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

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LINGUISTIC AND LITERATURE RESEARCH PROPOSAL DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING SKILLS OF ENGLISH- MAJORED FRESHMEN AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY Supervisor: Ly Thi Tra My, M.A Student’s name: Nguyen Thanh Danh Student’s code: 1652220201007 Class: English 11A Can Tho, May 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS i CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Research aim and research question 1.2.1 Research aim .1 1.2.2 Research question 1.3 Significance of this study 1.4 Organization of this study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW .3 2.1 Definition of writing 2.2 Importance of writing .4 2.3 Difficulties in writing .4 2.3.1 Vocabulary 2.3.2 Grammar structure 2.3.3 Orthography CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Design 3.2 Participants .8 3.3 Instruments .8 3.3.1 Questionnaire 3.3.2 Interview 3.3.3 Observation .9 3.4 Data analysis 3.5 Procedures 10 CHAPTER EXPECTED OUTCOMES 11 4.1 Vocabulary .11 4.2 Grammar structure 11 4.3 Orthography 11 REFERENCES ii APPENDIX v INTERVIEW QUESTION vi i CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale In English study program of Tay Do University, Writing I is given at the second semester In Writing I, students will write a paragraph to increase students’ skill in writing and to develop ideas into written form English-majored freshmen have still faced to a lot of difficulties in writing because of the differences between writing in high-school and writing in university Among the four language skills, writing is considered as the most challenging and difficult skill for most of foreign language learners (Reid, 1993b) The development of students’ second language writing can be influenced by multiple factors such as first language writing ability, second language proficiency, and writing experiences in both languages (Kobayashi & Rinnert, 2001; Kubota, 1998) Consequently, the main aim of this study is to find out students’ difficulties during their writing process 1.2 Research aim and research question 1.2.1 Research aim The aim of this study is to find out the difficulties of English-majored freshmen at Tay Do University facing in writing 1.2.2 Research question This study aims to answer the following research question: “What difficulties English-majored freshmen at Tay Do University face in writing?” 1.3 Significance of this study This study helps the English-majored freshmen at Tay Do University identify the difficulties, as well as helps professors know what problems their students are facing and guide them to better writing skills 1.4 Organization of this study The research consists of four chapters including: Chapter I: Introduction Chapter II: Literature review Chapter III: Research methodology Chapter IV: Expected outcomes CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presents the definition of writing skills and the importance of writing skills It also points out difficulties in writing skills of English-majored freshmen at Tay Do University 2.1 Definition of writing Writing, speaking and body language are basic communication facilities Writing is a communication facility by alphabet and symbols While not all languages utilize a writing system, those with systems of inscriptions can complement and extend capacities of spoken language by enabling the creation of durable forms of speech that can be transmitted across space and stored over time (Nusan, 2003) Writing is a method of representing language in visual form Writing systems use sets of symbols to represent the sounds of speech, and may also have symbols for such things as punctuation and numerals According to Lado (1996), writing is a partial representation of units of language expression Besides, writing can be good if we master vocabulary, grammar, punctuation and spelling According to Zulfani (2001), writing can help students to make stronger by adding more grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary, as the important thing in learning a language According to Asmuti (2002), by mastering writing skills, the writers can elaborate their ideas in a systematic arrangement When writing, the students need to understand the content and impart it clearly so the readers can understand the content of the article There is another definition for writing, “writing is the creative process because it is a process of reaching out for one’s thoughts and discovering them Writing, as such is a process of meaning-making” (Cumming, 2006) 2.2 Importance of writing The ability to write well can have a profound impact on our lives The good articles can be an art but if the writers not impart content of the articles, without the competency and practice of basic writing skills, neither proficient works of written art can be fictional nor can any lives be influenced (Currier, 2008) Besides, in discussing the importance of writing, Suleiman (2000) points out that “writing is a central element of language, any reading, and language arts program must consider the multidimensional nature of writing in instructional practices, assessment procedures, and language development.” This multidimensional aspects of writing helps in comprehending of writing fundamentals Strong writing skills may enhance students' chances for success (Alexander, 2008) In discussing the significance of writing to learning, Suleiman (2000) also stresses that writing is an essential factor of language Any studying curriculum must think about the multidimensional nature of writing in instructional practices, evaluation procedures, and language development In the school setting, writing plays two distinct but complementary roles First, it is a skill that draws on the use of strategies to accomplish a variety of goals, such as writing a report or expressing an opinion with the support of evidence Second, writing is a means of extending and deepening student’s knowledge; and it acts as a tool for learning subject matters (Elbow 1973) Nowadays, writing English is more and more important In many colleges and universities, students need English certificates to complete studying program including writing skills Moreover, many foreign companies need employees who have a good writing skills to help them to make the contracts and document 2.3 Difficulties in writing According to Nusan (2003), and Al-Gharabally (2015), students often face three difficult factors including vocabulary, grammar and orthography 2.3.1 Vocabulary Vocabulary is one of the most popular factors affecting writing skills The good writing or composition should consist of an appropriate and varied range of vocabulary used along with proper grammar and varied range of sentence structures (Norrish, 1983; Alamirew, 2005) According to Reid (1989), Johnson and Roen (1989) when the writer practices the choice of vocabulary that would reflect a concern for the readers and the purposes of writing, the composition was written by the student would become sensitive to his/her readers However, using appropriate vocabulary to write the articles in a second language can be a big challenge that students face Moreover, Ariyanti, Rinda Fitriana & Widya Gama (2011) states that usually students use ‘big words’ in their essays to impress the readers, their teachers The effort to impress the reader leads to a problem of diction In fact, a lack of vocabulary is a reason why the students cannot show their ideas They cannot write a good article because they not have enough vocabulary to clearly explain ideas, feelings and thoughts (Kristy, 2012) According to Thornbury (2002) “without grammar, very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed” If the students not have a rich vocabulary, they will be confused when they want to express thoughts in writing Moreover, choosing appropriate words in particular contexts is also the proplem students encounter Word choices are also huge obstacles for students Harmer (1991) explains that the first to realize about vocabulary items is that they frequently have more than one meaning In addition, most vocabulary items often have synonyms and polymorphic words, so choosing words to use is also difficult for students Besides, students' limited vocabulary is often due to forgetting old words and not updating new words So, vocabulary is the main cause that students feel difficult in English writing 2.3.2 Grammar structure Grammar is one of the important elements of writing It directly affects the structure and meaning of sentences However, students often make grammatical errors in their writing such as tenses, part of speech, word order and preposition Choosing suitable tenses makes their writing clear and coherent When they use the wrong tense, the meaning of sentences may be wrong, too (Ibrahim, 2015) Besides, functions of word can also confuse students, it is important to remember that discriminating parts of speech in English mainly based on functions of the words in sentences It is very hard for the learners when encountering multiple function words in sentences, which could have more than two functions, it could be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a pronoun (Nusan, 2003) In addition, prepositions are words that show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence If the students not master the functions and principles of prepositions in use They often meet the mistakes in the selection and use of prepositions The same word can combine with many prepositions to create many different meanings So if we want to have a good writing, we need to master grammar and enhance knowledge of preposition (Sajid & Siddiqui, 2015) 2.3.3 Orthography Orthography including punctuation and spelling is the difficulties that the students face According to Am (2015) “punctuation is the pragmatics of written language” Punctuation is one of the most important things in written English Punctuation is used to create sense and clarity in sentences Without any punctuation, it will make the readers unclear Students often use the wrong punctuation in their writing, which changes the meaning of the sentence According to Byrne (1988), the fact that punctuation has never been standard to the extent as spelling, makes it problematic Likewise, Croll and Wilson (1995) state “students' writing encounters punctuation problems as there are no universal rules of punctuation” Besides, spelling also affects writing Spelling is a unified order of letters and diacritics According to Applebee (1986), it is “the conventions which determine how the graphemes of a writing system are used to write a language” Due to the influence of other languages, variant pronunciations and other historical reasons, the English spelling system has become inconsistent and complex for students (Graham and Mason, 2005) If the students want to write good writing, it is important to have the correct spelling English spelling is indispensable in writing and this makes it really hard for the students CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Design This study is conducted by a combination of qualitative and quantitative This research will be analyzed to investigate the difficulties in writing skills of English majored freshmen 3.2 Participants The participants in this research were 100 English majored freshmen studying first year at Tay Do University Most students were at the age 18 to 20 The reasons for choosing these participants were based on the subject they were learning, the length of their English learning, their competence in English as a foreign language, and their age Their ages and learning process were nearly the same, so they might have the same ways of thinking and might face some similar difficulties 3.3 Instruments To answer the research question in the present study, the researcher measured the participants' difficulties in writing skills of English-majored freshmen The instruments used in this research were the questionnaire, interview and observation 3.3.1 Questionnaire Questionnaire was chosen as an instrument because it provides an easy and practical way for collecting data from the quantity of people in a short time The questionaire has 15 statements: Question/Statement Summary of the question’s/statement’s content Part Students’ background Part 2: Difficulties in writing skills Questions - The importance of writing skills Questions - The difficulties of vocabulary Questions - 11 The difficulties of grammar structure Questions 12 - 15 The difficulties of orthography 3.3.2 Interview To understand clearly the difficulties in writing skills of freshmen; As well as to validate the answers in the questionnaire Researcher invited randomly 10 students studying first year at Tay Do university to interview face to face questions about difficulties in writing skills 3.3.3 Observation The observation was used to directly know the difficulties in writing skills Researcher came to class during class writing correction and observed how professors corrected students’ mistakes 3.4 Data analysis The data taken from the main instrument were checked and analyzed so that the researcher can find the difficulties in writing skills of freshmen students In order to analyze the difficulties in writing, the researcher collected students’ opinion about the difficulty level, the scale of survey was divided into five levels: strongly agree, agree, normal, disagree, strongly disagree After the data were collected, the data from questionnaire would be analysed using SPSS software (Descriptive test, One-sample T-test, Reliability test) The data from the interview and observation were mainly interpreted by qualitative analysis 3.5 Procedures Duration (8 weeks) Step 1: From the 1st to 3rd week Step 2: From the 4th to 6th week Step 3: From the 7th to 8th week Activities - Correcting the research topic - Designing questionnaire - Finding document for chapter –Literature review - Asking the teacher for permission of delivering questionnaire - Meeting participants and delivering the questionnaire to collect the data - Interviewing participants - Observing in the class - Analyzing the collected data - Completing the research 10 CHAPTER EXPECTED OUTCOMES This study helps students realize difficulties in writing English including vocabulary, grammar structure, orthography 4.1 Vocabulary Lack of vocabulary and choosing appropriate words are difficulties in writing skills of freshmen at Tay Do university Furthermore, synonyms and polymorphic words are also difficult To overcome this problem, students should always read many books to learn more new vocabulary and review old vocabulary when they have freetime Students have to identify the context in order to use words appropriately and distinguish synonyms and polymorphic words 4.2 Grammar structure Students face some difficulties about grammatical structures such as tenses, sentences, clauses and so on To improve grammatical structures, students should read many books or amazines and watch the videos about grammatical structures on youtube channels Moreover, students should practice writing at home Professors should give some small exercises for students to and correct them to show students’ mistakes at class 4.3 Orthography Students encounter how to use the punctuation, spelling effectively in writing Firstly, to improve punctuation, students should read more books and look for materials on the internet Secondly, to be better spelling, students should review vocabulary and practice with friends more often 11 REFERENCES Alamirew, M G (2005) A study on the perception of writing, writing instruction and students’ writing performance Ethiopia: Addis Ababa University Alexander, M (2008) Good writing leads to good testing Retrieved from Http://www.stickyminds.com/sitewide.asp?ObjectId=3391&Function=edetail&Obj ectTy pe=ART on March 26 2012 Al-Gharabally, M (2015) The writing difficulties faced by L2 learners and how to minimize them International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research Am, J P (2015) Desirable difficulties in vocabulary learning Los Angeles: University of California Applebee, A N (1986) Problems in process approaches: Toward a reconceptualization of process instruction Journal of second language writing Chicago, Ill: National Society for the study of Education Ariyanti., & Rinda, F., & Widya, G (2011) EFL students’ difficulties and needs in essay writing A Samarinda: Mahakam University Asmuti, W (2002) A correlation between the vocabulary mastery and the writing ability of the second year of the SMUN 06 students of Bengkulu Indonesia: University of Bengkulu Byrne, D (1988) Teaching writing skills London: Longman Press Croll, J, & Willson, E (1995) How to teach writing Englcewood: Teacher Idea Express Acts of Teaching Cumming, A (2006) Goals for academic writing ESL students and their instructors Amsterdam: John Benjamins Currier, D (2008) Essay on the importance of writing – need feedback please Asian ESL Journal ii Elbow, P (1973) Writing without teachers New York: Oxford University Press Graham, H., & Mason (2005) Problems and practical needs of writing skill in EFL context: an analysis of Iranian students of Aligarh Musshim Unniversity India: Aligarh Musshim Unniversity Harmer, J (1991) Longman handbooks for language teachers: Essex England: Longman Ibrahim, M A., & Nile, V (2015) University students’ English writing problems: Diagnosis and remedy Sudan: University Atbara Johnson, D M., & Roen, D H (1989) Richness in writing: Empowering ESL student New York; Longman Kobayashi, H., & Rinnert, C (2001) Factors relating to EFL writers’ discourse level revision skills International Journal of English Studies Kristy, D P (2012) Students’ difficulties in writing Indonesia: University of Bengkulu Kubota, R (1998) An investigation of L1–L2 transfer in writing among Japanese university students: Implications for contrastive rhetoric Journal of Second Language Writing Lado, R (1996) Language teaching a scientific approach New Delhi: McGraw-Hill Norrish, J (1983) Language learners and their errors London: Mac Millan Publishers Nunan, D (2003) Practical English language teaching New York: McGraw-Hill Reid, J M (1989) English as a second language composition in higher education: The expectation of the academic audience New York: Longman Reid, J M (1993b) Teaching ESL writing London: Prentice-Hall International iii Sajid, M & Siddiqui, J A (2015) Lack of academic writing skills in English language at higher education level in Pakistan: Causes, effects and remedies Pakistan: Hamdard University Suleiman, M F (2000) The process and product of writing: Implications for elementary school teachers Washington, D.C.: Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse Thornbury, S (2002) How to teach vocabulary New York: The New School Zulfani, R (2001) A study on learning writing strategies of good language learners Indonesia: University of Bengkulu iv APPENDIX Questionaire Dear friends, My name is Nguyen Thanh Danh and I am currently a senior of English major Firstly, I would like to give my thanks to you for spending your valuable time helping me This is the questionnaire for my research about "Difficulties in writing skills of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University" used to collect important information from you Thus, please take your time to fulfill these questions below carefully because your answers are significant and helpful to my research Part 1: Participant’s information: Student’s full name: ………………………………………………… Age:……… Gender: ☐ Male ☐ Female How long have you studied English? ……… years Part 2: For each of the statement below, please mark agreement or disagreement in the appreciate box to make clear your opinion Statements Strongly Agree Learning writing is not simple for you You have faced difficulties in the paragraph writing Writing is an essential component in the process of second language acquisition You don’t have enough vocabulary to express your ideas You meet difficulties in the way to choose appropriate words in particular context v Agree Normal Disagree Strongly Disagree There are many old words that you can not remember You not update new word You get confused when you use some words in your writing You make some grammatical errors such as errors of subject-verb and noun-adjective agreement 10 You often make mistakes in using part of speech 11 The sentences in your writing are disordered and not well-connected 12 You meet difficulties when encountering multiple function words in sentences 13 You usually meet difficulties in punctuation in writing 14 Spelling is another difficulty that you face in writing 15 You usually meet difficulties in homophones INTERVIEW QUESTION How much time you spend for learning writing English? What difficulties you face in writing paragraphs? Do you think your problem in writing paragraphs will solve in the future? What things you hope professors will teach you to improve your writing skills? vi