I write the research of “Difficulties and mistakes in writing English of grade 10th students at The Asian International School, Cao Thang campus” to support my graduation from The Saigon International School with helps from The Saigon International School and Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tuan – my instructor. My study does not only support my graduation but also help other people have a deep look inside English language. Everyone can read my article, especially new teachers and students who have difficulties in teaching English and studying English.
i DECLARATION I am, Dao Quang Huy declare that the work presented in this Graduation Thesis is uniquely prepared by me This is my first research about “Difficulties and mistakes in writing English of grade 10th students at The Asian International School, Cao Thang campus” I declare that this study not copy from other works All the information used in my research are cited from books and websites with specific sourses Name: Dao Quang Huy Student ID: 97011501045 Course: – Class: 15DTA Major: English Language The Saigon International University Date submitted: …………………………… Signed: …………………………………… ii ABSTRACT I write the research of “Difficulties and mistakes in writing English of grade 10th students at The Asian International School, Cao Thang campus” to support my graduation from The Saigon International School with helps from The Saigon International School and Mr Nguyen Thanh Tuan – my instructor My study does not only support my graduation but also help other people have a deep look inside English language Everyone can read my article, especially new teachers and students who have difficulties in teaching English and studying English iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I have received many helps before I completed my research First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Mr Nguyen Thanh Tuan who helped and encouraged, guided and willing motivated me from the beginning to the end of this work Next, I would like to appreciation the Saigon International University for providing me a professional environment and facilities of studying, and all teachers in the English Language major for giving enthusiasm and sympathies that help me finish this research In addition, because of my limited nuts and bolts, and mistakes which hardly avoided, I believe to receive advices from teachers to make my study more perfect I really thank to all people who helped me to finish this graduation research Best regard, Dao Quang Huy iv INSTRUCTOR’S COMMENT ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… Mark: …………………………… Signed: ………………………… v CONTENTS LIST OF CHARTS vii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of problem 1.2 Purposes of the study 1.3 Significance of the research 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Scope and limitation of the study 10 1.5.1 Scope of the study 10 1.5.2 Limitation of the study 10 CHAPTER II 11 LITERATURE REVIEW 11 2.1 Definitions of Key Terms 11 2.2 Review Previous Works 11 CHAPTER III 14 METHODOLOGY 14 3.1 Research design 14 3.2 Procedures 14 3.3 Participants 15 3.4 Sample Selection 16 3.5 Material Techniques 16 3.6 Data collections 17 3.7 Reliability and Validity 17 CHAPTER 18 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 18 Chart 4.1: Difficult skills of English to learn 18 Chart 4.2: Braintorming idea problems 19 Chart 4.3: Problems in writing English 20 Chart 4.4: Choosing righ type of a sentence 21 Chart 4.5: Choosing righ type of a sentence 22 CHAPTER 26 CONCLUSION 26 vi REFERENCES 27 APPENDIX 29 vii LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1: Difficult skills of English to learn 18 Chart 4.2: Braintorming idea problems 19 Chart 4.3: Problems in writing English 20 Chart 4.4: Choosing righ type of a sentence 21 Chart 4.5: Choosing righ type of a sentence 22 CHAPTER INTRODUCTION The research of “Difficulties and mistakes in writing English of grade 10th students at The Asian International School, Cao Thang campus” is writen to find out difficulites when students write English Therefore, we can figure out answers to solve this issue My study also reflects my achievements of four – year studying proccess at The Saigon International University 1.1 Statement of problem When English becomes the most popular language in the world Writing is one of the most important skills that people use to show their thoughts by writing This skill is used for most aspects of people’s works In another word, people use writing skills to create work documents However, they usually get mistakes or difficulties when conduct an English paragraph, a sentence or an essay Therefore, readers may not understand or they may misunderstand ideas of writers Especially, it happens a lot in high schools Some Vietnamese high school students still get some difficulties in writing English Since this problem happens to most students in Vietnam I decided to choose this topic: “Difficulties and mistakes in writing English of grade 10th students at The Asian International School, Cao Thang campus” to find out barriers which constrain their development in writing English 1.2 Purposes of the study This study is conducted by me with the aim of finding out barriers of high school students and understanding deeper difficulties when they write an English essay or a paragraph This study will point out fields that students mostly have such as grammar, vocabulary, coherence, logic or structure of an essay Therefore, this research can provide us with solutions to answer this problem 1.3 Significance of the research This research is really essential for all people As I said above, this study aims to find problems of students in writing English, which leads to answers for this issue The study is carried out by me in order to help teachers and students figure out their weaknesses in teaching and learning writing skills I also want to contribute my knowledge through this research to educational development in Vietnam Additional, my research has a vital role in my graduation It proves my process of studying in The Saigon International University 1.4 Research questions What difficulties students in high schools get in writing English? Why they get into dificulties with writing? How they improve their writing skills? 10 1.5 Scope and limitation of the study 1.5.1 Scope of the study This study only focuses on English writing skills Other skills of English may be mentioned a little bit to support improvement of English writing in this research Also, this research will be conducted at The Saigon International University, and a survey will be carried out at The Asian International School I will co-operate with students in class 10/32 at The Asian International School to complete this study 1.5.2 Limitation of the study I only have ten weeks to finish “Difficulties and mistakes in writing English of grade 10th students at The Asian International School, Cao Thang campus” study Therefore, there may be some mistakes that occur in this research although I try to avoid those faults Additionally, when I make the survey, I also get some difficulties such as several students may not cooperate with me to fill out my questionaire form Other small tough cases can be traffic, when I travel from home to school and place for survey Additionally, within ten weeks, I not have much time to obtain much knowledge about writing English from others’ works Therefore, there can be some lack of proofs to support my research 11 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definitions of Key Terms Difficulties: In writing English, students often suffer from certain problems such as structure of an essay, word choices, and vocabularies Vietnamese high school students: English learners are studying from grade 10 to 12 2.2 Review Previous Works “Writing is a part of our lives” (Geikhman,n.d.) Writing is our skills in every language We use this skill for most aspects of our lives such as writing notes, emails, letters, document papers, or even we text to other people In some cases, we have mistakes and difficulties in writing Therefore, readers might be confused According to a research in 2015 said “Writing is one of the main language skills It plays a major role in expressing one’s ideas, thoughts, opinions, and attitudes Through writing, people are capable of sharing ideas, feelings, persuading and convincing others” (Alfaki,2015,p.40) Therefore, we can see the importance of writing skills in English If you can improve your writing skills, your career will be better in the future “As verbs take different forms depending on tense and subjects they are used with, they create problems forsecond language writing students” (Tyner, 1987) Many students in Vietnam, especially English learners who begin to write English always have mistakes of grammar For example, they forget adding “s” at the end of a verb which go with the third 12 person singular – he/she/it/or a name Additionally, people usually not change a verb in present to a verb in the past when they write a paragraph or a sentence in past tense Following to a sentence from an article which was writen by Celia Jenkins in 2017 said that teaching writing is essential for every educational program, but it is hardly welcomed by most English learner (Jenkins,2017) An article’s name was “making writing interesting for students” which was created by Khrista Cendana in 2018 said “writing courses can become boring for students who are taking the class, especially for those who aren’t interested in writing” (Cendana,2018) According to Zoe Nixon (2018) said that writers usually not have any idea what to write next in some moments, or they start to question their own ability to write well These terms are the truth for many people and students as well Most students and other people are not excited about writing classes Those classes make them feel bored and asleep Sometimes, they not have any idea to conduct their writing products As a result, they feel disappointed about their writing skills Another article from Sarah Macfadyen was writen in 2015 said that English grammar is a problem for both native and speakers who speak English as a second language Many intricacies rules, and exceptions make different generations of teachers use variety of ways to teach grammar to train literate English writers (Macfadyen,2015) Grammar also is vital for writing skills Correction of grammar make readers understand writers’ ideas Some methods that make students feel interested in learning English writing skills According to an article in 2015 writen by Stephanie Long, she provided ways to make learning English writing skills more exciting: 13 Give students as much freedom as you can to choose topics for writing, and encourage them to focus on things that they are very passionate about You’ll be amazed how even the most writing-phobic students will churn out pages and pages about their favorite basketball player or movie (Long,2015) Teacher can let students choose any topic that they are really interested in Every student in your class strictly focus on the lesson Therefore, they have a chance to improve their creativity, which is very useful in brainstorming a topic that you ask them to write in the future Methods to improve writing English skills for students There was an article which was writen by Karen Dikson in 2016 said that: Every human skill gets better with constant, repetitive practice In your case, you could easily make a small change in your classroom routine, and organize brief writing sessions each and every day Ask your students to write a relatively small amount of words on a specific subject every day It may be painful for them at first, but the more they write, the better their writing will get (Dikson,2016) Her method is that teachers provide students as much writing homework as possible This kind of solution is applied popular to many students in anywhere This type of method may not work well with some students, but it worked with most english learners in some cases 14 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research design In order to find out dificulties or barriers while students write English, I decided to apply a method called quantitative during my research According to an article in 2017, “quantitative research gathers data in a numerical form which can be put into categories, or in rank order, or measured in units of measurement This type of data can be used to construct graphs and tables of raw data” (McLeod,2017) I chose quantitative method because my research was based on a survey which illustrated me the number of responses 3.2 Procedures As I received the requirement of writing graduation thesis on Feburary 27th, 2019, I immediately obtained helps from Mr Nguyen Thanh Tuan who was a great instructor After that, I got a schedule of research procedures which was planned by himself Week 1, 2, 3: Chapter and were completed and corrected Week 4, 5: Chapter and were completed and corrected Week 6: Chapter was completed and corrected Week 7, 8, and 10 were reserved for correcting other mistakes and finishing the research My research questions were What difficulties students in high schools get in writing English? Why they get into dificulties with writing? How they improve their writing skills? I created a survey which will help me answer these questions In the first question, I would like to find out what stopped students writing English, what they had to suffer from 15 when they wrote an essay, a sentence or a paragraph The second question, I wanted to figure outthe reasons why they got mistakes or difficulties in writing skill, which were their barrier The final question, after collection and evaluation of the survey, I proposed some solutions that might work well in improving writing skills of students in high school, especially grade 10th students Firstly, I wanted to find out things that made students get into troubles when they wrote English They might have mistakes of grammar, word choices, structure of a sentence or a paragraph, or variation of vocabularies by creating a table of questionaire Then, participants answered my questions by choosing answers on a paper Therefore, I had such a deep view in problems that students had As a result, I could discover the reasons why they had difficulties when they conducted a parargraph or a sentence in English Finally, after collecting those answered paper, I had certain numbers of responses from students I could evaluate each section of the survey which was shown by charts Next, I could provide what solutions were available to answer their issues Therefore, teachers and students had their own strategy to improve or working on their teaching and learning English 3.3 Participants To conduct my research, I decided to choose students in The Asian International School which is located at 177 Bis 2, Cao Thang street, ward 12, district 10, Ho Chi Minh city Because I did internship at this school so that I had a bit of advantages to start my research I had permission from manager and my internship instructor at this school Therefore, I had a great chance to conduct my survey I decided to choose high school students in grade ten, class 10/32 This class included twenty students which were studying two programs 16 Vietnamese and Internation Students in the Asian School have more advantages in studying English than other schools because they learn English with Vietnamese teachers in the morning In the afternoon they have great opportunity to interact with foreign teachers who speak English as the first language 3.4 Sample Selection It was advantage for me because I did internship at The Asian International School where I carried out my survey The Asian International School consisted of seven branches in Ho Chi Minh city, but I chose Cao Thang campus where I did internship and research The Asian International School (Cao Thang campus) included totally twelve grades from one to twelve Each grade included approximately ten classes Fortunately, I had a chance to teach grade ten at class 10/32, and I decided to choose class 10/32 for my survey with twenty students It was convenient for me when I conducted my survey in the morning at eight fourty, on May 6th My survey lasted for 30 minutes a class 10/30 room 401B 3.5 Material Techniques During my study, I used google form to support my survey It is a web application where people can create a question table to collect people ideas or responses It is very convenient because people can and collect answers from anywhere and anytime Users’ question forms were sent shortly to other people so that users could collect number of responses quickly In addition, this web application can autimatically show you charts about people’s responses which help you understand trends or phenomena Also, I used microsoft word to conduct and showed off my research professionally 17 3.6 Data collections I started my survey by making a question form from google form Then, these questions were printed into A4 papers so that it was easy for participants to answers I printed twenty copies for twenty students in class 10/32 at The Asian International School Next, I went there and handed them twenty copies of question form Then, they spent thirty minutes answering eleven questions in my question form which was demonstrated below Students had to answer these questions for 30 minutes from 8:40 am to 9:10 am Then, I collected their answered paper for analizing data 3.7 Reliability and Validity My research was definitely reliable because my survey was conducted through strictly and carefully stages which were listed at procedures In addition, my twenty participants did not have any barrier in understanding English Therefore, they could answer my questions exactly Additionall, my study was based on other author’s works which were demonstrated in my research Those other’s works were cited in the references Therefore, I could have comparision between my results of my survey and older researches In addtion, I believed that my study was valuable due to some reasons My research was based on reliable responses from students Also, my survey was conducted to collect exact numbers Therefore, it provided me with difficulties and mistakes when students wrote English With the responses from twenty students in class 10/32, I believed we could have strong proofs to prove common mistakes and difficulties when students wrote English 18 CHAPTER ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION These graphs below were created by me via google form to support my study They were also my proofs to make my study more effectively and exactly The responses of these charts were based on questionaires that I created via google form Those questions were listed in appendix Those charts below were exported from google form by percentages of students (responses) Each question was a chart Because I did the most general idea, I had to write any question in google form that brought me a deep view inside the problem However, after I did the survey, there were some questions that students did not have mistakes Therefore, I just chose survey questions that proved students’s mistakes and difficulties in writing English Also, I described and evaluated each graph in detail by proportions Chart 4.1: Difficult skills of English to learn The graph illustrated proportion of students in class 10/32 at The Asian International School had problems with listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills in English 19 As I could see that students in class 10/32 had difficulties with listening and writing the most while there was only a small percentage of students who had trouble with speaking English There were 85% students who felt difficult to write English Therefore, most students had trouble with writing skills They might get bored when they were in a writing class Therefore, they might not practice their writing skills regularly Chart 4.2: Braintorming idea problems The pie chart demonstrated percentage of students who had problem with thinking ideas when writing English In the pie chart I could see that there are 65% of students who got tough in brainstomming their idea to conduct an essay or a paragraph However, 35% of students said that they could write English without any difficulty Through those number, we could see that many students could not think of any idea when they started to write a paragraph Even though they had ideas, their ideas were poor and they were not in logical situation Therefore, they could not write an English essay or a paragraph easily 20 Chart 4.3: Problems in writing English The bar graph showed the rate of students had problems with grammar, vocabulary, coherence, logic, struture of a sentence, a paragraph or an essay As I could see in the graph above, vocabulary accounts for the most (80%) compared with others There were also 50% of students who felt that they need to improve their structure of a sentence, a paragraph or an essay In the graph, two things that students regularly had mistakes were vocabulary and structure of a sentence, a paragraph or an essay Therefore, lack of words in writing English was a big problem because they could not describe their thoughts and ideas clearly which were very important for readers to understand them Additionally, getting faults of structure of sentences, paragraphs, or essays was a huge trouble as well That was to say that readers might misunderstand what writers illustrated in their works ... write the research of ? ?Difficulties and mistakes in writing English of grade 10th students at The Asian International School, Cao Thang campus? ?? to support my graduation from The Saigon International. .. sentence 22 CHAPTER INTRODUCTION The research of ? ?Difficulties and mistakes in writing English of grade 10th students at The Asian International School, Cao Thang campus? ?? is writen to find out difficulites... difficulties in writing English Since this problem happens to most students in Vietnam I decided to choose this topic: ? ?Difficulties and mistakes in writing English of grade 10th students at The Asian International