EFFECTS OF OUTLINING AS PRE WRITING TASK ON FIRST YEAR ENGLISH STUDENTS’ PARAGRAPH WRITINGS AT a UNIVERSITY IN CAN THO CITY

PROPOSAL RESEARCH TITLE EFFECTS OF OUTLINING AS PRE-WRITING TASK ON FIRST YEAR ENGLISH STUDENTS’ PARAGRAPH WRITINGS AT A UNIVERSITY IN CAN THO CITY Abstract Grasping the skills of writing are an essential part of English learning Through the years, new learning methods have been introduced to the learning world Amid all the tools and based on personal experience, learning English writing through outlining as the pre-writing task seems to be an option that might prove to be effective The present paper is designed as an experiment to seek insights into how to use outlining to helps learners at Can Tho University enhance their writing proficiency competence Students will be receiving pretest (given at the initial stage), and a post-test (at the end of the course) as part of the study They will be divided into two groups, one being the controlled group that receives regular training from class, while the experimental group using outlining for writing task After the experimental period of ten consecutive weeks, all learners from the two groups will sit for a writingposttest to assess the effectiveness of outlining learning It is expected that learners who are exposed to the lessons will better perform at English writing skills I Introduction This chapter presents a general outline of the study, which includes the rationale, the aims and objectives, research questions, research methods, scope, significance of the study and structure of the thesis I.1 Rationale for the study English is one of international languages, which is used throughout the world and in many fields of life such as in Politics, Economics, Social and Education Therefore, English as a language in international communication is clearly needed by many learners to deliver thought and interact in a variety of situations Because of the importance of English, English has been taught to students since they are in the Elementary school English is one of the international languages, used around the world and in many areas of life such as Politics, Economics, Society and Education Therefore, English as a language of international communication is clearly needed for many learners to convey thinking and interacting in many situations Because of the importance of English, English has been taught to students since they are in the Primary school Because of the basic components of the four language skills (listening, reading, writing and speaking), learners must master the basic components According to Brown (2001), technique is any exercise, activity, or task used in a language classroom to realize a lesson goal Additionally, in any type of language learning activity, techniques can certainly form an indispensable element to facilitate any successful attempt at vocabulary mastery Therefore, we can say that techniques of teaching writing skill to young learners are important because it can help the students learn easier and enjoy the material presented Prewriting strategies or strategies that aid in the writing process are primarily taught using modeling The teacher must set up instruction so that the students can visually see and experience how the strategy works before independently tackling the task In relation to Edelsky’s example of learning to ride a bike, the students must learn from another who is proficient (Larson & Marsh, 2005) Thus, in this research it is identified that teaching outlining technique as the pre-writing task for the first-year students Moreover, we know that outlining in teaching writing skill is important to help students to increase their achievement in English Therefore, the researcher intends to a research: “EFFECTS OF OUTLINING AS PRE-WRITING TASK ON FIRST YEAR ENGLISH STUDENTS’ PARAGRAPH WRITINGS AT A UNIVERSITY IN CAN THO CITY” The reason of choosing this research is the researcher believes that finding out the factors which affected to learning and technique in teaching writing that supports the successful of learning and teaching process, especially to young learners who are learning English I.2 Research aims As globalization has started to develop in recent decades, the demand for learning English has grown faster than ever before However, though schools and students realize the importance of developing English proficiency, numerous are still struggling to find appropriate ways to master this language Motivated from this constraint, I decided to conduct this study aiming to evaluate how to use outlining to help learners improving English writing skills, particularly first-year non-English major students at Can Tho University enhance their English writing performance proficiency Further, the study also wishes to investigate how to use outlining in English writing task to motivate learners in studying and overcoming the fear of writing lessons I.3 Research questions The study aimed to answer the following questions: Does outlining help to improve first year English students’ paragraph writing? What are the learners’ attitudes towards the use of outlining? 1.4 Significance of the study In accordance with the aims, the study can be used as a reference for the researchers who will concentrate on developing learner’s English proficiency in writing The author hopes that outlining as the pre-writing task can be applied effectively by both the teachers and learners during the process of teaching English writing skill II II.1 Literature review Definition of key terms II.1.1 Writing skill and prewriting task According to Sulistiyo (2008) that writing, of the four skills, was the least priority skill for the students to learn starting from lower to higher level In addition, when writing, even in a short paragraph, they still made considerable mistakes In writing a short essay, they usually failed to express a thesis statement of the writing that introduces the topic to be discussed and the central idea of the essay Besides, they were also not successful in writing good topic sentences of body paragraphs The topic sentences for paragraphs, for example, were very narrow in which they almost had nothing to tell or sometimes the topic sentences were too large in which they contained more than one idea (Duigu, 2003) Another identified problem the students face in writing is the inability of the students to develop effective paragraphs or essays The supporting sentences are not entirely about the central ideas They leave out the criteria of being unified, coherent, and well-developed and organized (Darus and Subramaniam, 2009) Illegibility of writing is influenced by several factors, and bad organization of ideas is one of them Many readers are unsuccessful to get the ideas of printed materials, getting only parts of the writers’ ideas or totally failed, because the ideas are not well organized The flow of ideas does not run smoothly and such that the quality of writing is far from expectation Writing is a demanding subject because within the process there are many steps to completion These include finding resources, formulating goals, planning writing, generating content, translating ideas into language and then finally revising the work (Lee & Tan, 2010) Not only students have to know the process of writing and understand each required step, they must also complete the process in a logical order As cited in Kolade (2012), Oluikpe (1979) explains that writing is a “skill which demands that students plan and organize their imagination clearly in sequential order”, which is a daunting task for many writers, even for those who are skilled (p.20) Skilled writers must follow the rule of writing and it is a difficult task Those who have less skill, especially early or struggling writers, may need support in this area to be successful Prewriting strategies are widely used to help tame this task These strategies have been taught in schools for generations Some prewriting strategies not only help with the writing task itself, but also with comprehension in content areas (DiCecco & Gleason, 2002) Some prewriting strategies are used for specific types of writing, while others are generic Examples of these strategies include, but are not limited to, brainstorming, role playing, graphic organizers, observation, clustering, modeling, webbing, think aloud, tables, and outlines (Martin et al., 2005; Nesbit & Adesope, 2006; Lee & Tan, 2010; Voon, 2010) At lower levels of education, think aloud, role playing and brainstorming are more widely used; however, these strategies can be used with any aged student According to Voon (2010), role playing and brainstorming are both prewriting activities that assist participants in “generation of ideas for the content of their writing, which enables them to write more developed” pieces (p 540) Creating more developed writing pieces takes a lot of practice and time, especially for younger students Using simple strategies the student may already be familiar with, like brainstorming and role playing, help students solidify their thinking and ideas about the writing task, therefore improving their writing overall Voon defines brainstorming as a means of getting a large number of ideas in a short amount of time With brainstorming, it is important that the participants realize that it is the quantity that matters, not the quality The goal is to get students to generate multiple ideas, which is the first step in the writing process for any writer, no matter their skill level (Alber-Morgan et al., 2007; Voon, 2010) They then have the opportunity to build on those ideas later on in the writing process II.1.2 Paragraph writing According to Webster’s Basic English Dictionary (1990:356), paragraph is defined as a part of piece of writing that is made up of one or more sentences and has to with one topic or gives the words of one more sentences and has to with one topic or gives the words of one speaker Similar with this, the New Grolier Webster International Dictionary (1976;687) defines paragraph as a distinct portion of written or printed matter dealing with a particular point or quotation the words of one speaker and usually beginning with an indentation of a new line A paragraph is a series of sentences that develop an idea That idea is usually stated in general form in one sentence, called topic sentence The rest of the sentences in the paragraph provide the reader with specific explanations or proof (evidence, support) of the general topic sentence The supporting sentences help the reader understood more clearly what the writer means and show that the topic sentence is valid (Reid, 1982:8).However, one way to define the paragraph is to describe it as a series of carefully connected sentences presenting relevant ideas on a single subject.” II.1.3 Prewriting tasks in learning to write Prewriting tasks in Vietnamese English L2 classes might help to overcome students’ experienced difficulties and support them in their writing Prewriting can be seen as a process of discovery, allowing for mistakes and restarts It mostly occurs at the beginning of writing process, but more and more, teachers are encouraging students to use this technique whenever they are writing In a meta-analysis of single subject design writing intervention research, Rogers and Graham (2008) reported a few empirical research studies examining prewriting tasks: using a computer prewriting outline to generate and organize information (Channon, 2004), learning to use a graphic organizer for generating ideas prior to persuasive writing (Thanhouser, 1994), and learning to use a story web for generating ideas prior to writing (Zipprich, 1995) Although these studies reported positive effects on improving writing quality, the effect sizes were small In another meta-analysis of experimental and quasi-experimental studies on writing instruction, Graham and Perin (2007) found that studies on particular prewriting tasks before composing were found to have a positive, yet small impact on writing quality These prewriting tasks included encouraging planning before writing (Brodney, Reeves, & Kazelskis, 1999), group and individual planning before writing (Vinson, 1980), organizing prewriting ideas by means of a semantic web (Loader, 1989), and prompting planning following a brief demonstration of how to plan (Reece & Cumming, 1996) In a more recent review, Byrd (2011) lists six types of prewriting tasks and their effectiveness for generation of ideas and writing quality: 1) brainstorming, 2) clustering through e.g mind maps, 3) drawing, 4) graphic organizers, 5) smallgroup discussions, and 6) free writing The author suggests to grade student prewriting activities in order to stimulate students’ participation as otherwise prewriting might not be taken seriously He also concludes that prewriting activities will not become a cure-all for writing assignments and that with some encouragements students probably use these techniques on their own, regardless of where they may be in the writing process II.1.4 Outlining Outlines are helpful for several reasons First, they help learners structure their paper If your school or degree program provides a dissertation template, learners already have a basic outline made This helps learners see where to place specific pieces of information Second, outlines help to organize your thoughts An outline helps learners organize their ideas about the topic ahead of time, so that when learners sit down to write, learners know what to work on Third, an outline can help learners plan and manage their time A quick glance at an outline of a chapter can help learners see what is done and what needs to be done The outstanding sections can be turned into smart goals without too much hassle, and before learners know it, you will be checking lots of small tasks off the to-do list, providing learners with even more motivation to keep going II.1.5 Writing with outlining Writing strategy with outlining is more efficient and successful It can help a writer organize his ideas and give focus on relevant materials as well as organize logical supporting details Besides, it can make the writing run smoothly since the outline of ideas is already at hand According to Crème and Lea (2003), it is not easy for a writer to start writing without making a framework which is called an outline How experienced one is, he still needs an outline to follow in order to produce a qualified piece of writing—a writing containing clear and well-organized ideas and expressed in high-quality language Outlining is one of the prewriting strategy activities in which the materials collected are gathered or organized It functions as a blue print from which the writing is to be based on Writers who are accustomed to making outlines before writing find it as an effective and clear way of organizing ideas (Goose, 2001; Crème & Lea, 2003; Davis, 2004; Donahue, 2007) It can also help writers finish writing quickly and improve grammar Writing an outline is presumed to have written seventy-five percent of the writing and with it writing will be very smooth (Creme and Lea, 2003) II.2 English language teaching and learning in Vietnam As stated in the official Education Handbook, formal education in Vietnam is run by the Ministry of Education and Training and consists of levels, namely preschool, primary school, secondary school, high school, and higher education Among them, schooling from preschool to high school is mandatory and is set as the minimum requirement for citizens A student normally spends about 14 years in school, two years in preschool and another 12 years in other levels of education at public schools After high school, roughly 90% of students choose to go for tertiary education The English subject is required and introduced to pupils from grade 3/12 and for every week, hours are allocated for this subject Therefore, upon completion of primary school, pupils should have had 210 hours of studying English To secondary school, from grade to grade 9, students spend hours a week to attend English classes, making up 280 hours of training at this level High school is the level which learners receive the most input of English teaching with hours of English class a week making up 315 hours By the end of grade twelve, which is the last year of their required education program, each student has spent 805 hours of English training Hence, learners after finishing years of English education are able: - To use English as a means of communication at a certain level of proficiency in four macroskills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and to be able to read materials at the same level of their textbook, using - a dictionary; To have mastered basic English phonetics and grammar, to have acquired - the minimum of around 2500 vocabulary items of English; To attain a certain level of understanding of English and American cultures, to become aware of cross-cultural differences in order to be better overall communicators, to better inform the world of the Vietnamese people, their history and culture, and to take pride in Vietnam, its language and culture (MOET, 2007) III Methodology The previous chapter has provided a necessary theoretical background for the study In this chapter, researcher questions, participants, research tools and the procedures will be presented In section 3.1, I will explain the details regarding participants, including the whole process of participants recruitment and descriptions of their background In section 3.2, I will describe the research tools to use in the research I will provide insights into the division of the two groups, namely controlled group and experimental group Moreover, the differences in the treatment between two groups are also described All instruments necessary for the experiment will be discussed in details Specifically, description of podcast lessons, evaluation methods, materials to be used, and information on the post-experiment interview will be presented I will give information about how the collected data from the experiment will be processed and anylized And the last will be devoted to giving expectations and anticipations of the results of the experiment III.1 Participants The participants in the experiment were twenty students who are the first year students at Can Tho University They were the same age and have similar backgrounds as well as English level The participants were divided into two equal groups which were experimental group and control group III.2 Research tools Two types of data collection tools that are used in the study are the survey, and pretest – posttest to see the differences between groups which were taught writing by traditional teaching method and the outlining method III.2.1 Observations Marshall and Rossman (2006) advise researchers to use observations as the best instrument to collect data because it is “a fundamental and highly important method in all qualitative inquiry It is used to discover complex interaction in natural social settings” (p 99) To collect data for my innovation project, I took advantage of this method to observe the students’ behavior as well as their attitude toward learning speaking through the new teaching method by using learner autonomy Each teacher observed two groups of five participants, noting situations during the process Observation checklist to figure out things to become the problem identification It contained the students’ reaction and the researcher action started planning, acting, observing and reflecting III.2.2 Survey The questionnaire of this study is divided into two sections The first section includes personal information, namely age, gender and majors The second section consists of 10 questions which are all closed responses This means that the participants are required to put a tick in the offered choice The questionnaire includes two parts: • Part 1: Gender, hometown, English learning process • Part 2: EFL students' self-assessment of progress There were 10 close-questionaires about EFL students’ attitude towards learning writing by outlining After the survey had been conducted, a table was created to count the level of the attitude of students towards using outlining to improve writing performance Neither No Questions Strongly Agre agree e agree nor disagre e I enjoy learning writing task by using outlining Stro Disagr ngly ee disag ree I feel comfortable and I am willing to complete writing task by outlining I think outlining helps me to improve writing skill I think outlining helps me review the knowledge better I feel that outlining helps me understand writing lessons deeply I think outlining are useful to learn writing I think outlining encourage me to study English better I feel that outlining helps my autonomy effectively I would use outlining to study English in the future I 10 would introduce outlining technique to my friends in order to help them to have a better result of studying English III.2.3 Pre-test and post-test According to Marsden and Torgerson (2012), pretest-posttest design starts with stage of selecting participants Then, the participants are assigned to take pretest After that, researcher gets participants exposed to educational intervention before taking posttest Observed improvements in measuring outcomes can be ascribed to the intervention in a causal relationship Nunan (1992) defines that while in Pre-experiment, there may have pretest and posttest, but lack a control group, in Quasi-experiment includes both pretest and posttest, experimental and control groups, but no random assignment of subjects Alternatively, True-experiment consists of both pretest and posttest, experimental and control groups, and random assignment of subjects Therefore, in this study, pretest and posttest are designed as Quasiexperiment III.3 Procedure The study followed the following four stages: Stage 1: Pretests were conducted with both groups which are the experimental group and the control group Stage 2: The treatment with the implication of outlining technique in teaching writing tasks undertaken Stage 3: Pretests were done with both groups which are the experimental group and the control group Stage 4: Questionnaires were administered for only the experimental group III.4 Data analysis After all data have been collected, they will be analyzed using SPSS tool The “Statistical Package for the Social Sciences” (SPSS) is a package of programs for manipulating, analyzing, and presenting data; the package is widely used in the social and behavioral sciences The data for analysis include the results of pretest, post-test, and the interview The results of the two tests are used to compare participants’ performance after the weeks training Results of the interview are for finding out participants perception of podcast in learning and their suggestion to make podcast training better All data will then be presented in the form of charts, graphs, and tables with interpretation of results attached thereafter III.5 Expectation results Through the training program provided, the researcher expects that: Students who used outlining as the pre-writing task have better improvements in their writing skills, reflected through the high achievement of their scores in the writing post-test Experimented students perform better than the other group in terms of their English writing skills, reflected through their performance at the writing posttest Students feel positive about the use of outlining in English language learning and will be motivated to continue using this learning method for their future study REFERENCE [1] Alkhuli, M (2016) “How to write a research paper” Kingdom of Jordan: Dar Al-Falah for Publication and Distribution [2] Ameri, L (2008) “Writing letters for all (1st Ed.) “Peshawar: Khawar Book Co [3] Bahls, P (2012) “Student writing in the quantitative disciplines: A guide for college faculty” John Wiley & Sons [4] 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