THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING LE HOAN HIGH SCHOOL THE INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE THE THESIS: SOME METHODS IN TEACHING PRE-WRITING HELPING CLASS 11A2 IMPROVE THEIR WRITING SKILL Author: Le Thi Hong Occupation: Teacher Field ( Subject): Foreign language THANH HÓA NĂM 2016 PART I: INTRODUCTION I.1 Reasons for choosing the thesis As you know, English is an international language which is used by a lot of countries all over the world It also becomes main language in communicating among different people in different countries in the world With the trend of integrating, Vietnam has been promoting their abilities in all aspects Therefore, in education, Vietnam really pays attention to teaching and learning English all schools in Vietnamese educational system English is also becomes a chore subject in national educational system From those, we see the importance of teaching and learning English in the development and integration of our country English is a device for communicating and integrating with many countries in our region and in the world, a device for approaching modern technology and science and exchanging economics, politics and culture between our country and others in the region and in the world In Vietnam, nowadays students begin to learn English at primary school In high school, they continue the teaching program from primary school to secondary school They learn English with four skills such as writing, listening, speaking and reading along with language focus to continue improving their skills and knowledge Furthermore, they also prepare the best knowledge for their most important examination of graduating or use the knowledge for higher education As an English teacher I know the importance of English with my students, so I always try to find out the best methods in teaching English for them In our school system, English is both different and characteristic subject It makes students curious and passionate However, it also creates a lot of difficulties and misunderstandings As a result, students sometimes feel discouraged In this situation, teacher has an very important role to transfer the passion and the enjoyment to their students When teaching English at high school, specially teaching the 11th grade at Le Hoan high school, I see that most of my student like learning English They also try their best to learn it in all skills and language focus While teaching them, I see that my students are attractive and exciting with reading, listening, writing skill and language focus, but they seem indifferent to writing skill However, nowadays writing skill is step by step becoming an important part in their study As you know, this skill has been becoming a important part in the examination for English excellent students for many years A Large part of students hadn't done well in this part Besides a few years ago, writing skill or paragraph writing didn't appear in the final exam of graduating and higher education, but now we can see that in this exam, writing skill is becoming an essential part and accounts for marks in total 10 marks for all parts From these elements I see that I have to update and change my method in teaching writing skill so that I can make students really like this skill more than ever before So as to help students improve their writing skill, I also see that in this skill, prewriting stage is a very important stage in teaching writing and also has significant effects on the students' writing performance If students are not prepared well enough, they can't write well, they can't write anything in their notebook With my own thought and my own experience in teaching English at Le Hoan high school for many years, I strongly try to give my own bright experience: Some methods for teaching Pre-writing effectively helping the 11th grade students improve their writing skill With the thesis I hope that I will contribute my little experience to help my students like and improve the writing skill in the next courses I.2 Objectives When teaching writing skill to the students in the grade 11A2 at Le Hoan high school I found out that pre-writing stage is very important in teaching writing skill and it also effects students' writing result, so I decided to carry out this thesis Firstly, I want to find out some other methods in teaching pre-writing effectively From changing this stage helps students improve their writing performance result in writing skill Secondly, I want to create my own experiences which are useful and necessary for my teaching The experiences will be used in the next courses and bring out the good results in my job Furthermore, I also want to contribute my own experiences in teaching English at Le Hoan high school Hopefully that the results of this study would be shared with any colleagues who had the same problem or anyone who is interested in this study Last but not least, Based on the results of this action research, some changes and new methods could be applied in some lessons I hope that my students will love writing skill more than ever before and work effectively in the writing lessons I.3 Participants The subjects chosen for the research include 45 students in the class 11A2 at Le Hoan High School with the survey questionnaires The research was carried out during the first term of the academic year 2015 – 2016 at Le Hoan High School I.4 Methods of the study The study bases on teacher's main activities: teaching time in the class The data is collected by sets of questionnaires some were set before using the methods and others were set after using the methods Other sources of data come from writing tasks from the textbooks The analysis of the data hopefully will bring about reliable findings useful for the teaching of writing to students at Le Hoan High School PART II: CONTENTS OF THE THESIS II.1: Rationale which affects to the thesis Students' result in writing lesson can be affected by some major factors which originate from students, teachers, and other external factors II.1.1 Students' factors II.1.1.1 Students' learning style As we know, it is normal that there are about 40 to 50 students in peer classroom at high school They are different individuals in a class Different individuals may have different learning styles and different kinds of work They want to get different degrees of care and attention from the teacher It means that there are different reactions from students toward the pre-writing stage From those If teacher realizes the differences among individuals in the class when they create an activity, the students will take part in the lesson actively II.1.1.2 Students' language level It can be easily seen that Le Hoan high school is situated at the countryside in Xuan Lai commune, Tho Xuan district Most of the people here have medium living condition, so most students learn English with very simple ways They only learn English from their teacher at school These students have medium level, few also have low level Others, but not large a mount of students with good living condition from their parents, find out some extra ways for learning English such as learning outside the school, using cassette, computer and cell phone to learn online This group of the students has good knowledge It means that students' language level is different Therefore, teacher may have some difficulties in choosing a suitable teaching method, language and activity which are used in a class II.1.1.3 Students' attitude Beside students' learning style and students' language level, students' attitude in writing is very important This decides the success in learning a foreign language Students' attitude may derive from the society, the friends, the parents, their purpose or the teacher and his or her method Among these sources, teacher and his or her method may be the most important factors For teacher, his or her attitude and enthusiasm helps himself create a positive classroom atmosphere For the method, it means both teacher's and students' confidence shown in the way of teaching and learning If they lose their confidence the chances of success in learning a language will be very small II.1.2 Teacher's factors II.1.2.1 Teacher's teaching method In pre-writing stage as well as pre-lesson stage, teacher's teaching method focus on the ways which teacher designs appropriate activities to motivate students to write Most students believe that the teacher is a fountain of knowledge and their main responsibility is to transfer that to students Besides the more knowledge of the lesson a teacher can apply to his student, the teacher should make students feel more interested in it When students feel comfortable and interesting, they can produce a good writing II.1.2.2 Teacher's instruction Before asking students to something, teacher always has to explain and instruct them If students don't understand teacher's instruction They don't react anything This is a problem that teacher's instruction should be clear and short not too complicated To have a good instruction, before giving instruction teacher should prepare what they are going to say and ensure that the class's attention Next they should give the information more than one That helps students know exactly what they will have to next II.1.3: Other factors II.1.3.1 Time limitations Normally, in pre-stage it takes from to 10 minutes to conduct the activities However, in some large classes with a number of students whose English knowledge is limited, it often takes more time to conduct these activities II.1.3.2 Classroom and material limitations In teaching lesson, there are some facilities in classroom which also affect students' learning and students' result such as the lightness, the temperature or classroom atmosphere and facilities for displaying pictures and chart As we know English is a subject which is using and updating a lot of pictures about many aspects in daily life the use of visual display to show these pictures in teaching and learning is an effective way, that makes students exciting and wants to discover the subject more However, most schools of Vietnam don't have the best condition for students to learn foreign language Most classroom don't have computer screen or visual display unit, students have to sit in a crowded number Those surely affect students' learning result Others such as lightness, temperature or classroom atmosphere if they are not good enough , they also makes students are not comfortable, so their learning result is also not good II.1.4 The writing program for the grade 11th at Le Hoan high school Basing on the new text books designed by the Ministry of Education and Training English is taught with four skills and language focus which focuses on grammar and pronunciation The writing program at Le Hoan high school is the same as this book with the aim of improving students' abilities in writing On English 11 textbook, we have 16 units with 16 topics for student's writing There are a range of types to practice writing with narrative, writing letters, describing statistics from a chart or a table or writing a report or a biography From the content and writing lesson of the textbook, We can see the writing topics in the first term of the academic year It consists of the units with topic for students' writing After units they review to prepare for the final first term test Topic Unit 1: Friendship - Writing a narrative: Writing about your friend Unit 2: Personal Experience Topic Writing a personal letter to describe a past experience Topic Unit 3: A Party - Writing an informal letter of invitation Unit 4: Volunteer work - Writing a formal letter expressing Topic gratitude Topic Unit 5: Illiteracy - Describing information in a table Topic Unit 6: Competitions - Writing a letter of reply Unit 7: World population Topic Interpreting statistics on population from a chart Unit 8: Celebrations - Describing a celebration’s activities Topic Final first – term Test The teaching and learning tasks for the second term will be shown as follows: Unit 9: The Post Office Topic Writing a formal letter to express satisfaction or dissatisfaction Topic 10 Unit 10: Nature in danger - Describing a location Unit 11: Sources of energy Topic 11 Describing information from a chart Unit 12: The Asian Games Topic 12 Describing the preparations for the coming Asian Games Topic 13 Unit 13: Hobbies - Writing about a collection Topic 14 Unit 14: Recreation - Describing a camping holiday Topic 15 Unit 15: Space Conquest - Writing a biography Unit 16: The Wonders of the world Topic 16 Writing a report on a man – made place Final Second – term Test II.2 Some problems before implementing the thesis II.2.1 Some features about class 11A2 II.2.1.1 Advantages Class 11A2 is the class with 46 students Most of them have good knowledge about Math, Physics and Chemistry because they choose them as their main subjects for their studying and their higher education When they learn those it means that most of the students in class 11A2 have a good logical ability Beside their main subject, they can have special ability for learning others quickly and well With my subject, English, most students in the class 11A2 really like it and also aware its importance for their future Therefore they always feel attractive and try their best to learn it From each lesson, I saw my students' passion and attention They always listen to me and have a good interaction with their teacher, which makes me feel satisfied and exciting when teaching them II.2.1.2 Disadvantages My student's attitude in learning is very good, but it also have some limitations Firstly, their main subjects are Math, Physics and Chemistry, so they spend much time studying them It means they spend little time on the others as well as English Secondly, I began teaching them when they was lass 10A2 That time I saw my students writing bad They didn't like this kill, they didn't pay attention it much When I asked them to write, they seem indifferent to this kill and became passive Maybe, my students didn't practice this skill well and regularly at secondary school and that time writing skill didn't mention in their exams so they didn't need and pay attention too much Last but not least Most of them also don't have good condition in using modern devices for studying foreign language such as computer with internet connection, radio or expensive cell phone These are some disadvantages affecting my students in learning English II.2.2 Old method in teaching pre-writing and its results I began teaching class 11A2 last year In that time I taught writing skill based on the design of the textbook I also taught this kill with three stages pre, while and post stage sometimes I taught four stages consisting warm-up I didn't change anything in the textbook I also asked my colleges for how they taught this kill They gave me the same steps as I did You can see the method and its result which I and my colleagues used last year in teaching writing kill in class 11A2 and other classes at Le Hoan high school as some following examples: Example 1: Topic " write a letter to express gratitude " Unit 4: Volunteer work Stages Teacher's activities Students' activities - pointed at the letter in the text - answered " It is a letter" book and asks students " what is Warm-up this? " (3 minutes) - said " ok, today we are going to - listened learn how to write a formal letter of expressing gratitude" Pre-writing - explained some news words and - listened and did the task (10 minutes) asked students to task in the textbook - called students to give their - gave their answer answer for the task - gave feedback - asked students to the task for the while-writing and explained the requirement of the task for students - went around and gave help for students - listened to the teacher Some began to the task by writing the letter of expressing gratitude Some did nothing, some asked teacher's about some new words, some Whileasked their friend writing - Some students in the (20 minutes) class did not know what to with their writings so they copy the whole sample letter in the text book ignoring the requirements of the writing tasks Post- writing -asked students to work in pairs and - worked in pairs and corrected their writing (12 minutes) correct their writing each other Example 2: Topic: " Describing a celebration's activities" Unit 8: Celebration Stages Teacher's activities Students' activities - asked students to tell name of - gave the name warm up the celebrations in Vietnam ( minutes) - gave feedback - asked students to choose a - chose the celebration celebration to describe Pre-writing - explained the task and some - listen to the teacher ( 10 new words minutes) - asked students to use the main points in the task to describe the celebration they chose - asked students to use the - wrote the paragraph Whileguideline in the task to write - some wrote, some thought writing their paragraph about the lesson, some looked ( 20 - went around to view students' indifferent to it minutes) writing Post- asked students to work in pairs - corrected their writing writing and corrected their writing each other ( 10 - gave feedback about students' minutes) writing From two situations I see that my students didn't feel attractive with the topic and the writing lesson They felt bored, so their writing would be affected To know exactly the cause of this problem and to find out the solution as well as the better methods in teaching writing I implemented a survey to get information from my students In my survey, 45 students in class 11A2 were asked to give their answer to the questions from the teacher then handed in their papers to the teacher After the survey, teacher statistic students' answer to find out the cause There were the results of the survey Question 1: " What you think of your writing performance today?" Choices Very bad bad Fair Good very good Number 19 12 Percent (%) 42,22 26,66 17,77 8,88 4,47 The result in the table shows that the writing performance of the class 11A2 wasn't good The percentage of students who thought their writing performance on that day very bad got the highest rate with 42,22% and 26,66% of the students thought their writing result was bad 17,77% of the students accessed that their writing was fair Meanwhile the number of students who thought their writing good and very good accounted low rate with 8,88% and 4,47% The number showed that students' writing was boring and not effective Question 2: " Why can't you give a good writing performance today?" Reasons: a My vocabulary, grammar and structure are so poor b I don't have much information about the topic c I don't feel being motivated enough d I don't know what and how to write e you choose all Choice number percent a 0% b 0% c 0% d 0% e 45 100% As can be seen from the table, most students thought they were lack of many things in the writing lesson From the information collected I am aware of the importance and the influence of pre-writing stage in student's writing Question 3: "What factors you want your teacher change in writing lesson?" Factors: a Teacher should create pre-writing stage effectively and attractively b Teacher should speak louder c Teacher's instruction should be short and clear enough d change teacher's mood and teacher's lifestyle Choice a b c d Number 30 10 Percent(%) 66,66% 22,22% 6,66% 4,56% As can be seen from the table, most of the students thought that teacher should change pre-writing stage by creating it effectively and attractively it accounted 66,66% 22,22 % and 4,56% of them thought that teacher should speak louder and teacher's instruction should be clear and short enough Others accounted a small rate with 22,22% From these causes and students' ideas I think I should change my method in teaching writing skill, specially in teaching pre-writing stage II.3 Some methods in teaching pre-writing effectively helping class 11A2 improve their writing skill II.3.1 Some notes teacher should remember when teaching pre-writing From students' ideas as well as my own experience, I gives some notes which are necessary for pre-writing stage a prepare more than one suitable activity for pre-writing stage b if teacher can, make the writing topic easier c try to give clear and short instruction d make sure that students are motivated to work and are more interested in the writing lesson e pay more attention to less-active or quiet students and encourage them to work f manage time well in each part of the writing lesson II.3.2 Using some popular and useful techniques in teaching pre-writing stage To have an effective pre-writing stage, we need to mention and use some popular and useful techniques They are the keys to create a successful and effective pre-writing stage We should mention these following techniques II.3.2.1 Brainstorming: In this technique, teacher asks students to work in groups and produce words and ideas about the writing topic Then teacher asks a member of each group to go to the board and write down their ideas From this activity students produce their words and then use them for their writing in next part II.3.2.2 Free-writing: It is simply putting on paper every thought that is going through their head like with brainstorming anything However, brainstorming 10 often look more like a list of ideas, free-writing usually takes the shape of more formal sentences Even so, grammar, punctuation should be far from their mind II.3.2.3 Comprehension questions; From the writing topic, teacher gives some questions which relates to the topic These questions lead students to the main content of the lesson in this technique teacher can start by the question words such as who, why, when, where, what, how II.3.2.4 Mind-mapping: It is a great way to show relationship between ideas To begin this technique, teacher writes the topic in the center of the page and put a circle around it Then teacher asks students to give their ideas about the topic around the topic word in the center Teacher can help students give their ideas by asking the questions around the topic II.3.2.5 Picture description: Teacher can show student a picture which relates to the writing topic Then asks them to describe the main content of the lesson From students' description Teacher gives them some guides and some requirements about words and structure Students can use all things that they have for their writing II.3.3 Introduce or give the form of a normal paragraph for student in prewriting stage With students at high school, writing skill seems focus on a normal paragraph writing or a normal letter, so introducing or giving the form of the paragraph is very important and necessary A normal paragraph consists three main parts: topic sentence, supporting sentences and concluding sentence Topic sentence is a completing sentence which consists one subject, one verb and one full meaning Topic sentence has two parts: Topic which announces what the writer writes about or who the writer write about Controlling idea gives the main idea Supporting sentences gives the main ideas to explain for the topic sentence Supporting can be events, examples or information The supporting sentences can be arranged by many ways such as according to the time or the most important thing to the least important thing or vice versa Concluding sentence's position is at the end of the paragraph It is the way to rewrite the main idea of the topic sentence by the other way or giving conclusion basing on the supporting ideas before Some paragraphs have concluding sentence, others don't that depends on the writer II.4 The specific results with teaching activities, my colleagues and my school To see the effect of these methods in teaching writing skill, I continue using some examples with my students in writing lesson with some writing topics in the English 11 textbook With two examples, I hope that you can see 11 the changes in teaching writing lesson by using the new methods You also see the positive attitude from my students in each lesson Example 1: Topic: " write a letter of invitation" Unit : A party Stages and Teacher's activities Students' activities time Pre-writing - divides students into two groups - divide into two groups, then shows three pictures about look at the pictures (13mins) three parties ,asks students to look at them - two students of two groups - calls a member of each group to go to the boards and write go to the board and write the the name name of the parties which group writes more quickly and correctly is winner and gets gift from the teacher -check and find - asks students to check and find answer: birthday party the winner wedding party anniversary party - continue asking questions " With your age, what party have - answer the question students answer you ever celebrated or most "birthday party" participated?" - asks students to work in groups - work in groups of and of and discuss about the discuss about birthday party birthday party by answering the by answering the questions questions Questions: When you often celebrate your birthday party? Where is the party held? Who was invited to the party? What food and drink will be served at the party? What activities will be taken place at the party? - talk about their discussion - after students' discuss, calls - listen to the teacher students in some groups to talk about their discussion - gives feedback and introduce the form of a letter for students 12 again - from the information in the first stage, asks students to write a letter of invitation about their birthday party using the information in the first stage and the form of the letter - goes around and give helps if students need - begin to write their letter using information in the first stage - Students write the letter in Whilevery good mood with the writing ideas, the words, the form of 22mins the letter in pre-writing stage Some write a short letter Others it better -asks students to work in pairs for - peer correction Postpeer correction - listen to the teacher writing - corrects students' writing and 8mins give feedback - asks students to write a - homework Home-work paragraph about their parents' 2mins anniversary party As can be seen that this period is considered to be successful Because students work from the first stage to the last stage Besides they think and give their words and their ideas From this activity they have enough necessary things form their writing There is no problem with students' misunderstanding toward teacher's instruction Students interact and cooperate effectively Method for teaching pre-writing in this lesson is suitable and effective Example 2: Topic : " Describing a celebration in Vietnam" Unit 8: Celebration Stages Teacher's activities Students' activities and time Warm-up Playing a game: " Slapping the (5mins) - divides class into two board" groups A & B Each - work in groups, some volunteer to group chooses members go to the board and play the game to go to the board and play the game - shows pictures about - look at the pictures celebrations in Vietnam - listen to teacher, take turn to slap - reads the name of each the picture with its name when celebration step by step, teacher reads asks students to listen carefully and take turn to 13 Prewriting (12mins) slap the picture they think is correct -Which group has a lot of correct answer and slap more quickly is winner P1: Mid-autumn festival P2: National Independence day P3: Teacher's day P4: Women's day - find out the winner - asks students to work in pairs and choose one celebration for their writing then uses a mind mapping to ask students to give their ideas about this celebration - Teacher's mind mapping - work in pairs and choose most students choose " teacher's day" - after working in pairs and giving their ideas through their mind mapping popular activitie s date teacher's day Teacher's day purpose of the day Whilewriting (19 minutes) After -give students the form of a paragraph a gain - asks students to write a paragraph to describe "teacher's day" in Vietnam by using their ideas in pre-stage and the form of a paragraph - goes around and observes students' writings - gives helps if student need - asks students to work in students' feeling - listen to the teacher - write the paragraph with the things they have - ask teacher's help if they want - most students feel attractive with their writing because they seem to be prepared necessary things A large part of students complete their writing with a normal and short paragraphs Others better with longer paragraphs - work in pairs and correct the 14 writing (8 minutes) Homework (1 minutes) pairs and correct the writing each other - goes around and corrects for students' writing if necessary - give feedback about students' writing - asks students to mindmapping about "Vietnamese women's day" and write a paragraph of 120 words to describe it - mind-mapping and write a paragraph of 120 words about " Vietnamese women's day" decorate classroo m take part in some contests try to get good marks writing each other - ask teacher's help if they need popular activities give gifts and visit teacher's house Express ss' thanks for the teacher express their respect on 20th November every year date teacher's day exciting purpose of the day create the close relationship between teacher and students student s' feeling welcome the day with their enthusiasm More details about students' mind mapping 15 In this lesson, Students work effectively in the whole lesson In the first stage, they play a game, which makes them feel excited Then they work in groups to give their ideas about the topic by using mind-mapping With teacher's help students have necessary things for their writing such as words, ideas, structure and form of a paragraphs Therefore, in next part while-writing most students are well-done This lesson is also considered successful Because everything is suitable and fascinating to students from the first to the last stage From examples in using the old method in teaching pre-writing and examples in using the new methods in pre-writing we can see some changes Before - Students didn't work effectively because they didn't have words, ideas and structures - Students' attitude for the writing lesson wasn't good They felt boring so they weren't active in their writing - Students' result for the lesson wasn't good Because most of them couldn't complete their writing - Students weren't motivated After - Students worked effectively They thought and produce their words, ideas and structures - students felt exciting because they are active in a lot of activities before writing - Students' result for the lesson was good Because most of them complete the task with normal paragraph Some made it better - Students were motivated After using the new methods in teaching pre-writing and writing skill for class 11A2, I also produce some research questions to know exactly its effect and students' result in this lesson Question 1: " What you think of the activities in pre-writing stage today?" Students choose these following answers: a very boring b boring c interesting and challenging d very interesting choice a b c d Number 0 30 15 Percent 0% 0% 66,66% 33,34% From the table, we can see that most students loved pre-writing stage on that day 66,66% of the students said that the stage was interesting and 16 challenging 33,34% of the students really loved it because they thought it very interesting From teacher's statistic, the pre-writing stage of the two lesson was effective when being used the new methods Question 2: " What you think of your writing performance today?' choice very bad Number Percentage 0% bad 0% fair 16,66% good 25 55,55% very good 12 27,79% It appeared that most students completed their writing lesson The number of the students though that their writing result was good and very good accounted for very high rate 55,55% and 27,79% 16,66% of the students could complete their writing with normal paragraph There were no students stated that their writing performance was bad and very bad This rate was contrary to with the rate before changing the methods in teaching pre-writing stage Question 3: " What make your writing performance better?" a Teacher carried out interesting activities in pre-stage, which made the class work well b Teacher encouraged all students to work and give their ideas in prestage c In the lesson, you got the things you need for your writing, words, grammar and structure d Teacher gave clear instructions, e All were correct Choice a b c d e Number 0 0 45 Percentage 0% 0% 0% 0% 100% In this question, all of the students agreed that these factors were changed and made their writing successful Question 4: " What were the good points of the pre-stage in writing lesson today?" a The method in teaching pre-writing was suitable and logical, so the prewriting stage was really effective for students' writing b Students were motivated c The stage helped students to build their confidence in writing and overcome the lack of language use Therefore students improved their writing skill d All were correct Choice a b c d 17 Number 0 45 Percentage 0% 0% 0% 100% All of the students agreed that the method from changing pre-stage helped them much in their writing From that time they began to love writing skill more The methods are not only used in class 11A2 which I am teaching My colleagues also used them in their class and got good results from their students From this thesis my colleagues and I find that we love teaching writing skill more because our students love it too From the methods we can help students perform their writing well and get good result in their exams 18 PART III: CONCLUSION, SUGGESTIONS III.1 Conclusion: Like reading, listening, speaking skill and language focus, Writing is an important and essential part in teaching and learning English together with other skills, Writing is also being taught with three stages, pre-writing, while-writing and post-writing However, in these stages, pre-writing stage affects students' writing most with a lot of reasons I have just mentioned in the thesis such as helping students produce's ideas, words or making students' attractiveness As can be seen in the thesis, Teachers at Le Hoan high school stated that they had ever conducted pre-writing activities but it didn't work effectively With thoughts in changing this stage to make it effective than it ever before I try to find out " Some methods in teaching pre-writing effectively helping class 11A2 improve their writing skill" I also think that to teach pre-writing stage effectively, teachers should follow these things Teacher should pay attention to students' abilities, students' knowledge and students' participant in each class To make the lesson successful, teachers have to create students' interest and attractiveness Teacher should manage the time well in each part of writing lesson Moreover, try to give clear and short instructions Next, Teacher should introduce or give students a normal form of the paragraph or the letter depending on the lesson The most important factor to make pre-writing stage successful is that the teacher should prepare suitable activities for the stage by choosing suitable techniques in teaching it They are all methods which derived from my own knowledge and my own experience Because my teaching time and my experience isn't old enough, I can't avoid some shortage and limitation I hope to get more ideas from other teachers so that this thesis will be full, effective and diverse in teaching writing skill, which helps students improve their result III.2 Suggestions Teaching at Le Hoan high school, I see some problems so I give some following suggestions I hope that it will be decorated a lot of modern devices such as computer room and overhead project (OHP) for teaching and learning foreign language Teachers at high schools have more chance to meet and exchange their knowledge and their experience in teaching 19 `Last but not least, I hope that teachers never stop learning and finding out new methods in teaching English I express my sincere thanks HEADMASTER'S CONFIRMATION Thanh Hoa, 10th May, 2016 I insist that this initiative experience be my own writing, not copy the others' content Đỗ Thanh Nam Lê Thị Hồng 20 21 ... think I should change my method in teaching writing skill, specially in teaching pre- writing stage II.3 Some methods in teaching pre- writing effectively helping class 11A2 improve their writing. .. part in teaching and learning English together with other skills, Writing is also being taught with three stages, pre- writing, while -writing and post -writing However, in these stages, pre- writing. .. students improve their writing skill, I also see that in this skill, prewriting stage is a very important stage in teaching writing and also has significant effects on the students' writing performance