Những khó khăn trong việc dạy và học kỹ năng viết theo sách tiếng anh 11 ( hệ cơ bản) đối với giáo viên và học sinh trường THPT Tĩnh Gia 5, tỉnh Thanh Hóa

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES --- HOÀNG THỊ MAI HƯƠNG CHALLENGES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING WRITI

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-

HOÀNG THỊ MAI HƯƠNG

CHALLENGES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING WRITING SKILL WITH THE TEXTBOOK ENGLISH 11 ( BASIC STREAM) AT TINH

GIA 5 HIGH SCHOOL, THANH HOA PROVINCE

(NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG VIẾT THEO SÁCH TIẾNG ANH 11 ( HỆ CƠ BẢN) ĐỐI VỚI GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH TRƯỜNG THPT TĨNH GIA 5, TỈNH THANH HÓA)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-

HOÀNG THỊ MAI HƯƠNG

CHALLENGES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING WRITING SKILL WITH THE TEXTBOOK ENGLISH 11 ( BASIC STREAM) AT TINH

GIA 5 HIGH SCHOOL, THANH HOA PROVINCE

(NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG VIẾT THEO SÁCH TIẾNG ANH 11 ( HỆ CƠ BẢN) ĐỐI VỚI GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH TRƯỜNG THPT TĨNH GIA 5, TỈNH THANH HÓA)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1 EFL: English as a foreign language

2 ESL: English as a second language

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 1: The differences between the process writing and the product writing Table 2: Checklist of writing tasks in the new „Tieng Anh 11‟ textbook Table 3: The purposes of teaching writing

Table 4 : Teachers‟ general thoughts of the writing lesson

Table 5: Problems in teaching writing

Table 6: Students‟ actions in the writing lesson

Table 7: Factors influence students‟ participant and interests

Table 8: Evaluation of forms of writing texts in the textbook

Table 9: Activities to attract students to the lesson

Table 10: Activities to improve students‟ writing skill

Table 11 : Purposes of learning writing skill

Table 12: Problems in learning writing

Table 13: Activities to make lesson more interesting

Table 14: Activities after writing

Chart 1: The importance of writing skill

Chart 2: The capability of using English of the students ?

Chart 3: Teachers‟ general thought of the tasks in textbook

Chart 4: Students‟ feeling of the writing skill

Chart 5: Students‟ general thought of the writing tasks in the textbook

Chart 6: Students‟ frequency in completing the tasks in textbook

Chart 7: Teachers‟ frequency of giving suggestions before writing

Chart 8: Mistakes in students‟ pieces of writing

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration……… i

Acknowledgements……… ……… ii

Abstract ……… iii

List of abbreviations……… ……… iv

List of tables and charts………… ……… v

Table of content……… ……… vi

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 1 Rationale of the study……… 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study……… 2

3 Research questions ……… 2

4 The scope of the study ……… 2

5 Design of the study……… 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4 1 Definitions of writing :……… 4

2 Roles of writing……… 5

3 Approaches to the teaching of writing……… 6

3.1 Controlled-to-Free Approach:……… 7

3.2 The Free-Writing Approach:……… 7

3.3 The Paragraph-Pattern Approach:……… 7

3.4 The Grammar-Syntax- Organization Approach……… 8

3.5 The Communicative Approach……… 8

3.6 The Process Approach……… 8

3.6.1 Product Approach……… 10

3.6.2 Process Approach……… 10

4 What makes writing difficult to acquire? ……… 13

CHAPTER 2 : THE CONTEXT OF THE STUDY 15 2.1 The context : Tinh Gia 5 high school……….……… 15

2.2 The new „Tieng Anh 11‟ textbook……….……… 15

2.2.1Objectives……… ……… 16

2.2.2 Writing lessons……… ……… 17

2.3.Method……… ………… 18

2.3.1 Participants……… 18

2.3.2 Instruments……… 18

2.3.2.1 Questionnaires ……… 18

2.3.2.2 Observation……… 19

2.3.3 Procedure ……… 19

CHAPTER 3 : DATA ANALYSIS AND STUDY FINDINGS 20 3.1 Teacher‟s survey questionnaires……… 20

3.2 Students‟ survey questionnaires……… 28

3.3 Class observation……… 34

3.4 Main findings……… 35

3.4.1 Poor facilities and large size classes……… 36

3.4.2 Teachers‟ and students‟ inappropriate attitudes towards the writing skill………

36 3.4.3 Unsuitable tasks in the textbook ……… 36

3.4.4 Students‟ poor linguistic competence……… 36

3.4.5 Students‟ lack of background knowledge……… 37

3.4.6 Passive learning style……… 37

3.4.7 Teachers‟ difficulties………

3.5 Suggested solutions to overcome the challenges………

37 38 3.5.1 Raising the students‟ awareness of the importance of the writing skill………

38 3.5.2 Improving students‟ linguistic competence ……… 39

3.5.3 Make the work arrangement effective……… 39

3.5.4 Making writing lesson vivid and interesting……… 40

3.5.5 Providing effective correction work……… 40

3.5.6 Assigning more practical writing tasks ……… 41

3.5.7 Creating a positive and supportive learning atmosphere ………… 41

PART III: CONCLUSION 1 Conclusion ……… 42

2 Limitations of the study……… 43

3 Suggestions for further research……… 43

REFERENCES ……… 45

APPENDIX ………

Survey questionnaire (for students)………

I

Survey questionnaire (for students)……… IV Lists of classroom observations ……… IX

PART I: INTRODUCTION

This very first part of the thesis is to introduce the rationale for the study, the aims and objectives of the study as well as the research questions which the study was to carry out to find out the answers It also presents the scope of the study as well as the design of the study

1 Rationale of the study

Nowadays, as learning a second language is paid more and more special attention to, there has been a growing tendency towards the emphasis on communicative competence in language teaching and learning Writing, therefore,

is regarded as a productive skill which provides students with opportunities to put all the language elements they have learnt into practice and to show communicative competence effectively

However, in fact, writing is not often as important to many students as other skills such as reading and speaking and it tends to get rather neglected in many Vietnamese language classes

Furthermore, writing itself is a very complex and difficult skill to acquire Therefore, teaching students to write well is one of the most challenges in education In studying the teaching writing skill process at Tinh Gia 5 high school, I have been found that there are a lot of difficulties in teaching and learning English, especially the writing skill Among four language skills, taught in English, writing can be seen as the most boring and hardest one Thus, teaching and learning writing skill at Tinh Gia 5 high school isn‟t paid attention, even that some teachers had to cut down this skill lessons Facing up this problem, so many questions about teaching and learning writing skill always concern me a lot: “What problems might the students face when learning skill? What should be done to help them overcome those problems? How should we teach each form of written text so that the students can learn it effectively? etc….” I, therefore decided to do the research on

“Challenges in teaching and learning writing skill with the textbook English 11

(basic stream) at Tinh Gia 5 high school, Thanh Hoa province” in hope that the findings and solutions mentioned in this study will make a significant contribution

to improve the teaching and learning of the writing skill at Tinh Gia 5 high school

as well as those at other high schools

2 Aims of the study

The primary purpose of this study is to explore the teaching and learning of the writing skill by teachers and grade-11 students at Tinh Gia 5 high school It focuses

on finding out the challenges in teaching and learning the writing skill in the new

„Tieng Anh 11‟ textbook at this school

The second purpose is to propose some suggestions to deal with teachers‟ and students‟ challenges and assist them to teaching as well as learning writing more effectively

3 Research questions of the study

This study attempts to seek the answers to the following questions:

1 What are the challenges of teachers and eleventh-grade students at Tinh Gia

5 high school in teaching and learning the writing skill in the new „Tieng Anh 11‟ textbook?”

2 What should be done to help teachers and grade-11students at Tinh Gia 5 high school overcome their challenges?

4 Scope of the study

This minor thesis is conducted at Tinh Gia 5 high school in order to recognize difficulties in teaching and learning writing skills of both the teachers and the 11thform students Factors causing such challenges are then found out To go ahead, the thesis also offers some suggestions to better the current context

5 Design of the study

This study has three parts: Part A – Introduction, Part B – Development including literature review, the study, data analysis and study findings, Part C – Conclusion

The introduction part presents the rationale, aims and objectives, research questions and scope of the study, and design of the study

The literature review chapter conceptualizes the framework of the study through the discussions of writing

The study gives the specific details of school and the new „Tieng Anh 11‟ textbook Besides, a general description of method is presented in this chapter

The last chapter concentrates on the data analysis, study findings and some suggestions to help the grade-11 students and teachers at Tinh Gia 5 high school overcome the challenges in teaching and learning of the writing skill with the new

„Tieng Anh 11‟ textbook

The conclusion part at the end gives a conclusion, limitation and suggestions for further research

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, some definitions of writing, the roles of writing will be presented

to help the readers be clearer about writing Besides, this chapter gives an overview

of relevant literature and researches that deal with approaches in teaching writing skill and finally the researcher will give the answer for the question „what make writing difficult to acquire?‟

1 Definitions of writing

Writing is an important language skill so we have to understand “what is writing? How to write well ? ” There are many definitions of writing Byrne (1991:1) stated about writing that “When we write, we use graphic symbols that is, letters or combinations of letters which relate to the sounds we make when we speak Then, writing can be said to be the act of forming these symbols: making marks on flat surface of some kind… The symbols have to be arranged, according

to certain conventions, to form words, and words have to be arranged to form sentences”

Lannon (1989) make a conflicting definition that writing is a process of transforming the material discovered by research inspiration, accident, trial and error, or whatever into a message with definite meaning… a process of deliberate decision Having the same opinion with Lannon, White (1991:3) assumed that writing is a thinking process in its own right and is not a simple process but a complex one “ writing is a form of problem-solving which involves such processes

as generating ideas, discovering a “voice” with which to write, planning, setting, monitoring and evaluating with which to express exact meanings”

goal-From another view of writing, Candlin and Hyland(1999: 107) asserted writing

as “ an engagement in a social process, where the production of text reflects methodologies, arguments and rhetorical strategies constructed to engage colleguages and persuade them of the claims that are made.”

In language teaching, writing is “a language skill which is difficult to acquire” and it is “not a skill that is readily picked up by exposure” (Trible, 1996:3) Rivers also definited that “ writing is not a skill that can be learned or developed in isolation but it should be taught and developed in corporation with other skills and aspects of the language studied” It is a process that occurs over a period of time, particularly if we take into account the sometimes extended periods of thinking that precede creating an initial draft

In short, writing is an art that writers want to communicate with certain groups

of audience Through the pieces of writing, writers are able to organize intellectually, manage everyday affairs, express ideas or argue By writing they can have control of both information and people

2 Roles of writing

Writing emerges with its own functions and brings along communicative code of the writers When making a piece of writing, the writer implies a message or a certain purpose In the modern world, writing (written language) severs a range of functions in everyday life Nunan (1991:84) pointed out, writing is:

1 Primarily for action: public signs ( on roads and stations), product labels and instructions ( on food, tools or toy purchased), recipes, maps, television and radio guides, bills, menus, telephone directories, etc

2 Primarily for social contact: personal correspondence, letters, postcards, greeting cards

3 Primarily for information: newspapers and magazines, non-fiction books (text books, public notices, advertisement, guidebooks and travel literature, etc.)

4 Primarily for entertainment: light magazines, comic trips, fiction books, poetry and drama, film subtitles, games including computer games

To master language, obviously it is impossible for learners not to learn writing skill well As a basic productive skill, writing provides students with a chance to put all the language elements they have learned into practice White (1991:1)

emphasized the significance of writing that “Through writing we are able to share

ideas, arouse feelings, persuade and convince other people We are able to discover

and articulate ideas in ways that only writing makes possible.”

3 Approaches to the teaching of writing

Writing seems to be a difficult skill and a challenge to both teachers and

learners Identifying approaches adapted in teaching writing can help teachers find

out effective techniques to overcome difficulties and attain the objectives in

teaching, therefore help students improve writing skill

In order to produce a good piece of writing, learners have to deal with a lot of

elements The following diagram demonstrates these elements clearly:

Producing a piece of writing (Raimes, 1983:6)

CONTENT

relevance, clarity, originality,

logics, etc

SYNTAX

Sentence structure, sentence boundaries, stylistic choices, etc

THE WRITER’S PROCESS

Getting ideas, Getting started, Writing drafts, revising

of ideas

Raimes (1983:5-10) asserts that on the basis of stressing different features of this diagram and combining them with how teachers think writing is learned, a variety

of approaches to teaching of writing have been developed Raimes presents six approaches to teaching writing: The Controlled-to-Free Approach, The Free-Writing Approach, The Paragraph-Pattern Approach, the Grammar-Syntax- Organization Approach, The Communicative Approach and The Process Approach

3.1 Controlled-to-Free Approach

The Controlled-to-Free Approach in writing is sequential This approach stresses three features of the diagram above: grammar, syntax and mechanics In low level, students are taught how to write by doing sentence-level exercises or controlled compositions to imitate copy or manipulate Therefore, they often make mistakes When student reach high or advanced level, they are allowed to try some free composition, in which they can express their ideas

In conclusion, this approach emphasizes accuracy rather than fluency Syntax, grammar and mechanics are main stresses of the approach

3.2 The Free-Writing Approach

In contrast with the controlled-to-free approach, the free-writing approach focuses more on fluency In this approach, students are encouraged to write as much

as possible and as quickly as possible without worrying about making errors Teachers in this approach have stressed quantity of writing rather than quality by assigning vast amounts of free writing on given topics with only minimal correction

of errors They are allowed to write freely without worrying about grammar and spelling Content and fluency are taken into account first

3.3 The Paragraph-Pattern Approach

Different from the two approaches mentioned above, the paragraph-pattern approach stresses on the organization In this approach, teachers focus on teaching students how to construct and organize paragraphs by doing kinds of exercises such

as sentence ordering, sentence inserting or sentence deleting, etc Students simply copy paragraphs, analyze the form of model paragraphs and then write a parallel

one Byrne (1991:23) pointed out the advantages of this approach: “this approach identifies and tries to overcome one of the central problems in writing: getting students to express themselves effectively at a level beyond the sentence.”

3.4 The Grammar-Syntax- Organization Approach

This approach mainly stresses the necessity to work simultaneously on more than one feature in the composition diagram: grammar, syntax and organization Teachers give students writing tasks that lead them to pay attention to organization while they also work on the necessary grammar and syntax For example, to write a clear set of instructions on how to use a mobile phone, students need more than the appropriate vocabulary They need the simple forms of verbs; an organization planned based on chronology; sequence words like first, next, then, finally, etc In general, this approach is the combination of the purpose and the form of the writing

3.5 The Communicative Approach

The goal of this approach is communicative competence, so it emphasizes on the purpose of the writing and the audience for it Students are encouraged to behave like writers in real life and to ask themselves the key questions: Why am I writing this? And who will read it?

Conventionally, the teacher acts as the audience for the students‟ writing However, to make it more real life closed communication, students become readers for each other They read each other‟s writings, respond, rewrite in another form and make comments, but not correct Also teachers can specify readers outside classroom, thus giving student writes a context in which to select appropriate content, language and levels of formality

3.6 The Process Approach

The teaching of writing has recently moved away from a concentration on the written product to an emphasis on the process of writing, which leads to the emergence of process approach This approach encourages students to share the ideas, feelings and experience It is more global and focuses on purpose, theme, text type, i.e the reader is emphasized Thus, students should ask themselves not only

questions about the purpose and audience but also the crucial questions: How do I write it? How do I get started?

This approach lays particular stress on a cycle of writing activities which move students from the generation of ideas and the collections of data through to the

“publication” of a finished text The diagram below show the process of writing:

PREWRITING (Specifying the task/ planning and outlining/ collecting data/ making notes)

COMPOSING/DRAFTING

REVISING (Reorganizing/ shifting emphasis/ focusing information and style for your reader)

EDITING (Checking grammar/ lexis/ surface features)

PUBISHING Brown (1994:335-336) points out some features of process approach as follows:

1 focus on the process writing that leads to the final written product

2 help students understand their own composing process

3 help them to build repertories of strategies for prewriting, drafting and rewriting

4 give students time to write and rewrite

5 place central importance on the process of revision

6 let students discover what they want to say as they write

7 give students feedback throughout the composing process (not just the final product) as they attempt to bring their expression closer and closer

to attention

8 encourage feedback from the both the instructor and peers

9 include individual conference between teacher and students during the process of composition

There are various approaches to teaching writing as mentioned It is true to say that there is not necessarily any “right” or “best” way to teach writing skill The best practice in any situation will depend on the type of student, the text type being studied, the school system and many other factors (Steele, 2004) Hereunder wants

to clarify the two most popular approaches used in ESL/ EFL classroom, namely: Product Approach and Process Approach

3.6.1 Product Approach

Product Approach is a traditional approach which is a largely “prescriptive and product-centered” way of teaching This approach pays much attention to the final outcome of a writing process and supposes that students need to produce only one writing version of the task The model of this approach is outlined by Steele (2004)

Stage 2: Students are involved in controlled practice of the highlighted features, usually in isolation If studying a formal letter, they may be asked to practice the language used to make formal requests

Stage 3: Students work to organize ideas

Stage 4: Students choose from a choice of comparable writing tasks Individually, they use the skills, structures and vocabulary they have been taught to produce the product; to show what they can do as fluent and competent users of the language

3.6.2 Process Approach

On the contrary, Process Approach focuses on the process rather than the final product, Steele comes up with a typical sequence of activities

Stage 1: Generating ideas by brainstorming and discussion Students could be discussing qualities needed to do a certain job, or giving reasons s to why people take drugs or gamble The teacher remains in the background during this phrase and only provides language support if required so as not to inhibit students in the production of ideas

Stage 2: Students extend ideas into note form, and judge quality and usefulness

Stage 6: Drafts are returned improvements are made based upon peer feedback Stage 7: A final draft is written

Stage 8: Students once again, exchange and read other’s work and perhaps even write a response or reply

Comparing the two approaches, Steele summarizes their differences in the table below:

* text as a resource for comparison

* ideas as starting point

* more than one draft

* more global, focus on purpose, theme,

text type, i.e., reader is emphasized

* collaborative

* imitate model text

*organization of ideas is more important than ideas themselves

* one draft

* features highlighted including controlled practice of those features

* individual

* emphasis on creative process * emphasis on end product

Table 1: The differences between the process writing and the product writing

From the analysis and the comparison of the two approaches, it is undeniable that each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses It is also the fact that there are few classrooms where teachers are devoted to one approach as to exclude all others Normally, they still use techniques drawn from other approaches as the students need them and those techniques are useful in the context of the class The writing lessons in new „Tiếng Anh 11‟ textbook were compiled following both Product Approach and Process Approach This Combined Product- Process Approach is found to be more popular, appropriate and effective The suggested general outline for a writing lesson following this approach may be:

Stage 1: A model is given

Stage 2: Students work on the model, analyze its typical features, and pay attention

to the language and structure of the model

Stage 3: Students work in groups/ pairs to find out the ideas for the writing topic/ task and produce an outline

Stage 4: Students write the first draft individually/ in pairs/ in groups The model is used for comparison

Stage 5: Drafts are exchanged Students give comments on each other’s work

Stage 6: Drafts are returned and changes or improvements are made based on peer feedback

Stage 7: Students write final drafts

Stage 8: Final drafts are exchanged once more; students give response or reply to each other

Stage 9: Teacher gives feedback

4 What makes writing difficult to acquire

According to Byrne (1994:4), there are three problems causing writing become a difficult activity for most people, both in the mother tongue and in a foreign language They are psychological problems, linguistic problems and cognitive problems

 Psychological problems:

As it is known, speech is the natural and normal medium of communication for

us in most circumstances and accustoms us both to having someone physically present when we use language and to getting feedback of some kind On the other hand, writing is essentially a solitary activity and the fact that we are required to write on our own, without the possibility of interaction of the benefit of feedback, in itself makes the act of writing difficult

 Linguistic problems :

Oral communication is sustained through a process of interaction and except in special circumstances, such as a lecture, the participants help to keep it going Because speech is normally spontaneous, we have little time to pay attention either

to organizing our sentence structures or to connecting our sentence: to some extent the latter is maintained through the process of interaction We repeat, backtrack, expand and so on, depending on how people react to what we say Incomplete and even ungrammatical utterances usually pass unnoticed

In writing, we have to keep the channel of communication open through our own efforts and to ensure, both through our choice of sentence structure and by the way our sentences are linked together and sequenced, that the text we product can

be interpreted on its own

 Cognitive problems :

Writing is learned through a process of instruction: we have to master the written form of the language and to learn certain structures which are less used in speech, or perhaps not used at all, but which are important for effective communication in writing We also have to learn how to organize our ideas in such

a way that they can be understood by a reader who is not present and perhaps by a reader who is not known to us Furthermore, writing is a task which is often imposed on us, perhaps by circumstances This is not only has a psychological effect; it may also cause a problem in terms of content – what to say Being at a loss for ideas is a familiar experience to most when we are obliged to write

Summary

This chapter has so far touched upon issues relating to the topic of the study It has discussed issues concerning writing: definitions of writing, roles of writing, the reason for teaching writing, approaches to teaching writing and what make writing difficult Although writing in terms of definition can be seen differently, its roles cannot be denied Writing skills, therefore, must be taught thoroughly at school It is unavoidable that they have a problem with teaching methodology in writing lessons Hence, writing activities has taken into consideration because teaching techniques will be discussed in the next chapter

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

In this chapter, the first part are general details about the context of the study and the next part introduces about the new „Tieng Anh 11‟ textbook Later on this chapter is a detailed descriptions of the methods used in the study

2.1 The context : Tinh Gia 5 high school

There are totally eight teachers of English, two males and six females Their English proficiency and teaching method are not equally qualified Two of them have graduated for one year from Hue University so they don‟t have many experiences in teaching The rests graduated from English Department in Hong Duc University From my perspective, their interests in teaching are so varied, not all of them are really devoted to their teaching job

The 11th form students at Tinh Gia 5 high school are seventeen years old and have learnt English, including writing skills, for five years Because the school has just changed from semi-public school to the public school, most students are low profiency in all subjects including English Therefore teaching English for these

students is a big challenge for the teachers at this school

There are eleven classes of grade-11 Each class includes 40 students Generally speaking, the average class size of 40 students is rather big and inconvenient The desks are arranged traditionally with two rows of six desks There is a narrow isle in the middle and two narrower ones on the sides, no other empty space left where the teachers and the students can move to and fro if they implement different interactive activities Moreover, the classrooms are not equipped with modern facilities such as television, computer, and projector, except for a board

2.2 The new ‘Tieng Anh 11’ textbook

The new „Tieng Anh 11‟ consists of sixteen units and six revision lessons Each unit presents a topic and is represented via five lessons: reading, speaking, listening,

writing and language focus respectively Such division aims to improve students‟ communicative skills and systematize important linguistic components

2.2.1 Objectives

* General objectives:

The textbook helps students with the following general objectives:

(i) Using English as a communicative tool to read, speak, listen and

write in target context at basic level

(ii) Acquiring fundamental and systematic target English knowledge (iii) Getting an overview of English speaking countries: people and

cultures; conserving and developing out national traditions and cultural identity

* Specific objectives:

Students will be able to achieve certain goals of each language skills underpinning in the textbook

(i) Reading: comprehending texts via practicing different reading skills:

skimming, scanning, etc… enriching vocabulary and structures

(ii) Speaking: asking – answering, presenting the given topics, using daily

communication species: asking and giving opinions, instructions, asking directions, and so on

(iii) Listening: comprehending main and specific information of the text or

dialogue; improving basic listening skills

(iv) Writing : writing short compositions or forms based on model writing

To sum up, the objectives are concrete, relevant and appropriate to the high school context in Vietnam Overall, the ultimate goal of English language teaching

is to enable students to acquire the target language knowledge and communicative

skills in practice In brief, the objectives set in „Tieng Anh 11‟ by the writers are aligned with the world tendency of English language teaching

2.2.2 Writing lesson

The new „Tieng Anh 11‟ textbook is designed to develop both students‟ linguistic competence and communicative competence Therefore, its contents are divided into 5 main parts taught in 16 units and after every three units students have

a revision lesson called “test yourself” The required competences of writing lesson

in each unit are detailed in the following table:

1 Friendship Writing about friend

2 Personal experience Writing a personal letter to describe a past

experience

3 A party Writing an informal letter of invitation

4 Volunteer work Writing a formal letter expressing gratitude

5 Illiteracy Describing information in a table

6 Competition Writing a letter reply

7 World population Interpreting statistic on population form a

chart

8 Celebrations Describing a celebration‟ s activities

9 The post office Writing a formal letter to express satisfaction

or dissatisfaction

10 Nature in danger Describing location

11 Sources of energy Describing information from a chart

12 The Asian Games Describing the preparations of the coming

Asian Games

13 Hobbies Writing about collection

14 Recreation Describing a camping holiday

15 Space conquest Writing a biography

16 The wonders of the world Writing a report on a man-made place

Table 2: Checklist of writing tasks in the new ‘Tieng Anh 11’ textbook

The students are both male and female at the age of seventeen They have

been learning English for 5 years

All the teachers of English at Tinh Gia 5 high school chosen for the research have taught the new textbook for at least one year Of these 8 teachers, two are male and six are female

2.3.2.2 Observation

Another instrument used in this study is classroom observation Through observation, the researcher got more valuable evidence on grade-11 students‟ classroom behaviors as well as their performances on writing tasks and learning activities

2.3.3 Procedure

On the first day of the survey, eight questionnaires were delivered to the teachers While the teachers were completing the questions, the researcher was beside them to give them clarification if any confusion arose

On the next four days, 200 questionnaires were delivered to the students and all the 200 completed questionnaires were returned While the students were completing the survey the researcher was also beside them to give them any explanation if any confusion arose All the information was collected through the researcher‟s careful note-taking for later analysis

The observations were conducted in two months in five writing classes During these observations, the researcher would play the role of an observer and did not participate in any classroom activities Several teachers had been asked to have classroom observation Being informed about the purposes of the study, all the teachers were always ready to support it

Summary

The author has introduced the context at which the study was conducted By concerning conditions of teachers, students, and facilities, she has revealed the disadvantages of teaching and learning writing skills at this school In addition, an overview on the new „Tiếng Anh 11‟ textbook has taken in terms of the objectives,

the teaching approaches, and the writing skills

CHAPTER 3 : DATA ANALYSIS AND STUDY FINDING

In this chapter, the research data will be analyzed in detail It also addresses the justification of the choice of data collection instruments: questionnaire survey and observations as well as the participants of the study The findings of the research are showed and based on the result of the survey and the observations, some suggestions are given with the hope that can be applicable for the teachers and students of the research contexts and the readers of the thesis

3.1 Teachers’ survey questionnaires

3.1.1 How important is writing skill in the new „Tieng Anh 11‟ textbook in comparison with other skills (reading, listening, speaking and language focus)?

Chart 1: The importance of writing skill

Most of the teachers (75%) thought that writing skill was as important as other skills, two of them (25%) viewed it less important

3.1.2 What is (are) the purpose(s) of teaching writing at high school ?

To help students revise the vocabulary they have learned 88%

To give more chance for students to practice grammatical structures 100%

To teach students how to write effectively in different genres 38%

To provide students with chances of communicating with each other 38%

To have students express themselves 62%

To help teacher check students‟ ability of using English 75%

Table 3: The purposes of teaching writing

It can be seen from the table that the teachers might teach writing skills for several reasons Most of them thought that writing helped their students revise the vocabulary (88%) Besides, writing gave students more chance to practice grammatical structures (100%) Through writing the teacher can also check the students‟ ability of using English (75%), and the students can express themselves (62%) Few of teachers (38%) said that the purpose of their teaching was to teach students how to write effectively in different genres and communicate with each other

3.1.3 Are tasks in the textbook suitable to your students‟ ability?

Chart 3: Teachers’ general thought of the tasks in textbook

From the chart, we can recognize that the percentage of the answer “no” was higher than the answer “yes” Many teachers (62%) thought that the tasks in the textbook were not suitable to their students, they were difficult Because it is a fact that most students at Tinh Gia 5 high school were low profiency, even very low profiency in using English The rests of teachers (38%) agreed that the tasks in

the new „Tieng Anh 11‟ textbook were suitable to their students‟ level Most of tasks were neither difficult nor easy They were at average level and their students can do these tasks well

3.1.4 What do you think about the writing lesson in the textbook?

Evaluation of the writing lesson Agree Disagree

Lesson length matches with lesson time 62% 38%

Tasks are suitable to students‟ ability 38% 62%

Tasks are designed from low level to high one 100% 0%

Topics are familiar with students 62% 38%

Table 4: Teachers’ general thoughts of the writing lesson

There were many opinions when the teachers were asked to evalue the textbook „Tieng Anh 11‟ About the lesson length and the topics, 62% teachers agreed that the lesson length matched with lesson time as well as topics were familiar with students but 38 % of them didn‟t agree They thought that the length lesson was too long to them finish the lesson on time All tasked were designed from low level to high one and there were many different types of writing in the textbook however 62% teachers thought that the tasks were difficult to their students and only 38% of them agreed that the tasks were suitable to their students

3.1.5 What problems do you often face up with when teaching writing?

Students‟ low profiency in English 88%

Students‟ low motivation to learn English 88%

The classes are crowded and noisy so the teacher cannot control as

well as help each student

75%

There is no cooperation of the partners or group 75%

The textbook activities are not suitable and interesting 62%

Teachers‟ low profiency in English 12%

Teacher‟s lack of professional training in task design / adaptation 12%

Teachers‟ understanding/ application of CLT 12%

Students‟ low background knowledge 88%

Table 5: Problems in teaching writing

From the results in the tables, we can see that there were many problems in teaching writing skills Students‟ profiency in English, students‟ low motivation, passive learning style, students‟ low background knowledge were common problems that almost teachers often faced up with when teaching writing(88%) Besides there was no cooperation of the partners or group(75%) Most students only like working individually so group or pair work arrangement was not effective Other problem was the task in the textbook 62% teachers said that the textbook activities were not suitable and interesting to their students so it was difficult to attract students to the lesson Only one of them thought that difficults in teaching writing came from teachers such as teachers‟ low profiency in English, teacher‟s lack of professional training in task design / adaptation, teachers‟ understanding/ application of CLT Four other problems were given by 2 two teachers (25%) They were lack of necessary facilities, fixed seat arrangement, time shortage and one reason from teachers was the inexperience in teaching new textbooks In general, it can be proposed that their current problems were mainly blamed on the students themselves

3.1.6 How are your students in the writing lesson?

Results

They feel bored and don‟t pay attention to the lesson 26%

They are nervous because of difficult tasks and uninteresting topics 26%

They are motivated to the task levels in each lesson 50%

They interested in different types of writing 50%

They only sit on their seats and don‟t take part in the given atcivities

activelly

25%

Table 6: Students’ actions in the writing lesson

As can be seen from the table, the majority of the respondents believed that the students seemed to be in favor of the writing lesson A half of teachers stated that their students were motivated to the task levels and interested in different ftypes

of writing Two respondents reported that the difficult tasks, the uninteresting topics made the students bored so they often didn‟t either pay attention to the lesson or take part in the given activities activelly Because of some reason, 25% teachers admitted that most their students couldn‟t write We will clearify these reasons in the next questions

3.1.7 What factors influence your students‟ participant and interests in the writing lesson?

Factors influence students’ participant and interests Agree Disagree