Pre writing activities used to teach 12 th form students at hong linh high school in english writing lessons

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY ***    *** NGUYEN THI TU ANH PRE-WRITING ACTIVITIES USED TO TEACH 12TH FORM STUDENTS AT HONG LINH HIGH SCHOOL IN ENGLISH WRITING LESSONS ( NHỮNG HOAT ĐÔNG TRƯỚC KHI VIÊT ĐƯỢC SỬ DUNG ĐỂ DAY ̣ ̣ ́ ̣ ̣ CHO HOC SINH LỚP 12 CUA TRƯỜNG TRUNG HOC PHỔ THÔNG ̉ ̣ HÔNG LINH TRONG NHỮNG TIÊT DAY VIÊT TIÊNG ANH) ̀ ̃ ́ ̣ ́ ́ MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION Vinh, 2011 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY ***    *** NGUYEN THI TU ANH PRE-WRITING ACTIVITIES USED TO TEACH 12TH FORM STUDENTS AT HONG LINH HIGH SCHOOL IN ENGLISH WRITING LESSONS FIELD: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching CODE:60.14.10 MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION Supervisor: NGUYEN THI VAN LAM, M.A Vinh, 2011 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To fulfill this MA coursework I have been fortunate to receive supports and assistance from a variety of people First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Mrs Nguyen Thi Van Lam, M.A, Vice-Dean of Department of Foreign Languages, Vinh University for her invaluable guidance, helpful suggestions, encouragement in writing this paper I would like to thank all the teachers in the English group of Hong Linh High School, for their help in answering surveys, direct interviews, their suggestions to this research, and their willingness to share their relevant problems with me I also wish to give my thanks to the 12th form students at Hong Linh High School who have actively participated in doing the surveys and responding to my interviews Finally, my sincere thanks go to my family, my friends and especially my husband who encouraged and helped me to carry out the thesis ABSTRACT This study is aimed at investigating how pre-writing activities are carried out in English writing lessons for the 12th form students at Hong Linh High school and finding out the methods of teaching activities effectively The data were collected by means of class observation and questionnaire administered to 10 teachers of English and 200 students The results show that the majority of the teachers themselves used the pre-writing activities in teaching English writing lessons The study suggests that in class time, the teachers should use various pre-writing activities to motivate students and encourage them to write In addition, they should develop more positive attitudes to make them feel more confident to write well The thesis also provides implications for English language teaching LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, TABLES AND CHARTS Abbreviations CLT Communicative Language Teaching EFL English as a Foreign Language ELT English Language Teaching ESL English as a Second Language SLA Second Language Acquisition Tables Table 2.1: Differences between Process Approach and Product Approach Table 3.1: Students’ attitude towards the writing tasks and the role of Pre-writing activities Table 3.2: Frequency of using Pre-writing activities by the teachers Table 3.3: Students’ preferences for pre-writing activities Table 3.4: Teachers’ attitude towards writing topics and Pre-writing activities Table 3.5: Teachers’ purposes of using Pre-reading activities Charts Chart 3.1: Students’ preferences for participation in Pre-writing activities Chart 3.2: Students’ comments on Pre-writing activities Chart 3.3: Teachers’ attitude towards the role of Pre-writing activities Chart 3.4: Teachers’ difficulties in applying Pre-writing activities Chart 3.5: Teachers’ comments on the Pre-writing activities TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION PAGE…………………………………………………… ……… ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………….…………… ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………… LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, TABLES AND CHARTS……… ………………… TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………… …………………………… Chapter : INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1.3 Research questions and research methods 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Organization of the study Chapter 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Writing skill 2.1.1 Definition 2.1.2 The Nature of the Writing Process 2.1.3 Roles of writing 2.1.4 The importance of writing skill 2.2 Teaching writing 2.2.1 Approaches to teach writing 2.2.2 Principles for teaching writing 2.2.2.1 Understand your students’ reasons for writing 2.2.2.2 Provide many opportunities for students to write 2.2.2.3 Make feedback helpful and meaningful 2.2.2.4 Clarify for yourself, and for your students, how their writing will be evaluated 2.2.3 Procedure for teaching writing 2.3 Pre-writing Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Sampling 3.2 Data collection 3.3 Data analysis 3.3.1 Situation analysis 3.3.1.1 Characteristics of the 12th Form students 3.3.1.2 Charcteristics of the New Textbook "Tieng Anh 12" 3.4 Data analysis results 3.4.1 Data analysis of the students’ survey questionnaires 3.4.1.1 Students’ attitudes towards Pre-writing activities 3.4.1.2 Students’ preferences for Pre-writing activities 3.4.1.3 Students’ comments on Pre-writing activities 3.4.2 Data analysis of the teachers’ survey questionnaires 3.4.2 Teachers’ attitude towards the writing topics in the textbook and towards the Pre-writing activities 3.4.2.2 Teachers’ purposes and difficulties in applying Pre-writing activities in teaching writing 3.4.2.3 Teachers’ comments on the Pre-writing activities 3.4.3 Data analysis of the class observations 3.5 Summary Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND SOME SUGGESTED PRE-WRITING ACTIVITIES APPLIED TO TEACH ENGLISH WRITING LESSONS TO THE 12TH FORM STUDENTS AT HONG LINH HIGH SCHOOL 4.1 Findings 4.1.1 The role of using Pre-writing activities 4.1.2 Frequency of using Pre-writing activities in writing lessons 4.1.3 Students’ preferences for Pre-writing activities 4.1.4 Students’ preferences for participating in Pre-writing activities 4.1.5 Teachers’ difficulties in designing and applying the Pre-writing activities 4.1.6 Teachers’ and students’ comments on Pre-writing activities 4.2 Some suggested Pre-writing activities applied to teach English writing lessons to the 12th form students at Hong Linh high school 4.2.1 Pre-writing activities used in English writing lessons 4.2.1.1 Pre-writing: A Place to Start 4.2.1.2 Pre-writing Activity 4.2.1.3 Pre-writing Activity 4.2.1.4 Pre-writing Activity 4.2.2 Models of lesson plans of pre-writing activities for the 12th form Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of the study 5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study REFERENCES APPENDICES Chapter : INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem The society has been developing at a very rapid rate As a result, the trend of international integration has also increased non-stop day by day On the parallel of this, English seems to become the most popular language which helps link countries to countries and bring people to people It is, therefore, comprehensible why nowadays there are more and more people studying and choosing English as their second language, which is no less important than their mother-tongue Added to this, it cannot be denied the crucial role of those educationists who have tried their best to shift the teaching methods from Grammar- Translation method to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Thanks to that, students have more chances to bring into play effectively their center and active role in study As one of the basic skills, writing is an essential skill in our everyday lives and that makes it a really important aspect of our teaching too! Students need to know how to take notes as well as how to write essays and letters, which makes this basic skill as important as speaking or listening Writing skill is important because it is a good way to reinforce what a student has learned as they will benefit from seeing new vocabulary in written form Speaking and listening are natural, though, and as such they not strictly need to be learned For example, if a Vietnamese person moves to England, he will eventually learn to speak English just from being around native English speakers He will, however, struggle to write in English Consequently, writing can be frustrating and disliked When we speak, we not really think about the grammatical correctness or the mechanics of what we are saying Everything flows as speech happens rather quickly; we not repeat our speech to check for mistakes or the appropriateness of what we are saying Writing, on the other hand, does not flow smoothly We write a few lines, re-read them, edit what we have written if necessary, and then carry on the process – we are constantly checking for correctness For these reasons we need to make writing an enjoyable activity that our students will not want to avoid We need to encourage students, initially at least, to write without worrying about the correctness of everything they put to paper – get them to generate ideas and then edit their written English afterwards It is also important to be involved every step of the way as leaving your students to produce a written piece of work with little help can be a rather daunting prospect for them Furthermore, to help our students become self-sufficient writers, rather than marking a student’s work in red pen and handing it back to them it is much better to meet individually with them to discuss the strong and weak points of their work So far, language teachers have applied different methods in improving students' writing skill Of these, conducting useful pre-writing activities in writing English lessons is one of the most useful means to be put into practice Therefore, the author carried out this study with an attempt to make a small contribution to the already enriched teaching methods in the hope of helping language learners improve their writing skill and reach the goal of learning English in general There other reasons for the choice of the study, however those above are the most important ones that have encouraged the author to conduct “ Pre-writing activities used to teach 12th form students at Hong Linh high school in English Writing Lessons " Hopefully, it may help teachers and learners of foreign have an overall viewpoint on writing skill as well as the effectiveness of conducting useful pre-writing activities in teaching writing, from then improve the results of the teaching and learning process 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study My research paper aims: 10 - The author called on some students to give their answers - Checked the answers with the class - Asked students to practise one of the two dialogues Activity 2: Eliciting - The author elicited the outline of the letter applying for a job from students - The letter included the following details: + Your name, address and date of writing + Name and address of the company + Greeting + Introduction: say where you saw the advertisement and why you are writing the letter of application + Body: mention your education, qualifications and working experience + Conclusion: express your willingness/ interests to work for the company and when you are available for the interview + Closing - And the author elicited to give some useful expressions to the students: - I am interested in the job of - I am writing in reply to your advertisement in Saigon Times - I should be very grateful if you would send me further details about - I saw your advertisement in the and I would like to apply for the job of - I enclosed a full curriculum vitae As you can see, I have had considerable experience as an 62 - I think I meet all the qualifications that you specify - If you consider that my qualifications and experience are suitable, I shloud be available for interview at any time Model Unit 7: ECONOMIC REFORMS D WRITING Aims: Improve students’ writing skills Objectives: By the end of lesson, students will be able to: - describe information in a table - write a report based on the information given in the table Teaching aids: charts Procedure: * Pre-writing: Activity 1: Questions and answers - In this part the author asked students to ask and answer the questions in task in pairs - Then she called on some students to answer the questions and write their answers on the board - And she gave feedback Questions: What was the economic situation in Tango before 1980? What can you say about the economic situation in Tango from 1980 to 2000? 63 What you think the Government and the people of Tango have done to achive these results? Expected answers: The economic situation in Tango before 1980 was stagnant/ underdeveloped/ in ruins Every branch stayed under 0% The economic situation in Tango from 1980 to 2000 increased steadily in some branches of the economy I think the Government opened relations with all the countries in the world They encouraged foreign and domestic private investment in some branches of the economy such as fishery, forestry, industry And the people of Tango had to work harder to make their contribution to the economic reform Activity 2: Describing the table - Teacher asked students to work in group of four or five to describe the information in the table - Then told students they can use the following expressions: + The table shows/ describes/ indicates/ illustrates there was a steady rise from 1980 to 2000 in agriculture, fishery + As it can be seen from the table + According to the table + In general / In sum the economic situation in Tango was on the increase over 20 years - Teacher called on some groups representatives to report their ideas - Teacher gave feedback 4.3 Summary 64 Chapter has presented the author’ major findings and some suggested Prewriting activities applied to teach English writing lessons to the 12th form students at Hong Linh High School More importantly, these findings enable the author to provide suggestions on some possible Pre-writing activities which are thought to be appropriate for motivating and helping students at the first stage of the writing lesson in particular, and for developing writing skills to the 12th form students at Hong Linh High School in general In a single lesson, it is not possible for the teacher to use all these suggested activities presented in this chapter, therefore, the teacher should choose different activities for different writing lessons with different purposes It is hoped that with the application of this advice, the teachers can help the students at Hong Linh High School learn the textbook Tieng Anh 12 more effectively Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 65 5.1 Summary of the study The purpose of this study is to explore pre-writing activities as an important factor and give some suggestions for teachers on how to organize a successful prewriting activity to the 12th form students at upper secondary schools The theoretical background gave a brief view of writing, teaching Englishwriting skills and pre-writing With the concern in using pre-writing activities to teach writing skills, the author has invested a lot of time and efforts in studying how pre-writing activities are used at the upper secondary school that she did her practicum In chapter 3, from analyzing the data got from two survey questionnaires delivered to teachers and students of English at Hong Linh High School in Ha Tinh province, the problems that teachers and students often face up to and their opinions of pre-writing activities were made clear Through these data analysis, the necessity of how to have a successful pre-writing activity is given much consideration To continue the study, the last two chapters mentioned some suggestions that the author think will be helpful to teachers to have successful pre-writing activities and suggestions for some typical activities are provided as well The author hopes that these suggestions will somehow be useful for teachers and students in teaching and learning English 5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study In most research projects, limitations are inevitable The study presented in this thesis is of no exception Due to the shortage of time and knowledge, the study can not cover all the factors affecting the students’ motivation in learning writing at Hong Linh high school This study merely focuses on motivational activities for the Pre-writing stage to the 12th form students at Hong Linh high school Thus, further study on motivational while-writing and post-writing activities for 12th form students and for the students of other forms seem to be of great usefulness 66 VIETNAMESE REFERENCES 67 Nguyễn Hạnh Dung (2001), Phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh trường phổ thông, NXB Giáo Dục Vũ Thị Lợi & Nguyễn Hải Châu (2009), Hướng dẫn thực chuẩn kiến thức, kĩ môn Tiếng Anh THPT, Bộ GD-ĐT Trần Thị Aí Thanh & Hồ Thị Tân Hoa ( 2008), Thiết Kế Bài Giảng Tiếng Anh 12, NXB Đại Học Quốc Gia Hà Nội Hoàng Văn Vân (2008), Tiếng Anh 12, Sách giáo khoa-NXB Giáo dục Nguyễn Thi ̣ Minh Hương (2010) Để học tốt Tiếng Anh 12 NXB Đại Học Quốc Gia Hà Nội ENGLISH REFERENCES Anh, D.K (2005) Applying a Genre-based Approach in Teaching the Writing of the English Discussion Genre to Vietnamese EFL Students at the Tertiary Level, Viet Nam National University, Ha Noi, College of Foreign Languages Blundell, W (1988) The Art and Craft of Feature Writing: Based on The Wall Street Journal Guide New York: New American Library Brown, H D (1994), Teaching by Principles An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, Longman Clark, I (2003) Concepts in composition: Theory and Practice in the Teaching of Writing - Mahwah, N.J Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003 Connor, U (1990) Contrastive Rhetoric: Cross- cultural Aspects of Secondlanguage Writing - Cambridge [England]; New York: Cambridge University Press Derewianka, J (2003a), A Training Course for Teachers, New York; London: Random House Dudley-Evan, T (1997) Genre Models for the Teaching of Academic Writing to Second Language Speakers: Advantages and Disadvantages, Cambridge University Press 68 Elias, P (1991), Composing Through Reading: An Integrated Approach in Writing Belmont: Wadsworth pub-comp Ellis, R (1994), The Study of Second Language Acquisition, Oxford University Press 10 Gould, E et al (1989),The Act of Writing New York; London: Random House, c1989 11 Grill ham, B (2000), Developing a Questionnaire, Continuum Wellington House: London 12 Hedge, T (1988) Writing Oxford University Press 13 Jordan, R (1990) Academic Writing course: Nelson, 1990 14 Kroll, B (1990) Second Language Writing: Research insights for the classroom Cambridge University Press 15 Lannon, J.M ( 1989) The Writing Process A concise rhetoric 16 Larsen- Freeman, D (2000), Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching, Oxford University Press 17 Leki, I (1998) Academic Writing: Exploring Processes and Strategies New York : Cambridge University Press 18 Little, W (1981) Communicative Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press 19 Liu, W & Lu, Y (2007) EFL writing strategy in Dali, an University of Technology Retrieved from http: /www Asian- efl.com/ on 15 of May 2008 20 Nguyễn Thị Vân Lam, & Ngơ Đình Phương, English Teaching Methodology Practice, Vinh university, 2007 21 Nunan, D 1991 Language Teaching Methodology London: Prentice Hall 22 Nunan, D (1992), Research Methods in Language Learning, Cambridge University Press 69 23 Petty, G (1993) A Practical Guide: Teaching Today, Stanley Thorne Ltd: United Kingdom 24 Raimes, A (1983) Techniques in Teaching Writing, Oxford University Press 25 Richard, J (2002) 30 years of TEFL/ TESL: A Personal Reflection, RELC Journal Volume 33 Number December 2002-p23 26 Rivers, W M (1981) Teaching foreign-language skills (2nd ed.) Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 27 Rucinski, C (1990), Cuing in Activities on Backline Masters for Beginning Writers of English - London: Lifelong Learning Books 28 Stanley, G (2007) Approaches to process writing, British Council, retrieved from www Teachenglish.org.uk/ on 27 of December 2007 29 Steele, V (2007), Product- Process Writing: A Comparison, Retrieved from www Teachenglish.org.uk/ on 27 of November 2007 30 Swales, J & Feak, C (1994), Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks and Skills: A Course for Nonnative Speakers of English Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 31 Tribble, C (1996) Writing, Oxford University Press 32 White, R & Arndt, V (1991) Process Writing, Longman APPENDIX THE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS 70 The questionnaire is designed for the research into Pre-writing activities used to teach 12th form students at Hong Linh high school in English Writing Lessons This is not a test, so there are no “right” or “wrong” answers Your assistance in completing the questionnaire is highly appreciated All the information provided by you is solely for the study purpose, and you can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Part I: Give some information of yourself Age: ……………………………………………… Gender: male Female Part II: Please circle your choice(s) in answering each of the following questions Question 1: What you think about the writing topics and exercises in the textbook “English 12” ? A: interesting B: boring C: too difficult D: suitable Question : What does your teacher often to begin a writing lesson? A: organize some Pre-writing activities B: no preparation Question : How you find the role of Pre- writing activities in a writing lesson? A: very important B: important C: normal D: not important at all Question 4: Which of the following Pre-writing activities does your teacher use in writing lesson? Pre-writing activities Brainstorming people, places, always about and 71 sometimes rarely never feelings Talking and listening in pairs or groups Looking at art Listening to music Role playing Observing with all senses Listing ideas and information Reading Newspaper searches 10 Author visits Question 5: What you think of these activities: interesting, normal, or boring? Pre-writing activities interesting Brainstorming about people, places, and feelings Talking and listening in pairs or groups Looking at art Listening to music Role playing Observing with all senses 72 normal boring Listing ideas and information Reading 9.Newspaper searches 10 Author visits Question 6: Which way you prefer to participate in Pre-writing activities A work individual B work in pairs C work in groups Question 7: What are your comments on the Pre-writing activities your teachers have used? A boring B unsuitable for students’ needs C unable to motivate students D interesting E others APPENDIX THE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS The questionnaire is designed for the research into Pre-writing activities used to teach 12th form students at Hong Linh high school in English Writing Lessons This is not a test, so there are not ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers Your assistance in completing the questionnaire is highly appreciated All the information provided by you is soly for the study purpose, and you can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Part I: Give some information of yourself Age: ……………………………………………………… 73 Gender: Female Male Part II: Please circle your choice(s) in answering each of the following questions Question1: What you think about the writing topics in the textbook Tieng Anh 12? A interesting B suitable C difficult D boring Question 2: What you often to start a writing lesson? A Brainstorming about people, places, and feelings B Talking and listening in pairs or groups C Listing ideas and information D nothing Question 3: What you think about the role of the Pre-writing activities A very important B important C not important at all Question 4: How often you use pre-writing activities in a writing lesson?) A: often B: always C: sometimes Question 5: what are your purposes of using Pre-writing activities in a writing lesson? Purposes A to increase Strongly agree the students’ motivation B to provide background knowledge on the writing topics 74 Agree Disagree C to teach new, difficult vocabulary or structures in the writing tasks D others Question 6: What are your difficulties in applying the Pre-writing activities in your teaching situation? A designing them is time–consuming B designing them is difficult C sometimes the activities can not motivate the students D handling them sometimes is out of control Question 7: What are your comments on the Pre-writing activities ? A suitable for the students’ interest B interesting C ineffective in motivating the students D unable to enhance the students’ motivation for writing APPENDIX Term from Sep to Dec Term from Jan to May Academic months National Exam for GCSE (early June) Compulsory education 75 Upper secondary (3 years) Lower secondary (4 years) Primary (5 years) Formal school systerm in Vietnam 76 ... TEACH ENGLISH WRITING LESSONS TO THE 1 2TH FORM STUDENTS AT HONGLINH HIGH SCHOOL 4.1 Findings 4.1.1 The role of using Pre- writing activities The findings of this study showed that that both teachers... possible Pre- writing activities applied to teach English writing lessons to the 1 2th students at the Hong Linh high school Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND SOME SUGGESTED PRE- WRITING ACTIVITIES APPLIED TO TEACH. .. LESSONS TO THE 1 2TH FORM STUDENTS AT HONG LINH HIGH SCHOOL 4.1 Findings 4.1.1 The role of using Pre- writing activities 4.1.2 Frequency of using Pre- writing activities in writing lessons 4.1.3 Students? ??