An investigation on 10 graders’ anxiety at pre-stage in English writing lessons at Tien Thinh High School, Me Linh, Hanoi: Causes and Solutions

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRỊNH THU HƯỜNG An investigation on 10 graders’ anxiety at pre-stage in English writing lessons at Tien Thinh High School, Me Linh, Hanoi: Causes and Solutions (Nghiên cứu lo lắng học sinh lớp 10 giai đoạn trước viết học viết trường THPT Tiến Thịnh – Mê Linh – Hà Nội: nguyên nhân giải pháp) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Phạm Thị Thanh Thủy, MA HANOI – 2011 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS TTHS: Tien Thinh High School SS: Students T: Teacher Ts: Teachers S: Student VNU-ULIS: Vietnam National University-University of Languages and International Studies TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION……………………………………………………………………i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………….……………….ii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………… iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………….…….iv TABLES OF CONTENTS……………………………………………….……… v CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale……………………………………………………………….………1 1.2 Research questions………………………………………………….…….… 1.3.Method of the study…………………………………………………….…… 1.4.The participants…………………………………………………………….….2 1.5 Scope of the study………………………………………………………….….2 1.6.Overview of the thesis……………………………………………….…………2 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Writing 2.1.1 What is writing? .4 2.1.2 Pre- writing/ What is pre-writing? 2.1.3 Pre - writing activities………………………………………….……… ……5 2.1.4 Methodology in teaching writing……………………………….…… …… 1.5.Teaching writing procedures……………………………………… ………7 2.2 Anxiety 2.2.1 What is anxiety? 2.2.2 Anxiety in learning Foreign Languages…………………………….… ……8 2.2.3 The factors causing students' anxiety in writing lessons ……….……………10 2.2.3.1 Students' factors……………………………………………… …… …….10 2.2.3.2 Teachers' factors……………………………………………………………10 2.3 Summary CHAPTER THREE: Methodology 3.1 The context 3.1.1.Students…………………………………………………………… …….10 3.1.2.Teachers………………………………………………………………… …10 3.1.3 Facilities…………………………………………………………….… … 11 3.1.4 The Textbook " English 10"………………………………………… ……11 3.2 The Study 3.2.1 Addressing the problem……………………………………….…… …… 12 3.2.2 Data collections……………………………………………………… ….12 3.2.3 Data analysis……………………………………………………….… ….13 3.2.3.1 Classroom observations………….…………………………………… 14 3.2.3.2 Questionnaires……………………………………………………… ….23 3.2.3.2.1 Data analysis of students' survey questionnaires……………… …… 23 3.2.3.2.2 Data analysis of teacherhe author gives an introduction on the study This part presents the rationale, the research questions, the method of the study, the participants, and the scope of the study and the overview of the thesis The second part is the most important one which presents the review of literature with theoretical backgrounds of learning and teaching writing, pre-writing factors to reduce students’ anxiety in writing lessons The next is the study with the data analysis and findings of questionnaires and classroom observations The last chapter gives some suggested solutions to improve the quality of learning and teaching writing for 10 graders The author conducts this research with the hope that this study would be of some values to both teachers and students in their language teaching and learning process Being one of the teachers at TTHS, I can clearly see the present situation of teaching and learning writing skill which is one of TTHS students’ and teachers’ challenges This study is done in the hope of finding out the factors causing students’ anxiety and contributing some recommended strategies for teachers and students to reduce this kind of anxiety Based on the survey questionnaires and classroom observations, the author can arrive at the following conclusions: + Learners are anxious in the writing lessons, and the causes of their anxiety are that (1) students are not provided with enough vocabularies and structures relating to their writing lesson in pre-stage, (2) teachers’ instructions and teachers’ mood and enthusiasm are not good and sufficient enough, (3) the teachers are not aware of the importance of prewriting stage, (4) teachers’ preparation for pre-writing activities before class is not good enough and (5) teachers not care well enough about how students feel in pre-writing stage + Some strategies that could be employed for teachers and students to reduce anxiety and improve teaching and learning writing skill include the following: On the part of teachers, they can help their students to reduce anxiety by giving clear and understandable instructions, providing students with new words and structures in effective ways, creating free-anxiety classroom On the part of students, they can reduce their own anxiety by having more writing practice, participating in pair work and group work, improving English proficiency 5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study The study still has some limitations First of all, the scale of this study is very small, which focuses on only the effects of pre-writing stage to reduce students’ anxiety so while-writing stage and post- writing stage are not mentioned here Secondly, this study basically bases on the source of questionnaires so the author cannot guarantee the reliability of the information collected Moreover, this study is only restricted to classroom writing lessons in the textbook English 10 so any application outside the classroom context requires more careful consideration Finally, there are still some problems that this study could not solve completely: students’ English level is so bad that needs time to get improvement In order to get the improvement, it is necessary for the teachers to pay more attention to their teaching methods and preparations The author hopes that the above problems will be solved in other studies in the future References Tiếng Việt: Bộ giáo dục đào tạo ( 2006) Tiếng Anh 10, Nxb Giáo dục, Hà Nội Đỗ Tuấn Minh ( 2007), Tài liệu bồi dưỡng giáo viên THPT “Đổi phương pháp dạy học theo chương trình sách giáo khoa lớp 10 mới” Đại học Ngoại Ng ữ, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội, Hà Nội Tiếng Anh: Breach, D (2005) Exploring the Vietnamese Concept of a “Good Teacher” Teacher’s Edition 16, (30-37) Brown, H.D (1994) Teaching by Principles Englewood Cliffs, NJ; Prentice Hall Byrne, D (1988), Teaching Writing Skill, Longman, London 4.Coffin, C., Curry, M., Goodman, S., Hewings, A., Lillis, T., & Swann, J (2003), Teaching academic writing: A toolkit for higher education, London: Routledge Darwin, C.R (1827) The expression of emotion in man and animal London: John Murray Harmer, J (2001) The Practice of English Language Teaching ( 3rd Edition) Excess: Longman Horwitz, E.K., Horwitz, MB, & Cope, J (1986) Foreign language classroom anxiety Modern Language Journal, 70, 125-132 Lannon, J.M (1989), The writing process: A concise Rhetic, Southeastern Massachusetts University MacIntyre, P.D, & R.C Gardner (1994a), The subtle effects of language anxiety on cognitive processing in the second language Language Learning, 44(2), 238-305 10 MacIntyre, P.D ( 1999), Language anxiety: A review for the reseach for language teachers In D.J Young (Ed), Affect in foreign language and second language learning: A practical guide to creating a low-anxiety classroom asmosphere ( pp.24-45) NY: Mc Graw- Hill 11 May, R.(1977), The meaning of anxiety New York: Washington Square Press 12 McCroskey, J.C(1978), Vadility of the PRCA as an index of oral communication apprehension Communication Monographs, 45,192-203 13 Nguyen, B & Nguyen, B N (2001) A course in TEFL: Theory and Practice III Hanoi: College of Foreign Languages, VNU, Hà Nội 14 Raimes, A (1983), Techniques in Teaching Writing, OUP 15 Richmond, E.M ( 1985), Composition and Grammar 11, Laidlaw Brothers 16 Rivers, W.M (1981), Teaching Foreign Language Skills ( 2nd ed), The University od Chicago Press, Chicago 17 Sarason, I.G (1986), Test anxiety, worry, and cognitive interference In R Schwarzer (Ed.) Self-related Cognition In Anxiety And Motivation Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum 19-34 18 Sokolik, M (2003) Writing In D Nunan (Ed.), Practical English language teaching (pp 87-108) China: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc and Higher Education Press 19 Spielberger, C.D (1983), Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Form Y) Palo Alto, California: Consulting Psychologists 20 Steele, V (2002) Product and process writing: A comparison Retrieved from the World Wide Web 27 July 2006 at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think /write/ approaches.shtml 21 Tobias, S (1986), Anxiety and cognitive processing of instructions In R Schwarzer (Ed), Self- related cognition in anxiety and motivation (pp.35-54), Hillside, NJ: Erlbaum 22 Tribble, C (1996), Writing, Oxford University Press, Oxford 23 Ur, P (1996), A Course of Language Teaching: Practice & Theory, Cambridge University Press Appendices Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaires for the teachers This survey questionnaire is designed for my Thesis “Using pre-writing activities to reduce 10 graders’ anxiety in English writing lessons at Tien Thinh High School, Me Linh, Hanoi.” Your assistance in completing the survey questionnaires is highly appreciated All the information provided by you is reserved for the study purpose, and you can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Thanks you very much for your cooperation! Please circle your answer Do you like teaching writing skill? C D E F G H E F G H Yes No In your opinion, which of these writing stages is the most important? warm-up pre- writing while-writing post- writing Do you prepare well for the pre-writing activities? Always Sometimes Rarely Never Do you think that your students feel anxious in your writing lessons?( if yes please answer the next question) F yes, most of my students G Yes, all of them feel anxious H No, they are not completely anxious I Maybe, I am not sure In your opinion, what is the main cause of the students’ anxiety? D The topic is difficult or uninteresting E Your instructions in pre- writing stage is not clear enough F Students’ language competence is limited G Others (……………………………………………………………… ) What is your suggestion toward reducing students’ anxiety in the writing lessons? (Please write down your suggestions) ………………………………………………………………………………………… Many Thanks! Appendix A: Questionnaires for the students Các câu hỏi thiết kế để có đánh giá em việc hoạt động trước viết ảnh hưởng đến việc học viết em Việc có đánh giá em giúp điều chỉnh hoạt động dạy viết cho phù hợp với em nhằm nâng cao chất lượng hoc viết trường Rất mong nhận hợp tác em Mọi thông tin em cung cấp bảo mật Xin chân thành cảm ơn em! Em khoanh tròn vào câu trả lời tương ứng sau A B C D A B C D Giờ viết em hôm nào? Rất thú vị Thú vị Không thú vị Rất chán Em cảm thấy viết hôm nay? Lo lắng khơng viết Khơng hài lịng viết chưa tốt Vui vẻ tham gia vào hoạt động trước viết Hài lịng viết tốt Theo quan điểm em, giai đoạn q trình viết gây ảnh hưởng đến kết viết em? A Giai đoạn khởi động B Giai đoạn trước viết C Giai đoạn viết D Giai đoạn sau viết Em có thích hoạt động trước viết cô giáo sử dụng ngày hôm khơng? A Có B Khơng Em chọn lí lí khiến em cảm thấy lo lắng viết A Chủ đề viết khó B Em khơng chuẩn bị kĩ từ vựng cấu trúc trước viết C Cơ giáo chủ yếu giải thích tiếng anh nên em không hiểu yêu cầu viết D Em khơng có ý tưởng để viết E Những lí khác: Sự nhiệt tình, tâm trạng giáo… Thank you! Appendix 2.B: Questionnaires for the students Question 1: How is your writing lesson today? A Very interesting B Interesting C Not interesting D Boring Question 2: How did you feel in the writing lesson today? A Anxious because I wrote nothing B Not satisfied because the writing was not good C Satisfied because the writing was very good D Eager with the pre- writing activities Question 3: In your opinion, which writing stage most affect your writing result? A Warm-up B Pre-writing C While-writing D Post- writing Question 4: Do you like those pre-writing activities used by your teachers today? C Yes D No Question 5: Which is the main cause of your anxiety in the writing lesson? F The writing topic is difficult G I am not provided enough vocabularies and structures relating to the writing lesson in the pre-writing stage H The teacher only explained in English so I can not understand well I I have no ideas to write J Others: Teacher’s mood, enthusiasm… Thank you! Appendix – Tasks in writing lessons (Source: Tieng Anh 10 Textbook) Lesson 1: Filling in a form (Unit 1: Writing, p27, 28) Task 1: Work in pairs Answer the following questions On what occasions you have to fill in a form? What sort of information you often have to provide when you fill in a form?