What are the possible obstacles discouraging the third year students of foreign languages department from strictly following steps in the essay writing process

In the time of conducting this study, I have received support, encouragement and valuable advice from my supervisor, lectures, family and friends First of all, I am extremely grateful to Ms Bui Thi Phuong Thao, my caring and enthusiastic supervisor for her delication, precious support, invaluable instructions and reference sources during the development of this project In fact, my scientific research would never be completed without her Secondly, I would like to express my special appreciation the Foreign Languages Department to the whole staff of for the favorable conditions that help me in doing my paper I, in truth, owe sincere thanks to Ms Bui Thi Thanh True who always cares about my theme and spent her busy schedule supplying me with precious advice Thirdly, I also express my heartfelt thanks to my family for their spiritual as well as financial support during my study by far especially for their great support and constant encouragement to help me finish this research Finally, I sincerely thank all of those responded to the questionaire and interview on getting opinions together with all of my friends in SA0201 PHAN THI MINH TAM Examiner's Comments Miss Minh Tam has tackled a very difficult subject in her attempt to help students obtain a proper method of developing the writing skills She has done a primary research project and tried to find out what students think about the factors that discourage them from strictly following the neceesary steps of the essay writing process This is thoughtful work, and'qs very helpful to third- ea h-yeaI:-students at HUFLIT, who h rewriting subjeCt, not only for their ement but also for fulfulling their graduation examination Miss Tam's 'literature review 'part is particularly interesting and useful since it presents many points of view about the necessities of following the linear model of the writing process However, one point should be considered is that 42.8% of the students involved in the survey expected that teachers should help them revise their first or second draft I think that is not a reasonable expectation Teachers are expected to look at the final draft for correction because students should learn to work independently, as Hairston (1998: 19) asserted, 'Students can write well once they have' developed a set of practices that help them consistently turn out good work This is thoughtful work, and it is very helpful to third- year and fourth- year students at HUFLIT, who have to master the writing subject, not only for their own improvement but also for fulfulling their graduation examination TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW •.• .• • • 1/ W ri tin g and po w e r 21 Writing is a skill that anyone can learn with practice 10 31 Writing - definitions and general features ll 41 Writing - a process of discovery 14 51 Some distinguishing language spe aking features between writing and 15 6/ The essay writing process CHAPTER THREE : METHOD 19 26 1/ The description of subjects 26 2/ The instruments 27 al Questionnaire bl Interview 3/ Procedure CHAPTER FOUR : FIND IN"GS 1) Wri ting Process Kn wiedge 28 30 30 2) Students' difficulties consisting of external affections and internal hardships (from question to question 16) 35 3) Students' attitude toward the essay writing process (from question 17 to question 20) 49 CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND SUGGESTIONS 11 Discussion on the findings of students' knowledge of the stages in the essay writing process ( from item to item 3.4) 52 21 Discussion on the findings of students' difficulties consisting of external factors and internal hardship (from item to item 16) 54 31 Discussion on the findings of students' attitudes toward the steps in the essay writing process (item 17 to item 20) CHAPTER SIX : CONCLUSIO N APPENDIX ONE : QUESTIONNAIRE APPENDIX TWO REFERENCES LIST OF QUESTIONS IN THE INTERVIEW AND INTERVIEWEES' REPLIES 59 63 ABSTRACT Good command of English is a desire of any foreign language learner and a profound acquisition of English writing is no exception According to Tribble (1996: 43) there are fundamentally two kinds of English writing They are professional writing which is used in society and academic writing which is used in the school system Reality has shown that most of EFL students at Huflit, the third year students in particular, have had lots of troubles in making their academic essays One of the sources of their major difficulties is their failure to apply the writing process techniques - the most significant knowledge associated with a person's writing capability Therefore, this scientific research was carried out with an attempt to seek the possible hindrances discouraging the junior students at HUFLIT from strictly following the steps in the essay writing process even though they are supplied with sufficient knowledge about area at school, especially in the writing class In the process of completing this study, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to seventy-one respondents of HA0302 and HA0303 with a desire to find out the students' attitudes toward the steps in the essaywriting process and the real obstacles they meet in an effort to apply these steps Apart from the questionnaire, an interview with ten other participants was conducted to get more detailed and relevant information about this matter The findings drawn from the questionnaire and the interview revealed that the pressure of time is a really big problem, causing those students to flinch from using the writing steps they had been taught Moreover, their inability to thoroughly understand the functions of these steps as well as a shortage of social knowledge, the degree of interest of the topics in their essay writing materials and teachers' behaviors are also the main reasons causing their negligent attitudes that process application Due to the limited time, the small number of subjects and issues explored restricted, the shortcomings are unavoidable Thus, it is expected that some other papers about this field will go on with studying this more deeply so that the students can surely be the beneficiaries of the valuable results and practical suggestions I Supervisor: BUI THI PHUONGTHAO CHAPTER! INTRODUCTION ILBACKGROUNIl: The epoch of modern science and technology has integrated people of different languages into the global community to carry out their transactions in different fields Evidently, English has gradually become a crucial and popular communication tool Thus, so as to radically master English or enhance our understanding in such relations, it is essential that we have good command of four language skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing A large number of English learners, nevertheless, have a mistakenly-held conception that writing is neither an important objective to achieve nor an urgent task that is worth our consideration or an intensive study Unfortunately, those people fail to realize the truth that writing is one of cornerstones of an education, not just for the elite but for everyone who cherishes an aspiration for obtaining a college degree It is obvious that all of us take a lot of benefits from our conscious, good, regular writing activities: _We understand material better and retain it longer when we write about it I PHAN THI MINH TAM I Supervisor: BUI TID PHUONGTHAO _We generate new ideas when we write because the act of writing helps us make connections and see relationships _We think more critically when we write When we get ideas down on paper, we are more likely to be able to clarify and evaluate them With the above benefits that writing brings to us, people studying English as a foreign language in general and EFL students in particular fail to cherish a desire to be trained with essentially equipped language tools and English text composing skills According to Tribble (1996:67), the most significant knowledge associated with a person's capacity to write successfully comprises: content knowledge, context knowledge, language system knowledge, and writing process knowledge Besides that, Tribble also expresses his opinion about kinds of writing From the viewpoint of Tribble (1996:43) there are basically two kinds of writing: business writing or professional writing and academic writing Professional writing can be said to work in society and academic writing, on the contrary, in the school system Therefore in order to be good at academic writing, students are supposed to thoroughly acquire the above mentioned - the four-aspect knowledge During the time studying at university, the researcher has found out that the third-year students, even the forth-year ones have had to cope with innumerable obstacles in academic writing, typically in writing academic essays This results in an assumption of the researcher IPHAN TID MINH TAM that I Supervisor: BUI TID PHUONGTHAO students shared her view The other 33.8% said that they were not sure and the remainings disagreed This findings, to some extent, lead us to the fact that it is high time for us to something to make students change their point of view To the researcher, the steps in the essay writing process is not theoretical at all A large number of students held that false viewpoint because they had rarely applied these steps, thus failing to recognize the essence of these stages in writing The writing teachers, therefore, should strongly urge, even force their students to follow these steps Besides that, teachers are also expected to supervise their students' practice and point out the benefits of these essay writing steps so that their students more enthusiastically apply them I PHAN TID MINH TAM 62 I Supervisor: BUI TID PHUONGTHAO ] CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION The intact essence of writing has been strongly asserted by far Certainly, being good at academic writing is the ever-lasting desire for most people studying English as a foreign language in general and EFL students in particular Reality has shown that the majority of EFL students, especially the third-year students at Huflit have so far encountered a vast number of difficulties fundamentally in essay writing The core of this matter owing to their shortage of content is knowledge, context knowledge, language system knowledge and writing process knowledge which, according to Tribble (1996:43), a writer should acquire or master when undertaking students a specific task Naturally, with such imperfections, the fail to make perfect or satistactory writing pieces Basing on the trustworthy results from the previous graduation papers together with the difficulties related to this matter that the researcher experienced, the research doer can come to a certain conclusion that apart from the lack of content knowledge, context knowledge and language knowkedge, students seem not to pay sufficient attention the requirement to apply the steps in the writing process In an attempt to search for and sort out the possible obstacles blocking students from strictly following the steps in essay writing process, this scientific research is conducted I PHAN THI MINH TAM 63 I Supervisor: Bill THI PHUONGTHAO ] After analyzing the results collected from the questionnaire and the interview, some conclusion may be drawn from this study A large number of the respondents encountered a common hindrance _ being obsessed with lacking time while trying to complete the assigned tasks The next cause comes from the students' failure to understand how impressive the benefits the step application can bring to the writers Last of all, the degree of interest in the assigned topics the students are supposed to have, their scanty background knowledge needed to create ideas and support arguments can contribute to their neglectful attitudes to utilizing such practical tools Apart performance, from the factors affecting and limiting the students' the role of the English instructors who are empowered to encourage and supervise their students can taken into due consideration Therefore, some recommendations are also made and served as guidelines from which both teachers and learners can find maximum benefits As the researcher had to work on this issue in a rigid time frame and the population size has not been as big as expected, the outcomes may not widely be applicable to all juniors to other universities' students However, we think that further research will be conducted to a further extent with far more participants involved so that with higher practicability and applicabilty students from those incoming research can take more benefits to become papers, effective the HUFLIT writing task performers I PHAN Till MINH TAM 64 APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE I am doing a survey on writing process among third-year EFL students for my thesis I am sincerely looking for your help Would you please answer the following questions? Your answer will be kept confidential Thanks a lot for your co-operation 11 Please tick the steps you are taught to follow to make an academic essay: D Pre writing D Drafting D Revising (xem h;li,ki~m tra IlJ.i)the drafting D Writing D Editing D Making the last version D None of the above 21 If you have applied any other step (s), please specify - •• • If you choose most of the steps shown in question 1, please go on with our questions 3.1/ The PRE WRITING step (IDEA brainstorming) is intendedfor: al exploring ideas, arousing feelings and memories and helping the writer think about the audience bl exploring ideas, arousing feelings and provoking memories cl thinking about your audience 3.2/The purpose of Drafting step is/are: al outlining ideas, finding links between ideas and the words chosen and putting ideas into the best arrangement bl making sure that your writing is clear and well-organized cl making sure that your writing has correct word choice and presise grammar 3.3/The role of the Revising step possibly is/are: al outlining ideas, finding reasonable links of ideas to your word choice and deciding on the most acceptable idea organization bl making sure that your writing is clear and well-organized cl making sure that your writing is correct and appropriate in word choice and correct grammar 3.4/The Editing step helps the writer with: al outlining ideas,finding links between ideas to your words and ideas bl making sure that your writing is clear and well_organized cl making sure that your writing is correct in choosing vocabulary items and grammatical structures 4/In fact, you follow all the steps in the essay writing process? alYes blNo • • If you answer Yes, please move to questionS If you answer No, please move to question and question 5/Do you have any troubles when you follow the steps in the essay writing process? alYes blNo ~ If you answer is Yes, Please specify the real obstacle(s) /exact difficulties: 6/Y ou don't follow all the steps in the essay writing process, that means: a/you follow Prewriting (brainstorming) only b/you follow some of them c/follow none of them ~ If you choose B,please write down some steps that you follow: 7/You don'tfollow the steps in the essay writing process because: (You can choose more than one option) a/you are usually under time pressure b/you don't understand these steps very clearly c/you think these steps are just theoretical ones, thus very unnecessary to the writer dI when the topics you are going to write on are not interesting to you e/ the topic you are going to write on is beyond your ability f/ you can't put the theory into practice gI no one can help you to revise the draft or the first version once it has been finished h/ you just don't feel like spending much time preaparing too many things 8/You find it hard to strictly follow the steps in the essay writing process because you are under the pressure of time a/Agree blDisagree *lfyou choose A, please answer question 9: 9/Are you under the pressure of time when you produce the essay at home? a/Yes blNo *lfyou choose Yes, please specify the reasons: 10lIn Drafting stage, you have problems with developing the main ideas into paragraphs? a/ Yes b/No ll/The topics in your essay writing textbooks are interesting and easy to understand a/Strongly agree b/Agree clNotsure dlDisagree e/Strongly disagree 12/ Some topics which are beyond your writing ability or not interesting enough will cause troubles in your generating ideas (in Prewriting step) a/Strongly agree b/Agree clNotsure dlDisagree e/Stron~ly disagree I 13/Your teJher' s explanation about the theory of the writing process is clear I and easy to understand I a/Strongly agree I b/Agree I clNotsure I dIDIsagree e/Stronkly disagree *Ifyou choLe C,D,E please specify your reasons J II 14/lfyour teacher instructs you elaborately (m9t each ki dmg) about the ideas and the steps to write a certain essay,you can produce that essay easily I a/Strongly agree I b/Agree I clNotsure , I dID Isagree e/Strorlgly disagree 15/lf your teacher doesn't instruct you elaborately (m9t each ki dmg) about the , ideas and the steps to write a certain essay,you can't produce that essay easily, I a/Strongly agree I b/Agree I clNotsure , I dIDIsagree e/Strorigly disagree 16/ Who can help you to revise the first or second version?(You can choose more than one option) a b c d Groupmates Roomates (at home) Teachers Pair partner in class 17/All the steps in the essay writing process are very useful to make a good essay a/Strongly agree b/Agree clNotsure d/Disagree e/Strongly disagree l8/The steps in the essay writing process are just theoretical, not practical and not applicabl at all a/Strongly agree b/Agree clNotsure d/Disagree e/Strongly disagree 19/To what extent you think you understand what the writing steps are intended for in the essay writing process ? 20/ If you quite understand what the steps are for, please state the benefits of following them in writing academic essays: •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• APPENDIX LIST OF INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 1/ What are the steps you were taught to make an academic essay? In fact, you follow all the steps in the essay writing process? If Yes, what is your difficulty in following all these steps? If No, Why? What steps you usually use? 31 In Prewriting, you write ideas in English or in Vietnamese? 41 Among these steps, what is your most difficult step? 51 What are your obstaces discouraging you from strictly applying the steps in the essay writing process? 61 In Drafting stage,do you have problems with developing the main ideas into paragraphs? If Yes, what are your problems? 71 Do you understand these essay writing stages rightly in class or reference more at home? 81 What are the benefits of following them in writing academic essays? 91 To what extent you understand the purpose of the writing steps in the essay writing process? 101 In your opinion, should the writing teacher model a cetain essay using all the essay writing stages? INTERVIEWEES' REPLIES Due to the limitation of space, the answer sheet of the interwiew is only presented in general, and just typical opinions of the respondents are mentioned 1/ What are the steps you were taught to make an academic essay? This question was designed anf asked rightly at the beginning with a purpose of checking studens' knowledge There was no one giving the right names and the correct functions of these essay writing steps Some stated the right order of the stages but gave the wrong names and vice versus Generally, most of the interviewees have not had a firm grasp of these essay writing stages in theory Significantly, one female student did not remember these steps because she did not care about them and rarely used 2/ In fact, you follow all the steps in the essay writing process? If Yes, what is your difficulty in following all these steps? If No, Why? What steps you usually use? Just one female interviewee revealed answered "Yes" in this question She that she tried her best to follow all of these steps and manage the time by planning it suitably for each step The remaining nine students stated "No" because of the fear of time, the unstable knowledge of these stages, lacking person assisting them to revise their drafts and so forth Besides that, most of them shared a common point that Prewriting or Brainstorming was their most commonly-used stage 3/1n Prewriting, you write ideas in English or in Vietnamese? A large number of the respondents said that Prewriting was their most difficult step Due to their shortage of the background knowledge as well as the language system knowledge, they had lots of difficulties in generating ideas together with expressing them They also gave further information that they usually felt worried and had to spend more time on this stage when facing with the difficult essay topics 4/ Among these steps, what is your most difficult step? The whole population of the interview answered the same that they noted their ideas down on the papers in English 5IWhat are your obstaces discouraging you from strictly applying the steps in the essay writing process? There were a variety of obstacles of following all these writing essay steps raised in this question The biggest hindrance discouraging them from stricly following the steps in the essay writing process was the pressure of time, particularly when they were at the exams The next reason versions, was because there they unnecessary thought The degree the was no one revising their application of interest of of the these steps last was given topics, the limitation of social knowledge were also the main obstacles 6/In Drafting stage,do you have problems with developing the main ideas into paragraphs? If Yes, what are your problems? In this question, all of the interviewees stated that they had problems with developing the main ideas into paragraphs Their problems resided in expressing ideas, especially writing the topic sentences and supporting ideas to make the main ones clearer That was because their lack of the background knowledge together with the restrited language system knowledge 7/ Do you understand these essay writing stages rightly in class or reference more at home? To this question, most of the interviewees said that they could understand their lessons related to this matter rightly in class They also gave additional information that their writing teachers sometimes needed to add somes examples for them to easily visualize However, some objects frankly revealed that they had to prepare for the lessons in advanced and review them at home to keep up with their friends 8/ What are the benefits of following them in writing academic essays? Despite of having a disposition of not following the steps in the essay writing process, all of the interviewees supplied the detailed benefits of applying these stages They said that when following these useful steps, their writing products would be better, clearer, more logical, and less word-choice mistakes and grammatical structures 9ffo what extent you understand the purpose of the writing steps in the essay writing process? As for this question, all of the respondents understand said that they could the purpose of the writing stages in the essay writing process about sixty percent to eighty percent Luckily, there was no one understood this matter lower the adverage level (50%) 101 In your opinion, should the writing teacher model a cetain essay using all the essay writing stages? All of the objects expressed their consensus about this idea They said that it would be better if their writing teachers could take a certain essay topic as an example and apply all the steps having been studied to that essay This model would help students understand more clearly about these stages as well as recognize the usefulness of them And then they would easily apply these steps in their essay writing process REFERENCES _Ballata,P.(1997) Writing From Life - Collecting and Connecting,Mountain View California: Mayfield Publishing Company _ Buscemi,S & Nicolai,A & Strugala,R.(1998) The Basics - A Rhetoric and Handbook,Boston, The Mc Graw Hill Companies _ Brown, H.(1994) Teaching by Principles - an Interactive Language Pedagogy,New Jersey: Prentice Hall _ Connors, R & Glenn,C.(1999) The new St.Martin's Writing, New York: St Martin's Press _ Hairston, M.(1998) Successful Writing, New York: Company Approach to guide to teaching W.W.W Norton & _ Hidalgo, A & Hall, D & Jabcobs, G.(1995)Getting started - Material writers on material writing _Zamel, Silva, Applebee(1995) Reading and Writing, SEAMEO Regional Language Center