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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES MAI THỊ THỦY PRE-WRITING STRATEGIES USED BY STUDENTS AT CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND TRAINING, ELECTRIC POWER UNIVERSITY (CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC SINH VIÊN TRUNG TÂM ĐÀO TẠO VÀ HỢP TÁC QUỐC TẾ, TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC ĐIỆN LỰC SỬ DỤNG TRONG GIAI ĐOẠN TRƯỚC KHI VIẾT) M.A Minor Program Thesis Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân Hanoi, 2014 DECLARATION I, Mai Thị Thủy, hereby declare that the thesis entitled PRE-WRITING STRATEGIES USED BY STUDENTS AT CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND TRAINING, ELECTRIC POWER UNIVERSITY is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Education at University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi I confirm that this thesis has not been submitted for any other degrees Student’s Signature Mai Thị Thủy i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In completion of the study, I would like to express my sincere thanks to many people for their contributive suggestions as well as enthusiastic support Firstly, I would like to send my special appreciation to my supervisor Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân for his enormous help and precious advice I am extremely grateful to Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân for his careful guidance in terms of basic theory that has led me to this research I would like to send my gratitude to him for his precise instruction and endless feedbacks which have enhanced my arguments in the research He has thrown his full support behind me from the period of choosing appropriate topic to finalizing the chapter conclusion Secondly, I am indebted to 50 students at the Center for International Cooperation and Training, Electric Power University for having taken part in the data collection process using survey questionnaire and interviewing Thirdly, warm thanks are given to all my classmates in K20D for their contributive suggestions as well as experience sharing which has become a motivating stimulus during the time of conducting the research project Last but not least, I owe my deep gratitude to my beloved family for their whole-hearted encouragement and great support during my time of fulfilling this thesis ii ABSTRACT It goes without saying that a good beginning is half the battle Accordingly, pre-writing strategies are considered an essential tool for students, especially third-year students at Electric Power University who have not been familiar with academic writing In order to carry out this research project, 50 students were involved in this study to bring various and critical viewpoints about the main aspect of pre-writing skill illustrated by the term “strategies” Using two research methods including quantitative and qualitative and two instruments including questionnaire and semi-structured interview, the study attempts to answer to the question: “What strategies are used by students at the Center for International Cooperation and Training, Electric Power University, at the pre-writing stage?” The results shared that the strategies students at Center for International Cooperation and Training, Electric Power University use at the pre-writing stage include brainstorming, outlining, talking it out, categorizing and clustering Meanwhile, they rarely or never use journaling, questions-asking, branching and free-writing It is also found that they are not really aware of the importance of these pre-writing strategies This explains partly why their writing is of poor quality The study‟s results suggested that teachers should be more flexible to convert such useful strategies into activities in class to make sure students can understand prewriting strategies and apply them to writing skill effectively iii iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION…………………………………………………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………… ii ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………… iii TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………… iv LIST OF CHARTS………………………………………………………………… vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………………… vii PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale……………………………………………………………………… Research aims and research questions……………………………………… Significance of the study……………………………………………………… Scope of the study…………………………………………………………… Methods of the study………………………………………………………… Design of the study…………………………………………………………… PART II : DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: Theoretical and Practical Backgrounds to the study The concept of writing ………………………………………………………… The importance of writing in second language teaching………………………… Writing process ………………………………………………………………… 3.1 Pre-writing……………………………………………………………… 3.2 While-writing…………………………………………………………… 3.3 Post-writing…………………………………………………………… Previous studies on the strategies students use at the pre-writing stage………… 4.1 Free writing…………………………………………………………… 11 v 4.2 Brainstorming/ Listing………………………………………………… 12 4.3 Clustering/mind mapping……………………………………………… 14 4.4 Branching……………………………………………………………… 15 4.5 Outlining……………………………………………………………… 16 4.6 Questions – Asking…………………………………………………… 17 4.7 Journaling……………………………………………………………… 18 4.8 Talking it out…………………………………………………………… 19 4.9 Categorizing…………………………………………………………… 19 Context of the study……………………………………………………………… 20 5.1 Center for International Cooperation and Training, EPU……………… 20 5.2 Teachers………………………………………………………………… 21 5.3 Students………………………………………………………………… 21 5.4 Teaching materials……………………………………………………… 22 Summary………………………………………………………………………… 23 CHAPTER II: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY……………… 24 Research site…………………………………………………………………… 24 The participants ………………………………………………………………… 24 The research instruments……………………………………………………… 24 Distribution of data……………………………………………………………… 25 Data collection procedures……………………………………………………… 26 Analysis of data………………………………………………………………… 26 Summary……………………………………………………………………… 26 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS……………… 27 Results from survey questionnaire………………………………………… 27 1.1 Students‟ use of pre-writing strategies……………………………… 27 vi 1.2 Students‟ frequency of using pre-writing strategies………………… 29 1.3 effectiveness of pre-writing strategies for generating idea………… 31 Results from interview………………………………………………………… 32 2.1 Students‟ knowledge about pre-writing strategies…………………… 32 2.2 Students‟ awareness of the importance of pre-writing strategies…… 33 Summary……………………………………………………………………… 33 PART III: CONCLUSION……………………………………………………… 35 Summary……………………………………………………………………… 35 Recommendations…………………………………………………………… 36 Limitations of the study……………………………………………………… 37 Suggestions for further studies………………………………………………… 37 REFERENCES …………………………………………………………………….39 Appendix 01: Survey questionnaire I Appendix 02: Survey interview…………………………………………………… VII Appendix 03: Data statistics for questionnaire…………………………………… VIII Appendix 04: Results from interviewing section………………………………… X vii LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: Students‟ use of pre-writing strategies Chart 2: Prewriting strategies students often use Chart 3: Prewriting strategies students not often use Chart 4: effectiveness of pre-writing strategies for generating ideas LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EPU: Electric Power University CICT: Center for International Cooperation and Training viii PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale “Reading makes a full man, conference a ready man and writing makes an exact man” is one of the most famous sayings of the philosopher and essayist Sir Francis Bacon Actually, writing is a ticket for human beings not only to enter everyday communication but also to better college grades and greater academic achievement In addition, in teaching writing, like in the teaching of other three skills, the necessity of conducting the pre-, while- and post-stages has been increasingly realized nowadays The while-stage has been supposed most necessary and important Recent studies have shown that pre-stage also plays an important role in the courses‟ success, especially in the language classroom Therefore, pre-writing stage, called the preparation stage, has been needed to provide learners with context motivation and necessary sub-skills to assist their writing Moreover, it is to give full play to learners‟ prior initiatives Practically, there have been a number of studies on students‟ writing strategies so far but now has been on strategies used by students at the pre-writing stage That is one of the reasons why I decided to conduct this project in order to find out something meaningful to fill in the gaps In addition, although the necessity of examining writing strategies is increasingly recognized recently, after entering the university, lots of students are actually unfamiliar with academic writing At university, students were taught to speak, read and write through various approaches, methods and techniques in order to achieve proficiency in the language Specifically, the main objective of writing is to enable students to write a composition during which they are guided through the process of writing, pre-writing-planning, drafting, revising and editing This is to ensure that students are given proper guidance when producing a good piece of writing Ironically, writing is still the skill most students are least proficient in They still find it difficult to any writing task, especially from very first steps of writing Although a sizable interview aims at finding out if students are aware of the strategies at the pre-writing stage and which strategies are more important at the pre-writing stage It is also found out that most students are not aware of the strategies used at the pre-writing stage, most of them are not fully aware of the importance of using strategies at the pre-writing stage Recommendations From the perspective of the insider, the researcher puts forwards some implications with a purpose of improving writing skill for the majority of student to write better in the future and suggesting solutions to the difficulties likely to hinder students‟ progress at CICT, EPU To be more specific, students agree that it is not easy to write effectively Therefore, it could be very demanding that students in general should be aware of the importance of using strategies in the writing process in general and at the pre-writing stage in particular Moreover, teachers should teach students how to use writing strategies at the pre-writing stage appropriately and effectively Students should be given opportunities to practice as far as possible strategies at the pre-wring stage In other words, teachers should be more flexible to convert such useful strategies into skills because skills are strategies that have become automatic When students consciously learn and practice specific pre-writing strategies, the strategies move from conscious to unconscious, from strategies to skills For instance, when students are taught how to pre-writing stage for the first time, they are using a strategy When their ability to write becomes automatic, they move from using a conscious strategy to using an unconscious skill Once students have interesting ideas and know how to develop them, they can write better That is why getting ideas and developing them are very crucial issues that need to be addressed continuously Some people are born writers They really have the talent to write, and abundant of great ideas naturally flood them Others have to struggle to get ideas, but it does not mean they cannot be good writers They can get ideas through 36 observations, reading, as well as collaborative work in the prewriting stage It is important for teacher to organize collaborative work at prewriting stage to help students get interesting ideas and develop them into dynamic writing Collaborative work also raises students' awareness concerning audience's expectation, and allows students to learn about the organizational patterns of academic English writing The pedagogical generalization that emerges from this study is that writing teachers can optimally use collaborative activities throughout students' writing process including prewriting Limitations of the study Although the researcher took considerably great efforts to conduct the study, there are still some limitations due to time pressure and small scale of samples For the first reason, the answers of these participants to some extent could be unlikely to represent the total purpose In the second place, the limited number of interviewees was another shortcoming of the paper Due to time constraint, the study only concentrated on getting in-depth information from volunteers who had taken part in the questionnaire before Therefore, the interviews‟ results did not really satisfy the desirable data the researcher had intention to collect To fill the gap, to some extent, a large number of interviewees should be invited to participate in the study Suggestions for further studies This thesis is limited to explore the strategies used by students at Center for International Cooperation and Training, EPU In order to have a comprehensive picture of the strategies tertiary students use in the writing process, future research should be extended to cover the exploration of the strategies used by tertiary students of nonmajored English at the while- and post-writing stage of the writing process Therefore, students can improve writing ability in all facets and throughout all of the three stages 37 In addition, another remarkable point that needed to be stated here is that it would be better if future studies could be completed with broader informant population to increase the generalization of the findings Last but not least, the study placed its focus on students‟ perception towards an aspect of pre-writing strategies illustrated by term “strategies” Therefore, for the future studies on the same topic, many different unexploited aspects relating to the students‟ perception should be conducted such as “difficulties” students when writing and “effectiveness” of strategies students use in the writing process 38 REFERENCES Adeghija, E (1991) A survey of students' prewriting activities and their implications for teaching, ESP Journal, 10: 227-23 Baroudy, I (2008) A Procedural Approach to Process Theory of Writing: Pre-writing Techniques The International Journal of Language Society and Culture, ISSN 1327-774X Byrne, D (1988) Teaching writing skills London: Longman Cameron (2008) Prewriting Strategies for Exploring Ideas Douglas College Caudery, T (1997) Process writing, in Writing in the English Language Classroom, ed G Fulcher Birmingham: Prentice Hall International: 3-23 Clark, R and Routledge, R (1997) Politics of Writing London: Routledge Coffin, c., Curry, M , Goodman, S., Hewings, A., Lillis, T., & Swann, J (2003) Teaching academic Writing: A toolkit for higher education London: Longman Ede, L (2001) Work in Progress: A Guide to Academic Writing and Revising 5th ed Boston: Bedford/St Martin‟s Fletcher (1996) A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Avon Books, US 10 Franco, M (1996) Designing a writing component for teen courses at a Brazilian language institute In Teacher as Course Developer, ed K Graves Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 119-150 11 Gains, (1999) Electronic mail -a new style of communication or just a new medium?: An investigation into the text feature of e-mail, ESP Journal, 18: 81 -101 12 Kimberly & Abels (2003) What is Writing, Retrieved from www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/pdf/writing.pdf 13 Kroll, B (1991) Teaching writing in the ESL context In Celce-Murcia, M (Ed.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (pp 245-263) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 39 14 Lahl, A (2008) A Guide to Prewriting Student Learning Center University of California Retrieved from http://slc.berkeley.edu/writing/BeforeWriting.htm 15 Lannon, J.M (1989) The writing process A concise rhetoric Southeastern Massachusetts University 16 Murray, D (1982) Learning by Teaching New York: Boynton/Cook Publishers, Inc 17 Owen, D (2009) Pre-writing strategies: Saint Joseph College 18 Peacock, C (1986) Teaching Writing London: Croom Hehn 19 Raimes, A (1983) Techniques in teaching writing New York Oxford university press 20 Starkey, L (2004) How to write great essays Learning Express 21 Sokolik, M (2003) Writing In D, Nunan (Ed.), Practical English language teaching (pp 87- 108) China: McGraw- Hill Companies, Inc and higher Education Press 22 Tomlinson, B (1983) An approach to the teaching of continuous writing in ESL classes, ELT Journal, 37: 7-14 23 Tribble, C (1996) Writing Oxford: Oxford University Press 24 Wells, J (2009) Brainstorm for the Essay Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/index.php?category_id=2&sub_categor y_id=2&article_id=53 25 White & Arndt (1991) Process writing Essex Longman Publisher 26 White, R (1995) New Ways in Teaching Writing London: Longman 27 Wolfe, P (2001) Translating research into classroom practice Virginia, ASCD 28 Zemach, D.E & Islaln, C (2006) Writing in paragraphs Macmillan Education 40 APPENDIX 01 Survey Questionnaire The survey questionnaire is designed for the study on how to improve students‟ writing skill I would appreciate if you could help me answer the following questions You can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussions or data analysis Thank you so much for your cooperation! Background information Name:…………………………………………………………………… Class:…………………………………………………………………… Do you use the following strategies when preparing for writing a topic? Please put a tick on Yes or No column Answers Questions a Ask yourself important questions about the topic: Who? What? When? Why? Where? Which? (Journaling) b Write without stopping, just to focus on ideas, not grammatical or mechanical correctness on a piece of paper (free –writing) c List as many items about the topic which you can think of, put focus on a significant word or phrase, and then try to record everything that comes to your mind (brainstorming/listing) d Write an outline (topic sentence, main ideas and concluding sentence) to organize ideas (outlining) e start with a circle in the middle that contain your main idea, then I Yes No draw line to , smaller circles that contain (clustering) f write and circle or box ideas, usually at the top of the page, with complementary ideas branching off of the main ideas (branching) g write down all the questions that seem relevant to the topic (Questions-Asking) h talk for about three minutes with a partner to discuss about the topic (Talk it out) i put ideas into groups according to what type they are (categorizing) For the following questions, please put a tick on A, B, C or D column to specify more about frequency of using each pre-writing strategy A Always B Sometimes C Rarely D Never Question: When given for writing a topic, how often you with these following options? Answers Questions a Ask yourself important questions about the topic: Who? What? When? Why? Where? Which? (Journaling) b Write without stopping, just to focus on ideas, not grammatical or mechanical correctness on a piece of paper (free –writing) c List as many items about the topic which you can think of, put focus on a significant word or phrase, and then try to record everything that comes to your mind II A B C D (brainstorming/listing) d Write an outline (topic sentence, main ideas and concluding sentence) to organize ideas (outline) e start with a circle in the middle that contain your main idea, then draw line to , smaller circles that contain (clustering) f write and circle or box ideas, usually at the top of the page, with complementary ideas branching off of the main ideas (branching) g write down all the questions that seem relevant to the topic (Questions-Asking) h talk for about three minutes with a partner to discuss about the topic (Talk it out) i put ideas into groups according to what type they are (categorizing) What are your thoughts or comments about planning your writing? A Very helpful B Quite helpful C Not very helpful at all III CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT Các câu hỏi thiết kế cho nghiên cứu việc làm để cải thiện kĩ viết cho người học Rất mong em bớt chút thời gian trả lời cách trung thực xác câu hỏi Mọi thông tin em cung cấp bảo mật.Xin chân thành cảm ơn cộng tác em! Thông tin sinh viên Tên:………………………………………………………………………… Lớp:………………………………………………………………………… Câu 1: Em có sử dụng chiến lược sau chuẩn bị viết chủ đề không? Hãy đánh dấu (√) vào ô tương ứng Trả lời Câu hỏi a Đặt câu hỏi chủ đề bao gồm: Ai? Cái gì? Khi nào? Tại sao? Ở đâu? Cái nào? b Viết không dừng khoảng phút vào giấy nháp, để lấy ý, không quan tâm đến lỗi ngữ pháp hay tả c Liệt kê nhiều ý chủ đề có thể, tập trung vào từ, cụm từ d Viết dàn ý bao gồm câu chủ đề, ý chính, câu kết luận để tổ chức ý e Bắt đầu trịn với từ chủ đề Sau vẽ vịn trịn nhỏ lien quan đến từ khóa f Viêt vẽ vịng trịn chứa ý chính, thường đặt với ý bổ trợ ý IV Có Khơng g Viết tất câu hỏi lien quan đến chủ đề h Nói khoảng phút với người bạn để thảo luận chủ đề i Tổ chức ý thành nhóm theo loại với Câu 2: Với câu hỏi sau, đánh dấu (√) vào ô A, B, C D để làm rõ tần suất sử dụng chiến lược giai đoạn trước viết A Luôn B Thi thoảng C Hiếm D Không Câu hỏi: Khi giao chủ đề viết, em thường làm với lựa chọn sau? Trả lời Câu hỏi a Đặt câu hỏi chủ đề bao gồm: Ai? Cái gì? Khi nào? Tại sao? Ở đâu? Cái nào? b Viết không dừng khoảng phút vào giấy nháp, để lấy ý, khơng quan tâm đến lỗi ngữ pháp hay tả c Liệt kê nhiều ý chủ đề có thể, tập trung vào từ, cụm từ d Viết dàn ý bao gồm câu chủ đề, ý chính, câu kết luận để tổ chức ý e Bắt đầu trịn với từ chủ đề Sau vẽ vịn trịn nhỏ lien quan đến từ khóa f Viêt vẽ vịng trịn chứa ý chính, thường đặt với ý bổ trợ ý g Viết tất câu hỏi liên quan đến chủ đề V A B C D h Nói khoảng phút với bạn để thảo luận chủ đề i Tổ chức ý thành nhóm theo loại với Câu 3: ý kiến em việc chuẩn bị trước viết nào? Khoanh tròn A, B C A Rất hữu ích B Khá hữu ích C Khơng hữu ích chút VI APPENDIX 02 Interview (Semi-structured) The survey questionnaire is designed for the study on how to improve students‟ writing skill I would appreciate if you could help me answer the following questions Do you know strategies/preparation before writing a topic? What are they? What you think about the importance of strategies/preparation before writing? Note: The interview would be flexible when asking VII APPENDIX 03 Data statistics for questionnaire Question 01: Students‟ use of pre-writing strategies Strategies Yes No Journaling 22 28 Free-writing 15 35 Brainstorming/Listing 45 Outlining 40 10 Clustering 42 Branching 30 20 Questions-asking 24 26 Talking it out 41 Categorizing 38 12 Question 2: Students‟ frequency of using pre-writing strategies Group 1: Prewriting strategies students often use Strategies Always Sometimes Rarely Never Brainstorming 30 10 Outlining 17 13 12 Talking it out 22 15 Categorizing 13 21 10 Clustering 12 23 11 VIII Group 2: Prewriting strategies students not often use Strategies Always Sometimes Rarely Never Journaling 19 20 Free-writing 13 25 Branching 10 16 18 Questions-asking 12 22 Question 3: effectiveness of pre-writing strategies for generating ideas: Answers Number in total (50) Percentage (%) Very helpful 35 70 Quite helpful 13 26 Not very helpful IX APPENDIX 04 Results from interviewing Raw data collected from interviewing students I Đặng Công Thành – class: AUC3.EPS1 Yes They are brainstorming, listing, outlining I think the preparation before writing is important I can base on the listed ideas to develop my writing Moreover, I can choose the most appropriate ideas for writing II Nguyễn Văn Giang – class AUC3.EPS2 No, I don‟t I think the preparation before writing is normal I can write a paragraph without listing ideas on a piece of paper first III Nguyễn Thái Sơn – class AUC3 EPS4 No, I don‟t I think the preparation before writing is not important It takes me a lot of time for writing I often read the topic and write immediately on paper without preparing anything I not like wasting time drafting IV Vũ Tuấn Anh – class AUC3 EPS1 Yes They are brainstorming, outlining, clustering, and free-writing I think the preparation before writing is necessary for generating ideas It can be useful to generate ideas V Nguyễn Thành Đức – class AUC3.EPS3 No, I don‟t know I think the preparation before writing is not really important While I am writing, I can think of new ideas for a paragraph X ... Canberra, A.C.T and State College Hawthorn, Melbourne, Victoria Most of them were trained under the strong influence of the modern teaching methods which based on communicative approach The goal is... into paragraphs, review their paragraphs, and revise their paragraphs so that they become even stronger This process approach to writing will not only develop your students' paragraph writing