Using writing portfolios to improve grade 10th students’ writing skill an action research project in a high school in hadong district

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES  NGUYỄN VÂN NGUYỆT USING WRITING PORTFOLIOS TO IMPROVE GRADE 10TH STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL- AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT IN A HIGH SCHOOL IN HADONG DISTRICT (SỬ DỤNG TẬP HỒ SƠ ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN KĨ NĂNG VIẾT CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10- NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG PHỔ THÔNG Ở HÀ ĐÔNG ) MA MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8045041.01 Hanoi – 2020 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES  NGUYỄN VÂN NGUYỆT USING WRITING PORTFOLIOS TO IMPROVE GRADE 10TH STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL- AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT IN A HIGH SCHOOL IN HA DONG DISTRICT (SỬ DỤNG TẬP HỒ SƠ ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN KĨ NĂNG VIẾT CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10- NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG PHỔ THÔNG Ở HÀ ĐÔNG ) MA MINOR THESIS Field: EnglishTeaching Methodology Code: 8045041.01 Supervisor: Dr Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã Hanoi – 2020 DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled "Using writing portfolios to improve grade 10th students’writing skill- An action research project in a high school in Ha Dong disstrict" submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at Post- graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University of Hanoi I confirm that I cited all references in the study Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi, 2020 Nguyễn Vân Nguyệt Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Dr Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã Date: i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr Vu Thi Thanh Nha, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher Next, I wish to take this opportunity to express my special thanks to all lectures and the staff of Department of Post- Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi, for their inspiring lectures and suggestions for the topic of my study My appreciation and gratitude are also extended for the teachers and students from class 10 D1 at Tran Hung Dao High School in Ha Dong for their active participation in my research Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my husband and my children for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work ii ABSTRACT This research investigates the problems in teaching and learning writing skill at a high school in Ha Dong district and the implementation of writing portfolios to improve students’ writing skill It aims to find out how teachers can use writing portfolios to improve grade 10th students’ writing skill and students’ attitudes towards the implementation of writing portfolios in class Three cycles of action research was conducted with a class of thirty six students, and the data were collected using questionnaires, teaching diaries, students’ portfolios and interviews The findings indicated students lacked time for practising the skill, had poor background knowledge including lexical- grammar and idea limitations, and low motivation The application of writing portfolios has helped students improve their writing performance in task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource and grammatical range and accuracy At the end of the project, most of the participants expressed a strong consensus that writing portfolios not only had positive impacts on their writing skills but also created a positive attitude towards the subject English iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF FIGURES x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study Scope of the study 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Methods of the study 1.6 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW Writing skills 2.1.1 Definitions of writing 2.1.2 Approaches to teaching writing 2.1.3 Genres of writing 2.1.3.1 Definition of genre 2.1.3.2 Common types of writing genres in the new textbooks iv 2.2 Teaching writing 2.2.1 Improving students’ ability in writing 2.2.2 The role of teachers in teaching writing 2.3 Assessing writing 10 2.3.1 Types of writing assessment 10 2.3.2 Type of scoring for students’ writing assignments 11 2.4 Using portfolios in writing class 12 2.4.1 Definitions of portfolio 12 2.4.2 Types of portfolio 13 2.4.3 The implementation of portfolio assessment in teaching writing 14 2.4.4 Portfolio assessment procedure 15 2.4.5 Related studies on writing portfolio 16 2.5 Summary 18 CHAPTER : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 19 3.1 Research setting 19 3.1.1 The research site 19 3.1.2 Description of textbook, curriculum, testing and assessment 19 3.2 Participants 20 3.3 Research design 20 3.3.1 Research method 20 3.3.2 Action research 21 3.3.3 Research procedure 22 3.3.3.1 Identifying the field problems (week 1) 22 v 3.3.3.2 Planning (week 2) 23 3.3.3.3 Acting and Observing the Actions (week 3- week 17) 23 3.3.3.4 Reflection 27 3.4 Data collection instruments 28 3.4.1 Pre- test and a collection of students’ writing assignments 28 3.4.2 Pre- treatment and post- treatment questionnaire 28 3.4.3 Teaching diaries 29 3.4.4 Semi- structured interviews 30 3.5 Data analysis 30 3.6 Summary of the chapter 31 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 32 4.1 Research question 1: 32 4.1.1 Identifying the field problems: conducting a pre- test and pretreatment questionnaire 32 4.1.2 Determining actions to overcome the problems 41 4.1.3 Acting and observing the actions 41 4.1.3.1 Summary of Cycle 41 4.1.3.2 Summary of Cycle 42 4.1.3.3 Summary of Cycle 43 4.1.4 Reflection 44 4.1.4.1 Findings of cycle 44 4.1.4.2 Findings of cycle 49 vi 4.1.4.3 Findings of cycle 53 4.1.4.4 Summary of the findings of three cycles 56 4.2 Research question 2: 60 4.2.1 Students’ opinions about the benefits of writing portfolios on their writing skills in general and impacts of writing portfolios based on four criteria in particular 60 4.2.2 Students’ opinions about the advantages of scoring rubric and teacher’s feedback on their writing assignments 62 4.2.3 Students’ opinions about the clarity of teacher’s instructions during the project 63 4.2.4 Students’ attitudes towards the implementation of writing portfolios in the next semester 65 4.3 Discussions 67 4.4 Summary 68 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 69 5.1 Recapitulation 69 5.1.1 Research question 1: 69 5.1.2 Research question 2: 70 Implications 71 5.3 Limitations of the study 71 5.4 Suggestions for further studies 71 REFERENCES 73 APPENDICES vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AR: Action Research %: Percentage MA: Master of Arts GCSE: General Certificate of Secondary Education VNU: Vietnam National University MOET: the Minister of Education and Training CEFR: Common European Framework for Reference viii APPENDIX PRE- TREATMENT QUESTIONNAIRE (English version) This survey questionnaire is designed for my research: “Using writing portfolios to improve students‟ writing skill- An action research at a high school in Ha Dong district” in order to investigate students‟ attitudes towards writing skill and the difficulties that students encounter in learning writing skill Please answer the questions as honestly as possible All of your personal information will not be identified in any discussion of the data Thank you very much for your cooperation Part Background information In this section you will be asked to provide some information about yourself Please circle the answer that is right for you or write the answer where needed Your gender: a Male b Female How long have you been learning English? a At least years b 8- 10 years c more than 10 years What is your English entrance exam mark? ……………………………………………………………………………………… Part Writing skill Do you think learning writing skill is important? a Very important b Important c Less important d Not important What is your attitude towards writing skill? a Like very much b Like c Normal d Dislike How often you practice writing every day? VII a Very often b Sometimes c Rarely d Never What difficulties you encounter when practicing writing skill? a Lack of vocabulary b Poor grammar c Lack of ideas d Others (Please specify)………………………………………………………… In your opinion, what should teachers to help you? a Provide you with vocabulary and language structures b Revise the grammar points c Give you more chances to practice your writing skill d Others (Please specify)………………………………………………………… The end VIII APPENDIX POST- TREATMENT QUESTIONNAIRE (Vienammese version) Phiếu điều tra nhằm thu thập liệu cho nghiên cứu “Sử dụng tập hồ sơ để cải thiện kỹ viết cho học sinh lớp 10- Nghiên cứu hành động trường trung học Hà đông” Học sinh chọn phương án trả lời cách gạch chéo (X) vào lựa chọn cho câu hỏi Từ lựa chọn (1) đến lựa chọn (7) biểu thị mức độ từ đồng ý cao không đồng ý cao Xin chân thành cảm ơn hợp tác em! 1= hoàn toàn đồng ý 2= đồng ý = đồng ý phần = không chắn = không đồng ý phần = không đồng ý 7= hồn tồn khơng đồng ý TT Mức độ đồng ý Nội dung câu hỏi điều tra 1 Em cho kỹ viết cải thiện sau áp dụng tập hồ sơ Em thấy việc áp dụng tập hồ sơ lớp cần thiết hữu ích Em hiểu hướng dẫn giáo viên trình làm tập hồ sơ Em hiểu tiêu chí chấm hướng dẫn chấm Em thường xuyên sử dụng hướng dẫn chấm để định hướng triển khai viết Việc sử dụng hướng dẫn chấm giúp em làm viết tốt Việc giáo viên nhận xét phản hồi kịp thời qua viết giúp em nhận IX điểm mạnh điểm yếu Em thấy nhận xét giáo viên bạn học giúp em cải thiện kỹ viết thân sau viết Thực hành tập hồ sơ giúp em nắm bắt bước quy trình viết vận dụng tốt vào viết 10 Em thấy viết bám sát đề bài, mạch lạc logic sau áp dụng tập hồ sơ 11 Em thấy em cải thiện khả xếp ý biết cách sử dụng từ nối hợp lý sau áp dụng tập hồ sơ 12 Sau áp dụng tập hồ sơ, em sử dụng từ vựng chủ đề yêu cầu viết sách giáo khoa 13 Việc thực hành tập hồ sơ giúp em ghi nhớ mở rộng vốn từ vựng 14 Việc áp dụng tập hồ sơ giúp em củng cố cải thiện khả ngữ pháp 15 Em mong muốn tiếp tục sử dụng tập hồ sơ học kỳ sau The end- Thank you! X APPENDIX 5: INTERVIEWS A Interviewee 1 What you think about writing portfolios in general? I think writing portfolios is very helpful to me + Do you like it or not? Why? Yes, of course I like to apply it to improve my writing skills because you know “practice makes perfect” By doing it regularly, I am not afraid of writing and it creates on me a habit of practising writing skill more + What you think about your writing skills after doing writing portfolios project? Umm, talking about that, I felt my writing skills have improved a lot because I practiced a lot I also felt less nervous and trembling when writing because the teacher had guided us and given us enough time to practise the writing process Do you have any difficulty while doing portfolios? If yes, what is this? Teacher, luckily I get no difficulty at all I think the purpose of portfolios and requirements about the project are made clear enough and every body knows what and how to it How about teacher’s instructions and writing rubric? Do you have any difficulty in understanding the instructions and all criteria in the marking rubric? I think the instructions are ok to follow because we are given the marking criteria with thorough explanation Furthermore, teacher guided us about how to use the marking rubric to develop our writing products so I didn’t feel any challenging at all Anyway, I often used it when creating my assignments and it worked well How about the teacher’s comment? Do you sastify with it? Yes, I am fully sastified with the teacher’s comments after each assignment because thanks to it, I can recognize my mistakes and avoid them in the next ones What suggestions you give to enhance the effectiveness of writing portfolios in class? XI I think the only thing is that it costs a lot of time to therefore, teacher can you reduce the amount of homework in our in- class lessons so we can have more time to prepare for the writing assignments? B Interviewee What you think about writing portfolios in general? Generally, I think it is good It helps me to write better + Do you like it or not? Why? I like it very much Practising writing regularly helps me organise ideas more quickly and be able to write good sentences in English without thinking so much + What you think about your writing skills after doing writing portfolios project? Well, I felt that doing writing portfolios allowed me to recognize and correct the mistakes in my writing assignments For example, I usually forgot to put an article before a singular countable noun, or sometimes I miss some plural “ s/es” in plural noun Doing portfolios reminds me of these errors so I not repeat them any more Do you have any difficulty while doing portfolios? If yes, what is this? For me, at the beginning of the project I had some problems with my vocabularies as I couldn’t remember many new words for the topic Practising writing regularly reminds me of the vocabularies and helps me to use them effectively in my writing assignments It also allows me to remember many words and structures that I have never used before How about the teacher’s instructions and writing rubric? Do you have any difficulty in understanding the instructions and all criteria in the marking rubric? At first, I guess we have some confusions in the first task because a writing portfolios is very new to us and we have never done it before But after getting your feedbacks and studying teacher’s scores for each criterion of the 1st assignment, we had no problem with the next ones We already understand what to XII How about the teacher’s comment? Do you satisfy with it? Well, I must say that thanks to your regular feedbacks in time, I make less grammar mistakes and I also know how to correct them precisely That’s my most impressing experience What suggestions you give to enhance the effectiveness of writing portfolios in class? I not think of any change as you have already planned the project carefully and we are giving all what we need: teacher’s regular feedback, rubric for marking the scores, and opportunities to revise and edit our work C Interviewee What you think about writing portfolios in general? I think Writing portfolios is necessary in classroom as it provides a lot of chances for us to practise writing skills both in class and at home + Do you like it or not? Why? Yes, I like it because I find it convenient to look back my writing assignments and learn from my mistakes so that I can improve my writing products in the future + What you think about your writing skills after doing writing portfolios project? I guess after all, I made a little improvement in writing My friends always call me “golden fish brain” because I am such a kind of forgetful person ha Whenever I learn a new structure, I often forget it immediately Thanks to writing portfolios, I can apply this structure right into my writings so I can remember it more easily as you know that when I write something by my self, I can remember it longer than just read it Do you have any difficulty while doing portfolios? If yes, what is this? Oh I am a kind of messy person so it is difficult for me to keep and gather all the assignments Sometimes I lost my first draft for this or that topic and I had to rewrite it again It is really time- consuming XIII How about the teacher’s instructions steps and marking rubric? Do you have any difficulty in understanding the instructions and all criteria in the marking rubric? I think there may be some confusions about the instructions for writing portfolios because it is totally new to us and I also felt a little bit difficult to remember all the criteria in the marking rubric for the first time However, after one assignment, I got used to using it and I could use it more easily What about the teacher’s comments? Do you satisfy with them? To be honest, I always struggle with teacher’s comments because most of the time, I did not know how to correct the mistakes myself and I had to ask my friends for help I have a best friend and he helped me a lot He gave me advice and showed me how to correct my mistakes Luckily, I felt relieved as I could finish our project What suggestions you give to enhance the effectiveness of writing portfolios in class? As I mentioned before, writing portfolios is very useful but it is a little bit challenging for the weak students so teacher, I hope that next time you should give us more advice on how to correct our mistakes and train us to be able to correct them ourselves D Interviewee What you think about writing portfolios in general? I think I am quite satisfied with this learning project as it gives us more than the chance for studying I think the positive aspects of the writing class were the class participation and giving opportunity to the students to participate in the learning process It makes me pay more attention to the writing components such as organization, vocabulary…etc + What you think about your writing skills after doing writing portfolios project? In general, I felt I could improve my writing ability because before the project, I rarely practise my writing Writing portfolios provides me more chances to take part in the writing process and the pressure of completing the requirement tasks pushed me forward and helped me improve both my strengths and weaknesses in writing XIV Do you have any difficulty while doing portfolios? If yes, what is this? To tell the truth, I have a lot of difficulties due to the fact that I not know many new words, my grammar is also poor and I always have difficulty in organizing ideas Luckily, my teacher is always enthusiastic and patient to give guidances to me and my classmates also help me a lot so I am happy that I could overcome all that problems and I felt quite relaxing now How about the teacher’s instructions steps and marking rubric? Do you have any difficulty in understanding the instructions and all criteria in the marking rubric? Well, I understood the instruction steps because it’s not so complicated I think I have no problem with them And before the project, the teacher had guided us carefully about the marking criteria so I did not feel any difficulty at all What about the teacher’s comments? Do you satisfied with them? I am happy that I could receive your feedbacks after each lesson so I could know my bad points and my writings are much better now What suggestions you give to enhance the effectiveness of writing portfolios in class? Some of my friends did not see the point of practising portfolios in class They said that it’s not necessary to it because we did not have to write essays in our current exams Therefore, I think you should make it as a graded activity, so all students will pay more attention to it and be more serious to carry out the project E Interviewee What you think about writing portfolios in general? I think writing portfolios are beneficial to our class as we had opportunities to practise writing skills, get teacher’s regular feedbacks after every writing tasks and take time to share with friends and teacher after every assignment Most of us now feel proud of our works now + Do you like it or not? Why? Sure, I like doing writing portfolios to improve my writing ability because it helps me to practise more and perfect my self in my writing skills It also helps me to be XV able to write more flexibly without having to spend too much time to think about the ideas as before + What you think about your writing skills after doing writing portfolios project? I believe that the portfolio program helped me to write better by giving me more confidence and motivation in writing and by forcing me to write as much as I can I learned a lot of new words I remember nearly all the words about the topic I learned while doing the tasks Now I can also make connections between my sentences more comfortably Do you have any difficulty while doing portfolios? If yes, what is this? First, I met some difficulties as I didn’t have many ideas to write and I know there is something wrong with my grammar and vocabularies However, I felt lucky as I got a lot of assistances from teacher and sharing ideas in the teacher- student conferences gave me a precious chance to improve myself How about the teacher’s instructions steps and marking rubric? Do you have any difficulty in understanding the instructions and all criteria in the marking rubric? I suppose that the teacher’s instructions are quite clear and everybody knows what to However, I found it’s rather hard to remember all the criteria in the marking rubric and it takes me a while to remember it What about the teacher’s comments? Do you satisfy with them? One of the things I like best in this learning project is the teacher’s comments It helps me to see my good points and bad points in my writings so that I can become a better writer What suggestions you give to enhance the effectiveness of writing portfolios in class? You know, we have many other subjects to learn so I don’t have enough time for developing my products and sometimes the time between the writing lessons is rather short and I have to submit my assignment in a hurry I wish I invested more time and effort to write XVI APPENDIX 6A UNIT 1- WORKSHEET I Choose the right words to match the pictures feed the cat the shopping cook bathe the baby _ lay the table the washing-up II Choose the sentence that best describes the picture A Bathing a newborn baby is never an easy task as it requires skill and experience B Mrs Laura and her ten-year-old daughter go to the swimming pool every day C Shaking a baby is believed to have bad impacts on his/her development A The man is taking out the rubbish B Rubbish should be thrown away every day or it may cause awful smell C The child is setting the table for dinner A The girl is ironing her clothes B Clothes are being folded neatly C Susan is putting clothes in an airing cupboard A Mopping the garden path is David's favourite activity B Though David has a lot of spare time, he hardly helps his parents the gardening C At the weekend, David usually helps his grandmother mow the lawn XVII A Many children are too lazy to help their parents with housework B The girl is doing some cleaning with her mother C The girl is doing the cooking while her mother is sweeping the kitchen floor III Reorder the following words to make meaningful sentences My/ I/ sister/ our/ mum/ help/ some/ and/ housework/ with ……………………………………………………………………………………… We/ go/ school/ to/ week/ almost/ the, so/ we/ spend/ try/ to/ weekend/ the/ help/ her/ to ……………………………………………………………………………………… We/ chores/ for/ each person/ divide/ work/ effectively/ to/ quickly/ and ……………………………………………………………………………………… sister/ My/ vacuums/ mops/ floor/ and/ the ……………………………………………………………………………………… She/ tidy/also/ ceiling/ to/ the/ has/ spider- thread/ from ……………………………………………………………………………………… She/ kitchen/ bathroom/ the/ cleans/ the/ once a week ……………………………………………………………………………………… I/ own/ tidy/ have/ room/ my/ to ……………………………………………………………………………………… I/ water/ flowers/ then/ the/ and/ plants/ have/ to ……………………………………………………………………………………… I/ also/ all week’s groceries/ have/ shop/ for/ to ……………………………………………………………………………………… 10 Although/ we/ busy/ our/ with/ are/ homework, we/ manage/ to/ time/ share/ with/ chores/ my mother ……………………………………………………………………………………… XVIII APPENDIX B UNIT 1- WORKSHEET Task Write some sentences describing the pictures below XIX Task Using the given words to write full sentences My sister/ often/ water/ flowers/ morning ……………………………………………………………………………………… Mother/ teach/ son/ how/ tidy/ his room/ now ……………………………………………………………………………………… After/ come/ home from work, he/ usually/ feed/ lovely/ cat/ and/ mop/ kitchen floor ……………………………………………………………………………………… It/ take/ Kate/ fifteen minutes/ take out/ garbage/ and/ clean/ bathroom ……………………………………………………………………………………… Lucy/ fond of/ mend/ things/ around/ house ……………………………………………………………………………………… XX APPENDIX MỘT SỐ KÝ HIỆU SỬA LỖI Ký hiệu Sp T Loại lỗi sai Lỗi sai đâu Spelling Verb- tense mistake Wrong word Lỗi viết từ sai Lỗi dùng sai PP Wrong preposition Lỗi dùng sai giới từ ↑ PP Lack preposition Lỗi dùng thiếu giới từ ↑ C Lack words Capitalization Lỗi dùng thiếu từ Lỗi không viết hoa đầu câu sau dấu chấm N Noun(singular/ plural) Lỗi dùng danh từ(số ít/ số nhiều) o Punctuation V Verb(singular/ plural) Lỗi thiếu dùng sai dấu chấm, dấu phẩy…… Lỗi dùng động từ (số ít/ số nhiều) A Article (a/ an/ the) WW Lỗi dùng từ sai Lỗi dùng sai mạo từ XXI Example Correction My nam is A She work in a hospital I made a lot of money My father is responsible to the family finances We live Hadong My name is A She works in a hospital I earned a lot of money My father is responsible for the family finances there is a book on the table There are student in the room Dear Mary There is a book on the table There is students in the room I am working in an company There are students in the room We live in Hadong There are students in the room Dear Mary, I am working in a company ... look at the overview of writing skills, teaching writing, assessing writing, and using writing portfolios Writing skills 2.1.1 Definitions of writing In language teaching, reading and listening are... implementation of writing portfolios to improve students’ writing skill It aims to find out how teachers can use writing portfolios to improve grade 10th students’ writing skill and students’ attitudes... p.211) assessment is used to collect information on a learner’s language ability or achievement In teaching and learning language, especially in writing skills, teachers can apply some kinds of assessment