Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS the effect of teachers’ self reflection on learners’ writing achievement at an english language center in hanoi

Research questions

In order to achieve the research objective, the study was designed to find out the answers to the following questions:

1 Does teacher’s self-reflection have any effect on the English writing achievement of students at Wider World Language Center?

2 To what extend does the application of teacher’s self-reflection improve students’ English writing achievement at the center?

Scope of the study

Moreover, this research involves with the relationship between teacher’s self- reflection and students’ English writing achievement in a small scale with the young students of a center in Hanoi The result of this research, therefore, can be generalized in order to find the better pedagogical innovation in teaching at this center Although it is conducted in a small scale, it might be considered as a part of a big picture about language teaching in post method era and can be a basis for further studies.

Significance of the research

to benefit from good practice that they may have seen in others, or to avoid aspects of their own practice that students or others have told them needs correction

This paper contributes as introducing the use of reflection as a practical means of improving the quality of teacher’s teaching and contributing to their future professional lives

Moreover, in the context of Vietnam the number of studies on the development of young learner teaching method is still limited; this study therefore contributes a small role in filling this gap especially in the context of an English language center

6 Methods of the study The methodological approach employed in this study is an action research, with the use of a number of data collection instruments, namely students’ English writing tests, teacher’s diary, students’ journal and students’ portfolios Action research has proved to be the best choice for this study because the study was aimed at improving the students’ writing skill within a certain context The combination of different instruments used in this research would help to gain reliable data and help the researcher gain useful insights into the problems that the students were having

Data were collected by means of two sets of English writing tests in pre –, post – intervention stages and teacher’s diary The results of the pre-test and post-test helped to identify the changes in the students’ English writing achievement before and after the treatment, i.e the use of self-reflection in teaching English writing Other sources of data come from students’ writing portfolios, teacher’s diary and students’ journal after each lesson contributed to the investigation of any changes in students’ attitude after the intervention

7 Design of the study The study is divided into three parts: the Introduction, the Development, and the Conclusion

Part A gives an overview of the study with the rationale for the research, the aim and objective, the research questions, and the significances of the study It also narrows the scope, presents the research methods and outlines the content of the study

Part B is the Development which is divided into 3 chapters:

Chapter I presents the literature review relevant to the study including theoretical background of writing and reflective teaching

Chapter II describes in details the research methods used in the study with the necessary components before supplying information about the procedures of collecting the data

Chapter III presents the results, discusses the findings of the collected data and provides some pedagogical implications

Part C is the conclusion, summarizes the key issues in the study, points out the limitations and provides some suggestions for further study

In this chapter, a brief overview of the study is presented The next chapter will review the literature that is relevant to the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter gives an overview of relevant literature and researches that deal with teaching writing skill and reflection

1.1 An overview of teaching writing 1.1.1 Role of writing and teaching writing

As defined by Byrne (1988) writing is much more than the production of graphic symbols, just as speech is more than the production of sounds because the symbols have to be arranged, according to certain conventions, to form words, and words have to be arranged to form sentences, then the sentences have been put in order and linked together to form a coherent whole

Writing is also defined as a social process by Candlin and Hyland (1999, p.107) They stated that “Writing is, therefore, an engagement in a social process, where the production of texts reflects methodologies, arguments and rhetorical strategies constructed to engage colleagues and persuade them of the claims that are made”

In teaching a language, writing is considered one of the four macro-language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) that a learner is expected to master Writing is foundational to success in academics, in the work place and in the global economy

In an increasingly demanding world of literacy, the importance of ensuring students’ proficiency in writing can never be overemphasized In light of this, teaching learners to write well should be top priority of a worthwhile education system

Raimes (1983, p.3) thinks there is “….an additional and very important reason: writing helps our students learn.” She shows three ways in which teaching writing can help students in their learning:

- First, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms and vocabulary that we have been teaching our students

- Second, when our students write, they also have a chance to be adventurous with the language, to go beyond that they have just learned to say, to take risks

- Thirdly, when they write, they necessarily become very involved with the new language, the effort to express ideas and the constant use of eye, hand and brain is a unique way to reinforce learning

Writing is a productive skill, so it is writing that provides students with a chance to put language into use 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 a better and more effective writer

With all the roles mentioned above, writing really becomes an integral part in almost every language syllabus from elementary to tertiary level

Up to dates, there are several approaches to teaching writing in the classroom

According to Raimes (1983, pp 237-260), there are 3 principal ways of approaching the task of teaching writing: focusing on form, focusing on the writer and focusing on the reader The first perspective can be found in traditional, text-based approach or product approach Teachers who adopt this approach often present authoritative text for students to imitate or adapt and they may see errors as something they have a professional obligation to correct and eliminate (Tribble, 1996) The second approach which is called “process approach” emerges in part as a reaction against the tradition of form- focus It particularly stresses on the writers as an independent producers of text

The third approach called “genre approach” is considered to be more socially oriented with the assumption that if the reader cannot recognize the purpose of a text, communication cannot be successful

From the analysis and the comparison of the approaches, it is undeniable that each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses In the context of students at WWLC the teacher applied all three approaches to teach writing The product approach seem to be a good choice because the target participants are students at the age of 10 and 11, they are the beginners at writing; therefore, they need the assistance of the teacher to guide them how to write a good piece of writing In addition, the reflection that the researcher used to intervene is an application of process approach where the researcher focused on the process to help students achieve good writing skills Furthermore, the genre approach is also used to help students be familiar with different type of writing tasks, to different audiences

1.2 An overview of reflection 1.2.1 Definition

When it comes to the notion of reflection, John Dewey is often considered to be the originator of this concept who defines this method as an ‘active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends ’(1933, p 9, cited in Jay and Johnson, 2002, p 74) From Dewey’s perspective, when teachers are confronted with some teaching situations, they act either in routine or reflective ways Teachers who act routinely accept the circumstances without questioning, however, the teachers who have a reflective stance rather than following habitual ways teach on the basis of reasoned principles The reflective teachers think about the problems in their own teaching practice and ponder how those problems are related to their educational and social contexts

According to Hoover (1994) reflection “is a carefully planned set of experiences that foster sensitivity to ways of looking at and talking about previously unarticulated beliefs concerning teaching” (p 84, cited in Farrell, 2001, p 36) Hoover seems to believe that reflection is a systematic practice that can be learned from the past experiences one has had (Farrell, 2001) Hoover’s understanding of reflection is very much similar to that of Gebhard who believes that “Reflection includes thoughtful persistent consideration of beliefs or practices” (Gebhard, 2005, p.4)

LITERATURE REVIEW

An overview of teaching writing

As defined by Byrne (1988) writing is much more than the production of graphic symbols, just as speech is more than the production of sounds because the symbols have to be arranged, according to certain conventions, to form words, and words have to be arranged to form sentences, then the sentences have been put in order and linked together to form a coherent whole

Writing is also defined as a social process by Candlin and Hyland (1999, p.107) They stated that “Writing is, therefore, an engagement in a social process, where the production of texts reflects methodologies, arguments and rhetorical strategies constructed to engage colleagues and persuade them of the claims that are made”

In teaching a language, writing is considered one of the four macro-language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) that a learner is expected to master Writing is foundational to success in academics, in the work place and in the global economy

In an increasingly demanding world of literacy, the importance of ensuring students’ proficiency in writing can never be overemphasized In light of this, teaching learners to write well should be top priority of a worthwhile education system

Raimes (1983, p.3) thinks there is “….an additional and very important reason: writing helps our students learn.” She shows three ways in which teaching writing can help students in their learning:

- First, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms and vocabulary that we have been teaching our students

- Second, when our students write, they also have a chance to be adventurous with the language, to go beyond that they have just learned to say, to take risks

- Thirdly, when they write, they necessarily become very involved with the new language, the effort to express ideas and the constant use of eye, hand and brain is a unique way to reinforce learning

Writing is a productive skill, so it is writing that provides students with a chance to put language into use 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 a better and more effective writer

With all the roles mentioned above, writing really becomes an integral part in almost every language syllabus from elementary to tertiary level

Up to dates, there are several approaches to teaching writing in the classroom

According to Raimes (1983, pp 237-260), there are 3 principal ways of approaching the task of teaching writing: focusing on form, focusing on the writer and focusing on the reader The first perspective can be found in traditional, text-based approach or product approach Teachers who adopt this approach often present authoritative text for students to imitate or adapt and they may see errors as something they have a professional obligation to correct and eliminate (Tribble, 1996) The second approach which is called “process approach” emerges in part as a reaction against the tradition of form- focus It particularly stresses on the writers as an independent producers of text

The third approach called “genre approach” is considered to be more socially oriented with the assumption that if the reader cannot recognize the purpose of a text, communication cannot be successful

From the analysis and the comparison of the approaches, it is undeniable that each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses In the context of students at WWLC the teacher applied all three approaches to teach writing The product approach seem to be a good choice because the target participants are students at the age of 10 and 11, they are the beginners at writing; therefore, they need the assistance of the teacher to guide them how to write a good piece of writing In addition, the reflection that the researcher used to intervene is an application of process approach where the researcher focused on the process to help students achieve good writing skills Furthermore, the genre approach is also used to help students be familiar with different type of writing tasks, to different audiences.

An overview of reflection

When it comes to the notion of reflection, John Dewey is often considered to be the originator of this concept who defines this method as an ‘active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends ’(1933, p 9, cited in Jay and Johnson, 2002, p 74) From Dewey’s perspective, when teachers are confronted with some teaching situations, they act either in routine or reflective ways Teachers who act routinely accept the circumstances without questioning, however, the teachers who have a reflective stance rather than following habitual ways teach on the basis of reasoned principles The reflective teachers think about the problems in their own teaching practice and ponder how those problems are related to their educational and social contexts

According to Hoover (1994) reflection “is a carefully planned set of experiences that foster sensitivity to ways of looking at and talking about previously unarticulated beliefs concerning teaching” (p 84, cited in Farrell, 2001, p 36) Hoover seems to believe that reflection is a systematic practice that can be learned from the past experiences one has had (Farrell, 2001) Hoover’s understanding of reflection is very much similar to that of Gebhard who believes that “Reflection includes thoughtful persistent consideration of beliefs or practices” (Gebhard, 2005, p.4)

Boud, Keogh and Walker (1985, p.19) view reflection as ‘intellectual and affective abilities, in which individuals engage to explore their experiences in order to achieve new understandings and appreciations Teachers generally reflect on their teaching and students’ learning, how effective their instructional decisions are, approaches to teaching, improving practice and cognitive awareness of their reflective processes (McAlpine, Weston, Berhiaume & Fairbank, 2004)

From these above definitions of term, the researcher of this study recognized that a common feature of the reflection is the questioning of ‘self’, that is, one’s belief, values, assumptions, context and goals in relation to such actions, events, or decisions

Therefore, the term “self-reflection” in this study would be referred to “reflection” which was based on the definition of Hubball, Collins and Pratt (2005) These authors defined reflection as “the thoughtful consideration and questioning of what we do, what works and what doesn’t, and what premises and rationales underlie our teaching and that of others” (p.60) Reflection begins with one’s willingness to question his/her practice, develops with observing students, identifying their needs and ends with action, i.e., in this context, adapting his/her teaching style to match students’ learning styles

1.2.2 Importance of reflection There are many reasons for teachers to use reflection in their teaching At present context, classroom represents increasing diversity among students, a teacher therefore, has to accommodate and adjust to this greater range of differences in ethnicity, socioeconomic status, developmental levels, motivation to learn, and achievement

Being responsive to this vast array of students’ needs requires teachers who are reflective Engaging in reflection helps teachers recognize behaviors and practices which impede their potential for tolerance and acceptance - the vital elements for meeting the needs of all students in a diverse society moving toward a global community

According to Farrell (2001), with reflection, teachers would recall, consider, and evaluate their teaching experiences as a means of improving future ones Elder and Paul (1994), and Halpern (1996) in addition, point out that reflective teachers would think critically, which involves the willingness to question, take risks in teaching, try out new strategies and ideas, seek alternatives, take control of teaching, use higher order thinking skills and reflect upon their own teaching processes which ultimately will lead to the enhancement of students’ learning

In addition, according to Markham (1999), teacher would use their intuition, initiative, values, and experience during teaching, and exercise judgment about the use of various teaching and research skills This process could improve their ability to react and respond—as they are teaching—to assess, revise, and implement approaches and activities on the spot More important, this could aid in encouraging teachers in their role as autonomous professionals, by encouraging them to take greater responsibilities for their own professional growth by deepening an awareness of their practice, set within their unique particular socio-political contexts

Moreover, students also stood to benefit from reflection Reflection encourages teachers to know about their learners and what elements of good practice will develop effective learning Teacher need to be able to adapt and adjust content and style to suit the need of students This will lead to creative and innovative approaches to classroom and school situations and problems, and this could eventuate into improved learning opportunities for students

As far as the models and frameworks of reflection are concerned, a variety of dominant models have been mentioned in the literature

Zeichner and Liston (1996, pp.45-46) proposed a model for reflection which includes of the following five dimensions: a) rapid reflection which “is likely to be personal and private … in rapid reflection, teachers reflect immediately and automatically while they are acting,” b) repair which “is still reflection-in-action, but here there is a quick pause for thought,” c) review which “is interpersonal and collegial, and can happen at any time during or after the teacher’s work day,” d) research in which “the teachers’ thinking and observation becomes more systematic and sharply focused around particular issues It could be regarded as a more systematic reflection-on-action over a period of time” and e) re-theorizing and research in which “reflection is more abstract and rigorous than in the other dimensions Here, while teachers critically examine their practical theories, they also consider these theories in light of public academic theories”

Another model of reflection is the one given by Van Manen (1991) In his model Van Manen looks at reflection as a three-dimensional phenomenon His reflection levels resemble Schon’s reflective in action which occurs when teacher interact with students in class and reflective on action which occurs after the fact His reflection for action, or

‘anticipatory reflection,’ “allows a teacher to plan, decide a course of action, and anticipate future consequences of the actions”

Stanley (1998) presents a model including five levels In the first phase, ‘engaging with reflection,’ he talks about teachers’ awareness of reflection He believes that “When basic personal, professional, and contextual factors are stable and teachers are curious about learning the process of reflecting on their teaching, they can engage with reflection” (p 686) In the second phase called ‘thinking reflectively,’ he believes that reflection can be regarded as an ability that should be learned and mastered during the teaching process In this phase, called ‘using reflection,’ he assumes that “When teachers have understood what reflection is and how to think reflectively, they can use it as a tool to find and explore the actions that are commensurate with their context In the next phase, i.e., ‘sustaining reflection,’ Stanley refers to different problems teachers confront while trying to practice reflection And finally in the fifth phase which is

‘practicing reflection,’ he refers to the practical aspects of reflective teaching as an indispensable part of teacher reflectivity

In 2002, Jay and Johnson proposed a typology for reflection which includes descriptive, comparative, and critical reflection Descriptive reflection refers to the identification, description and recognition of the problem to be reflected on

Comparative reflection involves “thinking about the matter for reflection from a number of different frames or perspectives” (p 78) In this dimension a reflective teacher tries to know about others’ ideas and checks other alternatives which might have some discrepancies with his/her own points of view Critical reflection “involves teachers looking at all the different perspectives of a situation or problem and at all of the players involved: teachers, students, the school, and the community” (Farrell, 2004, p.22) In this dimension of reflection, “By taking in the broader context of schooling, reflective practitioners come to see themselves as agents of change, capable of understanding not only what is, but also working to create what should be” (Jay and Johnson, 2002, p 79).

Related studies

McCollum (1997) investigated the effect of providing teachers with a framework for reflection during an early field experience on pre-service teachers’ practice Four pre- service teachers were instructed to use reflection based on Tsangaridou & O’sullivan’s

(1994) Reflective Framework for Teaching The results of the study showed that pre- service teachers demonstrated the ability to consistently describe, justify, and critique meaningful events that occurred in the teaching/learning environment Moreover, the pre-service teachers found this experience a valuable one They believed that this early field experience has set a framework and a guideline for their future professional development

Kang (2004) investigated in-service teachers' learning through reflection activities in an in-service training program whose goal was to develop teachers' reflection-in- practice The findings revealed that reflection assisted teachers to take more control of their teaching actions, and to find justifications for their unintended actions The teachers participating in Kang’s study viewed reflection as a way to change their teaching practices

Minott (2009) discussed the relationship between understanding of lesson planning, implementation, and evaluation—from the perspective of selected teachers in the Islands—and their use of elements of reflection in these areas He stressed the requirement of both pre and in-service teacher education programs to prepare and enable teachers to develop their ability to adjust lesson planning, implementation, and evaluation according to school contextual factors which could be achieved via the application of reflection

Yesilbursa (2011) conducted a study to identify the characteristics of a group of Turkish pre-service English Language teachers’ reflective writing A mixed method approach was taken in the analysis of their written reflections on a video-recorded microteaching experience at the end of a campus-based methodology course The analyses revealed that most of the reflection was descriptive and focused on the self, search for reasons behind and alternatives to their practice, and referred to past and hypothetical future experiences This study contributes to the knowledge base on the reflective writing of non-native pre-service English Language teachers and emphasizes the importance of tapping into reflections early on in pre-service teacher education

The idea that reflection may be at the center of learning endeavors is also not new

According to Dewey, reflection is the “hallmark of intelligent action” (1933, p 17), enabling effective problem solving to take place and improving the effectiveness of learning Reflection enables learners to see themselves as actors with different alternatives As one learns to anticipate chains of events, strategy corrections are made in advance of overt action and become part of one's action plan (von Wright 1992) By providing a link between past and future action, reflection is thought to make possible the transfer of metacognitive knowledge to new situations

Ertmer& Newby (1996) believed that reflection serves as the link between metacognitive knowledge and self-regulation In an actual learning situation, reflection allows learners to consider plans made prior to engaging in a task, the assessments and adjustments made while they work, and the revisions made afterwards These two authors also agree with Simons (1993) who states that a learner's reflection on the process of learning can lead to changes in future processing and increased metacognitive knowledge about learning

Driscoll (1994) suggested that reflection may well be essential to cognitive strategy learning As a powerful link between thought and action, reflection can supply information about outcomes and the effectiveness of selected strategies, thus making it possible for a learner to gain strategy knowledge from specific learning activities

Even though many educators agree that reflection is an important part of the learning process, there is little shared evidence of how exactly it might operate to facilitate learning (Grimmett 1988; Houston, Clift & Pugach1990) To adequately address this issue, it is necessary to clarify the relationships among reflection and a specific learning skill This study served as an evidence of the impacts of teachers’ reflection of their teaching on their young learners’ English writing skills

This chapter has discussed issues concerning writing: roles of writing, and approaches to teaching writing, the relevant literature about reflection from the definition, the framework of reflection and related studies to the application of reflection

In this part, the researcher provides a detailed description of the research methodology

In other words, the argument for the use of an action research, the context of the study, the participants, the instruments and the procedure of applying teacher’s self-reflection activities in improving students’ writing skills will be clearly illustrated

2.1 Rationale for action research design

As defined by Mills (2003, p.4), action research is

“any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers to gather information about the ways that their particular school operates how they teach, and how well their students learn The information is gathered with the goals of gaining insight, developing reflective practice, effecting positive changes in the school environment and on educational practices in generals, and improving student outcomes.”

Tsui (1993) considers action research a very effective way of helping teachers to reflect on their teaching and to come up with their own alternatives to improve their practice

Action research in schools, colleges or universities solves everyday practical problems experienced by teachers, rather than the “theoretical problems” defined by non – teaching researchers It should be carried out by the teachers themselves or by someone they commission to carry out for them If the teacher was trained to conduct action research, he could solve his problems on his own or in collaboration with other teachers Moreover, action research is also for a teacher’s professional developments

He would become a better teacher because he knows how to find out and solve his problems in teaching on his own This also showed his dynamic, activeness and imagination in his teaching job

To carry out action research in a language classroom Tsui (1993) suggested 5 steps:

Step 1: Identifying problems you wish to solve or an area you wish to improve

METHODOLOGY 2.1 Rationale for action research design

Background of the study

The study was conducted in an English Centre in Hanoi The centre addresses children with age range from three to twelve years old Students are divided into classes according to their age and their English proficiency levels Students’ levels of proficiency are based on the Cambridge English framework for young learners, which consists of three levels: Starter, Mover and Flyer The center’s purpose is building a good English learning environment, emphasizing learning English at school and at home

The action research is carried out in a class of 15 students at the age from ten to eleven, corresponding to the grade 5 at their primary school Most of the young learners live in the district of Thanh Xuan, Ha Noi They have done the placement test, and at present, their English is at Flyer level for young learners Some of them have learnt English at this center for some courses, whereas some are new to this center However, all of them have studied English at their school from grade 3 Although they may be good at grammar and other skills, many of them cannot write well

The participants of the research were selected on the basis of random sampling using a dice Among six classes that the researcher could access, the researcher numbered them from 1 to 6 then using a dice to choose the class to study With the method of random sampling, the research ensures the variety of the students’ background, which varies from one to another as the group was chosen by chance This also enables a wider range of application to other classes, which, to some extent, reduce the limitation of an action research

2.2.3 The English program and the writing component

The book Energy 1 by Longman Press is currently used in this center’s syllabus for teaching children at the level of Flyer The textbook consists of ten units Each unit includes eleven sections: Switch on, Grammar, Vocabulary, Communication skill, Energy check, Culture bite, Song, Project, Memory gym and Writing gym A semester at the center lasted 15 weeks with 8 periods per week Two periods per week (accounting for 90 minutes) was devoted to the teaching of writing

The objectives of the English writing programs were stated that during the course students can produce their own writing about different topics For each topic, students, firstly, will be familiarized with writing tips which gives help with areas such as punctuation, text layout, then they were guided to prepare their writing plan, and finally students write their own text in full

Indeed, writing lessons make up 25 % of 120 periods of the English syllabus There are totally 10 units, so 10 writing lessons are designed with a view to making students familiar with real- life situations on text The required writing tasks in each unit are detailed in the Appendix1

For assessment, there are several ways of measuring writing achievement One way is through developing student portfolios Portfolios are collections of students’ work over a period of time The collection is used to demonstrate growth in writing This method is used in this study as a way of collecting and monitoring student works It is also treated as the tasks they had to complete to practice writing skills

A second procedure for measuring student writing achievement is through a descriptive writing rubric Loveland (2005) explained that a rubric is a two-dimensional matrix used to evaluate different facets of a piece of writing It leads to increased performance by students because it provides them with specific criteria in which the assignment will be graded Students do not have to guess or infer what the assessor wants; Well- constructed rubrics increase inter-rater reliability through improving comparability among a number of assessors, an important factor to consider when using more subjective assessment tasks The rubric for this study would be shown in Appendix 6.

Data collection instruments

During the research, the students were asked to attend a pre-test and a post-test The first test was conducted in the second week, and the second test was delivered in week

15 The two tests were recorded and then compared so as to reveal any improvements that students’ made during the progress of the research The reason why the pre test was delivered at the second week is that students should be familiarized with the writing test’s format during the first week because it was used to assess their writing It was the teacher’s task to inform students about the format of the writing test and the criteria to assess writing test right at the beginning of the semester so as students were well prepared for it

The pre-test and post-test had the same form: each test consisted of a task sheet with the same topic of “school” Both tests required the students to write their responses in the form of descriptive essays of more than 100 words within the same limit of time

(30 minutes) Based on the same course book, both the pre - and post-test’s questions concerned the literary texts and matters that the students had already learned and prepared for beforehand, with no tested knowledge lying outside the taught and learned scope The two tests were also administered under strict supervision by the teacher of the class the pre-test and post-test were marked according to the same rating rubric (Appendix 6) which made the scoring results of the two tests consistent and reliable

2.3.2 Teacher’s diary After each writing lesson, teacher wrote in a notebook about what happened She also described her own reactions and feelings and those she observed on the students and begin to pose questions about what she had observed The teacher’s diary of this study which were adapted from the suggestion of British Council article (“Reflective teaching,”n,d.) is presented in the Appendix 4

2.3.3 Students’ journals Journal writing has always been referred to as a reflective tool that offers students to reflect on their learning experience, describe their feelings and reactions to the class activities as well as to express their thoughts about the new way of learning For the purpose of this study, the students were asked to write their journals twice a week after their writing lesson basing on the optional prompts given by the teacher The journals were structured to focus on the issues related to the research questions These were supposed to give the researcher useful information about the students’ reflection on their teaching activities implemented during their writing lessons No names were required to be entered in the journals to ensure reliable qualitative data for this study and the students felt free to express their opinions and attitudes towards reflection application

2.3.4 Students’ writing products and portfolios These materials were vital in the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data

The grades and scores on students’ writings and portfolios provided important hard data to conduct the statistical analysis on the relationship between portfolio performance and post -test performance Apart from this, analyzing recurring patterns of idea expression and development in the students’ writings enriched the study with insights into the students’ thinking and feeling processes, as well as their efforts and progresses in self -expression.

Implementation of the action research

While teaching at this center, the researcher realized that students had many problems with writing even those who are good at grammar and vocabulary For example they do not know how to link the sentences or how to use the suitable words to express their ideas and so on

Step 2: Finding causes of the problem

To clarify the problems, the researcher had some informal talks in class with students about the reasons for ineffective learning of English writing skills, the activities they wished to do in the writing lessons, the topics to write about in their writing lessons to find out what teaching method is most likely to suit them Most of the students stated that they had not been taught how to write a paragraph before, therefore strategies such as sentence linking or transition signals using were new to them Moreover, they also mentioned that their learning atmosphere was not fun, the teacher activities were not interesting, thus they did not actually want to participate in the lessons

Step 3: Designing strategies for improvement

To improve the students’ writing, the researcher planed the use of reflection with her students Based on the model given by Van Manen (1991), the model of this study consists of three phases: The first phase is the preparation for the event The next phase is the event itself Following a focus on objective description of the event is phase three when teacher returns to the event and reviews it The event is now processed at a

The first phase includes the following tasks that the teacher/researcher catered before actual teaching:

- Prepare lesson objectives, activities, materials and classroom management which can be the source for further reflection After the lesson, the teacher could look back at the objectives of the lesson and reflect whether she had achieved the goal of the lesson, or about what she has done in class, what problems might occur and so on

- Focused on students, their cultural and linguistic backgrounds by thinking and understandings, their interests, and their developmental readiness for particular tasks which include students’ learning strategies, their cognitive and learning styles, their preferences, their affective factors, and their abilities

The second phase was the time the teacher responded to what happened in class

During the teaching of the lesson, unforeseen problems occurred, and students’ responses did not match what was expected The teacher immediately began to rethink her lesson plans The teacher, at this moment, perceived cues from students, pondered what they mean, and talked out loud or continuing with a demonstration The teacher responded by changing pace in a lesson, moving about the room, and interacting with students by a variety of approaches such as eye contact, a closer proximity, a touch on a shoulder, or a predetermined nonverbal signal in an effort to redirect and refocus attention and learning

The third phase, after the lesson, the teacher made mental and written notes and critically think about whether or not intended outcomes were achieved and the level to which the outcomes were or were not achieved and possible reasons for these occurrences She critically thought about the degree to which her belief, values and assumptions about teaching affected the lesson implementation, then made a written note of these in the journal and use the information gained to impact future lessons

The next step was to devise a new action plan The teacher imagined the scene in the classroom again and wrote a new script—one with greater and more accurate awareness of the students’ existing knowledge, skills, and interests

Step 4: Trying out strategies and making notes on what happened in the class

The new strategies and changes were tried out in the next practice writing lesson The whole treatment lasted in 3 months with the procedure as following description:

Before the lesson, teacher carefully prepared lesson plan including lesson objectives, activities, materials, classroom management and anticipated problems Teacher, at this stage, focused on students’ interests, students’ learning strategies, their cognitive and learning styles, their preferences, their affective factors, and their abilities Some situations such as students were not familiar with the format of an email or they might focus much attention on decoration of the postcard rather than writing the message of the postcard was well-prepared before the lesson

During the teaching, the teacher organized the lesson as lesson plan In 15 weeks, students had 30 lessons to study writing with 2 lessons for each topic In the first lesson, students made familiar with and practiced the knowledge and skill to write a specific type of writing The plan of the writing would be drawn after that At home, students were required to write the draft of the writing For the next lesson, peer-check would happen at first and all the problems, for example, the appropriateness of vocabulary, sentence and paragraph structure and correctness of grammar, spelling and punctuation would be explained Students were then required to write the paragraph again, and handed in the products at the end of the lesson

After the lesson, the teacher made mental and written notes and critically thought about whether or not intended outcomes were achieved and the level to which the outcomes were or were not achieved and possible reasons for these occurrences For example, with the topic of writing an email, the teacher only stated the aim of the lesson but not state the objectives to gain that aim; therefore, students did not know how to write an email and none of the students could write a cohesive and coherent paragraph The teacher, in this situation, designed more exercises to help students practicing the use of cohesive devices, prepared to organize individual writing activity in the form of a competition to make students feel more responsible for their writing and prepared to implement all these activities in the next lesson

Step 5: Evaluating the try -out

- The teacher analyzed the results of the post- writing test after the trying – out stage that illustrated the changes that had been made (which could include things that were improved or that got worse)

- Comments and conclusions were made.

Data analysis procedure

Secondly, basing on the teacher’s diary, the students’ achievement and their attitudes were read carefully and categorized to focus on the issues related to the research questions: students’ writing skills development and their attitude towards their teacher’s reflection

Summary The chapter has presented the setting in which the study was carried out The method and procedures of collecting data used in the study was also fully described In the next chapter, the major findings including the comparison of writing achievement measured by the pre-test and post-test, the extent of improvement made by students after intervention would be taken into consideration to give appropriate suggestions for pedagogical implications

In this chapter, the first part is a detailed description of the findings of the research including the pre-test, post discussion of the data collected through the study.

3.1 Findings 3.1.1 The results of the students’ pre

To investigate the effectiveness of teacher’s self reflection on students achievement, a pre-test and a post proficiency before and after the intervention

Frequency distribution The following graphic chart gives an overall picture of post-test scores achieved by 15 students

Figure 1: Comparison of pre The graph displays clearly the different distributions of scores achieved by students before and after the intervention High scores gained by students in the post

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION st part is a detailed description of the findings of the research test, post-test and teacher’s diary Later on in the chapter is the discussion of the data collected through the study

3.1.1 The results of the students’ pre test and post test the effectiveness of teacher’s self reflection on students test and a post-test were used to measure students' writing proficiency before and after the intervention The results were as follow:

The following graphic chart gives an overall picture of the distribution of pre test and test scores achieved by 15 students in the study

Figure 1: Comparison of pre-test and post-test score distributions clearly the different distributions of scores achieved by students before and after the intervention High scores gained by students in the post

Comparison of students' pre-test and post test scores st part is a detailed description of the findings of the research test and teacher’s diary Later on in the chapter is the the effectiveness of teacher’s self reflection on students’ writing test were used to measure students' writing as follow: distribution of pre test and clearly the different distributions of scores achieved by students before and after the intervention High scores gained by students in the post- test much test and post

Pre- testPost- test outnumbered those in the pre- test Both minimum scores and maximum scores gained in the post- test were higher than those in the pre test (The minimum score gained by post- test and pre- test were 5.5 and 3 respectively The maximum score obtained in the post- test and pre- test were 9.5 and 8.5 respectively)

Measures of central tendency The following table shows that the means, modes and medians of scores in the post- test were about two points higher than those in the pre -test These results indicate that the performances of students in the post- test after intervention were obviously higher than in the pre- test Σfx

N = number of the scores f = frequency with which a score occurs)

Scores Post- test Pre- test

Table 1: Comparison on central tendency in students’ pre-test and post-test

Measures of dispersion The range is the difference between the highest and the lowest score The range of the scores of the post- test was: 9.5 – 5.5 = 4 less than that of pre- test which is: 8.5 – 3

= 5.5 The variance is a deviation score that shows the difference between raw scores and the mean

Formula Post- test Pre- test

Table 2: Comparison on variance in students’ pre-test and post-test The standard deviation (SD) gives information on the degree to which a set of scores varies in relation to the mean

Formula Post- test Pre- test

Table 3: Comparison on standard deviation in students’ pre-test and post-test The standard deviation for the scores of the post-test is 1.38 which is much smaller than that of the pre- test which is 2.02 We can confirm that the single marks in the post-test are more tightly grouped around its mean than those in the pre-test In other words, a student’s post-test result varies less from the typical behavior of the whole class than his pre-test This evidence confirms that the post-test score is more homogeneous than the pre-test score

The statistics of the two tests above could lead us to a better insight into the proficiencies of the students before and after the intervention Obviously, the students’ scores in the post-test outperformed that in the pre-test with higher mean, higher mode and higher median

Thus, after fifteen weeks, an obvious improvement in writing proficiency was recognized regarding both central tendency and dispersion These results were reliable because the tests have parallel format/difficulty/discrimination levels and were marked using similar marking criteria, and students were examined by trained teachers of writing under official test conditions

3.1.2 The results of teacher’s diary

To answer the question to what extend the teacher’s self-reflection effect students’

English writing achievement, the researcher used teaching diary to take note all the occurrences of the teacher and students during the intervention time This is the result of the diary

Firstly, the results of the pre-test indicating that students’ writing performances before intervention were thoroughly analyzed in terms of content, organization, grammar/ wording

Areas of testing Rating scale No of students

Table 4: Students’ writing performance in the pre- test

As can be seen from the table, in terms of content, the students’ level was very low

There was no student at the very good to excellent level when writing the topic statement, supporting ideas and conclusion Whereas, the number of students who were at the poor to fair level when writing the topic statement, supporting ideas and conclusion were 26.67, 20, and 33.33%, respectively Similarly, in terms of organization, the students’ level was rather low The numbers of students who reached the very good to excellent levels in terms of logical order were 3 and those of transitional signals were 2 Meanwhile the numbers of students who were at poor level in these two sub-skills are 4 (26.67%) Regarding grammar and wording, the students had better results, 7 students (46.66%) of the total students were at very good to excellent levels and 8 students had average level which accounted for 53.33% of the total students

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 3.1 Findings

The results of teacher’s diary

To answer the question to what extend the teacher’s self-reflection effect students’

English writing achievement, the researcher used teaching diary to take note all the occurrences of the teacher and students during the intervention time This is the result of the diary

Firstly, the results of the pre-test indicating that students’ writing performances before intervention were thoroughly analyzed in terms of content, organization, grammar/ wording

Areas of testing Rating scale No of students

Table 4: Students’ writing performance in the pre- test

As can be seen from the table, in terms of content, the students’ level was very low

There was no student at the very good to excellent level when writing the topic statement, supporting ideas and conclusion Whereas, the number of students who were at the poor to fair level when writing the topic statement, supporting ideas and conclusion were 26.67, 20, and 33.33%, respectively Similarly, in terms of organization, the students’ level was rather low The numbers of students who reached the very good to excellent levels in terms of logical order were 3 and those of transitional signals were 2 Meanwhile the numbers of students who were at poor level in these two sub-skills are 4 (26.67%) Regarding grammar and wording, the students had better results, 7 students (46.66%) of the total students were at very good to excellent levels and 8 students had average level which accounted for 53.33% of the total students

In brief, although there was no student at the very poor level, the number of students who were at the poor to fair level was still high, and the number of students who reached the very good to excellent levels was very low This result indicated that students had difficulties in generating ideas, getting appropriate organization and vocabulary for their writing

After recognizing the problems, the teacher/ researcher tried to help students to overcome their difficulties through reflection At the end of the course all students took the post-test The researcher collected and compared with the results of the pre-test to find out the improvement The following table shows the results of students’ writing performance in terms of content, organization, language in the post- test

Areas of testing Rating scale No of students

Table 5: Students’ writing performance in the post- test

As can be seen from the table, the students’ writing level was quite high All the students achieved the average to excellent levels In terms of content, the number of students at average to good levels was the largest Regarding the topic statement 10 students out (accounting for 66.67%) of the total 15 students got the levels of average to good and the other 5 students (33.33%) achieved the levels of very good to excellent

Whereas in the pre-test there was no students getting the very good to excellent levels, and 4 students were at the poor to fair levels The situation was similar with supporting ideas and conclusion The number of student who got the poor to fair levels in these two areas has decreased to 0% in the post- test, and the percentage of students who got the very good to excellent levels in terms of supporting ideas and conclusion has increased from 0% to 33.33% ad 6.66%, accordingly

Similarly, the increasing trend also happened with scores of students’ organization skill In terms of logical order, in the pre-test, 11 students (73.33%) were at average to excellent levels This number increased sharply to 15 students, accounting for 100% in the post-test Regarding transitional signals, the number of students who reached average to excellent levels increased significantly from 73.33% in the pre-test to 100% in the post-test

Finally, concerning the language criterion (grammar/ wording) the number of students who reached the levels of very good to excellent increased from 7 students (46.67%) in the pre-test to 12 students (80%) in the post-test

In brief, the results of the post-test revealed that the students’ writing performance in terms of content, organization and language was improved due to the impact of the action plan implementation Therefore it can be concluded that, teacher’s reflection had a positive effect on the students’ writing achievement

Teacher’s reflection and students’ journal were also contributed as a tool to investigate students’ attitude towards writing and their interest in the writing lessons with teacher’s self-reflection

In the first weeks, most of the students claimed that they were not good in their writing performance For example when being asked “what is your self-assessment of your writing performance today?” the number of the students who thought their writing performance on that day was very bad was 3 and bad was 5 students What is more, 4 of the asked students assessed that they had no idea of their writing performance

Meanwhile, 3 students thought their writing performance was good and no students considered their performance were very good

Clearly, the findings show that most of the students felt that their writing performance would be the same if there is nothing improved Fortunately, such poor situation did not exist with the application of the intervention program of teacher’s self-reflection It appears that students preferred the post – intervention lessons compared with the pre – intervention ones The numbers of students who enjoyed the lesson and felt confident with their writing performance were 7 and 5 students accounted for 46.67% and 33.33% respectively while there was no students rating their writing performance at the levels of very bad or bad (0%) Most of the students stated that they were interested in the writing activities in class If before the intervention, some students in the class did not know what to do with their writings and they were forced to write basing on the sample, so they copied the whole sample letter in the text book ignoring the requirements of the writing tasks, in the post- intervention stage, most of the students were eager to write and felt much interested in the writing topic, therefore their writing performance has been improved significantly

All in all, teacher’s self reflection in teaching English writing had made an undoubtedly good impact on the learners’ views of writing A majority of the students became neutral or positive towards the writing skill and writing lessons instead of maintaining their opinions in the opposite side.

Discussion

1 Does teacher’s self-reflection have any effect on the English writing achievement of students at Wider World Language Center?

2 To what extend does the application of teacher’s self-reflection improve students’ English writing achievement at the center?

3.2.1 Research question 1 Regarding the first question, the data from the pre-test and post-test showed that teacher’s self- reflection had a positive effect on the students’ writing achievement

The tables and the graphs clearly show the improvement of the students’ achievement

Concerning the frequency of distribution, both minimum scores and maximum scores gained in the post- test were higher than those in the pre test (The minimum score gained by post- test and pre- test were 5.5 and 3 respectively The maximum score obtained in the post- test and pre- test were 9.5 and 8.5 respectively) As for measurement of central tendency, the means, modes and medians of scores in the post- test were also about two points higher than those in the pre -test Moreover, the standard deviation for the scores of the post-test is 1.38 which is much smaller than that of the pre- test which is 2.02 We can confirm that the single marks in the post-test are more tightly grouped around its mean than those in the pre-test Thus, after fifteen weeks, an obvious improvement in writing proficiency was recognized And the researcher can one more time confirm that the answer for the first research question is

As for the second research question, first of all, the easily recognized impact of teacher’s self-reflection on students is the improvement in students’ proficiency The data collected revealed a rising trend in the number of students at average to excellent level after the intervention As for content, organization and language, all the students got the level from average to excellent in the post-test scores The number of students at very good to excellent level in terms of topic statement, supporting ideas, conclusion, organization, transition and language increasing dramatically from 0%, 0%, 0%, 20%, 13,33%, and 46,66% in the pre-test to 33,33%, 33,33%, 6,66%, 60%, 46,67%, and 80% in the post-test, respectively

Such outcome could be explained that reflective teachers are more likely to develop reflective learners If teachers practice reflection they can more effectively encourage learners to reflect on, analysis, evaluate and improve their learning In addition, when language teachers think about what, how and why they do it, it allows them to step out of routine action and make adaptations to match the needs of the learners Every learner is different and there are likely to be varying interpretations of what we say and do within any groups of learners There are “different world” within our classrooms and skilled teachers will try to see themselves as their students see them Steephen Brookfield believed that “of all the pedagogic tasks teachers face, getting inside students’ head is one of the trickiest (1995)

Apart from the improvement in the students’ writing proficiency, teacher’s self- reflection brought the students a lot of motivation, interest and inspiration in learning writing The students no longer felt bored and tired in class but enjoyed themselves in many of the learner-centered activities In their reflections, most students wrote of their positive attitudes toward the writing lesson, such as excitement, enthusiasm, great involvement, support, as well as feelings of gains

Such outcomes could be explained that the teacher’s self-reflection in which the students was exposed to was pleasant and relaxing During the intervention period, the students were encouraged to express their own ideas and feelings, independent of the teacher’s opinions They were told that there were no right or wrong answers and that all their personal views would be welcomed and dearly cherished, provided that they were convincingly supported and developed Because the students knew that their personal opinions and impressions would be highly appreciated, they were motivated to express themselves more frequently and find ways to do it better These positive attitudes and feelings were undeniably one of the factors leading to a better learning process of English in general, English writing in particular

Furthermore, the teacher’s self-reflection encouraged students to exercise greater initiatives to think and feel for themselves, as well as to express their own thinking and feeling in English With teachers’ help, the students had to find their own ways of self - expression, which undoubtedly led to more critical thinking and greater autonomy in learning They had to see and fix their own expression problems such as problems in language use, idea organization, support and development, the flow of writing This was done through class remedial sessions, the teacher’s on-going comments and suggestions for correction, the students’ reflection on their own works and self- correction Also, many participants showed good self-assessment skills with critical evaluation on their strengths and weaknesses In fact, they are well aware of which type of exercises they are particularly good at This is important in the way that once students are conscious of their drawbacks, they can find ways to tackle their problems

Thus, by furthering the students’ autonomy and critical thinking, the teacher’s reflection was able to exploit their role as active learners, which brought about better learning processes and results

In conclusion, the discussion of the two research questions leads us to a confirmation that the writing program using reflection was successful on the whole, as it helped to bring about positive changes in most students’ attitudes towards writing and improvements in their writing habits The program also helped the students to improve their writing and to learn how to use the strategies at each stage of the process of writing.

Pedagogical implications

In the process of reflection, teachers are learning to pause to identify their constructs, reactions, responses and to name and describe these factors to themselves This is to self-evaluate and clarify what is constraining and what is positively motivating themselves Teachers are then involved in choice to eliminate, develop, alter, bring to life greater awareness and clarity from within their inner being Teachers are, therefore, required to take control of their professional development This can only be achieved through an ongoing process of self-assessment

Reflection can be a tool for continued personal and professional development (Ottesen,

2007) Teachers, therefore, need to engage in regular reflections Even though the teachers are very busy in their daily working schedule and duties, it is of importance for them to have a regular time with reflection and sharing with others (colleagues)

Only from this fountain of continual living response to experience can true change be laid down in our behavior and thinking

In addition, the researcher concurs with Dewey (1964) in that reflection does not occur naturally Thus it suggests that reflection should be explicitly recognized and applied by teachers Teacher should possess willingness to undertake a process and to value it as a means of improvement and development Teachers also, need to be honest with themselves and recognize not only their successes but also areas where they need to improve It makes them to take responsibility for their teaching and learning

Moreover, reflection encourages teachers to know about their learners and what elements of good practice will develop effective learning Every learner is different and there are likely to be varying interpretations of what we say and do within any group of learners With those different worlds in the classroom, teachers should understand their learners, their characteristics, their needs and motivation At the same time, they need a variety of teaching and learning methods in their toolbox to adapt and adjust content and styles to suit the needs of students

Teachers may have difficulty encouraging students to reflect on points of view which challenge their fundamental beliefs concerning their expectations The requirements for reflection (Dewey, 1933 as cited in Serafini, 2002), open-mindedness and whole heartedness may be restricted in students who have little sense of involvement in their own learning and tend to blame external factors for performance rather than intrinsic factors The teacher must encourage students to realize that learning and teaching is cooperative not monologic and they must find themselves active and articulate within their learning This approach encourages students to recognize the life lesson that knowledge is continually undergoing construction and transformation and does not remain as a static concept (Densten and Gray, 2001, p.121) to be learned once only

In short, this chapter has presented the major findings of the study based on the data gathered through the students’ pre-test, post-test, and teacher’s diary On the whole, students were found to outperform in the post-test with higher mean and lower range score than in the pre-tests After the intervention, students took part in activities more actively and had positive attitudes towards learning writing In the next chapter, the information would be taken into consideration to give summary of the study as well as recommendation for further studies

PART C: CONCLUSION The very last chapter of this thesis is to present the final conclusion of the study, the limitations of the study and suggestions for further researches

This study was designed to answer the two research questions that whether teacher’s self-reflection was effective in improving students’ English writing achievement at a language center and how effective it was With this direction, the researcher has done the action research in one semester with the collaboration of 15 students

The theoretical background for the study was presented fully in chapter 1 of part B

Issues concerning importance of writing, approaches to teaching writing have been discussed The study also presented the definitions of reflection, the importance of reflection, and the models/frameworks of reflection Moreover related literature to applying reflection into foreign language teaching was also carefully presented including the researches investigating the impacts of teacher’s reflection on teacher development and on students’ performance These issues serve as a strong background for the study to be carried out

The whole research was conducted over a period of 15 weeks From week 2 to 15 was the intervention period: the teacher’s self-reflection program Data regarding student performance before and after the intervention were collected from compared results of the pre-test and the post-test and from the teacher’s diary after each writing lesson

These quantitative and qualitative data was then analyzed and revealed the following findings:

Statistic analysis of the test scores showed that after one semester, the students made some progresses in their writing performance in general Three indicators of central tendency of higher mean, mode and median indicated that the students outperformed themselves after one semester learning with teacher’s self-reflection activities The lower standard deviation also showed that the students working with teacher’s self- reflection performed more homogeneously

The analysis of students’ journals in teacher’s diary revealed their positive motivation, interest, and desire to learn writing skill They were all motivated and satisfied with the writing lessons because they said that working with a supportive teacher made them feel more confident, independent, responsible, and less anxious In the class where teacher used self-reflection, their opinions and concerns are valued and praised

Basing on the findings, some pedagogical implications were suggested in the last chapter Teachers should understand their students, be aware of the importance, the procedure to conduct teacher’s self-reflection in class and practice the habit of using this approach in their every lesson Moreover, teachers should encourage students to collaborate in all activities of the lesson In the future, it is hoped that more studies on teacher’s self-reflection will be realized, such as those listed in the suggestions for further studies.

Limitations of the study

In spite of the effectiveness of the use of teacher’s self-reflection justified by the improvement of the students’ writing achievement, it should be admitted that a thorough understanding of it has not been achieved due to a number of reasons

Firstly, the size of the study is rather small, consisting only 15 participants Although their scores that were used for analysis proved to be approximately normally distributed, this narrow range of students prevent us, to some extent, from getting a full idea of the effect of teacher’s self-reflection on students’ writing achievement at varying levels of proficiency However, as this is an action research, such a limitation is unavoidable

In addition, it is shown that some students make more progress than others during the research This may come from other factors, which is their interest, the amount of time they practice writing, the extra private tuition they get… The researcher could not control those factors Thus, whether teacher’s self-reflection alone can have a significant effect on the students’ performance is still questionable

Moreover, the effect of teacher’s self-reflection on the students’ writing achievement was measured only by the pretest and posttest Further surveys or questionnaires used for similar study would have helped the researcher get more useful feedback from her students so that she could improve her teaching so as to help students learn writing skills better This limitation was also due to the time constraint because students had only two periods of writing lesson per week

Recommendations for further studies

Given the limitation of the study, it is highly recommended that further study should be conducted to gain a better understanding of how effective teacher’s self-reflection is on Vietnamese students’ English writing achievement in general and English writing achievement of students in the context of English center in particular

As for the students at Flyer level, in their very first semester, they are only required to write some type of writing with some basic strategies However, in their upcoming years, the requirements are much higher One important suggestion is the continuous study on the same population of students in their higher level to see how well they work and how much improvement they make under the context of teacher’s self- reflection This will be another step in a long-term research on teaching and learning of reflection at the center Besides, this research only focuses on the use of teacher’s self- reflection in the teaching and learning of writing So, further research could examine the use of teacher’s self-reflection in the teaching and learning other skills

The small size of the study is a big limitation Therefore, it is almost impossible to generalize the effect of teacher’s self-reflection over a wider range of subjects Thus, it is highly recommended that the research would be applied to a larger number of students so as to gain better input for the research

In addition, other factors like the students’ self study time, their interest, motivation, and the help from other people at home were not taken into consideration to yield the result of the research These left factors should be exploited in further study Apart from action research, other approaches to researching this subject are also suggested, such as ethnographical research, experimental research, survey, and case study The effects of the teachers’ self-reflection on students’ writing achievement can be proven using these research methods, with more quantitative and qualitative results

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APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: CHECKLIST OF WRITING TASKS IN ENERGY 1

1 New people Writing an email

2 Rooms and things Writing a letter about your room

3 Friends and family Writing a description of a person

4 Daily life Writing a description of a daily routine

5 Free time Writing an article about your school

6 Can you sing? Writing a description of an animal

10 What next? Writing a review (Adapted from Elsworth S & Rose J (2010))

Task: Write about your school Use this plan to help you (≥ 100 words)

What do you want to call your article?

 Introduction Give a general description of your school

- How many students are there?

 Main report Write these three questions and answer them

- When do you go to school?

- What do you do after school?

- Do you do a lot of homework?

Do you like your school? Why/ why not?

Task: Write about your dream school (≥ 100 words)

1 Did the students understand what I did in the lesson?

2 Was what I did too easy or too difficult?

3 What problems did the students have (if any)?

4 Was there a clear outcome for the students?

5 What different materials and activities did I use?

6 Did the materials and activities keep the students interested?

7 Should I have done any parts of the lesson differently?

8 Were all the students on task (i.e doing what they were supposed to be doing)? If not, when was that and why did it happen?

9 Which parts of the lesson did the students seem to enjoy most? And least?

10 How much English did the students use?

11 Did activities last the right length of time?

12 Was the pace of the lesson right?

13 Did I use whole class work, group work, pair work or individual work?

15 Did I provide opportunities for all the students to participate?

16 If I taught the lesson again, what would I do differently?

APPENDIX 5: Optional prompts for students’ journal Lesson objectives

1 Did you understand what we did in the English writing lesson today?

2 Was what we did too easy or too difficult?

3 What problems did you have with the lesson today?

4 How do you think about the writing topic today?

5 What is your self - assessment on your writing performance today?

(Very good, good, bad, very bad)

6 Are you interested in the activities and the materials of the lesson today?

7 The most interesting of the lesson today is:

8 Thinking about this English writing lesson, I feel that I have learned:

9 Did the teacher use the whole class work, group work or individual work?

10 Was the instruction of the teacher clear?

11 Overall, I think I still need to work on:

(Vocabulary, grammar, writing topic sentence, supporting ideas, transitional words…)

12 In the next lesson I want the teacher to (check and correct all kinds of mistakes carefully and regularly, provide some reference books, show as many sample paragraphs as possible, ….)

APPENDIX 6: CHECKLIST OF GRADING RUBRIC FOR WRITING TEST

Areas of testing Rating scale Description

2-1.6 Excellent- Very good Clearly indicate the addressed idea 1.5- 1 Good- Average Needs to be more precise in indicating the addressed idea 0.9-0.5 Fair- Poor Does not indicate the addressed idea

< 0.5 Very poor No clear idea

2-1.6 Excellent- Very good relevant & well-supported ideas 1.5- 1 Good- Average relevant ideas but requires some additional support 0.9-0.5 Fair- Poor ideas that may not be relevant and / or may require more support

< 0.5 Very poor Few ideas are presented

2-1.6 Excellent- Very good Clearly restates main idea and gives effective summary 1.5- 1 Good- Average Restates main idea and gives summary but could be more effective

0.9-0.5 Fair- Poor Does not clearly restate main idea and / or does not gives summary

< 0.5 Very poor No clear conclusion

1-0.6 Good- Average Slight reorganization required

Organization order 0.5 Poor Neither logical nor effective

Major changes need to be made

< 0.5 Very poor Not clear, making paper difficult to follow

1-0.6 Good- Average One or two transition words could be added/ omitted

0.5 Poor Insufficient and / or inappropriate

< 0.5 Very poor Missing transition words

Few, if any, minor errors that do not impede comprehension 0.5 Average Some minor errors which occasionally impede comprehension

< 0.5 Poor Major errors greatly impede comprehension

APPENDIX 7: STUDENTS’ WRITING PRE-TEST SCORES Student s

APPENDIX 8: STUDENTS’ WRITING POST-TEST SCORES Student s