THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS AND CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS OF FRESHMAN COLLEGE STUDENTS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF TRANSPORT TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM IN THREE PROVINCES OF VIETNAM: BASIS FOR FUNCTIONAL WRITING ACTIVITY A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of Graduate School Batangas State University Batangas City, Philippines In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Major in English By: NGUYEN THANH TU (GOODLOOK) June 2014 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TITLE PAGE……………………………………………………… i TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………… ii LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………… v LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………… vii CHAPTER I. THE PROBLEM Introduction 1 Statement of the Problem…………………………… 7 Scope, Delimitation and Limitation……………… 8 Significance of the Study…………………….……… 9 II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Conceptual Literature……………………………… 11 Research Literature…………………………………. 45 Synthesis…………………………………………… 52 Theoretical Framework……………………………… 55 Conceptual Framework…………………………… 59 Hypothesis……………………………………………. 61 Definition of Terms………………………………… 61 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines ii III. RESEARCH METHOD AND PROCEDURE Research Design…………………………………… 64 Research Enviroment……………………………… 64 Subject of Study……………………………………… 65 Data Gathering Instrument……………………… 66 Data Gathering Procedure………………………… 66 Statistical Treatment of Data……………………… 68 IV. PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,INTERPRETATION OF DATA………………………… 70 V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION Summary of Findings……………………………… 117 Conclusions………………………………………… 129 Recommendations………………………………… 130 BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………… 131 APPENDICES A. Quetionaire for Student 138 B. Questionaire for Teacher 148 C. Validation Letter of Questionaires 157 D. Sample Letter 160 E. Photographs of UTT 163 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines iii F. Documents for Approval Sample Letters 166 G. Documents for Administration of Questionaires. 168 CURRICULUM VITAE THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines iv LIST OF TABLES Table Title Page 1 Distribution of Respondents……….………………… 66 2 Gender Profile of Student Respondents ………… … 71 3 Profile of Parent's Educational Attainment 72 4 Profile of Place of Origin of Student Respondents… 73 5 Profile of High School Attended by the Student Respondents……………… 74 6 Profile of Exposure to English Media by the Student Respondents……………………………………… 75 7 Performance of Student Respondents in the Discourse Component of the Writing Skills Test……… 77 8 Performance of Student Respondents in the Grammatical Component of the Writing Skills Test……………………………………………………… 78 9 Performance of Student Respondents in the Mechanics Component of the Writing Skills Test…… 80 10 Performance of Student Respondents in the THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines v Morphology Component of the Writing Skills Test…… 83 11 Performance of Student Respondents in the Syntax Component of the Writing Skills Test 87 12 List of Student skills Validated by 20 Teacher Respondents as Lexical and Syntactic Competencies of Freshman Students 89 13 List of Student Critical Thinking Skills According to the Frequency of Use by Freshman Students as Perceived by the Teacher Respondents……………. 91 14 List of Student Lexical and Syntactic Skills According to Their Importance as Perceived by the Teacher Respondents…………………………………………… 93 15 Student's t-test Comparison of the Mean Scores for the Level of Writing of Students Versus Teachers Assessment of the Critical Writing Skills Shown as p- Values……………………………………………………. 94 16 List of Component Skills of Writing to be Used as Topics for the Design of Functional Activities and the Basis of their Choice……………………………………. 96 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 The Reasearch Paradigm……….`………………… Page 60 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM Introduction The study of the English language has taken a multifaceted dimension and has span from the knowledge-based format to the skill- based format. It has also moved from theory to practice and much more as the business world has taken an aggressive position to demand the criteria for hiring their personnel to include certified demonstrable English language skill. While it is true that the skill components of the English language include macro and micro skills, it becomes a challenge to the various investigators, evaluators, learners and teachers where the focus of the skills acquisition should be. Other linguistic experts advocate that the focus should be in speaking or oral communication and this should be developed to an advance level like a functional speaking skill. If this direction is pursued, it will carry with it the necessary pedagogical components from the theory to practice, that would best and effectively achieve the objective of becoming a functional speaker. In the same way that others would focus on writing or written communication as a skill requiring advanced level of competency, there are bandwagon of THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines 2 concepts and pedagogical practices gearing towards the effective development of writing skills. Surprisingly, in the literatures and in practice, these two linguistic skills are biasedly given the priority focus, seldom can be heard of for functional listening or functional reading as if these skills are not equally important. Apparently these skills are considered to be assumed skills at the back of speaking and writing skills. Moreover, the business sector, the sector that creates the demand for the commercial value of human skills would put a high tag price for highly competent speakers and writers rather than the highly competent listeners and readers. Thus, the speaking and writing skills especially in the English language are valuable items, hot assets that can make or break one’s career. Between speaking and writing however, linguistic experts would consider writing as the more advanced skill for a number of reasons. Speaking is a skill that is easily learned first and one need not be an expert in grammar to be able to speak English fluently. A fluent speaker like a TV host or news commentator may be very eloquent but could be in fact, a lousy writer. A good writer however, implies an expertise and skill in speaking. One cannot be a good writer and yet become a poor speaker as the tools in writing are at the writer’s disposal and THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines 3 conveniently captured in concept and use during a speaking activity. Thus writing is the most advance form of skill in the English language. Writing as an act is encoding an idea, a thought, a reflection; a process of putting one’s thought into words. And this would require that the words are organized to convey the idea, the way the writer would want the reader to receive the message and experience the writer’s concept. Thus the demand for writing is more rigorous than speaking. In writing, one must have an extensive vocabulary at once disposal to be able to use the right words corresponding to the idea or message. Thus the writer, must have a full grasp of the common meaning and special meaning and use of those words. The writer must also know how sentences are constructed in the English language so that these sentences become coherent and cohesive. Then comes the other fine details of grammar, syntax, morphology to further create a linguistic impact. Writing can be easy if the topic is of the interest to the writer and the writer has a choice of what to write about. The writing becomes more difficult when it becomes purposive and the sentence construction would demand complex sentences, and ideas have to be captured in a very precise and few words. Thus, both simple and purposive writing demand a strong cognitive skill to the writer. The cognitive skills entail [...]... and 2.5 syntax? 3 How do teachers assess the critical thinking skills of students? 4 How do students level of writing skills and teacher assessment of students critical thinking skills compare? 5 What functional writing activities may be proposed to enhance student's writing and critical thinking skills? 8 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the. .. improve students English writing skills of their schools Parents Findings of the study give them information as to the level of writing skills of their children and may find ways of helping them improve these skills through active participation in the learning process Policy-makers The policymakers will be benefited from the insight that will be gathered in this study They will be able to formulate... recognizing basic syntactic patterns and reconstructing and inferring situations, goals and participants Other reading micro skills use both knowledge of the world and lexical and grammatical cohesive devices to make the foregoing inferences, predict outcomes, and infer links and connections among the parts of the text including getting the main point or the most important information, distinguishing the. .. self-monitoring of own learning of writing 27 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines strategies and skills and producing authentic writing products using standards based criteria are other teachers’ and students roles In the writing process there are five stages involved The students are apprenticed and socialized in the knowledge, beliefs, skills. .. meaning They may also analyse concept into its logical parts They can also make comparison and contrast and analyse similarities and differences Students then may engage in evaluation using set of criteria and may identify references and construct their own meaning Rational thinking and finding solutions are clearly the focus of critical thinking Students must focus on the quality of their thinking and. .. their own learning Modelled writing is a high-level support instructional strategy that allows the students to hear the thinking that accompanies the process of writing, such as topic choice, planning the piece, looking for a better word, revising and editing The act of writing is purposefully made visible for students to enable them to see how writers think about their writing The teacher’s role in. .. individuals on effective writing strategies and providing specific coaching based on student work and standards based rubrics Further, conferring with teacher and peers about the writing process and products; guiding the process of writing and editing, providing instruction when needed, planning actively and constructing the text, including editing for a correct finished product are also included in. .. development Critical thinking on the other hand as stated by Michael Scriven and Richard Paul in the Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skilfully conceptualizing, applying, analysing, 5 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines synthesizing, and/ or... Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines The focused of the first part of the process will be on improving the elements of the first draft, its clarity, organization, coherence and fluency Raising questions, asking for help with specific writing problems and setting goals for improving their writing are the expectations to the students They will be making an active use of their... teachers’ and students roles are considered teachers’ and students roles In addition, a writing instructional strategy that provides an opportunity for students to practice using the writing skills and strategies supported through modelled, shared, interactive, and guided writing instruction pertains to independent writing Providing opportunities for students to practice writing in a variety of genre; writing . Rational thinking and finding solutions are clearly the focus of critical thinking. Students must focus on the quality of their thinking and explore whether or not their thinking is good to their. Parents. Findings of the study give them information as to the level of writing skills of their children and may find ways of helping them improve these skills through active participation in the. teaching other English courses were not included in the study. Descriptive method of research was used in the study to determine the levels of writing and critical thinking skills of students.