THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING NHU THANH HIGH SCHOOL INNOVATION IN TEACHING SOME GUIDES TO HELP GRADE 12 STUDENTS KNOW HOW TO WRITE A BASIC ENGLISH PARAGRAPH WELL AT NHU THANH HIGH SCHOOL The writer: Nguyen Thi Kim Lien The post: Teacher Innovation of subject: English THANH HOA, 2016 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION I RATIONALE OF THE RESEARCH Studying English nowadays has become an essential demand for everyone Learning English is important It is simple as English is one of the most popular international languages and it is most not only all over the world but also in all aspects of society Therefore, learning and mastering it would greatly give advantages to the person concerned Especially, since Vietnam became the 150th member of the World Trade Organization ( WTO), it has been required that we have to build the labour force who are skillful at work and use English well as an effective tool of communication Although many Vietnamese students get excellent certain qualifications, their ability of communicating in English is limited As a result, they must give up their dream jobs There is no doubt about that English is the optimum standard for applicants into foreign and state- owned companies On account of the above demands, English is compulsory not only at school but also in examinations at certain stages of the school education system According to the national curriculum, English is built with the aim of communicating Creating the ability of communication in English for students is the most important target in the process of teaching As teachers, I think we’d all agree that communication is important In fact, it’s a necessary component of education, livelihood, and basic functionality in our society It’s also fairly obvious that there are two main ways to communicate, although more obscure forms exist Basically, we talk and we write That’s how we let other people know what’s going on, and it’s an important skill to have Just about every student can talk, but how many Vietnamese students can truly write well? Writing is important because it’s used extensively in higher education and in the workplace If students don’t know how to express themselves in writing, they won’t be able to communicate well with friends, teachers, professors, employers, peers, or just about anyone else Much of professional communication is done in writing: proposals, memos, reports, applications, preliminary interviews, e-mails, and more are part of the daily life of a college student or successful graduate Even if students manage to learn the material in their college classes without knowing how to write well, they won’t be able to express their knowledge to the people who are making the big decisions Potential employers won’t know whether or not head knowledge can be applied to everyday demands unless it’s through a spoken interview Even the majority of certifications and licensures require basic writing skills to obtain The inability to write makes for a stillborn career At Nhu Thanh High school, my students often find it extremely hard to improve the writing skill, especially they have difficulties in learning how to write an academic paragraph effectively Therefore, in this study I give some guides to help my students write a good basic paragraph and some ways of correcting it which I have applied successfully in my writing teaching to improve the students’ writing skill II AIMS OF THE RESEARCH On the basis of surveying students’ ability of writing a basic paragraph in English at Nhu Thanh High School, I have given feasible solutions including innovating methods of teaching writing skill III SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH Researching innovative techniques used in writing teaching and learning, and methods of assessing students’ study result of writing at Nhu Thanh High School IV THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS: This study aims at finding the answer to the following research questions: How can guides help grade 12 students improve writing skill? The question has been addressed to two of the classes ( 12C9, 12C10) that I have been teaching in Nhu Thanh High School with a view to examining how guides have taken an effect on the process of writing here V RESEARCHING METHODS - The method of collecting and analyzing materials for the research: research for materials concerning about the subject, analyze and get certain knowledge from previous researches, finally give the foundation to the research - The method of talking to students: through talking to students, I have got to know real situation of students’ writing learning in language classes at Nhu Thanh High School - The method of surveying through answer sheets PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER : LITERATURE REVIEW I The Basics of writing skills: What Is Writing? "Writing" is the process of using symbols (letters of the alphabet, punctuation and spaces) to communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable form To write clearly it is essential to understand the basic system of a language In English this includes knowledge of grammar, punctuation and sentence structure Vocabulary is also necessary, as is correct spelling and formatting A writer may write for personal enjoyment or use, or for an audience of one person or more The audience may be known (targeted) or unknown Taking notes for study purposes is an example of writing for one's self Blogging publicly is an example of writing for an unknown audience A letter to a friend is an example of writing for a targeted audience As with speaking, it is important to consider your audience when writing There are many different styles of writing, from informal to formal II What are the advantages of having great writing skills in real life? Great writing skills translate to effective communication Well-written memos and procedures help companies run more smoothly If you want changes in the workplace, or maybe a higher salary for yourself, being able to write clearly and persuasively will increase the chances that you will get what you want Do you have a complaint about products or services you have purchased? A well-written letter will be treated more seriously than a poorly written one In public affairs, you want to influence the government, so they things your way? If you write a well-crafted letter to your Congressman (in a U.S context), your voice will be as influential as 50 or 100 people who simply forward an e-mail message written by an advocacy group These are great advantages of written communication: - Easy to preserve: The documents of written communication are easy to preserve Oral and non-verbal communication cannot be preserved If it is needed, important information can be collected from the preserved documents - Easy presentation of complex matter: Written communication is the best way to represent any complex matter easily and attractively - Permanent record: The documents of written communication act as a permanent record When it is needed, important information can be easily collected from the preserved documents - Prevention of wastage of time and money: Written communication prevents the waste of money and time Without meeting with each other the communicator and communicate can exchange their views - Accurate presentation: Through the documents of the written communication top executive can present the information more accurately and clearly As it is a legal document everybody takes much care does draft it - Use as a reference: If it is needed, written communication can be used as future reference - Delegation of authority: Written communication can help the authority to delegate the power and authority to the subordinate It is quite impossible to delegate power without a written document - Longevity: Written document can be preserved for a long time easily That is why; all the important issues of an organization should be back and white - Effective communication: Written communication helps to make communication effective It is more dependable and effective than those of other forms of communication - Maintaining image: Written communication helps to maintain the images of both the person and the organization It also protects the images of the company or organization - Proper information: It is a proper and complete communication system There is no opportunity to include any unnecessary information in a written document - Less distortion possibility: In this communication system information is recorded permanently So, there is less possibility of distortion and alteration of the information - No opportunity to misinterpret: there is any opportunity to misinterpret the information or messages of written communication - Controlling tool: Written communication can help to control the organizational activity The written document may be used as a tool for controlling - Easy to verify: The information and messages that are preserved can be verified easily If there arises any misunderstanding any party can easily verify the information - Others: Clear understanding, Legal document, Acceptability, Reduction of risk, Creating confidence, Easy circulation, Wide access or coverage etc CHAPTER 2: PRACTICAL SITUATIONS I METHODS OF THE RESEARCH I have done the research in the context of two English classes (12C9 and 12 C10)- at the beginning of the school year 2015-2016 at Nhu Thanh High School In this survey, I have used the variety of questionares for students II THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING HOW TO WRITE AN ACADEMIC PARAGRAPH IN ENGLISH AT NHU THANH HIGH SCHOOL I have carried out the survey of real situations of teaching and learning how to write a basic paragraph in English in class 12C9 and 12C10 (the school year: 2015- 1016) and I have got the following result: Survey no.1 Practical Situation of learning how to write a basic paragraph in English at Nhu Thanh High School Questionares for students A B C D How difficult you Too easy Not difficult Difficult Extremely find in learning how to 5% 10% 25% difficult write an English 60% paragraph well? Do you think it is very Very Essential Not really Not neccesary to improve essential 15% essential essential at your writing skill in 10% 25% all general and how to 50% write a good paragraph in particular? What you think of Really Interesting Boring Very boring writing classes at Nhu interesting 15% 40% 35% Thanh High School? 10% How often you get Always Occationall Rarely Never used to making the 10% y 30% 40% outline form before you 20% get down to writing an English paragraph? Do you think of the Very A little boring Completely materials used in stimulating stimulating 30% boring 40% writing classes at Nhu 10% 20% Thanh High school? How are you contented A little Very much Not at all Always with the teacher’s ways 50% 10% 20 20% of correcting your % written work? From the above survey, it points out that teaching and learning writing skill in language classes at Nhu Thanh High School are ineffective and rather limited Students are not fond of writing lessons We can see that writing skill is little improved CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS TO HELP STUDENTS HOW TO WRITE A GOOD PARAGRAPH IN ENGLISH I RECOMMEDATIONS: According to the data analysis from the survey no.1, it can be personally concluded that students need understand the processing of writing even the simplest steps and teacher must spend much time correcting their written works carefully and responsibly Therefore, I have given them some guides to help students how to write a good academic paragraph in English II PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS Supply students with general knowledge of the fundamental paragraph’s definition and outline form Through writing classes, I reliaze that the biggest problem of writing a basic paragraph to students is that they not make the detailed outline form before they start writing As a sequence, the ideas in three parts of one paragraph are arranged in the incorrect order Therefore, during my language teaching in writing classes, I always emphasize the importance of making the detailed outline form in the process of writing a good parapraph to help them with an effective outline before they get down to writing an academic one My students understand its definition more clearly and the main parts of a basic paragraph They ensure that writing the outline of one paragraph is one of the most important and necessary steps in the writing process In many languages, the fundamental unit of composition is the paragraph A paragraph consists of several sentences that are grouped together This group of sentences together discuss one main subject In U.S formal academic English, paragraphs have three principal parts These three parts are the topic sentence, the supporting sentences, and the concluding sentence Process of writing a paragraph: - Compose your topic sentence Think of a topic and a controlling idea that will narrow the topic enough to support it well in one paragraph - Brainstorm supporting ideas Choose - supporting ideas that a good job supporting your topic sentence - Write your paragraph in topic outline form as follows - Put your supporting ideas in a logical order - For each supporting idea, think of RENNS that further explain the idea For balance, each supporting idea should have about the same number of RENNS - Think of a concluding sentence - Write your paragraph using sentences Use the coherence strategies to make your paragraph easy to follow Here are the network used for making the detailed outline form of any paragraphs in English: THE OUTLINE ( THREE MAIN PARTS) THE TOPIC SENTENCE SUPPORTING IDEA SUPPORTING SENTENCES SUPPORTING IDEA CONCLUDING SENTENCE SUPPORTING IDEA SUPPORTING IDEA 1.1 Guide students how to write a good topic sentence A topic sentence usually comes at the begining of a paragraph; that is, it is usually the first sentence in a formal academic paragraph Not only is a topic sentence the first sentence of a paragraph, but, more importantly, it is the most general sentence in a paragraph What does "most general" mean? It means that there are not many details in the sentence, but that the sentence introduces an overall idea that you want to discuss later in the paragraph For example, suppose that you want to write a paragraph about the natural landmarks of your hometown The first part of your paragraph might look like this: My hometown is well- known for several amazing natural features First, it is noted for the Wheaton River, which is very wide and beautiful Also, on the other side of the town is Wheaton Hill, which is unusual because it is very steep Note how the first sentence, My hometown, Wheaton, is well- known for several amazing geographical features,is the most general statement This sentence is different from the two sentences that follow it, since the second and third sentences mention specific details about the town's geography, and are not general statements Here are some examples of sentences that cannot be used as topic sentences Can you figure out why they are inappropriate? My hometown is famous because it is located by Wheaton River, which is very wide, and because it is built near an unusually steep hill called Wheaton Hill There are two reasons why some people like to buy cars with automatic transmission and two reasons why others like cars with manual transmission The problem with sentence is that it contains too many details Topic sentences are general, and details should appear later in the paragraph A better topic sentence would be like the one mentioned above, My hometown is famous for several amazing geographical features Sentence is not appropriate as a topic sentence because it mentions two topics, not just one Paragraphs are usually about one main thing and so their topic sentences should also be about only one main thing The problem with sentence is that it is too general It is also very boring! Therefore,We can rewrite sentences in the following ways to make it better: There are two reasons why some people like to buy cars with automatic transmission As I have made certain that my students know how to write a good topic sentence, I give them some topics and ask them to write the topic sentence for these topics In order to help them write more effectively and academically, after correcting their work, I will provide them with the topic sentence models The suggested topic: “Write a paragragh about which your ideal world is you'd like to live in 2050 (about 140 words) The topic sentence should be “According to the great development of our society, it is likely that human beings will witness the possitive changes of economic, peace, education and technology” Guide them how to write persuative supporting sentences I make sure that my students make out clearly about controlling ideas that support the topic sentence, using reasons, examples, names, numbers, senses to develop the supporting ideas by giving details and explanation The ideas must be clear and be arranged logically in the correct order At first, I have forced them to write supporting sentenses for a bit simple topics and they ought to be written through the network By this way, my students can imagine how to write supporting sentences easily For example, I give them the topic : “Write a paragragh about your ideal world you'd like to live in 2020 (about 140 words)” With this topic, I will ask my students to write supporting sentences by themselves to make clear the suggested topic sentence: “According to the great development of our society, it is likely that human beings will witness the possitive changes of economic, peace, education, environment and technology” They spend about five munites to think and write the supporting sentenses in the form of network After correcting their work, I give the suggested outline Positive changes in the world in 2020 Economy - Stable finance status - No crises Peace - No wars - No terrorism, - Big happines - Living in harmony Education - Be free, equal to everyone - Be advanced Environme - Healthy one - Less noise - Less polutio - More parks - Protection o wildwife Technology - Robot appreace, - Modern device - Saving labour Guide them how to write concluding sentences effectively The concluding sentence is the last one of the paragraph It can express the topic sentence in another way It should be enough short, for instance, with the topic : “Write a paragraph of about 120 words to suggest measures to protect rare and endangered species from extinction” The concluding sentence 10 should be “In conclusion, If these measures are taken, our planet might be a peaceful and beauiful place for all kinds of beings to live.” Practise making the detailed outline form based on given topics In writing classes, I give my students a certain writing topic, and ask them to write the outline before writing the required paragraph This step is compulsory for all my students and then I will correct their work For example, I give them the topic : “Write one paragraph (150 words) about measures of protecting endangered species” I ask them to work in groups and show their detailed outline of the the given topic After that, I and my students will work together to give the full outline Here are one of suggestions: Measures of protecting endangered species Raising people’s awareness - Hold forums, conferences, seminars - organize activities Protecting wildlife habitat - establish reserves - have more parks Enacting the laws - banning commercial trade and overhunting Raising funds - from agencies, international organizations, … Practise writing the full paragraph weekly based on the well – prepared outline I ask students to the writing tasks in the writing classes and choose the typical works and correct them but occasionally, the writing reqirement can be made at home After that they can hand in and I can correct individually To the grade 12 students, I focus on the following topics that are derived from the main theme in 12 English textbook and every one or two weeks all the students are compulsory to hand in their outline and writing works with the aim of giving them as many chances as possible to practise writing 11 Apply some techniques of corecting students’ writing works effectively Correcting is the extremely important step in helping students improve their writing skill Correcting carefully and responsibly assists students in knowing that what the weakness and strength of their works are During teaching the writing skill, I have applied the following correcting methods: Students find out their mistakes by themselves based on teacher’s given suggestions on their work I give my students common writing mistakes they often make and I stand for these mistakes through signs and ask them to learn these signs by heart - tense mistakes are signed TM - word form mistakes are signed WM - vocabulary mistakes are signed VM - grammartical structure mistakes GM - mistakes of expressing ideas EIM - spelling mistakes SM - mistakes of straying from the subjects SSM - the outline mistakes OM - mistakes of repeating many times RM - mistakes of being influenced by the mother tounge MM Here are some my students’ typical written works which have been correted through the way of giving mistake signs and the writer has to correct it by himself based on the suggested signs With the first written work, my student can recognize easily their own mistakes based on my signs and she must correct them on her own and finally I will check them Here are mistakes that are corrected: In 2020, we witness the positive changes of economic, peace, TM WM technology and enviroment.” SM It must be corrected : In 2020, we will witness the positive changes of economics, peace, technology and environment.” The poor can be provided for the advanced knowledge GM It must be corrected : The poor can be provided with the advanced knowledge The first written work 12 And some other typical written works I have corrected in the similar way: 13 14 CHAPTER 4: RESULT To sum up, guides of making the detailed outline form before writing and practising writing as much as possible based on the suggested outline is an 15 affective way to improve student’s writing skill Through this way, I have got the positive results in writing classes It has encouraged my students to take part in writing classes enthusistically and motivated them write english paragraphs with a variety of topics even with the advanced level Here are the detailed result: Class 12C9 12C1 Before applying innovative writing techniques, students are able to write an academic paragraph in English……… ( According to the figures at the beginning of the school- year 2015 – 2016) After applying innovative writing techniques, students are able to write an academic paragraph in English……… ( According to the figures at the end of the school- year 2015 – 2016) % Excellentl y 0% 0% % Excellentl y 7% 7% % Wel l 5% 8% % Fairl y 25% 27% % Poorl y 70% 65% % Wel l 25% 30% % Fairl y 40% 40% % Poorl y 28% 23% PART THREE: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION I CONCLUSION After having applied the above techniques in writing lessons, I have got positive results in teaching and learning writing skill, especially guiding them how to write an acedamic paragraph well at Nhu Thanh High School First and foremost, students participate in writing classes more enthusiastically They are used to making the detailed outline form before writing a basic paragraph They are able to express their thoughts and ideas more scholarly in writing At the end of the school- year 2015-2016, most of the students in class 12c9 and 12c10 can be able to write an academic paragraph in English at the simple level, some at the advanced level II SUGGESTION It is very necessary to finance more material facilities, tools of teaching aids for English teaching and learning 16 The Headmaster’s identification Thanh Hoa, the tenth of April, 2016 I make sure that this study is my own work The writer: Nguyen Thi Kim Lien 17 INDEX CONTENT PART ONE: INTRODUCTION I Rationale of the research II Aims of the research III Scope of the research IV Research questions V Researching methods PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW CHAPTER 2: PRACTICAL SITUATIONS I Methods of research II The reality of teaching and learning how to write an academic paragraph in English at Nhu Thanh High School CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS I RECOMMENDATIONS II PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS CHAPTER 4: RESULT PART THREE: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS I Conclusion II Suggestions INDEX REFERENCES PAGE 1-2 2 2 3-6 3-4 5-6 5-6 6-14 6-14 15 15-16 15 15-16 17 18 REFERENCE BOOKS David Cross (1994): Practical handbook of language teaching 18 Penny Ur ( 1998) A course in language teaching - Practical and Theory Cambrige university press Nguyen Hanh Dung Methods of teaching English at Secondary education 19 ... ENGLISH AT NHU THANH HIGH SCHOOL I have carried out the survey of real situations of teaching and learning how to write a basic paragraph in English in class 12C9 and 12C10 (the school year: 2015-... discuss later in the paragraph For example, suppose that you want to write a paragraph about the natural landmarks of your hometown The first part of your paragraph might look like this: My hometown... REVIEW CHAPTER 2: PRACTICAL SITUATIONS I Methods of research II The reality of teaching and learning how to write an academic paragraph in English at Nhu Thanh High School CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS