Common problems of atc students in academic writing and reasons to these problems

BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES  GRADUATION THESIS COMMON PROBLEMS OF ATC STUDENTS IN ACADEMIC WRITING AND REASONS TO THESE PROBLEMS Supervisor : M.A Tran Thi Thu Thuy Student name : Le Thi Thanh Nhan Class : K20 ATCB Faculty : Foreign Languages Student code : 20A7510131 Hanoi 2021 Tai ngay!!! Ban co the xoa dong chu nay!!! 17014125932391000000 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I declare that the thesis entitled “Common problems of ATC students in academic writing and reasons to these problems” is the result of my original research work The research is based on my reading and understanding of the original texts, firstly submitted to the Banking Academy of Vietnam The other books, articles, and websites, which I have made use of are clearly referenced in the paper Hanoi, 23rd May, 2021 Signature Le Thi Thanh Nhan i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincerest thanks to those who have supported me to successfully complete my graduate thesis Thanks to everyone's help, guidance, and encouragement throughout the process, I was able to complete the most difficult project in four years of university First of all, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to my instructor, Mrs Tran Thi Thu Thuy She enthusiastically guided, provided me with the necessary knowledge, and edited meticulously when I was working on my research Without her supervision and dedicated guidance, the thesis would be impossible Besides, I would also like to thank all the students who participated in the questionnaire of the thesis Your contributions were integral to the research Finally, I would like to thank my family as well as all my friends who have accompanied, comforted, and encouraged me to complete the thesis ii Table of Contents CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v LIST OF FIGURES vi ABSTRACT vii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Thesis 1.2 Objectives of the Thesis 1.3 Research Questions 1.4 Scope and Limitations of the Thesis 1.5 Significance of the Thesis 1.6 Structure of the Thesis CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Academic Writing Skills 2.1.1 Definition of Academic Writing 2.1.2 Processes of Academic Writing 2.1.3 Types of Academic Writing 2.1.4 Approach to Teach and Learn English Academic Writing Skills .12 2.2 Common Problems in English Academic Writing 14 2.2.1 Problems in Planning Stage .14 2.2.2 Problems in Writing Stage 15 2.2.3 Problems in Revising Stage .18 2.3 Reasons for Problems in English Academic Writing Skills 18 2.4 Previous Studies .21 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 25 3.1 Research Setting .25 3.2 Procedure of Data Collection 25 3.3 Research Population and Sample Description 26 3.4 Research Instruments .27 3.4.1 Questionnaire .27 3.4.2 Microsoft Excel 2013 .28 CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 29 iii 4.1 Problems of Academic Writing 29 4.1.1 Problems in Planning Stage 29 4.1.2 Problems in Writing Stage .30 4.1.3 Problems in Revising Stage 31 4.2 Reasons of the Problems in Academic Writing 32 4.2.1 Objective Reasons 32 4.2.2 Subjective Reasons 32 4.3 Discussion .34 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 36 5.1 Summary of the Research Results 36 5.2 Recommendations of the Research 37 5.3 Conclusion .39 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX 47 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ATC English-majored students at the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Banking Academy of Vietnam MoET Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam L1 First Language L2 Second Language FL Foreign Languages ELT English Language Teaching v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1 Students' common problems in planning stage Figure 4.2 Students' common problems in writing stage Figure 4.3 Students' common problems in revising stage Figure 4.4 The objective reasons of problems in academic writing Figure 4.5 The subjective reasons of problems in academic writing vi ABSTRACT The title of the thesis: Common problems of ATC students in academic writing and the reasons of these problems Author: Le Thi Thanh Nhan, student of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Banking Academy of Vietnam Advisor: Mrs Tran Thi Thu Thuy (M.A) Key words: academic writing problems, reasons, writing 3, ATC students, Englishmajored students Abstract: For most second language learners, mastering the four English skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking is always a big challenge Among them, academic writing is considered the most difficult one The research paper aims to find out the common problems encountered by ATC students and the reasons behind them, so that some useful solutions can be offered The problems of academic writing were analyzed according to the three-stage writing process: planning stage, writing stage, and editing stage Besides, the reasons of these problems were divided into two groups: objective reasons and subjective reasons A research questionnaires was applied to survey all students who completed Writing and the data were then quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed The gathered results showed that during the planning phase, students regularly had problems in outline preparation and ideas collection, as well as topic decision Meanwhile, at the writing stage, problems related to grammar and language use were most commonly coped with At the final stage, students frequently faced up with problems of inappropriate format In terms of the reasons behind these problems, lack of experience and lack of substantive resources were the top two prevalent objective reasons; whereas, common subjective causes were lack of background knowledge, lack of English language proficiency, interference of mother tongue and carelessness To overcome these problems, the writer proposed some practical recommendations that could support teachers and ATC students improve their academic writing performance vii viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION This chapter offers a summary of the study's background information, research objectives, and research questions, research significance as well as the structure It also highlights the study's scope and limitations 1.1 Background of the Thesis In the twenty-first century, English, the most prevalent foreign language taught in Vietnam, has been accepted as the standard language in global trade As a basic platform for communication, English affords opportunities for international trade and diplomacy among countries with different languages, which enables the exchange of science, technology, goods, and labor sources And regarding the individual level, global employers and HR managers report that employees with exceptional English proficiency at their country's level can earn 30- 50% higher salaries Therefore, to meet the requirements of society in the modern world and improve living standards, it is vital for people to self-improve their knowledge of foreign languages, especially English To integrate with global development, the Vietnamese government has considered English as a compulsory subject in general education In legal normative documents issued by the Vietnamese Governments and the MoET, it is accentuated that higher education students need to have sufficient English proficiency for effectiveness in the global working environment Hence, students are expected to master English skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking; in which writing skills, especially academic writing skills, are considered a crucial and challenging level for most second language learners As one of the top universities in the economics sector, Banking Academy also pays great attention to the English level of students and has established the Department of Foreign Languages to train financial English However, through the author's experiences in writing classes at the university, it is found that despite being taught methodically, most students majoring in English often cope with many problems in writing an academic paper Intending to acquire a more general and in-depth