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Với nỗ lực tìm ra những khó khăn của giáo viên khi dạy kĩ năng viết cho học sinh lớp 11 tại một trường THPT, mục đích của nghiên cứu là để tìm ra (1) những khó khăn giáo viên thường gặp và (2) những nguyên nhân gây ra những khó khăn đó. Nghiên cứu được thực hiện dưới dạng nghiên cứu khảo sát với chủ thể là 6 giáo viên dạy Tiếng anh. Dự giờ và phỏng vấn là hai phương tiện chính để thu thập và xử lý thông tin. Kết quả của nghiên cứu cho thấy cách phân bố thời gian và phương pháp của giáo viên là hai yếu tố cần được xem xét. Bên cạnh đó, thái độ của học sinh đối với kĩ năng viết và thực trạng học sinh lười học cũng làm cho giáo viên gặp khó khăn khi giảng dạy. Ngoài ra, lớp học quá đông cũng khiến cho việc dạy của giáo viên gặp khó khăn hơn. Từ những phát hiện trên, nghiên cứu đưa ra một số đề nghị gợi ý nhằm cải thiện thực trạng dạy và học kĩ năng này.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS On the completion of this work, first of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility and encouragement without which my research would be far from finished . I would like to acknowledge with great gratitude the precious advice, enlightening guidance and especially invaluable critical feedback which I have received from my supervisor, Dr. Hà Cẩm Tâm. I would also like to send my sincere thanks to the principal, the teachers of English groups at Ly Thuong Kiet high school , who have helped me in providing the teaching materials, giving me chance to attend their lessons, willing to take part in the interviews and making constructive and insightful comments for this study. My special thanks also go to Mrs. Lê Thu Hà, the librarian at the Resource center, who introduced and lent me a numerous of interesting books and valuable materials for my thesis. Last but not least, I would like to express my heart-felt thanks to my beloved people, my parents, my husband whose support and continual encouragement have been indispensable for the fulfillment of this challenging work. Hanoi, September, 2013 Lê Thị Thái ABSTRACT i In an attempt to investigate teachers’ problems in teaching writing skills to 11graders at a high school in Bac Giang, the study was aimed at finding out: (1) the problems the teachers might encounter in the teaching process of the skills; (2) factors causing their difficulties. The study has been conducted in the form of a survey research, with the subjects were 6 English teachers . The classroom observation was the main instruments employed for the data collection. These teachers were also invited to join interviews. The research reveals that teachers’ time management and teaching methods should really be taken into consideration. Besides, the data from the study confirm the fact that the students’ laziness and negative attitudes towards writing lessons all made it difficult for the teachers in teaching process. In addition, large size classes with multi-level students are also made the situation worse. For those reasons, the study finally recommends some implications to help improve the quality of teaching and learning writing. TABLE OF CONTENT ii DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENT iv PART ONE. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Rationale 1 1.2. Aims of the study 2 1.3. Scope of the study 2 1.4. Methods of the study 2 1.5. Organization of the study 3 PART TWO. DEVELOPMENT 4 CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW 4 1.1. An Overview on Writing 4 1.1.1. Roles of writing in teaching and learning foreign language 4 1.1.2. Approaches to teaching writing 5 1.1.2.1. The controlled to free approach 5 1.1.2.2. Free writing approach 6 1.1.2.3. The paragraph-pattern approach 6 1.1.2.4. The grammar syntax organization approach 6 1.1.2.5. The communicative approach 7 1.1.2.6. The process approach ………………………………………………… 7 1.1.3. Writing teaching procedures 8 1.1.3.1. Activities in teaching writing………………………………………… 8 1.1.3.2. Stages in teaching writing…………………………………………… 9 1.1.3.2.1. Pre- writing 10 Brainstorming 10 Planning 10 Debating 10 iii Interviewing 11 1.1.3.2.2. While- writing 11 1.1.3.2.3. Post- writing 11 1.1.4. Principles for teaching writing 11 1.1.5. Review of previous studies on teaching writing 14 CHAPTER 2. THE STUDY 18 2.1. Research question 18 2.2. Research design 18 2.2.1. Participants 18 2.2.2. Data collection instruments 19 2.2.3. Data collection procedures 22 2.3. Data analysis and discussion 22 2.3.1. Classroom observation 22 2.3.2. Interviews 29 2.3.3. Teachers’ difficulties in teaching writing to the 11 th grade students 34 PART C.CONCLUSION 37 1. Major findings 37 2. Implications 37 3. Suggestions for further study 39 REFERENCE 40 APPENDIX I APPENDIX1 I APPENDIX2 X iv PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Writing has always been regarded as an important skill in the teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). On the one hand, it stimulates thinking, compels students to concentrate and organize their ideas, and cultivates their ability to summarize, analyze, and criticize. On the other hand, it reinforces learning in, thinking in, and reflecting on the English language. However, writing is considered a difficult skill as students find composing in English not easy, many students complain that they lack ideas and cannot think of anything interesting or significant enough to write. While most English teachers are often perplexed by these problems in their writing classes, they have to face many challenges and cannot find an efficient way to teach effectively. English is a compulsory subject and it is one of six subjects in the national examination that students have to take to get General Certificate of Secondary Education (G.C.S.E) at secondary school. Since the New English Textbook Tieng Anh 10, 11 and 12 were in use, besides teaching grammar and vocabulary, four skills such as reading, speaking, listening and writing have been focused. Among these, writing seems to be a rather difficult and boring skill as students do not find the lessons given by teachers interesting and attractive enough to take part in and therefore, students do not work with high motivation, they are in class but their mind are absent. Being an English teacher at a high school for over ten years, I have been deeply aware of challenges in dealing with the interest but demanding subject of English, especially with writing skill, it has urged me to seek for a suitable teaching writing method to help my students overcome the problem of lacking “inspiration” in learning writing and create something for them to write. Besides, not many researchers have been studied the difficulties of teachers in teaching writing at high schools. Hence, it is an urgent need for me to take a serious look at such issue and find a place for writing skills in teaching and learning among teachers and students. 1 For all the above-mentioned reasons, I would like to devote my time researching the topic in my thesis: “ A study on teacher’s difficulties in teaching writing skill to the 11 th grade at a school in Bac Giang”. I hope that my work can help teachers of English have a better look on teaching writing skills and consult some recommendations in order to improve the quality of teaching and learning writing skills at my school and elsewhere. 2. Aims of the study This research is designed to have an insight into the English writing lessons for the 11 th form students at a high school in Bac Giang province for continual improvement. Within this purpose, the specific objectives of the study are: • To identify the teachers’ major difficulties in teaching writing skills • To examine the causes of their difficulties 3. Scope of the study The study is mainly focus on the difficulties that teachers confronted in teaching writing skills to 11 grade students in the classroom setting at a high school. The study of difficulties of other skills thus would be beyond of the scope. The study involves the participants of 6 teachers of English and 270 students in 11 th forms. The findings and suggested implications most appropriately applied to English teachers at a high school, the teachers will be able to find ways to improve their process of teaching English. 4. Methods of the study The study was designed to use a combination of a variety of methods to achieve its objectives. Firstly, classroom observation with 270 students from 6 classes was carried out to investigate the reality of the teachers’ difficulties confronting in their teaching writing skills. In addition to classroom observation, informal interviews with the informants of 6 English teachers were also employed. The purpose of the survey is to collect data about the teachers’ difficulties in teaching writing to the 11 th grade at a high school. Besides, reviewing the related documents is also a method in order to establish the theoretical background for the study. 2 5. Organization of the study The study consists of three main parts: Part one includes the rationales, aims, scope, and methods of the study. Part two includes 2 chapters Chapter 1 deals with the roles of writing in language programme, approaches to teaching writing, writing teaching procedures, principles for teaching writing and review of Previous Studies on Teaching Writing Chapter 2 discusses the method of the study, the research questions, the research design, the data analysis and discussion. Part three concludes the major findings of the thesis, offers some implications for better teaching writing skill and suggestions for further study are also pointed out. PART TWO : DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1. Literature Review 3 1.1. An Overview on Writing 1.1.1. Roles of writing in language program Writing, like speaking, is the productive skill in the written mode and it is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just using words. In the process of learning a foreign language, writing is considered an integrated skill approaching to language learning, especially, writing serves a variety of pedagogical purposes in the early stages towards oral proficiency, Byrne (1979:7) points out that: (i) Some learners, especially those who do not learn easily through oral practice alone, feel more secure if they are allowed to read and write in the language. (ii)Written work serves to provide the learners with some tangible evidence that they are making progress in the language. (iii) Writing also provides variety in classroom activities, serving as a break from oral work, and increases the amount of language contact through work that can be set out of class. (iv) Writing is often needed for formal and informal testing. Teaching and learning writing is of great importance in classroom, White (1981, p.1) states that learners expose their success in examination through their ability to write. Moreover, writing has high “face validity” because it is tangible so parents and learners can see what has been done. In second language learning, the teaching of writing also aims at correctness of form over function. According to Nunan (2003:89), “writing was used to show that students had mastered a particular grammatical rule, rather than had a good idea about the subject matter. In fact, correct spelling, grammar, and overall organization were the most important evidence of second language proficiency. A student’s ability to form and write the future 4 perfect tense correctly was seen as evidence of a student’s ability to write, and moreover, of the student’s overall English ability”. In CLT, besides communication is the purposes of the teaching of writing, writing supports students to learn. Raimes (1983:3) assumes that the grammatical rules, idioms and vocabulary will be reinforces through practising writing, in addition, students will get the chance to go beyond what they have just learnt to say, they are aware of using new language, show their effort to express ideas, therefore, their language learning is improving. With all the roles mentioned above, writing is no double an integral part in almost every language programs from elementary to tertiary level. 1.1.2. Approaches to teaching writing There have been several approaches of teaching ESL/EFL writing, they all have advantages and disadvantages. Ann Raimes (1983,pp.5-10) refers to six approaches to teaching writing: (i) The Control-to-Free Approach, (ii) The Free-Writing Approach, (iii) The Paragraph-Pattern Approach, (iv) The Grammar-Syntax-Organization Approach, (v) The Communitive Approach, (vi) The Process Approach. 1.1.2.1. The Control-to-Free Approach This approach emphasizes 3 features: grammar, syntax, and mechanics, writing is considered as a reinforcement for speech. The Control-to-Free Approach in writing is sequential, students at lower level are first given sentence exercises, then paragraph to copy or manipulate. Sequentially, students have little chance to make mistakes and the teacher’s job is quick and easy. Only at high or advanced level are students allowed to try some free compositions, in which they express their own ideas. In short, accuracy is emphasized in this approach rather than fluency, thus students are likely to have good grammatical competence and low communication skills. 5 1.1.2.2. The Free-Writing Approach Concern for “audience” and “content” are seen as important in this approach, students are encouraged to write without worrying about grammar and spelling. This approach emphasizes more on content and fluency than accuracy, the teachers do not correct these short pieces of free writing; they simply read them and perhaps comment on the ideas the writer express. Writing a journal or a diary might be useful in this approach. 1.1.2.3. The Paragraph-Pattern Approach The Paragraph-Pattern approach stresses on paragraph organization. Students copy a model paragraph, analyze its form and imitate model passages. Students need to invest time to organize their ideas such as scrambles sentences are put into a paragraph, general and specific statements are identified, topic sentence is invented or sentences inserting or deleting. 1.1.2.4. The Grammar-Syntax-Organization Approach Unlike the Paragraph-Pattern Approach focusing mainly on organization, the Grammar- Syntax-Organization Approach stresses on both simultaneous work and on organization of an essay. Students learn writing which can not be seen as composed of separate skills, therefore, the teachers have to devise writing tasks that lead students to take notice of organization while they also work on the necessary grammar and syntax. For instance, to write a clear set of instructions on how to operate a TV set by a remote control, what the writer needs is not just appropriate vocabulary but the simple forms of verbs, an organizational plan based on chronology, sequence words like first, second, next, then, etc. The teachers review and teach these vocabulary and structures in the preparatory stages and in short, this approach is the connection between the purpose and the form of the writing. 1.1.2.5. The Communicative Approach This approach emphasizes the communicative role of writing, students have to focus on the purpose of a piece of writing (Why am I writing this?) and the audience for it (Who will read it?). They are also encouraged to write through real life situation and to make the 6 [...]... writing skill to the 11th grade? And why? 17 2.2 Research design 2.2.1 Participants This study was conducted at a school where English is compulsory subject The school has been founded for 11 years and in school year 2013-2014, there are eight 11 th grade classes The participants chosen for the study are 270 students from six eleven-forms groups (11A1, A2, A3, A4, A6 A8) Most of 11 th grade students... situations had the same number of use, with two times for each (seen in observation forms 1A, 6A, 10A and 11A) However, students seemed to be more interesting and more eager to learn with the first one as they were seen the images of familiar things such as school, classrooms and schoolboys or schoolgirls like them, all the questions raised out by teachers were dealt with quickly Time teachers used... good, and many are not They have the similar background, that is, they all come from countryside At the time of the study, they were in the first term of the school year 20132014 There are 6 teachers of English, four of them are teaching grade 11 at present All of them have been teaching English at least 6 years, one has got M.A degree, five have got Bachelor Degree Two are following M.A courses They... solve their questions by themselves, which was not appropriate for eliciting technique Oral work and listing techniques were chosen to use with the same number times of use, oral work was found in observation forms 2A, 5A, 10A and listing was found in observation forms 4A, 7A, 11A However, both of these techniques seemed not to take effect as students in these classes found the lessons boring, they... this technique could help to revise vocabulary with 7 words (found in observation form 11A) All of the information illustrates that techniques used in pre-writing stage really had a great influence on students’ attitude to the lessons and their motivation to learn Although all the teachers performed their effort in choosing different techniques to consult in this stage, the techniques they used in some... atmosphere and motivation for students to learn (found in observation forms 2A, 7A, 11A) In terms of time spending, it took teachers much time to carry out activities Oral work seemed to take the most time, from 15 to 20 minutes (found in observation forms 2A, 5A, 10A) Listing technique (found in observation forms 4A, 7A, 9A, 11A) ranked second when it took teachers from 15 to 17 minutes to conduct the activities... times of use (found in observation forms 1A, 4A, 5A, 11A), students exchanged their writings and corrected for each other, it took them from five to seven minutes to complete the activity However, not many teachers used it because they would have to consume double of time comparing to individual correction This also explained why group-correction was chosen to carry out the least, with only three times... 11A) students wrote quite 28 well, teachers revised enough words, phrases and structures for students For example, teachers helped students to recall all words used to describe the characteristics and personalities of a person with writing topic “Write about a friend” such words as “slim, fat, oval face, square face, black eyes, straight nose, etc,…”, this depended much on which technique teacher chose... vocabulary limitation, they could not express what they wanted to In addition, students who did not have this difficulty, also found it hard to complete writing tasks as they met problem in word choice They had no ideas to choose appropriate words in each context Moreover, the students’ low motivation in learning was considered one of the leading causes…” What the teacher said needed considering as it is the... Group-correction stage Teachers corrected students’ writings 2 8-10 Discussion Warming-up As can be seen from the table, the teachers used various activities in this stage, five kinds of activities were chosen to use and giving questions and answers was in favor of, with four times used (found in observation forms 2A, 7A, 8A, 12A) while giving a song seemed to be used the least, only one time (found in . 10 Planning 10 Debating 10 iii Interviewing 11 1.1.3.2.2. While- writing 11 1.1.3.2.3. Post- writing 11 1.1.4. Principles for teaching writing 11 1.1.5. Review of previous studies on teaching. skills at my school and elsewhere. 2. Aims of the study This research is designed to have an insight into the English writing lessons for the 11 th form students at a high school in Bac Giang province. my thesis: “ A study on teacher’s difficulties in teaching writing skill to the 11 th grade at a school in Bac Giang . I hope that my work can help teachers of English have a better look on teaching