(Luận văn thạc sĩ) application of discourse analysis theory to the teaching of writing to students at international standard programme ULIS VNU

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THÙY LINH APPLICATION OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS THEORY TO THE TEACHING OF WRITING TO STUDENTS AT INTERNATIONAL STANDARD PROGRAMME – ULIS – VNU (Áp dụng lý thuyết phân tích diễn ngơn vào việc giảng dạy mơn viết cho sinh viên Nhiệm vụ chiến lược – ĐHNN- ĐHQGHN) MINOR M.A THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Hanoi, December, 2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THÙY LINH APPLICATION OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS THEORY TO THE TEACHING OF WRITING TO STUDENTS AT INTERNATIONAL STANDARD PROGRAMME – ULIS – VNU (Áp dụng lý thuyết phân tích diễn ngơn vào việc giảng dạy môn viết cho sinh viên Nhiệm vụ chiến lược – ĐHNN- ĐHQGHN) MINOR M.A THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Huynh Anh Tuan, PhD Hanoi, December, 2012 TABLE OF CONTENT Table of Contents Declaration i Acknowledgments ii Abstract iii Table of content iv List of tables, figures and abbreviations vi PART A: INTRODUCTION I Rationale II Aims III Significance IV Scope V Research methodology VI Limitations VII Organizations PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Writing 1.1 Definition of writing 1.2 The importance of EFL writing 1.3 What makes good writing Discourse and discourse analysis 10 Coherence 11 Cohesion iv 4.1 The concept of cohesion 13 4.2 Types of cohesion 13 II LITERATURE REVIEW 16 CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Research questions 18 2.2 Research approach 18 2.3 Data collection instruments 19 2.4 Data collection procedure 20 CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS Data analysis 3.1 Ways of evaluation 22 3.2 Data analysis 24 3.2.1 Problems related to cohesion and coherence competence ISP students have in writing 24 3.2.2 Relationship between giving L2 learners explicit instruction in coherence -cohesion and the improvement of their writing proficiency 30 3.2.3 Students’ evaluation 34 PART C: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS I Major findings 37 II Recommendations 38 III Suggestions for further studies 45 REFERENCES APPENDICES v LISTS OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS Lists of Tables Table 1: The researcher’s analytical scoring criteria Table 2: Descriptive Statistics for the group’s performance in the pre-test Table 3: Students’ pre-test and post-test results Table 4: Results of the Paired-Sample T-tests Lists of Figures Figure 1: Participants’ satisfaction with the course Figure 2: Participants’ overall evaluation of the course Lists of Abbreviations L1: first language L2: second language ISP: International Standard Programme ULIS: University of Languages and International Studies VNU: Vietnam National University vi PART A: INTRODUCTION I Rationale Writing is a fundamental component of English language learning In the light of this fact, it is imperative that learners be taught and trained on the conventions of English writing, especially academic writing Some of these conventions are cohesion and coherence Cohesion refers to “the grammatical and/ or lexical relationships between the different elements of a text” (Richard, Platt & Webb, 1985:45) Coherence refers to the relationships of ideas and the ability of those ideas to function together for the purpose of conveying the meaning (Mclinn, 1988:15) It has been noted by Magableh (1992) that English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners focus almost exclusively on the sentence level rather than the level of the whole discourse that is textual coherence Most EFL learners feel that correct grammar is the only tool they depend on in writing English essays Therefore, they rely on what they have learned about grammar However, according to Kies (1995) some EFL writings appear to be poor in coherence and in cohesion Such writings may lack persuasiveness, satisfactory and logical connection of ideas This problem can be attributed to the fact that learners know the grammar and lexical items of the language, but they are unaware of the mechanics of coherence and cohesion Maqableh (1992) claims that Arab EFL learners encounter serious problems when they write These problems involve producing a coherent text and making the produced text cohesive The focus on writing has been on generating grammatically correct sentences depending on the belief that grammar is the only requirement for learners In recent years with the appearance of Halliday and Hasan (1976)’s book Cohesion in English, there has been a shift in focus among researchers from detecting EFL learners’ problems at the sentential level toward diagnosing problems at the inter-sentential level Hence, writing is now seen in terms of cohesion and coherence Khalil (1989:359) says “New concepts such as cohesion and coherence have identified as two major standards of textuality” Halliday and Hasan (1976) consider the text as a unit of language in use It has been noticed that some of writing features may be ignored by EFL learners Such features involve coherence and cohesion Researchers point out three factors that could contribute to the weakness in writing These factors are: 1- Language transfer Different studies by Kapalan (1966), Tadros (1976) and Hole (1984) indicate that EFL learners transfer the conventions of their first language (L1) to their second language (L2); therefore, they show negative transfer Conner (1996:3) says “Students often mention that when they write in English, they translate, or attempt to translate, first language words, phrases or organization into English.” 2- Ignorance of the features of cohesion and coherence Zhu (1992) states that EFL learners are usually unaware of the terms cohesion and coherence in writing Thus, they have inadequate knowledge of cohesive devices that are necessary for making a text cohesive Even if they have knowledge of these discourse markers, they not use them appropriately This problem can be attributed to the fact that teachers at schools generally not emphasize on such devices 3- Lack of training: According to Kharma (1985), students are not well-trained in English writing Normally, the focus is laid on the sentence level and in some cases the paragraph level To sum up, it can be concluded that EFL learners encounter rhetorical problems especially in coherence and cohesion These problems can be attributed to many factors such as negative transfer, or rather nonexistence of certain features in the mother tongue That is to say, many learners still not have the adequate knowledge of using cohesive devices that are necessary for making a text cohesive Although these problems have been realized by a lot of researchers, very few solutions have been suggested to improve EFL students’ writing quality, especially in terms of cohesion and coherence This gap gives the researcher the desire to conduct this study II Aims of the study The purpose of the study is to examine the real situation of the Vietnam National University (VNU) International Standard Programme (ISP) students’ writing skill, specifically in terms of their cohesion and coherence- related issues It aims (1) to find out ISP students’ problems in terms of cohesion and coherence in their writing and (2) to provide some recommendations that could improve their writing through the experimental teaching of cohesion and coherence III Significance of the research It is hoped that this study will be contribute to the field of applied linguistics especially in EFL writing It could act as a great help to not only students, teachers but also researchers working on relating issues This study aims at investigating ISP students’ problems in cohesion and coherence Therefore, it can be a contribution for evaluating students’ writing competence in terms of cohesion and coherence Besides, this study, to some extent, can help increase students’ awareness of the benefits of cohesion and coherence in their writing quality The significance of this study can be stated that it will provide teaching implications for EFL teachers into the procedures and the teaching material to be used in dealing with cohesive devices and coherent elements Witte and Faigley (1981) indicated that cohesion and coherence research can help discover the developmental stages undergo in their writing process In other words, this is significant for educators in providing implications for developing their essay writing syllabus, methods of teaching and assessment Lastly, this research can be used as a reference source for those who have interest in this issue and a supplement to the previous studies on cohesion and coherence problems IV.Scope of the research  Field of the study: The writing issue is so broad and complicated that the researcher has no desire to cover all aspects of it Within the frame of this thesis, the researcher would like to work on the problems of coherence and cohesion in students’ writing and make some useful suggestions to help students achieve greater competence in this skill  Targeted subjects: The research is restricted to students at International Standard Program (ISP) – ULIS – VNU and it is confined to the analysis of cohesion and coherence written by 20 learners of group in ISP V Research methodology V.1 Research questions This survey aims at addressing the two following questions  What problems related to cohesion and coherence competence ISP students have in writing?  Is there any relationship between giving L2 learners explicit instruction in coherence-cohesion and the improvement of their writing proficiency? V.2 Informants The target population of this research was from class with 20 students at International Standard Programme (ISP), University of Language and International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University (VNU) V.3 Approach Action research was chosen as the primary research method as it meets the aim and objectives of the study This method is also justified to offer significant benefits for the researcher, who is also a teacher Johnson (1995) pointed out three mains advantages of action research namely to promote personal and professional growth, to improve practice to enhance student learning, and to advance the teacher profession V.4 Data collection instruments and procedure Two data collection instruments were used in the study: tests and survey questionnaires To be specific, two writing tests were conducted before and after the experimental teaching Students were required to write discussive essays with the following topics:  Pre-test: These days internet-based courses have become a popular alternative to university-based courses Some students prefer this type of learning because they not need to attend lectures Others argue that it is important to study at university Discuss both these views  Post-test: It is generally believed that some people are born with certain talents, for instance for sport or music, and others are not However, it is sometimes claimed that any child can be taught to become a good sports person or musician Discuss both these views and give your own opinion The questionnaire survey consists of two main parts: The first part is composed of six questions which are to evaluate students’ satisfaction after the experimental teaching The second part asks for students’ suggestion for improvement in the next teaching The data collection procedure underwent phases A pre-test was administered among an ISP group to assess their writing competence and analyzed to find out their writing problems in terms of cohesion and coherence in the pre-teaching phase The participants then participated in a 6-week experimental while-teaching phase in which participants were given thorough theory of cohesion and coherence in academic writing as well as provided a lot of practicing exercise Finally, they took a post-test to evaluate their improvement in writing ability in the post-teaching Task 2: Circle the letter of the word that correctly identifies the appropriate transition word or phrase Then underline the kind of transition you have used the invention of television, people probably spent more of their leisure time reading a Nevertheless b Because c Before The transition word indicates: addition cause and effect time If you’re having company for dinner, try to get as much done in advance as possible , set the table the day before a For instance b In contrast c Similarly The transition word indicates: illustration/example comparison contrast I’m very allergic to flowers, my boyfriend bought a bouquet of roses a Until b Because c Even though vi The transition word indicates: time contrast addition Some people in New Jersey built their houses very close to the shoreline , they have had to spend a lot of money trying to protect their property from the sea a consequently b however c moreover d finally The transition word indicates: cause and effect time comparison Manny’s car stereo was on full blast, I could see his lips moving, but I had no idea what he was saying a Moreover b Because c Just as The transition word indicates: comparison addition cause and effect Task 3: Here is a series of events listed in random order Use the transitional words and phrases in each sentence to help you put them in proper chronological order Number the sentences from 1–6 in the blanks provided If the penalty structure is to your liking, make sure that the money market account is FDIC insured After you've found the best terms, be sure to find out what the minimum account balance is and ask what the penalties are if your account drops below the limit vii In order to open a money market account, you should follow several steps Then you should shop around for the best terms and yields available Finally, once the account is opened and you are earning interest, you should consider using that interest to pay off outstanding credit card debt First, you should decide what features are important to you Task 4: Read the following paragraph, which describes a local community event The International Dinner raised $15,000 to renovate the Berkshire Park Community Center Three hundred and fifty people attended the dinner, which was held in the ballroom of a local hotel Tickets were sold in advance for $50 each The attendees left the event feeling very good about their community The Berkshire Park Community Center was damaged in a fire six months ago An energetic committee of eight community members came up with the idea of the International Dinner to raise funds to repair the damages The plan was to celebrate the diversity of the Berkshire Park Neighborhood Association by serving ethnic food that represents the various cultures in the neighborhood The committee also organized a silent auction with prizes donated by local businesses to take place during the dinner The committee chairperson talked to a local newspaper reporter at the dinner and stated that the goal was to raise $10,000 A follow-up letter to community members thanked everyone for the huge success of the fundraiser and outlined a schedule for the renovation Notice that this paragraph is not arranged in chronological order Take the ten different events that make up the story and rearrange them so that they are in chronological order Here's the order of events as they are presented in the story      The International Dinner raised $15,000 to renovate the Berkshire Park Community Center Three hundred and fifty people attended the dinner Tickets were sold for $50 each The attendees left the event feeling very good about their community The Community Center was damaged in a fire six months ago viii      A committee of eight community members came up with the idea of the International Dinner to raise funds for repairs The plan was to serve foods that represent the various cultures in the neighborhood The committee organized a silent auction to take place during the dinner The chairperson talked to a local newspaper reporter, stating that the goal was to raise $10,000 A letter to community members thanked everyone and outlined the schedule for renovation Next, put the events in chronological order 10 Now, take these chronologically ordered events and make them into a cohesive paragraph To this, you need to add transitional words and phrases Here is a list of transitional words and phrases often used in chronologically organized passages: first soon second after third before next during now while then meanwhile when in the meantime as soon as at last ix immediately eventually suddenly finally Write your paragraph, putting the events in chronological order with transitional phrases, below or on a separate piece of paper x Student handout Task 1: Fill the gaps with one of the linking devices given below: personally on / the however other / for hand example/ / at besides the this air is fresh, and you can even first moment/ Living in a small town has a number of advantages the / of all/ especially there is no pollution, grow your own vegetables there is peace and quiet, and less stress than in a big city , there are several problems to take into consideration too, if you have a family If the town is too small and far from other cities, it might be hard to find health The city has its good points too care and good schools , there are more job opportunities, better schools and lots of entertainment in the city , the bad points outnumber the good ones when you think in terms of the quality of life you have, in terms of your physical and mental health , I think I would prefer to live in a nice little town on a beach, but that will have to wait until I retire , I have an office job and a promising career ahead of me Task 2: The following sentences make up a short text but they are in the wrong order Read them carefully and decide what the correct order should be Then put the numbers in the space provided right after the text xi Thus drivers will be encouraged to park where there is room, and go downtown by bus Besides this, parking has become more difficult and the streets are blocked by parked cars Nowadays people prefer to use private cars to go downtown because it is more convenient First of all, public transports should be improved and made cheaper However, there are solutions to these problems, which would improve the quality of life In addition, in free parking lots our should be built cities outside the city As a result, there are traffic jams which block the streets and cause problems for both drivers and pedestrians Task 3: Write a paragraph that develops the following topic sentence Use logical cohesive devices to connect the supporting sentences smoothly Some people enjoy solitude For instance Moreover On the other hand Therefore xii APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This survey questionnaire is designed for the study on the application of Discourse analysis theory to the teaching of writing skill to second language learners To have data for my study, I am badly in need of your sincere and precise information about your experience in and knowledge about cohesion and coherence in writing In completing these questions, please choose the answer by circling the letter next to your choice or expressing your ideas in the blank For some questions, more than one answer is acceptable I Students’ satisfaction level after the – week experimental teaching Are you satisfied with the 6-week learning course? Dissatisfied not really rather satisfied satisfied very satisfied satisfied Is you writing ability improved throughout the learning sessions? a Yes b No How you value the effectiveness of this learning approach to the improvement of your writing ability? xiii Not effective Little effective Quite effective Effective Very effective If the answer to question is “No”, please continue with question If the answer to question is “Yes”, please continue with question Why are you not satisfied with the outcome of the course? a I did not learn much b My writing ability is not improved c I see nothing new in the course It is just the same as other writing sessions I have learnt d I not care about it at all e others (please specify)…………………………………………… What makes you satisfied with the learning session? a My writing ability is improved b I gained more thorough knowledge about cohesion and coherence which I did not know about before c I learned a lot of useful and interesting cohesive devices d other (please specify)……………………………………………… Evaluate the learning session by put a tick to state your opinion No Question Course objectives were clearly defined The researcher’s teaching is Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly disagree agree xiv well-organized The teaching course is informative in terms of cohesion and coherence The researcher’s teaching is of sufficient duration The researcher’s teaching provide an excellent opportunity for all participants to learn comprehensively about cohesion and coherence The learning materials (lesson plans, handouts, etc) were relevant and useful The amount of practicing exercises was sufficient II Students ‘suggestions for improvement What suggestions can you make to better the six- week teaching and learning session? ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………… xv REFERENCE Atari, Omar (1984).Oral Style Strategies in EFL Written Discourse Proceedings of the Third Annual Linguistics Conference Yarmouk University Beaugrande, R.D & Dressler,W ( 2002) Introduction to Text Linguistics London: Longman Best, J.W & Kahn, J.V (2003) Research in education Boston: Library of congress Cataloguing-on-PublicatiWon data Brown, G and Yule, G (1983) Teaching the Spoken Language Cambridge University Press Brusaw, C.T., Gerald J.A and Walter, E.O (1987) The Business Writer's Hand Book Third edition New York : Martin's Press Inc Byrne, D (1988) Teaching Writing Skills London: LongmanGroup UK Limited Canale, M.(1983), 'From communicative competence to language pedagogy', in Language and communication, eds J Richards andJ Schmidt, Longman, London, pp 2-27 Canale, M & Swain, M.(1980) 'Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing', Applied Linguistics, vol 1(1), pp 1-47 Carpenter,C Hunter (1981) Functional Exercises: Improving Overall Coherencein ESL Writing TES OL Quarterly Vol 15, No 4, 425-434 Carr, W & Kemmis, S (1986) Becoming critical: Education, knowledge and action research Bringhton: Lewis, Falmer Carrell, P L (1982) Cohesion is Not Coherence TES OL Quarterly Vol 16, No 4, 479-488 Chafe, W (1984) Integration and Involvement in Speaking, Writing and Oral Literature In Tannen D (ed.), Spoken and Written Language: Exploring Orality and Literacy Pp 35-53 Norwood NJ: Ablex Chakraverty, A &Gautum, K (2000).Dynamics of writing Forum, 38(3), 22-24 Chastain, K (1988) Developing Second Language Skills Theory and Practice United States of America Chiang, S.Y (2009) “Assessing Grammatical and Textual Features in L2 Wri ting Samples: The Case of French as a Foreign Language.” The Modern Language Journal 83 ii 219-32 Cohen, L & Manion, L (1994) Research methods in education, (4th edn.) 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NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THÙY LINH APPLICATION OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS THEORY TO THE TEACHING OF WRITING TO. .. be attributed to many factors such as negative transfer, or rather nonexistence of certain features in the mother tongue That is to say, many learners still not have the adequate knowledge of. .. evaluation of the course Lists of Abbreviations L1: first language L2: second language ISP: International Standard Programme ULIS: University of Languages and International Studies VNU: Vietnam National