VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES - - LẠI THANH TÌNH Designing a supplementary writing syllabus for grade 10 English-majored students at Bien Hoa Gifted High School, Ha Nam (THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH VIẾT BỔ TRỢ CHO HỌC SINH CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH LỚP 10 THPT CHUYÊN BIÊN HÒA, HÀ NAM) (M.A Minor thesis) Field: English methodology Code: 60140111 Ha noi - 2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES - - LẠI THANH TÌNH Designing a supplementary writing syllabus for grade 10 English-majored students at Bien Hoa Gifted High School, Ha Nam (THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH VIẾT BỔ TRỢ CHO HỌC SINH CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH LỚP 10 THPT CHUYÊN BIÊN HÒA, HÀ NAM) (M.A Minor thesis) Field: English methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Hoàng Văn Vân, Prof Dr Ha noi – 2012 DECLARATION This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts I confirm this is my own research and this thesis has not been published or submitted for any other degrees Researcher's signature Lại Thanh Tình i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân for his generous assistance and guidance while I was conducting this study I am grateful for his precious advice, constructive criticism and constant support Without his help, this study would not have been completed My special thanks go to all the teachers in the faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Language and International Studies for their useful lectures I also wish to acknowledge the cooperation of my colleagues and all grade 10 English-majored students at Bien Hoa Gifted High School in Ha Nam Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my family, especially my dear husband, who have always encouraged me wholeheartedly and supported me to fulfill this study ii ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to design a supplementary writing syllabus for grade 10 English-majored students at Bien Hoa Gifted High School, Ha Nam province in order to be used in extra classes The author of the study hopes that it will provide the teachers with a useful teaching document to improve students' writing ability The study begins with a small survey research with the participation of teachers and 35 grade 10 English-majored students at Bien Hoa Gifted High School, Ha Nam province The aim is to find out the needs for a supplementary writing syllabus Then, basing on the current situation of teaching and learning writing of grade 10 English-majored students at Bien Hoa gifted High School, the review on syllabus design and the data gained from the survey a supplementary writing syllabus is proposed with clear goals, objectives, contents, time allotment Suggestions for teaching methods and assessment were also presented Hopefully, the proposed supplementary writing syllabus will meet the teaching and learning needs and point out the contents that the teachers have to teach in order to fulfill the requirements of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) for the gifted as well as of the tests for the gifted students with the aim of enhancing the students' results iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration .i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of content .iv PART I INTRODUCTION Rationale .1 Aims of the study Research questions Scope of the study Methods of the study .3 Design of the study .3 PART II DEVELOPMENT Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 An overview of syllabus design 1.1.1 Definitions of syllabus in language teaching .4 1.1.2 Types of syllabus 1.1.3 Steps in designing a language syllabus 10 1.2.Literature review on writing syllabus design .10 1.3 Summary .12 Chapter SITUATION ANALYSIS 2.1 Introduction 13 2.2 The school 13 2.3 The teachers .13 2.4 The students .14 2.5 The Contest for gifted students in Northern Coastal Area provinces 15 2.6 The textbook .19 2.7 The needs to have a supplementary writing syllabus 22 2.8 Summary .22 Chapter THE supplementary writing syllabus 23 iv 3.1 Goals and objectives of the syllabus 23 3.2 Principles of designing the syllabus 23 3.3 Selection of contents 24 3.23.1 Difficulties of students in writing 24 3.3.2 Types of writing task and topics in the syllabus 26 3.3.3 Language functions in the syllabus .29 3.3.4 Aspects of writing 30 3.3.5 Language items .30 3.3.6 Time allocation of the syllabus .30 3.3.7 The organization of the syllabus 31 3.3.8 The proposed writing syllabus 31 3.3.9 A sample unit 34 3.4 Teaching methods 34 3.5 Assessment .34 3.5.1 Forms of testing 35 3.5.2 A sample of a test 35 3.6 Summary 35 Chapter Conclusions and suggestions 37 REFERENCES 39 APPENDIX I APPENDIX III APPENDIX V v PART I INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Bien Hoa Gifted High School is the only school in Ha Nam province to train gifted students in some subjects, one of which is English In April every year, there is a contest for grade 10 and grade 11 students coming from gifted high schools in Coastal Area of the North, Viet Nam English is one of the subjects to be tested in this contest The test level in this contest is nearly the same as that of the National Contest held every year for gifted students all over the country This is a great opportunity for students to broaden their experience in test-taking, to get to know students from other gifted high schools as well as to improve knowledge and skills for their coming National Contest Writing is one of the three language skills (listening, reading, writing) to be tested in the Contest It is often considered to be a real challenge for students, particularly for grade 10 students, who are new-comers at high school and just start to get familiar with writing skill To help students gain the best results, the teachers of English specializing classes have to work hard to select materials from different sources such as the Internet and different materials, etc That is because the current textbook for grade 10 students does not help students to reach the level as required by the test even though it is designed for students of the advanced category? They need more than what are provided in the text book in order to achieve better results in the tests for the gifted Therefore, all these above mentioned issues have inspired me to carry out the study "Designing a supplementary writing syllabus for grade 10 English-majored students at Bien Hoa gifted High School, Ha Nam Province" with the hope to help teachers at Bien Hoa Gifted High School to have an insight into language syllabus design and writing syllabus design and provide an example of supplementary writing syllabus for grade 10 students so that they can improve the quality of writing of their grade 10 students Aims and objectives of the study The main aims of the study are: To establish the theoretical and practical bases for a supplementary writing syllabus To propose a supplementary writing syllabus for grade 10 Englishmajored students at Bien Hoa Gifted High School To offer some suggestions for suitable teaching methods and assessment In order to achieve the above aims, the study sets the following objectives for exploration: - providing a brief overview of Bien Hoa Gifted High School including the school, the teachers, the students and of the English Contest for gifted students in Northern Coastal Area provinces - identifying the needs for a supplementary writing syllabus - providing an overview of the main syllabus types which are relevant to the content of the study - considering some suggestions for teaching and assessment methods Research questions This study is carried out to find the answers to the following questions: Why is a supplementary writing syllabus needed for teaching and learning at Bien Hoa Gifted High School? How to design a supplementary writing syllabus for grade 10 Englishmajored students to prepare for the English Contest for gifted students in Northern Coastal Area provinces? What are suggestions for teaching methods and ways of assessment? Scope of the study This study would focus on only designing supplementary writing syllabus for grade 10, English-majored students so that they can perform successfully in the English Contest for gifted students in Northern Coastal Area provinces Methods of the study In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims, qualitative method and quantitative method are used Qualitative method is with situation analysis and document analysis, which aim at finding out the need to design a supplementary writing syllabus for grade 10 English-majored students at Bien Hoa Gifted High School Quantitative method is used to identify and confirm the needs for a supplementary writing syllabus Design of the study The study is organize into three main parts: The first part, INTRODUCTION, provides the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, methods and the design of the study The second part, DEVELOPMENT, consists of chapters: Chapter 1: "LITERATURE REVIEW" provides an overview of syllabus design, definitions of syllabus in language teaching, types of syllabus, steps in designing a language syllabus and literature review on writing syllabus design Chapter 2: "situation ANALYSIS" analyzes the context of the study including the school, the teachers, the students, the textbook, the Contest for gifted students from Northern Coastal Area provinces to find out the necessity to design a supplementary writing syllabus for grade 10 English-majored students at Bien Hoa Gifted High School Chapter 3: "THE SUPPLEMENTARY WRITING SYLLABUS" presents the content of the writing syllabus with the description of the aims, objectives, principles of designing, selection of contents and suggestion on teaching and assessment methods The third part, CONCLUSION summarizes what has been studied and offers some suggestions for further research ... 10 English-majored students at Bien Hoa gifted High School, Ha Nam Province" with the hope to help teachers at Bien Hoa Gifted High School to have an insight into language syllabus design and writing. .. situation analysis and document analysis, which aim at finding out the need to design a supplementary writing syllabus for grade 10 English-majored students at Bien Hoa Gifted High School Quantitative... a supplementary writing syllabus for grade 10 English-majored students at Bien Hoa Gifted High School Chapter 3: "THE SUPPLEMENTARY WRITING SYLLABUS" presents the content of the writing syllabus