Applying steve pehas approach to teaching l2 writing for the fourth year students of english russian department at ussh m a 60 14 10

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES  PHAN THỊ MAI TRANG APPLYING STEVE PEHA’S APPROACH TO TEACHING L2 WRITING FOR THE FOURTH-YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH – RUSSIAN DEPARTMENT AT USSH A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL Supervisor: NGUYỄN THỊ KIỀU THU, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY – MAY, 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP … …………………………………… ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ………… ………………… LIST OF TABLES ………………………………………………………… LIST OF CHARTS………………………………………………………… LIST OF FIGURES ………………………………………………………… ABBREVIATIONS…………… … …… ……………………………… ABSTRACT ……………………………… ……………………………… 10 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………11 1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY …………………………………… 11 1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY …………………………………… 18 1.3 IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEM……………………………… 20 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS …………………………………………… 20 1.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY ……………………………………… 21 1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY……… …… ……………………………… 22 1.7 ORGANOZATION OF THE STUDY… ……………………………… 22 SUMMARY …………………………………………………………… 22 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ….……………………… 24 2.1 AN OVERVIEW OF WRITING SKILL ……………………………….24 2.1.1 The nature of writing…………………………………….… ……… 24 2.1.1.1 Definition of writing ……………………………………… 24 2.1.1.2 The importance of teaching writing ……………………….… 25 2.1.2 Approaches to teaching writing………………………….……… 26 2.1.2.1 Exploring the difficulties in teaching writing….… ……… 26 2.2.2.2 Brief introduction of writing teaching Approaches…… …… 27 2.1.3 Criteria of w well-formed piece of writing…………….…………… 32 2.1.3.1 Ideas…………… …………………………………… 32 2.1.3.2 Organization………………………………………………… 33 2.1.3.3 Voice……………………….………………………… 35 2.1.3.4 Word Choice…………… ……….……………………… 36 2.1.3.5 Sentence Fluency…………………………………………… 36 2.1.3.6 Convention…………………………………………………… 37 2.2 READING AND WRITING RELATIONSHIP….………………………37 2.2.1 A historical review of reading and writing connection 37 2.2.2 The influence of reading on writing ………………………………….40 2.2.3 Studies focusing on the influence of controlled reading on L2 writing41 2.3 STEVE READ-LIKE_A_WRITER APPROACH………….………… 43 SUMMARY ……………………………………………………………50 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY ………………………….…… 51 3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS…………………………………………… 51 3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN ………………………………………………… 51 3.2.1 The subjects ……… …………………………… ………………… 51 3.2.1.1 Sampling……… ……………………………………………… 51 3.2.1.2 The Participants…… …………………………………………… 52 3.2.1.2.1 The Students … ………………………………………… 52 3.2.1.2.2 The Teachers…….………………………………………… 53 3.2.2 The Instruments………………… …………… ………………… 54 3.2.2.1 The Experimental teaching………………………… ………… 54 3.2.2.1.1 Syllabus design …………………………………………… 54 3.2.2.1.2 Syllabus for 04A-controll group…………………………… 56 3.2.2.1.3 Syllabus for 04B-controll Experimental group…………… 58 3.2.2.2 The Pre-test and Post-test…… ………………………………… 61 3.2.2.2.1 The Pre-test … …………………………………………… 61 3.2.2.2.2 The Post-test …….………………………………………… 62 3.2.2.2.3 Scoring …….……………………………………………… 63 3.2.2.3 Two sets of survey questionnaires……………………………… 65 3.2.2.3.1 The Students’ questionnaires………………….…………… 65 3.2.2.3.2 The Teachers’ questionnaires……………………………… 68 3.3 DATA ANALYSIS ……………………………………………… 68 SUMMARY ………………………………………………………… 68 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCUSSIONS OF FINDINGS ……………………70 4.1 DISCUSSION O THE WRITING TEST RESULTS…… …………… 70 4.1.1 The analysis of Writing test’s criteria……………………… 70 4.1.1.1 The analysis of Organization ……………………………… 72 4.1.1.2 The analysis of Ideas …………………… ………………… 73 4.1.1.3 The analysis of Word Choice………… … ……….…… 74 4.1.1.4 The analysis of Sentence Fluency………… …… ………… 75 4.1.1.5 The analysis of Convention………………………………… 76 4.1.2 The analysis of Writing test’s Scores……………………… 78 4.2 DISCUSSION OF THE SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES….………… 80 4.2.1 The importance of writing 80 4.2.2 Students’ frequency of writing practice………………….……… 82 4.2.3 The difficult level of essay writing 83 4.2.4 Criteria for measuring how a good essay is ………………… ……84 4.2.5 Difficulties encountered by the student writers……………… ……85 4.2.6 Reasons why students are not good at writing……………… ………87 4.2.7 Suggestions to improve the teaching and learning of essay writing 88 SUMMARY ………………………………………….……………… 92 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION …………….…94 5.1 CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………… 94 5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS.…………………………………………….……95 5.2.1 To the Teachers …………………………… ………………….…… 95 5.2.2 To the students ……………………………………………… ……….97 5.3.3 To the Writing syllabus ………………………………………… 97 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………… 99 APPENDIX ESSAY WRITING RUBRIC ………………………………….104 APPENDIX PERFORMANCE OF 04A-CONTROL GROUP … 106 APPENDIX PERFORMANCE OF 04B-EXPERIMENTAL GROUP….… 117 APPENDIX TEST RESULTS OF 04A …………… ………… ………….128 APPENDIX TEST RESULTS OF 04B …………………………………… 129 APPENDIX SAMPLE 1- PRE-TEST-04A……………………………… 130 APPENDIX SAMPLE 1- PRE-TEST-04B ……………………………… 132 APPENDIX SAMPLE 2- POST-TEST-04A ……….……………………….133 APPENDIX SAMPLE 2- POST-TEST-04B …………… ……………… 134 APPENDIX 10 STUDENT’S QUESTIONNAIRE IN VETNAMESE……… 135 APPENDIX 11 STUDENT’S QUESTIONNAIRE IN ENGLISH…… 138 APPENDIX 12 TEACHER’S QUESTIONNAIRE IN VETNAMESE ……….141 APPENDIX 13 TEACHER’S QUESTIONNAIRE IN VETNAMESE……… 144 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that this thesis entitled “APPLYING STEVE PEHA’S APPROACH to TEACHING L2 WRITING for THE FOURTH-YEAR STUDENTS of ENGLISH-RUSSIAN DEPARTMENT AT USSH” is my own work This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution Ho Chi Minh City, May, 2011 Phan Thị Mai Trang ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Thị Kiều Thu, Dean of Department of English Literature and Linguistics (DELL) for her constant enthusiastic guidance, enormously helpful advice, unbounded patience and careful proof-reading on my writing Without her help, this M.A thesis would still be far from finished My special thanks go to all of my professors and lecturers for their dedication and helpful instruction during the graduate course I am also thankful to the teaching staff of University of Social Science and Humanities, in particular Ms Trần Thị Thanh Lan and Ms Phạm Thị Thùy Trang for their help and support I also owe sincere thanks to my students, who are an inspiration to me, for their enquiries into essay writing problems and participation in the study; without which my thesis would never have been accomplished Finally, I am greatly indebted to my beloved family and close friend Ms Lê Thị Xuân Vũ for their warm love, unending help and support LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Students’ age, gender, and time to start learning English 53 Table 4.1: The criteria analysis of the pre-test and post-test…… …………….71 Table 4.2: Reasons why writing is important 80 Table 4.3: Students’ frequency of writing practice 82 Table 4.4: Difficulty level of essay writing 83 LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1: The analysis of Organization Chart 4.2: The analysis of Ideas Chart 4.3: The analysis of Word Choice Chart 4.4: The analysis of Sentence Fluency Chart 4.5: The analysis of Convention Chart 4.6: The pre-test result Chart 4.7: The post-test result Chart 4.8: Reasons given by students why writing is important Chart 4.9: Reasons given by teachers why writing is important Chart 4.10: Students’ frequency of writing practice Chart 4.11: Teachers’ responses for students’ frequency of writing practice Chart 4.12: Difficulty level of the essay writing Chart 4.13: Students’ responses to criteria of a good essay Chart 4.14: Teachers’ responses to criteria of a good essay Chart 4.15: Degree of difficulties of essay writing responded by students Chart 4.16: Degree of difficulties of essay writing responded by teachers Chart 4.17: Reasons responded by students why the students are not good at writing Chart 4.18: Reasons responded by teachers why the students are not good at writing Chart 4.19: Students’ suggestions to improve students’ learning writing Chart 4.20: Teachers’ suggestions to the students to improve the learning of writing Chart 4.21: Students’ suggestions to the teachers to improve students’ competence in writing Chart 4.22: Teachers’ suggestions to improve their students’ competence in writing LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The process genre model……………………………………32 ABBREVIATIONS USSH : University of Social Sciences and Humanities DELL : Department of English Linguistics and Literature DERLL : Department of English-Russian Linguistics and Literature ESL : English as Second Language FL : Foreign Langue L1 : First Language L2 : Foreign / Second Language APPENDIX Pre-test of 04B-experimental group Sample 1: Topic: write an essay about how your parents’ relationship with each other affected you and/ or your brothers your sisters as you were growing up Family is always a cosy home and brings happiness to each individual Since we all were born to our life-long each individual may find in the family protect and help mutually not only material, but also spiritual In family, parents are the most important element to decide their adult’s children Love of parents for their children cultivates the quality of ethics or children: charity, the emotional love, sense of obligation….In fact, there are positive influence of parents’ relationship on their children: behavior between spouses; how to talk, chat with each other; however, they also bring to me a trouble in my mind with an uncivil attitude Behavior between spouses is a play that it can act upon me directly They are always at peace with each other and with every one else as well I can see why they are always at peace: they love each other very much and I am a part of their love My parents are always truthful and they have confidence in the future Moreover, my parents are usually interested in and share their feeling, their thought in conjugal life When I was child, I was able to witness how ways my parents take care of together, therefore I believe that I have learned from them many valuable things, in order to prepare to get married Furthermore, my parents respect each other so much, when they chat with each other and how they talk I think it is wonderful that they can be together the whole day and make every decision about their work, their children together Every day, I hear they talk together sweet words, soft manners; naturally, I also have like this with other people at school, in social and my family in the future On the other hand, sometimes in their life has many difficulties, in those situation they often lose calm, they fall in critical time At that time, they rarely pay attention to presence of me They argue, abuse each other Bad behavior of my parents makes me have a dark stamp in my mind As a result of that I will be angry with anyone, if they make me uncomfortable All of all, family with the relationship between father and mother may be the first education and intellectual, moral, physical or me Thus, in addition to care and love children, parents also fulfill their responsibility that in parents’ relationship each other 132 APPENDIX Post-test of 04A-control group Sample 3: Exams are not useful In Vietnam exams are considered very important for learner, not only input but also output However, there has been some scandals in examinations recently as we know through multimedia That is one of the reasons why many people wonder it is useful or not In my opinion, exams are not useful since 03 factors at least such as wasting money, making student uncomfortable, causing achievement tendency The first reason is that every year government has had a large payment for organizing the exams, one symbol is entering university examinations Going along with government’s waste that is people’s Parents spend a lot on their children’s study and house rent As the statistic the amount paid for the examinations yearly is enough to build many schools for country One more factor against the exams is that almost pupils and students always feel under forced and fear the exams A preparation for an exam is very hard, with the force passing the exams the learner may spend night by night and day by day to review all knowledge they had been taught You can see the differences between a student in examination preparation and a free student Through the examinations we can estimate the learner with the score so the exam is also consider a measurer for education For this, the achievement tendency become a problem in some examinations Many teachers are afraid that their working achievement will be estimate not good consequently they a try to make the examination is easier an cause the result of student are higher This is the big problem for our education in the recent All above lead us to a conclusion that it’s not useful for exams It’s time we renewed the education in order that learner feel that exams are not exam such as exams is the way to estimate themselves it’s not the way to pass or fail in their study 133 APPENDIX Post-test of 04B-experimental group Sample 4: Exams are not useful Exams have been most popular in most education systems over countries as its benefits Still they remain some negative effects that make some believe that “exams are not useful” This is true for many reasons Firstly, examinations can just only exam some aspect of the whole course content This is because they are just happening in the short period and the exam questions can’t cover all the aspects of the knowledge in the whole course Students, for example, who will get good result in the argumentative essay in the final exam for the academic writing subject may have find themselves good at other types of writing As a result, exams may not bring the benefit to the students Secondly, in most cases, exams can not rate the practical skills, which are useful for the student when they graduated from university and apply for a job, but only show the students’ performance in theory The example between the excellent student and the professional white collar, the failure of the student in apply in the knowledge into their job Therefore, excellent in test does not mean excellent in working Thirdly, some students find themselves unfair in the test This could be because of the different types of teachers or some political elements involved into As a result, the students may get upset and give up their study as test designed for the particular individuals who take control of the test And such exams may not fulfill their duty in rating the students’ levels Lastly, some may believe that the exams may good in classifying students for specific purpose This is, however, not always true as the bias caused by the above mentioned reasons In conclusion, exams are not useful for the students as well as for the teachers due to its limit rating the students’ true levels Thus, it is recommended that the tests should be designed for the majority of the students and not at the end f the course 134 APPENDIX 10 Students’ Questionnaire in Vietnamese TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KHOA HỌC XÃ HỘI VÀ NHÂN VĂN KHOA NGỮ VĂN NGA-ANH PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN Chào bạn, Xin vui lòng trả lời câu hỏi sau cách đánh dấu chéo (X) vào câu trả lời chọn (có thể có nhiều lựa chọn cho câu hỏi) xếp lựa chọn theo thứ tự ưu tiên (1, 2, 3, 4, 5…) Đối với câu cần ý kiến cụ thể, xin ghi rõ vào khoảng trống chừa sẵn Câu trả lời bạn liệu quan trọng, có ý nghĩa định thành công đề tài nghiên cứu sử dụng vào mục đích nghiên cứu Khơng thơng tin cá nhân bạn bị tiết lộ Xin cám ơn cộng tác nhiệt tình bạn I THƠNG TIN CÁ NHÂN  Nam Giới tính  Nữ Tuổi: ……… Bạn học tiếng Anh từ:  Trung học sở  Trung học phổ thông  Thời điểm khác …………………………… ……………… (Xin ghi rõ.): II CÂU HỎI NGHIÊN CỨU Khi bắt đầu học viết (Writing) bậc đại học, bạn có cho kỹ quan trọng khơng ?  Có  Khơng Nếu có, sao?       Đánh giá khả tiếng Anh thật ccủa Sinh viên Cần thiết cho công việc tương lai Hổ trợ kỹ Tiếng Anh khác Phát triển việc vận dụng kiến thức có Thực hành ngữ pháp tăng vốn từ vựng Ý khác (Xin ghi rõ):… …………………………………… Ngồi học khố, bạn luyện kỹ viết nào?  Không luyện tập 135  Chỉ viết yêu cầu  Viết thường xuyên: 2 lần/tuần 3 lần/tuần 4-5 lần/tuần  Ý khác (Xin ghi rõ):….………………………………………… Theo bạn, luận Tiếng Anh có khó viết khơng?  Có  Không Theo bạn, luận Tiếng Anh coi viết tốt phải đạt yêu cầu gì? (Xin xếp theo thứ tự giảm dần, = yêu cầu cao nhất.)  Viết thể loại văn (essay types)  Có tính mạch lạc (coherent)  Có ý tưởng lo gic (logical ideas)  Trơi chảy tự nhiên (smooth and natural)  Có từ ngữ phong phú, chọn lọc xác (having abundant, precise word choice)  Đúng ngữ pháp (grammatically correct)  Có cấu trúc câu đa dạng (with varied sentence structures)  Đúng tả, dấu chấm câu viết hoa (with correct spelling, punctuation and capitalization)  Ý khác (Xin ghi rõ.) : ………………………………………… Trong trình viết luận Tiếng Anh, bạn thường gặp khó khăn gì? (Xin xếp theo thứ tự giảm dần = khó khăn hay gặp nhất.)  Tìm ý tưởng để viết (brainstorming ideas for essay writing)  Viết thể lại văn (essay types)  Xác định từ vựng liên quan đến đề tài viết (identifying appropriate vocabulary relating to the selected topic)  Dùng cấu trúc câu (using correct sentence structure)  Sắp xếp câu đoạn (organizing sentences in a paragraph)  Sắp xếp đoạn (organizing paragraphs in an essay)  Ý tưởng lo gic (logical ideas)  Ý khác (Xin ghi rõ.): … ………………………………………… Theo bạn, nhiều sinh viên yếu kỹ viết đâu?  Không phân biệt khác phong cách viết văn Tiếng Việt Tiếng Anh  Thiếu khuyến khích đọc tài liệu Tiếng Anh 136  Thiếu khả xếp ý tưởng  Thiếu khả xác định dạng viết  Thiếu từ vựng  Thiếu luyện tập thường xuyên  Thiếu ý tưởng  Thiếu kiến thức ngữ pháp Theo bạn, cần phải làm để nâng cao hiệu việc dạy học môn viết?  Thảo luận với bạn học  Đọc thêm tài liệu Tiếng Anh  Học ngữ pháp  Tăng cường vốn từ vựng  Thường xuyên luyện tập viết Về phía giảng viên:        Cung cấp từ vựng cho Sinh viên Cung cấp ý tưởng cho Sinh viên Hướng dẫn Sinh viên cách xếp ý tưởng Ôn tập ngữ pháp Hướng dẫn cách chọn từ vựng phù hợp Cung cấp đọc thêm có liên quan Ra đề kiểm tra đề tài quen thuộc  Yêu cầu Sinh viên thực tập viết nhiều  Cung cấp tài liệu tham khảo  Sửa lỗi viết cho Sinh viên Xin chân thành cảm ơn cộng tác bạn! 137 APPENDIX 11 Students’ Questionnaire in English UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH-RUSSIAN LINGUISTIC AND LITERATURE QUESTIONNAIRE TO STUDENTS Dear Students, Please answer the following questions by putting an X next to the chosen options (as many as apply) or order the options (1, 2, 3, 4, 5…) Your answers are very important to the success of the study They are for research purposes only and I promise no identifying information will be released Thank you very much for your help I PERSONAL INFORMATION Gender  Male  Female Age: ……… You have learned English since you were in:  Junior secondary school  Senior secondary school  Others (Please specify.): ………………………………………… II QUESTIONS FOR RESEARCH When learning writing in the college, you think that writing skill is important?  Yes  No If yes, why?  Evaluate the students’ English proficiency  Be essential for future careers  Assist other English skill  Improve knowledge application  Reinforce grammar and enrich vocabulary Apart from curricular time, how often you practice writing?  Never practice  Write as required  Frequent practice twice a week 3 times a week 4-5 times a week  Others (Please specify.): ………………………………………… 138 In your opinion, is it difficult to write an essay?  Yes  No In your opinion, what are the criteria of a well-formed essay writing piece? (Please number them in the decreasing order with 1= the most criterion.)  Writing in a right essay type  Being coherent  Having logical ideas  Being smooth and natural  Having abundant, precise word choice  Being grammatically correct  Having varied sentence structures  Having correct spelling, punctuation and capitalization When writing an essay, what difficulties you often encounter? (Please number them in the decreasing order with 1=the difficulty you encounter the most.)  Brainstorming ideas for essay writing  Writing in a right essay type  Identifying appropriate vocabulary relating to the given topic  Using correct sentence structures  Organizing sentences in a paragraph  Organizing paragraphs in an essay  Having logical ideas In your opinion, why are many students weak at writing skill?  Lack of ability in distinguishing English writing style from Vietnamese one  Lack of motivation of reading English materials for reference  Lack of ability to organize ideas  Lack of ability to identify the pattern of each type of essays  Lack of vocabulary  Lack of frequent writing practice  Lack of ideas 139  Lack of grammar knowledge In your opinion, what should we to improve the teaching and learning of writing skill? To students:  Discuss with classmates  Read English materials  Learn grammar  Build up vocabulary  Practice writing frequently To teachers:  Provide Students vocabulary  Provide Students ideas  Instruct Students to organize the ideas thoroughly  Review grammar  Guide Students to choose appropriate words  Provide reading texts  Assign familiar texts  Ask Students to practice writing more  Provide reference materials  Correct mistakes of Students’ writing Thank you very much for your help! 140 APPENDIX 12 Teachers’ Questionnaire in Vietnamese TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KHOA HỌC XÃ HỘI VÀ NHÂN VĂN KHOA NGỮ VĂN NGA-ANH PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT DÀNH CHO GIẢNG VIÊN Thưa q thầy/cơ, Xin vui lịng trả lời câu hỏi sau cách đánh dấu chéo (X) vào câu trả lời chọn (có thể có nhiều lựa chọn cho câu hỏi) xếp lựa chọn theo thứ tự ưu tiên (1, 2, 3, 4, 5…) Đối với câu cần ý kiến cụ thể, xin ghi rõ vào khoảng trống chừa sẵn Câu trả lời thầy/cô liệu quan trọng, có ý nghĩa định thành công đề tài nghiên cứu sử dụng vào mục đích nghiên cứu Khơng thông tin cá nhân thầy/cô bị tiết lộ Xin cám ơn cộng tác nhiệt tình q thầy/cơ I THƠNG TIN CÁ NHÂN Giới tính  Nam  Nữ Tuổi: ……… Trình độ học vấn cao nay:  Cử nhân chuyên ngành tiếng Anh  Cử nhân chuyên ngành khác  Đang học cao học chuyên ngành tiếng Anh  Thạc sỹ chuyên ngành tiếng Anh  Bằng cấp khác (Xin ghi rõ.): ………………………………………… Thầy/Cô dạy tiếng Anh bao lâu? …… năm Thầy/Cô dạy môn viết (Writing) chưa?  Có  Khơng II CÂU HỎI NGHIÊN CỨU Thầy/Cơ có cho kỹ viết quan trọng sinh viên chuyên ngành tiếng Anh?  Có  Khơng Nếu có, sao?  Đánh giá khả tiếng Anh thật ccủa Sinh viên  Cần thiết cho công việc tương lai  Hổ trợ kỹ Tiếng Anh khác 141  Phát triển việc vận dụng kiến thức có  Thực hành ngữ pháp tăng vốn từ vựng  Ý khác (Xin ghi rõ):… …………………………………… Theo nhận định thầy/cơ, ngồi học khố, sinh viên luyện kỹ viết nào?  Không luyện tập  Chỉ viết yêu cầu  Viết thường xuyên: 2 lần/tuần 3 lần/tuần 4-5 lần/tuần  Ý khác (Xin ghi rõ.): ………………………………… Theo thầy/cô, luận Tiếng Anh có khó viết khơng?  Có  Khơng Nếu khơng, sao? (Xin ghi rõ.) ……………………………………… Theo thầy/cô, luận Tiếng Anh coi viết tốt phải đạt yêu cầu gì? (Xin xếp theo thứ tự giảm dần, = yêu cầu cao nhất.)      Viết thể loại văn (essay types) Có tính mạch lạc (coherent) Có ý tưởng lo gic (logical ideas) Trơi chảy tự nhiên (smooth and natural) Có từ ngữ phong phú, chọn lọc xác (having abundant, precise word choice)  Đúng ngữ pháp (grammatically correct)  Có cấu trúc câu đa dạng (with varied sentence structures)  Đúng tả, dấu chấm câu viết hoa (with correct spelling, punctuation and capitalization)  Ý khác (Xin ghi rõ.) : …………………………………… Trong trình viết luận Tiếng Anh, sinh viên thầy/cơ thường gặp khó khăn gì? (Xin xếp theo thứ tự giảm dần = khó khăn hay gặp nhấ.t.)  Tìm ý tưởng để viết (brainstorming ideas for essay writing)  Viết thể lại văn (essay types)  Xác định từ vựng liên quan đến đề tài viết (identifying appropriate vocabulary relating to the selected topic)  Dùng cấu trúc câu (using correct sentence structure) 142  Sắp xếp câu đoạn (organizing sentences in a paragraph)  Sắp xếp đoạn (organizing paragraphs in an essay)  Ý tưởng lo gic (logical ideas)  Ý khác (Xin ghi rõ.): … ………………………………………… Theo thầy/cơ, sinh viên cịn yếu kỹ viết đâu? Không phân biệt khác phong cách viết văn Tiếng Việt Tiếng Anh  Thiếu khuyến khích đọc tài liệu Tiếng Anh  Thiếu khả xếp ý tưởng  Thiếu khả xác định dạng viết  Thiếu từ vựng  Thiếu luyện tập thường xuyên  Thiếu ý tưởng  Thiếu kiến thức ngữ pháp Theo thầy/cô, cần phải làm để nâng cao hiệu việc dạy học môn viết?      Về phía sinh viên: Thảo luận với bạn học Đọc thêm tài liệu Tiếng Anh Học ngữ pháp Tăng cường vốn từ vựng Thường xuyên luyện tập viết Về phía giảng viên:        Cung cấp từ vựng cho Sinh viên Cung cấp ý tưởng cho Sinh viên Hướng dẫn Sinh viên cách xếp ý tưởng Ôn tập ngữ pháp Hướng dẫn cách chọn từ vựng phù hợp Cung cấp đọc thêm có liên quan Ra đề kiểm tra đề tài quen thuộc  Yêu cầu Sinh viên thực tập viết nhiều  Cung cấp tài liệu tham khảo  Sửa lỗi viết cho Sinh viên Xin chân thành cảm ơn cộng tác quý Thầy/Cô! 143 APPENDIX 13 Teachers’ Questionnaire in English UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH-RUSSIAN LINGUISTIC AND LITERATURE QUESTIONNAIRE TO TEACHERS Dear research participants, Please answer the following questions by putting an X next to the chosen options (as many as apply) or order the options (1, 2, 3, 4, 5…) To open response questions, please write your answers in the space provided Your answers are very important to the success of the study They are for research purposes only and I promise no identifying information will be released Thank you very much for your help I PERSONAL INFORMATION Gender  Male  Female Age: ……… Education:  B.A in English  B.A in other majors  Studying for a Master in TESOL  Master in TESOL  Master in other majors  Others (Please specify.): ……………………………………………… How long have you been teaching English?: ……… Have you ever taught writing skill?  Yes  No II QUESTIONS FOR RESEARCH When teaching writing in the college, you think that writing skill is important?  Yes  No If yes, why?  Evaluate the students’ English proficiency  Be essential for future careers  Assist other English skill 144  Improve knowledge application  Reinforce grammar and enrich vocabulary Apart from curricular time, how often your students practice writing?  Never practice  Write as required  Frequent practice twice a week 3 times a week 4-5 times a week  Others (Please specify.):……………………………………………… In your opinion, is it difficult to write an essay?  Yes  No In your opinion, what are the criteria of a well-formed essay writing piece? (Please number them in the decreasing order with 1= the most criterion.)  Writing in a right essay type  Being coherent  Having logical ideas  Being smooth and natural  Having abundant, precise word choice  Being grammatically correct  Having varied sentence structures  Having correct spelling, punctuation and capitalization  Others (Please specify.): …………………………………………………… When writing an essay, what difficulties your students often encounter? (Please number them in the decreasing order with 1=the difficulty you encounter the most.)  Brainstorming ideas for essay writing  Writing in a right essay type  Identifying appropriate vocabulary relating to the given topic  Using correct sentence structures  Organizing sentences in a paragraph  Organizing paragraphs in an essay  Having logical ideas  Others (Please specify.): …………………………………………………… 145 In your opinion, why are many students weak at writing skill?  Lack of ability in distinguishing English writing style from Vietnamese one  Lack of motivation of reading English materials for reference  Lack of ability to organize ideas  Lack of ability to identify the pattern of each type of essays  Lack of vocabulary  Lack of frequent writing practice  Lack of ideas  Lack of grammar knowledge In your opinion, what should we to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning writing skills? To students:  Discuss with classmates  Read English materials  Learn grammar  Build up vocabulary  Practice writing frequently To teachers:  Provide Students vocabulary  Provide Students ideas  Instruct Students to organize the ideas thoroughly  Review grammar  Guide Students to choose appropriate words  Provide reading texts  Assign familiar texts  Ask Students to practice writing more  Provide reference materials  Correct mistakes of Students’ writing Thank you very much for your help! 146