The use of pre-writing activities to improve writing skills for 11th form students at Tien Du 3 High School, Bac Ninh - An action research

The use of pre-writing activities to improve
writing skills for 11th form students at Tien Du
3 High School, Bac Ninh - An action research



Nguyễn Thị Lợi



Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ
Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English Methodology; Mã số: 60 14 10
Người hướng dẫn: M.A. Phan Thị Vân Quyên
Năm bảo vệ: 2009


Abstract. Writing has long been considered a very difficult skill to students of English of
all levels. Many students do not know how to write, what to write, and how to put the ideas in
order. Among the writing stages: Pre-writing, while-writing and post-writing, pre-writing is
considered the most important one to make the writing process easier for students. Therefore,
with an aim to improving writing skill for 11 form
th
students of Tien Du 3 High School, an action
research was carried out. Some extra pre-writing activities were implemented in the writing
lessons of the second term.
Keywords. Kỹ năng viết; Lớp 11; Phương pháp dạy học

Content
1. 1.Statement of problems.
It is undeniable that English is the international medium of communication in the fields
of science, technology, culture, education, economy, politic and so on. It is also considered a

means to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Vietnam and other countries in
the world. Since Vietnam officially joined WTO, the importance of English has been recognized
more and more widely. For its role, English has been not only a compulsory subject in almost all
high schools in Vietnam but one of the three major subjects in the high school final examination
and in the entrance exam to some universities and colleges as well.
Together with the development of English, there are many changes in the curriculum for
high school students. In the past, the contents in the textbook mainly focused on grammar,
reading and speaking. Listening and writing in contexts were almost neglected. Students could
practice listening skill only by listening to their teachers. They rarely had a chance to listen to
foreigners or listen in situations. Their writing skill was even worse. Although they were very
good at doing exercises in structural forms, they could hardly write a topic in class. Only when
the new set of textbooks is used, students have more chances to learn writing skill.
To students in the school where I am teaching, writing seems to be the most difficult
skill. Many of them see writing lessons as times of sighing, pencil – chewing, foot – shuffling
agony. Some students even state that “Oh, I’ve no ideas”, “My palms are sweating, my heart is
beating fast, and my mind is blocked”, “It’s not easy to get it started at all”. Why is it that for
large numbers of high school students, writing seems to be a great problem?
As a teacher, I have thought a lot about this question. There are many things that one can
do to aid in the writing process such as using visual aids, using multi-media, etc. Among the
three stages of a writing lesson: pre-writing, while-writing and post-writing, I think pre-writing is
considered the most important one. It helps students to get starting to write easily. It is the key in
the development of a “good” essay and the “evolution” of good writing skills.
The above reason has encouraged me to investigate into different pre-writing activities. I
would like to do something with the hope of improving writing skill for our students at Tien Du
3 High School. Therefore, the thesis title goes as “The Use of Pre-writing Activities to Improve
Writing Skills for 11
th
form students at Tien Du 3 High School, Bac Ninh – An Action
Research”.
Hopefully, the activities introduced in this study will be of some help for the author and

other teachers in writing lessons.
1.2. Aims and research questions of the study.
1.2.1. Aims of the study.
The purposes of this study are to investigate the causes of the difficulties which 11
th
form
students at Tien Du 3 high school encounter in learning writing and to investigate the
effectiveness of some pre-writing activities employed with a view to improving students’
writing.
To achieve the above purposes, the study has to follow the steps below:
- To investigate the causes of the difficulties in writing lessons from classroom observation
and classroom interaction.
- To devise some pre-writing activities and use them in writing lessons to solve the problem.
- To examine the effectiveness of these activities to decide whether they are helpful or not.
1.2.2. Research questions of the study.
This study explores the use of different pre-writing activities for 11
th
form students in
Tien Du 3 High School. The weaknesses in writing skills of those students have encouraged the
researcher to investigate these activities in the light of the following questions:
1- What are the causes of difficulties in students’ writing?
2- How do the pre-writing activities affect 11
th
form students in Tien Du 3 High School in
their writing?
1.3. Methods of the study.
The study was carried out using action research method. The data were collected from survey
questionnaires, class observation and interviews with students. Questionnaires are designed as a
means to make the researcher’s evaluation more objective. The questionnaires are given to
eleventh form students of Tien Du 3 High School to find out their evaluation on the pre-writing

activities implemented as well as their comments and suggestions for these activities.
1.4. Significance of the study.
The study highlights the importance of pre-writing stage in the process of a writing lesson. It
may also provide some useful ideas for teachers and help them implement the activities in the
pre-writing stage more effectively.
Finally yet importantly, the author of the study hopes that the suggested pre-writing activities can
help students improve their writing skill in class.
1.5. Design of the study.
The study consists of five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction; Chapter 2: Literature
Review; Chapter 3: Methodology; Chater 4: Data Analysis; Chapter 5: Suggestion and
conclusion.
Chapter 1, the introduction, presents the background to the study and statement of the
problem, the aims, significance and design of the study. It also expresses the author’s reasons for
choosing the method to fulfill the study.
Chapter two, Literature Review, presents the main concepts relevant to the research topic
such as different points of views about writing, definition of pre-writing, the importance of the
pre-writing stage in a writing lesson, etc.
Chapter three presents the methodology used in the study. The researcher attempts to
improve students’ writing practice in classroom. Therefore, the methodology employed in this
study is action research.
Chapter 4 provides detailed results of the survey questionnaires and class observation.
The students’ comments are also given in this chapter. The comprehensive analysis on the data
collected is supplied in details in this part.
The last chapter of this study, chapter 5, offers some major findings of using pre-writing
activities in class. It also gives a “Conclusion” to the study, which emphasizes the key issues in
the study, points out the limitations and provides some suggestions for the further study.