Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng các hoạt động nhóm để nâng cao kỹ năng viết đoạn văn tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Checklists of writing tasks in Lifelines- Elementary Table 2: Students’ view on writing lesson before and after the experiment Table 3: The difficulti

THROUGH COLLABORATIVE WRITING ACTIVITIES

Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng các hoạt động nhóm để nâng cao kỹ năng viết đoạn văn tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

THROUGH COLLABORATIVE WRITING ACTIVITIES

Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng các hoạt động nhóm để nâng cao kỹ năng viết đoạn văn tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: PROF NGUYỄN HÒA

Hanoi, 2014

My thanks are also offered to all my respected lecturers in the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, ULIS, VNU, Hanoi for their informative, valuable lectures and suggestions that have enlightened my research path of the study

I am also grateful to all my colleagues and students at TMC for their enthusiastic participants in my research

Last but not least, I would like to show my big gratitude to my family, my relatives, especially my husband who encourage and help me to carry out the study

Hanoi, August 2014

It is hope that the thesis will make some contribution to the improvement of learning and teaching writing skill based on collaborative activities These activities help students feel confident to write paragraph writings Moreover, they have more opportunities, are more comfortable and more interested in collaborative activities

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CWA: Collaborative Writing Activities

TMC: Thai Nguyen Medical College

CL: Collaborative Learning

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Checklists of writing tasks in Lifelines- Elementary

Table 2: Students’ view on writing lesson before and after the experiment

Table 3: The difficulties of students on writing lesson before and after the experiment

Table 4: Students’ opinions about the way they like to do writing in class

Table 5: Students’ opinions of writing in English

Table 6: Students’ opinions on collaborative writing activities

Figure 1: Stages of the process approach to writing

Figure 2: Pre- test results of both groups

Figure 3: Post- test results of both groups

Figure 4: Pre and post test results of the experimental group

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of abbreviations vi

List of tables and figures vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Methods of the study 2

6 Design of the study 2

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical Backgrounds of paragraph writing performance 4

1.1.1 What is paragraph writing performance .4

1.1.2 Approaches to teaching paragraph writing skills in foreign language… … 5

1.2 Theoretical backgrounds of Collaborative writing activities 7

1.2.1 Definition of Collaborative Writing 7

1.2.2 Roles of collaborative activities in writing 7

1.2.3 Collaborative writing activities 8

1.2.4 Using collaborative writing in the classroom 9

1.2.5 Elements of collaborative writing 9

1.3 Previous studies of collaborative writing 11

1.4 Concluding remarks 12

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Restatement of Research question 13

2.2 Setting of the study and Participants 13

2.2.1 Setting of the study 13

2.2.2 Participants……… 15

2.2.3 The study 15

2.2.4 The experimental program………… ………17

2.3 Data collection 17

2.3.1 Data collection instruments 17

2.3.2 Data collection procedures 18

2.3.3 Data analysis procedures 18

2.3.4 Concluding remarks 19

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Findings and discussions 20

3.1.1 From the writing tests 20

3.1.2 From the questionnaires 25

3.2 Correlation between questionnaire and test scores………….… … ….31

3.3 Concluding remarks 32

PART C: CONCLUSION 1 Recapitulation (optional) 33

2 Conclusions 33

3 Limitations of the study 34

4 Pedagogical implications 34

5 Suggestions for further study 36

REFERENCES 37 APPENDICES

Appendix 1 .I Appendix 2 .II Appendix 3 .III Appendix 4 .V Appendix 5 .VI Appendix 6 .VII Appendix 7 .VIII Appendix 8 .IX Appendix 9 .XI Appendix 10 .XIV Appendix 11 .XVII

Moreover, teaching methods in writing are not suitable Students often work individually This leads to bad results There are some methods have applied in teaching writing at TMC However, CWA do not seem to be applied here Meanwhile, CWA are catching on CWA seem to attract a lot of attention and become more popular Students who work in collaborative work also appear more satisfied with the classes In writing, collaborative activities can involve not only brainstorming, but writing together and correcting one another’s writing as well Thus, I want to investigate whether the use of CWA can be effective in developing their English paragraph writing This is the main reason that

encourage me to choose the thesis: “Improving English Paragraph writing performance

by the second- year students at Thai Nguyen Medical College through collaborative writing activities”

2.Aims/ Objectives of the study

The study is aimed at:

- Investigating whether the use of CWA can be effective in developing their English paragraph writing skills

- Providing some suggestions and implications for the improvement of writing teaching at TMC through CWA

3 Research Questions

This study is implemented to find answers to the following research question:

“How collaborative learning contribute to improving paragraph- writing performance by the second- year- students at Thai Nguyen Medical College?”

4 Scope of the study

The author only carries out this study involving 40 second- year- students at TMC The study also mainly focuses on the effectiveness in using collaborative writing and the activities used in helping students work well in writing lessons to the second year students

6 Design of the study

The study consists of the following three main parts:

Part A, the introduction: the presenting the rationale, aims, research question, scope, methods and design of the study

Part B, the development is organized into three chapters

Chapter I presents the basic theoretical background of paragraph writing performance, collaborative writing activities, using collaborative activities in teaching and learning writing and previous studies of collaborative writing

Chapter II presents the methodology, setting of the study, participants, provides an overview of the current situation of teaching and learning paragraph writing at TMC and data collection

Chapter III presents some findings and recommendations, discusses the finding of the research and suggests practical recommendations for improvement of using collaborative writing activities in the writing class of the second year students at TMC

Part C is the conclusion which includes the recapitulation, conclusions of the study, limitations of the study, pedagogical implication and suggestions for further studies are also included in this part

The thesis has been done firstly to make some contribution to the improvement of teaching paragraph writing at TMC The other aim of the study is that it suggests some suitable collaborative writing activities to improve writing skills for students The thesis also gives us more opportunities to study and research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the basic theoretical background of paragraph writing performance,

collaborative writing activities, using collaborative activities in teaching and learning writing and previous studies of collaborative writing

1.1 Theoretical backgrounds of paragraph writing performance

1.1.1 What is paragraph writing performance?

There are numerous definitions of paragraph writing performance by different methodologists Each definition is a reflection of the underlying theories or perspective

that the authors assume According to Scott ( 2008), a paragraph is an element that allows

to develop a single idea and that it is a group of sentences that are related among them, in which a though can be expressed, defined and developed in a coherent way In addition, Scott and Denny (1909), paragraph writing can be regarded as the “unit

of discourse developing a single idea It consists of a group or series of sentences closely related to one another and to the thought expressed by the whole group or series” and” Devoted, like the sentence, to the development of one topic, a good paragraph is also, like

a good essay, a complete treatment in itself." In language teaching, Tribble (1996: 3) considered paragraph writing as “ a language skill which is difficult to acquire”

The above definitions different views of different authors on paragraph writing I subscribe to the views that a paragraph is a basic unit of organization in writing in which a group of related sentences develops one main idea, the topic of the paragraph, paragraph writing performance itself may imply an act, a process or a skill, which needs practice and study to develop

*Structure of a Paragraph: Walter (2000) mentions that the structure of a paragraph

must contain three parts : topic sentence, body sentences, and concluding sentence The

topic sentence is one sentence that introduces the topic and expresses the main idea of a

paragraph Supportive sentences support topic sentence The writing should be precise, correct purposeful, clear, concise and meaningful The concluding sentence: The last

sentence of your paragraph is important and it often restates the idea expressed in the topic

sentence There are various characteristics of good paragraph: unity, coherence, length, and

adequate development

1.1.2 Approaches to teaching paragraph writing skills in foreign language

Ann Raimes (1983, pp 5- 10) presents following approaches to teaching writing:

(i) The Control - to- Free Approach

The Control- to- Free Approach in writing emphasized speech and writing served to achieve mastery of grammatical or syntactic rules Here, the students are given sentence exercises, then paragraphs to copy or manipulate grammatically These controlled compositions then followed by correction of errors, so that it can lead to the free composition Overall, this approach focuses on accuracy rather than fluency

(ii) The Free- Writing Approach

The Free- Writing Approach focuses more on fluency, and quantity of writing than quality The emphasis in this approach is on content and fluency rather than on accuracy and form This approach encouraged students to write as much and quickly as possible without worrying about grammar and spelling It is based on the principle that if once ideas are there, the organization follows

(iii) The Grammar- Syntax- Organization Approach

This approach focuses on simultaneous work on more than one composition feature It means that writing cannot be seen as composed of separate skills which are learned one by one Students need to pay attention to organization while they also work on the necessary grammar and syntax In general, this approach is the combination of the purpose and the form of the writing

(iv) The Communicative Approach

The Communicative Approach aims at communicative competence, so it stresses the purpose of the writing and the audience for it Students should have a reason for writing and think about whom they wrote to or for Helping students comprehend that a successful piece of writing must attain its communicative purposes in the advantage of the communicative approach Thus, this approach is quite functional in nature, which can provide the actual experiences to the learners

(v) The product approach

This approach can be used successfully in teaching writing for beginners All learners cannot write well as soon as they begin the course but can take progress step by step with imitation and repetition from the textbooks or the teacher Additionally in teaching writing, the important role of using the models for text analysis and as a basis for thinking about the purposes and readership of a text cannot be denied especially when teaching writing is integrated with the teaching of reading So it is a natural process in writing when the writer bases himself on a model or an example of a text that he intends to write and then adapts it for their specific purpose

(vi) The Process Approach

Unlike the product approach, the process approach focuses on thinking and writing processes The product approach sees the language learners as creators of language, decision makers of the message and content (Brown 1994: 320) It is argued by Nunan

(1991 : 87) that while the product-oriented approach aims at developing the leamer's writing skill mainly at sentence-level, the process-oriented approach aims at language at discourse- level In the view of Hedge (1990), the process contains a lot of stages which

can be illustrated as follows: "being motivated to write - getting ideas together - planning and outlining – making notes - making a first draft – revising replanning redrafting - editing and getting ready for publication"

( checking grammar/ lexis/ surface features: for example, punctuation, spelling,

layout, quotation conventions, references)

Figure 1: Stages of the process approach to writing

Basically, there are some approaches mentioned above However, I decide to use the process approaches in the experiment aims to improve students’ abilities in paragraph writing based on the processing of paragraph writing

1.2 Theoretical backgrounds of collaborative writing activities

1.2.1 Definition of collaborative writing

According to Nunan (1991) collaborative writing can be defined that is a term referring to the way the teacher divides the students into groups to accomplish a writing task together

In addition, Karell (2002) also stated that “ collaborative writing is a form of 'writing together' or 'multiple authorship' and refers to acts of writing in which two or more individuals consciously work together to produce a common text”

Additionally, Greenall (1984) suggests that collaborative writing means a “kind of cooperation among members of the class, who are divided into convenient- sizes groups for the purpose of completing a writing task” In general, collaborative writing is the way that a

group of people working together

1.2.2 Roles of collaborative activities in writing

According to Brookes and Gundy (1990: 69), the reasons for employing group writing are that it encourages collaborative writing, enables group to compare their work with that of other groups In addition, Harmer (1991: 245) states that working in collaborative writings students have a greater possibility of discussion in which students really use language to communicate with each other

In writing skill, collaborative activities help students:”exchange information in an open- ended, real life context to fulfil personal goals” (Savova and Donato, 1991, cited in Reid,

1993: 156) Moreover, collaborative activities are said to help shy or weak students (Cottrel, 2001) When working in group, they feel secure The felling of security that helps them write more confidently

Last but not least, in the view of Reid (1993), when students write or correct together, there

is both cooperation and competition, additional psychological motivations

1.2.3 Collaborative writing activities

Kagan’s (1994) presents following collaborative writing activities:

*Think- Pair- Share: A question posted by the teacher Individuals pair up during the second step and discuss their thoughts In the third step, the pairs share their responses with other pairs, other teams, or the entire group

*Numbered Heads Together: A team of four is established Each member is given numbers

of 1, 2, 3, and 4 There are questions for the group Groups work together to answer the question so that each member has the answer Teacher calls out a number (two) and each number two is asked to give the answer

* Writearound: For creative writing or summarization, give a sentence starter Ask all students in each team to finish that sentence

* Team- Pair- Solo: Students work as a team to solve a problem or accomplish a task Next, the teams break into pairs and students work on either the same problem, or a related one Finally, the pairs break up and the students work individually to complete the same or

a related task

*Partners: The class is divided into teams of four The teams are divided in half One half

of the class will study one topic while the other studies something else Students can make

a quiz about what they are studying The group are rejoined and the students teach and quiz each other about what they learned

*4S Brainstorming: Students in the group have roles: Speed Captain (prompts more ideas), Supper Supporter (encourages/ recognizes all ideas), Synergy Guru (encourages members

to build upon one another’s idea), and Secretary (writes ideas) Members carry out their respective roles while the team generates a variety of possible responses

*Circle the Sage: Find the “ sages” on a topic in your class These can be students that did well on difficult homework problem or have special experience Then, break class into teams and send each team member to a different sage to learn about the topic Students return to their teams and discuss what they have learned

There are seven collaborative activities listed above These activities are used appropriately

in the experiment for each different lesson Hope that these activities can be motivated, encouraged and improved students’ writing skills

1.2.4 Using collaborative work in the classroom

Writing is seen as a process that comprises 3 stages: pre - writing, while - writing and post

- writing

1.2.4.1 Collaborative work in Pre - writing stage

Pre-writing activities are necessary for students because these help students prepare ideas, materials and helps them explore many things on the given topic In this stage students are often asked to brainstorm, outline, debate and interview, these require students take part in either oral or written activities By doing those, students can develop linguistic skills Group work in this stage is an effective way to assist students in generating, sharing and focusing ideas, planning the content and organizing the text

1.2.4.2 Collaborative work in While - writing stage

It is common that students often perform this stage individually However, group work can

be useful in which each member is responsible for a certain part in the writing pieces

1.2.4.3 Collaborative work in Post - writing stage

This stage involves the procedures of giving feedbacks for the written version Feedbacks may be given by peers which can be done in groups or by teacher Peer correction is very important because it can help students develop their critical ability and understand how other readers respond to their writing

1.2.5 Elements of collaborative writing

According to Johnson and Johnson (1989), there are five elements of collaborative learning that help students to increase their achievement and to improve, as follows:

makes their social environment more supportive and thus helps them to be more motivated, confident and excellent in academic achievement (Nunan, 1992; Kohonen, 1992)

to others

1.2.5.3 Face- to- Face Interaction

Face-to-face interaction is fostered by the positive interdependence element It can be defined as facilitating, supporting and encouraging individuals to assist each other’s efforts (Johnson & Johnson, 1987) Face-to-face interaction has several effects on individual members of the learning group (Johnson & Johnson, 1987)

1.2.5.4 Social skills

The fourth important element of successful collaborative learning is using the appropriate social skills Students can learn together successfully when they know and trust each other, communicate accurately, support and help each other, resolve any conflicts and solve problems successfully (Johnson & Johnson, 1991)

1.2.5.5 Group processing

This element is a reflection on sessions of collaborative learning in order to determine whether the actions of the group’s members are helpful or if there is a need to make some changes Group processing is therefore important because it gives the students the opportunity to evaluate and maintain their social skills and receive some feedback on their practice during the sessions Moreover, in this stage teachers have an essential role

to play in order to help students achieve successful collaborative groups For example, observations of the students are a good way to find out whether the students understand

all the structures, information, strategies and the elements of collaborative learning (Graham, 2005)

1.3 Previous studies of collaborative writing

During the last three decades, the positive advantages of collaborative learning and its effective role in improving students’ skills have become clear in many fields of learning, such as writing, second language acquisition, natural and social studies (Slavin & Madden, 1999; Shachar & Sharan, 1994; Foley & O’Donnell, 2002)

Gooden-Jones (1996), he examined how the students developed their writing proficiency through a collaborative learning strategy The students were taught the collaborative learning strategy for six weeks They were also asked to keep a journal about their learning experiences The researcher found that 80% of the students had passed the written achievement test (WAT) administered by the college An analysis of the students’ essays indicated that the collaborative learning strategy had led to an improvement in their writing skills

Various researchers have studied the influence of collaborative learning on improving writing skills.Ann Cocks, Faisal Mohyuddin, and Stephanie Solis ( 2006) examined the effectiveness of using groups in improving English writing skills by making a comparison between texts written in groups with others written individually Researchers found that writing has a strong social dimension and that when students work together and are accountable to one another, their work is better,the students who worked collaboratively spent a great deal of time writing their compositions but produced short texts compared to the students who wrote individually Another finding was that writing collaboratively helped students to produce better grammatical and complex written texts Shull (2001) examined the effectiveness of the collaborative learning strategy He thus used a quasi-experimental approach that included teaching expository compositions to the experimental and control groups After conducting qualitative tests, Shull found that the writing of students taught using a collaborative learning strategy had improved more than that of the control group

Another study, In Viet Nam,Vu Thi Viet Huong ( 2008), study aimed at finding out how far group writing can make a significant difference in teaching writing skill at Vinh University After the study , this course has demonstrated that supportive learning environment in the classroom context with the help of peer and teacher could stimulate learners’ motivation and develop their confidence in learning Moreover, teamwork writing has proved to be exploited the talent of each individual student, stimulating collaboration among learners and promoting creative thinking, which tends to be the determinant factors for them to become academically and socially successful adults

1.4 Concluding remarks

The purpose of this chapter is to review the literature related to the collaborative learning strategy The discussion of the theoretical framework of writing and CWA reveal that, CL should be regarded as a potential solution for teaching writing skills Though CWA, students become more effective writer The findings of previous studies have shown that

CL has a positive influence at some stages of the writing process

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is devoted to a brief presentation of the research It consists of the description

of the participants and setting of the study, the tool for data collection, and the second year writing program used in this study

2.1 Restatement of Research questions

In order to investigate the effectiveness of CWA on the second year students in their English paragraph writing performances at TMC, the researcher attempted to find out the answers to the following question:

“How collaborative learning contribute to improving paragraph- writing performance by the second- year- students at Thai Nguyen Medical College? “

2.2 Setting of the study and Participants

2.2.1 Setting of the study

2.2.1.1 Overview of the current teaching and learning English writing at TMC

TMC is found in 1966 in Tan Thinh ward, Thai Nguyen city- a mountainous province in the northeast of Viet Nam So far, the college has already educated and trained thousands

of health workers in three disciplines: nursing, pharmacy and midwifery

Most of the students at TMC come from the rural or mountainous areas, where the living standard is low and the condition to study English is very poor

At TMC, English is not majors but a compulsory subject in the courses The subject is graded into two major stages: the Basic English and English for specific purposes

2.2.1.2 The second year writing program

Writing program for the second year English classes at TMC mainly supplies students with knowledge and skills of English paragraph writing The text books used for the second year writing program are Lifelines– Elementary by Tom Hutchinson which include student’s book and workbook The structure of each unit focuses on four skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing In the book, writing activities always follow the reading text, which function as a model for writing activities Some guidelines and prompts are also provided below that writing task

2.2.1.3 Writing materials

The main English writing material for the second year students at TMC is Lifelines- Elementary The writing program with the aims of improve students’ abilities in paragraph writing There are totally fourteen units in fourteen writing lessons Writing is the last and the most challenging skills in each unit The required competences of writing lessons in each lesson put after three skills because it is a productive skill and bases on other skills input The required competences and objectives of writing lesson in each unit are shown in the following table:

No Units Required English paragraph writing tasks

1 Getting started Write a paragraph of personal information

2 People Write a paragraph about yourself

3 Descriptions Write a description of your family

4 Work and play Write a paragraph about your abilities

5 Likes and dislikes Write a paragraph about your meals

6 Daily life Write a magazine article about a member of your family or a friend

7 Places Write a description of your home (or your ideal home)

8 Entertainment Write a description of your week

9 Survivors Write a paragraph about something that happened in the past

10 Travel Write about something that happened to you on a journey or a

holiday

11 Fashion Write a paragraph compare what you normally do with what you’re

doing today

12 health Write the story from the creatures’ point of view

13 Winners Write a paragraph about a famous person that you admire ( use

”going to”)

14 Experiences Write a paragraph Imagine you have been on three expeditions

Table 2: Checklist of writing tasks in Lifelines- Elementary

2.2.2 Participants

The participants in this study are 40 second- year students from classes CD3H4 and CD7A3 at TMC in Tan Thinh ward, Thai Nguyen city They are aged from 19 to 21, in which there are 32 female and 8 male students They all have been learning English for three years at high school and one year of General English at TMC They are divided into two groups: the Experimental group and the Control group The distribution of these students in each group is nearly equal That is the students in each group are similar in their background The experimental group (group E) has 20 students and the control group (group C) also includes 20 students To those students, English is not their majors but a compulsory subject in the courses

TMC is a public school with an enrollment of over 6000 students The students taking part

in this study come from different areas in Vietnam They are mainly from villages in the countryside; even came from mountainous provinces such as Yen Bai, Lao Cai, Lai Chau, Cao Bang, Bac Kan, etc Therefore, it is not difficult to realize that most students are not

so good at English in general and at language skills in particular, they have difficulties in mastering four skills, especially writing skills which students find most challenging and boring All of students have learnt English for at least seven years at secondary and high schools, especially some of them have learnt English for nine years The levels of participation of the two groups in learning English in general and in learning writing in particular are relatively equal

To get the aims of the study, an English teacher is asked to take part in the study She is well- trained and quite experienced in teaching English She helps me to teach students in Control group in the traditional method

2.2.3 The study

As mentioned above, although paragraph writing plays an important role in the program However, students find it difficult and boring So, to develop their motivation is not an easy task To turn the situation around, the other teachers and I at TMC have tried to adopt

the method of using collaboration in writing lessons

The study is aimed at helping the students to develop writing proficiency so that they can produce a good English paragraph writing at the end of the experiment In addition, this

method is expected to increase interest in students in learning English, especially writing

The experiment lasts for eight weeks in the second year program During this time, the students learn how to write good paragraphs though different given topics The students in the control group are taught as usual, ie, in individually, and the students in the experimental group are involved in variety of collaborative writing activities

2.2.4 The experimental program

During the eight weeks of the study are assigned for teaching experimental group how to write paragraph through practicing the process approach, based on the stages of writing and the associated collaborative writing activities in each stage, while the traditional teacher- centered approach is employed in the control group According to Johnson and Johnson (1987), collaborative learning does not mean simply seating students side by side

to discuss and complete the work or asking one member of the group to finish the task by him/ herself Collaborative learning means using elements and activities of CL effectively

in order to produce and complete the work successfully

*In Pre- writing stage: CWA are used mainly in this stage to brainstorm, discuss, collect and contribute their ideas together for purposes of improving students writing skills in all items: organization, development, cohesion, structure, vocabulary and mechanics

“Number Heads Together”,“Think- Pair- Share”,“4s Brainstorming”,”Partners” are

used in pre- stage to improve students’ vocabulary To help them enrich their vocabulary from groupmates to make sentences and also make up paragraphs easily

On the other hand,“Writearound” helps students to develop the writing cohesion Students

have to brainstorm to find out ideas and make ideas in the complete sentences This activity is a good way to help students write a good paragraph

Others, “Writearound”,“Number Heads Together”,“Team- Pair- Solo “help to improve

students’ paragraph organization and developments to organized their ideas and produce outlines for the paragraph

*While- writing: non collaborative activities here In this stage, students write individually Students use the ideas and vocabulary they have collected together during the pre- writing stage in their writing without asking the other members for help

*Post- writing: “Peer response” is used in this stage to revising the consistency of

sentences, make sure they have used appropriate vocabulary and reorganize and rearrange any unclear sentences and paragraphs Then edit their writing tasks collaboratively in editing stage

In the experimental program, teacher plays an important role The teacher organizes groups, encourage students and develop the lesson involvement in activities On the contrary, students are much more active in learning

2.3 Data collection

The study is aimed at investigating the effectiveness of using CWA in helping the second year students at TMC develop their English paragraph writing skills and the changes of students’ perceptions about paragraph writing after the experiment based on the data

collection from pre- and- post tests, pre- and- post questionnaires

The data collection includes: data collection instruments, data collection procedures, and data analysis procedures

2.3.1 Data collection instruments

2.3.1.1 Pre- test and post- test

In the pre-test and post- test, all students in both two groups are asked to write a paragraph about the topic: “Write a paragraph about your mother” (see Appendix 1,2) The students are given 45 minutes to complete their paragraphs There is no guidance or help given during the test The pre- test and post- test are conducted to assess the improvements in

their writing ability

The same topic is used in both pre- test and post- test so that the later test is not easier or more difficult than the first one

2.3.1.2 Pre- questionnaire and post- questionnaire

Questionnaires are used in this study to collect data on the students’ attitudes towards and perceptions of collaborative writing activities Pre and post questionnaires are delivered to

only the experimental group at the beginning and also at the end of the study to investigate the students’ change in attitude towards writing

The questionnaires are translated from English into Vietnamese in order to make sure that

they understood it clearly

The pre- questionnaire (see Appendix 7) contains 10 items which related to the attitudes and perceptions of students regarding writing skills

After the program, the students are asked to complete a post- questionnaire ( see Appendix 8) The post- test is the same to the pre- test in the first part Another part is added to the questionnaire that concerned with collaborative writing activities

2.3.2 Data Collection Procedures

There are 40 copies of pre- test, 40 copies of post- test are sent to the students in both two groups and 20 copies of pre- questionnaire, 20 copies of post- questionnaire are sent to the students in the experimental group The data are sent back in the same to the term of quantity to the data are sent before

At the beginning of the study, 40 copies of pre-test and 20 copies of pre- questionnaire are given to students in the experimental group to investigate the students’ attitudes and abilities in paragraph writing before the experimental treatment

During the experiment treatment, the control group and experimental group are applied different teaching methods Control group is organized in the traditional methods (working individually) Experimental group is organized in the way of collaborative learning

At the end of the study, the post- test and post- questionnaire are distributed to the experimental groups This test is the same topic as the pre- test and it is also scored by the teacher- researcher Results of the pre and post tests, pre- questionnaire and post- questionnaire are compared and analyzed to see how the students' attitudes and their writing proficiency changed

2.3.3 Data analysis procedures

The analysis procedures includes the following steps:

(1) Collecting the results and information

The entire answers to pre- and post- tests, pre- and post- questionnaires are collected to enable closer, full investigation of the results and the information provides by the respondents This makes the examination of the data more convenient and the researcher easier to find out the theory generated from the data

(2) Classifying the data

The data are classified to seek answer for the study Based on the results of the tests and the information expressing students’ attitudes and opinions on the CWA, the researcher can confirm the effectiveness of the CWA

(3) Interpreting the data

In this step, comparison and contrast are made for greater understanding to find emergent concepts or theory generated from answers among the respondents

2.3.4 Concluding remarks

This chapter has so far presented at full length the methodological framework of the study including the detail of writing program, participants, writing tests, and the questionnaires used as tools of collecting data as well as the specific steps of conducting the study The next chapter will be exhibiting the findings and discussion of the study

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the results of the study from quantitative data analysis The first section presents the results of data analysis from the students’ scores of the paragraph writing test, and the second section presents the students’ attitudes and opinion toward the collaborative writing activities

3.1 Findings and discussion

3.1.1 From the writing tests

3.1.1.1 Pre- and- Post- Tests scores

The pre and post test paragraph writings in both the experimental group before and after involvement in collaborative writing settings and the control group before and after involvement in a traditional learning method are rated and marked by two different teachers (my colleague and I) The rating of the essays is based on six categories or aspects

of writing: organization, development, cohesion, vocabulary, structure, and mechanics The paragraph writings are marked 10 in total

3.1.1.2 The two groups’ writing performance before the experiment

Figure 2: Pre- test results of both groups

Scores

The results present in figure 2 above show that there is no significant difference between English paragraph writing in the experimental group and those of students in the control group As show in figure 2, both groups are equal numbers of students of the lowest and the highest scores

Thus their writing proficiency is very similar for both experiment and control groups before the experimental treatment At the beginning of the experiment, students in both groups made many of mistakes in paragraph structure They fail to express their an overall idea that they want to discuss later in the paragraph, for example, in the pre- test teacher

asks students to “write a paragraph about your mother”, means that in the topic sentences

students should be only about their mothers

However, a student in the experimental writes in her topic sentences such as:

”My family live in a country of Lang Son city in Viet Nam, there

are four people father, mother, brother and me”

Clearly that there are not only no topic sentence here but also get mistakes of vocabulary and grammar Besides, students in both group are not good at cohesion, for example, the writing of a student in control group:

”My mother is 40 years old Her name is Anh She is famer, She is

tall My mother is very like watching the program “we are soldiers”

Cooking for my family Sometimes I with my aunt go to shopping

Every morning she wake up very early make breads for us”

So, we can see that, there are a lot of mistakes in students’ paragraph writing in both two groups in all six categories or aspects of writing: organization, development, cohesion, vocabulary, structure, and mechanics in the beginning of the experiment

The results from the pre- test thus shows that, at the beginning of the instruction period, both two groups do not differ in paragraph writing scores, and that any differences between the groups at later stages can only be ascribed to the differential treatments they received

3.1.1.3 The two groups’ writing performance after the experiment:

Figure 3: Post- test results of both groups:

Scores

After 8 weeks of the experiment, as figure above shows that, students’ paragraph writing performance have improved very much For example, here is a post test paragraph writing

of a student in the experimental group:

“Hello, I’m Cham I’m a students at Thai Nguyen Medical College.In

my life, I have a wonderful mother, who I love best and my mother love

me, too

My mother’s full name is Dam Thi Van Huyen She is 38 years old She

is a beautiful woman She has got a short brown hair and black eyes

My mother is worker, everyday, she is hard workers My mother can

sing and cook very well When she has a free time, she often make food

and drink She teaches my brother and me to do our homework She

likes a friend, who I can believe and share all my feeling She is a

perfect woman in my eyes

I love my mother so much, and she loves me too.”

Her writing is very good at organization, cohesion, the ideas development, mechanics, the use of vocabulary and paragraph writing structure This is a great effort She deserves mark

9 There are some factors that affect her results such as the atmosphere of the class, teacher’s attitudes, ability or level of interest in learning English, especially, the effectiveness of collaborative writing activities On the other hand, the appendix 4,5,6,

show the post test scores for the experimental group and control group We can see that the structure, mechanics, development and cohesion of the paragraphs written by students in the experimental group have improved more than those of students in the control group Nevertheless, the students who are involved in collaborative learning do better in all aspects of their writing than those in the control group Scores of the both groups are increased after experimental process However, more high scores are gained by the experimental group than the control one Specifically, there are not any students in the experimental group achieving the scores under 5 Conversely, in the control group, there is 10% students under 5 Even some students in the control group has lower scores in the post test, as follows: a student goes from 5 in the pre- test to 4 in the post- test, and 1 student get

7 in the pre test and 6 in the post- test Besides, the results shown in the table above indicates that the numbers of students achieved the “ good” and “ very good” level in the experimental group are higher than that of the control group There is a significant difference in writing proficiency between the two groups of students after the experiment

3.1.1.4 The experimental group’s improvement in writing proficiency

Figure 4: Pre- and- post tests results of the Experimental Group

Scores

The results present in the figure above show that there is a significant difference in the experimental group between the pre- test and the post- test 20 students from the