Tài liệu An analysis of the errors made by second year students at hanoi university of business and technology in their writing paper

. *議 s І Ж І І ! s t I I I l ä j i l f l i EDUCATION AND TRAINING MINISTRY HANOI UNIVERSITY LE THI THANH HUONG DESIGNING A WRITING SYLLABUS FOR THE SECOND YEAR MAJOR STUDENTS AT LANG SON COLLEGE OF EDUCATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN TESOL SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THAI HA, M.ED Ha Noi - April 2008 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would lik e to express my thanks and great gratitude to a large number o f people who have constantly helped me w ith m y research work. I would like to express m y deep gratitude to m y supervisor Nguyễn Thái Hà fo r her patient and invaluable guidance, in sig h tfu l comments and kind support through out m y research. I also w ish to thank a ll the sta ff members o f the Department o f post-graduate, Hanoi U niversity fo r providing me the best environment and conditions to fu lfill m y thesis. I w ould lik e to thank m y friends, m y colleagues and m y students at Lang Son College o f Education fo r their enthusiastic support and constructive suggestions in com pleting my research. I am also indebted to the Rector and vice-rector o f Lang Son College o f Education who always ind ire ctly took care and helped me during this course. F in a lly I owe the com pletion o f this study to a ll members o f m y fa m ily who gave me the love, care, tolerance and encouragement throughout the study. ABSTRACT The present study aims to propose a w ritin g syllabus fo r the second year m ajor students at Lang Son College o f Education in order to help them im prove their w ritin g skills, fu lfill course objectives and meet the requirements o f the new English textbook when teaching English at ju n io r secondary schools. The study begins w ith the review o f the relevant literature. It continues w ith an investigation o f the students' target needs and learning needs to id e n tify areas to be developed in the syllabus. This is follow ed by an investigation into the teaching situation to id e n tify the needs that English school teachers at the ju n io r secondary schools meet. F in a lly, it concludes w ith a proposed w ritin g syllabus and some recommendations. T h irty second year m ajor students at LCE and tw enty ex-students at ju n io r secondary schools in Lang Son c ity participated in 2 survey questionnaires. The analysis o f two sets o f documents relating to: the ’’ English Language Training Program '’ fo r m ajor students at LCE and the " Guidelines fo r A pplication o f the New E nglish Textbook" fo r ju n io r secondary schools were explored. In addition, the lis t o f criteria fo r տշՄassessment o f w ritin g a b ility issued by Am erican Council fo r the teaching o f foreign languages was used. The thesis concludes w ith a proposal fo r a second year w ritin g syllabus, recommendations fo r assessment, m aterial selections and designing w ritin g techniques and strategies. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOW LEDGEM ENTS.................................................................................................................................... I A B STR A C T .............................................................................................................................................................. II TABLE OF CONTENTS..................................................................................................................................... Ill LỈÍST OF ABBREVIATIONS............................................................................................................................... V LỈIST OF TABLES..................................................................................................................................................VI CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 B a c k g r o u n d t o t h e s t u d y .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1.1 Current teaching and learning writing at Lang Son college o f education (LCE)..................... 1 1.1.2 The new English textbook for junior secondary school..............................................................3 1.2. AIMS o f t h e s t u d y ................................................................................................................................................. 4 1.3 S co pe o f t h e s t u d y ................................................................................................................................................ 5 1.4 S ig n if ic a n c e o f t h e s t u d y ...................................................................................................................................5 1.5 O r g a n iz a t io n o f t h e t h e s is ...............................................................................................................................5 CH APTER 2: LITERATURE R EV IEW ............................................................................................................7 2.1. W r it in g in E n g l is h ............................................................................................................................................... 7 2.1.1 The role o f writing in the language teaching and learning.........................................................7 Ĩ. I.2Writingskills.................................................................................................................... 8 2.1.3 Types o f written language........................................................................................................... 9 2.1.4 Writing tasks or writing activities.......................................................................................... 10 2.1.5 The difficulties in learning writing......................................................................................... 11 2.2 A p p r o a c h e s t o c o u r s e d e s ig n ........................................................................................................................ 14 2.2.1 Language- centered course design......................................................................................... 14 2.2.2 Skills- centered course design.................................................................................................15 2.2.3. A learning - centered approach............................................................................................ 15 ： 2.3 A p p ro a c h e s t o s y lla b u s d e s ig n .....................................................................................................................16 2.3.1 What is a syllabus? ...............................................................................................................16 2.3.2 Types o f syllabi .............................................................................................................18 Ձ .4 . N e e d s a n a l y s is .................................................................................................................................................... 21 2.4.1. Needs analysis and the importance o f implementing a needs analysis............................... 21 2.4.2. Information for the needs analysis........................................................................................ 22 CHÍAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY......................................................................................................................24 3 .1 D e s c r ip t io n o f t h e s u b j e c t s .............................................................................................................................24 3.1.1 The students (teacher trainees)...............................................................................................24 3.1.2 The school teachers .............................................................................................................24 3.2 D a t a c o l l e c t io n in s t r u m e n t s ...................................................................................................................... 25 3.2.1 Document analysis .............................................................................................................25 3.2.2 Questionnaires ............................................................................................................... 25 3.3 D a t a c o l l e c t io n p r o c e d u r e s ........................................................................................................................ 26 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION................................ ............................................................... 27 4.1 T a r g e t n e e d s ........................................................................................................................................................ 27 4.1.1 Results from document analysis.................................................................................................27 4.1.2 Results from Questionnaire 1.....................................................................................................29 4.2 L e a r n in g n e e d s ..................................................................................................................................................... 31 4.2.1 Results from students' questionnaire.........................................................................................31 4.2.2 Results from teachers at JSSs questionnaire............................................................................ 35 4.3 M a j o r f in d in g s ...................................................................................................................................................... 41 CHAPTER 5: A PROPOSED WRITING SYLLABUS AND CONCLUSION.......................................44 5.1 P r o p o s e d s y l l a b u s ..............................................................................................................................................44 5.1.1 Objectives o f the writing syllabus..............................................................................................44 5.1.2 Content o f the writing syllabus..................................................................................................44 5.2 R e c o m m e n d a t io n s ............................................................................................................................................... 50 5.2.1 Recommendation on testing writing ability............................................................................... 50 5.2.2 Recommended materials............................................................................................................ 52 5.2.3 Recommendation on teaching methodology.............................................................................. 53 5.2.4 Recommendation on teaching strategies....................................................................................54 5.3 C o n c l u s io n ............................................................................................................................................................ 54 REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................................57 APPENDIX 1 ........................................................................................................................................................... 60 APPENDIX 2 ........................................................................................................................................................... 63 APPENDIX ЗА......................................................................................................................................................... 66 APPENDIX 3B ......................................................................................................................................................... 72 APPENDIX 4 ........................................................................................................................................................... 78 APPENDIX 5A......................................................................................................................................................... 82 APPENDIX 5B ......................................................................................................................................................... 84 APPENDIX 6 ........................................................................................................................................................... 86 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS A C TFL: Am erican C ouncil fo r the teaching o f foreign languages JSS: Junior Secondary School LCE: Lang Son College o f Education М О ЕТ: M in istry o f Education and Training NCTE: National C ouncil o f Teacher o f English RSA: Royal Society o f A rt LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The allocated tim e to different subjects in English Language Training Program fo r m ajor students at LCE Table 2: The importance o f the w ritin g skills fo r students Table 3: The frequency o f problem students have w ith the skills Table 4: The w ritin g skills students want to develop Table 5: The students' educational background Table 6: Students' reasons fo r learning w ritin g skills Table 7: Students' se lf evaluation on their level o f w ritin g Table 8: Students' self-perceived d ifficu ltie s when w ritin g a text in English Table 9: Students’ interest in w ritin g topics Table 10: Frequency o f students’ exposure to authentic English outside the class Table 11 : Ex-students’ rank o f the importance o f different skills Table 12: Frequency o f ex-students’ use o f w ritin g to perform teaching tasks Table 13: Ex-students’ w ritin g skills requirement when teaching w ritin g sections Table 14: Types o f w ritin g students teachers do when delivering w ritin g sections Table 15: School teachers’ focus on the topics related to w ritin g CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter provides background to the study, its scope, aims and objectives, significance o f the study and presents an overview o f the whole thesis. 1/1 Background to the study 1.1.1 Current teaching and learning writing at Lang Son college of education (LCE) Lang Son ju n io r high school o f education became Lang Son college o f education in 1997 and English department is the youngest department in the college. It came into being in 1995 when English became the m ajor foreign language taught in a ll ju n io r secondary school (JSS) instead o f Russian. Since then the demand on school teachers o f English has been growing in many parts o f the country. Consequently, nearly a ll ju n io r secondary schools in Lang Son lacked language teachers. To meet this need in 1995 Lang Son College o f Education established a Bachelor o f English program, w hich aimed at training m ajor students to become teachers o f English fo r the ju n io r secondary schools o f Lang Son province, providing students w ith a basic knowledge o f English and developing students fo u r com m unicative language skills as w ell as their pedagogical skills. According to the "E nglish Language Training Program" document released by the M in is try o f Education and Training (М О ЕТ), there are different syllabi and the distrib u tio n o f class contact hours fo r each syllabus on the requirem ent o f the year. F o llo w in g is the fram ework fo r English LCE. (Appendix 1) 1 Language Training Program fo r Table 1: The allocated time to different subjects in English Language Training Program for major students at LCE. Year General English (period) 1 2 3 240 240 Listening skill (period) 60 60 Reading skill (period) 60 60 Writing skill (period) 60 60 90 198 48 48 48 72 Grammar (period) Phonetics (period) Lexis (period) Translation (period) 30 30 48 From the fram ework it is clear that w ritin g s k ill is one part o f the English program and it needs to be developed as equally as other skills. W ritin g subject is a compulsory subject fo r English m ajor students. Students need w ritin g skills in their learning and teaching process. A t LCE w ritin g is taught through 3 years w ith the total o f classroom contact o f 168 hours. However, teaching and learning w ritin g in our college have been a problem. Students are reluctant to learn w ritin g . They are afraid o f w ritin g , they make a lo t o f mistakes when they w rite so they often get bad marks. A lthough they are English m ajor students, they cannot w rite a text properly and they meet d ifficu ltie s when teaching w ritin g sections at JSSs. Teachers fin d d iffic u lt to teach w ritin g effectively. And follow ings are the reasons: According to Brown (1995), the language teaching circle consists o f these stages: firs t based on needs analysis goals and objectives are identified, then on the basis o f goals and objectives syllabus guidelines are made. N ext, the syllabus w ill decide m aterial needed fo r teaching and the last step is teaching. It is clear that w ithout syllabus guidelines, teachers meet d ifficu ltie s in id e n tifyin g the aims and objectives o f the course as w ell as selecting appropriate materials fo r teaching and there is a mismatch between the teaching and goals and objectives o f the course. In LC E teaching w ritin g has the same problem . In our college there is no textbook chosen fo r w ritin g . Teachers o f w ritin g are permitted to com pile materials fo r their teaching. W ithout a syllabus teachers identified vaguely the objectives o f the course. They taught w ith the b e lie f that good grammar and good vocabulary could make good w ritin g , thus the materials chosen as w e ll as theư teaching used to be focused on gram m atical structures and vocabulary, w ritin g sentences and rew riting sentences. As a result, our students have quite good grammar and vocabulary, they can w rite simple sentences and transform the sentences quite w e ll, but they are not successfully in w ritin g especially in w ritin g a text in English. This is understandable because according to Pincas (1982 B) M good w ritin g does not fo llo w autom atically from good grammar and adequate vocabulary. Good w ritin g depends on a set o f specific w ritin g s kills". These specific skills are using 2 Methc olog， (perio 60 cohesive devices, arranging ideas, developing the ideas, w ritin g a paragraph, w ritin g a com position............. Therefore, there is a need o f a sound w ritin g syllabus to help teachers to teach more effectively and to help students to improve their w ritin g skills to fu lfill the aim and objectives o f the course and the requirements o f their teaching jo b when the new English textbook fo r ju n io r secondary school is introduced. 1.1.2 The new English textbook for junior secondary school As stated in 1.1.1，the aim o f the English language training program fo r m ajor students at LCE is to train teachers o f E nglish fo r ju n io r secondary schools, so this program has close relation to E nglish teaching at school. Therefore, the training program has to serve the teaching aims and objectives o f the school curriculum . From the academic year 2002-2003, the M iniste r o f Education and Training implemented the new E nglish textbook fo r JSSs through out the country from grade 6 to grade 9. According to MThe Guidelines For The A pplication O f The New English Textbook For JSS,? the new E nglish textbook w ith the new content has in turn set up new requirements fo r teachers o f English at JSSs, producing reciprocal effect on the English language training program o f LCE. Content changes in the new textbook require much the use o f fo u r skills. The old English textbook focused on the grammatical system and vocabulary and it was sequenced by structural system from simple to com plicated. Thus, English teaching m ainly focused on teaching lin g u istic knowledge rather than language skills. Traditionally, students at schools used w ritin g only fo r doing gramm atical exercises and w ritin g answers to the reading questions. However, the new textbook focuses on developing the 4 language sk ills such as listening, speaking, reading and w ritin g from the beginning. Teaching language skills are frequently taught in com bination w ith pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and language functions. These four skills under the spừal principles are integrated through classroom activities and closely related to unit topics. For the higher grades (grade 8 and 9) 4 skills are separated as speaking section, listening section, reading section and w riting section. W ritin g tasks o f w ritin g sections are organized and sequenced from easy to d iffic u lt, related to the topic o f the unit. The content o f w ritin g sections during fo u r grades is described as follow s: 3 In grade 6 and 7 students do sim ple w ritin g tasks fo r example: complete the dialogue, w rite answers to the listening tasks, complete sentences, w rite a dialogue, w rite an invita tio n , a postcard, w rite sentences about themselves. In grade 8 and 9，four s k ills are separated, however, they are s till related to the topic o f each unit. Now teachers have to help students to complete more m eaningful, practical tasks such as: w ritin g form al and inform al letters, w ritin g a notice, w ritin g instructions, w ritin g an argument, w ritin g a speech, w ritin g a story......... I t is clear that to help students to accomplish these w ritin g tasks, the teachers at JSSs should have not only sentence build in g skills but also higher w ritin g skills. In sum, there are two reasons fo r the need o f developing a w ritin g syllabus fo r the second year English m ajor students at LCE. First, w ritin g syllabus w ill help teachers o f w ritin g to teach w ritin g subject more effectively and help students to improve their w ritin g skills to accom plish the aim and objectives o f the course. Second, the adoption o f a new English textbook fo r JSSs imposes new teaching requirements. Teachers must use the four language sk ills , especially w ritin g skills in the new context o f teaching. Therefore, an appropriate w ritin g course is tru ly necessary fo r E nglish m ajor students at LCE. Responding to the above needs, this study intends to design a w ritin g syllabus fo r second year English m ajor students at LCE. The syllabus designed w ill be based on the theory o f w ritin g , the analysis o f the needs o f the English m ajor students at LCE and teachers at JSSs and the jo b requirements made by new English textbooks fo r JSSs. H opefully, the syllabus proposed in this study w ill make a sm all contribution to English teaching and learning at LC E in general and in w ritin g section in particular. 1.2. Aims of the study This study aims at designing a w ritin g syllabus for second year English m ajor students at LCE. The specific objectives o f this thesis are: 1. To conduct a need analysis in order to investigate the target needs and learning needs o f the students. 2. To propose a w ritin g syllabus fo r second year English m ajor students at LCE based on the needs identified. 4 The specific questions o f the thesis are: 1. W hat are the students’ target needs and learning needs? 2. How should a w ritin g syllabus be designed according to the needs identified? 1.3 Scope of the study The focus o f the study is on designing a w ritin g syllabus fo r second year English m ajor students at LCE. It is lim ite d to the development o f a w ritin g syllabus fram ework which should be considered as general guidelines on what to be learned, how these should be learned, m onitored and assessed to achieve the course aims and objectives. The fram ew ork w ould form the criteria fo r m aterial selection and assessment on students' language skills 1.4 Significance of the study The study has significant im plications fo r teaching and learning w ritin g at LCE. W ith this syllabus teachers w ill be able to id e n tify the goals and objectives o f the course more clearly and select the materials appropriately. As a result, the teaching w ill be more effectively. It offers teachers and students a picture o f what should be taught and learned in order to achieve the objectives o f the course and respond to the requừements created by the new E nglish curriculum fo r JSSs. This w ill help students im prove their w ritin g skills so that upon graduation they w ill be able to give English lessons more effectively. 1.5 Organization of the thesis The thesis is organized in 5 m ajor chapters including introduction and conclusion: Chapter 1，Introduction, provides the background to the study, the scope, the significance o f the thesis and thesis organization. C h a p te r 2, Literature Review, presents the theory o f w ritin g skills in language learning and language syllabus design. 5 C ha p te r 3, M ethodology, presents the methodology employed in the study including the investigation o f the target needs and learning needs o f the target students through interview , document analysis and survey questionnaires. C ha p te r 4，Results and Discussion, presents the results o f the study w ith discussion and the findings o f the study. C ha p te r 5，A Proposed Syllabus and Conclusion, proposes a w ritin g syllabus fo r second year English m ajor students at LCE w ith some recommendations, assessment, m aterial selection and principles fo r designing w ritin g techniques and conclusion o f the study. 6 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW Chapter 2 presents the theory o f w ritin g skills in language teaching including w ritin g skills, types o f w ritin g and d ifficu ltie s in learning w riting. It also discusses theory o f course design w ith approaches to course design, approaches to syllabus and need analysis. 2.1. Writing in English 2.1.1 The role of writing in the language teaching and learning W ritin g plays an im portant role in language learning and teaching. According to D o ff (1988)，w ritin g helps students to learn so it must be taught from the beginning. Learners need w ritin g to copy letters, words, sentences, grammatical structures and then they need w ritin g fo r more complicated activities. Learners use w ritin g to take note o f the lessons, w rite answers to the reading passage, to the listening tasks, doing exercises and w ritin g exam ination. Brown (2001) states that trends in the teaching o f w ritin g in ESL and other foreign languages have coincided w ith those o f the teaching other skills. It is clear that w ritin g is one part o f the process o f learning a language. It helps develop other skills. According to Byrne (1988)，w riting we do regularly w ill relate to our ’professional life 1. Professional life here means our life . Teachers use w ritin g as means o f teaching. They use w ritin g to w rite words when presenting new vocabulary, to w rite grammatical structures to present new languages to students. W ithout w ritin g , this would be more d iffic u lt fo r teacher to explain to students. M oreover, teachers need w ritin g fo r their own profession. They use w ritin g to w rite their lesson plans, w rite reports and so forth. Especially, in the new context o f teaching language teachers have to use w ritin g to teach w ritin g sections, therefore, teachers should develop w ritin g skills properly to accom plish th e ir teaching jo b W ritin g , in particular fo r students at Lang Son College o f education (LC E) plays very im portant role in theừ learning and teaching process. They need w ritin g skills to learn and teach th e ir students at JSSs. A fte r theư graduation from the college they w ill be teachers o f E nglish and the new English textbook at school demands the teachers to 7 teach 4 skills: speaking, reading, listening and w ritin g instead o f only reading and grammatical structures as before. 2.1.2 Writing skills According to Davies (2000) w ritin g involves such basic skills as handw riting or typing, spelling, constructing gram m atical sentences and punctuating. Sharing the same opinions about these w ritin g skills, U r (1990) gives these skills another name: m icro- skills or w ritin g skills at ' m icro' level. A t this level, learners practice specific w ritte n form s at the level o f word or sentence: handw riting or typing, spelling, punctuation. These basic skills are needed fo r beginners or learners at elementary level, especially, fo r those learners whose language does not use the Roman alphabet. For Vietnamese learners, there is obviously no problem w ith handw riting or typing. In other aspect, fo r instance, constructing sentences, punctuation are not serious problem fo r second year students at LCE, because they are English m ajor students at preintermediate level. It is clear that these basic w ritin g skills are necessary fo r beginners or learners at elem entary level. For the second year English m ajor students at LCE these skills need revising and practicing in the process o f w ritin g . The students really need to develop higher w ritin g sk ills - com position w ritin g skills or ’ macro- skills1. To have a clear cut o f com position w ritin g skills, we need to know clearly these aspects: what is a composition? and what s k ills does com position involve? According to E nglish ֊ English dictionary, com position is a short piece o f non - fictio n a l w ritin g done as a school or college exercise, an essay. Pincas (1982 B: 45) states that com position is discussed in relation to paragraph building and essay planning. In this thesis, the term o f com position and essay is used interchangeable. Oshima and Hogue (1997: 6) have more concrete d e fin itio n o f com position or essay. They state that "An essay is a piece of writing that has more than one paragraph. It is divided into three parts: a beginning, a middle and an end. The beginning is called the introduction, the middle is called the body and the end is called the conclusion. The introduction and the conclusion are usually one paragraph each. The body may have from one to an unlimited number of paragraphs". 8 * What do composing skills involve? According to U r (1996)，Pincas (1982) and Davies (2000) composing skills involve these sub-skills such as: using paragraphs, gathering inform ation and ideas relevant to the topics and discarding what is not relevant, organizing the inform ation and ideas into a logical sequence, structuring the sequence into sections and paragraphs, expressing the inform ation and ideas in a w ritten draft and editing the draft and w ritin g out a fin a l text. These composing s k ills are necessary fo r a ll form al w ritin g such as form al letters, academic assignments or articles and business reports. A lso according to Davies (2000) to progress in the w ritin g skills, intermediate learners need the same kinds o f practice as young native speakers. They need to w rite plenty o f good descriptive, narrative and discursive w ritin g and develop these higher level skills. W ith the aims and objectives mentioned in 1.1.1 it is clear that the second year English m ajor students at LC E need to develop these skills. Understanding the role o f w ritin g in teaching and learning a language is particularly useful in the selection o f w ritin g activities fo r developing students’ w ritin g skills in a syllabus. However, it is im portant fo r deciding content o f w ritin g activities to be aware o f types o f w ritten language. 2.1.3 Types of written language As discussed in 2.1.2 composing w ritin g skills are v ita l skills in the process o f development w ritin g competence o f a good w riter. There is a diversity in classification o f types o f w ritin g . A ccording to C ollins (1998), w ritin g can be divided into tw o broad categories: narrative (fic tio n ) and non-narrative (non-fiction). N arrative may be set in the present, in another tim e, in this country or another place. The main purpose o f narrative w ritin g is to entertain the reader. Non narrative w ritin g unlike narrative is not ju st to entertain and is w ritten fo r different purposes and fo r diffe re nt audiences. Perera (1984) classifies w ritin g in a rather different way. She employs the terms ’chronological’ and ’non-chronological’. In other word, w ritin g can either be structured and organized w ith reference to tim e or not. Chronological defined as w ritin g organized in terms o f sequence o f news fo r examples: directions to a particular place, a recount o f a day visit, a recipe. N on-chronological w ritin g is defined as w ritin g organized w ithout reference to tim e sequence such as reports w ritten in science or geography, a discussion, an 9 argument. Brown (2001) states that there are hundreds o f different types o f w ritten texts. He classifies the w ritin g in to three m ain groups as 1) N on-fiction: report, editorials, essays and articles, reference; 2) F ictio n : novels, short stories, jokes, drama, poetry, letters, greeting cards, diaries, journals, memos, messages, announcements, newspaper and 3) Academ ic w ritin g : short answer test responses, reports, essay and papers, thesis and books, form s, applications, questionnaires, labels, signs, recipes, b ills , maps, manuals, menus, schedules, advertisements, invitations, directories and com ic strips, cartoons. There is tru ly a diversity o f types o f w ritte n texts. It seems to be im possible to grasp a ll these types o f w ritin g , in particular fo r the learners o f EFL. Hence, this literature w ill be the base fo r teachers to select the most appropriate and practical types fo r their language content in th e ir teaching process. 2.1-4 Writing tasks or writing activities W ritin g tasks are used to im prove w ritin g skills. As stated in 2.1.2 there are two main w ritin g skills. They are basic w ritin g s k ills or m icro-skills and composing w riting skills or m acro-skills. In accordance w ith these tw o kinds o f w ritin g skills, experts such as D o ff (1988) and Cross (1991) classify tw o types o f w ritin g tasks: they are controlled w ritin g tasks and guided w ritin g tasks. According to D o ff (1988) and Cross (1991) w ritin g is controlled when the outline is usually predictable. C ontrolled w ritin g activities develop students’ w ritin g accuracy in language usage. These activities include gap fillin g , reordering words, substitution, correcting the fact and dictation. Guided w ritin g includes any w ritin g fo r w hich students are given assistance such as model to fo llo w , a plan or outline to expand, a partly w ritten version w ith indications o f how to complete it. There are some m ain types o f guided w ritin g activities. They are giving a short text as a model, brainstorm ing, jo ttin g down any useful words and expression and asking and answering questions. Pincas (1982 A ) suggests another types o f w ritin g . It is free w ritin g . According to her, in free w ritin g students are presented w ith a topic and then free to w rite as they please. Free w ritin g much concerns w ith w ritin g composing skills. According to Brown (2001 )， w ritin g composing closely is related to process w ritin g . They are pre- w ritin g , drafting 10 and revising and free w ritin g . According to Brown (2001: 348)，pre- w ritin g stage encourages the generation o f ideas w hich can do w ith many activities: reading a passage, skim m ing and or scanning a passage, conducting some outside research, brainstorm ing, listin g , clustering, discussing a topic or questions and probes, free w ritin g . In the drafting and revising stages, there are a number o f activities: getting started (started w ritin g ), optim al m onitoring o f one's w ritin g (w ithout premature editing and attention to w ording, grammar), peer review ing fo r content, using the teacher’s feedback. The revising stage involves these common activities such as: editing fo r grammatical errors, read aloud techniques and proof reading. W ritin g composing is viewed as an im portant and com plex process. It takes tim e, patience and trained instruction. To help the learners develop this w ritin g s k ill, it is necessary fo r the teacher, researcher, designer to be aware o f the d iffic u ltie s in w ritin g language as w e ll as d iffic u ltie s in learning w ritin g o f E FL learners. 2.1.5 The difficulties in learning writing 2.1.5.1 Why writing is so difficult? Learning to w rite coherently and appropriately is something many people never succeed in th e ir firs t language. In foreign language learning w ritin g is not an easy s k ill to acquire. W hy w ritin g is so d iffic u lt? There are several reasons, however, firs t o f a ll Byrne (1988)，U r (1990)，Harm er (1991)，Hedge (2001) and Brown (2001) point out that it is the differences between speaking and w ritin g that make it more d iffic u lt than other skills. In speaking, speakers have a great range o f possibilities to exchange their ideas. F irstly, Harm er (1991: 50) states that people could use a whole range o f facial expression, gestures and general body to help convey the message. They can vary the pitch and intonation in th e ir voice to convey their attitude to what they are saying whether they are angry or they are interested in it. Besides, they can use stress to emphasize things they consider most im portant. They can rephrase what they said to make it clearer or they can speak up or slow down in response they get from listener. W ritin g on the other hand is 11 solitary a ctivity. The w rite r has to w rite on their own w ithout the interaction or the benefit o f feedback. These factors make the act o f w ritin g d iffic u lt. Secondly, in oral language the words vanish as soon as people have said them. A ny gramm atical mistakes the speakers make are lik e ly to disappear before most o f the listeners have had tim e to comment. Furthermore, they can say the same thing in various ways and they often change the subject o f what they are saying in m id- sentence. This is considerable norm al and acceptable behavior except in form al situation. And the need fo r accuracy is the most im portant between w ritin g and speaking. In w ritin g , a com position or a paragraph is usually not acceptable w ith mistakes and half- finished sentences. It w ould be judged by native speakers because w ritin g is always expected to be 'correct1, H arm er (1991: 53) states ’’from the point o f view o f language teaching, there is often fa r greater pressure o f w ritten accuracy than there is fo r accuracy in speaking'1. It is this point that makes the learners feel reluctant and lazy to w rite. They have the feeling o f being afraid o f m aking mistakes, losing face and getting bad result on paper o f exam ination. It is obvious that i f you speak incorrectly, the mistakes w ill go away after the speaking but i f you w rite something w ith mistakes, they w ill remain forever on the paper. F in a lly, the learner w rite r also suffers from the disadvantage o f not getting immediate feedback from the reader and sometimes getting no feedback at all. For this reason, he/she is not sure about what way to choose fo r his/her w ritin g presentation. Moreover, the nature o f w ritin g its e lf is also a problem o f unpleasant experience as Byrne's explanation (1988: 4) "W riting, on the other hand, is essentially a solitary activity and the fact that we are required to write on our own, without the possibility of interaction or the benefit o f feedback in itself make the act of writing d ifficu lt" As we have m entioned above, w riter cannot use intonation or stress or facial expressions, gestures to help them convey the ideas. In stead o f having this help, the w rite r has to b u ild a great c la rity to focus attention on the main point. So a great need fo r log ica l organization in a piece o f w ritin g is more im portant than in a conversation. 12