Typical essay writing problems facing upper secondary students and possible solutions

Teaching Experience Initiative School-year: 2018-2019 “Typical Essay Writing Problems Facing Upper-secondary Students and Possible Solutions” PART I: INTRODUCTION I Rationale for selecting the topic of the study: In the recent years, English teaching and learning practice has shifted its focus to listening and speaking skills, due to the increased demand of using communicative skills on the global scale Additionally, most English tests are in the form of multiple-choice questions, including the English test that upper-secondary students nationwide have to take at the National Examination of Secondary Education Thus, the majority of high school students almost pay every attention to listening and speaking lessons, and then to techniques to multiple-choice tests effectively, instead of putting enough emphasis on mastering their writing skills, especially essay writing skills Writing belongs to the process of language reproduction in which writing an essay is, perhaps, the most challenging part to a large number of students It would not be an overstatement that essay writing has been a terrible nightmare for so many students, even talented ones The nightmare is so haunted that my students usually get too nervous to accomplish their writing entirely Some time, they even skip the writing tasks they have been assigned, as a message that they surrender to this obstacle Meanwhile, no one can deny the importance of such a high-level reproductive skill of language in written communications As a teacher of English, I always harbor a desire to help my students develop their language skills in a comprehensive way, also to prepare them better for higher stages of education and their future jobs It is the desire that has constantly urged me to something practical to improve the situation Hence, the topic “Typical Essay Writing Problems Facing Upper-secondary Students and Possible Solutions” has been chosen and studied in the hope of addressing difficulties in essay writing student are having to confront as well as suggesting answers to these problems II Purposes of the study: This study aims to raise students’ awareness of the importance of English essay writing in written communications On that basis, they can have more motivations and interests in studying how to write essays and doing practice more regularly As a result, they will gradually be able to master their performance in essay writing Furthermore, with this experience initiative, I hope to contribute some of my personal ideas on essay writing to teaching experience sources for my teacher colleagues to use as a reference in the English teaching process in general Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page Teaching Experience Initiative School-year: 2018-2019 III Objects of the study: This teaching experience initiative specially focus on researching and analyzing problems or difficulties that students encounter in English essay writing, and finding out possible solutions to these problematic issues to help improve their skill in producing essays IV Scope of the study: The study process was mainly based on the English programme for the uppersecondary students at Mai Anh Tuan High School in the school year 2018-2019, and through English tests and examinations for high school students in the recent years V Bases and of the study: The experience initiative has been studied based on my own practical teaching experiences, referring to documents related to the researched topic, including database from the internet, observing other teachers’ lessons, and consulting my colleagues, who are experienced in teaching English at high school PART II: DEVELOPMENT I Problems facing students in English Essay writing: As learners of English as a foreign language, students have to face to a wide range of difficulties in writing English essays, an academically challenging task The problems may be caused by the outer or intra-lingual factors of English These factors, whether internal or external, can make the task of mastery difficult for learners of English to achieve, and can have a negative effect on their proficiency Following are the common challenges that may face students in writing and restrict their achievement Over-obsession named essay writing: Nowadays, most students are too obsessive with writing essays whether in their mother tongue or in a second language such as English They tend to think that this task is beyond their ability, and that it is only a waste of time because they can never write a good essay; hence, they choose to quit the task right from the beginning despite its importance Effects of modern lifestyle: Schoolchildren are living a fast-paced life in which everything seems to run at the speed of light With the support of modern devices, spoken communications become easier and more convenient than ever before Rather, the tendency of teaching and learning English at present is to focus more on spoken communication Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page Teaching Experience Initiative School-year: 2018-2019 skills than on written ones In consequence, writing skills, including essay writing, attract little attention from high school students Lack of motivation: At upper-secondary level of education, one of the primary motivations to master writing skills seems to be examinations However, apart from the gifted student examinations, there are hardly other ones to motivate students Also, a flash of anxiety about future careers appears not to be great inspiration to urge students to pay much attention to essay writing Lack of ideas: A number of students read their essay writing questions and find no ideas to develop in their writings They also get stuck right from the opening part of their essays Lack of vocabulary: Students hardly enjoy essay writing when they have an insufficient stock of vocabulary The outcome of their vocabulary insufficiency is nothing but poor quality essays Thinking in the mother tongue: Students are greatly influenced by their first language They tend to their thinking in the mother tongue, and then try to translate what they have thought into English Their habit usually makes their writing products become a mess! Poor Grammar and Syntax Skills: Even the most talented students need to learn how to understand complex sentences, differentiate different parts of speech, use proper punctuation and proofread their writing for errors Lack of evidence and relevance: Students sometimes provide evidence that is not relevant to the main topic This is a consequence of not spending enough time for planning the essay or trying to reach the word limit It may also be the case that even relevant facts can appear irrelevant because students sometimes not use appropriate wording and fail to link different paragraphs and ideas with each other As a result, even relevant facts and arguments sound irrelevant Essay question misunderstanding and wrong identification of essay types: Students sometimes fail to understand the questions, and get difficulty in identifying the right essay type to write Thus, their writing may easily digress in an inappropriate format 10 Weak or no thesis statements: Students’ creative ability seems to be infinite, so that sometimes they keenly pursuit and try to express their creative thoughts without realizing that they have written a long paragraph or essay with a weak or no thesis statement Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page Teaching Experience Initiative School-year: 2018-2019 11 Lack of cohesion and coherence: Sometimes students write such rambling essays that can be difficult for their readers to understand The information may be presented without being clearly related to the given assignment question, and/or without conforming to the genre pattern expected in the context An incoherent essay, of course, can never get great appreciation 12 Failing to structure ideas effectively in a proper format: Students may have numerous interesting and creative ideas; however, their time for essay writing is limited, so they occasionally fail to find the best way to structure their ideas in content effectively Sometimes, students’ essays does not follow any standard format They write down anything they can think out without considering whether it appears in the right place or not The sources used for their essay are not well organized and cited in a way suitable for its type 13 Poor time management: Many students are not very good at time management, which leads to inappropriate time division for different tasks and task incompletion Undoubtedly, when the task is not completed, their essay cannot be highly valued 14 Plagiarism: It can be seen as stealing someone else’s intellectual property when students use their work without crediting Gifted students have a good ability to remember what they have read about a certain topic and then try to use as much as they can when meeting the same topic Once, one student remembered almost all the whole essay of the same topic and wrote it down on her paper without forgetting a word from the original 15 Lack of writing practice: Students, with their talent and intellectual ability, can deal with tasks, even the most challenging ones, rapidly and effectively Therefore, sometimes they seem to be a little bit impatient with essay writing practice, a task that needs doing regularly and seriously 16 Getting little feedback on written essays: Many teachers assign essay-writing tasks to students, but fail to provide them with comprehensive feedback Giving a student a grade for her/ his writing is simply not enough if one wants to teach her/him how to write better II Suggested problem solutions: Generally, high school students today face numerous challenges in terms of essay writing In order to help them overcome these obstacles, there are possible solutions as follows Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page Teaching Experience Initiative School-year: 2018-2019 Over-obsession named essay writing: To help students steadily overcome their over-obsession named essay writing, it is better to find out their strengths, even the smallest ones, to give them positive comments and timely praise them For example, “Your word choice is really creative/impressive!” “This is the best-organized essay you have!” “Your essay captures my interest with some really great ideas!” “Your writing is beyond my expectation!” or “Your handwriting looks so nice!” … To the best of my knowledge, it is these fair comments and well-timed praise that can help the students have more confidence in themselves as well as motivate them to bravely face such difficult tasks as essay writing Further, it is advisable to give the students a very clear explanation of English essay writing importance, not only in their exams but also in their future career and life, to them so that they can realize how vital it is Besides, they should be provided with essay writing tasks with the level of difficulty gradually increasing in order to avoid their obsession with the tasks Effects of modern lifestyle: To limit the effects of modern lifestyle on students’ essay writing, common topics are often selected and the students are encouraged to share their ideas on these topics by writing them down sometimes, choosing formal language to express their opinions or outlooks Each time students use spoken English or teenage slang to convey something, I often ask them to think out some other ways to express their points more formally If they failed to that, I would suggest some possible solutions Moreover, they are shown that it would be better when they could make improvements in both spoken communication skills and written ones, especially, to the ones who want to get a scholarship for studying abroad Lack of motivation: Writing examinations are great motivations to students, so that essay-writing contests have been suggested being organized to stimulate the spirit of studying writing essays among my students This kind of task has also been proposed being included in the English exams at Mai Anh Tuan high school to create more chances for our students to train themselves and improve essential skills for their future career Moreover, monthly competitions of essay writing organized for students in the same class with interesting small prizes for the winners have motivated them much in improving their writing skills Lack of ideas: To have various creative ideas for essay writing, students should properly develop their background knowledge as well as their analytical and cognitive skills There are some simple ways for them to this as follow The first would be active reading, involving questioning what they are reading when they read By asking questions as they read, they are engaging their brain in higher thinking Another useful technique is to question and compare the writers’ perspectives on a subject to Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page Teaching Experience Initiative School-year: 2018-2019 their own They also should take note of new ideas and thoughts that are a result of their reading Active reading stimulates and expands their brains and allows it to think in new ways Students are advised to join discussions or conversations, ask everyone they meet questions, and try to learn something from them Whether it is life lessons such as how to manage stress or how they developed successful careers or what their parenting philosophy is, questions are essential to keeping the brain engaged They can improve their interpersonal communication skills at the same time and maybe even make a friend or two By improving their analytical skills, they can be able to comprehend and appreciate debates and concepts, break down complex information and streamline solution-finding processes When students have ideas for their essay, they are advised to make an outline for it With an appropriate brief outline, it will not be too difficult to start writing Lack of vocabulary: Students can enrich their vocabulary stock themselves by reading and learning new words or phrases in contexts They can also study more words from their dictionaries When they meet a new word, they should learn all other words in its family and patterns as well as idioms related to it Another better way to help them build up their vocabulary is to try to have conversations or discussions about topics where new words or phrases are inserted They are also encouraged to follow English programs or watch films in English on TV or the internet to widen their vocabulary Besides, I have suggested my students form chatting groups using such modern applications on their smartphones or computers as Zalo or Messenger to chat and share new words or phrases they know about a certain topic after each of their lessons in class Thinking in the mother tongue: Thinking in the native language is a normal tendency to foreign language learners However, it is too difficult for students to get a great success when they wish to express their ideas in English while doing their thinking in their own language! Therefore, it is important that they stop thinking in their mother tongue and trying to translate in their heads One good way to it is to use monolingual dictionaries where the entries and their definitions are written in the language they are learning By using this kind of dictionary, students can train their brain to focus on the meaning, or the concept that a word represents, rather than its literal translation into their native language By that way, they are less likely to translate it themselves when they use it Another useful method is to use images instead of translations when learning new vocabulary Using images or symbols while writing new words down again and again can help train their brain to stop translating words when communicating in Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page Teaching Experience Initiative School-year: 2018-2019 English That is because they can learn to associate words with images or symbols rather than their exact translations Besides, students should read a lot and memorize phrases and structures When reading, they have to confront idiomatic expressions and phrases This time, they should try to memorize those phrases and structures that they come across – this will help them when constructing their own sentences Instead of having to make them start from scratch when they need, students will be able to recall some of the phrases and structures that they learned when reading Also, because they have the ready-made phrases and structures in their heads, they won’t have to look for translations of individual words and their brains will be less likely to be preoccupied with that One more way that is a bit funny to help students prevent themselves from thinking in their native language and trying to translate into English is that they tell themselves off! Whenever they catch themselves translating words in their heads, they must say “translation, translation, translation.” By doing that, they can draw their own attention to the frequency with which they translate in their heads Consequently, they begin to it less frequently Poor grammar and syntax skills: To notice the progress that my students makes in terms of grammar and syntax, I always try to listen to them and point out to the mistakes they make I also ask them what they have learned every day and have conversations with them often While speaking to them, I carefully pay attention to the sentences they form Moreover, I often spend some certain time reading and marking their essays, then taking notes of their errors of grammar and syntax and suggesting possible ways to correct these errors Additionally, I have established peer groups and encouraged students to peer-review, which helps them make much progress in writing compositions Lack of evidence and relevance: With irrelevant evidence, students cannot support and prove their argument effectively Therefore, students should have relevant evidence in their essay in order to persuade the readers and increase the validity of the argument The best solution is to study well and get acquainted with the topic While reading about their topic, they need to take notes on the most relevant issues and store them for later use (for references and citations) Additionally, to limit irrelevant evidence in their essay, before students start writing an essay, they had better make an outline and plan their essay carefully They also try to connect each part of their essay, arguments and facts to the main idea and the topic At each stage of the essay, they need to keep asking themselves “Is this relevant?”, “Am I answering the question?”, and “Does this relate directly to the subject I have been asked to discuss?” If they begin to introduce a new and separate problem or topic to discuss and prove a part of their argument, they have to Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page Teaching Experience Initiative School-year: 2018-2019 make sure that they return to the main subject and explain how these secondary facts are relevant to the main argument Essay question misunderstanding and wrong identification of essay types: One of the reasons why students sometimes misunderstand the essay questions and fail to identify the right type of essay is because they get too nervous when reading these questions Therefore, students should study the questions carefully to know what to At the same time, they need to try their best to keep calm and enhance their confidence while confronting with difficult questions in important exams And, the best way to be free from fear in this situation is to study well and make good preparations for it Moreover, right identification of essay types is much dependent on the nature of each type of essay Hence, I discuss with the students the significant features of different essay types, focusing on prominent signals right from the essay questions There are four main genres of essay writing, including Expository essays, Descriptive essays, Narrative essays, and Argumentative (Persuasive) essays a Expository Essay Definition: An expository essay explains something or answers questions like: What is it?/ How should we define it?/ How you it?/ How does it work?/ What is the history of it?/ What caused it? What are the effects?/ What is the meaning of it? [1] b Descriptive Essay Definition: A descriptive essay, as the name implies, is a form of essay that describes something In this genre, students are assigned the task of describing objects, things, places, experiences, persons, and situations The students use sensory information to enable readers to use their five senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight to understand the topic of the essay [1] c Narrative Essay Definition: A narrative essay is a type of essay that tells a vivid story, usually from one person’s viewpoint It uses all the story elements - a beginning, middle and ending, plot, characters, setting and climax – all coming together to complete the story [1] d Argumentative (Persuasive) Essay Definition: An argumentative essay is a type of essay that presents arguments about both sides of an issue It could be that both sides are presented equally balanced, or it could be that one side is presented more forcefully than the other It all depends on the writer, and what side he supports the most [1] To recognize this type, the students need to pay attention to such words or phrases in the questions as: Give the arguments for and against / Assess the importance of / Examine the arguments for and against / What are the advantages and disadvantages of ?/ Evaluate / Critically examine the statement that / To what extent is true?/ Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page Teaching Experience Initiative School-year: 2018-2019 Discuss / Give your views on / What you think about ?/ Do you agree that ?/ Consider whether / To what extent / How true / How far you agree [1] 10 Weak or no thesis statements: Every paper students write should have a main point, a main idea, or central message The argument(s) they make in their paper should reflect this main idea The sentence that captures their position on this main idea is what we call a thesis statement A thesis statement focuses their ideas into one or two sentences It should present the topic of their paper and make a comment about their position in relation to the topic Their thesis statement should tell their readers what the paper is about and help guide their writing and keep their argument focused Students should provide a thesis early in their essay - in the introduction, or in longer essays in the second paragraph - in order to establish their position and give their readers a sense of direction In order to write a successful thesis statement, they should the following: - Avoid burying a great thesis statement in the middle of a paragraph or late in the paper - Be as clear and as specific as possible, and avoid vague words - Indicate the point of their paper but avoid sentence structures like, “The point of my paper is…” [1] 11 Lack of cohesion and coherence: 11.1 Cohesion: Cohesion is basically the interconnection of two different sentences How these sentences are related to each other that is called cohesion To make their essay cohesive, students should the following: Use connectors/linkers Candidates forget to put a simple linker that may be necessary When they are writing, they simply know their thoughts but when the examiner reads, he is not aware of their idea He will find it difficult to follow their ideas without linkers Linkers like for example, in addition to this, from my point of view, as far as I know, etc are some of the cohesive devices used in writing Use pronouns Students can definitely use pronouns to avoid repetition of abstract nouns Repeating a name would seem awkward and therefore may fetch lower bands For this, they can use pronouns like this, that, it, they, etc Use synonyms To avoid repetition, a candidate can definitely use synonyms or different grammatical structures with various forms of a word For example, a verb can be converted into an adjective or a noun and so on Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page Teaching Experience Initiative School-year: 2018-2019 So, this is how their essay writing task coherence and cohesion is marked The students need to know all these to focus on their weakness So, prepare well and get their required results [1] 11.2 Coherence: Coherence is the logical arrangement of the writer’s ideas All ideas should be logically arranged and one key point should inevitably follow its explanation That is what makes a good paragraph Usually, students tend to write too many ideas in a single paragraph and that often results in an incoherent paragraph Those ideas are not fully developed Basically, students need to include vital information in every paragraph First, they need to have a clear idea of their essay structure How many paragraphs they are going to write and how these paragraphs will link with each other a Introduction b Arguments in favour of your opinion c Arguments against your opinion d Conclusion The above structure is just an example The students can have their own structure for the paragraph Later on, they can build their paragraph level coherence with the following points Make the topic sentence clear and concise: Very often, the first sentence of the paragraph clearly states what is mentioned in the whole paragraph This sentence is called a topic sentence This sentence needs to be simple and short If students’ topic sentence is too long, it means that they are trying to add too much information into their paragraph So, they need to edit and again assess it Don’t use too many points in a paragraph: Include only one or at most two information in a paragraph This arrangement allows students to develop their topic fully and thus, they can represent their point of view more clearly Include examples: Examples are very informative and they clearly relate to the topic This makes reader understand the theme quite easily So, use examples to explain your point clearly Summarise the whole paragraph: Students should not forget to summarise their paragraph with a short sentence or a result Further, they should never leave their paragraph in an awkward position Use punctuations precisely: Students often underestimate the importance of punctuation marks Nevertheless, they are as important as grammar They make every sentence clear Without proper punctuation marks, the examiner will find it extremely difficult to follow your line of thoughts [1] 12 Failing to structure ideas effectively in a proper format: To structure ideas effectively, students are advised to make an essay outline Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page 10 Teaching Experience Initiative School-year: 2018-2019 Begin the outline by writing the topic at the top of the page Write the Roman numerals I, II, and III, spread apart down the left side of the page Next to each Roman numeral, write the main ideas that they have about the topic, or the main points that they want to make Write the best arguments, if trying to persuade Write the steps that should be followed, if trying to explain a process, Group these steps into categories If having trouble grouping the steps into categories, try using Beginning, Middle, and End If trying to inform, write the major categories into which the information can be divided Under each Roman numeral, write A, B, and C down the left side of the page 10 Next to each letter, write the facts or information that supports that main idea When they have finished, they have the basic structure for their essay and are ready to continue [1] To be highly evaluated, an essay should be properly formatted All sources used must have good organization and be cited in a way suitable for the type of paper The important point here is to make sure that the students have this clear and format all papers in the way requested Below is an example of suggested essay format of the argumentative type: a Introduction Basically, it consists of two components: + The opening statement + The thesis/the idea of the essay The introduction is aimed to get the full attention of the reader The opening statement needs to be clear and logical as it is the thought, which leads the reader to the thesis where the persuasive essay idea is thoroughly presented b Body paragraphs The body of any persuasive essay reveals the arguments that support the thesis statement of the work Each of the arguments should include: + the point of argument + the explanation of the argument + facts/evidence that support the idea/thesis + a small summary leading to the next argument c Conclusion Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page 11 Teaching Experience Initiative School-year: 2018-2019 Summarize the persuasive essay idea It is the evaluation of the statements made and the arguments given The conclusion therefore refers to the thesis statement of the work [7] 13 Poor time management: Time management is one of the most important things that a student needs to take care of when doing essay-writing practice, as well as during examinations Here are some golden rules of time management that help students to finish their exam paper within the given time Keep the watch on the desk in front of them by the answer sheet This helps them to keep an eye on time while answering the questions If in the examination room, fill in the first page of the answer sheet that contains their name, roll number and other necessary information before the exam time officially starts to save time for their essay writing When getting the question paper, go through all the questions and start with the ones for which they are very well prepared Students should remember not to spend extra time on the ones they are not sure of the answers because they may have little time left for the last part of the test-normally an essay writing task Students should always divide the paper in parts and allocate enough time for each question/part Suppose they have to answer five questions in all and the time on hand is only three hours, the better approach is to allocate 30 minutes to each question and the remaining 30 minutes should be utilized for the revision, final touch-ups, and tying up the answer sheets Objective questions take less time than others therefore allocation of time for these questions should be accordingly Students always have to remember they not need to copy the questions on the answer sheet It is the waste of time It would be a better approach to put another tick on the answered question This will boost students’ energy and give them a sense of accomplishment Students should read the answers carefully once they have done the entire paper Many students read the answers just after writing them It is a human physiology that people may not see their mistakes immediately but reading the same piece of writing after sometime can help them to identify easily and to overcome errors Students should avoid taking breaks during the exam time, and not leave early Instead of leaving early, students should sit and re-read what they have written; they can double-check all of their answers; check their spelling and rewrite any illegible, hastily scrawled words 14 Plagiarism: To avoid plagiarism while writing an essay, students should know how to: Paraphrase: A paraphrase is a restatement in students’ own words of someone else’s ideas They must change both the words and the sentence structure Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page 12 Teaching Experience Initiative School-year: 2018-2019 of the original, without changing the content So, when they have found information that is perfect for their essay paper, they can read it and put it into their own words Cite: Citing is one of the effective ways to avoid plagiarism This usually entails the addition of the author(s) and the date of the publication or similar information Quote: When quoting a source, students should use the quote exactly the way it appears Cite Quotes: Citing a quote can be different from citing paraphrased material This practice usually involves the addition of a page number, or a paragraph number in the case of web content Cite students’ Own Material: - If some of the students’ material is being used for their own essay, they must cite themselves They should treat the text the same as they would if someone else wrote it It may sound odd, but using material they have used before is called self-plagiarism, and it is not acceptable Reference: One of the most important ways to avoid plagiarism is including a reference page or page of works cited at the end of their essay paper Instead of copying others’ ideas or even the whole essays of the same topic that students have ever read and can remember; students should focus on accumulating structures and topic-based vocabulary in appropriate contexts for later use in their essays 15 Lack of writing practice: In order to become better in essay writing, students, even gifted ones, have to practice it regularly and seriously Without sufficient practice, students can never take their writing skills to a higher level Hence, after each unit students have learnt in class, a number of follow-up topics are provided for students’ further practice For example, after unit – Grade 12 English textbook, students are given such assignments as “write an essay of about 150-200 words about a job you would like to in the future”, or “what you think will be the most popular job in the future? Write an essay to express your own opinion about this”… In addition, I frequently show much care about the students’ practice, offering them to ask for help if they need when they get trouble with their writing assignments Hard-working students should be praised in front of the whole class, since such good mirrors are deeply influential in promoting the learning and practising spirit among the students 16 Getting little feedback on written essays: Feedback is information that the teacher gives to the students that helps them close the gap between where they are now with their work, and where they could be The goal of feedback is to provide students with insight that helps them to improve their performance Here are two steps that I have followed to give them effective feedback: Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page 13 Teaching Experience Initiative School-year: 2018-2019 - Tell the students about their current level of performance - Tell them what they could to improve After assigning essay-writing tasks to students, I always try to provide them with comprehensive feedback, which affirms what they did well, corrects and directs them, points out the process, and coaches students to critique their own efforts, not only to give them a grade for their writing For students, to get more feedback on their essays, they should actively hand in their products for the teacher to mark and give feedback on as soon as they have finished writing For shy or less confident students, I myself actively offer to help them with their assignments, and tell them to ask for help any time they need III Further Practice: No one can deny that Practice makes perfect The acquisition of the theory is undeniably important, however, practice is really a key to the mastery of students’ performance in essay writing To encourage students to regular practice with much enthusiasm, a variety of essay writing questions have been well prepared for students’ further practice in class as well as after class Below are some typical topics for students to practise: Some experts believe that it is better for children to begin learning a foreign language at primary school rather than secondary school Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.[2] Sports programmes are hugely popular on television nowadays But some people argue that these programmes are to blame for the poor health of many young people who prefer to watch rather than part take in physical activity To what extent you agree or disagree? [3] As computers are being used more and more in education, there will soon be no role for the teacher in the classroom To what extent you agree or disagree? [6] In some countries, young people are encouraged to work or travel for a year between finishing high school and starting university studies Discuss the advantages and disadvantages for young people who decide to this Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience [2] You have decided to give several hours of your time each month to improve the community where you live What is one thing you will to improve your community? Why? Use specific reasons and details to explain your choice [6] Nowadays, we are producing more and more rubbish Why you think this is happening? What can governments to help reduce the amount of rubbish Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page 14 Teaching Experience Initiative School-year: 2018-2019 produced? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience [4] … After their practice, I usually select some samples, as well as ask my students find some themselves, and then we study and analyze these sample carefully altogether to find out the best ways to write excellent essay on a certain topic In addition, in my teaching process, I have always studied and updated the new trends of essay questions and the marking criteria for my students to focus on to help them take more interest in doing essay writing practice and achieve more encouraging results, which contributes to their progress in their writing skills in general PART III: CONCLUSION I Study results: In my English teaching process, I have gradually provided my students a system of knowledge related to writing an essay in English and useful suggestions for practice that step by step help them get familiar with and consolidate their theoretical knowledge as well as improve their practical skills Various goals have been set up for different students based on their own levels of English After applying the previously mentioned solutions to English teaching for some time, it is quite encouraging that most of the students have had a more thorough grasp of basic knowledge and certain skills to solve problems related to essay writing However, it is quite difficult for weak students to understand and to apply these skills in practice because to practise well with these skills, the students must have a wide range of knowledge covering various contents in English Thus, through my lessons, I constantly help the students revise and consolidate the knowledge that they have learnt and improve their practical skills Below are some achieved results of the study after applied to English teaching and learning in classes 12G and 12M at Mai Anh Tuan High School in the school year 2018-2019 These statistics are based on the data collected from the answers to the questionnaires my students gave and the written tests of essay writing at different levels of difficulty at different points in time during this school year Before applying the initiative: Problem s Students frequently facing essay writing problems Class 12G (41 students) Class 12M (42 students) No of students % No of students % 41 100 42 100 41 100 42 100 Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page 15 Teaching Experience Initiative 35 41 41 41 41 41 35 10 41 11 41 12 36 13 38 14 37 15 35 16 30 85.36 100 100 100 100 100 85.36 100 100 87.80 92.68 90.24 85.36 73.17 38 42 42 42 42 42 37 42 42 38 39 39 37 32 School-year: 2018-2019 90.48 100 100 100 100 100 88.10 100 100 90.48 92.86 92.86 88.10 76.20 After applying the initiative for a semester: Problems (numbered ) 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Students frequently facing essay writing problems Class 12G (41 students) Class 12M (42 students) No of students % No of students % 30 33 25 35 32 31 30 31 26 35 32 28 23 23 25 24 73.17 80.49 60.98 85.37 78.05 75.61 73.17 75.61 63.41 85.37 78.05 68.29 56.10 56.10 60.98 58.54 32 34 28 37 33 35 32 34 27 37 35 30 24 25 30 27 76.19 80.95 68.29 88.10 78.57 83.33 76.19 80.95 64.26 88.10 83.33 71.43 57.14 59.52 71.43 64.26 After applying the initiative for the whole school year: Problem s Students frequently facing essay writing problems Class 12G (41 students) Class 12M (42 students) No of students % No of students % Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page 16 Teaching Experience Initiative 16 17 15 18 19 20 16 21 13 10 17 11 16 12 20 13 11 14 14 15 12 16 15 39.02 41.46 36.59 43.90 46.34 48.78 39.02 51.22 37.71 41.46 39.02 48.78 26.83 34.15 29.27 36.59 20 21 19 20 21 21 19 22 16 20 18 23 14 16 15 17 School-year: 2018-2019 47.62 50 45.24 47.62 50 50 45.24 52.38 38.10 47.62 42.86 54.76 33.33 38.10 35.71 40.48 The above estimated figures are not very impressive; however, they indicate that the initiative has initially produced encouraging results The students’ essay writing skills have been advancing considerably with steadily decreasing numbers of students who face essay-writing problems There will be much to next time to see more improvement in the study; hence, I would like to share this teaching experience initiative in the hope that it could help contribute a little to improving the quality of teaching English at the upper secondary education Moreover, I wish that the study would be of some value to both teachers and students in their process of English teaching and learning essay-writing skills II Suggestions: Obviously, the study still has certain limitations Thus, it would be my pleasure to get as many pieces of contributive advice or suggestions as possible to better my teaching initiative so that it will become more productive in the teaching and learning process at high schools in the coming time I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for all the constructive ideas! Thanh Hoa, May 30th, 2019 The author Le Thi Lan Anh Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan High School Page 17 Teaching Experience Initiative Le Thi Lan Anh School-year: 2018-2019 Mai Anh Tuan High School Page 18 ... for a semester: Problems (numbered ) 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Students frequently facing essay writing problems Class 12G (41 students) Class 12M (42 students) No of students % No of students % 30... from the essay questions There are four main genres of essay writing, including Expository essays, Descriptive essays, Narrative essays, and Argumentative (Persuasive) essays a Expository Essay. .. for the whole school year: Problem s Students frequently facing essay writing problems Class 12G (41 students) Class 12M (42 students) No of students % No of students % Le Thi Lan Anh Mai Anh Tuan