A survey on learner writing syllabus and learn attitude at the in service training center ho chi minh city

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES A SURVEY ON LEARNERS’ WRITING ABILITY – A REFLECTION ON THE WRITING SYLLABUS AND LEARNERS’ ATTITUDE AT THE IN-SERVICE TRAINING CENTER – HO CHI MINH CITY A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL) Submitted by CHÂU QUỐC KỶ Supervisor Senior Lecturer NGUYỄN BÍCH HẠNH, M.A Ho Chi Minh City, August 2008 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: A SURVEY ON LEARNERS’ WRITING ABILITY – A REFLECTION ON THE WRITING SYLLABUS AND LEARNERS’ ATTITUDE AT THE IN-SERVICE TRAINING CENTER HOCHIMINH CITY In terms of the statement of Requirement for Theses in Master’s Programs Issued by the Higher Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh City, August 2008 CHÂU QUỐC KYÛ RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Châu Quốc Kỷ, being the candidate for the degree of Master of 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 conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan or reproduction of theses Ho Chi Minh City, August 2008 CHÂU QUỐC KỶ ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I am grateful to all the people who have helped me with this thesis First I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Ms Nguyễn Bích Hạnh, who spent time reading my manuscript and gave me a lot of precious advice from the very beginning to the end of my thesis Without her help and guidance, I could not have finished this thesis I am also grateful to the authorities of the ISTC who granted me permission to interview them; especially, to Dr Lưu văn Phú, the Director of ISTC, to Mr Đoàn Viết Bửu, my former teacher, also the founder of the English Department of ISTC, and to Mr Nguyễn Mạnh Bùi Nghĩa, now the Head of English Department of ISTC I gratefully thank Mr Lê văn Việt, Head of the Human Resources Department of Saigon University for his encouragement; thank my colleagues, both at ISTC and at other FLCs for their help, especially, Ms Phùng thị Nguyệt Thu, Ms Nguyễn thị Phước Lành, Mr Nguyễn văn Dũng, Mr Nguyễn Ngọc Khánh for delivering my questionnaires to the learners in their classes at ISTC; thank my dear friend Ngô Quốc Hưng for providing me the final tests of DETH and HUP I also acknowledge all the learners of ISTC who were very kind to respond my questionnaires From their responses, I got valuable information for the research Finally, my thanks go to my family and friends, who are always willing to help me and encourage me to go back to graduate school ABSTRACT This thesis examines the problems of teaching and learning writing skills at the In-Service Training Center (ISTC) with an attempt to explore the causes that lead to the poor quality of learners’ writing ability In order to this, questionnaires were delivered to all teachers and the learners at all three levels to collect data about (1) teachers’ and learners’ attitudes toward teaching and learning writing English, (2) the difficulties both the teachers and learners are facing, and (3) their suggestions on what should be done to remedy the situation There were also interviews with several authorities of the ISTC to elicit information necessary to the research such as the objectives of the syllabus, the interviewees’ evaluation of the learners’ writing ability and their recommendations In addition, the syllabuses are compared to see whether the problems partly lie on the changes of the syllabus The findings show that (1) the majority of the authorities and teachers at ISTC believe that learners’ ability to write need to be improved; however, (2) most teachers and learners at the ISTC not consider writing skills important and they not spend adequate time on developing this skills and (3) the current writing syllabuses of ISTC have negative effects on the teaching and learning writing Based on the findings, the thesis offers some recommendations on how to remedy the situation, including recommendations to the teachers, to the learners, to the authorities of ISTC and to the writing test designs It is hoped that the attempt which has spent will receive adequate attention of the authorities of ISTC and will contribute to the development of teaching and learning English at the center TABLE OF CONTENTS page Certificate of originality i Retention and use of the thesis ii Acknowledgement iii Abstract iv Table of contents v List of figures, charts, and tables viii List of appendices ix Abbreviations x INTRODUCTION 0.1 The Problem 0.2 Aims of the study and overview of the thesis 0.3 Significance of the study 0.4 Organization of the thesis Chapter 1: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 1.1 The common trend of teaching writing at language centers in Ho Chi Minh City 1.1.1 The curriculum at FLCs managed by DETH 1.1.2 The curriculum at Duong Minh School 7 1.1.3 The curriculum at FLCs managed by HUP 1.2 The requirements of the writing final test at most FLCs 1.2.1 The requirements of the writing final test of FLCs of DETH 11 1.2.2 The requirements of the writing final test of FLCs of HUP 12 1.3 A comparison of the role and the objective of writing in the curriculum of the ISTC and those of other FLCs 14 1.4 The ISTC 16 1.5 The learners of ISTC 17 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 20 2.1 The need and the objectives of the teaching of writing 20 2.2 Exploring the difficulties in teaching and learning writing 22 2.3 The role of grammar 23 2.4 The role of vocabulary 25 2.5 The interrelation between grammar and vocabulary 27 2.6 Writing as process and writing as product 28 2.7 The effects of reading on English learners’ writing ability 30 2.8 Previous works on the problems of writing of Vietnamese learners 32 2.8.1 Cohesive Devices in English and Vietnamese Essays 32 2.8.2 The Teaching-Learning Writing in English at Hue Medical College – Difficulties and Measures to Overcome 32 2.8.3 The Use of Group Writing in Improving the Writing Skill of EFL Students at Hue College of Sciences 33 2.8.4 A Survey of Writing Problems of USSH First-Year Students Of English 33 2.8.5 Towards Teaching Writing Effectively: An Error Analysis of Elementary Learners’ Performance in Writing 2.8.6 Error Feedback in L2 writing classes How explicit does it need to be? 34 2.8.7 The Effect of Reading on L2 Writing Proficiency 34 2.8.8 How Can Reading Skills Assist the Teaching and Learning of L2 Writing Skills? 35 34 2.8.9 Towards Teaching Adults: An Analysis of Writing Problems Facing Non-majored EFL Beginners of Mixed Levels in Long An Teacher’s Training College 35 2.8.10 The Effects of Pairwork and Groupwork on Improving Writing Skills for First-Year Students at The University of Technology, HCMC 36 2.8.11 The Use of Cohesive Devices in English Writing 36 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 39 3.1 The research questions 39 3.2 The research design 39 3.2.1 The questionnaires 39 3.2.1.1 Questionnaires to teachers 39 3.2.1.2 Questionnaires to learners 40 3.2.2 The questionnaires’ participants 42 3.2.2.1 The teachers 42 3.2.2.2 The learners 43 3.2.3 The interviews 44 3.3.4 The review of the documents 44 Chapter FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 47 4.1 The interviews 47 4.1.1 The objectives of the English syllabus of ISTC 47 4.1.2 Evaluations of the interviewees of learners’ ability to write 49 4.1.3 Recommendations to improve the learners’ writing skills 50 4.2 Teachers’ responses to the questionnaires 52 4.2.1 Teachers’ attitudes towards the four skills 52 4.2.2 Writing activities in class 53 - The number of papers assigned by teachers at ISTC 53 - Teachers’ ideas about the most difficult thing learners facing while writing 53 - Does it matter if learners translate while writing? 54 - Teachers' practice of correcting papers 55 - What teachers notice most while correcting? 56 4.2.3 Teachers’ recommendations 56 - What should teachers in order to help learners improve their writing skills? 56 - What should learners in order to improve their writing skills? 57 - Should basic sentence patterns be taught to learners at elementary level? 58 4.3 Learners’ responses to the questionnaires 59 4.3.1 The learners’ motivation to study English 60 4.3.2 The learners’ backgrounds 63 4.3.3 Learners’ attitudes towards the four language skills 65 4.3.4 How learners of ISTC applied their writing skills 67 4.3.5 Learners’ ideas about instruction of writing at ISTC 67 4.3.6 Learners’ writing habits 71 - How much did learners try to rephrase? 71 - Did learners at ISTC translate their ideas into English? 71 - What did learners notice when they revise their drafts? 72 - How much time learners spent on practicing wring English at home? 73 - Learners’ ideas about the difficulty they might have while writing 74 4.3.7 Learners’ writing activities 74 - How were learners’ papers corrected? 74 - How many papers did they submit their teachers during the course of studying? 76 4.3.8 How did learners react to their teachers’ correction? 76 4.3.9 Learners’ recommendations for improving their writing ability 77 - What should learners to write well? 77 - What should teachers to help learners improve their writing skills? 78 4.4 The effects of the current writing syllabus on learners’ ability to write 79 Chapter IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 84 5.1 Implications 84 5.2 Recommendations 87 10 APPENDIX THE WRITING TEST – ELEMENTARY ASSIGNED TO CANDIDATES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTERS MANAGED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF HO CHI MINH CITY Date of Testing: July 1st, 2007 118 APPENDIX THE WRITING TEST – INTERMEDIATE ASSIGNED TO CANDIDATES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTERS MANAGED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF HO CHI MINH CITY Date of Testing: August 12th, 2007 119 APPENDIX THE WRITING TEST – ADVANCED ASSIGNED TO CANDIDATES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTERS MANAGED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF HO CHI MINH CITY Date of Testing: August 12th, 2007 120 APPENDIX GUIDE FOR EVALUATING THE WRITING TESTS (INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED) ASSIGNED TO CANDIDATES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTERS MANAGED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF HO CHI MINH CITY Date of Testing: August 12th, 2007 121 APPENDIX THE PRE-TEST (Level A) ASSIGNED TO CANDIDATES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTERS ADMINISTED BY THE HCM City UNIVERSITY of PEDAGORY Date of Testing: July 22nd , 2007 122 APPENDIX THE PRE-TEST (Level B) ASSIGNED TO CANDIDATES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTERS ADMINISTED BY THE HCM City UNIVERSITY of PEDAGORY Date of Testing: July 22nd , 2007 123 APPENDIX THE PRE-TEST (Level C) ASSIGNED TO CANDIDATES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTERS ADMINISTED BY THE HCM City UNIVERSITY of PEDAGORY Date of Testing: July 22nd , 2007 124 APPENDIX THE READING AND WRITING TEST (Level A) ASSIGNED TO CANDIDATES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTERS ADMINISTED BY THE HCM City UNIVERSITY of PEDAGORY Date of Testing: August 5th , 2007 125 APPENDIX THE READING AND WRITING TEST (Level B) ASSIGNED TO CANDIDATES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTERS ADMINISTED BY THE HCM City UNIVERSITY of PEDAGORY Date of Testing: August 5th , 2007 126 APPENDIX 10 THE WRITING TEST (Level C) ASSIGNED TO CANDIDATES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTERS ADMINISTED BY THE HCM City UNIVERSITY of PEDAGORY Date of Testing: August 5th , 2007 127 APPENDIX 11 THE WRITING TEST (Level A) ASSIGNED TO CANDIDATES AT ISTC Date of Testing: October, 2007 128 APPENDIX 12 THE WRITING TEST (Level B) ASSIGNED TO CANDIDATES AT ISTC Date of Testing: October, 2007 129 APPENDIX 13 THE WRITING TEST (Level C) ASSIGNED TO CANDIDATES AT ISTC Date of Testing: October, 2007 130 APPENDIX 14 QUESTIONNAIRES TO TEACHERS 131 APPENDIX 15 QUESTIONNAIRES TO LEARNERS 132 ... its learners 1.1 The common trend of teaching writing at language centers in Ho Chi Minh City My investigation into the learning and teaching English in many Foreign Language Centers (FLCs) in. .. teachers’ and learners’ attitudes toward teaching and learning writing English, (2) the difficulties both the teachers and learners are facing, and (3) their suggestions on what should be done... but are reluctant to practice the conversation in pairs, for fear that they can make mistakes in pronunciation and that others will laugh at them When their teacher assigns a writing task as homework,