A study on the application of writing portfolio technique to second year English majors: an action research project at Hanoi college of commerce and tourism

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** ĐINH THỊ NHUNG A STUDY ON THE APPLICATION OF WRITING PORTFOLIO TECHNIQUE TO SECOND YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT HANOI COLLEGE OF COMMERCE AND TOURISM Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng hồ sơ làm môn viết sinh viên chuyên ngành tiếng Anh năm thứ hai: Nghiên cứu hành động trường cao đẳng thương mại du lịch Hà nội M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi - 2016 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** ĐINH THỊ NHUNG A STUDY ON THE APPLICATION OF WRITING PORTFOLIO TECHNIQUE TO SECOND YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT HANOI COLLEGE OF COMMERCE AND TOURISM Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng hồ sơ làm môn viết sinh viên chuyên ngành tiếng Anh năm thứ hai: Nghiên cứu hành động trường cao đẳng thương mại du lịch Hà nội M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Đỗ Tuấn Minh Hanoi - 2016 DECLARATION I, the author of this research, certify that this thesis is result of my own work and that I have provided fully documented references to the work of others The material in this research has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution Hanoi,2016 Đinh Thị Nhung i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my most sincere gratitude and thankfulness to my supervisor, Dr Do Tuan Minh, for his detailed instructions from the beginning of the thesis to the valuable comments till the end I would like to express my gratitude to all of my lecturers at faculty of post-graduate studies as well, who provided me with precious knowledge and helped me gained unforgettable experiences in pursuing my studies Certainly, this study would not have been completed without the participation of the students at Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism I thank them for their enthusiastic attitude in learning and participating in the study Besides, I am deeply indebted to Ms Luu Thi Duyen, the Dean of English Department at Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism, who helped and supported me all the time My deepest appreciation is for my husband who always supported and encouraged me with his love so that I could finish my thesis Without all their help, this thesis would not be completed as expected ii ABSTRACT This action research explores the effects of writing portfolio technique on second year students’ writing skill and the possible challenges encountering by both teachers and students during the application process Students created portfolios by including all the final drafts and rough drafts into a folder; and together with students’ submitted portfolios, two sets of questionnaires: pre and post-portfolio questionnaires, and interviews are also used to collect the data for the research The findings showed that the portfolio technique not only helped to improve students’ writing skill, especially in terms of vocabulary, and grammar, which meet student’s demands but also changed students’ attitude to the writing skill positively and contributed to the development of students’ other skills such as commenting, editing, reading, internet using, and group work skill as well However, during the process, there happened some problems For example, this method requires students to give written feedbacks to each other, which is quite challenging to them Especially, students quite easily got demotivated by negative comments from their peers Or, students felt boring and tiring when having to write up to three drafts for the same topics Nevertheless, the benefits of this technique outweigh all and prove to be effective in helping students learning writing iii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Page 1.Chart 1: Students’ attitude to Writing 25 Chart 2: Students spending time on practising and developing the 26 writing skill Chart 3: The subject with lowest score 27 Chart 4: What students want to improve in writing skill 28 Chart 5: Students’ knowledge about the use of portfolio 29 Chart 6: Students’ agreement to the improvement of their 30 vocabulary knowledge Chart 7: What students improve in terms of vocabulary 31 Chart 8: Students’ agreement to the improvement of their grammar 32 knowledge Chart 9: What students improve in terms of grammar 33 10 Table 1: Students’ attitude to writing 34 11 Table 2: Students’ opinion towards writing portfolio 35 12 Table 3: Summary of submitted portfolios 38 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS page DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACTS iii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS iv PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1.2 Objectives of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Method of the study 1.6 Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: Literature Review 2.1 Writing and Teaching Writing skill 2.1.1 Definition of Writing 2.1.2 Approaches to Teaching Writing skill 2.1.2.1 Product Approach 2.1.2.2 Process Aprroach 2.2 Portfolios in Writing 10 2.2.1 Definition of Portfolios 10 2.2.2 Characteristics of Portfolios 11 2.2.3 Types and Contents of Portfolios 12 2.2.4 The effects of Portfolios on Writing skill 16 2.2.5 Summary 17 CHAPTER 2: Research Methodology 18 3.1 Context of the study 18 3.1.1 The college 18 3.1.2 Teachers and students 18 3.1.3 The writing course 19 3.2 Participants 20 v 3.3 Data collection instruments 20 3.3.1 Survey questionnaires 20 3.3.1.1 Pre-portfolio questionnaire 20 3.3.1.2 Post-portfolio questionnaire and interviews 21 3.3.2 Submitted portfolios 21 3.3.2.1 The type of submitted portfolios 21 3.3.2.2 Portfolio evaluation 22 3.4 Procedures 23 CHAPTER 3: Data Analysis and Discussion 25 4.1 Data analysis of students’ pre-portfolio questionnaire before the 25 application process 4.1.1 Students’ attitudes to the writing skill 25 4.1.2 Students’ time studying writing skill 26 4.1.3 Students’ score on writing 27 4.1.4 What students hope to improve most in writing 28 4.1.5 Students’ knowledge of portfolios 29 4.2 Data analysis of students’ post-portfolio questionnaire after the 30 application process 4.2.1 Students’ vocabulary knoweledge 30 4.2.2 Students’ grammar knowledge 32 4.2.3 Students’ attitude to writing skill 34 4.2.4 student’s opinions towards portfolio 35 4.3 Data analysis of interview after the application process 36 4.3.1 Problems of portfolio 36 4.3.2 Benefits fo portfolio 36 4.4 Data analysis of students’ submitted portfolios 38 4.4.1 Fluency analysis 39 4.4.2 Accuracy analysis 40 4.4.3 Complexity analysis 41 4.5 Summary 42 CHAPTER 4: Findings and Suggestions for Using Portfolio Technique in 43 vi Writing 5.1 Major findings and discussions 43 5.1.1 Students’ attitude to writing skill 43 5.1.2 The effects of writing portfolio technique in students’view 44 5.1.3 Teacher and students’ difficulties in implementing writing portfolio 45 technique 5.2 Suggestions for teachers when applying portfolios in writing 45 5.3 Summary 46 PART III: CONCLUSION 47 6.1 Summary of the study 47 6.2 Limitation of the study 48 6.3 Suggestions for further research 48 References 49 Appendix 1: Pre-portfolio questionnaire I Appendix 2: Post-portfolio questionnaire III Appendix 3: Interview questions V Appendix 4: Writing checklist VI vii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the thesis Nowadays, it cannot be denied that globalization is affecting every corner of the world and that due to it most countries are experiencing changes in aspects like economics, politics, education and culture; and in that globalised world, English is considered a main medium of communication Therefore, it seems obvious that if a nation wishes catching up with others in those aspects, its government should raise public awareness about the significance of English and motivate them to learn and master the language Recognizing this social trend, Vietnamese educational authorities have implemented specific policies encouraging their citizens to learn and use English Now, English is a compulsory subject which is taught from primary schools to universities and an obligatory one in Vietnamese national exams Furthermore, various professional courses and conferences aimed at enhancing English teachers’ teaching skills and language competence are provided to ensure a better educational service Also, English teachers are required to get appropriate certificates aligned with CEFR to be qualified for the job What’s more? More and more state-owned or private companies, factories or organisations prefer and employ only labor who demonstrate their ability to use English at work and these employees are paid much higher and easily get promotion than others Apparently, English is one of measures for one’s career success The above reasons explain why teaching and learning English is recieving much concern from society Scholars, educators or teachers are continuously exploring suitable and effective teaching approaches and teaching methods to improve the English teaching and learning quality Especially, teachers who directly work with students and understand their needs, their intersts, their learning styles play an important role in helping students achieve their academic and future professional success Therefore, it’s the teacher’s duty to discover and solve problems which the majority of his students have 5.1.2 The effects of writing portfolio technique in students’view Before portfolio was introduced, students’ needs in learning writing had been explored and their need to improve their grammar was put foremost and then vocabulary, while fewer students cared about the content of their writings This implied that their grammar knowledge was low and that probably their previous writing teacher placed too much focus on checking their grammar mistakes or the teacher could be inclined to product-oriented teaching which perhaps led to students’ favoring the accuracy of his or her writing Almost all of the students participating in the study at first did not know anything about portfolio but after experiencing making it, all students held a positive attitude to it The results from post-portfolio questionnaire and interviews indicated that portfolio was effective in helping students learn and that portfolio did meet their demands when being able to help them widen and improve their grammar and vocabulary knowledge In terms of vocabulary, students knew how to vary their word choice and they made fewer spelling mistakes in their writing They also learnt how to combine words together appropriately In terms of grammar, they knew how to use various verb tenses, and were able to produce more compound and complex sentences Especially, for their previously frequently-made mistakes such as capitalization, punctuation, most of them could avoid completely Besides, linking and signal words became their concern as well These results were also proved through the analysis of students’ portfolio, in which there were positive changes between writing drafts or an increase in terms of fluency, accuracy and complexity in their writings Especially, they did care about the content when selecting only relevant ideas for their writings Furthermore, portfolio technique helped to enhance students’ other skills like reading, internet using, editing, commenting or group work skill Many students said that at first they did not want to let others read their writings because they were afraid of losing face for mistakes, and bad ideas This made them more cautious and selective in writing It means that they had to search for appropriate information and read alot At the same time, they felt their internet ability was getting better Especially, they were excited when being able to read and learn from others’ writings Furthermore, they now can make comments and edit their own or their friends’ writings 44 5.1.3 Teacher and students’ difficulties in implementing writing portfolio technique * Students The results from the interviews reveal that portfolio does exist some problems for students Firstly, a lot students felt boring and tiring when they had to write up to drafts of the same topic and that they had to get the comments from two different partners for each draft Especially, if the topic was not of their interest, they would feel not really motivated to write Secondly, students were still rather conservative They felt hard to accept negative comments from their friends and easily felt demotivated if they get one The problems could be they commented too directly on their friends’writings Next, levels of students were varied and there were students not good enough to give comments for others which led to the problem that they would comment very generally and the comments were not really meaningful for their friends Finally, some students found the teacher’s writing checklists too long Therefore, they sometimes would not follow the checklists and just read through the writing without basing on them to give comments *Teacher Normally, students have only have one writing test in class for the whole semester Therefore, the teacher will not have to spend much time grading students’works However, for writing portfolios, teacher had to work harder to grade all students’writings Besides, it was a real burden to bring all their writings home and back to class 5.2 Suggestions for teachers when applying portfolios in writing class To ensure that portfolio is effectively applied in writing class, some suggestions are made for the teacher First and foremost, before the application process, teacher should spend time training students how to give feedback in an indirect way so that their partners will feel comfortable when receiving it Secondly, teacher should not make a too long checklist Otherwise, students will not use it at all Also, teacher should try to choose topics of students’ interests to encourage them to write Additionally, teacher should explain or make the purpose of portfolio clear to the students so that they can understand why they have to write three drafts and then find less bored with it Finally, if possible, teacher should read and comment one of students’ draft before let them produce the final 45 one This is to guranteer that students will be able to get valuable and necessary comments helping them to write their final drafts successfully 5.3 Summary To sum up, this chapter has discussed essential issues-the findings and the suggestions for using portfolio technique effectively for English majors at Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism 46 PART III: CONCLUSION Introduction In this final chapter of the study, the main findings of the study will be summarised and the limitations will be mentioned It also gives some suggestions for further research 6.1 Summary of the study Writing portfolio has been proved to help students develop not only writing skill but also other skills The benefits of portfolio could be summarised as follows: Portfolio could be able to change students’ attitude to writing skill and helped built students’ love for the skill and helped them to be responsible for their own learning Portfolio helps to improve students’ grammar knowledge They hardly make mistakes of punctuation and capitalization and they knew how to use various verb tenses in their writing Moreover, they were able to produce more complex and compound sentences; and they increased their knowledge of using linking and signal words Portfolio helps to improve students’ vocabulary knowledge, especially in terms of word choice and spelling They also learnt how to combine words appropriately Portfolio helped students to care more about the content of their writing Portfolio helps to develop students’ other skills like reading, internet using, editing, commenting or group work skill Nevertheless, using portfolio technique in writing can face some challenges for both teacher and students: As for students: Compiling a portfolio could be a tiring and boring work because they have to write and rewrite three times the same topics Students were not trained well enough to give comments appropriately Students found hard to accept negative comments and they possibly got demotivated in learning 47 The teacher’s writing checklist was too long, which made them quite tired to follow when checking and giving comments for their peers As for teacher: Grading and keeping all students’drafts were a real load for a busy teacher 6.2 Limitations of the study - The number of students participating in the research was small, only 42 students - The teacher was not trained academically to teach students how to give comments in an appropriate way - If the results of the students’ final exam were included, the research would be more accurate 6.3 Suggestions for further research Obviously, this research could not cover everything related to portfolio-based teaching; there are many interesting issues for further research: -Further study on the relationship of portfolio writing technique and the development of students’ commenting skill -Further study on the ways students give comments in writing - Further study on how students improved their reading skill through compiling writing portfolio - Further study on how writing portfolio affect students’ self-learning awareness In conclusion, this study tries to find out that whether writing portfolio technique is a suitable method to help English majors at Hanoi College of Comerce and Tourism improve their writing skill and that what problems will occur during the application process, so that the teacher using this technique can avoid to make it more effective in teaching writing The results from this study have shown that this technique is welcomed by students and it does have good effects on students 48 REFERENCES Arndt, V (1987) Six writers in search of texts: a protocol-based study of L1 and L2 writing ELT journal Baki, A & Birgin, O (2004) Reflections of Using Computer-Based Portfolios as an Alternative Assessement Tools: A case study The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology Byrne, D (1990) Teaching writing skills, Longman handbooks for language teacher: Longman group, ltd Candlin, C.N & Hyland, K (1999) Writing: Texts, Processes and Practices New York: Addison Wesley Long man Limited Cooper, T., & Love, T., (December 2001) Online portfolios: issues of assessment and pedagogy Australian Association for Research in Education conference 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Second language teaching and learning Boston: Heinle & Heinle 24 ƯZTÜRK, H & ÇEN,S The Effects of Portfolio Keeping on Writing Anxiety of EFL Students Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies Vol.3, No.2, October 2007 25 Paulson, F.L, Paulson, P.R, & Meyer, C (1991) What makes a portfolio a portfolio? Educational leadership, 60-63 26 Pincas, A (1982) Teaching English Writing London: Macmillan 27 Reid, J.M (1993) Teaching ESL Writing Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents 28 Simon, M & Forgette-Giroux, R (2000) Impact of a Content Selection Framework on Portfolio Assessment at the Classroom Level Assessment in Education, 84- 101 29 Sharon, S & Michael, L (1994) A portfolio Assessment Model for ESL retrieved 20 September 2015 from http://www.ncela.us/files/rcd/BE019739/A_Portfolio_Assessment.pdf 50 30 Slater, T.F (1996) Portfolio Assessment Strategies for Grading First-year University Physics Student in the USA Physics Education, 82-86 31 Winsor, P & Ellefson, B (1995) Professional Portfolios in Teacher Education: An Exploration of Their Value and Potential The teacher educator, 68-91 32 White, R & Arndt, V (1991) Process Writing Longman 33 White, E M (1994) Portfolios as an assessment concept In L Black, D A Daiker, J Sommers, & G Stygall (Eds.), New directions in portfolio assessment Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook 34 William, P Preparing your writing portfolio Retrieved September 20, 2015 from http://core.ecu.edu/engl/fyw/writing/Portfolios.pdf 35 Wolfe-Quintero, K., S Inagaki and H.-Y Kim 1998 Second Language Development in Writing: Measures of Fluency, Accuracy, and Complexity Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center 36 Valencia,S & Place, N (1994) Literacy portfolios for teaching, learning and accountability The Bellevue Literacy Assessment Project 37 Yancey, K B (1998) Reflection in the writing classroom In K B Yancey (Ed.), Portfolios in the writing classroom: An introduction Urbana, IL 38 Zamel, V (1983) The composing processes of advanced ESL students: six case studies TESOL Quarterly, 165-187 51 APPENDIX PRE-PORTFOLIO QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE This survey questionnaire is designed for my research : “A Study on the application of writing portfolio technique to second year English majors: An action research at Hanoi college of Commerce and Tourism” in order to investigate possible effects of writing portfolio technique and problems happening during the application process of this technique Your cooperation in completing the follwing questions is highly appreciated All of your information will not be identified in any discussion of the data Part I: Background information: In this section, you will be asked to provide some information about yourself Please circle the answer that is right for you or write the answer where needed Your gender: a Male b Female What would you like to after graduation? What specific skill you think the job require most? What is your English Entrance Exam mark? Part II Writing skill and Portfolio Order four language skills basing on their importance to you- from the most important (1) to the least important (4) listening speaking reading writing What is your most favorite skill? Order from (1) most favorite to the least favorite (4) listening speaking .reading writing Among four skills which one you have lowest mark? b Speaking b Reading c Writing d listening Which skills you spend time practising and developing the most ? I b Speaking b Reading c Listening b Writing In your opinion, Which language skill is most difficult to you? b Speaking b Reading c Listening d.Writing Which of the following you find most difficult and you want to improve most in writing skill? and Order from the most (1) to the least (3) d Ideas e Grammar f Vocabulary 10 How well you know about portfolios ? a Very well b Well c A little b Nothing Thank you very much for your assistance! II APPENDIX POST-PORTFOLIO QUESTIONNAIRE This questionnaire is designed to collect ideas of second year English majors at Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism on the writing portfolios Your cooperation is highly appreciated PART I PORTFOLIO EFFECTIVENESS Tick the box that best shows your level of agreement and disagreement about what you have gained after compiling a portfolio (For statements: and 2, if your answer is D or SD, skip all a,b,c statements) SD: Strongly disagree DA: Disagree A: Agree SA: Strongly agree SA My knowledge vocabulary was improved d My word choice was varied e I learned collocations of words f There were fewer spelling mistakes in my writing My knowledge grammar was improved e There were more complex and compound sentences in my writing f Linking and signal words were used to combine sentences in my writing III A D SD g Punctuation and capitalization were used correctly h I knew how to use different verb tenses correctly I tried to find and select only relevant ideas or content with the writing topic I developed my editing skill through feedbacks and provided writing checklists which made me revise and correct my writing mistakes I could be aware of my strengths and weaknesses in writing I became more confident in writing skill PART II STUDENTS’ATTITUDES TO PORTFOLIO 7.Did you spend more time on writing than before a Yes b.No 8.Do you like compiling a writing portfolio or having regular writing tests? a I prefer writing portfolio b I prefer regular writing tests In your opinion, can portfolio well present your learning results? a Yes b No 10 Portfolio was effective in helping you learn writing? a Strongly agree b Agree c Disagree d Strongly disagree 11 Do writing portfolio make you more responsible during the learning process? a Yes b No 12.Do you want to continue this technique in next semester? a Yes b No Thank you for your assistance IV APPENDIX INTERVIEW QUESITONS Do you like writing portfolio? How you feel about it? Any reasons? Do you really care about the comments? Did the comments from friends help with your writing? Do you change your writing according the comments? What difficulties you have when compiling the portfolio? Do you have any suggestions to make portfolio more effective? What problems you have with this portfolio technique? What does portfolio help you improve? 10 What learning resources did you use to help with your writing portfolio? V APPENDIX WRITING CHECKLIST WRITING CHECKLIST Is there anything that is not really related to the topic/ is everything relevant? Are the main points about the topic included? Is question in the essay title answered? Is there an introduction? Does the introduction identify the topic, purpose and organization of the essay? Are key concepts/ words defined? Is there a body part? Is the body part developed logically? Are the main ideas stated in the body? 10 Is there conclusion? And main ideas are summarized in this part? 11 Is there a variety of connecting words used: but, however, and, so, therefore ect 12 Are there sufficient transitions between related subjects? 13 Are the correct verb tenses used? 14 Are words carefully chosen and correctly spelled 15 Are the sentences complete? (Not fragments or run on sentences and correctly punctuated)/ does each sentence have a subject and a verb? 16 Are nouns checked to see if they are countable, uncountable or abstract, and used the correct article ( a/an/the/ no article)? 17 Are there subject and verb agreements? 18 Are there different kinds of sentences? Are the types and the length of sentences varied? 19 Are the proper names of people, places, things are, if any, capitalized correctly VI 20 Are the adverbs and adjectives used correctly? 21 Does the writing follow the expected essay type? 22 Are there any ideas repeated? VII