Scope of the study
There is a variety of aspects affecting students‟ motivation in class activities so there exist numerous methods to improve students‟ involvement However, it is not my attention to cover all of them because of time and length constraint of the study
Adaptation of several writing activities in English 11 is focused on and tested in class 11A at Duong An high school As the result, the samples of the study were restricted to 4 teachers and 40 students at 11th form at Duong An high school.
Methods of the study
The method employed in this study is a quasi- experimental research to identify the teachers' and students' attitude towards teaching and learning writing skill After that found out the reasons why teachers should adapt activities in English 11 to motivate students at Duong An high school in writing lesson The study attempts to find out whether the adapted activities can motivate students or not
Data were collected by means of textbook evaluation, interviews, questionnaires, and observations and experiment Concerning interviews, 4 teachers who have ever taught English 11 were involved in the study Survey questionnaires were conducted among 40 students from two classes at the school.
Design of the study
This minor thesis is divided into three main parts
Part A, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, the aims, scope, methods, and design of the study The research questions are also mentioned in this part
Part B, DEVELOPMENT, consists of three following chapters:
Chapter one, Literature Review, presents various concepts most relevant to the research topic such as definitions of writing, roles of writing, approaches to writing teaching, writing teaching procedure; concepts of motivation in language teaching and learning; materials evaluation Furthermore, the following are also included in this chapter:
Definition of material adaptation, the purpose of adaptation, techniques for adaptation and levels of adaptation as well
Chapter two, namely “THE STUDY” describes the overall picture of the research was carried out from the first step of determining the research design to the last step of gathering the results Moreover, presentation of statistical results are describes in this chapter
Chapter three, “DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS” analyses the collected data to answer the two research questions
Part C, CONCLUSION, addresses the key issues in the study, summaries some limitations revealed during the process of the completing this study.
LITERATURE REVIEW
An Overview of Writing
Writing is one of the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) that a learner is expected to master Writing has been defined in a variety of ways Firstly, writing is the process in which the writer expresses his thoughts or ideas in the form of handwriting “Writing is communicating Good writing gets your ideas out of your head and into the reader‟s head without losing or distorting those ideas” (Leki, 1976) As for Tribble, writing is “a language skills which is difficult to acquire” (1996, p 3) He also stressed that writing “normally requires some forms of instruction” and that “it is not a skills that is readily picked up by exposure” (1996, p 11) From my personal experience as a classroom teacher, I share with Rivers‟ definition (1981) that “writing is not a skill that can be learned or developed in isolation but it should be taught and developed in cooperation with other skills and aspects of the language studied.” Furthermore, writing is a productive skill, so it is writing that provides students with chances to put the language itself and practice communicative skills at the same time Through the act of writing students will realize what they are already good at and what they still need to learn to become better
Writing emerges with its own functions and brings along communicative code of the writers When making a piece of writing, the writer implies a message or a certain purpose In the modern world, writing (written language) serves a range of functions in everyday life As Nunan (1991:84) aptly points out, writing is:
(i) Primarily for action: public signs (on roads and stations), product labels and instructions (on food, tools or toy purchased), recipes, maps, television and radio guides, bills, menus, telephone directories, etc
(ii) Primarily for social contact: personal correspondence, letters, postcards, greeting cards
(iii) Primarily for information: newspapers and magazines, non- fiction books (textbooks, public notices, advertisement, guidebooks and travel literature, etc.)
(iv) Primarily for entertainment: light magazines, comic strips, fiction books, poetry and drama, film subtitles, games including computer games
In classroom, teaching and learning writing also plays an important role Through writing, learners are able to share ideas, arouse feelings, persuade and convince other people We are able to discover and articulate ideas in the way that only writing makes possible Therefore, writing has always occupied a place in the language syllabus
Discussing about this issue, White (1981, p 1) points out a number of reasons why writing merits a place in the language syllabus as follows:
(i) Writing remains the commonest way of examining students‟ performance in English (all public examinations include a composition) Consequently, ability to write remains a key to examination success
(ii) 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‟
(iii) In classroom, writing may be used as one of a number of techniques to help add variety and interest to lesson
(iv) Teachers may use writing as a testing device to provide feedback on what students have learnt Students‟ writing can provide useful evidence of successes or failures in learning, of confusions, and errors
(v) 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
In CLT, the teaching of writing also aims at communication However, besides being used to communicate, writing helps students learn In Raimes‟ opinion (1983, p.3),
“first writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms and vocabulary that students have been taught Second, when students write, they also have a chance to be adventurous with the language, to go beyond what they have just learnt to say, to take risks Third, when they write, they necessarily become very involved in the new language, the effort to express ideas, and the constant use of eyes; hand and brain is a unique way to reinforce learning”
With all the roles mentioned above, writing really becomes an integral part in almost every language syllabus from elementary to tertiary level
It is confirmed that teaching and learning writing is really complicated work For students, they must have knowledge of content, organization, discourse, syntax, lexis, and mechanical elements For teachers, they may be confused of a variety of approaches In other words, approaches to teaching ESL/ EFL writing have long been a topic of controversy for them, even for researchers It is being taught in many different ways, and each approach can be effective, if the teacher believes in what he or she teaches Ann Raimes (1983, pp 5- 10) presents six following approaches to teaching writing:
(i) The Control - to- Free Approach
The Control- to- Free Approach in writing is sequential In this approach, writing is considered as a reinforcement means of speech and is used to master grammatical or syntactic rules At lower level, students are often given sentence- level exercises or controlled compositions to imitate, copy or manipulate Students, therefore, make few mistakes Only at high or advanced level are students allowed to try some free compositions, in which they can express their own ideas
In short, this approach emphasizes accuracy rather than fluency Syntax and mechanics are main stresses of the approach
(ii) The Free- Writing Approach
Contrast to the Control- to- Free Approach, the Free- Writing Approach focuses more on fluency, and quantity of writing than quality Students are assigned a vast amount of free writing on given topics with only minimal correction of errors They are allowed to write freely without worrying about grammar and spelling Content and fluency are taken into account first
(iii) The Paragraph- Pattern Approach
Different from the two approaches mentioned above, the Paragraph- Pattern Approach stresses on paragraph organization Students copy a model paragraph, analyze its form and then write a parallel one In this approach, students are provided with such kinds of exercises as sentence ordering, sentence inserting or sentence deleting, etc
(iv) The Grammar- Syntax- Organization Approach
The name „the Grammar- Syntax- Organization Approach‟ fully reveals the characteristics of the approach Writing cannot be seen as composed of separate skills which are learned one by one Students need to pay attention to organization while they also work on the necessary grammar and syntax For example, to write a clear set of instructions on how to use a phone card, the writer needs more than the appropriate vocabulary He needs the simple forms of verbs, an organizational plan based on chronology; sequence words like first, then, next, etc In the preparatory stage, these vocabulary and structures are reviewed and taught In general, this approach is the combination of the purpose and the form of the writing
The Communicative Approach aims at communicative competence, so it stresses the purpose of the writing and the audience for it Students are regarded as writers in real life and they are encouraged to ask themselves the key questions: What am I writing for?
(purpose) and who will read it? (audience) Conventionally, the teacher acts as the audience for students‟ writing However, to make it more real- life- closed communication, students become readers for each other They read each other‟s writings, respond, rewrite in another form or make comments, but not correct Sometimes the teacher creates a context in which students are real readers by making them role- play, exchange letters, reply, ask questions and comment
The teaching of writing has recently moved away from a concentration on the written product to an emphasis on the process of writing, which leads to the emergence of Process Approach Process Approach to writing came into play in the 1970s This approach encourages students‟ communication of ideas, feelings and experiences It is more global and focuses on purpose, theme, text type, i.e the reader is emphasized Thus, writers not only concern about purpose and audience but also have to make decisions on how to begin and how to organize a piece of writing Writing is a process, so students are given time to set out ideas, make plan, write a first draft, revise what has been written after a peer feedback, then they can edit their writing or write other drafts before the final version is produced Brown (1994, pp 335- 336) points out some features of Process Approach as follows:
(1) focus on the process of writing that leads to the final written product
(2) help students understand their own composing process
(3) help them to build repertoires of strategies for prewriting, drafting, and rewriting
(4) give students time to write and rewrite
(5) place central importance on the process of revision
(6) let students discover what they want to say as they write
(7) give students feedback throughout the composing process (not just the final product) as they attempt to bring their expression closer and closer to attention
(8) encourage feedback from both the instructor and peers
(9) include individual conferences between teacher and students during the process of composition
There are various approaches to teaching writing as mentioned It is true to say that there is not necessarily any „right‟ or „best‟ way to teach writing skills
Comparing the Product Approach and Process Approach, Steele summarizes their differences in the table below:
* text as a resource for comparison
* more global, focus on purpose, theme, text type, i.e., reader is emphasized
*organization of ideas is more important than ideas themselves
* features highlighted including controlled practice of those features
* emphasis on end product Table 1: Differences between Process Approach and Product Approach
An Overview of Motivation
There have been so far many researches on the theory of motivation Each author has his/her own way of explaining what motivation is since they look at motivation from different angles However, motivation is generally defined as an abstract concept used to describe the willingness of a person to expand effort to reach a particular goal
According to Carol (1962), motivation decides the amount of time a learner will spend on the task of language learning She claims: “The more motivation a learner has, the more time he or she will spend on learning an aspect of a second language” (Carol, 1962)
Crookes and Schmidt (1991) define motivation in terms of students' interest in and enthusiasm for the materials and activities used in class, their persistence with the learning task as indicated by levels of concentration and enjoyment Learning is only effective if students enjoy activities and work hard
Among what have been mentioned, Crookes and Schmidt‟s definition is chosen to use in this thesis because of two reasons First, it is directly related to the process of teaching and learning language which emphasizes the important roles of students Theoretically, when students are interested in the activities and are persistent with the learning tasks, they will get better results in learning Second, it is similar to what would be studied in the research project that the researcher wants to examine the students‟ interest, satisfaction and concentration on the varied activities in class, so the working definition in the thesis is: motivation is interest in and enthusiasm for the activities used in classrooms, attention or levels of concentration, the effort and persistence with the learning tasks as well as the challenge of the activities conducted by the teachers This definition will guide the researcher to design a questionnaire survey to get the information about the students‟ learning motivation in the research
It can be concluded that motivation is significant in foreign language learning because when learners set the goal of learning a foreign language, motivation helps them produce effort and have a positive attitude to obtain the goal Therefore, in order to be successful, language learners really need motivation to continue their learning Motivation not only plays an important role in learning, it helps the teacher as well Lite (2002) confirms that
“Motivation is the backbone of any classroom When the students are motivated, the teacher can perform his/her job the best.”
Teachers are often familiar with two basic types of motivation: extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation Harmer (2001) states that extrinsic motivation is caused by such outside factors as the need to pass an exam, the hope of possibility for future travel, etc In contrast, intrinsic motivation is caused by inside factors like the enjoyment of the learning process itself or by a desire to make themselves feel better
According to theorists, there are some distinctions of types of motivation in foreign language learning: integrative and instrumental motivation; intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
2.3.1 Integrative vs instrumental motivation 2.3.1.1 Integrative motivation
One form of motivation is known as integrative motivation It is thought that students who are most successful when learning a second language are those who like the people who speak that target language, admire the culture and have a desire to become familiar with the society in which the language is used (Falk, 1978) This kind of motivation is considered a key component in assisting learners to develop some level of proficiency in L2 when they become residents in the community in which the target language is used in social interactions
According to Gardner and Lambert (1974: 98) “An integrative orientation involves an interest in learning an L2 because of a sincere and personal interest in the people and culture represented by the other language group” It occurs when learners wish to identify with the culture of the L2 group
In contrast to integrative motivation is instrumental motivation This is characterized by the desire to obtain something practical from the study of L2 (Hudson, 2000)
With this kind of motivation, the purpose of L2 acquisition is more utilitarian Ellis (1994: 75) mentioned “some functional reasons such as to pass an examination, to get a better job, or to get a place at university These reasons motivate learners to learn an L2 because it opens up educational and economic opportunities for them”
Instrumental motivation is often a characteristic of L2 acquisition, where little or no social integration of the learner into a community using the target language takes place
Littlewood (1998) replicating Gardner and Lambert (1972), concluded “ A learner with instrumental motivation is more interested in how the second language can be a useful instrument towards furthering other goals, such as gaining a necessary qualification or improving employment prospects” (1998: 57) It occurs when learners‟ goals for learning an L2 are functional With an instrumental motivation, learners can be successful in learning an L2 It is likely that incentives like money can help learning, but the effects maybe cease as soon as the reward stops
In short, Learners can have both integrative and instrumental motivation In some cases, integrative may be more powerful in stimulating L2 learning, in some other situations, however, instrumental counts far more In addition, the social contexts in which learning takes place strongly influence the level and type of motivation
2.3.4 Intrinsic motivation vs extrinsic motivation 2.3.4.1 Intrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation refers to “motivation to engage in an activity for its own sake”
(Woldkowski, 1991) He means that activity itself is our benefit, so we do not need any other kinds of rewards or punishment He states that intrinsic motivation “is the natural tendency to seek out and conquer challenges as we pursue personal interests and exercise capabilities” The factors of support of intrinsic motivation are: competence (feeling that you know how to do things), autonomy (being able to perform an activity by yourself without external help) and relatedness (connection with your social environment like helping the others)
Harmer (2001:51) gives an easily understandable definition that extrinsic motivation
“is caused by any number of outside factors such as: the need to pass an exam, the hope to of financial reward or possibility of future travel”
Most writers agree that intrinsic and extrinsic motivations interact with each other and play an important role in language learning As a result, learners can be either motivated by internal or external factors depending on the circumstances and conditions under which the activity is performed.
Materials Evaluation
3.1 The concepts of materials evaluation
There are many ways of defining evaluation Nunan (1988) suggests that evaluation be “a process not a final product” that means it takes place at any time of the material design
The first and foremost emphasis of evaluation is to determine whether the goals and objectives of a language program are being attained
According to Tom Hutchinson and Waters (1993) evaluation is really a matter of judging the fitness of something for a particular purpose “Given a certain need, and in the light of the resources available, which out of number of possibilities can represent the best solution? There is no absolute good or bad- only degrees of fitness for the required purpose”
From the above definitions, it can be inferred that materials evaluation involves the determination of what needs to be evaluated, the objectives and requirements for the materials, and the judgments of the value of the materials being evaluated in relation to the objectives and requirements determined
3.2 The reasons for materials evaluation
There are two main reasons for carrying out materials evaluation Firstly, there may be a need to choose among the materials available the most suitable ones to use for a particular situation Secondly, there can be a need for materials evaluation to determine whether the material which has been chosen works for that situation after it has been used for a period of time (Ellis, 1997)
Robinson (1991) adds, evaluation can be used as part of quality control Through evaluation, we can know about the advantages and disadvantages as well as the effectiveness of the being used materials Then we can decide whether the materials can be reused or whether it needs to be adapted to meet the need of the particular teaching situation or we need to change it absolutely
In short, the findings of materials evaluation will provide input for responsible people to evaluate the effectiveness of the materials
According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), evaluation is a process of matching needs to available solutions Thus, the evaluation process is divided into four steps as follows:
- Matching The above steps are presented in the following diagram as the following:
Figure 1: The material evaluation process (Cited from Hutchinson and Waters, 1987, p 98)
In Hutchinson and Waters‟ view, a teaching material in general and a course book in particular has to suit the needs of a number of parties such as teachers, students, sponsors, so it is important that the subject factors should not be allowed to obscure objectivity in the early stages of analysis In order to have an objective matching, it is advisable to look at the needs and solutions separately However, in the final analysis, any choice will be made on subjective ground
On what bases will you judge material?
Which criteria will be more important?
SUBJECTIVE ANALYSIS What realizations of the criteria do you want in your course?
OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS How does the material being evaluated realize the criteria?
MATCHING How far does the material match your needs?
Another author, Littlejohn (1998) introduces the framework as follows:
Figure 2: A preliminary framework for materials analysis and action
It can be demonstrated from the above diagram that the two steps of describing the target situation and analyzing materials are conducted spontaneously and independently
The next step is matching and evaluation in which the level of appropriateness to the target situation is discussed In the last step, the decision on materials is made
Obviously, although these two models consist of different steps, they both set out the way to evaluate the material Based on the above discussion, the materials evaluation model suggested by Hutchinson and Waters is chosen as the framework for evaluation in this study
ANALYSIS OF TARGET SITUATION OF USE
- The course (proposed aims, content, methodology, measures of evaluation)
1 What is their explicit nature?
2 What is required by users?
3 What is implied by their use?
MATCH AND EVALUATION How appropriate are the respects of design and the aspects of publication to the target situation of use?
ACTION Adopt the materials Reject the materials Adapt the materials Supplement the materials Make the materials a critical object
Various scholars have suggested different ways to help evaluators become more systematic and objective in their method of evaluation by using a checklist
Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p.99-104) suggest five evaluation criteria for objective and subjective analysis as follows:
- Audience: the learners and the materials intended for
- Aims: the aims of the course and the aims of the materials
- Content: language description, language points, proportion of work on each macro-skill, text-types, subject-matter areas, level of knowledge, types of topics, treatment, organization of content within the course units, sequence of content throughout the course, sequence of content within a unit
- Methodology: theory of learning, learners‟ attitudes, kinds of exercises, teaching- learning techniques, aids, guidance/ support for teaching, the flexibility of materials
- Other criteria: price, quantities, availability
Another list of evaluation criteria is presented by Sheldon (1988) It consists of: rationale, availability, user definition, layout/ graphics, accessibility, linkage, selection/grading, physical characteristics, appropriacy, authenticity, sufficiency, cultural bias, education validity, stimulus/ practice revision, flexibility, guidance, and overall value for money He also emphasizes that in different situations, upgrading, modification and extension to these criteria are needed to suit the specific requirements
To sum up, in this thesis the researcher used the evaluation model by Hutchinson and Waters because the criteria defined by Hutchinson and Waters appeared to be more manageable and suitable to the objectives of the current study.
Material adaptation
As far as we know, adaptation plays a very important role in foreign language teaching
I myself believe that a good teacher is constantly adapting In reality, no textbook can totally be an effective tool for teachers to follow without any adaptation because of the disadvantage of the textbook such as linguistic inaccuracies, out-of-datedness, lack of authenticity or lack of variety Adaptation is to compensate for those deficiencies There are a number of definitions of adaptation given by different scholars
In their book “Materials and Methods in ELT” (1993), McDonough and Shaw devote a chapter to the issue of adaptation materials They quote Madsen and Bowen‟s definition (1978: ix) “one or more a number of techniques: supplementing, editing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying, or modifying cultural/ situational content”
Similarly, from Tomlinson‟s point of view (1998: xi), adaptation is referred to
“reducing, adding, omitting, modifying and supplementing” He supposes that most teachers adapt materials every time they use a textbook in order to maximize the value of the book for their particular learners More or less, most of the scholars‟ viewpoints, which
I base my thesis on, agree on some kind of change and addition when mentioning
There are always sound practical reasons for adapting materials in order to make them as accessible and useful to learners as possible However, reasons for adaptation have varied and changed as the field has developed and views on language acquisition and teaching practice have become better informed by research and experience There are two most frequently cited purposes for adaptation:
1 to make the material more suitable for the circumstances in which it is being used, i.e to mould it to the needs and interests of learners, the teachers' own capabilities and such constraints as time, or as Mc Donough and Shaw (1993:85) put it: “to maximize the appropriacy of teaching materials in context, by changing some of the internal characteristics of a course book to better suit our particular circumstances”
2 to compensate for any intrinsic deficiencies in the materials, such as linguistic inaccuracies, out-of-datedness, lack of authenticity (Madsen and Bowen 1978) or lack of variety
Looking deeper into McDonough and Shaw‟s definition of purpose we see that maximizing the appropriacy of teaching materials (by, e.g., modifying them in such a way that they seem more relevant to learners' interests and needs) is important because it can stimulate motivation, and increased motivation is in turn likely to lead to a classroom atmosphere more conductive to learning In fact, when teachers make changes to a course book “to better suit our particular purposes” what teachers are really trying to do is to improve students‟ participation to increase the effectiveness of the learning experience
The notion of addition is that materials are supplemented by putting more into them, while taking into account the practical effect on time allocation First, we can certainly add in this quantitative way by the technique of extending “This means that the techniques are being applied within the methodological framework of the original materials: in other words, the model is not itself changed” (McDough and Shaw, 1993: 89) We can do this in the following situation: A second reading passage parallel to the one provided is helpful in reinforcing the key linguistic features- tenses, sentence structures, vocabulary, cohesive devices – of the first text Second, more far-reaching perspective on addition of materials can be termed expanding This kind of addition is not just extension of and existing aspect of content They go further than this by bringing about a qualitative as well as a quantitative change…This can be thought of as a change in the overall system”
Deletion is clearly the apposite process to that of addition As can be seen in the previous section that materials can be added both quantitatively (extending) and qualitatively (expanding), the same point applies when a decision is taken to omit materials The most straightforward aspect of reducing the length of materials is subtracting
Addition and deletion often work together Material may be taken out and then replaced with something else The methodological change is greater when, for example, grammar practice is substituted after the omission of an inappropriate communicative function, or when a reading text is replaced by a listening passage
Modifying can be sub-divided under two related headings The first of these is rewriting, when some of the linguistic content needs modification, the second is restructuring, which applies to classroom management
- Rewriting may relate activities more closely to learners' own background and interest, introduce model of authentic language, or set most purposeful problem-solving tasks where the answers are not always known before the teacher asks the question
- Restructuring: For many teachers who are required to follow a course book rather strictly, changes in the structuring of the class are sometimes the only kind of adaptation that is realistically possible For example, the materials may contain role-play activities for groups of certain size
The technique of simplification is a type of modification, namely a “rewriting” activity
The elements of a language which can be simplified are: The instructions and explanations that accompany exercises and activities, and even the visual layout of materials so that it becomes easier to see how different part fit together However, texts, most often reading passages are applied this technique Usually, the emphasis has been on changing various sentences- bound elements to match the text more closely to the proficiency level of a particular group of learners
This procedure refers to the possibility of putting the parts of a course book in a different order This may mean adjusting the sequence of presentation within a unit, or taking units in a different sequence from that originally intended
Textbook adaptation can be done at three levels The first level is macro adaptation, which is ideally done before the language program begins After comparing what is covered in a textbook and what is required by the syllabus or examination, the teacher may find that certain areas or even whole unit of the book can be omitted, and certain contents need to be supplemented
THE STUDY
Research setting
The study was conducted at Duong An high school, a rural school of Hai Duong province The school has 33 classes with 60 teachers of all subjects English is taught as a compulsory subject Currently there are 5 teachers of English and over 1500 students ranged from grade 10 to grade 12 Most of the students come from villages and towns in Binh Giang district
Although most students are aware of the importance of learning English, this subject is not paid much attention by most of the students in school Few students choose English as a subject to take university entrance exam Teaching English, especially teaching English writing has met some difficulties The first is the large size classes There are about 45 students in each class It is hard for teachers to set up communicative activities, monitor class and give feedback The second is most students are not familiar with teaching and learning in English They cannot understand lessons if teachers speak English most of the time and their background knowledge as well as vocabulary, structures are very poor The last is the lack of materials Materials for reference and self-study are not available There is not a library for students at all Furthermore, some facilities needed for learning such as computers and projectors are not enough
Normally, students have four periods of studying English every week It is a limited time for students to practice and develop skills as well as enrich their vocabulary and structure capacity What is more, English is hardly used outside classroom All these factors have great effect on the students‟ results in learning English especially in learning writing
The main material for English writing of grade 11 is a new set of English textbook- English 11 which was first introduced in 2007 Like English 10, English 11 was designed following communicative approach There are 5 parts in each unit arranging as follows: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus with a variety of exercises and tasks
The writing program at Duong An high school follows the syllabus of the MOET (Ministry of Education and Training) with the aim of improving students‟ abilities in writing Indeed, writing lessons make up 20 % of 86 periods of the English syllabus
Although each lesson is not clearly divided into stages: Pre- writing, While- writing and Post- writing, it can be easily noticed that the initial tasks are a preparation for the final task There are totally 16 units, so 16 writing lessons are designed with a view to making students familiar with real- life situations on text The required competences of writing lesson in each unit are detailed in the following table:
Unit 1: Friendship - Writing about your friend
Unit 2: Personal Experience - Writing a personal letter to describe a past experience Unit 3: A Party - Writing an informal letter of invitation Unit 4: Volunteer work - Writing a formal letter expressing gratitude Unit 5: Illiteracy - Describing information in a table
Unit 6: Competitions - Writing a letter of reply Unit 7: World population - Interpreting statistics on population from a chart Unit 8: Celebrations - Describing a celebration‟s activities
Unit 9: The Post Office - Writing a formal letter to express satisfaction or dissatisfaction Unit 10: Nature in danger - Describing a location Unit 11: Sources of energy Describing information from a chart
Unit 12: The Asian Games Describing the preparations for the coming Asian
Games Unit 13: Hobbies - Writing about a collection Unit 14: Recreation - Describing a camping holiday Unit 15: Space Conquest - Writing a biography
Unit 16: The Wonders of the world
- Writing a report on a man – made place
Table 2: Checklist of writing tasks in English textbook 11
Research design
This research was a quasi-experimental study, using observations before and at the end of the experiment, questionnaires for students and interviews with both the teachers of English and 11 th graders at Duong An high school
The study adopted a quasi-experimental design for practical reasons In the context of the secondary school, it is impossible to conduct a true experimental research with randomly selected samples However, a quasi-experimental study remains valid because “it is conducted under conditions closer to those normally found in educational context”
(Selinger& Shohamy, 1989: 149) Although the intact groups were used, both were in grade 11, and they were of comparable ability level
Considering the two groups selected in the study, they were not removed from the normal teaching and learning context This intactness helps to increase the validity of the later generalization of the results to the population Furthermore, since this kind of research is less intrusive and disruptive than the true-experimental one, it is easier to gain access to the subject population and thus easier to conduct such research (Selinger & Schohamy, 1989: 149) As a result, it saved the researcher a lot of time and effort in grouping the participants, which was impossible under the present conditions In short, the quasi- experimental design is the most practical and feasible for the researcher, all above factors are under consideration
As mentioned above, the aim of this study is to determine the effect of the adapted activities in motivating students in writing lessons at Duong An high school In other words, experimental design is used in this study to determine how the Adapted activities in English 11 (The independent variable) causes the changes in students' motivation or participation in writing lessons (the dependent variable)
Independent variable: Adapted activities in English 11
Dependent variable: Students' motivation or participation in writing lessons
The values of the dependent variable were measured from the scores that the students gained in their writing products in both control and experimental groups In order to measure students' participation in writing lessons, the observations before and at the end of experiment as well as interviews were used as a valid and reliable means for the study
For this study, two groups of 40 11th graders at Duong An high school were asked to participate in this experiment One group was employed as an experimental group The other was employed as a control group Each group consisted of 20 students The researcher taught each group 3 lessons using the current textbook English 11 The author was the teacher (herself) in two groups to ensure the designed lesson plans were strictly followed The teacher instructed the control group in the usual fashion The same lessons were taught to the experimental group with adapted activities With the assistance of the three other English teachers, observations were administered for two groups during the experiment
Before and at the end of experiment observations aimed at measuring levels of participation of the two groups after three lessons
After the experiment, the degrees of participation of the two groups were compared and then some conclusions were drawn out about the relationship between the use of the adapted writing activities and the level of the students‟ participation in the writing lessons at Duong An high school.
Participants
The participants in this study were 40 11 th grade students from two classes: 11A and 11B at Duong An high school in Binh Giang district, Hai Duong The distribution of the students in each class is that the percentage of students at levels of “ Excellent”,
“Good”, “average”, “under average” in every class are nearly equal That is the students in each class are similar in their background Duong An high school is a public school with an enrollment of over 1500 students from grade 10 to grade 12 All students must attend 4 English classes a week The experimental group, group 11A, had 20 students with 9 females and 11 males while the control group, group 11B included 20 students with 13 females and 7 males The two groups seemed to have a relatively similar level of proficiency in English as determined by not only the fact that they had spent five years studying English but also their previous school year exam on English listening, reading, writing and language focus In the researcher‟s observation, the levels of participation of the two groups in learning English in general and in learning writing in particular were relatively equal.
Data collection instruments
The class observations in this study were carried out in 3 English lessons during the treatment For each lesson, three other teachers observed in 30 minutes The researcher designed a checklist for what she wanted to observe: teacher's performance, students' involvement and teachers' comments
The other English teachers observed the two classes in 2 writing periods to be aware of the degrees of the students‟ participation before the experiment The observers just focused on how the students would take part in the lessons What is more, the teachers collected students‟ writing papers in order to compare the differences in students‟ writing performance between the two classes and pre – and post improvement stage of this research The before- experiment classroom observations are vitally important The result decided whether we would have the following research If the present level of participation were unsatisfactory, we would have to find out the way to improve their involvement The data collected from the before-experiment classroom observations would be used to compare with the degrees of participation of the control group and experimental group before the interventions
During the treatment, the teacher or the author herself and her teachings in both control and experiment groups with the three same lessons were observed by the three mentioned teachers The control group was taught the original activities in English 11 while the experimental group was taught adapted activities Then the researcher measured the students‟ motivation of both groups and then compared them to prove whether the adaptation of textbook activities would be helpful in increasing the students‟ involvement in writing lessons
An interview to 4 English teachers who have ever taught English 11 at Duong An high school was conducted to get information about their evaluation on writing activities in the textbook, their evaluations on students participation and what they have done to increase students‟ participation
The survey questionnaire is one of the instruments which are often used to collect data in social sciences Many significant advantages of using questionnaires are indicated by Gillham(2000): less pressure on respondents, not under pressure of interview bias, analysis of answers is straightforward
However, a survey questionnaire with too many closed ended questions may be said to be imposing to some extent and one with too many open ended questions may take respondents a lot of time to complete So, these are points worth thinking before designing a survey questionnaire Besides, it should be noted that not all of the being sent questionnaires are returned and not all of them are really reliable
Questionnaire was chosen as data collection instrument in this study because of the purpose of the thesis itself is to collect students‟ opinions and attitudes toward teaching and learning writing Students were requested to complete and return the questionnaire on the spot to the researcher
A ten- question questionnaire was delivered to students in two classes 11A, 11B concerning their evaluation on the writing activities in the textbook, their participation and what affected their participation in writing class The questionnaire was the same to the control and experimental groups because the researcher wanted to know if the two groups had equal levels of motivation and participation before the intervention
Six students were randomly chosen from the experimental group and interviewed to give their evaluation on the level of participation, attitudes towards the adapted activities in the lessons they had been taught.
Data collection procedure
First, the researcher investigated the students' range of knowledge to know the degrees of students' participation before the experiment Then a survey questionnaire was distributed among the students of the two groups to find out more their evaluation on writing activities and factors affecting their participation in the classroom writing activities To increase the validity of the data, the researcher met and interviewed 4 English teachers who have ever taught English 11 for their attitudes and evaluation about writing activities and their students‟ participation in the writing classes and their way of improving students‟ involvement
After collecting information from students' questionnaires and teacher interview, the researcher taught two groups three same lessons For the control group the three lessons were conducted using intact activities in the textbook For the experimental group, the lessons were applied adapted activities During the treatment, the three other English teachers observed and measured the effectiveness of lessons in both groups to get the data for the research Finally, the follow-up interview of six participants in experimental group was carried out after each lesson to get further information for the study.
DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
Results from teacher interview
To get deeper answer to the first research question "What are teachers and students‟ attitude towards teaching and learning writing at Duong An high school?
Besides basing on the students' result in the previous school year and using student survey, the researcher interviewed 4 teachers who had ever taught English 11 at the school
Before interview, the teachers were informed about the aim of the interview Then the chosen teachers were asked to state their opinions about each of the following interview questions
Question 1 : Teachers’ evaluation on writing activities in English 11 (e.g.topics, variety of the activities, level of difficulty, communicativeness….)
Most of the teachers said that topics for writing in English 11 were relevant to the students All the topics were compiled in themes which related to students' daily activities such as friendship, sports, hobbies, recreation However, one teacher did not agree with that idea She stated that some topics are good, relevant to students but some topics such as competitions, wonders of the world, and sources of energy…were not close enough to learners‟ daily communication So these topics were rather difficult for them to write about Vocabulary and structures were not easy for students to digest
Regarding the variety of the activities, 3 over 4 teachers affirmed that the activities in the textbook were not various The most common tasks in each lesson were giving students what should be included in their writing The types of tasks in this lesson seemed similar to ones in the other, which led to boredom among students
When being asked about the level of difficulty of the writing activities, all 4 teachers thought the requirement of activities was inappropriate for most of students in this rural school They found it very difficult to understand the requirement and write without seeing model, especially describing the chart
Concerning the communicativeness of writing activities in the textbook, all teachers thought that it was good enough in general
Question 2: Do you satisfy with your students‟ participation in writing classes? How many percent of students actively involve in writing activities?
100% of teachers answered that they did not satisfy with the students‟ participation in writing class Most of their students only wrote when their teachers passed near them and urged them Three out of four teachers said that about from 10 to 15 percent of their students actively involved in writing activities They affirmed that in each class there were
4 or 5 students participating attentively and voluntarily during the lesson and the others normally did the tasks when they were made to do Only one teacher had a bit higher percentage about 20 but she still complained about their students' involvement in the writing lesson
Question 3 Do you usually follow activities in the textbook or adapt them? Can you name some ways of adapting textbook?
Most of the interviewees expressed that the teachers should adapt some writing activities in the textbook because they thought that these activities were not appropriate
They shared with the researcher the opinion that writing in unit 2, unit 7 and unit 13 should be adapted They said that they wanted to make a change to attract students' attention by giving sample writing or making pre- writing easier and more interesting but they did not do it for fear of costing time and energy One teacher answered she usually adapted activities in the textbook to make them easier And she listed a number of adapting methods they usually used: modification, addition and replacement
Question 4 According to you what are the factors affecting their participation in writing lessons?
The teachers mentioned some major factors leading to the reluctance of Duong An students to write: students‟ perceived low proficiency in English, the poor background knowledge, the topics, activities in pre- writing and teachers' methods
Question 5 What have you done to increase your students‟ involvement?
In order to motivate students, most teachers used marks as students‟ rewards and evaluation towards students‟ writing 50 % of the teachers chose varying and adapting inappropriate activities in textbook as the main technique in getting students involved In varying and adapting process teachers designed more interesting activities in pre- writing For example they gave pictures to illustrate the topics, let students discuss in groups, play games, ect Apart from that, they reduced the requirement to be more suitable to students‟ levels
The analysis of the survey questionnaire and teacher interviews reveals that the activities in English 11 are not interesting and easy enough to encourage their students' participation More importantly, some activities proved to be too difficult for the students to complete the requirement Thus, let us see if there is any improvement in students‟ participation when we use the adapted activities during three writing lessons in the experimental class This is also the main content of the research question two.
Results from the end of experiment observations
The control group and the experimental group were taught three the same lessons
The control group was taught the original activities in English 11 while the experimental group was taught the adapted activities During the experiment, the researcher and the three other teachers observed two classes to find out the change of students‟ participation (if any) in both control and experimental groups In the following sections, the adaptation in experimental group will be described
The researcher used the same sheet for the observations in class 11B and the results can be summarized as follows: there was no change in the teacher‟ teaching, all original activities in English 11 were applied as usual As a result, the participation of students was almost the same as that of the observations before the experiment
3.4.2 Observations in experimental group 3.4.2.1 Adaptation 1
Adapted lesson: Unit 7: World population
Adapted activity: Part D-Writing: (English 11 , page 86)
Time: This adaptation was delivered on August 30 th , 2011 in class 11A at DA high school
The author of this paper finds that the activity does not help students understand how to use the useful expressions to describe the information in the chart Moreover, this activity gives students no instructions on the way to analyze a chart In this writing lesson, students cannot produce a paragraph as required
Because of the above reason, in the previous year, I found my students demotivated when they were told to do this task They still practised writing but the result was not as expected Their writing was too short and did not contain enough information of a chart
Unit 7: World population: Part D: Writing
Lesson objective: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to write a paragraph of
100- 120 words, describing the information in the chart
Time Teacher's activities Students' activities
Task 1: Work in pairs Study the chart about the distribution of Vietnam population by region and complete the following paragraph using the given words or phrases
- Get students to work in pairs, study the chart and complete the paragraph more than double distributed unevenly ranks first accounts for populated rate
The chart shows the distribution of Vietnam population by region It can be seen that, the Vietnam population is (1) _ Central Highlands is least (2) _ with only 5%
North Central Coast is higher than Central Highland with the (3) of 13% Middle Lands of Northern is (4) population of the South Central Coast The Red River Delta (5) _19 % of Vietnam population and Southeast is a bit lower with only 16% The Mekong Delta has the largest population with 20% and (6) in all regions in Vietnam.To sum up, more people are found in
- Study the chart and complete the paragraph
The Mekong Delta than in other parts of Vietnam
Task 2: Work in pairs Study the chart in the textbook and complete these sentences
- Get students to work in pairs, study the chart and complete the sentences in task 2 Example: (0): the world population
0 It can be seen that _ is unevenly distributed
1 Latin America and North America together have % of the world population
2 More than half of the world population lives in
3 The population of Europe is percent, nearly half of the population of
4 The population of ranks first, accounting for percent of the world population
5 Ranking second is with _ percent
7 The population of East Asia is more than double of the population of _
- Ask students to find out in task 1 and task 2 some expressions that can be used in chart description
- it can be seen that …
- more than double the population of
- half as much as/ nearly half of
- Study the chart and answer the following questions rank first/ last
Task 3: Ask sts to study the chart again then write a paragraph describing the information in the chart, using the sample writing in task 1
You should begin the paragraph with the sentence: The chart shows the distribution of the world population by region………
The chart shows the distribution of the world population by region Generally, more than half of the world population lives in Asia (58%) The population of South Asia ranks first, accounting for 32% of the world population Ranking second is the population of East Asia with 26%, more than double the population of Africa (11%) Next, the population of Europe is 15%, nearly half of South Asia‟s population Latin America and North America together have 14% of the world population Finally, Oceania‟s population ranks last with 2%
The chart about the distribution of Vietnam population by region
- It‟s difficult for students to write about their collection because there is no model, clear steps to instruct students‟ writing
- It‟s non-interactive because students write individually all their writing
Time: This adaptation was taught on September 6th, 2011 in class 11A at Duong
Observation of adaptation 2: Class description:
Lesson objective: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
- write a paragraph about their collection
- know more structures and new words to describe hobby
Adapted lesson : Unit 2: Personal experiences
Adapted activity : Part D-Writing: Writing a personal letter about a past experience
Time: This adaptation was delivered on September 12 th , 2011 in class 11A at DA high school
It doesn‟t supplies the sample of the personal letter, useful language and the sample outline as well Therefore, it is very difficult for students to write a letter about a past experience
Observation of adaptation 3: Class description:
Unit 2: Personal experiences : Part D: Writing
Lesson objective: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to: Write a letter telling about one of the most memorable past experiences
Students’ participation in experimental and control group in three lessons at the
end of the intervention in term of marks
Table 11: Results of experimental group‟s participation
The data from the table shows that students' marks in experimental class considerably increased compared to that figure of control group We can see that in all three adapted lessons, more students in the experimental group than those in the control one got good marks This implies that a good impact of adapting activities on students‟ participation
The observation also reveals that the way teacher adapted several writing activities in the textbook in class attracted a large number of students Students were really interested in the activities teachers gave them They had chance to practice They were excited in expressing their ideas in their writing It is obvious that adapted writing lessons solved problems of the old one This fact implies that there was a high level of students' participation in this experimental class.
Comparison of students’ participation in experimental and control group …
Table 12: Students' range in the two classes before and at the end of experiment
Level Control group Experimental group
Comparing the data before and at the end of experiment in table 12, we can see that in control group, the situation remains almost the same Nevertheless, at the end of the experiment, in experimental group, percentage of students who got excellent mark is higher while that of students under average is much lower This result affirms that the adaptation of textbook activities really has good impact on improving students‟ participation in class 11 A at Duong An high school
In order to have a deep understanding about the effectiveness of activity adaptation we should consider the students‟ attitudes towards the adapted activities in detail in the following section.
Follow-up student interview
Students’ attitudes towards the adapted activities:
At the end of each experimental lesson the researcher interviewed six students in the class to find out their attitudes towards adapting activities
In general, all the students showed their interest in the three lessons with some new writing activities different from these in their textbook There were some new changes in teacher' methods and techniques of teaching and learning, which arouses the students‟ curiosity Some of students interviewed affirmed that they had a habit of imitating the model sentences and writings in the textbook and they did not care much their appropriateness but working with adapted activities they could express their thoughts and feelings into pieces of writings Some others stated that they loved activities the teacher applied in the lessons because it made the tasks easier They felt to be motivated by various activities in these lessons
On being asked about their evaluation on their level of participation during the time of experiment, they all admitted that they become more active and participated more in classroom activities than before They also wanted the teachers to remain their various activities in the future
Thus, with the data collected from the classroom observations and the students‟ positive attitudes from the follow-up interview we can conclude with certainty that adaptation is really necessary and helpful to increase the students‟ involvement in writing activities
In short, this chapter presents the results of the research The results indicate that there was a difference about the students‟ involvement in writing activities between control and experimental group It would be concluded that, adapted activities can help motivate students in writing lessons at Duong An high school.
Summary of the study
In short, the findings of the study allow the author to arrive at the following conclusions which is a brief summary of the answers given to the 2 research questions
These conclusions, at the same time, imply that the study has achieved its stated aims It aimed at investigating the teachers and students' attitude towards teaching and learning writing skill Then finding out the reasons why teachers at DA high school should adapt writing activities in the textbook English 11 from both teachers and students viewpoints
After that it found if the adapted activities help motivate students at Duong An high school in writing lessons
First, the researcher find out that the current writing lessons in this school are ineffective because of three main reasons The first reason is some writing activities in the textbook are not interesting and diversified enough Second, the requirements of some textbook activities are too challenging compared to low proficiency levels of students at this rural school The last cause is students' poor background knowledge and vocabulary
Three reasons greatly lead to students‟ low participation in the writing class This situation requires teachers at DA high school to find out the solutions to improve it One of the most suitable solutions is adapting inappropriate activities
Second, the results of the experiment obtained through observations and interviews with six students after each trial lesson confirm the efficiency of the adapting technique in encouraging more students to take part in class activities To be more concrete, by supplying the sample writings, giving useful language, the teacher could activate the students in writing class to express their ideas, thoughts and feelings to other students and teacher
To sum up, teachers should be flexible when using textbooks They should select carefully the teaching content and the activities to make students more interested and involved in their lessons
Implications
As shown in this study, the application of adapted activities can be effective in improving students‟ participation in English writing class In my opinion, some writing activities such as model giving, guided composition, brainstorming, question and answer and note making can be used appropriately in adaptations in process to promote students‟ participation in writing class The researcher believes that these activities will help motivate students to involve in writing activities in English class.
Limitations of the study
Even though this study has provided some evidences of the effectiveness of adaptation in three writing lessons, the study bears some limitations
First, the limitation of sample (with 40 participants only) makes the study less reliable Moreover, the use of intact groups rather than randomly selected students makes it hard for the researcher to control the extraneous variable that may threaten the reliability and internal validity of the research The levels of students‟ participation gained after the experiment may be partly affected by other factors like the atmosphere of the class, teachers‟ attitude and teaching techniques, gender or ability and level of interest in learning English
Second, observation sheets, questionnaires and interviews which were used to measure students‟ motivation in this study were rather subjective Other data collection tools should be exploited in further research
Third, the research has not covered all forms of adaptation Modification, adding are some ones applied in this minor thesis.
Suggestions for further study
With the mentioned limitations, further study may include the other forms of adaptation as adding, replacing or rewriting to vary the extra writing activities And a similar experimental study might be conducted with bigger scope of subjects at other school to get a comprehensive evaluation of the current writing activities in English 11 and suggest various adaptations
Another suggestion rises for adaptation of activities in other skills such as reading, speaking especially in listening skill in English 11
Finally, the study has been completed to the best of my knowledge; however, mistakes and shortcomings are unavoidable Therefore, I am looking forward to receiving comments and suggestions from any readers for the perfection of the course work
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3 Crookes, G & Schmidt, R W (1991) Motivation: Reopening the research agenda
4 Ellis, R (1997) The Empirical Language Teaching Materials ELT Journal, Volume 51 Issue 1: January 1997, pp 36-42
5 Falk, J (1978) Linguistics and language : A survey of basic concepts and implications(2nd ed.) John Wiley and Sons
6 Gardner, R C, & Lambert, W (1972) Attitudes and Motivation in Second Language Learning Rowley MA: Newbury House
7 Grill ham, B (2000), Developing a Questionnaire, Continuum Wellington House:
8 Harmer,J.(2001).The Practice of language teaching (3 rd ed).Essex:Longman
9 Hoang Van Van, Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, Do Tuan Minh, Dao Ngoc Loc and Nguyen Quoc Tuan (2009) Tieng Anh 11 Education Publishing House of Vietnam
10 Hudson, G (2000) Essential introductory linguistics Blackwell Publishers
11 Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A (1993) English for Specific Purposes Cambridge
12 Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A (1987) English for Specific Purposes Cambridge University Press
13 Leki,I.(1976) Academic Writing, Techniques and Tasks: ST Martin Press, New York
14 Lê, Văn Canh (2004) Understanding Foreign Language Teaching Methodology
15 Lite, W T Jan (2002) The Internet TESL Journal Vol VII No1
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Horse in Tomlison, B (eds.) Materials Development in Language Teaching, Cambridge
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19 McDonough, J., & Shaw, C (1993) Materials And Methods In ELT A Teacher's Guide
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21 Nunan, D (1988) Syllabus Design Adelaide: Oxford University Press
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25 Robinson, P.C (1991) ESP Today: A practitioner's Guide Prentice Hall
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27 Sheldon, L.E (1988) Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials ELT Journal 42/4 October 1988, pp 237-246 Oxford University Press
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29 Tribble,C 1996 Writing Oxford: Oxford University Press
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31 Woldkowski, R.J (19991) Enhancing adults‟ motivation to learn San Francisco:
PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA NGHIÊN CỨU
Các em học sinh thân mến!
Phiếu khảo sát này nhằm mục đích thực hiện một đề tài nghiên cứu khoa học liên quan đến “Thiết chỉnh một số hoạt động viết trong sách Tiếng Anh lớp 11 để khuyến khích học sinh trường THPT Đường An học kĩ năng Viết” Để thực hiện tốt đề tài nghiên cứu này, rất mong sự hợp tác của các em
Xin các em vui lòng trả lời các câu hỏi sau đây Xin chân thành cảm ơn!
Em là học sinh lớp:………
1.Giới tính của em: a nam b nữ
2.Em đang sống ở: a nông thôn b thị trấn
3 Em học Tiếng Anh được năm
4 Lý do học tiếng Anh của em:
Em đánh dấu (√) vào các lựa chọn tương ứng hoặc đưa ra các ý kiến khác ở những chỗ trống a Vì tiếng anh là môn học bắt buộc ở trường b Để có thể nghe và hát được các bài hát tiếng anh, đọc sách báo tiếng anh, xem phim tiếng anh c Để kiếm được một công việc tốt trong tương lai d Để đi du học sau này e Lý do khác:
5.Em hãy đánh giá về mức độ tham gia của em trong giờ viết Tiếng Anh trên lớp? Đánh dấu (√)vào một chỗ thích hợp: a Em rất thích Tiếng Anh nên thường xuyên tham gia b Thỉnh thoảng em tham gia khi có những hoạt động dễ viết, hợp sở thích c Em rất hiếm khi viết vì kiến thức nền của em kém và không có từ và cấu trúc để diễn đạt
6 Yếu tố nào khiến em không có hứng thú và nhiệt tình trong giờ viết?
Em đánh dấu (√) vào các ô tương ứng a Kiến thức nền của em kém và không có từ, cấu trúc để diễn đạt b Các hoạt động sách giáo khoa khó so với khẳ năng c Chủ đề bài viết không hấp dẫn, các hoạt động viết không đa dạng d Em không thích giáo viên của mình và em không muốn hợp tác
7 Theo em những chủ đề viết trong sách giáo khoa rất gần gũi với thực tế cuộc sống Đánh dấu (√) vào một chỗ thích hợp: a Rất không đồng ý b Không đồng ý c.Em không biết d Đồng ý e Rất đồng ý
8 Theo em, các hoạt động viết trong sách Tiếng Anh 11 rất thú vị Đánh dấu (√) vào một chỗ thích hợp: a Rất không đồng ý b Không đồng ý c.Em không biết d Đồng ý e Rất đồng ý
9 Giáo viên của em thường dạy viết như thế nào? Đánh dấu (√) vào một chỗ thích hợp: a Thầy (cô) thường dạy theo sách giáo khoa b Thầy (cô) thường xuyên thay đổi, điều chỉnh các hoạt động trong sách giáo khoa c Thỉnh thoảng thầy (cô) có thay đổi một vài hoạt động d Thầy (cô) thường bỏ các hoạt động trong sách giáo khoa đi, thay bằng các hoạt động bên ngoài
10 Em hãy đánh giá về các giờ học viết ở lớp em hiện nay: Đánh dấu (√) vào một chỗ thích hợp: a Rất không hiệu quả b Không hiệu quả c Em không biết d.hiệu quả e Rất hiệu quả
1 How do you evaluate writing activities or writing skill in term of topics, variety of the activities, level of difficulty, communicativeness?
2 Do you satisfy with your students’participation in writing classes? How many percent of students actively involve in writing activities?
3 Do you usually follow activities in the textbook or adapt them? Can you name some ways of adapting textbook?
4 According to you what are the factors affecting students’participation in writing lessons?
5 What have you done to increase your students’ involvement?
1 Các em có thích các hoạt động viết do giáo viên đưa thêm vào hoặc điều chỉnh từ sách giáo khoa không?
Nếu thích thì tại sao? Nếu không thích thì tại sao?
2 Các dạng bài tập và hoạt động trong phần viết có phù hợp với trình độ của các em hay không?
3 Em đánh giá như thế nào về mức độ tham gia của mình trong những giờ có thiết chỉnh các hoạt động trong sách giáo khoa?
Rất cảm ơn sự cộng tác của các em!
Observation of adaptation 2: Class description:
Lesson objective: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
- write a paragraph about their collection
- know more structures and new words to describe hobby
- Ask Ss to name the things people often collect
- Give scores and then praise the winner Keys: stamps, dolls ,books, money…
- raise the question: “If you want to introduce your hobby of collecting something, what do you want to talk about?”
- Ask Ss to match the guidelines in Awith the
7 Plan for the future a In album, in boxes, on shelves b To relax, to kill time, to entertain c Collection of books, coins, stamps… d Continue to collect e Buy, ask, exchange… f Last year, long ago, g Into categories, ages, countries, colors,
- Give a sample paragraph of stamps collection (below)
- Get students to work in pairs, read the passage carefully and then answer the questions below:
1 What is the writer's hobby?
2 When did she/ he start collecting?
3 How does she/ he collect them?
Work in pairs, read the passage carefully and then answer the questions below
4 How does she/ he classify them?
6 Why does she/ he collect them?
7 What will she/ he do in the future?
- Check the answers from students and correct mistakes
-Get students to write a paragraph about their own collection? (Real or imaginary)
Sample paragraph of stamps collection
My hobby is collecting stamps I collected stamps 6 years ago I have been collecting both local stamps and foreign stamps from the letters of friends and relatives I classify the stamps into categories I put stamps of animals, flowers, birds…on different pages I keep them in two albums, one for local and the other for foreign ones Collecting stamps helps to broaden my knowledge about the world around me and it is also an effective way to be good at geography I plan to join the stamp exhibitions to learn from experienced stamp collectors and I can expose my collections at an exhibition in the future
Unit 2: Unit 2: Personal experiences Part D: Writing
Lesson objective: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to: Write a letter telling about one of the most memorable past experiences
- Ask Sts to answer some questions
- Can you write a personal letter in English?
- Today I want you to write a letter about your past experience in English
- Ask more questions related to personal letter
1 How many parts does a personal letter normally have?
3 What do we normally write in the Salutation?
4 What do we normally write in the Closing?
5 Where do we normally sign the letter?
2 The heading, the salutation, (greeting), the body, the closing, and the signature
3 We normally write “ Dear or Hello” plus the name of the person we are writing to and a coma at the end
4 We normally write something like “ sincerely”, “ yours”, Love, cheers, best wishes, see you soon and after that we put a coma
- Have Sts give some of their past experiences?( being seriously ill, failing an exam; talking to a famous pop star, etc
(It happened …years ago/in …./ when I was …years old.)
2 Where it happened:- ( in my house/ at school / in the street)
3 Who was involved:- ( your family members/ your friends/ your relatives,….)
4 How it affected you: - ( it changed outlook life / it make me more careful/ it gave me more confidence in
…./ it taught me the lesson/…)
- Ask sts to pay attention to tense ( Past)
* Hang on the modal letter and ask Sts to read the following letter and complete the chart below
I'm writing to tell you about my last summer vacation at my grandparents’ It was one year ago and was one of my most unforgettable experience There is a river at the back of my grandparents, and I often go swimming there when I spend my vacation with them
One day when I was swimming with my friends, I suddenly caught a cold I felt so dizzy and was too weak to continue I thought I was going to drown but I couldn’t call out for help Luckily one of my friends saw that He swam towards me and tried to pull me up My life was finally saved
Groupwork precious life is This event taught me to appreciate my life What about you? Have you got any unforgettable holiday that you would like to share with me?
How the experience affected you 6
2 A year ago, on my summer vacation
3 A river near my grandfather’s house
4 When I was swimming, I suddenly caught a cold I felt dizzy and was too weak to swim
5 Some of my friends were also swimming at that time One tried to save me
6 I learned that life is so important While
Write a letter to tell your friends the most embarrassing experience in the same way
OBSERVATION SHEET (for control group) Evaluation on the suitability of the writing lessons in English 11
1 Are students interested in the writing lessons?
2 Is the writing lesson suitable with the aims of the course?
3 Do students have chance to practice writing?
4 Are students interested/ motivated in the writing lesson?
5 Are kinds of exercise/ tasks various and useful?