An investiagtion into the state of plagiarism in writing assignments among third year students majored in english in one of vietnamese university and some preventive teaching strategies

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  HOÀNG THỊ HỒNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE STATE OF PLAGIARISM IN WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AMONG THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS MAJORED IN ENGLISH IN ONE OF VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITIES AND SOME PREVENTIVE TEACHING STRATERGIES (ĐIỀU TRA VỀ TÌNH TRẠNG ĐẠO VĂN TRONG VIẾT TIỂU LUẬN CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CỦA VIỆT NAM VÀ GỢI Ý MỘT SỐ CHIẾN LƯỢC GIẢNG DẠY) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  HOÀNG THỊ HỒNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE STATE OF PLAGIARISM IN WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AMONG THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS MAJORED IN ENGLISH IN ONE OF VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITIES AND SOME PREVENTIVE TEACHING STRATERGIES (ĐIỀU TRA VỀ TÌNH TRẠNG ĐẠO VĂN TRONG VIẾT TIỂU LUẬN CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CỦA VIỆT NAM VÀ GỢI Ý MỘT SỐ CHIẾN LƯỢC GIẢNG DẠY) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Phạm Thị Thanh Thuỳ Hanoi, 2014 DECLARATION I, hereby, certify the thesis entitled “An investigation into the state of plagiarism in writing assignments among third-year students majored in English in one of Vietnamese Universities and some preventive teaching strategies” is the result of my own research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Language and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and this thesis has not, wholly or partially, been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions Hanoi, 2014 HOANG THI HONG i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge my deep gratitude to all those who have supported me in doing this independent study Firstly, I would like to express my greatest appreciation to my supervisor, Dr Pham Thi Thanh Thuy, for her valuable time and useful guidance towards the completion of this study Secondly, I am extremely grateful to the staff members of the Faculty of Post graduate studies for their helpful lectures My special thanks are also sent to my lecturers, my friends, my classmates, as well as my colleagues for their invaluable comments and criticism and also for their continued interest and encouragements Thirdly, I appreciate the assistance and cooperation given to me by lecturers and students at National Economics University Without their sincere participation, this paper would not have been possible Last but not least, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my beloved people, my parents, my husband and my children for their love, care, tolerance and encouragement ii ABSTRACT This article explores the issue of plagiarism from the perspective of students studying in Vietnamese Universities The study was designed to investigate students’ awareness regarding plagiarism The writer also attempted to measure the state of plagiarism among university students in terms of the forms and the seriousness of plagiarism She then wanted to identify some preventive teaching strategies to improve academic practice (including academic writing and referencing skills) based on the results gained To some extents, findings from the study indicate that the students had inadequate understanding about plagiarism definition and its notion, plagiarism policies, and penalty for acts of plagiarism Therefore, they had committed most of common forms of plagiarism: using paraphrased, summarized, quoted texts without showing the original sources, inventing biblography or data, and submitting online papers and handing as their owns Level of seriosness of plagiarism acts was varying from copying some key words, sentences to entire of their assignments The most serious case was that some students submitted an online work and handed in as their own The number of this case is not high; still it is also an alarm to educators However, most of students were unintentional plagiarists due to objective causes like their unawareness of plagiarism, lack of proof reading, poor writing academic skills and carelessness when taking an assignment Some others committed plagiarism intentionally because of some subjective causes like their laziness, bad time management, desire of higher grades, pressure from family and friends Nevertheless, the problem of plagiarism should not fall on the shoulders of the students alone The instructor should take responsibility for neither checking for plagiarism nor teaching about ethics, which is one course rarely offered in universities The solution would be resolved from the top, teachers should be a good model of plagiarism fighters In this minor thesis, the researcher would like to offer some preventive teaching strategies against plagiarism iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as Foreign Language FLF: Foreign Language Faculty NEU: National Economics University Ss: Students Ts: Teachers iv LIST OF FIGURES Number Figure 1: Freq assignment Figure 2: Diffi assignment Figure 3: Stude Figure 4: Stude Figure 5: Teach at the universit Figure 6: Teach incidences Figure 7: Com commit Figure 8: Serio Figure 9: Reas 10 Figure 10: Wh 11 Figure 11: Wh 12 Figure 12: Wh v TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF FIGURES TABLE OF CONTENT PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Purpose of the study: Research questions Scope of the study Significance of the study: Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Theoretical background 1.1.1 What is plagiarism? 1.1.2 Text plagiarism 1.1.3 Forms of plagiarism 1.1.4 Why students tend to plagiariz 1.1.5 Penalty for student plagiarism 1.2 Review previous studies CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 Research questions: 2.2 Research methodology 2.2.1 Questionnaires 2.2.2 Discourse analysis: analysis of 2.3 Data collection procedure vi 2.3.1 The setting of the study 2.3.2 Participants’ background infor 2.3.3 Procedure 2.4 Data analytical units CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 3.1 The difficulties students encounter when taking a writing assignment 3.1.1 Difficulties in doing a writing 3.1.2 Students’ awareness of plagiar 3.1.3 Forms of plagiarism committe 3.1.4 Seriousness of student plagiari 3.1.5 Reasons for student plagiarism 3.1.6 Ways to reduce student plagiar 3.2 Summary CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 4.1 Students’ awareness of the notion of plagiarism and its penalty 4.2 Main forms of plagiarism caused by students 4.3 Reasons for student plagiarism 4.5 Recommendations 4.6.1 To students 4.6.2 To the teachers 4.6.3 To university policy maker PART C: CONCLUSION Recapitulation Pedagogical implication Limitations Suggestions for further research REFERENCES APPENDICES APPENDIX 1a: SURVEY ON PLAGIARISM IN WRITING vii APPENDIX 1b: SURVEY ON PLAGIARISM IN WRITING IV APPENDIX – LIST OF TABLES VII viii understand the function and purpose of writing and the unreliability of especially internet information, they will become thoughtful, careful and critical writers Limitations Although the study has offered some insightful findings; like many other studies, there are still some limitations The first limitation originates in the sample size of the study which was restricted to only 12 teachers and 60 junior students who are majoring in English in one university Because the number of participants and the area of the study were limited, the data collected could just be considered as an indication Secondly, because of the limitation of time, the researcher could collect and analyzing only 10 of students’ essays, so the findings were not really drawing a full picture of the problem Moreover, the tool used in data analysis was simple Therefore, the results collected were not really convincible Finally, regarding of time, the thesis was carried out within weeks which was not enough to have an incentive overview of the real problem To conduct this study and apply the expected findings to the whole school population demands much greater time and efforts of both teachers and students Suggestions for further research There should be further research on plagiarism in general and strategies in limiting plagiarism in particular A similar study can be done in different universities with different students’ levels to find out more about the situation of plagiarism in Vietnamese academic settings Besides, an interesting idea for analyzing further this subject would be to make an experiment with first-year students and third-year students to see if the assumption, regarding plagiarism occurrence level being high in the first-year students than in other students, is correct In addition, a comparison among two courses where one of them divide the assessment into stages, for instance, the production of each part of a scientific report is based on drafts in combination with close teacher and student interaction and the other course’s assessment is not divided into stages 45 REFERENCES nd Carroll, J (2007) A handbook for Detecting Plagiarism in Higher Education Oxford Brookes University Dornyei, Z (2001) Teaching and researching motivation Harlow, England: Longman Dujsik Darunee (2002) Limiting Plagiarism in EFL Writing Classrooms” THAITESOL BULLETIN, 15/2, August Eastment, D (2005) Plagiarism ELT Journal, 59(2): 183-185 Gibaldi ,J (2003) MLA handbook for writers of research papers (6th ed ) New York: MLA Ha, P L (2006) Plagiarism and overseas students: Stereotypes again? ELT Journal, 60, 76–78 Hansen, B 2003 Combating Plagiarism CQ Researcher 13 (32) 773-796 Harris, R.A (2001) The plagiarism Handbook: Strategies for Preventing, Detecting & Dealing with Plagiarism USA: Pyrczak Publishing Indiana University Bloomington (2005) Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and th Conduct Retrieved on 17 July, 2013 from https://www.indiana.edu/~istd/definition.html 10 Jan Bamford and Katerina Sergiou (2005 International Students and Plagiarism: an analysis of the reasons for plagiarism among international foundation students Investigations in university teaching and learning, (2), 17 - 22 11 Kraus, J (2002) Rethinking: What our students are telling us when they cheat Issues in writing, 13 (1), 80-95 12 Learning Support Network Curtin University of Technology (2005) Academic integrity at Curtin Student Guidelines for Avoiding Plagiarism Retrieved on th 17 July, 2013 from http://academicintegrity.curtin.edu.au/local/docs/StudentPlagiarismGuide.pdf 13 Liu, D (2005) Plagiarism i n ESOL students: Is cultural conditioning truly the major culprit? ELT Journal, 59, 234–241 14 Loveleena Rajeev (2012) Different types of plagiarism th Retrieved on July 07 , 2013 from: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/different-types-of-plagiarism.html 15 Marsh, R L., & Bower, G H (1993) Eliciting cryptomnesia: Unconscious plagiarism in a puzzle task Journal of Experimental Psychology, Learning, Memory and Cognition, 19, 673–688 16 McCabe, D.L (2001) Cheating: why students it and how we can help them stop, American Educator, 25 (4), 38–43 46 17 McCabe (2004) Cheating in Academic Institution: A decade of research Ethics & Behavior, 11 (3), 222-223 18 McCabe (2005) It takes a village: Academic Dishonesty and educational opportunity Liberal Education, 91 (3), 26-31 19 Morse, Janice M (2003) Principles of Mixed Methods and Multimethod research Design In Abbas Tashakori and Charles Teddlie (eds) Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social and Behavior research Thousand Oaks, CA: sage, 189 – 208 th 20 Ngo Tu Lap (2013) Nguồn gốc văn hóa đạo văn Retrieved on April 26 , 2013 from http://khcn.tvu.edu.vn/nguon-goc-cua-van-hoa-dao-van.html 21 Park, C (2003) In other’s (people) words: Plagiarism by university students: literature and lesson Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 28 (5), 471-488 22 Pecorari D (2008) Academic Writing and Plagiarism: A Linguistic Analysis Continuum Iternational Publisher Group 23 Qui S BA (2008) A Descriptive Study of Plagiarism in the Writing Assignment of First-Year Chinese Students in the American English Language Insititute at Stephen F Austin State University ProQuest, UMI Dissertation Publishing 24 QT789 (2013) Đạo văn nghiên cứu khoa học sinh viên th Retrieved on May 07 , 2014 from http://doc.edu.vn/tai-lieu/tieu-luan-dao-vantrong-nghien-cuu-khoa-hoc-cua-sinh-vien-23865/ 25 Scanlon, P (2003) Student online plagiarism: How we respond? College Teaching, 51, 161-165 26 Sentleng, Mapule Patricia (2010) Plagiarism among undergraduate students in the Faculty of Applied Science at a South Africa Higher Education Institution South African Journal of Libraries & Information Science;2012, Vol 78 Issue 1, p57 27 Sherman, J (1992) Your own thoughts in your own words ELT Jour-nal, 46 , 190– 198 th 28 SIB (2014) Talkshow: “copy-paste” th Retrieved on September 12 , 2014 from http://khampha.vn/giai-tri/nhinthang-vao-viec-dao-van-trong-sinh-vien-c6a224742.html 29 Wallace J M (1998) Action research for language teachers New York Cambridge University Press 30 Wendy S.S (2008) Plagiarism, the Internet, and Student Learning: Improving Academic Integrity New York: Routledge Print th 31 Wilhoit S (2009) A Brief Guide to Writng from Readings (5 ed.) Longman Press 32 Yamada, K., 2003 What prevents ESL/EFL writers from avoiding plagiarism? Analyses of 10 North-American college websites System, 31 (2), 247-258 47 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1a: SURVEY ON PLAGIARISM IN WRITING Student Inquiry - Plagiarism Background: The present survey belongs to a research project called “Plagiarism” conducted at the department of foreign language, at one of the Universities in Vietnam In particular, the goal of this project is to investigate the issue of plagiarism from a developmental perspective so as to - Identify how plagiarism is perceived and understood by students - Provide teachers with guidelines for dealing with plagiarism from a learning point of view In a second step, the idea is to also identify other preventive measures of more technical and organizational nature About the survey: The survey is composed by mostly alternative questions The only person, who will handle the submitted surveys, is working on her M.A thesis and the results will be presented after they are compiled so that your individual survey information will not be identifiable Any question or comments on the survey should be addressed to Hoang Thi Hong at the email address: anhhong.htp@gmail.com Have you ever finished any writing assignments or research papers?  Never  Sometimes  Often  Very often Please mark the level of difficulties when you take a writing assignment Difficulties in writing Content problem Task challenges Lack of ideas Lack of resources In your institute, plagiarism is  Very common Do you know any of your classmates who you think might have plagiarized?  Yes, more than 10  Yes, - 10  Yes, -  No, none Have you ever read or warned about plagiarism officially from your University?  Yes, a written policy  Yes, an oral policy  No  Do not know At your University, what are the penalties for the incidents of plagiarism  teachers usually ignore it  the student will be given a warning  the submitted work will be rejected  the submitted work will be marked zero  the student will fail the subject where plagiarism occurs  the student will be suspended from study in one year  the student will be expelled from university Please indicate which of following plagiarism act you committed when doing assignments Activities Paraphrased without acknowledging the source Summarizing a text without acknowledgement Copy a text without acknowledgement I Using quotation marks without proper acknowledgement Invented references or bibliography Copy a work from the internet & submit as one's own How much did you copy from online or printed sources?  Completed copy  More than half of the assignment  One or some paragraphs and put them together  Just some words or phrases then put them together with some changes For what reasons, you think students tend to violate plagiarism? Reasons Poor writing skills Lack of referencing skills Laziness/bad time management Don’t understand assignments Pressure from family & friends To obtain better marks Poor understanding of plagiarism Everybody is doing it 10 Which of the options below you consider the best ways students should to avoid plagiarism? Students should Have better knowledge about academic writing, for example, by attending a course in academic writing Take notes carefully from the sources Practice more on writing academic skills Get better training in the type of assignments where plagiarism usually occurs to receive better selfesteem Receive proper instructions on writing assignments in time so that time pressure is avoided Plan the assignments carefully: time, content… Others (please specify) _ 11 Which of the options below you think the teachers should avoid plagiarism? Teachers should Create assignments that reduce the temptation to plagiarize Teach students the skills they need in order to complete assignments successfully Break large assignments down into a set of smaller assignments Have students write their drafts or portions of their drafts in class, bring drafts or notes to class for peer evaluation, or require that drafts be turned in with the II final paper Have students download a paper from a paper-mill site and evaluate its weaknesses Present properly and improperly paraphrased, quoted, and cited statements and have students evaluate whether and why the sources are properly acknowledged Openly discuss plagiarism with students Inform students that their work will be checked for plagiarism Others (please specify) _ 12 Which of the options below you think the University should to reduce students’ plagiarism? University should Include a statement about plagiarism Have students sign a statement, affirming that they have read and understand the College's policy and agree to abide by them The penalty for those who committed should be severe Electronic plagiarism detection tools should be used Information about plagiarism via the school's website or department Others (please specify) _ Please feel free to mention other ideas and views on plagiarism below: ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………….………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you for your cooperation III APPENDIX 1b: SURVEY ON PLAGIARISM IN WRITING Teacher Inquiry – Plagiarism Background: The present survey belongs to a research project called “Plagiarism” conducted at the department of foreign language in a university in Vietnam In particular, the goal of this project is to investigate the issue of plagiarism from a developmental perspective so as to: - Identify how plagiarism is perceived and understood by students - Provide teachers with guidelines for dealing with plagiarism from a learning point of view In a second step, the idea is to also identify other preventive measures of more technical and organizational nature About the survey: The survey is composed by mostly alternative questions The only person, who will handle the submitted surveys, is working on her M.A thesis and the results will be presented after they are compiled so that your individual survey information will not be identifiable Any question or comments on the survey should be addressed to Hoang Thi Hong at the email address: anhhong.htp@gmail.com How often you give assignment to your students?  Never Please mark the level of difficulties when your students take a writing assignment Difficulties in writing Content problem Task challenges Lack of ideas Lack of resources Have you ever read or warn about plagiarism officially from your University?  Yes, a written policy  Yes, an oral policy  No  Do not know In your institute, plagiarism is  Very common  somewhat common  Not very common  Rare Have you, as a teacher, seen signs of plagiarism in a student’s work?  Yes, more than 10 times Yes, – 10 times  Yes, – times  No, never At your University, what are the penalties for the incidences of plagiarism  teachers usually ignore it  the student will be given a warning  the submitted work will be rejected  the submitted work will be marked zero  the student will fail the subject where plagiarism occurs  the student will be suspended from study in one year  the student will be expelled from university Please indicate which of following plagiarism act your students committed when doing assignments Activities Paraphrased without acknowledging the source IV Summarizing a text without acknowledgement Copy a text without acknowledgement Submitted someone’s work without their permission Using quotation marks without proper acknowledgement Invented references or bibliography Copy a work from the internet & submit as one's own How much did they plagiarize or copy from online or printed sources?  Completed copy  More than half of the assignment  One or some paragraphs and put them together  Just some words or phrases then put them together with some changes For what reasons, you think students tend to violate plagiarism? Reasons Poor writing skills Lack of referencing skills Teaching and learning methods Laziness/bad time management Don’t understand assignments Education costs Pressure from family & friends To obtain better marks Poor understanding of plagiarism Everybody is doing it 10 Which of the options below you consider the best ways students should to avoid plagiarism? Students should Have better knowledge about academic writing, for example, by attending a course in academic writing Take notes carefully from the sources Practice more on writing academic skills Get better training in the type of assignments where plagiarism usually occurs to receive better selfesteem Receive proper instructions on writing assignments in time so that time pressure is avoided Plan the assignments carefully: time, content… Others (please specify) _ 11 Which of the options below you think the teachers should avoid plagiarism? Teachers should V Create assignments that reduce the temptation to plagiarize Teach students the skills they need in order to complete assignments successfully Break large assignments down into a set of smaller assignments Have students write their drafts or portions of their drafts in class, bring drafts or notes to class for peer evaluation, or require that drafts be turned in with the final paper Have students download a paper from a paper-mill site and evaluate its weaknesses Present properly and improperly paraphrased, quoted, and cited statements and have students evaluate whether and why the sources are properly acknowledged Openly discuss plagiarism with students Inform students that their work will be checked for plagiarism Others (please specify) _ 12 Which of the options below you think the University should to reduce students’ plagiarism? University should Information about plagiarism via the school's website or department Have students sign the university’s statement related to plagiarism Establish a severe penalty for plagiarists Use electronic plagiarism detection tools Developing clear key policy documents containing answers to questions related to plagiarism Others (please specify) _ Please feel free to mention other ideas and views on plagiarism below: …………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………….………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………… Thank you for your cooperation! VI APPENDIX – LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Frequency of having students assignment Teachers Students Table 2: Difficulties in Content problem Task challenges Lack of ideas Lack of resources Table 3: Existence of a plagiarism policy Written policy Teachers Students Table 4: Penalty for acts of plagiarism ignore students teachers Table 5: Teachers Students Table 6: Teachers Students Table 7: How much students copy from the source Students Teachers Table 8: Forms of plagiarism Attitude towar Very common Experience More than 10 times Seriousness VII Activities Paraphrased without acknowledging the source Summarizing a text without acknowledgement Copy a text without acknowledgement Using quotation marks without proper acknowledgement Invented references or bibliography Copy a work from the internet & submit as one's own Table 9: Reasons for student plagiarism Reasons for student plagiarism Poor writing skills Lack of referencing skills Laziness/bad time management Don’t understand assignments Pressure from family & friends To obtain better marks Poor understanding of plagiarism Everybody is doing it Table 10: What students should to avoid plagiarism? Student should plagiarism occurs time VIII Table 11: What teachers should to reduce plagiarism? Teachers should Ask for student’s first draft with peer’s evaluation and included with final paper Have students download a paper from a paper-mill site and evaluate its weaknesses Equip students with quotation, paraphrase, summary and citation skills Openly discuss plagiarism with students Inform students that their work will be checked for plagiarism Table 12 what university should to limit University should Information about plagiarism via the school's website or department Developing clear key policy documents containing answers to questions related IX ... ? ?An investigation into the state of plagiarism in writing assignments among third- year students majored in English in one of Vietnamese Universities and some preventive teaching strategies? ?? In. .. Thuỳ Hanoi, 2014 DECLARATION I, hereby, certify the thesis entitled ? ?An investigation into the state of plagiarism in writing assignments among third- year students majored in English in one of Vietnamese. .. of teaching and learning academic writing skills among 60 third ? ?year students majored in English and 12 teachers in FLF of NEU Significance of the study: As one of the uninvestigated issues in