The difficulties of firstyear students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education in rewriting English sentencesThe difficulties of firstyear students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education in rewriting English sentences
1 DECLARATION I certify that this thesis is the result of my own research and the substance of this thesis has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution Hung Yen, May 2016 Nguyen Thi Nhan 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To complete this graduation paper, I am deeply indebted to many people for their valuable advices and suggestions First of all, I would like to send my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Pham Thi Duong, M.A, for her enthusiastic support, helpful advice, and considerable encouragements in the completion of the thesis Besides, my words of thanks are also send to the major first year English in class TAK13.1 and TAK13.2 at Faculty of Foreign Languages UTEHY for their enthusiastic cooperation, without their support, I would not have been able to complete this paper I also owe a great debt of gratitude to my family and my friends, especially my classmates in group TAK10, who always encouraged me for such a long and hard time Last but not least, I am very grateful for any comments from my readers who are interested in this thesis 3 ABSTRACT The study deals with finding the difficulties in rewriting English sentences of major first–year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education In order to achieve the above mentioned objectives, the study presents the key theories related to rewriting English sentences The researcher carried out survey questionnaires among 77 major firstyear students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY to get their opinions The definition,the formation, the seating arrangement, and the role of the learners in rewriting English sentence lessons are also mentioned A survey on the use of rewriting English sentence exercises at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education are conducted in the process of doing this study The results of such research showed that the data analysis as well as the interpretation of the results obtained from the questionnaires is also given Last but not least, the study gives some difficulties and solutions to improve students ‘ability in rewriting English sentences at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS UTEHY: Hung Yen University of Technology and Education FFL: Faculty of Foreign Language MA: Master of Arts Ss: Students S: Student No.1: Number p.25: page 25 5 LIST OF TABLE 6 LIST OF CHART 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Nowadays, English has become an international language which is used officially in more than many different countries because it is considered as an effective means of international communication in various fields such as education and training, business and commerce, internal relationship and diplomacy People have different purposes to learn English, some learn to go overseas, to satisfy their curiosity about the world outside, others learn as their major at work As well as, English is regarded as the key to the innovation, development and global integration Because of the importance of learning English, in Vietnam, it began to be used widely in education and in daily-life activities As a result, English has been a compulsory subject at schools, colleges and universities Moreover,it would know about the importance of English teaching and learning if we understand the relations among language, grammar and vocabulary Therefore, the goals of English language teaching are not only to help the students learn language, but also more importantly to use language fluently Besides, English began to be used widely in education and in daily-life activities It is obviously seen that many Vietnamese students have a little experience of writing since leaving secondary schools or colleges when they presenting written work in a daily life Moreover, they may be very anxious about having to write essays, letters and curriculum vitae Therefore, using the four language skills: listening, reading, speaking,writing, is essential to English major students at Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education (UTEHY).Most writing programs are still taught using the traditional model, emphasizing accuracy of grammatical structure and vocabulary In addition, the formative tests in most writing programs stress on objective-type questions, which require sentence completion, reordering sentences, reordering words and error correction Students have very few actual opportunities to represent their ideas and knowledge through the written mode Because the students must take the test including the four language skills, writing seems to be the most difficult but really important skill among the four skills Moreover, writing skill access student on writing English sentences and writing in topics; separately writing English sentences accounts for about ten marks with five rewriting sentence Then students pass the writing exam, all students find that they had more difficulties in rewriting English sentences with grammar structures and vocabulary because this course require students to write letter and rewrite English sentences Thus, 8 it is very important to find out the effective methods in rewriting English sentences for all English major students In conclusion, in order to find appropriate methods, techniques to rewrite English sentences better, a study entitled: “The difficulties of first-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education in rewriting English sentences” is conducted 1.2 Aims of the study The biggest aim of the study is to investigate the reality of difficulties and solution in rewriting English sentences of the major first-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY To be specific, the aims of the study are: + To find the factors causing the difficulties in the rewriting English sentence exercises of the major first year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY + To improve the inspiration of the major first year students in rewriting English sentences + To recommend practical suggestions for improving rewriting English sentences of the major first year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY 1.3 Scope of study To improve the effectiveness in rewriting English sentences of the first major year students at UTEHY, the researcher intends to find out the difficulties in rewriting English sentences of the first year students at UTEHY then to give some methods for improving it.Because of the limitation of time and knowledge, the shortage of reference materials, this study cannot cover the whole issue of writing skill Moreover, the study could not touch upon all the students at UTEHY It is confined to the first year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY only 1.4 Research question The above aims of the study are to answer the three following research questions: What are the difficulties in rewriting English sentences of the first-year English major students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY ? What are major first year students’ inspiration towards rewriting English sentence exercises Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY? How to motivate for major first year students in rewriting English sentence lessons at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY? 1.5 Methods of study To collect the data for researching, the author used both qualitative and quantitativemethods including questionnaires for students,teachers and interview questions for students.The interview 9 questions and the questionnaires were designed based on the main aims of the study After getting the results, the author used the tables and charts for presenting the collected data The interview results which were recorded carefully and the tape script used as another data for the analysis, discussion and recommendation 1.5.1 Questionnaires Quantitative method is used and considered the most suitable to obtain the aim The study targets at analyzing the outcome with numbers and figures Therefore, the data were collected by means of questionnaires which were designed and handled to a defined population The answers are completely objective, not controlled by the researcher 1.5.2 Interviews Interview has long been accepted as an important feature in language teacher education and supervision By interviewing in different writing classes in the department of foreign language, UTEHY, some interviewing data are collected and analyzed to support the process of interpreting data 10 10 CHAPTER II:LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview of teaching English grammar 2.1.1 Overview of writing 2.1.1.1 Definitions of writing Writing has been defined in various ways by different following researchers Firstly, according to Brannon (1982, p.2) defines writing as a creative art, not as an assembly line operation of locking words together into sentences and bolting sentences together into paragraph in accordance with a predefined plan Moreover, Byrne, (1988, p.1), writing can be considered as an art of forming graphic symbols, that is, letters or the combination of letters on one level, writing can be said to be the act of forming these symbols, or more clearly the act of making marks on the flat surface of some kinds However, in language teaching and learning process, Tribble (1996, p.3) defines writing as a language skill that involves “not frusta graphic representation of speech, but the development and presentation of thought in a structured way” According to Murray, (1987, p.29) and Perl (1979, p.43), writing as a creative discovery procedure characterized by the dynamic interplay of content and language: the use of language to explore beyond the known content From another point of view, writing is a language skill which is difficult to acquire (Tribble, 1996, p.3) Tribble also impresses that writing normally requires some form of instruction and that it is not a skill that is readily picked up by exposure (1996,p.11) Tayor ( 1984, p.4) expressed that the act of writing, upon examination ,and turn out to be a complex process where in writers use language as a tool to discover and clarifying meaning on experience in order to say exactly what they mean In short, in most languages, writing is a complement to speech or spoken language Writing is not a language but a form of technology Within a language system, writing relies on many of the same structures as speech, such as vocabulary, grammar and semantics, with the added dependency of a system of signs or symbols, usually in the form of a formal alphabet; an art that writers want to communicate with certain groups of audience to express oneself efficiently Through the mastery of writing, individuals come to be fully effective in intellectual organization, in the management of everyday affairs, in the expression of ideas and arguments Therefore, academic writing requires conscious effort and much practice in composing, developing and analyzing ideas 2.1.1.2 The importance of writing 10 29 29 rewriting sentences Students frequently make the mistake with lack of logical thinking Just 5% of them rarely and 1% of them are not certainly in mentioned mistake In addition, 42% of them sometimes make lack of vocabulary But only, 4% of students rarely and 3% of them make this mistake According to the interview results,it also indicates that major first-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY have mistakes in grammar and structures (3 students), one student say that she often makes lack of vocabulary and one student rewrites English sentences when she is lack of logical thinking In conclusion, major first-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY often have some mistakes in rewriting English sentences are: grammar and structures, vocabulary and lack of logical thinking But the main mistake in students’ rewriting English sentences is grammar and structures 3.7 Students’ activities to improve rewriting English sentences 3.7.1 Students’ practice When answering the question: “rewriting sentences frequently are necessary to improve rewriting English sentences”, 90% students said “yes”, just 10% of them said “no” Chart 5: The frequency degree of students’ and their teachers’ advice at practicing rewriting English sentences at home According to chart 5, it can be easily realized that most of students (43%) chose rewrite twice in a week Just 30% students rewrite once a week and none of students rewrite every day Based on the collected data from the interview, two students said they write twice a week, students said they rewrite once week just one student said she writes three times a week Overall, students at UTEHY are quite lazy in practicing writing at home Most of them rewrite sentences twice a week because they have two home assignments a week They write because of their responsibilities in spite of their teachers ‘advice for learning harder 3.7.2 Techniques before rewriting English sentences The following question in the questionnaire for students is designed to find out the frequency of using the activities before rewriting English sentences Techniques Books 29 Very often 17 Ss 22% Often 23 Ss 30% Occasionally 19 Ss 25% Rarely 11 Ss 14% Never Ss (10%) 30 30 Model essays 21 Ss 27% 17 Ss 22% 22Ss (29%) 15 Ss (19%) Ss (3%) Newspapers 12 Ss (16%) 12 Ss (16%) 22 Ss (29%) 23 Ss (30%) 23 Ss (30%) 21 Ss (27%) 15 Ss (19%) 13 Ss (17%) Ss (6%) Ss (9%) Magazine Table 7: Students’ techniques before rewriting English sentences It can be seen clearly from the Table that most of major first-year students of Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY occasionally use the author’s given techniques: books, model essays, newspapers and magazine The number of students never use model essays and newspapers books is the highest Besides, the number of students, who often find various sentences in model essays and newspapers, are very low.Although this media is an important and useful resources for students in rewriting English sentences To rewrite English sentences well, before rewriting English sentences, using available applications on the Internet is important Students should prepare grammatical structures and vocabulary For example, proper sentence structure makes the flow of information more logical and easy to read It will help the readers understand what the writer is trying to express in the paragraph Collected data from the interview, five students said that books are the main ideas aids such as games, music, pictures, and maps, reading text could help to reduce stress in the classroom and create a better learning environment Students will feel more interesting in the lesson Moreover, the model sentences is also a good instrument to help students have a clear structures, students can learn a lot of grammatical difficulties and sentence structures to rewrite sentences perfectly Based on the rewriting English sentences, three students said that they brainstorm in model sentences; two other students said they use newspaper to rewrite English sentences In general, the major first-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY also use some techniques before rewriting English sentences; however the frequency is still low although those techniques are very useful for students todevelop further rewriting sentences skill 3.7.3 Techniques after rewriting English sentences The next question inthe questionnaire for students is about the activities students often after rewriting English sentences The collected data are shown in the below chart: Chart 6: Students’ techniques after rewriting English sentences and their teachers’ advice 30 31 31 Chart shows the frequently of using techniques after rewriting English sentences, overall, major first-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY use almost these techniques “Asking your teachers to correct for you” is the highest selected technique with 40% in total Besides, “do nothing after rewriting sentences” accounts for 7% of them, and “reading again to find mistakes and correct it by yourself” is the technique which students at UTEHY often use after rewriting English sentences According to the collected data from the interview, three students said that they read again to find mistakes and correct it themselves, one student said she asks their teacher for correction.” In the interview, the researcher also asked students about the activities they often did after rewriting English sentences, all students said that they correct by themselves and sometimes they ask the others such as friends and teachers to correct for them In general, based on the collected data, most of first-year students at FFL, UTEHY use mentioned techniques 3.7.4 Activities for improving rewriting English sentences To improve rewriting English sentences, the author gives activities such as: Enriching vocabulary, enlarging grammar, learning English structures, writing everyday, writing diary and others Chart 7: Students’ opinions and teachers’ advice about the activities for improving rewriting English sentences Chart 7shows that students’ opinions about the activities to improve rewriting English sentences According to the collected data, most of students say that they should enrich their grammar (79%) and learn English structures with 73% of them Nearly 50% of students agree that they should enrich vocabulary and write everyday to improve rewriting English sentences Just 44% of students suggest that they should write diary and 38% of them have other opinions: “ Ensure the information within the sentence is clear The learners would like to ensure that new information follows old, words are defined for the reader and context is clear.” Lecturers, who come from Faculty of Foreign Languages, have advice to their students that they should develop all four methods: enrich vocabulary, enlarging grammar, learning English structures and writing everyday According to the collected information of the interview, when asked “What should be changed to make rewrite English sentence lesson more interesting?”, All five students say that to improve rewriting English sentences they should learn English sentences and develop their 31 32 32 grammar, four students think that enriching vocabulary should be done everyday and one student say that she should write everyday In short, the major first -year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY have the different ideas about activities for improving rewriting English sentences Enlarging grammatical structures and enrich vocabulary is an activity which students agree most to improve rewriting English sentences 3.8 Main findings and discussion 3.8.1 Opinions of students about rewriting English sentences The survey result indicates that most of students at FFL, UTEHY consider importance of rewriting English sentences in their study Almost students agree that it is a good way to improve rewriting English sentences Besides, most of them are interested in this skill compared to other skills such as listening, speaking and reading They also know good rewriting English sentences skill can help them to improve knowledge about grammar and vocabulary All students have been trying to make use of the advantages of rewriting English sentences skill 3.8.2 Current situation in studying the rewrite English sentences For the major first-year students at FFL, UTEHY, they have a lot of difficulties in rewriting English sentences such as lack of vocabulary, grammar mistakes, spelling English sentence structures However, the number of students lack of grammar rewriting English sentences mistakes are the highest In addition, the major first-year students at FFL, UTEHY often have some basic mistakes in rewriting English sentences in grammar, structures and vocabulary They often ask friends to understand the difficult sentence structures and they hardly prepare grammatical structures and vocabulary, so that they have a lot of difficulties in rewriting English sentence exercises Lacking of English structures is also the mistake of first-year students at FFL, UTEHY Besides, students at UTEHY are quite lazy in practicing rewrite sentences at home Most of them write twice a week because they have two home assignments a week Therefore, their vocabulary and grammar are limited, rewriting English sentences is poor, and the sentences are not logical Furthermore, they are lack of confidence to rewrite English sentences fluently Furthermore, the major first-year students at FFL, UTEHY also use some techniques before rewriting English sentences such as summarizing structures and vocabulary, reviewing the important grammatical structures, working in group to understand more the difficulty sentences structures, looking for information on the internet, textbooks and newspapers, discussing with friends to divide the form exercises Moreover, some good students also give more activities: reading again to find out the 32 33 33 mistakes and self-correct it, asking friends in class to correct, especially, asking teacher to correct best answer Furthermore, perfecting grammar and learning English structures are two activities which students agree most to improve rewriting English sentence skill but the frequency is still low In conclusion, in order to get the maximum benefits of offered technique, some recommendations are proposed to the major first-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages 3.9 Recommendations for improving rewriting English sentences The following suggestions are to students and teachers of writing in Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education First of all, enhancing vocabulary is an important method to rewrite English well If students want to improve their vocabulary more quickly, they have to make at least a small commitment and decide to learn one new word every day or two The starter learning where they are if they come across an interesting word that they not understand, they should take time to look it up in a dictionary Secondly, improving grammar is an essential part of rewriting, as it helps students to convey the message or idea they are trying to get across Students should write good, clear and interesting sentences to ensure that their rewriting well and flow Instead of avoiding grammar mistakes, students should learn from it to make it become their advantages Another recommendation is practicing rewriting in English daily to create a new habit Rewriting everyday in English will soon become natural and something students look forward to They will not see a significant improvement if they are not dedicated to becoming a better writer in English In the rewriting, students should use self-correction regularly to discover the problems make their own corrections and return their work to the teacher This gives students the opportunity to reflect on their errors and make improvements to their writing It also shows teachers that students are able to and what still remains difficult Teachers have to check the corrections, and give students feedback on anything that is still wrong or students are been unable to improve Peer-correction, which students work in pairs, or in small groups They exchange their exercises and attempt to correct each other’s work Teachers have to build in an extra checking stage, as students will often not be able to provide appropriate corrections Equally important,teachers’ feedback is very necessary for all students in rewriting Once students have corrected as much as they can, then teachers concentrate on the remaining problems Rather than just correction, students need to understand why they have made errors and how to put in right 33 34 34 At this stage, students need feedback from teachers – some kind of explanation of the particular language point and perhaps one or two examples to show them how to the language should work Feedback can take the form of written notes at the end of the students’ work In addition, advices from teachers are very useful to motivate students’ effort from learning Teachers should play an active role as a facilitator to encourage students to sustain long-term in learning this subject A constructive criticism will help students recognize their weaknesses in the rewriting sentences Moreover, most of students need a place to find books or materials, so the researcher hopes that our school will build a library and invest many modern facilities to serve for all students at UTEHY 34 35 35 CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION This chapter will deal with a summary of the major findings, limitations of the study and some suggestions for further studies 4.1Summary of the study As mentioned in the Introduction, the number of people desiring to know and master English with the hope to get a good job or integrate in the world are multiplied As a result, English is widely taught mot only at universities, at schools, but also at language centers Being a student carrying out the study on “The difficulties of first-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education in rewriting English sentences”, I identified the current learning and teaching in rewriting English sentences From that, I pointed out some techniques and activities for improving students’ at FFL, UTEHY With regard to theoretical background, in chapter one, the Literature Review presents the understanding of overview of teaching English grammar, overview of writing, the importance of writing, writing errors, definition of grammar, the importance of teaching grammar, grammatical error, grammar rules, overview of the feature forms in rewriting English sentences exercises Based on the survey findings, the researcher find out some techniques suggested enhancing the first-year studentsat FFL, UTEHY in rewriting English sentences including the improving grammar and sentence structures These mentioned techniques have also been presented with the hope to give some contributions to improve the current in rewriting English sentences at FFL, UTEHY 4.2 Limitation and suggestions for further study Although the study has certain strengths such as collection methods, namely interviews, survey questionnaires for students,teachers due to limited time, lack of sources, the researcher’s ability, it is obvious that the study has got a number of drawbacks The last, the techniques suggested in this research are selected from different reliable but limited sources Thus, there should be technique appropriate to students of FFL, UTEHY to help them improve their rewriting English sentence skill To get a better and more efficient study, surely the research in coming time with my further research should invite more students to participate in the study 35 REFERENCES Byrne D (1988),Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers, Longman, London Byrne D (1989),Teaching English as a Foreign language, Routledge, London Choon (1993) “Error analysis and correction of written work in the classroom”, Retrieved March 15th 2013 4.Perl S (1979), The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers, National Council of Teachers of English Tribble C (1996), Writing, Oxford University Press, Oxford Murray (1980), Writing as a process: How writing finds its own Meaning, IL National Council of Teachers of English,Urbana Khoii R (2011) A Solution to the Dilemma of Writing in a Foreign Language: Adaptive Mentorship,Retrieved March 15th 2013 Choon (1993) “Error analysis and correction of written work in the classroom”,Retrieved March 15th 2013 David Crystal, The Fight for English Oxford Univ Press, 2006 10 Noam Chomsky (1972), Massachusetts Institute 01 Technology, Cambridge, Mussachusetts, U.S.A 11 R Freidin, Principles and Parameters in Comparative Grammar.MIT Press, 1991 12 P.W Culicover and A Nowak, Dynamical Grammar: Foundations of Syntax II Oxford Univ, Press, 2003 13 M.” Ángeles Escobar Álvarez (2011), English Grammar and Learning Tasks for Tourism Studies, Universidad Nacional de Education a Distancia Madrid 14 Scott Thornbury (1999), How to teach grammar, Pearson Education Limited 1999 15 George Perkins Marsh (1866), American philologist, Lectures on the English Language 16 Raimes A (1983), Techniques in Teaching Writing, Oxford University Press, Oxford From websites: http://grammar.about.com/od/basicsentencegrammar/a/tengrammartypes.htm http://www.cliffsnotes.com http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/runons.htm APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This questionnaire is conducted in order to find the difficulties in rewriting English sentences of major first year students at Faculty of Foreign Language at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education It is designed for my research on “The difficulties of first-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education in rewriting English sentences” I would be very grateful if you take a few minutes to complete this survey All of your information will be used for the study purpose, and your identification will not be revealed in any discussion of the data Thank you for your cooperation! Please tick(X) for each response that you choose I Personal information Your gender: Male Female How long have you been learning English? …………………… year(s) II Your opinions on studying English What you think of rewriting English sentences? Very difficult Difficulty Normal Easy Very easy What you think of the importance of rewriting English sentences? Very important Important Normal Not important When you start learning the rewriting English sentences? Primary school Secondary school High school University How you feel when you learn the rewriting English sentences? Very interesting Interesting Normal Boring Very boring How often you rewrite English sentences? Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never What you think of the Writing text book or the 1st year students at Faculty of Foreign Language? Very suitable Suitable Normal Not suitable How often you practice rewriting English sentences at home? Once a week Twice a week Three times a week Four times a week Everyday Others… What are your difficulties in rewriting English sentences? Limited vocabulary Poor ideas Others:… Lack of structures Illogical ideas organization Spelling mistakes Grammatical mistakes III Techniques for improving rewriting English sentences What you often to rewrite English sentences? ( You can choose more than one option ) Preparing topic and vocabulary Reviewing the important grammatical structure Working in group to understand more the difficult sentence structures Looking for information on the internet, textbooks and newspapers Discussing with friends to divide the word form exercises 10 How often you make the following mistakes during rewriting English sentences? Mistakes Grammar and Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never structure Spelling Lack of logical thinking Lack of vocabulary 11 When you want your teachers to check your answers in rewriting English sentences? During the lesson At the beginning of the lesson Right after you finish each sentence At the end of the lesson 12 How often you use the following media before rewriting English sentences? Media Very often Often Occasionall y Books Model rewriting sentences Newspaper Rarely Never Magazine 13 What you after rewriting English sentences? Reading again to find out the mistakes and correct it yourself Asking your friends in class to correct for you Asking your teacher to correct for you Do nothing Others:… 14 In your opinion, what should we to rewrite English sentences better? Enriching vocabulary Perfecting your grammar Learning English structures Writing everyday Writing diary Others: … Thank you for your kind cooperation! APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS This online questionnaire is conducted in order to find the difficulties in rewriting English sentences of major first year students at Faculty of Foreign Language at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education It is designed for my research on “The difficulties of first-year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education in rewriting English sentences” I would be very grateful if you spend few minutes to completing this survey All of your information will be used for the study purpose, and your identification will not be revealed in any discussion of the data Thank you for your cooperation! Please bold for each response that you choose and complete all these question I Personal information Your gender: Male Female How long have you been teaching English at at Faculty of Foreign Language UTEHY? …………………… year(s) II Your opinions on teaching English What you think of teaching rewriting English sentences? Very difficult Difficulty Normal Easy Very easy What you think of the importance of rewriting English sentences for students? Very important Important Normal Not important When should students start learning rewriting English sentences? Primary school Secondary school High school University How you feel when you teach the rewriting English sentences? Very interesting Interesting Normal Boring Very boring How often you teach rewrite English sentences on class? period per week periods per week periods per week periods per week More than periods per week What you think of the Writing text book of the 1st year students at Faculty of Foreign Language? Very suitable Suitable Normal Not suitable How often you assignEnglish sentences exercise for student? Once a week Twice a week Three times a week Four times a week Others… What are student’s difficulties in rewriting English sentences? Limited vocabulary Poor ideas Others:… Lack of structures Illogical ideas organization Spelling mistakes Grammatical mistakes III Techniques for improving rewriting English sentences What you often guide to rewrite English sentences for students? ( You can choose more than one option ) Preparing topic and vocabulary Reviewing the important grammatical structure Working in group to understand more the difficult sentence structures Looking for information on the internet, textbooks and newspapers Discussing with friends to divide the word form exercises 10 How often students take the following mistakes during rewriting English sentences? Mistakes Grammar and Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never structure Spelling Lack of logical thinking Lack of vocabulary 11 When you check student’s answer in rewriting English sentences? During the lesson At the beginning of the lesson Right after you finish each sentence At the end of the lesson 12 How often you suggest the following media before teaching rewriting English sentences? Media Very Often Occasionally Rarely often Books Model essays Newspaper Magazine 13 What you after teaching rewriting English sentences? Reading again to find out the mistakes and correct it for each student in class Asking other student in class to correct for their friend Asking student to correct it by themselves Doing nothing Others:… ……………………………………………………………………… 14 In your opinion, what should a student to rewrite English sentences better? Enriching vocabulary Perfecting their grammar Learning English structures Writing everyday Writing diary Others: … Thank you for your kind cooperation! Never APPENDIX COLLECTED DATA FROM INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (for students) What you think of the difficulty of writing essay? Three students said: very difficult Two students said: normal What you think of the importance of rewriting? Three students said: very important One student said: important One student said: normal What you think of the writing textbook for first-year students at FFL,UTEHY? One student said: very suitable Four students said: suitable How many periods per week you study writing skills to the major first year students? Five students said: three periods What are your difficulties in writing? Four students said: difficult in structures and grammar Five students said: Vocabulary What mistakes you often make when rewriting? Three students said:Spelling mistake One student: Lack of vocabulary One student: Logical thinking Do you think that rewriting everyday is necessary? Five students said: yes How often you practice writing per week? Two students said: once a week Three students said: twice a week What techniques you often after rewriting English sentences? One student said: Teacher will correct it after coming home Three: I will correct it by myself after reading some document on the Internet One student said: Discussing with friends (roommate) to get ideas about the equivalentstructure sentences [...]... (teaching) rewriting English sentences 24 25 25 Table4 shows that the inspiration on rewriting English sentences There are 62% of students agree that rewriting English sentences is normal Other students (23%) strongly agree that rewriting English sentences is interesting There are also at the inconsideration of the last point, 6% students feel boring and 3% of them are very bored with learning rewriting. .. Table.1: The interview results of students assessment in rewriting English sentences Statistics provided in Table 1 show that the interview result of students assessment in rewriting English sentences, one student thinks that the rewriting English sentences is difficult, 3 students (60%) claim that the rewriting English sentences is very difficult, and only 1 students (20%) say that rewriting English sentences. .. to the survey questionnaire 3.5.2 The interviews An interview is carried out with 5 students in 2 classes of K13 in Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education There are opened questions designed according to the aims of the study The data collection supplies the information about the fact of teaching and learning in rewriting English sentences of first - year students. .. that most of major firstyear students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY claim that rewriting English sentences have an important role in 23 24 24 learning English with a lot of fields in life.Furthermore, there are four lecturers accounting for 80% of them agree that learning rewriting English sentences is important for the students 3.6.1.3 The foundation of studying rewriting English Foundation... presented the data analysis and discussion for teaching and learning in rewriting English sentences 3.6 Data analysis, main findings and discussion This study, as indicated in Chapter one, was intended to find out the difficulties in rewriting English sentences of major first – year students at Faculty of Foreign Languages at UTEHY In this section, the data collected from the questionnaires and interviews... the opinion of students about rewriting English sentences 27 28 28 Chart 4: Students opinions about the assessment of pre -rewriting English sentences Chart 4describes students opinions about the assessment of pre -rewriting English sentences According to the collected data, only 31% of them say that preparing structures and vocabulary which they often do before rewriting English sentences 54% of them... of learning in rewriting English sentences at FFL, UTEHY 3.6.2.1 Students difficulties in rewriting English sentences To find the techniques to improve writing skill for first-year English major students at UTEHY, the author wants to find out the difficulties in their rewriting sentences The 26 27 27 ninthquestion(part II) in the questionnaires is designed for researching the difficulties in writing... improving rewriting English sentences Enlarging grammatical structures and enrich vocabulary is an activity which students agree most to improve rewriting English sentences 3.8 Main findings and discussion 3.8.1 Opinions of students about rewriting English sentences The survey result indicates that most of students at FFL, UTEHY consider importance of rewriting English sentences in their study Almost students. .. rewriting English sentences While there are 60 percentage of teachers feel normal with their teaching rewriting sentences, the last 40 percentage of them are interested in guiding their students in the rewriting lessons .The conclusion for students inspiration of rewriting English sentences is that the major studentsand their teachers do not have high interest in this subject 25 26 26 3.6.1.5 The frequency... in rewriting English sentence exercises 3.2.6.3 Students mistakes in rewriting English sentences To have more details about the students real situation in rewriting English sentences, the author would like to explore the mistake students often make in rewriting English sentences To collect the data, the twelfth question of the questionnaire is designed to find out the mistake of students rewriting