SKKN APPLYING SOME INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY WRITING FOR THE TWELFTH GRADERS AT NHU THANH HIGH SCHOOL

0 THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING NHU THANH HIGH SCHOOL INNOVATION IN TEACHING APPLYING SOME INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY WRITING FOR THE TWELFTH GRADERS AT NHU THANH HIGH SCHOOL The writer: Nguyen Thi Kim Lien The post: The teacher Nhu Thanh High School Innovation of subject: English THANH HOA, 2021 TABLE OF CONTENT PART ONE: INTRODUCTION .1 I RATIONALE OF THE STUDY .1 II AIMS OF THE STUDY III RESEARCH QUESTIONS IV METHODS OF THE STUDY PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW I OVERVIEW OF WRITING SKILL II THE ARGUMENTIVE ESSAY What is the argumentative essay and its struture? What is the collaborative writing technique in teaching argumentative essay writing? What is the direct instruction writing technique ? III THE DIFFICULTIES OF WRITING ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAYS IV THE IMPORTANCE ELEMENTS OF A GOOD ARGUMENTAIVE ESSAY V THE SOLUTION OF APPLYING COLLABORATIVE WRITING AND DIRECT INSTRUCTION WRITING TECHQUIQUES AND THEIR IMPACT ON DEVELOPING THE STUDENTS’ ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING SKILL .6 CHAPTER 2: PRACTICAL SITUATIONS I METHODS OF THE STUDY II THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING SKILL AT NHU THANH HIGH SCHOOL .7 CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS TO HELP THE STUDENTS TO IMPROVE THEIR ARGUMENTATIVE EASSY WRITING SKILL I RECOMMENDATIONS II PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS CHAPTER 4: RESULT 17 PART THREE: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION .17 I CONCLUSION .17 II REFLECTIONS 17 REFERENCES 19 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION I RATIONALE OF THE STUDY Studying English nowadays has become an essential demand for everyone Learning English is important It is simple as English is one of the most popular international languages and it is most not only all over the world but also in all aspects of society Therefore, learning and mastering it would greatly give advantages to the person concerned Although many Vietnamese students get excellent certain qualifications, their ability of communicating in English is limited As a result, they must give up their dream jobs There is no doubt about that English is the optimum standard for applicants into foreign and state- owned companies On account of the above demands, English is compulsory not only at school but also in examinations at certain stages of the school education system According to the national curriculum, English is built with the aim of communicating Creating the ability of communication in English for students is the most important target in the process of teaching As teachers, I think we’d all agree that communication is important In fact, it’s a necessary component of education, livelihood, and basic functionality in our society It’s also fairly obvious that there are two main ways to communicate, although more obscure forms exist Basically, we talk and we write That’s how we let other people know what’s going on, and it’s an important skill to have Just about every student can talk, but how many Vietnamese students can truly write well? Writing is also important because it’s used extensively in higher education and in the workplace If students don’t know how to express themselves in writing, they won’t be able to communicate well with friends, teachers, professors, employers, peers, or just about anyone else Much of professional communication is done in writing: proposals, memos, reports, applications, preliminary interviews, e-mails, and more are part of the daily life of a college student or successful graduate Even if students manage to learn the material in their college classes without knowing how to write well, they won’t be able to express their knowledge to the people who are making the big decisions Potential employers won’t know whether or not head knowledge can be applied to everyday demands unless it’s through a spoken interview Even the majority of certifications and licensures require basic writing skills to obtain The inability to write makes for a stillborn career Argumentative writing has been confirmed by researchers to be the hardest model in writing This genre of writing is important for students to express their own points of view in academically appropriate forms and strategies Unfortunately, students often encounter difficulties in the use of complex syntactic patterns and appropriate elements in composing argumentative writing Consequently, by means of the drawbacks in language teaching methods of the past, particularly in the argumentative writing skill, a number of research studies have sought to investigate and demonstrate how argumentative writing can be improved by using effective methods to gauge the weaknesses of students’ writing ability After for a long time, I have taken consideration into various solutions in teaching argumetative essay writing for my students, I have found it is extremely important that students must make sense a good step – step plan for this type of writing In addition, they must have a combination between the collaborative writing technique and the direct instruction writing technique in teaching argumentative essay has improved my students’writing skill a lot Therefore, I decide the research with the title “ Applying some innovative techniques in teaching argumentative essay writing for the twelfth graders at Nhu Thanh High school ” II AIMS OF THE STUDY On the basis of surveying students’ ability of writing argumentative essays in English at Nhu Thanh High School, I have given feasible measures including innovating methods of teaching writing skill The aims of this research are as follows: Whether or not a step – step plan for writing argumentative essays is nessesary Whether or not the collaborative writing technique is really effective Whether or not students who have high creativity have better writing ability than those who have low creativity 4.Whether or not there is interaction between teaching techniques and students‘ creativity in teaching writing In addition, whether or not the direct instruction writing technique through givingfifteen- sentence/ phrase modals improves the argumentative writing skill and have positive impact on writing process among students and can develop their argumentative writing skill III RESEARCH QUESTIONS This study aims at finding answer to the following research question: How can innovative teachniques help the students at Nhu Thanh High School improve their argumentative writing skill ? The question has been addressed to one group of the eleventh graders that I have been teaching in Nhu Thanh High School with the aim to examine how innovative solutions affect the process of argumentative writing here IV METHODS OF THE STUDY - The method of collecting and analyzing materials for the research: research for materials concerning about the subject, analyze and get certain knowledge from previous researches, finally give the foundation to the research - The method of talking to students: through talking to students, I have got to know real situation of students’ writing learning in language classes at Nhu Thanh High School - The method of surveying through answer sheets 3 PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW I OVERVIEW OF WRITING SKILL What is writing? "Writing" is the process of using symbols (letters of the alphabet, punctuation and spaces) to communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable form To write clearly it is essential to understand the basic system of a language In English this includes knowledge of grammar, punctuation and sentence structure Vocabulary is also necessary, as is correct spelling and formatting A writer may write for personal enjoyment or use, or for an audience of one person or more The audience may be known (targeted) or unknown Taking notes for study purposes is an example of writing for one's self Blogging publicly is an example of writing for an unknown audience A letter to a friend is an example of writing for a targeted audience As with speaking, it is important to consider your audience when writing There are many different styles of writing, from informal to formal Some of the difficulties associated with the teaching of writing in foreign language classes come from the nature of writing itself Writing is an artificial activity in a way that speech is not; while every normal human being on this planet learns, eventually, to talk and to listen, far fewer people become literate, able to write Writing is learned, while speaking is acquired as part of growing up In schools, writing is taught partly as a vital part of literacy program, but also in order to show that work is being done Writing is often associated, particularly in weaker students’ minds, with “chores” or even with discipline (the traditional writing lesson is quite quiet, so the teacher is easily able to keep control) This “homework syndrome” can lead to students making less and less progress because they are poorly motivated, perform badly, receive low grades, and end up disliking writing more and more II THE ARGUMENTIVE ESSAY What is the argumentative essay and its struture? It is a genre of writing that requires the student to investigate a topic; collect, generate, and evaluate evidence; and establish a position on the topic in a concise manner Argumentative essay assignments generally call for extensive research of literature or previously published material Argumentative assignments may also require empirical research where the student collects data through interviews, surveys, observations, or experiments Detailed research allows the student to learn about the topic and to understand different points of view regarding the topic so that she/he may choose a position and support it with the evidence collected during research Regardless of the amount or type of research involved, argumentative essays must establish a clear thesis and follow sound reasoning 4 The argumentative essay is the most common type of writing assignment that students will encounter throughout their exams While there are different variations of the argument essay, the overall foundation is always the same: the writer is tasked with investigating an issue, taking a stand on the issue, and finding and incorporating a multitude of evidence in a logical manner to support the overall claim The structure of paper's outline is the same as the structure of their entire essay The difference is that they include the entire information in the body text while students only name the arguments in their outline An English essay outline is worth their time as it figures as their plan during the whole writing process.There are three basic sections of any argumentative essay students should follow: What is the collaborative writing technique in teaching argumentative essay writing? In the collaborative writing technique, the teacher asks students to work in pairs or triads to write a formal paper together Each person will contribute at each stage of the writing process of argumentative essays: brainstormning ideas, gathering and organizing information, drafting, revising and editing the writing In this way, my students will produce better work than they work alone Collaborative writing will improve their document quality by pooling the strengths of group members At the same time, individual weaknesses are caught by the group and revised Ultimately, collaboration can be a form of motivation for students as they become excited about working in a group as well as the prospect of learning from other students What is the direct instruction writing technique ? The Direct instruction has one very basic rule: no translation is allowed Teaching learning process is focus on explanation of grammar rules in classroom teaching, teachers must encourage direct and spontaneous use of the foreign language in the classroom Learners would then be able to induce rules of grammar All teaching is done in the target language The teacher with writing technique will give students suggested sentense modals or vocabulary relating to the argumentative writing topic That helps students not to spend too much time looking for sentence modals or topic vocabulary They will only focus on brainstorming, organizing ideas, making the outline III THE DIFFICULTIES OF WRITING ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAYS Writing an argumentative essay can be easy in many aspects because students are given the opportunity to take a personal stance on a topic This can be a more entertaining essay to write, but we must remember that although students’ main idea may be opinion based, it is important that students’ paper is still research based Here are some common problems students may experience while writing an argumentative essay: Finding Support Once students have selected a topic or argument that students would like to prove through their essay, it is crucial to locate reputable support The Internet is full of opinion-based articles, but these are not what students will want to use to develop they argument Arguments or opinions must be supported with factual data or research in order to be credible They can also quote an authority on the topic Contradictory Arguments Another common problem to be weary of when writing an argumentative essay is contradictory arguments Make sure to thoroughly read their sources A quote or idea from a source can easily be taken out of context, changing the meaning of said quote all together Students want to be sure to maintain their credibility on the topic, and honestly make their argument Avoid Personal Opinion When writing your argumentative essay you must be sure to keep a neutral tone on the topic There is a difference between making a compelling argument, and bombarding your readers with overly emotional personal opinion With strong facts and reliable sources you will find that harsh or passionate language is unnecessary to prove your point Consider Your Audience Your audience quite frequently influences the way you approach your topic The means to convince an audience of college professors will surely be different from adolescent readers IV THE IMPORTANCE ELEMENTS OF A GOOD ARGUMENTAIVE ESSAY Most people not require special skills to prove their point of view when providing arguments on various day-to-day issues All of us sometimes argue why the movie we have watched is so impressive or why we should get a promotion This means that we argue not only in the academic field, but also in our everyday lives That is why writing an argumentative essay does not require any additional skills and most students can deal with the assignment with much success However, it is also important to structure an argumentative essay in a correct way For this reason, before writing an essay, you need to find out what elements should be included in your argumentative essay You also need to support your viewpoint by providing an explanation of your ideas and specific examples Let us discuss the fundamental elements of argumentative essays * Organization and focus When writing an argumentative essay, you need to prove the main viewpoint by providing enough evidence and wellgrounded arguments * Description and analysis: Description and analysis are two more elements of an argumentative essay that should be included in your paper if you want it to be consistent and relevant * Evidence Evidence can be provided in different way You should support your ideas with certain examples and make the readers accept your point of view by providing well-grounded evidence in favor of your position * Answering a counterargument If you add a counterargument in your essay, it will make it clear for the readers that you fully understand the material you are discussing in your paper V THE SOLUTION OF APPLYING A STEP – STEP PLAN, COLLABORATIVE WRITING AND DIRECT INSTRUCTION WRITING TECHQUIQUES AND THEIR IMPACT ON DEVELOPING THE STUDENTS’ ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING SKILL Collaborative Writing technique makes the learning more effective,attractive, meaningful, and successful Collaborative Writing also can improve students‘ critical thinking The collaborative writing technique is a way to foster reflective thinking, especially if the learners are engaged in the act of explaining and defending their ideas to their peers In the process of co-authoring, learners consider not only grammatical accuracy and lexis but also discourse Furthermore, and depending on the kind of group/pair dynamics formed, collaborative writing may encourage a pooling of knowledge about language Collaborative Writing technique has many advantages as a functional unit of collaborative learning Active participation in the collaborative process is essential for learning to occur By working collaboratively with their friends, the students will try to analyze their friends‘ work in writing They can correct the mistakes made by their friends In Collaborative Writing, the students are relying on peers for learning It means that students work together to teach one another, and they alternate between the roles of student and teacher This technique combines elements of both motivational and cognitive approaches to collaboration The technique also promotes cognitiveprocessing by using a structured approach to teaching and learning within a tutoring context This technique also promotes active processing of material using activities that are strongly linked to achievement In addition, using the direct instruction writing technique through giving sentence/ phrase modals fifteen by the teacher makes students’writing much easier and they feel more confident to start their writing The benefits of this solution are that the essay is not only logic, but the students also think and write more quickly and easily CHAPTER 2: PRACTICAL SITUATIONS I METHODS OF THE STUDY The research is done qualitatively in the context of one group of thirty students at Nhu Thanh High School In this survey, I have used the survey questionnaire for students This survey is designed to collect information for the study on “An investigation into the Reality of teaching and learning English argumentative writing skill at Nhu Thanh High School II THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING SKILL AT NHU THANH HIGH SCHOOL The whole procedure of teaching and learning is implemented similarly to all students of the class after all of them give consent to be part of the research However, due to the limit of the study, I only focus to collect information from the learning engagement of two classes 12B1(46 students), 12B2( 44 students) and 12B5(43 students) ( total: 133 students) during this process as the data for analysis Below is the survey of the practical situation of learning argumentative eassay writing skill at Nhu Thanh High School, the academic year : 2020-2021 Table 1: Frequencies of argumentative writing difficulties faced by students Number of students Difficulties faced by students have difficulty Brainstorming the topic, organizing ideas and 100/133 creating an outline grammar structure 90/133 Topic sentence of each paragraph 95/133 Length 80/133 Pacing 85/133 solid evidence 90/133 During the interview, the students talked about the difficulties in writing argumentative essay As shown in Table 1, it has been reported that grammar structure in English, the structure of an argumentative essay and brainstorming the topic, organizing ideas and creating an outline were the great difficulties for their argumentative writing They felt that they did not have enough knowledge of the complex sentences, and express their ideas 8 Brainstorming, orgainizing ideas, making the outline and understanding the argumentative writing structure and grammar ones were also considered difficult for students because students pointed out that the structure of argumentative writing posed the main barrier for them to produce a good piece of argumentative essay In relation to the difficulties of solid evidence, they stated that providing solid evidence was one of the most difficult aspects for them to convince the audience to believe in what they wrote With reference to the difficulties of time constraints in argumentative writing, students faced the difficulties in this aspect One of students stated: “Another problem is the limitation of the time I cannot write a good piece of writing because I feel hectic I need more time to write because of the limited time I cannot think of strong evidence to write” They admitted that it was difficult to write a wellorganized argumentative essay For example, the following students pointed out that “I don’t know how to organize the idea of argumentative writing essay I not know that I have to write the Introduction or I have to control the idea I have to write supporting detail 1,2,3 and then I have to write the conclusion I write down what I can think of without controlling the idea” With the reference to the difficulties of fulfilling task demand and understanding the questions, students considered this task demand difficult Students stated that writing the thesis statement was difficult for them to write in order to convince the audience CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS TO HELP THE STUDENTS TO IMPROVE THEIR ARGUMENTATIVE EASSY WRITING SKILL I RECOMMENDATIONS According to the data analysis from the survey, The aim of this study was to identify the argumentative writing difficulties that students encountered when they compose argumentative essays It is noted that teachers have realized that there is a critical need to accord greater attention to the improvement of writing teaching for students The way to improve writing instruction is to develop insights into the diagnostic evaluation of writing This type of evaluation provides valuable data about students‟ weaknesses in argumentative writing Therefore, I have used a step – step plan, the collaborative writing technique and the direct instruction writing technique in teaching argumentative essay in teaching argumentative essay writing skill for my students II PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS A A step-step plan for teaching argumentative essay I strongly believe students should be shown how to move past those kinds of structures into a style of writing that’s more natural and fitting to the task and audience, but I also think they should start with something that’s pretty clearly organized So here’s how I teach argumentative essay writing STEP 1: WATCH HOW IT’S DONE One of the most effective ways to improve student writing is to show them mentor texts, examples of excellent writing within the genre students are about to attempt themselves Ideally, this writing would come from real publications and not be fabricated by me in order to embody the form I’m looking for I would have students read these texts, compare them, and find places where the authors used evidence to back up their assertions I would ask students which author they feel did the best job of influencing the reader, and what suggestions they would make to improve the writing I would also ask them to notice things like stories, facts and statistics, and other things the authors use to develop their ideas Later, as students work on their own pieces, I would likely return to these pieces to show students how to execute certain writing moves STEP 2: INFORMAL ARGUMENT, FREESTYLE Although many students might need more practice in writing an effective argument, many of them are excellent at arguing in person To help them make this connection, I would have them some informal debate on easy, high-interest topics An activity like This or That (one of the classroom icebreakers I talked about last year) would be perfect here: I read a statement like “Women have the same opportunities in life as men.” Students who agree with the statement move to one side of the room, and those who disagree move to the other side Then they take turns explaining why they are standing in that position This ultimately looks a little bit like a debate, as students from either side tend to defend their position to those on the other side This activity is so simple, it gets them out of their seats, and for a unit on argument, it’s an easy way to get them thinking about how the art of argument is something they practice all the time STEP 3: INFORMAL ARGUMENT, NOT SO FREESTYLE Once students have argued without the support of any kind of research or text, I would set up a second debate; this time with more structure and more time to research ahead of time I would pose a different question, supply students with a few articles that would provide ammunition for either side, then givek, them time to read the articles and find the evidence they need Next, we’d have a Philosophical Chairs debate (learn about this in my discussion strategies post), which is very similar to “This or That,” except students use textual evidence to back up their points, and there are a few more rules Here they are still doing verbal argument, but the experience should make them more likely to appreciate the value of evidence when trying to persuade Before leaving this step, I would have students transfer their thoughts from the discussion they just had into something that looks like the opening paragraph of a written argument: A statement of their point of view, plus three 10 reasons to support that point of view This lays the groundwork for what’s to come STEP 4: INTRODUCTION ASSESSMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE Next I would show students their major assignment, the performance assessment that they will work on for the next few weeks What does this look like? It’s generally a written prompt that describes the task, plus the rubric I will use to score their final product Anytime I give students a major writing assignment, I let them see these documents very early on In my experience, I’ve found that students appreciate having a clear picture of what’s expected of them when beginning a writing assignment At this time, I also show them a model of a piece of writing that meets the requirements of the assignment Unlike the mentor texts we read on day 1, this sample would be something teacher-created (or an excellent student model from a previous year) to fit the parameters of the assignment STEP 5: BUILDING THE BASE Before letting students loose to start working on their essays, I make sure they have a solid plan for writing I would devote at least one more class period to having students consider their topic for the essay, drafting a thesis statement, and planning the main points of their essay in a graphic organizer I would also begin writing my own essay on a different topic This has been my number one strategy for teaching students how to become better writers Using a document camera or overhead projector, I start from scratch, thinking out loud and scribbling down my thoughts as they come When students see how messy the process can be, it becomes less intimidating for them They begin to understand how to take the thoughts that are stirring around in your head and turn them into something that makes sense in writing For some students, this early stage might take a few more days, and that’s fine: I would rather spend more time getting it right at the pre-writing stage than have a student go off willy-nilly, draft a full essay, then realize they need to start over Meanwhile, students who have their plans in order will be allowed to move on to the next step STEP 6: WRITER’S WORKSHOP The next seven to ten days would be spent in writer’s workshop, where I would start class with a mini-lesson about a particular aspect of craft I would show them how to choose credible, relevant evidence, how to skillfully weave evidence into an argument, how to consider the needs of an audience, and 11 how to correctly cite sources Once each mini-lesson was done, I would then give students the rest of the period to work independently on their writing During this time, I would move around the room, helping students solve problems and offering feedback on whatever part of the piece they are working on I would encourage students to share their work with peers and give feedback at all stages of the writing process If I wanted to make the unit even more student-centered, I would provide the mini-lessons in written or video format and let students work through them at their own pace, without me teaching them (To learn more about this approach, read my post on self-paced learning) As students begin to complete their essays, the mini-lessons would focus more on matters of style and usage I almost never bother talking about spelling, punctuation, grammar, or usage until students have a draft that’s pretty close to done Only then we start fixing the smaller mistakes STEP 7: FINAL ASSESSMENT Finally, the finished essays are handed in for a grade At this point, I’m pretty familiar with each student’s writing and have given them verbal (and sometimes written) feedback throughout the unit; that’s why I make the writer’s workshop phase last so long I don’t really want students handing in work until they are pretty sure they’ve met the requirements to the best of their ability I also don’t necessarily see “final copies” as final; if a student hands in an essay that’s still really lacking in some key areas, I will arrange to have that student revise it and resubmit for a higher grade So that’s it If you haven’t had a lot of success teaching students to write persuasively, and if the approach outlined here is different from what you’ve been doing, give it a try And let’s keep talking: Use the comments section below to share your techniques or ask questions about the most effective ways to teach argumentative writing B Applying collaborative writing techniques through pair or triad work To improve argumentative essay writing for my students, I have applied interesting teaching techniques to present their teaching materials that also help them in creating fun class Collaborative writing technique is suggested to be applied in teaching writing Therefore, in this research, I have taken verbal creativity as another factor that will be examined and used as moderator variable in teaching writing In teaching writing argumentative essays for my student at Nhu Thanh High school, I have applied seven guidelines in collaborative writing process The guidelines are as follows: 12 Students from pairs or triads at your direction or by shoosing partners and then generate ideas by brainstorming together or conducted preliminary research; Together, students organize their ideas and create an outline; Students divide up the outline, selecting or assigning sections for each student to write initial drafts individually; 4.Teams read first drafts, discuss and resolve any significant disparities in voice, content, and style; 5.Teams combine individual sections into ingle document; Teams revise and edit their work, checking for content and clarityas well as grammar, spelling, and punctuation; After the final edit,teams submit their papers to the professor for assessment and evaluation After my students have understood the above guidelines clearly, I will devide the class into triads or pairs and give them a certain topic of argumentative essay writing to ask them to work in triads following the above steps Finally, one typical triad or pair will have a representative to go to the board and show their full work and other triads will hand in their completed papers H\ERE ARE SOME PRATICAL ACTIVITIES MY STUDENTS HAVE APPLIED THIS WAY: In class 12B5, the academic year 2020 – 2021 at Nhu Thanh High school, my students have been given the topic “Health is the most important factor in our lives To what extent, you agree or disagree with this statement? ’’ Write an essay of about 250 words to show your opinion” They have worked in triads to generate ideas by brainstorming together, organizing their ideas and creating an outline Here are some photos of this activity: After that,they assign sections for each student to write initial drafts dividually Next, they read first drafts, discuss and resolve any significant disparities in voice, content, and style By working collaboratively with their friends, the students will try to analyze their friends‘ work in writing They can 13 correct the mistakes made by their friends Finally, they revise and edit their work, checking for content and clarityas well as grammar, spelling, and punctuation and show their full work on the board or hand in their completed papers Here are some photos of this activity: 14 15 In class 12B1, Nhu Thanh high school, my students have been given the topic “ Parents are the best teachers for children” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Write an essay of about 250 words to show your opinion Here are some typical activites of one of triads in class 12B1: 16 B The direct instruction writing technique by giving sentence/ phrase structures: I have provided for my students with typical sentence structures used for argumentative writings that help them use academic vocabulary to write formally In this way, they can memorize model sentences or phrases given directly by the teacher, and use them academically and logically in their writing and they can apply them many times in other topics in argumentative essay writing I have suggested certain modal sentences or phrases for each part (introduction, body, conclusion) of the argumentative esay According to recent statistics, Introduce the Introductio n Introducing topic, idea the number of users on background has been considerably increasing The question of whether or Introduce not remains controversial topic There has been a lot of argument about whether or not the debate 17 From my point of view, I support Give writer’s own idea Paragraph Supporting idea Paragraph Giving an example Paragraph (counterargument) Making concessions the ideal that To my way of thinking, I am convinced of the idea that One of major (dis)advantages Give the 1st reason of .is that…… ( topic sentence) This means that……….(effect) Explain more This is because……….(cause) Specifically If……….not………( opponent approach) So/ Therefore, ……………… The idea is basic Another point of view in favor of Give the 2nd reason + is that… For example,……………… ( topic sentence) Give example relating ……………………… the fact Explain Supporters/ opponents of would argue that 10 nevertheless, as stated previously, Of course,……………… 11 example more specifically Don’t deny the opposite ideas Admit that there was still rational aspect for However/yet………………… 12 Nonetheless, Conclusion the it is the opposite idea Indicate that there was more no rational aspect for important to remember that…/ the opposite idea - In the final analysis, I am Restate their own idea convinced of the idea that - In conclusion 13 - To sum up - Overall/ all in all - On the whole Meanwhile,……………… Simultaneously, they shouldn’t disregard 14 completely the opposite ideas 15 By doing so,…………………… Extend the topic 18 SOME PRACTICAL EXAMPLES OF USING A FIFTEENSENTENCE/PHRASE SOLUTION IN THE WRITING LESSON AT NHU THANH HIGH SCHOOL Example 1: Nguyen Huyen Trang’s essay ( the grader 12B1) Topic: Students at high schools should not use Facebook because of negative effects Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Do you agree or disagree? Write an essay (about 250 words) to express your personal point of view” According to recent statistics, the number of users on Introductio Facebook has been considerably increasing n Paragraph 2 Paragraph 2 Paragraph Conclusion To my way of thinking, I support of the idea that Facebook has some negative effects on students’ work The first disadvantage of using Facebook is wasting time, especially for students who should spend their time studying Moreover, many boys and girls are interested on logging in facebook in order to share, like, comment on things that I must call “meaningless” Another point of view in favor of not using facebook is that it has a bad impact on your health and communicative skill In addition, online facebook limits our direct communication Too much time spent online makes us feel afraid of going out, talking with neighbors It causes many bad effects to your eyes, your skin Sitting all day long before the Pc even makes you fatter Opponents of not using facebook would argue that it has lots of advantages as it helps you communicate with anyone easily with little money, make friends in wherever you like, or express your own interests… However, as stated previously, it has its great disadvantages especially for students’ study On the whole, with the main reasons above, I strongly believe that high students should not waste their time on facebook Instead, they had better focus on their own plan for their future life Example 2: Le Thi Thuy Le’s essay( the grader 12B5) “Studying the English language in an English speaking country is the best but not the only way to learn the language” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Write an essay (about 250 words) to express your personal point of view” 19 Introductio speaking country is the most effective way for learners or n Introducing topic, idea Paragraph The question of whether studying English in an English not remains controversial From my point of view, I support the ideal that: learning English in English speaking countries is really good yet there are still various ways to master the language There is no doubt about that English learners have perfective conditions for studying English in English speaking countries such as naturally communicative environment In addition, in English speaking countries, all people speak English that requires learners to try their best to adapt to this Nevertheless, studying English is not only way for them to master the language because learners still study English Paragraph 2 well in other countries Moreover, they can take the advantage of the language conditions in their homeland such as television, internet, Paragraph (counter2 argument) Making concessions magazines, language websites… … In fact, a large number of English learners who master it have increased considerably Many supporters of the ideal that studying E in an E speaking country is the only and the best way However, as stated previously we can learn English in various ways In the final analysis, I am convinced the idea that it is very effective for learners to study English in an E speaking Conclusion country but it is not the only way It is likely that next year’s opportunities for E learners in all countries are equal 15 Only by doing so can tourism brings us sustainable development CHAPTER 4: RESULT In conclusion, The aim of this research study was to identify the difficulties that students encounter when writing argumentative writing The 20 findings showed that providing detailed information about students’ weaknesses in their writing activity can raise awareness among teachers and students This can also be combined with other appropriate teaching approaches toward making significant contributions in having a detailed profile of students’ weaknesses in writing argumentative essays Such information would be beneficial for teachers to design and improve their writing programmes and teach effectively to further support students’ writing improvement The benefits of applying the collaborative writing and taking direct instruction writing techniques help students not only write a logic essay but think and write more quickly and easily It also helps students overcome the pressure of structure of argumentative writing, providing solid evidence, time constraints, organized idea, fulfilling task demand, understanding the questions, writing the thesis statement, interpreting the questions, pacing After having applied these techniques in teaching agumentative essay writing, especially, collaborative writing technique has some advantages such as: it can promote effective learning; it can combine both motivational and cognitive approaches to collaboration; it can promote cognitive process through a structured approach to teaching and learning within a tutoring context; it can promote he students‘ achievement and the students‘self confidencce * The following is the result : 133 students Before applying After applying innovative solutions in the class innovative solutions 12 B1, 12B2 Excellent Good Fair Excellent Good Fair and 12 B5 (2020-2021) 30 103 30 90 13 PART THREE: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION I CONCLUSION Argumentative writing has been confirmed by researchers to be the hardest model in writing This genre of writing is important for students to express their own points of view in academically appropriate forms and strategies Unfortunately, students often encounter difficulties in the use of complex syntactic patterns and appropriate elements in composing argumentative writing It is also proved by the research that students are more engaged in the writing activities when the tasks are more meaningful to them More specifically, in my case that means the tasks that give my students a more meaningful reason to complete engage them more II REFLECTIONS This study has given me a chance to know more about my students, about what goes wrong with them when they are not engaged in my writing class In the study, I also have chance to access a number of researches of many experienced language educators and teachers, from which I obtain new knowledge of language teaching and learning in general and knowledge of meaningful tasks in teaching writing in particular 21 During the research, I also learn more about the methods of doing research in a scientific way Firstly, I learn to look at the situation of my English teaching and learning critically and make research questions with the hope of improving it I also learn to arrange and organize my ideas and my work systematically to fit the timetable of the research procedure But the most important thing is that I learn how to put my background knowledge into the knowledge repertoire of related previous studies to have a broader view of the situation and to make my research skills (such summarizing and synthesizing) useful by activating them creatively and critically The Headmaster’s identification Thanh Hoa, the second of July, 2021 I ensure that this study has been written by me The writer Nguyen Thi Kim Lien 22 REFERENCES David Cross (1994): Practical handbook of language teaching Penny Ur ( 1998) A course in language teaching - Practical and Theory Cambrige university press Nguyen Hanh Dung Methods of teaching English at Secondary education ... students? ?writing skill a lot Therefore, I decide the research with the title “ Applying some innovative techniques in teaching argumentative essay writing for the twelfth graders at Nhu Thanh High school. .. of teaching and learning English argumentative writing skill at Nhu Thanh High School II THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING SKILL AT NHU THANH HIGH SCHOOL The. .. step – step plan, the collaborative writing technique and the direct instruction writing technique in teaching argumentative essay in teaching argumentative essay writing skill for my students