-1- VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HUYỀN TRANG USING PORTFOLIOS TO IMPROVE THE TENTH GRADERS’ WRITING SKILLS AT DIEN CHAU HIGH SCHOOL: A QUASI – EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH (Nghiên cứu thử nghiệm việc sử dụng hồ sơ tập để nâng cao kĩ viết cho học sinh lớp 10 – Trường THPT Diễn Châu 4) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi, September, 2010 -5- CONTENTS PAGES Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of tables viii List of abbreviations ix PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationales for choosing the topic Objectives of the study Research questions Scope of the study Methods of the study Significance of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Teaching writing 1.2.1 What is writing? 1.2.2 The Importance of writing 1.2.3 Approaches to teaching writing 2 2 3 5 5 5 1.2.3.1 The Product Approach 1.2.3.2 The Process Approach -6- 1.2.3.3 Product approach or Process approach? 10 1.3 Portfolios in Writing 10 1.3.1 Definition of portfolios: 11 1.3.2 Types and Contents of portfolios 11 1.3.3 Portfolio assessment 13 1.3.4 Why we use portfolio assessment? 14 1.3.5 Stages of portfolio Implementation 16 1.3.6 The Benefits of Using Portfolios CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Background to the study 2.2.1 An overlook on the teaching writing at Dien Chau high school th 17 19 19 19 19 2.2.2 Teaching writing to the 10 graders 20 2.2.3 Students 21 2.3 The quasi-experimental research 21 2.3.1 Research questions 2.3.2 Hypothesis 2.3.3 Partcipants 2.3.4 Experimental Treatment 21 21 22 22 2.3.5 Procedures for carrying out the research 25 2.3.6 Instruments for Data Collection 25 2.3.6.1 Pre – test and Post – test 25 2.3.6.2 Students‟ portfolios 26 2.3.6.3 Students‟ reflective writing 26 -7- 2.3.7 Data analysis 26 CHAPTER 3: MAJOR FINDINGS, DISCUSSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 3.1 General Introduction 3.2 Findings 27 27 27 3.2.1 Results from pre-test and post-test 27 3.2.2 Results from the students‟ reflection 28 3.2.2.1 The improvement in writing skills 28 3.2.2.2 Changes in emotional states 30 3.2.2.3 The fostering of cooperative learning 33 3.3 Discussion of findings 35 3.4 Recommendations 37 3.4.1 The teacher 37 3.4.1.1 Giving clear instructions of portfolios 37 3.4.1.2 Using a variety of assessment tools 38 3.4.1.3 Creating a friendly learning environment 38 3.4.1.4 Finding out each individual student‟s differences and needs 39 3.4.2 The Students 39 3.4.2.1 Being active in learning activities 39 3.4.2.2 Being cooperative in peer work 39 PART C: CONCLUSION 40 Introduction 40 Summary of the study 40 Conclusions 40 -8- Limitations of the study 41 Suggestions for further studies 42 References 43 Appendix 1: The Pre-test and Post-test I Appendix 2: Students’ Pre-test and Post-test Scores II Appendix 3: Map of Units in Semester Two of English 10 III Appendix 4: Handout for the Correction Symbols IV Appendix 5: Students’ Portfolio Scores V -9- LIST OF TABLES NAMES OF TABLES Table 1: Paired Samples Statistics Table 2: Paired Differences Statistics Table 3: T – test Result - 10 - LIST OF ABBREVIATION (in alphabetical order) Df: Degree of Freedom EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESL: English as a Second Language N: Number P – value: Probability value Std Deviation: Standard Deviation Std Error Mean : Standard Error of the Mean - 11 - PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationales for choosing the topic Language is important in communication, because it is a means of transferring ideas in communication activities English as an international language also has that function It is not only considered as the first foreign language but it is taught as a compulsory subject from elementary school up to high school Although English has been taught for a long time, the results of teaching English are considered unsatisfactory (Ramelan, 1992: 3) Since the new textbooks for seven-year educational system were applied in educational curriculum, English is divided into four separate skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing Of which, writing is considered one of the most difficult skills for students to perceive because of some basic reasons as follows Firstly, students‟ background knowledge about the writing topics is limited although they have got the information relating to the topics in the previous lessons as reading, speaking or listening Secondly, the students usually lack vocabulary to express their thinking This is a common imperfection of many students in high schools as well as in colleges Thirdly, due to the limited class time, the students may find it difficult to learn and to master because they have little time to practice and not receive peer correction and the teacher‟s feedback Thus, they can not realize their mistakes and correct them Another reason may lie in the way of assessing students‟ attainment In fact, the only way to assess the students‟ writings is a mini-test in the middle and a 45-minute test near the end of the term Therefore, the students‟ underdeveloped writing skills have been of major concern to educators Teachers are becoming more creative in the classroom in finding ways to encourage students to want to write and to their best when they write An innovative and effective method for restructuring traditional composition courses is using portfolios as a method of learning and assessing students‟ writing skills - 12 - Since many previous researches on writing portfolios indicate that they enhance students‟ motivation and consequently learning, we used them in our teaching context though with some adaptations to suit our specific needs We assumed that if our students found these activities helpful and enjoyable, they would be more motivated to learn and become better writers For the above reasons, the following experimental study was conducted in response to such problems: “Using portfolios to improve the tenth graders’ writing skills at Dien Chau high school: A quasi – experimental research”, which can be translated into Vietnamese as stated in the thesis title Objectives of the study This quasi – experimental research was conducted with an intention of evaluating the effectiveness of adopting portfolios in teaching writing to improve the tenth graders‟ writing skills Especially, this study aims at examining the level of impact that portfolio has on students‟ writing performance and investigating the writing progress perceived by the students themselves after the experiment Research questions This study aims at answering the following questions: - Does the writing performance included in the portfolio of this study indicate a significant growth in English writing ability? - What is the progress, if any, as perceived by the students in developing their writing skills? Scope of the study As its title suggests, the focus of this study was to investigate the effects of using portfolios in teaching writing to the tenth graders at Dien Chau high school Particularly, the subjects were 35 students from class 10C5 Methods of the study This study was realized with regard to both quantitative and qualitative analysis - 13 - On the one hand, quantitative analysis is involved through the process of data collection and analysis, which are carried out at class 10C5 – Dien Chau high school The students‟ scores gained from pre-test and post-test will be quantitatively compared On the other hand, qualitative analysis is also applied in achieving the second purpose of the study, that is to investigate students‟ learning progress as perceived by themselves With this objective, the researcher would study carefully students‟ report from their reflections Significance of the study This study may be significant in some ways: First, it introduces some necessary theoretical knowledge about portfolios, their definition, advantages, some ways to prepare them that may help teachers prepare their own portfolios, or at least get acquainted with them Second, this study may be useful in introducing some emphasis on the fact that writing consists of many components that should receive enough attention in order to develop portfolios and how to score them So that the teacher can make a final judgment about his / her student‟s over all performances considering the fact that any pieces of writing should represent students‟ knowledge in grammar, vocabulary, skills of organizing and outlining and their ability to write independently Third, the outcome of this study shows the effectiveness of portfolios on students‟ writing performances so that teacher could make decisions whether portfolios should be used in the future or not and how to use them most effectively Design of the study The study is divided into three main parts, which are presented as follows Part A is the Introduction, which states the rationales, the objectives, the scope, research questions, the methodology applied in the realization of the research as well as its significance Part B, the Development, consists of three chapters - 47 - autonomy Such autonomous learners become successful learners, and this success can lead to more enhanced motivation Portfolio assessment can support this cycle by contributing positively to each of the three factors, "enhanced motivation," "active learning," and "autonomous learning." In the context of the study, the time allocated in the classroom on each writing lesson was only 45 minutes while students had to a lot of writing activities This means the students had to mobilize all their energy, efforts and autonomy to fulfill their tasks in time Therefore, for a few earlier weeks, some of the students found it not comfortable when having had to this However, most of them fulfilled their tasks in time with high determination This could be explained by their awareness of active attitudes towards writing and their autonomy In conclusion, portfolios could be advantageous to the participants in the study The improvements were clearly evident in three types of data: the result of the t-test, the students‟ portfolio and the verbal reports extracted from the students‟ reflective writings This important conclusion will lead us to the next part of this thesis: implications and suggestions 3.4 Recommendations Although the generalization was not the purpose of the study, the results of the study revealed that portfolios could be used as a supplementary approach to the writing curriculum of the tenth graders at Dien Chau high school The following recommendations are drawn out from the researcher‟s experiences during this study and hopefully they can be applied in improving teaching writing skills to the tenth graders in particularly, and high school students in generally It is obvious that without considerable efforts on the part of the teacher, students, good portfolios can not happen The result of the study shows that portfolios place additional demands on teachers and students 3.4.1 The teacher 3.4.1.1 Giving the students a clear instruction of portfolios The participants in this study had no experience of portfolio before, so making portfolios clear to them is definitely important Therefore, introducing the idea of portfolio - 48 - to students should deserve a good plan of classroom activities and time allocation Here are some suggestions: - Explain the word “portfolio” from portare (carry) and foglio (sheet of paper) - Show the students examples of English portfolios (it‟s better to show the students a portfolio of writing) prepared by your own or others - Ask the students how they feel about tests, whether they always feel the test truly represents what they know and can with the languages (they invariably bring up plenty of problems with traditional tests) - Tell them you are going to assess them in a fairer way, which will show the many different skills, knowledge and ideas they have acquired: lead to portfolio assessment 3.4.1.2 Using a variety of assessment tools Since assessment often causes a lot of complications to both students and teachers, it should be made clear and comprehensible right at the planning stage When criteria for assessment have been made, it is necessary to find a way to measure whether and to what extent students have reached the objectives In other words, it is important to define quality and quantity To get rid of the tiredness and the great amount of time arisen from assessment work, teachers can make full use of other sources of assessment such as self-assessment and peer-assessment 3.4.1.3 Creating a friendly learning environment In order to enable the students to take responsibility for and get involved in their English-learning process, the teacher should create an atmostphere of trust where the students of different backgrounds and opinions feel comfortable in discussing controversial issues and choices That is, the teacher should foster the value of discussion and encourage all the students to reflect on issues from multiple perspectives While implementing portfolio assessment, the teacher should bear in mind that she should give up some aspects of the professional authority associated with their positions, such as dominating the discussion and the class, and give her students more power over - 49 - their learning process, in order to reduce the power differential between herself and their students The teacher should guide the entire English class toward learner-centered instruction rather than teacher-centered instruction By monitoring and helping the students set goals for themselves, the teacher attempts to help the students become active participants in their whole learning process 3.4.1.4 Finding out each individual student’s differences and needs The teacher should spend more time analyzing students‟ individual needs and learning outcomes during the students‟ learning process In addition, the teacher should constantly bear in mind monitoring and modifying her instruction so that it makes sense to the students Hence, before applying the portfolio assessment, the teacher should review each student‟s personal and academic background, such as their personality style, learning style, previous performance, and so forth, to further assess their strengths and weaknesses in order to develop optimal learning procedure for them 3.4.2 The Students 3.4.2.1 Being active in classroom activities The students should be active learners instead of passive ones as in traditional method They should make efforts in participating all the classroom activities Moreover, the feelings, wishes as well as their weaknesses and strengths should be exposed more frankly so that the teacher can adapt her teaching methodology flexibly 3.4.2.2 Being cooperative in peer work Peer – evaluation is very important in portfolio assessment Thus, the students should collaborate and take assume high responsibility to the peer work By doing this, they not only help their friends find out their mistakes but also learn many useful things from reading and assessing their drafts In short, using portfolios in writing skills is really time- and effort-consuming to both teacher and students It is also a very new method of learning at high school in general and at Dien Chau high school in particular, which requires efforts from both teacher and students If this can be done, the new method of teaching writing to the tenth graders may be feasible - 50 - PART C: CONCLUSION Introduction The final chapter of the study will summarize the major findings of the study, draw out some conclusions as well as provide some limitations of the study Further recommendations for future study will also be presented in this chapter Summary of the study In this study, some major issues concerning writing approaches, portfolio application to teaching writing skills have been taken into account in order to elaborate the benefits of using portfolios in teaching writing skills to the tenth graders at Dien Chau high school A quasi-experimental research was conducted over 17-week period in the semester two of the school year 2009 – 2010 The students‟ portfolios and reflections were used to illustrate the result of the findings Furthermore, a t-test was run to find out the difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the 35 students Thanks to these instruments of the study, the results of the study met the demands of a scientific research and minimized the weaknesses of a quasi-experiment The findings of the study will be presented in the following section – conclusion Conclusions This study has offered a new insight into the positive effects of using portfolios in teaching writing skills to the tenth graders at Dien Chau high school The study revealed both benefits and challenges when portfolios were used to teach writing skills The findings revealed that portfolios could benefit the students‟ writing skill development These benefits can be summarized as follows: Portfolios could improve the students‟ writing skills in terms of expanded vocabulary, creativity, basic grammatical knowledge, organization skill and writing speed Portfolios could be an effective way to enhance the students‟ enjoyment of writing process and promote their awareness of active attitudes towards writing and the autonomy - 51 - Porfolios could foster cooperative learning Therefore, portfolios might serve as one way to evoke a critical evaluation of each other‟s writing skills at various lessons during the term In spite of the merits, using portfolios in writing skills brought both the teacher and the students some challenges as follows: Portfolio application was a time-consuming method Therefore, both the teacher and students might not really devote to accomplishing all their tasks in a satisfactory way This method was very new to the high school students so that it needs a lot of efforts from not only the students but also the teacher This might prevent them from fulfilling all the tasks whole-heartedly The new method also needed a lot of handouts for each lesson, which either cost the teacher a lot or deterred the teacher from getting permits to have them copied due to its complicated procedure In sum, portfolios helped to make the language learning process more visible to both the teacher and the students The portfolios provided the teacher with a more significant picture of the student‟s growth and some useful data for instructional decisionmaking The portfolios helped the students to develop their capacity for reflection and selfassessment, and thus enabling them gradually to assume more and more responsibility for their own learning Introducing the students to the portfolio involved them in the planning, implementation and evaluation of their learning, and developed their capacity for reflection and self-assessment, thus making them more autonomous Portfolios also facilitated students‟ understanding of the relationship among reading, writing and thinking Despite some difficulties, I found the portfolio approach a very positive experience Limitations of the study This is the first time portfolios have been used in the context of Dien Chau high school in a quasi-experiment Therefore, the following challenges and limitations are unavoidable To begin with, as a contextualized design, generalizability of the conclusion drawn from the present study is limited Secondly, although the study succeeded in achieving its - 52 - primary purpose of improving the students‟ writing skills, it has not yet been able to identify which variables directly affect the students‟ performance Thirdly, the study only lasts for a semester as an assessment reform, so the writing development may not be sufficiently obvious in such a short time Furthermore, the teacher had a heavy workload, which precluded her from devoting time and energy to the project Hence, the functions of this new methods seem to be prejudced to some extent One more limitation came from peer review Building a peer community to give constructive feedback is one of our greatest challenges Undoubtedly, it takes time to build trust among the participants so that they feel comfortable giving and receiving critically constructive and honest feedback Those limitations will be later taken into consideration in the next part, suggestions for further studies Suggestions for further study Some suggestions could be generated from the present study for further research on using portfolio in writing skills Firstly, since high school teachers are unfamiliar with the portfolio assessment, and teachers play an essential role in this new method, more research should be undertaken to explore the teachers‟ perception of this new approach to assessment Secondly, due to the limit of time and space, the currently study only lasted for a semester However, time may make a difference regarding learners‟ attitude, strategy and writing ability To put it another way, some effects might not occur in such a short time Therefore, further research need to be carried out for a longer period of time, for instance, a year or even longer Additionally, in order to increase the generalizability of the findings, there should be variability in the contexts of the study and control of key research variables For example, sample selection should not be restricted to one class or one school‟s writing programs Last but not least, to reach a higher reliability, in the future the researcher wishes to have a chance to carry out this research under true experimental conditions in which random sampling can be ensured and participants can be divided into experimental group and control group - 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57 - APPENDIX 1: THE PRE – TEST AND POST – TEST Full name: _ Class: _ Date: Time : 45 minutes Your mark: Requirement: “Write a paragraph about the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet” ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… - 58 - APPENDIX 2: STUDENTS’ PRE – TEST AND POST – TEST SCORES STUDENT 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 PRE-TEST SCORE 6.0 7.5 4.0 8.0 6.0 6.0 7.0 5.0 8.0 6.0 4.5 6.5 5.0 7.0 7.5 6.0 6.0 5.0 8.0 5.0 6.0 5.0 7.5 3.0 5.0 8.0 6.5 5.0 6.0 7.5 6.0 7.0 8.5 5.0 7.0 POST-TEST SCORE 7.0 8.5 7.0 9.0 6.5 8.0 7.5 6.0 8.0 7.5 6.0 8.0 6.5 7.5 8.5 8.0 7.0 7.0 9.0 6.5 8.0 6.0 8.0 6.0 6.5 8.5 7.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 6.5 7.0 9.0 6.0 7.5 Post-test – pre-test 1.0 1.0 3.0 1.0 0.5 2.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 0.5 1.0 2.0 1.0 2.0 1.0 1.5 2.0 1.0 0.5 3.0 1.5 0.5 0.5 2.0 2.0 1.5 0.5 0.5 1.0 0.5 - 59 - APPENDIX The map of units in semester of English 10 Name of lessons Unit Writing Objectives - Describing information from a table Undersea world Unit 10 - Writing a letter of invitation Conservation Unit 11 - Writing a letter of acceptance or refusal National parks Unit 12 - Writing a profile Music Unit 13 - Describing a film Films and cinema Unit 14 - Writing an announcement The world cup Unit 15 - Describing a city Cities Unit 16 Historical places - Describing a chart - 60 - APPENDIX : HANDOUT FOR THE CORRECTION SYMBOLS Correction Kinds of error When error is corrected Sp Spelling Errors in spelling are made T Verb – tense mistake Wrong tense is used W Wrong word Inappropriate word is used PP Wrong preposition Wrong preposition is used  Lack words Lack words C Capitalization A capital letter is needed N Noun (singular / plural) Wrong numerals are used P Punctuation Errors in punctuation are made symbols - 61 - APPENDIX 5: STUDENTS’ PORTFOLIO SCORES Student 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 The students’ scores/100 76 96 80 98 60 88 78 66 90 82 70 85 68 79 90 95 80 90 95 80 92 70 93 76 70 95 87 90 97 96 72 87 93 87 93 The teacher’s scores/100 77 98 82 98 65 94 79 70 94 85 76 85 72 84 94 95 84 96 95 85 93 72 96 78 73 95 89 93 98 96 72 85 94 89 95 The average scores/100 76,5 97 81 98 62,5 91 78,5 68 92 83,5 73 85 70 81,5 92 95 82 93 95 82,5 92,5 71 94,5 77 71,5 95 88 91,5 97,5 96 72 86 93,5 88 94 ... result of the t-test - 38 - Paired Differences Mean Post-test - Pre-test Std Deviation Std Error Mean 1.2 0.7396 0.125 Table 2: Paired Differences Statistics P-value t-value df (two-tailed) 9,598... at Dien Chau high school 3.2 Findings 3.2.1 Results from pre-test and post-test A t-test for correlated samples was run to compare the results of the writing pre-test and post-test performed by... said: - "I felt like studying harder because the portfolio is my own product." - "Creating a kind of booklet is fun and so I felt like working more actively." - 42 - b Goal-awareness All the in-