A survey of the 11th graders english writing skills at le hong phong high school in lam dong province m a 60 14 10

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY
UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES
ENGLISH FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS &LITERATURE
*****

A SURVEY OF THE 11TH GRADERS’ ENGLISH
WRITING SKILLS AT LE HONG PHONG HIGH
SCHOOL IN LAM DONG PROVINCE

A thesis submitted to
English Faculty of Linguistics & Literature
in partial fulfillment of the master’s degree in TESOL

By
TRAN THI MAI THOM

Supervised by:
PHAN THI KIM LOAN, M.A., Senior lecturer

HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2013


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled

A SURVEY OF THE 11TH GRADERS’ ENGLISH
WRITING SKILLS AT LE HONG PHONG SCHOOL
IN LAM DONG PROVINCE

In terms of the statement of the Requirements of Theses in Master’s

Program issued by the Higher Degree Committee.
This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in
any other institution.

Ho Chi Minh City, July 25th, 2013

TRAN THI MAI THOM

i


RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, TRAN THI MAI THOM, being the candidate for
the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL, accept the requirements of the
University relating to the retention and use of Master’s theses deposited in
the Library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis
deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purpose of the study
and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the
Library for care, loan or reproduction of theses.

Ho Chi Minh City, July 25 th, 2013

TRAN THI MAI THOM

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am truly indebted and thankful to a number of people for helping to
make this thesis possible.

First and foremost I would like to express my deepest gratitude to
M.A., senior lecturer Phan Thi Kim Loan, my supervisor, for her practical
guidance, insightful comments, valuable assistance and empathy from the
beginning to the completion of the thesis. Without her guidance and
encouragement, I could not have finished this study.

Another special thank goes to all lecturers who have taught me during
the Master Course in TESOL. I also thank members of TESOL 2008 for
their help and encouragement during the course.

Very special thanks are due to my colleagues and students at Le Hong
Phong High School in Lam Dong province for their support and cooperation
in answering the questionnaires.

Last but not least, my heartleft thanks go to my family: my loving
mother Hoang Thi Thin, my wonderful husband Luu Van Hanh, my lovely
children Ngoc Tien and Tuan Phong. Without their unfailing love,
understanding, support and sacrifice, I could not have got this far.

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ABSTRACT
This study investigates possible factors which prevent the 11th graders at
LHPHS from learning L2 writing skills well. Although the focus of the thesis is on
the students, it also examines the teachers at this school in terms of attitudes and

practical techniques in teaching L2 writing skills in Tieng Anh 11. This helps the
researcher see the whole picture of learning and teaching L2 writing in the
context.
In order to achieve the goal of the study, questionnaires, the main
instruments, are delivered to both the 11th graders and the teachers who have been
teaching Tieng Anh 11 to elicit data about the students’ difficulties in learning L2
writing and suggestions of what should be done to better the situation. Besides, the
students’ written pieces in the first term test of the school year 2011-2012 were
examined and analyzed to bring practical evidences of their weaknesses in L2
writing.
The results of the study show that the students’ main problems in learning
L2 writing are from (1) their wrong attitudes to L2 writing; (2) their low English
competence, especially in terms of grammar and vocabulary; (3) their
inappropriate habits and strategies when writing in English i.e. thinking and
translating ideas from their mother tongue to English, not making outlines, not
drafting and revising their written pieces frequently; and (4) their infrequent
practice toward writing skills.
On the base of the findings, the study suggests that (1) the students should
see the importance of writing to invest more time and energy in it; (2) they should
grasp more English grammar and broaden their word stock; (3) they should be
equipped with writing strategies so as to employ them in their lifelong learning;
and (4) they should be encouraged and forced to write in English more frequently.
In addition, the study also suggests methods and techniques which may be suitable
for teaching L2 writing in high school context.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Certificate of originality ......................................................................................i

Retention and the use of the thesis ...................................................................... ii
Acknowledgments ............................................................................................. iii
Abstract ..............................................................................................................iv
Table of contents ................................................................................................ v
List of figures ................................................................................................... viii
List of tables ..................................................................................................... viii
List of charts....................................................................................................... x
Abbreviations ..................................................................................................... x
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................... 1
1.1 THE PROBLEM STATEMENT................................................................... 1
1.2 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY ............................................................. 3
1.2.1 Writing learning and teaching .............................................................. 3
1.2.2 The setting ........................................................................................... 5
1.2.3 The textbook ........................................................................................ 6
1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY .............................................................. 7
1.4 RESEARCH AIMS AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ................................ 8
1.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY ................................................................. 8
1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS ........................................................... 9
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW......................................................... 10
2.1 NATURE OF WRITING ............................................................................. 10
2.1.1 The definition of writing .................................................................... 10
2.1.2 Writing vs. Speaking ......................................................................... 11
2.1.3 Significance of writing learning and teaching .................................... 14
2.2 APPROACHES TO TEACHING WRITING............................................... 16
2.2.1 The product approach ........................................................................ 16
2.2.1.1 The controlled-to-free writing approach ................................... 16
2.2.1.2 The paragraph-pattern approach .............................................. 17
2.2.1.3 The grammar-syntax-organization approach ............................ 17

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2.2.2 The process approach ........................................................................ 18
2.2.3 Genre-based approach ....................................................................... 20
2.3 RESPONSES TO WRITING ....................................................................... 22
2.3.1 Teacher’s correction .......................................................................... 23
2.3.2 Peer correction ................................................................................... 24
2.3.3 Self-correction ................................................................................... 25
2.4 FACTORS AFFECTING L2 WRITING SKILLS........................................ 26
2.4.1 Linguistic knowledge......................................................................... 27
2.4.1.1. Grammar ................................................................................ 28
2.4.1.2 Vocabulary .............................................................................. 28
2.4.1.3 Causes of linguistic errors........................................................ 30
2.4.2 Discourse knowledge ......................................................................... 32
2.4.2.1 Cohesion.................................................................................. 32
2.4.2.2 Coherence................................................................................ 33
2.4.2.3 Rhetoric ................................................................................... 34
2.4.3 Motivation ......................................................................................... 35
2.4.4 Writing strategies .............................................................................. 36
2.5 PRIOR RESEARCH CONCERNING L2 WRITING SKILLS .................... 39
2.6 SUMMARY ................................................................................................ 42
CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY ................................................................... 43
3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS.......................................................................... 43
3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN ................................................................................. 43
3.2.1 Subjects ............................................................................................... 44
3.2.1.1 Student respondents ...................................................................... 44
3.2.1.2 Teacher respondents ...................................................................... 45
3.2.2 Research instruments ........................................................................... 46
3.2.2.1 Questionnaire.................................................................................. 46
3.2.2.2 The students’ first term test ............................................................. 48

3.3 DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS PROCEDURE ........................... 49
3.4 SUMMARY ................................................................................................ 50

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CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS ......... 51
4.1 RESULTS FROM QUESTIONNAIRES ..................................................... 51
4.1.1 Students’ responses .............................................................................. 51
4.1.1.1 Students’ attitudes and perceptions towards L2 writing skills....... 52
4.1.1.2 Students’ difficult factors in learning L2 writing .......................... 54
4.1.1.3 Students’ perceptions about well-written texts.............................. 56
4.1.1.4 Students’ thoughts about L2 writing activities .............................. 58
4.1.1.5 Students’ learning writing strategies ............................................. 59
4.1.1.6 Students’ correcting strategies ...................................................... 62
4.1.1.7 Factors affecting students’ motivation in learning writing skills ... 63
4.1.1.8 Students’ thoughts about improving L2 writing ............................ 65
4.1.2 Teachers’ responses ........................................................................... 67
4.1.2.1 Teachers’ attitudes and perceptions on L2 writing skills ........... 67
4.1.2.2 Teachers’ ideas about difficulties in teaching writing ................ 69
4.1.2.3 Teachers’ writing teaching activities ......................................... 70
4.1.2.4 Teachers’ correcting activities ................................................... 73
4.1.2.5 Teachers’ ideas about motivating factors in learning writing ..... 76
4.1.2.6 Teachers’ thoughts about improving factors .............................. 77
4.2 STUDENTS’ WORK ANALYSIS .............................................................. 78
4.2.1 Total results of the students’ tests....................................................... 78
4.2.2 Common mistakes in the students’ written work ................................ 79
4.3 DISCUSSIONS ........................................................................................... 82
4.3.1 Problems from the 11th graders' L2 learning writing ........................... 82
4.3.2 Problems from the teachers' L2 teaching writing ................................ 84

4.3.3 Major findings .......................................................................................... 86
4.4 SUMMARY ................................................................................................ 88
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ..................... 90
5.1 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................... 90
5.2 IMPLICATIONS ......................................................................................... 91
5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................. 92
5.3.1 For students....................................................................................... 93

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5.3.2 For teachers....................................................................................... 95
5.3.3 For the methods and the roles of teachers .......................................... 96
5.3.3.1 The teacher as a researcher and a facilitator ............................... 96
5.3.3.2 The teacher as an organizer and a counselor .............................. 98
5.3.3.3 The teacher as a guide and an audience .................................... 100
5.3.4 Summary........................................................................................... 102
5.4 CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE STUDY ........................................................ 102
5.5 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH......................................... 102
BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................... 104
APPENDICES ................................................................................................ 110
Appendix 1: Questionnaire for teachers (Vietnamese version) .......................... 110
Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students (English version) ................................ 114
Appendix 3: Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese version) .......................... 118
Appendix 4: Questionnaire for teachers (English version) ................................ 123
Appendix 5: The first term test for 11th graders at LHPHS................................ 126
Appendix 6a: Paragraph structure in English .................................................... 132
Appendix 6b: General formats of a letter in English ......................................... 133

Appendix 7: Common connectors in English .................................................... 134
Appendix 8: Common symbols of errors used in correcting writing.................. 135
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1: The writing process ......................................................................... 19
Figure 2.2: Knowing a word .............................................................................. 29
Figure 2.3: Summary of major categories in Halliday and Hassan’s cohesion
in English .................................................................................. 33
Figure 2.4: Procedures involved in producing a written text by White ............... 37
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.1: Writing tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 11 ........................................ 7
Table 2.1: Differences between spoken and written language ......................... . 14
Table 3.1: Student subjects’ information .......................................................... . 44
Table 3.2: Teacher subjects’ information ......................................................... . 45
Table 3.3: The score rubrics of the paragraph writing part in the test ............... . 48
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Table 4.1: Students’ perceptions on the importance of parts in Tieng Anh 11 ... . 52
Table 4.2: Students’ perceptions on the most difficult parts in Tieng Anh 11 ... . 53
Table 4.3: Students’ ideas about learning L2 writing ....................................... . 53
Table 4.4: Students’ self-assessment on their L2 writing ability....................... . 54
Table 4.5: Students’ difficult factors in L2 writing .......................................... . 55
Table 4.6: Students’ thoughts about a well-written text.................................... . 56
Table 4.7: Student’s understandings about paragraph structure in Vietnamese
and in English…………... ............................................................ . 57
Table 4.8: Student’s thoughts about useful activities in L2 writing lessons ...... . 58

Table 4.9: Students’ preferable activities in L2 writing classes ........................ . 59
Table 4.10: Students’ frequency in making outlines when writing ................... . 60
Table 4.11: Students’ habits when writing a required text in English ............... . 62
Table 4.12: Students’ choices of the person to correct their written work......... . 62
Table 4.13: Students’ ideas about important factors to improve L2 writing...... . 64
Table 4.14: Students’ L2 writing practice at home ........................................... . 65
Table 4.15: Students’ liking for L2 writing homework .................................... . 65
Table 4.16: Students’ prospects about their L2 writing’s improvement ............ . 66
Table 4.17: Students’ suggested ways to improve L2 writing skills ................. . 66
Table 4.18: Teachers’ favoured teaching parts in Tieng Anh 11 ........................ 67
Table 4.19: Teachers’ difficult parts to teach in Tieng Anh 11 ........................... 68
Table 4.20: Teachers’ ideas about students’ attitudes in L2 writing classes ........ 68
Table 4.21: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching L2 writing .................................. 70
Table 4.22: Teachers’ frequent activities in pre-writing stage ............................ 72
Table 4.23: Teachers’ frequent activities in while writing stage ......................... 73
Table 4.24: Teachers’ ideas about the importance of correction ......................... 73
Table 4.25: Teachers’ frequent activities in correcting students’ work. .............. 74
Table 4.26: Teachers’ frequent points in correcting students’ work. .................. 74
Table 4.27: Teachers’ ideas about a well written text......................................... 75
Table 4.28: Teachers’ frequent emphasis points in teaching L2 writing. ............ 75
Table 4.29: Teachers’ thoughts about motivating factors to learn L2 writing ..... 76
Table 4.30: Teachers’ thoughts about essential factors to learn L2 writing well . 77

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Table 4.31: Teachers’ frequent writing homework assignment .......................... 78
Table 4.32: Teachers’ thoughts about student’s improvement in L2 writing ...... 78
Table 4.33 a: Students’ writing work in the first term test .................................. 79
Table 4.33 b: Students’ results of writing part in the first term test. ................... 79
Table 4.34: Common mistakes in the students’ writing pieces ........................... 80
LIST OF CHARTS
Chart 3.1: Students’ learning materials beside the textbook ............................... 45
Chart 4.1: Students’ liking for learning L2 writing ............................................ 53
Chart 4.2: Students’ understandings about spoken and written English .............. 57
Chart 4.3: Students’ frequency in making drafts when writing ........................... 60
Chart 4.4: Student’s frequency in revising when writing .................................... 61
Chart 4.5: Students’ ideas about aspects of their written work to correct............ 63
Chart 4.6: Students’ ideas about motivating factors to learn L2 writing ............. 64
Chart 4.7: Teachers’ assessment on their students’ L2 writing ability. ............... 69
Chart 4.8: Teachers’ thoughts about most useful stages in L2 writing lessons.... 71
Chart 4.9: Teachers’ ideas about most successful stages in L2 writing lessons... 71
ABBREVIATIONS
C.A: Communicative approach
CUP: Cambridge University Press
EF: English Faculty
EFL: English as Foreign Language
ERC: English Resource Centre
ESL: English as second language
HCMC: Ho Chi Minh City
L1: Mother tongue (Vietnamese)
L2: English
LHPHS: Le Hong Phong High School in Lam Dong province
OUP: Oxford University Press
USSH: The University of Social Sciences and Humanities

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
1.1 THE PROBLEM STATEMENT
English has now gained dominance in global communication and is
considered a world language. Every year thousands of international conferences of
all fields held all over the world use English as the main language. Therefore, it
has become the favored foreign language to be learned worldwide, including
Vietnam. Indeed, in our country English has been the compulsory subject in almost
every educational institution from lower secondary schools to universities. In high
school curriculum, English has been one of some subjects taught three periods per
week and it has always been one of the three main subjects chosen in high school
graduation examination together with literature and mathematics.
It can be said that teaching and learning English at high schools is crucially
significant in order to help students at this level prepare well for their future jobs
or higher studies. The final aim is likely that with English knowledge and skills
they will be able to contribute to the goals of industrialization and modernization
of our country in this integration era. Thus, to achieve this, students are supposed
to be good at all language skills namely listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Students, therefore, are taught all language skills in most curricula. As a
matter of fact, each skill has its own significance and can make it distinctive from
others. However, the trend of learning and teaching a language today is to use it in
communication. Therefore, writing together with speaking is paid much

consideration as it is a means of communication. Writing, in fact, is indispensable
in learning a language because it is a means of communication (Arapoff, 1969;
Tribble, 1996; Hyland, 2003), it helps students learn the language (Raimes, 1983;
Bello, 1999) and it is considered a way of improving thinking (Murray, 1993;
Kroll, 1996; Brown, 2001; Harmer, 2007b).1

1

More explanation will be stated in 2.1.3

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Learning writing thus is necessary for all students, including students at
high schools because “being able to write is a vital skill for ‘speakers’ of a foreign
language as much as for everyone using their own first language” (Harmer, 2007a,
p.3). However, most students at high schools in general and at Le Hong Phong
high school in Lam Dong province (henceforth LHPHS) in particular neglect
English writing. When being asked for the reason they say that writing is hard and
boring. More convincingly, having a close look through the writing paper
assignments that the students write at home as well as through the writing parts
from the term test, we can see a lot of problems. There are plenty of errors in
grammar, word order, sentence structure, word choice, etc. Some students even
leave English writing parts blank. Hence, it is necessary to examine difficulties in
learning English writing skills at this school.
This study confines itself in investigating problems on learning L2 (that is,

English in this study) writing skills of the 11th graders for two reasons. First, the
11th graders all have learned L2 writing skills for two semesters in grade ten with
the same textbooks and at the same school. They know a little about L2 writing
skills. In addition, they are at the same age so they may share similar thoughts
about learning L2 writing. Second, English learning writing at high schools seems
to be only the first step for a long process of writing learning. In high school
curriculum, writing in Tieng Anh 11 is seen as a transferring step of a continuum
from more controlled writing in Tieng Anh 10 to much freer writing in Tieng Anh
12 (Hoang et al., 2004). In Tieng Anh 10, most writing tasks seem to be too much
controlled. Students compose letters or paragraphs which are very similar to the
models given in the textbook. In Tieng Anh 12, on the other hand, writing tasks are
freely composed (without cues or prompts given) by students to suggested topics.
Writing tasks in Tieng Anh 11 are less controlled than those of Tieng Anh 10 and
less free than those of Tieng Anh 12. They are designed in topics with cues and/or
models on which 11th graders base to write letters or paragraphs. This is to say that
once 11th graders know how to learn L2 writing skills, they are likely to be able to
handle with writing tasks thereafter. In other words, 11th graders should be guided
to grasp L2 writing process and strategies.

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1.2 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
1.2.1 English writing teaching and learning
Traditionally, teaching and learning L2 writing skills for students is
ignored. When students write in a second or foreign language, the purpose of

writing is to catch grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors (Leki, 2004, p.170).
However, teaching and learning English in general and teaching and learning
writing in particular has been changed positively. Leki (ibid., p.171) states that
instead of being the last skills taught and instead of being a servant to grammar,
writing now has become much more important in language curriculum.
That is true in Viet Nam. In recent years, the new curriculum of the subject
English in high school educational programme has created a great change in
learning and teaching this subject in our country. In this curriculum, all language
skills have been included. Although teaching and learning any skills can cause
specific difficulties, teaching and learning L2 writing at high schools may be the
most challenging one because writing is the most difficult skill for L2 students to
master (Richards & Renendya, 2002). In other words, it is likely that teaching and
learning L2 writing skills at high schools have not met the objectives of the
curriculum yet. 2 High school students still neglect to learn L2 writing skills.
As mentioned above, the new textbooks for high school education have
brought positive changes in teaching and learning English in general, English
writing in particular. In these textbooks, writing is taught one period each unit as
other language skills. During a writing lesson, the teacher often goes through three
stages: pre-writing, while writing and post-writing. In the first stage, the teacher
often spends a few minutes raising questions and asking students to discuss in
groups or pairs in order to find out ideas relating to the given writing topics in the
textbook. If there is a model text in the textbook, the teacher often guides students
to read and analyze it in term of tenses and structures used.

2

Students can write various types of letters and paragraphs with cues/ prompts.

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In the second stage, students are usually asked to work in groups to finish
the writing task while the teacher may walk around to give help. Students often
write their work on large sheets of paper. The teacher, in the last stage, collects
some groups’ written texts to show on the board then corrects them in every error
together with the whole class. At the end of the lesson, the teacher may ask
students to rewrite the task at home; and most students try to copy one of the
corrected written works on the board in order that they would not have to do it at
home anymore. One problem to point out here is that most groups’ writings appear
very similar. They are likely to be copied from reference books. Therefore,
correction part seems to be the time for checking spelling and punctuation. After
such lessons, students cannot make much progress, and they find that writing
means exactly copying. Few students attempt to rewrite a piece of their own. They
ignore L2 writing exercises. Consequently, they can hardly improve L2 writing.
Students at LHPHS also find themselves in such a case. They state that
English writing lessons are tedious, boring and difficult. When they have to write a
piece of writing on their own, most of them feel stuck and mind-blocked. They
cannot discover ideas and/or organize them in a reasonable order. By looking
through exercises or tests which include writing parts, we can find plenty of
lexical, grammatical, organizational problems. To make it worse, some students do
not write anything at all.
So, as teachers at this school, what should we do to improve the situation? It
is true that in order to help the students improve L2 writing skills we have to
investigate various facets. One of the most important facets may be the
understanding of the students’ L2 writing learning. With this in mind, the
researcher of this study tries to find out factors affecting the way students at

LHPHS learn L2 writing skills. We, then have a base to suggest solutions for both
teachers and students with the aim to better the situation.
In summary, this part points out background knowledge and the rationale on
which the researcher of this study bases to conduct a survey to investigate the
factors that affect the students’ L2 writing in this school. In order to understand

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more about learning conditions of the students and the textbook, descriptions of
the setting of the study and the textbook are mentioned in the following parts.
1.2.2 The setting
LHPHS is one of six state-own high schools of Di Linh district in Lam Dong
province. The school is situated on the 20th National Road and about 18 kilometers
far from the centre of Di Linh townlet. In the school year 2011-2012, the school
had 35 classes, including twelve classes of grade 10, twelve classes of grade 11
and eleven classes of grade 12. Each class included from 35 to 40 students and the
number of students in the school comprised 1378 in total. All of them learned
English as an obligatory subject.
Like students of other rural and mountainous areas in Vietnam, students at
LHPHS are at a low proficiency level of English. Moreover, they are not very
interested in learning this subject. One of the reasons is due to their learning
conditions. Most students here are from farmer families whose life is busy and
hard so they do not have enough materials for learning English. Many of them do
not have any kind of dictionaries, i.e. English-Vietnamese or Vietnamese-English
dictionary, or any other English materials except the required textbook. This

causes difficulties to their learning English in general and L2 writing skills in
particular. Another reason seems that they do not see the importance of English.
They have a common sense of leaving learning English until becoming students at
colleges or universities. They pay much attention to subjects which help them
enter universities i.e., mathematics, chemistry, physics, and biology. They pay less
attention to learning English and they gradually find English a hard burden.
Briefly, it can be said that teaching and learning English at this school is
difficult, especially teaching and learning English writing skills, which requires
minimal conditions such as reference materials, dictionaries, time for practising
and motivation.

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1.2.3 The textbook
The textbook Tieng Anh 11 has been in use at high schools since the school
year 2007-2008. Tieng Anh 11, including 16 units and 6 revision parts namely
TEST YOURSELF, is written to theme-based i.e., people, education, sport,
population, nature, and the world. Each unit, including five parts namely reading,
listening, speaking, writing and language focus, is taught in five periods
respectively. TEST YOURSELF serves to measure students’ achievement after
learning each big theme (after two or three units). Each TEST YOURSELF
consists of four components: listening, reading, writing and language focus.
English is taught three periods per week at high schools. Thus, from the
curriculum, English writing is taught in each unit for about two writing periods in
three weeks. The topics of writing lessons are related to the content of each unit

and writing skill is taught after three other language skills have been taught.
Among 16 units, writing lessons are divided into different types of writing: writing
letters (unit 2, 3, 4, 6, 9), describing people, an event or a place (unit 1, 5, 8, 10,
11, 12, 14), writing report (unit 16), writing biography (unit 15), writing about
collection (unit 13), and interpreting statistics (unit 7) as seen in table 1.1. The
objectives of the writing skills in this textbook are to consolidate students’ capacity
on writing letters and paragraphs.
UNIT TITLE

WRITING TASK

1: FRIENDSHIP

Writing about a friend

2: PERSONAL

Writing a personal letter to describe a past experience

EXPERIENCE
3: A PARTY

Writing an informal letter of invitation

TEST YOURSELF A

In 120 words, write about your birthday party (or one of
your friends’)

4: VOLUNTEER WORK

Writing a formal letter expressing gratitude

5: ILLITERACY

Describing information in a table

6: COMPETITIONS

Writing a letter of reply

TEST YOURSELF B

Write about one of the competitions for secondary school
students on TV.

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UNIT TITLE
7: WORLD

WRITING TASK
Interpreting statistics on population from a chart

POPULATION

8: CELEBRATIONS

Describing a celebration’s activities

9: THE POST OFFICE

Writing a formal letter to express satisfaction or
dissatisfaction

TEST YOURSELF C

In 120 words, write a paragraph on what you like and don’t
like about our Tet holidays. Your writing should include the
activities people often do before and during Tet, the food
and the weather at Tet.

10: NATURE IN

Describing a location

DANGER
11: SOURCES OF

Describing information from a chart

ENERGY
12: THE ASIAN GAMES

Describing the preparations for the coming Asian Games

TEST YOURSELF D

Write a paragraph of 120 words about the measures to
protect the environment.

13: HOBBIES

Writing about a collection

14: RECREATION

Describing a camping holiday

TEST YOURSELF E

Write a paragraph of 120 words about one of your hobbies.

15: SPACE CONQUEST

Writing a biography

16: THE WONDERS OF

Writing a report on a man-made place

THE WORLD
TEST YOURSELF F

Write a biography of Mark Twain.

Table 1.1: Writing tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 11

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
As mentioned above, writing is considered an important skill in learning a
language as it is a means of communication. Scholars have paid much attention to
how to teach the skill more effectively so far. Lots of research and books have
been written on L2 writing. However, most of them concern teaching L2 writing to
students at colleges and universities. Moreover, most research and books focus on

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the techniques and principles which help teachers conduct L2 writing lessons more
effectively. This study may be one of the few studies investigating the problems in
learning L2 writing skills of high school students. Therefore, the study may
contribute to the understanding of factors affecting learning L2 writing at LHPHS
in particular and other high schools which share the same conditions as ours in
general. Once difficulties relating to learning L2 writing have been examined,
solutions will be suggested, and then the situation will hopefully be improved.
1.4 RESEARCH AIMS AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This study focuses on the 11th graders’ writing skills at LHPHS. Thus, the aims
of the study are:
(1) to investigate the current practice of learning L2 writing skills of the 11th
graders at LHPHS;
(2) to find out factors which affect the students in learning L2 writing;
(3) to give some suggestions towards bettering learning L2 writing skills for

the students.
In order to achieve the above aims, this study tries to answer the questions:
(1) What are the possible factors that prevent the 11th graders at LHPHS
from learning L2 writing skills well?
(2) What are the attitudes of the students towards L2 writing skills?
(3) What are the difficulties facing the students in learning L2 writing
skills?
(4) What are the L2 writing strategies employed by the students?
1.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
Due to the time limit and the scope of a thesis master, this study confines
itself to the problems in learning L2 writing skills at LHPHS, and focuses on the
11th graders only. That is to say, the findings and the recommendations of this
study may not be able to generalize to the teaching and learning L2 writing skills
of other high schools whose population and learning conditions are different from
ours. However, with the findings of the study, both teachers and students at high

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schools may find it useful if they are in the same situations. In other words, this
study is worth concerning for those who involve in helping the 11th graders,
especially those in rural and mountainous areas, improve L2 writing skills.
1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS
This thesis of master consists of five main chapters.
Chapter 1 provides the statement problem, the background on L2 writing skills
as well as information about the learners at HLPHS and the textbook Tieng Anh

11. This chapter also discusses the significance, the aims, and the questions of the
research. Discussions of significance and limitation of the research are also
included in this chapter.
Chapter 2 reviews the literature which are relevant to the study in five major
sections: (1) nature of writing; (2) significance of L2 writing learning; (3)
approaches to L2 writing teaching; (4) responding to L2 writing; and (5) factors
affecting L2 writing. The last section is divided into four categories i.e. linguistic
knowledge, discourse knowledge, motivation, and L2 writing learning strategies.
Chapter 3 focuses on the methodology employed in the study and the research
design which describes the subjects, instruments and procedure of data collection
and data analysis.
Chapter 4 presents in details the data analysis, discussion of results and the
findings. The data analysis is intended to identify (1) the attitudes and perceptions
of the participants towards L2 writing skills, (2) the difficulties they are facing in
learning and teaching L2 writing, (3) the students’ inappropriateness in learning L2
writing and (4) their opinions on the ways to better learning L2 writing. Once the
data are analyzed, findings will be withdrawn.
Chapter 5 offers conclusion of the research, pedagogical implications and
recommendations for teachers and students as well as teaching methods and
classroom activities that can be applied at LHPHS in order to improve L2 writing
skills for the 11th graders.

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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW
Chapter 1 has presented the rationale and the background of the study. This
chapter will review literature which is relevant to the study as a basis to formulate
the research questions and a standpoint to withdraw comments, recommendations
and suggestions of the study. As mentioned, we have to investigate several facets
of learning and teaching writing in order to better the situation. This chapter will
include five main parts: (1) nature of writing; (2) significance of writing learning;
(3) approaches to writing teaching; (4) responding to writing; and (5) factors
affecting L2 writing.
2.1 THE NATURE OF WRITING
2.1.1 Definition of writing
The answer for the question ‘what is writing?’ has been in debate. In one
side, writing is nothing else but simply speech written down. In other words,
writing is seen just some graphic representation of language or the nature of
language is speech. For this point of view, Lado (1964, p.3) stated “Language
consists of oral-aural symbols of communication, arbitrary in their association to
particular meanings and units and arbitrary in their particular shape for a given
language”. In the same vein, Morris (1966, p. 24) assumed:
It is speech, not writing, which serves as natural means of communication
between members of a settled community, both for the expression of thought
and as a form of social behavior. Writing is primarily a means of recording of
speech, even though it must be acknowledged as a secondary medium of
communication in its own right.

On the contrary, writing, stated by Arapoff (1969, p.33) is “much more than
an orthographic symbolization of speech; it is, most importantly, a purposeful
selection and organization of experience” (the emphasis is original). Murray
(1978) claims that the act of writing turns out to be a complex process wherein
writers use language as a tool to discover and clarify meaning in experience in

order to say exactly what they want. In other words, writing is a means of

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communication which involves “a deeper thinking than is possible when reflecting
and talking” (Walshe, 1986, p. 174). He emphasizes that writing is not just “talk
written down” but a process of refining speech before making it visible on paper.
According to Byrne (1988, p. 1), writing is a process of encoding one’s
thought into language by forming graphic symbols and the arrangement of which
is based on certain rules to form individual words; then the words are in turn
arranged according to the conventions to form sentences. However, we do not
normally write just one sentence or a number of unrelated sentences; instead, “we
produce a sequence of sentences arranged in a particular order and link together in
certain way” (ibid, p.1) in order to form a coherent text.
That is to say, in order to write a coherent text, the writer has to go through
different stages i.e., gathering ideas, drafting, revising, and editing. This proves
that writing is not simply a means of recording speech. It is a complex, cognitive
process that requires sustained effort over a considerable period of time (Nunan,
1999, p. 273). Writing then is a creative discovery procedure characterized by the
dynamic interplay of content and language: the use of language to explore beyond
the known content (Murray, 1978).
In summary, this research adopts the latter view; that is, writing is a means
of communication. Whenever students are asked to write a piece of writing, they
are asked to communicate something with readers. That means they are asked to
think about the purpose and the reader(s) of their writing.

2.1.2 Writing vs. speaking
In order to help students improve writing, it seems to be necessary to help
them understand the differences between speaking and writing. Tribble (1996)
gives the reason for investigating these differences: “Once students have a better
understanding of how spoken and written texts can differ they are much better
placed to become confident writer” (p.16). She emphasizes that students need not
only to have knowledge of the different social rules they adopt when writing or
speaking but also to see how different types of language constructed and to

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understand that written texts are not just spoken texts written down (p.16). She
concludes that “an awareness of the differences between the typically written and
typically spoken is essential to writers” (ibid., p. 22).
Although speaking and writing share a similar range of broad functions: to
get things done, to provide information and to entertain (Nunan, 1999, p. 275),
they distinguish from each other in different ways. First of all, writing is obviously
different from speaking in its nature of the activity because all physically and
mentally normal people can learn to speak through the exposure of the language,
but all people have to be taught how to write, or writing must be taught and
learned with teachers available (Harmer, 2007b). To make this point clear, Brown
(2001) compares speaking with walking, but writing with swimming. That means
talking like walking is “species specific” human behavior, but writing like
swimming is culturally specific, learner behaviors: “we learn to swim if there is a
body of water available and only if someone teaches us. We learn to write if we

are members of a literate society and usually only if someone teaches us” (ibid.
p.334)
Another feature that makes writing different from speaking lies on the
modes of communication itself. Speaking is most often a dialogue, a conversation
with a cooperative partner whose feedback is immediate and whose responses we
can predict (Reid, 1993). Similarly, Hyland (2002) states speech is more highly
contextualized, depends far more on shared situation, allows less planning,
involves real-time monitoring, and relies to a greater extent on immediate
feedback. In other words, speakers have a great range of expressive possibilities at
their command such as by varying stress and intonation to show which part of
what they are saying is most important. In addition, they can rephrase what they
are saying at any point in a speech event. In face to face interaction, they can also
use whole range of facial expressions, gestures and general body language to
convey their message (Harmer, 1991, p.53). On the contrary, writing more often
seems to be monolog in which the writer attempts to identify or create an audience
and then she herself provides feedback (Reid, 1993). The writer seems to be

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separated from the audience. Therefore, they must use other means to express their
ideas such as by using logical punctuation, choosing suitable word, structures and
genres.
Permanence is another distinctive feature of written language because once
something is written down and delivered in its final form to its intended audience,
the writer abdicates a certain power; the power to amend, to clarify, to withdraw

(Nunan, 2000). Harmer (2007 b) states that speaking is often transient, whereas
writing tends to be more permanent. Spoken words fly away on the wind; written
words stay around. Because of this, according to Harmer (1991, p. 53), perhaps the
single most important difference between writing and speaking concerns the need
for accuracy. Therefore, accuracy and explicitness are posed greater pressure on
writing than on speaking.
Finally, written language is linguistically different from spoken language.
Written language tends to consist of clauses that are complex internally, whereas
with spoken language the complexity exists in the ways in which clauses are
joined together (Nunan, 1999, p.277). Most linguists agree that in written language
we tend to use more content words in comparison to function words than in spoken
language. For this point, Arapoff (1969, p. 35) puts it “one of the first things they
[students] will have to learn is that writing has certain structural differences from
speech”. He states:
One difference is that writing generally has longer sentences—what might be
two or three sentences in speech is often only one sentence in writing. So the
students should learn how to combine the short sentences of spoken English
by modification, or by using sentence connectors of various kinds
(conjunctions, words like however, therefore, phrases like in the first place, etc.)

In the same vein, Davies (1999, pp. 88, 89) states that because a written text
has to create context and make references and connections of the message clear
through the language itself, it requires more grammatically completed, often longer
sentences and also a greater range of vocabulary and the use of grammatical
structures than that of speech.
In sum, having a look at table 2.1 we can see that there are some significant
different features between spoken language and written language.

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Spoken language

Written language

Context dependent

Context independent

- generally used to communicate with people in the

- used to communicate across time

same time and place relies on shared knowledge

and distance

between the interactants and often makes reference

- must create for readers the

to the shared context

context it is describing

- generally accompanies action

- generally reflects action

Dialogue in nature

Monologic in nature

- usually involves two or more speakers creating

- usually written by one person

spoken texts together.

removed from an audience

Unrehearsaled and spontaneous but not

Edited and redrafted

unpredictable
- interactants build spoken, unrehearsed texts

- written language can be edited

spontaneously within social and linguistic

and redrafted any number of times

parameters
Records the world as happenings

Records the world as things

- relies more on verbs to carry meanings

- relies more on nouns and noun
groups to carry meaning

Grammatically intricate

Lexically dense

- tends to contains more grammatical words such

- tends to contain more lexical or

as pronouns and conjunctions, etc.

content words as meaning is

- develops through intricate networks of clauses

carried by noun and noun group

rather than complete sentences as it is jointly

- relies on the process of

constructed and relies more heavily on verbs

nominalization whereby things
that are not nouns can be turned
into nouns

Table 2.1: Differences between spoken and written language of Burns and Joyce (cited in
Nunan, 1999, p. 279)

2.1.3 Significance of writing learning and teaching
Learning writing is crucially significant for both L1 and L2 students.
Writing, firstly, helps students learn the target language as Raimes (1983, p.3) puts
it:

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