An investigation into the effectiveness of collaborative brainstorming at the pre writing stage in intermediate english classes at a university in hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** TRẦN THỊ ÁNH TUYẾT AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COLLABORATIVE BRAINSTORMING AT THE PRE-WRITING STAGE IN INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH CLASSES AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI (Khảo sát hiệu việc thảo luận ý tưởng theo nhóm trước viết lớp học tiếng Anh trình độ Trung cấp trường đại học Hà Nội) M.A COMBINED PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi - 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** TRẦN THỊ ÁNH TUYẾT AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COLLABORATIVE BRAINSTORMING AT THE PRE-WRITING STAGE IN INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH CLASSES AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI (Khảo sát hiệu việc thảo luận ý tưởng theo nhóm trước viết lớp học tiếng Anh trình độ Trung cấp trường đại học Hà Nội) M.A COMBINED PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Hoàng Thị Hạnh Hanoi - 2015 DECLARATION I, Trần Thị Anh Tuyết , K21 being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts hereby certify that this minor thesis entitled AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COLLABORATIVE BRAINSTORMING AT THE PREWRITING STAGE IN INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH CLASSES AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI is completely the result of my own work for the Degree of Master at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or institution Hanoi, April 2nd, 2015 TRẦN THỊ ÁNH TUYẾT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To complete this thesis, I owe profound indebtedness to many people for their enthusiastic help during the conduct of my research I would like to give my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Dr Hoang Thi Hanh, for her invaluable support, helpful guidance and considerable encouragement, which plays a highly significant part in the completion of this paper Besides, I would like to send my heartfelt thanks to a critical colleague of mine as well as twenty students in my class, who enthusiastically participated in the data collection process In fact, without their help, I could not complete this thesis Also, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my parents and my friends, who have constantly encouraged me during the time when I conducted my research paper Last but not least, I would like to thank my readers for their interests and comments on this study ii ABSTRACT Brainstorming has been a popular technique organized individually or collaboratively for idea generation in many fields While a number of studies have been reported on the productivity of group idea generation, the effectiveness of collaborative brainstorming for generating ideas as pre-writing techniques have not received deep concern This thesis reports on a qualitative action study that emerged from reflective teaching practice in an intermediate English class The research investigated the effectiveness of collaborative brainstorming training on students’ idea performance in writing papers and on students’ learning of writing skills through in-depth interviews, observations, students’ writing papers and students’ journals The study indicates that collaborative brainstorming training with additional rules can significantly improve quantity and quality of ideas in paragraph writing, but not in letter writing Besides, training has had positive effects on students’ learning of writing skills The findings of the study, therefore, make important contributions to the implementation of collaborative brainstorming in the English language teaching practice iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS viii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims and research questions 3 Significance of the study 4 Scope of the study Methodology An overview of the research report PART B: DEVELOPMENT 10 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 10 1.1.Process approach to teaching writing 10 1.1.1 What is process approach? 10 1.1.2.Advantages of the process approach 11 1.1.3.Criticism of the process approach 12 1.2 Group work 13 1.3 Collaborative brainstorming (group brainstorming) 14 1.3.1 The effectiveness of group brainstorming 15 1.3.2 Productivity loss due to group brainstorming 15 1.3.3 Ways to improve group brainstorming 16 1.4 Related studies 22 1.4.1 Summary of previous studies 22 1.4.2 Research gap 25 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 26 iv 2.1 Research methodology 26 2.1.1 Research design 26 2.1.2 The participants 27 2.2 Research instruments 29 2.2.1 Interviews 29 2.2.2 Students’ writing papers 31 2.2.3 Group brainstorming training procedures 31 2.2.4 Classroom observations 34 2.2.5 Students’ journals 35 2.3 Data collection procedures 36 2.3.1 Stage 36 2.3.2 Stage 37 2.4 Data analysis procedures 39 2.4.1 Sorting and categorizing data 39 2.4.2 Analyzing data for meaning 40 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 42 3.1 Stage 42 3.1.1 Research question 1: 42 3.1.2 Research question 2: 44 3.2 Stage 46 3.2.1 Research question 3: 46 3.2.2 Research question 4: 61 3.3 Conclusion 68 PART C: CONCLUSION 70 Synthesis of major findings of the study 70 Contributions of the study 73 2.1 Methodological contributions 73 2.2 Theoretical contributions 73 2.3 Pedagogical contributions 74 v Limitations of the study 74 Suggestions for further studies 75 APPENDIXES I APPENDIX I APPENDIX 2A III APPENDIX 2B IV APPENDIX 2C VIII APPENDIX 2D.1 XII APPENDIX 2D.2 XIV APPENDIX 2E XVI vi LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS List of tables Table 4.1 Students’ Idea Generation before Intervention Table 4.2 Extracts of Students’ Writing Before and After Intervention Table 4.3 Students’ Perception of Effectiveness of Group Brainstorming in Paragraph Writing Lessons Table 4.4 Students’ Perception of Effectiveness of Group Brainstorming in Letter Writing Lessons List of figures Figure 4.1 Average number of total ideas, main ideas and supporting ideas in students’ paragraph writing papers Figure 4.2 The highest number of ideas (High) in students’ paragraph writing papers Figure 4.3: The lowest number of ideas (Low) in students’ paragraph writing papers Figure 4.4: Ideas in students’ letter writing papers List of abbreviations USSH : University of Social Sciences and Humanities ESL : English as a Second Language EFL : English as a Foreign Language vii PART A: INTRODUCTION The first part covers the current problem in reality and in researching as the rationale for the study Also, the aims, significance, scope and methodology of the study are included in this part In addition, the main elements of the study considered as the guidelines for the whole paper are identified here Rationale At intermediate English level, many students may feel that they are no longer making progress like at previous levels (Oxenden et al, 2006) This was true to the situation of teaching and learning English at intermediate level at our school, University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH) Non majored students at the university attend the intermediate English course of integrated skills A topic is covered in a unit in which students can practise reading, listening, speaking and writing skills The syllabus is designed based on the text book, and different types of writing can be taught in different units To be specific, in a semester, students have 22.5 class hours for writing To intermediate level, writing skills were becoming more challenging to students as besides familiar writing forms like letters, they needed to learn new types like stories, film reviews and articles In a meeting held for teachers who were teaching current intermediate English classes in the semester in October 2013, the middle of the second semester, academic year 2013-2014, the teachers including my colleagues and I shared concerns about the teaching and learning and discussed actions to improve students’ learning outcomes In terms of writing skills, most teachers agreed that many students had produced incomprehensible pieces of writing, which was due to lack of ideas, poor vocabulary and grammar structures More importantly, a lot of students had problems generating ideas and/or arranging ideas logically for the writing In fact, I had tried to suggest my students, and even provided them with guiding ideas ... for the degree of Master of Arts hereby certify that this minor thesis entitled AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COLLABORATIVE BRAINSTORMING AT THE PREWRITING STAGE IN INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH. .. ENGLISH CLASSES AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI is completely the result of my own work for the Degree of Master at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and... Since then, brainstorming has been a popular activity in many organizations and in various fields for generating ideas (Paulus, 2000) In language learning, specifically writing, Bauer (2009) states