1 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES TRINH THU HUYEN “ENHANCING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ ENGLISH WRITING SKILL TEACHING TECHNIQUES FOR PROJECT BASED LEAENING AT HOANG VAN THU SCHOOL, SCHOOL[.]
THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES TRINH THU HUYEN “ENHANCING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ ENGLISH WRITING SKILL TEACHING TECHNIQUES FOR PROJECT-BASED LEAENING AT HOANG VAN THU SCHOOL, SCHOOL YEAR 2018-2019 (NĂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG VIẾT TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11 – TRƯỜNG THPT HOÀNG VĂN THỤ NĂM HỌC 2018-2019 DỰA VÀO CÁC PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC THEO ĐỀ ÁN) M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN – 2019 Tai ngay!!! Ban co the xoa dong chu nay!!! THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES TRINH THU HUYEN “ENHANCING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ ENGLISH WRITING SKILL TEACHING TECHNIQUES FOR PROJECT-BASED LEAENING AT HOANG VAN THU SCHOOL, SCHOOL YEAR 2018-2019 (NĂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG VIẾT TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11 – TRƯỜNG THPT HOÀNG VĂN THỤ NĂM HỌC 2018-2019 DỰA VÀO CÁC PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC THEO ĐỀ ÁN) M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Dr Cao Duy Trinh THAI NGUYEN – 2019 THE CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I hereby declare that this graduation project is based on my own original work except for quotations and citation that have been duly acknowledged I also declare that it has not been previously submitted for any other courses/degrees at Thai Nguyen University or other institutions Thái Nguyên, ngày tháng năm 2019 Trịnh Thu Huyền Supervisor Dr Cao Duy Trinh ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was the result of my hard work with the great support of many people I want to express my hearty gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor – PhD Cao Duy Trinh, who has devotedly taught me a lot and helped me widen my knowledge Without his instruction and guidance, I could not have completed my thesis I would like to give a big thanks to all of my colleagues who have helped and supported me a lot during the time I did this thesis They were a big contribution to complete observation sheet and other tests also Last but not least, I cannot look over my family who were my biggest motivation and inspiration to take part in this master course Without them, I cannot finish the thesis so well ABSTRACT Writing, in any language, is a fundamental skill of communication At the same time, it is one of the main channels to transmit culture from generation to generation Like speaking, you always have several ways to express the same idea, from writing a simple note in a piece of paper to composing a literary work which demands a good command of the language Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of the project-based teaching techniques to enhance the students’ English writing skills at Grade 11, Hoang Van Thu high school It was found then that the various actions and the use of project-based learning technique could improve students’ writing abilities, particularly in the hortatory exposition text Hence, the research also made some recommendations and suggestions for applying the project-based methods to improve English writing skill of the students.The research is carried out based on a descriptive quantitative study TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION Error! Bookmark not defined ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT .5 PART A: INTRODUCTION Research topic area The study context Focus of the study .9 Significance of the study 10 Structure of the study .10 PART B: DEVELOPMENT 12 CHAPTER 1: LITERATUREREVIEW .12 1.1 Definition of writing 12 1.2 The teaching of English writing 13 1.3 The project – based learning 14 1.3.1 Definition of the project-based learning 14 1.3.2 The Steps of Conducting Project-Based 16 1.4 Relevant studies .18 1.5 Conceptual framework 18 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 21 2.1 Methodology choice .21 2.2 Field site and participants 21 2.3 Data collection method 22 2.4 Data analysis 23 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 25 3.1 Research implementation .25 3.1.1 Conducting the writing test 25 3.1.2 Applying project-based learning into the writing lessons 28 3.2 Research results and findings .35 3.2.1 Results and findings on applying PBL 35 3.2.2 Results and findings on testing and surveying .38 3.3 Discussion .42 PART 3: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 44 Summary of the key findings 44 Pedagogical implication of the study .46 Limitation of the study 47 REFERENCES 49 APPENDIXES 50 APPENDIX 1: PRE-QUESTIONNAIRE 50 APPENDIX 2: POST-QUESTIONNAIRE .53 APPENDIX 3: PRE-TEST 57 APPENDIX 4: POST-TEST Error! Bookmark not defined APPENDIX 5: THE LESSONS PRACTICED WITH CLA Error! Bookmark not defined PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Among the four English learning skills namely speaking, listening, reading and writing, there are many reasons for writing to be the last acquired domain of learning English, one being that a more detailed and analyzed knowledge of a language is needed to write than to understand (Bialystok & Bryan, 1985) In addition to this, it is challenging for students to write English like a native due to their various knowledge background In oral communication, they can understand the partner through gestures and appearance However, in writing they may fail to express their ideas clearly because of the limitation in vocabulary To become a writing expert, it is necessary for students to spend much timepracticing more and more However, these opportunities seem to be rare with them Besides, Kasper &Petrello (1998) also added that teachers’ responses tend to be negative because they were too familiar with the expectation of failures, which resulted in their students’ difficulties in writing English The issue can be explained by two main causes First, students often think of writing as a translating activity when being asked to write about a specific topic (Fu-Lan, 2006) Second, they tend to focus more on mistakes in spelling and grammar than writing the contents (Elias et al., 2005) These factors prevent the students’ writing from coming to the success as a real English native writer Hence, regarding the students’ difficulties in English writing, the study investigates the application of project-based teaching techniques in enhancing their English writing skills The study context Writing is essentially required for communication to connect people, regardless of time and spaces Although the importance of mastering skill is clear, in fact, students’ writing skill is far from perfection However, as previously stated, writing is the most difficult language skill for the students, which is evident in their scores and their classroom performances Living in a text-oriented society, all students need to be proficient writers, but achieving this goal is particularly daunting students who are learning English as their second language Due to this universal area of weakness for Vietnam students, this research project has been designed to discover and implement effective strategies that will improve the English writing skills of grade 11th students through the project-based teaching techniques at Hoang Van Thu high school in the school year 2018 - 2019 Focus of the study Writing can be considered as the most difficult skill to be mastered by the second language learners due to the problems occurring in the process of teaching and learning English skills in classroom Throughout the researching, the use of project-based learning was able to improve the students’ writing skill at grade 11, Hoang Van Thu high school, school year 2018-2019 In specific, the research aims to fulfillthe following objectives: To investigate the situation of grade 11th students’ English writing skillsat Hoang Van Thu high school in the school year 2018-2019; To identify the effectiveness of the project-based teaching techniques at Hoang Van Thuhigh school in the school year 2018-2019; To propose the recommendation and suggestion for enhancing the students’ English writing skills at Grade 11, Hoang Van Thu high school In order to achieve the above objectives, this study needs to answer the following research question: What are the problems with theEnglish writing skills for the grade 11 th students at Hoang Van Thu high school in the school year 2018-2019? Significance of the study The study means to contribute to the innovation of teaching the writing skills to the students in 11th grade at Hoang Van Thu high school in particular and Vietnam public schools in general It is also expected that the research findings in this study can help the English teachers as well as the administrators at the high schools in evaluating the effectiveness of teaching English writing through project-based teaching techniques for the students’ writing skill improvement It is hoped that this paper will serve as a useful source of reference for other researchers and English teachers whose studies are related to the same topic However ,the quality of students are not equal, limited time ,lack of decription skill Structure of the study Part 1: Introduction In this part, the rationale, significance and scope of the study will be presented Part 2: Main contents Chapter1:LiteratureReview In this part, the theoretical background, specifically the previous researches related to speech acts, speech acts in refusals, cross-culture in refusals, non-native English speakers’ refusals and the comparisons among native Vietnamese, native English and EFL learners will be presented Chapter 2: Methodology In this part, the researcher will discuss the research approach, the participants, the instrument, the data collection procedure and the analysis Chapter 3: Results and discussion 10 each other based on their expertise It also created positive relationship among the students Fourth, the use of the teaching aids and various activities were interesting for students so that it could drive students’ attention towards the lesson The students did their best in doing the activities in the classroom They were involved actively in every activity during the teaching and learning process It helped the students to understand the language meanings and constructions easier Moreover, the students were provided with frequent feedback during the implementation of project-based learning The researcher supervised and monitored them thorough the project development Other than that, the students also shared ideas and opinions with the other members of the group This situation produced peer-feedback among students The students were also given feedback on their writing which helped them to get better understanding on the aspects of writing such as grammar, vocabulary, mechanics, fluency, and organization However, the implementation of project-based learning in the classroom also brought several drawbacks It cost a lot, took too much time, and sometimes caused loud noise when it dealt with the group work From the facts presented above, it can be concluded that the research taken on the use of project-based learning technique to improve the students’ writing skills at grade 11th students in Hoang Van Thu high school was successful 45 Pedagogical implication of the study According to the conclusion which is previously stated, some further considerations were made in order to improve the students’ writing skills The implications of the actions applied during the research are presented in the following: Firstly, the implementation of project-based learning technique can be an alternative way of teaching English, particularly in teaching the skill of writing Moreover, students’ knowledge on the aspects of writing which they got through the teaching and learning process suggests that the actions were effective to give them better understanding It is seen from their good writing product Second, the students’ positive attitudes and behaviors towards the implementation of project-based learning implicates that they were motivated by the way it improved their writing skill Third, the group works facilitated students to share their thoughts, ideas, knowledge, information, and expertise to one another They were able to discussion to solve the problem and were successful in doing project development together They looked less nervous than when it compared to the time they needed to work alone It implies that they were happy with the group work and this makes their relationship closer Fourth, the students’ active participation towards the teaching and learning activities showed that a teacher must have various activities during the teaching and learning process to draw the students’ focus and attention towards the lesson The variety of activities also provides the students opportunities to practice Furthermore, the feedback and correction provided to students indicates that they had better understandings in composing a text It implies that it is 46 necessary for the teachers to give the students feedback as frequently as possible It helped them to learn and notice about language meanings and constructions And finally, the implementation of project-based learning had several drawbacks, such as it needed full guidance, cost a lot of money, and spent time It implies that the actions needed to be implemented with careful planning to achieve the goal of the lesson effectively It included deciding the cheap and safe choices of project materials and tools, arranging relatively short-timed project development which is relevant to and doable for the students Limitation of the study This part aims to discuss some potential limitations of the study The constraint of time and the limitation of my knowledge have considerable effects on the study Being well aware of the limitations of the study, I would give some suggestions for future work in the meantime The first drawback is that the survey questionnaires were distributed to a small proportion of respondents (only 80 students) The small sample size may affect the reliability of the study The problem is whether the sample reflects the population Future work should collect data from a larger sample size in order to ensure the accuracy and the significance of the survey results And second, due to lack of survey questionnaire software, I tried to shorten the questionnaire in order to reduce boredom, fatigue or even ignorance of the respondents, so that enough data could be collected As a result, the number of items in the questionnaire was small, which may influence the reliability and accuracy of the measurement If the survey were carried out as one program in the organization, it would be easier to spread out the survey to them by variety of ways Moreover, the customers would perceive research that is more professional and then be more engaged and careful in answering the questions 47 Another limitation of the study was about data analysis method Due to inadequate knowledge in statistics, I utilized just few and simple statistical procedure to analyze the data More statistical procedure should be applied to check the significance of the measurement and to have more analysis of the data This would make the study more informative and meaningful Hence, I suggest that other methods apart from questionnaires should be used in order to collect qualitative data Methods such as direct interview both individually and in a group or observation or mixed method should be applied wider and more regularly After finishing the test, I would like to look back to each research question In general, all the three research questions have partly contributed to the success of the thesis About the question 1, the problem facing with grade 11 students in Hoang Van Thu high school was they could not totally digest the knowledge transmitted by the teachers when using the traditional method of teaching Find out this problem, the school staff, especially English teacher can change the teaching methods in to a better one With the second questions, after doing experiments in some classes with project-based learning methods, both students and teachers can obviously see the improvement in students’ English learning progress PBL promises to be an effective teaching method in the future What’s about the last question, to increasingly improve the students’ progress of learning English, I and my colleagues would continue to apply various and different projects into teaching processes to bring the best result for students 48 REFERENCES Bell, S (2010) Project-based learning for the 21th century: skill for the future.The Clearing House, (pp.39-43) Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group Bialystok, E and Ryan, E (1985) A metacognitive framework for the development of first and second language skills Metacognition, Cognition, and Human Performance 1, (107-252) Brown, H D (2001) Teaching by Principles: and Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy New York: A Pearson Education Company Harmer, J.(1998) How to Teach English Essex: Pearson Education Limited Harmer, J (2004) How to Teach Writing Essex: Pearson Education Limited Harmer, J (2007) The Practice of English Language Teaching Essex: Pearson Education Limited Kasper, L F., &Petrello, B A (1998) Responding to ESL Student Writing: The Value of a Nonjudgmental Approach Community Review, 16178 Krauss, J.&Boss,S (2013) Thinking Through Project-Based Learning: Guiding Deeper Inquiry Thousand Oaks, CA :Corwin Nunan, D., (1999) Second Language Teaching and Learning MA: Heinle&Heinle Oates, L.C., (2000) Beyond Communication: Writing as a Means of Learning The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute pp 1-25 Phillips, Dianne et al (1999) Project with Young Learners Oxford: Oxford University Press Poonpon, K (2011) Enhancing English Skill through Project Based Learning The English Teacher Vol XL: 1-10 Journal 49 Simpson, J (2011) Integrating project-based learning in an English language tourism classroom in a Thai university institution Doctoral Thesis, Australian Catholic University Solomon, G (2003) Project-based learning: A primer Technology & Learning, 23, pp 20-27 Stoller, F L (2002) Project-Work: A Means to Promote Language and Content In Richards J C &Renandya W A (eds.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press APPENDIXES APPENDIX 1: PRE-QUESTIONNAIRE The purpose: This questionnaire aims to collect information and data on the situation of teaching and learning English writing among 11th students at Hoang Van Thu High School for the research in this dissertation on the same topic I declare that all information you provide is completely private and kept confidential Thank you very much! I Personal information Your name: Class: Your English teacher’s name: What is your current English average score? II Please answer the following questions Question 1: Tick (x) for your answer Questions Very 50 Neutral Highly How you feel ….? unlikely unlikely when you use English to interact with your classmates in the classroom? when you participate in class discussions? when working in pairs in the English class? when working in small groups in the English class? when participating in CLA games in the English class? when you use English to interact with your teacher in the classroom? Question 2: What time you spend on learning English writing every day? A Less than hour B From to hours C More than hours Question 3: In general, how satisfied are you with your English teacher’s current method? A Highly satisfied B Satisfied C Neutral D Dissatisfied E Highly dissatisfied Question 4: How you feel about your English learning motivation after learning English Writing with the current method? A Highly motivated B Satisfied C Neutral D Unmotivated 51 E Highly unmotivated Thank you for your contribution! 52 APPENDIX 2: POST-QUESTIONNAIRE The purpose: This questionnaire aims to collect information and data on the impacts of CLA methods on teaching and learning English writing among 11th students at Hoang Van Thu High School for the research in this dissertation on the same topic I declare that all information you provide is completely private and kept confidential Thank you very much! I Personal information Your name: Class: Your English teacher’s name: What is your current English average score? II Please answer the following questions Question 1: Tick (x) for your answer Questions Very How you feel ….? unlikely when you use English to interact with your classmates in the classroom? when you participate in class discussions? when working in pairs in the English class? when working in small groups in the English class? when participating in CLA games in the English class? 53 Neutral Highly unlikely when you use English to interact with your teacher in the classroom? Question 2: How you evaluate on the application of CLA in language teaching and learning? Questionnaire items Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly agree disagree I found being able to collaborate in my group in practical writing sessions very helpful 74% 26% 0% 0% 0% I prefer PBL to traditional method of teaching 99% 1% 0% 0% 0% I am actively engaged in group discussions 62% 25% 0% 0% 13% By discussing with my group members, I understood better about what I was learning 93% 7% 0% 0% 0% The instructional methodology provided me with enough scope to display my English writing skills 62% 38% 0% 0% 0% PBL increased my interest in learning English writing 59% 41% 0% 0% 0% 54 The instructional methodology in this course suited the way I like to learn 86% 14% 0% 0% 0% I am able to evaluate my own, and, my group’s learning outcomes at the end of the PBL tutorial 80% 14% 0% 0% 6% 0% 0% 0% 62% 38% There is not enough opportunities to discuss, and provide feedback, on how my group functions during PBL tutorials 55 Question 3: In general, how satisfied are you with your English teacher’s PBLmethod? A Highly satisfied B Satisfied C Neutral D Dissatisfied E Highly dissatisfied Question 4: How you feel about your English learning motivation after learning English Writing with PBL? A Highly motivated B Satisfied C Neutral D Unmotivated E Highly unmotivated 56 APPENDIX 3: PRE-TEST PRE-TEST MARK: TIME: 30 MINUTES Exercise 1: Complete these conversations Put the verbs in brackets into the first-or second conditional Question 1: Rewrite the sentences, using the words given in brackets (Viếtlạicâu, sửdụngcáctừchosẵntrongngoặc.) They set out of the car (The police watched) They allowed him to write a letter to his wife (They let) They talked in the next room (I heard) The customs officer told him to open the briefcase (The customs officer made) The cat jumped through the window (The boy saw) Maybe the company will ask him to pay some extra money (Do you think the company will make) The animal moved towards me I felt it (I felt) She wants to go for a picnic (Do you think her parents will let) ANSWER KEYS: The police watched them set out of the car They let him write a letter to his wife I heard them talk in the next room The customs officer made him open the briefcase The boy saw the cat jump through the window Do you think the company will make him pay some extra money? 57 I felt the animal move towards me Do you think her parents will let her go for a picnic? TRANSLATED: Cảnhsátthấyhọbướcrakhỏixe Họđểanhấyviếtthưchovợ Tơinghehọnóichuyệnphịngbêncạnh Nhânviênhảiquanbắtanh ta mởhànhlýra Cậubénhìnchúmèonhảy qua cửasổ Bạncónghĩcơngtysẽbuộcanhấytrảtiềnthừa? Tơicảmgiác vậtđóđivềphíatơi Bạncónghĩbốmẹcơấysẽđểcơấyđidãngoạikhơng? Question 2: Write about a short brochure (160-180 words) to introduce an ASEAN country Use the information about Indonesia below or a different ASEAN country of your choice The Republic of Indonesia a Area and Population: Indonesia is comprised of about 17,508 islands It covers a land area of 1,904,569 km2 With a population of over 237 million people, Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country The capital city is Jakarta and the official language is Indonesian b Economy: The country has the largest economy in Southeast Asia Tourism plays a big role in its economy In 2013 the tourist sector contributed about US$9 billion Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, China, and Japan were in the top five countries with visitors to Indonesia 58 c Sports: Sports in Indonesia are generally male-orientated The most popular sports are badminton and football Traditional sports include SepakTakraw and Pencak Silat d Culture: Indonesia is a widely diverse nation with over 300 ethnic groups Indonesia is influenced by Chinese, European, Indian and Malay cultures The influence of Western culture is mainly seen in science, technology, and modern entertainment e Tourist attractions: Indonesia is famous for its islands and beautiful views The beaches of Bali and Lombok, and the wonderful islands of Java, Sumatra, and Kalimantan are popular destinations Besides that, there are many tourist attractions such as museums, monuments, and gardens in the capital city _End of Test _ 59