Effects of electronic portfolios on vietnamese high school students’ writing performance a case study at three high schools in binh duong province

Trang 1 BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY NGUYEN MINH NAM ANH EFFECTS OF ELECTRONIC PORTFOLIOS ON VIETNAMESE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ WRITING PERFORMANCE: A CA

BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY NGUYEN MINH NAM ANH EFFECTS OF ELECTRONIC PORTFOLIOS ON VIETNAMESE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ WRITING PERFORMANCE: A CASE STUDY AT THREE HIGH SCHOOLS IN BINH DUONG PROVINCE MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJOR CODE: 8220201 MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE BINH DUONG PROVINCE - OCTOBER 2023 BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY NGUYEN MINH NAM ANH EFFECTS OF ELECTRONIC PORTFOLIOS ON VIETNAMESE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ WRITING PERFORMANCE: A CASE STUDY AT THREE HIGH SCHOOLS IN BINH DUONG PROVINCE MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJOR CODE: 8220201 MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE SUPERVISED BY TRAN THANH DU, Ph.D BINH DUONG PROVINCE - OCTOBER 2023 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I received significant assistance and support from my supervisors, faculty, colleagues, students, and family members in order to complete this thesis To begin with, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Tran Thanh Du, Ph.D., for his immense knowledge, guidance, advice, and patience, which continually inspired me throughout the research During my studies at Thu Dau Mot University, I am grateful to my lecturers for their inexhaustible enthusiasm and unquestionably useful lectures, insightful knowledge, motivation, and suggestions In addition, I would like to express my gratitude to the Postgraduate Institute's staff for their assistance during my time of study Next, I'd like to acknowledge the research participants (300 students from three high schools in the province of Binh Duong) for their willingness to participate in the study and provide me with crucial information for my thesis I would also like to extend my deepest gratitude to my colleagues and acquaintances, whose support and encouragement assisted me in completing this thesis Finally, I would like to thank my family for their unending love, support, and encouragement, which motivated me to complete this thesis successfully i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This is to certify that I myself write this thesis entitled “Effects of electronic portfolios on Vietnamese high school students’ writing performance: A case study at three high schools in Binh Duong province” It is not a plagiarism or made by others Anything related to others’ works is written in quotation, the sources of which are listed on the list of references Binh Duong, October 2023 Signature (Signed) Nguyen Minh Nam Anh ii ABSTRACT The research aims to investigate the effects of electronic portfolios on EFL high school students’ writing ability, students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards the application of e-portfolios in writing classes and their perception regarding its contributions and problems at three high schools in Binh Duong province The sample included 15 teachers and 300 twelfth graders at three high schools in Binh Duong province Facebook was chosen as an e-portfolio platform where the students created and developed their personal e-portfolios The data were collected both quantitatively and qualitatively through a mixed-method study using the tools of a pre-test, a post-test, a multi-section questionnaire (for students in the experimental group), and a semi-structured interview (for teachers in charge of the experimental classes) The results showed that e-portfolios significantly improved EFL high school students' writing abilities, and both teachers and students have positive attitudes toward the application of Facebook in EFL writing However, learners perceived several issues during the e-portfolio process, and some independent variables are considerably correlated with a specific number of questionnaire statements in the scales Keywords: attitude, electronic portfolio, effect, English as a foreign language, English writing ability, perception, Vietnamese high school student iii TABLE OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY .ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENT iv LIST OF FIGURES viii LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS x CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study 1.2 Aims of the study; 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Proposed organization of the study 11 CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 12 2.1 EFL writing 12 2.1.1 Definition of writing 12 2.1.2 Purposes of writing 13 2.1.3 Important elements of writing 13 2.1.4 The process of writing 14 2.1.5 Advantages of writing 17 2.1.6 Criteria for a successful writing 18 2.1.7 Evaluation of writing skills 18 2.1.8 Challenges of teaching EFL writing in high school contexts 19 2.2 Porfolios 21 2.2.1 Definition of portfolios 21 2.2.1.1 Traditional portfolios 21 iv 2.2.1.2 E-portfolios 22 2.2.2 Characteristics of traditional portfolios and E-portfolios 23 2.2.3 Benefits of E-portfolios 26 2.2.4 Challenges of E-portfolios 27 2.3 Facebook application 28 2.3.1 Facebook users 29 2.3.2 Reasons to use Facebook application 30 2.3.3 Harmful effects of Facebook application 34 2.3.4 Facebook in the educational context 36 2.3.5 Effects of Facebook on culture and language teaching and learning 41 2.3.6 Relationship between Facebook and subject variables 43 2.4 Using Facebook in foreign/second language teaching 45 2.5 Facebook as an e-portfolio platform 47 2.3 Review of previous studies 49 2.3.1 Previous studies on teaching EFL writing in Vietnam 50 2.3.2 Previous studies on Facebook in EFL teaching and learning writing 51 2.3.3 Previous studies on Facebook-based portfolios 52 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 54 3.1 Research questions 54 3.2 Research design 54 3.3 Research participants 57 3.4 Research instruments 57 3.4.1 Teaching materials 58 3.4.2 Pre-test and post-test 58 3.4.3 Questionnaire 60 3.3.4 Interview 65 3.5 Procedures of data collection 66 3.5.1 Administration of pre-test 67 3.5.2 Administration of writing tasks 68 v 3.5.3 Administration of post-test 69 3.5.4 Administration of the questionnaire 69 3.5.5 Administration of the interview 69 CHAPTER RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 71 4.1 Results from the pre-test and post-test 71 4.1.1 Pre-test results 71 4.1.2 Post-test results 74 4.1.3 Comparison of the control group and the experiment group's results 78 4.2 Results from the questionnaires 79 4.2.1 The background questionnaire 80 4.2.2 Facebook-based E-portfolio Attitude Scale Questionnaire (FAS) 81 4.2.3 E-Portfolio Contribution Questionnaire (PCQ) 83 4.2.4 E-Portfolio Problem Questionnaire (PPQ) 85 4.2.4 Effects of independent variables on students’ attitudes and perceptions 87 4.3 Results from the interview 89 4.4 Discussion 91 4.4.1 Effects of E-portfolios on the students’ essay writing 91 4.4.2 Students’ attitudes towards the use of E-portfolios 92 4.4.3 Teachers’ attitudes towards the use of E-portfolios 97 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 99 5.1 Conclusions 99 5.2 Implications 101 5.3 Limitations 102 5.4 Recommendations 102 REFERENCES 105 APPENDICES 127 APPENDIX 127 APPENDIX 129 vi APPENDIX 131 APPENDIX 136 APPENDIX 137 APPENDIX 139 APPENDIX 141 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Writing process (Lacy, 2017) 15 Figure 2.2 The procedure of writing Aygün and Aydin (2016) 17 Figure 3.1 The Triangulation Design (Adopted from Lopez & Tashakkori, 2006) 56 Figure 4.1 Means and standard deviations of writing scores for the experimental group on the pre-test 71 Figure 4.2 Means and standard deviations of writing scores for the control group on the pre-test 72 Figure 4.3 A comparison of the scores that both groups on the pre-test 73 Figure 4.4 Means and standard deviations of writing scores for the experimental group on the post-test 74 Figure 4.5 Means and standard deviations of writing scores for the control group on the post-test 75 Figure 4.7 A comparison of the scores that both groups on the post-test 76 Figure 4.8 Comparison of the mean scores between the control group and experimental group before and after the treatment 79 viii