Teaching essay writing to English language specializing student at Le Hong Phong specialised Secondary School Nghiên cứu việc dạy viết luận cho học sinh chuyên

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************





BY : TRẦN THỊ HÀ


TEACHING ESSAY WRITING TO ENGLISH Language specializing
STUDENTS at L£ Hång Phong specialised
secondary school, Nam §ÞNH city
(nghiên cứu việc dạy viết luận cho học sinh chuyên Anh
trường Trung học Phổ Thông chuyên Lê Hồng Phong, Nam Định)

M.A Minor Thesis


Field: English Methodology
Code: 60 14 40
MA course 16

HA NOI – 2010

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************





BY : TRẦN THỊ HÀ


TEACHING ESSAY WRITING TO ENGLISH Language specializing
STUDENTS at L£ Hång Phong specialised
secondary school, Nam §ÞNH city
(nghiên cứu việc dạy viết luận cho học sinh chuyên Anh
trường Trung học Phổ Thông chuyên Lê Hồng Phong, Nam Định)

M.A Minor Thesis


Field: English Methodology
Code: 60 14 40
MA course 16
Supervisor: Le Van Canh, M.A

HA NOI – 2010

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Acknowledgement
Abstract
List of tables, figures and appendices
Chapter One: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale 1
1.2. State of the problem 2
1.3. Aims of the study 3
1.4. Research questions 3
1.5. Scope of the study 3
1.6. Method of the study 4
1.7 Design of the study 4
Chapter Two: Literature Review
2.1. An overview of writing 5
2.1.1. Academic writing and essay writing 6
2.1.2. Place of writing in foreign language programs 7
2.2. Major approaches to teaching writing 9
2.2.1. The product approach 9
2.2.2. The process approach 10
2.3. Essay writing as a form of Academic writing 12
2.4. Challenges of teaching and learning essay writing 13

2.5. Conclusions 14



iv
Chapter Three: The Study
3.1. The context of the study 15
3.2. Methodology 16
3.2.1. Participants 16
3.2.2. Instruments 17
3.3. Data collection procedures 18
3.4. Data collection and data analysis 19
Chapter Four: Conclusions
4.1. Summary of the major findings and discussion 37
4.2. Implications 38
4.3. Recommendations and suggestions 38
4.4. Limitations of the study 40
4.5. Suggestions for further studies 41
REFERENCES 42

v
LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS


Table 1: The frequency of using classroom activities by teachers in writing lessons
Table 2: The students’ perception of the activities used by teachers in terms of their
usefulness
Table 3: The teacher’ perceived value of classroom activities used in terms of their
usefulness
Table 4: The students’ satisfaction of teachers’ classroom activities
Table 5: Teacher’s perceived value of students’ satisfaction of the classroom activities.
Chart 1: The frequency of writing essay by students








vi

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A ( A questionnaire completed by the students)
APPENDIX B( A questionnaire completed by the teachers)
APPENDIX C ( Questions for the interview)
APPENDIX D ( Observation classroom)

1
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Rationale

In terms of opportunities, nationally, it can be seen that, foreign language education
policy and accompanying student attitudes and motivation have become crucial issues in
the national development of Vietnam and in the personal advancement of individual
Vietnamese over the last twenty years. Social changes have resulted in foreign language
changes, and thus, attitude and job changes. This choice of English, in particular, has
greatly influenced education, especially higher education, and has continued to leave its
impact on the society. Now English is introduced into the lower secondary curriculum
from grade 3, and it is one of the national examinations that students have to pass for the
general education Diploma.

Foreign languages, especially English, began to be used widely in education and in
daily-life activities. As a matter of fact, the status of foreign languages, particularly
English, was reconfirmed by an Order, signed by the Prime Minister (August 15, 1994), in
which government officials would be required to study foreign languages, mainly and
favorably English. It is obviously seen that the objectives of new textbook provides
adequate contribution to 4 language skills, but in fact, for many Vietnamese students
presenting written work is a substantial challenge. They have little experience of writing
and may be very anxious about having to write essays marked by a tutor. To the best of my
knowledge, our English language specializing students are not very keen on essay writing
tasks, their performance in writing test is unsatisfactory, and I would like to understand
why the situation as it is. That is the reason why I am going to conduct this research.

2
1.2.State of the problem

Nurturing and training the talents is a burdensome and primary mission of the
system of specialized schools through the nation. In order to train the language specializing
students for the nation, nurturing the excellent requires a special education that
differentiates from one for the normal students. Due to this crucial mission, the Ministry of
Education and Training (MOET) has been implementing the renovation of textbooks on
English on a large scale since 2006 and “ Tieng Anh 10, 11, 12 nang cao” have been used
to teach language specializing pupils . In addition, MOET does not intend to fix specific
curricula used for language specializing students but suggest and constructs a frame of
content and skills for the whole grade and for each of the classes basing on the above-
mentioned syllabi. This flexibility of the curriculum for the language specializing students
provides teachers at language specializing schools in general and at Le Hong Phong
specialized secondary school in particular with more chances to collect materials suitable
for their teaching. Besides, according to MOET’s regulations, from 2000 the annual
national tests for language specializing students need to be designed consistently in
structures which are coincident with the required teaching contents and writing essays is
one of the compulsory parts in the test (in the writing part). This is a rather difficult task as
it contains exact measurements and the students have to present them objectively. In
addition, writing essay has been considered a difficult and boring subject for both foreign
language teachers and students. It also takes much time and energy to make progress in this
skill. Approaches to teaching writing have long been classified by many researchers and
applied in many classrooms, modified by many teachers of writing. Teaching essay writing
is one of these above approaches but to Vietnamese learners, teachers of writing are
supposed to three key factors: Motivation, Rhetorical patterns and Coherence. It is mainly

mentioned that a teaching approach to essay writing for Vietnamese learners focuses on a
rhetorical idea development in which teachers guide learners to be independent to expand
the supporting ideas and use specific examples to make ideas persuasive.

For the above mentioned reasons, the researcher would like to study essay writing
procedure, teacher’s activities in writing lessons to find out students’ opinions on as well

3
as attitudes towards learning and writing essays. Therefore, the intention in doing this
research the researcher will help teachers of writing, students in some way find appropriate
methods, techniques to write a better essay.

1.3.Aims of the study

This study is aimed to:
(1) Examine kinds of approach of the teaching of essay writing used by teachers of
writing at Le Hong Phong specialized secondary school
(2) Explore common activities used by teachers at Le Hong Phong specialized
secondary school to develop students’ essay writing skill and students’ attitudes towards
those activities.

1.4. Research questions
The study was carried out in order to find out the answers to 3 research questions
(1) What are the common activities do teachers use to develop students’ essay writing
skills?
(2) What are the students’ perceptions of the usefulness of those activities to their
writing proficiency?
(3) To what extent do those activities satisfy the students’ expectations?
1.5. Scope of the study

The study is focused on only students from the 11
th
grade, an English language
specializing class at Le Hong Phong specialized secondary school. Because it is the first
time they have officially been taught how to write an essay. Yet, the study results cannot
be true to all Vietnamese students. Thus, my suggestions for essay teaching and learning
writing might work well only groups of language specializing students at secondary
school.


4
1.6. Method of the study

This study is conducted in the combination of quantitative and qualitative method.
Data were collected by means of survey questionnaires, classroom observation and
interview. The researcher believes that the combination of different methods to collect data
could provide more reliable and valid information for analysis. Questionnaires of small
groups of English language specializing students and semi-structured interview are used to
discover their perception of classroom activities used by the teacher in terms of their
usefulness and their learning needs and expectations towards teachers. Questionnaire and
post-classroom observation interview with teachers of writing are to explore their common
activities used in the way that help their students with essay writing skill as well as their
perceived value of those activities.

1.7. Design of the study

The research consists of four chapters. The first chapter presents the rationale, the
statement of the problem, the aims, research questions, the scope of the study, research
methods as well as the design of the study. The second chapter conceptualizes the
framework through the discussion of issues and ideas on theories for academic writing,

approaches to essay writing teaching, challenges of teaching and learning essay writing.
The third chapter presents the context of the study and explains the methodology used in
the study including population information, instrumentation, data collection, data
procedures, data analysis and findings. The last chapter summarizes major findings and
discussion, implications, limitations and provides recommendations for further study.








5

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. An overview of writing

Writing is the expression of language in the form of letters, symbols, or words.
The primary purpose of writing is communication. Good writing gets your ideas out of
your head and into the reader's head without losing or distorting those ideas" (Leki 1976:
4); "Writing can be said to be the art of performing graphic symbols" (Byrne 1990: 1) or
simply writing is like "making marks on a flat surface of some kind" However, writing is
far more complicated process of transforming the material discovered
by
research
inspiration, accident, trial, error or whatever into the message with a decision. Writing is
also a difficult activity for most people, both in the mother tongue and in a foreign
language.

From another view of writing, Murray (1978:29) and Perl (1979:43) defined
writing as “a creative discovery procedure characterized by the dynamic interplay of
content and language: the use of language to explore beyond the known content.”

Moreover, writing is also defined as a social process by Candlin and Hyland
(1999: 107) .They stated that “Writing is therefore an engagement in a social process,
where the production of texts reflects methodologies, arguments and rhetorical strategies
constructed to engage colleagues and persuade them of the claims that are made”

In language teaching, writing is defined as one of the two productive language
skills including speaking and writing skill. According to Ur (1996), “most people acquire
the spoken language (at least their own mother tongue) intuitively, whereas, the written
form is in most cases deliberately taught and learned” (p.161). He added, “Writing
normally requires some form of instruction. It is not a skill that is really picked up by
exposure” (p11).

6


In short, writing is an art that writers want to communicate with certain groups of
audience. Essay writing is like academic writing but a special skill that does not spring
naturally from an ability to speak a language. Thus, essay writing is a skill in the process
of communication and related to other language skills on its own social role.

2.1.1. Academic writing and essay writing

Academic writing according to Oshima and Hogue (1991:2) stated that “Academic
writing, as the name implies, is the kind of writing that you are required to do in college or
university. It differs from the other kinds of writing (personal, literary, journalistic,

business, etc.) In several ways. Its differences can be explained in part by its special
audience, tone, and purpose.

To make the definition of academic writing clearer, Oshima and Hogue explain the
mentioned differences in more detail. According to them, in academic writing, the
audience plays an important part, as they are the people who will read what have been
written, and only when specifying the audience the writers can reach their goal of
communicating clearly and effectively. Beside the audience, the tone of writing is also a
crucial factor. Tone reveals the writer’s attitude towards the chosen subject by their choice
of words, grammatical structures and the length of sentences. The tone of a piece of
writing is determined more by its intended audience than its subject matter. And the last
difference is the purpose of writing. In academic writing, the purpose will most often be to
explain. It may also be to persuade or to convince the audience of the correctness of the
writer’s point of view on a particular issue. And the organizational form and style chosen
for writing will also be determined by the purpose of a piece of writing.

Writing is thought made visible. That means insights and ideas that occur to us
when we encounter the raw material of the world-natural phenomena like the behavior of
genes, or cultural phenomena, like texts, photographs and artifacts must be ordered in some

7
way so others can receive them and respond in turn. This give and take is at the heart of the
scholarly enterprise, and makes possible that vast conversation known as civilization. Like
all human ventures, the conventions of the academic essay are both logical and playful.
Essay writing is like academic writing but a special skill that does not spring naturally
from ability to speaking a language. An essay writer has a particular obligation to
communicate information that is precise and correct as possible. They may vary in
expression from discipline to discipline, but any good essay should show us a mind
developing a thesis, supporting that thesis with evidence, deftly anticipating objections or
counter-arguments, and maintaining the momentum of discovery.

2.1.2. Place of writing in foreign language classroom.
Firstly, writing is not only an important form of communication in day-to-day life
but also an essential skill for students preparing for university study. At higher levels of
education, it is a key aspect of academic literacy that aspiring scholars pursue as part of
socialization in their disciplines. Writing for academic purposes is a particularly
challenging task for students studying English as a foreign language (EFL). The skills
involved are highly complex, while at the same time students’ cultures have their own
norms for structure and rhetoric which are not always compatible with the current
conventions of academic English. As Casanave (2002) points out, academic writing poses
a “clueless” challenge because the rules of the “game” are almost all implicit (p. 19). Of
these, textual competence (Bachman, 1990), or the ability to develop and organize ideas in
an academically persuasive manner according to “rules of cohesion and rhetorical
organization” (p. 88) constitutes the most formidable and crucial challenge. From our
personal experiences as classroom teachers in Vietnam, the author agrees with Hayashi’s
(2005) observation that EFL students’ writings more often than not end up lacking a clear
logical flow and unity, not to mention a persuasive linear argument.
If learning how to produce writing that satisfies academic norms is the problem
from a student’s perspective, from a teacher’s perspective this means the challenge is to
prepare students with varying English proficiencies and from a non-English cultural and
academic background to become flexible writers who can effectively tackle academic
writing tasks from a variety of angles. Because students are linguistically of mixed

8
abilities, a particular classroom writing task which is motivating and manageable to some
can turn out to be daunting or impossible for others. It is understandable that teachers of
high school often complain that “writing is the most problematic skill to teach in such
classes” (Hess, 2001, p. 77).
It is obvious that writing is a difficult skill because it requires many characteristics
which are not necessary for speaking such as formality, well- planned, accuracy and time.
Secondly, the nature of writing causes many strategies for writers, According to

Candlin and Hyland (1999:2), “every act of writing is thus linked in complex ways to a set
of communicative purposes which occur in a context of social, interpersonal and
occupational practice”. Then they continue to indicate, “Each act of writing also constructs
the reality that it describes, reproducing a particular mode of communication and
maintaining the social relationship which it implies”. Therefore, writing is not only a
personal but also socio-cultural act of identity whereby writers both signal their
membership in what maybe a range of communities of practices as well as express their
own creative individuality.
Last but not least, “writing helps our students learn”(Raimes,1983:3). According to
her, writing can help students reinforce the grammatical structures, idioms and vocabulary
that we have been teaching our students. It also provides students a chance to be
adventurous with the language to go beyond what they have just learned to say, to take
risks. And writing can make students become very involved with the new language, the
effort to express ideas and the constant use of eyes, hand and brain is unique way to
reinforce learning.
In summary, teaching writing especially academic writing is necessary for students
studying English as a foreign language (EFL) because it “normally requires some form of
instruction” and “it is not a skill that is readily picked up by exposure” ( Tribble,1996:11)




9
2.2. Major approaches to teaching writing
There is no satisfactory answer to the question of how to teach writing efficiently.
There are various ways to teach writing but the most common are the product and the
process approach. And a distinction is often made between a product and a process
approach to the teaching of writing.
2.2.1. The product approach
“The product approach to writing usually involves the presentation of a model text,

which is analyzed and then forms the basis of a task that leads to the writing of an exactly
similar or a parallel text” ( Evan and St John, 1998: 116). To be more specific, this
approach can be used to refer to the concentration on the features of the actual text- the
end- product that writers have to produce that can be summarized in the following
sequence:
Model text -> Comprehension / analysis/ manipulation -> new input -> Parallel text
(Robinson, 1991 cited in Evan and St John, 1998)
The product (or model text) approach sees writing as being primarily about
linguistic knowledge. Attention is given to the appropriate use of vocabulary, syntax and
cohesive devices. In EFL contexts, it is rooted in Behaviourist theory and requires the
learner to manipulate fixed patterns which are learnt by imitation. Proponents of the
product approach see the composing process as being linear and consisting of four stages
which is in line with the teaching structure of Present, Practice and Produce which
emerged at around the same time. These stages are:
Stage 1: Familiarization-this makes students aware of certain features of a
particular text.
Stages 2 and 3: Controlled and Guided writing- these stages aim at giving learners
guided practice with increasing freedom to help them practice.
Stage 4: Free writing-This is where the learners are finally given a free reign and
can produce a piece of writing by imitating the sample text.


10
This approach can be used successfully in teaching writing for beginners. All
learners can not write well as soon as they begin the course but can take progress step by
step with imitation and repetition from the model texts or the teachers. Moreover, teachers
can impart the knowledge of writing theory including grammatical structures, word
choices, cohesive device uses, how to vary the content, how to organize the essay.

However, this approach can not avoid some shortcomings. Students are passive and

less creative. All learners’ knowledge of writing skill is based on the teacher, textbook or
model texts. Using the approach often leads to a simplistic copying of the model text by
only changing certain words from the original text to produce a new text, which prevents
learners’ creativity and motivation from writing. Next, mistakes are corrected during the
writing, which to some extent discourages students to write more. Most students are
worried about mistakes that are considered common in writing for beginners.

In brief, the product approach shows its strong points when provide the good base
for beginners of writing to lead their writing practice. However, if students owe their
knowledge and skill of writing to the teacher and model text strictly, they will be very
passive and often get shocked in the real official writing test where a new topic or a new
kind of essay is introduced.

2.2.2. The process approach

This method places emphasis on the cycle of writing, rather than a fixed linear
approach such as the earlier Product approach. It has much in common with
communicative-task based instruction which is currently popular within communicative
pedagogy. Unlike the Product approach which is more interested in the written outcome,
the Process approach focuses on the thinking processes that are involved with writing.
According to Flower (1985) , thinking stage helps students to identify the rhetorical
problem, plan a solution or series of solutions to the problem and finally conclude
appropriately. This stage can follow the sequence below:
Generate ideas > select ideas > Group ideas -> Order ideas.

11
In the view of Hedge( 1990), the process contains a lot of stages which can be illustrated as
follows: “ being motivated to write- getting ideas together- planning and outlining- making
notes- making a first draft- revising, replanning, redrafting- editing and getting ready for
publication. Meanwhile, according to Oshima and Hogue (1991), the writing process

embraces three steps: pre-writing, planning (outlining), writing, and revising drafts (review
the draft (either by themselves, with their peers or their teacher).
The process approach itself helps organize the writer’s thoughts. White and Arndt
(1991, p.12) argue this is because there is a close link between writing and thinking.
All these efforts in the process approach to writing see the act of writing from a
very different perspective, focusing as much on the means whereby the completed text was
created as on the end product itself. In many instances the writer starts out with only the
vaguest notion of this. The ideas are then refined, developed and transformed as the writer
writes and rewrites.
Main features of the process approach
The process approach concerns itself with individual levels of fluency and
expression. It is a replacement of an approach that considered written language secondary
and merely a mechanism for reinforcing spoken language. The finished product is in focus,
not the learner. The process approach, in contrast, empowered its learners, thereby
enabling them to make clearer decisions about the direction of their writing (Jordan 1997).
Clenton (2003) states in the same vein "It is no longer required to offer a shining example
of the model; the teacher becomes a facilitator in providing formative feedback during the
process of each student's composition. Correspondingly, this approach encourages students
to assume greater responsibility for making their own improvements, as opposed to the
miming of a pre-determined model."
This approach has some problem. First, some learners are not proficient writers in
their own language and struggle to put their thoughts on paper. Many students said that
they hardly ever wrote in their own language and had no prior experience this is
particularly challenging for the teacher and students. Peer teaching would help them notice
successful techniques that other writers use. Second, students are sometimes unable to

12
come up with suitable ideas related to the chosen topic. This therefore depends a lot on the
topics chosen. The teacher must bear in mind the students various life experiences as well
as personality and interests. Another problem is how to assess whether a process approach

is applicable in all settings where writing is taught. According to Johns (1990:25), this
approach focuses primarily on the writer as the originators of: “written text” in a context
where “The process through which the writer goes to create and produce discourse is the
most important component in the theory”

In short, the process approach encourages student’s activity and motivation in
writing. It is a learner-centered approach that stimulates students to play an active role and
the teacher works as an observer. However, beginners of writing skill need help and
guidance from the teacher. This procedure is good for class practice but students are still
encouraged to write on their own and get feedback from their teacher for mistake
corrections.

2.3. Essay writing as a form of Academic writing

Academic essays can be set in any subject we are studying and they require us to
discuss an issue based on our knowledge of the topic. A clear sense of argument is
essential to all forms of academic writing, for writing is thought made visible. Insights and
ideas that occur to us when we encounter the raw material of the world-natural phenomena
like the behavior of genes, or cultural phenomena, like texts, photographs and artifacts-
must be ordered in some way so others can receive them and respond in turn. Like all
human ventures, the conventions of the academic essay are both logical and playful. They
may vary in expression from discipline to discipline, but any good essay should show us a
mind developing a thesis, supporting that thesis with evidence, deftly anticipating
objections or counter-arguments, and maintaining the momentum of discovery.
Essays are formal entities, and the language we use should reflect that. The style of
an academic essay should be appropriate and consistent. This is very different from an
informal piece of writing. An essay has to have a purpose or motive; the mere existence of
an assignment or deadline is not sufficient. When you write an essay or research paper,

13

you are never simply transferring information from one place to another, or showing that
you have mastered a certain amount of material. That would be incredibly boring-and
besides, it would be adding to the glut of pointless utterance. Instead, writers should be
trying to make the best possible case for an original idea you have arrived at after a period
of research. Depending upon the field, your research may involve reading and rereading a
text, performing an experiment, or carefully observing an object or behavior.
2.4. Challenges of teaching and learning essay writing
Writing is not only an important form of communication in day-to-day life but also
an essential skill for students preparing for university study. Writing for academic purposes
is a particularly challenging task for students studying English as a foreign language
(EFL). The skills involved are highly complex, while at the same time students’ cultures
have their own norms for structure and rhetoric which are not always compatible with the
current conventions of academic English. Of these, textual competence (Bachman, 1990),
or the ability to develop and organize ideas in an academically persuasive manner
according to “rules of cohesion and rhetorical organization” (p. 88) constitutes the most
formidable and crucial challenge. From our personal experiences as classroom teachers in
Vietnam, we agree with Hayashi’s (2005) observation that EFL students’ writings more
often than not end up lacking a clear logical flow and unity, not to mention a persuasive
linear argument.
If learning how to produce writing that satisfies academic norms is the problem
from a student’s perspective, from a teacher’s perspective this means the challenge is to
prepare students with varying English proficiencies and from a non-English cultural and
academic background to become flexible writers who can effectively tackle academic
writing tasks from a variety of angles. Because students are linguistically of mixed
abilities, a particular classroom writing task which is motivating and manageable to some
can turn out to be daunting or impossible for others. Therefore, academic writing teachers
in EFL contexts must cope with such problem as how to make students get involved in
writing tasks, how to encourage stronger students’ motivation and interest be sustained
while opportunities for weaker students to complete tasks be guaranteed and how to help

14
students benefit most from their cooperation in the classroom so that all can make progress
during the course.
2.5. Conclusion.
In summary, in this chapter, the author has reviewed issues, and aspects
concerning the topic of the study. Moreover, the knowledge of academic writing, essay
writing, writing teaching approaches, challenges of teaching and learning essay writing in
EFL context are also taken into consideration. In the following chapter, the context of the
study, the methodology, data collection procedures and data collection and data analysis
will be proposed.














15
CHAPTER THREE: THE STUDY
3.1. The context of the study
The study was conducted in Le Hong Phong specialized secondary school, a
longtime established school in the system of specialized schools. It was founded in 1920
and called Thanh Chung school. It was officially called Le Hong Phong Specialized

Secondary school in 1993. It has gained appreciable results which play a crucial role in the
cause of education and training of Nam Dinh province in particular and of the nation in
general. With the total of 166 national and 24 international prizes ( from 1994 to 2009), Le
Hong Phong specialized secondary school has been appreciated as one of the schools
which has the most effective quality in target education through out the country. The
teachers all have good knowledge, experience and they are all enthusiastic, sensitive and
creative. The school equips language teachers with modern teaching facilities like OHPs,
whiteboards and computers. Likewise, each division has its own well-equipped room with
various kinds of books, material, newspapers, magazines and computers connected to the
Internet. In addition, most of the classrooms have been equipped with modern teaching
aids devices such as OHPs, white boards, projectors. Moreover, there are also two
informatics technology rooms with many internet-connected computers, which are often
available for students to get access.
According to Department of Upper School Education Regulations for Specialized
Schools, each province in the country has the right to establish a specialized school in
order to attract and train the talents for the nation. Each year our school is responsible for
forming 33 specializing classes with 11 specializing groups-mathematics, informatics,
physics, chemistry, biology, literature, history, geography, English, Russian and French. Le
Hong Phong specialized school has the right to select students before other schools in
province. The perquisite conditions for these competitors are over the fairly good standard
capacity and 8,0 for the language specializing subject result at the ninth grade. All of them
have to take three compulsory subjects-Maths, Literature, English and a specialized subject
in which the specialized mark will be doubled. In the same way, those who take entrance
examination for language specializing class have to take three compulsory subjects and a

16
specialized English subject. With these requirements and conditions, Le Hong Phong
specialized secondary school has good opportunities to select good students. Therefore, the
basic of English the language specializing students have is at a rather high level. This
creates conditions for the teachers to nurture and foster the talents.

Moreover, according to our observations and to teachers’ opinions, another
fundamental advantage of target training is the keen interest of English language
specializing students in English. Most of the English language specializing students are
girls so they are very studious. Besides, due to the fact that they have been familiarized
with different foreign cultures, English language specializing students seem to be more
active and more confident than others. It is of great help for teaching and learning.
3.2. Methodology
The methodology conducted in the research including the participants,
instrumentation, data procedures, data collection and data analysis will be presented in the
part.
3.2.1. Participants.
The subject of this study was drawn from two sources divided into two groups:
The first group includes 30 eleventh English language specializing students at Le Hong
Phong specialized secondary school in Nam Dinh. The proportion of schools boys to girls
was 3/30 (the number of male students accounted for 10% of the student population).They
were supposed to be at an intermediate high level of proficiency in English. These students
have learnt English for at least 5 years. All of them are very keen on learning English and
are able to use English as a means of communication in the class with their teacher and
classmates. Those language specializing English students are now using secondary
textbooks for students of social science and humanities disciple (Tieng Anh 10, 11, 12
nang cao) as the main source of materials.
The reason for selecting eleventh English language specializing students but 10
th
or
12
th
grade was that it was not until the 11
th
grade that they were learnt how to write essay

17
lessons and at that time they had a chance to be selected and established the national
combined group (including 11
th
and 12
th
grade students)
The second group is composed of six teachers of English teaching writing skills for
English language specializing students at least for 2 years. These teachers, whose ages
ranged from mid-twenties to over fifties, were invited to join in this study. The proportion
of female teachers to male teacher is prominent, that is, (one male, 5 females)
The reason for choosing these six teachers was that they had experience in teaching
English language specializing students, especially teaching essay-writing skills.
3.2.2. Instruments
Four main instruments were used to obtain the information for the study will be
mentioned as follows:
Instrument one: A survey questionnaire completed by 30 eleventh English language
specializing students
The questionnaire was designed with two main parts. Part one was about the students’
general information which included the students’ gender, age, the number of years they
had been learning English, the frequency of writing an essay in the class. Part two
including 6 questions, 3 of which were closed and the rest were open-ended questions
designed to explore the students’ perception of teacher’s classroom activities in terms of
the usefulness of those activities and the extent to which those classroom activities satisfy
the students’ expectation. The questionnaire was adapted from Research Methodology by
Kanji Kumar (1996). It was conducted in English. However, the students were advised to
use either Vietnamese or English to give their answers to open-ended questions. Refer to
Appendix A.
Instrument two: A questionnaire with 2 sections completed by teachers of English at
school where the study was conducted. Refer to Appendix B

The first section contained the teachers’ general information, that is, their gender,
age, and the number of years they had been teaching English and writing skill. The other

18
section was about teachers’ frequency of classroom activities, their perceived value of
those activities, challenges they face with in teaching essay writing and their solution.
Instrument three: Semi- structured interview to students
A one-on one interview was conducted with 11 eleventh English language
specializing students chosen at random after each classroom observation. It was carried out
in Vietnamese in the form of an informal conversation between the researcher and
students. The interview was structured with a list of 13 structured questions and some non-
structured questions. Each lasted 10 minutes with each student. The interview protocol was
adapted from Qualitative among Five Traditions which was written by John. W. Creswell
(1997). Refer to Appendix C.
Instrument four: Classroom observation
It was a non- participant observation in which the researcher watched, followed and
noted down activities, which were performed in the real classroom settings. The
observation was carried out within 3 periods (total 135 minutes) in the eleventh English
specialized class.
The observation protocol was adapted from Qualitative Inquiry and research Design
Choosing among Five Traditions which was written by John. W. Cressell (1997) (Refer to
Appendix D)
3.3. Data collection procedures
In the first two weeks, the classroom performance by two teachers of eleventh
English language specializing class was observed. The required permissions needed to gain
access to the classroom from the headmaster and the head of English group and the
teachers were obtained in advance. The observation was taken note down in detail and
interpreted and then the findings and conclusions were drawn from them.
On the next week, the questionnaire was handed to 30 eleventh English language
specializing students. They were asked to complete the questionnaire either in Vietnamese

or English within 15 -20 minutes. The researcher asked the teacher for permission to have

19
a personal contact with the study population in order to explain the purpose, relevance and
importance of the study, as well as to clarify any questions that the students had. At the
same time, the survey to the teachers was delivered to 6 teachers of English. They had
three days to complete it.
At last, 10 students of 11
th
English language specializing class were chosen at
random to participate in one-on-one interview. It was conducted in a quiet room from
distraction on the fifth period of the second and third Saturday of May. Before the
interview started, the researcher explained the nature of the research, the purpose of the
interview and the amount of time to complete the conversation. The researcher was ready
to answer any questions that the students had. The interviewees were also informed that the
data were to be recorded and how the data were to be used later on.
The data were collected and then analyzed to survey the students’ perception of
teacher’s classroom activities in terms of the usefulness of those activities and the extent to
which those activities satisfy their expectations as well as compare the opinions of the two
groups
3.4. Data analysis
All collected data were read through to obtain a sense of the overall information.
The observation notes were rewritten down carefully, the interview transcriptions were
jotted down, the results were then shown in tables, figures and charts.
So far, this part had presented in detail methodology, participants (population),
instruments and procedure of collecting. The following part will deal with the data analysis
and findings on the obtained results. The general information about 30 students and 6
teachers will be presented in the first place.
The total number of the students chosen in the study was 30, of which 27 were
females and 3 were male students. They were 11

th
English language specializing students.
Most of them (about 93%) had been learning English for more than 5 years and only 2
(7%) had experience of less than 5 years in learning English. Among the 6 teachers taking
part in the study, there was only one male teacher. Their age ranged from 27 to 54. Their