The effects of reflective journal writings (rjw) on the vocabulary acquisition and writing performance of primary students at vinschool central park (vsc) a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements f

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY TRAN THI NIEM MY MY THE EFFECTS OF REFLECTIVE JOURNAL WRITING (RJW) ON THE VOCABULARY ACQUISITION AND WRITING PERFORMANCE OF PRIMARY STUDENTS AT VINSCHOOL CENTRAL PARK A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL Ho Chi Minh City, 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY TRAN THI NIEM MY MY Major: TESOL Major code: 60 14 01 11 THE EFFECTS OF REFLECTIVE JOURNAL WRITING (RJW) ON THE VOCABULARY ACQUISITION AND WRITING PERFORMANCE OF PRIMARY STUDENTS AT VINSCHOOL CENTRAL PARK A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL Supervisor: Assoc Prof Pham Vu Phi Ho, Ph.D Ho Chi Minh City, 2019 I Certificate Of Originality I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis entitled “the effects of reflective journal writing (RJW) on the vocabulary acquisition and writing performance of primary students at Vinschool Central Park.” All sources used by me have been documented No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement This piece of work has not been submitted for assessment in this or any other subject or course at this University or elsewhere Ho Chi Minh City, 2019 Student’s signature II Acknowledgements This work would not have been possible without the tremendous academic support of my supervisor, Assoc Prof Pham Vu Phi Ho, Ph.D I am especially indebted to Prof Pham Vu Phi Ho, who has been supportive of my thesis as well as encouraging me strongly during my hard times Your advice on research has been invaluable to me I am grateful to all of those with whom I have had the pleasure to work with during this research I would like to thank my managers, Ms.Le Thi Ngoc Diep, Ph.D – Vinschool Principal and Ms.Tran Ngoc Thuy Nhien – Vinschool Vice Principal for consulting and giving me an opportunity to conduct the study at Vinschool Central Park My deep gratitude goes to my co-workers at Vinschool Central Park, who have been giving me emotional support and sharing their own teaching experience with me Each of the members in ESL Vinschool team has been a great inspiration and motivation for me to finish this research Finally, but by no means least, words cannot express how grateful I am to my family Your endless love for me has been what sustained me thus far They are the most important people in my world and I dedicate this thesis to them III Abstract The learning and teaching English in Vietnam has not been a new issue for ages It has especially gained more attention in such a rapid economic and social development New curriculums have been planned, new textbooks have been tried out, modern teaching approaches and methods have been discussed and applied However, it is just a turning point in which not all aspects of renovation can be successfully carried out In many schools in Vietnam, Grammar Translation Method alone, which focused on the translation of text and the rote learning of vocabulary, is still used to teach all skills, no matter it is reading, writing, speaking or listening and regardless of what learning objective that is Teachers say the words, students repeat Teachers force students to memorize the words by copying Students learn writing by translating sentences from their mother tongue to English and vice versa Thus, the effectiveness of the teaching and learning English has been not as good as expected This research aimed at examining the impacts of reflective journal writings (RJW) on the learning of vocabulary and writing performance of primary students at Vinschool Central Park, Ho Chi Minh City The quasi-experimental research design was used in this study 60 primary students of level in the 12-level English proficiency scale aged from to 10 participated in the study These 60 students were divided into two groups of 30 including control and experimental one Both groups were taught with Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) method, but the treatment group wrote reflective journals in the wrap-up phase of every vocabulary lesson in months, while the control group took the regular spelling and writing practice in the wrap-up phase Pre-test and post-test were used to measure their progress before and after the reflective journal writing experiment Each test paper was marked separately by two raters, then the final score was the average number of these two scores The findings disclosed that the achievement in the participants’ writing skills and vocabulary mastery in terms of vocabulary quantity, spelling, word meaning in specific contexts, and word use of the treatment group is considerably better than that of the control group The research also confirmed the positive influence of RJW on students’ IV abilities to remember the words, use words in context, writing fluency and accuracy The results might have pedagogically significant implications for material developers, language teachers and students Keywords: Reflective journal writing, vocabulary acquisition, writing fluency, writing accuracy V Table of Contents Certificate Of Originality I Acknowledgements II Abstract .III Chapter Introduction .1 1.1 Background of the study 1.2 Statement of the problem .2 1.3 Purpose of the study 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Significance of the study .6 1.6 Structure of the study Chapter Literature review .8 2.1 Definition of terminology 2.1.1 Definitions of reflective journal writing 2.1.2 Definition of vocabulary acquisition 2.1.3 Definition of writing fluency and accuracy .10 2.2 Theoretical framework 11 2.2.1 Theory-based approaches to reflective journal writing 11 2.2.2 Theory-based approaches to teaching writing 17 2.2.3 Theory-based approaches to critical thinking 18 2.2.4 Other benefits of reflective journal writing 20 2.2.5 Previous research studies and research gap 26 2.2.5.1 Previous research studies 26 2.2.5.2 Research gap 38 Chapter Research methodology 41 3.1 Research design 41 3.2 Research setting and participants 42 3.2.1 Research setting 42 3.2.2 Participants 44 VI 3.3 Research procedure 45 3.4 Teaching procedure .47 3.5 Data collection and analysis 52 3.6 Instruments 52 3.6.1 The English proficiency test 52 3.6.2 The vocabulary pre- and post-test 53 3.6.3 Reflective journals 54 3.7 The pre- and post-test construction .55 3.7.1 How to measure vocabulary knowledge? .55 3.7.2 The pre- and post-test format .57 3.7.3 The pre- and post-test construction 60 3.7.3.1 Content validity 61 3.7.3.2 Inter-rater reliability 61 3.7.3.3 Test reliability data analysis 62 Chapter Results/ Findings and Discussions 65 4.1 A comparison of students’ vocabulary acquisition and writing performance of both groups in the pre-test 65 4.1.1 A comparison of students’ overall score in the pre-test .66 4.1.2 A comparison of students’ writing fluency in the pre-test 66 4.1.3 A comparison of students’ writing accuracy in the pre-test 67 4.2 A comparison of students’ vocabulary acquisition in the pre- and post-test 69 4.2.1 Control group: A comparison of students’ vocabulary acquisition in the preand post-test 69 4.2.2 Experimental group: A comparison of students’ vocabulary acquisition in the pre- and post-test .70 4.3 A comparison of students’ vocabulary acquisition of both groups in the post-test 71 VII 4.4 A comparison of students’ writing fluency and accuracy in the pre- and post-test 72 4.4.1 Control group: A comparison of students’ writing fluency and accuracy in the pre- and post-test .73 4.4.2 Experimental group: A comparison of students’ writing fluency and accuracy in the pre- and post-test 74 4.4.3 A comparison of students’ writing fluency and accuracy of both groups in the post-test 75 4.5 Discussion 78 4.5.1 The effect of reflective journal writing on the vocabulary acquisition of Vinschool primary students 78 4.5.2 The effect of reflective journal writing on the writing fluency of Vinschool primary students 79 4.5.3 The effect of reflective journal writing on the writing accuracy of Vinschool primary students 80 Chapter Conclusions, implications and recommendations 82 5.1 A summary of the research findings 82 5.2 Conclusion 83 5.3 Implication of the study .83 5.4 Limitations and recommendations 84 References 86 Appendices 97 Appendix 1: Sample reflective journal writing with guided questions 97 Appendix 2: Sample reflective journal writing with scaffolding for the first two sessions 98 Appendix 3: Sample regular spelling and writing practice 99 Appendix 4: Writing Rubric 100 Appendix 5: Curriculum planning and detailed lesson plan for each treatment session 101 VIII Appendix 6: Vocabulary pre-test and answer key .115 Appendix 7: Vocabulary post-test and answer key .121 Appendix 8: Students’ writing samples .127 Appendix 9: SPSS data analysis results 128 List of figures and charts Figure 2.1 Conceptual framework of reflective journal writing .26 Figure 2.2 A summary of the literature and the research gap 40 Chart 3.1 Vinschool English program level mapping .43 Chart 3.2 Control group teaching procedure .49 Chart 3.3 Experimental group teaching procedure 50 Figure 3.1 Two ways of conceptualizing breadth and depth 56 Figure 4.1 A summary of the data analysis result .77 List of tables Table 2.1 A summary of the theory-based approaches to reflective journal writing 16 Table 2.2 Reflective journal writing across academic disciplines 24 Table 2.3 A summary of the reviewed literature about reflective journal writing 32 Table Procedures to develop the research 46 Table 3.2 Common grammar and spelling errors in the reflective journal writings 55 Table 3.3 Pre- and post-test specification 59 Table 3.4 A comparison of students’ score in the pre-test pilot .62 Table 3.5 A comparison of students’ score in the post-test pilot 62 Table 3.6 A comparison of group students’ score in the pre- and post-test pilot 63 126 Vocabulary post – test answer key Part Part an elbow fruit and vegetables an invitation exercise a stomach muscles a loaf of bread bones money get some rest balloons junk food a price health get some rest a glass of milk a feast cereals 10 eat vegetables 11 Stay up late Part 3A Part 3B festival park lantern scooter drinking tea holding a boat holding some cake sunny and cloudy There are two children in the There are five children at the park picture The family is very happy The girl in the blue skirt is skipping 127 Appendix 8: Students’ writing samples Refflective journal writing Traditional spelling and writing practice 128 Appendix 9: SPSS data analysis results Reliability checking: Independent sample t-test of the pre- test and post- test pilot score Grou p Pretest Posttest Group Statistics N Mean Std Deviation 31 14.32 4.771 31 14.03 3.656 31 14.06 4.739 31 13.71 3.329 Std Error Mean 857 657 851 598 Independent Samples Test Levene's Test t-test for Equality of Means for Equality of Variances F Sig t df Sig Mean Std Error 95% (2- Differenc Differenc Confidence tailed) e e Interval of the Difference Lowe Upp r er Equal variances assumed Pretest Equal variances not assumed Equal variances assumed Postte Equal st variances not assumed 2.256 1.633 138 206 269 60 789 290 1.079 - 2.45 1.869 269 56.20 789 290 1.079 - 2.45 1.872 341 60 734 355 1.040 - 2.43 1.726 341 53.80 734 355 1.040 - 2.44 1.731 129 Reliability checking: Paired sample t-test of the pre- and post-test pilot score Paired Samples Statistics Mean PretestG1 PosttestG1 PretestG2 Pair PosttestG2 Pair 14.32 14.06 14.03 13.74 N 31 31 31 31 Std Deviation 4.771 4.739 3.656 3.346 Std Error Mean 857 851 657 601 Paired Samples Correlations N Correlation Sig Pair PretestG1 & PosttestG1 31 754 000 Pair PretestG2 & PosttestG2 31 608 000 Paired Samples Test Paired Differences Mea Std Std 95% n Deviatio Error Confidence n Mean Interval of the Difference Lower Upper Pair Pair PretestG1 PosttestG1 PretestG2 PosttestG2 t df Sig (2tailed) 258 3.336 599 -.966 1.482 431 30 670 290 3.111 559 -.851 1.432 520 30 607 130 Independent sample t-test of both groups’ overall score in the pre-test Group Statistics Group PreTestscore N Mean Std Deviation 30 19.83 5.706 1.042 30 19.97 5.480 1.001 Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances F Sig Equal variances assumed PreTestscore Equal variances not assumed PreTestscore Std Error Mean 003 954 t-test for Equality of Means t df -.092 58 -.092 57.906 Independent Samples Test t-test for Equality of Means Sig (2-tailed) Mean Std Error Difference Difference Equal variances 927 -.133 1.444 assumed Equal variances not 927 -.133 1.444 assumed Independent Samples Test t-test for Equality of Means 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper PreTestscore Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed -3.025 2.758 -3.025 2.758 131 Independent sample t-test of students’ writing accuracy in the pre-test Group PreTestErrors Group Statistics N Mean 30 30 8.07 8.10 Std Deviation 1.574 1.423 Std Error Mean 287 260 Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances F PreTestErrors Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed PreTestErrors PreTestErrors Sig .022 t-test for Equality of Means t 884 df -.086 58 -.086 57.416 Independent Samples Test t-test for Equality of Means Sig (2-tailed) Mean Std Error Difference Difference Equal variances 932 -.033 387 assumed Equal variances 932 -.033 387 not assumed Independent Samples Test t-test for Equality of Means 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper Equal variances assumed -.809 742 132 Equal variances not -.809 assumed Independent sample t-test of students’ writing fluency in the pre-test Group Statistics N Mean Group PreTestWords 30 30 35.83 36.00 Std Deviation 6.243 5.994 Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances F Sig Equal variances assumed PreTestWords Equal variances not assumed PreTestWords PreTestWords 110 741 742 Std Error Mean 1.140 1.094 t-test for Equality of Means t df -.105 58 -.105 57.905 Independent Samples Test t-test for Equality of Means Sig (2-tailed) Mean Std Error Difference Difference Equal variances 916 -.167 1.580 assumed Equal variances not 916 -.167 1.580 assumed Independent Samples Test t-test for Equality of Means 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper Equal variances assumed -3.330 2.996 Equal variances not assumed -3.330 2.996 133 Independent sample t-test of students’ writing fluency in the post-test Group PosttestWords Group Statistics N Mean Std Deviation Std Error Mean 30 44.10 7.194 1.313 30 39.10 10.659 1.946 Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances F Sig Equal variances assumed PosttestWords Equal variances not assumed 3.044 t-test for Equality of Means t df 086 2.130 58 2.130 50.879 Independent Samples Test t-test for Equality of Means Sig (2Mean Std Error tailed) Difference Difference PosttestWords Equal variances assumed 037 5.000 2.348 Equal variances not assumed 038 5.000 2.348 Independent Samples Test t-test for Equality of Means 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower PosttestWords Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed 300 286 Upper 9.700 9.714 134 Independent sample t-test of students’ writing accuracy in the post-test Group PosttestErrors Group Statistics N Mean 30 30 6.47 5.73 Std Deviation 3.401 3.741 Std Error Mean 621 683 Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances F Sig Equal variances assumed PosttestErrors Equal variances not assumed PosttestErrors PosttestErrors 201 656 t-test for Equality of Means t df 794 58 794 57.482 Independent Samples Test t-test for Equality of Means Sig (2Mean Std Error tailed) Difference Difference Equal variances 430 733 923 assumed Equal variances not 430 733 923 assumed Independent Samples Test t-test for Equality of Means 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper Equal variances assumed -1.114 2.581 Equal variances not assumed -1.115 2.581 135 Independent sample t-test of students’ writing overall score in the post-test Group PosttestScore Group Statistics N Mean Std Deviation Std Error Mean 30 35.97 5.055 923 30 33.03 7.078 1.292 Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances F Sig Equal variances assumed PosttestScore Equal variances not assumed PosttestScore 4.304 t-test for Equality of Means t df 042 1.847 58 1.847 52.473 Independent Samples Test t-test for Equality of Means Sig (2Mean Std Error tailed) Difference Difference Equal variances assumed 070 2.933 1.588 Equal variances not 070 2.933 1.588 assumed Independent Samples Test t-test for Equality of Means 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower PosttestScore Upper Equal variances assumed -.245 6.112 Equal variances not assumed -.253 6.119 136 Paired sample t-test of students’ writing fluency in the pre-test and post-test Paired Samples Statistics Mean N Std Deviation Std Error Mean G1PreTestWords 35.83 30 6.243 1.140 G1posttestWords 44.40 30 7.417 1.354 Pair Paired Samples Correlations N Correlation Pair G1PreTestWords & G1posttestWords 30 Sig .588 001 Paired Samples Test Paired Differences Mean Std Std Error Deviation Mean 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Pair G1PreTestWords G1posttestWords -8.567 6.285 Paired Samples Test Paired t Differences 1.147 df -10.913 Sig (2tailed) 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Upper Pair G1PreTestWords G1posttestWords -6.220 -7.466 29 000 137 Paired sample t-test of students’ writing accuracy in the pre-test and posttest Paired Samples Statistics Mean N Std Deviation Std Error Mean G1PreTestErrors 8.07 30 1.574 287 G1posttestErrors 6.53 30 3.288 600 Pair Paired Samples Correlations N Correlation Pair G1PreTestErrors & G1posttestErrors 30 Sig .353 Paired Samples Test Paired Differences Mean Std Std Error Deviation Mean Pair G1PreTestErrors G1posttestErrors 1.533 3.104 Paired Samples Test t Paired Differences 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Upper Pair G1PreTestErrors G1posttestErrors 2.693 2.705 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower 567 df 056 374 Sig (2-tailed) 29 011 138 10 Independent sample t-test of students’ writing fluency and accuracy in the post-test Group PosttestErrors PosttestWords Group Statistics N Mean 30 30 30 30 44.10 39.10 3.47 5.73 Std Deviation 7.194 10.659 2.047 3.741 Std Error Mean 1.313 1.946 374 683 Independent Samples Test Levene's t-test for Equality of Means Test for Equality of Variances F Sig t df Sig Mean Std 95% (2Diffe Error Confidence tailed) rence Differ Interval of ence the Difference Low Uppe er r Posttest Words Posttest Errors Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed 3.04 08 2.13 58 037 5.000 2.348 300 9.70 2.13 50.87 038 5.000 2.348 286 9.71 9.21 00 2.91 58 44.93 2.91 1 005 2.267 006 2.267 779 3.82 -.708 779 3.83 -.699 139 11 Paired sample t-test of students’ writing overall score in the pre-test and post-test Paired Samples Statistics Mean N Std Deviation Std Error Mean G2PretestScore 19.97 30 5.480 1.001 G2Posttestscore 33.03 30 7.078 1.292 Pair Paired Samples Correlations N Correlation Pair G2PretestScore & G2Posttestscore 30 Sig .121 Paired Samples Test Paired Differences Mean Std Std Error Deviation Mean Pair G2PretestScore G2Posttestscore -13.067 8.412 524 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower 1.536 -16.208 Paired Samples Test Paired Differences t df Sig (2tailed) 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Upper Pair G2PretestScore G2Posttestscore -9.926 -8.508 29 000 140 12 Pearson correlation analysis of mean score of each student in relation to other factors Correlations G1 Mean Score Each Student G1Mean Score Each Student G1posttest Score G1posttest Words Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig (2-tailed) N G1 posttest Score G1 posttest Words 606** 589** 000 001 30 30 30 606** 593** 000 30 30 001 30 589** 593** 001 001 30 30 ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) 30 ... ON THE VOCABULARY ACQUISITION AND WRITING PERFORMANCE OF PRIMARY STUDENTS AT VINSCHOOL CENTRAL PARK A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts... of reflective journal writing on the vocabulary acquisition of Vinschool primary students 78 4.5.2 The effect of reflective journal writing on the writing fluency of Vinschool primary. .. teaching context Therefore, these features will be addressed in this research, named ? ?The effects of reflective journal writings (RJW) to the vocabulary acquisition and writing performance of primary