(Luận văn thạc sĩ) an investigation on 10 graders’ anxiety at pre stage in english writing lessons at tien thinh high school, me linh, hanoi causes and solutions

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRỊNH THU HƯỜNG An investigation on 10 graders’ anxiety at pre-stage in English writing lessons at Tien Thinh High School, Me Linh, Hanoi: Causes and Solutions (Nghiên cứu lo lắng học sinh lớp 10 giai đoạn trước viết học viết trường THPT Tiến Thịnh – Mê Linh – Hà Nội: nguyên nhân giải pháp) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Phạm Thị Thanh Thủy, MA HANOI – 2011 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS TTHS: Tien Thinh High School SS: Students T: Teacher Ts: Teachers S: Student VNU-ULIS: Vietnam National University-University of Languages and International Studies TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION……………………………………………………………………i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………….……………….ii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………… iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………….…….iv TABLES OF CONTENTS……………………………………………….……… v CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale……………………………………………………………….………1 1.2 Research questions………………………………………………….…….… 1.3.Method of the study…………………………………………………….…… 1.4.The participants…………………………………………………………….….2 1.5 Scope of the study………………………………………………………….….2 1.6.Overview of the thesis……………………………………………….…………2 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Writing 2.1.1 What is writing? .4 2.1.2 Pre- writing/ What is pre-writing? 2.1.3 Pre - writing activities………………………………………….……… ……5 2.1.4 Methodology in teaching writing……………………………….…… …… 1.5.Teaching writing procedures……………………………………… ………7 2.2 Anxiety 2.2.1 What is anxiety? 2.2.2 Anxiety in learning Foreign Languages…………………………….… ……8 2.2.3 The factors causing students' anxiety in writing lessons ……….……………10 2.2.3.1 Students' factors……………………………………………… …… …….10 2.2.3.2 Teachers' factors……………………………………………………………10 2.3 Summary CHAPTER THREE: Methodology 3.1 The context 3.1.1.Students…………………………………………………………… …….10 3.1.2.Teachers………………………………………………………………… …10 3.1.3 Facilities…………………………………………………………….… … 11 3.1.4 The Textbook " English 10"………………………………………… ……11 3.2 The Study 3.2.1 Addressing the problem……………………………………….…… …… 12 3.2.2 Data collections……………………………………………………… ….12 3.2.3 Data analysis……………………………………………………….… ….13 3.2.3.1 Classroom observations………….…………………………………… 14 3.2.3.2 Questionnaires……………………………………………………… ….23 3.2.3.2.1 Data analysis of students' survey questionnaires……………… …… 23 3.2.3.2.2 Data analysis of teachers' survey questionnaires……………… ……25 3.2.4 Findings and discussions 2.4.1 Tien Thinh High school students' anxiety and the causes ………… … 29 2.4.2 The ineffectiveness in using pre-writing activities of Tien Thinh High school teachers……………………………………….………… …… …………………30 3.3 Summary CHAPTER FOUR: SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS 4.1 Suggestions for teachers to reduce students' anxiety in pre-writing stage 4.1.1 Giving clear and understandable instructions……………………….… … 32 4.1.2 Providing students with new words and structures in effective ways…… 32 4.1.3 Creating free anxiety classroom……………………… ……………………32 4.2 Suggestions for students to reduce their anxiety in pre-writing 4.2.1 Having more writing practice ………………………………… ……… …33 4.2.2 Participating pair work and group work……………………… ……… ….33 4.2.3 Improving English proficiency……………………………………….… …33 4.3 Summary CHAPTER FIVE: Conclusions 5.1 Summary of the study …………………………………………… … ……34 5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study…………………………….35 References…………………………………………………………………… ….37 Appendices Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaires for Teachers…………………………… ……I Appendix 2: Survey Questionnaires for Students…………………………….….…II Appendix 3: Tasks in writing lessons…………………………………… ………IV CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale In the economic integration process, English has become an important key to get a good career Understanding the importance of English, Vietnamese government has paid more and more attention to teaching and learning English at High Schools The English textbooks give teachers a chance to teach all skills (Reading, Speaking, Writing, Listening), instead of focusing on grammar like before Now, each lesson is taught with stages: Pre-while-post- teaching This helps students learn English better As an English teacher with years of experience at a high school in Hanoi, the author has found out that of all the four skills, writing is the one that both teachers and students have problems in teaching and learning When teaching writing, I myself realized that pre-writing stage is very important that affects the result of students’ writing In the writing lessons, most students always feel anxious and they can not write anything if they not prepare well Using suitable prewriting activities can give a better result in teaching writing skill This research was carried out to investigate the causes of students’ anxiety at Tien Thinh High School at pre-stage in English writing lessons to find out solutions to improve the quality of teaching and learning writing skill 2.2 Research questions In this minor thesis, the author seeks answers for the following questions: What are the factors causing students’ anxiety in writing lessons as perceived by Ts and Ss at TTHS ? In the opinion of TTHS’s Ts and Ss, which solutions should be done to reduce students' anxiety in writing lessons? 3.3 Methods of the study The research employs the survey methods: using questionnaires and classroom observations + Data is collected by surveying teachers and students to get the information about the present situation of teaching and learning writing at Tien Thinh High School + Classroom observation is also carried out to get more reliable information + Analyzing data: Descriptive statistic analysis is used to gain view of teaching and learning writing at school 1.4 The participants + Students: 128 students from 10A2, 10A4, 10A6 at Tien Thinh High Schools in Hanoi are the target subjects of the study These students were chosen as participants of the study as their writing paper results have always been observed to be worse than other classes They are both male and female students aged sixteen and have been learning English at least four years at secondary schools However, they appear to be beginners of English in reality + Teachers: There are teachers (including the author) who are teaching English for 10 th grade students Two of them graduated from VNU-ULIS, two from the in -service course in Thai Nguyen University, the last from Hai Phong University 1.5 Scope of the study This study is carried out at Tien Thinh High School, Me Linh, Hanoi in order to investigate the causes of 10th - graders’ anxiety at pre-stage in writing lessons and try to find out solutions to improve the quality of teaching and learning writing skill 1.6 Overview of the thesis This minor thesis is divided into five main chapters: Chapter One: Introduction, presents the Rationale, the research questions, the method of the study, the participants, the scope of the study and the overview of the thesis Chapter Two: Literature Review, deals with the definitions of writing, pre-writing, anxiety in learning writing Chapter Three: Methodology, presents the study in which the context of Tien Thinh High School is introduced Then The Textbook “English 10" is analyzed Then, the methods underlying the research and descriptions of data analysis are shown to give specific explanations and findings Chapter Four: Suggested Solutions: In this chapter, the author offers some personal recommendations to improve the learning and teaching writing at Tien Thinh High School to get better results Chapter Five: Conclusion, offers a summary, limitations and suggestions for further study CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Writing 2.1.1 The definition of writing Different researchers have defined writing in many different ways Byrne (1988, p.1), the author of Teaching Writing Skill, considers writing “the act of forming graphic symbols” such as letters or a combination of letters According to this definition, any act that results in the forming of letters with or without a meaning can be defined as writing On the other hand, Lannon (1989) views writing as “the process of transforming the material discovered by research inspiration, accident, trial and error, or whatever into a message with a definite meaning- writing is a process of deliberate decision” (p.9) In this way, writing must convey a message with a meaning Another definition by Tribble (1996) considers writing a language skill involving “not just a graphic representation of speech, but the development and presentation of thoughts in a structured way” (p.3) Besides, writing is defined by several contrasts (Sokolik, 2003, p 88) Firstly, in her opinion, writing is both “a physical and a mental act” in the sense that it requires writers to commit words or ideas to some medium and at the same time to invent ideas, think about how to express them, and organize them into statements and paragraphs Secondly, writing aims at expressing and impressing Writers typically try to express their ideas or feelings; meanwhile they need to impress their readers in certain ways Thirdly, writing is a process and a product Writers have to generate ideas, organize, draft, edit, read and reread to produce a product: a paragraph, an essay or a report According to Rivers (1981) “writing is not a skill that can be learnt or developed in isolation but it should be taught and developed in cooperation with other skills and aspects of the language studied” Each researcher has their own definition of writing but as a teacher of English, I share my point of view with Lannon’s because it presents all the characteristics and nature of writing 2.1.2 Pre- writing It is always difficult to start everything In my opinion, of all writing stages: prewriting, while-writing and post-writing, pre-writing is the most difficult one We have to some work, such as brainstorming, listing, clustering, quick writing and making Whquestions in this stage, etc Therefore, in order to have a good writing, it is necessary to prepare for this first stage carefully “Pre-writing is any activity in the classroom that encourages students to write It stimulates thoughts for getting started Pre-writing activities help students prepare raw materials for the composing stage, and organize them in the best way” (Coffin et al., 2003); “therefore, they develop students’ fluency” (Byrne, 1988) In the same way, Richmond defines that “Pre-writing is the first stage of the writing process and is also called the idea-generating stage which stretches back to include anything that you have ever done or that might have given you ideas to write about” 2.1.3 Pre - writing activities Following are some main pre - writing activities: Brainstorming: This can be done individually, in pairs or in groups Students list all the ideas they can think of related to a topic, either in writing or speaking aloud, quickly and without much planning Listing: This can be a quiet and essentially individual activity Students are encouraged to produce a list of all the subcategories that come to mind as they think about the topic Clustering: This begins with a key word or central idea placed in the centre of a page (or on the blackboard) around which students jot down in a few minutes all of the free associations related to the key word or central ideas provided These associations are simply words or short phrases Quick writing: Within a limited time of to 10 minutes, individual students freely and quickly write down single words and phrases about a topic without paying attention to spelling, grammar or punctuation 5.Wh -questions: Students generate who, what, where, when and how questions about a topic More such questions can be asked of answers to the first string of wh-questions Model analysis: Students are provided with a model writing and have to analyze its language, structure or typical features Then based on the model students generate ideas for their writing After having the ideas, students work to develop them, choose the ones to keep and those to be erased, and finally order them Then, teachers help students structure their ideas, and make a plan or an outline for their writing (Nguyen and Nguyen, 2001) 2.1.4 Methodology in teaching writing Teaching writing is a complex work Each teacher has her own method to teach writing No method is said to be the most effective Teacher must consider her situation, students’ level, etc, to have a suitable method Below are some writing approaches presented by Raimes (1983, pp5 -10): (1) The Communicative Approach Communicative approach aims at communicative competences which focus on the purpose of the writing and the audience for it The teacher creates a context in which students are real readers by making them play roles, exchange letters, ask questions and teachers gives comments (2) Free- writing approach: this approach focuses on the fluency and quantity of writing rather than quality Students write freely without worrying about grammar and spelling (3) The process approach: Nowadays, the teaching of writing no longer focuses on the written product It concentrates on the process of writing This approach encourages students’ communication of ideas, feelings and experiences It has an emphasis on purpose, theme and text type Writing is a process, so students are given time to set out ideas, make plan, write a draft In fact, there are many approaches to teaching writing but the two most popular ones are Process and Product Here are some features of the process approach according to Steele (2002): 25% 50% 25% 0% 0% Table 11 For this question, only one teacher stated that the main cause of student’s anxiety is their limited language competence Another teacher thought that was the difficult and uninteresting topic was the main cause Two other teachers have the same answer (Choice B): they realized that main reason of the students’ anxiety is that their instructions in prewriting stage are not clear enough This finding shows that a half of Tien Thinh High School teachers realized the importance of pre-writing activities in reducing students’ anxiety Question 6: What are your suggestions toward reducing students’ anxiety in writing lessons? (Please write them down) Here are some suggestions which were rearranged by the author - Teachers should prepare pre-writing activities well and help students to get involved in these activities - Teacher should explain the lesson both in English and Vietnamese to make sure that students understand what he/she said - Teacher should create a funny environment to reduce students’ anxiety These suggestions show that most of the teachers at Tien Thinh High School want to change the situation to get better results in teaching writing skill 3.2.4 Findings and Discussions 2.4.1 Students' anxiety and the causes After carrying out the study, the author found out several causes of the students’ anxiety in pre-stage in writing lessons First of all, as evidenced from the previous questionnaires, the most important cause is that students are not provided enough vocabularies and structures relating to their writing lesson in pre-stage In pre-stage, if the teacher can provide students with vocabulary and structures and instruct them how to write simple sentences first, and then help them to connect the simple sentences to form a paragraph, students will realize that it is not difficult to write This will reduce the student’s anxiety of lacking vocabularies and structures to write The second cause is that the students have no ideas to write This finding shows that teachers not prepare well for the pre-stage In the pre-stage, teachers should not only provide vocabularies and structures but also use activities to help students generate ideas The teachers are suggested to use activities related to pair work and group work so that students can share ideas to one another On the other hand, teachers’ unclear instructions, negative mood and low enthusiasm are the third cause of students’ anxiety From the findings, some teachers explained the tasks in English with long and complex sentences all the time in the classes where most Sts are not good at English and they did not check if their students understand the requirements or not Teachers are suggested to have clear and brief instructions with demonstrations so that students can understand easily Moreover, English teachers should explain the lesson both in English and Vietnamese so that some students who are not good at English can understand 10 % of all surveyed students stated that the teachers’ bad mood and low enthusiasm can also cause their anxiety An enthusiastic teacher always creates a freeanxiety environment in class These teachers always know how to attract students to their lessons with funny stories and activities To sum up, the fact that students at Tien Thinh High School felt anxiety in writing lesson is true Being one of the English teachers at Tien Thinh High School, the author can clearly see the situation Writing seems to be one of the weakest skills Tien Thinh High School students have to face with a lot of challenges, one of which is their anxiety in writing lessons The aim of this study is to find out the factors causing students’ anxiety and contribute some recommended strategies for teachers and students to reduce this kind of anxiety 3.2.4.2 The ineffectiveness in using pre-writing activities The ineffectiveness in using pre-writing activities of Tien Thinh High School teachers resulted from the following reasons: First, the teachers are not aware of the importance of pre- writing stage At Tien Thinh High School, 50% of surveyed teachers stated that they like teaching writing and the rest said that they dislike doing This shows their attitudes toward the importance of teaching writing skill Of all stages to teach writing skill: warm-up, prewriting, while-writing, post- writing, pre- writing and post writing are the two most important stages which were stated by only 50% the Tien Thinh High School teachers Second, Teachers’ preparation for pre-writing activities before class is not good Only a half of surveyed teachers realized the importance of pre-writing in teaching process which resulted that they were not aware of preparing well before class If a teacher comes to class and teaches what is available in the textbook, students will be fed up with her lesson No funny, creative activities are applied in the lesson make the lesson extremely boring Third, teachers not care about how students feel in pre-writing stage From the findings of questionnaires and classroom observation, the author realized that most of the teachers knew students’ anxiety in their writing lessons but they did not care about it Mechanically, they only tried to complete all the tasks in the textbook They did not move to observe their students when teaching It seemed that they did not care about the students’ feelings Most of the Tien Thinh High School teachers want to change their situation but they not know how to it Realizing the ineffectiveness to change is the most important key in improving writing teaching 3.3 Summary: Based on the findings in previous chapter, the author gave some analysis Understanding the fact how teachers and students at TienThinh High School teach and learn writing in their classes, the author discusses students’ anxiety and the ineffectiveness in preparing and conducting pre-writing activities of the Tien Thinh High School teachers and its effects to reduce students’ anxiety The purpose of this part is to help the teachers realize the importance of pre-writing stage in teaching writing skill with a hope that the teaching writing situation will be improved CHAPTER FOUR: Recommendations 4.1 Recommendations for teachers to reduce students' anxiety in prewriting stage In order to reduce students’ anxiety in writing lessons, some solutions are suggested below: 4.1.1 Giving clear and understandable instructions Clear and understandable instruction is the first and the most important key to help students to reduce their anxiety Anxiety first appears in students’ feelings because they not understand what they have to Some students are bad at English, they can not understand if their teachers explain the lesson in English all the time The teachers should make sure that all students understand what they say by explaining not only in English but also in the students’ mother tongue language when teaching in the classes where most students are not good at English The teachers should make every requirement easy Be always clear and brief by using simple sentences 4.1.2 Providing students with new words and structures effectively It is necessary for the teachers to present such items to students as new words and grammar structures are the sources which students use to write However, teachers must be sure of the words and structures that need explaining and the way to explain them effectively It is suggested that teachers should use visual aids to make their words and structures explanation more interesting and effective 4.1.3 Creating free-anxiety classroom As suggested by the respondents, teachers should create a positive, non - threatening atmosphere within the classroom while taking into students’ anxiety and fears To achieve this, it is important that teachers should establish good relationship with anxious learners by having friendly talks to them, sharing with them Moreover, teachers should develop positive personality types such as patience or sense of humor to make students more comfortable In addition, teachers can create a relaxing atmosphere by using visual aids, exploiting songs and music in the lessons to attract students’ attention 4.2 Recommendations for students to reduce their anxiety in pre-writing stage 4.2.1 Having more writing practice Students feel anxious because of their lack of practice both in class and at home, it is advisable for them to have more writing practice They can use various textbooks available in the market as supplementary materials Besides, they can write diary which tells their daily activities in English Students are suggested to write simple sentences everyday Practicing will help students a lot in their writing 4.2.2 Participating in pair work and group work In fact, most of the surveyed students stated that they were anxious because they had no ideas to write Pair work and group work activities give students a chance to learn from others and exchange ideas, feelings that can reduce their anxiety 4.2.3 Improving English proficiency To reduce anxiety, students themselves must try to improve their English If their language proficiency is improved, they can get over the difficulties such as vocabularies, and grammar structures In class, students should take part in the lesson actively and get involved in extracurricular activities like joining English club, talking with foreigners and working with a tutor Moreover, watching TV, listening to the radio and using internet is useful way communication which can help students can improve their English proficiency 4.3 Summary In this chapter, the author gives some suggested solutions to improve the writing teaching quality A number of recommendations for teachers and students to reduce students’ anxiety have been made As for teachers, they can help their students decrease the feeling of anxiety by giving clear and understandable instructions, providing students with new words and structures in an effective way and creating free anxiety classroom On the part of students, it is necessary for them to build confidence, take part in pair work and group work activities to share ideas and feelings and improve English proficiency CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS 5.1 Summary of the study This study is carried out as a contribution to the knowledge of all teachers and students of English in their teaching and learning In the first part, the author gives an introduction on the study This part presents the rationale, the research questions, the method of the study, the participants, and the scope of the study and the overview of the thesis The second part is the most important one which presents the review of literature with theoretical backgrounds of learning and teaching writing, pre-writing factors to reduce students’ anxiety in writing lessons The next is the study with the data analysis and findings of questionnaires and classroom observations The last chapter gives some suggested solutions to improve the quality of learning and teaching writing for 10 graders The author conducts this research with the hope that this study would be of some values to both teachers and students in their language teaching and learning process Being one of the teachers at TTHS, I can clearly see the present situation of teaching and learning writing skill which is one of TTHS students’ and teachers’ challenges This study is done in the hope of finding out the factors causing students’ anxiety and contributing some recommended strategies for teachers and students to reduce this kind of anxiety Based on the survey questionnaires and classroom observations, the author can arrive at the following conclusions: + Learners are anxious in the writing lessons, and the causes of their anxiety are that (1) students are not provided with enough vocabularies and structures relating to their writing lesson in pre-stage, (2) teachers’ instructions and teachers’ mood and enthusiasm are not good and sufficient enough, (3) the teachers are not aware of the importance of prewriting stage, (4) teachers’ preparation for pre-writing activities before class is not good enough and (5) teachers not care well enough about how students feel in pre-writing stage + Some strategies that could be employed for teachers and students to reduce anxiety and improve teaching and learning writing skill include the following: On the part of teachers, they can help their students to reduce anxiety by giving clear and understandable instructions, providing students with new words and structures in effective ways, creating free-anxiety classroom On the part of students, they can reduce their own anxiety by having more writing practice, participating in pair work and group work, improving English proficiency 5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study The study still has some limitations First of all, the scale of this study is very small, which focuses on only the effects of pre-writing stage to reduce students’ anxiety so while-writing stage and post- writing stage are not mentioned here Secondly, this study basically bases on the source of questionnaires so the author cannot guarantee the reliability of the information collected Moreover, this study is only restricted to classroom writing lessons in the textbook English 10 so any application outside the classroom context requires more careful consideration Finally, there are still some problems that this study could not solve completely: students’ English level is so bad that needs time to get improvement In order to get the improvement, it is necessary for the teachers to pay more attention to their teaching methods and preparations The author hopes that the above problems will be solved in other studies in the future References Tiếng Việt: Bộ giáo dục đào tạo ( 2006) Tiếng Anh 10, Nxb Giáo dục, Hà Nội Đỗ Tuấn Minh ( 2007), Tài liệu bồi dưỡng giáo viên THPT “Đổi phương pháp dạy học theo chương trình sách giáo khoa lớp 10 mới” Đại học Ngoại Ng ữ, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội, Hà Nội Tiếng Anh: Breach, D (2005) Exploring the Vietnamese Concept of a “Good Teacher” Teacher’s Edition 16, (30-37) Brown, H.D (1994) Teaching by Principles Englewood Cliffs, NJ; Prentice Hall Byrne, D (1988), Teaching Writing Skill, Longman, London 4.Coffin, C., Curry, M., Goodman, S., Hewings, A., Lillis, T., & Swann, J (2003), Teaching academic writing: A toolkit for higher education, London: Routledge Darwin, C.R (1827) The expression of emotion in man and animal London: John Murray Harmer, J (2001) The Practice of English Language Teaching ( 3rd Edition) Excess: Longman Horwitz, E.K., Horwitz, MB, & Cope, J (1986) Foreign language classroom 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11, Laidlaw Brothers 16 Rivers, W.M (1981), Teaching Foreign Language Skills ( 2nd ed), The University od Chicago Press, Chicago 17 Sarason, I.G (1986), Test anxiety, worry, and cognitive interference In R Schwarzer (Ed.) Self-related Cognition In Anxiety And Motivation Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum 19-34 18 Sokolik, M (2003) Writing In D Nunan (Ed.), Practical English language teaching (pp 87-108) China: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc and Higher Education Press 19 Spielberger, C.D (1983), Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Form Y) Palo Alto, California: Consulting Psychologists 20 Steele, V (2002) Product and process writing: A comparison Retrieved from the World Wide Web 27 July 2006 at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think /write/ approaches.shtml 21 Tobias, S (1986), Anxiety and cognitive processing of instructions In R Schwarzer (Ed), Self- related cognition in anxiety and motivation (pp.35-54), Hillside, NJ: Erlbaum 22 Tribble, C (1996), Writing, Oxford University Press, Oxford 23 Ur, P (1996), A Course of Language Teaching: Practice & Theory, Cambridge University Press Appendices Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaires for the teachers This survey questionnaire is designed for my Thesis “Using pre-writing activities to reduce 10 graders’ anxiety in English writing lessons at Tien Thinh High School, Me Linh, Hanoi.” Your assistance in completing the survey questionnaires is highly appreciated All the information provided by you is reserved for the study purpose, and you can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Thanks you very much for your cooperation! Please circle your answer Do you like teaching writing skill? C D E F G H E F G H Yes No In your opinion, which of these writing stages is the most important? warm-up pre- writing while-writing post- writing Do you prepare well for the pre-writing activities? Always Sometimes Rarely Never Do you think that your students feel anxious in your writing lessons?( if yes please answer the next question) F yes, most of my students G Yes, all of them feel anxious H No, they are not completely anxious I Maybe, I am not sure In your opinion, what is the main cause of the students’ anxiety? D The topic is difficult or uninteresting E Your instructions in pre- writing stage is not clear enough F Students’ language competence is limited G Others (……………………………………………………………… ) What is your suggestion toward reducing students’ anxiety in the writing lessons? (Please write down your suggestions) ………………………………………………………………………………………… Many Thanks! Appendix A: Questionnaires for the students Các câu hỏi thiết kế để có đánh giá em việc hoạt động trước viết ảnh hưởng đến việc học viết em Việc có đánh giá em giúp điều chỉnh hoạt động dạy viết cho phù hợp với em nhằm nâng cao chất lượng hoc viết trường Rất mong nhận hợp tác em Mọi thông tin em cung cấp bảo mật Xin chân thành cảm ơn em! Em khoanh tròn vào câu trả lời tương ứng sau A B C D A B C D Giờ viết em hôm nào? Rất thú vị Thú vị Không thú vị Rất chán Em cảm thấy viết hơm nay? Lo lắng khơng viết Khơng hài lịng viết chưa tốt Vui vẻ tham gia vào hoạt động trước viết Hài lịng viết tốt Theo quan điểm em, giai đoạn q trình viết gây ảnh hưởng đến kết viết em? A Giai đoạn khởi động B Giai đoạn trước viết C Giai đoạn viết D Giai đoạn sau viết Em có thích hoạt động trước viết cô giáo sử dụng ngày hôm không? A Có B Khơng Em chọn lí lí khiến em cảm thấy lo lắng viết A Chủ đề viết khó B Em khơng chuẩn bị kĩ từ vựng cấu trúc trước viết C Cô giáo chủ yếu giải thích tiếng anh nên em không hiểu yêu cầu viết D Em ý tưởng để viết E Những lí khác: Sự nhiệt tình, tâm trạng giáo… Thank you! Appendix 2.B: Questionnaires for the students Question 1: How is your writing lesson today? A Very interesting B Interesting C Not interesting D Boring Question 2: How did you feel in the writing lesson today? A Anxious because I wrote nothing B Not satisfied because the writing was not good C Satisfied because the writing was very good D Eager with the pre- writing activities Question 3: In your opinion, which writing stage most affect your writing result? A Warm-up B Pre-writing C While-writing D Post- writing Question 4: Do you like those pre-writing activities used by your teachers today? C Yes D No Question 5: Which is the main cause of your anxiety in the writing lesson? F The writing topic is difficult G I am not provided enough vocabularies and structures relating to the writing lesson in the pre-writing stage H The teacher only explained in English so I can not understand well I I have no ideas to write J Others: Teacher’s mood, enthusiasm… Thank you! Appendix – Tasks in writing lessons (Source: Tieng Anh 10 Textbook) Lesson 1: Filling in a form (Unit 1: Writing, p27, 28) Task 1: Work in pairs Answer the following questions On what occasions you have to fill in a form? What sort of information you often have to provide when you fill in a form? Task 2: Forms not usually ask questions, but they ask for information Match a line in A with a question in B A B First name a What you do? Surname b Where are you living at the Date of birth moment? Place of birth c Are you married or single? Present address d What’s your first name? Marital status e When was you born? Occupation f What’s your surname? g Where were you born? Task 3: Forms asks you to certain things Do the following: Write your name in block capitals ………………………………………………………………………………… … Sign your name: ………………………………………… Delete where not applicable I am a student/ an employee/ an employer Put a cross if you are male Put a tick if you are female Task 4: Fill in the following form THE OAK TREE SCHOOL OF ENGLISH ENROLMENT FORM PLEASE WRITE IN CAPITAL LETTERS Mr./Mrs./Miss* Surname…………………………………………………………………… First name……………………………………………………………… Date of birth…………………………………………………………… Nationality……………………………………………………………… Language(s)…………………………………………………………… Address in your country………………………………………………… Occupation……………………………………………………………… Reasons for learning English: Business/Pleasure/Exams/Other ( If others, please specify)……………………………………………… How many hours a day you want to stay at the school? ………………………………………………………………………… What date you want to start?  Delete where not applicable Lesson 2: Writing a confirmation letter (Unit 6: Writing, p.69) Task 1: Work in pairs Read the two letters below and find the requests in Nga’s letter and the confirmation in Hoa’s Dear Hoa, My class is going to have a picnic at Ao Vua this weekend This is the first time I go for a pinic Can you go shopping with me to buy the things we need for the trip? I will pick you up at 2: 30 p.m tomorrow Is the time convenient for you? Please let me know as soon as possible Yours, Nga Dear Nga, I’m glad to hear that you are going to have your first picnic with your classmates Certainly, I will help you to prepare everything you need for the trip Fortunately, I am having a day off tomorrow So, I am free in the afternoon I’ll be waiting for you at 2:30 p.m tomorrow Love, Hoa Task 2: Read the situations and write a confirmation letter responding to each of them Lan is going to have a birthday party at 8:00 p.m on Saturday She asks you to buy her two bunches of bananas, three kilos of oranges, ten mangoes, and bring them to her house an hour before the party You agree to help her Minh wants to borrow a book about wife life He is coming for the book at 9:00 a.m this Saturday You accept his request but suggest a later time ... definitions of writing and pre- writing, pre- writing activities, teaching writing methodology, writing procedures and anxiety: the definitions of anxiety, anxiety in learning foreign languages and. .. is carried out at Tien Thinh High School, Me Linh, Hanoi in order to investigate the causes of 10th - graders’ anxiety at pre- stage in writing lessons and try to find out solutions to improve... students' anxiety in prewriting stage In order to reduce students’ anxiety in writing lessons, some solutions are suggested below: 4.1.1 Giving clear and understandable instructions Clear and understandable