Action research on students’ inactiveness in pre-writing group discussion of an essay-writing essay practice lesson at hong duc university,thanh hoa

Action research on students’ inactiveness in pre-writing group discussion of an essay-writing essay practice lesson at hong duc university,thanh hoa

PART 1: INTRODUCTION1 RATIONALE

Nowadays English has become an international language because it is widelyused in many parts of the world In the tendency of integration of the global economyEnglish is one of the effective communicative tools for everybody The role of English isconsidered to be very important in the fields of economics, politics, science, culture andeducation Especially, Vietnam’s official membership of WTO on 7th November 2006opened a new door for integrating into the world economy, and more and more peoplewant to learn English for communicating with foreign partners, tourism, study tours, etc.

Since the Communicative Language Teaching was applied widely, groupwork hashad its actual and important roles in helping students to practice their four language skills(speaking, listening, reading and writing) in integration

When teaching writing essays to the third-year Major English College students atHong Duc University I found out that in practice writing lessons very few students tookpart in groupwork actively I saw that students sat in groups saying nothing or very littlemainly in their mother tongue or having private talks When they were encouraged towork in groups they reluctantly spoke

I decided to carry out the action research to find out the causes of students'inactive participation in groupwork Based on the results of this action research, somechanges and improvements could be applied in my lessons, and some appropriatestrategies needed to be designed to enable all group members to discuss actively ingroups I hoped the results of my study would be shared with any colleagues who had thesame problem or anyone who was interested in this study

2 METHODOLOGY

2.1 Participants

The subjects of my research were 36 third-year major English college students inClass K12A (Academic Course: 2005-2008) of Foreign Language Department at HongDuc University, Thanh Hoa province The class was divided into 6 groups with sixstudents in each The research was carried out during the second term of the academicyear 2006-2007 at Hong Duc University.

2.2 Research procedure

My action research consisted of three main stages: Pre-Improvement stage,Trying-Out stage and Post-Improvement stage.

Stage 1: Pre-Improvement:

Step 1 Identifying the problem which was wished to solve or an area which was wishedto improve by:

i Observing a lesson that illustrated the problem

ii Conducting a survey to get information from studentsStep 2 Finding causes of the problem by:

i Consulting with colleagues: a number of colleagues were asked to answer threequestions about groupwork on a piece of paper.

ii Reading professional books/ journals for ideas and suggestions

Stage 2: Trying-Out

Step 3 Designing strategies for improvements (plan for action)

Step 4 Trying out the strategies (action) and making records of what happened in class.

Stage 3: Post-Improvement

Step 5 Evaluating the try-out by:

i Observing a lesson (Focusing on the students’ turns of speaking in groupwork in anessay-writing practice lesson at the end of the try-out period) that illustrated the changesthat have been made;

ii Reflecting on the reasons for those changes (which could include things that had beenimproved or that had been gotten worse)

iii Carrying out a survey to get information from my students.iv Giving comments and conclusions.

3 Scope of the study

This study was carried out in an English class with 36 3rd year college students in theForeign Language Department at Hong Duc University in Thanh Hoa province Theresearch focused on the problem of “inactiveness” in group discussion in pre-writingstage of essay-writing practice lessons

4 Design of the study

My research consists of three main parts with: Introduction, Development andConclusion Part 1: Introduction presents the rationale, the method of study, the scope ofthe study, the subject of the study, the significance of the study and the design of thestudy

Part 2: Development consists of Section A ‘ Literature Review’ and Section B‘Action Research Procedure’ In Section A, there are three chapters with different

focuses Chapter One focuses on action research: its definition, three reasons to use it,and ways to carry out it Chapter Two introduces the concepts of writing, academic

writing, writing essays, types of essays, the process of writing essays It also discusses theteaching of writing and the teaching of writing essays, some approaches to teaching

writing The last chapter (Chapter Three) focuses on groupwork in teaching foreign

languages in general and in teaching writing essays; some advantages and problems of

groupwork Section B namely “Action Research Procedure” describes the procedure of

my action research with the following main steps: defining the problem, observing class,conducting a survey using questionnaires, collecting data and analyzing data, and givingout conclusions from findings

Part 3: Conclusion is the last part which offered a summary and suggestions forsolving the problem of inactiveness of groupwork in teaching writing essays and someimplications for the teachers who uses groupwork in teaching writing essays.

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT

A LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPTER 1: ACTION RESEARCH

1 What is action research?

According to Jerry G Grebhard (1999), the concept of action research originated inthe work of Kurt Lewin (1948, 1952) He was a social psychologist who brought togetherexperimental approaches to social-science research and the idea of “social action” toaddress social issues Stephen Corey (1952, 1953), a Columbia University professor, wasamong the first to use action research in the field of education He argued that formalresearch following a scientific method had little impact on educational practice Throughaction research, he argued, changes in educational practice were possible.

In terms of what action research was, having considered what it was not, actionresearch had been defined in many different ways In Stephen Corey’s definition“(Action research is) a way in which teachers try to study their own problemsscientifically, in an effort to evaluate, guide and correct their procedures” Tsui’sdefinition was more detailed and simpler: "Action research is a very effective way ofhelping teachers to reflect on their teaching and to come up with their own alternatives toimprove their practice.” (Tsui, 1993)

In another way, action research was mentioned at two levels by Grebhard andOprandy:

“At one level, action research is about teachers identifying and posing problems, aswell as addressing issues and concerns related to the problem It is about working towardunderstanding and possibly resolving these problems by setting goals and creating andinitiating a plan of action, as well as reflecting on the degree to which the plan works

… At another level, it can be about addressing educational practices that go beyondeach teacher’s classroom” (Grebhard and Oprandy, 1999)

In the “Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics”Richards, J.C and Platt, J H gave the following definitions of action research:

In the general meaning, it is “… research which has the primary goal of finding waysof solving problems, bringing about social change or practical action, in comparison withresearch which seeks to discover scientific principles or develop general laws andtheories”.

In teacher education, it is “ … teacher-initiated classroom research which seeks toincrease the teacher’s understanding of classroom teaching and learning and to bringabout improvements in classroom practices.”.

In brief, action research is a kind of scientific study which is often carried out by ateacher or an educator in order to solve a practical problem in a classroom As it wasnamed, it focuses mainly on the actions of both students and teachers So, it can solve theproblems which are related to all actions and activities in a classroom The problemswhich are solved by action research are often practical and useful for teachers

Action research in schools, colleges or universities solves everyday practicalproblems experienced by teachers, rather than the ‘theoretical problems’ defined by non-teaching researchers It should be carried out by the teachers themselves or by someonethey commission to carry out for them.

Action research in education focuses on the three related stages of action:

“1 Initiating action, such as, adopting a text, choosing an alternative assessment

If the teacher was trained to conduct action research he could solve his problems onhis own or in collaboration with other teachers Anders (1988), Curtis (1988) and Tsui(1993) gave three reasons why a teacher needed action research:

- to solve own problems in a scientific process and improve own practice- to adapt theory (findings of conventional research) to practice (own problems)- to share the results of action research with other teachers

Moreover, action research was also for a teacher’s professional developments Hewould become a better teacher because he knew how to find out and solve his problemsin teaching scientifically on his own This also showed his dynamic, activeness andimagination in his teaching job.

3 How does a teacher carry out action research in a languageclassroom?

Tsui (1993) suggested 5 steps in conducting action research:

Step 1 Identifying problems you wish to solve or an area you wish to improve by:+ reviewing an audio- or a video-taped lesson and the transcription of a segment of thelesson that illustrates the problem.

+ conducting a survey to hear from your studentsStep 2 Finding causes of the problem by:

+ consulting with your colleagues, trainers

+ reading professional books/ journals for ideas and suggestions

Step 3 Designing strategies for improvement (plan for action) and writing a proposal foraction research

Step 4 Trying out the strategies (action) and keeping a diary of what happened in theclass

Step 5 Evaluating the try-out by:

+ reviewing a lesson (taped at the end of the try-out period) that illustrated the changesthat have been made; and

+ reflecting on the reasons for those changes (which could include things that have beenimproved or that have been gotten worse)

+ carrying out a survey to get information from students.

Other authors such as Kemmis and Mc Taggart (1988), Andy Curtis (1988) andNunan (1989) also recommended the similar steps in doing action research in aclassroom Different from Tsui, in the step of “Collecting data and identifying theproblem’, Nunan (1992) suggested that teachers should observe and make notes on whattheir learners and themselves said and did in class, and then, based on these observations,identified positive ways to bring about this change

In my opinion, observing the class and making notes are feasible for a teacher toimplement his/her action research where cassette recorders or camcorders are notavailable

A necessary component of action research is collaboration among differentpeople They are teachers, their colleagues and students, who should be willing to talkwith each other about the problems and find out the solutions together, as well as helpeach other in implementing classroom-centered action research projects It also needs thecollaborative efforts of students who participate in the action research project Students’collaboration plays an important role in the success of the action research project

4 Summary

Action research is a kind of scientific study carried out by a teacher which solvesthe practical problems in a classroom The teacher needs action research to adapt theory(findings of conventional research) to practice (his/her own problems) Action researchconsists of three stages:

1 Pre-Improvement: Firstly, the teacher identifies the problem in his teaching job in

class He/she observes by himself/herself or asks somebody to observe or has his/herlessons video-taped in class to get data to prove the problem He/she also proves theproblem by conducting a survey to get information from his/her students Secondly, the

teacher tries to find out the causes of the problem from professional books or journals,colleagues and students.

2 Try-Out: The teacher designs the strategies for improvement and tries them out in

some following lessons Next, a lesson is observed or video-taped to get data to illustratethe changes and improvements

3 Post-Improvement: The teacher reflects on the reasons for the changes and

improvements To ensure the success of the applied strategies in action research a surveyis necessary to get the evaluation from students From the results of the action researchsome conclusions and comments will be made

Action research can be carried out in collaboration with other teachers or educators andit needs the supports from both students and education administrators Its results shouldbe popularized and shared with anybody who is interested in.

CHAPTER 2: WRITING

1 WHAT IS WRITING?

In teaching a language, writing is considered one of the four language skills(speaking, listening, reading and writing) that a learner is expected to master Writing isthe process in which the writer expresses his thoughts or ideas in the form of handwriting.“Writing is communicating Good writing gets your ideas out of your head and into thereader’s head without losing or distorting those ideas” (Leki, 1976) To understandthoroughly the nature of writing, some more academic definitions of writing should bestudied

According to “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary” (1989), writing is to “makeletters or other symbols on a surface (usually paper), especially with a pen or pencil”.Writing, in Davies’s point of view, involved two kinds of skills The first ones were low-level skills such as handwriting or typing, spelling, constructing grammatical sentences,punctuating and the second ones were high-level cognitive skills such as gathering ideas,organizing and sequencing, structuring, drafting, and editing Byrne (1988) gave a longand complex definition which might be summarized as follows: writing is the act offorming graphic symbols (letters or combinations of letters) which were arrangedaccording to certain conventions, to form words, and words which were arranged to formsentences, and we produced a sequence of sentences arranged in a particular order andlinked together in certain way, on a flat surface of some kind

In conclusion, Byrne’s definition can be considered one of the most completedefinitions of writing because it covers all of the features of writing given by three above-mentioned authors

2 WHAT IS ACADEMIC WRITING?

Academic writing is part of the writing skills that is taught in schools, colleges oruniversities “Academic writing, as the name implies, is kind of writing that you are

required to do in college or university It differs from other kinds of writing (personal,literary, journalistic, business, etc) ways Its differences can be explained in part by itsspecial audience, tone, and purpose” (Oshima and Hogue, 1991) In more details, Oshimaand Hogue gave some clear explanations to some terms in their definition of academicwriting “Audience” meant the people who would read what the author had written.Knowing audience helped the writer reach his/her goal of communicating clearly andeffectively In academic writing, the audience was primarily his/her professors, teachers.“Tone” revealed writer’s attitude towards his/her subject by his /her choice of words,grammatical structures, and even the length of his or her sentences The tone of a piece ofwriting was determined more by its intended audience than its subject matter Academicwriting was always formal in tone No matter what kind of writing the writer did, he/sheshould have a special and clear purpose In academic writing, the author’s purpose wouldmost often be too explained It might also be to persuade or to convince his/her audienceof the correctness of his/her point of view on a particular issue The purpose of a piece ofwriting determined the organizational form and style chosen for it

3 APPROACHES TO TEACHING WRITING

Nowadays there are many different approaches to teaching writing In this partonly four main approaches to teaching writing were mentioned.

According to Byrne (1988) there were four approaches to teaching writing withdifferent focuses: Controlled-to-Free Approach, Free-Writing Approach, Paragraph-Pattern Approach and Communicative Approach.

3.1 Controlled-to-Free Approach

According to this approach mistakes shown up in written work was regarded as amajor problem The teacher assumed that students made mistakes because they wrotewhat they wanted freely This approach stressed the importance of control in teachingwriting skills to students in early stages Students were taught how to write and combine

various sentence types and manipulation exercises were used to give students theexperience of writing connected sentences.

The amount of control would be reduced gradually and students were asked toexercise meaningful choice At the next stages, students might be given a good deal ofguidance and content, but allowed some opportunities for self-expression This approachalso emphasized step-by-step learning and formal correction

3.2 Free-Writing Approach

This Free-Writing encouraged students to write as much as possible and asquickly as possible-without paying attention to mistakes The important thing studentsdid was to get their ideas down on a paper The drawbacks of this approach were thatmany students wrote badly because they did not write enough and for the same reasonthey felt inhibited when they picked up a pen to write This approach might be usefulwhen writing a journal or a diary.

3.3 Paragraph-Pattern Approach

This Paragraph-Pattern Approach stressed the importance of paragraph as the basicunit of written expression Students were taught how to construct and organizeparagraphs This approach helped students express themselves effectively at a levelbeyond the sentence.

3.4 Communicative Approach.

This Communicative Approach emphasized the communicative role of writing.Students should have a reason for writing and think about whom they wrote to or for.This approach required situations which allowed them to write purposefully Thisapproach motivated students to write and showed how writing was a form ofcommunication

Apart from those above-mentioned approaches to teaching writing, Raimes (1983)

mentioned another approach to teaching writing: The Process Approach In this

approach, students did not write on a given topic in a restricted time and gave theirwriting assignments to their teachers to correct They explored a topic through writing inan unrestricted time, showing their teachers and each other their drafts, and using whatthey wrote to read over, think about, and moved them on to a new ones Teachers couldgive their feedbacks on the content of what students have written in their drafts Thewriting process became a process of discovery That was the discovery of new ideas andnew language forms to express those ideas.

To sum up, we may have two main types of approaches according to two above mentioned authors: Product Approach (consists of four approaches given by Byrne(1988) This approach is so-called because it focuses on the product of the writingprocess) and Process Approach by Raimes (1983) focuses on the process of the writingactivity

-4 WHAT IS WRITING ESSAY?

4.1 The definition of an essay

An essay, also called composition, is ‘a longer piece of writing, particularly one that

is written by a student as part of a course of study or by a writer writing for publicationwhich expresses the writer’s viewpoint on a topic’ (Richards and Platts, 1992); ‘Theessay is a group of paragraphs about one subject’ (Fawcett and Sandberg, 1992 ) or inother words ‘An essay is a group of paragraphs that develops one central idea’ bySmalley and Ruetten (1986) Oshima and Hogue (1991) gave a similar definition of anessay: ‘An essay is a piece of writing several paragraphs long instead of just one or two.It is written about one topic, just as a paragraph’

4.2 Language requirements for learning to write an essay

According to Fawcett & Sandberg (1992), Smalley & Ruetten (1986) and Oshima

& Hogue (1991) essay writing was for intermediate and advanced students of English as

a second language The reason was that ‘Essays should not be given early in the languagelearning It is far better to follow the logical sequence: that is, get sentences right first,then work on short paragraphs, and only later write essays’ (Barry, 1997)

An essay is also used to assess an English learners’ writing ability in someinternational testing systems such as IELTS and TOEFL As stated by Sharpe (2001)writing essays is an opportunity for a student to demonstrate his/her ability to write inEnglish This includes the ability to generate and organize ideas, to support those ideaswith examples or evidence, and to compose in standard written English in response to anassigned topic ‘Good writing in English requires good grammar and good organization’(Oshima and Hogue.1991) That means the essay should be written in correct standardgrammar of English and the writer must know how to organize his/her thoughts in writinglogically, clearly and effectively As for ESL students, they must have a vocabularywhich is enough for them to express their ideas Moreover, in my opinion, the writershould have good background knowledge about the topic he/she is going to write about.If he/she has no information or knowledge about the topic he/she can not start to write theessay Group work is a better way for them to share and get ideas from other students towrite their own essays

4.3 Structure of an essay.

According to Oshima and Hogue (1991) and the above - mentioned authors, an

essay always has three main parts: an introductory paragraph (or introduction), a body(or developmental paragraphs) and a concluding paragraph (or conclusion) The

introductory paragraph consists of two parts: a few general statements about the subject

to attract reader’s attention and a thesis statement to state the specific subdivision of thetopic The body consists of one or more paragraphs Each of them develops a subdivision

of the topic The conclusion is a summary or review of the main points discussed by the

body

How many paragraphs an essay should consist of depends entirely on thecomplexity of the topic However, the essays written in class or in an exam paper in aschool or college should contains from four to six paragraphs, with the most common

number of five: one paragraph for introduction, three ones for the body and the last onefor the conclusion The number of words in an essay of this kind (also named short

essay) should be ranged from 150 words to 250 words for the time allowance of 45minutes

4.4 Types of essays

Essays can be classified by their aims According to Fawcett and Sandberg (1992)there were 8 types of essays: Illustration, Narrative, Descriptive, Process, Definition,

Comparison or Contrast, Classification and Persuasive In Illustration essays the writer

used specific examples to support a thesis or to prove a statement Narrative essaysrequired the writer to retell a meaningful incident, an event or personal experience Thewriter had to describe something such as a place, a product, a piece of equipment or cells

under a microscope, etc in a Descriptive essay Describing a process or steps in theprocedure of doing something was the aim of a Process essay In Definition essays

students had to define a scientific term such as Disk Operating System in computer

studies or DNA in biology etc When writing a Comparison or Contrast essay, students

might be asked to compare to find the similarities and differences between two things ortwo people They could also use some criteria to contrast two things or two people todiscover which features this person or a thing had but the other one did not have.

Differing from the above-mentioned types of essays, Classification essays required the

writer to use some criteria to classify some things or people or divide them into groups

under some standards In a Persuasive essay the writer had to take a stand on an issueand tried to convince others to agree with him or her In the Persuasive essay the writer

was often asked a question like this “Do you agree or disagree?” He had to choose toagree or disagree with the given topic.

Differing from Fawcett and Sandberg, Smalley and Ruetten (1986) gave out only5 types of essays with different names: Example Essay, Comparison and Contrast Essay,Classification Essay, Process Analysis Essay, Cause-and-Effect Analysis Essay andArgumentative Essay Among those, a Cause-and-Effect essay was not mentioned by

Fawcett and Sandberg In Cause-and-Effect essay the writer identified the causes of a

phenomenon, a problem or something or predicts its good or bad effects However, insome cases the writer did both of these actions

These five types of essays given by Smalley and Ruetten (1986) are the mostcommon types of essays which were taught to ESL students as the authors stated in theirbook They are also chosen to teach to Major English students in Hong Duc University,Thanh Hoa because of their suitability for ESL students.

4.5 Essay writing process

According to Fawcett and Sandberg (1992) there were four main steps in theessay-writing process: writing the thesis statement, gathering ideas for the body, orderingand linking paragraphs in the essay, writing and revising short essays

Step 1: Writing the thesis statement.

In this step there are two sub-steps: Narrowing the topic and Writing the thesisstatement These are the first important sub-steps before writing an essay.

1 Narrowing the Topic:

The essay writer often starts with a broad subject and then he narrows it to asuitable scale Due to the limitation of the time for writing in class or the length of theessay, the writer should list possible narrowed subjects (sub-topics) of the given topic ona paper Any one of these sub-topics is narrow enough and specific enough to be thesubject of a short essay Then he will consider each of them to choose one he could bestdevelop into a good essay

2 Writing the thesis statement

The thesis statement further focuses the subject because it must clearly state, in afull sentence, the writer’s central point: the main idea or opinion that the essay will

support and discuss The thesis statement should be as specific as possible By writing aspecific thesis statement, the writer focuses on his/her subject and give himself/herselfand his /her reader a clearer idea of what will follow in the body of the essay.

Step 2: Gathering Ideas for the Body

This step also consists of two sub-steps: brainstorming ideas and then find

paragraph groups and write topic sentences and then plan paragraphs Now the writer

should make a plan that includes the following things:- Two to four main ideas to support the thesis statement- Two to four topic sentences stating these above ideas- A plan for each paragraph in the body

- A logical order in which to present these paragraphs1 Brainstorming ideas and then find paragraph groups.

The essay writer should try to jot down any ideas that develop the thesisstatement, including main ideas, specific details, and examples, all jumbled together.Only after creating a long list do they go back over it, drop any ideas that do not supportthe thesis statement, and then plan paragraphs.

2 Write topic sentences and then plan paragraphs

Sometimes a writer can compose his/her topic sentences directly from the thesisstatement without extensive jotting first if the thesis statement itself shows how the bodywill be divided or organized Such a thesis statement makes the work of planningparagraphs easy because the writer has already broken down the subject into supportingideas or parts The order of paragraphs should logically follow the order in the thesisstatement, discussing first the problem and then the solution.

Step 3: Ordering and linking paragraphs in the essay1 Ordering paragraphs

An essay should have coherence That is, the paragraphs in an essay should bearranged in a clear, logical order and should follow one another like links in a chain Inorder to keep the paragraphs in the essay in a logical order the writer has to use his/hercommon sense and plan ahead He/she should not order his paragraphs randomly

Types of order such as time order, space order, and order of climax can

sometimes be used to arrange paragraphs within an essay Essays about subjects that canbe broken into stages or steps, which each step discussed in one paragraph, should be

arranged according to time Space order is used occasionally in descriptive essays A

writer who wants to save the most important or convincing paragraph for last would use

order of climax.

2 Linking paragraphs

There are four ways to links paragraphs:

- Repeat key words or ideas from the thesis statement.- Refer to words or ideas from the preceding paragraph.- Use transitional expressions.

- Use transitional sentences.

Step 4: Writing and revising short essays.

1 Writing the first draft

The writer should make sure that he/she has a clear plan or an outline from whichto write the first draft This plan should contain his/her thesis statement, two to four topicsentences that support it, details and facts to develop each paragraph, and a logical order.When writing the first draft he should leave room for later corrections.

2 Revising

The essay writer reads the first draft slowly and carefully to himself andunderlines trouble spots, draws arrows and writes in the margins or corrects directly anykinds of errors in the essay draft on his paper He may ask a trusted classmate or a friendto read his paper and give feedbacks.

3 Proof reading and writing final draft.

The writer should proof read the draft for grammar and spelling errors and try tocorrect them Finally, he types or writes the final draft to hand in

5 TEACHING WRITING ESSAYS IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGEDEPARTMENT AT HONG DUC UNIVERSITY, THANH HOA PROVINCE

5.1 Teaching writing skills to Major English College students.

According to the Programme of Training English Teachers for Junior High Schools,writing skills is taught in 5 terms of the whole training course:

Table 1: Teaching writing skills to Major English College Students

Time 45 periods60 periods60 periods 60 periods 30 periods

Sentences andwriting sentences

Authentic-TaskWriting

+ Writing notesand memos+ Writing personal letters+ Writing telegrams, personal ads and

instructions+ Writing reports on incidents and events+ Form-filling

+ How to writea paragraph+ Writing paragraph process+ Types of paragraphs+ Practice assignments

+ How to writean essay+ Writing essay process+ Types of paragraphs+ Practice lessons

+ Revision of essay writing+ Practice lessons+ Writing a long essay as project work ingroups

My study was carried out in Term 4 of the 5-term writing course In the early stageof this term students were taught how to write an essay, the process of writing an essay,different types of essays and at the end of this term students mainly wrote their own

essays in practice lessons in class In this term students could reach the intermediate oradvanced level of English as required writing essays

5.2 Teaching writing essays to Major English College students

In Hong Duc University, essay writing is taught to the college and university studentsin last two terms of their academic course because in Term 4 and Term 5 of the

Course students are at the levels of intermediate and advanced of English

Teaching writing essays in class in the early stages often consists of two steps:Step 1: Students are taught how to write an essay

Step 2: Students write essays in practice lessons in class with the help from the teacher.Writing in class is ‘especially helpful in the early stages because you (the teacheror trainer) are available for intermediate consultation Also, you can work your wayaround the room checking to make sure that everyone is on the right track’ (Oshima andHogue, 1991)

When students know how to write an essay the teacher can ask them to write anessay of their own in practice lessons in class The teacher may apply the 8 steps in atwo-period lesson (90 minutes) as follows:

Step 1 The teacher chooses a suitable topic for each type of essay and writes on theboard

Step 2 Students brainstorm the topic (3-5 minutes)

Step 3 Students discuss the topic in groups to exchange their ideas on the topic (7-10minutes).

Step 4 Students write their short essays (under 300 words) individually (45 minutes).Step 5 Students exchange their essays for peer’s correction (10 minutes)

Step 6 Students get their essays back from their peers and read their peer’s commentsand discuss about the mistakes and comments given by their peers (5 minutes)

Step 7 Students get consultation from the teacher if necessary (10 minutes or more)Step 8 The teacher collects students’ papers for correcting and/or marking at home (restof time)

In Step 1 in early stages the teacher should choose an interesting, easy and simpletopic and make sure that all of his/her students understand and have enough knowledgeabout the topic In Step 7 students may disagree with their peer’s comments andcorrections so they can ask the teacher for help Step 8 requires the teacher a lot of timefor reading students’ essays and giving comments and correction in details However, thishelps his students write better later Up to now the model of 8-step practice lesson hasbeen applied in teaching writing to major English students in Foreign LanguagesDepartment of Hong Duc University and it has proved its effectiveness.

6 SUMMARY

This chapter mentioned the definitions of writing in general and academic writing.Writing was one of the four language skills that a learner should master Writing was theact of forming graphic symbols which was arranged according to certain conventions toform words, then form sentences and linked these sentences in a certain way to expressthe writer’s ideas or thoughts Among the definitions of writing given by Leki (1976),Davies (2000), Hornby (1989) and Byrne (1988), the Byrne’s definition of writing wasthe most complete.

Academic writing was a sort of writing skill students are required to do in collegesor university According to Oshima and Hogue (1991) the concept of academic writingwas different from other kinds of writing by its audience, tone and purpose

We might have two main types of approaches according to two authors: ProductApproach (consisted of four approaches such as Controlled-to-Free Approach, Free-Writing Approach, Paragraph-Pattern Approach and Communicative Approach given byByrne (1988) This approach was so-called because it focused on the product of thewriting process) and Process Approach by Raimes (1983) (because it focused on theprocess of the writing activity)

Writing essays was a difficult skill because it required the writer to be atintermediate or advance level of the language This chapter also gave out the definitionsof essays, its structure, its types and the process of writing essays with four main steps:writing thesis statement, gathering ideas for the body, ordering and linking paragraphs in

essays and writing and revising short essays Teaching writing essays was also discussedin this chapter Essay writing was for intermediate and advanced students of English as asecond language Essays were also used to evaluate language learners’ writing ability insome international test systems such as IELTS or TOEFL in many English-speakingcountries.

At Hong Duc University writing essays is taught in Term 4 and Term 5 of the 6–Term Training Course for Junior English teachers Firstly, students are taught how towrite essays, types of essays, process of writing an essay and then they write their ownessays in practice lesson in class through 8 steps