Giảm lỗi khi viết đoạn văn cho sinh viên trường CĐSPTB

ministry of education and training HANOI UNIVERSITY -o0o - tran thi ly Reducing errors in the first year English major students’paragraph writing at Thai Binh Teachers Training College An action research submitted in partial fulfilment of requirements of the degree of master in tesol Hanoi, November 2009 ministry of education and training HANOI UNIVERSITY -o0o - tran thi ly Reducing errors in the first year English major students’paragraph writing at Thai Binh Teachers Training College An action research submitted in partial fulfilment of requirements of the degree of master in tesol supervisor: dr hoang thi xuan hoa Hanoi, November 2009 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study As the process-oriented pedagogy has permeated the writing instructions over the past two decades, teachers have encouraged or required their students to write multiple drafts of a same paper and explored various ways to provide feedback in order to help the students revise as they move through the stages of the writing process Techniques used to provide feedback to the students have included peer reviews, teacher-student conferences, audiotaped commentary Still, for many teachers, handwritten commentary on the student drafts is the primary method of response Despite the importance of teacher feedback, research on this area has been surprisingly scarce In addition, many studies which have been done so far lack consensus over how teachers should respond to the student writing Some others have been limitted in terms of scale and sample size Still, some others have examined only a single aspect of teacher feedback, thus yielding insufficient information concerning the matter area In the meantime, in Vietnam, there have been few or no studies into feedback in general and teacher feedback in particular At the Foreign Language Department, there have been no attempts at investigating the issue It would appear that the teachers’ current responding practice is lacking in specific theoretical foundations The above reasons have urged the author, who is also the teacher of writing at the department, to explore this important, but by no means neglected issue in an attempt to address the gap in the literature and to offer the teachers in the department, in the second language skill division in particular, ways on how they should respond to the student writing It is also hoped that this study will lay a foundation on which subsequent research into this matter is based and developed Thai Binh Teachers Training College (TBTTC) was known as junior teachers educating college for the whole province before For recent years it has been opening more chances to the students who have different purposes of job from teaching after graduation The English department of TBTTC has been trained courses of students, new namely non-teaching English major students This course (2008-2010) has an enrollment of 40 students All of them have finished senior high schools before joining the course which prolongs years and is divided into terms Their age range is between about 18 and 20 years old They may have studied general English from three to seven years at school depending on the English program at their school They learn four skills : writing, reading, listening and speaking for the whole course Total time allocation for each skill at the first year is 120 teaching periods, 60 for the first term and 60 for the second term The writing teaching curriculum with the course book First Steps in Academic Writing by Ann Hogue which is intended for high beginning writing students of English as a foreign language, has been introduced to the first English major students at TBTTC to serve for several objectives Specific objectives of teaching and learning writing are: (i) to offer a structured approach to writing; (ii) to acquaint students with the process of writing ; (iii) to provide practice in basic sentence structure; (iv) to develop grammar and mechanical skills The course book takes beginning writers from understanding the concept of a paragraph (Unit 1) to writing three basic types of paragraphs; chronological process (Unit 2); spatial description ( Unit 3); and listing (Unit 4) Unit shows students how to use examples, and Unit shows how to express and support their opinions In these last two units, the forms for personal letters and business letters are also taught With the above objectives and step-by- step procedure, First Steps in Academic Writing is chosen as the official course book Also it provides a solid foundation for the next step which requires a higher level, that is writing an essay Along with the course book, other materials taken from different sources such as Internet are exploited with the aim of helping the students write paragraphs with both accuracy and fluency As stated above, the students are prepared fully and step- by- step how to write paragraphs accurately and fluently In the course book there is one part which is to develop grammar and mechanical skill It means that the students are provided skills to avoid grammar mistakes before writing process However, my own teaching experience and discussions with other teachers in the department reveal the fact that students’writings,typically paragraph writings, are full of errors In fact errors in student’s writings has been problem of great concern for all teachers from the English department at TBTTC All the above mentioned problems lead to an assumption that the teachers have not found an appropriate feedback which creates the students an opportunity to revise Aims of the study The underlying belief of the study is that indirect feedback is provided in students’second draft to help them identify problematic areas, reformulate rules in their minds and thus write the final draft more accurately This paper is a classroom- based, small- scale study under the title Reducing errors in the first year English major students’paragraph writing at Thai Binh Teachers Training College The study aims to examine reason of errors in the students’drafts and find out whether the teacher’s indirect feedback helps the students reduce errors in final draft 1.3 Research questions To achieve the above mentioned aim, answers to the following research questions are sought: What are reasons for errors in the drafts? What are the students’attitude and preferences for the teacher’s feedback in their drafts? Does indirect feedback help the students reduce errors in the final draft of paragraph writing? 1.4 Method of the study Methodology: Action research design is used by the researcher since it is the problem in my own classroom and I would like to improve my students’learning and my own professional performance It is a pratical action research because its purpose is to study a specific situation with a view toward improving practice, to focus on a small scale research project, to focus narrowly on a specific problem and to be undertaken by individual teacher within a classroom at a college Data collection instruments: Survey questionnaires: This instrument allows the researcher to collect factual information about the subjects and their learning situation Furthermore, it is rather useful to summerize, analyze, and report the collected data as all informants submit the answers to the same questions The students’writing from the first draft to final draft: Through these drafts, the researcher can find the problem occuring in writing lessons and the difference in students’paragraph writing by comparing the results before and after the time of doing an action plan 1.5 Significance of the study In general, despite a significant amount of research concerning teacher’s treatment of errors in writing in an ESL classroom, this study is intended to provide one more insight into teachers’feedback in respond to learners’ errors in writing in EFL classroom Its outcomes can be expected to contribute to a better understanding of the teacher’s view on appropriate and effective treatment of errors in writing In particular, the answers to the research questions in this study will provide useful information to the teachers working at FLD, TBTTC since the reseach area is completely new to us Therefore, the practical study will undoubtedly help us gain an insight into the problem 1.6 Structure of the study The study is divided into five parts: the introduction, the literature review, the methodology, the results and the conclusion Chapter 1, The introduction, introduces the basic information such as the background of the study, the aims, the research questions, the method, and the significance as well as the structure of the study Chapter 2, Literature Review, provides the basic concepts of writing paragraph,discusses the theories and some significant research findings about errors in writing and feedback in writing Chapter 3, Methodology, presents the methodology used in the study including the subjects, the settings, instrumentation, procedure, data collection and data analysis Chapter 4, The results, presents and discusses the steps of the action research and the analysis of the pre-data and post-data It also gives the evaluation of the action research The last chapter, Chapter 5, The conclusion, offers the major findings from pre-data and post-data analysis, some recommendations, suggestions for further study and limitations of the research Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW Theoretical backgrounds to the teaching writing 2.1.1 Definition of writing That writing or composition has been defined in a variety of ways shows a lack of consensus as to what composition is, and reflects the complexity of the writing process Traditionally, researchers focused mainly on form and the final product, while current research in composition emphasizes the composing process and stategies which are utilized by writers to attain the final product Writing, firstly, can be seen as an “act of forming graphic symbols”, that is, letters or the combination of letters (Byrne, 1991, p 1) Simply, writing is like “making marks on the flat surface of some kinds.” In fact, writing is a far more complicated process than the production of graphic symbols It is “a process of transforming the material discovered by research inspiration, accident, trial and error, or whatever into a message with a definite meaning … writing is a process of deliberate decision” (Lannon, 1989, p 9) At a high level, (academic writing at college or university), writing is defined as a complex process which involves a number of separate skills “from the basics of handwriting and spelling to the subtler nuances of tone and organization.” Therefore, the essence of writing is choice and writing is also considered the means to communicate in a way that is “profound, or funny, or provocative, or highly persuasive” (Veit, Gould & Clifford, 2001) From another view of writing, Murray (1978, p 29) and Perl (1979, p 43) defined 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.” Moreover, writing is also defined as a social process by Candlin and Hyland (1999, p 107) They stated, “Writing is therefore an engagement in a social process, where the production of texts reflects methodologies, arguments and rhetorical strategies constructed to engage colleagues and persuade them of the claims that are made.” However, writing, in language teachers’ opinions, is “a language skill which is difficult to acquire” (Tribble, 1996, p 3) It is “a process that occurs over a period of time, particularly if we take into account the sometimes extended periods of thinking that precede creating an initial draft” (Harris, 1993, p 10) Tribble also stressed 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) 2.1.2 Process writing 2.1.2.1 Overview of process writing Process writing contains a number of stages or activities the writers have to go through in order to produce a good piece of writing But this process is not a straightforward, plan-outline-write process that many believe it to be; rather it is a “complex, recursive, and creative process whereby the writers discover and reformulate their ideas as they attempt to approximate meaning” (Zamel, 1983, p 165) Guidance through and intervention in the process were seen preferable to control – that is, the early and perhaps premature imposition of organizational patterns or syntactic or lexical constraints Content, ideas, and the need to communicate would determine form In essence, “composing means expressing ideas, conveying meaning Composing means thinking” (Raimes, 1992, p 261) Translated into the classroom context, this approach calls for providing a positive collaborative, and encouraging environment within which students, with ample time and minimal interference, work through the processes The teacher’s role is “to help the students develop viable, cognitive strategies for getting started, for drafting, for revising as well as for editing” (Silva, 1990, p 15) It is clear from the process perspective that writing instruction would involve demonstration and providing practice in composing strategies; and learning to write entails obtaining and using these strategies to manage the creation of a text and monitor its development The writer is the center of attention – someone engaged in the discovery and expression of meaning; the reader, focusing on content and negotiation of meaning, is not preoccupied with form The text – the final product is only “a secondary, derivative concern, whose form is a function of its content and purpose” (Silva, 1990, p 16) This focus on content to the exclusion of form, however, has been the target for attack by the academic community, who argued, “student writing must falls within the range of acceptable writing behaviors dictated by the academic community” (Silva, 1990, p 17) Therefore, it seems a comprehensive theory integrating a focus on product into the process approach is the most satisfactory alternative to the previously described, dogmatic theories in the sense that it can guarantee the quality of both form and content as Reid (1993, p 30) stated, such an approach enables “learners to write their way into more precise, interpretive texts, while at the same time fostering greater attention to forms of the writing, to reflection on what is involved in the creation of a text and to adapting writing style to the audience and context of writing” This leads to a very significant implication for the writing instructors that besides encouraging the students to write multiple drafts to achieve meaningful communication, they should also focus on the problem-solving aspects of identifying and practicing discourse conventions of the writing piece to make it a truly fine piece of writing in terms of both content and form 2.1.2.2 Stages in the writing process There are different points of view on the number of stages comprising the writing process In the view of Hedge (1990), the process contains a lot of stages which can be illustrated in the following figure: Being motivated to write → getting ideas together → planning and outlining → making notes → making a first draft → revising, replanning, redrafting → editing and getting ready for publication Table – The writing process (adapted from Hedge’s) Meanwhile, according to Oshima and Hogue (1991), the writing process embraces essentially three stages: pre-writing, planning (outlining), writing and revising drafts Each stage involves certain kinds of task that the writers have to fulfill in order to construct a good piece of work However, Reid (1993) offered a more complete description Process writing as a classroom activity incorporates the four basic writing stages: planning, drafting, revising, and editing – and three other stages externally imposed on students by the teachers, namely, responding, evaluating, and post-writing The author of this thesis takes the view that is close to the way Reid defined the writing process – that is, the process of writing comprises five stages: prewriting, planning, drafting, revising, and editing and three others initiated by the teachers including responding, evaluating, and post-writing Pre-writing Pre-writing is any activity in the classroom that encourages the students to write It stimulates thoughts for getting started It moves the students away from having to face a blank page or what researchers often call the “writer’s block” and transit them smoothly onto another stage It may include understanding the purpose of writing, discovering the topic, thinking about the audience, gathering information or inventing possible content Once the possible content for writing has been explored, the writers will feel more confident to move to the second stage, which is called the planning stage Planning In the planning stage, the students organize the ideas they have generated The most efficient way to this is to make an outline An outline is a plan in which the writers write down the main points and sub-points in the order in which they plan to write about them Outline can be either simple or detailed However, even when quite elaborate outlines are prepared, good writers change their ideas as they write and reshape their plans Hedge (1990, p 22) noted this tendency by saying, “in writing one so frequently arrives at a destination not originally envisaged, by a route not yet planned for in the original itinerary.” Drafting 10 5.2 Recommendations As mentioned before, reducing errors in students’writing or improving students’writing depends on several factors However, the author of the study intends to investigate into the effectiveness of teacher indirect feedback to students’ first or second draft From the data gathered from the survey questionnaires, observations and better result of the final draft over first and second draft, major findings have been pointed out to help the researcher have an overview of the current situation of applying indirect feedback to the students’drafts in the FLD, TBTTC The findings enable the researcher to give some recommendations for better improvement for the sake of the students One factor that influences the students’ improvement is the role of the teacher In this study the teacher had been placed herself completely to help students The teacher was not only had a role as a writing teacher but also she gave direction and suggestion to students when looking students writing It is supported by Seamus (2008) that there are three distinct roles of teacher, they are as a reader, a writing teacher, and a language expert First, reader involves interacting with the written work and reacting to the content and ideas as a simple reader It might include comments or suggestion Next, Writing teacher obviously involves helping students grapple with the writing skill as a whole and with its different sub-skills such as focusing on genre, working on text organization and coherence, grammatical skills etc and the last is Language expert, here the teacher is in the more traditional role, helping the students with lexis, grammar, spelling, etc and correcting any problems or other language errors that they find, in this study the teacher helped the students by giving the feedback to the students The students followed the process of writing; it started from pre writing-drafting-revising-editing-post writing The teacher took the role in revising and editing process The teacher gave feedback after writing had composed and they revised it back Biaael in Mappe (2000) emphasizes that revision is a process in which writers not only polish their style, but also develop their ideas In this stage, the teacher helps the students through the revision to shape and reshape the text into final form When they revised, they learn many things from their error and how to correct their error In here, we can see that teacher feedback can positively help the students to improve their writing As Ferris suggested that teachers should offer indirect rather 43 than direct feedback (marking the error but not correcting it), because it increases students’ own investment in the process and if students are revising or rewriting their papers after receiving teacher feedback, they are expected merely to transcribe the teachers’ suggested corrections into their texts (2002: 19) Even they sometimes had problem during the process, the researcher and the teacher always helped them, so that was not only gave them feedback but also guide them to find the truth and they had more confidence to write and were able to decrease their mistakes in writing Besides, another factor that influences the student’s improvement is the teacher helped the students by student-teacher conferencing Indirect feedback has also been found to be effective when it is coupled with student-teacher conferencing (Brender, 1998; Fregeau, 1999) Conferencing allows both students and teachers are chance to trace the causes of the problems arising from student writing and feedback, and to develop strategies for improvement In this students- teacher conferences, teachers can offer self –correction opportunity for their students by providing indirect feedback on student’s grammatical errors (Chandler, 2003) The assistance and feedback given by the teacher should not be confined to the last stage of the writing process The marking of products should always open more opportunities in which students can redraft their work By depriving them of their opportunity for redrafting and reassessing, the students cannot have the chance of correcting the wrong behavior and re-practicing the correct behavior Furthermore, to lessen student confusion, teachers can consistently use a standard set of symbols or markings to indicate place and type of error and trained the students in what kinds of corrections will be made based on each symbol as long as the teacher can explain about the symbols they will used in writing, so the students familiarize themselves with the signs/symbols 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further study This study has obtained some noticeable results in the use of teacher feedback to help the first year English majored students at Thai Binh Teachers Training College However, limitations are inevitable First, the researcher has done with a rather small number of participants and in a short period of time The study would be more reliable and more generalizable if it were ducted with a large number of particapants Second, the researcher was unable to 44 control some variables such as absence of some students, Third, the study merely focuses on a type of feedback, not various types Further research on different kinds of feedback seem to be of great usefulness 5.4 Conclusion It is found by observing the students’first, second and third drafts that the students at the FLD,TBTTC often encounter the problem of making errors in several drafts from first draft to final draft The researcher made up her mind to action plan implementation in classroom; that is applying indirect feedback on the draft for the students to revise After four periods of implementation, the results collected from the questionnaires, the students’drafts, and classroom observation revealed a beneficial role of teacher’s indirect feedback in reducing errors in paragraph writing The study clearly shows that receiving teacher indirect feedback meet the students’desire To conclude, it is believed useful to design more classroom activities to involve student writers and teacher role in the process of doing assignment in which teacher’s response, students’ self correction or revision are considered as natural parts of writing tasks in the Vietnamese EFL setting Finally, it is hoped that the study will make a specifically significant contribution to the improvement and renovation of the current situation of teaching and learning in the Foreign Languages Department of TBTTC 45 Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire (For students) This survey questionnaire is designed for my MA thesis,titled “Reducing errors in the first year English major students’paragraph writing at Thai Binh Teachers Training College : An action research” I am grateful for your goodwill and cooperation in truthfully completing the questionnaire, which hopefully takes you just a little time Please be assured that the information you provide will be treated in the strictest confidence Thank you very much! Please tick (√) or write the answer where necessary How errors affect your writing ? A very badly B badly C not very badly D not badly at all Is reducing errors in your writing necessary ? A very necessary B necessary C not very necessary D not necessary at all Which of the following factors you think is/are the cause(s) of errors in your third draft? A Not enough time to correct B Do not know how to correct C Do not want to correct 46 D Do not know where errors are and how wrong they are E Others:………………………………………………………………… How should teacher give feedback? Teacher should…… Strongly Disagree Agree disagree Strong ly agree give marks to students’writing not pay attention to errors in writing give general feedback to students’writing show students errors in writing and give students opportunity to revise through feedback Which aspect(s) in the writing would you prefer teacher feedback to focus on? Tick three aspects you think are important A Format B Punctuation and Machanics C Content D Organization E Grammar and Sentence Structure In your opinion, for more effective feedback, teacher should: A Underline the errors B Circle the errors C Record in the margin the number of errors in a given line D Use a code to show where error has occurred and what type of error it is 47 Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire (For students) This survey questionnaire is designed for my MA thesis,titled “Reducing errors in the first year English major students’paragraph writing at Thai Binh Teachers Training College : An action research” I am grateful for your goodwill and cooperation in truthfully completing the questionnaire, which hopefully takes you just a little time Please be assured that the information you provide will be treated in the strictest confidence Thank you very much! Please tick (√) or write the answer where necessary How did you recognize your errors? A very easily B easily C not easily D very difficultly How much percentage did you self-correct your errors? ………………………………… How useful is the teacher feedback to your writing? A very useful 48 B useful C not very useful D useless Appendix 3a: Lesson Plan Subject: Writing skill Class: English Period: 1- 45 minutes Unit 4: Listing Chracteristics (continued) I Aims - S practice to write a paragraph of listing chracteristic form II Procedure - T writes the topic on board: Write a paragraph (150-180 words) about your difficulties in the student life - S work in group to brainstorm - S work individually to make outline - T checks S if they have prepared papersheet - S write the first draft on their own - S work in pair to edit the first draft - S write the second draft - T collects both first draft and second draft 49 Appendix 3b : Observation sheet Date: Class: English Objective of observation: To write down teacher and students activities and comment Teacher’s Activities - greet S Students’ Activities - greet T Comment - writes the topic on board - copy down the topic - T carries out - ask S to work in group, - work in group, one is secretary the brainstorm ideas of difficulties in student life steps smoothly -S all - ask the representative from participate in each group to write their ideas activities They on board - - write on board - make outline individually check, rub out coinciding work in group, contribute their ideas - write first draft based on ideas 100% of - outline them write and outline - work in pair, check for errors hand in their - go around, answer some - write second draft both drafts S’questions - hand in both first and second ask S to make individual - ask S to write the first draft 50 - ask S to edit the first draft in pairs, and write second draft - ask S to hand in Appendix 4a : Lesson Plan Subject: Writing skill Class: English Period: 2- 45 minutes Unit 4: Listing Chracteristics (continued) I Aims - S practice to write a paragraph of listing chracteristic form 51 - S editing their paragraph II Procedure - T gives S first draft and second draft graded back - T remarks about S’ writing, praise those who get high mark and those who make progress from first draft to second draft - T asks S to prepare a paper sheet, and guide them to have right format: + There is a title + The title is centered + The first line is indented + There are margins on both sides + The paragraph is double- spaced - S edit second draft, write third draft - T goes around the class, monitors and checks if S are following the format - S hand in third draft Appendix 4b : Observation sheet Date: Class: English Objective of observation: To write down teacher and students activities and comment Teacher’s Activities Students’ Activities Comment 52 - greet S - greet T - T appears that she - give S both drafts back has prepared the -ask S to have a look at their - look at the drafts lesson carefully drafts - listen to T - S strictly follow T - explain S the format of the - look at the demonstration guide All of them paragraph - write third draft have right format of - take one model as paragraph demonstration - They - ask S to write third draft indecisive appear to edit their draft Appendix 5a: Lesson Plan Subject: Writing skill Class: English Period: 3- 45 minutes Unit 4: Listing Chracteristics (continued) I Aims 53 - S practice to write a paragraph of listing chracteristic form - S editing their paragraph II Procedure - T gives S oral general comment on the third draft - T informs about indirect feedback that S will receive next lesson - T provides S correction symbols used for indirect feedback, each symbol is illustrated with an example - S take notes and refer more on page 202: Appendix A: Correction Symbols - Give S model of a paragraph filled with correction codes - S work alone; then in pair to find out the correction Appendix 5b : Observation sheet Date: Class: English Objective of observation: To write down teacher and students activities and comment 54 Teacher’s Activities - greet S - have some oral general Students’ Activities - greet T Comment - listen to T - T plans the lesson comment on the third draft in details - say about indirect feedback - She provides S with and its importance correction - demonstrate some example on cautiously board, also ask S to give - S look eager to correction - open book symbols indirect feedback - introduce Correction Symbols - at the end of the book enthusiastically study - give each S a photocopy of a the model paragraph with correction - work alone and then in symbols pair - ask S to work independently, - ask T about some codes they correction symbols then in pair to find correction - go around to give explanation - give correction about some codes that S not understand - get feedback Appendix 6a : Subject: Lesson Plan Writing skill 55 Class: English Period: 4- 45 minutes Unit 4: Listing Chracteristics (continued) I Aims - S practice to write a paragraph of listing chracteristic form - S the editing their paragraph, based on teacher indirect feedback II Procedure - T delivers S’third draft given indirect feedback - S compose the final draft based on indirect feedback - T goes around, checks if the S can self correct - S hand in the final draft Appendix 6b : Observation sheet 56 Date: Class: English Objective of observation: To write down teacher and students activities and comment Teacher’s Activities - greet S Students’ Activities - greet T Comment - deliver S’third draft - ask S if they have any question - ask some questions about - T really reaches her - respond to S’question symbols aim in motivating S - ask S to write final draft based - write final draft to get involved in on indirect feedback - go around to check if S can self-correct writing paragraph - hand in - S are eager with indirect feedback - they attentively try to translate the codes - they revise positively, and write the final draft strictly 57 ... old They may have studied general English from three to seven years at school depending on the English program at their school They learn four skills : writing, reading, listening and speaking... The learner questionnaire is chosen for this study because it can reach a large number of people in a very short time Besides, in this study, questionnaire will be chosen because the data collected... taught With the above objectives and step-by- step procedure, First Steps in Academic Writing is chosen as the official course book Also it provides a solid foundation for the next step which requires