SOME SUGGESTIONS OF HOW TO MAKE WRITING ACTIVITIES EFFECTIVELY IN WRITING LESSONS AT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HẬU LỘC UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL -o0o - THE RESEARCH SOME SUGGESTIONS OF HOW TO MAKE WRITING ACTIVITIES EFFECTIVELY IN WRITING LESSONS AT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL Writer : VŨ THỊ KIM TUYẾN Position : A teacher of English Field : Enghlish Academic year : 2016 - 2017 THANH HOA 2017 A TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Page A Reasons for choosing the research Page B Aims of the research Page C Scope , object and researching method Page PART TWO: CONTENTS Page What is writing? Page How people write ? Page 4,5 What students need to in order to write Page Teaching writing - difficulties and possible solutions Page 5,6 Developing writing skills - problems students face Page 6.Writing activities Page 7 Giving directions Page 8.Process writing - benefits and drawbacks Page 8,9 Applying process writing to the Vietnamese context some solutions Page 9,10 10 Adapting process writing to the new textbook Page 10,11 11 Correcting written work Page 12 12 Guidelines for correcting written work Page 12,13,14 13 Applying the research in teaching Page 14,15,16 PART THREE : THE STUDY RESULTS OF PROBLEMS Page 17 PART FOUR : CONCLUSIONS AND PROPOSALS Page 17,18 B REFERENCE BOOKS Page 19 Byrne, D (1988) Teaching Writing Skills Longman Practical handbook of language teaching (David Cross) A course in language teaching - Practical and Theory (Penny Ur) Cambrige university press Giao trinh giao hoc phap (Khoa ngôn ngữ và văn hóa Anh - Mĩ - Úc – Trường đại học quốc gia Hà Nội) 5.Phương pháp dạy tiếng Anh Trung học phổ thông (Nguyễn Hạnh Dung) PART ONE: INTRODUCTION A REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE RESEARCH Nowadays English has become an international language because it is widely used in many parts of the world In the tendency of integration of the global economy, English is one of the effective communicative tools for everybody The role of English is considered to be very important in the fields of economics, politics, science, culture and education Especially, Vietnam’s official membership of WTO on 7th November 2006 opened a new door for integrating into the world economy, and more and more people want to learn English for communicating with foreign partners, tourism, study tours, etc Thanks to the innovation of ways in teaching English, English lessons are taught with four skills (speaking, reading, listening, writing) in one unit Moreover, there exists three stages – Pre - while – post - teaching in one lesson This really helps students improve their skills beside the grammar exercises to pass the exams When teaching writing skill to the students at Hau Loc upper secondary School I found out that writing stages are very important in teaching writing and it also has significant effects on the students’ writing performance If students not prepare well enough they can not write well, they can not even write anything in their notebooks Nevertheless, how to teach and learn writing effectively often poses great problems to both teachers and students For the teachers of English at high school, writing is considered a difficult skill to teach Some of them even ignore teaching writing skill and focus only on grammar excercises for the exams However, nothing is difficult if we, the teachers make decision to make it easier Hopefully , with a range of suggestions of how to make writing activities effectively in writing lessons introduced in this research, it will be more motivating for the teachers to teach and make progress in teaching writing Therefore, their students will be interested in writing lessons B AIMS OF THE RESEARCH When teaching writing skill to students at Hau Loc upper secondary School I found out that writing is very important in developing language skills and it also has significant effects on the students’ writing performance If students not prepare well enough, they can not write well, they can not even write anything in their notebooks In this research I suggest how to make writing activities effectively in writing lessons , to investigate the current situation of the teaching writing and learning writing lessons , to find out how writing stages affect students’ writing performance , and to suggest some appropriate strategies needed to be designed with the hope that students will work more effectively in a writing lesson Hopefully that the results of this study would be shared with any colleagues who had the same problem or anyone who is interested in this study C SCOPE, OBJECT AND RESEARCHING METHOD - Scope : This study was carried out in two English classes with 84 students in 11th grade at Hau Loc upper secondary School The research focused on how to make writing activities effectively the student’ writing performances in writing lessons - Object: This subject is concerned with ways of making writing activities effectively in writing lessons - Researching method: Reading reference books , discussing with other teachers, applying in teaching, observing and drawing out experiences PART TWO: CONTENTS What is writing? In teaching a language, writing is considered one of the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) that a learner is expected to master Writing is the process in which the writer expresses his thoughts or ideas in the form of handwriting “Writing is communicating Good writing gets your ideas out of your head and into the reader’s head without losing or distorting those ideas” (Leki, 1976) To understand thoroughly the nature of writing, some more academic definitions of writing should be studied According to “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary” (1989), writing is to “make letters or other symbols on a surface (usually paper), especially with a pen or pencil” Writing, in Davies’s point of view, involved two kinds of skills The first ones were low – level skills such as handwriting or typing, spelling, constructing grammatical sentences, organizing and sequencing, structuring, drafting, and editing Byrne (1988) gave a long and complex definition which might be summarized as follows: writing is the act of forming graphic symbols (letters or combinations of letters) which were arranged to form sentences, and we produced a sequence of sentences arranged in a particular order and linked together in certain way, on a flat surface of some kind In conclusion, Byrne’s definition can be considered one of the most complete definitions of writing because it covers all of the features of writing given by three above – mentioned authors How people write ? Understanding how people write , can be of great help to teachers vho teach writing as a skill The knowledge of a writing process will give teachers more conffidence in making their lessons better organised and easier for their students to learn When people write , they write in different stages First , before they write , they try and decide what they are going to write They often think about the purpose of their writing the purpose will help them to choose relevant types of text , and appropriate language They also think of audience they are writing for - who they write for This is important , too, because know who they write for will help them decide how they structure their writing and what language they will use Moreover , they need to think about the content structure or how they organise ideas or facts they want to introduce in their writing Next, When they finish the first draft , they usually read throuth what they have written to see what works and what doesn’t then they revise what doesn’t work well Once they have edited their draft , changing what they consider is necessary , they produce the final draft , which is ready for their readers to read The whole process can be like this : Planning ↓ Drafting ↓ Editing ↓ Final draft What students need to in order to write When we ask our students to write something in an English language class , we need to be sure that they : → Know the aim - why they are writing → Know the audience - who they are writing to → Know the genrer - what type of text they are writing → Have enough time for ∙ thinking about the topic ∙ brainstorming ideas ∙ planning ahead carefully ∙ drafting as many times as they can → Have constant feedback from teachers as well as their partners during the writing process Teaching writing - difficulties and possible solutions Difficulties • There are too many students in a class , so it’s difficult to make sure who is on- task and who is off - task • Most classes are mixed ability • Teachers feel guilty because they are unable to correct all mistakes for students or to work throuth all their written work • Marking and correcting is time - consuming • If a teacher follows the whole writng process it take more time than the 45 minutes allocated for each lesson • Some teachers don’t feel confident about their own English and shy away from designing writing tasks or getting students to write more than just grammatical exercises Tests often don’t include writing thus making it difficult to motivate students to write in class • Sometimes the teacher doesn’t have enough ideas to help students Solutions • Assign group work or pair work when teaching writing Move around to monitor • Let students correct themselves or correct for their peers (peer correction ) by training them to use correction symbols / codes • It’s not necessary to all stages of process writing in class Some stages can be done at home or in the next lesson Eg: Ask students to prepare the topics at home then you can save time for them to think when doing prewriting in class or you can ask students to the first draft in class with some editing and self or peer correction , then ask them to finish the task at home and come back tomorrow with the final product • Talk to your students and explain that they learn english not only for test , but also for real life communication and for jobs in the future • Students are a good source of information so let them come up with ideas - they don’t all have to come from you! starting a lesson by asking them to brainstorm around a topic • Design and share lesson plans with other colleagues so that you get more ideas , more confidence and different tasks • Using a process approach to writing gives students a lot of support and guidance and can help with a lack of vocabulary • Developing writing skills - problems students face Problemms Students • Don’t have enough vocabulary or structures to express ideas • Tend to use spoken english when writing • Have limited background knowledge • Tend to translate ideas from mother tongue in to English • Write one draft only • Misure or use wrongly different writing styles • Tend to express ideas in long sentences and long paragraphs • Are not aware of different kinds of writing , thus making them unable to write in real life • Feel bored when doing written work • Experience a lack of support and motivation Advice  The pre-writing stage is very important as students can help each other with ideas and vocabulary In this stage , the teacher should also provide students with necessary vocabulary and strutures to express ideas around the writng topic Models should also be set at this stage for students to follow  Select topics carefully and give students writing tasks suitable for their level  Provide support for writing with language , pictures, a model text  Raise awareness of thinking in English so that they can minimisethe influence of L1 when writing  Familiarise students with process writing by actually using the different stages of this approach in your lessons  Help students to identify the audience and aim of each writing task If the book doesn’t make it clear , then you will need to so yourself !  Cohesive or linking devices are very worthwhile to help students shoten their sentences and paragraphs , but still keeping the meaning clear  As much as possible keep tasks authentic so that students can relate writing to real life communication such as letters , form filling , questionaires  Give students writing activities such as games , designing posters , creative writing , poems etc to allow fun and creativity  Don’t always set writing for homework If you , students will develop have negative associatons with writing Try and tasks in class time and set , for example , reading for homework instead 6.Writing activities Here are some practical ideas for writing that you can try in your classes Problem letters • Set the scene by showing students a page from either an English or Vietnamese magazine that has a “ problem page” Elicit the idea of problem letters are replies giving advice • In advance prepare some problem letters on a flip chart paper • Ask students in pairs to choose one of the problems and write a short note giving advice It’s my girlfriend’s birthday next week and I want to surprise her with a special present or a special evening somewhere What should I ? My best friend wants to borrow some money to help buy a motorbike I have the money , and she says she’ll pay me back next soon But I’m worried that it’s not a good idea to lend money to friends What should I ? I’ve become very spotty lately and I feel really depressed and embarrassed I don’t want to go out as I think everyone is staring at my face What should I *Get students to swap advice notes and to read each others and guess which problem the advice is for Is it good advice or not ? Follow up with a brief class discussion  APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING Such as Famous people o Prepare some notes about a famous person Try and choose someone that the students will like Eg A footballer , pop star , actor etc you can very easily find information and facts about famous people on the internet Put your notes into paragraphs : personal information , appearance and character, interest , personal opinion o In class elicit what the students know about the famous person o Students read the notes to see if they are correct > then elicit sentences from them based on the notes o Set the scene for the writing task - tell the students they are journalists for the teenage magazine and they are going to write an article about the famous person o In pairs or groups , students use the information to write a short article about the famous person Eg David Beckham o Students swap articles for peer correction o One way to finish the lesson is to stick all the articles on the walls and tell the students that they are now editors of the magazine and they have to choose the best one Giving directions This activities can help to practise writing sentences and develop students’ bodily-kinesthetic inteligence This can be used as a warmer or and independent practice activity Following this activities Tell students to sit in groups of four or five and have a slip of paper ready for each of them Ask each person to write an imperative sentence on the slip Then get them to pass their slips to their partner in the group Ask them to take turns to mine or act what is written on the paper Others have to guess axactly what is written on the paper 8.Process writing - benefits and drawbacks There are a lot of benefits to the process approach to writing - but how can this approach fit our teaching context in Vietnam ? The followings are a number of practical and realistic ideas Benefits Process writing can help focus on what students write rather than how they write it paying attention to what students write can lead to an improvementbin their writing Process writing is a move away from students writing to test their language towards the communication of ideas , feelings and experiences Process writing can help integrade different skills students not only write but read each other’s writing , and exchange ideas with their partners Process writing provides students with constant feedback between drafts This is more useful to students than doing it when they finish their writing Process writing helps change the roles of teachers and learners Teachers move away from being a marker to a reader who responds to the content of students’ it, which helps develop their writing ability Drawbacks and solutions Writing is a complicated process , which may cause frustration among students Therefore , teachers should set up a supportive environment and be patient Process writing requires more class time than product writing Therefore , teachers should organize lessons well and manage enough time for students to experience different stages of writing by fitting the stages of writing around one lesson Eg, In one lesson , ideas are generateond and students write their first draft and in the following lesson , students adit and redraft Students may find working again and again on their writing boring , and refuse to so Therefore teachers need to introduce a variety of activities for each stage and set clear objective for class activities Applying process writing to the Vietnamese context - some solutions Combine both process and product writing Both approaches help students in to different ways Process writing can help students overcome their writing problems such as lack of ideas , ineffective organization , and lack of constant feedback from teachers or peers while they are still drafting Product writing can help provides them with examples of relevant language and appropriate structures Build in planning and drafting stages in to a writing lesson This is very important because most writing activities in the new textbook are designed on the basis of product writing , in which students are required to study a model , analyse and imitate it This will definitely discourage students from being creative and / or using their own experiences to express themselves Useful pre- writing activities unclude brainstorming list ( think quickly and listing as many ideas as possible on a given topic ) , focused questions ( a series of questions used to stimulate thinking , drawing on experiences , $ shaping ideas ) and free writing ( writing about a topic for a fixed period of time to explore the topic and generate ideas ) Effective drafting stage activities include peer review ( students read each other’s writing and give feedback on the form and its content ) Encourage and set up collaborative writing Most writing activities in the new textbook require mainly individual work For example , sharing ideas about a topic before they write drafts , and peer review after they finish their drafts are important in encouraging students to learn from each other Consider the teacher’s response to writing The teacher should give feedback many times between drafts , not just one time when students submit their final draft 10 Adapting process writing to the new textbook Fitting process writing in to the new syllabus can be quite a challenge the two example lessons below aim to : • Help teachers know how to integrate process writing in to writing activities in English 10 • Demonstrate how process writing can be used in combination with product writing Example lesson *Guessing game : select a map and give it to the students ( teachers may choose the map in the same unit ) Divide students in to groups of four or five One student tells directions to a place that the others in the groups have to guess Students take turns to give directions E.g : It’s on Bright street It’s opposite a shoe shop * Folowing from the games , elicit different ways of giving instructions If necessary , teach $ give mini- drills to such structures as Turn left / right , take the first / second turning on the left / right , keep on , etc , and stuctures with adverbial clauses of time beginning with When $ until e.g : when you come to the shop , turn right , or Keep on until you come to the museum * Set the context Tell students that a friend has decided to come to their place for a holiday write him/ her a letter giving directions to their house *Elicit what they are going to include in such a letter 10 Guess students to agree that a letter like this should have to paragraphs : the first one contains the reason why the letter is written , and the second one contains the directions * Elicit how to write first paragrph Write suggestions at the side of the board * Elicit how to write directions by asking them to choose a place on the map and give directions orally Write their examples on the board * To provide more examples , ask them to read the letter in the textbook and find out more ways of giving directions Add to the list on the board * Get them to write the first draft * When they finish tell them to exchange drafts , read , giving feedback on language accuracy and unclear expression Then hand back * Tell students to edit own drafts - correcting and adding if necessary * Collect and redistribute letters students read and find out about each other’s exact house Example lesson * Ask students to read the advertisement in the textbook Ask them some questions to check comprehension e.g what is the course ? How long is it ? How much does it cost ? How many students does a class have at most ? what is the classroom like ? * Set the context : Tell them what they have enrolled in the course , and that everything has not been the same as advertised Ask them to imagine two or three problems that they have had and write them down * Put them in to pairs Ask them to talk to each other about their problems * Tell them that they need to write a complain letter Ask them what the letter needs to include Get them to agree that the letter should include three parts : a ) the reason why the letter is written : b) the problems , and c)some suggestions * Elicit how to write about the problems Write the suggestions at the side of the board if necessary , teach or give minidrills for such structures as the adverb said but , eg the advert said a class was air- conditioned and had at most 20 students but it was very hot and crowded write all the language suggestions on the board * Ask students to begin to write the first draft * When they finish the first draft , get them to swap their drafts and read , give comments on language accuracy and the content then they hand back * Get students to edit their own drafts - correcting , deleting and adding information if necessary * Collect and redistribute the letters students read and compare what they have written They can give comments *Teachers can collect completed letters for marking 11 Correcting written work 11 Why is correction important ? Mistakes and errors are important parts of the learning process as no one learns and succeeds without making a mistake Mistakes should be seen as possitive steps towards learning , and correction is an intergal part of the lesson through a possitive approach to correction , students are more able to understand , remember and learn from mistakes These folowings look at ways of correcting students’ work and provide guidelines for a more positive approach to correction Ways of reacting / responding to written work When giving back written work to students , we can use a number of devices to help them focus on their mistakes and write more successfully in the future Harmer (2001 ) observed that one way of considering feedback is to think of it as ‘ responding ’ to the students’ work rather than assessing or evaluating what they have written This approach focuses on the actual content of the written text rather than just focusing on the language Remember, when we communicate through writing the message or content is just as important as the level of accuracy So what should the teachers when we respond • Say how the text appears to us and how successful we think it has been • Our comments should be helpful but not censorious • Write comments in the margin of the students’ work or on a separate piece of paper If time is available this can be done in the form of a letter • Also tell students how their work could be improved this is important as all too often , teachers highlight errots , but don’t actually say how the text overall could be improved • When responding to the final version , say what we like , how we felt about the text This adds a personal touch and make students feel that the teacher is thinking about them as individuals • Show alternative ways of writing throught reformulation It is vital for students as they can discover a lot about language when they compare their worknwith their teacher’s 12 Guidelines for correcting written work • Use something other than a red pen to mark with • Underline the error in the text Underline where the problem is • Don’t over correct - decide which are the most important type of errors to work on at the moment and draw attention only to these E.g If the students have just written a biography , then probably what you would concentrate on would be the use of past tense verbs and time expressions Other errors can be dealt with at another time • Add a comment at the bottom to raise and give students points to work on 12 • Students have ( with training ) ability and willingness to self- correct and correct for their partners (peer correction ) , so put students in to pairs or group to read and correct each others work But again , remember that you need to get students to focus on a particular type of error otherwise they will over correct • To develop students autonomy ,self and peer correction is crucial The teacher should ,however, train students with correction symbols / codes or a marking scale • Use stick for “ good point ” It really encourages students to write • A nice idea is to use errors from anumber of different students’ writing to devise an exercise , quiz or game Symbol Sp W.O T C WF S/P ˆ [ ] ?M NA P // GR: Voc: V Agr ! ()  A correction code Meaning Incorrect spelling Wrong word order Wrong tense Concord ,subject and verb not agree Wrong form Singular or plural form wrong Something has been left out / missing Something is not necessary Meaning is not clear The usage is not appropriate Punctuation wrong New paragraph needed Grammar wrong Vocabulary wrong Verb tenses errors Agreement Careless error Unnecessary word Good point Note : Using a code is useful for both teachers and students However students need to be gradually introduced or trained in using and understanding correction symbols • Example : Find and correct mistakes from the short Biography of Jack Friedhamm - Guiding students use the correction code to correct mistakes - Students apply to correct mistakes Mistakes should be seen as positive , through a positive approach to correction 13 - Helping students more able to understand , remember and learn from mistakes - Checking and giving feedback Answer : Jack Friedhamm was born in New York on October 25, 1965 He began school at the age of six and continued until he was 18 years old He then went to New York University to learn Medicine He decided on Medicine because he liked biology when he was at school While he was at University, he met his wife Cindy Cindy was a beautiful woman with long black hair They went out for years before they decided to get married Jack began to work as a doctor as soon as he had graduated from Medical School They have had two children named Jackie and Peter, and have lived in Queens for the past two years Jack is very interested in painting and likes to paint portraits of his son Peter 13: APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING Topic for writing essay: “Write about one of the competitions for secondary school students on TV” Time allowance: 45 minutes Classroom observation description Time/ Teachers’ activities Students’ activities Comments Activity Warm – Teacher asked some “Yes” This period is up (3’) questions such as “Do considered to be you often watch game successful After shows on TV?” - Road to being consulted “Can you tell me the Olympia by English names of these - Tuoi Doi teachers at NBK competitions for Menh Mong High School as 14 secondary school students on TV?” - Nguoi ban gai dang men - Rung chuong vang After looking at those pictures, students discovered the name of the game show was “Road to Olympia” at the second picture and the winner is group in the class The class is excited with a big applause for the winner well as conducting the two try – out lessons, teacher - Teacher showed some has withdrawn big pictures of the some reasons for famous game show the success of “Road to Olympia” and the period asked students to play Pre – activity the game “What is is interesting this?” There are five big Visual aids are pictures, all are copied effective enough from the gameshow on Students TV If any team can cooperate better Pre – guess the name of the because they are writing game at the first picture acquaintances activity will get the highest New words (10’) mark The marks will be and structures counted backward are taught - Teacher asked students logically to answer the six There is no suggestions about the T: “What time is it on problem with content of the game TV?” students’ show in the textbook All S: “Ten o’clock” misunderstandin the students of the class “What chanel is it g toward had the chance to talk on?” teachers’ about the show before “ VTV3” instructions writing it S: How long does it - Students can discuss in last? While – groups and choose one S: hours writing competition to write S: How many parts activity about are there in the (20’) - Teacher asked students show? to make sentences S: four parts basing on the S: How many suggestions in the competitors are textbook and practice in there? pairs S: four - Teacher asked the - Students write the students to write about passage in a very any competitions for good mood with the secondary school content suggested in 15 students on TV Most of them chose the show “Road to Olympia” and some chose other show such as “Not Nhac Vui” or “Tuoi Doi Menh Mong” – the singing contest and even one of them chose “Ringing The Golden Bell” – a famous game show for students at university Post – - Ask students to work in writing pairs for peer correction activity - Teacher goes around to (10’) check whether students can correct their classmates’ writing If students need her help, the teacher will help them to correct the mistakes 5.Homewo - Read your passage rk again, make it perfect (2’) and retell it in the next period the textbook Some of them write short passage However, some write very well – done ones - Students the peer correction - Write notebook on the Bellows are some more comments about the improvement of the students in post – improvement stage: Pre – improvement Changes Low Students’ 30% of the students did not motivation write because they said that the topic was boring Some of them were forced to write basing on the suggestions in Task They wrote in a bad form of letter More Ss’ mistakes Some students tried to on both follow the suggestions in grammar Task in the textbook but and Post –improvement Higher Most of students were eager to write after the game because they said that they liked the game so much Less Mistakes on grammar and expressions has improved a lot There still existed some 16 theirs were full of grammar mistakes and words usages Notes: This may take longer time to improve the situation but the teacher should pay much attention to this because it is the goal in teaching a productive skill Less creative Some students in the class did not know what to with their writings so they copy the whole sample letter in the text book ignoring the requirements of the writing tasks expressions but for the whole passage they were acceptable because both the teacher and her students need more time to perfect these mistakes Ss’ creativity when producing a new writing version More creative Ss’ creativity in writing is another hard work to attain and Ss will make their writing creative when they are motivated enough or they feel much interested in the writing topic In the post – improvement the students’ writing performance has been improved much PART THREE : THE STUDY RESULTS OF PROBLEMS Showing alternative ways of writing through the lessons It is vital for students as they can discover a lot about language when they compare their work with their teacher’s Before using the method , the students who are always afraid , shy , lazy are now active learning , makes the writing period more and more interesting In the academic year of 2015 – 2016 and 2016 – 2017 I carried out my research in 11grades , and 10 grades at Hau Loc Upper secondary School , the general results of students when they applied as follow Kind Object :Don’t apply in11B1 ,11B2 At the school of 2015- 2016 Apply in11B1 ,11B2 At the school of 2016- 2017 Don’t apply in10A1 ,10A2 At the school of 2016- 2017 in the first semester excellent good average Weak 0% 10 % 30% 45% Bad 15% 5% 17% 55% 10% 13% 0% 5% 30% 48% 17% Apply in10A1 ,10A2 At the school of 2016- 2017 in the second semester 8% 14% 57% 11% 10% 17 PART FOUR: CONCLUSIONS AND PROPOSALS A CONCLUTIONS This study is carried out as a contribution to the knowledge of all teachers and students of English in their teaching and learning writing skill I hope that the research would be of some value to both teachers and students in their language teaching and learning writing skill I would like to send my thanks to all of the students of the classes 11B1 and 11B5 of Hau Loc upper secondary School, who have been the enthusiastic participants in my action research Without them, my action research could not been completed and successful In the end , I also owe my sincere thanks to all my colleagues who will be willing to give me invaluable advice and suggestions on the research how to make writing activities effectively in writing lessons B PROPOSALS To the teachers : Choosing techniques is the day – to – day business of every writing teacher writing activities play very important roles in writing lessons because if the teacher conducts these activities successfully, the classroom atmosphere will change and also the students’ writing performance will be much better Therefore, the teacher should make sure that the above things are done perfectly The roles of English teachers in writing lessons consist of a list in details of activities prepared with useful language knowledge, good time management for each activity, effective visual aids usages and clear instructions giving What is more, sometimes the writing topics in the textbook are boring, the teacher should try to make them easier to attract students’ attention One more thing is that the teacher should know how to motivate the students by changing the activities day by day or take care of the quiet students in the class To the classroom facilities In Vietnam, it is normal that there are 40 to 50 students in a language classroom at high school This makes the teachers meet many difficulties in conducting a language lesson However, the situation can not be changed in a short period of time so the teacher should get over all these difficulties by making sure that the classroom facilities are comfortable enough before the lessons start Thank you for your attentions to my study THE HEADMASTER’S CONFIRMATION Thanh Hoa , May 20th , 2017 UNDERTAKING NOT TO COPY Vũ Thị Kim Tuyến 18 REFERENCE BOOKS Byrne, D (1988) Teaching Writing Skills Longman Practical handbook of language teaching (David Cross) A course in language teaching - Practical and Theory (Penny Ur) Cambrige university press Giao trinh giao hoc phap (Khoa ngôn ngữ và văn hóa Anh - Mĩ - Úc – Trường đại học quốc gia Hà Nội) 5.Phương pháp dạy tiếng Anh Trung học phổ thông (Nguyễn Hạnh Dung) 19 ... anything in their notebooks In this research I suggest how to make writing activities effectively in writing lessons , to investigate the current situation of the teaching writing and learning writing. .. range of suggestions of how to make writing activities effectively in writing lessons introduced in this research, it will be more motivating for the teachers to teach and make progress in teaching... writing Therefore, their students will be interested in writing lessons B AIMS OF THE RESEARCH When teaching writing skill to students at Hau Loc upper secondary School I found out that writing