HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY NO FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY - BUI THI DUYEN SOME EFFECTIVE ACTIVITIES APPLIED TO TEACH WRITING IN THE PRE - WRITING STAGE TO THE 11TH – GRADE STUDENTS AT NGUYEN DUC THUAN HIGH SCHOOL (GRADUATION PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH) SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI LE NGUYEN, M.A Hanoi, May 2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who has helped, advised and supported me in doing this graduation paper First and foremost, I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to Ms Nguyen Le Nguyen, M.A., my supervisor, for her guidance as well as encouragement, suggestion and advice Without her critical comments and invaluable suggestions, this study could not have been fully completed Second, I am grateful to 100 11th – grade students and two teachers in Nguyen Duc Thuan high school for their cooperation and support in collecting data for this paper Then, sincere thanks is given to all of my friends, especially some of my classmates, from those I have received whole hearted help and support Last but not least, I would like particularly to dedicate to all my members in my family for their constant assistance, love and encouragement during the time I was carrying out this study i ABSTRACT In recent years, pre-writing activities have been commonly adopted and applied in the English writing class practice The objective of this study was to find out the current situation of the application of the pre-writing activities in the teaching and learning of writing skill to 11th – grade students in Nguyen Duc Thuan high school This study aimed to investigate how pre-writing activities have been applied in teaching writing to 11th form students in Nguyen Duc Thuan high school in reality, the research conducted by both quantitative and qualitative The data collected from students’ survey questionnaire and class observation showed that pre-writing activities has little to with the teaching of writing skill to 11th – grade students in Nguyen Duc Thuan high school Most of students often get obstacles in learning writing skill as well as using prewriting activities Moreover, almost students also claimed that their teachers have not used pre-writing activities often and with variety of techniques Based on the results of the survey, the major findings such as roles of writing skill and pre-writing activities, the preferences, difficulties, evaluation and expectations of students as well as types, time duration and effectiveness of pre-writing activities have been found Some pre-writing activities such as brainstorming, free-writing, cubing, listing, clustering and interviewing have been suggested It is hoped that this study will help both teachers and 11th form students Nguyen Duc Thuan high school apply effectively pre-writing activities in writing lessons ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that no part in this study has been copied or reproduced from any others without acknowledgements and that is originally written by me under guidance from my supervisor Date submitted: May 2014 Student Supervisor Bui Thi Duyen Nguyen Le Nguyen, M.A iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES/ FIGURES viii PART ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1.2 Objectives of the study 1.3 Significance of the study 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Task of the study 1.6 Methodology of the study 1.7 Organization of the study PART TWO DEVELOPMENT Chapter one THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Literature review in brief Theoretical background 2.1 Teaching writing .8 2.1.1 Definition of writing 2.1.2 The importance of learning and teaching writing 10 iv 2.1.3 Approaches to teaching writing 11 2.1.3.1 The Product Approach/ the Controlled-to-Free Approach 12 2.1.3.2 The Free-Writing Approach 13 2.1.3.3 The Paragraph-Pattern Approach 14 2.1.3.4 The Grammar –Syntax-Organization Approach 14 2.1.3.5 The Communicative Approach 15 2.1.3.6 The Process Approach 16 2.1.4 Principles for writing proficiency 19 2.1.5 Factors in learning and teaching writing 21 2.2 Pre – writing activities 22 2.2.1 Definition of pre – writing activities 22 2.2.2 The importance of pre – writing activities in learning writing 23 Chapter two RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 Methodology 25 2.1.1 Method orientation 25 2.1.2 The characteristics of the study 25 2.1.3 The participants 26 2.1.4 The instrument of the study 27 2.1.4.1 Survey questionnaire 27 2.1.4.2 Class observation 27 2.2 Data analysis 28 2.2.1 Data analysis of students’ questionnaire 28 2.2.1.1.Students’ attitudes towards writing skill and pre-writing activities to the 11th – grade students at Nguyen Duc Thuan high school 29 2.1.1.2 Students’ preferences for pre - writing activities 30 2.1.1.3 Students’ frequency of learning writing skill 32 v 2.1.1.4 Students’ writing ability 32 2.1.1.5 Students’ difficulties in pre - writing activities 33 2.1.1.6 Students’ evaluation on actual pre -writing activities used in writing classes 34 2.1.1.7 Students’ expectations in pre – writing activities 36 2.2.2 Data analysis of class observation 37 Chapter three MAJOR FINDINGS AND SOME EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES TO TEACH WRITING IN THE PRE – WRITING STAGE TO THE 11TH – GRADE STUDENTS AT NGUYEN DUC THUAN HIGH SCHOOL 3.1 Major findings 39 3.1.1 Major findings of students’ questionnaire 39 3.1.1.1 Roles of writing skill and pre – writing activities in writing classes to the 11th – grade students at Nguyen Duc Thuan high school 39 3.1.1.2 Students’ preferences for pre - writing activities 40 3.1.1.3 Students’ difficulties in participating in pre - writing activities 40 3.1.1.4 Students’ evaluation on actual pre -writing activities used in writing classes 41 3.1.1.5 Students’ expectations in pre – writing activities 41 3.1.2 Major findings of class observation 42 3.1.2.1 Types of pre-writing activities used in writing lessons 42 3.1.2.2 Time duration of pre-writing activities 43 3.1.2.3 The effectiveness of using pre – writing activities in writing lessons 44 vi 3.2 Some effective classroom activities to teach writing in the pre writing stage to the 11th – grade students at Nguyen Duc Thuan high school 45 3.2.1 Pre-writing activities related to brainstorming 46 3.2.2 Pre- writing activities related to free-writing 52 3.2.3 Pre- writing activities related to cubing 53 3.2.4 Pre- writing activities related to listing 56 3.2.5 Pre- writing activities related to clustering 59 3.2.6 Pre- writing activities related to interviewing 62 PART THREE CONCLUSION 1.1.CONCLUSION 64 1.2 LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUSY 65 1.2.1 Limitations of the study 65 1.2.2 Suggestions for further study 66 REFERENCES ………………………………………………………… viii APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………xii APPENDIX 1………………………………………………………………….xiii APPENDIX 2………………………………………………………………… xv APPENDIX3……………………………………………………………… xix vii LIST OF TABLES/ FIGURES Figure 2.1 Producing a piece of writing by Ann Raimes (1983) 12 Figure 2.2 Spark’s (1984) diagram of rhetorical triangle in writing 16 Figure 2.3 White and Arndt’ s (1991) diagram of process approach 17 Figure 2.4 Curry’ s (1996) diagram of the writing process approach 18 Figure 2.5 Scarcella and Oxford's (1992) diagram of abilities underlying writing proficiency 19 Table 2.1 Students' attitude towards writing skill 29 Table 2.2 Students’ attitudes towards pre-writing activities 30 Table 2.3 Students’ preferences for pre - writing activities 31 Table 2.4 Students’ amount of time spent on learning each skill 32 Table 2.5 Students’ writing marks 32 Table 2.6 Students' difficulties in pre-writing activities 33 Table 2.7 Students' reflection of teachers' pre-writing activities 34 Table 2.8 Students' evaluation on actual pre-writing activities 35 Table 2.9 Students' expectation of pre-writing activities 36 Figure 3.1 Pre-writing activities-brainstorming 47 Figure 3.2 Pre-writing activities-brainstorming 48 Figure 3.3 Pre-writing activities-brainstorming 50 Figure 3.4 Example of mind-mapping 61 viii PART ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study Along with the globalization trend, English has been considered as a compulsory subject in the curriculum of all state schools from the sixth onwards In order to keep pace with the development of society, the need for good communication is put in one of the top demand for English language including writing skill It is undeniable that writing skill plays a significant role in daily communication and educational process In spite of its importance, writing has long been the neglected skill in second language for many years as writing is placed poor fourth According to Tricia, H (1996), a good deal of writing is undertaken as an aid to learning , for example, to consolidate the learning of new vocabulary and structures or to help students remember new items of language However, in the social context in Vietnam, English language teaching has its low quality, which has yet to meet the demand for competent English – speaking people Moreover, due to the little time and efforts that are spent on teaching and learning writing leads to Vietnamese high school students’ unsatisfactory results in writing These low results are due to numerous factors including students’ lack background knowledge and low language competence They not often know how to express their ideas in English because they lack vocabulary and structures or run out of ideas, etc For many students, writing skill is a very inhibiting and painful activity Sometimes, they are putted under lots of pressure when being asked to perform a writing paper within a limited time Thus, it is beneficial to give some perspective techniques for teaching writing in order to improve students’ writing abilities Over the past decade, many authors from different countries stated that this kind of troubles among learners studying English has been figured out Oyetunde, M (1989) On Teaching Writing: A review of the Literature London: Routledge Raimes, A (1983) Teachniques in Teaching Writing, Oxford: Oxford Universiry Press Reid, J M (1993) Teaching ESL Writing New Jersey: Prentice Hall Rico, A (1986:17) The invisible writing New York: Teachers College Press Rivers, W M (1968: 241) Teaching Foreign Language Skills Chicago: University of Chicago Press Scarcella, R C & Oxford, R L (1992) The Tapestry of Language Learning Boston: Heinle & Heine Publisher Shauhenessy, M P (1997) Errors and Expectations: A guide for the Teacher of Basic Writing New York: Oxford University Press Smith, F (1982) Writing and the writers London: Heinemann Smith, C S (1983) Improving Writing in California Schools: Problems and Solutions Sacramento, Calif: California State Department of Education Spack, R (1984:656) Invention Strategies and the ESL College Composition Students TESOL Quarterly, 18 Tribble, C (1996) Writing Oxford: Oxford University Press Tribble, S U (1996:118) Second language acquisition and the classroom London: Longman Tricia, H (1996) Resources Books for Teacher - Writing Oxford: Oxford University Press 70 Ur, P (1991) A course in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Ur P (2003:17) Discussion That Work Cambridge: Cambridge University Press White, R & Arndt, V (1991) Process Writing London: Longman White, R & Arndt, L (1991) Teaching written English London: George Allen & Unwin William, Z (1997:24) On Writing Well New York: Newbur House/ Harper & Row Wolff, L B (1996) Brainstorming to Autonomy Forum English Teaching 34, 100 Wong, D A (1996) Acts of Teaching: How to teach Writing Englewood, CO: Teacher Ideas Press Wright P C (1987) Roles of Teachers and Learners Oxford: Oxford University Press Zamel, V (1982) Writing: The process of discovering meaning TESOL Quarterly, 16 Zamel, V (1983) The Composing Process of advanced ESL students: six case studies TESOL Quarterly, 17 71 APPENDICES APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONAIRES FOR STUDENTS My name is Bui Thi Duyen I am a student of group K36A- Bachelor of English, Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 Being a candidate for the paper, I choose “SOME EFFECTIVE ACTIVITIES APPLIED TO TEACH WRITING IN THE PRE-WRITING STAGE TO THE 11TH – GRADE STUDENTS AT NGUYEN DUC THUAN HIGH SCHOOL”as the topic of my graduation paper I would like to invite you answer these questions below in order to gather data supporting my survey You can be sure that all of your information will be kept secret definitely Thanks for your co-operation! Survey conductor: Bui Thi Duyen Class: K36A- Bachelor of English, FLF- HPU2 Your age: ……………… Your gender: …………… How you access the importance of four basic English skills? Which one you good at? And How you spend time learning them? Please put (√) in the appropriate box 72 Very Skills important Important Not very important Not important Best Worst skill skill Spend most Spend least time learning time learning Listening Speaking Writing Reading From these following questions, please circle your best answer How you access the importance of pre-writing activities in English writing lesson? a Very important b Important c Not very important d Not important What you think of your writing skill? a Excellent b Good c Bad d Very bad Which marks you often get for writing? a