Enhancing students writing skill at college of foreign economic relations through blended learning with feedback activitives on facebook platform a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY DƢƠNG VIỆT HÀ ENHANCING STUDENTS' WRITING SKILL AT COLLEGE OF FOREIGN ECONOMIC RELATIONS THROUGH BLENDED LEARNING WITH FEEDBACK ACTIVITIES ON FACEBOOK PLATFORM Major: TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES Major code: 60140111 Master of Arts in TESOL Supervisor: Nguyễn Ngọc Vũ, Ph.D Ho Chi Minh City, September 2016 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that this thesis entitled “Enhancing students' writing skill at College of Foreign Economic Relations through blended learning with feedback activities on Facebook platform” is my own work Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contain material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma No other person‟ work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in other tertiary institution Ho Chi Minh City, 2016 Dương Việt Hà i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Ngọc Vũ, who gave love, care, invaluable support, suggestions, and encouragement in all stages of doing this research Without his critical comments and great contribution, this thesis would not have been completed I am so grateful that I had a chance to carry out the thesis under his supervision Immeasurable appreciation and the deepest gratitude for the help and support are extended to the following persons who are in one way or another way have contributed to making this thesis possible: All the lecturers at the Post graduate Faculty, for their great helps with benificial knowledge and experience in teaching and in the process of conducting a research paper Dr Pham Vu Phi Ho, lecturer and co-ordinator of MA program in TESOL at Ho Chi Minh City Open University, for his dedication to conferences and minipresentation for TESOLers to present our works, to giving profound instructions, and providing helps when necessary Dr Pham Chau Thanh, Headmaster of COFER, all the teachers in the Department of Foreign Languages and colleagues, for their great contribution and cooperation in the process of the study All the members of TESOL7, great friends for their materials and spiritual support All the students participated in the study, for their enthusiastic contribution and cooperation In addition, a great thank to my parents, my wife and my children for always being with me Without their support and sacrifice, I would not have a chance to finish the thesis ii Abstract The current study explores whether the blended learning with feedback activities on a social networking website called Facebook enhances the students‟ writing skill It also investigates the aspects of feedback students received on their writing and examines their attitudes towards the use of Facebook for feedback The study involves 40 college students who were divided into control group and experimental group The experimental group experienced the activity of posting their writing on Facebook platform in order to give and receive feedback with an aim of developing their writing skill over the English academic writing-1 course Data were collected from the original writing as pre-test and the revised writing after feedback activities as post-test, the results of peer e-feedback using a common feedback format provided, a questionnaire and an interview While the pre-test and post-test analysis was the main data collection method, a questionnaire and an interview provided supplementary and crucial information The results revealed that there is a significant difference in pre-test and post-test score The aspect of students‟ feedback focused mainly on topic sentence and concluding sentence, sentence structure, grammar and spelling (language form) more than organization and body of the paragraph Finally, the analysis of questionnaire and interviews showed that the students have positive attitudes towards the use of Facebook for feedback activity in the English Academic writing class because of its convenient feature iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of authorship i Acknowledgements .ii Abstracts iii Table of contents iv List of tables vii List of figures viii List of abbreviations ix Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study 1.2 Statement of the Problem 1.3 Purpose of the Study 1.4 Research Questions 1.5 The significance of the Study 1.6 Organization of the Study Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Theories of Second Language Learning 2.1.1 Social Cognitive Learning Theory 2.1.2 Social-cultural Learning Theory 2.1.3 Writing Process Approach Theory 2.2 Writing Skill and Teaching Writing 10 2.2.1 Writing Skill 10 2.2.2 Teaching Writing 12 2.3 Stages of writing process approach of the current study 13 2.4 Blended learning 14 2.5 Feedback 16 2.5.1 Feedback 16 iv 2.5.2 Peer Feedback 17 2.5.3 Advantages of Peer Feedback 18 2.5.4 Disadvantages of Peer feedback 20 2.5.5 E-feedback 21 2.6 Social Networking Service and Facebook 22 2.7 Group in Facebook for English Teaching and Learning 25 2.8 Review of Related Studies 26 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Pedagogical context 36 3.1.1 Pedagogical setting 36 3.1.2 Course Description 36 3.1.3 Participants 38 3.2 Design of the Study 46 3.3 Procedures of the Study 47 3.3.1 Preparation for feedback activities on Facebook platform 47 3.3.1.1 The Role of experimental group participants 47 3.3.1.2 The Role of Instructor 48 3.3.1.3 The Role of Facebook platform 48 3.3.2 Training Process 49 3.3.3 Learning activities of the participants 50 3.4 Research Instruments 53 3.4.1 Questionnaires 53 v 3.4.2 Interviews 56 3.4.3 Scoring Rubric 57 3.4.4 Validity and Reliability of the Questionnaires 58 3.5 Methods of Analysis 63 3.5.1 Criteria to analyze the questionnaire 64 3.5.2 Criteria to analyze pre-test and post-test results 64 3.5.3 Data Analysis for Research Questions 65 3.6 Ethical conditions 68 Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Before the treatment 69 4.2 After the treatment 73 4.2.1 Research Question 73 4.2.2 Research Question 75 4.2.3 Research Question 82 Chapter 5: IMPLICATION AND RECOMMENDATION 87 5.1 Implication 88 5.2 Limitations of the study 88 5.3 Recommendation 89 References Appendices vi LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Participants‟ gender 38 Table 3.2 Learners having the Internet access at home 41 Table 3.3 Devices for accessing Facebook 44 Table 3.4 Design of the Study 46 Table 3.5 Summary of pre-training questionnaire information 55 Table 3.6 Summary of post-training questionnaire information 56 Table 3.7-a: The Reliability Statistics of first part of pre-training questionnaire 60 Table 3.7-b: The Reliability Statistics of second theme of pre-training questionnaire 61 Table 3.7-c: the Reliability Statistics of third theme of pre-training questionnaire 61 Table 3.7-d: the Reliability Statistics of fourth theme of pre-training questionnaire 62 Table 3.8-a: the Reliability Statistics of first theme of post-training questionnaire 62 Table 3.8-b: the Reliability Statistics of second theme of post-training questionnaire 63 Table 4.1 Independent Sample Test of first part of pre-training questionnaire 69 Table 4.2 T-test for Equality of Means for second main part of pre-training questionnaire 70 Table 4.3 T-test for Equality of Means for third main part of pre-training questionnaire 71 Table 4.4 T-test for Equality of Means for fourth main part of pre-training questionnaire 71 Table 4.5 The comparison of pre-test writing scores 72 Table 4.6 The comparison of pre-test and post-test results 74 Table 4.7 Results for Post-training Questionnaire 76 Table 4.8 Statistics of the learners‟ feedback on topic and concluding sentence 84 Table 4.9 Statistics of the learners‟ feedback on Body with supporting Sentences 84 Table 4.10 Statistics of the learners‟ feedback on sentence structure vii 84 Table 4.11 Statistics of the learners‟ feedback on Grammar and Spelling 85 Table 4.12 Statistics of the learners‟ feedback on Organization and Coherence 85 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Writing Process 13 Figure 2.2 Vietnamese Facebook Users 22 Figure 3.1 Learners using and not using Facebook before the course 42 Figure 3.2 How long the learners of Experimental group have used Facebook 42 Figure 3.3 The frequency of learners accessing the Facebook 43 Figure 3.4 The amount of time the learners spending on Facebook 43 Figure 3.5 The frequency of learners communicating on Social networking website 44 Figure 3.6 Learners‟ self-evaluation of writing skill in English 45 Figure 3.7 Learners‟ confidence in writing English 45 Figure 3.8 Process of the experimental evaluation 47 Figure 3.9 Sample of Facebook webpage 49 Figure 4.1 Pre-test score comparison of Experimental and Control group 72 Figure 4.2 Distribution of Pre-test and Post-test score 73 ix 17 How you feel about my comments and your friends‟ comments on your writing? 18 Do you think my comment and your friends‟ comment on Facebook are helpful for improving your writing? 19 Do you think learning writing and doing feedback activities on Facebook are new and interesting to you? 20 Do you like the way we use Facebook to share the writing with other friends in your group to get comments? 21 Do you think that writing and feedback activities on Facebook will help you write better? 22 What should be improved to make the blended learning course with face-to-face and FB platform activities to be better? 23 Do you think I should apply this blended learning and teaching style to other writing courses in the future? Appendix Illustration of the activities of posting short paragraph writing and feedback Appendix Group 1: Researcher: Have you used Facebook before the course? Ss in group: Yes, sir (Ss : other students in the group) Researcher: Have you ever used Facebook for learning English, especially writing? Ss in group: No, not ever Researcher: What you think of this writing course …with blended learning style? face-to-face and Facebook platform activities like learning at class , go home, write your paragraph, post it on Facebook, give and receive feedback from your friends in group and from me ! Student : It is complicated but I love it Student : It is interesting Student : It‟s new to me, I like it Student : I think It‟s good for learning writing, but I get difficulty at home, I have no Internet at home I have to use the Wifi near my home or go to school Researcher: I see, you like to work in group to give feedback to each other on Facebook, like this group? Student : Yes, I have two Facebook accounts and I have many groups in Facebook, too Student : Yea, I like in group, my group is number one! Student : Yes, I like to chat on Facebook within my group and give comment on any thing Student : me, too Researcher: Please, tell me where you can log in Facebook for learning writing and feedback activities for this course Student : at home, at school Student : yes, and at coffee shop Student and 4, 5: yes, mainly at home and at school Researcher: When are you usually online Facebook to give comments on your friends‟ writing or read your friends‟ comment? Ss in group: at night, in the afternoon, any time I am free Researcher: So, you get any difficulty in giving or receiving feedback on Facebook? Ss in group : No Student : Not really, I sometimes cannot log in the Facebook, maybe because of internet connect, or it is too slow Ss in group : yes, that‟s right Researcher : what (aspect/factor) you think is the most helpful for learning English when you use Facebook during this course? Student 1, and 4: Read comments/ Give comments/ chat/ read your comments Researcher : what else? Student : write English Student : practice English Researcher : During face-to-face class, I am sure that you not have enough time to practice writing and give comment on your friends‟ writing! So, Do you think that you have more opportunity/chance or time for practicing your writing in English on Facebook Student 1: yes, I think so Ss in group : yes, we have more chance and time to practice writing in English Researcher : after receiving your friends‟ feedback and my feedback, you rewrite your paragraph to be a better writing? Ss in group : yes/of course Researcher : What you usually comment on your friends‟ writings? Ss in group : mistakes on vocabulary, wrong words Sometimes I am sure about the mistakes, I just wrote the words I don‟t know in the comments Researcher : What else? Student : sometimes I comments on sentence structures too, but I don‟t know to correct it Researcher : uhm, you don‟t know how to correct the wrong sentence structure? Student : I just see it strange to me or not familiar! Researcher : Do you get into the situation like? Ss in group : yes, sometimes Researcher : What you think is the best thing/point in using Facebook for writing and feedback activities in this course? Student : feedback is the best thing! Researcher: Why you think feedback is the best thing? Student : I can know what I am not good at! Student : I also like discussion, private chat with friends Student : it‟s interesting Student : I think it is interaction Researcher: any thing else? Ss in group : No Researcher : you mean you can it anytime, anywhere with Wi-fi? Ss in group : yes Researcher : What did you learn from my comment, your friends‟ feedback or from your friends‟ writing? Student : I learned some vocabulary and reviewed grammar Student : I learned new words Researcher : Do you have any comments on this blended learning course so that I can it better in the future? Ss in group : No (shaking their head) Researcher : That‟s enough Thank you so much Group 2: Researcher : Do you use any social networking like Facebook to learning English, to improve your writing? Ss in group : No Researcher : Do you think learning writing and doing feedback activities on Facebook are new and interesting to you? Ss in group : yes Student : I usually comment on Facebook but in Vietnamese Ss in group : yes Researcher : me too, now in this academic writing course, your group have studied writing through blended learning style by learning at face-toface class with me, and posting your paragraph writing on Facebook after class, at home and let me and other members comment So, what you think about these activities? Student : I think it‟s very interesting and useful Learning at school and after that at home I have chance to practice writing on Facebook, read and comments, too Student : I love this, but I feel tired to work on computer I have bad eyes Researcher : you got nearsighted, you cannot see things from long distance? Student : yes Student : yeah, cool Student : I like it Student 10 : It‟s exciting Researcher : Do you think using Facebook to practice writing and give feedback is helpful to improve your writing in English? Ss in group : Yes Researcher : Why think it is helpful? Student : it helps improve my vocabulary, my grammar Student : it‟s helpful because it helps me see my mistakes Researcher : Do you know what mistakes you usually make? Student : Spelling mistakes Student : grammar Student 10 : many kinds of mistakes, teacher! Researcher : So, you gain any experience from friends‟ mistakes? Ss in group : yes Researcher : Between giving feedback at class and on Facebook, which one you think is more convenient for you? Student : I like to give comment on Facebook because I am usually on Facebook so it is more convenient for me Student : I think feedback on Facebook is more convenient I can it any time when I am online, I can chat with my friends and I feel more secure when you are online to give me your comments Student : yes, I can it at home or at school, at my free time Researcher : Ok, thank you Group 3: Researcher : How you feel when using Facebook to learn English, write in English and chat, talk to friends and me? Boring, interesting or something like that? Student 11 : Interesting, I like to use Facebook to learn English and chat with friends on Facebook very much Ss in group : yes, it‟s interesting Researcher : is that the reason you join this group to chat on Facebook? Ss in group : yes…(smiling) Researcher : Do you think my comment and your friends‟ comment on Facebook are helpful for improving your writing? Student 11 : yes, it is helpful Students : yeah, I think so, it‟s useful Researcher : is it difficult for you to use Facebook to give comment on your friends‟ writing? Student 11 : yes, using Facebook is easy but giving comments is difficult! Student 13 : right! sometimes, I cannot see any mistakes in the writing Student 12 : I can realize just some mistakes in their writing, mainly in vocabulary and grammar, subject-verb agreement Researcher : what else? Student 14 : sometimes I don‟t understand what they write and I chat to ask them the meaning Student 12, 15: yes, that‟s right (agreement on what others said) Researcher : Do you feel inconvenient to work on Facebook? with writing, giving feedback to each other in your group Student 11 : no, it‟s not inconvenient, I have laptop and Wi-Fi at home, so I can surf Facebook anytime I want Student 13 : many coffee shops have Wi-fi near my house Student 12 : I can access the Internet at school Ss in group : yea Researcher : what you think about your spelling mistakes in your writing? After you receive your friends‟ comments or my comments and you revise your writing? Student 11 : I think the mistakes on my spelling in writing reduce a little Student 12, 13: yes, I think so, but not much Student 14 : I am not sure, it depends on you Student 15 : yeah Researcher : Do you check your spelling mistakes with dictionary? Ss in group : yes Researcher : How about topic sentence and concluding sentence? Do you control it or you know how to write it yet after feedback activities? Student 14 : I think my writing always has topic sentence and… concluding sentence Student 11 : I try to write topic and concluding sentence, but I don‟t know it is good or not Student 12, 13: yes, I think so Student 15 : yes, I also try to write it carefully but don‟t know if it‟s wrong or right! Researcher : what you think about this course, learning at face-to-face class and homework on Facebook- writing and giving comments? Student 11 : It is interesting; I can chat with my friend on Facebook too Student 12 : attractive Ss in group : yes, somewhat interesting Researcher : Do you think that your paragraph writing has better organization after you get feedback and re-write it? Ss in group: yes, maybe, little bit better Researcher : Ok, the last question for you Do you think that I should apply this blended learning and teaching style in other writing courses in the future? Ss in group : yes It is good Researcher : Thank you all Group 4: Researcher : What you think of this writing course …with blended learning style? face-to-face and Facebook platform activities like learning at class , go home, write your paragraph, post it on Facebook, give and receive feedback from your friends in group and from me! Student 16 : interesting Student 18 : it‟s new to me Student 19 : it is good Researcher : How you feel about your vocabulary, sentence structure or the way you write? It means that there are fewer mistakes on spelling, your grammar in your writing or not? Student 16 : yes, I think my writing has fewer spelling and grammar mistakes thanks to your comment and my friends‟ comments Student 17 : no, I am not sure It depends Student 19 : I think it is better a little Researcher : Do you use Microsoft word to check your writing again as I told you? Ss in group : yes, I see many mistakes in red as you showed Researcher : what kinds of mistake? Student 16 : spelling and grammar Researcher : Do you feel uncomfortable or unhappy when I and your friends read and comment a lot on your writing? Student 16 : No, not at all Student 17 : I feel okay Student 18 : nothing Student 19 : I feel happy to study with it Researcher : Do you think that all your friends‟ comments are good? Student 18 : sometimes, they are correct Sometimes I don‟t think they are right Ss in group : yes (agreement) Researcher : Do you like the way we use Facebook to share the writing with other friends in your group to get comments? Student 16 : Yes, I think using Facebook is interesting Student 18 : Yes, It is a good place to share good information with friends and I often comment in Vietnamese, just outside the course Student 17, 19: yes, I like it I think it is good Researcher : yeah, it got it I think you should apply this more often to post what you want to know or don‟t understand so there may be somebody can help your if they know that Do you it in other subjects? Ss in group : yes, but not in English Researcher : How you feel about my comments or your friends‟ comments on your writing? Student 16 : I like your comments and my friends‟ comments It helps me a lot Student 17 : I am happy when I get my friends‟ comment Ss in group : That‟s good Researcher : Is it easy for you to follow what your friends comment? Student 19 : Yes They write their comments right under my writing Therefore, it is easy for me to follow (students in group: all agree) Researcher : What else? Do you believe or trust your friends „comment right? Student 18 : If more than two friends comment on the same thing and say it wrong, then I know that there‟s something wrong with it and I check it again Ss in group : may be wrong, may be right Researcher : Do you think that writing and feedback activities on Facebook will help you write better? Student 19 : Yes Researcher: Do you think I should apply this blended learning and teaching style to other writing courses in the future? Ss in group: yes Researcher : That‟s good, thank you! ... attitudes toward using Facebook as a means of learning grammar and writing As an alternative learning tool, Facebook offered students a convenient and attractive means to engross in discussion... with writing and feedback activities on Facebook platform to enhance students? ?? writing skill in Vietnam or about the use of blended learning and teaching that consists of face-to-face learning and...STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that this thesis entitled ? ?Enhancing students'' writing skill at College of Foreign Economic Relations through blended learning with feedback activities on Facebook