Research paper topic the method for writing skills at university

HONGBANG INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGES MAJOR: ENGLISH LINGUITICS RESEARCH PAPER TOPIC: The Method for Writing Skills at University Name: Anh Tran Thuc Class: NNxDH-AV3 ID: 1914xxxxx Topic: The Method for Writing Skills at University Abstract: Writing is not only one of the four macro skills of language learning, but writing is also considered the most challenging skill compared to the other three skills of listening, speaking, and reading, particularly in English Writing skills require learners to converge many factors such as vocabulary, grammar, knowledge, ideas, and persistent practice not only students but even professionals are always looking for ways to create a good essay, and they find and learn from many different materials of writing skill however, at an international university in Ho Chi Minh City, the resources of writing skill references are lacking and cannot meet their needs Therefore, this essay was conducted with the aim of investigating students’ attitudes toward writing and the materials available in the library of an International University in Ho Chi Minh City to help students learn English writing The information and data were collected from a field survey at the library and an online survey for students at the international university in Ho Chi Minh City The results we found are eleven writing books in both physical and digital materials nevertheless, Writing materials are not plentiful, and while they cover English for General academic purposes and general English pursuits, there is no suitable material for english for specific academic purposes This research shows that the need for students to learn English skill is increasing day by day, so the university need to update and add a variety of reference books so that students can improve and upgrade their English writing skill Keywords: writing skill materials, EAP, academic writing resources, using reference materials I Introduction: Nowadays with the rapid development of society and people's needs, learning a foreign language is more and more popular, especially the English language When starting to learn a language, most learners will be guided by four key skills listening, speaking, reading, and writing Writing comes in last in this order, but that does not mean writing is the least important In contrast, writing skill is considered one of the most important and difficult skills in learning the English language (Negari, G M 2011) Therefore, in order to improve writing skill, Not only learners take classes at the school, but they also spend a great deal of time referencing different writing resources, or reading a variety of published texts to gain experience from other former writers (Norton, L S 1990 and Twait, M 2005) However, at present, studies on available resources for writing skills in universities in Vietnam are seriously lacking and have not provided suitable solutions for learners' academic writing (Hyland, Ken 2013) Literature review: UNDERSTANDING ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES (EAP) The family tree of English Language Teaching (ELT), as shown below (based on Hutchinson and Walters, 1987) ELT can be divided into English as a Mother Tongue (EMT) and English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL), depending on whether it is studied in an English-speaking country (ESL) or not (EFL) EFL/ESL are sometimes referred to by other names, for example EAL (English as an Additional Language) and ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages), in deference to the fact that for many learners, English is not the second but the third, fourth or more language they have learnt ESL/EFL can be sub-divided into General English (GE), and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) General English, which is mainly for exam purposes, is the form learners are most familiar with, since it is the kind of English taught in schools Due to the fact that most GE students are too far from real communication in English to have any real need to study it, GE is sometimes referred to as TENOR (Teaching English for No Obvious Reason), which directly contrasts it with ESP, for which there is a specific purpose ESP can be sub-divided into English for Occupational Purposes (EOP), for example English for business or English for law, and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) (Hutchinson, T and Walters, A (1987) English for Specific Purposes: A learningcentered approach Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.) EAP itself can be sub-divided according to whether its content is general (EGAP, short for English for General Academic Purposes) or specific (ESAP, short for English for Specific Academic Purposes) Whether an EAP course is general or specific will often depend on the students in the class: if they are students who study or will study a range of disciplines, then the course will usually be more general; however, if the students study or will study a common discipline, for example Engineering, then the content will often be more specifically tailored to their needs, for example by including laboratory report writing Many EAP teachers and writers consider EGAP to be synonymous with study skills, since these courses cover areas such as note-taking, referencing, and taking part in discussions, which are traditionally seen as study skills areas (Hyland, K (2006) English for Academic Purposes: An advanced resource book Abingdon: Routledge Jordan, R.R (1997) English for Academic Purposes: A guide and resource book for teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.) 1.1 Students’s need for good academic writing resources Writing is the vehicle that most graduate programs embrace as the means for reviewing how well students are able to assimilate knowledge and integrate that knowledge into new ideas Lindner, Murphy, Wingenbach, and Kelsey (2004) point out that in many graduate programs "the sole evidence of a student's performance is measured by a single research paper or similar forms of advanced inquiry." Stated even more simply, writing is a vital element of inquiry" (Rose & Mc Clafferty, 2001) (Linder, J R., Murphy, T H., Wingenbach, G J., & Kelsey, K D (2004) Written communication competencies: Strengths and weaknesses of agricultural education graduate students NACTA Journal, 48(b), 31-38) (Rose, M & McClafferty, K A (2001) A call for the teaching of writing in graduate education Educational Researcher, 30, 27-32.) Essays and related written work provide opportunities for students to demonstrate some of the most demanding learning outcomes, but students are often more confused about what constitutes a good essay than they are about the criteria for other types of assignment One survey of first year students taking a study skills module, for example, showed that essay writing was the most commonly requested topic for advice and guidance (Elander, 2003) (Elander, J (2003) A discipline-based undergraduate skills module, Psychology Learning and Teaching, 3, 48–55.) “The aspects of the module that were most valued by students were the workshops and tutorials on essay writing and there was evidence that students would have liked even more time devoted to aspects of essay writing.” Confusion among students is understandable considering that professional academics also often struggle to specify what constitutes a good essay; Sadler (1989), for example, identified over 50 published criteria for written composition (Sadler, D R (1989) Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems, Instructional Science, 18, 119–144.) “At least 50 criteria have been identified for assessing the quality of written composition All of the criteria in the list below have been extracted from published sources, although an examination of teachers' written comments indicates that even this list is not exhaustive The criteria themselves are italicized, with apparent synonyms placed together Accuracy (of facts, evidence, explanations); audience (sense of); authenticity; clarity; coherence; cohesion; completeness; compliance (with conventions of the genre); comprehensiveness; conciseness (succinctness); consistency (internal); content (substance); craftsmanship; depth (of analysis, treatment); elaboration; engagement; exemplification (use of examples or illustrations); expression; figures of speech; flair; flavor; flexibility; fluency (or smoothness); focus; global (or overall) development; grammar; handwriting (legibility); ideas; logical (or chronological) ordering (or control of ideas); mechanics; novelty; objectivity (or subjectivity, as appropriate); organization; originality (creativity, imaginativeness); paragraphing; persuasiveness; presentation (including layout); punctuation (including capitalization); readability; referencing; register; relevance (to task or topic); rhetoric (or rhetorical effectiveness); sentence structure; spelling; style; support for assertions; syntax; tone; transition; usage; vocabulary; voice; wording.” 18 criteria (Norton, 1990) that tutors considered important, (Norton, L S (1990) Essay writing: what really counts? Higher Education, 20, 411– 442.) and a recent report listed 12 potential criteria for essays (Andrews, 2003) (Andrews, R (2003) The end of the essay? Teaching in Higher Education, 8(1), 117–128.) Work of PASS standard will typically demonstrate the majority of the following characteristics where applicable:  a satisfactory understanding of the main points and issues in the assignment;  a clear and logical structure;  a well-sustained sequence of ideas;  development of a well-substantiated argument, claim or theory;  evidence of critical engagement with substantial and relevant literature;  sound analysis of the main points and issues, with reference to literature where appropriate;  the relating of conclusions to arguments made and evidence presented;  critical reflection on own experience, where appropriate;  expertise in key aspects of the specialist field;  little or no irrelevant material;  no errors of fact which detract significantly from the content of the assignment; Across disciplines and institutions, however, there are a few core criteria that have a central role in the shared perception of what is important in good student writing Four such core criteria, identified from an analysis of published assessment criteria in psychology, business studies and geography, are critical thinking, use of language, structuring, and argument (Elander et al., 2004) (Elander, J., Harrington, K., Norton, L., Robinson, H., Reddy, P & Stevens, D (2004) Core assessment criteria for student writing and their implications for supporting student learning, in: C Rust (Ed.) Improving student learning 11 Theory, research and scholarship (Oxford, Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development), 200–212.) 1.2 Information seeking behaviours of undergraduate writing students In the year 1990, the primary sources students used to write their essay were library books, textbooks and lecture notes (Norton, L S (1990) Essay writing: what really counts? Higher Education, 20, 411– 442.) “133 1st year undergraduate students at the Liverpool Institute of Higher Education (LIHE) who took psychology as one of their three subjects in their preliminary year, were given questionnaires concerning their strategies relating to the last psychology essay they had handed in.” “This table shows that the majority of students worked hard in preparing for this essay 94% used the library and, as was to be expected, nearly all of them used the basic course textbook Lecture notes were a frequently used source (81%), but only 38% followed up references given by tutors and very few students asked for tutors' personal advice As might be expected at this stage in their academic career, only a small number (11%) used journals.” By 2005, students used both physical and digital sources while writing their essays (Twait, M (2005) Undergraduate students' source selection criteria: a qualitative study The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 31(6), 567– 573.) “While observing the students, the researcher noted that ten of the thirteen considered both print and electronic sources Table shows the average number of sources used, listed by class rank and format Three students exclusively used electronic sources None of the students considered utilizing a human source during the observation period.” By 2008, most students have shifted to mostly prefer using the internet for writing resources instead of the library (Lee, H.-L (2008) Information Structures and Undergraduate Students The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 34(3), 211–219.) “The participants often chose the Internet for its perceived ease of use To them, the university’s library was very confusing One common complaint about the library’s gateway was the complexity of search tools: the online catalogs for books, a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary indexing databases for periodical and newspaper articles, and several alphabetical lists of electronic resources provided by the library.” “The preservation role of a collection was definitely being recognized Three participants across disciplines mentioned the fact that the library provided older materials not in the digital format” Over-reliance on textbooks A common source of materials for writing classes is from commercial textbooks Many teachers rely heavily on them as a source of ideas for course structure, practice activities and language models – dipping into them even when they are not used as set texts They can also provide support for novice teachers, reassuring them that they are at least covering what someone else thinks are the important aspects of writing in a logical sequence and following tried and trusted principles of teaching These are considerable advantages, but textbooks also need to be treated with caution: teaching writing is primarily a local and complex endeavor which defies being packaged into a single textbook (Hyland, Ken "Materials for developing writing skills." Developing materials for language teaching (2013): 391-405.) There is little evidence that the main and extra reading passages in the new series of English-language textbooks for high-school students in Vietnam could foster both content and vocabulary gain (Nguyen, C.-D (2020) Lexical Features of Reading Passages in English-language Textbooks for Vietnamese High-school Students: Do they Foster both Content and Vocabulary Gain? RELC Journal)  It’s clear that we need additional academic writing resources 2.1 Characterizing academic writing resources traditions (Tribble, C (2009) Writing academic English a survey review of current published resources ELT Journal, 63(4), 400–417.) Characterizing EAP materials (English for Academic Purposes) In order to complete the task I have set myself, I first need to identify what I consider to be the principle features of the three EAP writing traditions which I have outlined above Intellectual/Rhetorical In Tribble (1996), I concluded that instructional materials in the Intellectual/Rhetorical tradition were typified, at a level of content, by a focus on Exposition (including: exemplification, process, cause and effect, comparison and contrast, definition, division and classification), Description, Narration, Argumentation, and Classification, with writing tasks progressively moving from sentence, to paragraph, to whole text (Tribble 1996: 84–5) Methodologically, materials in this tradition have often been informed by Process Approaches to writing instruction and can be said to have a ‘focus on the writer’ (Raimes 1993) Social/Genre Genre: the word genre means kind: a genre is a kind of literature Elements can be used to define genres: organizational features (chapters, acts, scenes, stanzas); length; mood; style; the reader's role (e.g., in mystery works, readers are expected to interpret evidence); and the author's reason for writing (David, Mikics (2010) A New Handbook of Literary Term Yale University Press pp 132-133 ISBN 9780300164312.) That teachers working in a Social/Genre approach typically ‘ask their students to discover how their own specific discourse communities function and how this affects the way in which members of that community write The methodologies associated with this approach require learners to: ‘look closely at the relationships that exist between different readers and writers, and, in doing so, their primary data will be the texts themselves These can be analyzed, imitated, and, as the learner becomes more proficient, may well be challenged and transformed While it is clear that this kind of analysis will often require an engagement with modes of rhetoric and argumentation, this will be undertaken in the context of building an understanding of how writers get things done with texts, not in the context of a set of exercises with no specific communicative purpose Academic Literacies While such a structure appears to be highly conventional, the difference between this set of materials and other writing instruction coursebooks is that it draws on a very wide range of disciplinarily relevant texts (in the section on style, these range from extreme cases such as literary criticism by D H Lawrence’s through to more recent work on literary theory by Terry Eagleton) asking learners to reflect on these texts from within the perspective of their engagement in literary studies Little or no concession seems to have been made regarding language level: these materials appear to be aimed at very confident users of the language, and would be inaccessible to learners who would not be comfortable RESEARCH PROBLEMS: This study aimed to find out the attitudes of English language majors students towards English writing skills at a university in Ho Chi Minh City In addition, the study also explores the resources for teaching and learning English writing skills available in the school's library, such as reference sources are diverse or monotonous, whether they are appropriate or unsatisfactory for students' needs to improve their English writing skills, and whether students know such resources and refer to them often or rarely use them RESEARCH METHODS: This project was conducted by a group of students majoring in English at an international university in Ho Chi Minh City The study was conducted at the university's library with 61 students participating in an online survey In this research, we use two methods, such as actual observation and an online survey to collect information and data Realistic observation At the library of the international university, We observe and explore all kinds of reference books related to teaching and learning English writing skills Next, we find out who each type of book is intended for, for example, beginners, advanced levels, and whether the instructions are clear, easy to understand, or complex 2 Online survey We designed an online questionnaire and sent it to students whose major is English All the results obtained from the above two methods are synthesized and classified into tables to obtain valuable results for comparison and contrast FINDINGS: After a Realistic observation at the library of an international university, we found 11 sources of books on teaching and learning English writing skills with different aspects to improve writing skills FIELD SURVEY RESULTS Great Writing Focus Published year Writing 2017 Writing 2014 Writing Title Publisher Kỹ viết Hanoi lại câu tiếng National Anh University Orientation Apparent Main Comment target methodology users A1 – A2 GE students Practices/ Exercises National Geographic Learning A1 – C1 EGAP students Intellectual /Rhetorical 2015 Cambridge Cambridge English University IELTS B1 – C2 IELTS Students (EGAP) Intellectual /Rhetorical Writing 2018 Pathways National Geographic Learning A2 – C1 EGAP students Intellectual /Rhetorical Writing 2007 Effective Academic Writing Oxford University Press A1 – B2 EGAP students Intellectual /Rhetorical Writing 2008 120 Bài National Luận Tiếng University of Anh Education B1 - B2 EGAP students Intellectual /Rhetorical Great Writing Pathways Cambridge English IELTS A set of exercises aiming at improving grammar skills A collection of essay samples Jetstream Effective Academic Writing Kỹ viết lại câu Tiếng Anh Revolish Toelf iBTPrep Hướng dẫn viết thư Tiếng Anh 120 luận Tiếng Anh The Practice English Language Teaching Sentences INTERNET SURVEY RESULTS (PPT) Table shows that more than half of students consider writing to be the most difficult skill (53.2%), followed by listening skills (30.6%), speaking skills (12.9%), and a very small number of students (3.3%) found that the most difficult skill is reading 60% of students tend to search and refer to resources from the Internet, and the rest (40%) prefer to use reference books in the library In addition, we also received many answers about the difficulties in the process of practicing English writing skills through core criteria such as critical thinking, use of language, structuring, and argument In the process of practicing English writing skills, most students are confused in using words such as using vocabulary, applying grammar points, and a small number of students are concerned about spelling mistakes and using prepositions Besides, when arguing issues, students also encounter barriers in coming up with ideas to convince others The use of sentence structure, the expression of ideas, and the order of an essay are also aspects that students care about Among the 11 available reference books we discovered during a field survey of the library of the international university, Cambridge English IELTS is the most popular and referenced by students (41.9%), followed by Great Writing (37.1%), Pathways (22.6%), and English sentence rewriting skills (17.7%) The remaining reference books that students refer to infrequently or rarely use DISCUSSION: With the results and information gathered, we found that half of our participants think that writing is the hardest skill to master which correlates to what Elander (2004) found In addition, based on Elander's (2004) finding on the core criteria, students of the international university in Ho Chi Minh city face the most problem in the use of language/writing style, particularly in grammar and vocabulary Structuring is another major weakness in students’ ability to write, particularly in the structure of sentences (Elander, 2004) Students’ information-seeking behaviors at the international university in Ho Chi Minh City did not match later research done by Lee (2008) that the students mainly search for references in the libraries However, it matches with Twait (2005) found that students use the Internet to write resources instead of libraries Writing materials in international university libraries are not plentiful, and while they cover EGAP and GE pursuits, there is no suitable writing material for ESAP students International university libraries not have writing resources belonging to the social/genre or academic literacies traditions LIMITATIONS: We encountered several disadvantages during the course of this study This is the first time doing research, so we still lack experience and not know how to arrange and distribute research work properly Next, the time to conduct the research is limited, so the necessary information has not been thoroughly understood In addition, the number of people participating in the survey is not much, so the information and data are not highly accurate In addition, we have not applied many methods and are still passive in the research process However, in the future, we will try to allocate a reasonable time to more thorough research at the same time, we also increased the number of participants to make the assessment based on the information and data obtained more accurately We plan to incorporate other methods such as interviewing face-to-face or consulting with experts while conducting the research so that information and data can be obtained proactively and quickly II CONCLUSION Through this project, we recognize that writing ENGLISH is a difficult skill, but it is a primary skill for evaluating students’ abilities Therefore, students strive to create a good essay by referring to, finding, and studying the materials related to English writing skill The available references at the library of the international university help students gradually complete their English writing skill, from basic to advance, from simple to complicated Besides, the materials support students know hơ to present the essays followed certain structures of each genre, such as Description, Narration, Argumentation, Classification, cause and effect Nevertheless, with collected information and data, we found that available references at the library in an international university are limited and have not attracted students’ care and attention They only read and refer to several prominent books, such as Cambridge English IELTS, Great Writing, Pathways, and English sentence rewriting skills, and a very small number of students care about the remaining references As a result, the university needs to update and add many other English writing skill materials to have various references that can help students interesting and incentive students to find, study, and practice In addition, with various references, students are more flexible when they search for suitable materials for their reference and strengths REFERENCES Andrews, R (2003) The end of the essay? Teaching in Higher Education, 8(1), 117–128 David, Mikics (2010) A New Handbook of Literary Term Yale University Press pp 132133 ISBN 9780300164312 Elander, J (2003) A discipline-based undergraduate skills module, Psychology Learning and Teaching, 3, 48–55 Elander, J., Harrington, K., Norton, L., Robinson, H., Reddy, P & Stevens, D (2004) Core assessment criteria for student writing and their implications for supporting student learning, in: C Rust (Ed.) Improving student learning 11 Theory, research and scholarship (Oxford, Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development), 200–212 Jordan, R.R (1997) English for Academic Purposes: A guide and resource book for teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Hutchinson, T and Walters, A (1987) English for Specific Purposes: A learning-centered approach Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Hyland, K (2006) English for Academic Purposes: An advanced resource book Abingdon: Routledge Linder, J R., Murphy, T H., Wingenbach, G J., & Kelsey, K D (2004) Written communication competencies: Strengths and weaknesses of agricultural education graduate students NACTA Journal, 48(b), 31-38) (Rose, M & McClafferty, K A (2001) A call for the teaching of writing in graduate education Educational Researcher, 30, 2732 Lee, H.-L (2008) Information Structures and Undergraduate Students The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 34(3), 211–219 Norton, L S (1990) Essay writing: what really counts? Higher Education, 20, 411–442 Sadler, D R (1989) Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems, Instructional Science, 18, 119–144 Tribble, C (2009) Writing academic English a survey review of current published resources ELT Journal, 63(4), 400–417 Twait, M (2005) Undergraduate students' source selection criteria: a qualitative study The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 31(6), 567– 573