Nghiên cứu cách cải thiện kỹ năng viết tiếng anh cho học sinh lớp 10 tại trường trung học phổ thông vinh lộc tỉnh thừa thiên huế an investigation into how to improve students writing skills at grade 10

TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages SUB COVER PAGE STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES ABSTRACT .6 CHAPTER – INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Research aims 1.3 Scope of the research 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Significance of the research 1.6 Structure of the thesis .10 CHAPTER - LITERATURE REVIEW .11 2.1 What is “writing”? 11 2.2 Background of the teaching of English writing 13 2.2.1 Overview of the teaching of English writing in the world .13 2.2.2 English writing teaching in Vietnamese context 15 2.2.3 Learning realities at Vinh Loc High School 17 2.3 Approaches to writing 19 2.3.1 Product approach 19 2.3.2 Process approach 22 2.3.3 Writing as process versus writing as product 26 2.4 Factors affecting writing skills .27 2.4.1 Language competence 27 2.4.2 Thinking modes 28 2.4.3 Writing techniques 28 2.4.4 Cultural background knowledge 29 2.5 Summary 29 CHAPTER – METHODOLOGY .30 3.1 Research methods 30 3.2 Participants .30 3.3 Data collection 31 3.3.1 Questionnaire 31 3.3.2 Interview 32 3.3.3 Observation 33 3.4 Data analysis 34 CHAPTER – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .35 4.1 Personal ideas of the students and teachers about learning and teaching English writing skills .35 4.1.2 Students‟ attitudes towards the English language and writing skills .40 4.1.3 Teachers‟ attitudes towards writing skills 45 4.2 The reality of learning and teaching English writing skills 48 4.2.1 Approaches to English writing teaching 48 4.2.2 Error correction and feedback giving .50 4.2.3 Difficulties faced by students and teachers in learning and teaching the writing skill .54 4.3 Summary 61 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 63 5.1 Conclusions 63 5.2 Implications 65 5.2.1 For teachers 65 5.2.2 For students 67 5.2.3 For the educational administrators 68 5.3 Limitations of the study 69 5.4 Recommendations for further study .69 REFERENCES 70 APPENDICES LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 Students‟ opinions about the most difficult skill in learning English 36 Table 4.2 Teachers‟ opinions about the most difficult skill in teaching English .36 Table 4.3 Students‟ perceptions of the importance of the English language and the writing skill 38 Table 4.4 Teachers‟ perceptions of the importance of the writing skill 39 Table 4.5 Students‟ preference for learning English 40 Table 4.6 Students‟ favourite skill 41 Table 4.7 Students‟ enjoyment of English writing classes 41 Table 4.8 Students‟ English writing ability rating 42 Table 4.9 Teaching writing excitement 46 Table 4.10 Approaches to English writing teaching 49 Table 4.11 Error correction and feedback giving 51 Table 4.12 Students‟ preference for error correction .51 Table 4.13 Students‟ difficulties in learning writing .55 Table 4.14 Difficulties faced by teachers in their teaching the writing skill 58 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1 The most difficult skill in learning and teaching English .36 Figure 4.2 Teachers‟ perceptions of the importance of the writing skill 39 Figure 4.3 Students‟ English writing ability rating (Question 6) 43 Figure 4.4 Priority of teaching sections in each unit .45 Figure 4.5 Teaching writing excitement 47 Figure 4.6 Students‟ difficulties in learning writing 55 Figure 4.7 Difficulties faced by teachers in their teaching the writing skill 59 ABSTRACT The research paper is an investigation into the teaching and learning of English writing skills at grade 10 at Vinh Loc High School in Thua Thien-Hue Province It is designed with the aim of exploring students‟ and teachers‟ attitudes towards the English writing skill, how this skill is learned and taught, what difficuties encountered by both students and teachers as their learning and teaching, and what should be done to better English writing skills for students The participants of this study are the tenth grade students and the teachers of English at Vinh Loc High School in Thua Thien Hue Province The data for this research is collected and analyzed based on both quanlitative and qualitative approaches through questionnaires, tape recording interviews and classroom observations In order to reach the goal of the research, the questions on the difficulties faced by teachers and students as teaching and learning the writing skill are put in this thesis In this way, the study also investigates personal ideas of the teachers and students on teaching and learning this skill Ultimately, some implications for improving the quality of teaching and learning English writing are given so that the teaching will be more effective and students will be able to better their writing skills CHAPTER – INTRODUCTION This chapter includes the rationale, research aims, the scope of the research, research questions, the significance of the research, and the structure of the thesis 1.1 Rationale In the recent past, writing was the most ignored of the language skills But many changes in attitude have occurred about teaching writing in a second language The field of second language writing has raised theoretical concerns about improving students‟ writing skill (Kern & Schultz, 1992) For some time, under the influence of the audio-lingual approach to language teaching, it has been conventional wisdom to regard speech as being of primary importance, with writing being placed a poor second It would be foolhardly to claim that we have now known how to teach writing It would be true to say, however, that writing is no longer relegated to second place Instead, writing is given its own status in the ELT course Simultaneously, instead of being the last skill taught and instead of being only a servant to grammar, writing has now become much more important in the second-language curriculum (Ronald, 1980) For many years, writing has always been considered as the most complex language skill compared with others Tribble (1996, cited in Slimani, 2006:23) also regarded writing as “a difficult skill to acquire” Nunan also shared the similar point of view that learning to write fluently and expressively is of the most difficulty of macro skills (Nunan,1991) Writing is among the four skills that requires the student a number of things: “a high degree of organization in the development of ideas and information; a high degree of accuracy so that there is no ambiguity of meaning; the use of complex grammatical devices for focus and emphasis; and a careful choice of vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and a sentence structures to create a style which is appropriate to the subject matter and the eventual readers” (Tricia Hedge, 1988) Therefore, writing is considered to be a hard job to most students Like most skills, writing requires work and practice to improve It takes time to get writing skills improved It is a skill that anyone can learn, but excelling at writing takes time and patience Those who strive to improve have some tasks ahead, but any student can improve English writing skills When students write more frequently, their ability to think, reason, analyze, communicate, and perform on tests will improve Writing is critical to student achievement English, which adhered to Vietnam a long time ago, is now one of the most widely-used languages in our country It has been considered as a main subject in the school curriculum by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) However, as mentioned above, writing is one of the difficult skills for students to acquire Correspondingly, in reality, the writing skill of Vietnamese students is rather limited The thought of writing an English essay or something else discourages many students And students of grade 10 at Vinh Loc High School also encounter the same problem In a survey in 2001, Tran found that “most students considered writing difficult, boring, and unrewarding” As a result, writing in English has been one of the common difficulties for English as Foreign Language (EFL) students in general and the students at Vinh Loc High School in particular Therefore, I would like to make an investigation into how to improve writing skill for students in the hope that students in my school are able to write sentences, paragraphs, descriptions or stories well The above reality raised a host of questions and wonders in my mind which strongly urge me to carry out this research with a view to exploring the perception of students and teachers of English at Vinh Loc High School on the learning and teaching writing skills This paper attempts to investigate how to improve students‟ writing skills at grade 10 at Vinh Loc High School in Thua Thien Hue Province and find out some suggestions for teaching and learning writing skill 1.2 Research aims This research aims to: - Investigate students‟ perceptions of the importance of writing skills in learning English at Vinh Loc High School in Hue - Find out difficulties and challenges facing teachers of English and students in teaching and learning English - Enhance students' writing skills 1.3 Scope of the research The study deals with an investigation into how to improve English writing skills for students at grade 10 at Vinh Loc High School in Thua Thien Hue Province In this proposal, I mainly focus on what problems teachers and students often face in the process of teaching and learning the writing skill It is hoped that some useful strategies and techniques can be drawn out in order to assist teachers in teaching and enhance students' writing competence Thus, in this research, the tenth-grade students and teachers of English at Vinh Loc High School are chosen as the subject of the study 1.4 Research questions To achieve the aims mentioned above, the thesis tries to answer the following questions: - What are difficulties and challenges faced by teachers and students at Vinh Loc High School in Thua Thien-Hue province in their teaching and learning English writing? - What are the perceptions (of teachers and students) on writing skills? 1.5 Significance of the research Despite the fact that there have been a great deal of studies in the area of teaching writing skills, very little has been done in the context of high school level Additionally, writing is regarded as one of the four basic skills for language learners Therefore, researches and studies on how to improve students‟ writing ability has always been in great demand However, at Vinh Loc High School, there is a truth that most students seem to be unable to write well They lack things needed in effective writing, for instance, a great number of vocabulary, grammatical structures, and ways to organize their writing As a result, the research has tried to investigate how to improve writing skills for grade-ten students and explore some suggestions for bettering the teaching and learning of English writing 1.6 Structure of the thesis The thesis includes five chapters with the structure as follows Chapter is the introduction consisting of the rationale, research aims, scope of the research, research questions, significance of the research, and structure of the thesis Chapter is literature review, which provides reading materials related to the field of the study At the beginning of the chapter, the definitions of writing are given, then a theoretical background of the field of the study is reviewed Then, it gives the demonstrations and comparisons between the product-oriented approach and the process-oriented one The next part mentions the factors affecting students‟ writing skills The chapter finishes with a summary and a conclusion of what have been discussed Chapter desccribes the research methodology used to achieve the objectives of the study The first part of this chapter lies the approaches used in the thesis Then, a demonstration and an explanation of the choice of the methods used to collect and interpret data are mentioned Chapter covers the finding and discussion about the results of the research Chapter includes the conclusion and implication for teaching and learning English writing skills In the last part, references are enclosed 10  Viết  Ngôn ngữ Xin thầy / cô cho biết ngắn gọn lý chọn lựa tiêu chuẩn 5: Trong kỹ đây, thầy/cơ thấy kỹ khó dạy nhất? (Xin đánh dấu vào ô trống)  Nghe  Nói  Đọc  Viết Theo thầy/cơ, kỹ Viết quan trọng học sinh?  Rất quan trọng  Quan trọng  Chỉ quan trọng vừa phải  Không quan trọng Thầy/ có cảm thấy hứng thú dạy viết không?  Rất hứng thú  Hứng thú  Không hứng thú  Hồn tồn khơng hứng thú Tại lại vậy? Xin giải thích ngắn gọn Theo thầy/cơ, điều cản trở việc học viết tiếng Anh học sinh?  Thiếu từ vựng  Không nắm vững cấu trúc ngữ pháp  Khơng tìm ý tưởng  Đề tài viết không gây hứng thú cho học sinh  Ảnh hưởng tiếng mẹ đẻ  Nguyên nhân khác (xin nêu cụ thể) Thầy/cô thường gặp khó khăn dạy kỹ viết cho học sinh trường THPT Vinh Lộc? (có thể chọn nhiều lựa chọn) Thiếu phương tiện  Thời gian lên lớp khơng đủ  Khó quản lý lớp học đông  Học sinh thiếu kiến thức ngơn ngữ  Khó thúc đẩy học sinh  Học sinh không hứng thú với tiết học viết  Học sinh khơng hợp tác  Khó khăn khác (xin nêu cụ thể) Theo thầy/cô, học viết tốt cách:  Viết nhiều  Viết nhiều dạy học sinh cách viết viết có hiệu kỹ thuật viết hiệu  Viết nhiều dựa theo mẫu Trong tiết viết, học sinh nên dạy:  Trước hết câu hay, đoạn văn hay, văn  Trước hết tập hợp ý tưởng chủ đề, làm để bố trí ý tưởng thật tốt, cuối viết văn với nhiều ý tưởng tốt  Trước hết tập hợp ý tưởng chủ đề, làm để bố trí ý tưởng thật tốt, cuối viết văn với nhiều ý tưởng tốt Điểm nhấn cuối câu hay, điểm ngữ pháp Thầy/cô thường sử dụng phương thức sau để hỗ trợ cho dạy kỹ viết? (có thể chọn nhiều lựa chọn)  Trị chơi khởi động để dẫn dắt vào  Sử dụng đa dạng hoạt động tiết dạy  Cung cấp từ vựng cho học sinh  Cung cấp cấu trúc ngữ pháp cần thiết  Sửa viết cho học sinh lớp  Phát viết mẫu cho học sinh tham khảo  Phương thức khác (xin nêu cụ thể) 10 Xin thầy/cô đánh giá chủ đề viết sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh 10 học sinh trường THPT Vinh Lộc  Rất khó  Tương đối khó  Bình thường  Tương đối dễ  Rất dễ 11 Thầy/cô có thường xuyên sửa viết học sinh lớp không?  Luôn  Thường xuyên  Không thường xuyên  Không 12 Thầy/cô thường sử dụng phương pháp để sửa viết cho học sinh?  Tự sửa lỗi  Học sinh sửa lỗi cho  Giáo viên sửa lỗi cho học sinh 13 Thầy/cơ có thường xun nhận xét viết học sinh sau sửa viết không?  Luôn  Thường xuyên  Không thường xuyên  Không Nếu câu trả lời thầy/cô “Ln ln” “Thường xun” xin thầy/cơ cho biết việc nhận xét viết học sinh có lợi ích cho học sinh? Tại sao? 14 Điều cần thiết nhận xét viết học sinh là:  Tập trung vào cấu trúc điểm ngữ pháp xác lẫn ý tưởng nội dung  Tập trung vào ý tưởng nội dung lẫn cấu trúc điểm ngữ pháp ý tưởng nội dung viết quan trọng  Tập trung vào ý tưởng nội dung lẫn cấu trúc điểm ngữ pháp cấu trúc điểm ngữ pháp viết quan trọng 15 Trong tiết viết:  Điều quan trọng tránh cho học sinh mắc lỗi cách đưa cấu trúc ngữ pháp trước em bắt đầu viết  Lỗi điểm ngữ pháp không quan trọng, mà điều quan trọng ý tưởng nội dung viết  Điều quan trọng tránh cho học sinh mắc lỗi cách đưa cấu trúc ngữ pháp sau em viết trước em bắt đầu viết 16 Để cải thiện tình hình học kỹ viết học sinh, thầy/cơ có nghĩ nên:  Tăng cường dạy từ vựng ngữ pháp cho học sinh  Thay đổi đề tài phù hợp gần gũi với học sinh  Tăng thời gian cho học kỹ viết  Ra tập viết nhà cho học sinh  Tổ chức hoạt động ngoại khóa liên quan đến việc dạy – học viết tiếng Anh 17 Thầy/cơ có đề xuất khác để nâng cao hiệu dạy kỹ viết tiếng Anh? (xin nêu cụ thể) Một lần xin chân thành cảm ơn đóng góp ý kiến q thầy/cơ APPENDIX HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES QUESTIONNAIRE (For the teachers of English at Vinh Loc High School, Thua Thien Hue Province) This questionnaire aims to gather your opinions about outstanding problems of teaching English writing skills for 10th grade students at Vinh Loc High School This data will form part of the research entitled “An investigation into how to improve students’ writing skills at grade 10 at Vinh Loc High School in Thua Thien Hue Province” All information collected through this questionnaire will only be used for this research The researcher guarantees that confidentiality will be maintained, and hopes that you will answer these questions accurately and honestly Please read the following questions, and tick the boxes for your chosen answers, or write your answers in the spaces provided Your additional ideas are highly appreciated as these will contribute qualitative data to the research Thank you for your contribution! Part 1: PERSONAL INFORMATION Please fill in some personal information as follows: - The number of teaching year: - The number of teaching year at Vinh Loc High School: Part 2: INFORMATION RELATING TO THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH Which of the following parts (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Language focus) of each unit you pay more attention to? (Please choose in the order of priority from to 5)  Listening  Speaking  Reading  Writing  Language focus Please say briefly the reason why you choose the option number and 5: Out of the skills listed below, which you think the most difficult one to teach? (Please tick one option only)  Listening  Speaking  Reading  Writing According to you, how important is the writing skill to students?  Very important  Important  Reasonably important  Not important Are you excited as teaching writing lessons?  Very excited  Excited  Not excited  Absolutely not excited Why? Please say briefly the reason According to you, what things prevent students’ learning of English writing?  Shortage of vocabulary  Unable to grasp grammar structures  Unable to find out ideas  Unexciting writing topics  The influence of the mother tongue  Others (Please say in detail) What difficulties you often face as teaching writing skills for the students at Vinh Loc High School?(You can choose more than option)  Shortage of facilities  Insufficient time in class  Difficulties in managing a crowded class  Students‟ lack of basic knowledge of the language  Difficulties in motivating students  The students are not excited with writing lessons  Lack of students‟ cooperation  Others (Please say in detail) According to you, writing is best learned by:  Doing a lot of writing  Doing a lot of writing and teaching students how to make a writing product effectively or techniques of how to write effectively  Doing a lot of writing according to good models In writing classes, students should be taught:  To write a good sentence first, then a good paragraph, and then to write an essay  To generate ideas about the topic first, then how to plan the ideas on the good way, and finally write an essay with as many ideas as possible  To generate ideas about the topic first, then how to plan the ideas on the good way, and then write an essay with as many ideas as possible The good sentence, good grammatical points are the final stages What activities as follows you often use to support your writing teaching lessons? (You can choose more than one option)  Warm-up game to lead in  Use a variety of activities in a lesson  Provide students with vocabulary  Provide students with necessary grammar structures  Correct students‟ writing on the spot  Give students writing samples  Others (Please say in detail) 10 Please give some comments on writing topics in the book Tieng Anh Basic 10 in comparison with the students at Vinh Loc High School  Very difficult  Rather difficult  Normal  Rather easy  Very easy 11 Do you often correct students’ writings on the spot?  Always  Frequently  Not frequently  Never 12 What methods you often use when correcting students’ writings?  Self-correction  Peer correction  Teacher correction 13 Do you often give students comments after correcting their writings?  Always  Frequently  Not frequently  Never If your answer is “always”, or “frequently”, please tell me what students can profit from the teacher’ comments on their writings? Why? 14 When giving feedback to students, it is important:  To focus on the correct structures and grammatical points as well as the ideas and the content  To focus on both the ideas and the content of the students‟ texts and correct structures and grammatical points But the ideas and the content of the students‟ texts are more important  To focus on both the ideas and the content of the students‟ texts and correct structures and grammatical points But the correct structures and grammatical points are more important 15 In writing:  It is important to prevent students from making mistakes by presenting key grammar points before students begin to write  The mistakes in key grammar points are not important, but the most important things are the ideas and the content of the writing  It is important to prevent students from making mistakes by presenting key grammar points after students write not before students begin to write 16 In order to better students’ learning of writing skills, you think we should:  Enhance to teach vocabulary and grammar for students  Change writing topics so that they are more suitable and closer to students  Lengthen the time of writing lessons  Give students writing homework  Organise extracurricular activities related to teaching - learning English writing 17 Do you have any other suggestions to improve the effect of teaching English writing skills? (please say in detail) Again, thank you very much for your contribution APPENDIX PHỎNG VẤN GIÁO VIÊN Xin thầy/cô cho biết đánh giá chung cá nhân thầy/cơ lực học tiếng Anh nói chung kỹ viết nói riêng học sinh trường THPT Vinh Lộc Khi thiết kế tiết dạy viết, thầy/cô thường chuẩn bị nào? Thầy/ cô có ln hồn thành bước chuẩn bị mong muốn khơng? Q thầy/cơ vui lịng cho biết kinh nghiệm dạy viết tiếng Anh cho học sinh Thầy/cơ có gặp nhiều trở ngại thực tiết dạy viết khơng? Nếu có, thầy/cơ thường gặp trở ngại bước trở ngại gì? Cách giải q thầy/cơ? Trong học viết, thầy/cô nhận thấy học sinh thường tham gia vào học nào? Thầy/cơ có thực theo tasks sách giáo khoa khơng? Tại có? Tại khơng? Học sinh có bày tỏ mong muốn liên quan đến việc dạy học mơn tiếng Anh nói chung kỹ viết nói riêng với thầy/cơ khơng? Nếu có, thầy/cơ cho biết mong muốn gì? Theo thầy/cơ, đâu yếu tố định cho thành công hay thất bại tiết dạy viết? Thầy/cơ có đề nghị để nâng cao kỹ Viết tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 10? Một lần xin chân thành cảm ơn đóng góp ý kiến q thầy/cơ APPENDIX THE INTERVIEW CHECKLIST FOR TEACHERS Would you please give some common appreciations of students‟ learning ability of English in gerneral and writing skills in particular at Vinh Loc High School How you often prepare when designing a writing lesson? Do you often finish all prepared stages as you have desired? Would you please give some experiences as teaching English writing for students? Do you often encounter many obstacles as teaching an English writing period? If yes, in what steps you often have obstacles and what are they? How you solve them? In writing lessons, how you feel about students‟ participation? Do you teach all the tasks in the textbook? Why? Or why not? Have students ever showed you their desires related to the teaching and learning English in general and writing skills in particular? If yes, can you tell me what they are? According to you, what is the deciding factor for the success or failure of a writing teaching lesson? Do you have any other suggestions for improving students‟ writing skills at grade 10? Again, thank you very much for your contribution APPENDIX OBSERVATION OF STUDENTS’ WRITTEN WORKS Name of observer: Ho Thi Thu Sa Date: Time: Subject: written works of tenth grade students at Vinh Loc High School in Thua Thien hue Province  Focus of observation: - Explore students‟ and teachers‟ attitudes and perceptions of the learning and teaching of the English writing skill - Examine the quality of students‟ written works and define the factors that affect their writing quality  Observing procedures: Students’ attitudes and perceptions of the English writing skill Students’ attitudes Comments Positive Negative Neither positive nor negative General comment on students’ writing quality (based on the scores given) Rank No of written works Excellent Good (9-10) (7-8) Rather Rather good poor (5-6) (3-4) Poor (< 3) Factors affecting the quality (based on teachers’ comments) Frequency of occurring Factors Positive Negative Vocabulary Grammatical structures Punctuation Spelling Poor ideas Style Indifference to written tasks Conclusions of students’ English writing abilities