Luan Van - Dang Thi Kim Oanh K 17 Vinh

1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES - ĐẶNG THỊ KIM OANH A study on using group writing to improve writing skills for 10th form non - English majors at Phan Boi Chau specializing high school ( Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng hoạt động viết theo nhóm nhằm phát triển kỹ viết cho học sinh lớp 10 không chuyên Tiếng Anh trường THPT chuyên Phan Bội Châu- Nghệ An) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Methodology Code: 60.14.10 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES - ĐẶNG THỊ KIM OANH A study on using group writing to improve writing skills for 10th form non - English majors at Phan Boi Chau specializing high school ( Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng hoạt động viết theo nhóm nhằm phát triển kỹ viết cho học sinh lớp 10 không chuyên Tiếng Anh trường THPT chuyên Phan Bội Châu- Nghệ An) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Phạm Minh Hiền, M.A CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I certify that this thesis is entirely my own work The material in this research has not wholly or partially been submitted or a degree of any other university or institution Hanoi, June 2010 Dang Thi Kim Oanh ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor Ms Pham Minh Hien, M.A, whose invaluable comments, guidance, criticism and generous help were very important to me in the process of carrying out this study My special thanks also go to all lecturers and the staff of the department of Post Graduate Studies at Hanoi College of Foreign Language for their useful materials, guidance and enthusiasm during my course of study I really wish to thank all of my colleagues and my students at Phan Boi Chau specializing high school for their enthusiasm participating in the experiment and doing the questionnaires I would also like to send my thanks to my beloved family, specially my husband, my little daughter and my friends who always stand by me with their consideration and encouragements ABSTRACT In the upper-secondary schools in Vietnam With the innovation of textbook for 10th form students in light of Communicative Approach, the teaching of the four skills has been much more focused on So far, the English teaching methods have been on the way to perfect However, writing is a crucial skill that the teachers of English experience a lot of difficulties In order to improve the quality of writing, the thesis limits itself to the study on using group writing to improve writing skills for 10th form non - English majors This study is to bring some effectiveness and excitement to the process of writing in the classroom The study has been conducted for the purpose of testing the effectiveness of using group work to improve non - English majors at Phan Boi Chau specializing high school in writing class Thus, two sets of survey questionnaires including teacher’s questionnaires and student’s questionnaire are used to investigate student’s attitudes, perspectives toward writing skills and group writing adapted during writing lessons, to find out the teachers’ difficulties for carrying out this technique The study is composed of three main parts: introduction, development and conclusion Part A deals with the rationale, the aims, the scope, significance of the study, methods as well as the design of the study Part B consists of three chapters Chapter I reviews the theoretical background of writing skill and group work in writing lesson Chapter II presents the data analysis from two survey questionnaires Chapter III presents some major findings drawn from the data analysis and some suggestions on using group writing It is hoped that the thesis will make a small contribution to the improvement of learning and teaching writing skill Table of contents Candidate’s statement i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of abbreviations vii List of tables and charts vii Table of contents vii PART A: INTRODUCTION I Rationales of the study II Aims of the study III Research questions IV Scope of the study V Methods of the study VI Significance of the study VII Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW I.1 Communicative language teaching (CLT) I.1.1 An overview of communicative language teaching (CLT) I.1.2 Communicative activities 7 I.1.3 Group work in communicative language teaching I.2 Overview of writing I.2.1 Definitions of writing I.2.2 Writing skills in foreign language teaching I 2.3 Approaches to writing skills in foreign language teaching 11 I.3 Group writing in foreign language teaching 14 I.3.1 What is Group writing? 14 I.3.2 Advantages of using group writing in improving writing skill for high school students 15 I.3.3 Disadvantages of using group writing in improving writing skill for high school students 16 I.3.4 How to organize group work 17 I.3.4.1 The formation .17 I.3.4.2 Group size 18 I.3.5 Using group writing in the classroom 18 I.3.5.1 Pre- writing stage .18 I.3.5.2 While- writing stage 19 I.3.5.3 Post- writing stage 19 CHAPTER II: DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF THE STUDY .20 II.1.Setting of the study .20 II.1.1 Description of the teaching and learning English at Phan Boi Chau specializing high school 20 II.1.2 Description of writing program in English 10 textbook 21 II.2 Design and methodology 22 II.2.1 The participants .22 II.2.2 Research instruments .23 II.2.3 Data analysis 24 II.2.3.1 Data analysis of students’ survey questionnaire 24 II.2.3.2 Data analysis of teachers’ survey questionnaire 31 CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR USING GROUP WRITING TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS 38 III Findings 38 III Recommendations 39 III.3 Some suitable activities for group writing 41 PART C: CONCLUSION 47 Summary of the study 47 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research .47 REFERENCES .49 APPENDICES I Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students I Appendix 2: Questionnaire for teachers III Appendix 3: Particular samples of group writing activities used in Tieng Anh 10 V LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching PBC: Phan Boi Chau ELT: English Language Teaching LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Approaches to teaching writing skills .11 Table 2: Checklist of writing tasks in English textbook 10 22 Table 3: Students’ attitude toward English learning 25 Table 4: Benefits of using group writing in writing classes 28 Table 5: Students’ expectations of teachers’ using group writing 30 Table 6: Benefits of using group work in writing lessons 33 Table 7: How to group students 34 Table 8: Activities at which group writing is used 35 Table 9: Teachers’ solution to overcome their difficulties 36 Figure 1: Students’ perspectives towards writing class 25 Figure 2: Students’ view on writing lessons 26 Figure 3: Students’ opinions about the way they like to writing in class 27 Figure 4: The frequency of using group work in writing lessons 27 Figure 5: The students’ attitude towards group writing .28 Figure 6: Difficulties students have experienced when writing in groups 29 Figure 7: Students’ opinions on the stages of group writing 30 Figure 8: Teachers’ attitude towards teaching writing 31 Figure 9: The frequency of using group writing 32 Figure 10: The students’ response to group writing 32 10 Figure 11: Teachers’ preparation for implementing group writing .34 Figure 12: Teachers’ difficulties in implementing group writing 36 PART A: INTRODUCTION I Rationales ... material in this research has not wholly or partially been submitted or a degree of any other university or institution Hanoi, June 2010 Dang Thi Kim Oanh ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express... learners' completing a task is fore-grounded and communicating with each other is backgrounded This may lead to considerable use of pair work, group work and mingling activities - In ESL classes, teachers... "making marks on the flat surface of some kinds'' Whereas Brannon, Knight and Neverow -Turk (1982:2) pointed out that " writing is a creative art, not as an assembly line operation of locking