DSpace at VNU: A STUDY ON THE APPLICATION OF WRITING PORTFOLIO TECHNIQUE TO SECOND YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT HANOI COLLEGE OF COMMERCE AND TOURISM

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

ĐINH THỊ NHUNG

A STUDY ON THE APPLICATION OF WRITING
PORTFOLIO TECHNIQUE TO SECOND YEAR ENGLISH
MAJORS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT HANOI
COLLEGE OF COMMERCE AND TOURISM
Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng hồ sơ bài làm trong môn viết đối với
sinh viên chuyên ngành tiếng Anh năm thứ hai: Nghiên cứu
hành động tại trường cao đẳng thương mại và du lịch Hà nội

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

Hanoi - 2016


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

ĐINH THỊ NHUNG

A STUDY ON THE APPLICATION OF WRITING

PORTFOLIO TECHNIQUE TO SECOND YEAR ENGLISH
MAJORS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT HANOI
COLLEGE OF COMMERCE AND TOURISM
Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng hồ sơ bài làm trong môn viết đối với
sinh viên chuyên ngành tiếng Anh năm thứ hai: Nghiên cứu
hành động tại trường cao đẳng thương mại và du lịch Hà nội

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisor: Dr. Đỗ Tuấn Minh

Hanoi - 2016


DECLARATION

I, the author of this research, certify that this thesis is result of my own work and that I
have provided fully documented references to the work of others. The material in this
research has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution

Hanoi,2016

Đinh Thị Nhung

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my most sincere gratitude and thankfulness to my supervisor,
Dr. Do Tuan Minh, for his detailed instructions from the beginning of the thesis to the
valuable comments till the end.
I would like to express my gratitude to all of my lecturers at faculty of post-graduate
studies as well, who provided me with precious knowledge and helped me gained
unforgettable experiences in pursuing my studies.
Certainly, this study would not have been completed without the participation of the
students at Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism. I thank them for their enthusiastic
attitude in learning and participating in the study. Besides, I am deeply indebted to Ms Luu
Thi Duyen, the Dean of English Department at Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism,
who helped and supported me all the time.
My deepest appreciation is for my husband who always supported and encouraged me
with his love so that I could finish my thesis

Without all their help, this thesis would not be completed as expected

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ABSTRACT
This action research explores the effects of writing portfolio technique on second year
students’ writing skill and the possible challenges encountering by both teachers and
students during the application process. Students created portfolios by including all the
final drafts and rough drafts into a folder; and together with students’ submitted portfolios,
two sets of questionnaires: pre and post-portfolio questionnaires, and interviews are also
used to collect the data for the research. The findings showed that the portfolio technique
not only helped to improve students’ writing skill, especially in terms of vocabulary, and
grammar, which meet student’s demands but also changed students’ attitude to the writing
skill positively and contributed to the development of students’ other skills such as

commenting, editing, reading, internet using, and group work skill as well. However,
during the process, there happened some problems. For example, this method requires
students to give written feedbacks to each other, which is quite challenging to them.
Especially, students quite easily got demotivated by negative comments from their peers.
Or, students felt boring and tiring when having to write up to three drafts for the same
topics. Nevertheless, the benefits of this technique outweigh all and prove to be effective in
helping students learning writing.

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PART I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the thesis

Nowadays, it cannot be denied that globalization is affecting every corner of the
world and that due to it most countries are experiencing changes in aspects like
economics, politics, education and culture; and in that globalised world, English is
considered a main medium of communication. Therefore, it seems obvious that if a
nation wishes catching up with others in those aspects, its government should raise
public awareness about the significance of English and motivate them to learn and
master the language.
Recognizing

this

social

trend,

Vietnamese

educational

authorities

have

implemented specific policies encouraging their citizens to learn and use English.
Now, English is a compulsory subject which is taught from primary schools to
universities and an obligatory one in Vietnamese national exams. Furthermore, various
professional courses and conferences aimed at enhancing English teachers’ teaching
skills and language competence are provided to ensure a better educational service.
Also, English teachers are required to get appropriate certificates aligned with CEFR
to be qualified for the job.
What’s more? More and more state-owned or private companies, factories or
organisations prefer and employ only labor who demonstrate their ability to use
English at work and these employees are paid much higher and easily get promotion
than others. Apparently, English is one of measures for one’s career success.
The above reasons explain why teaching and learning English is recieving much
concern from society. Scholars, educators or teachers are continuously exploring
suitable and effective teaching approaches and teaching methods to improve the
English teaching and learning quality. Especially, teachers who directly work with
students and understand their needs, their intersts, their learning styles play an
important role in helping students achieve their academic and future professional
success. Therefore, it’s the teacher’s duty to discover and solve problems which the
majority of his students have.

4

Working as a teacher at Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism and teaching four
skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening to English majors, there has always
been a question for me that why students are not very interested in writing class and
their performance in writing tests prove disappointing results. Being aware of the
unsolved problem and of a teacher’s responsibility, I would like to investigate the
situation. That is the reason why I am going to conduct this research with the hope that
a new teaching method will benefit students, making them keen on the subject, and
improving their writing skill.

1.2 Objectives of the thesis

This research intends to investigate the possible issues happening during the application
process of writing portfolio technique and examine its effects on second-year
students’writing skill at Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism

The specific objectives of the thesis are:
(1) To find out what the effects of portfolio on improving learners’ writing skill are.
(2) To find out what problems emerging in the application process are.

The research hopes to benefit students and teachers at Hanoi College of Commerce and
Tourism and to be useful for reference.

1.3 Research questions

The thesis is carried out in order to find out the answers to two research questions:
(1)To what extent do second year students at Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism
improve their writing skill through the application of writing portfolio technique?
(2) What challenges may teacher and students encounter in using writing portfolio
technique?

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