top universities and education institutions in Vietnam Because the IELTS, TOEFL, SAT tests have required students to write an essay in English, it is essential for Vietnamese high school students to be influent in English writing However, Writing, which is a productive skill, is rather difficult not only for students but for teachers to teach as well As we can see, the English proficiency of Vietnam high school students is often less than satisfactory Students often have little experience of writing and may be very anxious about having to write essays marked by their teachers This heightens the need for teachers to investigate alternative approaches to teach academic writing that would lead to significant improvement in students’ writing ability To achieve a good result in taking international language test, since students are at grade 10, teachers should start to equip students with a paragraph writing skill and when students reach 11th grade, teachers instruct them how to write an essay in English It is for such reasons that my experiential initiative attempts to explore some effective techniques to help 11-form students better their essay writing skill Aims of the study: The study is carried out to: (1) find out the difficulties that 11th- form students have when learning how to write English essays (2) suggest some solutions to stimulate students and help them find it easier when writing essays in English Scope of the study: The subjects chosen for this study are 11th- form students at Hoang Hoa high school, Thanh Hoa province where I have been teaching Moreover, because of the limited time and within an experiential initiative, only essay writing skill was chosen on the ground that writing seems to be the most challenging language skill to English learners in Vietnam in general Methods of the study: To achieve the objectives of the study, several methods are used, but I use mainly quantitative and qualitative methods The data serving the research analysis and discussions are collected by means of a survey questionnaire for students and observation New things of the study: In this research, the scope of the study is the students who are learning New English Textbook ( PEARSON) II DEVELOPMENT: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: 1.1 Definition of writing and the roles of writing in learning a language: According to “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary” (1989), writing is to “make letters or other symbols on a surface (usually paper), especially with a pen or pencil” Writing, in Davies’s point of view, involved two kinds of skills The first ones were low-level skills such as handwriting or typing, spelling, constructing grammatical sentences, punctuating and the second ones were high-level cognitive skills such as gathering ideas, organizing and sequencing, structuring, drafting, and editing Byrne (1988) gave a long and complex definition which might be summarized as follows: writing is the act of forming graphic symbols (letters or combinations of letters) which were arranged according to certain conventions, to form words, and words which were arranged to form sentences, and we produced a sequence of sentences arranged in a particular order and linked together in certain way, on a flat surface of some kind In classrooms, the teaching and learning of writing plays an important role Through writing we are able to share ideas, arouse feelings, persuade and convince other people We are able to discover and articulate ideas in the ways that only writing makes possible Therefore, writing has always occupied a place in the language syllabus Discussing this issue, White points out a number of reasons why writing merits a place in the language syllabus - Writing remains the most common way of examining student performance in English Consequently, ability to write remains a key to examination success - In the eyes of both parents and students, ability to write may be associated with evidence of having learnt the language Writing is tangible- parents and students can see what has been done and what has been achieved So it has high ‘face validity’ - In the classrooms, writing may be used as one of a number of techniques to help add variety and interest to lesson - The teacher may use writing as a testing device to provide feedback on what the students have learnt Student writing can provide useful evidence of successes or failures in learning, of confusions, and errors - Writing requires thought, discipline and concentration It is relatively a permanent form and readers judge us by our style, content and logic So writing demands care and thought (White, 1981: 1) With all the roles mentioned above, writing really becomes an integral part in almost every language syllabus from elementary to tertiary level Process of essay writing: To perfectly complete an essay, the writer needs to conduct four main stages The first is prewriting, the second is draft writing, the third is revising drafts and proof-reading is the last one There are different tables, charts or articles showing the essay writing process like Ann Raimes, Alice & H Ann But in general, when an essay is written, the writer needs to concern about some main steps that cannot be lacked They are shown by the following chart Start Here X Proofreadi ng The graph of essay writing process In the pre-writing stage, writers need to choose and narrow a topic to a specific focus then they generate ideas That is called brainstorming This process can get them to start the writing more easily and quickly It means that if they conduct the stage, it helps them save time in later stages of the writing process After brainstorming, listing step is conducted Students think about their topics and make a list of any words and phrases coming into their mind on a paper They think of as many ideas as possible in a very short time “Don’t stop free flow of ideas by judging or editing them before you write them down” (Alice & H Ann 1996:5) The next step is free writing Students can write any ideas about their topics to find out a specific focus While students are writing, their minds will come out other related ideas from the ones that they have Writers should write the ideas down as many as possible without worrying about any mistakes When they run out of ideas, they need to reread their paper and underline the main ideas that they think will develop All of these activities are to ensure that whether writers are looking for a narrow topic or not because to find out a narrow topic is very important It helps them to choose an appropriate and adequate idea to develop Draft writing stage is the actual writing stage It is just an extension of the prewriting stage The students transfer the information or issues they have gathered and organized them into a simple paragraph Until this stage, they may not be exactly certain which direction their ideas will go However, this stage allows them to settle on the subject the paper will take Revising or editing is usually the most difficult stage of the writing process, especially for beginning writers Revising can include adding, deleting, re-arranging and substituting words, sentences, and even making transparency Even the most excellent authors also need to spend the majority of their time on this stage of the writing process to read again and again in order to find out and edit their writings better, that will be easy for them to remember the mistakes they make and avoid them in the next writings It is important to gain proof-reading skills for students as this improves a student’s writing over time Proof-reading stage is a chance for the writer to scan his or her paper for mistakes in grammar, punctuation, and spelling FACTUAL BACKGROUND: 2.1 Research setting: The study was conducted at Hoang Hoa high school, a rural school of Thanh Hoa province The school has 34 classes, each class consists of from 40 to 45 students Most of the students come from the villages in the district where English learning and teaching does not get much attention The only sources from which students can get knowledge are the textbooks and their teachers Like students in many other schools in Vietnam, students in my school are complained a great deal for their inability to use English for communication after leaving school The total number of English teachers at Hoang Hoa high school is All of them are female aged from 35 to 45 They were trained from training courses in English language teaching at different universities in Vietnam All of them are young teachers who are friendly, active, knowledgeable and full of inspiration for teaching The main English textbooks used in teaching English at this school are Tieng Anh 10, Tieng Anh 11, and Tieng Anh 12 ( PEARSON) From my personal observation as a classroom teacher, students are unwilling to write English essays in the writing lessons 2.2 Major findings: Factors making 11th- form students at Hoang Hoa high school have difficulties in essay writing As mentioned above, writing is a very important skill However, it is also a very difficult skill to master Following is some major difficulties that students at my school often encounter during the process of learning writing 1.1 Students lack vocabulary and structures: As a matter of fact, vocabulary and structures are among the most important factors that determine the effectiveness of a writing text Therefore, without enough sources of vocabulary and structures, it is really difficult for students to express their ideas 1.2 Students lack background knowledge for ideas: their low background knowledge prevents them from generating ideas In other words, they don’t know what to write Their writings, therefore, are less interesting and vivid 1.3 Students have trouble organizing and using linking words: As we all know, linking words play an essential part in writing because they are used to link the ideas in essays to make the writing transparent and understandable Without linking words, the writing is confusing and illogical because the ideas in the essay are unconnected together And without using linking words such as and, but, however, although, etc., the students cannot compose an essay logically and clearly 1.4 Students’ writings are influenced by their mother-tongue: During my reality of teaching, I realize that students are greatly affected by their mother-tongue while writing When being required to produce a text with a given topic, it is common that students first make an outline in Vietnamese, then try to translate their ideas into English This has been proved ineffective in developing students’ writing ability It is much better that students are guided to think in English in order to make their writing more natural 1.5 Students not write in a formal way: Last but not least, that is the problem of using academic languages when writing This is the problem for even students of intermediate level They are often in the habit of writing without considering whether the words or expressions they use are suitable in the context of writing or not In fact, not many students are well aware of the differences between formality and informality when writing 1.6 Teachers’ assistance does not meet students’ needs: Some students sometimes don’t know how to write an essay in English due to their teacher’s unclear instructions or vague explanations, for example Besides, the inappropriate method of their teachers discourages them Consequently, the teachers works as a controller while the students become passive 1.7 Time shortage: The shortage of time is apparently unavoidable Students hardly complete the writing tasks at class Especially, it takes them much time to such tasks as writing about measures to protect endangered species and possible results or describing a sporting event IMPLEMENTATION AND SOLUTIONS: From the major findings of the study, in order to help students better their written works, some suggestions have been made with the hope to improve the current situation of teaching and learning the writing skill 3.1 Increasing students’ English proficiency: As I observe, low English proficiency was the greatest contributor to the students’ inability to write an English essay Thus, it is very essential for teachers to find solutions to enhance students’ English competence Firstly, I provide students with the structure of an essay, which they can apply to every essay writing AN ESSAY • INTRODUCTION: + Introduce the topic in the essay + Contain controlling ideas that the following sentences in the body will explain/ clarify • THESIS STATEMENT: + states the main idea of an essay + sets limits on the topic • BODY: + support the main points presented in the thesis + each point is developed by one paragraph and includes reasons, examples, facts, statistics… • CONCLUSION: + Signal the end of the essay + Restatement of the topic sentence/ Summary of the main points 16 After distributing the model writing, I write new vocabulary on the board Then I ask students to copy these words into their notebook and make a sentence with each word to enrich their vocabulary and sentence structures before writing an essay about the similar topic While students are reading the model, I require them to underline the devices that the writer uses to connect one sentence with another in order to make the text cohesive For instance, students underline words or phrases to show sequence (first, second, thirdly), to show the contrast ( however, but ) At the same time, students need to pay attention to all the choices that the writer uses, such as content, punctuation, grammar, and sentence arrangement 3.4 Using group-work activities: For certain types of activities, group-work has a number of advantages over working with the whole class, working in pairs or working individually: Clearly, group work can increase the student working time because they can share ideas, become close in the short time and above all, solve the common problem assigned by the teacher Additionally, students’ group work frees the teacher from the usual role of “an expert who always lectures” and allows him/her to walk to each group, to guide or to encourage students to work actively For such benefits, I often use group work activities to stimulate students to write an essay in English For example: when teaching writing- Unit 16- Tieng Anh 11: GLOBAL WARMING “ Write an essay about causes and effects of global warming” Procedures: - First, I divide students into big groups Group A will think about the causes of global warming, and Group B will list the effects of global warming In each group, I ask students to work in randomed small groups of people - Then, I give clear instructions, set the objectives of the activity with average speaking speed and simple words to help students understand the task I also set the time limit such as “ You have 10 minutes to this activity” 17 ( Students work in groups of 4) - Students in group A have to list the causes of global warming carbon dioxide emissions from coal burning power plants deforestation for farmland, wood and paper the increasing use of chemical fertilisers on croplands CO2 emissions from the burning of petrol for transport - Students in group B work together to think about the effects of global warming 18 water and food shortages extreme weather patterns ( storms, heatwave, floods, droughts….) heat- related illnesses and death the spread of infectious diseases people losing homes widespread extinction of species melting of polar ice caps rising of sea level climate change 10 ecological imbalance 11 reduce crop harvests globally 3.5 Showing and correcting errors in students’ writing: Teacher’s error correction is also an important element to help students improve their essay writing The teacher has to know how to correct students’ writings to help them avoid those mistakes in their next essays Firstly, teachers should know that errors can be divided into three categories They are errors in content, errors in organization and errors in language + Errors in content are all the errors that show the students’ lack of understanding the essay content and meaning These include the failures in expressing the meaning intended, lack of information, and the text’s understandability which appear in Introduction, Body and Conclusion of the essay + Errors in organization are all elements restraining the smooth flow of the essay These include illogical arrangements of ideas, overlapped parts or failures in the essay coherence or unity + Errors in language come out in grammar errors, orthography errors (punctuation and spelling errors), vocabulary errors and style errors Obviously, students’ errors are so various that the teacher cannot correct all errors because of limited time and numerous students Therefore, after reading students’ works, I often decide to choose which kind of errors to deal with 19 ( For example, errors in language or errors in content in class) For other errors, I usually use circling or underlining and symbols to indicate kinds of errors such as “sp” for spelling; “v” for error in verb form or tense; “gr” for grammar error; “cap” for error in capitalization This way can help the students to identify and correct their own errors Symbols for editing are suggested as follows ( See APPENDIX 2) Then I ask students to re-read their writing to correct the underlined errors and mistakes If students cannot correct errors themselves, I determine the cause of the errors, carefully explain the reason why students make certain errors, and how to correct them It is very useful for students because the more the teacher points out to students why they are making errors, the more they will be able to avoid them With a typical error, I copy the whole 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 Sometimes, I give students chances for self - correction and peer-correction 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 Self-correction and peer-correction should be guided by a checklist that aims at checking overall correctness of the essay 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 writing exercise so that students can use it to check their partner’s essay writings’ errors Here is a sample checklist that I myself designed for my students: Lĩnh vực Bố cục Phát triển ý Sử dụng ngơn từ Tiêu chí + Câu đề dẫn chủ đề mạch lạc + Bố cục hợp lí rõ ràng phù hợp với u cầu + có trình tự logic + có dẫn chứng để bảo vệ quan điểm + Sử dụng ngơn từ phù hợp nội dung, 20 văn phong + sử dụng từ nối ý cho viết uyển chuyển + đủ thuyết phục người đọc Nội dung Ngữ pháp, dấu câu, tả + đủ dẫn chứng, ví dụ, lập luận + Độ dài: số từ khơng nhiều so với quy định 5% Lỗi tả ngữ pháp gây hiểu nhầm/ sai lệch ý bị trừ 1% điểm viết Above are the most commonly-used techniques and activities to help students to improve their essay writing skill However, before putting them into use, teachers of English need to take a serious consideration into what is appropriate for particular subjects in particular situations RESULTS AFTER APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING: - At the beginning of the school year, before I apply the research in teaching Writing skill, I tested 100 students from classes: 11A1, 11A2, 11A4, 11A10 ( in which there were many good students in 11A1 and 11A10) The statistics was shown as follows: Mark of paragraph writing Number of students Percentage Excellent ( 9-10 points) 0% Good ( 7-8,9 points) 1% Average ( 5-6.9 points) 12 12% Weak ( below points) 87 87% - After nearly a year of applying new methods and approaches, the result is better: Mark of paragraph writing Excellent ( 9-10 points) Good ( 7-8,9 points) Average ( 5-6.9 points) Weak ( below points) Number of students 12 71 13 Percentage Compared with 4% 12% 71% 13% a year ago increase 4% increase 11% increase 59 % reduce 74 % 21 The result means that the implementation and solutions used in the school year 2021-2022 have brought good effect on students’ learning essay writing skill The number of weak students has dropped considerably III CONCLUSION: Conclusion: As can be seen, of the four skills, writing seems to be a difficult skill and a challenge to both teachers and students This study is an attempt to apprehend a small part of the phenomenon It aims at finding out the reasons why students have difficulties in writing an English essay as well as making suggestions for teachers to encourage students to take part in writing enthusiastically and effectively A variety of solutions have been offered Teachers should try to give more chances and encouragement to students by providing them with more structures, vocabulary, linking words and ideas It is necessary for teachers to use writing models, pictures, group work activities to teach essay writing Besides, teachers need to show and correct errors in students’ writing These new teaching methods really help students become more willing and active to converse with others in the target language in class To sum up, this study is hoped to provide extensive insights into notions of essay writing, and how it is currently being addressed Thus, the findings from the research would be of interest and useful for those who wish to improve the writing skill for their students Suggestions: Firstly, it is suggested to reduce the number of students in each class so as to increase the quality of teaching ad learning at high school Secondly, modern educational equipments should be available in the class for the ease of applying technology in teaching Last but not least, it is essential to give teachers opportunities for further training so as to enhance the teachers’ methods and approaches in teaching writing skill Although I have made efforts toward carrying out this study, due to the limitation of time, lack of sources and the inexperience in doing research, shortcomings are unavoidable I look forward to hearing from your comments Thank you very much REFERENCES English references: 1.Alice, O & H Ann, 1996 Writing Academic English Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Byrne, D 1988 Teaching Writing Skills Longman Davies, P and Pearse, E 2000 Success in English Teaching OUP Huong, T.T, Minh,N.T.T etal ELT Methodology II-Course book VNU: CFL, 2007 Lane, J & Lange, E Writing Clearly Boston: Heinle & Heinl, 1993 White, R.V (1981), Approaches to Writing Guidelines for Writing Activities, A Magazine for Language Teachers, RELC Vietnamese references: Hoàng Văn Vân, Nguyễn Thị Chi, Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa (2006) Đổi phương pháp dạy tiếng Anh THPT Việt Nam Education Press Nguyễn Hạnh Dung (2006) Phương pháp dạy tiếng anh trường phổ thông Education Press Sách học sinh: Tiếng Anh 101 – tập Một tập Hai ( Tập đoàn xuất giáo dục Pearson) LIST OF RECOGNIZED EXPERENTIAL INITIATIVES Full name: Le Thi Hong Minh Position: Teacher School: Hoang Hoa high school TT Tên đề tài SKKN Tạo hứng thú cho học sinh lớp 11 học nói How to make 11-grade students learn listening Năm học đánh giá xếp loại Tỉnh C 2007-2008 Tỉnh C 2009-2010 Tỉnh B 2013-2014 Tỉnh C 2017-2018 effectively How to help 10th- form students to minimize reticence in English speaking Kết Cấp đánh đánh giá giá xếp loại xếp loại (Phòng, Sở, (A, B, Tỉnh ) C) lessons Some effective ways to help 12th- form students get better results for the national examination APPENDIX 1: USEFUL EXPRESSIONS AND LINKING WORDS/ PHRASES - Để liệt kê trật tự: + Firstly,= First of all,= In the first place, =To begin with,= To start with,: để bắt đầu + Secondly,= In the second place : thứ hai + Thirdly,: thứ ba + Next,: tiếp + Then: + After that: sau + Subsequently,: sau + Finally,= Lastly, = Last but not least, : cuối - Để bổ sung thêm thông tin: + In addition, = Additionally, = In addition to this,= Moreover, = Furthermore, = What is more,= Besides, =Apart from that, : + Not only but also : khơng mà cịn + Both and + An additional + danh từ + of is that : điểm bổ sung - Để diễn tả tương đồng: + Similarly,= Likewise, = In the same way, - Để diễn tả thông tin trái ngược: + On the other hand,= On the contrary, = In contrast, = Whereas, : trái lại + However, : nhiên + Nevertheless, : + Although= Even though = Though= Despite/ In spite of/ Notwithstanding the fact that : =Much as = Regardless of the fact that + S +V : + While= Whilst: + S + V : + Adj + as + S + is/are/was/ were, : Mặc dù + Notwithstanding = In spite of = Despite + cụm danh từ/ Ving + yet= but : + In the meantime: - Để diễn tả nguyên nhân: + Because= As= Since = Because of the fact that = Now that = For= On the ground that + S+ V : Bởi + Because of = due to= owing to = on account of + cụm danh từ/ Ving : + The fact that is another reason for .: thật nguyên nhân - Để diễn tả kết quả: + Therefore, = Thus, = Hence,= Consequently, + , so : Vì + Sb ( have) no choice but to + Vinf: khơng có lựa chọn khác ngồi việc + For this reason : lí + This leads to the fact that : điều dẫn đến thực tế + That is the reason why : lí mà + lead to/ result in/ bring about: dẫn đến - Để diễn tả mục đích: + to= so as to= in order to + Vinf: để + so that = in order that + S + V: để + with a view to + Ving: mục đích + with the intention of + Ving: với dự định - Để chuyển ý đoạn văn: + As far as ( health/ economy/ education/ psychology/ morality .) is concerned, Liên quan đến vấn đề ( sức khỏe, kinh tế, giáo dục, tâm lí, đạo đức ) + From a/ an political scientific social economic point of view/ standpoint/ view point, psychological educational khía cạnh trị/ khoa học/ xã hội/ kinh tế/ tâm lí/ giáo dục, + When it comes to the problem of : đến vấn đề - Để nêu ví dụ: + For example, = For instance,: ví dụ + such as + danh từ: ví dụ + like + danh từ : + In particular, = Particularly, : cụ thể + This is clearly shown/ illustrated by the fact that .: điều minh chứng + A typical example of : ví dụ điển hình striking + Take as an example : Lấy làm ví dụ + Another example is that : Một ví dụ khác - Nói cách khác: + In other words/ That is to say/ This means that ./ I mean that - Để nhấn mạnh quan điểm: + Clearly = obviously = it is obvious that: rõ ràng + Naturally,: theo lẽ tự nhiên + Of course,: dĩ nhiên + Needless to say, : không cần thiết phải nói + Apparently: dường + It can’t be denied that : Không thể phủ nhận + On the basis of my understanding of : theo biết + According to : theo + I think = In my oppinion = From my point of view = As far as I am concerned= As for me: theo - Để diễn tả thực tế: + In fact, = In practice, = In effect, = As a matter of fact, : thực tế + As we all know,= As can be seen, : Như tất biết + It is a well documented fact that………= It is true to say that…= It is a fact that : thực tế - Để nói chung: + In general= Generally= As a rule= On the whole= By and large= In most cases - Liên quan đến: + regarding sth/ sb = with reference to sth/ sb = with regard to: - Kết luận: + In conclusion, = On balance, = To conclude, ( nói tóm lại) = To sum up = All in all, it is my opinion that : ý kiến it is true to say that : thật the best course of action would be to it is evident from the above points: = In a nutshell, + All thing considered, the obvious conclusion to be drawn is that : Nói tóm lại, kết luận + Take everything into account these points I therefore believe that .: consideration, APPENDIX 2: SYMBOLS USED IN CORRECTING STUDENTS’ WRITING Symbols Examples Meaning ^ I went ^ school yesterday Something is WO I am ^ student I like very much this missing Wrong order Ag She like coffee Wrong agreement T He has got two car I buy a car last week Wrong tense Sp He goes to Ha Long bay next month It’s very confortable Wrong punctuation P What is it Wrong punctuation WF My name’ John Her English is very well Wrong form ? I like go to the cinema But the old man the book now? I don’t understand Art He is a engineer What you mean? Article Prep He arrived at London at 7:30 this Preposition WC morning My employment is very interesting Wrong word CONFIRMATION OF THE HEADMASTER Thanh Hoa, June 1st, 2022 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ( Xác nhận thủ trưởng đơn vị) I, the undersigned, certify my authority of the experiential initiative entitled “ Some techniques to help 11th- form students better their essay writing skill” Except where the references are indicated, no other person’s piece of work has been used without due acknowledgements in the text of initiative (Tôi xin cam đoan SKKN viết, khơng chép nội dung người khác) Lê Thị Hồng Minh ... errors in students? ?? writing: Teacher’s error correction is also an important element to help students improve their essay writing The teacher has to know how to correct students? ?? writings to help. .. some effective techniques to help 11-form students better their essay writing skill Aims of the study: The study is carried out to: (1 ) find out the difficulties that 11th- form students have... commonly-used techniques and activities to help students to improve their essay writing skill However, before putting them into use, teachers of English need to take a serious consideration into what