Khóa luận tốt nghiệp: Legal English major student self-assessment of English writing skills and use of writing strategies at Hanoi Law University

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGHANOI LAW UNIVERSITY LE THANH TRUNG 443009 LEGAL ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ SELF-ASSESSMENT OF ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS AND USE OF WRITI

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY

LE THANH TRUNG

443009

LEGAL ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’

SELF-ASSESSMENT OF ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS

AND USE OF WRITING STRATEGIES AT HANOI

LAW UNIVERSITY

Hanoi — 2023

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY

LE THANH TRUNG

443009

LEGAL ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS' ASSESSMENT OF ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS AND USE OF WRITING STRATEGIES AT HANOI

STUDENT DECLARATION

I hereby state that I: Le Thanh Trung — ID 443009, being a candidate for

the degree of Bachelor of Arts accept the requirements of the Universityrelating to the retention and use of Bachelor's Graduation Paper deposited

in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited

in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research,

in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian forthe care, loan or reproduction of the paper

April 21", 2023Supervisor’s confirmation Researcher’s signature

Vu Van Tuan, Ph.D Le Thanh Trung

ill

A thesis is never successfully completed in isolation I received help,

encouragement, critique, consolation and from many people who deserveacknowledgement

The researcher is greatly indebted to the invaluable assistance and

support of the following generous and talented people who have made an

otherwise abstract, complex and random thoughts come into shape that thiswork is right now, wishes to express his sincere gratitude to all those whohelped him in the completion of this humble research work which he hopes

to give as his contribution to the efforts of teachers to provide excellence inthe completion of his research They are legion but because of limitedspace only few are named here while the most are treasured more in hismemory and his heart

I would like to heartily express my deepest appreciation and

gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Vu Van Tuan, for his incomparablewisdom, willing and unparallel expertise giving the author the neededguidance in the completion of the study;

I would love to thank all of the lecturers from the Faculty of Legal

Foreign Languages, Hanoi Law University who have provided him with

invaluable sources of knowledge and instructions during his study at thisInstitution;

I also wish to thank the members of the thesis defence committees

who were generous with their expertise and precious time Their pieces of

advice, insightful criticisms, and patient encouragement aided the writing

of this dissertation in innumerable ways;

IV

I offer my sincerest thanks to student participants who have

enthusiastically participated in the study Their participation is greatly

important to the completion of the research;

Last but not least, I must express my sincere gratitude to my familyand friends whose supports have been a great significance to the success

of my thesis;

And to all those who in one way or another made this work reach itsfruition, the researcher is especially blessed to have had them all

ABSTRACTEnglish writing proficiency is a crucial aspect of academic andprofessional success, and understanding students' self-assessment andwriting strategies can help instructors develop effective teaching practices.This study aimed to examine the self-assessment of English writing skillsand use of English writing strategies by legal English major students atHanoi Law University The study employed a quantitative approach togather data from 54 legal English major students who were in the course of

46 at Hanoi Law University in the second term of the academic year

2022-2023 thanks to the utilization of Google form The researcher-madeinstrument — 5-Likert scale survey questionnaire - was constructed based

on the criteria set by Dornyei and Taguchi (2010) with the confidence level

of Cronbach’s alpha (a = 0.76 — 0.95) of fairly high internal consistency.The findings indicate that while students possess moderate confidence intheir writing skills, they face challenges in writing with an academic style

and tone, developing and supporting their thesis statement, and usingcitation format Despite this, students perceive confidence in writing

accurate summaries and paraphrases, choosing suitable academic research

topics, revising their own writing, taking notes on readings, and

brainstorming ideas Students commonly rely on bilingual and English dictionaries, grammar books, and extensive preparation prior towriting The findings would server as the useful reference for those who

English-are concerned about how to benefit most English writing strategies

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2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

2.1 Aims of the study

2.2 Objectives of the study

3 Research Questions

4 Scope of the Study

5 Significance of the Study

6 Methodology

7 Structure of the Study

PART IT DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Assessment and forms of assessments

1.2 Self-assessment and its role in English teaching and learning

¬ ¬RN OC

171818

2.2 Research Question Restated

2.3 Participants

2.4 Research instruments

2.5 Procedures of data collection

2.6 Data collection and analysis

2.7 Summary

CHAPTER 3 RESULTS AND DICUSSION

3.1 Demographic information of the respondents

3.2 The analysis of self-assessment of English writing skills and

use of writing strategies

3.3 The analysis of table writing strategies

3.4 The analysis of learning strategies

PART III CONCLUSION

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LIST OE TABLES

Table 1 Demographic profile of the respondents

Table 2 Self-Assessment of English Writing Skills

Table 3 Use of Learning Strategies

Table 4 General Learning Strategies

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LIST OF ABREVIATIONS

HLU : Hanoi Law University

LLB : Language learning beliefs

EFL : English as a foreign language

DSA : Dynamic Self-Assessment

SRQ : Self-Reporting Questionnaire MLA : Modern Language Association

FL : Foreign Language

SL : Second Language

ELT : English Language Teaching

PART I.INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for study

Language testing and assessment play a crucial role in thedevelopment of learners acquiring foreign (FL) or second languages (SL)

It is true to state that assessment is widely used but commonly confusedwith testing in current educational practice It is important to have a glance

at how assessment is remarked hence Assessment can be viewed as anongoing process that encompasses all classroom activities learners areexpected to take part in according to the teachers’ instruction inside or

outside classrooms Obviously, learning activities which can take place

during a lesson are that students answer a question, offer a comment, read

aloud a piece of writing or write a sentence, a short paragraph, and a shortessay, their performance is assumed to evaluate by themselves or other

people to elicit how successful students are able to perform in these

activities (Mazloomi & Khabiri, 2016) Consequently, compared with

testing, assessment has a feature of broader meaning in English language

teaching and learning (ELT) On the other hand, testing is seen as a part ofadministrative procedures that take place at identifiable times in a

curriculum when students have to demonstrate their best performance to

pass certain forms of testing in which their responses are being measured

and evaluate to acknowledge their achievements in a course In a broadersense, tests are viewed as a subset of assessment that students have toundergo during their learning process (e.g., Nalliveettil & Mahasneh, 2017;

Fathi et al., 2019; Dhanarattigannon & Thienpermpool, 2022) Therefore,

tests can be regarded as useful tools but they are not only one among manyprocedures and tasks that teachers can employ during the course of learning

and teaching process In other words, teaching is likened to an outer circle

in which it contains an assessment circle inside, and the assessment circle

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again encompasses the testing circle As such, teaching triggers a series of

instruction for students to respond, then assessment occurs and finally

official tests can conduct to evaluate the learning outcomes

Legal English major students’ self-assessment of their writing skillsand use of writing strategies is crucial for their academic success andprofessional development Self-assessment enables students to recognizetheir strengths and weaknesses and to take appropriate actions to improvetheir writing skills According to a survey conducted by the National

Center for Education Statistics (NCES), students’ self-assessment of their

writing skills has a significant impact on their academic performance, asthose who rate their writing skills as high perform better academically thanthose who rate their writing skills as low (NCES, 2016)

Furthermore, the use of writing strategies, such as planning, drafting,revising, and editing, can also enhance students’ writing skills A study byDeane et al (2014) found that the use of writing strategies significantly

improved students’ writing skills, with the most effective strategies being

planning, revising, and editing The study also revealed that students whoused these strategies achieved higher scores on writing assignments than

those who did not

Legal English major students can benefit greatly from

self-assessment and the use of writing strategies, as they often have to produce

high-quality written work in their academic and professional careers.Therefore, it is essential that English majors develop a strong sense of self-awareness and continuously monitor and evaluate their writing skills Thiscan be achieved through regular reflection and feedback from peers,instructors, and writing centers

In addition to self-assessment and the use of writing strategies, thedevelopment of writing skills also requires exposure to a wide range oftexts and genres English majors should be encouraged to read extensively

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and critically, as this can help them develop a deeper understanding of

language, style, and structure Moreover, reading can also inspire students’

writing and enable them to experiment with different writing styles andtechniques

Moreover, this assessment strategy would provide teachers, materialsdesigners, and curriculum developers with useful information aboutlearners’ language and learning needs (Blanche & Merino, 1989), withoutpressuring them to undertake tedious needs analysis projects (Oscarson,

1989) Self-assessment occurs when students judge their own work to

improve performance as they identify discrepancies between current and

desired performance The use of assessment as a strategy of

self-reflection on the mistakes and weaknesses that the language studentsconduct in using the language (linguistic), organization of discourse, and

style of language use (non-linguistic), which they should improve in the

process of their learning (Marhaeni & Artini, 2015) It is considered as

innovation on the nature of testing which moves from catching what thestudents do not know into what they do It helps them to demonstrate that

they are making progress on their writing development, which can

encourage their motivation and identify their own strengths and

weaknesses (Nedzinskaite et al., 2006)

Overall, self-assessment and the use of writing strategies are crucial

for legal English major students’ academic and professional success Thesepractices can help students identify their strengths and weaknesses, develop

a sense of self-awareness, and continuously improve their writing skills

Moreover, exposure to a wide range of texts and genres can also enhance

students’ writing skills and enable them to produce high-quality writtenwork As such, English majors should be encouraged to engage in thesepractices and to take an active role in their own learning and development

In Vietnam, English writing is one of the most important skills which

benefits students from domestic as well as international publications

throughout their academic lives In addition, graduates with satisfactorywriting skills are essential in proving them to be qualified workforce Inthis sense, facilitating students with good writing techniques 1s a crucial job

of writing teachers One way to achieve it is enabling them to self-evaluatetheir own writing skills Therefore, in this paper, the researcher decided toimplement this study with K46 legal English major students at Faculty ofLegal Foreign Languages at Hanoi Law University during the second term

of the 2022-2023 academic year

2 Aims and Objectives of the study

2.1 Aims of the study

The study on investing in sophomore’s beliefs in language learning

is undertaken with these following aims:

- To investigate the level of self-assessment of English writing skillsamong legal English major students at HLU;

- To identify the common writing strategies used by legal English

major students at HLU

2.2 Objectives of the study

- To administer a questionnaire survey to legal English majorstudents at HLU to assess their self-assessment of English writing skills

- To suggest some implications for legal English major students forreference in terms of English writing skills

3 Research questions

Generally, the study aims to assess legal English major students' assessment of writing skills and writing strategies at HLU It aims to

self-identify factors that affect their ability to assess skills and use effective

strategies, and recommend ways to enhance English writing skills

- What are the perceptions of the legal English major studentstowards the application of self-assessment in writing at Hanoi LawUniversity?

- What are common writing strategies used by legal English majorstudents at Hanoi Law University?

4 Scope of the study

The study examines the perception of 54 legal English major

students who are in K46 in terms of revealing their self-assessment ofwriting skills and writing strategies affecting their legal English learningduring the second term of the 2022-2023 academic year

5 Significance of the study

The significance of this study is multi-fold Firstly, it providesinsight into the current state of English writing skills and writing strategies

of legal English major students at HLU This is beneficial for the university

to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their students in this area

and to identify areas for improvement Secondly, the study helps legalEnglish major students to become more self-aware and reflective abouttheir own writing skills and to develop a more effective writing process

Thirdly, the study contributes to the field of English language teaching and

learning by exploring the relationship between self-assessment and the use

of writing strategies Finally, the findings of this study may serve asimplications for English language policy and curriculum development inVietnam and other similar contexts

6 Methodology

In this study, a quantitative method approach was employed to

investigate the self-assessment and use of writing strategies among legal

English major students The main objective was to gain insights into thestudents' attitudes towards the challenges they face while learning Englishwriting and to gather subjective perspectives from the students themselves

To achieve this objective, the researcher-designed questionnaire was

utilized as the primary data collection tool The questionnaire was carefullydeveloped to ensure that it elicited comprehensive and accurate responses

from the participants

7 Structure of the study

The study includes 3 Parts mainly organize as follows:

The first part, Introduction, consists of research’s rationale, aims,research questions, scope, methodology, and the importance of the studyare put forward

The second part, Development, is subdivided into the followingcategories:

Chapter 1 Literature Review specifies theoretical background, as

well as related researches concerning self-assessment of writing skills and

writing strategies affecting student acquisition of legal English at HLU

Chapter 2 Methodology provides details of the data collection

instruments, procedures of data collection and procedures of data analysis —conducted at HLU

Chapter 3 Results and Discussion illustrate the detailed results of thesurvey; in specific, students’ tendency towards self-assessment of writingskills and writing strategies affecting student acquisition of legal English atHLU 1s analyzed

Chapter 4 Recommendations are proposed with an aim to address

self-assessment of writing skills and writing strategies affecting student

acquisition of legal English at HLU

The last part, Conclusion, summarizes the study’s result andidentifies limitations to the research

PART I DEVELOPMENTCHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEWThis chapter reviews the theory related to the area of self-assessment

in English teaching and learning for legal English major students, alongwith the relationship between self-assessment and writing strategies The

chapter also discusses the effectiveness of self-assessment as a tool for

improving writing skills and the challenges that students may face whenengaging in self-assessment The knowledge accumulated would be used toformulate the theoretical framework for the research

1.1 Assessment and forms of assessments

Assessment is a critical aspect of teaching and learning in anysubject area, and this is especially true in the field of English language

learning As Brown (2018) notes that assessment is a systematic process ofgathering and interpreting information about students' learning andperformance Effective assessment practices allow educators to gain insightinto students' strengths and weaknesses, monitor their progress and makeinformed decisions about instructional interventions Moreover, the

assessment provides students with feedback on their learning, which can

help motivate them to improve their performance

In the context of English writing skills, there are several types of

assessments that educators can use to evaluate students' progress Under

Zhang and Zhang (2022) evaluation, two main manners of assessment

significantly stand out: formative and summative assessment Formative

assessment, for example, is an ongoing process that provides feedback on

students’ progress and allows educators to adjust their teaching strategies asneeded This type of assessment is especially useful for language learning,where progress can be difficult to measure objectively Summativeassessment, on the other hand, is a final evaluation of a student's learningoutcomes This type of assessment is typically used to assess students'mastery of specific skills or knowledge areas and is often used to assigngrades or other measures of academic achievement

Another effective teaching and learning strategy are peer assessment,

in which students analyze the work of their peers to improve their learningoutcomes Peer evaluation, according to studies, has a beneficial effect onstudents' writing abilities Albayram (2017) discovered, for instance, that

students could improve their writing skills through self-evaluation, while

Birjandi and Siyyari (2010), and Birjandi and Tamyid (2012) demonstrated

how students could enhance their writing performance and rating precisionthrough self- and peer-assessment According to Fathi and Khodabakhsh

(2019), self- and peer evaluation can have a beneficial effect on students'

writing abilities and self-control Combining peer assessment with online

technologies (Aliyev, 2017) and analytical scoring (Herayati, 2020) can

enhance its effectiveness Additionally, peer assessment can help students

develop their English writing skills in a low-risk environment (Farahani &Hivechi, 2013) and promote self-regulated learning (Jalil et al., 2017),making it a useful tool for improving writing skills in an EFL context

In general, assessment is an essential part of successful languageacquisition According to Sahragard and Mallahi (2014), and Belachew et

al (2014), self-assessment can be deceptive, since the more proficient

writers in the group of research subjects underestimated their writing

ability, while the majority of the less proficient ones overestimated

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different aspects of theirs Teachers can develop a thorough grasp of their

student's learning needs and give them the support and direction they

require by utilizing a variety of assessment types and techniques Teacherscan assist students in acquiring the skills and knowledge they need to

succeed in their academic and career goals by regularly providing feedback

on their progress and areas for development

1.2 Self-assessment and its role in English teaching and learning

Self-assessment is an important process in English language teaching

and learning Birjandi and Siyyari (2010) defined self-assessment as “theinvolvement of students in identifying standards and criteria to apply totheir work and making judgments about the extent to which they have metthese criteria and standards” (p 23) The essential principles of self-assessment strategy development include conscious self-evaluation,reflection, learner participation, practice-based evaluation, and learners'reflection on their own work, which has gained significant attention in thefield of English teaching and learning Self-assessment has many

advantages, including learners' recognition of their problems and strong

points, control over their language learning, and enhanced motivation

Self-assessment allows students to take ownership of their learning and take

responsibility for their progress by monitoring their performance andreflecting on their strengths and weaknesses

By engaging in self-assessment, students can take ownership of their

learning progress and become more aware of their strengths andweaknesses Sharing the same opinion, Li’s finding (2016) proved that

when students are actively involved in the assessment process and have asense of ownership over their learning, they are more likely to be motivated

to improve In addition, Febriantini (2019) assumed that self-assessment

can be used to improve the competencies of students who are not achieving

expected results during the learning process, particularly 1n the

development and organization aspects

Apart from improving learning outcomes, self-assessment can alsohelp students develop important life skills For example, by encouragingstudents to reflect on their own learning and performance, self-assessmentcan help students become more self-aware and develop a growth mindset

A growth mindset is essential for success in any field, as it encouragesindividuals to embrace challenges and persist in the face of obstacles

Moreover, self-assessment can also promote metacognition, which is the

process of thinking about one's own thinking As students engage in

self-assessment, they are required to think about their own thought processes,

learning strategies, and overall learning experiences This can help studentsbecome more aware of how they learn and what strategies work best for

them As a result, students can become more efficient and effective

planners

Although self-assessment has benefits, it is difficult to execute in

English language instruction Dhanarattigannon and Thienpermpool (2022)found that some EFL learners perceived self-assessment to be a time-consuming and challenging process Based on other studies, students do nothave the necessary abilities to successfully engage in self-assessment.(Birjandi & Tamjid, 2012) Teachers might also lack the education and

assistance required to successfully adopt self-assessment 1n theirclassrooms (Hasanah, 2015)

The remedy for this situation was claimed in the finding ofFebriantini (2019), pointing out that self-assessment can be effective in

students’ competencies in these particular aspects of development and

organization, and Herayati (2020)’s study, assuming that teachers can assist

students in achieving the abilities needed through direct teaching and

modeling The belief of students that they could write an outline to

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organize their ideas before writing but could not write quickly under time

constraints, hints the fact that they need another type of selfevaluation

-possibly peer-assessment - in a low-risk environment, which Farahani andHivechi (2013) concluded in their research Students can also benefit frompeer assessment, which can help them develop their self-assessment skillsand provide them with feedback from their peers (Kuyyogsuy, 2019)

1.3 Writing strategies

Writing is a complex process that requires a range of cognitive andlinguistic skills The writing process involves composing and transforminginformation into new texts, consisting of planning, drafting, assessing,revising, editing, and writing the final draft Writing strategies can help

students to navigate this process and develop their writing skills over time

Writing product is evaluated based on purpose, content, organization,

vocabulary, sentence structure, and mechanics Theoretical framework andprevious studies related to the use of self-assessment in writing instruction

opportunities However, they lack knowledge of strategies to improve their

writing skills and are often demotivated by the fear of making errors The

study suggests that EFL teachers need to address the gaps in writing skills

development by reducing the affective filter and introducing writing

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activities that stimulate students' interest and participation Students often

rely on translation as a strategy to overcome their writing difficulties, but

this can hinder their progress EFL teachers need to incorporate dictionaryskills instruction to overcome orthographical obstacles and subject-verbagreement The author recommends that EFL teachers be given moretraining on improving writing strategy instruction and make use ofavailable web resources tailored to the needs of the classroom

Wei and Farrelly (2021) explored the use of digital tools in thewriting process of multilingual learners They found that digital tools, such

as online dictionaries and grammar checkers, can be helpful for languagelearners in improving the accuracy and fluency of their writing Theauthors suggest that teachers can integrate these digital tools into theirwriting instruction to support multilingual learners' writing development

Min and Lo (2022) investigated the role of argumentative writingand peer review in developing critical thinking in advanced-level EFLwriting They found that argumentative writing and peer review can help

students develop critical thinking skills and improve their writing quality

The authors suggest that teachers can design argumentative writing tasks

and provide structured peer review activities to promote critical thinking

and writing development among EFL students

Ferris (2015) identified several effective writing strategies forforeign language learners, such as prewriting, drafting, and revising Sheemphasized the importance of prewriting activities, such as brainstormingand outlining, in helping students generate ideas and organize their

thoughts before writing She also highlighted the value of drafting and

revising in improving the quality of students’ writing She suggested thatteachers could provide explicit instruction on these strategies and offer

feedback and support to help students apply them effectively

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Overall, these studies suggest that writing strategies play a criticalrole in foreign language learning and can help students improve theirwriting skills Digital tools, argumentative writing, peer review, prewriting,drafting, and revising are all effective strategies that teachers can use tosupport students writing development However, it is important to note thatthe implementation of these strategies may vary depending on the learners'needs, preferences, and proficiency levels Therefore, teachers must beflexible and adapt their instruction to meet the diverse needs of their

students Incorporating writing strategies into the regular teaching and

learning process can be a powerful way to support students writing

development By providing students with opportunities to practice and

develop a range of writing strategies, educators can help them to becomemore confident, competent, and independent writers

Moreover, by creating a supportive and collaborative learning

environment, educators can help students to develop a growth mindset

toward writing, in which they see mistakes as opportunities for learningand growth, rather than as failures

1.4 The relationship between self-assessment and writing strategies

According to Zhang and Zhang (2022), self-assessment is a valuableself-regulated learning strategy that can be used in foreign language writing

to help learners acquire foreign language skills Zhang and Zhang's study(2022), which adopted a quasi-experimental approach to implementing aself-assessment-based intervention in Chinese tertiary EFL writing classes,

indicated that the intervention group experienced a larger increase 1n theirholistic writing performance and rating accuracy when compared with thecomparison group The findings provide empirical evidence for thepotential value of student-centered sustainable assessment approaches, aswell as pedagogical implications for developing sustainable and capableself-assessors of writing The authors also noted that the cultural values of

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modesty and self-confidence can impede self-assessment in certain

contexts and constrain students from being honest 1n

self-assessment However, teachers' lack of assessment literacy and limitedexperience in using effective student-centered practices may lead tosuperficial implementation This was also proved in Mazloomi and Khabiri(2016) work on the use of Dynamic Self-Assessment (DSA) in writingtests, which revealed that DSA significantly affects the EFL learners’writing ability and is incrementally correlated with teacher’s ability to

evaluate the student’s competency Similarly, Dhanarattigannon and

Thienpermpool (2022) investigated the perceptions of EFL tertiary learnersregarding self-assessment on writing in English The study revealed thatstudents perceived self-assessment as a useful tool for promoting learningand enhancing their writing skills Moreover, the study found that students

who engaged in self-assessment had a better understanding of their

strengths and weaknesses and were more confident in their writingabilities

Looking to establish the effectiveness of self-assessment on students'

writing achievement compared to traditional teacher assessment more

precisely, Febriantini (2019) conducted a quasi-experimental design, using

a test in the form of an essay test, with different topics such as apologizing

letters, thanking letters, and congratulation letters, and allocated time forwriting with two classes of 44 students from SMK Almaarif Singosari,

divided into an experimental group taught using self-assessment and acontrol group taught using conventional methods The study found thatself-assessment significantly improves students' writing performance,particularly in development and organization aspects However, differentkinds of writing activities may have different effects on self-assessment.The research confirmed that self-assessment is an effective strategy forencouraging honesty and objectivity in decision-making The researchers

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suggest that teachers use self-assessment checklists and clear criteria for

assessing students' learning outcomes Prior to this research, Heidarian

(2016) investigated this academic strategy as a method for improvingIranian EFL learners’ writing skills The experiment, involving 48 femaleparticipants, was conducted and the data was collected through a Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ) on writing processes and a motivationquestionnaire, with test scores and SRQ scores used to evaluate thelearners’ writing The results showed a statistically significantimprovement in learners' writing ability and motivation

Taufiqulloh (2014) discusses the development of a self-assessmentmodel to help EFL students improve their academic writing strategies,specifically essay writing The model was developed based onmetacognitive theory and consists of four self-assessment instruments: self-edit checklist of writing dimensions, checklist of writing strategies, surveyquestionnaire of writing interest and awareness, and questionnaire oflearning monitoring strategies The model, which was developed through

analysis of theoretical and empirical studies of self-assessment in EFL

writing, encompasses twelve components, including standard competence,

basic competencies, learning indicators, instructional objective, learning

materials, mini-lesson, self-assessment instruments, feedback, writing

process, formative assessment, summative assessments, learning outcome,and reflection The self-assessment model can be an alternative model in

teaching academic writing to EFL students at the university level,particularly for students of the English Department, at PancasaktiUniversity Tegal The author concludes that self-assessment can be aneffective tool in improving writing achievement and promoting learnerautonomy, but there are some drawbacks to its implementation The teacher

did not set criteria before students were involved in self-practices in the

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classroom, and the self-assessment instruments lacked detailed information

about assessing all aspects of the essay

Belachew et al (2014) suggest that self-assessment can be beneficial

in improving the writing skills of English as a Foreign Language (EFL)students According to the study, self-assessment helps students to identifytheir own errors, set goals, and monitor their progress Furthermore,Birjandi and Siyyari (2010) compared the effectiveness of self-assessmentand peer assessment on writing performance and rating accuracy The study

found that both self-assessment and peer assessment were effective in

improving writing performance and rating accuracy However, the authors

concluded that self-assessment was more effective than peer assessment in

promoting self-reflection, personal responsibility, and metacognitive

awareness.

1.5 Summary

The chapter discusses the importance of assessment in teaching andlearning English writing skills It covers the two main types of assessment,

formative and summative, and highlights the potential benefits of self-and

peer assessment The article notes that while self-assessment can bechallenging to execute in English language instruction, instructors andstudents can benefit from training and assistance in self-evaluation The

article also emphasizes the importance of effective writing strategies andcreating a supportive and collaborative learning environment that fosters a

growth mindset toward writing Finally, the article suggests that assessment is a valuable self-regulated learning strategy for EFL writinglearners, as it can improve writing performance and promote self-reflection,personal responsibility, and metacognitive awareness

self-16

CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the researcher will provide a comprehensive analysis

of data acquired from survey questionnaires for the purpose of this study.The chapter will begin by outlining the research methods and techniquesemployed for data collection This includes a detailed description of the

research design, which served as the roadmap for the study, as well as arestatement of the research questions that guided the data collection

process Additionally, information about the participants will be presented.Following this, the researcher will discuss the instrument used for datacollection, the procedures employed for data collection, and the methods

used for data analysis in order to obtain the results of the research

2.1 Research design

The quantitative method research is basically designed to conduct a

cross-sectional study of representative legal English major students from

K46 course at Hanoi Law University during the second term of the

2022-2023 academic year The study population consists of approximately 124English students, but due to time and budget constraints, the researcher is

only able to collect information from a sample of 54 respondents selectedusing the stratified sampling formula (Slovin's formula) To make it easierfor the participants, the researcher used an active Google form link toadminister the questionnaire, which is sent to the participants' addresses

over a period of two weeks The data obtained from the questionnaire is

analyzed using IBM SPSS v.25 application The researcher utilized thefindings from the data to validate the results of the study

2.2 Research Question Restated

To orient the study, the following questions should be clarified inorder to specify the self-assessment in writing skills and the use of writingstrategies at HLU

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1 | What are the perceptions of the legal English major students

towards the application of self-assessment in writing at Hanoi LawUniversity?

2 What are common writing strategies used by legal Englishmajor students at Hanoi Law University?

2.3 Participants

The participants were selected from one course; namely K46 with

124 In order to select the samples from the large population, the researcherused the random sampling technique formula to estimate sampling size byadopting Slovin’s formula with e = +5% to choose the equivalent samplesfrom each course

N1+ N*(e)2

n=

n = number of samples

N = total population

e = error margin / margin of error

The outcomes yielded that K46 course had been selected 54 legal

English major students out of 124 ones

of Learning Strategies The four factors were intended to capture a range ofrelevant information related to the study, including personal information,perceptions of one's own writing ability, and strategies used in writing andlearning

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The questionnaires were internally constructed and underwent

content validation by four experts in legal English language teaching and

legal practitioners A dry run was conducted with a group of 30 students tovalidate the strengths and weaknesses of the questionnaires, which werethen fine-tuned accordingly To ensure internal consistency reliability, arange of confidence level (a = 0.76 — 0.95, fairly high) based on Cronbach'salpha was used to retain the statements

2.5 Procedures of data collection

Once the research instruments were prepared and permission to

conduct the study was obtained, the researcher sent an email to theparticipants containing an active link to a Google Form questionnaire Thequestionnaire contained instructions from the researchers, explained thestudy objectives and relevance, assured anonymity, and _ providedparticipants with the option to discontinue their participation at any time.The respondents were given two weeks to complete and return the

questionnaire, and an email address was provided for any queries orconcerns The researchers used a snowball sampling technique to select the

source of the research instrument and then screened the data to obtain the

desired sample size The data obtained from the questionnaire was analyzed

using IBM SPSS v.25 application

2.6 Data collection and analysis

The demographic data was collected, tabulated, analyzed andinterpreted using descriptive statistics Specially, frequency count andpercentage were used to treat the profile of the respondents Descriptivestatistics was employed to address five - Likert-scale statements to find outthe means and standard deviations relevant to the interval scales such asnever or almost never true/ never (1.0 — 1.80), usually not true/ rarely (1.81

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— 2.60), somewhat true/sometimes (2.61 — 3.40), usually true/often (3.41 —

4.20), and always or almost always true/most often (4.21 — 5.0)

2.7 Summary

This chapter specifies the research design, research questions, datacollection instrument, participants’ profile, data collection procedures, anddata analysis It is conclusive that questionnaire is suitable for datacollection within a quantitative study Statistical tools are available for theexploitation of data collected by using IBM SPSS application V.25 for thepurpose of treatment

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CHAPTER 3 RESULTS AND DICUSSION

In this chapter, the data collected through data analysis procedures of

questionnaire survey are demonstrated and discussed Simultaneously, thefindings were examined thoroughly and compared with the previousstudies to have rich, complicated, multi-dimensional ideas

3.1 Demographic information of the respondents

Table | presents the demographic information of the respondents

who took part in the study Regarding gender, the majority of theparticipants are females - 39 students - accounting for 72.2%, and the restincludes 15 male students, equivalent to 27.8% On taking their residence

into account, students mostly come from rural areas (n = 26; same as

48.1%) Next, 20 students (equal to 37%) are from urban areas, andstudents from mountainous areas make up 14.8% or 8 learners Regardingthe duration of engaging in learning English, all participants have beenlearning English for less than 15 years

Table 1 Demographic profile of the respondents

years of studying English Less than 15 years 54 100.0

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column that provides a brief description of the meaning of the mean and

standard deviation values The mean values in Table 2 range from 2.59 to

3.75, with a mean of 3.05 across all items The standard deviation valuesrange from 0.444 to 0.961, with an average of 0.711 across all items Themean value of 3.05 indicates that, on average, the participants ratedthemselves as somewhat true in terms of their self-assessment of Englishwriting skills The relatively low standard deviation values suggest that theparticipants’ self-assessments were relatively consistent

Looking at the individual items in Table 2, the participants ratedthemselves highest in the areas of using various patterns of organization (M

= 3.75; SD = 772%) and using appropriate vocabulary and word forms (M

= 3.40; SD = 755%) These ratings suggest that the participants feltconfident in their ability to write using different patterns of organization

and to choose appropriate words and forms to effectively communicate

with the reader This is a positive finding, as these are important skills in

academic writing

However, the participants rated themselves lowest in the areas of

writing a good academic research paper (M = 2.59; SD = 495%), logically

supporting and developing their thesis with their own experiences and

reasoning (M = 2.67; SD = 791%), and logically supporting and

developing their thesis with paraphrases, summaries, and quotations (M =3.02; SD = 694%) These lower ratings suggest that the participants felt

less confident in their ability to conduct research and develop and supporttheir thesis This is a concern, as these are critical skills in academicwriting and may indicate a need for additional support or training in these

areas.

Another interesting finding is the relatively low M values for writing

a clear topic sentence (M = 2.74; SD = 842%) and writing a clear thesisstatement (M = 2.78; SD = 641%) These lower ratings suggest that the

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participants may have struggled with articulating the main point orcontrolling idea of their writing, which is essential for effectivecommunication with the reader In terms of the standard deviation values,several items had relatively high values, indicating greater variability inparticipants’ self-assessments For example, the items on effectively writingunder time constraints (M = 2.87; SD = 961%) and using their ownindependent thinking in their writing (M = 2.99; SD = 969%) had higherstandard deviations, suggesting that some participants may have felt moreconfident in these areas than others.

In general, students who took part in this survey do not think they

experience any difficulties or hardship when preparing, writing, and

revising their own academic paperwork by themselves Table 2 reveals thatstudents have implemented multiple writing and self-assessing strategiesinto their work Table 2 shows the participants' confidence levels in variouswriting skills such as writing clear topic sentences, organizing ideas

logically, using academic style and tone, and conducting research Themajority of participants reported confidence in writing good academic

paragraphs with clear topic sentences, using appropriate vocabulary, and

conducting library research The correlation between students' extended

exposure to a wide range of texts and tones, and their self-assessed writing

ability is consistent with the findings of some studies of Albayram (2017);

Birjandi and Tamyjid (2012); Birjandi and Siyyari (2010) In terms of thelogical arrangement of paragraphs and critical thinking to support theirthesis, students seem to be less confident since they have less format and

paperwork to compare their own improvement, which was _ similarly

mentioned by Birjandi and Tamyid (2012), assuming that students do nothave the necessary abilities to apply themselves to self-assessment.Participants also reported partial confidence in their ability to use a

ZA