Using writing process-oriented approach to improve 12th graders' writing skill at Quang Xuong 1 high school = Áp dụng đường hướng viết như một quá trình để nâng

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* LÊ THỊ YẾN USING WRITING PROCESS-ORIENTED APPROACH TO IMPVOVE 12th GRADERS’ WRITING SKILL AT QUẢNG XƯƠNG HIGH SCHOOL ÁP DỤNG ĐƢỜNG HƢỚNG VIẾT NHƢ MỘT QUÁ TRÌNH ĐỂ NÂNG CAO KĨ NĂNG VIẾT CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 12 TRƢỜNG THPT QUẢNG XƢƠNG M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* LÊ THỊ YẾN USING WRITING PROCESS-ORIENTED APPROACH TO IMPVOVE 12th GRADERS’ WRITING SKILL AT QUẢNG XƯƠNG HIGH SCHOOL ÁP DỤNG ĐƢỜNG HƢỚNG VIẾT NHƢ MỘT QUÁ TRÌNH ĐỂ NÂNG CAO KĨ NĂNG VIẾT CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 12 TRƢỜNG THPT QUẢNG XƢƠNG M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: Dr NGUYỄN HUY KỶ Hanoi, 2014 DECLARATION I hereby certify that I am the sole author of this study This study is submitted in partial fulfillment for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and that this thesis has not been submitted elsewhere in any other form for the fulfillment of any other degree or qualification Hanoi, August 2014 Signature Lê Thị Yến i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Huy Kỷ for his invaluable guidance and instructive comments, without which this thesis would not have been successfully completed I should also record a debt to the 12th grade students at Quảng Xương secondary school who kindly participated in my study Thanks are due next to lecturers and the staff of the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies - VNU, Hanoi for their academic and administrative assistance Finally, many thanks are for my family, whose support has been very important to me This thesis would not have been successfully conducted without their support and encouragement ii ABSTRACT This study looks into the effectiveness of using process writing to improve 12th graders‘ writing skill in English classrooms at Quảng Xƣơng secondary school The study investigates students‘ participation in process writing, their improvement in writing ability, together with useful implications to the teaching of writing skill at secondary schools Twenty students of 12th grade class participated in the study The findings show that the implementation of process writing in teaching writing can improve students‘ writing quality Students made many errors in the first drafts Nonetheless, after receiving the teacher‘s feedback and rewriting the drafts, students made significant improvements in their writing The study concludes by recommendations of using process writing in teaching composition at high schools iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Codes/symbols Meaning W.Ch The words are inapplicable with sentences/ meaning W.PREP Wrong preposition V.T Verb tense or GR = more general grammar problems Wrong tense/ use another tense W.SP Wrong spelling Art Use article ―a”, “ an” or “the” for singular noun ^ There is a missing word needed to insert N.P New paragraph S/V A Subject and verb not agree W.O The words in this sentence are in the wrong order 10 W.f Wrong word form 11 S Subject needed 12 V Verb needed 13 Pl Plural 14 U.W Unnecessary word 15 W.Conj Wrong conjunction 16 W.P Wrong punctuation iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Objectives of the Study Research Questions Methods of the study .2 Significance of the study Scope of the Study Organization of the Study .2 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Review of previous studies 1.2 Theoretical background 1.2.1 Writing and the role of writing 1.2.2 Principles of teaching writing 1.2.3 Approaches to teaching writing 1.2.4 The process of writing .11 1.2.5 Providing feedback to students‘ writing 15 1.2.6 Evaluation of student writing 20 1.3 Summary 21 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 22 2.1 Research setting 22 2.1.1 An overview of research site 22 v 2.1.2 The teachers and the students 22 2.1.3 Learning materials 23 2.2 Participants 23 2.3 Data collection instrument 24 2.4 Procedures of data collection .24 2.5 Procedures of data analysis 25 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 26 3.1 Findings of the study 26 3.1.1 Overall improvement of students‘ writing 26 3.1.2 Number of the errors in content and organization aspects 29 3.1.3 Number of the errors in vocabulary and language use aspect 29 3.1.4 Number of mechanical errors 31 3.2 The results 31 3.2.1 Students‘ writing achievement in content and organization aspect 31 3.2.2 Students‘ writing achievement in vocabulary and language use aspect 32 3.2.3 Students‘ writing achievement in mechanical aspect .33 3.3 Discussions 33 3.4 Summary 38 PART C: CONCLUSIONS 39 Recapitulation of major findings 39 Conclusions 40 Limitations of the study 41 Teaching implications 41 Suggestions for the further studies 42 REFERENCES I APPENDICES IV vi PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale English is a required subject for high school students in Vietnam nowadays Theoretically, the curricula and teaching philosophy are communicatively oriented with four skills equally developed In practice, writing is a largely ignored area due to the washback of examinations Most of important tests including graduation and university entrance exams not have a writing component As a result, students only focus on learning grammar and vocabulary They have considerable difficulty in learning the writing skill Writing was traditionally considered as a product, which means that students write a composition and the teacher provides comments and gives correction and the students not have to rewrite the draft The present trend regards writing as a process That is, students write multiple drafts before the completing final draft The ability to write well is not a naturally acquired skill; it must be practiced and learned through experience Writing is a complex combination of skills that is best taught by breaking down the process The writing process involves a series of steps to follow in producing a finished piece of writing By breaking down writing step-bystep, the mystery is removed and writer‘s block is reduced Most importantly, students discover the benefits of constructive feedback on their writing, and they progressively master, and even enjoy writing Although this idea is not new in theory, how to apply it in practice is not easy Being a teacher of English at a secondary school, I see the reality of teaching writing skill in my setting I have, therefore, decided to conduct a study on this area to improve the teaching practice in my school The study deals with the use of writing process to improve 12 th graders‘ writing skill at Quảng Xƣơng high school It focuses on the students‘ revising and editing the drafts after they receive feedback from the teacher and the changes made to each paper between the first and final drafts The text type was descriptive Objectives of the Study The objectives of the study are: - To investigate the impact of process writing on 12th graders‘ composition skill - To find out effective methods of teaching English writing skill to 12th graders Research Questions In order to meet the objectives set forth, the study focuses on the following research questions: To what extent does writing process help to improve the 12th graders‘ writing skill? What are the effective methods for teaching the writing skill to 12th graders at Quảng Xƣơng secondary school? Methods of the study The study employs a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods It involves the analysis of students‘ writing, interviews, reflective journals, and statistical data Multiple drafts approach is used for error treatment and content development Interviews and reflective journals provide in-depth information that supplements the analysis of writing drafts Significance of the study The study looks into students‘ writing and their common problems The findings can help practitioners improve their teaching quality The process writing approach itself is not new; nonetheless, its application in local schools may require adaption The study is an attempt to find out how to apply the writing process in practice effectively and to discover the benefits of constructive feedback on their writing The research results can make theoretical and practical contributions to English language education Scope of the Study The study deals with the use of writing process to improve 12 th graders‘ writing skill at Quảng Xƣơng high school Organization of the Study Besides the abstract, references, and appendices, the study is organized as follows teacher; they are as a reader, a writing teacher, and a language expert First, the role ―reader‖ involves interacting with the written work and reacting to the content and ideas as a simple reader It might include comments or suggestion Next, ―writing teacher‖ obviously involves helping students grapple with the writing skill as a whole and with its different sub-skills such as focusing on genre, working on text organization and coherence, grammatical skills, etc The last role is ―language expert‖ Here the teacher is in the more traditional role, helping the students with lexis, grammar, spelling, etc and correcting any problems or other language errors that they find In this study, the teacher helped the students by giving the feedback to the student writing The indirect feedback by underlining the errors, using comment and correction symbol provided the students the chance to self-correct the errors The teacher used indirect feedback rather than direct feedback to response students‘ writing Indirect feedback will be preserved in his/her brain in a long time While, direct feedback will be kept in their mind in a short time If the students are only provided by direct feedback, they will not have opportunity to reflect and correct the errors for themselves; they only note the note of the errors from the teacher The students followed the process of writing; it started from pre writingdrafting-revising-editing-publication The teacher took the role in revising and editing process The teacher gave feedback after writing had composed and they revised it back Revision is a process in which writers not only polish their style, but also develop their ideas In this stage, the teacher helps the students through the revision to shape and reshape the text into final form When students revised their writing, they learned many things from their mistakes and from the way to correct their mistakes In here, we can see that the process of writing with repeated drafting and revising could positively help the students to improve their writing As Ferris suggested that teachers should offer indirect rather than direct feedback (marking the error but not correcting it), because it increases students‘ own investment in the process and if students are 36 revising or rewriting their papers after receiving teacher direct feedback, they are expected merely to transcribe the teachers‘ suggested corrections into their texts (2002;19) Even they sometimes had problem during the process; the teacher always helped them The teacher not only gave them feedback but also guided them to find the truth and they had more confidence to write and were able to decrease their mistakes in writing The teacher should give feedback sheet to students writing, then the teacher prepared the feedback sheet to put students‘ mistake I found that putting directly the feedback symbols is not a good idea It happened when the teacher put the symbols on the students‘ writing, the students didn‘t understand and the symbols seemed become one with their writing, so sometimes the students didn‘t see whether there is a feedback/symbol or not It caused this method was not done very well This becomes the teacher‘s problem and in the next cycle of writing, the teacher tried to solve the problem by providing the feedback sheet Moreover, the researcher prepared the feedback sheet because the students in the class had common mistake and strength in their writing and an efficient way of giving feedback is to prepare a written report that is handed out to the class This report can detail what the best pieces of writing were like, what the common errors and weaknesses were, and what to about them This sheet also provides a useful record that can be seen anytime by the teacher and students for later pieces of writing if the strength and weaknesses are the same or have changed The feedback sheet was given after seeing the students‘ result in the second draft After applying this method, the students‘ writing improved, they understood where they did mistakes and discussed it with their friend and the teacher Given such findings, it can be concluded that the improvement of 12th graders‘ writing ability is due to the application of process writing in teaching writing skill The students‘ attitude toward teacher‘s feedback was good After they were given information about their lack in the composition, students then found out the right one for their writing by themselves To lessen student confusion, teachers can consistently use a standard set of symbols or markings to indicate place and type of 37 error, so the students familiarize themselves with the signs/symbols In addition, the teacher can explain about the symbols they will use in writing and train the students in what kinds of corrections will be made based on each symbol There are also some factors that influence the use of writing process during this study First, I found that teacher‘s feedback provided on the students‘ writing in the process of writing cannot stand alone and it will be more helpful by feedback sheet Secondly, teacher‘s feedback has also been found to be effective when it is coupled with student-teacher conferencing Students are able to express their ideas more clearly in writing and to get clarification on any comments that teachers had made Thirdly, concerning teacher‘s role as a motivator, this study also found that writing process also depends on students‘ motivation to write Generally, it is unpleasant experience to be corrected and some of learners may get frustrated and unmotivated because they might not know what to That is why teachers have to inspire and convince learners that teachers welcome their questions and worries Positive comments on their work are also accommodating to motivate learners to pursue more So, seeing improvement is motivation, and seeing the same error repeatedly helped students target the mistakes, review and revise their writing 3.4 Summary This chapter has analyzed and discussed the results collected from the students‘ writing These results have reflected the successful use of process writing for 12th graders It can be concluded that the implementation of writing process in teaching writing can improve students‘ writing quality 38 PART C: CONCLUSIONS Recapitulation of major findings The objective of the research is to investigate the effectiveness of using process writing in improving 12th graders‘ writing skill in English classrooms at a secondary school Basically, the study has achieved its major aim through thorough review of related literature, the findings and results from the collected and analyzed data of students‘ writing This study reveals that the implementation of writing process in teaching writing can improve students‘ writing quality It can be seen on students‘ progress during the process In the first draft, the students started to make a composition by using descriptive text pattern and they produced poor organization and lack in vocabulary and language use although they had been taught about the generic structure and the language feature of the text For content and organization, many students produced disorder ideas of text, unequal length of paragraphs, and unclear meaning of sentences Some only provide the idea and none of clarification or explanation Furthermore, students did not use transitions to join paragraphs and transitions when needed within paragraphs In the second draft, they started to rewrite a composition by using descriptive text In here, they were already able to produce good organization and content after the teacher had given them feedback that showed their problem in writing, even though they were still in lack of language use and vocabulary aspect Mostly, the mistakes are about the missing word (^), subject- verb agreement (S/V A), word form (W.F.), word choice (W.C.), word order (W.O.), spelling (SP), preposition (PRE), punctuation (PUNC), article (Art), not necessary word (×) Then, besides content and organization, their second drafts were responded in part of the language use, vocabulary, punctuation and spelling The teacher provided students the chance to revise and make self-correction the drafts In the final draft, most students produced good organization and correct vocabulary, language use and mechanics This result shows that the students did improve in their practices It is also found that the teacher‘s indirect feedback provided to students‘ 39 drafts in the process of writing is very useful It is helpful on students‘ long-term writing because it guides students to learn by providing problem solving and encouraging them to self-correct their writing Based on the feedback, students are able to express their ideas more clearly in writing and to get clarification on any comments that teacher has made As a result, students can improve their performance by solving the problem themselves Especially, the process of thinking and composing develop their writing ability as well as language competence The study also found that writing process also depends on students‘ motivation to write Generally, it is unpleasant experience to be corrected and some of learners may get frustrated and unmotivated because they might not know what to That is why teachers have to inspire and convince learners that teachers welcome their questions and worries Clear instructions, explanations, and demonstrations will help students understand what to Positive comments on their work also encourage and motivate learners to pursue more Conclusions Using writing process in teaching writing skill helped students to minimize their mistakes during writing because to compose a good piece of writing, the writers not only write once but many times By revising and editing the drafts, students can realize their mistakes and correct them These mistakes and errors will decrease in the next draft and final product will be good in all aspects of writing It should be noted that feedback on student writing is an essential component in the writing process If given properly, it will help students improve both content and accuracy of their compositions The findings suggest that a mixed pattern feedback should be given Direct corrective feedback seems to be more effective than indirect feedback such as underlining In addition, metalinguistic comments should be considered when students tend to commit the same errors over several drafts since this indicates the student‘s ignorance of the rules As Ashwell‘s posthoc analysis indicates, the teacher should inform students that content quality is as important, if not more important, as form quality Otherwise, they may incline to edit local errors and ignore the global aspects of content and organization 40 By using process writing to teach writing skill, the teacher plays an important role in the students‘ improvement The teacher not only has a role as a writing teacher but also gave direction and suggestion to students when looking at students‘ writing The first role of the teacher is a ―reader‖ The teacher reads the written work and reacts to the content and ideas as a simple reader It might include comments or suggestion Next, the role ―writing teacher‖ involves helping students grapple with the writing skill as a whole and with its different sub-skills such as focusing on genre, working on text organization and coherence, grammatical skills, etc The last role is ―language expert‖ Here the teacher helps the students with lexis, grammar, spelling, etc and correcting any problems or other language errors that they find In conclusion, process writing has shown its effectiveness for secondary school students Its application to teaching English composition is highly recommended Limitations of the study As in most research projects, limitation is inevitable Despite the researcher‘s effort, the study has some unavoidable shortcomings due to the limited experience and knowledge The aim of this study is to prove that using writing process can improve the 12th graders‘ writing skill at Quảng Xƣơng secondary school but the number of participants in the study was limited; therefore, the conclusions might not be applicable to other settings Teaching implications Based on the findings of the study, I suggest some implications for teaching writing to 12th graders in Quảng Xƣơng secondary school and it may also be applicable to other settings It is recommended that process writing be applied in teaching writing, especially the type of text requiring the process of composing Writing strategies involves teaching students strategies for planning, revising, and editing their compositions It is important to give clear instructions, explanations, demonstrations and 41 requirements because students must know what they are going to These factors should not be ignored in writing lessons Providing feedback to students‘ is indispensable; however, the teacher should show a positive attitude to students‘ writing Not too much of correcting or over-emphasis on student mistakes should be considered Positive comments should also be given to encourage students trying to rewrite their writing The teacher should provide a combination of different types of feedback due students‘ different learning styles Feedback should be clear enough to avoid confusing students Students might not understand teacher‘s comments if they are full of terminology or symbols Individual feedback to students‘ writing might not be sufficient Some students might need personal communication with the teacher to go over their errors, clarify doubts, or ask additional questions Moreover, the teacher can ask the students why they are not making progress, and encourage them to work harder and pay attention to the feedback given No piece of writing is ever perfect the first time so the teacher should encourage the students to edit their work and correct their mistakes based on the feedback given As was mentioned before, self-correction seems to yield better results because when students try to correct an error, they discover the language and are more likely to remember it Student-centered approach must be born in mind The teacher should act as facilitator and coach, not an authoritative director and arbiter Suggestions for the further studies Writing is an important skill in teaching and learning second language It invites more research to find out suitable methods to teach writing skill effectively This study focuses on the using of process writing to improve 12 th graders‘ writing skill Thus, the next researcher who wants to conduct the same design may conduct the study at other levels Furthermore, those who want to take the same approach for the same level may take other kinds of texts 42 REFERENCES Ashwell, T.(2000) Patterns of Teacher Response to Student Writing in a Multiple-Draft Composition Classroom: Is Content Feedback Followed by Form Feedback the Best Method? Journal of Second Language Writing, 9, 227-257 Brown, H D (2001) Teaching by Principle: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy (Second Edition) Essex, Longman Chandler, J (2004) A response to Truscott Journal of Second Language Writing, 13, 345-348 Crystal, D (1995) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of English Language Cambridge University Press Đào Thị Thu Hƣơng (2008) A study on effective ways to teach essay writing to second year students at FPT University unpublished M.A Thesis VNU Ellis, R (2007) A typology of written corrective feedback types, retrieved from http://lrc.cornell.edu/events/09docs/ellis.pdf Fathman and Whalley‘s study (1990) The effectiveness of corrective feedback Frequency 2814141.250.535.Positive Ferris, D and Roberts, B (2001) Error feedback in L2 writing classes How explicit does it need to be? Journal of Second Language Writing, 10, 161–184 Ferris, D (2004) The ―Grammar Correction‖ Debate in L2 Writing: Where are we, and where we go from here? ( and what we in the meantime …?) Journal of Second Language Writing, 13, 49-62 10 Gordon, H., (1996) Verbal reports of Japanese novices‘ research writing practices in English Journal of Second Language Writing 5, 109-128 11 Graham, S., & Perin, D (2007) A meta-analysis of writing instruction for adolescent students Journal of Educational Psychology, retrieved from ttp:www.ets.org/media/research/pdf/RR-08-55.pdf 12 Guenette, D (2007) Is feedback pedagogically correct? Research design issues in studies of feedback on writing Journal of Second Language Writing, 16, 4053 43 13 Hedge, T (2000) Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom Oxford University Press 14 Hornby, A S (1989) Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Oxford University Press: UK, 15 Hyland, K & Candlin, C N (2003) Writing: Texts, Processes and Practices Longman 16 Jacob & Heaton (1981) Testing ESL composition Profile: A Practical Approach Rowley MA New Bury House 17 Johnston, S (1996) What can we learn about teaching from our best university teachers? Teaching in Higher Education, 1(2), 213–225 18 Larsen-Freeman, D (2003) Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring.Canada: Thomson-Heinle 19 Lyster, R., Lightbown, P & Spada, N (1999) A Response to Truscott's 'What's Wrong with Oral Grammar Correction' Canadian Modern Language Review, 55 20 Muncie, J (1999) Writing annual technology proposals Ball State University Museum of Art 21 Muncie, J (2000) Using written teacher feedback in EFL composition classes ELT Journal,54, 47-53 22 Muncie, J (2002) Process writing and vocabulary development: comparing Lexical Frequency Profiles across drafts System, 30, 225–235 23 Nunan, D (1991) Language Teaching Methodology London: Prentice Hall 24 Oliu, W.E & Brusaw, C.T & Alred, G.J (1998) Writing that work (Sixth edition) St Martin‘s Press: New York 25 Oshima, A & Hogue, A Writing Academic English (Third edition) (2002) NXB Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh 26 Rames, A (1983) Techniques in teaching writing Oxford University Press 27 Sheen, Y (2007).The effect of focused written corrective feedback and language aptitude on ESL learners‘ acquisition of articles TESOL quarterly, 41, 255-279 44 28 Steele, V (2007), Product and process writing: A comparison, retrieved from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/product-process-writing-acomparison 29 Truscott, J., 1996 The case against grammar correction Language Learning 46, pp 327–369 30 Tribble, C (1996) EFL writing: Product and process Oxford University Press 31 Trimbur, J (1999) The call to write Longman 32 Ur, Penny (1996) A Course in Language Teaching Cambridge University Press Cambridge 33 White, R.V (1981) Approaches to writing: Guidelines for writing Activities A magazine for language Teachers, RELC 34 Young, J B &Cameron, D (2005) The effect of different types of corrective feedback on ESL student writing Journal of Second Language Writing, 14, 191205 45 APPENDICES DRAFT SAMPLES SAMPLE Draft 1: ―Suppose you were offered a job with one of the international organizations, which one would you like to Paraphrase this sentence, using your own words choose? Write a paragraph of about 120-150 words expressing the reasons why you choose the organization” Suppose I were offered a job with one of the international organizations, I like to work for WWF for an amount of reason I really love animals wild and plants plants rare and animals also good research It make me better This linking expression is incorrect biology On the other hand, I have opportunity to live abroad I can use English at work and return high salary I will have chance to travel the world, meet people and What you mean by “return”? works at remote and mountain (78 words) Teacher’s comments: You had many good ideas in the paragraph To make your writing better, consider the following suggestions: - Your writing is under length Add some more ideas to make it least 120 words - Do not copy the question, use your own words by paraphrasing it - Use more linking words to connect your ideas - Pay attention to the underlined parts Draft 2: ―Suppose you were offered a job with one of the international organizations, which one would you like to choose? Write a paragraph of about 120-150 words expressing the reasons why you choose the organization” Very read interesting to Everyone has his or her own choice To me, suppose I I was offered to work for one of the international organizations, I’d like to work for WWF for an amount (WC) of reasons First, I really love animals wild (WO) and plants I want to reseach (WSP) on plants rare (WO) and animals It will make me better at biology Second, I have ^ opportunity to live abroad I can use English at work and may have ^ high salary Third, I will have chance to travel all over the world, meet different people and works (S-V A) in remote and mountain (WF) areas Finally, I can protect dangerous (WC) species, which I love the most That’s why WWF is the best suitable fun (WC) for me (118 words) Teacher’s comments: - Your writing has improved considerably both in content and organization Now pay attention to the underlined words, and symbols when rewriting it Draft 3: ―Suppose you were offered a job with one of the international organizations, which one would you like to choose? Write a paragraph of about 120-150 words expressing the reasons why you choose the organization” Everyone has his or her own choice If I was offered to work for one of the international organizations, I’d like to work for WWF for a number of reasons First, I really love wild animals and plants I want to research on rare plants and animals to understand more about them I will be better at biology Second, I have an opportunity to live abroad I can use English at work and may have a high salary Third, I will have a chance to travel all over the world, meet different people and work in remote and II mountainous areas If I work in these environments, I can protect endangered species, which I love the most That’s why WWF is my first career choice (125 words) Teacher’s comments: - You have made good progress Your writing is now well written with convincing ideas and coherent organization I hope to see greater achievements of yours SAMPLE Draft 1: ―Suppose you were offered a job with one of the international organizations, which one would you like to choose? Write a paragraph of about 120-150 words expressing the reasons why you choose the organization” Use your own words by If I were offered a job with one of the international paraphrasing this organizations, which one would I like to choose I’d like to sentence work for the WHO Because I’m good at biology and I want become a good doctor I will help people have good health and keep themselves from illnesses I wanna to help increase international health care, therefore I have opportunity to live abroad and travel all over the world I’d like to search at rare plants and animals and medical search I want to work with different people in the world and use English at work I want to have high salary (105 words) What you mean by “search”? Teacher’s comments: Your writing is interesting to read You can make it even better by considering the suggestions below: III - It is shorter than required, so add some more ideas to make it longer - Pay attention to the underlined parts when re-write the draft Draft 2: Good paraphrase If I have (Gram) an opportunity to work for one of the international organizations, I’d like to work for the (Art.) WHO for a number of reason (Gram) First, I’m good at You are very kind biological (Wf.) and I want to be a good doctor I will help people to have good healthy (Wf.) and protect themselves from illnesses Second, I wanna (informal) help improve international health care, therefore I have ^ opportunity to live abroad and travel all over the world Third, I’d like doing (Wf) research in (Prep) rare plants There is repetition here Rewrite it to make it better and animals and medical research I want to work with different peoples (Wf.) in the world and use English at work Working for that organization, I will use English at work, therefore I have an opportunity to improve my English knowledge Finally, I want to have ^ high salary (129 words) Teacher’s comments: - You have added more interesting ideas in the paragraph I like the reasons for your career choice - Rewrite the draft by considering the underlined parts Draft (final): If I had an opportunity to work for one of the international organizations, I’d like to work for WHO for a number of reasons First, I’m good at biology and I want to become a good doctor I will help people to take care of their IV health and protect themselves from illnesses Second, I want to help improve international health care, therefore I would have an opportunity to live abroad and travel all over the world Third, I’d like to research on rare plants and animals and medical research Working for that organization, I would meet people from many parts of the world I would have to use English at work Therefore, I would have an opportunity to improve my English knowledge Finally, I want to have a high salary (131 words) Teacher’s comments: Your writing is excellent You have overcome all the mistakes and errors in the final draft I find it exciting to read your composition Congratulations! V ... PROCESS-ORIENTED APPROACH TO IMPVOVE 12 th GRADERS’ WRITING SKILL AT QUẢNG XƯƠNG HIGH SCHOOL ÁP DỤNG ĐƢỜNG HƢỚNG VIẾT NHƢ MỘT QUÁ TRÌNH ĐỂ NÂNG CAO KĨ NĂNG VIẾT CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 12 TRƢỜNG THPT QUẢNG XƢƠNG... questions: To what extent does writing process help to improve the 12 th graders‘ writing skill? What are the effective methods for teaching the writing skill to 12 th graders at Quảng Xƣơng secondary school? ... writing 1. 2.2 Principles of teaching writing 1. 2.3 Approaches to teaching writing 1. 2.4 The process of writing .11 1. 2.5 Providing feedback to students‘ writing