An investigation into the improvement of the 12th form students’ writing skills through supplementary reading materials at lý thường kiệt high school, hà nam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES - TRẦN THỊ CẨM VÂN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE 12th FORM STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS THROUGH SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS AT LÝ THƯỜNG KIỆT HIGH SCHOOL, HÀ NAM (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC CẢI THIỆN KỸ NĂNG VIẾT THÔNG QUA CÁC TÀI LIỆU ĐỌC BỔ TRỢ CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 12 TRƯỜNG THPT LÝ THƯỜNG KIỆT, HÀ NAM) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi, 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES - TRẦN THỊ CẨM VÂN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE 12th FORM STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS THROUGH SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS AT LÝ THƯỜNG KIỆT HIGH SCHOOL, HÀ NAM (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC CẢI THIỆN KỸ NĂNG VIẾT THÔNG QUA CÁC TÀI LIỆU ĐỌC BỔ TRỢ CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 12 TRƯỜNG THPT LÝ THƯỜNG KIỆT, HÀ NAM) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Phạm Đăng Bình Hanoi, 2015 DECLARATION I declare that this thesis and the work presented in it are my own and have been generated by me as the result of my own original research I confirm that this thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts and that this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at any other universities or institutions Hanoi, April, 2015 Trần Thị Cẩm Vân i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Dr Phạm Đăng Bình for his generous assistance and guidance, especially for his sympathy throughout the research process My special thanks go to all the teachers in the faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies for their useful lectures, materials, guidance and enthusiasm during my course I also highly appreciate the cooperation of my colleagues and Class 12A1 and Class 12D1 students at Lý Thường Kiệt High School in Ha Nam Last, I would like to express my gratitude to my family and my friends, who have always encouraged me and supported me to fulfill this study ii ABSTRACT The primary aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of integrating supplementary reading materials in writing lessons of the 12th form students at Ly Thuong Kiet high school Along with it, the most popular difficulties and possible suggestions to enhance students’ writing skills through reading would be discussed The study revolves an experimental research with the participation of teachers and 90 students of 12th form at Lý Thường Kiệt High School, Ha Nam province To collect data for this study, two pre-task questionnaires, two post-task questionnaires, a pre-test and a post-test were employed After examining the responses from the pre-task questionnaires, the author designed and integrated a set of nine supplementary reading texts and respective reading and writing exercises into writing lessons of 45 experimental students in weeks of the first semester of the school year 2014-2015 During the same time, 45 students of the control group only received writing exercises The results from the post-task questionnaires, the pre-test and post-test showed that there had been a significant improvement in the students’ writing skill in terms of vocabulary, ideas and organization after they took part in the supplementary reading integration programme in comparison with the students of control group Moreover, most of students of the experimental group acknowledged the benefits of the supplementary reading integration programme and expected that such programme would be applied in the future iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English as a Foreign Language ESL : English as a Second Language MOET : Ministry of Education and Training LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Students' Writing Proficiency 22 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Class 12A1 and Class 12D1 Pre-test Score 25 Figure 2: Class 12A1 and Class 12D1 Post-test Score 26 Figure 3: Opinions on role of writings skill in learning English 27 Figure 4: Opinions on time spent for writing skill at school 28 Figure 5: Students' Writing Practice Frequency 28 Figure 6: Difficulties that students encounter when writing 29 Figure 7: Methods Teachers use to instruct students to develop their writing skill 29 Figure 8: Opinion on effect of the supplementary reading integration programme 30 Figure 9: Benefits that students could gain from the supplementary reading integration programme 31 Figure 10: Continue designing supplementary reading materials to develop students' writing skill or not 32 Figure 11: Tasks students should 32 Figure 12: Tasks teachers should 33 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii List of Abbreviations iv List of Tables iv List of Figures iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of the Problem Aims of the study Research questions Scope of the study Significance of the study Method of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definitions of Writing 1.1.1 What is Writing? 1.1.2 Rationale behind teaching Writing 1.1.3 Approaches to Writing Instruction 1.1.3.1 Text-Centred Approach 1.1.3.2 Writer-Centred Approach 1.1.3.3 Reader-Centred Approach 1.2 Definitions of Supplementary Reading Materials 1.2.1 What is Supplementary Reading Materials? v 1.2.2 Suitable Supplementary Reading Materials for EFL Teaching and Learning Process 11 1.2.3 The Influence of Reading on Writing 12 1.2.4 Researches on Adopting Reading Materials to Enhance Writing 13 1.3 Conclusion 14 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16 2.1 Investigation Context 16 2.2 Participants 16 2.3 Data Collection Instruments 17 2.3.1 Questionnaires 17 2.3.1.1.Student Questionnaires 17 2.3.1.2.Teacher Questionnaires 17 2.3.2 Pre-Test and Post-Tests 18 2.4 Scoring Rubric for Writing …………………………………… 18 2.5 Experimental Intervention: Supplementary Reading Material 21 Integration 2.5.1 The Supplementary Reading Materials 21 2.5.2 Supplementary Reading Material Integration Procedure 21 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 22 3.1 Analysing Writing Test Results 22 3.1.1 Analysis of Writing Proficiency 22 3.1.1.1 Analysis of Word Choice 22 3.1.1.2 Analysis of Convention 23 3.1.1.3 Analysis of Coherence 23 3.1.1.4 Analysis of Ideas 23 3.1.1.5 Analysis of Organization 24 vi 3.1.1.6 Analysis of Writing Test Scores 25 3.2 Evaluating Responses from Questionnaires 27 3.2.1 Evaluation of Responses from Pre-task Questionnaires 27 3.2.2 Evaluation of Responses from Post-task Questionnaires 30 3.3 Summary 35 PART C: CONCLUSION 34 Conclusion on Major Findings 35 Pedagogical Implications 36 Limitations of the Study 36 Suggestions for Further Studies 37 REFERENCES 38 APPENDICES vii I PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Although writing is an important skill in teaching and learning English, it seems to be undervalued inside the classroom The neglect of this skill causes the 12th graders at Ly Thuong Kiet (LTK) high school to be weak and poor writers though writing is a compulsory part in the national GCSE examination It is noticed that English teachers in LTK high school often use a methodology based on teacher-talk and note-taking practices, mainly explaining some new words and structures before asking students to write Therefore, the 12th students could not express well in English due to the lack of format instruction, useful language, topic background, idea organization, etc Among many methods of improving students’ writing skill, integrating two language skills, reading and writing has been proved to have positive effects on students’ writing skills in many researches Brown (1987) stated that “by reading and studying a variety of relevant types of text, students can gain important insights both about how they should write and about subject matter that may become the topic of their writing” Reading inspires students, helps them to think critically and analytically Reading also provides students with ideas for their essays because they often lack the experience for complex subjects Moreover, reading supplies grammar, syntax, language or organization for students as a model Despite many advantages, this method hasn’t been deployed in the context of high school in Vietnam All these mentioned reasons above have inspired the researcher to carry out the study titled “An investigation into the improvements of the 12th form students’ writing skills through supplementary reading materials at Lý ... 12th form students’ writing skills through supplementary reading materials at Lý Thường Kiệt High School, Hà Nam? ?? as an attempt to help improve writing skills of students Aims of the Study This study... in the context of high school in Vietnam All these mentioned reasons above have inspired the researcher to carry out the study titled ? ?An investigation into the improvements of the 12th form students’. ..VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES - TRẦN THỊ CẨM VÂN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE 12th