The common difficulties in english writing composition of english major juniors at tay do university

TAY DO UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

THE COMMON DIFFICULTIES
IN ENGLISH WRITING COMPOSITION
OF ENGLISH MAJOR JUNIORS
AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY
Supervisor: Dang Thi Hanh, MA

Students’ name: Huynh Ngoc Nu
Students’ code : 13D220201078
Class : Bachelor of English 8B

April 2017


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

My research could not be finished without the help of a lot of people. Hence, I
would like to express my deep gratitude to many following people who helped and
supported us during research.
First of all, I wish to send many sincere thanks to my supervisor, MA. Dang Thi
Hanh for her enthusiastic guidance and important comments during the process of
conducting this research. Moreover, she always willing to help me correct the
mistakes in my research and provide me some beneficial references. Actually, this
paper could not have been finish without her critical comments and valuable
contributions.
Secondly, we would like send my grateful thanks to Tay Do University, especially,
Faculty of Literature and Linguistics, because of giving us a chance to conduct this

research.
Finally, we would like to give wholehearted thankful word to my family for
supporting me the best condition and encouraging me during my studying process.
This motivation helps me accomplish this research.

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COMMENTS
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .......................................................................................... i
COMMENTS ............................................................................................................. ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... iii
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................v
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................1
1.1 Rationale ............................................................................................................1
1.2 The significance of the research ........................................................................2
1.3 The organization of the research proposal .........................................................3
CHAPTER 2: LITERTURE REVIEW...................................................................4
2.1 The definitions of the writing and its importance in learning English ..............4
2.1.1 Definition of writing ....................................................................................4
2.1.2 The importance of writing in learning English ...........................................5
2.2 The common difficulties in English writing ......................................................7
2.2.1 Difficulties related to linguistics aspect ......................................................8
2.2.1.1 Word Choice .........................................................................................8
2.2.1.2 Word use ...............................................................................................9
2.2.1.2 Grammar/syntax ..................................................................................11

2.2.1.3 Idea organization ................................................................................12
2.2.2 Difficulties related to background knowledge ..........................................14
2.3 Previous studies ...............................................................................................14
2.3.1 Argumentative Writing Difficulties of Thai English Major Students .......14
2.3.2 Analysing Errors among Form One Students’ Written English
Composition in a Private Chinese School .................................................15
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH AIMS - RESEARCH QUESTIONS - HYPOTHESIS..17
3.1 Research aims ..................................................................................................17
3.2 Research questions .......................................................................................... 17

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3.3 Hypothesis .......................................................................................................17
CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHOLOGY .......................................................18
4.1 Design ..............................................................................................................18
4.2 Participants.......................................................................................................18
4.3 Instruments.......................................................................................................18
4.3.1 Questionnaire .............................................................................................19
4.3.2 Interview ....................................................................................................19
4.4 Procedure .........................................................................................................19
CHAPTER 5: EXPECTED OUTCOMES ............................................................21
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................22
APPENDIX A ..........................................................................................................26
APPENDIX B ..........................................................................................................31

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ABSTRACT

Writing is a productive skill and useful tool for learning process. However,
learning and developing writing skill are the difficult tasks. Academic writing
requires conscious effort and much practice in organization, language use.
Therefore, the survey research entitled “The common difficulties in English writing
composition of English major juniors at Tay Do University” is conducted to figure
out common difficulties in English writing of students majoring in English. In the
study process, statistical data are collected from 30 English majored juniors course 9
at Tay Do University. The two main instruments of the research are questionnaire
and interview. The results of this research will point out the students’ difficulties in
linguistics (word use; word choice; syntax/grammar; idea organization) and
background knowledge. Therefore, the students can recognize their difficulties and
find out good methods to improve on writing skill.

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
In chapter 1, the researcher would like to present rationale, significance and
organization of the research.
1.1 Rationale
Nowadays, English is one of the most widely used languages around the world.
People use English as an international language in various fields such as business,
tourism, technology, etc. In Vietnam, English is taught compulsorily in almost of
levels of education. English is one of the necessary requirements for those who want
to have many wonderful chances to get a good job with high salary.
In learning English, there are four main skills: speaking, reading, writing and
listening. Obviously, writing is believed to be significant and essential in the
development in a native language and in a second language. As Khan and Akter

(2011, p.8) note in their study, “in our teaching-learning context, writing skill is
usually considered as a clear proof of whether learners learnt English well or not.
Learners sit for different examinations and get grades/scores of the basis of writing
ability. Although other three skills are more or less practiced in the class, only
writing ability is assessed for grades or scores in the examination”. In fact, it is
evident that writing is more important for the lives of students since writing is used
as a primary medium of learning at all stages of education. Thus, if students want to
become proficient English learners, they should try to study and practice writing
regularly. However, learning and developing writing skill are considered as a
difficult task. Writing skill requires conscious effort and much practice in
organization, language use and writing mechanics. There are many factors affecting
undergraduate academic writing performance in English Second Language (ESL),
like content, vocabulary, composing, developing, and analyzing ideas. However,
some learners often ignore writing skill to focus on listening, speaking, reading
because they consider other skills needed more than writing skill. Actually,

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students’ problems in writing may occur because of many factors. One of the causes
for the challenge might be the complex nature of the writing skill itself. On the
other hand, Byrne (1988) also believes that “certain psychological, linguistic and
cognitive factors make writing a complex and difficult discourse medium for most
people in both native and second language”. While Raimes (1983) thinks that
“when students complain about how difficult it is to write in a second language,
they are talking not only about the difficulty of finding the right words and using the
correct grammar but also about the difficulty of finding and expressing ideas in a
new language”.
Similarly, in Vietnam, tertiary level students still face a lot of writing problems in
English. For example, their time spends on studying themselves is too little to

improve this skill or the inappropriate strategies of learner would be a hindrance for
their skill leading to they will face some difficulties popularly. Therefore, the
research entitled “The common difficulties in English writing composition of
English major juniors at Tay Do University” is conducted to explore writing
problems of English major undergraduate students at a private university in
Vietnam. The study carries out on 30 of English major juniors studying at Tay Do
University in Can Tho city. The data are taken through document collection
questionnaire. Moreover, an interview on students has been conducted randomly to
reflect their attitudes and opinion on students’ English writing difficulties.
Consequently, the research can help the students recognize their problems and they
may find out appropriate methods to improve their writing skill. Furthermore, this
research could help the teachers to resolve the problems and look for some suitable
strategies to improve their students’ writing in English.
1.2 The significance of the research
This study can be useful for students and teachers of English. The English juniors
could recognize their difficulties in writing skill. In addition, basing on the
difficulties mentioned in this research results, the research can help students find out

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some appropriate ways to improve this skill. Besides, the teachers of English can
also know common difficulties of their students in writing to change the teaching
methods and suggest some possible solutions in order to help their students learn to
writing English better.
1.3 The organization of the research proposal
The research consists of five chapters consisting of (1) Introduction, (2)
Literature Review, (3) Research Aims, Research question, Hypothesis, (4) Research
Methodology and (5) Expected outcomes.
Chapter 1: Introduction: this chapter presents the rationale and the significance of

the research; and the organization of the proposal.
Chapter 2: Literature Review: it includes the definitions of the writing and its
importance in learning English; the common difficulties in English writing and
previous studies.
Chapter 3: The Research Aims, Research Questions and Hypothesis: it shows the
research aims, research questions and hypothesis of the research.
Chapter 4: Research Methodology: it focuses on the research methodology including
the research design, participants, instruments and the procedure of the study.
Chapter 5: Expected Outcomes: it concerns expected outcomes which covey the
results of the research and the benefits that this research can bring to expected.

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Chapter 2 presents the definitions of writing and its importance in learning English
and difficulties in English writing (linguistics difficulties (word use, word choice,
syntax/grammar,

idea

organization);

background

knowledge

difficulties;

psychological problems) and this chapter includes the previous studies.
2.1 The definitions of the writing and its importance in learning English
2.1.1 The definitions of writing
Writing skills are an important part of communication as well as studying English.
Emmons (2003) states that “writing is a basic skill that needs to be mastered by all
English Language major students. It is believed that writing demands a great deal of
skills and conventions such as writing readiness and grammatical rules for the
students to become proficient and effective writers”. Besides, communicate with
others not only by face-to-face communication, but also by giving information via
written communication, written language is also a good way to express ideas,
thinking, emotions and so on.
The term of writing can defined by several ways. According to Wikipedia, “a
medium of communication the represents language through the inscription of signs
and symbols and in most language, writing is a complement to speech or spoken
language”. In addition, Byrne (1988) also defined that “writing a primary means of
recording speech, even though it must be known as secondary medium of
communication, and writing can be used to express opinions, thoughts and emotions
when other person does not come in front of us”. Similary, “writing is process of
using symbols (letters of Alphabet, punctuation and space) to communicate thought
and ideas in a readable form” (English club). Furthermore, Peters (1986, p.169)
defines writing as a “…curiously solitary form of communication, addressed to an
absent and often unknown reader”. In addition, Klein (1985) also states, “writing is
the ability to put pen and paper to express ideas through symbols. By the way,

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representations on paper will have meaning and content that could be communicated
to other people by the writer”. Gudschinsky (1973) also mentions that “writing skill
is specific abilities which help writers put into words in a meaningful form and to

mentally interact with the message”. Besides, Grami (2010) commented that many
researchers (e.g., Widdowson ( 1983); Smith (1989); White (1980)) define writing
as a ‘complicated cognitive task’ because of the fact that “it demands careful
thought, discipline, and concentration, and it is not just a simple direct production of
what the brain knows or can do at a particular moment”. Besides, “written products
are often the results of thinking, drafting and revising procedures that require
specialized skills, skills that not every speaker develops naturally” (Brown, 2001).
In short, writing skills are an important part of communication for our students
throughout their academic life because it allows them to organize their feelings and
ideas clearly as well as to convey meaning through well-constructed text. As Nunan.
D, (2003) defines “writing is both a physical and mental act. At the most basic level,
writing is the physical act of committing words or ideas to some medium. On the
other hand, writing is the mental work of inventing ideas, thinking about how to
express them, and organizing them into statements and paragraphs that will be
cleared to a reader”.
2.1.2 The importance of writing in learning English
Writing plays an important role in human life because it improves communication
skills, creative thinking and creativity. Writing is necessary for both school and
work. Writing also helps the writer express ideas, beliefs and personality. It is an
effective tool to convey the ideas in a way that is not confusing to help learners
effectively write documents like science, legal text, history or resumes and cover
letters to impress and show solid communication skills. Therefore, they will get a
good job to be expected. Writing well not only benefits for the college students, but
they also transfer to the workplace and daily life. Besides, communication skills,
including writing, are one of the most important transferable skills that workers

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possess. Most business professionals, such as marketing, finance, and research and

development managers, need excellent writing skill to properly convey ideas and
concepts. Thus, writing is necesssary and all of people have to achieve a good
writing skill because of its important functions.
In language learning especially for students learning English, writing skills are one
of the main fundamental. In discussing the significance of writing to learning,
Suleiman (2000) also stresses that “writing is an essential factor of language. Any
reading and language curriculum must think about the multidimensional nature of
writing

in

instructional

practices,

evaluation

procedures,

and

language

development”. Similarly, Lee and Kantor, (2005) also belive that “one major
implication of the use of writing purposes to develop the writing construct is that
there may be processing models for each distinct level of writing purpose”. This
importance is due to the fact that it reinforces grammatical structures and
vocabularies that instructors always try to teach them to their students”. Actually,
writing is a basic tool to take note of students learning English because they can
write down what they learned on their papers. Steve Graham and Dolores Perin,

(2007, p.99) say that “in the school setting, writing plays two distinct but
complementary roles. First, it is a skill that draws on the use os strategies (such as
planning, evaluating, annd revising text) to accomplish goals, such as writing report
or expressing an opinion with the support of evidence. Second, writing is a mean of
extending and deepening students’ knowledge; it acts as a tool for learning subjects
matter”. In addition, writing is also an important part of communication for students
throughout their academic life because it allows them to organize their feelings and
ideas clearly as well as to convey meaning through well-constructed text. In the
recent years or more, there has been a growing concern in developing writing skills
in the higher education as education diversifies at this stage. Learners go on to more
specific knowledge acquiring situation that their writing has to more focused and
specific oriented. According to Bjork and Raisanen, “we highlight the importance of
writing in all university curricula not only because of its immediate practical

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application, but also because we believe that, seen from a broader perspective,
writing is a thinking tool. It is a tool for language development, for critical thinking
and, extension, for learning in all subjects”. Besides, Alexander, (2008) also defines
“strong writing skills may enhance students' chances for success”.
To summarize, writing is an important part of life, whether in the workplace or
school, as a hobby or in communication. This skill helps the writer express their
feelings and thoughts to other people in a relatively permanent form. The writings
build connections between the writers and readers in a different way from oral
communication, and it helps learners organize their thoughts when seeing them on
paper or on a screen.
2.2 The common difficulties in English writing
In learning language, writing is not an easy skill for learners who study English as
a foreign language ( EFL) in Viet nam. Thus, a lot of students have many difficulties

in this skill. As Heaton (1979, p.138) argues that “writing in a foreign language is
complex and difficult to learn not only the ability to use structures but also
conceptual of varied skill such as stylistic and mechaniscal skill”.
Actually, writing is difficult because it requires not only grammatical structure but
also the rule of writing such as vocabulary (related to word choice; word use),
background knowledge and the way to organize ideas and so on. For tthe juniors
majoring in English at Tay Do university, they also have already faced some
difficulties.
In summary, in the study, the researchers would like to found out and analyze the
difficulties and they can help students realize their mistakes to improve their writing
skill.

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2.2.1 Difficulties related to linguistics aspect
One of the most important parts assisting students to access to writing skill
efficiently is linguistic knowledge. It consists of lots of elements such as: vocabulary
(related to word choice, word use), grammar/syntax, and idea organization).
2.2.1.1 Word Choice
When learning a new language as a foreign or a second language, people must start
to learn the vocabulary of that language. According to Webster’s Dictionary (1993327) “vocabulary is a list or group of words and phrase usually in alphabetical
other”. In fact, writing is a basic for four main English skills including speaking
skill, listening skill, reading skill, writing skill. In English, vocabulary is a section
affecting English writing skill. Thus, vocabulary is one of difficulties that learners
have to face in this kill. While Rabab’ah (2003) points out “the students often lack
the necessary vocabulary when they are engaged in authentic communicative
situation such as writing”, Stahl and Fairbank (1986, p.72) also state that
“vocabulary knowledge has been identified as the most important for the
comprehension of both spoken and written”. It is one of the most important parts in

the process of learning language in common and English in particuclar because
“without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be
conveyed” (Thornbury, 2002, p.33). In fact, lack of vocabulary is a reason why the
students cannot show that they are thinking. They just keep it inside because they do
not have enough vocabulary to express their ideas, though and emotion. Specially,
they sometimes forget some words they have learned because they have not used or
reviewed old words regularly. Futhermore, they make alots of mistakes in choosing
word so that they accord with formal and informal form. Besides, the words can be
used in speaking, but it is unsuitable in writing. It involves to the mistakes about
word choice, word use.
Actually, word choice refers to a writer’s selection of words as determined by a
number of factors, including meaning (both denotative and connotative), specificity,

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level of diction, tone, and audience. It also is an essential ingredient of style. In
studying a writer’s style, Hart and Daughton, say that “the critic's best tool is
developing a sensitivity to word choice” (Modern Rhetorical Criticism, 2005).
Hence, “word choice often determines whether or not you get your message across.
Making poor word choices and not writing appropriately for the audience can
distract the reader so much that the message you intended to convey is missed”. (Joy
Wingersky). Therefore, The clarity is key in the important writing and word choice
plays a crucial role in how easy it is for the audience to understand your message.
Good writing starts with a profound respect for words-their denotations, their
connotations, their force, their rhythm to create a conciseness among them. Besides,
some of the most common mistakes people make when it comes to their choice of
words in important writing such as misused words, ambiguous words, words with
negative connotations, pronoun confusions, colloquialisms, misleading words, etc.
Actually, word choice is not easy for learners. They will face difficulties to choose

suitable word in their writing, which tend to a bad writing.
2.2.1.2 Word use
A good writing or composition should consist of appropriate and varied range of
vocabularies used along with proper grammar and varied range of sentence
structures (Norish, 1983). However, students usually have the problems in the way
to choose appropriate word in particular context. According to Reid (1983) in
Melese (2007, p.13), “when the writer practices the choice of vocabulary that would
reflect a concern for the reader and the purpose of writing, the composition written
by the student would become sensible to his/her reader”.
Actually, writing in a second language or a foreign language using the
appropriate words in the appropriate place is a problem for students. For example,
White (1980) states that “usually students use ‘big words’ in their essays to impress
the reader, their teacher. The effort to impress the reader leads to a serious problem”.
Some words have different meanings, but are so closely related that there is

9


confusion about their proper use because this word may have many meanings in
variety of situations mentioned. Consider the words continuously and continually,
for example. The two words “continuously” means “unceasingly” and “continually”
means “regularly”, so they are not properly interchangeable, and their similarity
often causes confusion. A word is “right” when it is used appropriately and in a
context where its intended meaning, tone, and implications correspond to the those
associated with it. In other words, the writer should understand and be comfortable
with what the word means both denotatively and connotatively. For example,
“home” and “house” both refer to “a shelter in which one or more people live”.
However, while “house” refers primarily to the physical structure, “home” generally
refers not only to the structure itself but also to a person’s relationship to that
structure, which connotes belonging and warmth. This usage mistakes are the final

type of error often seen in ESL students’ writing. A usage mistake does not break a
grammar “rule”, but is a word or string of words that a native speaker would never
use to express the particular meaning that the ESL student is trying to convey. It can
be more of a problem to the reader than grammar mistakes. The ESL student who
writes My mother don't speak English or Then I putted beaker on tripod will be
understood. On the other hand, the student who writes in a journal My mother has an
arrangement with her operator today will not be uderstood to mean that his mother
has an appointment with her surgeon. It is usage problem rather than grammar
problems in extended pieces of writing that immediately identify even the most
proficient of ESL students as non-native speakers. Once again, the short-term
solution to usage problems is to ask a native speaker to check the work; and the long
term solution is to do lots of reading in English.
From the above reasons, vocabulary knowledge has been identified as the most
important. According to Richard (2003, p.252), “vocabulary is a core component of
language proficiency and provides much of the basic for how well language learners
speak, listen, read and writing”. It cause the difficulties that learners cannot
recognize the words they learned before when facing in a context of writing. Thus,

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they should learn a lot of vocabularies as much as they can by putting new words to
the particular context and combining it with others in its context. “ Students should
be active creating semantic connections between familiar words and new vocabulary
in contextual situations” ( Nagy and Aderson, 1984).
2.2.1.2 Grammar/syntax
“English grammar is the body of rules that describe the structure of expressions
inn the English languagge.” (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). It is as the
body of rules that describe the structure of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences in
the English language. Developing a solid foundation in basic English grammar helps

leaners construct sentences correctly and makes it easier to improve both their
spoken and written communication skills. Thus, grammar is essential part of
studying English. When approachhing to a new language like English, learners have
to start to study grammar. If they have a good knowledge of grammar, they will
study English well, especially in writing. Therefore, they may use the appropriate
struture in forming sentences when they practice writing skill.
However, the grammatical rules of English language are not the same as the
grammatical rules of Vietnamese. Hence, it is difficult for students to use English
grammar properly that leads to they also usually make the common mistakes in
speaking and writing English sentences. In fact, their mother tongue’s grammar has
a strong influence on learning another new language. This leads to the intervention
of their mother tongue’s grammar to foreign language’s structure. Nguyen Thi
Phuong (2013, p.11) also shows that “the grammar of their mother tongue seems to
be deeply rooted in their mind so students tend to inference their mother tongue
structure to the the structure of foreign language”. Besides, students also meet
difficulties in their writing such as tense, word order, punctuation, etc. Sentences
reflect various syntactic structures (Reid, 1983). However, incapable learners use
incorrect, and fragmented sentences (West 1996, in Tsegaye 2006, p.16). Kharma
(1986) states that “those students who have the problem of writing good sentences

11


structures are unable to produce longer sentences requiring subordination and
coordination”. According to Zamel (1985, p.79), “cohesive devices are crucial in
writing. However, the linking devices have been found to be problematic for English
language students”. Somtimes, students do not know how to write the sentence with
correct tense and they also connect their sentences by word – by – word from
“Google translate” because they do not check carefully after perfecting their writing.
Furthermore, learners have a number of problems in their attempts to write in the

second or foreign language . “as verbs take different forms depending on tense and
subjects they are used with, they create problems for the second or foreign language
writing students” (Tyner, 1987). Indeed, Kharma (1987) in Melese (2007, p.12)
argues, “students often have problems with subject verb agreements, pronoun
references, and connectors.
All languages have grammar, and each language has its own grammar. People
who speak the same language are able to communicate because they intuitively
know the grammar system of that language - that is, the rules of making meaning.
Students need to recognize the sounds of English words, the meanings of those
words, and the different ways of putting words together to make meaningful
sentences”. Hence, it is the element that cannot be neglected if students study
English language generally as well as want to be a good writer.
2.2.1.3 Idea organization
An idea organization gets information together so that the mind can make sense
of it. This is a process of creating, developing, and communicating ideas which are
abstract, concrete, or visual. The process includes the process of constructing
through the idea, innovating the concept, developing the process, and bringing the
concept to reality. When discussing about effective writing, learners often think first
about elements like word choice, grammar and mechanic, and content or evidence.
However, a really important part of effective writing is logical organization.

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Having some researchs analyze the problems from the content of the paragraph
writing. According to Kharma (1986), “learners have the problem of structuring the
paragraph, topic development of a paragraph, structuring the whole discourse and a
theme in a discourse”. Pincas (1982), shows that “learners have the problems of
writing united paragraphs because of their failure to use cohesive devices
appropriately”. When the students were asked to write a descriptive paragraph.

Most of them did not follow a beginning, middle, and an end. Students failed to
write an effective topic sentence, supporting details and concluding line. These
samples create the impression that the participants fail to form any clear idea about
their writing topic. As Raimes (1983) indicates that “the other problem of
organization in student’ writing is the difficulty of differentiating a topic and
supporting ideas or generalizations and specific details”. The students fail to
generate ideas and lack appropriate information. Besides, the lack of structure, unity
and irrelevant ideas is usually found in their writings or both paragraphs are lack of
transitional phrases. Indeed, the majority of the students has limited vocabulary and
struggled to express their ideas. Plagiarism is also a serious writing problem among
most of the students. In addition, repetition is another problem. It is evident that
students struggling when they write in English. They sometimes try to plan their
composition and all they think just to pass exam which lead to poor and ineffective
writing at the end. Only a few students able to organize ideas coherently, fulfilled
the required word limit, fewer errors, and seldom include any irrelevant ideas.
Idea organization is one of important elements for learners who studying English
writing. Planning on a method of organizing their essay will help them determine
how to write it. A clear thesis will give their essay purpose and direction, but
choosing a pattern of organization before students will ensure that every part of your
essay works to support and develop that thesis. In fact, organizing the idea before
they write gives their ideas a structure that they can follow as them to develop their
draft; it allows them to articulate, analyze, and clarify their thoughts. Hence, learners
should study how to organize the ideas effectively.

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2.2.2 Difficulties related to background knowledge
Background knowledge is the knowledge acquired through study or experience or
instruction information and it is essential to understanding a situation or problem. In

fact, background knowledge also is very necessary for students learning language to
have a good writing. It is not only consisting of the background knowledge of many
fields in life such as business, technology, science, history but also including the
knowledge of cultural background of language which they are learning.
As Proverb (1990), affirms that “background knowledge includes knowledge of
target culture, knowledge of curents affairs, arts, politics and literature”. Although it
is very important in their writing skill, students also lack information about some the
new or familiar topic. Therefore, they do not know how to express what they want to
show in their writing and they are confused to display their thoughts. Moreover,
with poor background knowledge, students can make their readers be bored intead
of building the good ideas to attract them.
In fact, background knowledge is required that students have variety knowledge
on many fields to apply them to their writing. While Anderson and Lynch (2002),
state that “lack of socio-cultural, factual and contextual knowledge of the target
language can also present an obstacle to comprehension because language is used to
express cultural”, Davis (1988, p.44), also finds that “students felt better prepared to
write a research paper when they took part beforehand in an extended course of
building background knowledge through individual research and in-class sharing
and discussion”.
2.3 Previous studies
2.3.1 Argumentative Writing Difficulties of Thai English Major Students
(Maleerat ka-kan-dee; Sarjit kaur, 2014)
In this research, think aloud protocols (TAs) were used as a tool for analysing
argumentative writing difficulties encountered by 60 juniors Thai EFL English
major students. This method employed cognitive processes to study the difficulties

14


in writing while students generate their writing. Knowledge about university

students’ difficulties with academic writing was not adequately descriptive to
effectively diagnose the features of students’ problems with writing nor give
valuable feedback. There was a critical need to investigate the difficulties
experienced by Thai EFL English major students when writing in argumentative
essays. This study employed think aloud protocols to identify the difficulties faced
by Thai EFL English major students when writing argumentative essays. Findings
from the study revealed that students articulated the following difficulties:
vocabulary, grammar structure, providing solid evidence, structure of writing
argumentative essays, time constraints, organising ideas, fulfilling task demand,
understanding the questions, L1 transfer and translating, and writing thesis
statements. Based on these findings, this study put forward useful insights on Thai
tertiary students’ writing difficulties with a complete description of the writing
problems faced by the learners in selected Thai public universities.
2.3.2 Analysing Errors among Form One Students’ Written English
Composition in a Private Chinese School
Students’ studying in a private Chinese school had to master three languages
which were Malay, English and Chinese. The first language was Chinese and
English which was the second language acquired in school. Students faced problems
in learning the English language as they need to master the four skills listening,
speaking, reading and writing. Out of these four skills, writing was the major
problem among the students. So, this study was aimed at in analyzing errors made
by the form one students studying in a private Chinese school in the writing
component. There were thirty seven students who wrote an essay on ‘The Hero’s
Journey’. As the students were from Chinese speaking community who only spoke
English language during the lessons, they found it difficult to write essays especially
when there is a need to express them. All their errors in the essays were identified
and classified into various categories. The results showed that the most common
errors were made in mechanics, tenses, prepositions, subject-verb-agreement and

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word choice. This study had highlighted some aspects shared by the students and
teachers who were teaching them to internalize the rules of the target language –
English language. This study would be enable English as second language students
to understand the nature of the problems faced by students in writing essays and
thus, prepare effective teaching materials to teach the students to write a better piece
of essay.

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CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH AIMS - RESEARCH QUESTIONS – HYPOTHESIS
3.1 Research aims
The research is conducted to find out difficulties that English major juniors at Tay
Do University have faced in writing compositions .The main purpose of this
research is to help them recognize their difficulties in English writing skill.
Therefore, students can choose the appropriate methods to improve their writing
skill.
3.2 Research questions
This research is required to deal the following research questions:
 Do juniors of English majored at Tay Do University face difficulties in
writing compositions?
 What are common difficulties in English writing of English major junior at
Tay Do University?
3.2 Hypothesis
Writing is an intricate and complex task and it is most difficult of all languages to
acquire. The difficulties are for learners English as foreign language in Vietnam in
general, and English major juniors at Tay Do University. Actually, through the

literature review and research question, this research is hypothesized that English
major junior will face some common difficulties in English writing composition
such as vocabulary, grammar, background knowledge and so on.

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CHAPTER 4
RESEARCH METHOLOGY
4.1 Design
The research is carried out to answers the research questions and to test the
hypothesis at chapter 3. The researcher wants to find out the difficulties that English
major juniors at Tay Do University have often faced in writing skill. The reliability
and validity of the research results are based on two instruments including of the
questionaire and the interview and the main key of this research is participants. They
are 30 English majored juniors who will be distributed a questionnaire to answer
statements in the questionnaire. Furthermore, to make the research more specific and
more objective, 10 students were randomly chosen to answer the interview
questions. This research is the combination of quantitative and qualitative research
because its instruments are questionnaire and interview.
4.2 Participants
The participants of this research are 30 juniors from the English majored class,
course 9 (2014-2018) at Tay Do University. They come from different areas, both
rural and urban. This students’ age raged from 20 to 25 consisting of 9 males and 21
females. They speak Vietnamese as their mother tongue and English is considered as
their foreign language. Participants have been learning English from 10-15 years.
The main material of majored English in writing skill is the Interaction 3 (writing)
and their documents’ teacher supplied.
4.3 Instruments
The instruments of this research include the questionnaire and the interview. The

questionaire is used to collect the participants’ ideas. To verify the truth of the
information given in the questionaire, students’ interview is designed with the aim
of confirming the hypothesis and getting more detailed information.

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4.3.1 Questionnaire
The questionaire is considered very significant and used it as an intruments in the
research because this intrument can be use to gather the numbers of the information
and questionaire can help the researcher and the paticipants save much time. The
questionnaire includes two parts. Part 1 consists of 8 questions which investigated
the students’ background such as this participants’ years of studying, learners’
practicing time, learning motivation. In part 2, there are 21 statements listed which
are divided into 5 scales such as strongly agree, agree, no ideas, disagree and
strongly disagree in a table. The participants will tick on the appropriate column for
each statement so that it can be their suitable idea or thinking. In the table,
statements 1, 2, 3 and 4 focus on students’ attitude toward writing. In addition, the
difficulties of students in writing skill are mentioned from 5 to 21. The difficulties
are related to many problems including vocabulary (related to word choice and word
use) (from 5 to 8), grammar/syntax (from 9 to 14), idea organization (from 15 to
17), and background knowledge (from 18 to 21).
4.3.2 Interview
The interview for students is designed to get the specific information about the
difficulties in writing skill of English major juniors at Tay Do University. It consists
of four questions. Question 1 is to investigate students’ attitude about writing
English. Question 2 is to inquire students’ attitude about the difficulties in writing
skill. Question 3 makes to know about students’ common difficulties when writing.
Finally, question 4 aims to know what is the most difficulty of the students when
writing English.

4.4

Procedure

In this section, the process of carrying out the research was presented. It was
perfected within 8 weeks and this process is divided into 3 steps. All the activities of
conducting the research are listed in the following table.

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