Factors affecting learners’ essay writing skills for ielts a study at alt ielts gia su center

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

TO NGOC PHUONG THAO

FACTORS AFFECTING LEARNERS’
ESSAY WRITING SKILLS FOR IELTS: A
STUDY AT ALT IELTS GIA SU CENTER

Major: English Language
Course code: 8220201

HO CHI MINH CITY, APRIL 2020


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

FACTORS AFFECTING LEARNERS’
ESSAY WRITING SKILLS FOR IELTS: A
STUDY AT ALT IELTS GIA SU CENTER
Submitted to the
Faculty of English Language
in partial fulfillment of the Master‟s degree in English Language

Course code: 8220201
By
TO NGOC PHUONG THAO

Supervised by
LE VAN TUYEN, Ph.D.

HO CHI MINH CITY, APRIL 2020


The thesis entitled: FACTORS AFFECTING LEARNERS‟ ESSAY WRITING SKILLS
FOR IELTS: A STUDY AT ALT IELTS GIA SU CENTER was successfully defended and
approved on ………………..at Hochiminh City University of Technology (HUTECH).

Academic supervisor : LÊ VĂN TUYÊN, Ph.D

Examination Committee
1. ……………………………………………………….

Chair

2. ……………………………………………. …………

Reader 1

3. ……………………………………………………….

Reader 2

4. ……………………………………………………….

Member

5. ………………………………………………………..

Secretary Member

On behalf of the Examination Committee Chair

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HCMC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
POSTGRADUATE INSTITUTE
HCMC, April, 2020

MASTER’S THESIS REPORT
Learner name: TÔ NGỌC PHƢƠNG THẢO
Sex: Female
Date of birth: 18/07/1990
Place of birth: Ho Chi Minh City
Major: English Language
Learner code: 1841900007
I- Thesis title:
FACTORS AFFECTING LEARNERS’ ESSAY WRITING SKILLS FOR IELTS:
A STUDY AT ALT IELTS GIA SU CENTER
II- Objectives and contents:
This study aims at investigating the factors that affecting essay writing skills for
IELTS of learners at ALT IELTS Gia Su center, including linguistic and nonlinguistic factors. There were 60 learner participants and 10 teacher participants from
two campuses of the center involved in the study. The data was gathered by a
questionnaire and semi-structured interview. The data were analysed in terms of
means, standard deviations and content analysis. This study found out linguistic
factors including vocabulary and grammar have a more significant influence on
learners‟ essay writing skills than non-linguistic factors which include student
motivation, teacher‟s knowledge, teacher‟s teaching method, teacher‟s attitude and
curriculum. Among linguistic factors, the top three sub-items which have strongest

influence on student essay writing are vocabulary range, topical vocabulary and
grammar knowledge while the least influence belongs to the use of discourse
markers in writing. Regarding non-linguistic vocabulary, curriculum was found to
have the highest influence whereas teacher‟s attitude has the least impact on essay
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writing skills of learners in this center. The study also provides discussion of the
result and useful implications for learners, teachers and administrators.
III- Starting date: 30/10/2019
IV- Completing date: 28/04/2020
V- Academic supervisor: LÊ VĂN TUYÊN, Ph.D
ACADEMIC SUPERVISOR

FACULTY DEAN

(full name, signature)

(full name, signature)

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I certify my authorship of the Master‟s Thesis submitted today entitled:
FACTORS AFFECTING LEARNERS’ ESSAY WRITING SKILLS
FOR IELTS: A STUDY AT ALT IELTS GIA SU CENTER
In terms of the statement of requirements for Theses in Master‟s programs issued by
the Higher Degree Committee of Faculty of English Language, Ho Chi Minh City
University of Technology.

Ho Chi Minh City, April 2020

TO NGOC PHUONG THAO

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RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS
I hereby state that I, TO NGOC PHUONG THAO, being a candidate for the degree of
Master of Arts (English Language) 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 Master‟s Thesis deposited
in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance
with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan, and
reproduction for theses.

Ho Chi Minh City, April 220
Signature…………………………….

TO NGOC PHUONG THAO

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In preparing and writing this thesis, I have benefited greatly from the support of many
lecturers, teachers, friends and learners. First and foremost, I would first like to express
my deepest gratitude to Dr. Le Van Tuyen, my supervisor, for his patience, guidance,

insightful advice, and constant encouragement through the whole research process.
Under any circumstances, he always gives me his warm support and dedication. He
has been a wonderful mentor and I feel grateful for having such a wonderful teacher.
Without his support and guidance, this thesis would never have been completed.
Second, I would also like to show my profound gratitude to all the lecturers of the
Institute for Postgraduate and the Department of English Language in HUTECH for their
tirelessly devoting time and efforts to enrich, broaden and deepen my knowledge over
the past two years.
Third, I would like to send my gratefulness to some of the enthusiastic teachers and
learners from ALT IELTS Gia Su centers who helped me to provide and collect valuable
data for the questionnaire and interview. My work could not be done without the
participation of teachers and learners at this center.
Plus, I would like to thank the management board of ALT IELTS Gia Su for allowing me
to conduct this study. I also would like to send my sincere thanks to one academic staff
who was very dedicated to helping me disseminate the questionnaires, which was really
significant for achieving the required sample.

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ABSTRACT
Writing always plays an essential role in language learning and writing skills
contributes to a learner‟s academic success. However, writing is also the skill which
learners face the most obstacles. This study aims at investigating the factors that
influence essay writing for IELTS of learners at ALT IELTS Gia Su center. More
specifically, it attempts to find out linguistic and non-linguistic factors that affect learner
writing for IELTS. This study involved 8 teachers and 60 learners from two campuses of
ALT IELTS Gia Su (ALTC) in Ho Chi Minh City. This study adopted a sequential mixed
method approach to data collection and analysis. Both quantitative and qualitative data
were gathered from the questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings

revealed that linguistic factors including vocabulary, grammar has stronger influence on
learners‟ writing skills than non-linguistic factors which involved learner motivation,
teacher‟s knowledge, teacher‟s teaching method, teacher‟s attitudes and curriculum. In
addition, among linguistic factors, the factors which had the most major impact on
learners‟ writing are vocabulary range, topical vocabulary and grammar range while the
use of cohesion and discourse markers seemed to have the least impact on learners‟
writing skills compared to other linguistic items. In terms of non-linguistic factors, the
most influential factors belonged to curriculum and learner motivation whereas factors
related to teachers had a less significant impact. Based on the findings of the study,
recommendations for the learners, teachers and administrators are included. It is expected
that the study will contribute to the existing knowledge relating to the field of study,
providing reference for learners, teachers and researchers who study the learning and
teaching of English academic essay in Vietnam.
Keywords: factors, IELTS, essay, writing skills, ALT IELTS Gia Su

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TABLE OF CONTENT
Page
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... v
Abstract… ........................................................................................................................ vi
Table of contents… ........................................................................................................ vii
List of tables… ................................................................................................................ xi
List of figures.................................................................................................................. xii
List of abbreviations… .................................................................................................. xiii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION........................................................................... 1
1.1 Background to the study ............................................................................................. 1
1.2 Statement of the problem ............................................................................................ 4
1.3Aims and objectives of the study................................................................................. 5

1.4 Research questions ...................................................................................................... 5
1.5 Scope of the study ....................................................................................................... 5
1.6 Significance of the study .......................................................................................... 6
1.7 Definition of the key terms .......................................................................................6
1.8 Organization of the study ........................................................................................7
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ..............................................................8
2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 8
2.2 Writing ........................................................................................................................ 8
2.2.1. Definition of writing ...................................................................................... 8
2.2.2. Writing and L2 acquisition .......................................................................... 10
2.2.3. Characteristics of writing ............................................................................ 11
2.3 Teaching and learning L2 writing skills .................................................................. 12
2.3.1 Approaches to teaching L2 writing skills ..................................................... 12
2.3.2 The steps of L2 writing process .................................................................... 14

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2.4 Teaching and learning academic writing ................................................................. 15
2.4.1. Definition of academic writing .................................................................... 15
2.4.2. Teaching and learning academic essay writing ........................................... 16
2.4.3. Techniques for teaching academic essay writing ........................................ 17
2.4.4. Writing essays for IELTS ......................................................................... 18
2.5 Factors affecting essay writing ................................................................................. 19
2.5.1. Linguistic factors ....................................................................................... 19
2.5.2. Non-linguistic factors ............................................................................... 21
2.6 Learning solutions to improve essay writing skills ................................................. 24
2.7 Previous studies ....................................................................................................... 25
2.8 Conceptual framework ............................................................................................ 28
2.9 Chapter summary ................................................................................................... 29

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .............................................................................. 30
3.1 Research design ......................................................................................................... 30
3.2 Research site.............................................................................................................. 30
3.3 Sample and sampling procedures .............................................................................. 31
3.4 Research instruments ............................................................................................ …33

3.4.1 Questionnaire ............................................................................................ 33
3.4.2 Interview .................................................................................................... 35
3.5 Data collection procedures ..................................................................................... 37
3.6 Data analysis procedures ........................................................................................ 38
3.7 Reliability and Validity ......................................................................................... 39
3.8 Chapter summary .................................................................................................. 40

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ...................................................... 42
4.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 42
4.2 Results of the study................................................................................................... 42
4.2.1 Linguistic factors ......................................................................................... 42
4.2.1.1 Vocabulary factors ............................................................................ 42
4.2.1.2 Grammar factors .............................................................................. 46

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4.2.2 Non- linguistic factors ................................................................................. 50
4.2.2.1 Learner motivation ........................................................................... 50
4.2.2.2 Teacher‟s knowledge ....................................................................... 53
4.2.2.3 Teacher‟s teaching methods ............................................................. 53
4.2.2.4 Teachers‟ attitudes ........................................................................... 57
4.2.2.5 Curriculum ........................................................................................ 58
4.2.3 Summary ....................................................................................................... 61

4.3 Discussion ................................................................................................................. 62
4.4.1 Linguistic factors ......................................................................................... 62
4.4.2 Non-linguistic factors ................................................................................... 63
4.4 Chapter summary .................................................................................................. 65
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS ....................................... 66
5.1 Summary of the main findings of the thesis ............................................................. 66
5.2 Implications of the research ..................................................................................... 66
5.2.1 Implications for learners .............................................................................. 66
5.2.2 Implications for teachers ............................................................................... 67
5.2.3 Implications for administrators ..................................................................... 68
5.3 Limitations of the research ...................................................................................... 68
5.4 Recommendation for further research ..................................................................... 69
REFERENCE .............................................................................................................. 70
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................. 79
APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR LEARNERS (English Version) ........ 79
APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR LEARNERS (Vietnamese Version) .. 81
APPENDIX 3: LEARNER SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW (English
Version) ..................................................................................................................... 83
APPENDIX 4: LEARNER SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW (Vietnamese
Version) .................................................................................................................... 84
APPENDIX 5: TEACHER SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW (English
Version) ................................................................................................................ 85

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APPENDIX 6: TEACHER SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW (Vietnamese
Version) ................................................................................................................. 86
APPENDIX 7: EXCERPT OF THE LEARNER INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
(English Version) .................................................................................................. 87

APPENDIX 8: EXCERPT OF THE TEACHER INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
(English Version) ................................................................................................. 92
APPENDIX 9: IELTS TASK 2 WRITING BAND DESCRIPTOR (Public
Version)………………………………………………………………………………100
PLAGIARISM CHECKING REPORT……………………………………………102

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1: Demographic information of learner participants .......................... 32
Table 3.2: Demographic information of teacher participants ......................... 33
Table 3.3 Questionnaire Topics....................................................................... 34
Table 3.4 Methods of data analysis in relation to the research questions and
instruments ..................................................................................................... 39
Table 3.5: Cronbach‟s Alpha indexes of the learner questionnaire items ...... 39
Table 4.1: Descriptive Statistics of Vocabulary Factors ................................ 43
Table 4.2: Descriptive Statistics of Grammar Factors ................................... 47
Table 4.3: Descriptive Statistics of Idea Factors ............................................ 52
Table 4.4: Descriptive Statistics of Non-linguistic Factors – Learner Motivation
……. ................................................................................................................ 50
Table 4.5: Descriptive Statistics of Non- Linguistic Factors – Teacher‟s
Knowledge ……. .............................................................................................. 53
Table 4.6: Descriptive Statistics of Non-Linguistic Factors- Teachers‟ Teaching
Method ............................................................................................................ 54
Table 4.7: Descriptive Statistics of Non-Linguistic Factors – Teachers‟ attitude
……. ................................................................................................................ 57
Table 4.8: Descriptive Statistics of Non-Linguistic Factors – Curriculum ..... 58
Table 4.9: Descriptive Statistics of Non- Linguistic Factors ......................... 61
Table 4.10: Descriptive Statistics of Linguistic Factors and Non-Linguistic Factors

……. ................................................................................................................ 61

xi


LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1: The Conceptual Framework…………………………………………………28

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LIST OF ABBREVIATION
ALTC:

ALT IELTS Gia Su Center

IELTS:

The International English Language Testing System

L1:

First Language

L2:

Second Language

SPSS

Statistical Package for Social Sciences

TOEFL:

Test of English as a Foreign Language

TOEIC:

Test of English for International Communication

xiii


CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the study
Nowadays, English has played a pivotal role in almost any field in our lives. It is
the global language and having ability to use English is considered a significant
benchmark in both the academic and work environment, acting as a ladder on which
the learners can climb to achieve higher success in their study and profession. Since
learners possess different level of English, a system of national or international
standards needs to be established in order to better judge learners‟ English
proficiency. Currently there are a number of global standardized English testing
exams such as IELTS, TOEFL TOEIC, etc. Among these, IELTS has become the
most popular standardized test in Vietnam, which is used by many national and
international institutions to judge the language ability in serving recruitment or serve
university admission purposes. The number of test takers sitting in for this exam is
increasing every year in Vietnam. It has become a common trend for a high school
learner or an office worker to follow an IELTS preparation course, in order to apply
for overseas university or equip themselves with the necessary skills and knowledge

for global challenges. Among the four skills, writing is regarded as the most difficult
language as it the last skills in the natural sequence of language development.
There are several types of writing but the most common form of writing for
most learners is academic writing. Oshima and Hogue (2007) considered academic
writing as a kind of formal writing required in schools and college courses, which
totally differs from personal and creative writing. Most people who know English
engage in some sort of writing frequently, through writing emails and letters to
friends or work purposes, chatting with relatives, corresponding with different
institute or communicating on social networks or simply completing some homework
tasks. However, when it comes to academic writing, more standards are required
since everything has to be put in academic contexts. According to Lowe and
Zemliansky (2010), academic writing is a kind of assessment that requires you to
demonstrate your knowledge and proficiency with certain displines in thinking,
interpreting, and presenting. So in order to perform well in writing, certain criteria
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need to be reached. Writers have to employ a wide range of academic vocabulary and
pay more attention to the format, styles as well as have good organization of the
content.
Most learners may not get used to writing and they face many difficulties when
it comes to writing. Elbow (2010, p.xiv) stated “Most people have had bad
experiences with writing. They have come to dislike it or fear it and usually they
avoid it”. In order to write a piece of appropriate information, learners need to meet
different requirements and have to confirm to a large number of rules concerning
grammatical structure, vocabulary use, sentence structure, cohesiveness and
punctuation. Therefore, people often develop anxiety and nervousness when it comes
to writing. Langan (2011) stated that the difficulty and complicatedness of academic
writing stem from the fact that writing involves discovering a thesis, developing
support ideas, organizing, making revision, and finally editing it to ensure the

smoothness and minimize the error in the written piece. Developing writing skills
entails time and effort as well as an effective approach. According to Heaton and
Harmer (1988), writing is a complex skill to acquire because the learners not only
have to possess a mastery of grammar, knowledge sharing and the combination of
writing element. In order to write well, learners have to possess sufficient English
skills as well as other non-linguistic factors. They should be strong at grammar since
a piece of writing is a combination of different sentences and different structures built
together to form the spin of writing and act as the frame for the content to develop.
Also, vocabulary is also another tough issue because in order to express one‟s
opinion, he should be capable of using a wide range of vocabulary naturally and
correctly. Adas and Bakir (2013) called attention to the lack of full understanding of
English vocabulary for international ESL students and how they can overcome
difficulties and express themselves effectively with good vocabulary resources.
Productive skills like speaking and writing account for little class time in the
curriculum. The teaching of writing also does not receive enough attention and
investigation in most preparation courses. Hyland (2003) have pointed out that
language teachers should understand the reason why writing skill is instructed since it
has high value and quite complex to be fostered in a short time of learning. This
means teachers as well as administrators should invest time and pay enough attention
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to the conduct of writing class, its purpose and method. They should also make the
most of the class time for writing to maximize the effectiveness of writing class.
Research by Bagheri (2016) mentioned teachers‟ belief on writing errors of students
and one of the beliefs is that curriculum developers do not pay sufficient attention to
writing courses. Students also do not see the importance of studying writing and treat
it as a separate skill or subject; therefore, they cannot fully integrate the other
language skills acquired from English lessons to their writing production.
Regarding the learning and teaching of IELTS writing, according to Lewthwaite

(2006), in order to produce sufficient answer to writing task, appropriate vocabulary,
syntax variety, format organization and background knowledge are required. Learners
have to possess adequate vocabulary resources in their writing, vary their sentence
structure, have topical knowledge for several subjects and organize the content in the
required format of IELTS essay. This can pose several challenges for learners of
different levels since several skills are needed to arrive at a proper essay within the
time limit. According to the statistics provided by IELTS official website
(), for academic version, the average score for writing is 5.6 and 5.5 for
female and male candidates respectively, which is the lowest compared to that of
other skills. For listening, reading and speaking, the average score is 6.3, 6.2 and 6.0
for female and 6.2, 6.1 and 5.9 for male candidates. Candidates‟ writing scores are
often lower than the other skills, and this may due to the distinctive nature of writing,
which is a productive skill, as well as the requirement of IELTS essays in general. It
can be implied from this result that learners may encounter more problems when
dealing with the writing tasks than other skills. At ALT Gia Su center, class time is
allocated on the four skills of English including writing. Students are taught
knowledge and skills on how to produce an essay on the format of IELTS as well as
essential skills related to academic writing. Learners also have chance to take the full
test or mid-term and final term assessment. Some learners received adequate score
for writing to pass the level while others failed the final tests and had to restudy the
level. There are a number of factors ruling the performance of learners in writing at
this center. Therefore, there is a need to conduct research on the factors influencing
writing skills of learners for IELTS essays at this center so that recommendation and
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implications can be made to improve the learning and teaching of essay writing at
ALT center.

1.2. Statement of the problem

Learners of IELTS courses as well as people planning to take the real test are
faced with different issues concerning writing ability, especially in task 2 essay
writing. According to the IELTS official website (), in this task,
learners have to complete a 250-word essay on a specific topic in 40 minutes in either
paper form or computer platform. The topics vary from education, social issues,
environment, technology, crime, to art and architecture. The four criteria of marking
learners‟ answers are task response, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource,
grammatical range and accuracy. Test takers are often stressed most about the writing
section and it is a common trend that in most learners‟ results, the lowest score in the
4 skills belongs to writing. Several mistakes and shortcomings are found in learners‟
essays and this need to be overcome if the learners want to achieve the target score.
Also, during the studying process, learners may also encounter with a lot of
challenges regarding writing an appropriate essay and this causes them plenty of
confusion.
In ALT IELTS Gia Su Center (henceforth called ALTC),a number of learners
failed the final test of the course and had to retake the course as they could not
achieve the required writing score. Also in the real exams, some learners could not
reach their target score due to the lack of writing score. Therefore, this can cause
some interruptions in their career and study plans and it takes time and money to
revise and improve skills to prepare for another test. Nunan (1989) assumed that
learning to write with good fluency and expressiveness is the most challenging of the
micro skills for all language users regardless of whether the language in question is
the mother tongue, second or foreign language. Although there has been much
research into writing as well as academic writing, studies on the learning and
teaching of IELTS essay writing has been fairly limited in Vietnam. Hence, it is
critically important to conduct research into specific problems including factors that
affect learners‟ writing performance so that more insights can be gained and more
steps can be taken to help learners improve their writing skills as well as enhance the
effectiveness of IELTS preparation courses.
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1.3. Aims and objectives of the study
The aim of the study is to investigate the various factors that can affect the
IELTS essay writing performance of learners at ALTC. It aims at finding out the
specific factors that lie behind their writing ability. To put it specifically, the
objectives of this study are to explore linguistic and non-linguistic factors which
affect learners‟ essay writing skills in the IELTS preparation courses at ALTC.

1.4. Research questions
The study attempts to address the two following research questions:
1) What are the linguistic factors that affect learners‟ essay writing skills for
IELTS at ALTC?
2) What are the non-linguistic factors that affect learners‟ essay writing skills for
IELTS at ALTC?

1.5. Scope of the study
This study did not take into consideration the other types of writing or academic
writing apart from essay in the form of IELTS. This study was conducted in ALTC in
two campuses, including Le Hong Phong campus in district 10 and Hoang Dieu
campus in district 4. The other campuses were not sampled due to the inconvenience of
location and the lack of available human resources to support the research process. The
participants that were surveyed are learners from Foundation to 6.0. Learners in PreFoundation level are not involved in the study since learners in this level has little
basic knowledge on writing and essay writing has not yet been integrated in the
syllabus of this level. Learners with level above 6.0 were aslo not included in the
participants.
The methodological procedure not employed was observation. Since the class
size in this ALTC is quite small, ranging from one to maximum five learners per
class, conducting the observation would cause inconvenience and disruption in the
learning process. Learners and the teacher in charge could feel uneasy and unnatural

to perform their usual learning and teaching activities. Therefore, interview and
questionnaire are more appropriate for the collection of data in this context.

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1.6 Significance of the study
The current study which explored factors influencing learners‟ writing skills for
IELTS is significant at both practical and theoretical levels.
At a practical level, since writing plays a pivotal role in contributing to students‟
academic performance and success, especially in standardized exams like IELTS, the
present study is timely and useful for both teachers and learners. Specifically, this study
has identified several factors categorized in two groups of linguistic and non-linguistic
factors that affect essay writing skills of learners, which provide a better overview of the
learning and teaching context of essay writing. These findings may help significant
others such as teachers, learners, administrators, parents and people involved in the
IELTS training sector as a whole. These understandings may help to improve the quality
of teaching and learning of essay writing for academic purposes in Vietnam.
At a theoretical level, the present study complements existing literature of factors
and problems impacting the learning and teaching of essay writing (Raimes, 1993).
There seems to be a lack of research, however, on the non-linguistic factors that
influence learners‟ essay writing. Results of this study will contribute to the growing
literature on the training of essay writing for standardized exams and academic purposes.
It will further provide local input to administrators as to organizational strategies aimed
at making the academic writing classes program more effective. It can help inform
existing teaching practices and the improvement of future teacher training programs.

1.7 Definition of the key terms
For the purpose of this study, many terms must be determined to provide a
particular way of considering the issues presented. The following terminology will be

used regularly in the study in accordance with these definitions:
 Factor means what affect learners when they write IELTS essays. In the study
factors consist of linguistic and non-linguistic factors.
 Learners: people who are taking IELTS courses at ALTC at levels ranging
from 3.5 to 6.0 score. They are high school students, university students and
working people with age ranging from 15 to 50
 Essay: a text or a piece of writing that learners compose, in response to IELTS
task 2 writing.
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 Linguistic factors: factors including grammar and vocabulary
 Non-linguistic factors: factors including student motivation, teachers‟ teaching
method, teachers‟ knowledge, teachers‟ attitude and curriculum

1.8 Organization of the study
The study consists of five chapters. The study begins with chapter 1 which
provides the background of the study, statement of the problem, aims and objectives of
the study, research questions, scope of the study, significance of the study and
definitions of the key terms. Chapter two presents the literature review the research
which includes definition and characteristics of writing, teaching and learning L2
writing skills, teaching and learning academic writing, factors affecting essay writing,
learning solutions to improve essay writing skills, previous studies and conceptual
framework of the study. Chapter three describes the methodology of the study,
including research design, research site, sample and sampling procedures, research
instruments, data collection procedures, data analysis procedures, and reliability and
validity. Chapter four provides detailed result of the study and offer discussion on the
result. Chapter five ends the study with summary of the main findings of the thesis and
implications for learners, teachers and administrators, as well as presents limitations of
the research and recommendation for further research.

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
There are different literature aspects that need to be taken into consideration when
conducting a study on the factors influencing IELTS essay writing skills of learners.
These can be classified into four main categories: writing, the teaching and learning
second language writing skills, teaching and learning academic writing and essay, the
factors affecting IELTS essay writing, and the learning strategies used for improving
essay writing skills. Also, previous studies and research were reviewed and compared to
show the gap in research. Lastly, a conceptual framework was proposed to lay the
foundation for the research of the next chapters.

2.2 Writing
2.2.1 Definition of writing and writing skills
Several definitions have been proposed on the definition of “writing” in language
learning and teaching. However, nobody can come up with the accurate description of
writing as writing itself varies in styles, purposes and formats and holds different
meanings. That is to say, writing in one sense is the production of sentences as instance
of usages. Rogers (2005) argued that writing is not a language. Language is a
sophisticated system lying in our brains which enables us to create and understand
utterance. Writing involves making an utterance visible. Crystal (1999, p.214) also
stated that “writing is not a merely mechanical task, a simple matter of putting speech
down on paper. It is an exploration in the use of the graphic potential of a language – a
creative process- an act of discovery”. According to Nunan (2003), writing is a physical
and mental act. It is about discovering ideas, thinking about how to communicate,
develop them into statements and paragraphs that will be comprehensible to a reader.

Writing has dual purposes, to express and to impress. Writing is also a process and a
product. The writer creates, plans, writes various drafts, revises, edits and publishes.
Nunan (1989, p.36) also stated that writing is “an extremely complex, cognitive activity
8


for all which the writer is required to demonstrate control of a number of variables
simultaneously”.
According to Raimes (1983), writing has several aims which include the purpose
of communicating to a reader, expressing an idea in an indirect situation where there is
no face-to-face interaction, explore about a subject, record personal experience, or make
oneself more familiar with writing in another language. Here in this context, writing is
more likely about training oneself on how to express oneself in the written form of
another language so as to increase one‟s linguistic competence and ability. Also writing
is considered a powerful tool as mentioned in this quotation “although writing is not this
explosive, it is one of the humankind's powerful tool. But they are sometimes confused
about the source of its power” (McArthur, 2008, p.1). Writing includes complicated and
specific skills which needs learning. According to White and Arndt (1991, p.83),
“writing is not a natural activity. All physically and mentally normal people speak a
language. Yet all people have to be taught how to write”.
Brown (2010) classified writing skills into types, micro and macro skills.
According to him, micro skills involves the ability to produce graphemes and
orthographic patterns of English, a competent speed required, ability to apply proper
words and suitable word order, correct grammatical use and the ability to express an
ideas in using different grammatical structure, and the use of linkers and connectors to
ensure cohesiveness. On the other hand, macro skills include the use of rhetorical forms
and conventional rules in writing, achieving the purpose of communication, providing
links and connections between ideas and events, distinguishing between literal meaning
and indirect implication, expressing specific culture factors in the given context, and the
development of writing strategies (Brown, 2010). Myles (2002) pointed out that good

writing skills cannot simply be developed to frequent exposure to target language, but it
must be learnt or culturally trained in a formal instructional context. According to
Peterson (1990), the essential components that writers have to develop in order to write
well include the mechanics, grammar, vocabulary and spelling, as well as sentence
construction.
Hedge (2000, p.302) claimed that “writing is the result of employing strategies to
manage the composing process. It involves a number of activities: setting goals,
generating information, selecting appropriate language, making draft, reading and
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