Điều tra việc sử dụng ngữ kết nối diễn ngôn để viết bài luận văn của sinh viên trường cao đẳng sư phạm ninh thuận

TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of Authorship i Acknowledgements ii Table of Contents List of Abbreviations List of Tables List of Charts Abstract CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study 1.2 Rationale of the study .11 1.3 Purposes of the study 12 1.4 Significance of the study 13 1.5 Research questions .13 1.6 Scope of the study 14 1.7 Structure of the study 15 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 16 Introduction .16 2.1 Discourse - text- essay .16 2.1.1 Discourse 16 2.1.2 Text 16 2.1.3 Discourse and text 17 2.1.4 Discourse, text and essay 18 2.2 Academic essay writing .19 2.2.1 Academic essay 19 2.2.2 Criteria for evaluating academic essay 20 2.2.3 Coherence and cohesion in an essay 20 2.3 Discourse markers 21 2.3.1 The term "discourse markers" 21 2.3.2 Definitions of Discourse markers 22 2.3.3 Types of discourse markers used in written discourse 25 2.3.4 Positions of Discourse markers 29 2.4 The importance of discourse markers in academic essays 29 2.5 Teaching and learning essay writing skills in EFL environments .31 2.5.1 Teaching and learning essay writing skills at EFL colleges 31 2.5.2 Teaching and learning essay writing skills at Vietnamese colleges 33 2.5.3 Teaching and learning academic essay writing skills at Ninh Thuan Teachers' Training College 34 2.6 An overview of the previous studies on the use of discourse markers for essay writing .34 2.6.1 Previous studies from different countries in the world 34 2.6.2 Previous studies conducted in Vietnam 37 2.6.3 Gaps in literature review 38 Chapter summary 39 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 40 Introduction .40 3.1 Research questions and hypotheses 40 3.1.1 Research questions 40 3.1.2 Hypotheses 40 3.2 Research design 41 3.3 Participants 41 3.4 Data collection instruments 42 3.4.1 Likert scale questionnaire 42 3.4.2 Interview questions for students 43 3.4.3 Tests 44 3.4.4 Reflective learning journals 44 3.5 Data collection procedures 45 3.5.1 Administering questionnaires 45 3.5.2 Administering tests 46 3.5.3 Collecting data from student interviews 47 3.5.4 Collecting data from learning journals 47 3.6 Data analysis 48 3.6.1 Quantitative data analysis 48 3.6.2 Qualitative data analysis 49 3.6.3 SPSS software 49 3.7 Descriptions of treatment course 49 3.7.1 Needs analysis 49 3.7.2 Teaching materials 49 3.8 Procedures of research .51 Chapter summary 51 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 52 Introduction .52 4.1 Questionnaire data analysis 52 4.1.1 Students' perceptions of using discourse markers for essay writing before and after the treatment 53 4.1.2 Students' abilities to use discourse markers for essay writing before and after the treatment 56 4.2 Test score data analysis 62 4.2.1 Pre-test on writing 62 4.2.2 Post-test on writing 63 4.2.3 Pre- and post-test analysis 64 4.3 Correlation analysis 66 4.3.1 Correlation between students' perceptions on using DMs for essay writing and writing performance 66 4.3.2 Correlation between students' abilities to use DMs for essay writing and writing performance 66 4.4 Reflective learning journal data analysis 67 4.4.1 The first reflective learning journals 68 4.4.2 The second reflective learning journals 69 4.5 Interview data analysis .75 4.5.1 What you think about using DMs for essay writing? 75 4.5.2 To what extent can you use discourse markers exactly and appropriately in your essay? 76 4.5.3 How does the use of DMs influence your writing performance? 78 4.6 Discussion 79 Chapter summary 84 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 85 Introduction .85 5.1 Conclusion 85 5.2 Implications 87 5.3 Limitations of the study .91 5.4 Further study 91 REFERENCES 92 APPENDICES LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL English as a Foreign Language ESL English as a Second Language DMs Discourse Markers DM Discourse Marker SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences LIST OF TABLES Chapter 2: Table 2.1: Position of Discourse Markers 29 Chapter 3: Table 3.1: Participants of the study 42 Table 3.2: Clusters and items of the questionnaire 42 Table 3.3: A summary of data collection instruments 45 Table 3.4: Interview group 47 Table 3.5: Learning journal group 47 Table 3.6: Lesson plan 50 Table 3.7: Procedures of research 51 Chapter 4: Table 4.1: Students' perceptions of using discourse markers before and after the treatment 53 Table 4.2a: Students' abilities to use DMs for essay writing before and after the treatment 56 Table 4.2b: Students' abilities to use DMs for essay writing before and after the treatment 57 Table 4.3: The scores of pre-test on writing 62 Table 4.4: The scores of post-test on writing 63 Table 4.5: The mean scores of pre-test and post-test 64 Table 4.6: The mean scores of organization component before and after the treatment 65 Table 4.7: Correlation between students' perceptions of using DMs for essay writing and writing performance 66 Table 4.8: Correlation between students' abilities to DMs and writing performance 67 LIST OF CHARTS Chapter 4: Chart 4.1: Mean scores of perceptions on using DMs before and after the treatment 54 Chart 4.2a: Students' perceptions on using DMs for essay writing (item 2) 54 Chart 4.2b: Students' perceptions on using DMs for essay writing (item 17) 55 Chart 4.3: Combined percentages for "strongly agree" and "agree" of the items 1, 5, and 18 before and after the treatment 59 Chart 4.4: Combined Percentages for "strongly agree" and " agree" of the items 5, 9, and 14 before and after the treatment 60 Chart 4.5: Percentages of agree and strongly agree attitudes in the items 3, 10, 12, and 20 before and after the treatment 61 Chart 4.6: Results of pre-test on writing 62 Chart 4.7: Results of post-test on writing 63 ABSTRACT This study was an attempt to investigate the implementation of the use of discourse markers for essay writing in a group of 52 students at Ninh Thuan Teachers' Training College Its major purposes were (a) to examine the students' perceptions of using DMs for essay writing, (b) to explore the students' abilities to use DMs for essay writing, and (c) to test the effects of using DMs on students' writing performance The measures of the study were done twice: before and after the treatment The collected data from pre- and postquestionnaires, pre- and post- tests, interviews, and reflective learning journals were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively The obtained findings demonstrated that the treatment course had a definite impact on students' perceptions and abilities in the use of DMs for essay writing as well as their writing performance Students' perceptions after the treatment increased remarkably compared with theirs before the treatment They were acutely aware of the importance and necessity of DMs in an essay In addition, students' abilities to use DMs after the treatment improved significantly More specifically, before the treatment many of them did not know how to use DMs correctly in an essay Nevertheless, after the treatment they were able to employ DMs for essay writing more competently The findings of the study also indicated that the use of DMs had a more beneficial effect on their writing performance, and to some extent helped students create a cohesive and coherent essay Moreover, there were positive correlations between perceptions and abilities in using DMs for essay writing and writing performance That is, the higher the students' abilities and perceptions of using DMs were, the better they wrote academic essays The outcomes of this study prove that once Vietnamese students of English are taught how to use DMs for essay writing, their writing performance may be considerably fostered Therefore, teachers who are teaching writing at Vietnamese colleges should attach special importance to teaching their students the use of DMs for essay writing CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study In order for English to be used fluently and naturally, Vietnamese students of English are advised to master four basic language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing At almost all colleges and universities in Vietnam, English major students themselves have to learn and practise these skills frequently and regularly to be able to employ them perfectly Of the four crucial skills, writing is always regarded as one of the most difficult ones Most, if not all English major students at colleges in Vietnam has to, currently, learn academic writing skill, and in the words of Oshima & Hogue (1999), “writing, particularly academic writing, is not easy It takes study and practice to develop this skill (p.3)” In academic writing, students are required to know how to write essays, and as Mc Larent (2001) states, “essay writing can be compared to mountain climbing It is an act of exploration It takes preparation, practice and discipline”(p.6) Therefore, it is obvious that academic essay writing has been an extremely difficult task to Vietnamese students Turley (2000) admits that, “For many students, essay and nightmare are virtual synonyms That blank computer screen…the struggle for an idea those first words!” (p.ix) How to help students write good essays has become a great challenge to Vietnamese teachers of English Nguyen (2009) asserts, “Most of EFL teachers in Vietnam find writing a complicated skill to teach” (p.2) In fact, in order to enhance Vietnamese students' essay writing skills, teachers need to take a lot of time and effort to discover difficulties faced by their students, and find the best ways of dealing with them effectively As a teacher of English with ten-year teaching experience at Ninh Thuan Teachers' Training College, the researcher realizes that students often have troubles with grammar, syntax and vocabulary together with their poor spelling skills Nevertheless, these obstacles can be thoroughly solved in the process of their practice of writing The current existing problem, which causes difficulties for the researcher in teaching essay writing, is the lack of cohesion and coherence in students' essays It seems to the researcher that their essays cannot be called „natural and smooth written text‟ Through observing students' essay writing during several years of teaching, the researcher discovers that students are unable to write a good essay since they have no ways of arranging and linking their ideas in an essay appropriately In other words, they not know how to use discourse markers effectively in writing essay According to Beare (2010), some words and phrases help to develop ideas and relate them to one another These kinds of words and phrases are often called discourse markers Using discourse markers accurately will create the coherence and cohesion in the paragraph and essay The reality has shown that the majority of students at Ninh Thuan Teachers' Training College are not sufficiently equipped with the knowledge of discourse in language learning They not realize that writing an essay is producing a written discourse, and that using discourse markers effectively contributes the logic and unity towards a meaningful discourse As a result, discourse markers are infrequently utilized in their essays, which leads to making them not coherent as well as not cohesive Furthermore, several students misuse or not use discourse markers properly, which also makes their essays become rather ambiguous Other students learn isolated discourse markers by heart, and apply them to their essays mechanically Accordingly, their writing style is nonsensical and unacceptable From this setting, the researcher would like to conduct an experimental study entitled "An Investigation into the Use of Discourse Markers for Essay Writing by Students at Ninh Thuan Teachers' Training College" 10 In conclusion, on conducting investigations into the uses of DMs in essay writing, these scholars such as Martinez (2002, 2004), Dulger (2007), Ying (2007), Jallifar (2008), Feng (2010), Tander-Ramos (2010) mainly focused on how often students used DMs in their essays or what types of DMs students liked to use in their essays The results of these studies only referred to the exploration of the quantities and qualities of DMs that students used in their essays It is different from the previous studies, the results of this study focused on mentioning the effects of implementation the uses of DMs for essay writing on a group of participants After the treatment, students had profound perceptions on using DMs for essay writing They realized that DMs played an important role in creating a discourse or essay In addition, they had basic abilities in using DMs for essay writing They were able to use DMs pretty correctly and appropriately Moreover, their writing performance improved significantly To great extent, the use of DMs helped them create a cohesive and coherent essay From these conclusions, it can affirmed that the researcher satisfied the three research questions as well as demonstrated the three hypotheses given at the beginning of the study Chapter summary This chapter analyzes and discusses the quantitative and qualitative data The results of pre-questionnaire and post- questionnaire are compared in each pair of cluster with the aim to finding out the differences in the mean scores before and after the treatment These obtained results prove that there were optimistic changes in students' perceptions on and abilities in using DMs for essay writing In the same way, pre-test and post-test are analyzed to show the improvement in students' writing performance By using SPSS, the researcher clarified the correlations between perceptions, abilities and writing performance Besides the questionnaire and test data, the reflective learning journals and interviews data are also considered with the purpose of affirming students' improvement in perceptions and abilities in using DMs as well as their writing performance 84 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS Introduction This chapter consists of parts, namely conclusion, implications, limitations and further study The conclusion is put into the first part with the aim of summarizing the results of the study From the obtained findings, the following part will introduce some implications for teachers and students in order to help them overcome obstacles when implementing the use of discourse markers for essay writing At the end of this chapter, the limitation of this study is given out and the further study is also mentioned 5.1 Conclusion "It is very annoying to read some interesting discussion, and yet be unable to see what the writer is actually getting at You can „show the way‟ to a reader by announcing your points in advance, using linking words and phrases, showing how your points relate to the main theme, using sequence, such as "firstly", "secondly", etc… What we are reading isn't a random set of facts or just a pile of words, but points with a definite purpose in common"(Mc Larent, 2001, p.21) Mc Larent's (2001) comments above are the same as what the researcher has ever thought when reading and scoring essays written by students at Ninh Thuan Teachers' Training College for the last few years There was an alarming reality that these students' essays were seldom cohesive, coherent and signposted, as they did not know how to utilize DMs in their writing For this reason, the researcher decided to implement a treatment course lasting weeks in which the use of DMs for essay writing was introduced, and instructed An experimental study was carried out to measure students' perceptions and abilities in using DMs for essay writing as well as 85 the effect of the use of DMs on their writing performance before and after the treatment The obtained findings from both quantitative and qualitative data at the two measures (before and after the treatment) were compared The differences in the results demonstrated the given hypothesis at the beginning of the study, as well as satisfied the research questions Firstly, under the effect of the treatment, students had profound perceptions of the importance and necessity of using DMs for essay writing All of them believed that effective usage of discourse markers was an indispensable part in creating cohesive, coherent and unified essays, and that discourse markers were significant, as they helped the readers understand essay better They were also acutely aware that thanks to the use of DMs, the ideas of an essay were naturally and smoothly expressed, in addition to improvement in their writing performance Secondly, if before the treatment, many of students did not know how to employ DMs exactly and effectively, then after the treatment, students' abilities to use DMs improved considerably Nearly all of them could put DMs in the right positions with the correct punctuation Also, they were able to select the types and functions of DMs for essay organization quite correctly and appropriately The majority of students were able to use simple DMs to link the ideas in the essay Thirdly, the use of DMs had a direct impact on their writing performance The more students used DMs effectively, the more they wrote essays cohesively and coherently The success of this study can be found in the correlations between perceptions, abilities and writing performance Before the treatment, there was no correlation between perceptions of using DMs and writing performance or abilities to use DMs and writing performance as the students did not understand DMs profoundly, and did not know how to apply DMs to essay writing After the treatment, there were positive relationships between students' perceptions and 86 abilities in using DMs and writing performance This proves that the treatment had a powerful influence on the participants' perceptions and abilities in essay writing as well as their writing performance In summary, Mc Coy (1974) confirms that "a good essay is one in which essay paragraph evolves out of the paragraph that preceded it; that is, the ideas in a good essay will flow smoothly" (p.70) In order to be able to create a smooth essay, writers cannot but use DMs effectively This study proves strongly that once Vietnamese students of English are taught how to use DMs for essay writing, they can create a coherent and cohesive essay If teachers of English are much concerned about teaching their students how to utilize DMs in the essays appropriately, then their students' writing skill will be improved perfectly 5.2 Implications With the experiences got from the treatment, the researcher presumes to provide some implications for Vietnamese teachers and students of English in teaching and learning the use of DMs for essay writing For teachers  Reference materials Teachers need to enrich knowledge of discourse by referring to several kinds of materials of discourse It is better to read books such as Discourse and Context in Language Teaching: A Guide for Language Teachers by Celce-Murcia & Olshtain (2000), Discourse analysis for language teachers by Mc Carthy (1991), Writing by Hedge (1998) and so on In preparing the materials for students, teachers need to select the texts or model essays written by native speakers with the purpose of familiarizing students with English discourse and writing styles The most important thing is that discourse markers are used in these materials Authentic materials from reliable books, magazines or websites should also be taken into consideration To save time, 87 teachers need to photocopy the materials, and send the handouts to the students in each period  Teaching methods According to Celci-Murcia & Ohstain (2000), "the writing skill is often perceived as the most difficult language skill since it requires a higher level of productive language control than the other skills Additionally, writing requires careful planning and revision, process which in themselves worry students and create anxiety" (p.161) Hence, in order to help students overcome stresses when attending the writing periods, teachers need to choose the most effective teaching methods It would be better for teachers to employ Communicative approach in teaching Teaching contents High priority must be given to teaching discourse knowledge According to Celci-Murcia & Olshtain (2005), "discourse competence - the core competence - is an integrated ability that one needs to make use of one's socio-cultural and linguistic competence to select or interpret words, phrases, and sentence structures that produce coherent and cohesive segments of language that appropriately communicate an intended meaning to a specific audience" (p.731) For that reason, teachers constantly improve students' discourse competence Students need to notice that writing an essay is the same as creating a written meaningful discourse In order to create a communicative discourse, students need to make it become cohesive and coherent Teachers need to take notice of teaching DMs through the discourse It is significant to choose appropriate discourse makers for each type of essays For instance, DMs showing similarities and differences are used in comparison and contrast essays, while DMs giving cause and effect are employed in cause and effect essays Before teaching DMs, some important things should be paid much attention by teachers such as investigating what kinds of DMs students know already, and classifying DMs from easy to difficult ones, as well as distinguishing 88 written DMs from spoken DMs It is better to introduce only one type of discourse markers rather than present too many types of DMs at the same time Meaningform - appropriacy are three major aspects that teachers of English should take care of when teaching DMs (Millward, 2009)  Teaching activities In the presentation stage: First, teachers need to create interesting activities to stimulate students to think and brainstorm For example, in presenting the forms, meanings as well as functions of DMs showing contrast, teachers need to give pictures of two houses, then ask students to work in groups, observe and write a very short contrast paragraph (about 4-5 sentences) using DMs After that, students are provided with a model paragraph of contrasting two houses in an effort to compare their paragraphs with model one In doing so, they are aware of the use of DMs clearly Next, teachers need to analyze the use of DMs in a model paragraph Students are asked to focus on the punctuation, grammatical forms and functions of DMs in this paragraph For example, "while" is used before either clause of the sentence, "and" links the independent clauses, and "since" links a subordinate clause to an independent one "However" can be used after the dot or semicolon "However" emphasizes the fact that the second point contrasts with the first Students should also learn to recognize that the "use of different conjunctions requires using different sentence structures and punctuation For example, in addition usually comes at the beginning of a sentence, and is followed by a comma, too usually comes at the end" (Hedge, 1998, p.92) After that, the teacher asks the students to group the discourse markers in this paragraph into their functions For example, while, however, whereas, conversely, on the other hand should be grouped into the DMs that have the function of showing contrast Finally, the teacher asks students to practise the types of DMs with the different contexts In the practice stage: 89 It is necessary to give useful activities that make students aware of the importance of coherence and cohesion in a discourse Discourse-based activities together with discourse-based teaching should be referred to During the process of carrying out these activities, teachers also need to create a supportive atmosphere, which helps students keep away from bored and frightened feeling in each period Teachers need to take much notice of selecting exercises for students to practise Mechanical exercises commonly found in some textbooks can be "a source of the problem of misuse and overuse" (Crewe, 1990, p.319) Thus, writing teachers need to replace the exercises with isolated sentences out of the context by meaningful exercises such as gap-filling, cloze test By doing these exercises, students stand a good chance of understanding the meanings and functions of DMs in the contexts They can test DMs against different context, interpret the functions, and realize the form Additionally, these exercises also help students "acknowledge the appropriation, articulate the usage, identify the position and understand the meaning of the connectives" (Tang and Ng., 1995, p 115) In the production stage: Teachers need to organize some interesting games For instance, "each person writes one sentence in reaction to the sentence that appears just before but where no one sees any of the previously written sentences When the whole paper is unfolded and read in sequence, it results in a very funny noncoherent jumble" CelciMurcia & Ohstain (2000, p.155) Through this game, students can practise DMs by discovering incoherent elements in the paragraph, and supply the appropriate DMs During the period, teachers need to ask students to practise writing English paragraphs and essays frequently, as well as to remind students of avoiding misusing or overusing DMs Teachers also explain that discourse markers are not the only element that contributes to the cohesion and coherence of an essay Besides, there are many components such as substitution, ellipsis, language use, vocabulary and so on Therefore, they need to combine several other elements to create a fluent essay Teachers need to collect students' essays and correct them 90 frequently Moreover, it is advisable that students should discuss and evaluate their essay writing with others in the class In order to enhance the abilities in using discourse markers for essay writing, teachers also need to encourage students to write reflective learning journals in which DMs are utilized as many as possible For students Vietnamese students of English need to read materials written by the native speakers Ying (2007) states, "read as much as possible so as to have a deep understanding of the use of DMs in various texts, contexts and then use DMs correctly and logically without any difficulties" (p.75) It is necessary to analyze the discourse of the texts and find out the meanings of discourse markers in the contexts It is very important to learn grammar and vocabulary regularly Students should spend much more time writing English paragraphs and essays in which DMs are applied appropriately, and then discuss with the teachers and classmates about obstacles that they are facing 5.3 Limitations of the study This study was conducted on a small scale of only one experimental group In addition, the time for research was limited, so the researcher did not have many conditions to implement a variety of DMs lessons 5.4 Further study The researcher hopes that further study will be carried out on a larger scale with more participants The results 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