DECLARATION I hereby certify that this minor thesis is the result of my own work submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, except where reference is made in the text of the thesis and that the thesis in whole or in part has not been submitted for a higher degree in any other tertiary institution. Pham Thuy Trinh 2009, September i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS On the completion of this work, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Khoa Anh Viet, MA for his precious advice, instructions, suggestions, and especially, invaluable critical feedback and correction as well as his invaluable encouragement. My special thanks go to Dr. Le Hung Tien and all the lecturers who have been teaching K15 MA course in Viet Nam National University - College of Foreign Languages, and to the post- graduate staff for their legitimate contributions to the success of the course. I also wish to acknowledge the great support and precious help with the data collection and analysis of the leaders, colleagues, and students of five classes at Tran Nguyen Han high school. Without them, I could not have finished my thesis. Last but not least, my heart-felt thanks are due to my family and other individuals who always stand by me for their love and understanding and encouragement, material and spiritual support throughout this thesis. ii ABSTRACT It is a common knowledge that writing is an important language skill. However, in the reality, the teaching and learning writing are still far from satisfaction. The study focuses on the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards writing skill as well as the analysis of the present teaching and learning to write English. The subject involved in the study were 100 students from five classes ( 11A 1, 11A 2, 11A 3, 11A 4, 11A 5 ) and 10 teachers of English. Findings from the questionnaires and the interviews reveals that i) writing is not highly appreciated by both the teachers and students; ii) both the teachers and students have a lot of difficulties in teaching and learning writing. Based on such findings, the study has also suggested some ways to reduce the difficulties when teaching and learning writing and to help to improve the quality of teaching and learning writing at Tran Nguyen Han high school. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES I. LIST OF TABLE II. LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The importance of writing as perceived by 11th form students Error: Reference source not found Figure 2: The importance of writing as perceived by the teachers. .Error: Reference source not found Figure 3: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards students’ writing competence Error: Reference source not found Figure 4 : Teachers’ pre-writing techniques Error: Reference source not found Figure 5: Work arrangement in While-writing stage Error: Reference source not found Figure 6: Teacher’s activities during the While-writing stage Error: Reference source not found Figure 7: The main source of feedback on students’ writing Error: Reference source not found v PART A. INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale In the process of globalization, English plays an important role in enhancing economy, politics, culture and international relations between many countries. Therefore, there is a great demand for teaching and learning English in the world as well as in Viet Nam. English users today focus more on the ability to communicate in spoken and written languages. However, according to Trang and Baldoff (2007), the education quality has not met the society’s expectation because mostly high-school graduates cannot communicate in English effectively in both oral and written forms. Under the urgent demand of improving the quality, Vietnam’s English language teaching has recently undergone a comprehensive reform. Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training has issued a new set of textbook for high school students in order to develop students’ communicative competence. The new textbook displays two new teaching approaches. They are learner- centered and communicative approaches. However, regarding Vietnam’s context, the change will create a lot of difficulties to teachers of English who are too familiar to the old teaching methods, especially in teaching writing skill, which seems to be the most difficult work in teaching English. At Tran Nguyen Han high school, teaching writing skills is really a big challenge. For the teachers, they used to teach the old textbooks in which writing has no place. Therefore, they have no experiences in teaching theme-based writing. Another problem is the students’ low level of English proficiency. That is why they find it difficult to write. Moreover, lack of motivation also faces the students. They often get bored and indifferent in the writing lessons. In my opinion, the current problem must be worked out and appropriate teaching techniques should be made. Up to present, a few researches have been carried out on the teaching of writing for students in Hai Phong. Most of the researchers have studied others problems concerning teaching other skills in Hai Phong. As a teacher of English, who is aware of the fact and wishes to contribute some suggestions for possible improvements in the teaching and learning of writing skill, I decided to do the research entitled “ The reality of teaching and learning English writing skill at Tran Nguyen Han high school in Hai Phong and recommendations.” 1 2. Aims of the study The main purpose of this study is to research the current reality of teaching and learning writing skill to 11th form students at Tran Nguyen Han high school on the basic of finding out the difficulties experienced by the teachers and the students. Furthermore, some suggestions are made to stimulate the students and some recommendations are made to improve teaching methodology for the teachers at Tran Nguyen Han high school. 3. The significance of the study Pedagogically, the findings and comments of the study are believed to be relevant to improving the teaching of writing to the students. The study may help teachers to make their writing lessons more effective so that they can help their students develop writing skill as well as other language skills. 4. Scope of the study The study focuses on the reality of teaching and learning English writing skill to 11 grade students at Tran Nguyen Han high school. In addition, some recommendations for a better writing teaching and learning situation are presented. Although the author is well aware that the survey statistics are not fully representative of all high school students studying English in Hai Phong, she hopes to propose some of the most popular facts that occurring in this study. 5. Methods of the study Both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed to carry out the study. With the aim of increasing validity and reliability of the data collected, the survey questionnaires will be delivered. The purpose of the survey is to collect data about the current situation of teaching and learning writing at Tran Nguyen Han high school. Informal interviews with the colleagues and the students are also conducted. Besides, reviewing the related documents is also a method to establish the theoretical background for the study. 6. Design of the study The study is expected to consist of three main parts: Part A includes the rationales, aims, significance, scope, and methods of the study. 2 Part B includes 3 chapters Chapter 1 deals with definitions of writing, the differences between writing and speaking, writing difficulties, approaches to writing and writing in the communicative classes. Chapter 2 discusses the methodology of the study, i.e. describes the study context, participants, and instruments. Besides, the introduction of the new “Tieng Anh 11” textbook is elaborated. Chapter3 is about the data analysis and findings. It describes how collected data is analyzed and presented. Chapter 4 provides recommendations for better teaching and learning English writing skill. Part C is the conclusion which summarizes the thesis and offers some suggestions for further research. Besides, the limitations of the thesis are also pointed out. 3 PART B. DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1. Literature Review 1.1. Definitions of writing There are a lot of definitions of writing. According to Byrne (1991), writing can be defined as the act of forming graphic symbols. When we write, we use graphic symbol (alphabet, grammar, and structures) to make visual meaningful utterances. Therefore, on one level, writing can be said to be the act of making marks on flat surface of some kinds. However, writing is not just simply putting words, sentences together. Many researchers tended to focus on the nature of writing as an entity of linguistic creation. For example, Brannon, Knight and Neverow-Turk (1982, p. 2) pointed out “ writing is a creative art, not as assembly line operation of locking words together into sentence and bolting sentences together into paragraphs in accordance with a predefined plan.” Other researchers considered writing as a communicative process with purposeful interaction between the participants. For example, NuNan (1999, p. 100) stated, “Writing is not a solitary act, rather, it is the result of the interaction among people, contexts, and texts.” Oluwadiya (1990) considered the nature of writing as “a process” of “via-text communication” between an addresser and an addressee. However, writing, in language teachers’ opinions, is “a language skill which is difficult to acquire” (Tribble, 1996, p. 3). It is “a process that occurs over a period of time, particularly if we take into account the sometimes extended periods of thinking that precede creating an initial draft.” ( Harris, 1993, p. 10). In short, the definitions of writing are various. However, writing is characterized with some basic features, i.e. being linguistics, creative, progressive and interactive. Besides, the word “writing” itself may imply an act, a process, or a skill, which needs practice and study to develop. It requires both physical and mental powers from the writers. 4 1.2. Writing versus Speaking Both writing and speaking are productive skills. However, according to some researchers, writing is different from speaking in terms of three criteria, i.e. linguistics, creating process and interaction. In terms of linguistics, Ur (1996) distinguished writing from speaking based on “its explicitness, density and standard language” (p. 160). He asserted that the distance between the reader and the writer deprived the writer of speech-related advantages like the real context, paralinguistic feature etc. The writing content, thus, was expected to be more explicitly, densely and universally comprehensibly presented than that of speech. In terms of producing process, these two productive skills are also different. Raimes (1983) found out that while “speaking is usually spontaneous and unplanned,” writing process is “recursive, planned” and “time-consuming” (p. 5). Harmer (2004) concluded that writing process with “its recursiveness and multiple drafting,” (p. 8) is more complex than speaking process. In terms of interaction, according to Ur (1996), due to the “detachment” of space and time in writing, the writer tend to be cut short of “immediate feedback and interaction” with “known” audience, which are supposedly available to the speaker (p. 161). Harmer (2004) also point out the two features of face-to-face interaction which writing is devoid of, i.e. immediate verbal or non-verbal reactions and frequent role swapping between the addresser and the addressee (p. 8). Consequently, the writers tend to encounter common difficulties in defining audience (Brown, 1994, p. 326) and receiving feedback from readers (White, 1981). To conclude, regarding the three criteria investigated in previous studies, i.e. linguistic feature, producing process and interaction, writing and speaking, by nature, are two different stories. This sheds more light on the characteristics of writing. 5 [...]... active and be motivated in lessons 3.2 Findings 3.2.1 The teacher’s and students’ attitudes towards the teaching and learning of writing As can be seen from the results, writing is not highly appreciated by the students and even the teachers do not take the importance of writing seriously This is because of the main purpose of teaching and learning English at Tran Nguyen Han high school The results of the. .. better teaching and learning writing skill The questionnaire delivered to the teachers was strictly conducted in English It aimed to find out the teachers’ attitudes toward the teaching of writing, the difficulties they encounter in teaching writing, the teachers’ knowledge of Process Approach, and the teachers’ expectations for better teaching and learning writing skill (ii) Instrument two: Interviews The. .. appropriate time for teaching and 21 learning English writing skill As can be seen from the table, most of the teachers thought that the time for teaching and learning writing one period a week at Tran Nguyen Han high school was not enough In my interview, most of the teachers said that getting their students to make an outline and correcting their students’ errors were time-consuming Due to the students’... other drafts before the final version is produced There are different points of view on the number of stages comprising the writing process According to Oshima and Hogue (1991), writing process has four stages: pre -writing, planning, writing and revising draft and writing the final copy to hand in Tribble (1996) identified four stages in writing process: pre -writing, drafting, revising and editing The. .. final exam and university entrance exam are considered the most importance of teaching and learning English at school so both the teachers and students there focus mostly on grammar and reading skill rather than on other skills such as speaking, listening and writing This certainly affects the students’ writing competence and prevents the improvement of their writing ability Consequently, most of the. .. Describing a camping holiday Writing a biography Writing a report on a man- made place world Table 1: Checklist of writing tasks in English 11 textbook _++_thth 2.3 Research questions The thesis is designed to seek answers to the following questions: - What is the present situation of teaching and learning English writing skill at Tran Nguyen Han high school? - What difficulties do the teachers and the. .. the purpose of the writing task Frequently  Sometimes  Never When being asked about how often their teachers asked them to identify the context of the writing task before writing, 22% of the students responded that their teachers often asked them to identify the purpose of a piece of writing 20% of the students said that their teachers often asked them to consider the audience of a piece of writing. .. author of this study takes the views that are close to the ways Tribble , Oshima and Houge defined writing processthat is, the writing process comprises three stages: pre- writing, while- writing, and post- writing 1.4.6.1 Pre -writing Pre -writing can be defined as any structural experiences that influence active students’ participation in thinking, talking, writing and working on the topic under the focus... focus in a writing lesson (Tribble, 1996) On other words, pre -writing stage is the “informationgathering phase in the process of writing ( Scarcella & Ofxord ,1992, p 125 ) According to Gu Yue Gou (1990, p 170), pre -writing is a very important stage of the whole writing process, and the task at this stage may include deciding on the purpose, the audience, the content, and the general outline White and. .. teachers stated they had difficulties in teaching the pre -writing stage In my interview, they said they found it hard to get their students to experience 22 the stage due to their low level of English proficiency and low background knowledge 5 teachers reported they met difficulties in teaching the while -writing stage They said they had difficulty in managing time in the while -writing stage Most of the teachers . improvements in the teaching and learning of writing skill, I decided to do the research entitled “ The reality of teaching and learning English writing skill at Tran Nguyen Han high school in Hai Phong. participation in thinking, talking, writing and working on the topic under the focus in a writing lesson (Tribble, 1996). On other words, pre -writing stage is the “information- gathering phase in the. well as other language skills. 4. Scope of the study The study focuses on the reality of teaching and learning English writing skill to 11 grade students at Tran Nguyen Han high school. In addition,