Using reflective teaching journals through service learning for english majors a case study at thu dau mot university

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE USING REFLECTIVE TEACHING JOURNALS THROUGH SERVICE-LEARNING FOR ENGLISH MAJORS: A CASE STUDY AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By TỪ PHỤNG NGỌC Supervised by NGUYỄN HOÀNG TUẤN, PhD HO CHI MINH CITY, JUNE 2018 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: REFLECTIVE TEACHING JOURNALS THROUGH SERVICE-LEARNING FOR ENGLISH MAJORS: A CASE STUDY AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY in terms of the statement of Requirements for the Thesis in Master’s program issued by the Higher Degree Committee The thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other situation Ho Chi Minh, June 13, 2018 Từ Phụng Ngọc I RETENTION AND USE OF THESIS I hereby state that I, Tu Phung Ngoc, being the candidate for the degree of Master in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library In terms of these condition, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research in accordance with the normal conditions by the library for the care, loan or reproduction of the thesis Ho Chi Minh, June 13, 2018 Từ Phụng Ngọc II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Dr Nguyen Hoang Tuan, Dean of Faculty of Foreign Languages, Thu Dau Mot University, who spent his precious time searching great resources for my literature review I appreciate his wide knowledge in research methodology and his kindness to help me accomplish this work I gratefully thank the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature, Ho Chi Minh City University of Human Sciences and Humanities, which provided me and my classmates with professional and well-qualified professors to help us deepen our knowledge and abilities in TESOL I am very grateful to Ms Ta Hien Hoa, lecturer of Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Dalat, who spent her time to help me evaluate the quality of reflective journal writing Her deep knowledge and experience in English writing teaching helped my data collection procedure less labour-consuming I would like to express my thanks to Mr Phan Thanh Huan, teacher of Informatics and IT center, Ho Chi Minh City University of Human Sciences and Humanities, who kindly helped me with statistic skills, especially the tests used in this thesis My thankfulness also goes to Ms Nguyen Kim Hai, Deputy Head of the International Affairs Service, Thu Dau Mot University who provided me with all reflective teaching journals Also, I never forget the students who completed my questionnaire Without their responses, I could not accomplish this thesis I am grateful to my classmates: Kiem Ngan, Duy Y, Duy Thinh, A Tron, Kim Phung, Thi Lien, and Huyen Trang for their discussions and encouragements that helped me overcome psychological barriers to get this thesis done Importantly, my greatest thankfulness goes to my parents, whose love and support are with me in whatever I pursue I am also deeply indebted to my supportive sisters This work would not have been possible without their financial support III ABSTRACT The study was conducted with 18 English majors at Thu Dau Mot university (TDMU) who were required to keep reflective teaching journals during their service-learning course The aim of this study was to examine whether the guidance of reflective journal writing instructors could help them improve their English writing and reflection writing skills or not, and whether there are significantly statistical differences in depth of reflection according to the frequency of journal writing and differences in writing performance based on depth of reflection after the course Using the explanatory sequential mixed method design, the author collected quantitative data through narrative writing rubric (adapted from Glencoe, 2006) and reflective teaching journal rubric (adapted from Hatton & Smith, 1995; Pasternak & Rigoni, 2015), and qualitative data through an open-ended questionnaire to gain more insights from participants’ perspectives The findings showed that participants produced less qualified reflective journals and did not improve their narrative writing skills (particularly elaboration and grammar aspects) after the course The frequency of journal writing and English writing proficiency have an impact on the reflection writing skills The results have some main implications for syllabus designers, language teachers and those who conduct research on reflective journal writing in EFL context Key words: Service-learning, reflective teaching journals, narrative writing, depth of reflection, reflective journal writing instruction, frequency of journal writing IV TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I RETENTION AND USE OF THESIS II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III ABSTRACT IV TABLE OF CONTENTS V LIST OF FIGURES VIII LIST OF TABLES IX CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Significance of the study .4 1.6 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction of journal writing 2.2 Journal writing practice for EFL learners in language education 2.3 Journal writing practice for EFL learners in language teacher education 11 2.4 Reflection in journal writing .13 2.4.1 Definition of reflection 13 2.4.2 Importance of reflection in journal writing .13 2.4.3 Nature of reflection 15 2.4.4 Reflective writing frameworks 16 2.4.5 Enabling and limiting factor of reflection: responses and feedback 19 2.5 Journal writing instruction for EFL learners in tertiary education 20 2.5.1 Developing language writing abilities 20 2.5.2 Enhancing depth of reflection 22 2.6 Summary 25 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 26 3.1 Research design 26 V 3.2 Context of the study 28 3.2.1 Service-learning course 28 3.2.2 Reflection writing activities 30 3.2.3 Reflective journal writing instruction 31 3.3 Participants and sampling approaches 33 3.3.1 Quantitative sampling 33 3.3.2 Qualitative sampling 34 3.4 Research instruments 35 3.4.1 Reflective teaching journals 36 3.4.2 Narrative writing rubric 37 3.4.3 Reflective teaching journal rubric 39 3.5 Data collection procedure 40 3.5.1 Evaluation of reflective teaching journals 40 3.5.2 Journal writing rating 42 3.5.3 Open-ended questionnaire .42 3.6 Data analysis procedure 43 CHAPTER RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 46 4.1 Research question 46 4.1.1 Organization 47 4.1.2 Elaboration .47 4.1.3 Grammar and mechanics 49 4.1.4 Overall writing 50 4.2 Research question 52 4.2.1 Journal writing instruction 52 4.2.2 Frequency of journal writing 55 4.3 Research question 57 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 60 5.1 Conclusion 60 5.2 Pedagogical implications 61 5.2.1 Curriculum designers 61 VI 5.2.2 Reflective journal writing instructors 62 5.3 Limitations of the research 62 5.4 Recommendations for further study 63 REFERENCES 65 APPENDICES 70 APPENDIX A 70 APPENDIX B 70 APPENDIX C 72 APPENDIX D 73 APPENDIX E 74 APPENDIX F 75 APPENDIX G 76 APPENDIX H 78 APPENDIX I 83 VII LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: A hierarchical design literature map of this study 24 Figure 2: A diagram of variables in this study 26 Figure 3: A diagram of an explanatory sequential mixed methods design 27 Figure 4: The process of the service-learning course (with credits) at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of TDMU in 2016 28 Figure 5: A diagram of the data collection procedure of this study 35 Figure 6: A diagram of research findings 60 VIII LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Five groups of the second phase participants (N=18) 35 Table 2: Intra-rater reliability coefficients between the first and second ratings 38 Table 3: Kappa interpretation .41 Table 4: Inter-rater reliability between Rater and Rater based on Kappa’s statistics 41 Table 5: Inter-rater reliability coefficients between Rater and Rater 42 Table 6: The paired samples t-test on the writing scores of week and week journals (N=18) 46 Table 7: The paired samples t-test on the depth of reflection in week and week journals (N=18) 52 Table 8: The Pearson's Chi-square test on the relationship between the depth of reflection and the frequency of reflective journal writings (N=18) 55 Table 9: The ANOVA test on the differences in writing scores based on the depth of reflection (N=18) 57 Table 10: The Tukey HSD post hoc multiple comparison test on the differences in writing scores among reflectors (N=18) 58 IX APPENDIX D REFLECTIVE JOURNAL RUBRIC Level of Reflective Element in Reflective Entry Skills ◎R4: Detailed report of the significant events or experiences ◎I4: Insightful interpretations of the events or experiences based on personal judgment ◎A4: Clear ability to analyze and speculate the reason of the events or Competent experiences ◎H4: Clear ability to analyze an experience from various perspectives ◎C4: Comprehensive and meaningful discussion of implications of the experience in the context of future applications ◎R3: Detailed report of the events or experiences ◎I3: Constructive interpretations of the events or experiences based on personal judgment ◎A3: Some ability to analyze and speculate the reason of the events or Good experiences ◎H3: Some ability to analyze an experience from various perspectives ◎C3: Meaningful discussion of implications of the experience in the context of future applications ◎R2: Coherent report of the events or experiences ◎I2: Some interpretations of the events or experiences based on personal judgment ◎A2: Limited ability to analyze and speculate the reason of the events or Average experiences ◎H2: Limited ability to analyze an experience from various perspectives ◎C2: Some discussion of implications of the experience in the context of future applications ◎R1: Disjointed report of the events or experiences ◎I1: Very few interpretations of the events or experiences based on personal judgment ◎A1: Very limited ability to analyze and speculate the reason of the Developing events or experiences ◎H1: Very limited ability to analyze an experience from various perspectives ◎C1: Little discussion of implications of the experience in the context of future applications Total score: Scoring for each level points for each element at this level Subtotal points for each element at this level Subtotal points for each element at this level Subtotal points for each element at this level Note: There are five elements for each level Referred to as ‘R-I-A-H-C’, they relate to: Reporting (R) - Interpreting (I) - Analyzing (A) - Hypothesizing (H) - Criticizing (C) Results can be understood as: Level 4: Competent Reflective Writer: 16-20 Level 3: Good Reflective Writer: 11-15 Level 2: Average Reflective Writer: 6-10 Level 1: Developing Reflective Writer: 0-5 73 Subtotal APPENDIX E A SAMPLE OF EVALUATING REFLECTIVE TEACHING JOURNALS My English class is in Chanh My Ward Thu Dau Mot City, Binh Duong Province My class starts at 6pm to 8pm at Tuesday and Thursday every week There are over 20 children in the class and most of them not know to write the alphabet in both languages Vietnamese and English The class separated in to lines and two groups The first group is children who not know how to write the alphabet The second group is the children who can write some words In general, most of them are kind and study hard, but there are some negative [R4] In the first day, my friends and me taught the students first letters in the alphabet and helped them to pronounce the letters After that, we tried to teach them wrote them down in their notebooks It took a lot of times and we had to came to one by one to help them wrote [R3] In the second day, my friends and me continued to taught them the next letters in the alphabet, it is about "F, G, H, I, J" It is really hard letters so that the student faced to a big problem of pronunciation [R4, I1] We tried to give taught them the number from one to ten and make a game for them to played with the number The children really enjoyed this game Unfortunately, the student became more naughty and lazy to study so that my groups had a lot of troubles to control and provided knowledge for them But after all, my class can cope with this issue and the class did not go wrong [R2] Finally, spending the first week with two days teaching the student in service learning I feel so strange and confused I need to study more about the psychology to keep up with their mind Moreover, I need to use new teaching method to make them feel enjoy their class Besides, the children sometimes good but sometime too naughty It made me confused, I not know what method I can use to control all of their emotion [H3] Level Competent Good Developing Source: Candidate 2, week Element in Reflective Entry R4: Detailed report of the significant events or experiences H3: Some ability to analyze an experience from various perspectives I1: Very few interpretations of the events or experiences based on personal judgment Scoring for each level Total score: Note: Based on the given score for this reflective teaching journal, the writer was judged to be a Level 2: Average Reflective Writer 74 APPENDIX F A SAMPLE OF RATING NARRATIVE WRITING I start to teach English for children at ‘lop hoc tinhthuong – DinhHoa’ from 6–8p.m on Monday & Tuesday It is about 20 children in this class Miss Thu- teacher from DinhHoa primary school- also teaches children in this class with me In first week, I teach them some sample sentences about greeting such as: ‘what’s your name?’, ‘How are you?’ and some letters in Alphabet from A to J They are learnt some order sentences, also At first day, when I call children answer my question, they just whisper and that make me difficult to hear what they say Some students look away when I look at them But all of them like to follow order sentences They are excited with order sentences They also like to write English and get 10 marks Some of them don’t want to write at first, but after that they want to write to get 10 marks It’s like a price for children who try to make exercise In life, we always need have a price like this to finish our work very well MECHANICS GRAMMAR & ELABORATION ORAGANIZATION Source: Candidate 3, week • The views, thoughts, or feelings of the writer are expressed but not sufficiently clearly • The significance or main idea of the views, thoughts, or feelings is sometimes ambiguous • The writing is organized in a way appropriate to the purpose and audience: introduction, body and conclusion, but sometimes not sufficiently clearly 0.5 0.5 0.5 • A few ideas, opinions, and general statements are supported by specific detail • The writing presents a few imprecise or ambiguous words for audiences such as ‘common 0.5 0.5 sentences about greeting’, ‘call children answer’, ‘ follow order sentences’, and ‘make exercise’ • Transition words are occasionally used to help the writer to establish clear connections 0.5 E.g at first, but after that • The writer makes a number of mistakes in spelling,capitalization and punctuation 0.5 E.g Spelling: (‘price’ -> prize); Capitalization: 1; Punctuation: (N = 6/12 = 0.5) • The writer makes many mistakes in grammar (N = 14/12 = 1.17) E.g 14 mistakes (including tenses, particles, prepositions, passive voice and modal verb) 0.25 • The piece is free of run-on sentences and sentence fragments (N Actually, I don't like it much Could you describe your process of writing a reflective teaching journal? > I thought back to some teaching activities in my classroom, wrote them down, and then revised some sentence structures and vocabularies I spent about hours in writing a journal like this Were there any difficulties when writing reflective teaching journals for the service-learning course? (Please give examples) > As I was part-time when taking the service-learning course, I found that writing journals took me too much time In addition, classroom activities are the same all the time, so I had trouble thinking of new things to reflect on How useful you find the reflective teaching journal writing part of the service-learning course? (Please give examples) >It helped me increase my English vocabulary For example, when I did not know a word, I looked it up in the Vietnamese-English dictionary REFLECTIVE TEACHING JOURNAL WRITING INSTRUCTION How did you feel when reading your instructor’s comments on your reflective teaching journals? > Thanks to my instructor' comments, I learned how to notice my mistakes What did you learn during the journal writing instruction process? > My instructor was very enthusiastic In general, I enjoyed following his advice Do you think reflective journal writing should be explicitly taught in school? > I think it is necessary to teach how to write a reflective journal at school It would be clearer how to help students not be confused any more What are your recommendations to improve the quality of teaching how to write a reflective teaching journal? > I think the reflection part should have been in Vietnamese, at least at the beginning 83 Candidate REFLECTIVE TEACHING JOURNAL WRITING ACTIVITY Do you like writing reflective teaching journals? > No, I don't Could you describe your process of writing a reflective teaching journal? > I wrote a journal, uhm, about 3-4 hours First, I came up with the ideas of what to write, then wrote them down, and finally corrected the spelling and then sent it to my teacher Were there any difficulties when writing reflective teaching journals for the service-learning course? (Please give examples) > I would say my problems were English grammar and vocabulary For example, I always got stuck when I wanted to express something in greater detail So, I had to think of other ideas that were simpler and more general Honesty, sometimes I first wrote ideas or paragraphs in Vietnamese and then I translated them into English How useful you find the reflective teaching journal writing part of the service-learning course? (Please give examples) > I found my English was still the same after the course I think I didn't make any progress in writing REFLECTIVE TEACHING JOURNAL WRITING INSTRUCTION How did you feel when reading your instructor’s comments on your reflective teaching journals? > I have no idea What did you learn during the journal writing instruction process? > My teacher corrected a few mistakes in several journals in the beginning, but he did not point to what I needed to after that I don’t think he was of much help I needed more help, so I asked my teammates how to write and learned from them Do you think reflective journal writing should be explicitly taught in school? > Although online instruction is convenient, it can not help students satisfy their teacher's requirements easily and know how to write better than face-to-face, I think What are your recommendations to improve the quality of teaching how to write a reflective teaching journal? > Instructors should be more enthusiastic 84 Candidate 18 REFLECTIVE TEACHING JOURNAL WRITING ACTIVITY Do you like writing reflective teaching journals? > No, I not Could you describe your process of writing a reflective teaching journal? > It took me about 4-5 hours to write I wrote the ideas down, reorganized and revised my vocabulary to be more advanced Were there any difficulties when writing reflective teaching journals for the service-learning course? (Please give examples) > There were many difficulties such as lack of vocabulary, limited ideas, poorly written communication, and word usage mistakes Furthermore, journaling was terribly time-consuming for me When reflecting on a problem, I must find a solution (the teaching method that I looked up on the Internet) That's why it took me lots of time How useful you find the reflective teaching journal writing part of the service-learning course? (Please give examples) > Writing journals helps me develop my English vocabulary and my awareness of correcting mistakes Before I submitted my journals, I must be sure that I chose words that were appropriate; I didn't make any grammar mistakes; and third, I organized my writing in an appropriate way In general, I expanded my vocabulary, learned new sentence structures, and improved my teaching methodology REFLECTIVE TEACHING JOURNAL WRITING INSTRUCTION How did you feel when reading your instructor’s comments on your reflective teaching journals? > My teacher didn't specifically point out my mistakes nor correct them So, it was hard to correct mistakes by myself I think there was a little improvement in my writing What did you learn during the journal writing instruction process? > I didn't remember well what my teacher had commented; however, his comments were relatively general Do you think reflective journal writing should be explicitly taught in school? > Actually, before writing, we got a brief introduction of journal writing However, due to the rush and limited time, most of us were very confused and did not learn to write a journal Therefore, if possible, students should be provided more tutorials, lectures and practice, as well as more samples that will help students be on the right track What are your recommendations to improve the quality of teaching how to write a reflective teaching journal? > Due to the overwhelming number of students and the limited number of instructors, there were very few opportunities to receive instructor's feedback Therefore, the number of instructors should be increased In addition, teacher's feedback and comments should be provided as soon as possible and as much as possible, so that students can be well aware of their own mistakes Teachers should point to what we need to or how to improve our reflective writing by giving several specific examples or illustrations 85 Candidate 14 REFLECTIVE TEACHING JOURNAL WRITING ACTIVITY Do you like writing reflective teaching journals? > Yes, I do, but not very much Could you describe your process of writing a reflective teaching journal? > I summarized all activities that happened in the classroom in a whole week first and wrote afterwards Were there any difficulties when writing reflective teaching journals for the service-learning course? (Please give examples) > Writing is hard for me but writing in English is even harder My journals sometimes were full of repetition I also got stuck when choosing words and forming sentences How useful you find the reflective teaching journal writing part of the service-learning course? (Please give examples) > After a few weeks, I found that my word usage and vocabulary were getting better REFLECTIVE TEACHING JOURNAL WRITING INSTRUCTION How did you feel when reading your instructor’s comments on your reflective teaching journals? > I think the instruction satisfies my needs After a few weeks, I learned how to form sentence structures better and could avoid making the same old mistakes What did you learn during the journal writing instruction process? > Teacher's comments helped me build my confidence in my writing abilities such as supporting ideas and using new words Do you think reflective journal writing should be explicitly taught in school? > Yes, I think it should be like that Previously, my teacher couldn't correct my mistakes immediately, so I made the same mistakes over and over What are your recommendations to improve the quality of teaching how to write a reflective teaching journal? > I think the instructors should evaluate the views, thoughts and feelings, instead of English language skills, and give comments on student's progress 86 Candidate 16 REFLECTIVE TEACHING JOURNAL WRITING ACTIVITY Do you like writing reflective teaching journals? > Yes, I Could you describe your process of writing a reflective teaching journal? > I spent hours in writing journal entries per week After coming home, I noted down the sequence of events immediately and added several additional facts to explain and bolster these events later Furthermore, in my entries, I presented my feelings, observations and evaluations of my students' learning abilities, as well as their lives Finally, I proofread my journals Were there any difficulties when writing reflective teaching journals for the service-learning course? (Please give examples) > Yes I found it very difficult to arrange my ideas in a logical sequence and avoid wordiness Especially the part where I showed what I had learned linking the course content, I had to write a talk to myself, but a talk to my instructor as well So I wrote and then went back to find more formal words and re-wrote it How useful you find the reflective teaching journal writing part of the service-learning course? (Please give examples) > I think reflective journal writing helps me to think in detail and sharpen my writing ability, particularly planning the writing process REFLECTIVE TEACHING JOURNAL WRITING INSTRUCTION How did you feel when reading your instructor’s comments on your reflective teaching journals? > I was grateful that my instructor had given me lots of helpful advice I believe that his advice definitely helped me improve my language writing skills What did you learn during the journal writing instruction process? > I improved my English grammar and produced better texts If I had to rate myself at the beginning, I would say I was a or out of 10, but after a few weeks, I would most likely give myself a or 8, I think Do you think reflective journal writing should be explicitly taught in school? > It would be great if journal writing is explicitly taught in school Students will understand the writing process better and have much more opportunities for discussion in face-to-face instruction What are your recommendations to improve the quality of teaching how to write a reflective teaching journal? > I think, first of all, at the beginning of the course we should have a meeting to learn how to write reflective journals Then, teachers comment and give students feedback via email In addition, a reflective journal example written within a week or a month should be illustrated with its strong and weak points to help other students improve their writing 87 ... reflective teaching journals as quantitative data, and text data transcribed from questionnaire as qualitative data (see Appendix I, pp 83-87); and 2) three data collection instruments: narrative writing... Creswell, 2012, p.543) Quantitative Data Collection and Analysis Follow up with Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis Interpretation Figure 3: A diagram of an explanatory sequential mixed methods... time allocated for evaluating was one month Candidate was evaluated to be an average reflective teacher according to a given score of The performance descriptors in the matrix show her areas of