Tài liệu Challenges faced by teachers and 10th graders in teaching and learning english writing skills at a high school in hanoi

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** QUÁCH THỊ HẢI HẠNH CHALLENGES FACED BY TEACHERS AND 10TH GRADE STUDENTS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HANOI (Những thách thức đối với giáo viên và học sinh lớp 10 trong việc dạy và học kỹ năng viết tiếng Anh tại một trường THPT ở Hà Nội) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English teaching methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi – 2020 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES QUÁCH THỊ HẢI HẠNH CHALLENGES FACED BY TEACHERS AND 10TH GRADE STUDENTS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HANOI (Những thách thức đối với giáo viên và học sinh lớp 10 trong việc dạy và học kỹ năng viết tiếng Anh tại một trường THPT ở Hà Nội) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01 Supervisor : Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa. PhD Hanoi – 2020 DECLARATION I hereby declare that the thesis entitled “Challenges faced by teachers and 10th graders in teaching and learning writing skills at a high school in Hanoi” is my entirely own work and effort in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master’s degree at the Faculty of Post - Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The material in this research has not been submitted to any other universities or institutions wholly and partially. Quach Thi Hai Hanh i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs. Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, PhD for her insightful comments, criticism, wholehearted guidance and kind support that she gave me while I was carrying out this research. Undoubtedly, this thesis would hardly be accomplished without her assistance. I also specially thank many teachers and staff of the Faculty of Postgraduate studies, University of Languages and International Studies, for their valuable knowledge and guidance and assistance during my time of study at the Faculty. I am also grateful to my colleagues as well as my students at a high school in Hanoi, who have helped me a lot in my data collection to fulfill this paper. Last but not least, my heartfelt thank was sent to my family for their support and strong encouragement to me throughout the study. ii ABSTRACT English writing skill can be seen as the most challenging among four language skills. When teaching and learning writing skills, most teachers and students are confronted with a wide range of obstacles. The presented study aims at identifying teachers’ and students’ difficulties in teaching and learning English writing skills at a high school in Hanoi. Data of the research was gathered by means of two major research tools a questionnaire for teacher and interviews for both teachers and students. The collected information revealed that the 10th graders had low motivation in learning writing, poor writing ideas, lack of frequent practice and the teachers' teaching methods were seen as the most prevalent problematic factors having huge impact on and learning writings of the students. Especially, time distribution and ignorance about writing skills by both teachers and students were also reported as predominant elements by the respondents. Based on the major findings, a couple of suggestions and recommendations are proposed to improve the quality of teaching and learning English writing skills at the high school. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT : Communicative language teaching EFL : English as foreign language FL : Foreign language GTM : Grammar -Translation method L1 : First language L2 : Second language SL : Second language iv LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Pie chart 4.1: Interest in learning writing skills ........................................................25 Bar chart 4.2.: Benefits of learning English writing skills ........................................26 Table 4.1: Challenges when learning English writing skills .....................................28 Table 4.2: Expectations and suggestions ..................................................................30 v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ....................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS................................................................................. iv LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................1 1.1. Rationale of the study...........................................................................................1 1.2. Objectives of the study .........................................................................................3 1.3. Research questions ...............................................................................................3 1.4. Scope of the study ................................................................................................3 1.5. Significance of the study ......................................................................................3 1.6. Methods of the study ............................................................................................4 1.7. Organization of the study .....................................................................................4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................5 2.1. Writing skills ........................................................................................................5 2.1.1. Definition ..........................................................................................................5 2.1.2. The importance of writing.................................................................................6 2.1.3. Approaches to second language writing instruction .........................................7 2.2. Challenges in teaching and learning writing skills ..............................................9 2.2.1. Problems faced by students in learning writing skills ......................................9 2.2.2. Problems faced by teachers in teaching writing skills ....................................10 2.3. Strategies for improving the writing skills .........................................................12 2.4. Previous studies ..................................................................................................13 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .........................................................................16 3.1. Context of the study ...........................................................................................16 3.1.1. The high school in Hanoi ................................................................................16 3.1.2. English language training in the high school ..................................................17 vi 3.2. Subjects of the study ..........................................................................................18 3.3. Survey research design .......................................................................................19 3.3.1. Research methods............................................................................................19 3.3.2. Data collection instruments .............................................................................19 3.3.3. Procedure of the study.....................................................................................21 3.4. The data analysis ................................................................................................22 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ...................................................24 4.1. Findings ..............................................................................................................24 4.1.1. Findings from the students’ questionnaire survey and interview ...................24 4.1.2. Findings from the teachers’ interview ............................................................34 4.2. Discussion ..........................................................................................................37 4.2.1. Discussion of the students’ questionnaire survey and interview results .........37 4.2.2. Discussion of the teachers’ interview results ..................................................40 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS .........................42 5.1. Recapitulation ....................................................................................................42 5.2. Implications ........................................................................................................43 5.3. Limitations of the study .....................................................................................44 5.4. Suggestions for further study .............................................................................45 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................46 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... I Appendix 1: Bảng câu hỏi khảo sát dành cho học sinh lớp 10 ................................... I Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for 10th graders ................................................. IV Appendix 3: Results for the survey questionnaire for 10th graders ......................... VII Appendix 4: Câu hỏi phỏng vấn dành cho học sinh .................................................. X Appendix 5: Interview questions for the students and their answers......................... X Appendix 6: Câu hỏi phỏng vấn dành cho giáo viên ............................................. XIII Appendix 7: Interview questions for the teachers and their answers..................... XIII vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the background of the study and the statement of the problem, the objectives of the study, the research questions, the scope of the study, the significance of the study, the method of the study and the structure of the study. 1.1. Rationale of the study Among four language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing), writing is the one that a language learner expects to master. Hyland (2003) argues that writing is an activity that must be learned so that students can effectively communicate their ideas in writing. It is therefore imperative that teachers help students develop writing skill that allow them to express themselves properly and effectively in L2 writing. Sokolik (2003) states that writing is a mixture of process and product. This process provides a collection of ideas or a stage of people who talk when they make up a piece of writing, while the final product is considered a piece of writing. Writing also brings learners the chance to find solutions to deliver their ideas in foreign language (Setiawan et al, 2014). Foreign language training requires sharing out four fundamental skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, which is a complicated process. When teaching these skills, teachers frequently circulate a certain teaching sequence: beginning with listening, speaking, reading, and then writing (Hedge, 2000). Also, Hedge (2000) reports that learners dedicate 45% of their energies to listening, 30% to speaking, 16% to reading, and 9% to writing. There is no doubt that writing skill is put at the end of the chain because it seems to be highly complex and difficult to master even for native people. As stated by Grabe and Kaplan (1996, p.87), “probably half of the world’s population does not know how to write adequately and effectively". It was agreed that "it is easier to learn to speak than to write no matter if it is a first or second language”(Nunan, 1989, p.12). Tangpermpoon (2008) assumes that compared to other language skills such as listening , speaking and reading, writing is the most difficult skill to acquire as it needs writers to have a lot 1 of lexical and syntactic information, as well as organizational concepts in L2 to produce a successful written text. However, unlike other skills, writing in English is not practiced outside the class, so what is learned inside the class is practiced inside and has little opportunity to be enhanced outside. Moreover, writing is frequently seen as an element of teaching and learning both grammar and syntax, which consequently underestimates the nature and significance of writing, and its acts of growth. Therefore, the enhancement of this skill captures significant attention to learn and teach from the very beginning stage of language training. Both native and nonnative learners, see writing as a remarkable difficulty, but it is much more challenging for learners of English as a second language (Hyland, 2003). These obstacles mainly occur from incompetence in syntax, coherence, idea expansion, content selection, sentence subject, rhetorical conventions, mechanics and organization, the absence of vocabulary, and the improper use of vocabulary. From my personal experience as a teacher at a high school in Hanoi, where English writing skill is regarded as one of the most difficult language skills, students seem bored and unexcited to participate the writing lessons. In those lectures, they often learn to camouflage their lack of reading and writing skills, so it is often difficult for teachers to identify their weaknesses until the graders hand in papers or take exams. In fact, many learners have believed that “English” as well as “writing” is only about dictation and grammar. For these learners, writing is an inevitable failure. Even a big number of students are confident that they will not be able to acquire good writing skills, because they cannot recognize good writing with correct spelling, grammar, and so on. They seem not alert of the importance of writing skills during their learning phase. Moreover, their English exams often mostly requires their grammatical range and lexical resource, but not much writing. Despite such issues which cause teachers and students a lot of difficulties, little research has been done on the challenges faced by teachers and students in teaching and learning English writing skills at a high school in Hanoi, especially the 2 teachers and 10th graders. The reasons above bring the author a choice to do research with the title "Challenges faced by teachers and 10th grader students in teaching and learning English writing skills at a high school in Hanoi" with an expectation to pinpoint difficulties in teaching and learning English writing skills so as to propose a number of possible suggestions to facilitate and better English writing skills for the students. 1.2. Objectives of the study The study was carried out to detect the challenges faced by teachers and 10th graders in teaching and learning English writing skills at a high school in Hanoi. Based on the findings, a number of feasible solutions were recommended in order to enhance the quality of English language writing skills at the high school. 1.3. Research questions The research was conducted at a high school in Hanoi to find out the answers for two following questions: 1. What are challenges in teaching English writing skills to 10th graders as perceived by the teachers at a high school in Hanoi? 2. What are challenges in learning English writing skills as perceived by the 10th graders? 1.4. Scope of the study The research goes insight the challenges in teaching and learning English skills of writing as perceived by the teachers and 10th graders at a high school in Hanoi in the academic year of 2019-2020. The result of the study was used as the basis for suggestions to eliminate the obstacles and to enhance the writing skills of 10th grade students at the high school. 1.5. Significance of the study The study was designed in the hope to develop insight into the reality of teaching and learning English writing skills to point out factors affecting teachers and 10th graders when teaching and learning writing skills at a high school in Hanoi. Furthermore, the study was also expected to facilitate the English language writing 3 skills in this high school. As a result, it will encourage both teachers and students to be more active in writing lessons, and especially facilitate the teachers to draw their 10th graders' attention and promote their motivation and involvement in English writing lessons. Consequently, the lesson will become more attractive, beneficial and exciting with the active and enthusiastic participations of both teachers and their students. 1.6. Methods of the study Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed to get reliable results for the study. The data were collected from a survey questionnaire and interviews to investigate the problematic factors that are considered as hindrances on the effectiveness of teaching and learning English writing skills at a high school in Hanoi. Based on those, implications for better quality of teaching and learning English language, especially teaching and learning English writing skills at 10th grade at a high school in Hanoi are also proposed. 1.7. Organization of the study The thesis consists of five main parts: Chapter 1: Introduction: presents the background of the study and the statement of the problem, the aims and the objectives of the study, the research questions, the scope of the study, the significance of the study, the method of the study and the structure of the study. Chapter 2: Literature reviews: reviews the writing skills; challenges in teaching and learning writing skills; strategies for improving students’ writing skills and an overview about the previous studies. Chapter 3: Methodology: provides a brief introduction about the setting of the study and the methodology applied in the study. Chapter 4: Findings and discussion: demonstrates the findings of the study and discussions of the findings. Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendations: summarizes what have been addressed in the study; points out the limitations and suggestions for further study. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter has introduced the theoretical background about writing skills, challenges faced by teacher and students when teaching and learning writing skills, strategies for improving students’ writing skills and previous studies. Among these, the researcher has detailed the first, the second and the third sections with an aim to clarify and highlight the significances of writings, approaches and techniques for teaching and learning writing skills. 2.1. Writing skills 2.1.1. Definition It is said that it is challenging to give out an appropriate definition of writing because different groups of people with their different needs and purposes for writing take on different definitions. According to Tribble (1996), writing is a difficult-to-acquire language skill which involves certain types of training. The roles of writing are to document things, complete tasks, develop arguments and bring ideas together. He also reports that writing “is not a skill that is readily picked up by exposure” but “normally requires some forms of instruction” (Tribble, 1996, p.11). Ur (1996) endorses Tribble when saying that most people intuitively develop the spoken language (at least their own mother tongue), while the written form is in most cases intentionally taught and master. Harris (1993) assumes that writing is a process that takes place over a period of time, particularly if we consider the often prolonged period of thought that precedes the development an initial draft. Byrne (1988) considers writing “the act of forming” “graphic symbols: that is, letters or combinations of letters”. He also adds that writing is “a sequence of sentences arranged in a particular order and linked together in certain ways” (Byrne, 1988, p.1). Wingersky (1999) argues that writing is a process of making communication with others in which the writer delivers his ideas and thoughts in written forms to readers. It is a process of thinking in which the writer discovers, organizes, and communicates his or her thoughts to the reader. As stated 5 by Farbrain and Whinch (1996), moreover, it is about conveying meaning by using words that have been chosen and put together in written or printed form. Additionally, Boughey (1997) refers to the criteria of writing in social communication when he claims that writing is a process that requires writers to explore, challenge, and make associations for themselves between propositions. All things considered, writing is a difficult but productive skill which gives students opportunities to simultaneously expose their language skills and practice communicative skills. Therefore, it is necessary that writing skill need to be taught and learned carefully. 2.1.2. The importance of writing Mc Arthur, et al (2008) indicate that writing provides an importance mean to personal self-expression because it prioritizes language teaching and learning that leads to the fact that teachers have raised more importance of writing skill for the past few years so as to enhance their students' language level. It is evident that social relationships which exist thanks to the individuals’ creation via discourse, are not only discourse. Hyland (2003) states that writing is one of the key approaches which is used to create a coherent social relationship through interacting with others. As indicated by Alexander (2008), strong writing skills may improve the students' opportunities for success, because if their writing is not good, the readers might misunderstand and misinterpret. In the school environment, Bello (1997, p.83) considers writing a powerful language ability which plays an important role in fostering language acquisition as learners experiment with terms, phrases, and large chunks of writing in order to effectively express their ideas and to strengthen the grammar and vocabulary they learn in class. He also claims that "one of major failing in the traditional curriculum could be attributed to lack of attention given to writing, which is an important avenue for thinking." Bello (1997, p.83-85). As aforementioned statements, writing is one of the ways to convey thoughts or ideas to the others. It is also the skill in studying English which requires the 6 students' great effort. Good writing skill can facilitate the students to absorb other skills in English better and more effectively and through writing, the learners can enrich lexical resource and consolidate grammatical structures which closely serve reading and speaking purposes. 2.1.3. Approaches to second language writing instruction Writing as a product The product approach to writing focuses on the finished products of the writing work rather than the process. As stated by Nunan (1989), the product approach to writing focuses on the end result of the act of composition, that is the letter, essay story and so on. The writing teacher who uses the product approach will be concerned to see that the end product is readable, grammatically correct and obeys discourse conventions relating to main points, supporting details and so on. Getnet (1994) shares a view that the product approach is an orientation whose primary focus is the end result of what students produce. Formal accuracy and correctness in grammar, spelling, use of vocabulary, convention of layout etc. are given the utmost priority. The product approach of writing is an accuracyoriented approach that focuses on the control of mistakes in order to eliminate them from written works (Byrne, 1988). Suggestions by Hedge (1988) include a couple of points which students should bear in their mind in the product approach of writing as the followings: a. Getting the grammar right. b. Having a range of vocabulary. c. Punctuating meaningfully. d. Using the conventions of layout correctly. e. Spelling accuracy. f. Using a range of sentence structures. g. Linking ideas and information across sentences to develop a topic. h. Developing and organizing the content clearly and convincingly. Writing as a process 7 The process approach to writing focuses on the composing process of writing instead of on the written final products. Encouraging students to have a sense of purpose and audience, while writing about a certain topic, is the major task of teachers who teach in line with the process approach. Hedge (1988) states that good writers appear to go through certain processes which lead to successful pieces of written work. She has proposed the following steps that good writers follow in the process approach of writing. a. The writers start with an overall plan in their head. b. They think about what they want to say and who are they writing for. c. They then draft out sections of the writing and as they work on them, they constantly reviewing, revising and editing their work. The genre approach to writing Genres are ways by which a text can be seen as belonging to specific domains. Dean (2008) argues that genre relates to spoken and written contexts for language use in which our perceptions of the kinds of discourse occurring are influenced by our knowledge of conventions that are in place for that kind of discourse, that is, genre conventions . The fundamental foundation of genre is that “we don’t just write, we write something to achieve some purpose: it is a way of getting something done” (Hyland, 2003, p.18). Martin (1992) defines genre as a goal focused because they focus on achieving specific purposes. These moves and stages within a genre are communicated and unique to different cultures. This is to help readers of that culture to relate and understand the message communicated in writing. Reader-oriented approach to writing Reader-oriented writing is considered as social communication between the writer and reader. Language, in this case, is viewed as a social process as Meyer et al. (1991) claims that language occurs in an individual’s life through an ongoing exchange of meanings with significant others. This description concentrates on the writer’s immediate setting, and how it has influence on the writer and as a result, 8 writing. The means of communication is purposeful and according to its purpose, writing is composed in a particular way that it is familiar to the targeted reader. The reader expects in what s/he will read about and the writer has to meet their requirements. Besides, the meaning between the writer and reader is negotiated through a discourse that is familiar to both sides. In this approach, the teachers may give models of different genres applied in a specific theme to familiarize their students with how the text follows its rhetorical moves. The main objective of this approach is to communicate clearly with the reader, and this is ultimately achieved through the vision that writing is a social act. Free writing approach According to Hyland (2003), the focus in the free-writing approach is on the writer. Writing here is viewed as “a creative act of discovery”, and of “sharing personal meanings”. This approach is also called “expressivism”. Under the concept of personal expression, free writing teaching approach allows the student to explore their own ideas and find their own voices. The free writing approach relies on quantity rather than quality (Raimes, 1983).This approach stresses mainly on the student because the topics and ideas originate from the students, when the teacher has the role to provide guidance and facilitation for the students to find their opinions and self-expression. Error correction is kept to a minimum. The teachers encourage their students to write freely on any topic for a short duration because it is expected that the learners will step by step write more fluently (Raimes, 1983). The teacher’s role is to comment on the content in the class and not correct them. It is an indirect approach to teaching as grammatical forms and genres are not taught to the learners. 2.2. Challenges in teaching and learning writing skills 2.2.1. Problems faced by students in learning writing skills According to Hyland (2002), students face a lot of writing difficulties at various levels of their learning. Such problems can in general be categorized into linguistic, psychological, cognitive, and pedagogical groups. They address the conceptual components of English; since an incorrect structure complicates the 9 text’s context and interpretation, which a reader deciphers by requiring a mental procedure (Quintero, 2008). Likewise, Rico (2014) suggests that an incoherent text does not convey ideas that cause learners to lose faith, even though they have mastered syntactic, lexical, grammatical control over the composition of text. The loss of confidence among students is also due to a teaching approach that is not in conformity with the students’ learning styles and cultural contexts (Ahmad et al., 2013). In addition, social media, contradictory input, lack of analytical and evaluative approach for learners and large and unmanageable class sizes can have a negative effect on the systemic and communicative performance of the students’ texts (Pineteh, 2013). The social factors affecting second language writing, according to Myles (2002), include motivation and attitudes. Research focusing on motivation and attitude indicates that, unlike those with negative attitudes, learners with optimistic attitudes and encouragement for writing for academic purposes achieve progress (McGroarty, 1996). Butt and Rasul (2012) state that inadequate time for writing, inappropriate teaching aids, overcrowded classes, conventional pedagogy and poor academic backgrounds for students are some of the factors affecting the writing skills of the students. Similarly, obsolete textbooks that fail to attract an audience either encourage the value of writing skills or provide opportunities (Heider, 2012) Kalikokha, C. (2008) assumes that collecting ample and valid information, paraphrasing of summarizing information, and using an acceptable academic writing style, is very difficult for most students. This is triggered by delayed essay writing training, broad classes, L1 transition, and lack of communication between students and teachers about the positive measures needed to resolve these issues. It is clear that second language learners face various challenges in learning writing skills as mentioned above. This study investigated whether the same challenges face students in learning writing skills at a high school in Hanoi and suggest intervention measures to mitigate the problem. 2.2.2. Problems faced by teachers in teaching writing skills 10 Teaching writing seems to be the difficult part for teachers. Teaching English at high school level is naturally much more different from teaching in other levels. The challenges may somehow make the teachers’ teaching ineffective. The following can be seen as the hindrances confronted by teachers. Nowadays, teachers seem to have a hard time in motivating the students to write. This derives from the fact that the students are not interested in learning writing (Asep, 2014). Undoubtedly, the young has the perception that they can do whatever they please as their parents have given them much freedom. When students feel reluctant in learning, it is a sign of lack of motivation (Abrar, 2016). Another obstacle in teaching English writing skills at the high school is that pupils have different levels of English language. In fact, in many high schools, students with different levels are placed in the same class which can result in challenges for teachers to make provision for all the students at the same time (Asep, 2014). Moreover, different levels of writing ability require teachers to apply different approaches. As a result, the teachers feel challenging to plan their lessons and prepare appropriate activities for the students. Another hindrance is from student’s parental indifference. Lack of parents’ support make teachers having a hard time to help the students. Students who feel lack of warmth and affection from their parents will draw them back from succeeding in their learning process (Gündoğmuş, 2018). This is due to little guidance, motivation and support from their parents. Besides, lack of professional experience is another challenge faced by the teachers (Gündoğmuş, 2018). Having lack of professional experience might lead to stress and tension to teach high school students especially among novice teachers. The multiple roles of teacher are also a challenge. Teachers’ experience depends on the level of their previous experience and training. It takes time for the novice teachers to adapt themselves with their students very well. Teachers can only prepare appropriate activities if they know well about their students’ proficiency level, and interests. Not only that, longer time is needed for teachers to prepare new 11