“AN INVESTIGATION ON SOME COMMON PROBLEMS IN WRITING A LETTER WITH GIVEN TITLE OF NON- MAJORED STUDENTS AT TAY NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter includes statement of the problem, objectives of the study, significance of the study, and outline of the study 1.1 Statement of the problem As we know, English is becoming a language which is used in all the world It’s used to communicate with people in the world With this reason, today, the employers remand that all employee must have a basic English knowledge to communicate and use in their job The employers require their employees who apply to company, must have certificate of language, such as: IELTS, TOEIC, certificate of English in B level and C level, most commonly is certificate of English in B level In Tay Nguyen University, specific requirements of language for undergraduates from course 2012 onward at Tay Nguyen University is level ( or so called B1) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Language (CEFR) In the language exam consists of skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing Through each of skills, we can improve language skills - Listening skill- can understand straightforward instructions or public - announcements Speaking skill- can express simple opinions on abstract/cultural matters - in a limited way Reading- can understand routine information and articles Writing- can write letters or make notes on familiar or predictable matters Beside that writing skill is one of basic skill, which requires good language abilities It is important that candidates leave themselves enough time to answer all three parts of the Writing component as this carries the same weighting as the Reading component i.e 25% of the total exam It is suggested that candidates spend at least 40 minutes on the Writing component Parts and of the Writing component focus on extended writing and candidates need to think carefully about who the target reader is for each task and try to write in an appropriate style and tone It is important to write clearly so that the answers are easy to read However, it is not important if candidates write in upper or lower case, or if their writing is joined up or not It is also important that candidates realise that Writing Part carries 15 marks out of the total of 25 It takes up 60% of the total marks Writing a short letter about 100 -120 words for a friend from abroad answer about one of your favorite films, TV programs, music, cuisine, restaurant or give advice Main content of the written letter similar to the theme of the section (presentation themed lottery) Thus, students can refer to this section to outline some of the post This form is important part of writing section So, it requires students must have a good English knowledge However, students face many problems when they write this form For these reason, the researcher would like to carry out our assignment “AN INVESTIGATION ON SOME COMMON PROBLEMS IN WRITING A LETTER WITH GIVEN TITLE OF NON- MAJORED STUDENTS AT TAY NGUYEN UNIVERSITY ” this assignment is conducted with the hope that it will help students to identify some problems in writing a letter with given title and to propose effective solutions 1.2 Objectives of the study The main objectives of the study are: To identify some problems in writing a letter with given title To suggest some effective solutions 1.3 Significance of the study - Through this study, the researcher would like help the second year Preschool of Pedagogy students in Tay Nguyen University to determine some common problems in writing a letter with given title Beside that, the researcher hope the researcher can suggest some effective solutions after the researcher have finished this study 1.4 Outline of the study The assignment is divided into chapter: Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter provides the background information for the whole assignment: statement of the problem, objectives of the study, significance of the study, and outline of the study Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter composed of main parts: The first part is overview about writing letter The second part is some common problem in writing a letter with given title In this part, I will give basic problems are: poor sentence structures, problems with commas and other punctuation issues, subject- verb agreement and word usage which students usually get in writing a letter with given title The third is some require of writing a letter with given title in English certificate following B1 standard Chapter 3: CONTENTS AND METHODOLOGY This chapter describes the method use to this study It is composed three main parts: Subjects of the study, scope of the study, contents of the study and research methods Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS This chapter reports and discusses the result from this study After the findings of the study, the study gives a summary of the assessment Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter refers to two issues: conclusions of the study and recommendations of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview about writing letter 2.1.1 The important of writing skill Writing skills is an important in basic skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing Writing skills are an important part of communication Good writing skills allow you to communicate your message with clarity and ease to a far larger audience than through face- to- face or telephone conversations 2.1.2 Some factors of writing skill Letter writing is an essential skill Despite the prevalence of emails and text messages, everyone has to write letters at some point Letters of complaint, job applications, thank you letters, letters requesting changes or making suggestions — the list goes on and on Handwriting too is an essential element In the Standard Assessment Tests (SAT) Level handwriting is required: - To be legible Have a consistent size and spacing of letters Show flow and movement Show a confident personal style 2.2 Some problems in writing Before I this study, I looked up in the Internet and found some problems which students usually get in writing a letter with given title Below are basic problems which according to Paul R Hensel- Professor of Political Science,University of North Texas, the author of “Common Writing Problems”, the students usually make a mistakes They are poor sentence structures, problems with commas and other punctuation issues, subject- verb agreement (singular- plural issues) and word usage (Paul R Hensel, 2008) 2.2.1 Poor sentence structures 2.2.1.1 Definition of sentence structure According to the website “wise GEEK- clear answers for common questions” ( http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-sentence-structure.htm#didyouknowout), sentence structure is the order and arrangement of the clauses in a sentence, which is a group of words that express a complete thought Three of the most common types of sentence structure are simple, compound, and complex sentences Each of these can be identified by the number and types of clauses found within them 2.2.1.2 Some kinds of sentence structures According to Elizabeth O’Brien- the author of the Grammar Revolution, there are kinds of sentence structures - Simple A simple sentence structure consists of one independent clause The previous example is simple and expresses a complete idea While it is a short example, sentence length cannot be used to judge its type For example: - "The man walked down the street to see if the newspaper had arrived at his favorite corner store," It is simple, with only a single independent clause, though it is much longer than the previous example ( Elizabeth O’Brien) - Compound Compound sentences consist of two or more simple or independent clauses, joined by a coordinating conjunction such as "and" or a coordinating adjective like "however." For example: - "I walked to the store," and "The clerk waved hello," are both simple sentences They can be joined together to create the compound, "I walked to the store, and the clerk waved hello." ( Elizabeth O’Brien) - Complex A complex sentence has one independent clause joined together with a dependent clause Since dependent clauses not express complete ideas, they often become subordinate clauses that not have as much strength as independent ones ( Elizabeth O’Brien) - Compound-Complex The combination of the compound and complex forms create a sentence structure known as "compound-complex." This occurs when a simple and complex sentence are combined together, or two complex types become connected In here, the problem of students that they lack of sentence structure when writing a letter They just use simple sentence to write because it’s easy But using one sentence structure in whole letter isn’t a good way They must combine all sentence structure to write a good letter ( Elizabeth O’Brien) 2.2.2 Problems with commas and other punctuation Issues According to Jane Straus, author of “the Blue book of grammar and punctuation”, commas help your reader figure out which words go together in a sentence and which parts of your sentences are most important Using commas incorrectly may confuse the reader, signal ignorance of writing rules, or indicate carelessness Although using commas correctly may seem mysterious, it can be easy if you follow a few guidelines (Jane Straus) Beware of popular myths of comma usage: - Long sentences need a comma A really long sentence may be perfectly correct without commas The length of a sentence does not - determine whether you need a comma You should add a comma wherever you pause Where you pause or breathe in a sentence does not reliably indicate where a comma belongs Different readers pause or breathe in different places - Commas are so mysterious that it’s impossible to figure out where they belong! Some rules are flexible, but most of the time, commas belong in very predictable places You can learn to identify many of those places using the tips in this handout Beside commas, they also note the using way of dot, dash, colon- and- dash, semi- colon in a letter To make sure that sentence is enough long to finish by commas or dot Using dash, semi- colon in suitable cases (Jane Straus) 2.2.3 Subject- Verb agreement (singular- plural issues) According to Jane Straus, author of “the Blue book of grammar and punctuation”, the correspondence of a verb with its subject in person (first, second, or third) and number (singular or plural).The principle of subject-verb agreement applies to finite verbs in the present tense and, in a limited way, to the past forms of the verb to be (was and were) 2.2.4 Word usage According to Wikipedia word usage is how a word, phrase, or concept is used in a language Lexicographers gather samples of written or spoken instances where a word is used and analyze them to determine patterns of regional or social usage as well as meaning This is the basic problem that students usually get They don’t know way to use suitable word for each case Beside that they don’t distinguish kinds of word, it is noun or verb to use This is some example of word usage in “A Dictionary of Usage (from the UVic Writer's Guide; the following problems are a few of my favorites from their guide that didn't make my top twenty list)” posted by The Department of English, University of Victoria, 1995 (This page updated September 22, 1995) Accept / Except Adaptation / Adoption Affect / Effect A lot / Alot / Allot Aggravate / Irritate All together / Altogether All right / Alright Among / Between Allusion / Illusion Amoral / Immoral 2.3 Some requirements of writing a letter with given title in English certificate following B1 standard Following the website http://tienganhb1.com/ Writing a short letter about 100 -120 for a friend from abroad answer about one of your favorite films, TV programs, music, cuisine, restaurant or give advice Main content of the written letter similar to the theme of the section (presentation themed lottery) Thus, students can refer to this section to outline some of the post Here is some requires of writing a letter with given title in English certificate following B1 standard: • To make sure to answer all of the respondents Before starting to write, read the topic, write down your questions and point out the answers in the form of the phrase Avoid writing complete sentences bother • To use a variety of vocabulary, grammatical structures • To use the appropriate connection, note the punctuation and paragraph appropriate division • Articles in the form of a letter, to ensure the structure of an article directory • The test does not need to write the address B1 of the writer, recipient within Letter structure are part: Greeting/ Salutation : Dear Tom, Hi Tom, Part 1: - Starting your letter: You can use one of the following phrases to begin - the letter Thanks for your letter (Cảm ơn bạn viết thư) Lovely to hear from you (Rất vui nhận tin tức từ bạn) How are you? (Bạn khỏe không?) How are things? (Mọi việc nào) Hope you're well (Mình hi vọng bạn khỏe.) - And comment on the information in the letter that your friend wrote to you I'm sorry to hear/learn Mình tiệc nghe được/ biết I'm so pleased to hear Mình vui biết I’m so pleased to hear that you are getting married next month/ you have got a new job It's great to hear Thật vui biết rằng… What wonderful news about Part : The body - Writing to main content, answering questions in the assignment Use one of the following ways forward: in Anyway, the reason I'm writing I thought I'd write to tell/ask you Anyway, I was wondering Part : Ending letter - Using one of the following ways: Well, that's all for now Write back soon Looking forward to hearing from you again All the best/ Best wishes/ See you soon/ Take care/ Yours/ Love/ Lots of love ….(All words / phrases are comma (,) behind) In section (question or question 8) of Writing B1 exam, students usually write types of letter are: Giving instructions/ advice and describing something- hobbies/ favourite…This part take up 60% of writing section so it requires that students must have a good language abilities to write CHAPTER 3: CONTENTS AND METHODOLOGY 3.1 Subjects of the study The subjects in this study are 70 second year Pedagogy of Nursery students at Tay Nguyen University 3.2 Scope of the study Due to the time and resource limitation, these assignment focus on studying some common problems in writing a letter with given title of the second year non- English majored students at Tay Nguyen University 3.3 Contents of the study When student write a letter with given title, they get some problems This problems makes them don’t improve their writing skill For these reason, I would like to carry out my assignment: An investigation on some common problems in writing a letter with given title of the second year non- English majored students at Tay Nguyen University To study my assignment, the researcher implement follow steps: - To overview about writing - To design writing practice tests - To ask my supervisor- Nguyen Thi Kim Phuong, MA to help mark and comment on the papers - To collect data of mistakes students that students usually make in writing practice tests 3.4 Research methods Main method: Writing practice tests The writing practice tests were designed for the purpose of investigating some common problems in writing a letter with given title 100 copies of writing tests are delivered to the second year Pedagogy of Nursery at Tay Nguyen University for completing Two writing test are written in English Each writing test has a difference title Students must write a letter following some require of the writing test The letter have about 100 words CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS After gathering result from writing practice tests, the result is analyzed This section provides tables, charts showing the result obtained from the writing practice tests are emitted These data focus on the issues: some common problems in writing a letter with given title During our own study, the researcher found some problems that students encountered when writing a letter with given title There are: - Poor sentence structures Problems with commas and other punctuation issues Subject- Verb agreement (singular- plural issues) Incorrect word usage From the results obtained from the writing practice tests for students, we have following statistic: 4.1 Poor sentence structures Chart 4.1: Types of sentence structures With this problem, the data show that more than 71% of students (50 students) use simple sentence, about 14,3% students (10 students) use compound sentence and 10% students (7 students) use complex sentence in writing a letter with given title However, just 4,3% of student can use compound- complex sentence to write The students usually use simple sentence to write because it’s easy Furthermore, using simple sentence, they encounter less mistakes than using other sentences The result meant most of students realized that they not good at using flexible sentence structures in writing a letter with given title and it can make their writing are boring and monotonous We can see some example below: Ex: - I think that good idea Because my country very beautiful  I think that is a good idea because my country is very beautiful - I’ll give you some advice When you come to my country  I’ll give you some advice, when you come to my country In example, we can combine two sentences by using “because”, “when” but student using two simple sentences It makes sentence fragment when combine with another sentence Besides that it’s not clear when we read the letter 4.2 Problem with commas and other punctuation issues Chart 4.2 Problem with commas and other punctuation issues According to the data, which has been collected, more than 64,3% of students (45 students) get problem with commas, 25,7% of students (18 students) get problem with dot and 10% of students (7 students) get problem with other punctuation issue The research found the most of students often have mistakes with commas when they write The main reason is students don’t know the way to use suitable commas and other punctuation This problem seems simple but the most students encounter Commas are used to separate sentences when necessary but in some cases, students don’t use properly commas Students usually use dot to finish a sentence although it is too short and meaningless Instead of, we can use comma then continuing the sentence We can see cited example below: - I’ll give you some advice When you come to my country  I’ll give you some advice, when you come to my country Beside commas, students don’t put dot and other punctuation issue in properly location For examples: - I usually spend hours to see TV everyday after finish my homework, (.)I often watch entertainment programmes and music (Using dot instead of comma) - I spent about 60 minutes a day watching my favorite Discovery channel  I spend about 60 minutes a day watching my favorite “Discovery channel” (Using quotation marks to emphasize favorite channel) 4.3 Subject- Verb agreement (singular- plural issues) Chart 4.3: Subject- verb agreement This data show that only 28,6% of students (20 students) get problem with Subject- Verb agreement while 85,6% of students (60 students) not get problem with Subject- Verb agreement Students encounter this problem because they don’t know use verb suitable with subject We can see example below, students use the verb “watching” for the subject “I” in simple tense when they talk about daily activities Ex:   I often watching television in my free time I often watch television in my free time I watching some News and films when I get up I watch some News and films when I get up 4.4 Incorrect word usage Chart 4.4: Incorrect word usage This data show that 85,7% of students (60 students) get problem with word usage The problem about word usage is basic problem They usually use wrong word when they write We can see some examples in writing practice tests: - I watch TV to 6p.m go 11p.m (from 6p.m to 11p.m) Me (I)often spend a lot of time for (to) watch TV I unlike (don’t like) the book because it is boring, I often listen music (listen to music) and play football Beside that, they have spelling mistakes so they write wrong words For examples: - I know I spend to (too) much time watching television - I usually spend hours to see TV everyday aftee (after) school Beside you can eat a lot of things in here such as seafoot (seafood) I allway (always) go swimming on Sunday afternoon I offteen (often) listen to music, cooking and go swimming with my friends The reasons of this problem are: lack of vocabulary, using word not correct with tenses and spelling mistakes After the result is analyzed and shown in charts we can see that students encounter problems in writing a letter with given title There are: Poor sentence structures, problems with commas and other punctuation issues, subject- verb agreement and word usage With these problem, students can’t fulfil all parts of the writing task and receive good marks These problems make students aren’t confident when doing the writing task They are afraid that they will get more mistake during writing task So that they don’t like writing instead of they should practice regularly to improve their writing skill CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter will give conclusions of the study and recommendations on effective solutions of some common problems in writing a letter with given title 5.1 Conclusions of the study After the result is analyzed and shown in charts we can see that students encounter problems in writing a letter with given title There are: Poor sentence structures, problems with commas and other punctuation issues, subject- verb agreement and word usage In these problems, a large of students encounter problem with word usage (85,7%) It’s basic problem that students always encounter when they doing the writing task In problem with sentence structures, we can see that most of students (66,4 %) use simple sentence to write the task When using simple sentence, they have less mistakes than using other sentence structures such as: compound sentence, complex sentence and compound- complex sentence With 64,3 % of students (45 students) get problem with commas, we can see that most of students don’t use properly commas to separate sentences Beside problem with commas, students also get problem with dot (25%) and other punctuation issues (10%) From the result, we can see that just only 28,6 % of students get problem with subject- verb agreement After the researcher found and analyzed four problems in writing letter with given title, the researcher give some effective solution to improve these problems Due to the shortage of time, the study can not give all effective solutions of improving all problems in writing a letter with given title for students Obviously, mistakes are unavoidable, I would like to welcome all comments and remarks to make my research more perfect and complete 5.2 Recommendations of the study The success in writing a letter doesn’t depend on the lesson programs only, but more important in the way how students using their knowledge and skill to make themselves more enthusiastic and enjoyable There are some suggestions that write gives students as follow: - The students are hoped to be realized their problems in writing as soon as possible This will make the students being aware of finding new more solution suitably The students should learn more new words per day to improve their vocabulary Good vocabulary helps students can use various word in their letter (Allen Cheng, Dec 15, 2014 The Best Way to Study SAT Vocab Words, http://blog.prepscholar.com/the-best-way-to-study-sat-vocab-words - The students are hoped to practice more exercise about sentence structures to improve their ability in using sentence structures (Sentence Completion Worksheets) - http://www.englishforeveryone.org/Topics/Sentence-Completion.htm The students are hoped to notice punctuation when they writing Using commas and other punctuation issue in correct location ( Comma Rules Explained- http://www.aims.edu/student/online-writing- - lab/grammar/comma-rules ) The students should notice subject of sentence to use properly verb Using singular- plural issue in properly suitable (Jane Straus, 2011, The Blue book of grammar and punctuation) - http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/commas.asp The students should ask their classmate for other methods that they have ever know before I believe all of these above recommendations are well performed for the second year Pedagogy of Nursery students at Tay Nguyen University will benefit from effective solutions to solve some common problems in writing a letter with given title REFERENCES Norman Coe, Robin Rycroft, Pauline Ernest, 31-03-1983, Writing Skills Teacher's Book: A Problem-Solving Approach, Cambridge University Press Simon, 2012, IELTS General Writing, http://ielts-simon.com/ieltshelp-and-english-pr/ielts-general-writing/ Cambridge Preliminary English Test with Answers Cambridge Preliminary English Test with Answers Cambridge Preliminary English Test with Answers Cambridge Preliminary English Test with Answers Author Retrieved, 2008, Letter Writing Resource Pack, http://www.mychild.co.uk/docs/walw/Letter_writing_Resource_Pack pdf CCMA, 2006, Tips for Writing Letters, http://www.schooladvocacy.ca/left_level2/writing_tips.html Amnesty International UK, 2013, Letter Writing Guide, 10 http://www.amnesty.org.uk/letter-writing-guide#.VUVPexh83BI Nathan V, 2002, Difficulties In Writing, 11 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/writingdiffs.html Paul R Hensel, 2008, Common Student Writing Problem, 12 13 http://www.paulhensel.org/teachprob.html Writing Skill, http://www.skillsyouneed.com/writing-skills.html Monash University, 2007, Some Common Problems- Check_List, 14 http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/general/academic/7.xml Elizabeth O’Brien, 2001, Grammar Revolution,http://www.english- 15 grammar-revolution.com/sentence-structure.html What is sentence structure?http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is- 16 sentence-structure.htm#didyouknowout Jane Straus, 2011, The Blue book of grammar and punctuation 17 http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/commas.asp Jane Straus, 2011, The Blue book of grammar and punctuation, https://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/subjectVerbAgree.asp 18 HƯỚNG DẪN LÀM BÀI THI VIẾT THƯ- http://tienganhb1.com/h %C6%B0%E1%BB%9Bng-d%E1%BA%ABn-l%C3%A0m-b 19 %C3%A0i-thi-vi%E1%BA%BFt-th%C6%B0.aspx Allen Cheng, Dec 15, 2014 The Best Way to Study SAT Vocab Words, http://blog.prepscholar.com/the-best-way-to-study-sat-vocab- 20 21 words Sentence Completion Worksheets http://www.englishforeveryone.org/Topics/Sentence-Completion.htm Comma Rules Explainedhttp://www.aims.edu/student/online-writing-lab/grammar/commarules APPENDICES Full name: WRITING TEST Class: Time: Question • This is part of a letter you receive from an Australian friend Could you give me some advice? I want to travel around your country for a month Where should I go? What should I see? • • Now write a letter, answering your friend’s questions Write your letter in about 100 words on your answer sheet …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… Full name: WRITING TEST Class: • Time: This is a part of a letter you receive from your English friend Mark I know I spend too much time watching television! How much television you watch? What else you to relax? • • Now write a letter to Mark, answering his questions Write your letter in about 100 words on your answer sheet …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… SUPERVISOR’S COMMENTS ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………… Daklak, date….month… year…… SUPERVISOR (signature, full name) SIGNATURE APPROVED DISAPPROVED   ... to carry out our assignment “AN INVESTIGATION ON SOME COMMON PROBLEMS IN WRITING A LETTER WITH GIVEN TITLE OF NON- MAJORED STUDENTS AT TAY NGUYEN UNIVERSITY ” this assignment is conducted with. .. their writing skill For these reason, I would like to carry out my assignment: An investigation on some common problems in writing a letter with given title of the second year non- English majored. .. RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter will give conclusions of the study and recommendations on effective solutions of some common problems in writing a letter with given title 5.1 Conclusions of the study After