Students’ perceptions of teachers’ instructional strategies – A case of Toefl essay writing preparation course = Sự nhận thức của sinh viên với phương pháp luyệ

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES


NGUYỄN THỊ HÒA


STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF TEACHERS’
INTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES – A CASE OF TOEFL
ESSAY WRITING PREPARATION COURSE

( SỰ NHẬN THỨC CỦA SINH VIÊN VỚI PHƯƠNG PHÁP LUYỆN THI CỦA
GIÁO VIÊN – NGHIÊN CỨU DẠY VIẾT LUẬN LUYỆN THI TOEFL)



M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10


HANOI – 2012
iv

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 4
1.6. Method of the study 4
1.7 Design of the study 4

Chapter Two: Literature Review
2.1. An overview of writing 6
2.1.1. Academic writing and essay writing 7
2.1.2. Place of writing in TOEFL 8
2.2. Major instructional strategy approaches to teaching writing 9
2.2.1. The product approach 10
2.2.2. The process approach 11
2.3. Challenges of teaching and learning TOEFL essay writing 13
2.4. Summary 14
Chapter Three: The Study
3.1. The context of the study 15
3.2. Methodology 16
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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 36

4.2. Implications 37
4.3. Recommendations and suggestions 38
4.4. Limitations of the study 39
4.5. Suggestions for further studies 39
REFERENCES 40
APPENDICES I















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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS


1. EFC: English First Certificate
2. ETS: English Test Systems
3. USA: United States of America
4. GRE: Graduate Record Examinations

5. IELTS: International English Language Test Systems
6. SAT: Scholastic Aptitude Test
7. TOEFL: Test of English as Foreign Language
8. TWE: Test of Written English

















vii

LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 1: Learners by age, gender and job

Table 2: Learners’ experience in learning English

Table 3: Learners’ use of English

Table 4: The frequency of using instructional strategies by teachers in writing
lessons
Table 5: The students’ perception of the instructional strategies used by teachers in
terms of their usefulness
Table 6: The teacher’ perceived value of instructional strategies used in terms of
their usefulness
Table 7: The students’ satisfaction of teachers’ instructional strategies
Chart 1: The frequency of writing TOEFL essay by students





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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Rationale

In the process of globalization, English plays an important role in enhancing
economy, politics, culture and international relations between many countries.
Therefore, there is a great demand for teaching and learning English in the world as
well as in Vietnam. 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. When
the need for studying abroad has been increasing, the burning question that all
interested people have in mind is what demanded to meet this need. Owned and
administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the Test of English as a

Foreign Language (TOEFL), taken by approximately 600,000 students a year,
influences access to or exclusion from colleges and universities in North America.
As a matter of fact, in recent years TOEFL has become one of the most popular
high-stakes tests which is necessary for getting permission or scholarship to oversea
study. Therefore, it affects not only what and how English language teachers teach
but also what and how students learn (e.g. Johnson, Jordan, & Poehner, 2005;
Alderson & Wall, 1993). Many learners throughout the world take TOEFL tests
annually and experience TWE-Test of Written English included in a TOEFL test.
Many Vietnamese undergraduate and post-graduated students want to study abroad
or work for foreign companies, so they first need TOEFL report that has been lately
introduced to Vietnam. TWE is one of the first requirements in any TOEFL test to
be claimed the most difficult and the least interesting part. As a result, writing is
always the worst skill that is to claim though it is important to write an essay and is
the first requirement to apply for a job or a scholarship.
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Among four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), there is no doubt that
writing provides students chances to express themselves correctly and
communicatively. To the best of my knowledge, when Equest teachers at my
teaching place, Equest, an English center in Ha noi are always interested in teaching
writing, especially writing essay and strive to find the best way to help students
achieve the highest score in the TOEFL test, their students’ 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.

1.2. State of the problem

English has become popular in learning and teaching over the last decades. We
have experienced its popularity in many fields of our social life. It has become the
key for us to integrate into the world, the effective communicative tool to foster the

international relations. It is not deniable that there have been a lot of positive
changes in language teaching in Vietnam and partially thanks to the requirements of
international measurements of English using skills, TOEFL, teachers have been
helping students improve their English with four skills- speaking, reading, listening
and writing. Teachers have also been looking for and trying various methods and
techniques in teaching English in order to find out the effective ones to help English
learners become better. In the four skills, 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
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independent to expand the supporting ideas and use specific examples to make ideas
persuasive.
For the above reasons mentioned reasons, the researcher would like to study
TOEFL essay such writing procedure, teacher’s activities in writing lessons to find
out students’ opinions on as well as attitudes towards learning and writing TOEFL
essays. Therefore, the intention in doing this research the researcher will help
teachers and students in TOEFL essay courses in some way find appropriate
instructional strategies to write a better essay.

1.3.Aims of the study

This study is aimed to:
(1) Examine kinds of instructional strategy approach of the teaching of essay

writing in TOEFL test used by teachers of writing at EQUEST center
(2) Explore common instructional strategies used by teachers at Equest center to
develop students’ essay TOEFL 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 three research
questions
(1) What are the common instructional strategies do teachers use to develop
students’ TOEFL essay writing skills?
(2) What are the students’ perceptions of the usefulness of those instructional
strategies to their writing proficiency?
(3) To what extent do those instructional strategies satisfy the students’
expectations?

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1.5. Scope of the study

The study is focused on only students from the 60 TOEFL score at EQUEST
center. Because almost all of them have not officially been taught how to write an
academic TOEFL 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 students at Equest center.

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, and classroom
observation. 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 TOEFL learning students 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 interview with teachers of writing are to explore their common
activities used in the way that help their students with TOEFL 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
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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.

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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 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).
In short, writing is an art that writers want to communicate with certain
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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 way so others can receive them and respond in turn. This give
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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. The role of writing in TOEFL
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, TOEFL writing as an example, is a particularly challenging task for
students studying English as a foreign language (EFL) to achieve high score in
TOEFL. 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.
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If learning how to produce writing that satisfies academic norms, TOEFL
criteria 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. It is understandable that teachers of TOEFL classes often
complain that “writing is the most problematic skill to teach in such classes” (Hess,
2001, p. 77).
In summary, teaching academic writing especially TOEFL writing is
necessary for students studying English as a foreign language (EFL) to achieve high
score in TOEFL certificate because it “normally requires some form of instruction”
and “it is not a skill that is readily picked up by exposure” ( Tribble,1996:11)
2.2. Major instructional strategy approaches to teaching writing

Attempts to teaching writing- since the time when student were merely given
a topic of some kind and asked to produce a composition without further help-have
usually focused on some particular problematical aspect of the writing situation.
Byrne (1990) identified four principle ways of approaching the task, namely: focus
on accuracy; focus on fluency; focus on the text and focus on purpose. Raimes
(1993) considered three approaches to the teaching of writing: focus on form; focus
on the writer and focus on the readers. From these perspectives, there have been
three main classroom methodologies: the text-based or traditional approach and the
process approach respectively.
Although some writing schemes and programs have tended to rely largely or
exclusively on one or other of these approaches, in practice most teachers and text
book writers have drawn on more than one and have combined and modified them
to suit their purpose. In recent years, classroom teaching method has been heavily
10

influenced by the communicative approach, with its emphasis on task-oriented
activities that involves the exchange of information and the free use of language
without undue concern for mistakes.
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.
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
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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:
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Generate ideas > select ideas > Group ideas -> Order ideas.
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.
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."
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
13

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. Challenges in applying major instructional strategy approaches in
teaching TOEFL essay writing

Firstly, the product approach still has some strong points that can be applied
in teaching TOEFL essay writing. This means teacher’s guidance and knowledge of
writing theory is the good base for beginners of writing to lead their writing
practice. However, if learners owe their knowledge and skill of writing to the
teacher and textbook 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.
TWE does not require a variety of topics or patterns of essay organization but test
takers must have the skill of solving the writing task under the pressure of time.
Within 30 minutes for an essay of about 250 words, they have to plan for the
outline, write the essay and revise the writing. Their first draft will be the last one so
they must be well skilled at writing independently.
However, the limitation of this approach outweighs the strong points when
this way is applied in TWE situation. First, students cannot choose whatever they
want to write in whatever technique they are interested in. The reason is that
TOEFL writing task is narrowed in some major fields of topic and kinds of essay.
Student may like or be good at some certain topic or kind of essay that rarely
appears in TWE. Therefore, they will waste their time learning not-TOEFL specific
things. Second, discussion and cooperation in the class encourages learners’
motivation but without much of the teacher’s guidance of writing theory (including
grammar points, word choices, cohesive devices, patterns of essay organization and
so on), it will be a waste of time if their discussion is off the focus. Last, TWE score
is given for each individual’s product, last version. But in the process approach,
students are evaluated on the basis of their total writing process - their cooperative
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paper. Learners can work well in their group; yet, they are supposed to work on
their own for their complete version. They need to practice carefully for their test
which they have to write on their own and marked for each individual.
The process approach encourages students’ creativity 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 still need
help and guidance from the teacher, especially TOEFL learners who come from
various background in ages, jobs and majors and they, of course, are not at the same
level of language command. 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.

2.4. Summary
In summary, in this chapter, the author has reviewed issues, and aspects
concerning the topic of the study. Moreover, the knowledge of writing, essay
writing patterns, writing teaching approaches, challenges of teaching and learning
TOEFL essay writing are also taken into consideration. In the following chapter, the
context of the study, the methodology, data collection procedures, data collection,
and data analysis will be proposed.










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CHAPTER THREE: THE STUDY
3.1. The context of the study
The study was conducted an English center in Hanoi named Equest, a
longtime established English center in Hanoi. It was founded in 2003. It has gained
appreciable results that play a crucial role in helping students achieve satisfactory
score in some kinds of international English test such as TOEFL, IELTS, SAT,
GRE,etc The teachers all have good knowledge, experience and they are all
enthusiastic, sensitive and creative. The center equips classrooms with modern
teaching facilities like computers, projectors, and whiteboards. Likewise, library is
well-equipped with various kinds of books, material, newspapers, magazines and
computers connected to the Internet. Moreover, there are also two informatics
technology rooms with many internet-connected computers, which are often
available for students to get access.
Each year our English center creates thousands of golden chances for
students to make their dream of studying abroad come true. However, the
perquisite conditions for being trained in Equest is that all students have to take the
placement test to find the suitable classes. With these requirements and conditions,
our center has good opportunities to let students study in the right classes.
Therefore, the students’ level is guaranteed to be nearly the same in each class. 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
Equest students in English. Most of the English language studying students are very
studious. Besides, due to the fact that they have been familiarized with different
foreign cultures, English language studying students seem to be more active and
more confident than others. It is of great help for teaching and learning.

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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: fifty students were chosen from three classes of TOEFL
Preparation courses in an English center, Equest. The ratio of male and female in
both interviews and classes was 27/50 (the number of male learners counted for
54% of the population). They came from different parts of Vietnam, from the
countries to the cities. They were at the age between 16 and 32 and at different
fields of occupation. Notwithstanding, the majority came from the countryside in
the north and was still studying. Most of the learners had just taken the placement
test or trial test and were supposed to be at an intermediate level of proficiency in
English. These learners had studied English for at last two years and at most ten
years at schools or English centers where vocabulary and grammatical structures of
the English language were mainly focused. They spoke Vietnamese, their mother
tongue to communicate in daily conversations and rarely use English in their job or
study. However, some used English for their job as a receptionist, officer and
consultant.
The second group is composed of six teachers of English teaching TOEFL
writing skills at Equest at least for two years. These teachers, whose ages ranged
from twenty – five to forty, were invited to join in this study. The proportion of
female teachers to male teacher is prominent, that is, (one male, five females)
The reason for choosing these six teachers was that they had experience in
teaching TOEFL for students, especially teaching TOEFL essay-writing skills.

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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 50 TOEFL 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, and the reasons to take part in the course. 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 two 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 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 TOEFL 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
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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 lessons (total 6 hours) in TOEFL
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 TOEFL
class was observed. The required permissions needed to gain access to the
classroom from the Academic manager 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 50 TOEFL 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 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.
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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 50 students and 6 teachers will be presented in the first place.
Part 1 was designed to achieve the general information

From the table 1, it can be clearly seen that the total number of the learners
selected in the study was 50 for the questionnaire, of which 23 were female and 27
were male. The majority was at the age of from 18 to 22, at which students had just
finished their secondary school and began to enter a university. That is also the
reason why 50% of the objects are students. The second group of subjects works in
offices (38%). The third group of learners (12%) was those who failed the entrance
exam took TOEFL examination to study abroad.






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Table 1: Learners by age, gender and job

Age
Gender
Total

number
Jobs
Male
Female
Student
Official/
worker
Jobless
16-18
19-22
23-25
26-32
9
7
6
5
8
8
4
3
17 (34%)
15 (30%)
10 (20%)
8 (16%)
25
19
6
Total
27 (54%)
23 (46%)

50 (100%)
50%
38%
12%

Table 2 below shows the learners’ experience in English learning. The number
of years they have spent learning English ranged from 2 to 10 years. About 40% (20
learners) had been learning English for 3 or 4 years and 22% (11 students) had spent
7 to 8 years learning English. Only three students had experienced 2 years in
learning English. The number of learners had spent 5, 6 years is the same that of
those who having spent more than 9 years (14%).

Table 2: Learners’ experience in learning English in years

Years
1-2
3-4
5-6
7-8
>9
No of learners
3
20
9
11
7
Percentage
6%
40%
18%

22%
14%