SOME SUGGESTIONS OF HOW TO MAKE WRITING ACTIVITIES EFFECTIVELY IN WRITING LESSONS AT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HẬU LỘC 3 UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL
---------o0o---------

THE RESEARCH
SOME SUGGESTIONS OF HOW TO MAKE WRITING ACTIVITIES
EFFECTIVELY IN WRITING LESSONS AT UPPER SECONDARY
SCHOOL

Writer :
VŨ THỊ KIM TUYẾN
Position :
A teacher of English
Field :
Enghlish
Academic year :
2016 - 2017

THANH HOA 2017

1


A . TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page 2
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
Page 3
A. Reasons for choosing the research
Page 3
B. Aims of the research
Page 3

C. Scope , object and researching method
Page 4
PART TWO: CONTENTS
Page 4
1. What is writing?
Page 4
2. How people write ?
Page 4,5
3. What students need to do in order to write
Page 5
4. Teaching writing - difficulties and possible solutions
Page 5,6
5. Developing writing skills - problems students face
Page 6
6.Writing activities
Page 7
7. Giving directions
Page 8
8.Process writing - benefits and drawbacks .
Page 8,9
9. Applying process writing to the Vietnamese context some solutions Page 9,10
10. Adapting process writing to the new textbook .
Page 10,11
11 . Correcting written work
Page 12
12. Guidelines for correcting written work
Page 12,13,14
13. Applying the research in teaching
Page 14,15,16
PART THREE : THE STUDY RESULTS OF PROBLEMS Page 17

PART FOUR : CONCLUSIONS AND PROPOSALS

Page 17,18

B . REFERENCE BOOKS
Page 19
1. Byrne, D. (1988). Teaching Writing Skills. Longman
2. Practical handbook of language teaching (David Cross)
3. A course in language teaching - Practical and Theory (Penny Ur)
Cambrige university press
4. Giao trinh giao hoc phap (Khoa ngôn ngữ và văn hóa Anh - Mĩ - Úc – Trường
đại học quốc gia Hà Nội)
5.Phương pháp dạy tiếng Anh Trung học phổ thông (Nguyễn Hạnh Dung)

2


PART ONE:

INTRODUCTION

A. REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE RESEARCH
Nowadays English has become an international language because it is
widely used in many parts of the world. In the tendency of integration of the
global economy, English is one of the effective communicative tools for
everybody. The role of English is considered to be very important in the fields of
economics, politics, science, culture and education. Especially, Vietnam’s
official membership of WTO on 7th November 2006 opened a new door for
integrating into the world economy, and more and more people want to learn
English for communicating with foreign partners, tourism, study tours, etc.

Thanks to the innovation of ways in teaching English, English lessons
are taught with four skills (speaking, reading, listening, writing) in one unit.
Moreover, there exists three stages – Pre - while – post - teaching in one lesson.
This really helps students improve their skills beside the grammar exercises to
pass the exams.
When teaching writing skill to the students at Hau Loc 3 upper secondary
School I found out that writing stages are very important in teaching writing and
it also has significant effects on the students’ writing performance. If students
do not prepare well enough they can not write well, they can not even write
anything in their notebooks.
Nevertheless, how to teach and learn writing effectively often poses great
problems to both teachers and students. For the teachers of English at high
school, writing is considered a difficult skill to teach. Some of them even ignore
teaching writing skill and focus only on grammar excercises for the exams.
However, nothing is difficult if we, the teachers make decision to make it easier.
Hopefully , with a range of suggestions of how to make writing activities
effectively in writing lessons introduced in this research, it will be more
motivating for the teachers to teach and make progress in teaching writing
Therefore, their students will be interested in writing lessons.
B. AIMS OF THE RESEARCH
When teaching writing skill to students at Hau Loc 3 upper secondary School I
found out that writing is very important in developing language skills and it also has
significant effects on the students’ writing performance. If students do not prepare well
enough, they can not write well, they can not even write anything in their notebooks.
In this research I suggest how to make writing activities effectively in writing
lessons , to investigate the current situation of the teaching writing and learning writing
lessons , to find out how writing stages affect students’ writing performance. , and to
suggest some appropriate strategies needed to be designed with the hope that
students will work more effectively in a writing lesson. Hopefully that the
results of this study would be shared with any colleagues who had the same

problem or anyone who is interested in this study
3


C. SCOPE, OBJECT AND RESEARCHING METHOD
- Scope : This study was carried out in two English classes with 84 students in
11th grade at Hau Loc 3 upper secondary School .The research focused on how to
make writing activities effectively the student’ writing performances in writing
lessons.
- Object: This subject is concerned with ways of making writing activities
effectively in writing lessons .
- Researching method: Reading reference books , discussing with other
teachers, applying in teaching, observing and drawing out experiences.
PART TWO: CONTENTS
1. What is writing?
In teaching a language, writing is considered one of the four language skills
(speaking, listening, reading and writing) that a learner is expected to master.
Writing is the process in which the writer expresses his thoughts or ideas in the
form of handwriting. “Writing is communicating. Good writing gets your ideas
out of your head and into the reader’s head without losing or distorting those
ideas” (Leki, 1976). To understand thoroughly the nature of writing, some more
academic definitions of writing should be studied.
According to “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary” (1989), writing is
to “make letters or other symbols on a surface (usually paper), especially with a
pen or pencil”. Writing, in Davies’s point of view, involved two kinds of skills.
The first ones were low – level skills such as handwriting or typing, spelling,
constructing grammatical sentences, organizing and sequencing, structuring,
drafting, and editing. Byrne (1988) gave a long and complex definition which
might be summarized as follows: writing is the act of forming graphic symbols
(letters or combinations of letters) which were arranged to form sentences, and

we produced a sequence of sentences arranged in a particular order and linked
together in certain way, on a flat surface of some kind.
In conclusion, Byrne’s definition can be considered one of the most
complete definitions of writing because it covers all of the features of writing
given by three above – mentioned authors
2. How people write ?
Understanding how people write , can be of great help to teachers vho
teach writing as a skill . The knowledge of a writing process will give teachers
more conffidence in making their lessons better organised and easier for their
students to learn .
When people write , they write in different stages .First , before they write
, they try and decide what they are going to write . They often think about the
purpose of their writing . the purpose will help them to choose relevant types of
text , and appropriate language . They also think of audience they are writing for
4


- who they write for . This is important , too, because know who they write for
will help them decide how they structure their writing and what language they
will use . Moreover , they need to think about the content structure or how they
organise ideas or facts they want to introduce in their writing .Next, When they
finish the first draft , they usually read throuth what they have written to see
what works and what doesn’t . then they revise what doesn’t work well .
Once they have edited their draft , changing what they consider is necessary ,
they produce the final draft , which is ready for their readers to read .
The whole process can be like this :
Planning
↓
Drafting
↓

Editing
↓
Final draft
3. What students need to do in order to write
When we ask our students to write something in an English language class , we
need to be sure that they :
→ Know the aim - why they are writing
→ Know the audience - who they are writing to
→ Know the genrer - what type of text they are writing
→ Have enough time for
∙ thinking about the topic
∙ brainstorming ideas
∙ planning ahead carefully
∙ drafting as many times as they can
→ Have constant feedback from teachers as well as their partners during the
writing process.
4. Teaching writing - difficulties and possible solutions
Difficulties
• There are too many students in a class , so it’s difficult to make sure who is
on- task and who is off - task
• Most classes are mixed ability
• Teachers feel guilty because they are unable to correct all mistakes for
students or to work throuth all their written work .
• Marking and correcting is time - consuming .
• If a teacher follows the whole writng process it take more time than the 45
minutes allocated for each lesson .
• Some teachers don’t feel confident about their own English and shy away
from designing writing tasks or getting students to write more than just
grammatical exercises .
5

Tests often don’t include writing thus making it difficult to motivate students
to write in class .
• Sometimes the teacher doesn’t have enough ideas to help students .
Solutions
•
Assign group work or pair work when teaching writing . Move
around to monitor.
•
Let students correct themselves or correct for their peers (peer
correction ) by training them to use correction symbols / codes .
•
It’s not necessary to do all stages of process writing in class . Some
stages can be done at home or in the next lesson. Eg: Ask students to prepare
the topics at home then you can save time for them to think when doing prewriting in class or you can ask students to do the first draft in class with some
editing and self or peer correction , then ask them to finish the task at home
and come back tomorrow with the final product .
•
Talk to your students and explain that they learn english not only for
test , but also for real life communication and for jobs in the future .
•
Students are a good source of information so let them come up with
ideas - they don’t all have to come from you! starting a lesson by asking them
to brainstorm around a topic .
•
Design and share lesson plans with other colleagues so that you get
more ideas , more confidence and different tasks .
•
Using a process approach to writing gives students a lot of support

and guidance and can help with a lack of vocabulary .
•

5. Developing writing skills - problems students face
Problemms
Students
• Don’t have enough vocabulary or structures to express ideas .
• Tend to use spoken english when writing
• Have limited background knowledge .
• Tend to translate ideas from mother tongue in to English
• Write one draft only .
• Misure or use wrongly different writing styles .
• Tend to express ideas in long sentences and long paragraphs .
• Are not aware of different kinds of writing , thus making them unable to
write in real life.
• Feel bored when doing written work.
• Experience a lack of support and motivation .
Advice

6



The pre-writing stage is very important as students
can help each other with ideas and vocabulary . In this stage , the teacher
should also provide students with necessary vocabulary and strutures to express
ideas around the writng topic . Models should also be set at this stage for
students to follow .

Select topics carefully and give students writing tasks

suitable for their level.

Provide support for writing with language , pictures,
a model text.

Raise awareness of thinking in English so that they
can minimisethe influence of L1 when writing

Familiarise students with process writing by actually
using the different stages of this approach in your lessons .

Help students to identify the audience and aim of
each writing task . If the book doesn’t make it clear , then you will need to do
so yourself !

Cohesive or linking devices are very worthwhile to
help students shoten their sentences and paragraphs , but still keeping the
meaning clear .

As much as possible keep tasks authentic so that
students can relate writing to real life communication such as letters , form
filling , questionaires .

Give students writing activities such as games ,
designing posters , creative writing , poems etc . to allow fun and creativity .

Don’t always set writing for homework . If you do ,
students will develop have negative associatons with writing . Try and do tasks
in class time and set , for example , reading for homework instead .
6.Writing activities

Here are some practical ideas for writing that you can try in your classes.
Problem letters
• Set the scene by showing students a page from either an English or
Vietnamese magazine that has a “ problem page” . Elicit the idea of
problem letters are replies giving advice .
• In advance prepare some problem letters on a flip chart paper .
• Ask students in pairs to choose one of the problems and write a short note
giving advice .
1. It’s my girlfriend’s birthday next week and I want to surprise her with a
special present or a special evening somewhere . What should I do ?
2. My best friend wants to borrow some money to help buy a motorbike . I have
the money , and she says she’ll pay me back next soon . But I’m worried that it’s
not a good idea to lend money to friends . What should I do ?
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3. I’ve become very spotty lately and I feel really depressed and embarrassed . I
don’t want to go out as I think everyone is staring at my face .What should I do
*Get students to swap advice notes and to read each others and guess which
problem the advice is for . Is it good advice or not ? Follow up with a brief class
discussion .
 APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING
Such as Famous people
o Prepare some notes about a famous person . Try and choose someone that
the students will like
Eg. A footballer , pop star , actor etc . you can very easily find information
and facts about famous people on the internet . Put your notes into 4
paragraphs :
1 personal information , 2 appearance and character, 3 interest , 4 personal
opinion.

o In class elicit what the students know about the famous person
o Students read the notes to see if they are correct > then elicit sentences
from them based on the notes.
o Set the scene for the writing task - tell the students they are journalists for
the teenage magazine and they are going to write an article about the
famous person
o In pairs or groups , students use the information to write a short article
about the famous person
Eg . David Beckham.
o Students swap articles for peer correction.
o One way to finish the lesson is to stick all the articles on the walls and tell
the students that they are now editors of the magazine and they have to
choose the best one .
7. Giving directions
This activities can help to practise writing sentences and develop students’
bodily-kinesthetic inteligence . This can be used as a warmer or and independent
practice activity .Following this activities
1. Tell students to sit in groups of four or five and have a slip of paper ready for
each of them .
2. Ask each person to write an imperative sentence on the slip.
3. Then get them to pass their slips to their partner in the group .
4. Ask them to take turns to mine or act what is written on the paper . Others
have to guess axactly what is written on the paper .
8.Process writing - benefits and drawbacks .

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There are a lot of benefits to the process approach to writing - but how can this
approach fit our teaching context in Vietnam ? The followings are a number of

practical and realistic ideas .
Benefits
1. Process writing can help focus on what students write rather than how they
write it . paying attention to what students write can lead to an improvementbin
their writing .
2. Process writing is a move away from students writing to test their language
towards the communication of ideas , feelings and experiences .
3. Process writing can help integrade different skills students not only write but
read each other’s writing , and exchange ideas with their partners.
4. Process writing provides students with constant feedback between drafts .
This is more useful to students than doing it when they finish their writing .
5. Process writing helps change the roles of teachers and learners . Teachers
move away from being a marker to a reader who responds to the content of
students’ it, which helps develop their writing ability.
Drawbacks and solutions
1. Writing is a complicated process , which may cause frustration among
students . Therefore , teachers should set up a supportive environment and be
patient . 2. Process writing requires more class time than product writing .
Therefore , teachers should organize lessons well and manage enough time for
students to experience
different stages of writing by fitting the stages of writing around one lesson .
Eg, In one lesson , ideas are generateond and students write their first draft and
in the following lesson , students adit and redraft .
3. Students may find working again and again on their writing boring , and
refuse to do so . Therefore teachers need to introduce a variety of activities for
each stage and set clear objective for class activities .
9. Applying process writing to the Vietnamese context - some solutions
1. Combine both process and product writing
Both approaches help students in to different ways . Process writing can help
students overcome their writing problems such as lack of ideas , ineffective

organization , and lack of constant feedback from teachers or peers while they
are still drafting . Product writing can help provides them with examples of
relevant language and appropriate structures .
2. Build in planning and drafting stages in to a writing lesson .
This is very important because most writing activities in the new textbook are
designed on the basis of product writing , in which students are required to study
a model , analyse and imitate it . This will definitely discourage students from
being creative and / or using their own experiences to express themselves .
9


Useful pre- writing activities unclude brainstorming list ( think quickly and
listing as many ideas as possible on a given topic ) , focused questions ( a series
of questions used to stimulate thinking , drawing on experiences , $ shaping
ideas ) and free writing ( writing about a topic for a fixed period of time to
explore the topic and generate ideas ) . Effective drafting stage activities include
peer review ( students read each other’s writing and give feedback on the form
and its content )
3. Encourage and set up collaborative writing .
Most writing activities in the new textbook require mainly individual work . For
example , sharing ideas about a topic before they write drafts , and peer review
after they finish their drafts are important in encouraging students to learn from
each other.
4. Consider the teacher’s response to writing .
The teacher should give feedback many times between drafts , not just one time
when students submit their final draft .
10. Adapting process writing to the new textbook .
Fitting process writing in to the new syllabus can be quite a challenge . the two
example lessons below aim to :
• Help teachers know how to integrate process writing in to writing

activities in English 10
• Demonstrate how process writing can be used in combination with
product writing
Example lesson 1
*Guessing game : select a map and give it to the students ( teachers may choose
the map in the same unit ) .
Divide students in to groups of four or five . One student tells directions to a
place that the others in the groups have to guess . Students take turns to give
directions .
E.g : It’s on Bright street . It’s opposite a shoe shop
* Folowing from the games , elicit different ways of giving instructions
If necessary , teach $ give mini- drills to such structures as Turn left / right , take
the first / second turning on the left / right , keep on , etc...., and stuctures with
adverbial clauses of time beginning with When......$ until.....
e.g : when you come to the shop , turn right , or Keep on until you come to the
museum.
* Set the context .
Tell students that a friend has decided to come to their place for a holiday . write
him/ her a letter giving directions to their house .
*Elicit what they are going to include in such a letter .

10


Guess students to agree that a letter like this should have to paragraphs : the
first one contains the reason why the letter is written , and the second one
contains the directions .
* Elicit how to write first paragrph .
Write suggestions at the side of the board .
* Elicit how to write directions by asking them to choose a place on the map and

give directions orally . Write their examples on the board .
* To provide more examples , ask them to read the letter in the textbook and
find out more ways of giving directions . Add to the list on the board .
* Get them to write the first draft .
* When they finish tell them to exchange drafts , read , giving feedback on
language accuracy and unclear expression . Then hand back .
* Tell students to edit own drafts - correcting and adding if necessary .
* Collect and redistribute letters . students read and find out about each other’s
exact house .
Example lesson 2.
* Ask students to read the advertisement in the textbook. Ask them some
questions to check comprehension .
e.g . what is the course ? How long is it ? How much does it cost ? How many
students does a class have at most ? what is the classroom like....?
* Set the context :
Tell them what they have enrolled in the course , and that everything has not
been the same as advertised . Ask them to imagine two or three problems that
they have had and write them down .
* Put them in to pairs . Ask them to talk to each other about their problems .
* Tell them that they need to write a complain letter. Ask them what the letter
needs to include . Get them to agree that the letter should include three parts : a )
the reason why the letter is written : b) the problems , and c)some suggestions .
* Elicit how to write about the problems .
Write the suggestions at the side of the board . if necessary , teach or give minidrills for such structures as the adverb said ....but ...., eg . the advert said a class
was air- conditioned and had at most 20 students but it was very hot and
crowded . write all the language suggestions on the board .
* Ask students to begin to write the first draft .
* When they finish the first draft , get them to swap their drafts and read , give
comments on language accuracy and the content . then they hand back .
* Get students to edit their own drafts - correcting , deleting and adding

information if necessary .
* Collect and redistribute the letters students read and compare what they have
written . They can give comments .
*Teachers can collect completed letters for marking
11 . Correcting written work
11


Why is correction important ?
Mistakes and errors are important parts of the learning process as no one learns
and succeeds without making a mistake. Mistakes should be seen as possitive
steps towards learning , and correction is an intergal part of the lesson . through
a possitive approach to correction , students are more able to understand ,
remember and learn from mistakes . These folowings look at ways of correcting
students’ work and provide guidelines for a more positive approach to
correction .
Ways of reacting / responding to written work
When giving back written work to students , we can use a number of devices to
help them focus on their mistakes and write more successfully in the future .
Harmer (2001 ) observed that one way of considering feedback is to think of it
as ‘ responding ’ to the students’ work rather than assessing or evaluating what
they have written . This approach focuses on the actual content of the written
text rather than just focusing on the language. Remember, when we
communicate through writing the message or content is just as important as the
level of accuracy .
So what should the teachers do when we respond .
• Say how the text appears to us and how successful we think it has been .
• Our comments should be helpful but not censorious.
• Write comments in the margin of the students’ work or on a separate piece
of paper . If time is available this can be done in the form of a letter

• Also tell students how their work could be improved . this is important as
all too often , teachers highlight errots , but don’t actually say how the text
overall could be improved .
• When responding to the final version , say what we like , how we felt
about the text . This adds a personal touch and make students feel that the
teacher is thinking about them as individuals .
• Show alternative ways of writing throught reformulation . It is vital for
students as they can discover a lot about language when they compare
their worknwith their teacher’s .
12. Guidelines for correcting written work
• Use something other than a red pen to mark with .
• Underline the error in the text . Underline where the problem is .
• Don’t over correct - decide which are the most important type of errors to
work on at the moment and draw attention only to these . E.g . If the
students have just written a biography , then probably what you would
concentrate on would be the use of past tense verbs and time expressions .
Other errors can be dealt with at another time .
• Add a comment at the bottom to raise and give students points to work on

12


•

Students have ( with training ) ability and willingness to self- correct and
correct for their partners (peer correction ) , so put students in to pairs or
group to read and correct each others work . But again , remember that
you need to get students to focus on a particular type of error otherwise
they will over correct .
• To develop students autonomy ,self and peer correction is crucial . The

teacher should ,however, train students with correction symbols / codes
or a marking scale .
• Use stick for “ good point ” . It really encourages students to write .
• A nice idea is to use errors from anumber of different students’ writing to
devise an exercise , quiz or game .
Symbol
Sp
W.O.
T
C
WF
S/P
ˆ
[ ]
?M
NA
P
//
GR:
Voc:
V
Agr
!
()


A correction code
Meaning
Incorrect spelling
Wrong word order

Wrong tense
Concord ,subject and verb do not agree
Wrong form
Singular or plural form wrong
Something has been left out / missing
Something is not necessary
Meaning is not clear
The usage is not appropriate
Punctuation wrong
New paragraph needed
Grammar wrong
Vocabulary wrong
Verb tenses errors
Agreement
Careless error
Unnecessary word
Good point

Note : Using a code is useful for both teachers and students . However students
need to be gradually introduced or trained in using and understanding correction
symbols .
• Example : Find and correct mistakes from the short Biography of Jack
Friedhamm
- Guiding students use the correction code to correct mistakes
- Students apply to correct mistakes . Mistakes should be seen as positive ,
through a positive approach to correction
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- Helping students more able to understand , remember and learn from

mistakes
- Checking and giving feedback

Answer :
Jack Friedhamm was born in New York on October 25, 1965. He began
school at the age of six and continued until he was 18 years old. He then went to
New York University to learn Medicine. He decided on Medicine because he
liked biology when he was at school. While he was at University, he met his
wife Cindy. Cindy was a beautiful woman with long black hair. They went out
for years before they decided to get married. Jack began to work as a doctor as
soon as he had graduated from Medical School. They have had two children
named Jackie and Peter, and have lived in Queens for the past two years. Jack is
very interested in painting and likes to paint portraits of his son Peter.
13: APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING
1. Topic for writing essay:
“Write about one of the competitions for secondary school students on TV”
2. Time allowance: 45 minutes
3. Classroom observation description
Time/
Teachers’ activities
Students’ activities
Comments
Activity
1. Warm – Teacher asked some “Yes”
This period is
up (3’)
questions such as “Do
considered to be
you often watch game
successful. After

shows on TV?”
- Road
to being consulted
“Can you tell me the
Olympia
by English
names
of
these
- Tuoi
Doi teachers at NBK
competitions
for
Menh Mong
High School as

14


secondary
school
students on TV?” .

- Nguoi ban gai
dang men
- Rung chuong
vang
After looking at
those
pictures,

students discovered
the name of the game
show was “Road to
Olympia” at the
second picture and
the winner is group 1
in the class. The class
is excited with a big
applause for the
winner.

well as
conducting the
two try – out
lessons, teacher
- Teacher showed some
has withdrawn
big pictures of the
some reasons for
famous game show
the success of
“Road to Olympia” and
the period
asked students to play
1. Pre – activity
the game “What is
is interesting
this?”. There are five big
2. Visual aids are
pictures, all are copied

effective enough
from the gameshow on
3. Students
TV. If any team can
cooperate better
2. Pre –
guess the name of the
because they are
writing
game at the first picture
acquaintances
activity
will get the highest
4. New words
(10’)
mark. The marks will be
and structures
counted backward.
are taught
- Teacher asked students
logically
to answer the six
5. There is no
suggestions about the T: “What time is it on
problem with
content of the game TV?”
students’
show in the textbook. All S: “Ten o’clock”
misunderstandin
the students of the class “What chanel is it

g toward
had the chance to talk on?”
teachers’
about the show before “ VTV3”
instructions.
writing it.
S: How long does it
- Students can discuss in last?
3. While – groups and choose one S: 2 hours
writing
competition to write S: How many parts
activity
about
are there in the
(20’)
- Teacher asked students show?
to
make
sentences S: four parts
basing
on
the S: How many
suggestions
in
the competitors are
textbook and practice in there?
pairs.
S: four
................
- Teacher asked the - Students write the

students to write about passage in a very
any competitions for good mood with the
secondary
school content suggested in
15


students on TV. Most of
them chose the show
“Road to Olympia” and
some chose other show
such as “Not Nhac Vui”
or “Tuoi Doi Menh
Mong” – the singing
contest and even one of
them chose “Ringing
The Golden Bell” – a
famous game show for
students at university.
4. Post – - Ask students to work in
writing
pairs for peer correction.
activity
- Teacher goes around to
(10’)
check whether students
can
correct
their
classmates’ writing. If

students need her help,
the teacher will help
them to correct the
mistakes
5.Homewo - Read your passage
rk
again, make it perfect
(2’)
and retell it in the next
period.

the textbook. Some
of them write short
passage. However,
some write very well
– done ones

- Students do the
peer correction

- Write
notebook

on

the

Bellows are some more comments about the improvement of the students in post
– improvement stage:
Pre – improvement

Changes
Low
Students’
30% of the students did not motivation
write because they said that
the topic was boring. Some
of them were forced to write
basing on the suggestions in
Task 1. They wrote in a bad
form of letter
More
Ss’ mistakes
Some students tried to
on both
follow the suggestions in
grammar
Task 1 in the textbook but
and

Post –improvement
Higher
Most of students were eager to
write after the game because
they said that they liked the
game so much

Less
Mistakes on grammar and
expressions has improved a
lot. There still existed some

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theirs were full of grammar
mistakes and words usages
Notes: This may take longer
time to improve the
situation but the teacher
should pay much attention
to this because it is the goal
in teaching a productive
skill
Less creative
Some students in the class
did not know what to do
with their writings so they
copy the whole sample letter
in the text book ignoring the
requirements of the writing
tasks

expressions

but for the whole passage they
were acceptable because both
the teacher and her students
need more time to perfect
these mistakes

Ss’

creativity
when
producing a
new writing
version

More creative
Ss’ creativity in writing is
another hard work to attain
and Ss will make their writing
creative when they are
motivated enough or they feel
much interested in the writing
topic. In the post –
improvement the students’
writing performance has been
improved much.

PART THREE : THE STUDY RESULTS OF PROBLEMS
Showing alternative ways of writing through the lessons . It is vital for students
as they can discover a lot about language when they compare their work with
their teacher’s . Before using the method , the students who are always afraid ,
shy , lazy are now active learning , makes the writing period more and more
interesting . In the academic year of 2015 – 2016 and 2016 – 2017 I carried out
my research in 11grades , and 10 grades at Hau Loc 3 Upper secondary School ,
the general results of students when they applied as follow
Kind
Object :Don’t apply in11B1 ,11B2
At the school of 2015- 2016
Apply in11B1 ,11B2

At the school of 2016- 2017
Don’t apply in10A1 ,10A2
At the school of 2016- 2017 in the
first semester

excellent good average Weak
0%
10 % 30%
45%

Bad
15%

5%

17%

55%

10%

13%

0%

5%

30%

48%

17%

Apply in10A1 ,10A2
At the school of 2016- 2017 in the
second semester

8%

14%

57%

11%

10%

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PART FOUR: CONCLUSIONS AND PROPOSALS
A . CONCLUTIONS
This study is carried out as a contribution to the knowledge of all teachers
and students of English in their teaching and learning writing skill . I do hope
that the research would be of some value to both teachers and students in their
language teaching and learning writing skill .
I would like to send my thanks to all of the students of the classes 11B1
and 11B5 of Hau Loc 3 upper secondary School, who have been the enthusiastic
participants in my action research. Without them, my action research could not
been completed and successful.

In the end , I also owe my sincere thanks to all my colleagues who will
be willing to give me invaluable advice and suggestions on the research how to
make writing activities effectively in writing lessons .
B. PROPOSALS
1. To the teachers : Choosing techniques is the day – to – day business of every
writing teacher. writing activities play very important roles in writing lessons
because if the teacher conducts these activities successfully, the classroom
atmosphere will change and also the students’ writing performance will be much
better. Therefore, the teacher should make sure that the above things are done
perfectly.
The roles of English teachers in writing lessons consist of a list in details of
activities prepared with useful language knowledge, good time management for
each activity, effective visual aids usages and clear instructions giving. What is
more, sometimes the writing topics in the textbook are boring, the teacher
should try to make them easier to attract students’ attention. One more thing is
that the teacher should know how to motivate the students by changing the
activities day by day or take care of the quiet students in the class.
2. To the classroom facilities
In Vietnam, it is normal that there are 40 to 50 students in a language classroom
at high school. This makes the teachers meet many difficulties in conducting a
language lesson. However, the situation can not be changed in a short period of
time so the teacher should get over all these difficulties by making sure that the
classroom facilities are comfortable enough before the lessons start
Thank you for your attentions to my study .
THE HEADMASTER’S CONFIRMATION

Thanh Hoa , May 20th , 2017
UNDERTAKING NOT TO COPY

Vũ Thị Kim Tuyến

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REFERENCE BOOKS
1. Byrne, D. (1988). Teaching Writing Skills. Longman
2. Practical handbook of language teaching (David Cross)
3. A course in language teaching - Practical and Theory (Penny Ur)
Cambrige university press
4. Giao trinh giao hoc phap (Khoa ngôn ngữ và văn hóa Anh - Mĩ - Úc – Trường
đại học quốc gia Hà Nội)
5.Phương pháp dạy tiếng Anh Trung học phổ thông (Nguyễn Hạnh Dung)

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