Difficulties in writing of english majored freshmen at tay do university 1

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING OF ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY Supervisor: PHAN THI MINH UYEN, M.A Student: TRAN QUANG VY Code: 15D220201080 Class: ENGLISH 10B May 2019 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my supervisor – Phan Thi Minh Uyen, M.A at Tay Do University who helped me to proposal with the topic “Difficulties in writing of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University” This proposal could not have been completed without her enthusiam, informativeness and thoughtfulness Moreover, she also spent her valueble time on guiding and encouraging me during the time I was doing the research I am really thankful to her Secondly, I want to give my special thanks to all instructors in the Faculty of Linguistic and Literature of Tay Do University who conveyed knowledge of English to me over the past years Finally, I would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finishing this project within the limited time I am making this project not only for marks but to also upgrade my knowledge Once again, thank you all very much! i COMMENTS  ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTi COMMENTS .ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii ABTRACT v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 The organization of the research CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1The definitions of writing 2.2 Elements affecting fluency of writing English 2.2.1 Vocabulary 2.2.1.1 Errors from using similar means (English Synonyms) 2.2.1.2 Errors using wrong word with other words 2.2.2 Grammar 2.2.3 The attitude and motivation 2.2.4 Background knowledge CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH AIMS – RESEARCH QUESTIONS HYPOTHESIS11 3.1 Research aims 11 3.2 Research questions 11 3.3 Hypothesis 11 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY12 4.1 Research design 12 4.2 Participants 12 4.3 Research instrument 12 4.4 Procedure 13 CHAPTER 5: EXPECTED OUTCOME 15 REFERENCES vi iii QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS ix iv ABSTRACT Writing is the ability to compose the text for various purposes It is also a way for people express themselves and convince others Students must write multiple categories with different topics Also, there are many skills related to writing such as grammar, vocabulary, critical thinking, knowledge base, as well as the attitude of students in learning today This study assessed the “Difficulties in writing of English Majored freshmen at Tay Do University” Participants of this study are 100 English majored freshmen course 13, chosen randomly (including students in class 13A, 13B and 13C) at Tay Do University During the research time, participants are given a questionnaire to show their own ideas The questionnaire is a main instruments of this study, which are used to gather information of students’ problems facing in writing Besides, the research also proposed measures to contribute to improving in English writing v CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale In this chapter is about the problem give background information and organize the thesis In the trend of globalization today, the importance of English cannot be denied and ignored because it's popular everywhere with the development of technology, medicine, science, technology and education, services and many other industries in the world People often say that if they get more a new language means that they will live a new life, or if they get more a new language, it will make them live younger, avoid memory loss in the elderly In the world of technology, almost all of the sectors are benefiting from its development Meanwhile, English is basic and easy to store well-formed, described a programsimple communication tools So, English is mostly used in the education system of all countries in over the world First of all, many universities want to equip students for English capability with three following reasons such as: Finding a good job which related to their major, improving English skill especially communicaion skill and finding information easily Especially, a developing country like Vietnam, English is a main subject in school So everyone has interacted with English since very early And many young people concive that English is very important for many reason Like eg: have a good quality job, communicate with the foreign That is also the reason why many Vietnamese Universities, Colleges and currently conducts teaching English content as well as standard output regulation of foreign language (English is common) for graduates of the school The fact is clearly that many graduates of the school have good English ability will find the better jobs than those that are limited English proficiency Moreover, English is popular with more than half of the country in the world and is the international language of communication among the bussiness man For this reason, if students have a good English skill they will have a better oppontunities to cooperate with many foreign companies Currently, there are many jobs in a professionally environment with the incredibly attractive salary But associated with those things that always required candidates to communicate well in English In other words, students know English will perform the work more efficiently because they have the ability to use information from foreign sources and on the web page Even in the developing cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Can Tho city Students also learn English at the English language centers Despite of spending much time and money for learning English many students still not reach the real global language Therefore, learning English as well as any other language requires four main skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing Nowadays, most of the English foreign students are passive and uncreative in learning Many students themselves feel awkward and unconfident when communicating with foreigners In communication, students usually get trouble with spelling but the listener can also catch their ideas by the context or gesture Through the process of learning, all the other skills can quickly improve and use good at work But in writing skill, not everybody got it So the reason why writing skills once again is the difficult skill to use However, in writing, it is to difficult for reader to know what does the writer want to mention in the sentence There are a lots of tenses clause structure which make the meaning of the sentence changes If students pick a wrong tense for their sentence, their sentence will change a differnt meaning This is difficult thing for students when learning, work in English The tranmission from our ideas to the written speech is a comprehensive problem of almost Vietnamese student who study English Learners have a critical idea but when they tranfer it into written speech, then the problem is coming Ungrammartical mistake will destroy their essay So, that is the reason why in the newspaper, book publishers all have their own editors because of they know many cultures, languagues and specifically they have great writing skills Writing skill is an integral part of life as well as in the work of each person, is the key factor to increase persuasion in communication, whatever you do, you have to use well writing skill Therefore, to have good results in English writing skills, students need to develop learning good grammar as well as English words in different contexts, more specifically in the stage of student In this case, this is a vital issue and want to find out some useful solutions help students so I decided to choose the topic “Difficulties in writing of English Majored Freshmen in Tay Do University” 1.2 The organization of the research The research includes five chapters Chapter I: Introduction Chapter II: Literature review Chapter III: Research aim – Research question – Hypothesis Chapter IV: Research methodology Chapter V: Expected outcome CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presents (1) the definition of writing and (2) Factors affecting fluency of writing English 2.1 Definition of writing Writing is an indispensable part of life as well as in the work of each person, is an important factor to increase the persuasive communication Whatever you have to whatever profession they will also have to use this skill, more or less In other words, writing is an active means of communicating ideas Functionally, it is equated with speech since both are productive skills and concerned with conveying information There are many definitions of writing skills with different assumptions Parker (1993) also supported this view when he stated that “Writing could be a torment to students” Moreover, Langan (1987) and Dunning (1998) agreed that “Writing is difficult when they stated that writing is both more complex and more abstract than talk” In addition, Pearsall and Cunningham (1988) and Emmons (2003) advocated that writing is definitely “hard work” So, writing is one of the most principal things, which is also one of the hardest subjects in acquiring English In order to communicate well there must be a strong persuasion and development in the future, we need to learn writing skill well 2.2 Elements affecting fluency of writing English Studying English language is not easy To study well, students must focus on fours skills (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing) for a much long time, specialy in writing skill To be a best writer, the learners need to equip themselves well knowledge to support in writing such as vocabulary, grammar, the attitude and motivation and background knowledge Yet, lack of standard knowledge, students students have to face many disadvantages in writing Consequently, the researcher states some common problems in this study that cause many obstacles for students in writing And “Dessert” means a sweet food eaten at the end of a meal “For dessert there's apple pie or fruit” 2.2.2 Grammar Grammar is the structure and system of a language, or of languages in general, usually considered to consist of syntax and morphology When we talk about grammar in English, students must learn English in general feel very difficult and "helpless" May be the freshman spend 7-9 years to learn English, but they still get confused when using grammar Recently people just focus on adverising speaking course in the internet instead of grammar So, grammar is an important English Skill In writing, it is a very vital thing and necessary In fact, when conducting surveys near 60 freshman of English Majored, the data showed that they were aware of the use of the structure in English writing, they not know the exact location yet Here are a few examples of these errors use the grammar structure in the process of writing of students Wrong Structure Right Structure We passed a good holiday last year To have a good holiday ( >We had a good holiday last year.) I usually eat breakfast at a.m To have breakfast ( >I usually have breakfast at a.m.) I often mistakes in my composition To make mistakes ( >I often make mistakes in my composition) She cares her baby carefully To take care of ( >She takes care of her baby carefully) There has some books on the desk There + be+ Noun ( >There are some books on the desk) In addition, many students meet some problems in delivering the main content in writing and they not how to link sentences together that the reasons why their article have a shaky content not enough to convince the reader Even a small point but a huge problem affecting articles of the students is the difficulty of distinguishing the part of speech It is included main types: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, determiners Each type of this English word plays a role and function in separate sentences If English learners want to study write better, they need to know the words in the type function and it is position in the sentence 2.2.3 The attitude and motivation Definition of an attitude is "a relatively enduring organization of beliefs, feelings, and behavioral tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols" by Hogg & Vaughan 2005, p 150 And Eagly & Chaiken, 1993 define “an attitude is a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor" Motivation is also the word derived from the word ’motive’ which means needs, desires, wants or drives within the individuals It is the process of stimulating people to actions to accomplish the goals In the work goal context the psychological factors stimulating the people’s behaviour can be Moreover, motivation is the process of creating, leading and maintaining learning attitude Positive learning attitude is probably the best motivation, the most powerful to the students overcome learning another language is not certain that the mother tongue, especially in writing in English Students should determine clear goals such as "I'll learn to write like?" "I will practice writing skills in how many months?", "I'll learn how many words a day?" "I will exercises to improve grammar for how long? "and finally" At that time, the day, the goal must write my english fluently like a native " If students complete the goal, the students can reward themselves with a gift that they want That is one way to add momentum to the next target So, What does the relationship between motivation and the attitude of freshman in the writing say? Both the attitude and motivation in study will determine learning outcomes The student's attitude is very important and it affects the ability to acquire the student's knowledge The student has a good attitude that will be able to concentrate high concentration, to absorb knowledge quickly, not to experience any of anyone A bad attitude will make students decreased their ability to remember, receive less due to not focus on the subject For example, if the students cannot find the motivation and often feel bored with writing, they will get a low score In contrast, if the students have to be possitive attitude and motivation, they will learn writing better 2.2.4 Background knowledge Fisher & Frey (2009); Kamil, et al., (2008) assumed that “Background knowledge is widely discussed as a critical factor in learning, but in practice it is rarely addressed outside of assement” Yet it is an essential element of acquring new language Background knowledge that is essential to understanding a situation.It accquired through study or experience or instruction Futhurmore, background knowledge is also an important in expository writing It reminds us of your own lives, thoughts, or experience According to Proverb (1990), “Background knowledge includes knowledge of target culture, knowledge of currents affairs, arts, politics and literatures” In other word, Brody (2001) stated that “Background knowledge refers to concepts, experiences, information, and text structures that relevant to a text under study” (p.241) From these statements, it can be seen that background knowledge is the knowledge that students have gained during their study and lives It is also a key component for students to learn writing English successfully On the other hand, poor background knowledge will cause many difficulties for students while listening As Samuels (1984) said that “If a person has mastered the skill of analyzing speech accurately and automatically, lack of basic background knowledge can cause reduced listening comprehension” In fact, lack of background knowledge frequently makes students difficult to write well Moreover, students often write many topics which consist of familiar and unfamiliar, so when the writing contains new words, term or terminology that relates to new culture or fields, they are hard and troubled to express what they want to write These cause students’ bored and apathetic attitude and the failure in writing In brief, background knowledge and unfamiliar topics are the factors impacting on students’ writing ability 10 CHAPTER RESEARCH AIMS – RESEARCH QUESTION – HYPOTHESIS 3.1 Aims of research This study examines the difficulties in writing of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University This research helps the students know the importance to improve and get the learning methods in writing 3.2 Research question The study is expected to find difficulties in wrting of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University In order to accomplish these goals, the subject need to answer the following three questions: What does factors affect the student’s writing skill? How about the reality of learning attitude of freshman currently? How to make the method improved skills in writing for freshmen? 3.3 Hypothesis Learning writing in a foreign English language especially English is extremely difficult specifically for freshmen of English majored at Tay Do University Therefore, in order to give the goals of research on the factors influence in writing And this study helps them to overcome the obstacles in learning writing English 11 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This chapter introduce (1) research design, (2) participants, (3) research instruments, and (4) procedures 4.1 Research design To assess the level of difficulty of the subjects written for the freshman, this study is based on quantitative research Quantitative research is done through collecting information directly by questionnaire survey in compose available scale levels from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree" to evaluate big factors included “The reality of Writing”, “Vocabulary”, “Grammar”, “The attitude and motivation in Writing” and “Background knowledge” 4.2 Participants The participants of this research includes 100 students English majored freshmen course 13, chosen randomly (including students in class English 13A, 13B and 13C) at Tay Do University who are from 18 to 20 years old All of the participants have studied English for 7-9 years Their mother tongue is Vietnamese and English is their foreign language They will be given questionnaires to collect information about the difficulities of writing 4.3 Research Instrument The study based on a survey by questionnaire to find out the problems caused difficulties in writing for freshmen at Tay Do University This is also one of the ways to help collect the fastest data from many people with short time Questionnaire given questions with different purposes relating to the subject The participants would choose the difficulty levels in writing In addition, the questionnaire also helps students realize the importance and more a number of solutions to improve in writing In the questionnaire, the first part is about some personal information of the participants From the question to question in part A, the participants will answer by circling the answers by being accounted for by the researcher, they can give any 12 answer if needed The point of these questions (from the question to question 7) to help researcher understand more about some problems of writing for curent freshman The next part, there is a table which contains 19 statements with main purpose about the topic The participants will tick their choice on a five level scale including strongly disagree, disagree, no ideas, agree and strongly agree A detailed description of the questionnaire Statements Purpose From to The reality of Writing 5-8 The problems of Vocabulary - 12 The problems of Grammar 13 – 17 The attitude and motivation in Writing 18 - 19 Background knowledge 4.4 Procedure This study is conducted in 12 weeks All of the activities are included on the table blow Time Activities STEP - Choosing the topic From 1st week to 3rd - Meeting, introducing the topic of the study and week discussing to find out the best solution for study - Designing framework of the outline - Writing chaper - Submitting the proposal to the superior STEP - Looking for references From 4th week to 9th - Editing chapter week - Writing chapter 2,3 - Designing questionnaires - Getting the teacher’s guidance - Editing chapter 2,3 13 - Writing chapter 4,5 STEP - Getting the teacher’s guidance to submit a draft From 10th week to - The teacher checks the study and proposes some advices 12th week - Editing the whole study - Complete the research 14 CHAPTER EXPECTED OUTCOMES Today, everyone wants to improve their English Not only students as who are working need still for study English to receive offers for advancement at their work For freshman of English Majored at Tay Do University, English is not simply a condition imposed to graduate but also as students picking are learn deep into English But how many of the students answer clearly how to learn English well? So, this study will help the freshman of English Majored at Tay Do University recognize the difficulties in writing It is related to five elements such as motivation and attitude, vocabulary, grammar and background knowledge Firstly, motivation is the process that maintaining learning attitude Students have good learning attitude will bring good results Secondly, vocabulary is a principal part in writing If students know many words, it helps them write better article Thirdly, if vocabulary is a material to communication, grammar is taken backbone of sentence If students have a grasp on English grammar, they will understand clearly whatever the native people deliver Finally, background knowledge is also main problem in writing Many students get awkwards when they try to explain their ideas in writing because there is not their familiar topic or the topic they concern 15 REFERENCES A Refferences from books: Al-Shabanah, A I (2005) Summarization strategies adopted by the senior level female students of the department of English at King Saud University Master’s thesis, 22, p.55 Arkoudis, S., & Tran, L (2010) Writing blah, blah, blah: lecturer’s approaches and challenges in suporting international students International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 23, p.169-178 Bandura, A (1977) Social learning theory Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Brody, S (2001) Teaching Reading Language, Letters and Thought (2nd ed) Milford, NH: LARC Publishing Bybee (2010) Writing for academic purpose: problems faced by Arab postgraduate students of the college of business, UUM ESP World, 23, p.123 Cameron, B (2003) The effectiveness of simulation in a hybrid and online networking course TechTrends, 25, p.18-21 Corder, S.P (1967) The significance of learners’ errors Introductional Review of Applied Linguistics, 23, p.28-35 Cowley, Sue (2004) Getting the buggers to write London: Continuum Fisher, D., & Frey, N (2009) Background knowledge: The missing piece of the comprehension puzzle Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann 10 Gunning, T.G., Assessing and Correcting Reading and Writing Difficulties, Allyn and Bacon, Boston, 1998, pp 11 Harris, W.H (1977) Teacher Response to Student Writing: A Study of the Response Patterns of High School English Teachers to Determine the Basic for Teacher Judgement of Student Writing Research in the Teaching of English, Vol.11, No.2, pp.175-185 vi 12 Hatch, E & Brown, C (1995).Vocabulary, Semantics, and Language Education Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 13 Kamil, M L., Borman, G D., Dole, J., Kral, C C., Salinger, T., and Torgesen, J (2008) Improving adolescent literacy: Effective classroom and intervention practices: A Pracrice Guide (NCEE #2008-4027) Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S Department of Education Retrieved from ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc 14 Langan, J., College Writing Skills, McGraw Hill, New York, 1987 15 Linse, T Caroline (2005) Practical English Teaching Young Learners New York: mc Graw Hill Companies Inc 16 Nunan, David (2000) Practical English language Teaching methodology: A textbook for teachers London: Pearson Education Ltd 17 Parker, S., The Craft of Writing, Paul Chapman Publishing, London, 1993 18 Pearsall, T.E., and D.H Cunningham, The Fundamentals of Good Writing, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1988 19 Proverb, R (1990) Applying Strategies to the Four Language Skills Language Learning Comprehension 20 Richards, J.C (1971) Error analysis and second language strategics 21 Samuels, S (1984) Factors influencing listening: Inside and outside the head 23(3), 183-189 Retrieved October 18, 2005, from EBSCOhost database 22 Schmitt, N (2000) Vocabulary in Language Teaching Cambrige: Cambrigr University Press 23 White, R., & Arndt, V (1991) Process writing London, UK: Longman B Refferences from the Internet: Saul McLeod (2018) Attitudes and Behavior SimplyPsychology Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/attitudes.html vii APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS (Difficulties in Writing of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University) Dear friends, My name is Tran Quang Vy and I am a senior from English Linguistics 10B at Tay Do University Currently, I am doing a research on the topic “Difficulties in Writing of English Major freshmen at Tay Do University” Hope you take a moment to answer the following questions Your information will be the information source that has value of my research And at the same time, these are very pratical contributions to help the freshman develop writing subject further Thanks for your helping! A Personal information  Class: …………  Gender : Male Female How long have you studies English? …… years Where are you from? a) Urban area/ city b) Rural are/ countryside In your opinion, writing skill is: a) Very important b) Important c) Normal d) Not important viii Do you like writing lessons? a) Yes b) No If not, what you think leads to difficulty in writing? …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… In writing skill, what is the most important factor? a) Vocabulary b) Grammar c) Ideas d) Reading e) Others …………………………………………………………………… Do you think writing regular diary to help you improve your writing subjesct? a) Yes b) No How many hours you spend on writing per day? a) 30 minutes b) hour c) Just write the article when the teacher told me B With each part, please read these sentences below and put the tick on the number of the following:  Strongly disagree  Disagree  No ideas  Agree  Strongly agree ix  Statements Part The reality of Writing 1/ I think I am good at learning writing subjects 2/ Writing is one of the most important subjects in study and work in many fields 3/ Mistaking writing subjects give you low score? 4/ My teachers give me many methods for improving an effectively writing Part Vocabulary 5/ Vocabulary is the most important factor in writing 6/ I often make mistakes in which words are not suitable for context 7/ Lacking of vocabulary leads to difficulties when I learn to write 8/ While writing, I forget the words and not remember exactly words Part Grammar 9/ The grammar structure is complicated, hard to remember and difficult to use in the right context 10/ I meet most problems in delivering the main content in writing 11/ I often write wrong part of speech 12/ I not know how to link the sentences Part The attitude and motivation in writing 13/ I often feel bored when studying writing 14/ I prepare an outline before writing 15/ I often check and edit the article again about times to have a complete article x     16/ I often find the idea of the posts on the forums 17/ I believe that reading more news is the best way increase your motivation and your idea in writing Part Background Knowledge 18/ Background knowledge is an important in expository writing 19/ If not my favorite topic, I often not know how to write Thanks for your help! xi