The common difficulties in english writing composition of english major juniors at tay do university

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE RESEARCH PROPOSAL THE COMMON DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLISH WRITING COMPOSITION OF ENGLISH MAJOR JUNIORS AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY Supervisor: Dang Thi Hanh, MA Students’ name: Huynh Ngoc Nu Students’ code : 13D220201078 Class : Bachelor of English 8B April 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT My research could not be finished without the help of a lot of people Hence, I would like to express my deep gratitude to many following people who helped and supported us during research First of all, I wish to send many sincere thanks to my supervisor, MA Dang Thi Hanh for her enthusiastic guidance and important comments during the process of conducting this research Moreover, she always willing to help me correct the mistakes in my research and provide me some beneficial references Actually, this paper could not have been finish without her critical comments and valuable contributions Secondly, we would like send my grateful thanks to Tay Do University, especially, Faculty of Literature and Linguistics, because of giving us a chance to conduct this research Finally, we would like to give wholehearted thankful word to my family for supporting me the best condition and encouraging me during my studying process This motivation helps me accomplish this research i COMMENTS  ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i COMMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii ABSTRACT v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 The significance of the research 1.3 The organization of the research proposal CHAPTER 2: LITERTURE REVIEW 2.1 The definitions of the writing and its importance in learning English 2.1.1 Definition of writing 2.1.2 The importance of writing in learning English 2.2 The common difficulties in English writing 2.2.1 Difficulties related to linguistics aspect 2.2.1.1 Word Choice 2.2.1.2 Word use .9 2.2.1.2 Grammar/syntax 11 2.2.1.3 Idea organization 12 2.2.2 Difficulties related to background knowledge 14 2.3 Previous studies .14 2.3.1 Argumentative Writing Difficulties of Thai English Major Students .14 2.3.2 Analysing Errors among Form One Students’ Written English Composition in a Private Chinese School 15 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH AIMS - RESEARCH QUESTIONS - HYPOTHESIS 17 3.1 Research aims 17 3.2 Research questions 17 iii 3.3 Hypothesis .17 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHOLOGY .18 4.1 Design 18 4.2 Participants .18 4.3 Instruments .18 4.3.1 Questionnaire .19 4.3.2 Interview 19 4.4 Procedure 19 CHAPTER 5: EXPECTED OUTCOMES 21 REFERENCES 22 APPENDIX A 26 APPENDIX B 31 iv ABSTRACT Writing is a productive skill and useful tool for learning process However, learning and developing writing skill are the difficult tasks Academic writing requires conscious effort and much practice in organization, language use Therefore, the survey research entitled “The common difficulties in English writing composition of English major juniors at Tay Do University” is conducted to figure out common difficulties in English writing of students majoring in English In the study process, statistical data are collected from 30 English majored juniors course at Tay Do University The two main instruments of the research are questionnaire and interview The results of this research will point out the students’ difficulties in linguistics (word use; word choice; syntax/grammar; idea organization) and background knowledge Therefore, the students can recognize their difficulties and find out good methods to improve on writing skill v CHAPTER INTRODUCTION In chapter 1, the researcher would like to present rationale, significance and organization of the research 1.1 Rationale Nowadays, English is one of the most widely used languages around the world People use English as an international language in various fields such as business, tourism, technology, etc In Vietnam, English is taught compulsorily in almost of levels of education English is one of the necessary requirements for those who want to have many wonderful chances to get a good job with high salary In learning English, there are four main skills: speaking, reading, writing and listening Obviously, writing is believed to be significant and essential in the development in a native language and in a second language As Khan and Akter (2011, p.8) note in their study, “in our teaching-learning context, writing skill is usually considered as a clear proof of whether learners learnt English well or not Learners sit for different examinations and get grades/scores of the basis of writing ability Although other three skills are more or less practiced in the class, only writing ability is assessed for grades or scores in the examination” In fact, it is evident that writing is more important for the lives of students since writing is used as a primary medium of learning at all stages of education Thus, if students want to become proficient English learners, they should try to study and practice writing regularly However, learning and developing writing skill are considered as a difficult task Writing skill requires conscious effort and much practice in organization, language use and writing mechanics There are many factors affecting undergraduate academic writing performance in English Second Language (ESL), like content, vocabulary, composing, developing, and analyzing ideas However, some learners often ignore writing skill to focus on listening, speaking, reading because they consider other skills needed more than writing skill Actually, students’ problems in writing may occur because of many factors One of the causes for the challenge might be the complex nature of the writing skill itself On the other hand, Byrne (1988) also believes that “certain psychological, linguistic and cognitive factors make writing a complex and difficult discourse medium for most people in both native and second language” While Raimes (1983) thinks that “when students complain about how difficult it is to write in a second language, they are talking not only about the difficulty of finding the right words and using the correct grammar but also about the difficulty of finding and expressing ideas in a new language” Similarly, in Vietnam, tertiary level students still face a lot of writing problems in English For example, their time spends on studying themselves is too little to improve this skill or the inappropriate strategies of learner would be a hindrance for their skill leading to they will face some difficulties popularly Therefore, the research entitled “The common difficulties in English writing composition of English major juniors at Tay Do University” is conducted to explore writing problems of English major undergraduate students at a private university in Vietnam The study carries out on 30 of English major juniors studying at Tay Do University in Can Tho city The data are taken through document collection questionnaire Moreover, an interview on students has been conducted randomly to reflect their attitudes and opinion on students’ English writing difficulties Consequently, the research can help the students recognize their problems and they may find out appropriate methods to improve their writing skill Furthermore, this research could help the teachers to resolve the problems and look for some suitable strategies to improve their students’ writing in English 1.2 The significance of the research This study can be useful for students and teachers of English The English juniors could recognize their difficulties in writing skill In addition, basing on the difficulties mentioned in this research results, the research can help students find out some appropriate ways to improve this skill Besides, the teachers of English can also know common difficulties of their students in writing to change the teaching methods and suggest some possible solutions in order to help their students learn to writing English better 1.3 The organization of the research proposal The research consists of five chapters consisting of (1) Introduction, (2) Literature Review, (3) Research Aims, Research question, Hypothesis, (4) Research Methodology and (5) Expected outcomes Chapter 1: Introduction: this chapter presents the rationale and the significance of the research; and the organization of the proposal Chapter 2: Literature Review: it includes the definitions of the writing and its importance in learning English; the common difficulties in English writing and previous studies Chapter 3: The Research Aims, Research Questions and Hypothesis: it shows the research aims, research questions and hypothesis of the research Chapter 4: Research Methodology: it focuses on the research methodology including the research design, participants, instruments and the procedure of the study Chapter 5: Expected Outcomes: it concerns expected outcomes which covey the results of the research and the benefits that this research can bring to expected CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW Chapter presents the definitions of writing and its importance in learning English and difficulties in English writing (linguistics difficulties (word use, word choice, syntax/grammar, idea organization); background knowledge difficulties; psychological problems) and this chapter includes the previous studies 2.1 The definitions of the writing and its importance in learning English 2.1.1 The definitions of writing Writing skills are an important part of communication as well as studying English Emmons (2003) states that “writing is a basic skill that needs to be mastered by all English Language major students It is believed that writing demands a great deal of skills and conventions such as writing readiness and grammatical rules for the students to become proficient and effective writers” Besides, communicate with others not only by face-to-face communication, but also by giving information via written communication, written language is also a good way to express ideas, thinking, emotions and so on The term of writing can defined by several ways According to Wikipedia, “a medium of communication the represents language through the inscription of signs and symbols and in most language, writing is a complement to speech or spoken language” In addition, Byrne (1988) also defined that “writing a primary means of recording speech, even though it must be known as secondary medium of communication, and writing can be used to express opinions, thoughts and emotions when other person does not come in front of us” Similary, “writing is process of using symbols (letters of Alphabet, punctuation and space) to communicate thought and ideas in a readable form” (English club) Furthermore, Peters (1986, p.169) defines writing as a “…curiously solitary form of communication, addressed to an absent and often unknown reader” In addition, Klein (1985) also states, “writing is the ability to put pen and paper to express ideas through symbols By the way, CHAPTER RESEARCH METHOLOGY 4.1 Design The research is carried out to answers the research questions and to test the hypothesis at chapter The researcher wants to find out the difficulties that English major juniors at Tay Do University have often faced in writing skill The reliability and validity of the research results are based on two instruments including of the questionaire and the interview and the main key of this research is participants They are 30 English majored juniors who will be distributed a questionnaire to answer statements in the questionnaire Furthermore, to make the research more specific and more objective, 10 students were randomly chosen to answer the interview questions This research is the combination of quantitative and qualitative research because its instruments are questionnaire and interview 4.2 Participants The participants of this research are 30 juniors from the English majored class, course (2014-2018) at Tay Do University They come from different areas, both rural and urban This students’ age raged from 20 to 25 consisting of males and 21 females They speak Vietnamese as their mother tongue and English is considered as their foreign language Participants have been learning English from 10-15 years The main material of majored English in writing skill is the Interaction (writing) and their documents’ teacher supplied 4.3 Instruments The instruments of this research include the questionnaire and the interview The questionaire is used to collect the participants’ ideas To verify the truth of the information given in the questionaire, students’ interview is designed with the aim of confirming the hypothesis and getting more detailed information 18 4.3.1 Questionnaire The questionaire is considered very significant and used it as an intruments in the research because this intrument can be use to gather the numbers of the information and questionaire can help the researcher and the paticipants save much time The questionnaire includes two parts Part consists of questions which investigated the students’ background such as this participants’ years of studying, learners’ practicing time, learning motivation In part 2, there are 21 statements listed which are divided into scales such as strongly agree, agree, no ideas, disagree and strongly disagree in a table The participants will tick on the appropriate column for each statement so that it can be their suitable idea or thinking In the table, statements 1, 2, and focus on students’ attitude toward writing In addition, the difficulties of students in writing skill are mentioned from to 21 The difficulties are related to many problems including vocabulary (related to word choice and word use) (from to 8), grammar/syntax (from to 14), idea organization (from 15 to 17), and background knowledge (from 18 to 21) 4.3.2 Interview The interview for students is designed to get the specific information about the difficulties in writing skill of English major juniors at Tay Do University It consists of four questions Question is to investigate students’ attitude about writing English Question is to inquire students’ attitude about the difficulties in writing skill Question makes to know about students’ common difficulties when writing Finally, question aims to know what is the most difficulty of the students when writing English 4.4 Procedure In this section, the process of carrying out the research was presented It was perfected within weeks and this process is divided into steps All the activities of conducting the research are listed in the following table 19 This research is conducted in weeks as the following procedure: Duration (8 weeks) Activities in study process - Designing a frame work of the research Step1: From the 1st week to 2nd - Submiting the proposal to the supervisor week - Writing outline - Searching for materials to support the research - Writing chapters 1, 2, - Designing questionnaire and interview Step 2: From the 3th week to 6th - Writing chapter week - Asking the teacher for the permission of delivering questionnaire - Delivering the questionnaires to students and interview to teachers and students - interview Step3: From the 7th week to 8th week Collecting the data from questionnaire and - Analyzing the collected data from questionnaire and interview - Writing chapter and completing the paper 20 CHAPTER EXPECTED OUTCOMES Writing plays a crucial role in learning a new language However, students majoring in English usually face many difficulties when writing The major purpose of this research is to help them recognize their problems in this skill Therefore, students can find out the appropriate methods to improve their writing skill Through designing questionnaires and interviews for participants who take part in this research, the researcher will present the difficulties in writing skill that English major juniors at Tay Do University have faced such as vocabulary (word use, word choice), idea organization, and background knowledge For the English teachers, it is expected that they understand thoroughly more about the difficulties their students Simultaneously, from this research, teachers will discover the appropriate methods to improve and enhance their students’ skill Toward the school, when they know about the students’ difficulties, they will facilitate to help the students overcome these problems For example, having appropriate teaching methods and advanced materials is to reinforce their faith in a sustainable education and create a passion for learning Besides, it is necessary to expose the good plans for learning good English in general, and writing skill in particular Furthermore, this research contributes amount of documents for the following study to find out the specific results better 21 REFERENCES Anderson, A & Lynch, T., (2002) Listening Oxford: Oxford University Press Alexander M., (2008) Good writing leads to good testing Retrieved from: http://www.stickyminds.com/sitewide.asp?ObjectId=3391&Function=edetail&Obje ctType=ART [cited March 12 2017] Bjork, L and Raisanen, C., (1997) Academic writing: A university writing course Lund: Student litterature Brown, H D., (2001) Teaching by Principle: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy.New York: Adisson-Wesley Longman.Cambridge University Press Byrne, D., (1988) Teaching Writing Skills London: Longman Press Communication - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication [cited February 2017] Davis, S., (1988) “Creative Writing” Forum V 36, No Emmons, R.A., (2003) An Effective Writing Retrieved from: www.multidisciplinaryjournals.com [cited February 2017] Englishclub Retrieved from: https://www.englishclub.com/writing/what.htm [cited March 2017] Graham, S & Perin, D., (2007) A meta-analysis of writing instruction for adolescent students Journal of Educational Psychology Grami, G M A., (2010) The effects of integrating peer feedback into universitylevel ESL writing curriculum:a comparative study in a Saudi context GMA Henderson, L.,(1981) Orthography and word recognition in reading London:Academic Press 22 Gudschinsky, Sarah., (1973) A Manual of Literacy for Preliterate Peoples Ukarumpa, PNG: SIL Hart R P and Daughton S., (2005) Modern Rhetorical Criticism Heaton (1979) Thesis the use of animation movies to improve students’ skill of narative text by Nafik Fitriana (2001) http://eprints.uns.ac.id/ [cited March 12 2017] Joy Wingersky, Jan Boerner, and Diana Holguin-Balogh., (2009) Writing Paragraphs and Essays: Integrating Reading, Writing, and Grammar Skills, 6th ed Wadsworth Cengage Kharma N., (1986) Composition Problems; Diagnosis and Remedy English Teaching Forum Kharma N., (1997) Strategies for writing Successful Essay London, NTC Publishing Khan, H.R and Akter, M.Z (2011) Students’ Mistakes and Errors in English Writing: Implications for Pedagogy Retrieved from: http://www.ewubd.edu/ewu/downloadfile/crt/Research%20Report%20No.1%20201 1.pdf [cited March 2017] Klein (1985) Writing in the Field of English language Teaching Retrieved from: www.heddatan.com/a-definition-of-writing.html [cited February 2017] Lee Y., Kantor R., (2005) Dependability of new ESL writing test scores: Tasks and alternative rating schemes (TOEFL Monograph Series no 1) Princeton, NJ: ETS Maleerat ka-kan-dee; Sarjit kaur., (2014) Argumentative Writing Difficulties of Thai English Major Students Nguyen Thi Phuong, (2013) The Difficulties in English listening of English Majored- Freshmen at Tay Do University 23 Nagy and Anderson, (1984) Big ideas in beginning reading; center on teaching and learning Retrieved from: http://reading.uoregon.edu/big_ideas/voc_what.php [cited March 19 2017] Norrish, J., (1983) Language Learners and their Errors London Mac Millan Publishers Nunan, D., (2003) Practical English Language Teaching International Edition, McGraw-Hill, Singapore Peters, P., (1986) Getting the Theme Across: A Study of Dominant Function in the Academic Writing of University Students In B Couture (Ed.), Functional Approaches toWriting: Research Perspectives Retrieved from: www.multidisciplinaryjournals.com [cited February 2017] Pincas, A., (1982) Teaching English Writing London: MacMillan Richard, Jack C., (2003) Second Language Writing [Electronic Book] New York: Cambridge University Press Proverb, R., (1990) Applying Strategies to the Four Language Skills Language Learning Strategies: What every teacher should know Rababah, G., (2003) Communication Problems Facing Arab Learners of English: A Personal Perspective TEFL Web Journal Raimes, A., (1983) Techniques in Teaching Writing Oxford: OUP Reid, M., (1983) Teaching ESL Writing New Jersey: Prentice Hall Saadiyah Darus and Kaladevi Subramaniam., (2009) European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 8, Number Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235772401_Error_analysis_of_the_written _english_essays_of_secondary_school_students_in_Malaysia_A_case_study [cited March 12, 2017] Skill you need Retrieved from: www.skillyouneed.com [cited February 2017] 24 Stahl S A., Fairbanks M., (1986) The effects of vocabulary instruction: A modelbased meta-analysis Review of Educational Research Suleiman M F., (2000) The process and product of writing: Implications for elementary school teachers ERIC Digest, ERIC Identifier ED 442299 Thornbury S., ( 2002) How to teach vocabulary Essex: Pearson Education limited Tyner, E., (1987) College Writing Basics: A Progressive Approach Belmont Wands worth Publishing Company Webster’s Dictionary (1993-327) published by Merriam-Webster West., (1996) Understaning Interpersonal Communication P 186 ISBN 9780495908753 Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/writing [cited February 2017] White, R., (1980) Teaching Writing English London: George Allen and Unwin Zamel, V., (1985) Responding to student writing TESOL Quarterly Retrieved from: https://www.englishclub.com/writing/what.htm [cited February 2017] 25 APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS The common difficulties in English writing composition of English major juniors at Tay Do University Dear friends, My name is Huynh Ngoc Nu and I am currently the seniors majoring in English Firstly, I am sincerely thankful to you for spending your precious time helping me Now I am conducting a research entitled “The common difficulties in English writing composition of English major juniors at Tay Do University” This is the questionnaire used to collect the necessary information from you, so please take your time to finish these below questions carefully because your answers are very important and helpful to my research Once again, thank you so much! Students’ full name: Age: Class: Gender: Male □ Female □ Please read the following questions and circle the appropriate answer for each question Give specific answers if needed How long have you been studying English? years Where you come from? a Urban area/city b Rural area/countryside Which skill did you learn when you were in high school? a Listening b Speaking c Reading d Writing 26 Which skill you like best? a Listening b Speaking c Reading d Writing What you think about writing? a Very important b Important c Normal d Not important What you think about your writing skill? a Very good b Good c Normal d Bad Do you face some difficulties in writing skill? a Strongly agree b Agree c No idea d Disagree In your opinion, which are your common difficulties when writing English? a Vocabulary (related to word use or word choice) b Grammar c Idea organization d Other ………………………… 27 This below table is about your difficulties in speaking English Please read and following statements mark (√) in suitable column to express opinion Statement Strong agree Agree (1) (2) Writing is one of important skills in learning English Learning writing English is very interesting English writing skill is not easy for you You have faced some difficulties when learning writing skill You not have enough vocabulary to express ideas, though and emotion when writing You forget some words you have learned because you not use or reveiw old words regularly You feel confused about word use and word choice in particular text You also meet difficulties in choosing appropriate words on particular context such as formal or informal form 28 No ideas Disagree (3) (4) Strongly Disagree (5) The grammatical rules of English language are not the same as the grammatical rules of Vietnamese 10 You usually make grammatical errors in your writing such as tense, word order, punctuation 11 If you have good knowledge of grammar, you will study English well by using different appropriate structures in your writing 12 You often make English sentences by translating word – by- word from Vietnamese 13 Sometimes, you cannot remember some of the common grammatical rules 14 You write many sentences which are redundant and unnecessary in the passage 15 Planning on the ideas of organizing your essay, it will help you determine how to write it 16 It is not easy for you to organize your ideas in paragraphs and essay 17 You feel very difficult to differentiate a topic and supporting ideas or generalizations and specific 29 details 18 Background knowledge is a vital factor in your writing 19 You should have good knowledge on many fields to apply their knowledge to your writings 20 If you lack information about some the new or familiar topic, you not know how to express what they want to say and they are confused to show their thoughts 21 With poor background knowledge, you can make your readers be bored intead of building the good ideas to attract them The end THANKS FOR YOUR HELP! 30 APPENDIX B STUDENTS’ INTERVIEW QUESTIONS The common difficulties in English writing composition of English major junior students at Tay Do University Dear friends, My name is Huynh Ngoc Nu and I am currently the seniors majoring in English Now I am conducting a research entitled “The common difficulties in English writing composition of English major juniors at Tay Do University” Firstly, I would like to be grateful to you for spending your value time for me This is the interview used to collect the necessary information from you, so please take your time to finish these below questions carefully because your answers are very important and helpful to my research Therefore, please finish all the below questions Once again, thank you so much! Students’ full name: Age: Class: Gender: Male□ Female□ Please read and answer the questions below carefully Do you like writing skill? Why or why not? Do you think English writing is easy or difficult? Why or why not? 31 What are common difficulties that you face when writing in English language? ( Vocabulary (related to word use, word choice), grammar or idea arrangement …) According to you, what is the biggest difficulty when writing English? Why? The end THANKS FOR YOUR HELP! 32