The effectiveness of task based language teaching to improve writing skills for non majored english students a vietnamese case study at ho chi minh city open university

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY ∞0∞ TRAN XUAN TRANG THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING TO IMPROVE WRITING SKILLS FOR NON-MAJORED ENGLISH STUDENTS: A VIETNAMESE CASE STUDY AT HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY Tai Lieu Chat Luong MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL HO CHI MINH CITY, 2022 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY ∞0∞ TRAN XUAN TRANG THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING TO IMPROVE WRITING SKILLS FOR NON-MAJORED ENGLISH STUDENTS: A VIETNAMESE CASE STUDY AT HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Major code: 14 01 11 MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Supervisor: VO THI HONG LE, Dr HO CHI MINH CITY, 2022 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH KHOA ĐÀO TẠO SAU ĐẠI HỌC CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Độc lập – Tự – Hạnh phúc GIẤY XÁC NHẬN Tôi tên là: TRẦN XUÂN TRANG Ngày sinh: 02/12/1989 Nơi sinh: Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh Chuyên ngành: Lý luận phương pháp dạy học môn Tiếng Anh Mã học viên: 1981401111023 Tôi đồng ý cung cấp tồn văn thơng tin luận văn tốt nghiệp hợp lệ quyền cho Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh kết nối tồn văn thơng tin luận văn tốt nghiệp vào hệ thống thông tin khoa học Sở Khoa học Cơng nghệ Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh Ký tên ii Statement of authorship I attest that my thesis, “The effectiveness of Task-based Language Teaching to Improve Writing Skills for Non-majored English Students: A Vietnamese Case Study at Ho Chi Minh City Open University”, is entirely original work As a thesis for the Master’s in TESOL program at the Ho Chi Minh City Open University, it is based on my personal study Each and every source utilized to support this thesis has been listed No one else’s work has ever been used without proper credit At the Ho Chi Minh City Open University or elsewhere, this thesis has never before been presented for evaluation in any subject or course Ho Chi Minh City, September 2022 Trần Xuân Trang iii Acknowledgements The following individuals deserve my deepest thanks; without them, my thesis would not have been feasible I would first like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr Vo Thi Hong Le for her unwavering guidance and supervision during my research and thesis writing Without her expert guidance and support, I would not have been able to finish this thesis I was able to enrich my intellectual and professional life for my professional development because of their enthusiastic contributions In addition, I want to thank the other members of the HCMC Open University staff who always provide for our needs as students I would also like to express my gratitude to my dear classmates During the MA in TESOL degree, we experienced both good and difficult times together We did form a team, and everyone on it motivated and inspired the others to keep going toward the goal Furthermore, I want to express my gratitude to my supportive colleagues at the Ho Chi Minh City Open University who helped me a lot when I implemented this study at the university Last but not least, I owe my family a huge debt of gratitude for all of their help both before and during my studies for the Master’s in TESOL degree I wouldn’t have been able to get that far without my parents, my son and my soulmate iv Abstract This study explores how teachers and students have changed the methods to teach and learn English in recent times Writing has always been perceived as a difficult task for English Foreign Language (EFL) students at Ho Chi Minh City Open University (HCMC OU), are at elementary level of English with significant challenges in writing, including lack of confidence in communicative skills resulting in their inability to communicate efficiently in authentic out-of-class scenarios In line with recent empirical scholarship on EFL pedagogies, Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) is proposed as an effective approach that facilitates both the teaching of communicative skills and engagement through the use of the target language and tasks in an authentic manner as used outside of the classroom This paper, drawing on a mix-methods case study with 60 Vietnamese nonEnglish major EFL students who are learning English as a compulsory subject at elementary level (A1-A2) at HCMC OU, examines what to extent TBLT can help improve writing skills for these non-English major students at the tertiary level The control group included 28 participants, whereas the experimental group included the remaining participants The data were collected via questionnaire, writing tests, and teacher’s observation For data analysis and statistical inference, Statistics Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 was used The findings indicate that the implementation of TBLT tasks in writing lessons provided by the teacher resulted in crucial improvements in students’ writing performance in terms of accuracy and fluency in the classroom In addition, learner’ attitudes generally were positive toward writing lessons via TBLT in the classroom This study thus reaffirmed the educational benefits of TBLT in terms of students’ writing abilities v Table of contents Statement of authorship ii Acknowledgements iii Abstract iv Table of contents v List of figures and tables viii List of abbreviations xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Statement of the problem 1.3 Research objectives 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Research hypothesis 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Organization of the study CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Writing 2.1.1 The definition of writing 2.2.2 Principles of teaching and learning writing 10 2.2.3 Writing performance 10 2.3 Assessment of learners’ attitudes toward using TBLT 11 2.4 The integration of TBLT in writing 12 2.4 Task-based language teaching 13 2.4.1 Communicative language teaching 13 2.4.2 The characteristics of Task-based language teaching 14 2.4.3 The frameworks of task-based language teaching 16 2.4.6 The benefits of TBLT vs traditional method 18 2.5 Empirical studies on TBLT and English writing teaching 19 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 21 3.3 Research design 21 vi 3.3.1 Test data analytical framework 22 3.3.2 Questionnaire data analytical framework 22 3.3.3 Observation data analytical framework 22 3.2 Research site 24 3.3 Participants 26 3.4 Instruments: 27 3.4.1 Writing Tests (Pre-test and Post-test) 27 3.4.2 Questionnaire 29 3.4.3 Observation 31 3.5 Reliability and validity issues 32 3.5.1 Writing test 32 3.5.2 Questionnaire 33 3.5.2 Observation 33 3.6 Chapter summary 34 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 35 4.1 Data analysis 35 4.1.1 Writing test results 35 4.1.2 Survey results 45 4.1.3 Teacher’s observation 62 4.2 Discussion 65 4.2.1 Research question 66 4.2.2 Research question 67 4.3 Chapter summary 67 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 69 5.1 Conclusions 69 5.2 Contribution of the study 70 5.3 Implications 71 5.3.1 Recommendations for teachers 71 5.3.2 Recommendations for students 72 5.4 Limitations 73 vii 5.5 Suggestions for further research 73 5.5 Chapter summary 74 References 75 Appendices 81 18:37, 14/11/2022 Turnitin Turnitin Originality Report Processed on: 30-Aug-2022 23:45 +07 ID: 1889477125 Word Count: 34646 Submitted:   Similarity by Source Similarity Index 20% Internet Sources: Publications: Student Papers: 18% 11% 10% MTESOL019A_TRAN XUAN TRANG_THESIS By Trang Trần Xuân 1% match (Internet from 18-Oct-2017) https://beta.benjamins.com/catalog/itl.166.1.02yen/fulltext/itl.166.1.02yen.pdf < 1% match (student papers from 17-Oct-2017) Submitted to Ho Chi Minh City Open University on 2017-10-17 < 1% match (student papers from 04-Aug-2020) Class: RM2020-B1 Assignment: Proposal Paper ID: 1365702661 < 1% match (student papers from 15-Jul-2022) Submitted to Ho Chi Minh City Open University on 2022-07-15 < 1% match (student papers from 27-May-2019) Submitted to Ho Chi Minh City Open University on 2019-05-27 < 1% match (student papers from 22-Apr-2022) Submitted to Ho Chi Minh City Open University on 2022-04-22 < 1% match (student papers from 14-Jun-2022) Submitted to Ho Chi Minh City Open University on 2022-06-14 < 1% match (student papers from 12-Dec-2020) Class: MTESOL019 Assignment: Bai tap Paper ID: 1446433485 < 1% match (student papers from 25-Feb-2021) Submitted to Ho Chi Minh City Open University on 2021-02-25 < 1% match (student papers from 30-Aug-2017) Submitted to Ho Chi Minh City Open University on 2017-08-30 < 1% match (student papers from 15-Sep-2018) Submitted to Ho Chi Minh City Open University on 2018-09-15 < 1% match (student papers from 05-Apr-2022) Submitted to Ho Chi Minh City Open University on 2022-04-05 < 1% match (student papers from 31-Jul-2022) Submitted to Ho Chi Minh City Open University on 2022-07-31 < 1% match (Internet from 26-Jun-2018) http://mjltm.org/files/cd_papers/r_20_170607222554.pdf < 1% match (Internet from 28-May-2020) https://mjltm.org/article-1-58-en.pdf < 1% match (https://mjltm.org/article-1-61-en.pdf) https://mjltm.org/article-1-61-en.pdf < 1% match (Internet from 12-Dec-2021) https://mjltm.org/article-1-49-en.pdf < 1% match (Internet from 11-Sep-2017) http://mjltm.org/files/cd_papers/r_24_170607224328.pdf < 1% match (Internet from 05-Jun-2022) http://mjltm.org/article-1-71-en.pdf < 1% match (student papers from 22-Dec-2021) Submitted to University of Edinburgh on 2021-12-22 < 1% match (student papers from 10-Feb-2014) Submitted to University of Edinburgh on 2014-02-10 < 1% match (student papers from 26-Aug-2021) Submitted to University of Edinburgh on 2021-08-26 < 1% match (Internet from 20-Jul-2022) file:///D:/OneDrive/Laptop Data/DATA D/MASTER OF TESOL/THESIS/Ho So Bao ve Luan Van/Nop Khoa/Turnitin_Originality_Report_1889477125.ht… 1/36