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vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION ………………………………………………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………… ii ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………… iii APPENDICES……………………………………………………………………… iv ABBREVIATION………………………………………………………………… v LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES……………………………………………… vi TABLES OF CONTENT…………………………………………………………… vii PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale………………………………………………………………………… Aims of the study………………………………………………………………… Research questions……………………………………………………………… Scopes of the study……………………………………………………………… Significance of the study………………………………………………………… Methodology…………………………………………………………………… Design of the study……………………………………………………………… PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW viii 1.1 Theoretical background of task based approach……………………………… 1.1.1 Definition of tasks…………………………………………………………… 1.1.2 Types of tasks within Task-based language teaching …………………………… 1.1.3 The principles of Task-based language teaching………………………………… 1.1.4 The role of teacher and learner in Task-based language teaching…………… 1.1.5 The performance of task…………………………………………………………… 10 1.2 Theoretical background of writing skills……………………………………… 12 1.2.1 Definitions and roles of writing…………………………………………………… 12 1.2.2 Types of writing……………………………………………………………………… 14 1.2.3 Approaches of teaching writing skills…………………………………………… 14 1.2.4 Marking scheme of test……………………………………………………………… 16 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Setting of the study…………………………………………………………… 21 2.2 Subjects………………………………………………………………………… 23 2.3 Data collection………………………………………………………………… 23 2.3.1 Questionnaire ………………………………………………………………………… 23 2.3.2 Pre test………………………………………………………………………………… 23 2.3.3 Post test……………………………………………………………………………… 24 2.3.4 Interview……………………………………………………………………………… 24 ix CHAPTER III: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Data analysis…………………………………………………………………… 25 3.1.1 Data analysis of students’ and teachers’ survey questionnaire……………… 25 3.1.1.1 Data analysis of students’ survey questionnaire……………………………… 25 3.1.1.2 Data analysis of teachers’ survey questionnaire……………………………… 30 3.1.2 Data analysis of students and teachers’ direct interview……………………… 34 3.1.2.1 Data analysis of the interview for the students……………………………… 34 3.1.2.2 Data analysis of the interview for the teachers……………………………… 35 3.1.3 Data analysis of pre and post tests……………………………………………… 36 3.2 Findings ……………………………………………………………………… 38 3.3 Suggested techniques for application of the task based approach to improve 8th 41 graders’ writing skills 3.3.1 3.3.1 Suggestions for the teachers………………………………………………………… 41 3.3.2 Suggested techniques to motivate students’ writing…………………………… 41 3.3.2.1 Extra tasks………………………………………………………………………… 41 3.3.2.2 Group work………………………………………………………………………… 42 3.3.2.3 Using games……………………………………………………………………… 42 PART III: CONCLUSION 4.1 Summary of the study………………………………………………………… 43 x 4.2 Limitation and suggestion(s) for further research……………………………… 44 4.2.1 Limitation of the research…………………………………………………………… 44 4.2.2 Suggestions for further research…………………………………………………… 44 REFERENCES 45 APPENDIX PART I INTRODUCTION Rationale The general goal of teaching a foreign language is to train students‟ communicative abilities English writing is one of the most communicative abilities among others such as listening, speaking and reading and it is also one of the most difficult skills that students get at school According to David Nunan (1979:35) “Writing can be a tough activity for students, even though the writing activity is in their first language Learning to write fluently and expressively is the most difficult of the four macro skills for all language users regardless of whether the language in question is a first, second or foreign language” There appear many reasons why students are encountering too much difficulty in writing something in English such as the inappropriate teaching methodology, students‟ low motivation on learning English, and limited time of teaching and learning process Among these factors, teaching methodology is considered as the most manageable one to be studied influencing directly students‟ writing difficulties since motivation is difficult to measure and time is a fixed factor The boring and repetitive teaching method can‟t arouse students‟ interest in writing English One of the other reasons I decided to study this thesis is the fact that students graded are considered as the first class to begin learning how to write long texts related to real contexts with a little control They are asked to write an invitation and replies, a process, an event happened in the past, a brief personal letter and so on These situations often happen in daily life However, due to lack of vocabulary and new structures, students make many mistakes in spelling, punctuation, grammar Generally their common errors focus on syntax and semantics Because lesson time is limited and class size is large, teachers can not cover all the students‟ mistakes Students are given much control before writing but less guide or help from teachers after their writing As a result, mistakes repeat again and again whenever students write Whereas many other students pay a little attention to writing, or even no interest in it Therefore their writing skill is hardly improved At present many approaches are being applied in teaching writing skill such as genre based approach, process based approach ect… At the secondary school, these approaches are combined However in this study I chose the task based approach as the best to improve writing to the 8th students at Quang Vinh secondary school which is recognized to be able to adapt this approach Task based approach has been widely used since the 1980s, emphasizing “learning while doing” and regards students themselves as the center of teaching Writing lessons in the textbook are mainly based on the tasks, but teaching methods doesn‟t bring effectiveness On contrary, it causes students tiredness, boredom and laziness when learning writing skill The author carried out an action research on the subjects of 8th students at Quang Vinh secondary school to find out how effective this approach can bring After a two- week period of practice, students‟ writing is significantly improved and they become more interested in writing class as well as have more confidence in writing something in English Aims of the study The study is expected to get the following aims: – - to find out the difficulties in the learning of writing skills that are facing 8th graded students and teachers at Quang Vinh secondary school after first writing lessons? – - to explore how the task based language teaching is implemented in classroom to improve the 8th graded students‟ writing Research questions To achieve the above aims, the following questions should be answered in the study: - What are the difficulties in teaching and learning the writing skills of teachers and 8th graded students at Quang Vinh secondary school after first writing lessons? - What is the current teaching method applied to teaching writing skills for the 8th grader after first lessons in Quang Vinh secondary school? - - What is the effectiveness of application of task based approach in teaching writing skills to 8th graders at Quang Vinh secondary school? These research questions served as a guide in the findings of the study Scopes of the study The study was conducted to investigate the application of the task based approach in teaching writing skill to 8th graded students at Quang Vinh secondary So, first of all the author tried to find out the difficulties of 8th students in studying writing skill as well as the current teaching methods implemented there However, the study can‟t cover all difficulties due to its diversity; it focuses on the students‟ difficulties in learning writing skill and the ones related to teachers‟ teaching methods The author doesn‟t also go into deeply all approaches being implemented in classroom to teaching the writing, instead she focuses on the task based language teaching and how it is performed to improve 8th graded students writing skill at Quang Vinh secondary school To cover the scopes of the study, a survey questionnaire was distributed to the number of 120 8th- graded students selected randomly from three classes and English teachers, aiming to collect their difficulties, opinion, attitude and suggestions on learning to write English Moreover, an interview is also conducted with the participation of students selected upon their result of post- test and one, those who helped to observe the class to investigate what the author has actually done during the program The practice of task based writing teaching was done on during two weeks Significance of the study Firstly, the study was conducted to investigate how the task based language teaching has effect on the 8th students‟ writing skills Through action research applying the task based approach, student‟s writing skills at the Quang Vinh secondary school improve after the program Secondly, the study matches the modern approaches to language learning with the application of the task based approach The study will be the first in finding out some activities to support the tasks in the English textbook at the Quang Vinh secondary school Methodology The study was designed to use an action reseach which the collection and analysis of data related to the author‟s teaching practice According to Michael J Wallace the aim of the action research is “not to turn the teacher into a researcher, but to help him or her to continue to develop as a teacher, using action research as a tool in this process” (p.18) Firstly, the author observed the class to see the problem during first three weeks Then, based on books, journals, newspapers and some sources on the internet she read, the author carried out the collection of the data and practicing her teaching Finally, she summerized some findings and gave suggestions to make full use of the task based approach in teaching writing skills to the 8th graders at Quang Vinh secondary school Two methods used to collect the data are qualitative and quantitative The qualitative method was used to get information about students‟ opinions, attitude to learning and teaching writing skills (before and after the task based language teaching was implemented) including: questionnaire and interview The data then was interpreted and analyzed The quantitative method was used to evaluate the students‟ level in writing English including pre and post tests Both are non-controlling writing that means; free writing which asked students to write a short composition about a given topic in limited time of 20 minutes Design of the study The study consists of three main parts: - The introduction gives the background, the limitation of thesis, the research method, and the significance of the study This part helps provide a general knowledge about the study - The development is divided into three chapters numbered from one to three Chapter one provides the theoretical background as well as the most general review of previous researches In other words, it gives the foundation for deeper and broader insight into the topic in consideration Chapter two provides the information of the study context It includes the reality of teaching and studying English writing skills in Quang Vinh secondary school, teachers and students and the writing lessons which were taught based on tasks Chapter three deals with some findings and gives some recommendations to make writing teaching better - The last part “conclusion” summarizes the main points studied in the thesis and emphasizes some suggestions for further research PART II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background of task based approach 1.1.1 Definition of tasks The term “task” appeared since the twentieth century Since its birth until now, there exist a lot of different definitions about “task” Brabhu, an Indian linguist, is the first person who raised the definition of “task” He defines a task as "an activity which required learners to arrive at an outcome from given information through some process of thought, and which allowed teachers to control and regulate that process" (p.24) In the other word, tasks are carried out as a result of processing and understanding language like a response in which teachers play role in introducing a variety of tasks, evaluating to what extent their students complete them Whereas Nunan (1989) defines a task as “a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form" (p.10) In his opinion tasks is the outcome of the process to understand, solve the problem and use language for communicative purpose It is the completeness with focusing on meaning rather than form It means that meaning is paid more attedtion to; however it cannot be separated from form In contrast, meaning always goes with form to express communicative ideas, thought and attitude According to Willis (1996) “tasks are always activities where the target language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose (goal) in order to achieve an outcome” (p.23) She gave her view that “the aim of tasks is to create a repurpose for language use and to provide a natural context for language study" (p.1) However, she didn‟t yet clarify that task can be any communicative activities, of any various kinds available in the textbook and practiced in the classroom Skehan (1998:95) highlighted four basic features of tasks He wrote that task is "an activity in which: meaning is primary; there is some communication problem to solve; there is some sort of relationship to comparable real world activities; task completion has some priority; and the assessment of task performance is in terms of task outcome" Another definition is that “a task is a device that guides learners to engage in certain types of information-processing that are believed to be important for effective language use and/or for language acquisition from some theoretical standpoint” (Ellis, 2000, p.197) It means that learners use the linguistic knowledge to communicate effectively through the information processing Like other language activities, a task can engage productive or receptive, and oral or written skills While the above definitions of the task are different in some way, they all emphasize that task in classrom is the use of second language in term of communicative view, in which focuses more on meaning than grammatical form In other words, learners are free to use whatever language they want to convey their intended meaning and maintain interaction It is applied in all skills for learning a target language with a variety of real world situations and in the end it brings about an outcome through the exchange of meanings presented or reported by learners … 1.1.2 Types of tasks within Task-based language teaching Ellis (2003) classified tasks into the following types: a Unfocused Tasks An unfocused task is one that encourages learners to use English freely without concentrating on just one or two specific forms (i.e., a replication activity) b Pedagogic (rehearsal, activation) Pedagogical tasks are the tasks which occur in classroom rather than outside the world Pedagogic tasks can be: Rehearsal tasks Example: You are an airline employee Use the information sheet (provided separately) to answer your partner's questions Activation tasks ... fixed factor The boring and repetitive teaching method can? ?t arouse students‟ interest in writing English One of the other reasons I decided to study this thesis is the fact that students graded... teaching writing skills to the 8th graders at Quang Vinh secondary school Two methods used to collect the data are qualitative and quantitative The qualitative method was used to get information... Moreover, the teacher should help students to formulate what they want to write, but not intervene to correct errors Success in achieving the goals of task increases students'' motivation There are three